MLK's Prophetic Word Was 100 Percent Accurate - JOHN PIPER/DESIRING GOD CHARISMA NEWS

Thank you for your sacrifices. May our Lord Jesus hasten the day when the terms "white church" and "black church" will be unintelligible. (Courtesy)

MLK's Prophetic Word Was 100 Percent Accurate

1/18/2016 JOHN PIPER/DESIRING GOD  charisma news

Dear Dr. King,

You were right. You prophesied, "If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will ... be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the 20th century."

But we have lost more than a sacrificial spirit. One of your prophetic heirs, Carl Ellis, has made clear that many black and white churches have become "irrelevant social clubs" because they have lost the God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated gospel. God has been sold for good agendas.

There are times I wished you had made the biblical gospel clearer. But I am sure you would agree that the power you wielded was rooted in God.

Today, as I look at the gospel-weak white and black churches, I would say that both need a transcendent reference point in the sovereignty, supremacy and centrality of God, expressed supremely in the gospel of Jesus Christ. God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated churches where the gospel is cherished—these are the birthplace of the kind of racial harmony that give long-term glory to God and long-term gospel-good to the world.

Again you were right about the folly of passive waiting. Biblical waiting is not passive. It does not compromise. Nothing that needs changing changes without effort.

Some may have quoted, "Wait on the Lord; be strong, and may your heart be stout; wait on the Lord" (Ps. 27:14). But this call to wait for the Lord never meant stop doing what he commanded us to do in the pursuit of holy goals.

Waiting for the Lord means our action is essential, but his is decisive. The farmer must wait for the harvest. But no one works harder than the farmer.

Thank you for your sacrifices. May our Lord Jesus hasten the day when the terms "white church" and "black church" will be unintelligible.

This letter from John Piper is published as part of his chapter in the book Letters to a Birmingham Jail: A Response to the Words and Dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Bryan Loritts and including chapters from Piper, John Perkins, Matt Chandler and others.

Read the entirety of Piper's chapter, "Waiting for and Hastening the Day of Multi-Ethnic Beauty," now available online.

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34,000 Black Churches Break Ties With Presbyterian Church USA

 3/27/2015 ANTHONY EVANS  charisma news

More than 34,000 churches are leaving the Texas PCUSA over gay marriage. (Flickr/Creative Commons)

The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a faith-based coalition of 34,000 churches comprised of 15 denominations and 15.7 million African Americans has broken its fellowship with Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) following its recent vote to approve same-sex marriage.  

The Presbyterian General Assembly, the top legislative body of the PCUSA, voted last June to revise the constitutional language defining marriage. This arbitrary change of Holy Scripture is a flagrantly pretentious and illegitimate maneuver by a body that has no authority whatsoever to alter holy text.   

Rev. Anthony Evans, NBCI President noted: 

"NBCI and its membership base are simply standing on the Word of God within the mind of Christ. We urge our brother and sisters of the PCUSA to repent and be restored to fellowship." 

"PCUSA's manipulation represents a universal sin against the entire church and its members. With this action, PCUSA can no longer base its teachings on 2,000 years of Christian scripture and tradition, and call itself a Christian entity in the body of Christ.  It has forsaken its right by this single wrong act.  

"Apostle Paul warns us about this when he declared in Galatians 1:8 that there are those who will preach another Gospel. 

"For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him...For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 

"No church has the right to change the Word of God. By voting to redefine marriage PCUSA automatically forfeits Christ's saving grace. There is always redemption in the body of Christ through confession of faith and adhering to Holy Scripture.   

"In this case, PCUSA deliberately voted to change the Word of God and the interpretation of holy marriage between one man and one woman. This is why we must break fellowship with them and urge the entire Christendom to do so as well."