Shuck and Jive


Tuesday, February 05, 2008

A Damnable Denial of the Biblical Gospel

I received this e-mail and thought it instructive to pass along. My hunch is that the e-mail is in response to the article in Saturday's Johnson City Press regarding Evolution Sunday. Or it could be to the fact that I promoted our participation in Evolution Sunday in the on-line version of the Kingsport Times-News.

The reason I think this e-mail is instructive is that it confirms why fundamentalists insist on the Genesis account as literal cosmic history. The reason is the atonement theory. If evolution is true, then death was not the result of human sin. Therefore, there is no need for the atoning death of Christ to usher us into eternal life.

The fact of evolution busts the whole theological system. This is why we need a theology that reinterprets all of our theological doctrines in light of evolution.

Of course, if you create such a theological system, you will be damned for eternity in hell. That is a bit of a downside. Here is the e-mail:
Open Letter to Pastor John Shuck,

What you have espoused and embraced and have now taught others is nothing short of outright apostasy. The signatories of the "Open Letter Considering Religion and Science" have affixed their names to an apostate document. It is a damnable denial of the biblical gospel.

If Genesis is not true and accurate as to its account of special creation, then the gospel is entirely irrelevant; for death did not, as the Bible says, enter as the result of human sin (Genesis 3:6; Romans 5:12). In that case death was entirely natural and normal, something from which no person needs saving. The Bible declares death to be an intruder and the immediate result of sin; it entered human experience through Adam's one act of disobedience and was defeated by Christ's obedience (Romans 5:18). Theistic evolution is an apostate compromise; it utterly denies the Bible's teaching about both man, sin, and salvation from sin and death.

Genesis is accurate and the biblical gospel is relevant. The apostate drivel you promote is a false gospel and, as such, comes under the Apostle's anathema (Galatians 1). And so do you and the others who have embraced the false doctrines of the "Open Letter Considering Religion and Science." Of course, the Apostle's "anathema" would not overly concern anyone who could sign such a document in the first place.

May Almighty God have mercy on the poor souls who follow your damning doctrines, for you certainly have no gospel to proclaim that can deliver anyone from their sin.

You likely think you are especially enlightened and intelligent and are approaching reality with your eyes open, in contrast to those rustics who believe the Bible to be accurate in all things. Without doubt, you have outsmarted your own soul and you are now deceiving others. May God grant you repentance, unless you be already reprobate and justly turned over to destruction.

--
Pastor Timothy S. Adkins
Kingsport, Tennessee



14 comments:

  1. Last night I was watching a show about "Banned Books of the Bible". In it, they discussed the Book of Jubilees, which finally answers the question "Where did Mrs. Cain come from?" Well, she was Cain's sister, of course.

    It is precisely the same sort of fundamentalism espoused by Pastor Kingsport that resulted in books like the Book of Jubilees. If you're got to have everything tied up in a tidy bundle, you're bound to get tripped up by contradictions of your own making.

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  2. Another example of someone putting more faith in a doctrine than in letting the Bible speak through God's spirit as we are taught.

    Um, for those of you keeping count, this is called idolatry.

    Oh yeah, and there is nothing like the love of Christ in such letters to get one all gung-ho for Christianity.

    Lord help our unbelief.

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  3. I am struck by how fragile this pastor's faith is:

    If Genesis is not true and accurate as to its account of special creation, then the gospel is entirely irrelevant

    There's a weak biblical argument, but in context, what he's saying is that if any teensy insignificant statement in the Bible is proved to be factually untrue, then Katy Bar the Door, Christianity itself ceases to have meaning. Because Genesis 1 and 2 tell two contradictory stories about the beginning of life on Earth, does that mean that the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) are irrelevant?

    I would say I don't buy it, but then I might get reported.

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  4. Timothy has issues. Myabe you should pray for him.

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  5. Friends,

    To me this whole issue is like debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. We all don't have to agree concerning evolutionary theory, or the exact interpretation of Genesis to realize that sin and death are in the world, and that the whole creation stands in need of a redeemer.

    We are not going to fix this mess by ourselves.

    Lord have mercy!

    And, see John, didn't I tell you this would happen. Doubtless all these conservative churches are now convinced your whole denomination is "apostate from the faith," and heading to "Hell in a handbasket."

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  6. True dat, Grace. I fear the ELCA is next thanks to their association with us (my grandma is Misery Synod, so I know of where I speak). The current piƱatas swinging back and forth are the PC(USA) and the Episcopal Church USA (the United Methodists get a swipe now and again). If Senator Obama gets the denomination, the cons will have a field day with the United Church of Christ.

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  7. I'm always confused as to what these letters are supposed to accomplish. Granted, I know what their intent is. But in reading the letter, it feels like if you were to "repent," you'd be just like the letter-writer. And that's just ... not really a goal I see you pursuing. Otherwise, you'd be in a position where you're threatning others with "just destruction."

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  8. Sheesh! Well, I'm with you John, but what the hell, as a Catholic, he might just not like me on principle alone!

    Tonight I started teaching a 7 week Scripture Study class at my parish. Many of my students are in my age group, 50ish, some older and a few younger.

    My opening words... Scripture is alive and our study of it brings us deeper and deeper into it. It is not just static and to be interpreted only as doctrine.

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  9. Yikes!

    "If Genesis is not true and accurate as to its account of special creation, then the gospel is entirely irrelevant"

    yep, a house of faith built on sand.

    (I wonder if the story of the three little pigs is about Christian faith. "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down")

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  10. " How hard, if not impossible, it is for the heart to accept what the mind rejects"

    If we think we have to rationalize parts of God's Word because we think it could be a fable, then how can we seriously believe the rest of it?

    "I Believe in the whole bible as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

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  11. Well, it's a bit like saying that if one doesn't think that Methuselah actually lived almost 1,000 years then therefore God can't exist.

    One does not necessarily lead to the other, unless the faith is so weak that something so inconsequential could destroy it.

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  12. Healthfairy,

    I can share my opinion. I think the Scripture was given as a guide, an authority for the faith and practice of the church. It is God's word, and contains all things neccessary for "salvation."

    But, I don't feel that the Scripture was given as a science textbook written in modern day terms. And, sometimes the Scripture does speak in a metaphorical or allegorical way. This is generally made clear by the context, I think.

    I'm not entirely persuaded concerning macro-evolution, but either way this just isn't a big issue for me, and really does not impact my faith.

    Plus, as a Christian, my faith is centered in Jesus Christ, and His gospel, not so much in a certain view of the Scripture.

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  13. Jesus is the Word(the Bible) made flesh, the two can not be separated.

    Adkins views of "the Bible to be accurate in all things" is not the lack of faith. It is faith Completed.

    Peace out

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  14. Thanks all!

    Welcome Healthfairy! The rest of you already know you are welcomed and loved.

    Rev. Timothy has his own blog. He also has a church website. I checked it out and when I looked up service times, it said the ministry had been completed. He is now in Connecticut!

    This post wasn't about him but about the reasons people reject science. It really is fear that their theology might be wrong.

    If evolution is true,

    I can't trust the gospel.
    I can't trust the bible.

    Well then, you have work to do understanding the gospel and the bible.

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