United Church of Canada Dying on the Vine
By J. Grant Swank Jr. (06/10/07)
I was in Nova Scotia the last two weeks. I picked up The Observer, the most recent issue. There the lead article stated that males have left that Protestant denomination - both in pew and pulpit.
The article actually admitted that many have left the United Church of Canada to join biblical denominations.
The United Church of Canada has baptized apostasy as legitimate theology. It is pro-choice. It is pro-homosexual practice. It is pro-everything liberal. It is anti-Scripture as divine revelation. Many clergy do not regard Christ as divine. Likewise, many discount biblical teachings regarding hell, Satan and sin. In other words, the United Church of Canada has joined the other religious conclaves that have turned their backs on God for the pagan dogmas.
No wonder then that those with biblical moorings are leaving the United Church of Canada. Males who are heterosexual especially leave in droves. The front cover of The Observer pictures blank places where male faces could have once appeared. Now the blanks represent the void of masculinity within that denomination.
The United Church of Canada has asked for its own demise.
It has labored hard to rid the church of everything having to do with biblical morality. I leafed through that current issue to realize sadly that basically Jesus is purposefully absented from page after page. As far as I can tell, the United Church of Canada has joined with the Unitarians to debunk everything scriptural. For that, the leaders particularly will answer severely at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
Last Sunday morning my wife and I worshiped at the Stoneridge Church (formerly Temple Baptist Church) in Sackville, Nova Scotia. It is bulging that walls. There are plenty of males in pulpit and pews. There are three overloaded services. The congregation will be moving in the near future into a new, larger edifice.
The preaching was right down the line biblically—filled with hope and truth. The pastor delivered a masterpiece sermon. The laity is most appreciative.
I then drove down the main thoroughfare of Sackville. There was a For Lease sign in front of the Knox United Church of Canada. That was once the prestigious Protestant congregation in that locale. Now the building is up for sale. Vacant. Sentenced as void of the Holy Spirit. Come upon the devil’s rocks. Sad. But facts cannot be countered.
The United Church of Canada is dying on the vine.
We have a country home in Kennetcook, Nova Scotia. Surrounding that tiny village the other villages are begging for worshipers. Some of those church buildings are now dark, their doors locked, their properties vacant. The same with many Anglican Churches throughout Canada.
In Kennetcook the congregation has had a chain smoker clergywoman, a drunk clergyman who had to be taken from his pulpit across the lawn on Sunday morning into the manse, and a clergywoman who told my mother-in-law that she, the clergywoman, should attend my mother-in-law’s weekly Bible lessons. Pastor Eloise said, "I don’t really know the Bible." That was the honest testimony of one who mounted the village church pulpit Sunday after Sunday.
The present pastor in the Kennetcook United Church of Canada lived with another man’s wife for 14 years! Not too long ago he actually got around to marrying her. But I understand that she is not in Kennetcook much. In other words, the facts spell out that she is not after all hungering to be a pastor’s wife.
That’s the state of the United Church of Canada. So much sin has been accepted from the leaders to the village parishioners that it has warranted the tomb stone now covering its dying on the vine.
The only hope for Canada’s soul are the biblical teaching congregations sprinkled thither and yon. I attended one of them this last Wednesday evening. There was the "Prayer Time and Bible Study," as announced in the church bulletin. What a refreshing time it was actually to be in a circle of biblical believers for one hour in the middle of the week.
The young pastor gave an excellent study from II Timothy. Parishioners shared their supportive comments. Then we separated into prayer clusters.
In other words, in our two-week get-away to Nova Scotia we had biblical preaching on Sunday in Sackville and biblical teaching on Wednesday evening at the Milford Country Baptist Church.
Those are example of what will save Canada from God’s wrath descending.
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