Does doctrine matter? Most of today's churches will tell you it doesn't. They promote an emotional experience, but without a decent doctrine (not necessarily a perfect one), this experience may be with a god that is not יהוה (LORD). How, then, might a true believer witness to or otherwise reach someone who professes to believe but actually believes in a false god? If a man claims to be a Christian but the "christ" he knows is a false one, how can he be reached to show that he still needs the very salvation he wrongly thinks he has?
The terminology has been coopted by the new church as they wrongly believe they've inherited their fathers' faith. "Christian" no longer means "little christ", "follower of Christ", or anything Biblical. Now "Christian" is merely a vacuous label including the churched, deists, and culturally Western universalists. In a way, it's ingenious. The Arabs in Israel did the same thing, stealing the term "Palestinian" from the Jews after 1967. Now they've fabricated a false identity with supposed rights to Israel's land. Likewise, the posers in today's churches have stolen "Christian" and all that's related, effectively disenfranchising the true believers, those who still submit to the living and written Word.
Truly, the toughest demographic to reach, far more so than unsaved or even Orthodox Jews, is the churched. So how do we reach them? I've seen it countless times: any attempt to suggest a more proper reading of the Word, and they return to their pastor's authority, the very one who led them astray. There are no abuses, per se, in today's wayward church as there were in the Roman Catholic church such that a Reformation, a clear departure from the errant church, is feasible. Today's church still preaches things very similar to what is correct, even while robbing it of its Power. "Isn't it better that the church preaches everybody is saved, that all paths lead to righteousness, than to condemn those who reject a mythical man?" the new churched ask. Those of us who warn others of hell are ourselves condemned for condemning [sic] people to hell. Right is wrong and wrong is right.
I honestly want to know: can we (the Holy Spirit through us) reach such false believers? If so, how? Or have these false believers eternally rejected Jesus by their embrace of false doctrines?
