Alabama Pastor: Society's Truth Must Be God-Centered
by Allie Martin
April 12, 2004
(AgapePress) - An Alabama pastor says it's time for churches in America to focus on the truth of God's Word in order to have an impact on society.Jeff Noblit is pastor of First Baptist Church of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. As he travels the nation preaching at revivals and conferences, Noblit encourages Christians to follow Christ wholeheartedly. The Baptist minister says the Church in America needs to exalt God and His Word.
For example, Noblit points to 1 Timothy 3:15, which says the Church is the pillar and support of the truth.
"What that means is if there's going to be truth advanced in a culture, it's got to start with solid, God-centered, Bible-saturated, Christ-honoring churches," the pastor says.
"So if the Church is the pillar and support of truth ... then we can understand that Satan is doing everything he can in his deceptive, manipulative means, to weaken the Church and get it off of God-centeredness and off of scripture and into pragmatic man-centeredness."
The Alabama pastor, who encourages pastors to strive for excellence according to biblical truth, says the Church in the United States needs to focus on the cross of Christ in its preaching and teaching. Too many churches, he says, make it too easy to follow Christ.
"In the Baptist Church ... we've gotten to where we give the type of invitation that a lost, unregenerate man would want to respond to," he explains. "And what I mean by that is [that man], in his flesh, finds it appealing, where the real gospel slays your flesh and you find yourself hopeless -- and the invitation is to flee the wrath of God and come to the only hope, which is Jesus Christ."
Noblit says evangelists such as John Wesley and George Whitfield were more concerned with seeing true converts than they were with large crowds at revival meetings.
