2023-11-17 20:24:20
A video is circulating on social media highlighting the difference in approach to the biblical message between what is defined as “theological liberalism” and preaching that preserves the foundation of the Scriptures. The recording compares excerpts from sermons by Ricardo Gondim, leader of the Bethesda Church, and Augustus Nicodemus, a Presbyterian pastor.
In a recording lasting approximately one year, Ricardo Gondim says that the biblical statement about Jesus’ walk on the sea to meet the disciples is merely illustrative of overcoming the dangers of the waters:
“Did Jesus walk on water? For God’s sake! The text is there not for us to proclaim that Jesus really walked on water, because to walk on water you need to have skis, be pulled by a boat. Then you can walk on top of the water. Why is the text there? Because in the primitive world, water was a threat”, says Ricardo Gondim.
Next, an excerpt from a sermon by Augustus Nicodemus preached on October 6, 2011 describes exactly the characteristics of what would be a discourse contaminated by theological liberalism, denying essential parts of the Scriptures:
“Theological liberalism denies the authority of Scripture, denies the supernatural in Scripture, does not believe in biblical miracles, understands that the resurrection of Jesus is actually an interpretation that Jesus’ disciples made post-Easter of the Jesus of history, transforming him into the Christ of faith; that when Christians talk about resurrection in the Bible it is not that Jesus was literally resurrected, but that his death gains meaning in the kerygma, in preaching”, introduces Nicodemus.
“So, in the same way that we say ‘ah, Steve Jobs will live forever’ – Steve Jobs died yesterday – ‘he will live every time I look at an iPhone’. They say it’s the same thing: every time the disciples preached that Jesus died for us, Jesus was resurrected, but there was in fact no revivification of a corpse on that third day, in that tomb”, he concludes.
Pastor Renato Vargens shared the video on his Instagram account and commented: “Without a shadow of a doubt, theological liberalism is a cancer that is slowly destroying the health of the Church. As Augustus Nicodemus rightly stated, ‘liberals are parasites, just as a virus installs itself in an organism weakening the individual’s body, so they also install themselves in the church, sucking it until only the carcass remains, and then looking for another host’”.
Vargens, who leads the Christian Church of the Alliance, summarizes liberalism as “a type of leprosy, a plague that, if left unchecked, produces the worst evils”.
“Its symptoms are often masked with the discourse of love, pity and universal salvation. Be careful with him! At the first symptoms, apply the unquestionable truths of the Scriptures to your soul. Only then will you be free from this evil.” concluded.
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