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Archbishop of Cape Town calls on bishops to "express your difference"

Archbishop of Cape Town calls on bishops to "express your difference"

Fisking Thabo Makgoba

By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
February 9, 2019

The archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba in conjunction with Archbishop Justin Welby says that he wants all the bishops in the Anglican Communion to attend Lambeth in 2020 and has issued a heartfelt call to all primates and their bishops.

MAKGOBA: I know people talk about the fabric of the communion as torn, but we are all fallible human beings in need of God's love and grace, and we need each other.

VOL: The Anglican Communion has been "impaired" and the "fabric torn" for over a decade and revisionists and progressives have done nothing about repairing it. They were warned in 1998 when Lambeth 1:10 was passed that the Episcopal Church had to repent of its position. Sodomy is a salvation issue. Instead TEC went ahead and ordained an openly homosexual to the episcopacy in the person of Gene Robinson. It did so, defying the will and mind of the vast majority of the Anglican Communion. As a result, the Episcopal Church split and the ACNA was born and GAFCON was formed. Fallibility is not the same as disobedience to God's Word.

MAKGOBA: As said in Sepedi [the language of Northern Sotho]: one bangle doesn't ring, two bangles will make a beautiful noise. So, we are never alone in this journey.

VOL: Two bangles, three bangles or 500 bangles won't change anything, unless The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada repent of their decision to ordain openly homosexual and lesbian priests and bishops to the preaching and teaching ranks in the Church and furthermore reverse its understanding of what the Bible specifically teaches about homosexuality. Pansexuality is a distortion of creation and demands gospel repentance.

MAKGOBA: Whether you agree with where the communion is, whether you don't agree, come and express your difference in this beautiful space which is a gift from God. Don't just stay at home and say 'I'm not going'.

VOL: Orthodox Anglicans have been "expressing their differences" for over a decade and all they have gotten for an answer is the inhibition and deposition of priests and bishops by revisionist bishops and several presiding bishops and multiple lawsuits over properties running into the tens of millions of dollars. Would Makgoba and Welby like to hear from Bishop William Love of Albany addressing the Lambeth bishops saying that his conscience forbade him from performing homosexual marriages because it did not conform to Scripture, the doctrine and discipline of the church which he swore to uphold. It would be the same kind of embarrassment as the Rev. Dr. Earle Fox standing up at the consecration of Gene Robinson's talking about the medical consequences of anal sex. For his stand Bishop Love was "partially inhibited" by a black presiding bishop who is running around preaching revival and talking about love, while he stabs a fellow bishop in the back for being faithful to sacred Scripture!

MAKGOBA: We want to hear that voice. It's not a conference of like-minded people; it is a conference of Anglicans. I mean, for God's sake, Anglicans, from our inceptions, we've always had push and pull. So, push and pull should not be a distraction, but it should be celebrated.

VOL: Well, "push and pull" means that revisionist presiding bishops have pushed hundreds of orthodox priests and dozens of bishops out the Episcopal Church and pulled in homosexual priests and bishops against the will of more than 130,000 former Episcopalians who are now Anglicans that Welby refuses to recognize or invite their leaders to Lambeth 2020. This is not to mention more than 80% of the Anglican Communion, including more of Makgoba's African brethren who now will have nothing more to do with him and Canterbury.

MAKGOBA: It's what I call at home, 'celebrating the gift of difference'. So, I encourage all bishops and their spouses to make every possible effort to come and see what God is doing through us in his world.

VOL: There is no such thing as the "gift of difference" in the English language. It does not exist. There is a gift of discernment, there are gifts of the Spirit, but no such "gift of difference" exists. This is the retro mystic language of Frank Griswold, or the convoluted, multi-layered language of Rowan Williams. But "difference" is not a gift, it distinguishes left from right and right from wrong. Several Anglican provinces have committed terrible wrong over sexuality issues and they will not be covered up or glossed over by appeals to "difference." This is just plain nonsense. It is nothing more than Thabospeak.

MAKGOBA: Speaking about the shape of the Conference, it would begin with a spiritual retreat, a time to say to bishops and their spouses "hey, shut up . . . and listen to God; and listen to one another in silence."

VOL: You actually cannot listen to God unless you consult His Word, which "silence" will not achieve. This is more Thabospeak. Scripture has spoken clearly and plainly about human sexual behavior, so silence will change nothing.

MAKGOBA: We will worship together; we will walk together; we will talk together; we will love together; we will wrestle together; break bread together; reflect theologically and in mission bring ourselves and bring our dioceses and provinces into that space.

VOL: The Anglican Communion has reflected theologically and missiologically since 1998 and nothing has changed except the relentless push by pansexualists to change the teaching of the Church on human sexuality. The Instruments of Communion have been rejected and abandoned by GAFCON primates and bishops who disagree profoundly on what is the definition of mission. Liberals and progressives cannot evangelize because they have no message. The continued growth of GAFCON is the lie to any serious change by the leadership of the Anglican Communion, however hard Welby tries to spin it.

MAKGOBA: And then, as my predecessor but one used to say, 'God is not finished with us'; and God will actually continue his work in us and through us for the Anglican Communion.

VOL: True, God has not finished with the Anglican Communion. He has moved His Holy Spirit to those who preach the gospel and that is the GAFCON/ACNA/ANiC networks. ALL the other progressive branches are withering on the vine and dying. GAFCON does not need to split the Communion, they only have to wait it out and they will be the Communion in time.

WELBY: Pray for those you disagree with and resist the urge to be swayed by gossip and rumor. So, when you hear something, don't necessarily believe it, turn to God and say 'if that's true, I pray for him or her'. But also, try and find out the truth.

VOL: What gossip, what rumor? Everything is 'out there' for all to see. There is no gossip or rumor. Yes it is about truth, and we KNOW the truth so much so that it has set the vast orthodox wing of the Anglican Communion free from the so-called progressive wing of Anglicanism, which has abandoned the truth and therefore has no redemptive message to proclaim to the world. The Archbishop of Canterbury's call to "prayer" will have no effect on direct disobedience to God's Word about sexuality. The archbishop is progressively pushing his own Church (the CofE) in the same direction as TEC. Does he honestly expect a different outcome? The Church of England is already showing signs of strain, with evangelical parishes and priests leaving. A GAFCON bishop is already in place in the British Isles.

GAFCON primates and bishops will be no shows at Lambeth 2020; they will not change their minds between now and then. At the end of the day, Welby and Makgoba will have no one to blame but themselves.

END

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