Tag: Mega Church

 

Let Him Who Thirsts Come

From Pre-School to Doctoral Dissertation

Blogger’s Note:  When you leave a seeker-friendly church after 20 years you have a gnawing, nearly insatiable hunger for deep truths.  You might sense you lack the rooted certainty to get you through turbulent times because you’ve been splashing around in a puddle of milk.  Maybe that’s just me.  In the past few months, since leaving a mega-church, it’s as if I’ve surged from pre-school to post-doctoral preparation.  This is a gift from God and also due to the profound knowledge and shepherd’s heart of Pastor Paul Van Noy.  The resulting certainty brings peaceful contentment and strength.  The end to ignorant striving is in sight, the sheep are resting assured.

Parson to Person –

When believers get to heaven we will declare, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” (Revelation 4:11) We will declare, “You are worthy (for)…You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10)
We will exclaim, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:10) We will worship saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” (Revelation 7:12)
In the verses above we find an excellent example of the many expressions and declarations we will make when we get to heaven, but there is an unstated truth here revealing so much more. In the declaration of praise to God there is a complete absence of praise for human merit and glory! All the glory belongs to the Lord.
The Apostles warned us that there would be many false teachings introduced to the church. Human-inspired – incremental grace is one of the false teachings we should be guarded against. Any teaching that moves people from the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and toward a human-centered / human-assisted righteousness is forbidden by Scripture. Church history is replete with examples of this error and the array of incidents range from the very extreme to the very subtle. Those who embrace a human-assisted salvation find it difficult to fully embrace the verses cited above. In their view, placing ALL the worth, blessing, glory and honor upon the Lord for salvation is unbalanced. The thoughts supporting their view are summed up in the concept that they participated with the Lord, made efforts and to some degree or another earned a bit of God’s favor by both actions and intentions.
When a person believes people cannot get to heaven, by faith in Christ alone, but add to faith the requirement of making any or every effort to live a life pleasing to the Lord, that person has embraced a performance-based / human-assisted Christianity.
Those who by genuine saving faith in Christ, who have nonetheless been touched by this doctrine, will get to heaven and discover afresh that all their righteous deeds are as filthy rags. Those things thought to be instrumental and worthy of reward will be lost; the works themselves “tried by fire”. In the light of God’s presence they will discover that any “good” they believe to have done is lost and only those things manifest by God’s working within, remain. At this revelation they will say… ALL thanksgiving, blessing, glory, honor and power belong to the Lord. No credit to us at all!
Here is a test. Do you feel condemnation when you forget or even neglect to read the Bible? How about when you fail to spend enough time in prayer? Do you ever feel that God is disappointed with you? Have you felt that you have let God down? Do you feel the need to inventory every sin in your life and confess them one by one in order to be forgiven? What if you forget one? If you can say yes to any of these questions you have need again to understand the true Gospel and see the awesomeness of our God. You need to purge out the leaven of error and embrace the true Gospel of grace. It is God who paid the price for our sin. It is by His work we are saved, forgiven, and made righteous. Remember, “For He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 6:21)
Oh Lord, “You are worthy… You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood…” (Revelation 5:9-10)

I love you all, Pastor Paul

 

 

The Idol of Evangelism

Selling a Fake Jesus

 

I just finished reading a short yet masterful book called Letter to the American Church by Eric Metaxas and I stole the title of this piece from chapter nine.

The book is described as a “bucket of cold water thrown into the face of a sleeping church” but I didn’t find it unpleasant in the least, only refreshing.

The topic is a slumbering church in a time of horrific evil and Christians who will not utter a peep.

Let me just say one more thing about the book:  Read it.

So what’s my problem with evangelism?  If it saves even one soul from an eternity in hell, shouldn’t it be of utmost importance?

It turns out that’s a big “IF”, huge even.  The American church has been put on notice already, but I have a particular bone to pick.  The Jesus we’ve been selling isn’t the real deal.  I’ll give you one example:  The Chosen.  It’s a tv series created by temple Mormons about Jesus.  We’re looking to people who don’t know Jesus and have no relationship with Him to tell us about our lord.  We’ve lost our minds.

The Jesus being sold today has one main attribute: his engaging kindness.  He loves everyone.  He died to save everyone.  He would never say anything that would drive anyone away from . . . hang on.

Ever hear of the rich young ruler?  He wouldn’t sell all he had to follow Jesus and so walked away in sadness.

How about the Pharisees of whom Jesus said:

You are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father’s desires.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.   When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.  Which one of you convicts me of sin?  If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?  Whoever is of God hears the words of God.  The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. ~John 8:44-47

I don’t believe this is a truth vs love passage.  I don’t think Jesus was deliberately destroying relationships in order to be truthful.  I think that many, when they hear the truth will run toward it so it would make sense that Jesus would cut loose people who are not of God so that people belonging to God may find Him.  The fact of the matter is that you cannot separate truth from love, or love from truth.  If you do, you end up destroying both.  That truth and love cannot be destroyed is still accurate, but you can destroy truth and love in a person’s life.  You are killing people by being too ‘kind’ to tell the truth.

I have found that you can tell a hard truth and some people will walk away from the faith but others will be saved.  In the Book of Acts, there’s the story of Sergius Paulus, a proconsul described as an intelligent man who called for Barnabus and Saul (Paul) in order to hear the word of God.  There was another man, Elymas the sorcerer who ran interference because he wanted to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

Here’s Acts 13:9-12

Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?  And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.  And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.  Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

Evil must be confronted for the light to get through.  We are called as Christians to be many things, not merely evangelists, but people with a sound mind and firm spine to stand for the truth.  Oddly enough, not everyone likes that.

I see Jesus as a huge rock in a fast-flowing river that causes the watercourse to split in two and continue thenceforth as two different streams.  One to life and one to death.  “We must have unity” my foot!  

Do you know what drives church building these days?  Especially evangelizing mega churches?  Unity.  The price we pay for such massive togetherness is to sacrifice the truth.  Staying accurate on doctrine will necessarily drive people away.  

So for the uber-large gatherings, commonality is stressed and accuracy is out the window.  If Jesus is truth, then we are sacrificing Him all over again.  Will he be happy with us if we misrepresent him to the point that people dash off to a winsome Pied Piper and never know the Truth?

We can say things like “We won’t fight over non-salvation issues” and let error run rampant.  We might play music that entices people with high emotion and a good time but doesn’t extol God.  We might invite popular teachers in to create a huge event, but sound teaching is passed over.  We might intentionally create such a welcoming environment that no one is offended, ever.  If the idol you serve is a huge church, know this, Molech will exact tribute.  It’s God’s church, he will fill it or empty it at His will.  Serve the Lord alone.

 

We’ve all seen images of a parched wanderer lost in the desert, crawling through the dunes until finally, he spots a huge body of refreshing water glimmering in the distance.  With his last ounce of strength, he pushes on to his salvation, only to find it’s a mirage.  

Now imagine that scene with a crowd of cheering “Christians” with signs saying “Get your cold water here!” or “Keep Going, You’re Almost There” or “Beach Towels – $5”.

Kindness and encouragement are the utmost cruelty if what you’re selling is a lie.

 

All or Nothing

There IS No Third Bucket

I attended a very large church in Post Falls, Idaho.  This past Easter, at all associated locations, we had north of 14,000 people attend services.  I don’t mind the crowds, since I do think the goal is to have Heaven be full but I have been forced to question what is being sacrificed to keep those numbers at peak performance.

In our church, there is a concept about Biblical doctrine.  Some things are “salvation” issues known as First Bucket matters.  There are also Second and Third Bucket topics.  I’m not sure what those are.  You’d have to ask one of our pastors.  I am more convinced than ever that the entire Word of God is to be studied, comprehended, and applied.  The minute we start relegating to the third bucket, or the dustbin, we’ve proven we can dismiss all of it.  But of what import is the Word of God, if we’re striving for big tent unity?  That seems to be a question our church leadership has already settled to their satisfaction.

Jesus never once needed to embrace bad theology in order to love people correctly. ~Israel Wayne

The following is from The Bible in Context:

You cannot just believe parts of the Bible and not others. You either believe all of it or none of it. God’s Word is not a buffet where you get to pick and choose.

Notice the “every word”, i.e all of it👇🏼

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4

The Israelite’s were commanded to eat all the Manna and not leave any. We know the manna is a “type” of Christ – our bread of life.
Moses said to them, “Let no man leave any of it until morning.” Exodus 16:19

See the parallel?

Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
John 6:31-35

“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: Luke 6:46-47

Doctrine absolutely matters. The doctrine you believe is the doctrine you will live out. Wrong doctrine leads to wrong practice and wrong belief. The first piece of the armor in Ephesians 6 is the Belt of Truth.

The Trinity: God is one “What” and three “Who’s” with each “Who” possessing all the attributes of Deity and personality.

The Person of Jesus Christ: Jesus is 100% God and 100% man for all eternity.

The Second Coming: Jesus Christ is coming bodily to earth to rule and judge.

Salvation: It is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

The Scripture: It is entirely inerrant and sufficient for all Christian life.

If what you believe differs from what the Word of God says, you are in error in your doctrine. There is no person alive today who does not hold to doctrines. They may pretend to be free of doctrine and just “feeling” their way around the world, but they hold to doctrines just as tightly as you and I do. They just don’t realized how much they have been deceived by the enemy, by others, and by allowing themselves to be deceived.

The sermon just yesterday was basically sound on the topic of giving grace to each other and topping the list of next steps “If you haven’t already, establish a regular routine of being in the Bible’.  The problem is, I’ve delved into the Bible more in the past year than in my entire preceding 65 years on this planet.  The more I absorb, the more I realize I’m not on the same road as my pastors.

Even yesterday, a point made in the sermon was the need to “give grace to God” when He doesn’t respond the way we want.  Well, it sounds kind of sweet, but I kept thinking it was simply a misstatement.  I comforted myself about the vast gulf of a mistaken understanding of the nature of God, Life, Eternity, the Universe, and Biblical inerrancy by excusing it as nerves on the part of the pastor.  Right up until the moment he said it again with even more force and clarity.

The Bible I’ve been reading speaks of Christians needing patient endurance amidst persecution.  It fails to mention extending loving forgiveness to a God who may just have gotten it wrong.

As we veer toward a crowd-pleasing, man-centered faith that puts us in the catbird seat of extending grace to God I realize my options are narrowing.

You might tell me, go to your pastor first, which I had not done prior to making my frustrations known on social media.  Our senior pastor called me and offered a meeting.  The meeting lasted two and a half hours.  I can tell you that the lead pastor is rock solid on doctrine but that the church is veering distinctly into dangerous territory.  Almost like the Titanic with a rudder that is strong but too limited for the size of the vessel.  So next step, speak to the pastor who appears to represent the Emerging church doctrine.  Check.    He’s been sought out, and people have been brushed off.  It’s being made all too clear that any verbalized concerns will be firmly put down with the advice, literally from the pulpit to “ZIP it!”  Another meeting is being requested following this most recent sermon.  

 

After being told we’re to avoid many topics that only start fights, I must rebut that we are attempting to “gently instruct those who oppose the truth”.   Perhaps, in this case, simply ignoring the truth is more accurate.  Failing to learn, present and uphold the truth is the most subtle form of opposition, though.  The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth should be the standard.

“If we can’t have unity and agreement upon The Truth, then we can’t have unity.  True Unity is in the unity of the Spirit of Truth.”  ~The Bible In Context

When we can decide which scripture is crucial and heap the rest of it in a pile of irrelevance, it might give us nothing left to fight over.  On the other hand, it might give us the most strenuous contest ever since many of us recognize that walking away from sound doctrine is deathly serious.  Forget the Third Bucket – it doesn’t even exist.