(Please note that I use page links in lieu of footnotes and references. Each page link provides greater detail and important information on matters contained in this article. Please use all of them for a complete teaching and udnerstanding. This is an urgent message.)
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE EYES TO SEE
As it is written,
“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day.”
My wife and I took a road trip around part of our country in 2011, starting in Florida, proceeding north, up the east coast to Virginia then west through Tennessee, to Oklahoma and all point between. We then headed north to Illinois, Minnesota, turning west again to South Dakota. Our return trip took a more southerly route, arriving back in Florida. I tell you this in order to mention that we each Sunday we would go to church.
We visited several different denominations such as Baptist, Methodist, Nazarene and non-denominational (which seemed to be more Charismatic or Pentecostal). I won’t critique each church experience, but I will comment on the one thing that was similar if not common in each and every church we visited: Shallow.
If I could grade my experience at most of them, on a scale from 1 to 10:
Score: 1 to 3 on greeting a visitor as we entered the building.
Score: 0 to 1 on ‘shaking hands during the greeting time’ in the services.
Score: 3 to 5 on the scriptural content and Biblical context of the sermon.
Score: 0 on follow up.
Score: 7 to 8 on polite.
Score: 0 to 1 on friendly.
But, to be fair, we are just visiting on a one-time basis. So how much can you expect, unless you are a returning visitor? (I wrote to one of the church pastors reflecting on our experience. ‘Crickets’.)
BACK HOME
We have moved locations three times and been members of six different churches over the last 44 years.
- Castle Hills Baptist Church, 1975 to 1977. We were brand new Christians. This church was friendly (and I mean FRIENDLY). Non-judgmental. Outward focused. Biblically strong in practice of their faith, (bearing the fruit of the Spirit of God).Worship led you to worship God. Generous. Deacon led. Big on Sunday school and personal relationships. Sermons always fundamentally strong. Transparent. Score 9.
- Bethany Place Baptist Church, 1978 to 1995. Friendly and family oriented. Outreach focused. Worship geared toward Jesus. A disciple-making Church. Score 8 to 9.
- Oak Grove Baptist Church, 1996 to 2000. Friendly most of time, but firmly settled demanding on having their own way. Worship led by music minister, very traditional. Family oriented. Inward focused. Couldn’t keep a pastor on staff. Score 6 to 7.
- Southside Nazarene Church, 2000 to 2002. Friendly. Family oriented. Outreach focused. Big on fellowship and personal relationships. Worship ‘team’ music focused on scriptures, very good presentation and Was being infiltrated by Emergent church heresy. Score 8 to 9, until Emergent philosophies introduced, then, Score 2 – 5.
- White Stone Nazarene, 2002 to 2006. Clique oriented. Polite. Inward focused. Worship ‘team’ scripture oriented, consisted of guitars and drums. Began to teach a new age / Emergent church humanistic religion. Not dependable. Questionable moralities. Score 0 to 2.
Life, 2008 to 2020. Very ‘surface friendly’. Worship ‘team’ entertainment oriented; lighting effects, stage smoke, very loud and repetitive. Both inward and outward focused. Pastor-led polity, tightly controlled, manipulative at times. Members are cliquish. Uses ‘proximity to pastor’ as a punishment-reward method for control. Frequent turnover of members. Secretive-to-questionable financial management. Score 0 to 2.
- Covenant Church, 2020 to present. Friendly. Worship team entertaining but always focused on scriptures and leads congregants to think on and worship God. Big on ‘small groups’ for relationships, outward focused. Elder-led church polity. Constant growth. Financially transparent. (Covenant Church left their major denomination PC USA, and aligned with the PCA. We have been at Covenant for just under 2 years as of this writing, so I cannot give my grade yet, but if I did it would be an aberration because it reverses the trend. It would be high.)
(Notice the trend of the scores over time is high to very low).
I realize that my view of these Churches are largely just opinions from my experiences, which would be affected by age, culture, life circumstances, personal preferences, etc., and probably only partially accurate, although this is how I recall them.
I also want to make sure that I am clear that ‘The Church’ is not just the ordained and professional clergy. They are just a small part of God’s Church. The Church is the everyday Christian who professes the Name of Jesus and claims to follow His teachings, and the one thing I am certain of regarding the Church, is the declension of the moral and the ethical life of the Church, that is to say, the loss of her righteousness, even as late as 1978 (when I was saved and became involved in church life), which is reflected in my ‘opinionated view’ and scoring of my ‘church experience’ over the last 44 years.
There is one thing common to all the churches I have listed, and in fact, from the majority of churches studied, since around 1995, has been a growing quiet-to-open-division, a fracture. Now-a-days, if you don’t agree on fundamentals of doctrine, you probably don’t hang out together, and there is more at work. Secular politics have invaded the church’s thinking and plays a role in this division. People have become galvanized in their opinions and are more self-centered and demanding.
A majority of Christians have become religious consumers and church shoppers – looking for what they think is best for themselves and their families.
Church members have gone from being quietly critical of one another to a form of open religious warfare, causing anxiety, suspicion, divisions and separation.
Cliques are a problem. The ‘religious birds’ within particular denominations are flocking together, and if you don’t wear their color of feathers, you are out! And, they aren’t even shy about it any longer.
Christians have become so judgmental, even of each other, that many are leaving these church ‘war zones’. A new convert is entering an almost impossible socio-religious maze of opinions, mores, traditions and attitudes and is subject to becoming a fatality before he or she can even settle in. So, it falls to the pastors of these Churches to sort out the mess and find balance and reason.
Jesus used the word “shepherd” interchangeably for overseers, pastors, elders, and presbyters. Historically and culturally speaking, the tasks of a Near Eastern shepherd were to watch for enemies trying to attack the sheep to defend the sheep from attackers to heal the wounded and sick sheep to find and save lost or trapped sheep to love them, sharing their lives and so earning their trust.
During World War II, a shepherd was a pilot who guided another pilot whose plane was partially disabled back to the base or carrier by flying alongside him to maintain visual contact.
Pastors and church leaders in our postmodern world, however, tend to deal with the pressures and stress of this ‘church fracture‘ (a.k.a., apostasy) using ‘distancing and insulating methods’. Assign the personal interaction taks to staff or volunteers; give programs priority over people.
Very few pastors actually ‘pastor’, they are CEOs, church leaders, insulated in their role as a survival method. Even with that, pastoral turnover is staggering in most denominations.
LOST?
In short, we, the Church, are lost. We are lost in a postmodern Socialist wilderness. We have been wooed and pursued by the ‘false messiah‘. We have drifted so far from the early Communal Church CALLING, CIRCUMSTANCE, INTENT, METHOD and MISSION, that we have no idea where it all began and really don’t care. We are held captive by and are living in the Great Delusion the Apostle Paul warned about. We say about the early church CALLING, CIRCUMSTANCE, INTENT, METHOD and MISSION, “those were old-fashioned methods and they don’t work any longer”.
We are mistaking function for form. We think because we still ‘do church’, sing hymns, go on mission trips, tithe, pray, have bible studies and wear religious symbols we are Christians like always. But that is not true. We have, without any doubt, lost our first love, both for Christ Jesus and for one another.
LOVE – AGAPE – PHILOS – EROS
- Agape-Love
For Christians, Agape is considered a divine love. It is like the love that God had for his son, Jesus Christ. It is the love that Christ had for all human beings when he gave his life to redeem them from their sins. This is considered by many to be the best type of love in the Bible.
This is the love that God commanded all Christians to express for the rest of the earth. In your own life, you may have experience Agape for your spouse, parent or child. It is the kind of unconditional love that is never based on how someone looks or what they can do for you. It is an almost sacrificial type of love where you are willing to hurt yourself or take a risk if it means that you can help the one you love. You do not have to feel Agape to express it, but it is a wonderful kind of love to experience.
- Philos-Love
Philos is a common type of love to experience. It is said to be the kind of love that you have for a close friend or companion. Basically, it is like loving someone like your sister or brother. It is the love you have for a friend who you feel like a brother to, and it often develops after two people share intense experiences together. This is the type of love that Christians are supposed to practice toward one another and the rest of the world.
- Eros
Eros is a Greek word that is said to mean longing or desire. As we already mentioned, this is the kind of love that you typically experience when you are infatuated with someone or something. It also happens to be the name of the Greek god of love. Later on, Eros became the root word of the modern word, erotic. Basically, this is a selfish form of love that tends to be associated with sexual matters. It is the strong feeling you have for someone during the initial stage in the relationship. Often, Eros develops based on someone’s physical traits. For the relationship to continue, you have to develop other types of love. When Eros is not balanced, it can even lead someone to become possessive. This is the type of ‘love’ that produces the addictive hormones and bio-chemicals of adrenaline, dopamine,
The meaning of ‘love’ in the minds of most has fallen from ‘agape’ and ‘philos’ to ‘eros’. Even in the church, it is expressed in how we dress, how we talk, what we expect and the frightening rise of sexual abuse by the clergy and rampant immorality among Christians.
JEZEBEL
Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre and Sidon and priest of the cult of Baal, a cruel, sensuous and revolting false god whose worship involved sexual degradation and lewdness.
The term, “Jezebel spirit” likely comes from Jezebel’s obsessive passion for domineering and controlling others, especially in the spiritual realm. She married Ahab, king of Israel, and became the queen and began a relentless campaign to rid Israel of all evidences of Yahweh worship. She ordered the extermination of all the prophets of the Lord (1 Kings 18:4, 13) and replaced their altars with those of Baal.
She had such a single-minded determination to have her way, no matter who is destroyed in the process, is a characteristic of the ‘Jezebel spirit’.
So infamous was Jezebel’s sexual immorality and idol worship that the Lord Jesus Himself refers to her in a warning to the church at Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29). Most likely referring to a woman in the church who influenced it the same way Jezebel influenced Israel into idolatry and sexual immorality, Jesus declares to the Thyatirans that she is not to be tolerated.
Whoever this woman was, like Jezebel, she refused to repent of her immorality and her false teaching, and her fate was sealed. The Lord Jesus cast her onto a sick bed, along with those who committed idolatry with her. The end for those who succumb to a Jezebel spirit is always death and destruction, both in the physical and the spiritual sense.
Perhaps the best way to define the Jezebel spirit is to say it characterizes anyone who acts in the same manner as Jezebel did, engaging in immorality, idolatry, false teaching, and unrepentant sin. To go beyond that is to engage in conjecture and can possibly lead to false accusations and divisiveness within the body of Christ.
APHRODITE
Another Greek goddess is mentioned in the Bible, albeit indirectly. Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and sensuality. The Romans called her Venus. Aphrodite is not explicitly named in the Bible, but she still shows up in the name of Epaphroditus, who was a “brother, co-worker and fellow soldier” of Paul (Philippians 2:25). The name Ephaphroditus means “belonging to Aphrodite”—the name of the goddess is actually incorporated into his name.
ANTINOMIAN
Antinomian: an·ti·no·mi·an| ˌan(t)ēˈnōmēən | adjective relating to the view that Christians are released by grace from the obligation of observing the moral law. noun a person holding antinomian beliefs.
DERIVATIVES antinomianism | -ˌnizəm | noun ORIGIN mid 17th century: from medieval Latin Antinomi, the name of a 16th-century sect in Germany alleged to hold this view, from Greek anti- ‘opposite, against’ + nomos ‘law’.
I am reprinting a section of a book, “Paths to Power”, chapter 5, by Pastor A.W. Tozer, as a corroborating view:
“To any casual observer of the religious scene today, two things will at once be evident: one, that there is very little sense of sin among the unsaved, and two, that the average professed Christian lives a life so worldly and careless that it is difficult to distinguish him from the unconverted man. The power that brings conviction to the sinner and enables the Christian to overcome in daily living is being hindered somewhere. It would be oversimplification to name any one thing as the alone cause, for many things stand in the way of the full realization of our New Testament privileges. There is one class of hindrances, however, which, tends out so conspicuously that we are safe in attributing to it a very large part of our trouble…
“:Fundamental Christianity in our times is deeply influenced by that ancient enemy of righteousness, antinomianism.
“The creed of the antinomian is easily stated: “We are saved by faith alone; Works have no place in salvation; Conduct is works, and is therefore of no importance. What we do cannot matter as long as we believe rightly. The divorce between creed and conduct is absolute and final. The question of sin is settled by the Cross; conduct is outside the circle of faith and cannot come between the believer and God.”
“Such, in brief, is the teaching of the antinomian, And so fully has it permeated the Fundamental element in modern Christianity that it is accepted by the religious masses as the very truth of God.
“Antinomianism is the doctrine of grace carried by uncorrected logic to the point of absurdity. It takes the teaching of justification by faith and twists it into deformity. It plagued the Apostle Paul in the early Church and called out some of his most picturesque denunciations. When the question is asked, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” he answers no with that terrific argument in the sixth chapter of Romans.
“Right after the first World War there broke out an epidemic of popular (NEW or NEO) evangelism with the emphasis upon what was called the “positive” gospel… They talked about a “big,” “lovely” Jesus who had come to help us poor but well-meaning sinners to get the victory. Christ was presented as a powerful but not too particular Answerer of prayer.
“The message was so presented as to encourage a loaves-and fishes attitude toward Christ. That part of the New Testament which acts as an incentive toward holy living was carefully edited out. It was said to be “negative” and was not tolerated. Thousands sought help who had no desire to leave all and follow the Lord. The will of God was interpreted as “Come and get it.” Christ thus became a useful convenience, but His indisputable claim to Lordship Over the believer was tacitly canceled out.
“Much of the stream of gospel thought has been fouled, and its waters are still muddy. One thing that remains as a dangerous hangover is the comfortable habit of blaming everything on the devil. No one was supposed to feel any personal guilt; the devil had done it, so why blame the sinner for the devil’s misdeeds? He became the universal scapegoat, to take the blame for every bit of human devilry from Adam to the present day. One gathered that we genial and lovable sinners are not really bad; we are merely led astray by the blandishments of that mischievous old Puck of the heavenly places. Our sins are not the expression of our rebellious wills; they are only bruises where the devil has been kicking us around. Of course sinners can feel no guilt, seeing they are merely the victims
of another’s wickedness.
“Under that kind of teaching there can be no self-condemnation, but there can be, and is, plenty of self-pity over the raw deal we innocent sinners got at the hand of the devil. Now, no Bible student will underestimate the sinister work of Satan, but to make him responsible for our sins is to practice deadly deception upon ourselves. And the hardest deception to cure is that which is self-imposed.
“Another doctrine which hinders God’s work, and one which is heard almost everywhere, is that sinners are not lost because they have sinned, but because they have not accepted Jesus. “Men are not lost because they murder; they are not sent to hell because they lie and steal and blaspheme; they are sent to hell because they reject a Saviour.” This short-sighted preachment is thundered at us constantly, and is seldom challenged by the hearers. A parallel argument would be hooted down as silly, but apparently no one notices it: “That man with a cancer is dying, but it is not the cancer that is killing him; it is his failure to accept a cure.” Is it not plain that the only reason the man would need a cure is that he is already marked for death by the cancer? The only reason I need a Saviour, in His capacity as Saviour, is that I am already marked for hell by the sins I have committed. Refusing to believe in Christ is a symptom of deeper evil in the life, of sins unconfessed and wicked ways unforsaken. The guilt lies in acts of sin; the proof of that guilt is seen in the rejection of the Saviour.
“If anyone should feel like brushing this aside as mere verbal sparring, let him first pause: the doctrine that the only damning sin is the rejection of Jesus is definitely a contributing cause of our present weakness and lack of moral grip. It is nothing but a neat theological sophism which has become identified with orthodoxy in the mind of the modern Christian and is for that reason very difficult to correct. It is, for all its harmless seeming, a most injurious belief, for it destroys our sense of responsibility for our moral conduct. It robs all sin of its frightfulness and makes evil to consist in a mere technicality. And where sin is not cured power cannot flow…
“The vogue of excusing sin, of seeking theological justification for it instead of treating it as an affront to God, is having its terrible effect among us. Deep searching of heart and a resolute turning from evil will go far to bring back power to the Church of Christ. Tender, tear-stained preaching on this subject must be heard again before revival can come.” – SOURCE: “Paths to Power” – by A. W. Tozer, Ch 5.
“Deep searching of heart and a resolute turning from evil will go far to bring back power to the Church of Christ. Tender, tear-stained preaching on this subject must be heard again before revival can come.” Tozer’s words, to the postmodern world, sound like strange and alien idealism spoken in a foreign language.
IS THIS HOW IT SHOULD BE?
We shouldn’t be surprised. Bible prophecy has warned that this day and time was coming*, now the false church emerges.
It has been apparent as early as the year of A.D. 1. This is confirmed by Jesus and several Apostles as recorded in Matthew 24, Hebrews 1:2, Hebrews 9:26, Acts 2:14-17, 2 Timothy 3:1, 1 Peter 1:20, 1 Peter 4:7, 2 Peter 3:3. One of the first, most accurate, and most persistent advocates of the Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church can be found at Zion’s Hope, with videos on this site. Finally, in this 21st century, there are a few prominent Bible teachers missionaries who are now arriving at this same conclusions (John Piper, and Corrie Ten Boom).
Read what 2 Timothy 3:1-8 tells us on this matter,
”But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.
“Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.”
It is known as the great Apostasy. “Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, regarding the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit, or a message, or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. No one is to deceive you in any way! For it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now, so that he will be revealed in his time. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is removed. Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will eliminate with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not accept the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be [p]judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.” 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12.
MANIFEST DESTINY?
Jesus’ model of ministry – versus – “The emergence of the false church”:
Jesus’ Model
Jesus said to follow Him. (AD 27-29)
Jesus was baptized, and the Spirit came upon Him. (Matthew 3:16) We must be baptized. (Acts 2:38)
Jesus was tempted, tested, by the devil. (Matthew 4) We must be tempted and tested. (Matthew 5)
Jesus began His ministry of calling people to Himself, making disciples, teaching and preaching the Gospel, practicing the Gospel.
Jesus instructs His disciples on the cost of following Him.
Leave your home and come with Me (Matthew 19)
Forsake your former life and follow Me
Leave your families and follow Me (Luke 14:26)
Give up all you have, or you cannot follow Me (Luke 14:33)
If you love your life, you will lose it (Matthew 10:39)
Jesus walks with His disciples, teaching and showing His Gospel.
Jesus sends His disciples to do His Work (Matthew 10)
Jesus continues to minister, teach and preach.
Jesus is crucified. (Matthew 27)
Jesus ascends to His Father and sends His disciples to continue His Works. (Matthew 28) We are to make disciples, baptizing them, preaching the Gospel, teaching them all He commanded. (Matthew 28)
A very abbreviated history leading to the Great Apostasy:
The Emergence and Progression of the False Church
AD 1 The Church of Jesus Christ, The Body of Christ, had no buildings, little money and no wealth. The Church was a Movement.
Jesus said to make disciples; collect no money except to make your journey.
The penalty for becoming a Christian was often death.
The Church grew exponentially.
AD 49 The Church expanded into Greece. The Church became a philosophy to many. The Church grew and size and influence.
AD 313 The Church expanded into Rome and it gained recognition. It grew in power and popularity. It obtained wealth, buildings, property and influence. It became an institution.
AD 380 The Church expanded into Europe. It was becoming a worldwide phenomenon. It grew in wealth, stature, power and influence. It had become a culture.
AD 1607 The Church reaches America.
AD 1681 The Church became corporate. It had become a business and incorporated. It became regulated by the government.
The Corporate Church grew. It needed money to support growth and expansion, which meant the Corporate Church needed more people.
AD 1777 The state of Virginia granted tax exemption to houses of worship.
AD 1894 The corporate church was granted tax exemptions by the Federal Government.
AD 1954 The Federal Government regulated what a church could and could not say in order to retain tax-exempt status.
The church continued to grow, and in order to attract more people the Corporate Church lowered its membership and doctrinal standards. More people became ‘members’ and gave more money to support more growth.
The Church corporation is complete with leaders, boards and membership and a business model.
Local churches compete against one another for members (customers). The church is selling itself in “three line slogans”.
The Church members now have choices and have become religious consumers. Church people can shop around for the religious brand and standards that best suits them. (2 Timothy 3)
The Leadership (pastors and preachers) have become CEOs, disciples have become church leaders, growing their 501(c)(3) business models.
Record numbers of pastors quitting because of stress, burnout or are being fired by their congregations (some stats say 1500 – 1700 leave “the ministry” each month).
Church debt in America soars; church foreclosures soar.
AD 1968 The church ordains homosexuals as clergy.
AD 1972 The United church of Christ ordains homosexual clergy
AD 2010 The Lutheran church ordains homosexual clergy
AD 2012 The Presbyterian church ordains homosexual clergy
The Episcopal Church in the United States and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have also allowed ordination of openly gay and lesbian candidates for ministry for some years.
Internationally, tens of thousands of churches have ordained openly lesbian or gay clergy. The list includes include the Church of Scotland, the Church of England, the Church in Wales, the Church of Sweden, the Church of Norway, the Church of Denmark, the Church of Iceland, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical Church in Germany, the Methodist Church in Britain, the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, the United Protestant Church in Belgium, the Swiss Reformed Church, the United Protestant Church of France, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Anglican Church in Canada, the Old Catholic Church, the Czechoslovak Hussite Church and the United Church of Christ in Japan.
AD 2020 The church is losing and has lost influence. The church in 2020 is losing members.
AD 2022 The church is teaching and living a different Gospel than that of the Apostles.
THE AGE OF APOSTASY IS WELL UNDER WAY
Big Evangelical Churches, organizations and conferences, also known as “Big EVA”, have create an economy of power, people, and indeed money which is non-ecclesiastical but highly influential within evangelical churches. It is a populist movement of tremendous influence and minimal accountability. It provides an identity for its most passionate acolytes.
“And because it promises rewards to individuals and organizations – influence, students, platform – it is both very hard to criticize and functionally unaccountable to any but its own. The Trinity controversy of two years ago was a case in point: no church creed had ever taught the nonsense that had become so pervasive in evangelicalism. Quite the contrary – the creedal history of the church was arguably constructed to exclude precisely the kind of views that were being espoused. But key conferences and key organizations had a vested interest in sidestepping orthodoxy and demonizing any who pointed that out.
“An aspiring movement, to direct and shape the policies and testimony of the church, is quite another thing. (This is what has been done, or, put more bluntly, ‘What have we done?’ Selected and edited (comments from Carl Trueman, “Revoice, Evangelical Culture, and the Return of an Old Friend” July 31, 2018)
Here are links to several other notable and tragic recent SHIPWRECKS:
Willow Creek, Chicago, Illinois and Bill Hybels
Willow Creek, Chicago, Illinois and Bill Hybles, II
Harvest Chapel, Sandwich, Illinois and James MacDonald fired by Harvest Bible Chapel
Harvest Bible Chapel in Naples, Florida sent eviction notice by landlord
This article and its content was collected from various “identified sources” and is reprinted as originally posted by these “identified sources. Some parts are editorialized and contain the opinion of this author. White Stone Fellowship.
The Apostle Paul instructed Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:18, saying, “This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them, you fight the good fight, 19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.”
This is advice to all Christians. Point out and call out evil wherever you see it. Name the by names. Warns others to flee these wolves and false teachers.
Perhaps you are one of the brave souls who have read this far and perhaps you have thought or are thinking, “maybe it is like you say in many churches, but it is not that way in my church. We are a friendly, loving, giving, generous, Bible-based, Bible teaching church”, and if you are, well then, great! Good for you. Would you mind completing a short survey, then?
Do you believe it is sometimes permissable to avoid another Christian because of a disagreement or a dispute? Yes No .
Do you believe it is sometimes permissable to hold a grudge against another Christian? Yes No .
Does you believe it is permissable for a Christian church to ordain homosexuals for ministry or allow homosexual laity to teach or hold office in a Christian church? Yes No .
Do you believe it is your responsibility to ‘witness your faith’ to others, daily? What I mean is, do you tell others about Jesus, frequently? Yes No I mean to, but usually do not .
Do you believe it is your responsibility to lead anyone to Jesus; that is, someone who becomes a Christian and follows Jesus, daily? Yes No I try, but no success yet .
If you have done either of the above, do you teach them about Jesus and what He has commanded of us? Yes No I don’t have to; my church does that .
Do believe it is permissible to have sex outside of marriage? Yes No .
Do you and your friends at Church believe the Bible is completely true and accurate? Yes No .
This is just a sampling but can be revealing about how we, as the Church, have drifted from our foundations and have lost our way without even know it.
I encourage you, let’s return to our first love. Let’s return to a life of obedience to Him. A life of peace, love and joy. A life of abundance through and in Christ Jesus.
It isn’t easy, but it is the only way to the Kingdom of Heaven! Let’s be the few to start a Revival Tidalwave!
Your Brother and Friend,
Mike Young
Whitestone Fellowship 