"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." John 17:20
There is a saying that has become common in the modern era that says 'Doctrine divides but Christ unifies.' In practice it has become commonplace to avoid teaching doctrine in the interest of unity. We want to avoid arguing at all costs in order to create a large umbrella under which the majority can comfortably fit. But is that really what Jesus intended? Why did the apostle Paul tell Titus to "teach what is in accord with sound doctrine"(Titus 2:1) if it was only going to cause divisions. Jesus himself in the 'Great Commision' told his disciples to teach those who would believe "everything he had commanded them" if doctrine wasn't important. The fact is, doctrine unites us.
This very principle is what unites people. In the Old Testament, God gave Moses the law which governed the people of Israel and in so doing, united them. The Old Covenant law was their 'doctrine.' This same principle applies for all nations. We have a constitution and system of laws which governs us as a nation. While there may be similarities with laws of other nations, our system is unique to us and unifies us.
The same is with the church. Our identity is in Christ, but you cannot separate true doctrine from the person of Christ. And some things are true about the Christian gospel and some things are false. That is why doctrine is vital. Jesus said in John 14:15:
"If you love me you will obey what I command."
Yes, we are saved by grace alone. But those of us who are being saved are in the process of being conformed into the perfect image of Christ. The life of the Christian is a life charactorized by 'surrendered obedience.' But in order to be obedient we need to understand what Jesus and his disciples taught so we know what obedience looks like. Therefore we need to study and learn sound doctrine.
The biggest reason for disunity is because we have failed to teach sound doctrine. I find it interesting that so much of the New Testament writing is devoted to correcting false doctrines that have slipped in even while there were still eyewitnesses living. Do we really have any idea how far we've fallen in the nearly two millenia since then? Especially when we don't devote ourselves to the apostles teaching. One of the consequences of neglecting sound doctrine is we find ourselves in the situation of attempting to unify 'sheep and goats.'
It has gotten to the point that many churches seem more concerned about trying to reach out to the 'goats' than they are about caring for the sheep. Charles Spurgeon predicted such a time as we now find ourselves living:
"A time will come when instead of sheperds feeding sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats."
Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:3:
"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit there own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."
Notice that Paul said a 'great number of teachers'; not just a few here and there sporadically. Jesus said in Matthew 24:11 that there would be many false prophets who would deceive many. He didn't say just a few. He said MANY. And in verse 24 Jesus said they would even perform signs and miracles in order to deceive. Jude refers to these teachers as 'blemishes at your love feasts, shepherds who feed only themselves, etc.' In verse 19 he said, "These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit."
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." (Prov. 14:12)
These false teachers are giving people exactly what they want and it IS NOT GOD!
In a large number of cases today (possibly the majority) we are trying to find common ground between those who are truly the followers of Christ, and those who claim to be followers of Christ but demonstrate by what they believe and the way they choose to live that they are really following their own fleshly desires. Why are we trying to unify two groups of people that Jesus intends to separate? Not that we need to be specifically trying to make the separation now but we need to be learning and teaching sound, solid doctrine. Sound doctrine will inevitably separate the sheep from the goats. As the apostle John said in 1 John 2: 19:
"They went out from among us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us."
So yes, it is true. Doctrine does divide. It divides the sheep from the goats. And it is supposed to divide the true followers of Christ from those who don't truly follow Him. But then pure, solid doctrine unites those who truly are followers of the Good Sheperd who hear His voice.
1 Corinthians 1:18:
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
Beware of any teaching that would be appealing to someone who is not being saved.
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
Does God Even Go to Church Today?
"The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions." 1 Samuel 3:1
This verse says a lot about the spiritual condition of Israel towards the end of the time of the judges. First, as indicated by the fact that Samuel was in the service of Eli, the high priest, there was plenty of religious 'activity' going on. The daily sacrifices were being offered and the daily and weekly rituals were being performed. But worship had become lifeless. It seemed that they were simply going through the motions without any true regard for the God who had saved them. Eli was the high priest but he didn't hold his office with the reverence due. His sons were corrupt and took advantage of the people and Eli did nothing about it...even after being warned by a prophet. There was religion but it was dead religion. The sad thing is that nobody seemed to be bothered by it.
It mirrors the state of the church today. There's a lot of 'religious' activity going on. We have nice music and nice little sermons that really have little substance to them (if not downright heretical). Often the churches are more concerned about the style of worship than they are about whether or not the Word being preached pricks the hearts and consciences and impacts their lives for God's glory.
"The word of the Lord was rare."
We have a serious lack of expository preaching. Typically, we do not dig into the texts of the scripture and mine for the deep truths contained within them. Often the teaching is simply pandering to the congregation just to keep them happy and coming each week. It's what Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:3-4:
"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to myths."
Much of the face of Evangelical Christianity in the public eye is exactly that; teachers that do not teach the word of God but pander to what the 'itching ears' want to hear. From the prosperity preachers like Joel Osteen and Jesse Duplantis to the Emergent Church Universalists like Brian McLaren and Rob Bell, they preach a message that panders to the carnal desires of those who are not truly being saved.
The VERY FIRST sermon ever preached by the disciple Peter was one that warned of coming judgment and called people to repent. That message is seldom heard today and yet that was the basis of the message of the gospel. The typical messages today use select Bible verses taken out of context that can be manipulated to mean whatever the false teacher and listeners want it to mean.
"There were not many visions"
In the other ditch we have very strong doctrinal teaching but we don't have the active work of the Holy Spirit manifesting itself. This is often typical in the old denominations. Often the teaching is very sound but tends toward ritualistic legalism. Worship has become lifeless and it follows a liturgy that had deep meaning and purpose at one time, but nobody knows why they do it anymore. Cessationism is often very prevelant in these bodies. This is the idea that when the canon of scripture was complete, the gifts of the spirit ended as well. The cessationist belief discounts things like tongues and the prophetic (healing to a certain extent as well), saying that all of that is unnecessary now that we have the Bible in its complete form. The problem with that belief is that the Bible doesn't teach that. The cessationist relies on passages like 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and they understand the word 'perfection' in 1 Corinthians 13:10 to mean the completion of the New testament canon. The problem is that from the time 1 Corinthians was written to the time the final New testament book was written, was only about 40 years. If the cessationist view on this verse is correct, then chapter 14 is completely unnecesary. It contains detailed instruction on how the gifts of the spirit are to be used and these instructions are for the entire church for the entire church age.
In short, there is no scriptural basis for cessationism.
I asked a mentor of mine, given the lack of scriptural support for cessationism, why so many lean towards that belief. He responded, "Because we are afraid of what might happen if the Holy Spirit truly had his way among us." This is more subtle than pursuing the prosperity message or the universalist idea of anything goes, but it still means that we don't have a heart that seeks after God. It is true that spiritual gifts are mishandled and used improperly. But that doesn't discount the legitimacy of the gifts. The problem in the Corinthian church was that they were using the legitimate gifts improperly. The truth is, we need the gifts of the Holy Spirit today just as much as the early church did. To think otherwise is to mirror the Loadocian church in Revelation 3:17:
"You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked."
In the story of God giving the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, the children of Israel told Moses not to let God speak to them directly. But that he should go speak to God and then tell them what he had said. In Exodus 34 Moses came back and his face was radiant the people didn't want to be near thim either. That is the human condition.
Fallen humans don't want God.
And they don't want people who have been with God either.
Even Peter, when he first encountered Jesus said, "Go away from me Lord. I am a sinful man." (Luke 5:8)
Is this who we have become as the church today? Does God even come to church? And more importantly; Would we even notice if He didn't show up? In Revelation 3:20 Jesus said:
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."
LET'S ANSWER THE DOOR!
This verse says a lot about the spiritual condition of Israel towards the end of the time of the judges. First, as indicated by the fact that Samuel was in the service of Eli, the high priest, there was plenty of religious 'activity' going on. The daily sacrifices were being offered and the daily and weekly rituals were being performed. But worship had become lifeless. It seemed that they were simply going through the motions without any true regard for the God who had saved them. Eli was the high priest but he didn't hold his office with the reverence due. His sons were corrupt and took advantage of the people and Eli did nothing about it...even after being warned by a prophet. There was religion but it was dead religion. The sad thing is that nobody seemed to be bothered by it.
It mirrors the state of the church today. There's a lot of 'religious' activity going on. We have nice music and nice little sermons that really have little substance to them (if not downright heretical). Often the churches are more concerned about the style of worship than they are about whether or not the Word being preached pricks the hearts and consciences and impacts their lives for God's glory.
"The word of the Lord was rare."
We have a serious lack of expository preaching. Typically, we do not dig into the texts of the scripture and mine for the deep truths contained within them. Often the teaching is simply pandering to the congregation just to keep them happy and coming each week. It's what Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:3-4:
"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to myths."
Much of the face of Evangelical Christianity in the public eye is exactly that; teachers that do not teach the word of God but pander to what the 'itching ears' want to hear. From the prosperity preachers like Joel Osteen and Jesse Duplantis to the Emergent Church Universalists like Brian McLaren and Rob Bell, they preach a message that panders to the carnal desires of those who are not truly being saved.
The VERY FIRST sermon ever preached by the disciple Peter was one that warned of coming judgment and called people to repent. That message is seldom heard today and yet that was the basis of the message of the gospel. The typical messages today use select Bible verses taken out of context that can be manipulated to mean whatever the false teacher and listeners want it to mean.
"There were not many visions"
In the other ditch we have very strong doctrinal teaching but we don't have the active work of the Holy Spirit manifesting itself. This is often typical in the old denominations. Often the teaching is very sound but tends toward ritualistic legalism. Worship has become lifeless and it follows a liturgy that had deep meaning and purpose at one time, but nobody knows why they do it anymore. Cessationism is often very prevelant in these bodies. This is the idea that when the canon of scripture was complete, the gifts of the spirit ended as well. The cessationist belief discounts things like tongues and the prophetic (healing to a certain extent as well), saying that all of that is unnecessary now that we have the Bible in its complete form. The problem with that belief is that the Bible doesn't teach that. The cessationist relies on passages like 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and they understand the word 'perfection' in 1 Corinthians 13:10 to mean the completion of the New testament canon. The problem is that from the time 1 Corinthians was written to the time the final New testament book was written, was only about 40 years. If the cessationist view on this verse is correct, then chapter 14 is completely unnecesary. It contains detailed instruction on how the gifts of the spirit are to be used and these instructions are for the entire church for the entire church age.
In short, there is no scriptural basis for cessationism.
I asked a mentor of mine, given the lack of scriptural support for cessationism, why so many lean towards that belief. He responded, "Because we are afraid of what might happen if the Holy Spirit truly had his way among us." This is more subtle than pursuing the prosperity message or the universalist idea of anything goes, but it still means that we don't have a heart that seeks after God. It is true that spiritual gifts are mishandled and used improperly. But that doesn't discount the legitimacy of the gifts. The problem in the Corinthian church was that they were using the legitimate gifts improperly. The truth is, we need the gifts of the Holy Spirit today just as much as the early church did. To think otherwise is to mirror the Loadocian church in Revelation 3:17:
"You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked."
In the story of God giving the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, the children of Israel told Moses not to let God speak to them directly. But that he should go speak to God and then tell them what he had said. In Exodus 34 Moses came back and his face was radiant the people didn't want to be near thim either. That is the human condition.
Fallen humans don't want God.
And they don't want people who have been with God either.
Even Peter, when he first encountered Jesus said, "Go away from me Lord. I am a sinful man." (Luke 5:8)
Is this who we have become as the church today? Does God even come to church? And more importantly; Would we even notice if He didn't show up? In Revelation 3:20 Jesus said:
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."
LET'S ANSWER THE DOOR!
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