There is a lot of confusion in Christianity today.\u00a0 God is not the author of confusion.<\/p>\n
For starters though, know I am not bashing every church.\u00a0 Nor just attacking for no reason and no benefit. The Bible says to mark them that are in error and cause division, to prove all things, to reprove, to rebuke, and to earnestly contend for the faith.\u00a0 The Bible says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.\u00a0 There is nothing more evil than someone promising the way to eternal life only to make them more two fold children of hell than themselves.\u00a0\u00a0It is easier to pour in truth to an empty and eager vessel than to try and find to filter out gallons of poison first.\u00a0 Especially when the religious enjoy the poison they are drinking.<\/p>\n
I am mostly addressing\u00a0all churches together here.\u00a0 I am not picking on any.\u00a0\u00a0 In my circles you may have some false converts, but at least you have REAL CONVERTS as well.\u00a0 In 90% of churches today, they aren’t even teaching biblical salvation! They have NO CONVERTS BECAUSE THEY SEE NO REASON TO CONVERT.\u00a0 Jesus says YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN.\u00a0 You need to be CONVERTED from the devil’s team to\u00a0GOD’s team and become spiritually alive\u00a0before anything else.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When churches that stood by the Bible and stood and preached in the 1800’s this simple truth, and there weren’t the Joel Olsteen’s and TV\u00a0Preachers and Billy Graham watering down the pivotal and simple command of Jesus Christ, people were saved GOD’S way and their lives changed and they found God, wanted what God wanted, and stood for something.\u00a0 Now we\u00a0fall for anything.\u00a0 Except for\u00a0good solid Biblical truth.<\/p>\n
God is for unity.\u00a0 Forty different Bible versions does not produce unity.\u00a0 Five hundred violins all perfectly tuned to the master pianist will all be tuned to each other.\u00a0 There would be no confusion in the “church” today if every church was tuned in perfectly to the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 The main problem is most are tuned to anything and everything but him.\u00a0 Most churches are more tuned to Hollywood’s drums than the voice of God.\u00a0 Jesus said my SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE.\u00a0 Jesus is the word that became flesh.\u00a0 The Bible is literally Jesus on paper.\u00a0 His words are LIFE. His words are truth.\u00a0 His word is what spoke the world into existence.\u00a0\u00a0 You need to believe his word if you want to see God.\u00a0 Faith cometh by hearing the word of God.\u00a0 It gets preached from the pulpit or on the street or from a tract, it then goes to your heart, you let it take root, people’s prayers will water it, circumstances of life will fertilize the soil, and then God does the rest. The small seed of faith sprouts immediately at salvation into something living and breathing,\u00a0and continues to grow into something real.<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Doug Stauffer’s fantastic book One Book One Authority \u00a0(see BibleDoug.com) the problem with the modern perversions of the Bible is this.\u00a0 Confusion.\u00a0 My sheep hear my voice.\u00a0 You will instantly recognize when a non KJV is read.\u00a0 Most churches today have replaced the KJV version for the latest Bible of the month.\u00a0 My sheep hear my voice but they won’t follow the voice of strangers says Jesus.\u00a0 If you are tuned into the KJV you will know when a non KJV is read.\u00a0 However if you read a new version, say the NIV, faithfully, you will not recognize when someone reads another version (unless it is the KJV!!!).\u00a0\u00a0That is\u00a0true whether you hear the ESV or the Jehovah Witness New\u00a0World Translation. \u00a0A big explanation for the confusion is the elevation of man’s words over the Bible.\u00a0 The Bible is the authority.\u00a0 In the new versions scholarship becomes the authority.\u00a0 It goes from THUS SAITH THE LORD to thus goes the scholar.\u00a0 They want to be the authority and they claim you can only know what God’s word means if you go back to the original manuscripts.\u00a0 The original manuscripts are long gone, which means you have to find a guru to tell you what they say.\u00a0 And they are more than glad to volunteer to be in that position.\u00a0 A paid volunteer is the catch.<\/p>\n
I\u00a0am blessed\u00a0\u00a0to go to a top notch church but God led me there through many detours.\u00a0 I have been to many many churches since I was saved 11 years ago, and every denomination you can think of,\u00a0and I believe the best church in\u00a0the most\u00a0biblically centered denomination that\u00a0I have ever attended is the\u00a0church God led me to in February 2006 and where I still attend today. (see OldTimeBaptist.com, an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church).<\/p>\n
That doesn’t mean\u00a0my church\u00a0perfect (and I ruined any perfection it had when I joined anyway!), and it doesn’t mean we have arrived.\u00a0 It doesn’t mean we are good for the next 20 years.\u00a0 It doesn’t mean we can now sit on our laurels and holy huddle until the rapture.\u00a0 I just don’t want anyone to think I am biting the hand that feeds me or I am being a rebel and just whining and complaining I didn’t get my way.<\/p>\n
Churches are a funny thing.\u00a0\u00a0 It seems that in general our attitudes toward the bible, Church, and Christianity in general are not consistent with our every day behaviors. For example, I have been highly offended by Wal Mart.\u00a0 They are consistently out of my son’s favorite popsicle \u00a0Mighty Minis.\u00a0 (actually my boys call popsicles “oppcorns”!) They keep running out of Orange Yoplait, the only kind my one son Elijah eats.\u00a0 Elijah seems allergic to vegetables and anything healthy besides, and this is as close to fruits and veggies we can get with him.\u00a0 High fructose corn syrup and all.\u00a0 To top it off, I bough a package of the only Sahlen’s hotdogs they had and only when I made them did I see they were the reduced fat kind.\u00a0 That means reduced taste.\u00a0 If I am going to eat something that isn’t healthy, I am not going to eat a lousy tasting version of it and save 50 calories.\u00a0 Instead, when forced to only eat a non-fat non-taste version, I just will not eat it at all then and save 500 calories.\u00a0 In my opinion they tried to pass off the reduced fat kind by hiding them within the regular dogs to get rid of them and I just didn’t see the fine print.\u00a0 Further, every time I buy a product that has a “SAVE $1.00” coupon on it, they forget to take it off and use the coupon.\u00a0 They just are not meeting my needs.\u00a0 Now I have been offended.\u00a0 Yet,\u00a0I did not decide to never come back and start shopping at a Wal Mart down the road.<\/p>\n
Yet we do that to the church all the time.<\/p>\n
What needs to be addressed is the church in general is a land of confusion in a confused America.\u00a0 Some of that hits home and affects\u00a0my\u00a0church like the way the common cold spreads.\u00a0 I’m not just talking about doctrine, but bad attitudes, worldly thinking, carnal minds, discouragement, fear, insecurity, etc.\u00a0 I am mostly concerned for the circles that at least want to obey the Bible in the best way they know how. And for our country.<\/p>\n
Churches that have been teaching major heresy for thousands of years aren’t going to change.\u00a0\u00a0 Their members are clueless but these churches are the counterfeits of the devil and they are trying to\u00a0be the loudest voice calling all the shots.\u00a0I am more concerned with the churches that were strong and have little by little picked up small hitchhikers along the way that need to be sent packing.\u00a0 The churches that we affiliate with\u00a0can pick up the bad habits of other churches that picked up some bad habits and before you know it, it spreads like wildfire.\u00a0 I can’t speak for other churches but I believe mine seems to be making some solid choices and building momentum and going forward.\u00a0 Good.\u00a0 In general the movement I am in needs to keep going in that direction or the onslaught of churches being carried downstream by the tidal wave of compromise and worldliness will take our church right with it in 20 years.<\/p>\n
I am trying hard to be balanced with the church.\u00a0 I am a street preacher and many street preachers have disdain for the church.\u00a0 They tend to\u00a0think they don’t need a church to be their authority.\u00a0 Yet I see many churches have disdain for the street preachers and it’s members\u00a0are paralyzed by fear to go to the streets and highways.\u00a0\u00a0 I see the need to be balanced.\u00a0\u00a0 The church is not a fire shelter from the inferno outside.\u00a0 It is a fire station that trains firemen to go out\u00a0into their communities\u00a0and rescue the perishing.\u00a0\u00a0 It is meant really to train men to go out into the world and put out the fires that are burning down our land one man at a time. \u00a0\u00a0 Not bring people into the church engulfed in flames for the preacher to hose them down.<\/p>\n
That is the one crisis in the good churches.\u00a0 The Preacher is pouring his heart out with messages to get his members on fire to go out and put out the fires of hell.\u00a0 He gives all he has and the people think it is his job to reach the world and their job is just to listen.\u00a0 He expects them to obey his preaching.\u00a0\u00a0 They expect him to be happy they heard the preaching.\u00a0 Obedience is shuffled around like a shell game and nothing gets done that impacts eternity.\u00a0 Everyone thinks witnessing is someone else’s job.\u00a0 Instead the truth is witnessing is a command and when we obey we grow as we go.<\/p>\n
Christianity is not a bunch of do’s and don’ts.\u00a0 It is not an I HAVE TO life of drudgery.\u00a0 It is not an I GOT TO lifestyle of forced labor.\u00a0 I get to live a clean life when before I couldn’t say no.\u00a0 I get to go to church.\u00a0 I get to serve the God of the universe.<\/p>\n
I desire to reach the lost of the world because God’s desires are replacing my desires.\u00a0 Street preaching to the masses.\u00a0 Jesus was an open air Preacher.\u00a0 During the great awakening it was the open air preachers that really awoke the country.\u00a0 But not stop there.\u00a0 One on one witnessing and personal evangelism.\u00a0\u00a0 Witness at work when God opens doors.\u00a0 Give out tracts everywhere you can to\u00a0sow good seeds.\u00a0 \u00a0Discipleship training.\u00a0\u00a0 Rescuing the\u00a0lost outside the church doors and\u00a0equipping the saints inside the church walls.\u00a0\u00a0Week in and week out until Jesus returns.\u00a0 \u00a0At church be a good testimony, go there to worship and get filled up on God, and then go back into the world fully loaded.\u00a0\u00a0 Train fishermen but make sure you are fishing yourself and not just talking about\u00a020 foot marlin\u00a0you caught 20 years ago that\u00a0is now\u00a0stuffed and hanging on the wall collecting dust.<\/p>\n
Sinners don’t come to church unless you put so much sin in your church they feel right at home.\u00a0 Serve Sam Adams on tap and let them light up during the hard rocking worship hour and sinners won’t have that uncomfortable conviction that makes churches today want to apologize.\u00a0 We are supposed to be different and a refuge from this world.\u00a0 The world’s way is the way to disaster.\u00a0 The church is not supposed to follow it’s pattern.<\/p>\n
Bottom line, is\u00a0America won’t turn to God because there is too much chaos and confusion in the churches.\u00a0 The churches in general are powerless and don’t have the answers for a world with questions.\u00a0 They see the church as just “take take take”.\u00a0\u00a0 They think we have to bring in our paychecks and with a gun to our head fork over 10% of our income or else.\u00a0 If we are in a good church that causes us to dress and act differently they say it is a cult.<\/p>\n
That isn’t the main issue.\u00a0 A church should be so different that people can call you a cult.\u00a0 I know what a cult is.\u00a0\u00a0 I know I am not in a cult.\u00a0 And if you were in church long enough and saw how few people actually did what they were told to do you would see it is not a cult.\u00a0 The bible\u00a0says God puts leaders above us for our protection.\u00a0\u00a0The pastor’s authority is\u00a0God given.\u00a0 If I am pulled over by the police I don’t say, “I don’t have to listen to you! You are in a cult because you make everyone obey you!”.\u00a0 No they just have authority I don’t have.\u00a0 The police have no authority apart if you take the badge away.\u00a0 A preacher’s authority is that Bible.<\/p>\n
The main issue is there is no longer a clear voice of truth ringing out from the church.\u00a0 There is not even agreement over “what must I do to be saved” today between 2 Baptist churches on the same block.\u00a0 I will address that in future articles.\u00a0 Salvation is a person.\u00a0The Bible says CHRIST IN YOU, the HOPE OF GLORY, and HE THAT HATH THE SON\u00a0HATH LIFE.\u00a0 \u00a0Some churches or denominations teach otherwise.\u00a0 They teach salvation is in a pew (i.e. church membership), or in performance, or in a pool of baptism, or in\u00a0 years in purgatory, or going to a Priest, or pretending to be holy.<\/p>\n
Even though I go to a good solid church, church in America has such a bad reputation that many are turned off from attending anything.\u00a0\u00a0 Hollywood loves to make the mass murderer lunatic prolific in bible verses.\u00a0\u00a0 The media loves to portray the average Christian as a deranged brainwashed kool-drinking weirdo.\u00a0\u00a0 They claim to have science on their side.\u00a0 Yes, but that side is the side of lies and science falsely called.\u00a0 Evolution is not science, it has been called a fairy tale for grownups.\u00a0 Yet they corner the market and make it look like we left our brains at the door.\u00a0 They can’t see that only when we become Christians can we think for ourselves.\u00a0\u00a0 They are intimidated because when we get saved we can now cancel our subscriptions to the world’s journalism because we no longer have to pay them to program us.<\/p>\n
True Christianity transforms us and frees us from the culture around us that is against God.\u00a0 Today’s church has no transforming culture so it has no culture of it’s own so it just borrows one from the world.\u00a0 That is why the new evangelical\/mega church movement has switched gears to be “seeker sensitive”.\u00a0 The lost people enjoy drinking and carousing and rocking out to loud rock music, so their thinking is we must have drinking and carousing and rock music in the church so the lost are comfortable.\u00a0 That is foolish.\u00a0 The church is supposed to be light and a safe haven of rest from this wicked world.\u00a0\u00a0 If I\u00a0was drowning in a lake, I would expect the lifeboat I was pulled into to\u00a0not be full of water.<\/p>\n
I go to an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church.\u00a0 This wasn’t a decision I made lightly.\u00a0 When I first got saved, I spent my first 3 years in the mega church\/ modern church\/ charismatic movement after being Catholic my whole life.\u00a0 The general rule of the modern church is 1) Anything goes.\u00a0 2)\u00a0 If it builds a crowd it must be of God. 3) Never ever attack a fellow Christian or church 4) The Catholics are wonderful Christians and 5) You are only allowed to bash the Independent Fundamental Baptists and 6) All Bible versions are created equal and if someone claims one is better (KJV!!!!!!) they are part of the lunatic fringe.<\/p>\n
I believe God showed me something yesterday in my previous blog post.\u00a0 People often say they don’t need to go to church to worship God. I am just as close to God in my fishing boat they say.\u00a0 I can worship God at home they say.\u00a0 The thought I had was this though.\u00a0 I used to be a sports nut before I was saved.\u00a0 One of my “gods” that had my heart was the god of sports.\u00a0 I enjoyed playing them (and that is fine in itself but just don’t love it more than God and don’t skip church to go to little league!)\u00a0 I wanted to be with my god.\u00a0 It wasn’t enough to just watch it on TV, I had to be at the game where the action was.\u00a0 That is like what happens when you get saved.\u00a0\u00a0 You can find God sitting by a stream, you can hear God when you go out and witness, you can find God reading the Bible.\u00a0 Yet there is something more that you want and that is being in the house of God and being at church.\u00a0 Before I was saved, Christmas and Easter were more than enough for me.\u00a0 Giving $1 was a lot, giving $5 was unthinkable.<\/p>\n
Now I am saved and want to be at church.\u00a0 Sunday school 10am, Sunday morning 11 am, Sunday night 6:30 pm.\u00a0 Wednesday night 7pm.\u00a0 I want to do more because I love it.\u00a0 I don’t do all of these all the time but I enjoy them all and do what I can when the opportunity arises — adult choir, Saturday visitation, Sunday prayer meeting, Saturday prayer meeting, special weeklong meetings, Family conference, Mission conference, Camp meeting, meetings at other churches, and more.<\/p>\n
The lost will drive all day and spend every dime to see a sporting event or a musician.\u00a0 They will watch game after game after game.\u00a0 They will watch hours and hours of TV and never get tired of it.\u00a0 Why is it so strange that instead I would want church?\u00a0\u00a0 You will only find out if you get saved.<\/p>\n
I am a fanatic.\u00a0\u00a0True.\u00a0 \u00a0But at least my team wins it all in the end.<\/p>\n
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There is a lot of confusion in Christianity today.\u00a0 God is not the author of confusion. For starters though, know I am not bashing every church.\u00a0 Nor just attacking for no reason and no benefit. The Bible says to mark … Continue reading