Answering may place you on a gubmint watch list and a reeducation camp may be in your future.
Posted on 01/26/2024 8:36:57 AM PST by ducttape45
To glimpse the devastating consequences which can stem from swallowing a lie, look no further than the lowly caterpillar.
While munching its merry way along a plant, a caterpillar may happen upon a leaf that looks like a perfectly sumptuous snack. But the caterpillar doesn’t know that one of its most insidious enemies, the tachinid fly, has already visited that leaf—and left behind a clutch of teeny, tiny eggs. Unwittingly, the caterpillar scarfs down the eggs along with the leaf.
Now the havoc begins to unfurl. The eggs hatch into larvae, which begin to consume the caterpillar. On the outside, the caterpillar is marching along on its business as usual. But on the inside, it’s slowly dying. Its inner assassins develop into adult tachinids, which burst forth to go and lay eggs of their own. Rather than fulfilling its mission to become a butterfly, the caterpillar dies as an asset to its enemy.
Nasty, right?
Now let’s think about how a similar process can unfold in the church. Scripture warns us that we, like the caterpillar, have an enemy who’s constantly seeking “someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Jesus called this enemy the father of lies (John 8:44).
Like tachinid eggs which prevent a caterpillar from becoming a butterfly, lies left unchecked can keep churches from fulfilling their God-given purpose and potential. Lest we, along with the caterpillar, serve to incubate the cause which would destroy us, let’s look at seven common lies which churches may swallow.
Lie #1: You need to see results or you’re not doing God’s will.
As humans who don’t see the grand scheme of reality God does, it can be easy for us to judge our ministries’ value based only on what we can see—results. We might suspect that if we don’t see our efforts drawing massive crowds (or any crowds), changing countless lives (or any lives), or making a major difference (or any difference), we must not be doing God’s will.
True, a seeming lack of results may signal that we need to prayerfully re-evaluate whether we’re best stewarding the time and resources God has given us. But if we already know we’re performing the task God has called us to, and if we’re fulfilling it to the best of our abilities with the strength He provides, then our perceptions of the results are irrelevant.
Think about the prophet Jeremiah. When God tasked Jeremiah to warn Israel of coming judgement, God told Jeremiah that the people would not repent (Jeremiah 7:27). Like Jeremiah, our job is not to “see results,” but to obey God. Our success does not lie in our impact, but in our faithfulness. And our worth does not rest in the world’s response to us, but in our Creator’s love for us.
Lie #2: Age is proportionate to relevance.
Driven by the desire to see results, some churches may try sporting a youthful appearance in hopes of seeming “relevant.” We may believe that to look attractive to culture, we must appear modern. To appear modern, we must cater to the youthful and stylish. And to cater to the youthful, we must marginalize seniors.
Two questions. First, where does Scripture say the church’s priority is to look attractive to culture? Granted, we don’t want to perpetuate the image that belief in God is outdated and irrelevant. But ask people why they might think belief in God is outdated, and you probably won’t hear them answer, “because churches occasionally play old hymns and may include elderly congregants.”
More likely, you’ll hear people suggest that biblical teachings (and morals) are outdated because “the Bible is a bunch of myths” or “science has disproven Scripture.” Those are lies for another discussion. The point for now is that to show Christianity is relevant, we must demonstrate that its foundation is true—not that its followers are young.
Second, where does Scripture say seniors are less “relevant” than younger people? That’s a message we get from individualistic Western cultures, not from the Bible. If anything, Scripture teaches the significance of godly older adults in the Body of Christ, with elders playing central roles in both ancient Israel (Numbers 11:16) and the early church (1 Timothy 5:17).
Lie #3: People of different ages and stages must be kept segregated.
Believing that age is proportionate to relevance, some congregations might relegate seniors to their own circles and services peripheral to those of the “real” church. Kids, teens, and young adults may also be shuttled away to their separate containers, abridging the Body of Christ into a careful selection of 31-59-year-olds.
I’m absolutely all for offering churchgoers opportunities to access age-specific teaching and to connect with like-minded peers. Those are fantastic, invaluable aspects of belonging to a church—but they’re not the only aspects. If we’re solely learning from and interacting with our peers, then we’re selling ourselves far short.
Personally, I began to deeply appreciate the need for intergenerational relationships within the church when I traveled asking Christian students what helped them keep their faith at university. Across the four continents I visited, students expressed the importance of having both like-minded peers and godly older mentors. Mentorship emerged as one of the top themes from my research!
But age segregation cuts Christians off from so much mentorship. It prevents generations from worshiping together, serving together, and learning from each other. How can we expect the Body of Christ to thrive if we’re disconnecting its members from one another?
Lie #4: Cater to the individual’s comfort.
One reason why churchgoers may expect age-exclusive teaching is because Western churches have long been promoting a culture of Christian consumerism. The message goes, “You deserve a church that suits your tastes, fits your life, makes you comfortable, and keeps you happy.”
This brand of Churchianity teaches Christians to choose a church not by considering, “Does this community teach, believe, and live out the Bible? If so, how can I join in their mission?” Instead, it teaches people to come to church asking, “What’s in it for me?”
Imagine if the early church adopted this same mindset. In that case, Paul may have encouraged believers in Philippians 2:3-8, “Do everything from selfish ambition and conceit, counting yourself more significant than others. Let each of you look only to his own interests. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who came to earth as royalty, demanding the treatment he rightly deserved.”
If that sounds like the exact opposite of what Philippians 2:3-8 actually teaches—that’s because it is. In other words, promoting me-centered Christianity means advancing a message which runs contrary to the gospel.
Lie #5: Tell people what they want to hear.
One particularly deadly symptom of me-centered Christianity emerges when churches only communicate the kinds of messages which people want to hear. This happens when churchgoers become so conditioned to believe the church exists to make them ‘feel good’ that they refuse to tolerate any message which strikes them as offensive—including the gospel.
At best, delivering only messages which people want to hear reduces the church to a self-help society or a social club. Church becomes a place where people can meet with friends, take in a concert, and experience a motivational message. In such churches, average people learn how to lead better existences—but dead souls do not learn Who can make them come alive.
At worst, delivering the messages which people want to hear means spreading false doctrines. Paul warned about such situations in 2 Timothy 4:3 (ESV), explaining, “the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.”
Lie #6: If you ignore tough topics, they will go away.
Only teaching messages which people want to hear likely means avoiding difficult topics in hopes that the related issues will somehow disappear. Maybe this means dismissing parts of the Bible that are unpopular, uncomfortable, or controversial. Maybe it means silencing tough questions rather than seeking scriptural, logical answers.
Or maybe, it means refusing to take biblical action in the face of adversity, as did the many churchgoers who remained silent in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Unfortunately, difficult issues don’t melt with neglect like ice cream dropped on a sidewalk. Instead, undiscussed topics, unanswered questions, and untaken actions only tend to fester over time, like a deep untreated wound. Cursory references, pat answers, and token responses likely won’t alleviate the situation any more than a band-aid will mitigate gangrene.
Major issues demand major attention. They demand biblical discussion, biblical answers, and biblical responses. These responses, in turn, require immense amounts of wisdom and gentleness (Matthew 10:16), backed with prayer.
Lie #7: If culture and Scripture disagree, side with culture.
When the Bible contradicts our culture, we may be tempted to try adjusting the Scriptures themselves in response. Tweak a verse here, explain away a passage there. Just like that, we can dodge controversy, avoid looking weird, and—above all—stay “relevant.” Easy, right?
Easy…and disastrous.
If we reinterpret, delete, or otherwise interfere with clear teachings from Scripture to accommodate human ideas from outside Scripture, then we’re treating the wisdom of error-prone humans as superior to the word of our infallible God. This elevates humans to illusionary godhood, essentially saying that truth is up to us—that the Bible can mean anything we want it to mean. Such a Bible means nothing whatsoever.
That’s how, by deeming humans right and God wrong, we make our faith irrelevant in our attempts to appear relevant.
Even reinterpreting seemingly minor teachings from Scripture can lead to major consequences. For instance, I’ve seen a professing Christian writer try to accommodate evolutionary teachings by removing a literal Adam from Genesis. But 1 Corinthians 15 affirms that an actual Adam committed actual sin leading to actual death for all humans, which is why Jesus had to die an actual death to pay for human sin.
Rejecting these teachings obligated the writer to conclude that Jesus’ purpose in coming to earth was not to die for our sins, contrary to Scripture’s core salvation message. Ultimately, reinterpreting one teaching in Genesis meant eviscerating historic Christianity.
No room for compromise
In the end, we see that one attempt to mesh Scripture with culture can undermine the gospel. One lie can incapacitate a church. One tachinid egg can keep a caterpillar from becoming a butterfly.
If only that caterpillar had a way to recognize tachinid eggs before accidentally consuming them.
If only we had a way to recognize lies before they consume us.
We do.
God’s word is our ultimate standard for truth. It’s the paramount litmus test for recognizing lies, the weapon for destroying lies, and the reality for replacing lies. By constantly filling ourselves up with God’s word, we can resist swallowing lies that would destroy us. We can grow strong on the truth which sustains us. And we can take wing in fulfilling our God-given purposes.
My former church(UMC) is doing a series on Politics...er, current topics. I found it odd because they have gutted the congregation by going as far left as they can.
I still get their newsletter and I saw the UMC logo(cross and flame) had been replaced and I thought they had disaffiliated. They went to just a brown cross because black people were offended by the cross and flame. I find that ironic because a) black UMC congregations still use it and b) there are no black people in that church. So I guess a white woman was offended for them.
I agree with your comments, except that I can't really rank the problems in terms of priority. Each one can destroy a soul or bring down a church on its own. Also, one of these problems seems to spawn the others. Churches are increasingly man-centered, which is swallowing secular humanism hook, line, and sinker. Churches must be God-centered; failure to do so inevitably leads to a church dissolving into a glorified social club that performs all sorts of good deeds externally, such as feeding the homeless or honoring veterans. But they're dead inside. Satan is subtle, if we aren't diligent, he will use our assets to pursue his ends. For example, our desire to be kind can be twisted to be permissive and tolerate sin. Always be on your guard.
If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.....Mt 5:29-30
Thanks for the illustration. Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men. (Hosea 10:13)
Lie #1: You need to see results or you’re not doing God’s will.
For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. (Hebrews 10:36)Lie #2: Age is proportionate to relevance.
And Moses was fourscore years [80] old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh. (Exodus 7:7)
Lie #3: People of different ages and stages must be kept segregated.
The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. (Titus 2:3-5)
Lie #4: Cater to the individual’s comfort.
But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. (Luke 6:24-26)
Lie #5: Tell people what they want to hear.
That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. (Isaiah 30:9-13)
Lie #6: If you ignore tough topics, they will go away.
And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 22:30-31)
Lie #7: If culture and Scripture disagree, side with culture.
Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. (Leviticus 18:26-29)
No room for compromise
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. (Jude 20-25)
That is preaching to me also toward more holiness in scope and depth, by the grace of God..
“If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell”
“hell” is a mistranslation. The true old testament word was sheol - mistranslated into the Greek as hades (from Greek mythology, not the old testament), and sheol means no more nor less than “the delling place of the dead”, i.e., the grave.
Answering may place you on a gubmint watch list and a reeducation camp may be in your future.
People are desperate for hope, for practical solutions to real-world problems. Since faithful Christians are silent about such things, the voices of the left’s sock puppets seem louder.
The mainstream Evangelical press (a.k.a. “the Wheaton mafia”) was glad to channel HALF of R J Rushdoony’s scholarship, the religious nature of secular humanism, a term he coined. However, this “channeling” was through accomplished plagiarist Francis Schaeffer, who covered his tracks and stonewalled regarding the source of his most powerful insights. Schaeffer kowtowed to the demands of the Wheaton mafia, perhaps in order to get his books into print, and apparently denied knowing his classmate and friend.
The other half of Rushdoony’s message, the Biblical SOLUTIONS to the issues of the day, got suppressed, blacked out, embargoed. I think the ArmEnian Calvinist nailed the motive for this denial of so much of God’s Word:
[
The fear of victory is not unusual. Doctors are plagued with healthy people with imaginary ailments; ... They fear health, because it brings them face-to-face with their responsibilities as men and women. In one way or another, countless people cripple themselves either physically or spiritually to avoid meeting life victoriously. The responsibilities of success and victory are avoided by many.
] (Chariots of Prophetic Fire. p. 160. Ross House Books. 2003)
It’s a bit mendacious to whine about real-world problems while resolutely renouncing and rejecting God’s real-world solutions.
***Anyone here read their Bible today?***
Every night before going to bed. A chapter or two in the OT then a chapter or two in the NT.
Amen!
Churches are an invention of man and are always open for scrutiny or purpose. Man is not perfect and can do things not consistent with the word of God. And often.
Remember Mathew 18:
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Many times more than three on any topic can cause confusion and misinterpretation...even of the Bible. Remember, you need two to disagree but a third to hear it and assumed something.
Luke 23:
“Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” KJ
wy69
MeganC, yours is an interesting take. Except for when he drove the money changers from the Temple, I don’t recall Jesus treating anyone with anything but love. Even when He rebuked Peter, He didn’t “stay angry” with him. The world around Him was very evil, yet He operated in love. I know we must shun evil and act with obedience to God’s Word, and sometimes that means telling it like it is, always it means doing what is right in the sight of God. Sometimes I wonder how we would behave, if we in the US were being persecuted and martyred the way Christians are in other parts of the world. I know the Bible and history tells us that early Christians hid from their persecuters, but did not fight against them. In fact, they counted it as an honor to be martyred for Christ. Just some pondering.
Also been to a church where the 50 year old pastor was dressing in skinny jeans
I’m laughing because my 73 year old husband wears skinny jeans (well, not the ones that hug the legs like leggings) and they look great on him. He’s an Indian (feather, not dot) with a flat Indian butt, and most jeans are too big in the butt for him.
God wants you with Him but he is not going to torture you in hell for an eternity if you shut Him out.
The Bible teaches that you will suffer he’ll fire if you reject God. He’s not the torcherer, though. People choose to go to help by rejecting Him.
[[Lie #1: You need to see results or you’re not doing God’s will.]]
Nope- God often works behind the scenes- sometimes many many years later, and we never knew we were used by God to affect someone’s thought process later on- sometimes all it takes is being kind to someone on a consistent basis despite their being an unlovable person or whatever- and later in life- they remember back to “That Christian” who was kind while others ignored him or her=- Sometimes just something that is written will spark an interest in someone’s life, and the writer will never know-
[[Lie #6: If you ignore tough topics, they will go away.]]
It’s ok to say to a skeptic “I don’t know the answer to that” and leave that person’s salvation in the hands of a very capable God Who will know how to get through the skepticism if that person has been chosen before the foundations of the earth were placed- ie God knew who will and won’t accept- and He knows how to woo those who will- -
By the way- Paul said that the ‘whole earth had been evangelized’ already- said it a few times actually- I never realized that before- sadly though less and less people are listening, and it’s estimated that in modern day, only about 5% will have been evangelized to despite there being a lot more Christians aroudn today- Not saying everyone has been called to evangelize, but just thought it interesting that the whole world had already been so back when- with less Christians- it was quite a feat-
Yep- it took a “Hellfire and BRimstone” message to move me to accept Christ-
Hell, not help.
“Except for when he drove the money changers from the Temple, I don’t recall Jesus treating anyone with anything but love.”
Jesus was pretty clear of His contempt for the Pharisees and Sadducees. He went out of His way to heal people on the Sabbath just to piss them off.
Jesus told his Apostles to go buy a sword. He wasn’t expecting them to cut a cake or to chop wood with it.
Jesus had no problem expressing His anger at hypocrites.
Jesus had no love for the fruitless fig tree and He cursed it to wither. Many scholars consider that the fig tree was for Jesus a proxy for the fruitless Jews of the time.
In Matthew 18:6 Jesus makes clear not just that He has no love for those who would bring harm to children but that He wants them dead. And if they are not wise enough to kill themselves then much worse will be waiting for them.
As to those who embrace martyrdom I am happy for them and their faith. Myself, if someone wants to kill me and mine for our beliefs then I fully intend to kill them for theirs.
Others may lay down and die for their faith and feel proud of themselves for doing so.
I might die for my country and for liberty but if it comes to that I fully intend to go down fighting. I will not go to the concentration camp peacefully.
“Give me liberty, or give me death!”
- Patrick Henry
I can’t stand skinny jeans. Especially on men.
Nor man buns.
Preach it!!!
Calvinism is not Christianity.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4S19ubs2BxcWctWoQklOxWbIyvMg8SOU&si=muddVjr4_l8CQu3u
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