Let us remember the verdict of the Jerusalem council of Acts 15 where the Jewish Christians decided the guidelines for sanctification and holy living for Gentile Christians. Consider this verse:
“That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.”
” … the movie, “Good Hair” … details the lengths to which some black women and men will go for straight hair … from a hair salon where a 6-year-old maintains a stiff upper lip as a chemical relaxer sits on her scalp, to the temples of India where the hair women sacrifice in a religious ceremony is swept up, sent to factories and exported as weave“
Of course, I know the difference between eating something and putting it in your hair. I also know that Paul liberated this principle from being made into legalism in 1 Corinthians 8. However, allow me to propose this: humans generally need to eat meat in order to be healthy. So, if there was a choice between damaging your health by doing all that one possibly can to obey Acts 15:29 and thus becoming malnourished or eating meat and being healthy, Paul said to eat meat. Also the context of 1 Corinthians 8 is that the meat that had been offered to idols was then mixed and sold with all the other meat, and it was impossible to tell which meat was which.
So while Acts 15:29 made it unlawful to KNOWINGLY eat meat offered to idols – which is practicing idolatry – UNKNOWINGLY eating meat offered to idols was not idolatry and thereby harmless. The reason is that the prohibition is not on the meat itself, which was fine, but rather the idolatry, which is sin. So this was not a choice between being an idolater and not being an idolater. Instead, it was a choice between not APPEARING to be an idolater and being malnourished, or APPEARING to be an idolater and being healthy. Paul’s reasoning was that appearances don’t matter, only the heart does, so go ahead, buy your meat at the market with no worries as to whether it was offered to idols or not – because it was impossible to tell – and eat it.
However, where meat serves a vital human need, I would argue that hair weave does not. It is entirely cosmetic. So even though it may be lawful, is it nonetheless expedient (1 Corinthians 6:12) for a Christian woman to adorn herself with hair offered to idols? Is such a thing edifying (1 Corinthians 10:23)? Is hair offered to idols and then sold for a price an appropriate covering (1 Corinthians 11:15) for the body of a Christian woman, seeing that such a body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19) as opposed to a pagan temple filled with idols? And is acquiring and wearing costly weave that has been offered to idols a way of keeping 1 Timothy 2:9-10?
In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.
Now of course I am not going to claim that it is a sin for Christian women to use weave because it MIGHT contain hair offered to idols. Not only would I be guilty of violating 1 Corinthians in saying such a thing, but I would not even be able to rely on the literal interpretation of Acts 15 or Exodus 20:3-4 (the passages concerning idolatry specifically and practicing false religions – which includes participating in their rites and ceremonies – in general). Instead, I am just providing more information for Christian women (and men) to consider in our efforts to make better, more Christ-honoring decisions. After all, where does the idea to go out and put weave in your hair come from? Or the idea that we have to look a certain way come from? Generally the media, Hollywood, mass entertainment, Madison Avenue (commercials), and what have you. They sell you an image of beauty that is not real. I am not merely referring to this image because so much of it is literally fake, whether the product of airbrushing, lighting, cosmetic surgery, photo editing etc. but because it takes our minds and hearts away from the true beauty that is Jesus Christ that is revealed through us through the wonderful works of His creation (Romans 1) and causes us to exchange it for a lie, an image conceived not in God’s mind or made by God’s hands but rather created by man’s hands and conceived in his sinful, corrupt rebellious minds. And what are images conceived and made by man? Merely idols.
So the real issue is not that the hair MAY HAVE BEEN offered to some idol in some Hindu temple. The issue is that your DESIRE to use weave – wherever its origin – probably comes from looking at magazines, watching television, coming up with some false image of beauty that you desire. So, the false idol that is the problem is not in some temple in India, but rather is inside the temple of your own heart! And these false images and idols promoting a perverted, corrupted sense of beauty and attractiveness in the media have only two real purposes. The first is mammon, money. I fear continuing to sound like a leftist or socialist, but the fact is that these images are disseminated to cause you to buy the magazines that contain them, which contain still more images that cause you to want to buy the makeup, hair products, clothes etc. that make the magazine publishers a lot of money.
The second reason, make no mistake, is to challenge and attack Biblical notions of modesty, decency and sexuality. Most of the publications, TV shows, movies etc. that endlessly present these images also ceaselessly mock anything resembling notions of Biblical purity, including but not limited to marital fidelity. Even if they don’t directly attack it, they undermine it with the lie that a man and wife can sit and look at that junk 24/7 without either A) being tempted to stray (adultery) or B) fantasizing (which is also adultery Matthew 5:28), or similarly that our children can watch it without either being tempted to commit fornication or fantasizing about it. So similar to my challenge regarding tattoos, the issue is not whether weave is permissible according to scripture, but whether the motivation to get a weave is Christ-honoring in the first place.
That said, there may be many motivations for getting hair weaves that are completely legitimate, i.e. totally unrelated to wanting to look like the female vampires in these soft-core pornographic magazines and music videos. Some women may state that their husbands like the way that it looks. Others may profess that it is a look that they prefer for themselves. Others still assert that in their work environments (office or professional jobs, etc.) they must maintain a professional appearance. Again, I am in no sense asserting this to be some sort of law that has any bearing on anyone’s salvation, justification, sanctification or consecration. There are also many who may perceive me to be just totally off base, tilting at windmills and causing unnecessary division and confusion (stumblingblocks as it were) when I should focus only on Jesus Christ and Him crucified, risen, and will one day return. To such people, I apologize in advance, and please know that it is not my intent. Instead, my reason for dealing with this topic is this Biblical one: Christians, beware of and be separate from the world and things in it, whether it be its mindsets, its desires … or its idols. After all, we only have to look at the world of televangelism. Paula White, Medina Pullings, and many others are counted among those who market their own appearance, and tie it into their false health/wealth/family prosperity gospel doctrine. Jan Crouch, Juanita Bynum and Cathy DuPlantis are just among the many who proudly declare that they have had cosmetic surgery (or surgeries)! Extend it a little further and we have professed evangelical Christians Carrie Prejean’s lingerie modeling (and plastic surgery), Heidi Montag’s Playboy modeling, and Miley Cyrus pole dancing, all done for a little bit of fame and fortune that even were it to last 1000 years would be a mere flicker of an instant in the eternity that we will either spend with Jesus Christ in New Jerusalem or in the outer darkness where the worm never dies, the fire is never quenched, and there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. Again, the issue is not the weave, but the heart and where it lies.
However, for people who are considering the issues raised in this post, allow me to refer you to an expert on the topic by following the link below:
Driving to work this morning viewing the effects of the terrible thunderstorms that spared my neighborhood but hard hit the one right next to mine, I was listening to Christian radio. Out of the blue comes TD Jakes’ booming voice. In it, he first speaks of how much he loves America and so forth. I immediately thought of Jakes doing this to exploit anger over Barack Hussein Obama, Michelle Obama, and Jeremiah Wright’s considerably less than jingoistic statements and actions. Then he went into his exhortation spiel for people to register and get out to vote.
First, I see Lifeway Bookstores, owned by the Southern Baptist Convention, selling TD Jakes’ doctrinal error (oneness pentecostalism and the Word of Faith/prosperity doctrine are but a few of his MANY problems) and now the National Religious Broadcasters are using this guy. I had been using the NRB as a sort of a refuge from the blatant charismania that you will find on The Word Network, Trinity Broadcasting Network, Daystar, etc. So I just ignored the heavy Pat Robertson presence on the channel, as well as their “white Europeans are the descendants of the children of Israel … the Danube River is so named because of the tribe of Dan” show that comes on early in the morning. I also ignored their embrace of the Ellen White Seventh Day Adventist cult. So I suppose that I cannot cast NRB aside on Jakes’ account, since the ones that I just named are hardly better – if anything some might be worse – or else I would be reacting out of a personal dislike for Jakes rather than on principle. (On the other hand, Slice of Laodicea has criticized NRB, albeit for different reasons, such as this post stating that not one red cent of NRB’s $5 BILLION IN ASSETS is being used to defend the faith from Oprah Winfrey.)
Incidentally, speaking of TD Jakes and PR spots, he has another one out (I did not catch the sponsor!) promoting single sex education, saying that “boys need their own schools so that they will be able to, you know, romp and stuff (his choice of words not mine!) and that boys learn differently from girls and needed their own classrooms in order to be accommodated. So … it looks like Jakes is not that far removed from Jeremiah Wright’s separatist doctrines after all?
I have to be honest, back when I was part of the religious right and allowing my worldview to be shaped by the Washington Times and the National Review, I was in full agreement. But now … I just recall reading about this inner city public school that went all male. Sure, the discipline problems decreased and the test scores went up. But when they interviewed the boys that attended the school, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WANTED THEM TO BRING THE GIRLS BACK! Why? Because, er … BOYS LIKE GIRLS! Or at least they are supposed to anyway. Perhaps now that T.D. Jakes is on board with the new world order’s gay rights agenda (and yes this is relevant … perhaps due to his son) he thinks it is OK. To me, the whole single sex education thing … who wants it? Certainly not the kids. Not the administrators or teachers. Parents go for it only because they are desperate for any hook or angle to improve the failing school systems that the government is ruining on purpose. Not even the old fashioned religious sorts – of which I am one – think that it is a good idea anymore, where you were supposed to keep boys and girls separate in their little boarding or finishing schools (where they were supposed to look OH SO CUTE in their little uniforms I guess) UNTIL GRADUATION DAY WHEN YOU MARRY THEM OFF.
Sorry people, but society has changed. Not all of the changes have been for the good, but methinks that one of the most important things for a boy to learn from school is how to treat a lady and how to behave yourself in their presence. For some of us guys, those things do not come naturally, and you only learn them through trial and error. Especially error. (If you don’t learn to handle competition and rejection in junior high and high school, how on earth are you supposed to handle being turned down for jobs, promotions, college choices, etc. later in life?) So … HOW ON EARTH ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO LEARN THOSE THINGS IF THERE ARE NO GIRLS AROUND TO LEARN THEM FROM?
Like I said, TD Jakes may have his own reasons for wanting to turn your local public school into Morehouse College or similar, and whatever they are I oppose them 100%. All the more reason why the Southern Baptist Convention should not be selling this guy’s books and NRB shouldn’t be using him for their get out the vote campaign. But I suppose that this oneness anti – Trinitarian heretic is just too good at making money and moving public opinion for these people to pass up. That is, unless they are actually along with Jakes, on his side. After all, the Southern Baptists refuse to do anything about the likes of New Age heretic Erwin McManus and Council on Foreign Relations worker Rick Warren (and Richard Land too?), and as stated earlier, Al Sharpton Al Gore global warming propagandist partner Pat Robertson is a major partner with the NRB.
When I first started this website, I enthusiastically endorsed Jesus camps, thinking that they were an excellent way to turn children into spiritual warriors – as it WAS initially a charismatic spiritual warfare site – from an early age. Well … WOW WAS I WRONG! Jesus camps use the evil combination of spiritually seductive charismatic slain in the spirit frenzy and dominion theology politics. Instead of teaching children to pray for their enemies, to show kindness to the poor and elderly people, to interpret the Bible and discern doctrines, to worship and praise the Lord in a dignified manner becoming His glory, and to exhibit the fruits of the Holy Spirit, these folks are feeding these children false Christian doctrines and fascist notions of merging church, state, culture, etc. that will makes any of them that internalize this spiritual evil easy pickings for the anti – Christ and moreover very willing workers in the plot to create the climate where the man of sin will take power. The more things like this come out, as well as things with the Jesus Seminar, Mike Huckabee, Jeremiah Wright … Bible believing Christians have to start speaking out. There is something seriously wrong with both the religious right and the religious left, and we have to start boldly opposing it with the Word of God.
I mentioned this earlier in On Needing That Anointing Christianity but I decided to give it its own post for the benefit of the Tonex fans that feel the need to come to this site and defend the fellow from time to time in the hopes that they will realize that their loyalty to this fellow is misplaced. Incidentally, please know that Tonex, after retiring from gospel music because he wasn’t making enough money in it (like the pope’s admitting that he entered the priesthood because he wanted a nice car Tonex freely admitted this on one of his many websites that he keeps creating and deleting), found employment with Michael Jackson as a music producer. That, er, MIGHT EXPLAIN Tonex’s endorsement of the Jehovah’s Witness homosexual child molester Jackson as possessing the gifts of the Holy Spirit and using them to edify and minister to people (as opposed to corrupting small boys).
You know, when I owned Tonex’s Out Tha Box concert DVD (which I finally located a few days ago after MONTHS of not being able to find it, and then immediately threw it out with the trash), one of my favorite tracks on it was “Pole Position”, where he gave a brilliantly crafted and delivered piece of oratory (seriously, the fellow is extremely talented!) exhorting the prosperity/Word of Faith doctrine on how if one continued to tithe and give offerings year after year even through times of great financial distress, eventually God would remember and bless you. He used an analogy with the popular Monopoly board game (I am not making this up!) stating that if you just kept rolling the dice, rolling the dice by being faithful in the prosperity/Word of Faith apostolic doctrines, and eventually you would hit Boardwalk, your big payday.
But alas, it appears from Tonex’s own life that said doctrines have a price, the least of which is having to go on a Christian television show and promote not only Benny Hinn (and please recall that Tonex was also an associate of Eddie Long, calling him a “spiritual father” … funny how these Roman Catholic references keep slipping into this Pentecostal madness) but a known homosexual pedophile. That is the truly sad thing: EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT MICHAEL JACKSON IS A HOMOSEXUAL PEDOPHILE, AND YET IT IS PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE FOR A PASTOR AND GOSPEL ARTIST TO WORK WITH HIM! Of course, to be fair, Tonex is not the only one. Lots of gospel artists, including Andrae Crouch, used to work with Michael Jackson back in the day. The allegations concerning this fellow were not public then, but what did the “industry insiders” know? Then again, did Andrae Crouch work with Michael Jackson (among others including “impregnate a white woman and leave for the next one Quincy Jones”) before, after, or during the time that Donnie McClurkin was sleeping with the men in his choir? Donnie McClurkin says that he is delivered from homosexuality, but that does not prevent him from pastoring and founding churches after fathering a child out of wedlock and never marrying the mother.
My goodness. At some point someone is going to come out and reveal what a cesspool some quarters of the gospel industry is. Then again, Kirk Franklin already did over ten years ago, and it had absolutely no effect whatsoever. The people are deceived because, quite simply, they choose to be. Which means that they are not being deceived at all. And that is why we MUST continue to pray for them, that they would be delivered not so much from the enemy, but from their own rebellious wicked hearts. I should know, for many sincere Christians, from family members to co – workers, tried to warn me about a lot of these people – including Tonex – for quite awhile before I was willing to let them go. So if God did it for me, He can do it for someone else! That is why we should never cease to pray for the people trapped in their own prisons of selfish rebellion.
By the way, how did it come to be that the black gospel industry became dominated by the charismatic/Pentecostal/COGIC/prosperity/Word of Faith types to begin with? Incidentally, a similar trend is happening with Christian rock and Christian contemporary music, as more and more of its artists are coming from the praise and worship teams of megachurches. But as for black gospel (yes I know that this includes acts like Martha Munizzi, Vicki Yohe, and JoAnn Rosario that are not black, I just refuse to say “urban” or similar) I am told that it is due to the “gospel music workshop” scene for which we have COGIC’s JAMES CLEVELAND to thank for – and please recall that this very scene was very important to launching the career of one Tonex – but I am hoping that someone in the know might be able to tell me.
In any event, yet another video showing the depths to which Tonex has sunk (he has rather savvily had his “The Naked Truth” – related videos that are basically profane megalomaniac rants - including what some allege are self referential allusions to homosexuality – removed from YouTube it appears).
McDonalds, John Edward, Obama, and FITNA. Today is an interesting day since
there are several different news items that I want to share with you. Each
is important since they all represent critical issues I have been dealing
with for years in the Daily Devotional. They are the mainstream acceptance
of homosexuality, those who claim to talk to the dead and people who claim
to be psychics, the lie that many think there are many roads which lead to
God, and the false religion of Islam. These news items simply reinforce
that these issues are not going away and how important it is to have a voice
in the marketplace to tell the Truth about each one.
It was recently announced that McDonalds Vice President of Communications,
Richard Ellis, has been named to the Board of the National Gay and Lesbian
Chamber of Commerce. McDonalds is listed on the website of the National Gay
and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce as a “corporate partner and organization
ally” for an undisclosed financial contribution. Ellis state, “I’m thrilled
to join the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce team and ready to get
to work. I share the NGLCC’s passion for business growth and development
within the LGBT community and I look forward to playing a role in moving
these important initiatives forward.”
Last week, I shared a Devotional with you that made the claim we have lost
the war to stop the sin of homosexuality from becoming accepted by the
mainstream. You don’t get any more mainstream than McDonalds, and it is
clear that the hamburger giant is more worried about having a relationship
with those who choose to engage in deviant forms of sex than with people of
faith. This stamp of approval by one of the world’s most visible
corporations, is another clear example of the fact that homosexuality is now
viewed by society as an acceptable choice. Like I have told you many times,
nobody fears the Christian community any longer since we are so fragmented
and have no unifying voice.
Our buddy John Edward is back. He is like Jason in those horror movies.
Edward has resurfaced in the strangest of places, the Home Shopping Network.
I have warned people for years about this charlatan who claims to be able to
talk to the dead. John Edward is at best a highly polished carnival act,
and at worst, operating in demonic powers. He is now on HSN, hawking 10
DVDs of his lies for $90. How sad it is to see people who are searching for
answers, looking for true hope, fall into the clutches of this con man who
leads them away from the real Truth, the Bible, and the real answer, Jesus.
My friend, the Bible condemns those who claim to be psychics, since only God
knows the future. The Bible tells us to not turn to mediums or seek out
spiritualists, or you will be defiled by them. We know that satan is an
“angel of light” and can do many deceptive things. However, the Word of God
tells us the dead no longer have any part of this life. John Edward and
those like him are NOT of God, they are enemies of God and tools of satan.
They are spiritual frauds who God speaks harshly against in the Bible. As a
matter of fact, in the OT people like Edward were commanded to be put to
death. This is how dangerous they are to others in the eyes of God.
Our friend, Senator B. Hussein Obama (for the record, it is his name, I
didn’t give it to him, his parents did), certainly didn’t even learn in 20
years of sitting in the pews at Trinity United Church of Christ what most
elementary school Sunday School students are taught. In a campaign stop
recently in Greensboro, North Carolina, Senator Obama told the audience that
he believes he “can have everlasting life” because Jesus Christ died for his
sins. But he then told a questioner that he believes Jews and Muslims who
live moral lives are just as much “children of God” as he is. He went on to
add that his late mother didn’t share his faith but was a kind and generous
person, so he’s “sure she’s in heaven.”
Sen. Obama has sadly bought into this universalistic lie from hell I warn
you about often, the dangerous lie the New Age gurus and the high priestess
of the New Age movement Oprah is telling millions, and that there are many
roads that lead to God, that faith in Jesus is NOT the only way to be saved.
I hate to break this to the Senator, but if his mother died without
accepting Jesus into her heart and life by faith, then like all who reject
Christ she is NOT in Heaven, but in the flames of hell for all eternity.
This is not a game! I try to tell people all the time that what we do each
day is literally battle satan for the souls of men. Satan wants people to
believe this lie that you can get to Heaven without Jesus, but he knows it
is a lie and that those who buy that lie will be with him in hell for all
eternity.
This is so critical since now this lie is being preached from many pulpits.
You have Christian churches now who endorse this notion that God will
understand and as long as you are a “good person” and do your best, you will
make it to Heaven. The Bible proclaims that there is NONE that is good, no
not one. It says that we have ALL sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God. God has given us His plan, His ONLY PLAN for salvation, and that is by
putting our faith in Jesus Christ, since it was Jesus who died as the
payment for our sins. There are not many roads that lead to God, only one,
faith in Jesus Christ. There is no other name by which men are saved!
Lastly is FITNA, the movie about Islam produced by Dutch politician Geert
Wilders. I have done dozens of press interviews the past few days after the
UK video hosting company LiveLeak chose to pull the movie from their servers
due to the death threats their employees were getting. Liveprayer had a
copy and I had it on my website, on my servers, the only website in the
world that had the movie in its entirety. The press all wanted to know why
I would put such a movie on a Christian website, a movie that many claim is
anti-Muslim.
What Wilders did was excellent, in that he took the very words Muslims
follow in their teachings, and showed them following those words as they
carried out their acts of hatred and killing. These are not a few isolated
acts of terror, but how Muslims worldwide operate. It is visual proof of
what this false religion of hate and death is really all about, and that is
why they are doing everything they can to hide it from the world. It has
only been in the past few years with the advent of 24/7 cable news, advanced
satellite technology, and the Internet, that people around the world,
especially here in the United States, are being exposed to how this false
religion has operated during its 1400 year history.
Let me give you a great contrast between the false religion of Islam and the
Christian faith. People are born into or intimidated into joining the false
religion of Islam. People CHOOSE to become a follower of Christ. Islam is
about hate and death. Christianity is about love and life. People need to
wake up and understand the nature of this very real threat to not just the
Untied States, but to the entire world.
I love you and care about you so much. Today is a great reminder of a
number of issues I have been talking to you about for many years now. As
you can see, they are still pressing issues since the church has chosen to
ignore them and continues to focus mainly on preaching to the choir in the
comfort, safety, and profitability of the “Christian trough,” while the
world around us is dying and going to hell. Homosexuality is now mainstream
because the church didn’t have the guts to speak out against this sin.
Sadly, you now have many churches who instead of speaking the Truth about
this sin, have simply accepted and condoned homosexuality to be like the
rest of our fallen world.
Hurting people continue to turn to scam artists and false hope merchants
like John Edward in their time of need, because he at least acts like he
cares about them and is part of their world. High profile Christians like
B. Hussein Obama propagate the lie from hell that you don’t really need to
accept Jesus as your Savior by faith to make it to Heaven. People are
asleep or totally apathetic about the real threat Islam is to this nation
and world, and have been bullied into believing that there are simply a
handful of Muslims who perpetrate all of these violent acts of terror around
the world. The fact is, all Muslims read from the same holy book and follow
the teachings of their murdering pedophile false prophet Muhammad.
I pray today that you are stirred to take your stand in this lost world for
Christ. God has called each of His children to do their part where He has
you planted for this season. Staying silent is no longer an option, since
that is how this nation has turned from Biblical Truth to the lies of the
world and from honoring the God of the Bible to rejecting Him for the false
gods and idols of the world. May the Lord give you a spirit of boldness and
fearlessness as you declare His Truth to the lost and hurting, and tell
everyone you know that their only hope for this life and all eternity is
faith in Jesus Christ!
In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller bkeller@liveprayer.com
***ARE YOU 100% CERTAIN WHERE YOU WILL SPEND ETERNITY? The fact is you will die one day. At that moment, you will either spend eternity with the Lord or be cast into everlasting darkness forever separated from God your creator. To know for certain you will be forever with Jesus, go to: http://www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.cfm
***I am excited to let you know that the Liveprayer Daily Devotional is now
available via AUDIO each day. Simply go to http://www.liveprayer.com/Audio.cfm
Also, you can now listen to the Daily Devotional by phone by calling 1-727-342-5673
(C) Copyright 2008, Bill Keller Ministries. All rights reserved.
TWENTY-THREE GREAT SINS OF AMERICAN EVANGELICALISM–Why We Must Pray For A Reformation Again.
Many Christians today are calling for revival. They are mistaken to do so. Revival is the imbuing of what already exists with new life. In the past, Evangelical Christianity has experienced renewed vigor from the Holy Spirit in great moves of God many call revivals. These are times, such as the Welsh Revival, when God, in a special work, in response to the need of the church and the prayers of the saints, breathes into the church and individual saints new spiritual power to live holy lives and to witness.What we need is a reformation much like the Protestant Reformation. God didn’t revive the Roman church. To make it stronger and more powerful would be to aid the kingdom of Satan because its doctrine was Satanic. God called a remnant out of the Roman church to return to biblical doctrine and practice. Thus, Historical Evangelicalism was born. Modern Evangelicalism is not the same. We have gone into sin and lost doctrines that are essential to make biblical faith possible and added others that make biblical faith impossible. We must not seek new vigor for Evangelicalism. We must change it or simply leave it to return to Historical Evangelicalism, that is, the faith once for all delivered.
May it please God, not to revive an old donkey, but to make us a lion again.
1. The Lost Doctrine of Regeneration.
If we aren’t changed, we aren’t saved. Jesus said that if we are His sheep, we will obey His commands and if we don’t, we aren’t His. John 10, Matthew 7:18.
2. The Lost Doctrine of Sanctification.
If we aren’t being made progressively more holy, we aren’t saved. Romans 8:28-29.
3. The Lost Doctrine of Personal Holiness.
If we aren’t radically different than those around us, we aren’t saved. Matthew 10:17 & 16:6; Luke 6:26; Ezekiel 36.
4. The Lost Doctrine of Corporate Holiness.
If our churches and institutions aren’t pure from false teaching, false teachers, and any who hold to false teaching, they are no longer Christian institutions. We must change them immediately or stop supporting them in any way whatsoever and leave them. Deuteronomy 12-13; I Corinthians 5:9-13; Revelation 2:6; 14-16, & 19-24.
5. The Lost Doctrine of the Glory of God.
If we seek our own glory or success, we are sinning. Philippians 1:12-18; Psalm 145. Matthew 23.
6. The Lost Fellowship of Suffering.
If we avoid embarrassment for being Christians, don’t worry. We aren‘t. Matthew 10: 32-33; Romans 10:9-10.
7. The Lost Leadership of Men.
If men don’t act like men again with courage and self-sacrifice, all is lost. Our fathers gave their lives for correct doctrine. Many of today’s pastors and leaders won’t risk being called “insensitive.” Men, let the ladies be sensitive. You be godly. And lead. And die. I Timothy 2:9-3:13.
8. The Lost Doctrine of the Sufficiency of Scripture.
If we read books other than the Scripture for Christian doctrine, we are blaspheming, calling God a fool or a liar. II Timothy 3:16-17. The only two proper uses of other religious works are 1) to illuminate Scripture by way of explanation or example by another more discerning or more familiar than we are, or 2) to research false teaching in order to expose the lie and expel the false teacher for the protection of those weak in the faith and for the preservation of the holiness of each of the saints and for the preservation the corporate holiness of the church, Christian school, or any other Christian institution. I Corinthians 5:9-13.
9. The Lost Doctrine of Truth over Relationship.
If we value anyone, even our families, over being right with God in practice and doctrine, we aren’t saved. This is a call back to holiness and sacrifice, not meanness. Read and take seriously what Moses and Jesus taught in the following references. You will see that following God under either the Old Covenant or the New Covenant meant that many would be separated from families, friends, and loved ones who will not accept the truth. Much false teaching and many other sins in the church are tolerated simply because one brother will not sever ties with another who has fallen. In other words, will you be willing to be divorced by your spouse because he or she will not tolerate God in the house? Pastors, will you jeopardize your career for the gospel? Many will not. This is a disgrace unfit for the kingdom of God. Choose you this day whom you will serve! Deuteronomy 13; Matthew 10:32-39.
10. The Idolatry of Love.
If we worship the god preached in most of Modern Evangelicalism, we are idolaters, because the god of most Evangelicals is only love. The God of Scripture is much more. I John 5:6; Deuteronomy 4:24, 5:9.
11. The Sin of Reproving the Reprover. (The New Phariseeism–Unbiblical Rules Against Telling The Truth.)
If we continue to adopt the unscriptural ethics of the idolaters of love, we will continue to be like the Pharisees of old, adding laws God has never given, and honoring human tradition over Scripture. In our zeal for the soft, the sentimental, and the mediocre, we hate the prophet and make artifical rules to silence him. Amos 5:10 & 14-15; Matthew 11:16-19; Amos 7:10-17.
12. The Idolatry of the Effeminate. (Worshipping the Uber-mommy.)
The American jesus isn’t the Jesus of Scripture. It’s a bizarre mix of god, goddess, man, and an uber-mommy unknown to Scripture. We have idolatrous pictures of this imaginary girlygod standing at a knobless door, unable to conquer the human heart that Yahweh, the true God, created. This contradicts both reason and Scripture. Exodus 20:4-6; Revelation 1-3; Nahum 3:13; Leviticus 19:17-18; II Timothy 2:1.
13. Self Idolatry.
If we continue to preach self-esteem, we deny Christ, Who taught us we are filth. Filth awaiting judgment. Roman 3:23, 6:23.
14. The Idol of the God Who Serves Me.
If we continue to seek earthly blessings from God, rather than self-denial, we continue to indulge our emotions and expect riches and health on Earth, while our souls die. Luke 22:19; I Corinthians 9:27.
15. The Lost Doctrine of the Value of Doctrine.
If we continue to deny the importance of strong biblical doctrine, we are self-contradictory fools, valuing the doctrine that says no doctrine is to be much valued. II Timothy 2:14-18.
16. The Lost Doctrine of the Powerlessness of the Church and Its People.
If we continue to speak as if God cannot act without our cooperation, we will remain idolaters, blaspheming the Sovereign Yahweh, and worshipping a domesticated god we control. Deuteronomy 11:25; John 6:44-65.
17. The Lost Doctrine of Redeeming the Time.
If we continue to spend time in secular entertainment, we will remain unfaithful servants, not evangelizing those for whom God has made each one of us responsible, all the while poisoning our souls with the humor of Satan, the mindset of this world, and the desires of the flesh. Ephesians 5:15-16.
18. The Lie of “Impacting the Culture.” (Whatever That Means.)
If we continue to engage in this and other nebulous doctrinal sophistries, we will go to our graves, not fulfilling the Great Commission, which calls us to the specific task of teaching individuals the Scripture. Culture is the world, and is to be shunned. Learn the customs of politeness and modesty. Avoid the contamination of the values of any human culture. Love not the world. Romans 12:1-2; I John 2:15-17.
19. The Lost Obedience to Witness. (Evangelicals Who Don‘t Evangelize Are Lying!)
If we continue to cower, and not witness, we disobey Christ’s last command on Earth and refuse to disciple anyone as Christ taught us to. All His students were required to witness almost from day one. How have we come to the point at which a man can be called a Christian who isn’t regularly witnessing? It is dishonest. It is disobedient. It is inexcusable. May God damn the preacher who says otherwise. The book of Jude; Ezekiel 33.
20. The Lie of Relevance.
If we continue to attempt to “make the gospel relevant”, we are apostates, leaving the original gospel, which God told us was plenty relevant since it, and only it, is the power to save from eternal wrath. Are we smarter than God? Romans 1:16.
21. The Lost Doctrine of God’s Hatred for the Wicked. (Lost to the people, hidden by the preachers.)
If we continue to speak and preach about the god who is only love and does not hate evil and the workers of evil, we are idolaters and lie to our hearers, damning even our own children to eternal hell unless they rebel against us and return to the God of Scripture Who is loving to the repentant and burning in His anger against the unrepentant. Psalm 5:5.
22. The Lost Doctrine of Repentance.
If we continue to preach belief without Christ’s call to repentance from all known sin, we have another gospel and will spend eternity in hell, with the blood of our followers on our hands. Jude 4; Matthew 4:17.
23. The Lost Doctrine of the Fear of God.
If we continue to tell people that God is to be respected and not feared and that He will not send anyone to hell, we are liars whom God will judge eternally in hell. Most of our preachers have lied to us on this issue. Because we insist upon a god who doesn’t scare anyone we either fail to speak of hell or tell the lie that our god doesn’t send anyone there. Scripture says otherwise. Revelation 14:9-11; Malachi 1:14; Hosea 3:5 , 11:10-11; Daniel 5:25-26; Jeremiah 2:19, 5:22-24, 10:7, 10:14; Isaiah 2:10-19, 33:6, 50:10, 57:11, 59:19, 64:1-2, 6:5; Jonah 1:8-16; Jude 4; Habakkuk 3:2-16; Matthew 10:28.
In Christ,
Phil Perkins.
AFTER NOTE: Many have asked to reproduce this post and I will be away for a few days. Please do so. Encourage folks to copy it and take it to pastors, church boards, and denominational leaders. Use it as a petition to ask them if they will return to these biblical doctrines and practices. If not, then shake the dust off your feet.
What does God say about racism? Like in all matters of life, when we need
the Truth, the real answers, we have to go to our final authority in all
matters, the Bible. One of the greatest weapons of satan is division. The
enemy has figured out every way imaginable to divide men. Since virtually
the beginning of the human experience, man has fallen into satan’s trap of
division based on the color of a person’s skin or their ethnic origin.
While racism has always been an issue in this country, the fact is it is an
issue in every country. This divisive mindset is not unique to the United
States. Sadly, in some form it is practiced everywhere on the planet.
Since the racially incendiary remarks by B. Hussein Obama’s pastor of 20
years, Dr. Jeremiah Wright, became such a big part of the Presidential
campaign a few weeks ago, it has sparked a national dialogue on race. A few
weeks ago Senator Obama gave a speech on race that was lauded by many.
Those who made such a big deal over his speech were most likely swayed by
the fact he was dealing so openly with a taboo subject few will talk about.
However, his speech was hollow, self serving, and nothing more than a
political move to do damage control because of his close association with
Dr. Wright.
B. Hussein Obama’s race speech did NOTHING to help people or this nation
deal with this scourge, since the victory over racism isn’t going to come
from the flowery words of a politician whose only motive and goal is to get
elected President. No my friend, if people and this nation are going to
truly get victory over racism, it has got to come from an understanding of
what God says about this issue and by people who are willing to follow what
God says in the Bible.
If Senator Obama had intended to really take a leadership role on the race
issue, educate the nation and provide real answers for how to get victory
over this inhumane way people treat others who are different than they are,
then he would have told people what God says about racism. God says MUCH
about this issue, but Senator Obama didn’t find it worth including even one
verse of Scripture.
*THIS IS WHY I TELL YOU SO OFTEN THAT IT WILL NOT BE A POLITICIAN, BUT A MAN GOD HAS CALLED TO LEAD PEOPLE IN THE WAYS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS!!!
The fact is, there is only one race, the human race! People may have white
skin, black skin, brown skin, yellow skin, red skin, or any other color
skin, they may have different ethnic backgrounds, but they are all part of
the same race, the human race! The Bible says that ALL MEN are created in
the image of God. God created all men equal. I tell you frequently that
satan is the great perverter. It is satan, not God, who seeks to divide men
by their skin color, ethnicity, financial means, and any other way you can
dream up to divide people. God created men equal to live in harmony with
one another. It is satan who introduced division into the human experience.
In God’s plan of redemption, there is no division. John 3:16 says that God
so loved the world, ALL men. It says that WHOSOEVER BELIEVES. That is a
universal call to ALL MEN regardless the color of their skin or where they
live. In 1 John 2:2, it talks about how Jesus laid down his life for
EVERYONE. Everyone means ALL MEN, the entire human race. This satanically
inspired way we have of dividing ourselves through racism, prejudice, and
discrimination all make a mockery of what Christ did on the cross. He
faithfully and obediently went to that cross to die for the sins of ALL
MANKIND.
That is why all of the black pastors I know repudiate the false black
liberation theology Dr. Jeremiah Wright has been teaching for over 3
decades. Wright is actually a student of James Cone who made this perverse
theology popular in the 60s that teaches the Bible is the basis for blacks
to be liberated from social, political, economic, and religious bondage. B.
Hussein Obama is a liar when he states he never heard the types of comments
made by Dr. Wright the media has been playing, since that is the
foundational teaching of the black liberation theology Wright has been
preaching in Chicago for over 30 years.
The fact is the Bible DOES teach liberation theology, LIBERATION FROM SIN!!!
It was not written to people with dark skin, but to all people regardless of
their skin color. We are all part of the human race, which means we are all
born with the sin of Adam, we all sin during our life, and that is why Jesus
went to the cross. He gave His very life on that cross as the payment for
the sins of all mankind, that through faith in Him men might be find freedom
from their sins. There is nothing in the Bible to support this false black
liberation theology Dr. Wright preaches, since the liberation theology of
the Bible is about the freedom from sin for ALL MEN!
You also have the Biblical example of Jesus during His earthly ministry.
Again, racism is not a new phenomena to the United States in our brief 232
year history. Forms of racism have been part of the human expedience since
the very beginning. Jesus commanded us in John 13:34 to love each other as
He loves us. He used people of other ethnic backgrounds often in His
parables. One of the most powerful is the story of the Good Samaritan. If
you remember, the Jewish religious leaders passed by the man who had been
robbed and beaten and laying on the side of the road, leaving him to die.
It was the Samaritan, the non-Jew, who honored God by stopping and
ministering to the needs of the injured man. Don’t forget, it was Jesus who
told his followers to make disciples of EVERY NATION, reaffirming the value
of all men.
I love you and care about you so much. If B. Hussein Obama had wanted to
give a real speech on racism to move hearts and lead people in this issue,
THIS is the message he should have delivered. It would have been a message
from God’s Word that laid the Biblical foundation all men are created equal
and those who seek to divide men by the color of their skin are not of God,
but of satan! It would not have been the self serving, politically crafted
words to try and help him weasel out of his 20 year association with a
pastor and church that preaches and teaches division based on the color of a
person’s skin. Dividing men by skin color, ethnicity, are the works of the
devil.
Those who truly seek to serve and follow the Lord are not looking to divide
men but unite them. A true follower of Christ understands that God created
all men equal, that we are all part of the human race. Racism, prejudice,
and discrimination are NOT of God, since we are hurting someone God created
and loves and Jesus died for! Sadly, 11 am on Sunday morning is the most
segregated hour of the week in this nation. That is truly a shame since the
one sanctuary from racism should be the church. Yet sadly, most churches
don’t lead the culture, they allow the culture to lead them. So rather than
modeling what God says about this issue, in far too many churches, they
perpetuate this ungodly attitude men have for other men who look different
than them.
They better wake up since when we die, and stand at the gates of Heaven,
there won’t be a line for whites, or a line for blacks, or a line for
Asians, or a line for Hispanics, or a line for those from the Middle East,
just like there won’t be a line for Catholics, or Baptists, or Methodists,
or Pentecostals. No my friend, when you take your last breath there will
only be two lines. One for those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ
and one for those who have rejected Christ. The Bible proclaims those who
reject Christ will be cast into the flames of hell for all eternity, and
those who know Jesus will be welcomed into their eternal home with God their
Creator in Heaven. At that moment, Galatians 3:38 will be realized, “There
is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all
one in Christ Jesus!”
In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller bkeller@liveprayer.com
***ARE YOU 100% CERTAIN WHERE YOU WILL SPEND ETERNITY? The fact is you will die one day. At that moment, you will either spend eternity with the Lord or be cast into everlasting darkness forever separated from God your creator. To know for certain you will be forever with Jesus, go to: http://www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.cfm
***I am excited to let you know that the Liveprayer Daily Devotional is now available via AUDIO each day. Simply go to http://www.liveprayer.com/Audio.cfm Also, you can now listen to the Daily Devotional by phone by calling, 1-727-342-5673
(C) Copyright 2008, Bill Keller Ministries. All rights reserved.
Who was God more disgusted with last September, Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejads, or well known minister TD Jakes? One of the things I have
tried to do these past 9 yrs is challenge those who know the Lord to become
more bold in sharing their faith with their family, with their neighbors, at
school or work, at the gym, as well as the people God allows to cross your
path on a daily basis. I remind you often that sharing our faith is not an
option, it is a commandment. It is not something we do when we feel like it,
it is something we are instructed in the Bible to do out of love for people
who are lost and will die and go to hell without a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ.
That is why nothing infuriates me more than what happened last September as
one of the most visible men of God in the nation goes on a popular
nationally syndicated TV program and if you didn’t know who he was, would
have never guessed in a million years he was a preacher! It was like Paula
White going on the Trya Banks program and calling herself a “life coach,”
never once mentioning she is a preacher, or talking about the Bible or
saying the name of Jesus!
This past September you had that evil little man from Iran, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad spewing his delusional philosophy of life at Columbia
University, and a few hours later you had “Bishop” TD Jakes appearing on the
Dr. Phil program to counsel people. At the end of the day there is no doubt
in my mind God was more disgusted with Jakes, a man who claims to serve God,
than He was with Ahmadinejad, a man who has clearly chosen to serve satan!
There is nothing to really to say about Ahmadinejad. He is a thoroughly evil
man who follows that false religion of hate and death, Islam. As the
President of Iran, he has openly called for the total annihilation of
Israel, has made numerous threats against the United States, is shipping
arms to Iraqi insurgents helping to kill US troops who are serving there, is
harboring Osama Bin Laden’s son and other al-Qaeda leaders, and is pursuing
the development of nuclear weapons.
He preyed upon the weakness of this nation to come to our shores and spit in
our faces by his very presence. He no doubt has accomplished his chief goal
which was to appear credible on the world stage, while filling his coffers
with propaganda to take back to Iran and continue his terrorist activities.
Please remember in a few years that this man was here, on our soil, and
instead of arresting him like the common criminal he is, we treated him like
a head of state.
As disgusted as I was with Ahmadinejad making a mockery of our nation, I was
even more disgusted with the “Bishop” TD Jakes making a mockery of our Lord!
I was excited to hear he was going to be on with Oprah’s “creation” Dr. Phil
to give people counsel. I was excited that finally a bold man of God would
go on this nationally syndicated secular program with a chief merchant of
worldly advice and give people real counsel from the Word of God while
telling them Jesus is their only hope for this life and all eternity.
Finally, a powerful spokesman for Christ to tell the nation God’s Word is
the only Truth and Jesus is the only way to be saved. By the end of the hour
it took all the will power I could muster to not take a baseball bat and
smash my television into a million pieces.
I will give you an exact quote from my email to the “Bishop” TD Jakes. “That
was the most gutless and spineless performance by a supposed Gospel minister
I have ever witnessed. You should be ashamed to call yourself a minister of
the Gospel and God will hold you accountable for the souls who will burn in
hell because you were more worried about selling books than saving souls!”
I have warned you for years about Oprah’s puppet Dr. Phil. He clams to be a
Christian, and only God can judge his heart regarding his salvation. But I
have every right and responsibility to judge his WORDS and ACTIONS in
accordance with the Bible. They are the words and actions of a man who is
lost in his few minutes of fame and the money he is making. His counsel is
not from the Bible but from the world. Instead of giving people real hope,
he simply exploits their troubled lives for ratings.
That is why I was so excited to see TD Jakes going on his program. As it
turned out, he was not there to give Biblical counsel or to tell the lost
how they can be saved, he was there to sell his new book! Just like that
cotton-candy preacher Joel Osteen who was on Larry King a few years ago and
refused all 6 of King’s attempts to get him to simply say that Jesus was the
ONLY way to be saved because he was not there to save souls, but to sell
books.
I learned later in the day Dr. Phil actually wrote the forward of Jakes’ new
book. So with the opportunity to tell millions of viewers who were no doubt
lost and hurting, looking for answers and hope, instead of the Gospel they
got a sales pitch to go to their local bookstore and buy his book!
In my disgust, I called a few people who are very connected to the Christian
TV world and I find out guess who TD Jakes’ guest will be on several of his
upcoming shows? You got it, Dr. Phil! Why? Dr. Phil also has a new book
coming out so he is trying to capitalize on his claim of being a Christian
to tap into the Christian market. So in essence what you had Monday and what
you will get when Dr. Phil appears on Jakes program, is a SCAM that has gone
on in the church for ages.
It is the pulpit exchange scam. Preacher Bob is invited to Preacher Joe’s
church to speak. He comes, preaches, and they take a big love offering for
him. A few months later, Preacher Bob invites Preacher Joe to come to his
church to speak. He comes, preaches, and they take a big love offering for
him.
Since I have blown the cover off of that long standing scam, here is another
one for you. Ever sit back amazed as you watch Christian TV and hear how God
told some minister to give the TV network $100,000, and they pull out a big
check? Did you know in the future they will receive special airings or runs
of their TV program on that network worth about, you got it, $100,000!
Ever sit back amazed as you saw one minister give another minister a jet
plane! WOW! What generosity you think! If only I had faith like that you
think! Little do you know there was already some sort of business deal
between the two for the jet plane.
This is how these high visibility preachers con people into having the
“faith” to send them tons of money. It is all part of the manipulating
process that enables these ministries to own tens of millions of dollars of
real estate, fly around in private jets, and live like the rulers of small
nations! OF COURSE THEY STILL COME BACK AND BEG YOU TO GIVE THEM MORE!!!
I love you and care about you so much. This is why I left and vowed to never
return to the Christian TV world 10 yrs ago. This is why non-Christians
NEVER watch Christian TV and have zero trust or respect for preachers. They
smell these scams from a mile away. The Bible actually says the children of
the world are more street smart than the children of light.
I have to be honest. It almost makes me want to get out of the ministry all
together at times. I have to spend more time than you will ever know in
dealing with people in the marketplace, letting them know that “I am not one
of those guys” so they will at least listen to my message.
I have had numerous people over the years “counsel” me how Liveprayer could
be a $50 million a year ministry overnight, instead of struggling to raise
the $1 million we do each year to operate. All I have to do is what everyone
else does. Leave secular TV and go to Christian TV. Forget reaching the lost
in the world on the internet and focus on reaching people who already are
Christians while using the website to sell products.
Quit wasting all of our time and resources to reach the lost and refocus our
efforts on how to cash in on the Gospel. They tell me I have spent 9 years
of laboring to build up Liveprayer, now it is time to take it easy and reap
tens of millions of dollars a year from what we have built. I quietly tell
these people to please leave before I get in the flesh and literally throw
them out of my office!
I HAVE TOO MUCH FEAR (AWE) OF GOD TO TURN LIVEPRAYER INTO MY PERSONAL
FIEFDOM. I DON’T LOOK FORWARD TO THE LAST WEEK OF EVERY MONTH WHEN I HAVE TO
PLEAD WITH PEOPLE TO HELP ME SIMPLY COVER OUR BASIC OPERATIONAL NEEDS, BUT
IT KEEPS ME HUMBLE AND NEVER LETS ME FORGET VERY LONG WHOSE MINISTRY THIS IS
AND THAT I WILL ONLY BE HERE AS LONG AS I REMAIN FAITHFUL TO MY CALLING. GOD
HAS ME ON A 30 DAY LEASH EACH MONTH SO I NEVER FORGET, EVEN FOR A DAY, WHY I
AM HERE AND WHAT HE HAS CALLED ME TO DO!!!
I had one person send me an email that said, “PASTOR KELLER, WITH ALL DUE
RESPECT, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE, TD JAKES BEING ON DR. PHIL
SHOW AND BILL KELLER BEING ON HOWARD STERN SHOW.” My answer, “The difference
is he was on there for one reason, to sell books. He never once mentioned
the name Jesus, quoted any scripture, or told people how to be saved. He was
on there to make money and for no other reason. I go on with Stern and got
nothing, except tons of grief. I have no agenda other than the opportunity
to share Christ and Biblical Truth with Stern’s listeners.
After my recent appearances on many of the top secular programs on the cable
news networks and many national radio programs, I can already tell you that
while they like my boldness to state my case about the issue I am on to
discuss, they have already figured out I am there to declare the Bible is
the only Truth and faith in Jesus is the ONLY way to be saved. I am already
being blackballed from some of these programs because they don’t want their
program being used as a pulpit by some evangelist.
My friend, I invest money each month into a professional PR firm and seize
those media opportunities for one reason and one reason only, TO HAVE A
SECULAR FORUM TO TELL PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS! I HAVE NO OTHER MESSAGE BUT THE
GOSPEL! YOU HAVE NO OTHER MESSAGE FOR YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS, THOSE YOU MEET
ALONG YOUR JOURNEY BUT THE GOSPEL!
My word of admonition to you today is to pray NOT to be like TD Jakes, Joel
Osteen, Paula White, or any of these other “Christian stars” who get the
opportunity to talk to a secular audience and use that opportunity to build
their kingdom and not God’s. Trust me, they WILL answer to God one day, just
like I will and you will!
Make the most of your opportunities to share the Truth of the Bible with
those you meet each day and what Jesus has done in your life. People are
dying and going to hell every second. People you know! If they choose to
reject the hope of Christ, that is their choice. Our job is not to force
anyone to believe, we can’t do that. Our job is to share with them the Good
News and pray for them!
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can
they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear
without someone preaching to them?” Romans 10:14
In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller bkeller@liveprayer.com
***ARE YOU 100% CERTAIN WHERE YOU WILL SPEND ETERNITY? The fact is you will die one day. At that moment, you will either spend eternity with the Lord or be cast into everlasting darkness forever separated from God your creator. To know for certain you will be forever with Jesus, go to: http://www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.cfm
***I am excited to let you know that the Liveprayer Daily Devotional is now available via AUDIO each day. Simply go to http://www.liveprayer.com/Audio.cfm. Also, you can now listen to the Daily Devotional by phone by calling, 1-727-342-5673
(C) Copyright 2008, Bill Keller Ministries. All rights reserved.
RELIGION
Taking Christ out of Christianity
Avant garde pastor teaches a new Christianity where the way you live is more important than beliefs
MICHAEL VALPY
March 22, 2008
That triumphal barnburner of an Easter hymn, Jesus Christ Has Risen Today – Hallelujah, this morning will rock the walls of Toronto’s West Hill United Church as it will in most Christian churches across the country.
But at West Hill on the faith’s holiest day, it will be done with a huge difference. The words “Jesus Christ” will be excised from what the congregation sings and replaced with “Glorious hope.”
Thus, it will be hope that is declared to be resurrected – an expression of renewal of optimism and the human spirit – but not Jesus, contrary to Christianity’s central tenet about the return to life on Easter morning of the crucified divine son of God.
Generally speaking, no divine anybody makes an appearance in West Hill’s Sunday service liturgy.
There is no authoritative Big-Godism, as Rev. Gretta Vosper, West Hill’s minister for the past 10 years, puts it. No petitionary prayers (“Dear God, step into the world and do good things about global warming and the poor”). No miracles-performing magic Jesus given birth by a virgin and coming back to life. No references to salvation, Christianity’s teaching of the final victory over death through belief in Jesus’s death as an atonement for sin and the omnipotent love of God. For that matter, no omnipotent God, or god.
Ms. Vosper has written a book, published this week – With or Without God: Why the Way We Live is More Important than What We Believe – in which she argues that the Christian church, in the form in which it exists today, has outlived its viability and either it sheds its no-longer credible myths, doctrines and dogmas, or it’s toast.
She is considered one of the bright, if unconventional, minds within the United Church, Canada’s largest Protestant Christian denomination. She holds a master of divinity degree from Queen’s University and was ordained in 1992. She founded and chairs the Toronto-based Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity.
Other Christian clergy and theologians have talked about the need to dramatically reform the doctrines of a faith that, with the exception of its vibrancy in the United States, has lost huge numbers of adherents throughout the Western world it once dominated as Christendom. In Canada, where 75 per cent of the population self-identifies as Christian, only about 16 per cent attend weekly services.
Addressing those statistics, what Ms. Vosper proposes is not so much reform as a scorched-earth approach.
A number of leading theologians in Britain – where the decline in adherents is more dramatic than in Canada – are on the same path, people like Richard Holloway, former bishop of Edinburgh and primate of the Scottish Episcopal (Anglican) Church, who has likened the Christian church to a self-service cafeteria stacked with messy trays of leftover food urgently in need of being thrown out.
Like Bishop Holloway, Ms. Vosper does not want to dress up the theological detritus – her words – of the past two millennia with new language in the hope of making it more palatable. She wants to get rid of it, and build on its ashes a new spiritual movement that will have relevance in a tight-knit global world under threat of human destruction.
She says there’s been virtually a consensus among scholars for the past 30 years that the Bible is not some divine emanation – or in Ms. Vosper acronym, TAWOGFAT, The Authoritative Word of God For All Time – but a human project filled with contradictions and the conflicting worldviews and political perspectives of its authors.
And yet, she says, the liberal Christian churches, including her own, won’t acknowledge that it is a human project, that it’s wrong in parts and that, in the 21st century, it’s no more useful as a spiritual and religious guide than a number of other books.
She says now that the work of biblical scholars has become publicly accessible, the churches and their clergy are caught living a lie that few people will buy much longer. “I just don’t think we can placate those in the pews long enough to transition into a kind of new community that doesn’t keep people away.”
She wants salvation redefined to mean new life through removing the causes of suffering in the world. She wants the church to define resurrection as “starting over,” “new chances.” She wants an end to the image of God as an intervening all-powerful authority who must be appeased to avoid divine wrath; rather she would have congregations work together as communities to define God – or god – according to their own worked-out definitions of what is holy and sacred. She wants the eucharist – the symbolic eating and drinking of Jesus’s body and blood to make the congregation part of Jesus’s body – to be instead a symbolic experience of community love.
Theologians asked to comment on her book said they wouldn’t until they’ve read it.
But one of her colleagues who knows her well, Rev. Rob Oliphant, the progressive pastor of Toronto’s Eglinton St. George’s United Church, said, “While I’m somewhat sympathetic to the aims of it all – getting rid of the nonsense and keeping the core faith – I think that there is something lacking in it all. Gone is metaphor, poetry, symbol, image, beauty, paradox.”
Ms. Vosper said she and her congregation have tried hard not to lose those elements in their search for the sacred and the transcendent in life.
She met with members of her congregation last Sunday to discuss what the impact might be of her book.
She said it would take only a single vote of a presbytery – a local governing body of the church – to bring her before the church courts if a complaint against her is made, and the courts could be interested in examining what it means to be in “essential agreement” with the church’s statement of faith.
“I can find myself in there [the statements of faith] but there’s whole parts of it where I go, ‘Oh my goodness, this is terrible.’ If someone says to me, ‘Do you believe in God?’ I can come up with an answer that would satisfy the courts of the United Church. But would it reflect what’s stated in their statement of faith? I don’t think so. But it wouldn’t be very far from what my colleague down the street, and what his colleague down the street from him, would say. That’s the problem.”
BIBLE MEDITATION: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: The most dangerous thing on television today in my estimation is the sitcom. Do you know what they’re doing? They’re getting you to laugh at sin. In fact, a Christian television and film writer attended a producers workshop one day. One of the keynote speakers was one of TV’s most successful producers of sitcoms. In his address, he stated that in order to have a commercially successful production, the characters in a sitcom must violate at least three of the Ten Commandments. How tragic, but what an opportunity for people like you and me to take a stand for the truth and for the glory of God in the film and television industry.
Once upon a time, there was a very young church. It was still unstructured, in spite of the fact that some heavy hitters had been there in its earliest days. The church was undisciplined with apparently little formal structure and no formal disciplinary methods. The church was spiritually strong, but without a clear direction. Their doctrinal structure was poorly formed. They had no body of literature to fall back on. The only literature they had was the Scriptures, and there was very little tradition as to how to interpret and apply them. So it is small wonder that they were in some degree of trouble.
The church was only five or six years old, and the Christian faith was only 25 years old, or so. The church I am talking about was in Corinth, and the reason I am drawn to them at this season, is that the first letter to the Corinthians is the only New Testament letter than can be directly tied to a holy day. We know that the letter was either written during the Days of Unleavened Bread, or delivered then. And it is shot through with allusions to the festival.
A striking example of how little they had things together is the rebuke Paul delivers in the fifth chapter: “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife” (1 Corinthians 5:1). This is really shocking. I don’t think any of our churches would tolerate that, but then we have Paul’s letter to go by.
Unleavened But Still Puffed Up
“And ye are puffed up,” Paul continued, “and have not rather mourned, that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you.” “Puffed up” is a rare expression, used only by Paul in the New Testament. Six of his seven usages of the expression are in this letter. It is suggestive that the letter is a Passover letter, and so the admonitions therein are apropos of the Days of Unleavened Bread.
“For I verily,” Paul continued, “as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed.” Paul instructed the church to deal with the issue firmly. It isn’t clear exactly what he meant by some remarks, but one thing is clear. The miscreant was to be isolated, expelled from the church. It is at this point that Paul plainly borrows from the season: “Your glorying is not good,” he wrote. “Know ye not that a little leaven leavens the whole batch? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new batch, as ye are unleavened” (vv. 6-7). At first this sounds like double talk, that you may be unleavened as you are unleavened. But it makes perfect sense if you understand that the Corinthians were observing the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They had thrown out the leavened bread and were thus unleavened in the physical sense. Now this church needed to learn about spiritual leaven: “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us,” Paul went on, “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (vv. 7-8).
The Surprising Responsibility
Nothing could be plainer. A new church, a Gentile church at that, is exhorted to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread and is instructed in the spiritual significance of the day. There are several important lessons to be drawn from this chapter. It is important for a church to have a systematic approach to discipline. There needed to be a way whereby the entire church could take the necessary steps to discipline its members, even to the extent of throwing someone out the door, if necessary. Mind you, this was not something to be done by a single leader or even a committee. It was the whole church that had to take the responsibility.
This lesson applies even now, but it is a mistake to wait until a problems arise to establish procedures for dealing with them. It will be very difficult, and probably hurtful to attempt to establish this on the fly with a real person in the cross hairs.
The church cannot tolerate just any kind of behavior. The reputation of the church is at stake, and that was one of the issues that concerned Paul regarding the misbehaving man in Corinth. “But Christ said we should not judge one another,” someone will object. Applying that in a disciplinary situation is a misapplication of what he said. Sometimes you have to face facts, in this case, a man was having sex with his father’s wife.
There is, though, a danger of self-righteousness, of becoming puffed up. We are all sinners, and private sins are not the church’s problem. This wasn’t a private sin. As it happens, Jesus offered some detailed instructions on this sort of thing, and he started with the antidote to being puffed up. His disciples asked him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Jesus called a little child to him, stood him in the midst:
And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me” (Matthew 18:3-5 NIV). Humility, the Starting Point for LeadershipThus, humility is the starting point for leadership in the church, and necessarily for any disciplinary procedure. Jesus warned against causing little ones to stumble:
But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! (vv. 6-7). Jesus went on to say that whatever causes offense should be dealt with firmly even, in a figure of speech, to the point of cutting off the hand or plucking out the eye (this should never be taken literally). In this day of rampant child abuse, a church can’t be too careful in protecting children. “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones,” Jesus went on, “For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (v. 10).Steps to Take
This forms the background of an important lesson in how the church should deal with issues as they arise. The starting point is the individual. “If your brother sins against you,” Jesus continued, “go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over” (v. 15).
That is step one. And it doesn’t work all the time. So what do you do next? “But if he will not listen,” Jesus went on, “take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testi-mony of two or three witnesses.’”
But wait. What is the point of having witnesses? That will become evident in the next step, but tragically, most churches have never created a procedure for carrying this forward. I have heard many mourn, “Why don’t people follow Matthew 18?” The answer is that if you can’t carry it forward to the last step, Matthew 18 doesn’t work.
Jesus concluded: “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector” (v. 17). It is a common error to think we must take the issue to the pastor. The pastor can serve as one of the witnesses, but Jesus said it must be taken to the church, the assembly. There is a strong reason for this. If the pastor expels a person for misconduct, that person may play the underdog, elicit sympathy from some, and divide the church. This doesn’t happen if an agreed upon procedure is followed involving the judgment of the assembly, not just one or two persons.
Don’t expect your church to flourish if you aren’t willing to do the heavy lifting. Christ does not expect his church to be leavened with sin. Paul told the Corinthians, “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” (1 Corinthians 5:6). Just as a small lump of starter leavens a large lump of dough, so one person can come to infect an entire church. Paul had more to say to this young church during the Days of Unleavened Bread:
If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! (1 Corinthians 6:1-3 NIV). A Procedure Must be in PlaceSo what should we think? Should our churches have procedures for conflict resolution? There is no point in complaining that the procedures of Matthew 18 are not followed when there is no way to carry them through to their conclusion. The first step in the procedure will not work unless the offender can see where it will go from there.
Earlier in this letter to an unleavened church, Paul said: “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought” (1 Corinthians 1:10 NIV).
Ouch. We are profoundly short of this goal and always have been. The Corinthian church wasn’t even close, and there was a reason for it. It isn’t immediately clear how we get there from here, but Paul gives us a clue as he continues.
My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? (vv. 11-13). We Can’t Unite Around a ManRight here, Paul puts his finger on the core of the problem. We cannot unite around a man, not even a great man like Paul. Note this well. I am not saying we should not. I am saying we cannot. It is simply not possible. All attempts to do so will end, either in a cult or in division. It is worth reading the entire chapter, as Paul addresses different aspects of the problem. Paul deliberately diminishes his own role to make the point, arguing that to preach with human wisdom and style would diminish the power of the Gospel of the cross of Christ. “We preach Christ crucified,” he said, “unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (vv. 23-25).
What Follows Should Humble Us
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him (1 Corinthians 1:26-29 NIV). If you will allow me a moment of personal reflection, I think it was a long familiarity with the Epistles of Paul that influenced me in 1995 when I started CEM. It was not so much that it influenced what I did, as it influenced what I did not do. I could not have started a church organization without being the defacto head of it; i.e., if I had started a church, I would have unavoidably created division and choosing up of sides behind this or that man. Precisely what happened in Corinth. I decided to serve the churches without running any of them. And so far, God seems to have accepted that service.There is much in this letter to the Corinthians that a local church can take to heart, think about, and apply. And there is no better time to do it than during the Days of Unleavened Bread. For Jesus wants an unleavened church. Not just people with unleavened homes.
It is a measure of the American Churches blindness that it cannot discern what is going here with Paula White and Rick Hawkins. Having successfully dodged a storm over her “amicable” divorce from Randy White, with no loss of following from her “fans”. Still able to appear on TBN as if she has not done anything to violate minimal Biblical Standards for those who proclaim to be Christian Leaders.
It appears now that Paula White feels comfortable to move on to the next step in her fleshly desires and that is to “shack up” her “ministry” with another so called minister! It would seem the next big announcement will be that she and Rick Hawkins have “married”.
These two people are an absolute disgrace to Christianity! In fact I would be so bold to say that they are not followers of Christ at all as they reflect the works of their true father: Satan himself!
How many thousands if not millions will her behavior have an affect upon? How many millions will look to her behavior as justifiable and the “norm” for not only a supposed Christian Leader, but Christians in general!
The continuing damage this Jezebel does to Christianity is incalculable!
TV evangelist and motivational speaker Paula White, whose high-profile ministry is under review by a Senate committee, has forged stronger connections to a San Antonio church, having joined its board of directors and scheduled monthly visits throughout this year.
The nondenominational church, formerly called Family Praise Center, recently changed its name to San Antonio Epicenter, and founder Bishop Rick Hawkins remains its leader.
The Epicenter’s Web site reflects the church’s makeover and highlights White’s branding, including her monthly appearances and use of the church’s stage, remodeled to turn into a TV studio, for her recordings.
“From this stage, a potential 2.3 billion households will be touched throughout the world,” the narrator says in an online video.
The revamping of the church follows several controversies last year, including Hawkins’ divorce, the divorce of his son, Dustin, whom Rick had designated as pastor, and a WOAI investigation in which former church members questioned Hawkins’ integrity as a minister, including his spending of church money.
It alleged he paid former church members to keep quiet, which Hawkins has denied is improper or illegal, given church policy about severance packages for departing staff.
At the first service after the report aired, Hawkins praised the congregation for remaining loyal and reminded them that he already had apologized in church for past “sins and mistakes.”
White co-founded a megachurch in Tampa with her now-former husband, Randy White. The couple announced an amicable divorce last fall, saying no infidelity took place but sparking a debate among evangelicals about whether the breakup was appropriate.
Her expensive lifestyle, which includes a Trump Tower condo and a ministry jet, also has been fodder for public comment. She and her ex-husband are among six multimillion-dollar ministries that Sen. Chuck Grassley is individually reviewing in an inquiry about their compliance with non-profit tax policy.
White has defended her high-dollar ministry income as a blessing from God to accomplish his work, noting her donations to the disadvantaged worldwide.
White’s ministry spokeswoman Sheila Withum and her public relations agency WDC Media said White was not available for comment. Calls and e-mails to Will Norris, Epicenter’s spokesman and a staff pastor, were not returned.
All six TV ministers, including White, espouse some form of the so-called prosperity gospel, which emphasizes a message that God provides financial rewards for those committed to regular donations to their churches and ministries.
The Whites are among four of the ministries that the committee has reported as not cooperating with its requests for financial information, prompting the committee recently to prepare another round of requests and fueling speculation that subpoenas eventually could be sought.
The committee’s inquiries have intensified an already active debate about how open tax-exempt churches and ministries should be with their financial records. One side is suspicious that the Senate committee could be interfering with religious freedom. Others say the government is enforcing nonprofit tax laws that might be abused by church leaders in the name of charity. “We’re just saying enough with the funny business,” said Lee Grady, editor of the popular Christian magazine, Charisma, based in Florida.
“We have now entered into a new season. It’s a season of accountability. It’s a season of disclosure, and I’ve been saying that God Almighty is auditing the church.”
White, who has lived in Tampa, bought a home near Boerne six months ago and has set up a “media headquarters” for Paula White Ministries at the San Antonio church, according to the Epicenter Web site.
Hawkins, who owns a ranch outside of Boerne, serves on the board of White’s PWM Life Center, a nonprofit organization created last year. In keeping with White’s national profile, the Epicenter this year has scheduled notable Christian musicians and speakers for regular services and special events.
Among the changes is a new Saturday service led by a couple with ties to nationally known ministries, according to the church’s Web site. John and Jan Cruse are said to be leading “The Gathering” service.
John is described as the brother of Cindy Cruse, noted worship leader for Lakewood Church in Houston, the nation’s largest Protestant church pastored by best-selling author Joel Osteen. And Janice Cruse used to sing with the Archers, a longstanding contemporary Christian music group.
This week, the church will feature Bob and Audrey Meisner who will speak about marriage. The Meisners are known for giving a message about restoring marriages, including telling their own story of overcoming issues of infidelity.
Jesus concluded: “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector” (v. 17). It is a common error to think we must take the issue to the pastor. The pastor can serve as one of the witnesses, but Jesus said it must be taken to the church, the assembly. There is a strong reason for this. If the pastor expels a person for misconduct, that person may play the underdog, elicit sympathy from some, and divide the church. This doesn’t happen if an agreed upon procedure is followed involving the judgment of the assembly, not just one or two persons.