Arminian Today

When I was a boy my father collected all things Jimmy Swaggart.  He had albums by Swaggart and tapes by Swaggart and we even would drive to hear Swaggart preach if he came near our city.  And then came the fall of Swaggart.  After that, my father threw away all his Swaggart stuff.  He didn’t give up on God but something changed in my dad when Swaggart fell.

And no doubt Swaggart needed to fall.  From the accounts I have read of him, he had become consumed with pride (Proverbs 16:18; 1 Peter 5:5).  He refused to listen to anyone.  The late David Wilkerson told the story of even flying down to Baton Rouge to see Swaggart and told him to give it all up (this was before he fell).  Wilkerson said that this warning came from the Lord.  Swaggart looked at Wilkerson and said, “Do you realize how much we are giving to missions this year?  If I left this, this ministry would collapse.”  Swaggart had come to a place where he loved ministry more than God and he viewed his place in the kingdom as so vital to the plan of God that he couldn’t and wouldn’t forsake the ministry.  In just a few weeks after this, his sins caught up with him and he was exposed for all the world to see.

Looking back at the falls of Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker, I believe this was helpful.  For a season the Church in the West became focused on the Lord and not on people.  For a season, ethics and doctrine were important above pragmatism.  While I do believe that God has forgiven Swaggart and Bakker, they will never be in the same place they were before they fell and nor should they have been in the first place.

The fact is that God is all about Himself.  He does all things for His glory and He said that He would not share His glory with anyone (Isaiah 42:8).  His whole purpose is to exalt His name and to make His name great.  He does not exalt flesh.  He exalts only His own glory for His own glory is perfect.  Our glory is full of pride and sin and flesh.  Our passion should be that of the Lord’s and that is to exalt Him and make Him great (Philippians 1:20-21).  The gospel is not about you and I.  The  gospel is about God (Romans 1:16-17; 3:22-29).  The message of the Church is not “Hey, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” but rather, “God is holy and just and He will judge all by His own righteousness.  Repent then and turn to Him and be saved by His grace.”  All that God does from His creating the world to the sending of His Son to die on the cross to Jesus’ resurrection to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to the end of time is to glorify Himself.  He alone is the only one who is worthy to be worshiped and adored (Revelation 4:11).

Yet I see superstar Christianity on the rise again and I fear it.  I see superstar mega-pastors all over the place from the local bookstores to television to podcasts.  Their emphasis seems to shout, “Hey, look at me.  I am great.  I am an evangelical superstar.”  They have built mega-churches around their own personalities.  I do believe that some of them started out so pure in that they wanted to do great things for Jesus but somewhere along the way, the flesh took over and now they are finding their satisfaction not in Christ and His glory but in their own glory.  They enjoy the crowds who adore them.  They enjoy the attention they receive just by walking into the room.  They love that they are making millions of dollars simply by being themselves.  They have fallen trap, I am afraid, to Satan and his lies (see Luke 4:6).

And this superstar Christianity is doing so much harm.  For one, it creates more and more pragmatic churches who want to copy what the other churches are doing who are growing.  They care little about faithfulness in doctrine, making true disciples of Jesus who deny themselves, and care little about repentance or prayer.  Secondly, it continues to push the clergy-laity system that promotes one person above all others instead of all using their gifts to glorify Christ (1 Corinthians 14:26).  Third, it damages the gospel because people don’t see Jesus or even hear of Him really but instead they are bound by idol worship of pastors and superstars.  Fourth, it creates many false converts as they are not falling in love with Jesus but with the superstar pastor who is not showing them Jesus nor teaching them in truth about Him or His salvation.

How we need the Lord to help us.  When God saves Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9, He sent him away for three years according to Galatians 1:18.  The great Apostle was to be trained by Jesus in the desert.  Ironically, by the time we get to 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul is alone except for Luke.  This great Apostle of our Lord who would be so used by God is now alone.  This “superstar” of Christianity was abandoned. And that is how crowds are.  They love you one minute and are willing to crucify you the next.  Paul, however, found his comfort in Jesus and not the crowds.  He wanted only to glorify Christ even to the end (2 Timothy 4:6-8) and Christ was with him (2 Timothy 4:17) as He promised He would do for His saints (Psalm 23:1).

Just remember this, God doesn’t need superstars.  He does all things for His own glory and He said that He would not share His glory with another.  God will not share His glory with a superstar Christian.  He does all things for the glory of His own name and fame.  In the end, He will exalt His name and all other kingdoms will be crushed (Daniel 2:44-45; Hebrews 12:25-29) including these mega-pastors and their kingdoms.  In the end, only Jesus will remain (Philippians 2:9-11).

The Lord’s Day.  Millions of people will head off to church today.  They will pack into their buildings, their gyms, their rented facilities, a few in houses.  They will sit and listen to a band play various types of music ranging from contemporary (rock) to classical.  They will listen to a lecture (sermon).  They will be asked to give money.  They will shake hands with a few people and some will even pray for a few people.  And then they will go home.  Church is over for almost all of them.

Yet is that the picture of the New Testament Church?  First of all, you won’t find the buildings.  I am all for house churches because the house church can move quickly, doesn’t pay a dime to rent or a bank, has no utility bills, and can be very flexible with where they meet whether in a home or a park.  Secondly, the building shouts “show” or “event” more than church.  The structure of modern church buildings is focused on one thing: the stage.  The people (laity) stare at the stage and watch the show called church.  This not found in the New Testament.  The Apostles wanted people to focus on Jesus Christ and give Him all the glory.  Modern healing evangelists love to parade their “healings” while the Apostles focused completely on the Lord and His power (Acts 3).

In the New Testament we find 52 “one another” passages of Scripture.  How can the modern church even begin on Sunday morning to obey those passages?  I know some who defend the modern church will say that small groups, cell groups, Sunday school, or other discipleship methods are the way to obey those passages.  But is that honestly what the church is about?  3/4 of the people who attend a Sunday morning church “service” will not be in a small group or under discipleship.  Most come to church and think that is enough and frankly, they have been told that is true.  As long as they are giving their money to the local church, most churches don’t concern themselves with that person during the week.  They are free to do what they like.  The New Testament Church was daily meeting (Acts 2:46).  They were not relegated to only the Lord’s Day to come together to break bread.  They met daily and were small enough to do so because they met in homes primarily (Colossians 4:15; cf. Romans 16:5). They had no large edifices that they called “church” (for that would have been illegal and would defeated their purpose).

The Church is not a meeting place.  It is not a house.  It is not a building.  It is not a denomination.  The Church is composed of true disciples of Jesus (Acts 11:26) who take up their crosses daily to follow Jesus (Luke 9:23-25).  The Church is composed of true disciples who have been baptized into Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13).  The Church has structure (Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Timothy 3:1-7) but no where in the New Testament do we find one person leading the Church (the lead pastor).  The Church always had a plurality of leaders in the New Testament (Acts 20:17; Titus 1:5).  The Church submits to the Lordship of the Holy Spirit to lead her and guide her through the Scriptures (Acts 13:1-3).  Jesus is Lord of His Church and not any flesh (Colossians 1:15-20).

The Church does not exist to worship God as a primary function.  Worship is a lifestyle (Hebrews 12:1-2).  The Church exists to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry and to edify the saints as they go out into the world to make disciples.  1 Corinthians 14 is clear that edification is the focus of the disciples when they come together.  Certainly the Church does worship God in singing, prayer, the Word, etc. but the main focus is edification (Hebrews 3:13; 10:24-26).  Oddly, at least to us, the New Testament disciples met to celebrate the Lord’s Supper as a sign of His resurrection and hope that He would return (1 Corinthians 11:17-34).  However, no where does the New Testament present preaching as the primary purpose of coming together.  In fact, 1 Corinthians 14:26 would destroy the modern church view that preaching or hearing one person speak to us is the main reason that we meet.  You’ll find no superstars in the New Testament meetings (1 Corinthians 12:24-26).

A book I do recommend that you read about the New Testament Church and how we today practice church is, The Normal Christian Church Life by Watchmen Nee.  Nee is not perfect in his theology but he is right on in this book on the Church.  How unfortunate that we are so far removed from the New Testament practice of Church that we know nothing of the modern errors of the modern Church.  I pray that God will reform and restore His Church as He is doing all over the world for His glory.

I have been a disciple of Jesus now for going on 20 years.  My how things change.  I was pondering this fact the other day and jotted down a few things that I have seen change in the church in the past 20 years.  Not all are bad but most are not good.

• Christian music was much about Christ albeit a big boring but today it is not boring but not much about Christ.
• Most churches in 1992 had Sunday morning and evening services but most today only have Sunday morning.
• Denominations were still important in 1992 but most today hide their denominational heritage.
• Doctrine was important but today few care about theology.
• Praise songs in church were largely from the Scriptures themselves but today they are more love songs that sort of talk about God.
• Churches in 1992 seemed to want to be who God called them to be although a few were starting to follow Willow Creek Community Church with Bill Hybels.  Today, churches are largely pragmatic.
• In 1992, Pentecostals were Pentecostals, Baptists were Baptists, etc.  but not so today.  Today churches follow whoever is running the most (pragmatism).
• The church prayer meeting was still there in 1992 but not many attended.  Today, few have any prayer meetings of any kind.
• In 1992, the NIV was the lone dynamic-equivalent translation that was popular.  Today, dynamic-equivalent translations reign in the pragmatic church.
• In 1992 few churches had a “contemporary” versus a “traditional” church service.  Today this is common among mainline churches.
• In 1992, cults were cults.  There was no fuzzy line.  Today, most people consider many cults as fellow Christians.
• In 1992 John Osteen was preaching in Houston to a large church but his preaching, while still heretical, was tough on issues about sin, holiness, etc.  Today, his son Joel pastors a mega-church in Houston and is very soft on sin.
• In 1992 there was a sense of urgency in the denomination I was apart of to evangelize the world before the year 2000.  It wasn’t that they thought Jesus was coming back in 2000 but there was a sense of urgency to fulfill the great commission.  Today, the great commission largely lies dormant.
• Prayer in 1992 was prayer.  Today prayer is being redefined to include all kinds of unbiblical notions such as contemplative prayer, meditation prayer, etc.

However, things have changed much for me.  Of course going to college, getting married, having children all does that but I laugh when I look back at myself theologically in those days.  In 1992 my main passion would have been 1) Jesus 2) Pentecostal, and 3) to convert Mormons.  I sought to turn my high school into a Pentecostal church in a school.  I was Arminian but would not a clue what that term was if you would have asked me in 1992.  I knew I was not a Calvinist because I had early on had a debate with a guy who claimed to be “once saved, always saved” despite living in sin.

Oh so much has changed.  I don’t see the church better today.  I see it as worse.  Pragmatism reigns in the Church.  I have friends who have since planted churches and all of them are pragmatists.  As for me, I am thankful to be saved and not working in the church.  I love the true Church of Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:18) but the modern clergy-laity dominated church world has little that I desire.  I love meeting with disciples to seek God’s face but care little for the show on Sunday mornings in typical evangelical churches.

Those are my thoughts and my own.

You can find the last post I did on Caleb Payton here.  In the previous post, I wrote on how Payton had made the decision that he would preach what the Spirit had led him to preach on holiness.  Instead of preaching watered down sermon series’ that had no content, little truth, and were made to entertain than to convict of sin and bring the presence of Christ, Caleb sought God and the Lord led him to preach the hard truths that God does hate sin, that He does require holiness, that to be declared righteous before God means that we are living righteous before people.  He challenged his seeker church like no one had ever done before.

The result was a quick meeting with his board of advisors.  Caleb knew that all of the men and the two ladies on this 10 person committee had been chosen not because of their faithfulness to God or their examples of holiness and discipleship but because they were popular, wealthy, and good business minded people.  When Caleb arrived at the church, the committee was there already and waiting for him.  The committee wanted to know what had happened that morning at church.  Why did Caleb break from his sermon series that people loved?  Why did he give an altar call for people to come down front and put on an emotional show like they did?  Doesn’t he realize that people are fickle?  If he continued to preach this way, the church would no doubt lose people and precious funds needed for the “kingdom” of God.  The bottom line: we forgive you today for your bad judgment but we expect you to make this right.  You will cease this type of “revival” preaching and will go back to preaching the sermon series’ and life will go on.

Caleb knew he had to give an answer.  Oh how dead the church had become!  As he looked around the room at the ten people sitting in front of him, Caleb knew that none of them really sought God.  Where was the anguish for souls?  Where was the passion for Jesus and His kingdom?  Where was the burning zeal for mission not just in the world but in their own homes?  Where was the holy living that God so often talked about in the New Testament (1 Peter 1:15-16)?

Caleb begin to speak.  ”Friends, we need to seek God.  I had a week of seeking the Lord.  I don’t want to go back.  I want more of Him.  I am desperate for my Jesus!  I am tired of playing games with God.  I am tired of using His holy name just for the sake of money.  I am tired of looking out on Sunday mornings and seeing eyes not full of a hunger for Jesus but a desire for the show that we put out on state.  Our singing is called worship but it is not.  Our meetings are called services but they are not.  We are all about the show and not about souls.  We are all about our building and not God’s building (1 Corinthians 3:9).  We say that we love Jesus but we don’t obey Him as Lord.  We say that want to see people saved from sin but we never even mention sin.  We say that we have a passion to hear from God but we don’t take time to sit at His feet and hear from Him (John 10:27).  The early Church met with God.  Pentecost was not a one time event in that revival fires continued for years!  The early Church waited on God and He led them faithfully (Acts 13:1-4).  Do we not trust in the Holy Spirit to lead His church?  Do we not believe that the Holy Spirit is still very much active in the church today?”

None answered him.  All sat and listened to this man that they now seemed to regard as an idiot.  Charlie Wayne spoke up.  He said, “Caleb, what in the world are you talking about?  Are you some charismatic or something?”  Caleb replied, “I am simply a disciple of Jesus Charlie.  I agree with Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:2, that I am called to be His saint.  Listen friends, I am not here to debate you.  I only want you to seek God.  Can we, right now, get on our faces and pray and seek the Lord for the direction of this church?  I believe the Lord will lead us if we’ll be faithful to Him and abandon anything that is not exalting Him and producing holiness.  Will you not join with me in seeking Jesus?”

The board of directors sat for a few minutes in silence.  For years they had had a church they loved, dreamed of, and could invite their friends to without fear that they would see something strange or hear preaching that would convict.  And now this young man was sitting here in front of them and telling them that they needed to seek God.  Who was he to tell them?  Does he not realize that his job is on the line?  Does he not see that he works for them?

Take the title of this post and google it.  You’ll be surprised at how many various opinions come up about money and the Western Church.  Sadly, many atheists see the American Church in particular as a “much-profit” organization that is out to use their “non-profit” status simply to make more money.  I personally have seen situations where someone would like to give some money to someone and the local church would tell that person to give the money first to the church and designate the money for that family in order for it to be viewed as true charity.  Sadly, this was money not given to a poor family but to the pastor who was already making decent money from the church.

This is the time of the year when every ministry I know of is begging for money.  ”Get your money in now before the end of 2011 so that we can make your donation with a matching pledge” is the slogan these days.  Just yesterday I received not one but four ministry news letters in the mail all asking me to give to their ministries.  Some are better at begging than others.  Some just offer you a CD or a book for such and such amount.  Some play the guilt trip: “We will not be able to continue as we have if you do not give to us.”  I wish one would simply just ask me to give money because they need it and that is the bottom line.

Many of the churches I have attended over the years do beg for money.  Typically the old “tithing” sermon is best given when giving is down.  Preach a poor exegeted sermon off Malachi 3:8-10 and let the Spirit do the rest.  Preach that tithing is commanded by God (and it was under the theocracy of ancient Israel) and watch the money roll in.  It has been stated that nearly 85% of all giving in the United States in the church goes toward salaries, buildings, upkeep, etc.  Less than 2% of all donations in the American church actually goes toward missions and evangelism.

Yet consider the house church.  Here you’ll find no salaries.  No begging for money.  Why?  Because we have no professional Christians among us.  We are all priests unto God (1 Peter 2:4-11) and all of us are expected to do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-16).  We have elders who sometimes receive blessings from God’s people (1 Timothy 5:17) but this is not always in money (nor does 1 Timothy 5:17 teach that it is).  We have no upkeep for buildings since we have no buildings.  We do take up monies from time to time to support apostles (church planters) or hurting Christians or even the poor (Galatians 2:10).  We never use the money for any other purpose than what is stated.  We require no tithe.  We require no giving to us at all but we do ask disciples of Jesus to give as He commanded (Matthew 6:2-4) but each person has freedom to do with the money the Lord has given to them as they see fit in the Spirit (2 Corinthians 9:6-7).

I do believe that churches talk too much about money.  It seems much of what is done is often to get more money.  Even “evangelism” events are often not completely seeking to reach people with the gospel but rather to get people to come to that said church so that the numbers increase and thus the giving perhaps will increase.  More people hopefully equals more money but lost is the condition of their souls before God.

Where are the churches who will faithfully preach Philippians 4:10-13.  Sadly, many are true of Revelation 3:17 instead.  I pray that we would never be a hindering to someone coming to faith in Jesus over the idol of money.

In my ongoing fictional account of Caleb Payton, the pastor of a seeker/evangelical church who was touched by the Spirit of God after spending a week in prayer, fasting, and studying the holiness of God, we have now come to the point that Caleb has preached the word that God revealed to him in His Word for the church.  Caleb preached a hard word on how God’s holiness illuminates our sinfulness and causes us to tremble before the Lord.  Like the children of Israel in Exodus 20:21, when we see how holy God is, we realize that apart from the grace given to us in Christ Jesus, who could stand before this God?  God’s holiness also shows us that He still takes sin seriously and that Romans 6:23 remains the same: the wages of sin is death.

Following the hard word, the people went home in a daze.  They had come that morning to hear another part in Caleb’s series, Family Ties, but instead they heard a word like they had never heard in an evangelical church and that was that God is holy and He hates sin.  They came to be entertained, not convicted.  They came to leave full of happiness and harmony and not at war with their flesh.  They came to hear about a God who is there for them and He loves them and is their Counselor when they are alone but instead they heard that this God is holy and fearsome (Hebrews 12:29) and they heard that His call to them is holiness (2 Corinthians 7:1).  They came hand in hand with the world but left with a feeling that they should actually despise this world (James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17).  They came to hear an upbeat band and a cool, relevant message from the Bible but instead they left feeling like the people of Nineveh (Jonah 3:5).

Satan was bound to attack.  Could the enemy sit by and let this church go from a “happy clappy” church to being serious about God?  Could Satan allow this church to begin to pray, to be challenged to holiness, to seek to evangelize their city for the kingdom of Christ?  Absolutely not!  Satan opposes the plan and purposes of God.

The first call that Caleb received that afternoon was from his associate pastor.  The associate simply wondered what had happened that morning?  Caleb told him the story about what God had been doing in his life that week and what the Spirit had taught him from the Scriptures.  His associate said little but you can sense the fear in his voice for he knew that Caleb’s preaching would spell doom for their church if he continued this route.  The associate gently asked him, “Are you going to finish the series then?”  Caleb said, “I want to hear from God.  I want to preach fresh manna from heaven that the Holy Spirit gives to me from verse by verse studying from the Word of God.  I’m tired of stealing sermons.  I want to hear from God (John 10:27).”

No sooner had Caleb hung up the phone then he received yet another call.  This time it came from his board of elders leader.  George Winsome was the lead elder and in a firm voice he told Caleb that he needed to see him this evening at the church.  The board of elders wanted to speak to Mr. Payton about the direction of the church and what had happened that morning.  Caleb knew that George Winsome was a business man through and through.  He was not a man of prayer.  He was not committed to evangelism.  He cared little about studying the Bible or really seeking God.  But he knew business.  He had even had leader/teacher John Maxwell come to the church once and speak at a men’s breakfast.  George Winsome had left as soon as he could from the church service that morning and it was clear in his voice that he was not happy with Caleb’s sermon.  He didn’t like the sermon, the emotions of people weeping and lifting their hands in prayer, etc.  He was a man on a mission to save this church from fanatics even if it meant that Caleb had to go.  George Winsome believed that Caleb could be reasoned with, however, and shown that if he continued on this path then the church would suffer financially and this would mean that Caleb would not have a job nor many of the other pastors.  This “holiness” sermon would be just an old memory soon and church life would get back to normal.  This was the goal of George Winsome.

When Caleb hung up with George Winsome, he retired to his home office.  He fell on his face before God and begin to pray.  He wept aloud and asked the Lord to give him strength to stand for the truth no matter what it cost him.  He opened his Bible to 1 Corinthians 4:13 and prayed this verse over and over again before the Lord.  He prayed that the other pastors and the elders would be touched by the fire of God and that they too would be completely transformed by the grace of God.  Tears ran down his face as he looked toward heaven knowing that the enemy was after him.  The devil would not let this sermon pass by.  He would attack but Caleb prayed Ephesians 6:11, that he might have the wisdom to know the devil’s schemes.

He also prayed that his passion would not be for money.  Money had destroyed so many good preachers.  No wonder, Caleb wondered, that Paul would say so much to Timothy about money (1 Timothy 6:3-10).  So many had sacrificed their passion for Jesus, for prayer, for the Word of God, for missions, on the altar of idolatry called money (Matthew 6:24).  Whereas they once preached for the love of God and for the love of souls, they now preached to pay the bills.  Even if they heard from God, as Caleb had about holiness, they would not preach that for they knew that the church needed money to survive and they did too for that matter.  So few were willing to be like Paul and work if necessary so that they could preach the gospel without compromise.  Sadly, compromise abounded.  Caleb had not worked a “secular” job since college and now he faced the reality that his pastoral schedule might change if he took a job.  He prayed for the Lord to give him wisdom (Proverbs 1:7).