What if?

Recently a family member whom I respect and love deeply approached me with a barrage of questions as to why I believed a certain way.  They were informed I was way off the tracks by someone else. 

I can usually handle myself in situations like that but these were delicate matters, family was involved and I didn’t have all the answers.  I also didn’t want to have the appearance as someone who could thrash them with scriptures.  They just seemed so shocked and genuinely hurt with my change of core beliefs.  They even asked about my finances in regards to my giving during this discussion.

I pretty much summed it up by saying to him that after examining things for many years, I just can’t blindly give to men I don’t know, respect, align with or understand. I can’t just go, “Well, God just told me to give to the work so here you go”.  I’m against that mindset. It’s foolishness to me.  It lines up more with the OT philosophies of physical blessings because of offerings. We don’t give to receive any blessings! We give today selflessly, to recieve nothing in return. 

Now, months later, in retrospect, I guess I would say to them, “I just view the church drastically different than you.  I don’t buy in to the nonsense in it.” It's formulas and modern day programs, gimmicks and contemporary styles. It’s not about being disillusioned either!  It’s about waking up to the blatant reproaches! Many fail to acknowledge or examine the symptoms of these reproaches because of the work of the ministry. 

It is so much more than the giving principles and following commissions! How long can we listen to pragmatic teachings and traditions over and over and over? I see so much of “the machine” in our doings, in all of it now that I fear that the best of the independent local churches are now average traditionalist churches, whether they realize it or not!  Just an observation.  Just an onlooker.

Ideology Through Phrasing

There are dangerous Fundamental Philosophies and Quips that have been used from one generation to the next.  We preach certain things because they sound good, and often fall into line with the Fundamental way of thinking.  These things commonly used in hit in pulpits are not sound doctrine, and do not usually mean what we try to make them mean.

Some of these are used to allow us our own liberties in preaching on anything and anyone we want.  In fact today, much of our preaching we hear is just men talking about things that anger them, or some pet hobby horse.  

Very little edification.  We thrash the cults when they quote half verses or segments of verses for some supposed doctrinal truth, but we, like any other denomination have fallen into the same snare.  We do the same thing in the pulpits, and the streets!

You may have heard men say, “Good preaching is not always good doctrine, and good doctrine is not always good preaching.” I understand what this is meant to be, some doctrines are rough, and definitely not crowd pleasers, but our preaching should always reflect our doctrine!  You can’t truly preach truth unless you are being distinctive in your doctrine.

We have preached these things so much, that these things, sometime ideologies, are now our positions.  Then, we find the scripture to back it up after are position is already stated. The scriptures should be our position first, not phrases.  Here are just some examples;

The Wild Bunch ~ A Testimony of a Baptist with Independent Tendencies

Personally, for me, it was in fact a Independent Baptist man that led me to God and the saving power of his Son Jesus Christ. It was a Independent Baptist that showed me a clear presentation. It was the Independent Baptist that showed me the gospel to where I clearly understood it and grasped it’s significance.  The Independent Baptist taught me and showed me the truth and infallibility of the King James Bible.  

On a practical note, an Independent Baptist preacher taught me the invaluable definitions of balance.  An Independent Baptist showed me the importance of individual liberty.  I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for all the Independents Baptist in the sense of the truth and certain positions they have maintained for decades. The wars they have fought and the battles they have won, yeah, I can claim their name to certain extents, knowing their true history.  And I am proud for it.  

I remember being introduced to the first “real” Christian men I ever met.  They were men in a small Independent Baptist Church, 50-70 strong.  An eager bunch to say the least.  All sermons where edifying, instructive and admonishing.  The teaching was verse by verse. About 7 guys in all were all allowed opportunities to preach from time to time, very rare among pastors today to be so selfless with their pulpit.  The song leader was a charismatic man that loved the old time hymns, thank God I was exposed to true song and worship at infancy in salvation so I did not carried up in praise music and charasmania. 

The Independent Baptist were also the first REAL Christians I think I ever met outside of my own family.  It was the first evidence of real Christianity that I ever saw in my entire life.  I was 16 at the time.  I had also grown up my entire life in the Bible belt town of Columbia, SC.  Pastors would kick me, the skateboarder off the steps of their church, but never tried to build dialogue or relay the gospel to me.

These men loved God sincerely and genuinely, those dear people, they loved that old book.  They loved preaching and many of those men to this day still do.  They loved singing and fellow-shipping.  I mean, clean stuff.  Hymns, no mumbo jumbo, just classic old songs from the 17 and 18th century. Get togethers and such, BBQs, just hanging out with like minded decent people. Laughter, love, joy, peace, times of my life I wanted never to end. 

A Convoluted Commission

The fact remains is that men have long made it a practice to use the word, and I cannot stress enough how serious I mean to say, “use the word of God” for private agendas and to further their private kingdoms.  For the common good or whatever lies they have to tell themselves these days, many just continue on, examining others, never examining themselves.  Men will privately interpret passages for private reasons.  It is a common practice displayed among decent and devious men  alike and has been in the works since the time of Christ. 

Missionaries and preachers have long claimed unfounded and loose interpretive callings for ministerial nonsense and money grabbing shakedowns by way of using the Great Commission. They have long found, as the definition of commission states, their doings, performing, perpetuating, sending, act of entrusting, duty; and it is now their proper authority and warrant for exercising certain powers, administrations, and duties in the Great Commission passages.  

These passages in the gospels have been used for centuries to solicit services and funds from among Christian bodies.  Sure their is gain, but no one ever discusses the other spectrums of disorder. To use these passages to solicit service, or even funds and offerings is unscriptural and dangerously close to adding to his word.  

In many cases now, I can only see it as defraudation or using guile and gimmicks to obtain an desired affect.  By applying a teaching or doctrine to these scriptures, then saying they are directly for the body of Christ is adding to the doctrinal position of the passage.  To do so, one must ignore the scriptural integrity of Gods book.  There is a very specific reason for men to deny that there is any disorder.

You will see variations of this in every evangelistic, Baptist church you can find. It is the big idea that is fully entrenched in well fortified Baptist traditions and preserved by some mafia like omerta! It is why there is never a real discussion or theological sit down over it.  Men will look at you like a two headed dragon just for suggesting this may be an off base position. They act this way because the great commission is the prominent “big idea” that many Fundamentalist, and Evangelical, Bible Believing Christians have in their minds for the reasons for doing much of what they do.  Who would ever dare question it right?

Repent or Die!

Before I get started on this hot button issue among Baptist preachers, teachers and theologians, let me say 2 things to establish somethings.  One, as respectfully as I can say it, I don’t care what C.H. Spurgeon or any other Church fore father said on this issue about repentance being essential or necessary for salvation. He ain’t the Pope man! 

I don’t know him.  He is not my friend, nor any other dead men from his era.  I have no loyalty to him, so I don’t hang my hat on what he or any other man say.  He is not my church father on this issue of repentance and neither are you pastors out there preaching it to strongly! You men can take the great Baptist positional quotes you use to bolster your positions all you want.  The matter is, “What saith the Lord?” We will look closely at it.

Secondly, No man living today should be acting or mimicking any way shape or form actions or even messages of Ezekiel, John the Baptist, or in some cases, Jesus Christ himself.  Yes, even Jesus.  Some of you don’t believe that. No man alive today standing behind any pulpit or on a street corner should be preaching like the prophets or focusing on certain things that the prophets focused on. 

This repentance theology, that has creeped in, is also bordering on the edge of a heresy, called “sinless perfection”.  Say a man repents of all their sins believing in the Lord as a preacher would tell them and as many preach but then what happens when they return to their sins?  

Now some would say here, “Oh, you know what we mean, and we don’t really believe that they need to repent of ALL their sins…”.  Then cut it out and quit saying it.  Quit preaching it so incessantly. If you have to defend your position constantly, it may not be attacks from the brethren, it may be God trying to show you something.  This repentance position is weak.

Quit trying to fool yourself and your people into thinking you have some mystical, mythical higher calling then them to tell the world and the people around you to repent of all their transgressions and abominations.  

The Intended Effects of the Fruits of the Spirit

What is the purpose of passing out a tract?  What is the purpose of witnessing or testifying for Christ?  Why do preachers preach?  Why do believers tell others of their salvation?  

I hear preachers commonly say “Contend with them!” referencing sinners for salvation.  Contend with the unbelievers int he streets, they say! Contending was never a reference to any saved person dealing with the lost!   

Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 

Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

Titus 1:4 To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.

This is a striking verse.  The term, “the faith” is only found in the New Testament beginning in Acts 3. “The faith” was no longer being preached.  It was delivered to “the saints” which is a OT and NT reference.  God’s collective bodies, the saints and the body  of Christ, are all considered saints now.

Jude said the “common salvation”.  “The faith was reference many times to mean the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The faith IN Christ! To contend for the faith is to contend for the common salvation!  

Men were making it uncommon.  Men were apostatizing already.  Men were getting into unorthodoxy. Men were making things religious.  Preaching other gospels (Galatians 1)  Men were going back in to the Temple, men were keeping the law and the oblations.  Men were rejecting any gospel of grace.  Men were keeping to the old paths so to speak.  To do this was rejecting Jesus Christ.  To hold to the Law was to reject his payment for sins!  It was denying the Lord that bought them!

The "Old Paths" for New Testament Christians?

"Ask for the old paths!"  Stop it already!!!  I realize I'm stepping on toes here, but I have thought about this for years.  Let me come right out of the gate and just say, the "old paths", whatever they are, whatever you may define them to be, whatever men in history  you may associate with it, they are not for us.  Why do men yell about the old paths so much? Men talk of the old paths, the same way men harp on the old time religion, and the ol' timers.  Some talk about how it used to be 100 years ago, as if they have some real inkling other then grand stories and romanticized nonsense.  Some focus the idea more on scriptural implications.  This ideology is so big in the Fundamentalist, hardcore, militant Independent Baptist ranks today. The glorious Old paths!  Old paths ministries, Old Paths Baptist church,  "We walk the old paths here!"  What does it all mean?

Jeremiah 6:16 says Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where [is] the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk [therein].  This is the only time it shows up in the Bible.  It's amazing how men will focus so much on what God focused so little on isn't it. "We should ask for the old paths... " is inevitably followed by what the preacher says he thinks the "old paths" are!  And it usually has the ring of all the things the preacher stands for.  And if it is a pastoral authority control freak preacher, you already have a monster on your hands.

I used to prescribe to this notion myself when i was a Fundamentalist successionist.  The old paths!  It was a neat idea.  Many preachers love that Jeremiah 6:16 is in the Bible.  It is a good springboard for rabbit trails and hobby horses.  People?  Why are we messing around in law and prophets so much?  Why are we wanting to allude to some mystical old paths, some mystical realm that only exist in the preachers minds.  Whether you preachers keep trying to get your young preacher boys to be like Hudson Taylor, George Whitfield, Sam Jones, or Lester Roloff, or you are using the prophets as good examples of public ministry, you guys need to understand what age you are in TODAY!  You are using his word too loosely.  You are no longer teaching our young men to be individuals with a book.  But you  are pushing them to follow traditions of men, claim the same callings of men, follow the same commissions of men and to practice preaching styles that are not fitted for NT men.

A New Priesthood ~ Part 2 - Vital

A Treatise Against the New Priesthood

~A kick against the fundamentalist pricks~

Every time you tell me about God doing some great work and a soul getting saved, I will tell you about the 10 families I know being displaced because of Popish pastors!  Every time you tell me about the rare soul saved on the street, I will point out to you the hundreds and thousands of seeds ripped out of good ground, for the sake of “our call to preach!” 

Every time you point out the exceptional bus conversion or VBS conversion, I will point out the hundreds of young people who are being manipulated for numbers to report, and confused from the many different presentations they get from all the varied, but yet zealous workers.  

Every time you tell me some grand missionary story or missions endeavor, I will bring up the flip side of missions, the controlling mission boards, the gambit of deputation, the separation, the division, the business side of the missions minded men, the white families living like kings with attack dogs, razor wire fences, and servants among poor natives.  I will tell you about the loss of innocence and youth of children who grow up on a mission field, the destroying of families, the ripping apart of families, the church splitting, the Westernization of other cultures, and the monetary-hedge-fund-like corruption done by those who say they are “the called” on a foreign field.  Every time you read some good prayer letter, I well tell you about hundreds of defrauders and con-men that write good prayer letters too.

Every time you tell me about the one wonderful, teacher and pastor, I will tell you about the 100 others who are pastoral authority, rage ruling lunatics.  Who control with fear, manipulation, resentment, and anger trying to pass it off as righteous indignation. Every time you cry to me about being faithful to the man off God and not forsaking the assembling, I will point out to you the thousands of good Christians who read the book, talk with the Lord, have a relationship with God, and are imprisoned in their churches in traditions, under a popish Baptist pastor!  What are they to do, be faithful to error, get out of church, start their own?  What?  You tell me oh great knowing pastors out there.  You have the answers for everything!

Every time you tell me about the 10 street preachers that do it right, I will tell you about the army of ministries that now exist solely to confront, do battle, scream, rail, yell and tell people to quit their sodomy, drinking, dancing, fornicating, adultery, idolatry, completely devoid of any gospel presentation, of his death, his burial, his resurrection, his grace and his blood.  Horribly and incomprehensibly damaging the message we are supposed the be preaching for any hearers within the sound of our voices.

A New Priesthood ~ Part 1

A Treatise Against the New Priesthood

~A kick against the fundamentalist pricks~

This is “the get it off my chest” part.  If I thought it proper, I would name names, and let the chips fall. You schemers and defrauders! I have the letters of your tall tales and your manipulation of men.  I know what was swept under the rugs, and kept from the congregations.  I know the inner money changing, and hand-shaking.  I have seen the protection of your own kind at the expense of the sheep.  I know why positions changed, and men were removed or renounced.  And what some of us have missed, God has surely seen it all! Amen! 

If I my mother didn’t teach me better manners, if that Book had not rub off on me, I would call all you suckers out by name.  Your wonderful followings, and loyal members, they have no idea what kind of men you are. But I know!  I know what kinda man you are!  

All your charades, all your little speeches, and many of you are nothing but common thieves. All your secrets, all your dirty little inner strifes and turmoils that are kept hidden with such precise calculation.  You are expert in your cloaking of your own self righteousness.  It is hard for me to understand how we claim to serve the same risen savior?  I have to love you, and hope with great faith, that somehow, God used you in his way that I cannot see, as he did with a “jackass” in the OT. 

At this point in the game, it is now apparent to me that there have always been bully zealots and fanatics, who pervert THE gospel, and implement private interpretation contrary to the scriptures.  Every true Christian body, or sincere believing society has had to deal with brutes, ogres, fools, jesters, and oafs! 

In every generation, in every reformation and awakening, in every church age there has been, they have existed. They are found quite possibly in every denomination, but are more prevalent in the fundamental ranks where they can easily blend and infect. They are the pharisee of the modern day. 

Fundy Fantasy Land

Hundreds before myself have asked a pastor, “Pastor, why do we do things this way?”  They have a verse ready.  We think it is sufficient, because surely a preacher would not take something out of context.  And furthermore, they would never lie to us to keep a line of thinking or a so- called doctrine intact.  A man of God who is called of God would never  keep senseless traditions just for the sake of keeping people?  Not our pastors!  Right?

They give you scripture to have a form of godliness, some half-twisted, half-quoted, totally distorted scripture and that is it!  They love God and many of them love His book.  They just only see things in a certain light and with a certain light.  

And then we dumb milk-fed Christians go “Ohhh, thanks pastor!”  They will never sit across a table from you and let you show them anything.  They have to maintain the illusion of preeminence.  See, you are not yet learned, and they have to teach you slowly.  

They are afraid their little delusional world will come crumbling down if they allow discussion or make any changes to the machine that is running smoothly. I mean, “look at all that God is doing!”.  The fundamentalists and corrupted Christendom are just plodding along now, going through the motions like the law-keeping Jews of the NT.  They have no idea things were well off the tracks before we ever received HIM.  We just joined ranks with more people who claim to have it all down.  

Who Watches the Watchmen? ~ an essay

For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth. Isaiah 21:6

“Let him declare what he seeth…”

In the comic book genre, there is a group of anti-hero, super heroes.  In other words, they fought injustices and crime, but had gross moral corruption in some cases they themselves.  This group was called the Watchmen.  They were considered to be extremist vigilantes.  There enemies, the masses and criminal minds, would graffiti a slogan. “Who watches the Watchmen” for police sympathy.

Today, our ranks are very similar.  We expect our super heroes to be full of integrity and honesty.  We assume what they give us is exactly what we need.  We assume our pastors will give us the whole truth, no matter the outcome.  But this has proven not to be so today.  

This cannot be over stated, we cannot simply trust the man of God today.  I could care less how long you have known them or all they have done for God.  I remember telling a Christian once that a pastor lied.  The immediate response to that was, “He could not!”  That was alarming.  This Christian did not respond, “He would not!”, it was “He COULD not!”

I will take this moment to put us all on the same playing field.  Though there may be positions of leadership, there is no preeminence in the body!  There is no pastor that does not sin!  There is no missionary that cannot sin!  There is not one evangelist that is sinless.  There is no pastor who is above reproach or even needful correction.  The same flesh that tempts the wicked pew warmer is the same flesh that tempts the pious preachers. 

“You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.  You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else"