Street Preaching Must be Redefined by the Local Churches

The Superbowl, the U.S. Open, the World Series, the Daytona 500, Mardi Gras, Gasparilla, Movie Openings,  Spring Break events, 4th of July events, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, you name it; Seems all the street preachers are actually going to these sort of scheduled attractions, parades and festivals. To go out of our way with God’s money to go to a large group of sinners that have no interest in our Savior and are purposefully meeting for sinful reasons may fall under the category of laboring in vain. Don't cast me out yet. Here is my reasoning.

The Laodicean Church Age is agreed upon by most prominent scholars to have began in the late 1800’s or early part of the 1900’s.  This coincides with the first per-version of the word of God in the Revised Version 1881.  Soon after, you start seeing a strain of apostasy.  The shift no longer is consecrated devotion to the Lord, and edifying the church.  It starts to transform to “evangelistic”, Kingdom building, techniques that emphasizes reaching the masses, planned revivals, and inventing a whole new way of doing missions.

Righteousness is not accepted collectively as a nation as it was in the Philadelphian church age.  Holiness is no longer practiced in the government and education systems as it was in the “old days”.  This is the age of apostasy.  It’s a different age.  As much as I or others would love to live in the 1800’s,  or the 1920’2 or the glorious 1950’s, we can’t and we don’t. 

Many outreach minded pastors consider it a full tilt fight, no matter how the world changes, the old time ways continue.  These big events where we tract bomb and street rant, how can sinners decipher his drawing or calling among 50,000 people. 

We think because we live in America and have our rights (Laodicea) that this is our beloved, Puritan Christian nation of old.  It is not any longer.  America is a after thought to God at this point.  Politics, corruption, corporate greed, our school systems, abortions, vanity, materialism, debt, kids killing kids, love of money, crime, extortion, the poor, the fatherless, the degenerate, the proliferate, divorce rates, theft, atheism, sodomy, lawlessness, lasciviousness.  Who are we kidding.  We are another nation that turned on God, like Israel.

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.

The Devil, that Old Serpent ~ Who and What he is.

The only reason for this study, the only one of it’s kind on this site, is for the purpose of the engaged Christian, the true believer, to know respectfully the  greatest enemy of the world, saved sinners and lost sinners.  He is also the source of many, if not all, the perils, snares, traps, and sins in the world.

People don’t know who he is. They look to stories, traditions, paintings, illustrations, folklore, mythology, legend, myth, and many other tales that all had their parts in distorting the truth behind the “Accuser of the Brethren”.  That people trust an idea, representation, or interpretation of the devil and not the word of God is beyond me. The Bible has MUCH to say of our foe.

Today, the Devil has many names, with some examples being, Satan, Devil, Beelzebub, Belial, Adversary, the accuser, the deceiver, Dragon, Serpent, King of Babylon, Little Horn, the king of fierce countenance, the wilful king, the man of sin, the son of perdition,, that wicked, and Judas Iscariot.  He is called by one or the other of these names 174 times in the scriptures.

He is called “the Devil, that old Serpent”  Peter the apostle tells us to Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, WALKETH ABOUT, seeking whom he may devour.

Thou [art] the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee [so]: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou [wast] perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. Ezekiel 28:14-15

He is our adversary. Our enemy.  The word of God is very descriptive of the deceptive one, the “accuser of the brethren”.  Unfortunately, many people get there beliefs and stories of “the Devil” from other literary arts, works and ideas then that of the Bible.  Because of this, you have a mash of what he truly is.  That is how he wants it.  For people to be deceived about him and who he is and what he is capable of.

Many, even professing Christians, believe in some deluded nonsense of a mystical, pre earth, “civil war” fought in heaven between the 1/3 of the angels with Satan in rebellion against God and his angels where the story dictates that Satan and his angels are cast out of heaven to earth. 

This has been a commonly accepted teaching that is derived largely from John Milton’s  book, “Paradise Lost” (1667), which describes Satan and his angels having been cast out of Heaven in or around the time of Adam and Eve. 

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;

Independent but not Individual

Christians, there is such a thing as individualism.  With individualism comes preference, convictions, and standards.  They are all different things in and of themselves.  Some men may be convicted about drinking to much coffee, and for them, they feel God would have them to stop.  It does not make it wrong for all men to drink it.  Thank God for that cause I love it.

Some men prefer reading, some prefer watching.  Some write, some speak. Some prefer coaching some prefer playing.  Some men teach, others preach.  Some like sugar some like cream.  Some like salt some like pepper.  Concerning the body of Christ, there is much more underlined stuff there.  It has to do with gifts and how they can be used.  It may have to do with culture and where some were raised.  

You have to wonder what we are doing to our own body when we so hastily cast the heretics, and people struggling out. Especially when we consider that we should be the very ones restoring, admonishing, and encouraging them.  We should be the ones with patience.  Even with the dirty and simple minded.  In the NT, the body of Christ can have church and order exactly how they see it laid out in the word itself.  And it is not like we see in the modern vision.

Most of my past doubt in affairs, angst and frustrations of the church stem from actions of men, not God. I never fully believed certain traditions of men in the Baptist ranks, though I may have preached them for righteous indignation, peer pressure, amens and support or to fit in, I still wondered about our attitudes and thoughts for others not like us.  

I wonder about the crazy guy that was invited by a zealous member.  Most are afraid of those types, I love them.  I wonder about the scantily clad young girl.  Most men are afraid to even approach her for fear of what the brethren or their wife might say, but that is the one that I want to reach.  She doesn’t know any better, she is just worldly.  They shouldn’t shock us or scare us. 

Preaching the Gospel of Christ Without Charge

Making increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love.  This is how the body is increased, by edifying itself. Like the living organism it is.  It doesn’t need money.  I understand it’s necessary uses and things like that, but money has become way to centralized in our manners and serivces at this point.  

Edification; it’s how the body, the working organism is established to work. Not preaching for money to build churches and ministries gallore and making the gospel of Christ with charge, but allowing money to flow through the body like blood flows through our veins, working where there is a need.  Not where needs are created.

Not just all the funds going to every ministry or minister under the sun.  Not just all the funds going specifically to just the men in position.    Not most of our money going abroad to men we don’t know, blindly casting our pearls before swine.  I bet you have never thought of that phrase the other way? These sorts of things that we do today, they were never practiced in the NT! Why do we do it today?

Churches today take up thousands, most going abroad, about 80-20.  I think it should be exactly opposite.  The local body and their needs 80, the foreign field, 20.  I know I know, "string em up! he is anti-missions..."

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.