Genocidal Maniacs or God Called Men

Much of our talk of callings here and there is nothing more then men using God and his Book as their authority and justifications for whatever kind of orthodoxy they invent in their own minds! But sufficed to say, and without going into a full blown expose on Fundamentalism in the 19th and 20th centuries, a lot of our talk and terms are just that, talk, and terms! 

We have mixed some mysticism with all the talk of a “call of God” and have made ministries out of the blue, by distorting passages.  There is a constant barrage of pressure among Fundamentalist and Baptist circles to “be called” to something!  It’s why we create all these diverse ministries, people have to have a calling or a position to fulfill.  And they have to be fully supported as well in their endeavors, to funnel and propagate the working systems. So men just keep inventing new tactics and ways to get that support.  Hence, things like faith promise and other gimmicks.

Who needs faith anyways?  We have Bible Colleges, Bible Institutes, and Bible schools pumping out 1000 young 20-somethings every year, running everything like a business, or a corporate engine, perpetuating the machine as their teachers taught them.

Let me ask you this; concerning our calls of God that we claim, how are we different from some North African Jungle warlord who claims he had directive from God to commit his genocide?  How are we different from some Cameroon warlord who thinks God told him to perform ethnic cleansings?

"Established in the Faith"

There is only one place in the entire word of God where people are said to be “established in the faith”!  It is found in Acts 16. After the councel in Acts 15 at Jerusalem, where the decrees were carried to all the churches.

Jews or Gentiles are not considered established in the faith until Acts 16. In Phillipians 4:15, Paul refers to his leaving Macedonia, which correlates historically with Acts 16, and this is referenced to being “as the beginning of the gospel.”  

This is not the beginning of the body of Christ, but the beginning of the gospel, Paul’s gospel, the gospel of grace!  Here, it was established.  It is where it began to be accepted by all the churches, after it was decreed and delivered by Paul!

Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.

The gospel of grace was set into motion, so to speak, in Acts 15 with Peter before the councel in Jerusalem.  He declared that mans salvation was by grace through faith.  The decrees were delivered of the elders to the churches, and the gospel of the grace of God was finalized and began in Acts 16.  They were established in the faith in Acts 16!  I make this point to say that the gospel was NOT established in the great commission passages and early Acts.  

Free will, Seed Planting and Fruit Bearing

I Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. ~ No on is predestinated.  One has to choose.  Free will has always been the kicker.  Men choose NOT to believe in God of their own free will.  You know why multitudes of grown men and women aren’t coming to Christ like they were in the Reformation and Great Awakenings?  They don’t want Him!  That was then, and this is now. 

You know why they are not coming to God on the street corners, in bus ministries, huge evangelistic meetings, Gospel Blitzes, at the football games, gay pride parades?  They don’t want Him! They want lucre.  They want sin.  They want pleasure.  They want gratification.  They want drunkenness.  They want drug binges.  They want carnal desires

The religious don’t want him either.  They want buildings and temples.  They want salaries.  They want their own lives.  They want education. They want man made ministries.   They want systems.  They want status.  They want position.  They want religion.  They want a form of godliness.  But they don’t want Him!  I heard a wise man say once, Men are seeking fulfillment at every source but the direct source.

Our Lord said, Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:14 Many times in our ways of doing the public ministry all we really do, if truth were told, is find a sinner who is at his wits in, tired of drugs alcohol, and the affairs of this life. All these names and phrase we have for things we do! I.e. soul winning, gospel blitzes, passing out tracts, street preaching, door to door visitation.  We are all reforming!

God didn’t draw them, nor did they seek him, they repented after worldly sorrow.  Maybe they wanted to simply change their ways.  Maybe they had a horrible day at work and took it as a sign! Maybe they wanted a change of luck.  I have witnessed some that just wanted the preacher to shut up and leave!

Skilled Swordsman or Drunken Lumberjack?

The WHOLE Armour of God.  All the items in Ephesians 6 are for our complete armour, not just selective armour.  Not just the sword of the spirit alone, no matter how much some preachers love to draw blood with it, but ask your self a real question sir!  Are you combat proficient or a blood-letting psychotic killer?

We are told to take the whole armour.  Not just a sword.  The spirit is associated with the sword, “salvation” is associated with the helmet.  Our minds and our heads must be protected.  It takes our minds to win the hearts of a lost destitute soul.  Without a sound mind one cannot have sound doctrine.  If a man does not understand salvation he cannot be saved, nor lead others to salvation.

We often forget about the shield.  Funny how we are told to take this above all isn’t!  Our faith, surely, will be tested in this life as a Christian. The world and the devil have been at it for a long time.  Long before any of us showed up.  We are in the most corrupted age, well beyond Genesis 6 in my view!  The only reason we aren’t drowned again is because God promised he wouldn’t do it!  Fiery darts of the wicked stick into things.  We need that shield.

Arrows go into our shields, mingle with our reason, cloud our faith.  Our faith is our protection.  What we can’t see with our eyes is our power.  Our shield of faith is to quench not to deflect.  We are to stand, having done all to stand. It needs to be mentioned here as well, that the sword of the spirit is the only offensive element.  One offensive item listed in six.  Loins girt about with truth; the Breastplate of Righteousness; our Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; the Shield of Faith; the Helmet of Salvation; and the Sword of the spirit.

Our feet need to be preaching the gospel of peace.  How can we give peace to others, by going for the execution stroke at first contact?  The fatal blow to the neck with our big 66lbs broadsword.  Our authority and our training in the book can be our downfall through pride and arrogance.  With all this in mind, let me talk to you bold Bible Believing preachers out there.

We are to use the word of God carefully.  Not “handling the word deceitfully”.  Approaching sinners with the truth and not pride.  This should be our manner. We are ambassadors to the world.  We should be well versed in how we conduct ourselves in every facet of life. The servant of the Lord must not strive.  It carries with all men.   Especially so; if one is going to attempt to “suit up”, play the part, and preach the gospel to the masses at the town square.

"What do have you against modern missions brother!?"

I was mission minded once.  I guess it is all up to definition of terms.  It all seems like a big machine now.  Good men are trapped in it.  They know it.  But who cares at this late hour in the game? It’s all about a having a good testimony now among the brethren.  Who cares if the games has changed? Right?

Missions in general has many flawed aspects to it from the modern perspective.  But one of the most flawed position in modern missionaries and fundamentalism is where men feel they have to have some similitude to men of other centuries.  Many do what they do today in missions because of “ol’ timers” like Hudson and Carey all though they aren’t actually doing anything like them.  It makes them feel justifiable in their own orthodoxy.   The world was largely different then it is today.  Many of these men did nothing like we do today.  I mean in some cases, not one single thing! And don’t give me your typical retort back saying “God is the same today yesterday and forever!”

The way God moved with men in the time of the 1700-1920’s was not so much a testament to the men, but to the movement of the Holy Spirt of God with the world! Those men were still men and we do not follow their examples or creeds.  We have our own authority. We have a book as they did, and many of those forefathers of flesh we love to revel in so much were off the on areas the same way we can be off on areas.

I am fully aware that Christian missions and missionaries for nearly 200 years have been the most redemptive force on the face of the earth.  But our overall attitude of going abroad, to far away lands often times has become a Westernized, over saturating, reforming, Kingdom building movement. Not a movement for the expressed purpose of winning souls to Christ and emphasizing growth for converts.  In this movement, our own American traditions travel with us to these far away lands, making real conversion much harder to convey to indigenous people.  

An Inordinate Affection of Preachers

Many of you Fundamentalists, if you saw a man in America today walking down the street dressed like these men you see here, you would assume they were effeminate based on the conservative standards many of you have  had drilled into your heads.  I mean, their knees are showing, the back of their calves are exposed, the thigh is exposed, "Oh my!" How could one dress so indecently?  Now, remember this sort of introductory paragraph here; we will return to it. 

Your inordinate affections need to be mortified. Many of you men are not preaching and teaching God’s word for the edifying of anyone at all.  You are just preaching on the sins of the world to the world.  You guys need to get off your ego-filled tirades! Seriously and for the love of God, man! Stop with your typical five-verse-automated responses that you have ready for every dissenter of YOU.

Colossians 3:1-17 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

4 When Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry:

The dross needs to be removed from you preachers that think you have certain justifications with the Book that you attempt to pander.   Come down off your high horse and sit with your people for a little but. Try to understand  how even you pastors and preachers have deviated from order.  You men have developed a “permanent bent of mind” towards certain topics so much so that you fixate on them to the detriment of your people. 

Cha-ching!

Regarding tithes and offerings, some common sense, factual observations.  The words tithe or tithes is only found in the OT and in Matthew, Luke and Hebrews in the NT.   In these passages where it is mentioned, there is no association with the “body of Christ”.  Giving to the “body” was all together different.

The word “Collection” is mentioned three times in the Word of God.  It was mentioned twice in the OT referencing the “the work of the service of the house of the LORD”, which was the temple in the wilderness.  The other time, the lone NT reference, is in 1 Corinthians 16:1 where Paul had previously asked the churches to take up a specific collection upon his arrival so there would be no offerings when he was there.  

He then took this “collection” to the poor saints in Jerusalem.  This collection is not specifically money, but it was a specific offering.  Nowhere in the text does it indicate this is a weekly practice or Pauline tradition to be followed.

The words “treasury” or “treasurer” is only found in the OT or the four gospels.  The word “Storehouse” is only found in Malachi and Luke.  The church is not the storehouse, and the church does not have a treasury.  These were temple structures or rooms within the temple court. 

“Offerings” are mentioned in abundance in the OT, but only five times in the NT, with three of these times referring to burnt offerings.  Offerings in the OT are always exclusively  agricultural.  Of the 265 times “offering” or “offerings” are mentioned, only two incidences, Luke 21 and Acts 24, can be referenced to something monetary.