Author Archives: Dan C.

The Church’s Chief End

Posted by Dan C. on

An Article by Peter Barnes, From The Banner of Truth

There  is  much  debate  in  the  modern  church  about  what  exactly  is  her  mission.  Often  the  answer  that  is  given  is  not  so  much  wrong  as  lop-sided,  and  exaggerated  implications  and  conclusions  are  drawn  from  that.  There  are  probably  three  main  views:  the  Church  exists  to  glorify  God;  the  Church  exists  to  build  up  the  saints;  and  the  Church  exists  for  mission,  to  evangelize  the  world.  These  three  views  should  not  be  played  off  against  one  another,  and  a  grasp  of  each  one  will  prevent  us  from  misinterpreting  any  one  of  them.

The  Church’s  first  task,  surely,  is  to  glorify  God.  Paul  says  that  ‘whether  you  eat  or  drink,  or  whatever  you  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God’  (1 Cor.10:31).  Earlier  in  1 Corinthians,  Paul  had  said,  in  the  context  of  sexual  ethics,  that  we  are  to  glorify  God  in  our  bodies  (1 Cor.6:20).  The  unbeliever  is  meant  to  see  the  good  deeds  of  the  Christian  and  go  on  to  glorify  God  (1 Pet.2:12).  The  Psalmist  tells  us  of  God’s  attributes  and  character  in  such  a  way  that  we  are  meant  to  glorify  and  worship  our  creator  and  Lord:  ‘Your  righteousness,  O  God,  reaches  the  high  heavens. You  who  have  done  great  things,  O  God,  who  is  like  You?’  (Ps.71:19)

In  fact,  ‘Great  is  the  Lord,  and  greatly  to  be  praised,  and  His  greatness  is  unsearchable’  (Psalm 145:3).  This  is  to  be  reflected  in  our  meetings  together.  They  are  not  just  to  be  where  we  are  encouraged  or  learn  something  that  is  handy  for  daily  living.  The  priority  is  not  that  we  ‘get  something’  out  of  the  service.  Rather,  it  is  that  God  is  glorified  with  true  adoration  and  praise.  Paul  holds  out  the  hope  that  an  unbeliever  or  outsider  might  enter  the  meeting,  and  be  convicted  and  called to  account.  The  secrets  of  his  heart  are disclosed,  and  so,  falling  on  his  face,  he  will  worship  God  and  declare  that  He  is  present  (1 Cor.14:24-25).  Fellowship  is  to  be  found  amongst  Christians,  yes,  but  also  with  the  Father  and  the  Son,  Jesus  Christ  (1 John 1:3).  This  takes  us  out  of  ourselves  when  we  pray,  we  hear  the  Word  of  God,  and  we  sing  His  praises.  We  are  meant  to  be  glorifying  God  more  than  satisfying  our  needs.  There  is  an  ever-present  danger  that  expedience  or  the  desire  to  be  relevant  may  entice  us  to  follow  Nadab  and  Abihu  in  offering  up  profane  fire  to  the  Lord  (see  Lev.10:1-3).  The  Psalmist’s  perspective  must  be  a  constant  corrective:  ‘Not  to  us,  O  Lord,  not  to  us,  but  to  Your  name  give  glory,  for  the  sake  of  Your  steadfast  love  and  Your  faithfulness’  (Ps.115:1).

The  Church’s  second  task  is  to  edify  the  saints.  Dietrich  Bonhoeffer  declared  that  ‘The  essence  of  the  church  is  not  to  practice  theology  but  to  believe  and  obey  the  word  of  God.’  Christopher  Ash  interprets  Bonhoeffer  to  mean  that  the  Church’s  task  is  to  build  itself  up  by  the  Word  of  God.  In  Ash’s  words:  ‘We  reach  the  world  by  preaching  to  the  church.’  Certainly,  the  New  Testament  places  much  emphasis  on  the  spiritual  growth  of  those  who  are  Christians.  For  example,  in  the  epistles  at  least,  Paul  prays  more  frequently  for  the  sanctification  of  those  who  are  professing  Christians  than  he  does  for  the  conversion  of  those  who  are  not  (e.g.  Eph.1:15-23;  3:14-21;  Phil.1:3-11;  Col.1:9-12;  2 Thess.1:3).  In  keeping  with  this  approach,  Paul  was  concerned  that  all  Christians  would  see  the  progress  in  Timothy  (1 Tim.4:15).

In  Jeremiah’s  day,  God  promised  a  repentant  people:  ‘I  will  give  you  shepherds  after  My  own  heart,  who  will  feed  you  with  knowledge  and understanding’  (Jer.3:15).  Jesus   told  a  restored  Peter  that  his  task  was  to  feed  the  sheep  (John 21:15-17).  Part  of  meeting  together  is  to  stir  up  one  another  to  love  and  good  works  (Heb.10:24-25).  Christ  gives  gifts  to  His  people  in  order  ‘to  equip  the  saints  for  the  work  of  ministry,  for  building  up  the  body  of  Christ’  (Eph.4:12).

The  third  task  is  to  evangelize  the  world.  In  1839  Alexander  Duff  preached  at  the  ordination  service  of  Thomas  Smith,  who  was  leaving  for  work  in  India,  from  where  Duff  had  just  come  and  to  where  he  was  just  returning.  The  sermon  was  published  with  the  title  ‘Missions  the  Chief  End  of  the  Christian  Church’.  It  was  based  on  Psalm  67:1-2  (which  the  published  edition  mistakenly  identified  as  Psalm 47:1-2):  ‘God  be  merciful  unto  us,  and  bless  us;  and  cause  his  face  to  shine  upon  us.  That  thy  way  may  be  known  upon  earth,  thy  saving  health  among  all  nations.’  Duff’s  opening  sentence  was:  ‘The  Royal  Psalmist,  in  the  spirit  of  inspiration,  personating  the  Church  of  the  redeemed  in  every  age,  and  more  especially  under  its  last  and  most  perfect  dispensation,  here  offers  up  a  sublime  prayer  for  its  inward  prosperity,  and  outward  universal  extension.’

God  gives  us  some  flexibility  in  doing  this,  in  that  we  are  to  become  all  things  to  all  people  that  we  might  save  some  (1 Cor.9:22).  Some,  however,  have  combined  this  with  the  evangelistic  commission  to  the  point  where  the  unbelieving  world  almost  dictates  what  takes  place  in  the  church  buildings  on  Sunday.  A  better  and  more  biblical  approach  would  seem  to  be  that  the  Church  as  it  meets  ought  to  desire  three  things:  to  glorify  God,  to  build  up  Christians,  and  to  evangelize  unbelievers.  These  three  aims  need  to  be  kept  together.  As  Scripture  says  in  another  context,  a  threefold  cord  is  not  quickly  broken  (Eccles.4:12).

Go read! Shaun Willcock, Bible Based Ministries

Posted by Dan C. on

. “Way back on October 27, 1986, members of many different religions came together at Assisi, birthplace of the Roman Catholic ‘saint’, Francis, for a day of prayer for ‘pea…

Source: Go read! Shaun Willcock, Bible Based Ministries

Bringing a Feather Duster to a Gun Fight

Posted by Dan C. on

http://dougwils.com/?p=111443

This World Is Crazy and It’s Not Getting Better

Posted by Dan C. on

I don’t know if we are getting ‘dumber and dumber’ or just know more of the ‘dumbness’ that’s always been there, thanks to social media.

Anybody with a big mouth can rant all over Facebook, with or without any brain activity having taken place, about ANYTHING. Pick a topic and you’ll find the lack of intelligent and logical thought of full display. It usually manifests as information taken out of context, or before all the facts are in before ranting about one’s pet peeve or worshipping/championing one’s favorite idol.

We who profess Christ aren’t quite as bad, but we have our moments. Internet trolls camp out on our blogs talking endlessly about how they deny God and how believers can’t really think for themselves, but have to rely on a God who doesn’t exist. And they go on and on and on if we let them.

I think we become their enablers when we keep trying to ‘prove’ God exists. Atheists hate God by their very nature, while they DO know he exists, and when we use a bit of logic they say we aren’t capable of truly rational thought. When we keep using reason and logic it just fuels the fire, so to speak.  Is something a bit fuzzy here?

When we tell the atheist what God says about him we’re accused of personally insulting him. So we apologize for making him feel bad and go back to trying to ‘attract’ him to the God he hates. The atheist is more certain than ever that we are believing nonsense and, like the energizer bunny, goes on and on and on.

What’s wrong with us? My current reasoning is this:

There are basically two approaches to sharing God, Jesus, and the gospel:

1. We can try and attract people to Jesus by getting them to like us and our church to prep them to fall in love with the eminently likable Jesus, who is all about love, all the time, and nothing else.

2. We can, with a burden in our hearts for the souls of lost men, share the problem we all have(sin), God’s judgment against it, and God’s remedy (the death of His Son as our substitute).

When we mix the two it reinforces the atheist’s conviction that we aren’t rational thinkers. We can appear to be unsettled in our convictions or confused about our beliefs.

Something that puzzles me is how believers will ‘Amen’ the latter approach privately, and almost always use the former when they interact with atheist trolls. Why is that? I can only speculate.

Personally speaking, I confess to having used both approaches. When I was a young believer, fresh with the realization of God’s manifest love in saving this sinner, I wanted to share that love with everyone I met. Now that I am older and know what the Bible really says about fallen men, my approach has changed. Some call it the presuppositional approach to evangelism.

The danger of presuppositionalism is omitting the ‘love’ of God from the discussion and/or just telling the atheist what the Bible says about him too early in the conversation. Perhaps the approaches can be described as either 1) ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for you. . .’ or 2) ‘God loves you, BUT. . .’

I’ve learned (at least I think I have) that knowing and believing what the Bible says about the ‘natural’ man doesn’t mean I should tell every atheist how the Bible describes him. Rather, that knowledge should be humming in my brain and should drive HOW I share Christ with him.

Can I tell the atheist what the Bible says a out him? Certainly, but at the right time and in the right way.

So how do we know when the time is right? Maybe we can’t, but God can. So we pray before, during, and after our evangelistic encounters.We proclaim the simple truth about God, man, sin, and the remedy for sin, trusting God to do the saving. He doesn’t need our ‘help’, just our faithfulness to the gospel.

Personal Testimony: Escaping the Fire

Posted by Dan C. on

This is a must read, IMHO.

The Narrowing Path's avatarThe Narrowing Path

A testimony of escaping the charismatic NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) cult, from a sister in Christ who has kindly shared part of her journey for the benefit of others:

Escaping the Fire

I have a LONG story, but I will try to shorten it as best as I can. About 10 years ago my husband and I started attending church when we were stationed in Washington (WA) state, USA. Shortly after we got orders to San Diego, California. Through a Vacation Bible School (VBS) program, we started attending a local Assemblies of God (AG) church.

It was here where we were first exposed to Bethel Redding, and to the teachings of Bill Johnson. Our oldest daughter was 12 years old at the time and went with the youth group to a Jesus Culture conference in Redding. The church had MANY guest speakers and even established their own school of supernatural…

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“Of course  it’s true, it’s on the Internet!”

Posted by Dan C. on

We laugh at that notion, as if no one with of a functioning brain would swallow such a ridiculous idea! Only a complete idiot would believe that!

At the same time, some of us who profess Christ would subscribe to a slightly different notion:

“The music is fantastic, it MUST be a great church!”

Well, don’t we? (Rhetorical question) Whether it’s tender lyrics that make us feel all loved and warm inside, electric guitar riffs accompanied by loud pounding drums reminscent of our non-believing days, or somewhere in between, we automatically assume we’re in a great church!

But is it true, or are we getting ‘Hooked on a Feeling’, like B. J. Thomas used to sing. (aging myself?)

At ths point I have to admit that I have two specific ‘churches’ in mind, Hillsong and Bethel. I recently visited family in Texas and the music of both was glowingly spoken of. A friend at work, when I asked him if he had a good weekend, said yes and going to the recently released Hillsong movie was part of it. If you don’t know, it was billed primarily as ‘experiencing’ worship. You can hardly find a church thesemdaysmthat doesn’t play Hillsong and Bethel music on a regular basis.

In case you think / this a Hillsong/Bethel bash fest, don’t worry, it’s not. I’ll leave it to you to investigate their respective ‘doctrines’, vision statements, etc.
Some of you won’t have an issue with Word of Faith, the prosperity gospel, glory clouds, gold dust, dead raising teams, etc.. If you are one of those, I encourage you to read the Bible, in context, and ask yourself if they are biblical.

In fact, I would ask us all to be a bit more discerning when it comes to both contemporary Christian music and the doctrine(s) held by the churches who have laid classical theology rich hymns aside in order to attract more of the ‘unchurched’. Hillsong and Bethel aren’t the only ones dispensaing spiritual junk food.

While you’re examining the church behind the music, also ask yourself if the preaching there is more about you and your felt needs, or God and his glory.

Happy discerning!

Properly Exegeting the Story of David

Posted by Dan C. on

This is Matt Chandler and the story of David at the Code Orange Revival (COR) in 2012. He was not well received by some (read many). This year’s COR heresy fest/olympics featured John Gray (on staff at smiling Joel’s church (is Lakewood a real church?) telling the COR audience exactly the opposite of what Matt Chandler told the 2012 crowd.

Sadly and tragically, john Gray’s version is on full display in faux ‘churches’ from coast to coast to thousands upon thousands of decieved saints and sinners across our land. It’s the message that most ticles ‘itching ears’ and gives people what they want to heat, not what they need.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=U7GNrCLj7g0