That title is the most provocative chapter title from a great book by Stephen Perks. It is free as both a pdf or audio. It’s short and says so many of the things I’ve been thinking.
One of the most important things he points out is that Jesus said we are to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That isn’t just personal piety. It’s seeking to build God’s kingdom and seeking justice. We aren’t to seek first to plant churches or go to church every Sunday or invite people to church or spend tons of time around the church or have our lives revolve around church. “Church” isn’t even the biblical word for the 501c3 corporations or Sunday morning event. “Church” is the body of Christ–all believers make up the church. Almost nothing about the Sunday morning deal is in the Bible. We’re not commanded to do anything on Sunday morning or any other particular day. We’re to love other people and seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Here’s a meme I saw on Facebook recently.
I don’t know who Brian Suave is, but this was reposted by a pastor. Of course, a pastor wants people to build their lives around the church. That’s a cult as far as I’m concerned. Stephen Perks calls it a mystery cult. The mystery is in opposition to building God’s kingdom. I’ve experienced it and it’s almost always true, at least 99% of the time.
We are supposed to do some of those things as far as serving others and building God’s kingdom, but there is simply nothing in Scripture about doing anything like the meme says.
The church as we know it is good for nothing but being thrown out and trampled as it is salt that has lost its savor. It is failed and salt that’s lost it’s savor cannot be restored but can only be thrown out.
The American church has lots its saltiness. My former church in particular is completely without savor.
I used to go downtown and witness to the bar crowd on Friday or Saturday night. We did Way-of-the-Master style witnessing and we had a seven foot tall wooden cross we carried. People would come up and ask us why we’re standing on the sidewalk with a cross. That was a great way to start a conversation.
I tried over and over for a long time to get people from my church to go with me and the one other guy that was coming. I taught an evangelism class and about 10-15 people attended. I was only able to get three or four different people to come, one time each. One guy was called some dirty name (I can’t remember what it was) and that seemed to really hurt him or make him think it was dangerous. One guy who came thought we were doing it wrong but he wasn’t willing to show us the right way either. The assistant pastor said we were doing it wrong. He said we should offer people free coffee, and the cups could have a Bible message, but we shouldn’t preach.
Occasionally, there would be heavy metal concerts on a Friday night at the Eagles club and mostly teenagers attended. I thought it was really good, because the kids were somewhat hostile to start out, but a lot of them asked really deep questions and we had a lot of good conversations. One of the guys in the band didn’t like that the kids would leave the concert and go outside to talk to us. His dad was a pastor, and he asked my pastor to get us to stop witnessing at the concerts. My pastor told him to contact us. We ended up meeting him and had a long conversation where he told us we were evangelizing all wrong. His arguments were the typical weak arguments, and easy to answer. I was surprised at the time that a pastor openly opposed the preaching of the gospel.
For the first several weeks we were going downtown, we were harassed by the cops until an experienced officer threatened to arrest us. The lady who had called the cops said she didn’t want to press charges, so we didn’t get arrested. We got a lawyer from Liberty Counsel to write a letter to the Police, city council and city attorney, and the chief of police wrote a memo telling them not to mess with us if there was no report of an actual crime. The cops had no idea what basic constitutional rights were. Apparently not many Christians are into free speech.
One bar was particularly confrontational with us. They were having a wet t-shirt contest and they sarcastically invited us. I told the pastor and asked for help. I thought it was important that there be a Christian presence, but of course, no one would come. I ended up going alone as my usual gospel partner couldn’t come until later in the evening. An older guy walked up to me, and said, “You’re moving or I’m going to move you.” I said something like, “This is a public sidewalk. I’m not moving.” I really should have seen it coming, but I guess I didn’t take his threat seriously. He hit me near my eye with his cane. I ended up with a black eye.
I say all that to point out that the church in America has lost its saltiness. They have no gumption to stand up for what’s right. They clearly don’t believe in the power of the gospel or the effectiveness of God’s Word to confront the culture. America is rotting because the church cowers in fear and the vast majority believes things will only get worse and we will eventually be defeated before Christ’s return.
I was a premillennialist for most of the time this was happening, but I was being schizophrenic. I believed the Bible passages that say the gospel is powerful enough to change lives at least and change the culture if Christians could step up and spread the good news. Unfortunately, most Christians are consistent with their premillennialism and think they’re going to be defeated so they shrink back into the four walls of the church.
I’m now a postmillennialist who believes that the gospel will spread and more and more people will be saved. God’s Word will be applied more and more consistently to every area of life and culture and God will bless our obedience. God’s kingdom will grow like a mustard seed into a great tree.
The pastor at my former church was the only one who never really openly opposed us. But he never did much of anything to help either. His sermons are 55 minutes long every week, and even the members of the congregation who attend weekly are shockingly immature and unable to apply Scripture to life. Ongoing attempts I’ve made to help them apply Scripture to various topics has been vehemently opposed. I was kicked out of the church Facebook group. One lady’s only comeback to my arguments was that I have beady eyes. Others have accused me of being provocative and argumentative. I’ll concede to those, but I deny that I’ve done anything sinful. They certainly haven’t come up with any persuasive responses to my arguments.
Whatever sin or cultural battles that are to come, I predict that that church and the vast majority of other churches in this country will sit out entirely. They haven’t done squat. They’ve accomplished nearly nothing for the kingdom of God. They have only been defeated and they will continue to become less and less relevant. They are salt that’s lost its saltiness and are worthy of nothing more than to be thrown out and trampled.
I have no doubt that I could do many things better. I would love to be shown what I can do better. I would love to look up to men who have won great battles and have advanced the kingdom of God. I know of some, but very few, and none personally. Most of the men I know personally are losers who plan to go on losing. They expect to be locked up in a ghetto and they’re just fine with their ghetto. They’ll go on a retreat, even though they’ve never been on the advance. They’ll have a pot luck and their wives will put up the decorations for the ghetto Christmas party.
The IRS designation for churches is in section 501c3 and specifies that for churches to maintain a tax-free status, they can’t discuss certain topics. Having the government dictate to a church what they can talk about is outrageous and unacceptable. Here’s what Nicholas Perez has to say about it.
“By definition, it is impossible for the Church to make any such Covenant. Our Covenant is in Christ, and we as a body cannot possibly make a Covenant with Christ’s enemy that would violate that. What “local churches” do, on the other hand is irrelevant, and has been for a long time. We need to ‘come out from among them (local churches) and be ye separate,’ saith the Lord.”
I stole this title from Nicholas in my last post. The Christians he was referring to were well beyond the level of the guy in this post. I personally know this guy. He attends a conservative, Bible-believing church where the pastor preaches 55-minute sermons and is seriously trying to mature the people in attendance. He attends regularly and sits through these sermons.
Maybe his anger got the better of him or something, but his comment is just really disappointing. It’s not the first time people who regularly attend this church have made this same basic error. I know the pastor can’t be blamed for every single individual remaining immature, but the church as a whole is very immature, and this guy is just an indication.
I started a Facebook group with mostly people from this church and the purpose was to try to come up with ways to apply Scripture to the real world and not just worry about ourselves all the time. It has been a complete and utter dud (as I’m rereading this the last paragraph in this post is haunting me). Nevertheless, I keep trying to post things that might provoke some conversation. Because that’s the point we’re at. These people would look at me like I’m crazy if I actually tried to get them to do some of the things I’m thinking about or have been involved in. These folks and I are definitely not on the same page, and so we are still at the conversation level. So, between once a month and once a week, I post something.
I adapted this post to Facebook format and posted it there a few days ago. I got this response:
“Judging and gossip is sinning as well.”
I think it’s safe to say he was accusing me of judging and gossip. I’m not sure how it’s gossip to comment on a public Youtube video. And I’m certainly guilty of judging. Of course, judging righteously isn’t a sin and is something we all do dozens if not hundreds of times per day.
In fact, when this guy accused me of judging, he was judging me. He actually was sinfully judging me, because he was using a double standard–aka hypocrisy. He doesn’t know that there is righteous judgment and he’s not capable of recognizing hypocritical judgment.
Of course, the problem is that this guy clearly hasn’t read the New Testament, much less the Old Testament. He’s sat through hours of preaching and has been a Christian for at least four years that I know of. He’s been a newborn Christian who hasn’t learned the basics of the basics of Scripture.
If I was his pastor I would be shocked and ashamed and reevaluating everything I do. If the pastor is honest, this guy isn’t an exception, but the general rule for the level of knowledge of his congregation. And those who are the exception and know more about the Bible are still not actually accomplishing very much for the kingdom and neither is the church as a whole.
Of course, this is what their pessimistic eschatology teaches will happen. So when it happens, they expect it to happen. They don’t have an expectation that they are going to accomplish great things for God or that the gospel will actually defeat Christ’s enemies. But surely, the pastor thinks that a guy sitting through hundreds of his sermons will not still be completely retarded.
At some point, we (and I’m including myself), have to examine the fruits of our efforts to see whether the results are fruitful or thorny. The fruits of that church are thorns and they need to change. We need to be semper reformanda. I’m trying something new for my church situation, and I’m keeping an eye on whether it bears fruit, whether I and my family bear fruit through it. If not, we have to try something else.
Here’s another great post from Nicholas Perez, prompted by James White saying he’s become a postmillennialist:
If I were a pastor converted to postmil, I’d have to think about the fact that Jeremiah 31 and several other passages expressly teach that realization of the New Covenant/postmil hope involves the gradual ABOLITION of pastors and any special class of leadership.
Then I’d ask myself why after 2,000 years, pastors and special leaders have only gradually increased, while Christ has decreased.
Which would lead me to the conclusion that the Body of Christ is at this point in Church history burdened by leaders rather than edified.
I’d repent of making a career on the backs of the people of God. I’d get a job, or start a business. I’d sooner scrub pots and pans than participate in the Ministry Complex which perpetuates the immaturity of the Saints.
What shall we say if this line of reason is sound? Our only conclusion can be that if a pastor professes to be Postmillennial, yet continues to hold his position of leadership, knowing he is a cancer to the Body rather than a blessing, we have no reason to believe he is Postmillennial at all. Maybe not even a believer. If we are being charitable, he is so hopelessly schizophrenic that nobody should ever pay attention to a word he presumptuously says.
“Where are such preachers today? What do we hold dear? For what are we willing to fight and die? Are we willing even to preach the doctrines of government, liberty, and God’s Law? Where are the sermons, tracts, and pamphlets circulating today from America’s preachers condemning taxes and tyranny? Preachers in the 1760s spoke out, and some spilled their blood, to fight the erosion of jurisprudence and the onset of admiralty courts! Today we have a vast array of this type of court tyrannizing nearly every area of life, and hardly a pulpit even knows, let alone cares, let alone preaches. We had ministers leading men in the sacrifice of their lives and money over intrusive search warrants and seizures of property. Today where are even the sermons on these things?
“Pulpits across this land should be ringing with denunciation of warrantless wiretaps, extrajudicial drone strikes, no-knock warrants, militarization of police, civil forfeiture, the surveillance state, the welfare-warfare state, fiat money, tyrannized markets, executive orders, national emergencies, and a thousand other infractions so extreme and overt they would have driven King George III to join the rebellion himself. And the pulpits are silent.
“The pulpits are silent, the flocks left untrained and unmotivated, and liberty all but dead. And we have no one to blame but ourselves.”
Working for the Secession of Fremont County from the Union
