The Rest of the Old Old Story

I saw a Christian movie last night called “The Time Changer.” It was very thought provoking, even though the acting was mediocre at best. This post is not really about the movie, but I need to give you a brief synopsis to get into my subject.

In the movie a Bible school professor from 1890 writes a book. One of his colleagues then sends him 100 years into the future so he can see what effect his sort of ideas have on society. The movie does a great job at making us look at our American lifestyle in the light of past values. However, what I want to talk about is the strange and unthinking application of the filmmaker’s pet doctrine to the situation in the movie.

The professor from 1890 is shocked at the behavior of both society and Christians in 1990. By his standards, they have lost morality to such an extent that he is certain it must be the last days. He compares 1990′s America to 2 Timothy 3, where Paul says that in the last days people will be “lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,” etc. Amazingly, however, when he discusses the source of the problem with a 1990′s Christian, she says, “People are beginnig to rely on their own goodness to achieve salvation, as if they could earn their way to heaven when it’s a free gift from God through Christ.”

I was so surprised I laughed out loud. The reason that people are lovers of their own selves, covetous, etc. is because they’re trying to earn their way to heaven by goodness? Has anything more ridiculous ever been said?

The problem is that evangelicals only know one doctrine. “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” So even though their doctrine has no application to the problem they’re discussion–not even remotely–they apply it anyway. Ridiculous.

What’s even more ridiculous is that their doctrine, a false one sent from hell, is a large cause of the problem. It’s not that people today are selfish and sinning because they believe the evangelical doctrine of going to heaven apart from works; it’s that the doctrine, false as it is, does not produce Christians or obtain grace from God. Therefore, the Christianity that holds that doctrine is pitiful and brings shame and not glory to the name of God. Thus, the society around that religion abandons God and goes their own way. There is no salt to preserve nor light to guide society where the evangelical doctrine of “no works” holds sway.

Paul did indeed say that a man is justified by faith apart from works. What Paul did not ever say is that people would go to heaven apart from works. In fact, he says quite the opposite over and over and over again. Those who practice the works of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of heaven, he says in Gal. 5:19-21. Evangelicals don’t get it, so he says the same thing in 1 Cor. 6:9-11 and Eph. 5:5. They still don’t get it, so he tells them that if they want eternal life, they need to patiently continue to do good in Rom. 2:6-7 and Gal. 6:8-9. They still don’t get it, so he tells them that they will be judged for their works, whether good or bad, in 2 Cor. 5:10. They still don’t get it, so Peter tells them that they need to add numerous qualities to their faith if they hope to enter the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:5-11). They still don’t get it, so the Lord himself out and out says that those who do not do the will of his Father in heaven will not enter the kingdom (Matt. 7:21).

They still don’t get it, and they don’t get it so badly that they suggest that people with no interest in morality whatsoever are that way because they’re trying to get to heaven by morality?

This was not a mistake or loose slip of the tongue. It was the central theme of the film. In another spot, one of the characters says, “People are deceived into thinking that if they lead a good life they will receive God’s approval and attain heaven.” I have to think that since Peter said that God accepts every person who fears him and works righteousness (Acts 10:35), and Paul said that God will repay eternal life to those who seek it by patiently continuing to do good (Rom. 2:7), that the movie character meant that Peter and Paul are the ones deceiving people.

God will judge everyone according to their works, even Christians (1 Pet. 1:17), and it is knowing that good works are required to enter heaven that should drive a person to Christ. People don’t need us to tell them that everyone’s a sinner. They know it. We don’t have to tell them to cry out, “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death.” As soon as they know righteousness is required of them, they will see their need for help in righteousness. You will never find an apostle preaching to the lost that they are sinners. They teach the church how those things work, so you will find plenty of mention in letters to churches that all men are sinners. However, scour Acts as you may, you will not find them having to teach sinners their need of being forgiven. They preach that Christ is the Judge of the living and the dead, and the lost figure out quickly, without help, that they are in need of favor from that Judge!

Realizing their need of favor, they are quick to cry out, “What must I do to be saved?” Their question is the exact equivalent of Paul’s “who shall deliver me from this body of death?” They are asking what will forgive their past sins and change their future conduct enough to face the Judge of all. The answer is faith in Christ. The answer is only faith in Christ. If you wish to be justified, transformed, and sanctified, it is only grace that will do that, and grace is only obtained by faith.

However, none of this changes the fact that there is a Judge and a judgment to be feared. Peter says, “If you address as Father him who impartially judges according to each man’s work, then conduct yourself throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear” (1 Pet. 1:17).

I’ll quit there. There are a number of long, clear passages that state the things I’ve just said outright. Romans 6, the whole chapter, is one of them, and Romans 8:1-14, the answer to Romans 7, is another. The open-minded will see these things are obviously true. However, I will address a couple of other false ideas taught in the movie.

One idea that leads to this whole doctrine of going to heaven apart from works is that God requires perfection at the judgment. This is not true. It is nonsense, and it makes a monster of God, for he made it so that it was impossible for men to be perfect, yet he will torture them eternally in flames for their imperfections. Ridiculous. God is a just Judge, the Scripture says, and a just Judge does not torment a person eternally even for a crime like stealing, much less for a white lie.

Another fiction, this one not addressed in the movie, is that God requires blood to be merciful. Once we sin, according to this bizarre doctrine, God requires something or someone to die. He doesn’t even care who it is, as long as some person or animal dies. What sort of god this is, I do not know, but it is not the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, nor the God of the prophets. The prophets tell us that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is and always has been merciful, extending mercy and lovingkindness to thousands, abundant in pardon, and forgiving iniquity and sin. Ezekiel makes it clear that he will do this in return for simple repentance. No one need die.

In fact, David, who sinned so grievously that he not only committed adultery but also murdered the husband, said that God wasn’t interested in sacrifice. “For you do not want sacrifice, or else I would give it…The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart; these, O God, you will not despise” (Ps. 51:16-17).

There is so much wrong with what the evangelicals say about God that it is hard to know where to begin. For years it seemed that every time I turned around I was discovering some new fiction that had been handed to me in Protestant churches. A lot of this turned up as I studied the earliest church writings, from the era immediately after the apostles. At first, I thought it was they who were in error and not us. As time went on, though, it was clear that they lived in unity and holiness, something we evangelicals were merely longing for. Like Paul, they could be confident that he who had begun a good work in them would continue it until the day of Christ Jesus down to the last member of their congregation. We were fortunate if 5 or 10 percent of our congregations continued growing in the Lord throughout their lives.

One of the things they pointed out was the problem with Cain’s sacrifice. As an evangelical I heard and taught that the problem was that Cain offered grain and Abel offered livestock, a blood sacrifice. This didn’t deceive the early Christians, who knew that God isn’t interested in sacrifices (Jer. 7:22-23). It’s the purity of the person sacrificing that purifies the sacrifice, not vice versa. So they knew that the problem was not the sacrifice, the problem was the heart. Cain’s sacrifice was rejected because Cain was wicked, not because his offering was grain.

Scripture, as has almost always been the case, backs the early Christians. John tells us that Cain slew Abel because Cain’s deeds were wicked (1 Jn. 3:12). It’s clear then that Cain was wicked before he slew Abel. In fact, Genesis tells us that Cain was angry because his sacrifice was rejected and that’s why he killed Abel. So it’s clear that Scripture ties Cain’s wickedness and the rejection of his sacrifice together. Genesis 4:7 makes it even more clear. “If you do good, will you not be accepted?” God asks. Why was Cain’s offering rejected? Because his deeds were not good; they were evil.

The problem American society has is not that it is trying to get to heaven by good works. The problem American society has it that it doesn’t care about nor believe in heaven because Christians are not trying to get to heaven by good works. Because Christians are not crying out to God for the grace that breaks the power of sin (Rom. 6:14), being content to slide into heaven on the strength of a sacrifice that was actually meant to purify and transform them (Rom. 8:3,4), there is no proof being offered to the world that a God of power, the Ruler of Heaven, exists. The proof Christ offered was the unity and love of his disciples (Jn. 13:34,35; 17:20-23), but the power to live in that unity and love is lacking because the gospel being proclaimed in America is, in general, a false one.

Don’t get me wrong. I know there are good Christians even in America, though they’re relatively rare, being not much more–or perhaps no more–common than good people among atheists and Buddhists. There are people who have experienced the power of Christ and know that they must live for him. However, the proof Christ offered to the world was not a few isolated disciples, it was disciples that were as united as he and the Father.

That, my friends, will take a faith that fears God.

Well, I’m back from Kenya, Uganda, and England. If there’s anything I’ve learned it’s how desperately the message of the church is needed. God constantly teaches the church, and the world is in desperate need of what he’s taught it.

If you’re a Christian, then what you think of when I say God teaches the church is almost surely doctrinal. It’s matters of theology he must be teaching us, solving the things that divide Christians. However, theology doesn’t divide Christians. Carnality divides Christians. Divisions, schisms, and factions are works of the flesh, and theology is just an excuse denominations use for carrying out the dictates of the flesh. What God teaches the church is the marvelous way that he overcomes the flesh…through love.

We had incredible power in Kenya and Uganda. Pastors showed up asking us what made us different from all the other muzungus (white men) that visit and preach to them. Hearts were opened, and no one could deny the power or the need of our message. What did we do? What did we say?

We didn’t say anything. We lived the way God taught us to live, which is to be a friend to everyone, and people who saw it were moved. They knew that it was good, and they knew that it was from God, and they showed up and asked us how we learned to live with such power. What power? It was nothing more than the power of love.

Please don’t get me wrong. We are not the only loving people who have shown up in Kenya and Uganda. Wonderful, kind, and powerful men of God have shown up and helped struggling Africans in all sorts of ways, digging wells, passing out mosquito nets, starting businesses, and numerous other great acts of kindness and hard work. Lots of  them have done this, and many have done much more work, sacrificed much more,  and are much more worthy of praise than we are. I’m not talking about us in this blog. I’m talking about the life of God.

What people noticed is that we were different from other preachers. The difference is that we knew we weren’t there for words. We were there to bring the life of God because that Life can teach Africans just as well as it has taught us. So we simply showed up and did what we always do. We fellowshipped with the people we met. Since we are God’s people, this allowed the people we met to fellowship with God, and they liked it. They asked how they could have this life, and our words weren’t just words. They were to a purpose, explaining how they could have and be taught by the life of God as we have been.

God’s life hasn’t taught us theology. It has taught us how to get along with one another. Humans can fly to the moon, but they don’t know how to get along. Self-consciousness, emotions, fears, and a myriad of other things stand in the way of us simply being what God is: love. Entering God’s Life is entering a life-long process of learning how to deny ourselves and love. Every one of us has a very long way to go, but every one of us who has lived church life knows what it means to be taught by God to love. This trip taught us once again the immense power of that love. It breaks down every door, opens hearts, and paves a path not just for the Gospel of Christ, but for the Spirit of God that makes that Gospel effective.

In England we met some rather extraordinary members of a small Baptist church. They were godly, loving people who had hurt their careers and social status in order to minister to people. I was impressed. They are much better people than someone like me. They’re harder working, more caring, and certainly run their lives a lot better than I’ve ever run mine. Yet, when we showed up, they told us that we taught them something about ministering to the very people that they have devoted their lives to ministering to. How is that even possible?

It’s because of the power of church life. Modern Christians devote themselves to ministry. Ancient Christians devoted themselves to Christ unless they were specifically called to ministry.  When they were called to ministry, they devoted themselves to learning the ministry they were called to. The power, however, that created the need to minister came from their devotion to Christ. Devotion to ministry is a distraction.

Paul, the apostle, was a student of theology. It’s clear from his letters that he devoted himself to the theology of Christ. The need, however, to teach theology sprung from the life of God at work in the people of God.

Have you ever noticed that those who heard the apostles teach didn’t go anywhere until persecution forced them to? Nonetheless, when persecution spread them out, their faith was infectious. Even after spreading out, as new communities of disciples formed, word spread about the love and faith of those communities (1 Thes. 1:6-10).

This created a need to explain the departure from the typical Jewish faith. These new followers of Messiah, both Jew and Gentile, lived differently than the typical interpretations of the Old Testament would lead you to live. Messiah taught a new way of life, and it had little to do with sacrifices and rituals. As one early Christian put it, “We embrace chastity…dedicate ourselves to the good and unbegotten God…share with everyone in need…live familiarly with men of different tribes…and pray for our enemies” (Justin, Apology 14, c. AD 150). Not much there about ritualistic religious practices, temples, and priests.

I don’t want to get lost in making my point here. God has things to teach us in church life. They are subtle, but they are powerful. They have nothing to do with words, so often they are hard to explain. The fact is, though, that what happened in England is simply typical of the fruit of what God teaches. Where we showed up, everyone had time for fellowship, for prayers, for the discussing of the apostles doctrine, and for prayer. In fact, it’s almost all they wanted to do. They were drawn to it as by some unseen power. That power was the life of God, the very power that draws us as well, that creates the church, that teaches the saints, and that produces a power that will cause the sons and daughters of God to flock to the Gospel rather than having to be chased down by it.

I hope even a little of that is clear. I hope that I don’t sound like I’m boasting about something we did. The things that are learned in church life are powerful. They’re not even to be compared to what you might learn in Bible school, which is almost all completely useless (sorry, but it’s true). All I want is that all who name the name of Christ get to partake in the school of Christ, the church, which is the pillar and support of the truth. All by itself it will produce what people are not obtaining through study, diligent discipline, and toilsome ministry. “It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors,” says the Scripture (Ps. 127:2). Why? Because he gives to his beloved even in their sleep, but only where the Lord has built a house for himself.

“Behold, children are a gift from the Lord,” that Psalm goes on to say. That verse is not a verse on birth control for Protestants, Catholics, Mennonites, and environmentalists to argue about. It is a statement that if you want to reach the world, allowing Zion to bring forth children, it will be the gift of the Lord, not the product of “painful labors.” Modern Christians have never seen the power of church life, so they don’t believe in it. The devil gave the true and Biblical doctrines of the authority and truth found in the church a bad name during the Dark Ages. People are scared of them now, but experience testifies that what the apostles taught and passed on to their churches is true. The church is the pillar and support of the truth, it is the mother of the saints, and God will lead it into things that are true, and not a lie. I would add, into things that are powerful beyond what we could know in our schools, Sunday meetings, and Bible studies.

This is way too long for a blog, but I want to add one more thing. I’ve been saying over and over on this trip that growth does not come from Bible study and prayer in our rooms alone. Growth, according to the Scripture, comes as we speak the truth to love in one another and as every part does its share (Eph. 4:11-16). If you want to grow, you have to be with others to do so, and you have to be with them daily. Sorry, that’s what Scripture teaches (Heb. 3:13). You can pray and read the Bible all you want, but it’s not going to make you grow in ways that will allow you to be an effective minister. Those things are learned in church life. They are learned in the need to get along, having to work things out, having to put yourself aside, and not having the option of separating from Christians you disagree with. Division is death.

I am sitting in a hotel room in Kenya. Why am I here? I am here to preach the Gospel to the longing masses of Kenya. Just yesterday I heard a woman announce loudly with great zeal and joy, “Until these brothers came from the USA, I was in darkness. I was depressed and saddened by what I was seeing in the church around me. I was without hope. But now they have brought the light, and I am ready to shine.”

Keep that in mind. Do I believe in evangelism? You bet I do, and that’s why I’m over here in Kenya, some eight thousand miles away from my six children, crying out of missing them, but also crying because I’m going to miss my new brothers and sisters here in Nakuru when I leave tomorrow. I have been laid out flat in a European airport with my back thrown out, trying to be out of pain enough to get on an overnight flight to Nairobi and out of the way enough not to have airport security carry me off on a stretcher. I have kissed and hugged children with dirty noses and open sores, shared a 10×10 room with five other men, and bounced my way across 120 kilometers of a dirt road we nicknamed “The Eternal Road” for the vigorous shaking it gave us.

Okay, with that out of the way, I want to complain about the American emphasis on evangelism. It is destroying Christians, it has already completely destroyed the church, and it is working on destroying the world.

Twenty years ago, I was in a group called the Navigators. They are ministry mainly to college students and young military. They emphasize discipline, service to others, Scripture memory, and discipling others. What they do is generally good, and their founder, Dawson Trotman, was an exceptional and wonderful man.

They have a publishing company called NavPress that has now, apparently, spawned another called NavPress Deliberate. NavPress puts out some of the best books in the Christian market. _The End of Religion_, by Bruxy Cavey, is the first book I’ve read from NavPress Deliberate. It is excellent.

However…

I read the introduction or preface or something that describes NavPress Deliberate. It says Navpress Deliberate “encourages readers to embrace this holistic…Christian faith.” What holistic Christian faith? The one that includes “caring for  the poor, widow, prisoner, and foreigner…and redeeming the world.”

That’s it? That’s the holistic Christian faith? What about the Church? You know, the thing that’s called the fullness of God (Eph. 1:23), the body and bride of Christ, and in which God receives glory forever. Nothing too important, just the very purpose that he died, at least according to Eph. 5:25-27 and Tit. 2:14.

Today we taught the newborn church in Nakuru to look inward and not outward; to focus on ministering to one another rather than on ministering to the world. That is heresy to evangelical Christianity. On the other hand, evangelical Christianity is a horrendous failure (re: _The Scandal of Evangelical Christianity_ by Ronald Sider), so they’d better start looking at the things that are heresy to them to find out what they’re doing wrong.

Galatians 6:10 says that we’re to do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. Why? Because the only way we are going to reach the world is to show them Christ. And Christ has said that the way we will show them Christ is to be perfectly united in love (Jn. 13:34,35; 17:20-23). This is what the Thessalonians did, and it was so powerful that Paul no longer needed to preach in the area of their influence! (1 Thess. 1:7-9).

Paul preached. He did it to start churches, which would then be the light of the world. They are the city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. It’s not your little light that must shine, believer. The good works God wants us to show are to be done by the church together, so that  the great light of the city of God will shine (Matt. 5:13-16). When that happens, my friend, the nations will gather, and they will bring the children of the kingdom on their shoulders (Isaiah 60:1ff).

This is not theory, we are seeing it happen, even in the deadness, greed, and unbelief of American society. It is now beginning to happen in a place much less closed to the Gospel than America is.

Search somewhere for a command in any letter to any church for believers to evangelize. You will find not even one! The closest you will find is Peter’s exhortation to be prepared to answer those who ask you about your hope in Christ. When was the last time you were asked about your hope in Christ? Chances are, that’s exceptionally rare. People do not want to be corralled by a member of the Christian sales force that Evangelicals have mobilized to hide the fact that their Christianity has lost all its power.

I get asked about my hope regularly. At least every week or two. Really. That’s the product of living in the kind of environment that the Thessalonian church lived in, where brothers dwell together in unity. There God has commanded the blessing of eternal life (Ps. 133:3).

Paul knew that words were useless. He wasn’t interested in the being the kind of peddler of wise words and arguments that we evangelicals are (2 Cor. 2:17, where the Greek word means “retail” or “peddle”). He said, “Don’t preach unless your sent” (Rom. 10:15). He said, “Mind your own business!” (1 Thess. 4:11). He knew that it was important that the Gospel be preached only by ministers who adorned it with good works, and who relied on the power of God and not on words (1 Cor. 4:20).

The church is important. Today I heard children singing, “Read your Bible, pray every day,” and then some words that basically said, “This is the way you grow.” It is not the way you grow! That is the lie, my friends, that has allowed wonderful people like those who created NavPress Deliberate to completely ignore the church, the fullness of him that fills all in all, while declaring that they have a holistic Gospel.

Read Ephesians 4:11-16. Really read it. The way we grow is together, speaking the truth in love to one another. You will not grow sitting in your room reading your Bible and praying. You will grow, together with other saints, as every part does its share, as you are trained by your leaders to build the body of Christ by speaking the truth to one another in love. This is the only way you’ll grow. We should teach those children to sing, “Exhort your brother, don’t miss a day,” in accordance with what the Bible actually says (Heb. 3:13).

It is a saying here that African Christianity is a mile wide but only an inch deep. I heard it both in Kenya and in Uganda. Of course that’s so. It’s not just the children who think that we will grow by reading our Bible and praying every day. We need to read our Bibles enough to find out that’s not so.

God is restoring his people, binding them together under his rule so that they can grow like they’re supposed to. Please join the revolution. As a dear Kenyan brother here likes to say, “It is powerful, my brother; powerful!”

If you have a chance come to our conference on June 27-29. Details are at http://www.rosecreekvillage.com/conference.