What is the Problem with Evangelism Ministry? Part 4 When Ministry Becomes A Mistress or Spiritual Adultery

I am a man who has been broken because I have failed in the most important human relationship created by God. It is a human relationship that God established, blessed, and devised to be a picture of how he deals both with His old covenant people Israel and His New Covenant people- the Church. 

A point of clarification: The church is the invisible and universal body of Christ. The members of the church are those who are born again by God, having repented of sin and trusted in (two sides of the same coin granted by God's grace Ephesians 2:8-9) Christ alone for their salvation. 

I will begin with a parable; There was a man who married a wife. He was in love with her, and desired to serve her and honor God with all of his being by loving her like Christ does the church. With this same passion, He also dove into ministry. As years passed, and children came into the home, and the cares of this world and the realities of married life crept in, this man began to pour his life into ministry. You see, at home, he did not feel the same respect that he did in ministry. People in his ministry hung on his every word, laughed at his jokes, and really were blessed what he had to say. He lost that at home, because his wife saw him act in dishonorable and non respectful ways. She did not hang on his every word, laugh at his jokes, and was often times not blessed, but cursed by him as stupid or not understanding. You see, the demands at home were not being met because he was pouring his life  and all of his energy into his ministry. His wife and kids got the leftovers. Eventually, his wife left him. She was seen as the bad person, She was condemned as the non Christian. 

At this point, you are probably thinking that the spouse is responsible for her own responses. Yes, that is true. However, the man sets the tone. The scripture is very clear that the man’s role in marriage is the one of headship, and with that great power comes great responsibility. Ephesians 5:23-33 details the husband’s role.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

        How does Christ want us to love our wives? Like Christ loved the church. It is agape love, something that Christian marriages strive to emulate. It is choosing to place love on a person, love without strings attached, love that prefers the object of the love above all others. How did Christ demonstrate Agape love towards the church? He laid down his life for the church. He gave up his human existence for the church. How can a man do that for his wife? By preferring her needs above that of his own; her need to be loved and feel loved above his need for respect and self-fulfillment. This example is found in Christ. There is nothing that Christ did not give. He left his heavenly home, laid down some of his attributes for a time, took on flesh, and the confinement of time to save His people- His bride. He gave it all, submitting to the Father before the beginning of time to lay down His life for His sheep. This is not a legalistic standard, it is an attitude.  It is a conviction. It is a decision to place the needs of the object of your love above that of your own life.  It is a act of gratitude for what Christ has done for you.

When a husband prefers ministry or elevates ministry (or work, or anything) over the obligation to love his wife, he is demonstrating a lack of understanding about the Gospel. I wonder specifically about para-church evangelism ministry: Why would a man travel across the country for days, weeks, or even months at a time to seek out a soul that is lost? He will say because he loves them and is concerned for their soul. He is commanded to seek and to save that which is lost. When he is willing to do that while leaving aside or downgrading the priority of loving his wife as Christ loved the church, is he serving God, or serving self? When the wife clearly communicates that she is not feeling loved, regardless if her motivation is pure, the priority is to listen, to hear, and to respond by laying down your life and even your ministry to love your wife as Christ loves the church. This brings more glory to God than any sermon ever preached.

²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.^[a]

The next way that Jesus showed Agape love for His body, the church, was laying down his life to save her and also to sanctify her. It was not enough that Christ died to justify us before God and to make us righteous, His laying down his life also benefited us by cleansing us, making us holy. A man who lays down his life for his wife looks like a man who is concerned and intentional in making sure His wife is not only a Christian, but also strives to make her holy through the Word of God. He studies with her, reads with her, prays with her. When he sins, and he will, he confesses to her and seeks her forgiveness. He models the life as a Christian. He seeks to emulate Christ in all he does. And the focus, again, is on the object, his wife, who is loved and preferred above all else. Christ placed this focused love on His sheep, and his focused love was so intense that he laid down his life for the object loved. Men are commanded to do the same. We will never do it perfectly, but it should be our life’s focus.

Men in ministry and in industry will spend hours in study. Pastors I know take 16-20 hours a week preparing for their sermon. Men in industry prepare and study so they can be the top in their field. While men in ministry  hopefully are doing these things to the glory of God, and Christian men in industry do the same, I wonder if many even put a fraction of the energy into doing the job Jesus commands in sanctifying their wives? I do not know any man in ministry or industry who would give up just because someone is stubborn and does not want to listen. They will continue to pursue and strive because they want the best for that person. Why then do we lay down that responsibility at home, where we have been commanded to do it? 

²⁸ In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰ because we are members of his body. ³¹ “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ³² This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

Christ’s agape love is demonstrated in that, while we were still sinners, He died for us (believers). He showed his love by preferring our need for righteousness above his need for life. When the scripture describes this love, it says several times that we ought to love our neighbors as ourselves, and here it says as our own bodies. I do not know about you, but when I am hungry, all I can think about is what I am going to eat, and where I am going to eat. It is my primary concern. That is the attitude we ought to have in dealing with our neighbor, and in a more intentional way with our spouses. Our love and preference for our spouses overrides and is on a higher level of importance than loving our neighbor. Christ is in us, we no longer live, but Christ lives in us (Galatians 2:20). In the spiritual realm, we are seen as righteous, because the Spirit of Christ now dwells in us. We are indistinguishable from Him in the heavenlies, and we are to become more like Him as we walk this earth. In the same way, we are to be one flesh with our wife. We are separate people (like Christ and Us) but we are one flesh in the spiritual realm. Our wives are our flesh. We are to nourish them spiritually, cherish them above all others. We do this to our own benefit, and if we fail to do it, it is to our detriment.

 It is here that we see that marriages are broken. If we do not love, nourish, and cherish our wives, then something spiritual happens. It is like a tear in our flesh. It is as though there is a wound that must be dealt with, and if it is not, the wound festers, becomes infected, and eventually can lead to amputation or even death. When we are not behaving like Christ to our wives, it is like a wound to our own flesh. She recognizes it in her spirit. If we do not deal with loving her spirit, and taking care of that wound, we are doing damage to our own flesh. Now, carrying through the illustration, when we deal with a wound, it is not always pleasant. It can hurt. The medicine that brings relief often stings. And the longer that it takes for the medicine to be applied, however, the worse it becomes. If you love your body, and you get a cut, you deal with it. We must be so attune to our wives’ spirit that if we wound her spirit, we need to be ready to bring the medicine of repentance, confession, and forgiveness to bear so that you can be healed.

What I hear and see all too often in ministry is a man who is self-centered and focused on building his own kingdom while claiming to build Christ's kingdom.  As stated above, in building our kingdoms in ministry or industry, we will strive to understand the mindset of the market in which we live, studying and gaining knowledge about how best to serve our congregation or our market. Yet, we spend little time and effort in an attempt to live with our wives in an understanding way (1 Peter 3:7) .

³³ However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

                So the command in this verse is clear: love your wife as yourself. This is the highest order. The man holds the burden of responsibility in the marriage to love his wife as Christ loves the church. The responsibility of the wife is to lovingly submit and to respect her husband. 

               

         But you retort- what if the wife just hates ministry? Are you a believer in the sovereignty of God?  Do you think that God chooses the one to whom we are supposed to be married so that our spouse can help us be built more into the image of Christ?  Or does God’s sovereignty end with our decisions about who we marry? Does not God make all things to work out for the good (Romans 8:28) so that we can be made into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29) or just some things?

Marriage brings together into one flesh two people who are sinful.  They are two people who need the Gospel. Every day. They need to realize that they are each broken and sinful people. They both need to realize that they are incapable of doing the things God has commanded them to do. The husband needs to realize that he cannot love His wife perfectly, but he will strive to with the help of Christ. When he fails, he will repent, confess, and seek forgiveness of both his wife and from God. He will receive grace and forgiveness and will be made whole. That is the gospel. When the wife does not submit to the husband or give him respect, she will realize it, repent of it, confess and seek forgiveness from her husband and from God, and she will receive grace and forgiveness and be made whole. That is the Gospel.  And when this is demonstrated in marriage, it brings more glory to God.

As ministers of the Gospel, we all must hold one another in the church to this standard of Gospel living before we do any gospel preaching. Again, we cannot do it perfectly. But we must strive to do it. When we fail, we must repent, confess our sin, and seek forgiveness. And there are seasons we must lay down the ministry to repair our marriage. 

Part one
Part Two
Part Three

What is the problem with evangelism ministry? Part 1 Church Discipline

     I love evangelism. It is in my blood. Ever since I got saved, I wanted to be ‘out there’ telling other people about Jesus. I was that guy that offended friends and family members because of my passion for Jesus and the way that he saved me. I look back on that guy and I want his passion, but I also realize that the passion that I had needed to be tempered and taught and fashioned, because in some ways it was zeal without knowledge. This is not to say that we do not know enough as Christians to be able to share our faith and the truth that I am a sinner and God saved me through Christ, I am simply saying that discipleship helps us grow, mature, and temper our methodology. And a little Bible knowledge never hurt.

    I tell this little story because there is one more aspect that is true about passion for ministry. Passion for ministry in my life has taken me down a road where no one could speak to me about the unbalanced life that it created. It put me on an island that split me from some friends, family, and, I believe, contributed to the destruction of my first marriage and a total breakdown of my relationship with my oldest child. These are problems that were created by me being fooled into thinking that ministry is the most important, that serving God and following Jesus means that you must abandon all else that God has placed into your life, indeed, that certain Bible passages did not apply to me because I was serving God.

    Herein lies the problem: The institutional church that I was pastoring practiced church discipline, but it was a strong, passionate Pastor (me) with a strong personality of influence. The elders in the church did not see a problem until it blew up in their faces. My story is a cautionary tale because it took an overseeing body to come in and remove my mantel of leadership and practice the discipline that our little church could not. Here I sit, nearly four years later, a little wiser following a divorce where my ex-wife left me, I lost the church where I was pastoring, and I am no longer in formal ministry.

Church discipline worked. I repented of my sin, I sought and still seek out help. I was restored by the Church, and now have a little better understanding of who I am and why I failed. This came after much pain. I had to go through it in order for God to mold me into the person He wanted. I am now qualified again to minister, however, I am still trying to find that balance that does not take me over the edge.

My story is important, because it demonstrates the grace of God in church discipline. It is also important because it is indicative of a subculture within the church that is coming to the forefront today in a movement of evangelists. These are passionate men and women, like me, who want to tell the world about Jesus. However, within the movement there are many who, like me, abandon their God- given responsibility of their family. There are some that abandon the church as well and create their own churches simply because the church they were a part of does not move quick enough to respond to their passion. Others abandon any friends and family members who do not subscribe to or understand their own particular brand of ministry. Most become part of bands of preachers, para-church ministries, and event evangelism  which  have little or no church oversight. Even those who have strong church oversight do not have sufficient oversight in the lives of the evangelists to determine if they are truly fit for ministry.

What is the problem that is at the center of the culture that is evangelism ministry? I can only speak for myself; In my case, it was spiritual pride, followed by a good dose of respect in the eyes of my peers. When I was teaching, training, preaching, and writing in the context of discernment and evangelism ministry, I was at the top of my game. My saying after days of ministry that sometimes lasted sixteen hours or more was that you could sleep when you were dead. There were times that my motives were pure, to be sure. I believe that God used me, my teachings, and writings. People got saved hearing the message. Brothers and sisters were built up and encouraged to press forward in the ministry. But evangelism ministry was like a powerful drug to me, and there were times that it reared its ugly head in the form of sarcasm and less than gracious speech. It also caused me to be blind to the needs of my ex-wife, my family, and sometimes even my young church plant. I was spread too thin. But I found respect and excitement and amazing camaraderie of fellowship with those of like mind. My church and family relationships were dying, but I never felt more alive.

My other problem was that I believed that the proper hierarchy was loving God then wife than family than myself. In practice, this looked like that loving God was doing ministry, and therefore, if evangelism was doing ministry, it was in truth more important than my wife and my family.  I am afraid that while I knew and we could say that this is not the truth, that in practice it was the truth. Ministry, in my case, became idolatrous as it had become synonymous with God in my practice. It also was a false picture of God, because the word of God tells us that we are to love our wives in the same way as Christ loves the church. That means we are to lay down our lives for our wives, in the same way that Christ laid down His life for the church. We are NEVER told in scripture to lay down our lives for the church- Christ has already done this. When ministry supersedes the husband-wife relationship, it is in wrong position. When the family is in trouble, necessarily, you are not qualified to be in biblical church ministry. And while it is the call of every believer to share their faith, when the sharing of faith is done to the detriment of your primary responsibility in the family, you are in fact blaspheming God by misrepresenting His character and nature.

The truly sad thing was that I was so deceived that I believed God needed me in ministry so badly, and that evangelism was so important that it was my wife and my children that were the ones who were sinning when they told me to come home and get my priorities in order. It was my ex-wife who was seen as wrong by the evangelism community I was a part of when she rightly recognized that my priorities were out of balance. This is a dangerous precedent when the church and the family see things out of balance but the para church ministry welcomes the participation of people who are in sin. There is no excuse for ministries to welcome a person who is under church discipline.

I am vexed at this problem because of what it says to the world about Jesus. In my case, nobody knew what was going on behind the scenes with my family, least of all me. I knew very well, but I didn’t see it because I did not want to see it.  Everybody knew that I had a family and a church and several jobs to keep it all afloat. I would hear things like “man you are gone a lot” “how does your family do it” “don’t your kids miss you” but I did not listen. All warning signs. I can only imagine the tongue wagging that was going on behind my back in the town when my ex-wife abandoned me. I did not have to imagine it because it happened in public after I was restored and I returned to evangelistic  ministry. When people mocked, they used phrases with knowledge. Even though I had been restored in the church, in the eyes of the world, I was still a failure because I failed at the most important human relationship. Restoration can be a powerful testimony, when done in the context of good church discipline in the midst of a loving church and good relationships.

The word discipline is a lot like discipleship, and that is what Biblical church discipline is. Many people upon hearing discipline immediately have a negative connotation of the word. However,  Biblical Church Discipline is for the purpose of the building up and edification of both the one being disciplined as well as the rest of the Church. Indeed, the primary role of the Church is to create disciples. The starting point is repentance and belief in Christ as Savior. Through justification by faith and redemption, people become adopted children of God. Discipleship is the process by which people in the church, according to their gifts, and  in concert with the Holy Spirit, train Christians in the faith with the goal of conforming them to the image of Christ. This, in turn, builds the church into maturity. Discipleship allows the power of the Gospel to change lives for the better, bringing glory to God through these changed lives. This also separates the church from the world as an agent of real and permanent life change, and this brings the Church to a new place of honor and respect in the community. This simply cannot and does not happen within para-church organizations or within most ‘event’ evangelism. Anybody who desires to sign up and has a modicum of knowledge how to answer the questions that some actually ask are given entrance to participate.

The textbook that must be used for discipleship is the scripture. After all, we are not interested in building followers of a specific church, theology,or even the individuals who are doing the discipleship. Least of all, we are not building followers of the culture. We are building followers of Jesus Christ. It is from within the scripture that we find what the Christian walk is to look like. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16:

16All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

The location for discipline and discipleship is in the local church. The main problem in the para-church or event-evangelism community is that they are not the church, and they are not walking in the lives of the people who are participating in the events. In my case, many of these events were hundreds, even thousands of miles away from my community, family, and church. I would see these people for a week at the longest. And though they were friends of mine, I could hide truth from them long enough to complete the event. So the participants in the event may not be qualified to minister even in the streets. The discipline and discipleship is not the focus of the para church or event evangelism ministry, so people are not being discipled to walk in the light, because the leadership of the event is either fearful of man, or the organizers and leaders fears man more than they fear God. all that they can see is the pragmatic need to minister, all while they bring shame to the name of Christ.

 

    I was part of a para church ministry that did great work, but was nearly destroyed some three years ago from within. There was a great deal of sin within the leadership that was not exposed until someone was brave enough to bring the sin to light. They had no idea how deep it had gotten. The reality was that the leader, the pastor, had no real accountability and had almost a cult leader like power over his leadership team. It was a real situation of spiritual abuse and warfare, all because proper Biblical leadership was not in place. Discipleship and discipline could be practiced, but out of the oversight of a true church. This turned into spiritual abuse of a kind that I do not want to speak about here. Though the ministry is on a path to healing and growth after church discipline was applied, they, like other ministries, are in the cross hairs of those who wish to bring them down. Now, more than ever, evangelism ministries must be above reproach and very careful about self-examination and vetting of their participants. The stakes are too high to take shortcuts when it comes to the reputation of Christ and His Church.

 

It is my desire today to warn individuals and ministries when I see the warning signs that I wish people would have seen in me. I also hope to help them divide the right from the wrong. The glory of God is of primary importance. The gospel being proclaimed rightly in the home, the local church, and on the street  bring glory to God. When one is not taking care of business in the home or the local church, all the proclamations suffer, and the reputation of Christ is brought into ill repute by those who claim to love Him and the people observing the disaster. The warning in Luke 8:17 is pertinent here: For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. The longer the sin festers the more destruction happens when it is brought to light. I am fearful that ministries that I have participated in and contributed to will be destroyed from within if they refuse to use discernment or discipline within their membership.

The next blog post will be on the qualifications for evangelistic ministry. 

I Don't Hate You

Please go to my friend Adam's  page and check out this cartoon. It is amazing, and says what we Christians should be trying to say in the midst of our culture. You may want to check my earlier post also.

Are you under the Law or under Grace?

It Depends.

If you have repented and trusted Christ as your Savior you are under Grace. 

If you have not, you are under God's Law and you will be judged by Jesus Christ on Judgment Day

The recent supreme court ruling has awakened an age-old debate and a method by which non-believers can argue with Christians about sins that they want to justify. In the flowchart I have inserted below, an age old red-herring straw man has been pictured. Ostensibly, it destroys 'religion's' arguments against same sex marriage. To the typical layman, this is an effective tool that could convince them that perhaps same-sex marriage is a-ok because we do not observe certain Old Testament commands, and hold tightly on to other ones. 

In the Old Testament, particularly in the first five books, God sets out his law in written form. This law was for a specific chosen people that lived at a specific time. The Mosaic law, as written in Exodus, Deuteronomy, and in Leviticus were for God's chosen people, Israel. These are the people through which God's Savior- Jesus- would come. It was through Him that the blessing of Salvation would come.

1Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3

Israel was a chosen people for the purpose of displaying the grace of God to the world. Being part of Israel did not secure your salvation, however, if you believe, looking to God as your Savior, He would save you. God knew who these people were. He was national Israel's king and Sovereign, saving them out of Egypt and promising them a land and a national identity. When you lived in Israel, you lived according a set of laws that were to show you as a people that were set apart. These laws were civil, moral, ceremonial, and dietary. These include the infamous commands about eating shellfish, wearing mixed fabrics, eating pork, dealing with women's monthly period, and, of course, homosexuality (not to mention incest, bestiality, and other perversions). These are the laws of the Old Covenant, for the Jewish people, to separate them as a people from out of the other nations. These are not laws that are for us today, especially not for gentiles (those who are not Jewish). The penalties for breaking these laws are also not applicable today- that is fortunate for the penalty for blaspheming God which happens almost constantly in our world was a death penalty offense. 

God does not change, but the way that he deals with people does change. God dealt with Adam and Eve differently than Noah, Abraham, and Even Moses. God deals with Christians today through the eyes of the New Covenant. We are not under the law, but under grace. We keep his commands- not to be saved but because we are saved. The keeping of the law does not save us, but because Christ has kept the law we can receive the benefit of him keeping the law. We are seen as holy and righteous, not because we have kept the law, but because we have trusted in Christ's payment for sin- his death, burial, and resurrection. 

Now what that does not mean is that we can continue in sin. When Christ saves us, we are given a new identity, and a new character. It is called being born again (John 3:3) where our very nature is changed (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are now filled with the Holy Spirit who empowers us to keep the commandments (Matthew 22:37-39, Romans 13:8-10). As a Christian, it is not impossible to sin, but it is impossible to live in sin. Even the promise that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9) is based on confession, which means agreeing with God on what sin is (1 John 1:7-8). Indeed, if we say we have no sin, we are calling God a liar. This promise is not so we can continue to live in sin, rather, that we will not sin (1 John 2:1) but if we do sin, we have an Advocate- Jesus Christ. The process is called sanctification (Romans 6) where as we walk with Christ in obedience we become more like Him. 

Under Law or Under Grace? 

If you are a Christian, you have been set free from the law (Romans 7:4-6). In terms of the law, you have been justified or declared 'not guilty'. This is because Christ's righteousness in terms of the law has been imputed to you, so that it is just as though you have not sinned (2 Corinthians 5:21) Does that mean we are free to sin with abandon? (Romans 6:1-2) As Paul argues "May it never be!" It also means that we do not get to point to the law as the one that has saved us or that our obedience to the law makes us righteous (Romans 3:19-20, Galatians 2:16). We are warned continually in the New Testament not to put ourselves back under the law, for we have been set free from it. Instead, we ought to walk by the Spirit in response to His leading (Romans 6). This is a lifetime struggle; but the promise is that one day for the Christian we will become like Him (1 John 3:2) and we continue in that hope as we purify ourselves (1 John 3:3). The ability to do this all comes by the grace of God, for without conversion and regeneration, we would have neither the ability or desire to obey. 

For the non-Christian- the Atheist, the Muslim, the Jew- they are all still under the law, and will be judged by it. God is the only righteous judge. It is not the Christian's job to hold these folks to the law, or to judge them accordingly while we are here on this earth. The Holy Spirit is working in the unbelieving world about sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:7-11) It is our job to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in warning them, however, by proclaiming the law so that they might know that they are lawbreakers. Further, we need to warn them of the coming judgment, as well as proclaim that there is One Savior, Jesus Christ. There is great hope for lawbreakers like you and me- the cleansing grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ: 

9Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

If you have not repented and trusted Christ alone as Savior, you are still under the law, and God will judge you. You will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.  However, no matter what you have done, if you by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) will confess (agree with God regarding your sin) repent (turn from your sin and self-righteousness to Christ) and trust/believe in Christ alone, you will be washed, sanctified, and justified. The judgment will be taken on by Christ, and His righteousness will be imputed to you. You will be set free from death- the penalty for sin.

Why So Angry?

Why do you suppose these mockers made this graphic? The number one reason is due to their own God- given knowledge that they have sinned against God, and by pointing out others' sin, they believe that they are somehow justified. However, they do have a point. The way that the institutional church inconsistently proclaims a weakened, man-centered gospel as well as the fact that church discipline has fallen by the wayside as the Institutional Church only wants to grow larger while looking more and more like the culture rather than being a beacon of light and holiness in the midst of the culture. This because many churches have nothing to do with the Church- the spotless bride of Christ. 

As a former Pastor, and a regular church attender and observer of the US church, I have seen a consistent pattern emerging in many of the larger churches. This pattern is that somehow we believe that the church grows only through compromise labelled as 'love'. However, if we observe several mainline denominations like the ELCA and Episcopal Church, their acceptance of culture over scripture has resulted in a steep decline in attendance, giving, and membership. This gives me hope if it were not for the churches like Willow Creek and Purpose Driven Churches which use man-centered gimmicks to grow their churches a mile wide and an inch deep. They use the culture to grow their church ostensibly to give them the opportunity to proclaim the gospel. The gospel is watered down to a point where it is often simply a change of identification rather than a heart change. The promise- pray a prayer 'accepting' Christ, attend a small group, and you will change morally and God will give you a purpose in this world as you travel around the bases or go from the crowd to the core.

The watered down, man centered Gospel has produced a generation of weak in the knee christians that do not know the scripture or the power of God. They do not understand that the Church is the Bride of Christ, whom Christ died to make Holy. Part of this process necessarily happens within the church in discipleship and preaching of the Word. It also happens in the process of Church discipline where the believer as a member of the church falls short and those who are spiritual seek to restore that person in a spirit of gentleness. It is this accountability and addressing of sin in a manner that honors God which the world sees as lacking in our fellowships. They do not see us as sanctified or separate from the world.

A glaring example is the inconsistent manner that we deal with things such as divorce. In my part of the world, churches are filled with divorced people- I am one of them. Many churches and Pastors do not blink an eye at divorce and they willingly remarry people who, through their own sin, brought about divorce. We scream VERY loud about homosexuality, and find it a perversion of the intent of God  (indeed it is) but we hardly blink an eye when an adulterous cheating divorced person is in our membership or approaches the Pastor to be remarried. People who are married seek the counsel in some of these churches and are encouraged to divorce for unbiblical reasons (I have heard self-actualization as an excuse for divorce from a 'christian' counselor!)  Indeed, if the divorced person is the offended party in the divorce, or a repentant offender that caused the dissolution of marriage, Christians should seek to build up and love through Biblical Church Discipline and restoration (Galatians 6:1-2). All to often, however, it is not even addressed through fear that one or both of the parties will become offended and leave the church. 

Biblical Church Discipline is for the purpose of the building up and edification of both the one being disciplined as well as the rest of the Church. It allows the power of the Gospel to change lives for the better, bringing glory to God through these changed lives. This also separates the church from the world as an agent of real and permanent life change, and this brings the Church to a new place of honor and respect in the community. Avoiding the problem or not confronting sin in the church has the opposite effect; it brings shame to God and lives are stuck and shackled to sin. The churches then are rightly seen in the community as just another social club.

What does this mean to us? 
As believers in Christ Jesus, we are called to live lives as holiness and separation from the world and the world system. What that looks like is we personally follow Jesus through reading His Word and obeying it, as well as a life of prayer consistently communicating and communing with God. We ought to be in Churches that faithfully preach the Word and practice church discipline. And we ought to be participating in the Great Commission through verbally sharing our faith with the people we come into contact with daily. This does not mean senseless judgment that casts a broad stroke of condemnation, rather, a reasoned Biblical approach that shares the bad news that man is unrighteous and stands guilty before God (Romans 3:9-19, 23) but that God is rich in mercy sending His Son (Ephesians 2:4) and through repentance and faith in Christ, we can be saved (Ephesians 2:8-10, John 3:16-17). 

When someone asks you about Divorce, Shellfish, or mixed fabrics, use it as a launching pad to share the good news that you have fallen short under the entire law, specifically the law to love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself. You can then ask your friend how he or she has done in terms of keeping God's moral law or the two greatest commandments. You can then go on graciously to explain how you no longer are under the law, because the only One who has ever kept the law in thought, word, and deed died on the cross, taking the penalty for your sin, and rose again on the third day defeating death. You can share that you are now seen as righteous by God, not because you are good, or better than anyone else, but because you serve a gracious and merciful God.

Red-Herring Straw-Man Argument

Summary of Beliefs:Roman Catholics vs. The Bible

Roman Catholicism

The inclusion of Roman Catholicism in this paper is purposeful. Like any other religion, it is a false doctrine of works, and a false combination of the teachings of man and the Word of God, the Bible. It has always been a marriage of the world systems of government and religion. In history, Roman Catholics have sought (and in some cases gained)  much political power and influence. The Roman Catholic system of religion allows them to control their followers, because the Church ‘holds the keys’ of heaven and hell. They have this control over all of their followers, who have included many princes and rulers. They claim to be Christian, but Paul’s letter to the Galatians calls them out as those to be anathema (damned) because they bastardize the Gospel by adding works and the tradition of man.

Short History

According to Catholics, their faith was established by Jesus, and built upon Peter (Matthew 16:18) who was the first ‘Pope’.

"Jesus entrusted a specific authority to Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The "power of the keys" designates authority to govern the house of God, which is the Church. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, confirmed this mandate after his Resurrection: "Feed my sheep." The power to "bind and loose" connotes the authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal judgements, and to make disciplinary decisions in the Church. Jesus entrusted this authority to the Church through the ministry of the apostles and in particular through the ministry of Peter, the only one to whom he specifically entrusted the keys of the kingdom."

The history of the early church has been adopted by the Catholic Church as their own with some legendary changes. The most significant claims of Peter being the first Pope beginning the line of apostolic succession is not even supported by secular or Biblical history. For example, Peter was never in Rome, and was not even seen as a prominent leader in the early church after Acts 10, and he aligned himself as just one of the apostles, not the chief apostle or Pope (1 Peter 1:1). The legend of Peter as the ‘rock’ upon which the church is built is needed for the church to claim the unbroken apostolic authority to exercise control as the True Church.  

What really separates Roman Catholicism from the rest of the Biblical underground church is the adoption of Roman traditions for church government as well as adopting some traditions of their communities that they were a part of. Ultimately, the Catholic Church was formalized and standardized in 313 as Constantine legalized Christianity and took over as the head of the Roman Church. They formalized position of bishops and the bishop of Rome (the Pope) Leo 1 was likely the first pope in Rome around 440 AD.

Summary of Beliefs

The Catholic Church believes much like we do when it comes to Jesus Christ. They hold that Jesus is eternal God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father. They believe that Jesus was born of a virgin. They hold to his death, burial, and resurrection as historical fact. Unfortunately, the official position of the Church views justification purchased at the cross as incomplete. In fact, in the Catholic view if one agrees with the Bible that justification is by faith alone, that person is damned:

"If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema".

"If any one saith, that man is truly absolved from his sins and justified, because he assuredly believed himself absolved and justified; or, that no one is truly justified but he who believes himself justified; and that, by this faith alone, absolution and justification are affected; let him be anathema,".

If not by faith alone, how is one justified? According to the Catholic church, we must have works, specifically the sacraments, to add enough merit to gain eternal life:

"Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life, as well as necessary temporal goods”.

"...Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life."

"The Council of Trent teaches that the Ten Commandments are obligatory for Christians and that the justified man is still bound to keep them; the Second Vatican Council confirms: "The bishops, successors of the apostles, receive from the Lord . . . the mission of teaching all peoples, and of preaching the Gospel to every creature, so that all men may attain salvation through faith, Baptism, and the observance of the Commandments."

Even if you gain enough merit, you can lose your justification. You need to regain it from the church through works (sacraments):  

“Justification can be lost by sinning. To regain the grace of justification you must participate in the sacraments and perform penance”.

The Roman Catholic belief is that tradition is equal to Scripture (which only the Magisterium can interpret) so they are able to justify the adoption of tradition from the variety of pagan faiths that were around at the time of its legalization by Constantine. These traditions include the veneration of Mary, and her role as a co-mediator with Jesus Christ. The Catholics simply renamed the pagan female deities, and imitated the worship of these deities, elevating the human sinner Mary to god-like status. They also got traditions like the confessional, church government, and the ‘sacrifice of the Mass’ by adopting various pagan religious practices.

The Biblical View

Many of these practices mentioned above seem innocuous to the faithful Catholic, but as we study the origins and understand the scripture, the traditions are seen as tools to make the Catholic Church herself as the Savior, and not King Jesus. Martin Luther in his Commentary on Galatians was very direct in addressing the shortcomings of the Catholic Church specifically on the theme of justification:

“The nefarious opinion of the papists, which attributes the merit of grace and the remission of sins to works, must here be emphatically rejected. The papists say that a good work performed before grace has been obtained, is able to secure grace for a person, because it is no more than right that God should reward a good deed. When grace has already been obtained, any good work deserves everlasting life as a due payment and reward for merit. For the first, God is no debtor, they say; but because God is good and just, it is no more than right (they say) that He should reward a good work by granting grace for the service. But when grace has already been obtained, they continue, God is in the position of a debtor, and is in duty bound to reward a good work with the gift of eternal life. This is the wicked teaching of the papacy.

Now, if I could perform any work acceptable to God and deserving of grace, and once having obtained grace my good works would continue to earn for me the right and reward of eternal life, why should I stand in need of the grace of God and the suffering and death of Christ? Christ would be of no benefit to me. Christ's mercy would be of no use to me.”

In other words, Roman Catholicism is a perversion of the Gospel. Paul himself calls it thus; anything else than the simple repentance from sin and trust in Christ alone is another gospel resulting in damnation:

Galatians 1: 6-9 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

Galatians 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Roman Catholics, like the Judaizers in the New Testament, desire there to be a connection to the Church that requires reliance on the church and tradition in order to gain salvation. This control is gained by making the church, the priesthood and the sacraments the only vehicle by which man can be saved. In the middle ages ignorance of the scripture allowed this control to extend from the peasants all the way to governments and kings. In the modern day, this willful ignorance of the masses has allowed the Catholic Church to pull the wool over the eyes of other Christian denominations and Christian leaders. This is accomplished by changing terminology related to salvation to match biblical terms. The use of the terms grace, born again, justification, and receiving Christ are examples of salvation terms that Roman Catholic leadership has co-opted for their purpose.

Term	Roman Catholic Meaning	Biblical Meaning
Born Again	Baptism (mostly infant)- means that infant is now a member of the church and part of the body of Christ- and can receive the grace of God via the sacraments and works. This removes original sin and actual sin.	A gracious act of God by which He imputes Jesus’ righteousness to repentant sinners. Based on the grace of God not the merit of any work.  (John 1:12-13, 3:3, 5, 16-18, Acts 4:12, 2 Corinthians 5:17,21 1 Peter 1:23)
Receive Christ	The Eucharist, or the sacrifice of the Mass (Lord’s Supper), Where the Catholic believes the elements of wine and wafer are changed into the actual body and blood of Jesus	A colloquialism, taken from John 1:12-13, the idea that when we repent and place trust in Jesus we ‘receive Him’ into our lives. Upon repentance and faith we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)
grace	Is a gift, granted to those who are baptized, and infused into the Catholic through doing good works and receiving the different sacraments	It is a gift, received by faith- not of works (Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-9) It is because of this that we are saved from sin and brought into the life of God allowing us to be born again (2 Timothy 1:8-10, Acts 15:11)
justification	The process of Justification is begun with baptism, and continued (even regained) through participation in the sacraments of the church and the doing of good works	Justification is by faith, it is a one time judicial declaration of “NOT GUILTY” by God over the repentant sinner, based on His grace and the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Titus 3:7 John 1:12, Isaiah 53:12; 1 Pet. 2:24, Rom. 3:20,24, 28; 4:5; 5:1,9; Eph. 2:8-9

In conclusion, the Roman Catholic Church’s Jesus is another Jesus, one who looks very similar to the Biblical Jesus, but is a stripped down version needing the help of the Church and good works to complete salvation in the lives of believers. The Catholic Jesus needs the help of his mother to mediate between Him and His followers. He also needs priests, bishops, archbishops, and popes to assist Him in completing the task of saving and leading the church. The Bible, however, is clear that salvation is something that is both initiated and completed by God (John 1:12-13, 3:3-14, 10:27-30, Philippians 1:6, Ephesians 2:4-5,8-10). And that Jesus has all authority (Matthew 28:18) and is the head of the church (Ephesians 1:22, 5:23, Colossians 1:18). It is Jesus alone who is our advocate (1 John 2:1) with God the Father. And while Jesus’ followers are called and created in Christ to do good works (Ephesians 2:10, 2 Corinthians 5:17) these works are the result and evidence of the change that has been wrought in Christ. Outside of Christ’s work in salvation, none of our works are good (morally excellent) (Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:12) nor can they save us (Romans 3:20). Martin Luther says it best:

“With Paul we absolutely deny the possibility of self merit. God never yet gave to any person grace and everlasting life as a reward for merit. The opinions of the papists are the intellectual pipe-dreams of idle pates, that serve no other purpose but to draw men away from the true worship of God. The papacy is founded upon hallucinations.”By the term "flesh" Paul does not understand manifest vices. Such sins he usually calls by their proper names, as adultery, fornication, etc. By "flesh" Paul understands what Jesus meant in the third chapter of John, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh". (John 3:6.) "Flesh" here means the whole nature of man, inclusive of reason and instincts. "This flesh," says Paul, "is not justified by the works of the law."The papists do not believe this. They say, "A person who performs this good deed or that, deserves the forgiveness of his sins. A person who joins this or that holy order, has the promise of everlasting life."

To me it is a miracle that the Church, so long surrounded by vicious sects, has been able to survive at all. God must have been able to call a few who in their failure to discover any good in themselves to cite against the wrath and judgment of God, simply took to the suffering and death of Christ, and were saved by this simple faith.Nevertheless God has punished the contempt of the Gospel and of Christ on the part of the papists, by turning them over to a reprobate state of mind in which they reject the Gospel, and receive with gusto the abominable rules, ordinances, and traditions of men in preference to the Word of God, until they went so far as to forbid marriage. God punished them justly, because they blasphemed the only Son of God.This is, then, our general conclusion: "By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."”