Posted in Authority • Church • Fear • Gospel • Punishment • Reward • Second death

The Wrath of God

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I feel somewhat out-of-place in addressing this topic. Most messages from Christians are centered on a sappy Jesus who, to them, is like a refugee from the ’60’s hippie movement spouting one liners about human ideas of peace and love. They don’t read the Bible very much or we would hear a lot more about God’s wrath (hundreds of verses) and how it is surely building over the current state of the world’s culture. In my opinion it is also building over the church’s involvement in leading the way, too.

 

But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against his people, until there was no remedy. (2 Chronicles 36:16, ESV)

 

The reason for talking about God’s wrath is number one because it ain’t pretty yet it will surely fall; two maybe it will spur people to repent; and three that it might inspire those who are already elect to do good. Speaking of the wrath (or fierce anger) of the Lord is an act of love because we want people to stop despising His Words and scoffing at the prophets or messengers of God. If we keep on like we are there will be no remedy.

 

Gather together, yes, gather, O shameless nation, before the decree takes effect —before the day passes away like chaff— before there comes upon you the burning anger of the LORD, before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the LORD. Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD. (Zephaniah 2:1–3, ESV)

 

The preachers of the false Jesus hippie dude whose teachings resemble those of Bill and Ted in their Excellent Adventure (“Be excellent to one another, and, Party on, dude!”) are presuming on the riches of His kindness. Obedience is not an option or a feeling. It is commanded by God that anyone who does not obey the gospel will be cast into outer darkness (Matthew 8:12, 22:13, 25:30).

 

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. (Romans 2:4–8, ESV)

 

Jesus is coming back soon, and many will be shocked and stunned to the roots of their soul at the sword in His hand and the fury with which He treads out the wine press of God’s wrath (Revelation 19:15). Don’t you be included in that number.

 

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (2 Thessalonians 1:5–8, ESV)

 

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. (Revelation 22:14–15, ESV)

Posted in Authority • Hypocrisy • Judaism • Law • Whole Bible Christianity book

Moses’ Seat

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Our sixth guideline is to follow leaders only as they lead from the Word. When inquiring about the validity of the Law in a believer’s life, sooner or later this Scripture will pop up.

 

1Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, 2saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; 3therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. (Matthew 23:1-3 NASB95)

 

On the surface, it looks like we should do everything the scribes and Pharisees say. But let’s look closer. Notice that the leaders “seated themselves.” This I think is a clear indication of usurping God’s authority. There’s no provision for Pharisees or Sadducees in the Law. Even if we could classify them under the term “elders,” Jesus says they’re hypocrites.

 

Jesus is teaching us to follow the leaders only as long as they follow Moses (the written Law). Deuteronomy 18:9 (NASB95) says not to imitate the “detestable things” of the nations. Paul says “imitate me as I imitate Christ” in 1 Corinthians 11:1 and “imitate God” in Ephesians 5:1. John says something similar.

 

Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. (3 John 11, ESV)

 

Why just the written Law, and not the oral? Because the written is the only standard that we can verify came from God. Some claim the oral law came directly from Moses, but there’s no evidence of this in the record. Plus, we can tell what comes from the Father because it glorifies the Father. If it doesn’t glorify God (and much of the Talmud and church tradition does not) then it’s from men and not from God. This claim is one of those power grabs from the Bible that some religious leaders do.

 

Many times in Israel’s past, the leaders led into idolatry and many horrible practices. Is Jesus saying we are required to follow leaders when they lead off the path? Emphatically not. When they take a left turn, we should keep on going straight. The church is routinely leading away from the Word now too; all we have to do is look at the results. We shouldn’t be blindly following those leaders either.

 

As long as the teaching fits in the framework and on the foundation that Moses laid down (Genesis through Deuteronomy) then we should follow. All other books that were added to the Bible had to pass this muster, and so should every other teaching that claims to be God’s. When a teacher departs from the Word, true believers should depart from the teacher.

 

From the book Whole Bible Christianity chapter 9 Follow Leaders Only as They Follow the Word

Posted in Authority • Church • Daily Living • God • Judaism • Love • Messianic Movement • Orthodox • Whole Bible Christianity

Whence Cometh Whole Bible Christianity?

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We didn’t set out to “create” whole Bible Christianity. We stumbled across it as we were searching through many existing church ideas and congregations for truth over the years. In some ways we were forced to whole Bible Christianity because in our search for truth we were rejected by the standard church on a regular basis. “If you’re not being ministered to here then you need to find a place where you can be ministered to” is a fairly common way to tell people to hit the road.

The love that many in the church preach lasted only as long as we agreed with the power structure. “Unconditional love” and “tolerance” are for those who don’t make waves or rock the boat with pesky questions like “Where does that teaching come from in the Bible” or “Why aren’t we doing what the Bible clearly says to do?”

At one time we thought the Messianic movement had a great chance of reaching a lot of disaffected people with the message of the whole Bible. Sadly they haven’t been up to the task. They have become so distracted by genetics, Judaism, language, divine invitations and the like that God’s Word is getting neglected as badly as in the church. In some ways they make the craziest people in the church look orthodox by comparison. Even the people closest to sticking with the whole Bible get lost in Jewish tradition.

So in a way it is the existing structure of church and Judaism that has led to our rediscovery of whole Bible Christianity. We don’t want a separate movement, but they do. We want access to God without intermediaries telling us their version of truth and chastising us if we deviate. In reaching for God we don’t want our hands slapped by people who see a threat to their power. We’re tired of getting our hooves torn off, being maimed and malnourished. It isn’t our fault that we’ve wandered away from dry and grassless desert hungering and thirsting after soul-satisfying food and drink. We’ve found green pastures beside still waters in whole Bible Christianity, and we ain’t goin’ back.

Posted in Authority • Bible • Church • Daily Living • Faith • Fear • Hypocrisy

Take A Stand

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When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. (John 12:9–11, ESV)

 

So not only were the religious leaders of the Jews plotting to kill Jesus, they also wanted to remove the evidence that Jesus was really who He said He was. There might be just a teeny bit of a reason for killing Jesus in the fact that He claimed to be equal with God and maybe some blindness on the part of the leaders is expected. And Jesus asks the Father from the cross to forgive them because they “know not what they do.”

 

However, this is not the case with plotting to include Lazarus in the festivities. The only thing Lazarus did wrong was coming out of the grave when Jesus told him to. Nothing in the Law could be used to persecute him; they just decided to do it anyway. Probably because they thought of themselves as doing a favor for God. This shows how the Law was typically used and abused by people without love. The hearts of the leaders were filled with hate and jealousy, so the use of the Law was false. They used it in a false way to condemn Jesus, and just ditched it when it didn’t suit their purposes. Either way, the Law was not in their hearts. We get a pretty complete picture of this in these three references close together in John 12.

 

So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.” (John 12:19, ESV)

 

If love for God’s Word was in their hearts, they would’ve rejoiced that the world was going after Him. Instead, they were upset that no one wanted to listen to them. They were tweezed that they were losing “their place” (John 11:48). This explains why John the Baptist, though a priest, worked outside of the system in the desert.

 

Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. (John 12:42–43, ESV)

 

The leaders used the fear of being put out of the synagogue (life revolved around it more then) to keep people in line with their perverted version of God’s Word. Some of the leaders had a chance at something different. At this point they chickened out, but hopefully later they realized the error of their ways. Sooner or later we have to take a stand. We can’t let the bullies who threaten us with cutting off fellowship in whatever form keep us from saying and doing what is right. People with hate in their hearts, who twist the Word for their own purposes, even if they are in leadership positions in the church, have to be opposed. Take your stand on the Word at all times no matter what the risk.

 

“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. (John 16:1–4, ESV)

Posted in Authority • Bible • Church • Daily Living • Feast and Festivals • Hypocrisy • Whole Bible Christianity

Who is Whole Bible?

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Since we started using the name whole Bible Christian in the early 2000’s, we’ve gradually seen somewhat of an increase in other groups who use the name too. Some use it for sermon titles, while others claim the designation for their church. A church in the UK uses a website address of wholelifewholebible. There’s a church in California (led by a former friend no less) that uses a tag line of “The whole Bible, a whole Christian, the whole World.”

Of course, whole Bible is not a new concept. A.W. Tozer for instance gives us a famous quote that “nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.” Lots of people and groups have thought of themselves as believing in the whole Bible through out history.

Pharisees are an obvious example of a group practicing “whole Bible” belief. Except while they “believed” the whole Bible they still crucified the Messiah. Lots of people want to use the name “Christian” too but having the name tag is as far as it goes.

Using the term is not enough. Just like using the name “Christian” is not enough to make it into the kingdom (nor is claiming “Jewish” ancestry). To be “whole Bible” is to do everything God speaks. It is to abide in every word from Him. Whole Bible belief includes whole Bible behavior. It means looking for reasons to do what He says as we discover it rather than making up excuses, or holding to a belief in men’s doctrines according to the elemental spirits of the world (Colossians 2). It includes repentance when we falter, and renewed commitment to eat His body and drink His blood (take in His Words and do them) on a daily basis.

It makes sense that people would want to claim this term for themselves. If one person says they are “whole Bible Christian” then that implies that there are people who are not. No one wants to be pinned down to a “part Bible” belief, though it might be prominent in their lives.

Like the UK church or the one in California, a woman told me she was whole Bible but “not like you.” She meant that she “believes” the whole Bible but that she didn’t observe God’s holy days or modify her diet according to God’s living oracles as I do, among other things. How she manages to say this with a straight face I’ll never know. She, like many, sits in judgment on the Word using the fruit from the tree of knowledge to pick and choose what she’s willing to accept from Him. Unfortunately, this is how she looks at the whole Bible, too. Her attitude of picking and choosing is also apparent in her practice of mercy, justice and compassion. She wants to sit at the table, but is fastidious in her choice of bread and wine. She wants to be at the banquet, but doesn’t want to wear the clothes (Matthew 22:1-14). Lots of people are like this. There’s another ancient name we can use for them too, besides Pharisee.

Hypocrite.

Posted in Authority • Bible • Church • Salvation • Whole Bible Christianity

Non-Essential Doctrine

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I’d like to know: What the heck is a non-essential doctrine? I keep hearing this from all different kinds of people about all different kinds of biblical teaching. We especially hear this when telling others about the wonderful blessings of including His Law in the believer’s daily walk. It seems that to the non-essential people “salvation” is the only essential doctrine. Salvation, of course, is defined by raised hands and going forward in a church or tent meeting, and then giving money while attending their church. That’s it. That’s their “essential” doctrine. Essential for keeping the money flowing, I guess. Essential for making notches in their Bibles or on the crucifix at the front of the church. Essential for building the pastor’s job into a multimillion dollar empire with a vacation house in the Bahamas and a nice Mercedes to go back and forth to church.

I’ve looked and looked in the Word, and I can find no “non-essential” doctrine. God doesn’t have one. I can find “weightier” and “lighter” commands, but the Bible says they are all important. Essential even. Every single word from His mouth as near as I can tell is “essential.” What possesses people to sit in judgment on God’s Word and label much of it non-essential?

Now, there are many doctrines of men I could count as non-essential, including the doctrine of non-essential doctrine. So much of what men teach sandbags God’s Word and directs us away from it. It’s time people ask, “What is essential about the drivel you are teaching and preaching from your high and mighty God’s-Word-denying pulpit?”

Posted in Authority • Church • Dogma • Fruit • Works

Rating the Pastors

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Back to the chart showing how pastors think about the job they are doing.

A more accurate rating should be: How well does your flock know the Bible, and how well do they live it?

Is your divorce rate, like so many churches, the same as the world’s?

Is your suicide rate, again as with so many churches, the same as the world’s?

Do your congregants use anti-anxiety drugs like the bread of communion?

Do the people with money have more influence and power than the poorer members?

Do you follow the whole of the Word, observing His holy days, His dietary guidelines, and His instructions for cleanliness? If not, why not? Have you instead been taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, precepts and teachings and elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ? (Colossians 2)

Are the discipline instructions in Matthew 18:15-20 followed in your church? Why not?

Jesus said that those who hear His words and do not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. How do we know our house is on sand? When the rain falls, floods come and winds blow and beat against the house, it falls down.

How many times has your “house fallen down” in upheaval and turmoil because of a pastor change? How many pastors do you know have fallen into transgression such as adultery and drug abuse?

Which is more common in your church, the fruit of the Spirit or works of the flesh? (Galatians 5:16-26)

Does your church look anything like the first century church?

Now how high does your pastor rate?

Do you think there’s a deeper meaning to the fact that diplomas are called “sheepskins?” As in, “wolves in sheep’s clothing?

Posted in Authority • Hypocrisy

Pastors Rate Themselves Highly

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How would you rate a pastor? According to one study, “of eleven common activities that pastors undertake, a majority of Protestant senior pastors rated themselves as doing an ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ job in ten of [these] eleven areas.” Do you agree?

PastorsRateHigh

Posted in Authority • Church • Daily Living • Idolatry • Whole Bible Christianity book

Bad Shepherds

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We can learn a lot about leaders or shepherds from Bible examples (Jeremiah 12:10, 23:1; Ezekiel 34; Zechariah 11). The good shepherds are good because they stick with what God says no matter what. Jesus of course is the pattern for all good shepherds everywhere. They care for the flock so much they are willing to forego fame or compensation. They stand up to the bad shepherds; endure beatings and all manner of ill treatment. They deliver God’s Word unadulterated and straight with no bending and no pragmatism. The good shepherd cares for the sheep so much he directs them always to the safe pastures of God’s Word.

Bad shepherds (or prophets) care more for themselves than for the flock. God gave us the method for identifying them in Deuteronomy 13:1-5, Isaiah 8:20 and the like. If they tell us to go after other gods, they are false. If they do something that seems right or good (like a prophecy that comes true, a healing or a rising from the dead) but then tell us to go after other gods they are also bad. Going after other gods doesn’t mean just statues in the living room. It means to stop doing what God says and do something else. This is why Adam and Eve got kicked out of the Garden – they “went after other gods” when they departed from abiding in God’s Word.

Some bad shepherds are so bad they are referred to as wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). The better the wool suit, the better they are at leading the sheep astray. The more they use terms in teaching that sound as if they come from the Bible the better their disguise. All they need is to mix just a little bit of error in with a lot of truth.

The bad shepherd slips up when he or she tells us in the midst of a convincing monologue or right after an amazing healing not to obey the commands of God. Or they don’t tell us TO obey the commands and instead direct us elsewhere. The better false teachers or shepherds are the ones who appear impeccable in their outward appearance.

Posted in Authority • Demons

Demons Testify

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“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? (Luke 6:46, ESV)

Reading in the Bible today, I wondered at first why Jesus would tell the demons He cast out not to say He was the Christ (Luke 4:41). Didn’t He want the news to be published? Then I realized that demons are no one’s friend. They are creatures of their father the deceiver. So there had to be an ulterior motive for their declaration. I think it was because Jesus didn’t need or want an endorsement from a demon or series of demons, first, and second they probably were thinking it would sidetrack the timing of God’s plan. They were planning mischief, somehow. What do you think?