Monday, February 19, 2007

Mel’s “Passion”

Children,

Do you remember the movie you brought home last Christmas, the one that you correctly assured me was not rated “R” the one that we watched for a minute or so and found so offensive we took it quickly back to the store? That was my introduction to Mel Gibson. Well today, Mel’s new movie is out. But this one is different; it’s perverse, but in a different way.

And something else is different. The “Christian” leaders of the world have gone mad with praise for Mel and his “passion.” Panic stricken pastors are trashing church budgets to rent theaters and charter buses and purchase “R” rated tickets so their flocks can attend. Attempting to energize members, now bored with Promise Keepers, to the next new high, they seem to have forgotten that there is but ONE gospel, and it is NOT from Hollywood!

Your father

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

Friday, February 16, 2007

Pied Piper of Purpose

Pastor,

You recently asked what was happening with us. I told you of His blessing, but not the rest.

A number of months ago a church, historically stalwart in the faith, we were visiting, suddenly mandated that Sunday classes were to be suspended for approximately forty days. During that time everyone was to participate in the study of a popular “purpose driven” paperback. Rather than gathering together to study the Word, that we might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, our challenge was to affirm a book by a mere man.

A few months ago another church, historically stalwart in the faith, we were visiting, suddenly mandated that Sunday classes were to be suspended for approximately forty days. During that time everyone was to participate in the study of a popular “purpose driven” paperback. Rather than learning together from the Word, That we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, our challenge was to affirm a book by a mere man and a rather... one at that.

These churches, each having heard the sirens’ call, marched in lockstep with a thousand other churches as the self proclaimed Pied Piper of Purpose lead them to a tranquil oblivion. “Purposefully” doing the “spiritually correct” thing each opted for an unholy aberration of His Word and the inevitable accompaniment: spiritual confusion. They failed to discern between two mutually exclusive ways of “doing church” His Way or man’s. And they are not alone. The pastor of Saddleback, Inc. has convinced multitudes that his “way” is more contemporary, more savvy, more pragmatic, more loving, and of course, more popular than the other Way. The author of “purpose” has persuaded many that he has discovered mysteries that even the Author and Finisher of our faith neglected to reveal. These two churches have apparently forgotten Judges, the book of spiritual confusion that sadly concludes: “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Tell me pastor, what is your church doing this fall…

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Popular Apostasy

Photo courtesy of the Franklin Collection.

I took my father for a drive one evening not too long ago. Over old country roads that were once so familiar. Latent memories brightened his face at every turn: “I used to plow that field for Jake, or plant that one for Dave, or combine that for Marlon.” Returning from the war, he and his often envied Oliver 70, purchased for two hundred dollars and two mules, not only tended his land but that of a multitude of others, land he knew as intimately as his own.

Suddenly, pointing toward the fading sun, he became disturbed: “There used to be a church there and a graveyard.” But I saw nothing but the silhouette of a fencerow entwined with reeds and vines. Yes, there had been a church, and perhaps as many as a dozen other one room sanctuaries scattered along that dusty meandering road, but like this one, little or nothing now remains. The voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride are now forever silent.

These forgotten churches of fair meadows and vale are so unlike those of today: No satellite receiver affixed to a steeple. No sermons to “spiritually” download or hymns with copyright code. No worship bands to rival a night club or bar. Or messages patterned after some Hollywood movie or star. No popular book studies other then the King James. No “Lights, Action, Camera” directing performers to take the stage. And sometimes not even a pastor. But they continued steadfastly in the apostles teaching and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers in a time when apostasy could travel little faster than an occasional circuit rider, in a time when Satan could deceive but one church at a time.