The News Beats

Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (Joh 8:12)

Chuck and Nancy Missler of  Koinonia House ministries have found themselves having to respond to criticism regarding their take on the Outer Darkness mentioned three time in the book of Matthew.  They have contended in the past that it is not representative of the condemnation, or the eternal state of those without Christ Jesus, the Lord.  In an attempt to understand why they would take this view perhaps something can be learned from their reasoning.  The Misslers seem to have inherited the fallacy of false dilemma on the topic from Charles Stanley; whom they reference among a few others holding the same interpretation.  All of them proceed to their position by first discounting Outer Darkness as a representation of hell.  Yet, the fact that the Outer Darkness is not a description of hell does not necessarily mean it must apply to something other than complete separation from God and Christ for all eternity.  The Lake of Fire is not a description of hell either, but that does not mean people don’t end up there, or that it is not a place of eternal torment for those who reject Christ in this life (Rev 20:15).

Expositors are prone to error when they attempt to assign a stationary or geographic location to something that is only representative of a state of existence; just as they are likely to error by treating as permanent a location that is only temporary.  Outer Darkness is representative of the condemnation, and is the state of damnation; and even hell is a temporary abode which, after fulfilling its purpose, will itself be cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:14).

In their latest installment,¹ the Misslers contend that the Outer Darkness is “a place of restoration, renewal and reinstruction in the ways of the Lord” in the millennial kingdom.²  They claim it is a place for saints who will go to heaven, but who aren’t quite ready to be there, or are not fit to hold down a job in the millennial kingdom until they are “reestablished in holiness” by spending time in Outer Darkness.³  For a proof they reference the processes of chastening and scourging we undergo here on earth as sons, and which are means our heavenly father uses to perfect us.  This is true to scripture, but there is no scriptural support for the continuing of this refinement process once we are in our glorified bodies (1John 3:2).

There is, however, scripture that refutes it: “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away…. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1Cor 13:10, 12).  When we see our Lord, we will no longer be encumbered by flesh, and the hindrances of our fallen natures will be removed; our minds will then perfect, and we will be perfect in our knowledge of God, and his plans and purposes throughout the ages.  Again the Bible tells us: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1Jn 3:2). The entire transformation takes less than the twinkling of an eye. There will be no need for remedial classes in heaven, or the millennial kingdom, for resurrected or translated saints.

The Misslers would do well to jettison this misinterpretation and absorb any costs to their ministry now while such are easier to be borne.  If they continue to argue for it, they will come to find themselves arguing that the very wicked generation Christ condemned for rejecting Him is yet to be found in a rehabilitation center in the millennial kingdom.  They will not be there.

When the Pharisees questioned Christ’s authority (Mat 21:23) they were rejecting Him (Mat 21:42).  Christ then responded to their rejection by directing three parables to the Pharisees with each one becoming more exacting in its severity until the final point was driven home.  In the first, they are superseded in their entrance to the kingdom by those outside their religious order (Mat 21:28-31).  In the second, they are supplanted in their title to the kingdom by a new nation of saved Jews and Gentiles (Mat 21:33-43).  In the third, they are finally sentenced to an eternal destiny outside the kingdom (Mat 22:2-13).  If any doubts were to remain as to their damnation, Christ made it clear in his pronouncement of the eight woes following the three parables (Mat 23:13-39).

In the eighth woe Christ pronounced on the Pharisees He made it clear that they were representative of all who rejected God in the history of humanity, past, present, and future; and as a composite “generation” none of them would escape the “damnation of hell” (Mat 23:22).  Earlier in the third of the three parable to the Pharisees, Christ made it clear that this damnation was in effect being bound “hand and foot” in their sins for all eternity (Mat 22:13), and being cast into “outer darkness” where “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”  (Mat 22:13).  Those Pharisees, and everyone else of their wicked generation, will not inhabit heaven, nor the millennial kingdom of Christ.

The Outer Darkness is representative of final and eternal separation from God and Christ, the “light of the world” (John 8:12).  It is regrettable that the both Charles Stanley and the Misslers are in error on this point.  While the Misslers take pains to separate their doctrine from that of the Catholic purgatory,⁴ and deny that weeping and gnashing of teeth denotes punishment,⁵ they nonetheless portray by it the same place in Greek mythology known as the Elysian Fields.⁵ These, and their precursor from Egyptian mythology’s Reed Fields, gave rise the that doctrine of purgatory, and the idea of second chances after death for the lost and unrepentant.

Notes:

^{1 - 5.} Koinonia House, “The Kingdom, Power, and Glory: How Secure Is our Salvation?” Personal Update: The News Journal of Koinonia House 20, no. 1 (2010) 31.

^{5. Ibid, 32.}

^6. The Greeks borrowed from the Egyptians’ Reed Fields in composing their Elysium where souls who survived journeys of purification through the fields  were able to spend eternity in happy circumstances.  Several variations of this exist in literature.  Originally, only the mortal relatives of the king of the gods made it to Elysium and a blessed after life, and later lessor souls were portrayed making a frightful journey of  to an area of remorse and suffering, but heroes and the virtuous fared better.

Members Recast: Judas Iscariots and No-Talents

Most Life Groups are not Christian fellowships.  They are groups of people managed for their resources by church leadership teams.  The unsaved are often encouraged to join these groups where salvation is secondary, if it is that high on the list at all.  The membership drives are conducted for any and all so long as they’ll be manageable for resources.  That is the impetus behind community outreach projects, and the reason an emphasis is on the surrounding community instead of focusing on the body of Christ, the Church, as a separate entity.  That sort of divisiveness would preclude growth as defined in corporate business models.

In Life Groups, members are confronted with Christianity-by-the-numbers, or with formulas for Christian living, designed by the leadership.  The leadership’s goals for growth and perpetuity of the organization are more attuned to self-preservation than they are to edification of the saints.  It follows for leaders to assess group members as potential capital. They are to be utilized for their labor, in volunteering; for their facilities, using homes; and for their money, collected in tithes, offerings, and sales for church products and productions.  There are several tactics employed to obtain these resources, and Life Groups provide an opportunity to work over members more personally in an intimate setting until they conform to the vision.

Many churches publish their Life Group resources online making it possible to obtain examples of human capital management in rather sordid detail.  Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch, California applies a particularly shameful example of coercion for raising finances from group members in its Life Group curriculum the “ABC’s of Financial Success.” In one lesson from the program Judas Iscariot is psychologically examined in such a way as to make it possible to negatively profile some members of the group.  After guided reading in the gospel of John, chapter twelve, group members are asked to share what they think went though Judas’ mind at the pouring of the ointment from the alabaster box onto Jesus.

We know what Judas said because it is recorded.  Judas protested that the ointment should have been sold, and the money given to the poor (John 12: 5).  The group members are prompted for their answer this way:

Often time [sic] we think of Judas just as an evil traitor but we must remember that he was not always thinking of betraying Jesus.  He left everything he had to follow Jesus and as far as we know he followed faithfully until his betrayal.  Based upon this information…share your answer.¹

The surface lesson might be that the love of money can cause one to miss sight of what is most important, but there is an obvious attempt at subliminal stimulation here that is atrocious.

The ulterior design of this prompting seems to be in persuading individuals to presume themselves candidates as likely as Judas to betray Christ.  The unraveling of their faith made possible by their retaining any reservation in turning over their finances in the percentages prescribed by the church, Satan was sure to enter into them effecting their eternal damnation.  The way in which these scriptures are handled in this exercise reveals both a gross manipulation of people, and the facts.

As far as we know, Judas was not faithfully following Jesus up until the betrayal.  The text tells us very plainly that Judas cared not for the poor, a fact others might have suspected and that John already knew, and an attitude opposite what one would expect from a person who had faith in Christ.  Furthermore, the same text reveals Judas was the one in the group who carried money purse, and it is clearly pointed out that “he was a thief” (John 12:6).  For how long Judas had been stealing we are not told, but he already had been stealing by this point, and had probably been doing so for a long time.   Contrary to what’s being implied, there was no sudden incident of a born-again Christian coveting a fortune affixed at his numerical breaking point and losing his salvation on account of it.

In another exercise, Life Group members are guided in reading the parable of the talents in Matthew, chapter twenty-five.   The facilitator is supplied with leader notes that correctly interpret what the parable represents, and the identities of the persons in the parable; except for one tragic error.  The leader notes bunch all the servants in the parable into one category, and instruct the facilitator to proclaim: “The servants represent us.”² A cursory examination of the details of the parable shows clearly that the one-talent servant was not one of us, that is he could not be considered a true Christian, but was in fact a professor only. In spite of this, group members are asked “Which one of the servants do you most relate to? Why?”³  Here again, the underlying motive for blurring the lines between the saved and the lost can be traced to raising capital.

The parable runs from verse 14 to verse 30, but the guided reading stops at verse 26, and this seems to be purposely guided so as to obscure, for the moment, the unsaved character of that one-talent servant, and his doom. The end of the parable reads:

Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Mat 25:28-30)

The fact that the parable is short, and human nature is inquisitive, means that it is a safe bet to assume that many readers will, on their own, find out the fate of the one-talent servant.  By not covering it in the group, leaders can avoid fielding the salvation issue, and can instead let the implication stand that this fate awaits those who refuse to tithe to the church.

The one-talent servant buried his talent in the ground thus showing that he did not have Christ.  Those who have not Christ will lose even the life that they have.  There is no defense for such scandalous mistreatment of persons and misapplication of scriptures.  Nowhere in the leader notes is there any instruction or caution for ensuring the salvation issue in a group member’s life who identifies himself as the one-talent man upon examining this parable.  So it cannot be said that by identifying all the servants as “us” in the parable the church was merely acknowledging the saved and unsaved mixture of their Life Groups; else it is horribly negligent in the care for souls, and in the proclamation of the gospel. The reason for the church identifying all the servants of the parable in the same group is to use fear of cursing to motivate group members to give money.

Notes:

^1. Shepherd of the Hills Church, “Bondage,” ABC’s of Financial Success. (Leader Notes) http://www.4lifegroups.org/leaders/leader-notes/abc-s-of-financial-success-leader-notes/bondage. (accessed January 14, 2020).

^{2 -3.} Shepherd, “Funding,” ABC’s of Financial Success. (Leader Notes) http://www.4lifegroups.org/leaders/leader-notes/abc-s-of-financial-success-leader-notes/funding. (accessed January 14, 2020).

MORE ARTICLES ON LIFE GROUPS

The upcoming Radicalis conference scheduled to take place at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, February 9-12, will include speakers Rick Warren, his ministry team, and what is shaping up to be a line-up of, well, the usual suspects for apostasy. One headliner is Perry Noble, Senior Pastor of New Spring Church where there are 10,000 members.  The arduous chore of pastoring such a large crowd means that sacrifices must be made, but not by the pastor.  Noble explained some of the sacrifices members must be prepared to make in a video-clip retrieved from YouTube, in which Noble explained: “We have people coming to this church, going: ‘I want a church where I can know the pastor.’” Noble’s admonishment to those people was: “You need to leave.  I don’t have time.”¹  The factor of time in such a large church certainly plays a role in how often a pastor can meet with the sheep, but Noble has a larger problem with shepherding.

He went on to explain in the video: “I love my wife, and I love my kids, and I will not sacrifice my family on the ministry altar so I can come eat food that I won’t like, and hang out with people who make me feel uncomfortable.”²  Clearly, Noble does not like the sheep, and even finds them repugnant (and seems to possess a prejudice that Christians possess no culinary art).  Noble is simply not going to sacrifice as a pastor, or be troubled by ministry, and he is “dead serious” about it.³

To prove that point, Noble also informed members that they better be prepared to tough it on their own in sickness and disease.  Addressing the idea that he should visit members in the hospital, Noble clarified that his visits to the sick were strictly limited to a last-rites scenario of seeing a person just prior to them expiring, or as Noble delicately phrased it: “The guy behind me has the bag you’re leaving the room in.”⁴  Why Nobel would visit the sick at this juncture, and not in the intervening time for prayer and the laying on of hands for the sick to recover, might be further affirmation of how little he really cares about them; unless he somehow believes he really is empowered with special authority to ensure transition from earth to heaven for the dying.

A church of 10,000 is far too large for a pastor who can only find room in his heart to love his wife and kids, and not the sheep, but it is the perfect situation for a hireling, a stark contrast from a true shepherd:

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. (Joh 10:11-13)

This hireling is among several that will be merchandising the sheep at Radicalis, under Rick Warren. In order to get an idea of what Noble will be selling, a look into his own product line will be helpful, but first a key term must be defined.

In the nomenclature of compromise there is an important thing to understand about the stampede to be relevant by these men; it is not to reach the modern world with the gospel, it is to emulate the modern world for profit.  Consequently, they don’t build churches, or even houses of worship.  They construct civic auditoriums for the purpose of staging theatrical productions.  Admission prices vary, with usually a standing charge of ten percent of a person’s income paid for the regular Sunday matinee, and fixed ticket prices for special events. For example, Noble has been producing his “one day church conference for pastors, staff members and volunteers” since 2007, and this year the tickets for Unleash 2010 are selling $59 each.⁵  To create excitement and drive up sales, Noble warned readers at his blogsite that this “early bird rate” is only good till the end of the month, and stresses the price is “cheap” by placing the word in all capitals followed by three exclamation points.⁶  In comparison to other productions Noble markets, as we will see, here, at least, he is being honest.

The composition of Unleash 2010 is made up by eighteen different sessions with Noble only headlining one of them.  Titles for the productions include those that would be typical in a business-growth formula being marketed by a large successful production company to smaller, up and coming production companies.  Topics touch on those things vital to growing businesses such as “Hiring, Firing and Creating a Great Staff Culture,” and to maximize profits there is “The Magic Formula for Getting People to Volunteer.”⁷ That would be for keeping astronomically high salaries in the hands of that great staff culture they created.  It is tempting to dismiss this fare as the product of small enterprises attracting too few to be harmful, but these conferences (like the promoters, and much of the attendees) have been sell-outs every year.  Ticket sales exceeded 850 the first year the conference was offered.  The real money, however, is in Noble promoting himself.

One of Noble’s bigger productions is his Personal Coaching Network which he limits to “around” fifteen senior pastors.⁸  The restriction to a smaller audience is intended to imply an intimate presentation where Noble will share money making church-growth secrets, but it’s strictly marketing.  If orders kept coming in, Noble would almost certainly continue to sell tickets to fill his auditorium, and schedule additional performances if necessary.  By pretending to limit the number of ticket sales Noble is doing two things.  Firstly, he is demonstrating his knowledge of what the market will bear.  Secondly, he is manipulating one of the elements of value; in this case scarcity.  When a commodity or product appears to be scarce, people tend to assign a higher value to it.  Here specifically, Noble is looking for people “willing to do whatever it takes to grow,” and that includes agreeing that the tickets are worth the $1,500 he is charging for them.⁹   To date, Noble stages two of these networks per year. At face value, a pastor charging other pastors to discuss the ministry with them is scandalous.  As we are witnessing, though, this is not the ministry; this is apostasy.

Notes:

^1. Museum of Idolatry, A Purpose-Driven Scolding, Perry Noble (YouTube, January 31, 2009). Video-clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSxkhs9×98w&feature=related. (accessed January 7, 2010).

^{3 - 4.} Ibid.

http://www.perrynoble.com/2010/01/11/unleash-6/. (accessed January 12, 2010).

7 New Springs Church, Unleash 2010, “What to Expect at Unleash,” http://www.newspring.cc/unleash/2010/. (accessed January 12, 2010).

8-9 Perry Noble, “Coaching Network Openings,” Perry Noble: Leadership, Vision, and Creativity, December 9, 2010.

http://www.perrynoble.com/category/coaching-network/. (accessed January 12, 2010).

The upcoming Radicalis conference scheduled to take place at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, February 9-12, will include speakers Rick Warren, his ministry team, and what is shaping up to be a line-up of, well, the usual suspects for apostasy.  One headliner is Brad Powell, Senior Pastor, Northridge Church.  Powell is slated to discuss his process of successfully transitioning congregations “from static to dynamic,” and to go from “irrelevance to relevance.”¹  It is important to understand that in the nomenclature of compromise the term irrelevance means small, but faithful congregation; and the term relevance means applying marketing schemes to attract more dues-paying customers by employing sensual lures in the areas of church lighting, music, and entertainment.

For a glimpse of the marketing program Powell will be promoting at Radicalis, a look back to his marketing ideas from 2007, as originally covered here at TheNewsBeats.com, will be insightful:

Brad Powell: Holy Spirit Hot Sauce, or Marketing Genie in a bottle?

December 30th, 2006 by David Dansker

Billed as the “Change Without Compromise 2007” conference, Brad Powell, Senior Pastor of Northridge Church, MI, is marketing his church transition workshops by comparing Church fervency to a bottle of hot sauce. Referencing Revelation 3:15-16, Powell contends the comparison “isn’t that far off,” and he claims that by purchasing his hot ideas your church can “move from static to dynamic, from cultural irrelevance to relevance, and from ineffective to effective.” Of course, “20% growth annually” might also be inside the bottle too. Workshops include Marketing and Communications (or, “What’s On Your Label?”); Volunteers (how to develop and maintain them); and Programming with a Purpose. “Your services can be ‘all killer, no filler’! Experience the process… from the pastor’s series thoughts… to the final walk-out music. Hands-on training that’ll rock your programming world” (workshop, deatails).

Upon successful completion of the Powell transition, it sounds like a pastor can process attendees through church services with all the efficiency and thrills of a major theme park ride. The cost for the conference and workshops is $179. While we didn’t see a workshop on holding them upside down long enough to shake the money out, it seems safe to deduce that the mechanism is built into the package.

The-if you will excuse the phrase-selling points for this tabasco-talk are Powell’s own numbers: 12,700 people for weekend services, and 2,100 “decisions for Christ” last year alone. When considering these, and Powell’s merchandising campaign, two things come to mind. One is 2Peter 2:3: “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” The other thing is that Pilate got probably as many “decisions for Christ” in a single day; they decided to crucify him.

Notes:

Many civic minded individuals with religious convictions have joined together in the Manhattan Declaration to declare their opposition to abortion and support of marriage, among other socially redeeming values.  Except for other signers, it might be only the commendable exertion of civic duty on the part of the citizenry that could be praised much in the same way as their registering to vote, though garnering more of it from those who agree with their position.  What has turned this otherwise fair lesson in civics, however, into a debacle is the assortment of religious leaders who are now also in league together by their own declaration.

The religious signers of the Manhattan Declaration include many high-ranking officials of the Roman Catholic Church.  Present are the Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila, Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese; Most Rev. Robert J. Baker, S.T.D., Bishop of Birmingham Diocese;  Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver; Most Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio, Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn; Most Rev. Timothy Dolan, Archbishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, etc., et al.¹  Had it ended there it would have remained only a Constitutionally protected expression of religious beliefs to be respected.

The trouble with the document is that an assortment of famous, Protestant religious leaders has also signed onto it.  This has caused many to declare openly their disappointment and disapproval, and to question the wisdom of such an act.

How can persons who conduct large ministries which include study in the scriptures be so very ignorant of the implications of their endorsements? When they sign the Manhattan Declaration they affix their seal of recognition that legitimizes the views and positions of other signatories.  This writer has yet to discover that heretofore Kay Arthur, of Precept Ministries International, and Chuck Colson, of Prison Fellowship; have renounced their view of salvation through Christ alone and have joined the Catholic Church to obtain it.

Certainly it is a logical step to take after joining with its representatives in religious pursuit of ideals based on a common understanding of the scriptures.  The Protestants who signed would do well to understand what the Roman Catholic Church understands about itself:

This is the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Saviour [sic], after His Resurrection, commissioned Peter to shepherd…. This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church.²

This tenent of the Roman Catholic Church, found in the Dogmatic Constitution On The Church, simply means that if one is not in the Catholic Church, one is not in the body of Christ; as the Catholic Church is the only true Christian church.  It follows that the Catholic Church would conclude the obvious about those who left it, or remained outside of it, in regards to salvation.  What the Catholic Church still affirms as its position on salvation, “basing itself upon Sacred Scripture and Tradition, it teaches that the [Catholic] Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation.”³

In light of these things, should we now expect future study programs from Arthur’s Precept Ministries instructing on how recant Protestantism to join the Catholic Church?  Will Colson’s Prison Fellowship be disturbing Bibles and rosaries to inmates?  While offerings that could be forthcoming from such popular ministries would probably not be so blatant, but of a more subtle nature; such a change in directions could have ill effects on many who subscribe to those ministries.  That makes the nature of these questions, if not their substance, serious; and among others that should be answered by the signatories:

Jack Graham - Will Dr. Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, perform the Mass when fellow signatories such as His Eminence Adam Cardinal Maida come to call on him?

Josh McDowell - Is author Josh McDowell, founder of the ministry by the same name, soon to release a book titled: New Evidence that Demands a PAPACY“?

Chuck Swindoll - More to the point, and at the foundation, can Chuck Swindoll, pastor and founder of Insight for living, lend any insight as to why he now accepts the organization which claims exclusive sacerdotal powers and that conversely finds his Pastoral Office illegitimate and ungodly?

That last question should also be answered many other signers, including:

Randy Brannon, Senior Pastor, Grace Community Church;

Rev. Jonathan Falwell, Senior Pastor, Thomas Road Baptist Church;

Dr. Jim Garlow, Senior Pastor, Skyline Church;

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary;

Dr. Michael Youssef, President, Leading Way;

Ravi Zacharias, Founder and Chairman of the board, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

(There are others of notoriety who signed the Manhattan Declaration, but who have already proved they cannot be taken seriously in the faith.) What say you?

Notes:

^1. List of Religious Leaders Signatories, “Manhattan Declaration,” Manhattan Declaration.org,  http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/sign/list-of-religious-leaders-signatories(accessed December 5, 2009).

^2. Pope Paul VI, Dogmatic Constitution On The Church, (Lumen Gentium) November 21, 1964. Ch 2, 14 (emphasis added).  http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html

^3. Ibid. Ch 1, 8 (emphasis added).