Bible Beats

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.  (Dan 2:44)

There is a phenomenal movement taking place within Christendom.  It has spread across denominational lines, and is comprised of many different churches. There are several names for what some of their religious philosophies are, and some terms to describe each of them by their activities. Not all of their new ideas are actually new, and some are sprung from positions that are the products of centuries old debates. Many commentators have analyzed and classified them, and complete categorizations of their various parts, while they are interesting and have made a valuable contribution, do not want for more elaboration here.  Those who have proven astute in their power of scrutiny and reliable in their dedication are trusted to continue in their work.  The most general classification to gather the lot of them is used here as a departure point so that a primary doctrinal flaw which characterizes most of them may herein be treated.

They are emerging, and they are diverging, and they are missional, and they are self-help, and they are prosperity; they preach new reformation, new community, renewed mission, positivism, and personal wealth. In all, they are doing every sort of thing that resembles less and less biblical Christianity with each passing day.  All of them, though, despite the differing frays and braids and tassels of tastes, have one dastardly common denominator: they are The Raiders of the Messianic Kingdom.

(part 4) - see parts: (1) (2) (3) (5)

Touching now on this ministry of Paul provides an opportunity to correct a misconception that he is the Apostle that did preach the Gospel of the Kingdom later on in his ministry.  The misunderstanding comes from Paul’s exhortation and farewell to the elders of the church of Ephesus when he takes his leave of them, and is found in Acts chapter twenty.  Without laboring a verse by verse exposition here, the passages necessary for the context are verses twenty thru twenty-seven, and the key terms in their context will suffice to dispel the error.

Paul used the phrase “preaching the kingdom of God” (Acts 20: 25) to be synonymous with teaching all “that was profitable” (Acts 20:20), and for this emphasis: “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).  Indeed, Paul testifies just prior to declaring he taught all things contained in the kingdom of God that he specifically preached the “gospel of the grace of God” to the Jews and to the Greeks (Acts 20:24).  Paul’s ministry, given to him by God, was “to testify of the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).  This gospel was centered on “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21).  He did not preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, which would be the coming of the Messianic Kingdom, but the Gospel of Grace which is in the kingdom of God along with everything else attendant to it in God’s kingdom.  The book of Acts closes with Paul: “Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him” (Act 28:31).  It is on these two instances of pointing out that Paul preached the whole counsel of God that the singular massage of the Messianic Kingdom is mistakenly extracted as the gospel Paul preached.

The kingdom of God is not the same as the Messianic kingdom to be received by Christ Jesus and established on earth; the kingdom of God encompasses everything that there is including time and eternity and all the knowledge therein.  It is entered into by a new birth as it is spiritual, and “cometh not with observation” (Lk 17:20, 21).  As he was one of the stewards of the mysteries of God” (1Cor 4:1), Paul did not shun to declare to the whole counsel of God, though he had many occasions to scold saints for requiring remediation on the first precepts of the faith despite the amount of time spent on them, and by some of them (1Cor 3:1-2).  We find ourselves in similar striates today.

This discussion about the kingdoms and which gospel is the appropriate message for today is necessary precisely because of pastors and teachers like Rick Warren and Bill Hybels who are failing to declare the whole counsel of God.  It will not do, as many pastors mistakenly contend, to say that those in the pew, or the sheep, bare the sole responsibility for feeding themselves, and that the pastors are only required to provide them with, as megachruch pastor Hybels of Willow Creek Church put it, “whip cream.”¹ This statement bares an amazing resemblance to the one credited to Queen Marie Antoinette who responded to the peasants inability to feed them selves with “let them eat cake,” or pastries, and whether hers or not it was indicative of the attitude of the royalty that precipitated the French Revolution.

The parallels between the Raiders of the Messianic Kingdom and the supporters of the French Revolution continue in the comparison of the social gospel that was being preached at that time.  There was then, as there is now amongst the Raiders, the expectation of ushering in a new kingdom of righteousness on earth.  The social gospel for this kingdom emphasized the power of man in obtaining that kingdom.  There was also a popular sentiment in France, and in England, that a deposed monarchy in France would remove the last obstacle to the kingdom’s dawn.

Our contemporary revolutionaries are the Raiders of the Messianic Kingdom who have identified biblical Christianity as a despotic monarchy to be deposed.  They share the popular sentiment that biblical churches are the main obstacle to ushering in their new kingdom.  They not only oppose these churches, they seek out smaller or aging congregations to take over their churches from the inside with marketing strategies on church growth, and new church management programs like Warren’s Purpose Driven Church paradigm.  The idea of relying on the Holy Spirit is dispensed with, and is replaced with utilizing the power of psychology through personality profiles and temperament testing to induct individuals into vocational categories for servitude in the new kingdom.

As the Raiders depend on their own talents and power to usher in the kingdom, they de facto replace accountability to God with accountability to man.  It naturally follows that they instate this accountability to man in their organizations.  An example of this are the various covenants Warren has his church members and even his readers sign that make them accountable first to him and his organization before being accountable to God.

The French revolutionaries also focused on man as the ideal depository in which only the requisite qualities of enlightenment (gospel) and opportunity (vocation) must be placed to alleviate his plagued condition.  Man, in this gospel, becomes the measure of all hope, and the man thus perfected the manifestation of the redeemed spirit.

The leaders of the revolutionaries, as the perfecters, also demanded accountability to man rather than God.  This is what made the French Revolution different from the American Revolution.  General George Washington refused to be king after vanquishing King George, and so the fledgling new nation was off to a good start.  In the aftermath of the French revolution, the militants in France were competitors for a kingship, and they were ruthless in extinguishing those suspected of not being accountable to them. There, the idea of man being the center, and the measure, of all things resulted in consequences so bloody it is referred to as the Reign of Terror.

Where ever the Gospel of the Grace of God, with the purpose of salvation, is replaced with the Gospel of the Kingdom, which purpose is to announce the arrival of the king and the setting up of the Messianic Kingdom, the result is that the message inevitably turns into a social gospel.  This is because the Gospel of The Kingdom that becomes the social gospel does not contain in its message the salvation of the sinner, but the comfort of the sinner in sin. The social gospel is a substitute gospel, or another gospel when preached in Christendom.  It is the gospel of apostasy which perverts the gospel of Christ (Gal 1:6).  As works is its central component, it makes men the servants of men instead of servants of Christ.  Thus, the priesthood of believers is abolished, and a new royalty rules over the laity.

Notes:

The Christian Post, May 02, 2007. http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070502/27197_Bill_Hybels_Unveils_Willow_Creek%27s_Future_Vision_for_Multiplied_Impact.htm  

And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: (2Ki 17:10-11)