The Scourge Of Racism
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As with all born again Christians who love the Lord and understand something about His prophetic Word, I have been saddened by the murderous attack Hamas carried out against Israel this past October 7th. With the Lord’s leading, I write this post speaking directly to Israel and then, the Church His message serves to also soberly warn in accord with His will expressed from Scripture concerning all of Israel’s historical experiences (1 Corinthians 10:1-11). This message from the Lord came to me just after 3AM on October 13th exactly one month after earlier experiencing His grief mingled with my own while fasting on September 13th. Now, I know there was more to His grief.1
I write in all humility and His love knowing that as a Gentile and Christian, there is nothing I have to say even declaring it is from the Lord you, Israel, feel any obligation to hear. For I also know of the long history of disqualifying bigoted treatment by professed Gentile Christians.2 Nevertheless, in writing to you at the Lord’s directive I am part of the continuum of fulfillment to His nearly three thousand year old prophecy through Isaiah the prophet one of Christianity’s most prominent Jewish apostles also affirms: ‘“With men of other tongues and other lips I will speak to this people; and yet, for all that, they will not hear Me,’ says the Lord,” (Isaiah 28:9-13; 1 Corinthians 14:20-21, NKJV).
The heart of His message to you, Israel, is remember who you are, whose you are and your unique calling from God! You are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who the Lord in His perfect plan and timing brought out of Egyptian slavery to the land He promised them, in covenant relationship to be His “special treasure” “above all people,” “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” (Exodus 19:1-6, NKV). The guilty in that generation perished in the wilderness because of their unwillingness to believe God and obey His Word. So, Moses again reminded the survivors “who held fast to the Lord” of His great will for you as His people (Deuteronomy 1:1-8, 4:1-14, 7:6-11, NKJV).
As the unique people of God, Moses also declared to you, ‘“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength,’” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5, NKJV). With such knowledge and devotion, your fathers were repeatedly warned not to serve idols or adopt the ways of the nations they passed through and that surrounded them in the land God promised. But as He foreknew and foretold through Moses, they would and did not listen so that God’s judgments including being expelled from the land to Babylon came upon your fathers (Deuteronomy 31:14-29; Jeremiah 25:1-11; Ezekiel 20:1-31).
In Babylon, the Lord spoke solemn words through Ezekiel the prophet to your fathers avowing, ‘“What you have in your mind shall never be, when you say, “We will be like the Gentiles, like the families in other countries, serving wood and stone,”’ (Ezekiel 20:32, NKJV). Back in the land after this with much adversity, finally, the fullness of God’s wrath came upon your fathers in 70 A.D. as Jesus of Nazareth foretold whom they rejected as the Christ and put to death in the plainly foretold events and timing of the “beloved” Daniel (Daniel 9:1-26; Luke 19:41-44, 21:20-24, NKJV). Scattered to the Gentile nations, God made you a nation again in 1948 and has brought many back to the land.
God, who does not change, has preserved and brought you back to the land in accord with all He has foretold through the prophets still to be fulfilled including more adversity until the coming of His Anointed to comfort His remnant (Isaiah 28:14-22, 40:1-11; Jeremiah 30:1-11, 31:1-14; Ezekiel 20:33-44; Malachi 3:1-6)! In the land, He still holds you accountable to be and conduct yourselves as the covenant people, His holy nation (Malachi 4:4-6). He stands by His vow that you will not be like all the other nations as idolaters or wrapping yourselves and parading about in rainbow flags openly flaunt their wicked deeds or does not His many painful punishments of your fathers for turning from Him and disobedience adequately serve to warn you, O Israel (2 Chronicles 12:1-12, 36:15-21)?
Let all the followers of the Son of God and David, Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, risen and ascended to God’s right hand (Acts 7:54-60) take due prophetic note of what is now, unfolding in the land of Israel. Our earth sojourn has been closely associated with that of unsaved Israel from the first century; both suffering persecution from Rome, other pagan nations and religions thereafter as is the case at this very hour and yet to come as foretold (Daniel 7:19-27, 8:23-26, 9:27, 11:36-45; Matthew 24:9-25; Acts 14:21-22, 19:21-41; Revelation 12:13-13:18).3 The faithful are to prepare in faith for the coming persecutions while with biblical understanding endure the adversities the Lord brings as judgment upon His Church (Psalm 103:10; Lamentations 3:37-40; Micah 7:1-10; Matthew 10:34-39).4
1 Read the September 24, 2023 post, Racism In Christ’s Church A No-No, under the category, Instruction.
2 The Scourge Of Racism, Copyright 2023, ODCM Publishing Division, Portland, OR, p. 14. See also the September 17, 2023 post, Racism A Two-Fold Scourge, under the category, Biblical Worldview.
3 Arrogant, apathetic and at ease, many American Christians have no idea of the great suffering our brothers and sisters are experiencing in various nations around the earth because of their faith. Read some of their stories and help Global Christian Relief among others serving persecuted Christians in dire need. Coming to America sooner than you think!
4 Read the October 15, 2023 post, In Judgment, Grace, Mercy And Revival, under the category, Glory To God!
While the Lord Jesus most assuredly initially speaks to the seven messengers and the corporate assemblies of Asia they lead, He concludes every message speaking to the individuals that make them up. The proof of this beyond His repeated use of the phrase “He who has an ear...” in Revelation 2-3 I have already referenced is another like it: “To him” or “He who overcomes.” The Lord unmistakably addresses Himself to any individual within the particular church He is speaking to that will give heed to His words. This is not unusual since His Church is made up of individuals that have believed on Him as “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” (Matthew 16:13-18, NKJV)!
Nevertheless, an elementary truth Christ knows, but many religionists especially fail to grasp is that not everyone assembled together in a local church is truly a born again believer in Him (John 3:1-8). There are “false brethren,” “impostors” and de facto apostates in many ostensibly “Christian” churches that even hold titles of authority (Galatians 2:1-5; 2 Timothy 3:13; Titus 1:10-16, NKJV). This is due to a number of reasons to include the lowered, unbiblical standards of membership many have tied to the practice of Christianity as a religious invention of men and the purposeful infiltration of Satan’s emissaries (2 Corinthians 11:10-15; Jude 3-4). Thus, a local church anywhere on the planet is not necessarily the Church in miniature!5
As a consequence, membership in a local church is not tantamount to membership in the Church of Jesus Christ either. So-called “opening the doors of the church” to invite non-members “to join” without ascertaining their actual spiritual status or presenting the biblical Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) with the requirement to repent and believe it is traditional in many religion bound Protestant churches desperate to fill empty pews.6 However, it is not membership with benefits as in a worldly social club affiliation that the writer of Hebrews advocates in his exhortation, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,” (Hebrews 10:24-25, NKJV).7
His advocacy is for the regular gathering together of the Lord’s faithful as individuals to Him in any number and kind of settings to include jails and homes (Acts 1:12-14, 2:40-47, 12:1-12, 16:23-25; Romans 16:5). The well intended and wicked religionists that have made membership, regular attendance and participation in local, corporate brick and mortar churches alone the standard and core of the Christian experience rather than relationship with Christ and the New Testament understanding of assembling together as His Church have set the unknowing, biblically illiterate and weak among them up for spiritual disaster in these latter days. Truly, what will these folk do when they can’t “go to church” anymore as is the case for our persecuted brethren in many places?
The Lord Jesus also speaks to the individuals that make up the seven churches of Asia because His standards of Church membership and discipleship are high. This is the second part of His prophetic warning. Contrary to popular manmade Christianity, people are not just going to get into Heaven and receive immortal glory “any old how.” Repeatedly the Lord declares it is “him” or “he that overcomes.” The two churches of Asia He commends in full are composed of saints that have endured persecution driven “tribulation,” “poverty,” “prison” and testing; persevering as our Lord “Faithful and True” to the death in faithfulness (Revelation 2:8-11, 3:7-14, NKJV). These faithful saints keep His “works until the end,” (Revelation 2:26, NKJV).8
That the end for persevering faithful saints on earth includes going through “the great tribulation” is bound up in the unfolding prophetic content the apostle John is to write concerning “the things which will take place after this;” that is, prophetic reality contemporary with the seven churches of Asia, but also beyond them (Revelation 1:19, NKJV). Revelation 5:1-10 shows Christ as the “Root of David” and “the Lamb” along with “the saints” and His Church to that moment already in Heaven (NKJV). In the overview prophetic sweep of earth activity up to Christ’s Second Coming embodied in the seals of Revelation 6, the fifth seal (vs. 9-11) makes clear martyrdom in suffering among His saints on earth will be God’s permitted norm--something they are prepared for (Romans 8:31-39).
Revelation 7:9-17 indisputably shows individual saints from “all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues” “come out of the great tribulation” which along with what God does in the heavens and upon the earth, involves all manner of suffering and martyrdom in the all out war finally prosecuted against us by the Antichrist (think Hitler’s “final solution”) as other parts of Bible prophecy and Revelation corroborates (Daniel 7:15-25, 8:15-25; Matthew 24:9-22; Revelation 12:7-13:18, 14:6-13, NKJV). God will also permit the Antichrist to destroy brick and mortar church buildings as is already occurring in many places amidst all of his destructive acts; eliciting a cry from Heaven for God’s people to exit she that is “The Mother Of Harlots” and owns treasured property (Revelation 17:1-18:8, NKJV).
Nevertheless, at the end of the three and a half years of the great tribulation and before the full outpour of God’s wrath, as He promised, the Lord will suddenly appear in clouds of glory. With His thunderous shout, the commanding voice of an archangel and blast of God’s trumpet, the Lord will gather all of His saints to Himself in the sky. The dead in Christ will be raised first and take flight to Him, while the remnant of faithful saints still alive will bypass death, be translated and follow after them (Matthew 24:29-31; Mark 13:24-27; 1 Corinthians 15:50-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12; Revelation 14:14-16, 16:15, 19:6-16)! The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
5 It is the universal Church made up of His faithful followers that Christ builds “and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18, NKJV) not every
single local church calling itself Christian (2 Timothy 2:19-21).
6 When unbelievers “join” they are by default impostors, false brethren, devils and tools of Satan as are willful or de facto apostates whether they realize it or not. Is
it any wonder the inevitable historic real life carnal church drama created is making for great film and television drama in these latter days while simultaneously
bringing shame to Christ?
7 Temporal membership in a local brick and mortar church certainly does have its benefits, but they do not exceed the greater benefits of membership in the univer-
sal Church of Jesus Christ! As a result, the value of membership in a local church apart from authentic relationship with Christ and membership in His Church is
exalted well beyond its value and over sold. Moreover, churches that use joining as a test of loyalty to them especially when they are unfaithfully sinning against
Christ are hypocritical and wicked (Matthew 23:15)! Even so, a local brick and mortar church that faithfully preaches the biblical Gospel for salvation, teaches and
diligently strives to model obedience to God’s Word as it is written, equips the saints for and facilitates them in biblical ministry and mission as a priority is well
pleasing to the Lord and useful in His Kingdom causes during the time that is left to operate openly. See the July 23, 2017 post, Churchmen In The Two Minute
Drill, under the category, The Cause. Also read the timely essay, What Hath The Church Fathers To Do With Your Local Church by Stephen Presley, in the Fall
2019 edition of Southwestern News, P. 54-57, to see that even in scholarly circles there is an appreciation of the consequential increase in hostility of Western cul-
tures including our own toward Christianity and discussion of the right response among the churches.
8 Such is every aspiring strong man and great woman of God I write and instruct about from God’s Word in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. If
you want to learn the foundational biblical expectations of Christ for His followers and be equipped to faithfully live them out to the end, get a print copy or digital
download of my book at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only). You can also get a print copy
of the book in the Strong Man Store. If you would like a foretaste of what is taught in the book, read my two-part 2019 post that begins August 18, Lined Up Be-
hind Jesus, under the category, Instruction.
As the Lord leads, I launch the New Year with a word of sober prophetic warning to the churches and individuals making them up that claim connection to Jesus Christ of the Bible (Ezekiel 33:1-9). The warning is rooted in the last book of the Bible declared to be His “Revelation” in which He participates in the delivery and oversees the composition of its prophetic content that pronounces the reader and obedient hearer “blessed” (Revelation 1:1-3, NKJV). The Lord’s participation includes His own recorded words in glorious appearance to His chosen vessel and prophet, the apostle John, who is to write down and deliver the prophecy to seven churches in Asia (Revelation 1:4-20).
Before going any further, let me give the first part of the Lord’s warning to all of the churches that have entered this third decade of the 21st century and at breakneck speed, approach the second millennia anniversary of His death, burial, resurrection and ascension: He has not changed (Hebrews 13:8)! What He said to the churches in Asia at the end of the 1st century A.D., He stands by and says to all that exist at this hour and until the end. Those who by deceitful corruption of the Bible insist otherwise are deluding themselves and deceiving you that believe them! The Lord’s prophecy to the seven churches in Asia was for them, all others of the time and all that would exist after them.
The latter statement is consistent with the commentary of many biblically conservative interpreters that understand the apostle John in obedience to the Lord’s command was to deliver the entire “Revelation” to the literal seven named churches of Asia (Revelation 1:9-11, 19).1 Again, very importantly in the process the Lord’s specific messages to each one of those seven churches was to also speak to their contemporary sister churches and those of similar circumstance in the future. Some believe each church of the seven represented a season of the long epoch of Church history on earth thus far. However, this conclusion is not borne out by actual history.
Absolutely consistent with actual history though, the Bible and Revelation’s use of the number seven to indicate completeness (Genesis 2:1-3; Joshua 6:1-5; Luke 8:1-2), each of the seven churches in their conduct represent the continuing state of churches existing then together and at all times after until they are no more at an end prophetically and repeatedly alluded to by the Lord in His messages to them. As the Lord has had me declare in many previous posts, the approaching global end of local churches as open, corporate displays of Christianity regardless of form or authenticity comes from the world’s persecutions and His judgment.2
The foregoing is the reason I break here with the popular teaching that churches are not mentioned from Revelation 4 onward because Christians have been removed from the earth by “the rapture.” Actually, “the churches” are again mentioned in Revelation 22:16. Individual believers as “His servants” and “saints” on earth and in Heaven are spoken of throughout the prophecy while “the angels (messengers) of the seven churches” are uniquely addressed (Revelation 1:1, 20, 5:8-10, NKJV). Indeed, among the many common characteristics of the Lord’s messages to the churches in Revelation 2-3 are His repeated words, “He who has an ear...” spoken to individuals within them!
I will return to individuals as the ultimate target audience of the Lord even as He initially speaks to them in local churches momentarily. First though, the Lord would have me briefly speak more to the common characteristics of His messages to the seven churches of Asia. In what should certainly be the most alarming common characteristic of the Lord’s messages to the seven churches is the reality that He walked among them. This is how He knew their works as another commonality and knows ours too! An additional common characteristic is the Lord held the messengers of these churches in His right hand which suggests not only honor and responsibility, but also control.3
The Lord commended the good, but voiced what He had against the messengers and the seven churches they led as still another commonality; calling the guilty to repentance to avoid temporal punishment and eternal loss. Yet, this did not seem to have long alarmed guilty leaders and congregants or deter them from brazen disobedience to His Word and committing all manner of evil to this hour!4 In spite of the Lord’s command for all to “hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” their history is replete with the corrupt conduct He condemned. The seven churches of Asia passed from the scene as have countless others since and all are shortly about to. Even so, a remnant of Christians from among the two churches Christ commended has stood and will stand to the end!
1 See for example, Revelation by George Ladd, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1972, p 36.
2 Read the August 23, 2015 post, Babylon Is Falling, under the category, Bible Prophecy and Praise For The Lord God Almighty!, posted September 13, 2015 under the
category, Glory To God as samples. So much for “thriving religious enterprises of human pride, achievement and enduring legacy” I wrote is all the rage during these
latter days in the introduction of my December 8, 2019 repost, Restoring Men, under the category, The Cause!
3 Messengers clearly refer to the men called by Christ to shepherd and feed His sheep with His messages (John 21:15-17; Acts 20:26-28; 1 Peter 5:1-4). Therefore, no
pastor/teacher is to understand himself as the sovereign head over a local church and free to teach whatever is right in his own eyes. The Lord Jesus is and remains
forever, Lord, under whom a pastor and any elders serve and are held accountable by Him. The Lord has mercifully chosen for His purposes and our testing to be
longsuffering in the main during this mortal Church era (Luke 13:6-9; 2 Peter 3:9). It is because of this that guilty pastors doing what is right in their own eyes as if
there is no King or Chief Shepherd (Judges 17:6; Acts 20:29-30) have enjoyed extended stays and on their account such resulting ungodly confusion exists among
the churches (2 Peter 2:18-19). But there is a King and Christ is He! Without repentance, His eventual judgment is assured (Matthew 18:6-9) as He made clear to the
guilty messengers and churches of Asia. See my February 9, 2014 post, Is There No King Among Us?, under the category, Call To Repent.
4 As a contemporary example, since the 1960s many male pastors have followed the lead of Thyatira’s messenger to “allow” the rise of guilty women as Jezebels to
teach and take authority over His "servants" in His house in defiance of plain apostolic doctrine (1 Timothy 2:11-14; Revelation 2:20, NKJV). Read my May 27 and
June 3, 2018 two-part post, Feminism’s Entry Into The Churches, under the categories Call To Repent and God’s Creatures. At this hour too, United Methodists are
splitting over the issue of whether same sex relationships biblically condemned are to be tolerated among its members and leaders.
As the blog title declares, this is the repost of what I wrote a year after this past week’s August 30th repost, “When Strong Men Of God Weep.” For the record, four years later my personal pain from going through the shutdown of a church as judgment from God has healed. However, having had the experience of seeing “affliction by the rod of His wrath” up close (Lamentations 3:1, NKJV), I am all the more urgent to sound the alarm and the Lord’s call to repentance in the churches even as we labor to restore men! For during this same period I have been among many churches of varying size and ethnicity and have seen nothing to convince me I am telling a lie on God about His judgment.
Therefore, I pray that every church pastor and elder reading this will take it to heart. I also salute you this Labor Day among all of those that work if you are ruling well (which includes maintaining the biblically ordained order of God’s house) and laboring in the Word with all sound doctrine as God purely from His Word sees it, not sinful men in fleshy wisdom (1 Timothy 5:17; 2 Timothy 1:13-14). In so laboring, no matter how small the assembly you serve, you are a success in God’s eyes! Be faithful to the end knowing your eternal legacy is the souls in glory because you kept the Kingdom cause before you; letting God use you as the Word exemplified (1 Peter 5:2-3).
Originally Posted July 1, 2012
Today marks the one year anniversary since I became a retired pastor due to the disbanding of St. Mark Baptist Church here in Portland, OR. The Lord enabled me to faithfully serve the church for nearly fifteen years. I have not pursued any other church nor has any sought my service during this time which is all in God’s will for me. I miss serving the Lord’s sheep and preaching regularly but have enjoyed the lighter load of responsibility. As the Lord has led, I have purposely not written anything about the death of the church since last year’s blog on July 10, 2011 entitled, When Strong Men Of God Weep (under the category, Glory To God!) in any other forum until now.
I am sure the Lord has been keeping me from expressing any of the wide range of thoughts and emotions I have had over the past year until He in love could minister more of His instruction and healing into my life. In honor of His amazing work in me, I write in this blog only to offer what I hope will be insightful reflections on my experience in being part of a church that died. Let me begin by stating that I stand by everything I wrote in last July’s blog on the matter. Second, the death of anything we love hurts. So, there is no pretense here; a great part of the past year I have been experiencing all of the emotions of bereavement. Third, since I took responsibility for the church dying, Satan has made sure I have had plenty of accusations and questions.
The main question I have grappled with is what could I have done differently without compromising God’s will, way and Word? Experts abound to show pastors how to grow churches in today’s world, but with a prophet’s heart I rejected 99% of that stuff. I was also warned by “successful” pastors that preaching and witnessing the Gospel of Jesus Christ alone were not enough to build a New Testament church anymore. My position remains that building a church any other way is not pleasing to God and reflects a desire to fulfill a flesh rather than Kingdom agenda (Mark 16:14-20). Indeed, not growing by the preaching of the Gospel is an indictment of American Christianity since growth by conversions is only 2.2%. 3,500-4,000 churches in America close each year never to re-open.1 80% of American churches are stagnant or declining and ready to die.2
While decline and death may be the trend, I still needed to understand more fully why the church I served as pastor had to die. Only God could and did answer that question for me in a satisfactory way. In His comforting, assuring and encouraging instruction the Lord taught me that this was not all about me though it all is working together for my good (Romans 8:28; Hebrews 12:3-11). Churches are dying in a natural cycle of birth, life and death over the course of time to be sure. However, many historically and at this hour have died as a matter of God’s judgment after He called for repentance and revival as well as sent warnings through His prophets to no avail (2 Chronicles 36:15-21; Lamentations 1-2; Revelation 2:1-5). This is the case with the church I shepherded until its death after a legacy of manmade religion and toleration of sin (Numbers 32:20-23).
This all leads to a final reflection and warning for all similar minded churches of manmade religion and sin. Unless you repent, your day to die at the hands of the Lord as judgment is also near. Some of you are already in the throes of death but are in denial. For the rest, rather than proudly judging how I may have failed to succeed as a pastor and rendering me useless, fear and see the death of the church I served as a clear sign and warning from God (Jeremiah 3:6-10; Luke 13:6-9; Revelation 3:1-3)!
To the faithful pastors who have been wickedly terminated or had your church doors close: be encouraged because our God is faithful to remember your service (Lamentations 3:1-26; Hebrews 6:10). To the righteous remnant of believers who are also aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ: stand firm in faith on God’s word no matter what it costs you now since great is your reward (Psalm 58:3-11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17; Revelation 3:4-6)!
1 D.J. Chuang, Churches Closing And Pastors Leaving, January 31, 2010, djchuang.com.
2 Ed Stetzer, Finding New Life For Struggling Churches, February 2004, SBCLife.com.
In this positional chronology on April 27, 2014, the Lord led me to repost The Spiritual Gift Of Faith, under the category, The Faith as the first of what was a related sequence of four 2012 blogs. I urge the reader to read that April repost as a prelude to this post and what will be the other three 2012 reposts that follow. The primary theme in all of them is the necessary real time involvement of Christ as Lord and the Holy Spirit as Participants in the life and work of the Church on earth (Mark 16:19-20; Acts 13:1-3). This thematic reality is the desperate need of many professing American Christians and churches as well as an urgent purpose in the Lord’s call to repentance and revival.
Did any of the regular readers notice in my blog of August 21, 2016, Christianity The Religion Of Men, Pt. 1 under the category, Instruction, that two older women were the only instrumental mortals to my coming to the immortal Christ on Easter 1977 and providing godly counsel during the first three years of my life in Him? When in churches and around Christians of both genders during those days, I was clearly moving in another stream of experience apart from the religious operation of most due to being on white-hot Holy Spirit fire! Oh, as is typical of babes in Christ (I later learned), I stumbled and fumbled in struggle against my old sin nature and suffered many shameful defeats.
However, no seasoned professing Christian man to include leaders put an arm around me to provide knowing, purposeful and continuing guidance to help me develop in Christ.1 Instead, I was hurt by the evil and exploitive ways I was handled by churchmen that were resigned to an inferior practice of Christianity which as a religion of men, it is. I saw very few godly male role models among my age peers either, but only those like me in need of help beyond showing up to Sunday school and church as the traditional counsel obviously not working for those that offered it. In fairness, some older men did empathize with my situation, but were not prepared to engage anyone about it.
I was uncomfortable with the religious status quo since the Bible was already understood by me to be the authoritative Word of God. Hard for me too, was bearing with duplicity, hypocrisy and apathy in these churches because in that same Bible God kept rebuking and judging this type of behavior. Indeed, like a bee to a fragrant flower, I was especially drawn to the heavy heart of God for the repeated unfaithfulness of Israel in the Old Testament and its display in the passionate exhortations of the apostle Paul in the New as he rebuked sin in the churches. The Lord had first introduced me to His heavy heart twenty-two months into my salvation during a seven day fast without food or drink He commanded.
While I now know the Lord was then beginning to make His gifting and calling known to me, I had no idea as a babe what was happening. I had no Ananias to provide even a basic understanding since also unknown to me at the time, many churches did not (and to this day, do not) embrace the supernatural character of biblical Christianity or instruction on spiritual gifts (Acts 9:6-19). Though in the summer of 1979 the Lord spoke specifically to my heart that I was to serve Him in broadcasting, even after coming to the Emmanuel Baptist Church, San Jose, CA in the fourth year of my salvation where I finally met some godly, dedicated men, I remained in ignorance about spiritual gifts.
I had moved in that summer of 1980 to study broadcasting at San Jose State University. At Emmanuel, Rev. Jay Wells taught the first new member orientation I had ever had. Seeing my eager participation in his Sunday school class and unbridled fire of the Holy Spirit in me, Rev. Tom Kelly (now with the Lord) took me under his wing and allowed me to teach. At his recommendation, I was invited to take over his class with amazing Spirit empowered results! After this came seminary at Southwestern Baptist. The best it and the Southern Baptist machine could do was confirm I had a calling; a calling that led to one recognized thing: a black church pastorate.2
After graduating from seminary in December 1984 with no real prospects to serve in what it seemed the Lord had in mind, I was ordained and licensed to the ministry by Emmanuel in June 1985 and founded Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. later in August. As I have shared on other occasions, when the Ministry did not garner any serious initial support, I sought the Lord about what was wrong in the spring of 1986. He made known to me from Ezekiel 33:1-9 that I was gifted and called to serve Him as a watchman/prophet among the churches (Luke 4:24). Finally, by His instruction I understood that the heavy heart in me for the holiness, righteousness and faithfulness of His Church was the way He wired the prophet’s heart to reflect His own (Ephesians 4:7-16, 5:25-27).
I know from experience the tragedy of Christianity the religion of men in the churches. With no male spiritual mentors to help me develop as a babe and man in Christ, I floundered in the faith far longer than necessary. And because such churches reject the critical Lordship of Christ and power of the Holy Spirit in Church existence and function, it took nine years to learn about and accept all of my spiritual gifts and calling plainly taught in Scripture. This is unacceptable and sin! Therefore, without repentance and revival, these churches are worthless to the Lord and will be dealt with accordingly (Matthew 5:13). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 Many predominantly black American churches have traditional and largely honorary “mother boards” to help younger women, but nothing for even the pretense
of mentoring men in the faith and biblical manhood. Seeing this grave error repeated in many churches to this hour, I call for pastors in repentance to return to
the biblical model and purposely equip seasoned men to be spiritual fathers to younger men in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics.
2 I share more details of my experience with racism among professing white Christians and their entities in the booklet, The Scourge Of Racism available in
the FSTVEP Resource Store.
Although I have previously reported the hostility of many professing Christians and their churches practicing manmade Christianity the religion as their response to my service of love to them from the Lord over the years,1 I am in no way mystified as to why (Ephesians 6:12)! For this reason, the Lord’s ultimate consequence for those that refuse His call to repentance and revival through every means He employs is destruction as this edited 2012 repost soberly warns. Even so, it also presents the Lord’s stirring call to action to His aspiring strong men and great women of God!
Originally Posted August 19, 2012
If the Christian life is a supernatural life, it only stands to reason that any assembly of authentic Christians would be supernatural in character.2 After all, God dwells in each Christian and therefore, fills their assemblage (John 14:16-17; Romans 8:8-11; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:19-22). As a result, works of divine power ought to be the norm when believers assemble since God is in our midst! However, in many stoic American churches a Spirit empowered shout of praise to God is a rare event much less in the moment miracles (Mark 6:5-6). Many even believe they are being noble and dignified to hold their peace in church unlike king David and the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Chronicles 15:25-29; Revelation 19:5).
In fairness, other churches confuse ardent chaos with the Spirit’s presence and working. They think by allowing such disorder they are mimicking what the Holy Spirit authentically did on the Day of Pentecost when the entire assembly of Christ followers was set ablaze praising God in all of the languages Jews living in the land and from the dispersion spoke (Acts 2:1-13). And though the gathering crowd was confused about how it was that they heard the praise of God in their various languages, this confusion was their own from ignorance as unbelievers, not caused by God as Peter explains (Acts 2:14-39) and later, Paul instructs the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 14:6-40).
Satan has known from the beginning that he would not be able to destroy the Church of the living God, the eternal construction of Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:15-18)! So, he has labored to infiltrate the churches with impostors and seduce the faithful into compromise and rebellion. Of the greatest compromises professed Christians have made since the first century is to seize control of churches to operate in the flesh and effectively dismiss the controlling influence and help of the Holy Spirit. This scenario is eerily similar to watching God abandon Solomon’s Temple because Satan used the same tactic with ancient Israel (Ezekiel 8:6, 9:3, 10:18-19, 11:22-23). Thus, why should it amaze anyone that such churches would either be dead or lukewarm (Revelation 3:1-3, 14-20)?
In smug pride and arrogance, many American Gentile Christians look down on ancient Israel thinking similarly to her first century leaders Jesus rebuked, “We would not have done what they did in their day,” (Matthew 23:29-33). In fact, however, they are doing exactly what the ancient nation in the flesh did and worse if after having been introduced to Christianity as a supernatural work of God, they turn it into a religion of human control and effort (Galatians 3:3). Relying more heavily on the use of worldly legal forms and methods of self-governance as Americans first rather than the instruction of God’s Word as Christians, there is political intrigue and subterfuge, contentions and even murders in full display of flesh works (Galatians 5:13-15, 19-21; James 4:1-10).
So in the flesh are many professing Christians and their churches today, they do not even see any difference enough in themselves and the planet’s many other religions that in the name of ecumenicalism, they seek fellowship with them on equal footing. This they do in willful defiance of and disregard for their holy calling (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Do not all of the guilty realize you will give account of your sin to Christ who because He lives, sees and hears you (2 Corinthians 5:9-11)? No, we are no better than ancient Israel; just presented a superior covenant with the same responsibilities of faith, love, obedience and fruitfulness which failing in, results correspondingly in more severe consequences (Luke 12:47-48, 13:6-9; John 15:2a, 6; Hebrews 10:26-39; Revelation 17:1-19:4).
As the Spirit has given renewed unction this summer, I have been calling for repentance and revival among American Christians and their churches that are withering because I have not just seen the process from afar as a student of the Bible, history and statistics or observing others. But by the unsearchable ways of God I have seen the withering process firsthand as a pastor that presided over the death of a local church.3 If a professing Christian or church will not be what the Lord intended, they have no value to Him (Matthew 21:18-19; Luke 14:34-35). While He will give time for repentance in most cases, without it, His judgment befalls them as it did ancient Israel.
Therefore, let every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Christ rise up in His love and holy character to labor with me in prayer and deeds for repentance and revival among American Christians and churches (Jude 20-23). We labor in watchfulness of the night that is falling to “strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die” (Revelation 3:2, NKJV).4 And understanding our natural weaknesses and reluctance to step out of our comfort zones into certain suffering, in the reviving fire of the Holy Spirit we also seek a renewed “boldness” and power to do the will of Christ amid His mighty works in support (Acts 4:23-33, NKJV)!
As I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, we labor with fellow saints strengthened and emboldened through revival to conduct a final fulfillment of the Lord’s commission to us as His Church on earth in the unique supernatural character she possesses (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). Understanding too, that this revival is preparation for the foretold global war against us that unfolds in earnest during the night that is falling, we continue to labor steadfastly in prayer for the Lord to launch His foretold end to this evil world system and Kingdom come in its place (Psalm 119:121-128; Luke 11:2; Revelation 8:1-6, 22:20). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 See the September 4, 2016 post, Christianity The Religion American Style, under the category, Call To Repent.
2 Read the 2012 repost of November 22, 2015, The Christian Life Is A Supernatural Life, under the category, Glory To God! 3 Read my August 30 and September 6, 2015 reposts on this subject to learn more. 4 Let me know of your interest in spiritual gifts by answering a single survey question on the Feedback Page of our Web Site.
There is the Church and there are the churches. So very sadly, the two are not equivalent in all cases throughout the earth especially where the churches are the product of Christianity the religion of men! That said, let us be clear that the declaration of Matthew 16:18 from the lips of the Lord Jesus does not apply to the churches as institutions of men, but His Church. His Church are all who have come to Him by repentance and faith in the Gospel--His death on the cross for our sins, burial and eternal resurrection on the third day after (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). As is commonly known, the Greek word the Lord uses for “Church” is Ekklesia which generally means a called out assembly.
From the earliest eye witnesses of Him raised from the dead to every soul that will receive their proclamation of the Gospel and testimony to the end of this season of grace, all are assembled to Christ as His Church on earth and in Heaven after death (1 Corinthians 15:5-11). When He returns in awesome glory and power we all shall be gathered to Him in the sky and remain with Him as His Church forever (Matthew 24:29-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12)! This is the assembly of whom Christ speaks when He, based on who He is declares, “…on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,” (Matthew 16:13-18, NKJV).
Not only does the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ to immortal glory validate His ability to fulfill His declaration, but the Father has given Him all authority both in Heaven and on earth as well as over Hades and Death (Matthew 28:19; Revelation 1:18). It goes without saying (yet, I say so anyway because of the widespread rebellion against His rule and disobedience in the churches) that Christ is also the Head of His Church (Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:18)! Therefore, the Church triumphant here and now and forever is an assured reality regardless of what goes on in this life or death because Christ our Head has already triumphed for us and reigns!
Many sinning professing Christians in the churches are confused about and wrongly apply to themselves, the victories of the faithful saints assembled to Christ by persevering faith and obedience as the Church. It is not just saying one is a Christian and getting baptized that saves, but it is living as one for life. As dirt and improper handling leaves spots and wrinkles on white garments, so, sin on sinners! Christ sacrificed Himself to purify for Himself a Church, a Bride without “spot or wrinkle” (Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 19:7-9, NKJV). So, where do unrepentant professing Christians willfully practicing sin in unbelief driven disobedience get off thinking they are fine with Christ?
Besides the fact many are impostors and religionists devoid of the Spirit practicing Christianity the religion of men in their churches who have invented for themselves doctrines of eternal security, there is also a great number of professing American Christians who have both culturally conditioned the faith and been conditioned through compromises with secular culture to believe in the concept of “American Exceptionalism.” From its secular and religious use, the concept expresses the idea that our nation has been uniquely raised up by God and graciously given such values as embodied in the founding documents and the national character along with prosperity and might as a world leader, to assure all of this from Him in perpetuity.
While I, with thanksgiving, have marveled with fellow citizens of like mind at the historic grace, prosperous blessing and might God has bestowed on our nation in spite of its many past sins to include legally sanctioning the oppression of my forefathers and present moral declension, His Word prophetic and otherwise precludes any of this continuing in perpetuity (Proverbs 14:34; Jeremiah 25:15-33). This being so, it is foolish for any professing Christian to bank on American Exceptionalism as a means to comfort themselves about the nation’s future, their escape from divine judgment for sin or for that matter, persecution as our brothers in other nations are now enduring.
Neither heretically constructed doctrines of eternal security or American Exceptionalism provide escape from divine wrath for unrepentant sinning professing Christians in the churches or our sinful nation. Those who say the contrary are false prophets of peace like the ones of ancient Israel the Lord condemned (Jeremiah 23:16-22); those that believe them are deceived (Galatians 6:7-8).
Too, the victory of Christ’s Church is not to have escaped persecution for His sake (Revelation 6:9-11), but in spite of it, to be gloriously displayed as immortal king/priests with Him at His appearing (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, Revelation 20:4-6)! These are the saints who during their earthly sojourn as aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ faithfully served Him; loving Him more than their own lives (Matthew 10:34-39; 2 Timothy 4:6-8; Revelation 12:9-11). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”
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