He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. (Titus 1:9, ESV)

What’s More Important To You; Your Fellow Man, Or Your Master?

A point I wish to address here at the outset is the command that the pastor-teacher must hold firmly to the trustworthy message — Holy Scripture; the Bible, God’s Word — as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it (Titus 1:9). This is also a large part of the principle being discussed in — To the Law and to the Testimony! If they do not speak according to this Word, it is because they have no dawn (Isaiah 8:20).

Now, one can’t very well refute those who oppose this Word of the Law and the Testimony if, like pastor of Emergence Christianity Rob Bell, they would rather embrace mystery and then imply that we can’t be certain of exactly what this sound doctrine is. Unfortunately, today the Church is not willing to refute those who oppose sound doctrine, and has instead, become more like Peter was in Mark 8:33 where our Lord ends up rebuking him – “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

In fact this comment from respected evangelical scholar Dr. D.A. Carson in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary will prove enlightening to those who have ears to hear:

Jesus’ words to Peter were not only very severe, they were deliberately spoken in the presence of the other disciples (”Jesus turned and looked at his disciples”). They probably shared Peter’s views and needed the rebuke, too. The severity of the rebuke arises from Jesus’ recognition in Peter’s attempt to dissuade him from going to the Cross the same temptation he had experienced from Satan at the outset of his ministry. Satan offered him the option of using the world’s means of accomplishing his mission (cf. Matt 4:8-10).

On that occasion Jesus rebuked him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: `Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only’” (Matt 4:10). Here, too, Jesus recognized the satanic opposition in Peter. “‘Get behind me, Satan!’ he said. `You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’” Peter was opposing the divine will. He had in mind a popular messiahship. That was the way the world thought; it was not how God had planned Jesus’ ministry and mission (Matthew, CD Rom, emphasis added).

So you see, it’s not as if we haven’t had the chance to listen to the Spirit’s subtle warnings notto think like men in trying to preach the Gospel in this biblically foreign mission field of “postmodern” America the way men think that it should be preached. For those who have eyes to see, it really is right there in the text of Scripture, and even some of our own Biblical scholars have said it as well—though apparently they haven’t realized that God the Holy Spirit is using them to speak. Or is it only with bored indifference, and a false humility, that we pray today: “Lord use me as Your vessel.”

And I do wish the reader to know that I fully understand there are many who ignore my warnings and even consider me some kind of radical kook; but here I offer, it just might not be wise to so easily dismiss what I, and others, are saying. O, without a doubt the accepted way of writing today is to do a kind of “plus-minus” assessment of a given subject. A few “positive” aspects of the topic, followed by the many “negative” ones in order to reach an already  foregone conclusion; but I wonder, have we really considered this from the Lord’s perspective, or is it rather, simply following the things of men in secular academia?

Now suppose I were to write an article about cancer; would I really need to elaborate on some of the more positive aspects of this terminal disease? Let’s say like, I marvel at the speed of just how quickly, and suddenly, it can metastasize. Or how about I should point out  how very nicely, and completely, it kills a body? There are not a few who have expressed to me that I don’t know what I’m talking about as I lump these various aberrant, and sometimes heretical, seeker sensitive movements together, e.g. when I refer to the Ecumenical Church of Deceit(ECoD).

Let me assure you that, as one laboring in apologetics and Comparative Religion for some 21 years now—the Lord be praised—I know very well how to study and evaluate the doctrinal beliefs of a given religious system. However, as a pastor-teacher, the Bible tells me that there are those times where I have to — command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer (see—1 Timothy 1:3-7), and in addition, I’m also not afraid to speak the truth from God’s perspective because Jesus says — “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters” (Matthew 12:30).

Church Gone Wild: When Minstry Emulates The Methods Of The Condemned World

Sadly, the visible modern/postmodern evangelical church has, right now, all too conveniently and comfortably assimilated itself into the spiritually bankrupt pragmatism of worldly business. So when we are shown from the Bible that these practices are not in line with what God Himself would have us do—and since the only other source left is that of the Devil himself—I am actually quite justified in lumping together the various pillars of his ECoD.  The fact is despite the many variant levels of compromised, aberrant, and/or heretical doctrines, that this ECoD  may hold, they all ultimately originate from the same satanic and rotten root.

For their doctrines of demons all come emerging from the same serpentine source as they then slither their way onto that broad pathway of worldly religion. And furthermore, they—and all who follow them—will arrive at precisely the same eternal destination; a quite literal place that Jesus Himself called Hell. Laugh at me if you will, but no matter how much we’d like to try and convince ourselves that God understands; that He’ll just sort it all out in the end, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah…the absolute fact remains that Jesus Christ has left His Body here as His ambassadors (see—2 Corinthians 5:20).

In John 20:21 our Lord very clearly says — “As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you.” Logically then, just as it was also once a part of His job, the Master has now entrusted those of us in His Church to warn people who are in sin—and most particularly those within the Body of Christ—to leave that practice immediately. Sin, quite simply, means “to miss the mark” of the perfect righteousness of Christ Jesus; and the absolute truth is, whenever we do miss this mark it is God’s Name which is sullied and it is His Church that is then mocked.

You need to remember that  genuine ministers of the Gospel are instructed by God through His Apostle Paul that regardless of prevailing opinions in whatever culture our Lord sends us into — we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts (1 Thessalonians 2:4). Well, my brother ministers, this isn’t a drill; to be a pastor-teacher is not a game, and some of the saddest words in the Bible are — Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me (2 Timothy 4:9). Hint for those in the Emergence rebellion against sola Scripura: This is bad.

And how it breaks our Lord’s heart today there are far more Demas’ in His Church today than there are Pauls. My prayer in this personal perspective is that perhaps it will reach some of the younger ministers on staff who—before their own hearts harden as well—hadn’t yet been seduced by the “business as usual” that American evangelical Christianity has now become. The tragic fact, that will come with devastating consequences as evangelicalism continues rotting, is that—with their book deals and multi-million dollar corporations ministries to protect—too many senior pastors are simply not going to listen.

See also:

NO-CONTROVERSY FOR THE NEW DOWNGRADE

EVANGELICALISM HIGHJACKED BY CLOSET THEOLOGICAL LIBERALS

THE EMERGENCE OF POSTMODERN APOSTLES OF UNBELIEF

IS ROB BELL EVANGELICAL?

SADDLEBACK CHURCH PASTORS USING ROB BELL TEACHINGS

EMERGENCE PASTOR ROB BELL TO HAVE FRIEND PETER ROLLINS IN CONFERENCE

DON’T BE FOOLED BY THOSE WHO ONLY SAY THEY LOVE SCRIPTURE