Ready-Made Phrases and the Lack of Faith - 2
n the last couple of decades, church growth has mimicked the expansion and growth of our super-department stores and Wal-Marts. The thinking was that the people, consumer or congregant, really wanted everything under one roof - a one-stop shop for all of their natural and spiritual needs. For many churches and ministries, the theological philosophy (or doctrine) undergirding this requisite financial expansion has been the ready-made phrase, “God is a God of Increase.” The usual scriptural tie-ins came from God’s command to Adam to “be fruitful and multiply” and the Old Testament patriarchs’ vast wealth. The line of preaching was that the believer would financially increase as a matter of course because he was giving or tithing to the “God of Increase.” Scriptures such as Hebrews 11.36-38:
and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. (NASB)
were either studiously avoided or even deemed to constitute some kind of unbelief (how that could be is well beyond me).
In the book of Acts (New Testament, mind you) we see a move of the Spirit that appears counterintuitive to the “God of Increase” ready-made phrase. In Acts 11.27-30, the Word says:
Now at this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world. And this took place in the reign of Claudius. And in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea. And this they did, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders. (NASB)
The first thing to notice is that Agabus’s prophecy isn’t exactly apropos to modern “giving and receiving” theologies. Instead of prophesying lack, he should have been prophesying about the coming good times of increase (how does one associate “God of Increase” as its been employed with the prophecy of an upcoming famine?).
The second thing to notice is the disciples’ own response to the prophecy. The Antiochian pastor didn’t dispatch a troupe of assistant ministers to Jerusalem to preach the message that they, the Jerusalem Christians, needed to tithe their way out of their predicament. There also wasn’t a contingent of prayer warriors sent to “take authority” and dispel the coming scarcities. The thrust of the passage is quite the opposite. God, by means of His Spirit, provided the Antiochian Christians with a word of wisdom about an upcoming famine so that they, being the richer assembly, could shore up the Jerusalem Christian’s deficiencies. In short, the rich Christians were called on to help the others that were in need. Notably, the Antiochian gift(s) were given in “proportion that any of the disciples had means” - meaning that the Antochians weren’t told to what they didn’t already have or to “give sacrificially.”
Our ready-made phrases not only open to the paths of erroneous doctrine, but they also tend to dull our ears to the voice of the Spirit and what God actively seeks to do in the church (the assembly).
Peter,
That was excellent! You really are full of pleasant surprises.
slw,
Thanks. A ministry friend of mine joked that I should give up my hopes of becoming the next Christian TV guest host.
Peter, since we’re all about keeping the church on course, cliches we use, the reality of what we are doing or aren’t doing and doctrine, good or bad…here is a link to a pastor’s recent blog in a 4000+ church in St. Joseph, MO. I liked what he had to say.
www.brianzahnd.com
Blog, Spring of Hope or Winter of Despair, Jan. 27, 2008
AmeriKan,
Thanks for the comment.
One thing that seems to have been lost in what we might call the Word of Faith camp is “scriptural means” versus “scriptural end.” For instance, I recently watched a healing service where the preacher declared healing on the basis of his own status as a prophet of God. Yes, healing is scriptural, but the preacher’s means is dubious (if not outright wrong).
Over time, I’ve come to believe that Hagin’s Plan, Purposes, and Pursuits is one of his most important books. People get hung up on the clapping as worship and miss the primary message: there are scriptural means of accomplishing scriptural ends. As with the unsaved, good intentions don’t get us very far.
Peter,
Your response to Amerikan has me all revved up. What you said is so true, and its subject is missing not only in the WOF camp, but throughout the charismatic community. Its loss produces flakiness, freakiness and folly in the pursuit of “godly ends” and winds up bringing disparagement on the Spirit-filled cause of Christ. Not only do brethren who know the Word who need to be Spirit-filled, eschew power from on high as a result, but signs and wonders which should have a strongly evangelistic efficacy, are looked upon askance because, even to the heathen, it appears we’re making it up as we go to take advantage of the credulity of the unwashed.
When I was first exposed to Pentecostal/Charismatic-type worship in 1972, I am sure in that one packed service there was a mix of the genuine, the false, the carnal and the flakey. Afterall, this was southern Louisiana. Because of the hunger in my heart, as an ignorant Methodist, I was desparate for more in my Christian walk. Some may have been “turned off” by the “noise” and expressive bodily motions with strange sounds coming from their mouthes. But for me, something grabbed ahold of my heart and my intellect and said, “This is real and they have something you need.” I really had nothing to base that unction on…I barely knew there was such a thing as tongues. Now, some of my family members would have run out the church door…they’re still running. :-) My mother would flip our new black and white TV off in 1955, if she saw us kids watching Oral Roberts in his big tent. I know many who kept their TV on and are still saved and living for God, today.
My good Methodist parents always thought this was “just a fad” with their son but it proved to be otherwise. Fast forward many years…my mother was 81 and I took her to a Benny Hinn crusade…a miracle in itself. Again, it was a noisy place…call it what you want…I’m sure many were there in the flesh, as well as many in the Spirit. I was retisent about what my mother’s reaction would be to coat throwing and all. Benny gave the altar call in the first half of the service, my mother jumped to her feet and she could not get to the front fast enough. The last four years of her life were gloriously changed before she went to her heavenly home at 85.
Their have been tongues and interpretation in our A/G church when I wondered if it was God or just the individual. I have seen people fall wondering if it was just them or a genuine “slain in the Spirit.” Jesus said the tares are always going to be here, as much as we would like to get rid of them. The laughing revival and “barking up a tree” brought ridicule and others who swear on a stack of Bibles it changed and brought deliverance to their lives.
Where there is truth, error lurks close by. Paul testifies to that fact in the early church and it is still with us. As long as we humans are still on earth in our earthsuits with our partially-renewed minds, we are going to have some kinks. This is a monumental task that only God, Himself can rectify.
We are never going to correct all the ills of the church. I have seen it in every circle I have been in over the past 42 years…the Methodists and A/G have been some of the worst.
As I look around and see what the Methodists are doing, yes, the Methodists, I am amazed. We have a new ME church meeting in a middle school near us. They are overflowing(running about 700)…having to start another one on the east side of town. I know one of their young men from the hospital who is on the worship team…a model Christian. I look at the A/G churches just here locally…our Fall Harvest outreach ministered to over 2000 children and their families. Look at the WOF….space would not be enough here. VCC in Tulsa ministers to over 17K each week. They just don’t have church…they go into their city and DO SOMETHING. Makes me ashamed just to be sitting here discussing what we are.
I somehow think we are blind or just in denial. I don’t have to look very far to see the impact that all Christian groups are having here in the U.S. or abroad…some much more than others. As our brother in St. Jo, MO said, armchair theorists and theologians don’t count for much, but show me your genuine fruit and then maybe you might have my ear…until then, “show me your works and then we’ll see your faith.”
“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. … Yet I hold this against you…” (Rev 2:2-4)
But then again, maybe works aren’t the whole story either.