Christian Parenting: How to Keep Your Children from Jumping Ship

Posted on 10/17/2009 by Paul Pavao

We all want to know about Christian parenting. We would all like to know how to keep our children from jumping ship and going to the world.

Today, I heard a speech by Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, who blames belief in modern scientific evidence for things like evolution as the reason why children jump ship. It’s “doubts about the Bible,” he says, that cause children to fall away from the faith.

“Why did these people leave the church? They didn’t trust the Bible, they weren’t taught to trust the Bible, they weren’t taught it was a book of history, and they weren’t taught to defend their faith and to have answers for the secular attacks.”

Hmm.

I have six children. I realized evolution is true—that humans and all of life evolved from one or a few common ancestors—in 1995. My oldest child was 4 at the time.

I’ve told them since then that I believe in evolution. I conducted a class for high schoolers on the evolution-creation debate, allowing the children–who all knew which side I was on–to research the subject for themselves. 10 out of 11 walked away confident that evolution was true.

Most of those high schoolers are walking with God as adults today. By this, I don’t mean that they pray, read their Bible, and attend the church. I mean that they are avidly walking with God, seeking his will, and wanting to bring the Gospel to the world.

My three teenage sons love God and are respected young men. My fourth child, a daughter, is just coming into her teen years, and she is following in her brothers’ footsteps.

I have taught them to treat evidence honestly. I have taught them that the Bible is not a book of science, and that the history of Genesis one–at least–is not literal. I have taught them that there could not have been a worldwide flood.

Not one of those young people or my children has fallen away because of knowing I believe those things or because of adopting those things themselves.

Why should they fall away? I believe those things, and I gave up pursuing the world in order to build God’s kingdom. I love and serve the people around me because I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, not because it’s just my habit or nature inherited from evolutionary ancestors.

In fact, I’ve taught my children to look for the fingerprint of God everywhere. I’ve taught them not to miss the work of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God in themselves or other people, and they are wholeheartedly devoting themselves to that pursuit.

They’ve managed to do all this without believing that the Bible is a book of science.

What Really Makes Kids Jump Ship

Michael Pearl has written an incredible book called Jumping Ship. It talks about the real reason children quit believing that they ought to live for Jesus Christ.

The primary reason is because you don’t.

Living for Christ is a spiritual thing to do. It doesn’t matter whether you think Genesis is literal or figurative. It doesn’t matter even whether you believe the Bible is inspired.

What matters is whether you think Jesus Christ is worth obeying and you obtain the spiritual power from him to do so.

That, my friends, is everything.

There are other things that affect whether your children grow up into faith. I don’t want to insult some good, godly Christian parents that have seen their children snatched into the world. Your parenting, the influence of society or an unbelieving spouse, and numerous other issues can cause your children to jump ship.

Doubts about a literal Bible will, however, never cause children to stop following Jesus Christ.

Doubts about a literal Bible will cause children to doubt the Bible is literal. And if your faith is completely summed up in a literal, scientifically-accurate Bible, it will topple when your children are educated.

An educated child will know that the Bible is not scientifically accurate. He or she will figure out rapidly that when the Bible says the sky is hard–as it does in Job 37:18 directly and in Genesis 1 by implication and by use of the word firmament–it is not scientifically accurate. They will realize that when the Bible says that the earth is set on pillars, as it does in 1 Sam. 2:8, it cannot be scientifically accurate.

What will you do then if your faith is based on the Bible’s scientific accuracy?

What will you do when they realize there is no reconciling Genesis 1 and Genesis 2–at least not if you use any reasonable thinking? What will you do when they realize that rabbits don’t really chew the cud, it only looks like they do? What will you do if they really take a hard look at the earth screaming out to them in its layers and fossils that life has changed over long geologic periods?

You will lose them; that’s what you’ll do.

Unless you’ve taught them to follow Jesus Christ and given them an example by your life that he’s real and powerful.

Christian Parenting and the Commands of Christ

I can find many commands for Christian parents to give their children an example of faith. I can find many commands for Christian parents to teach their children the things God has done.

I can’t find any that tell Christian parents to hide their children from science and the testimony of the earth.

My children know that the molecules we’re made of are produced by supernovas. They’re awestruck by the fact that we’re made of stardust.

They, like myself, think God did that.

My children know the story of Rose Creek Village. They know about some amazing Scriptural prophecies about how God builds the house of God that he did in founding the church here in Rose Creek, TN. They know about the numerous miraculous events that established the church here and that keep it going.

My children know about God’s work in the hearts of people. They know about the devil’s work in the hearts of his children when the work of God expands and threatens the domain of darkness.

They believe all that is the hand of God.

My children know that following Christ is spiritual. They know that when they’re weak, they need a strength that comes from heaven.

My children know that dad is human and makes some really bad mistakes. They also know that public and private repentance, the forgiveness of the saints, and the mercy and cleansing of God are part of following God. They know I’ll come back even to them to repent for my human failings and to pray to God for grace to do better.

They know about everything I can possibly give them about the work of God throughout the ages, and they believe.

It is not questions about a literal Bible that make people fall away. It is questions about the reality of Jesus Christ that make children fall away.

Do you want your children to stand? Plant their feet upon the rock. The rock is obedience to Christ, and the Bible commands you to teach them about the works of God, not about the scientific accuracy of the Bible.

Sorry, Ken Ham. I just can’t agree with you about what the problem is because I’ve yet to see it be a problem.

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Obedience and Christian “Salvation”

Posted on 09/26/2009 by Paul Pavao

What is salvation? I like to use the example of a saved drowning person. The saved person is the one who’s standing on the shore. The unsaved person is the one in the water, flapping their arms in the air and going under for the 3rd time.

It’s the same with Christian salvation. Peter likes to talk about escaping the corruption or pollution that is in the world through lust (2 Pet. 1:4; 2:20).  The writer of Hebrews describes people who are enlightened and taste of the heavenly gift and the power of the world to come (Heb. 6:4-5). Paul tells the Corinthians that they “were” unrighteous, but now they’re “washed,” “sanctified,” and “justified.”

Those are impressive religious words, but if we don’t define them, then they don’t mean anything at all.

  • “Washed” means baptized. (Everyone–and I mean everyone–believed that from the time of the apostles until a 100 years after the Reformation. So if that’s not true, then the apostles didn’t know how to preach the Gospel.)
  • “Sanctified” means made holy. It means separated or set aside for the use of God.
  • “Justified” means made righteous. It literally means that. It’s a cousin to the adjective “righteous.” It’s popular today to define righteousness as nothing more than being seen as righteous by God. George MacDonald called this a “revolting legal fiction,” and that’s exactly what it is. “Justified” means to actually be made righteous so that you walk in righteousness (1 Jn. 3:7).

So how does one obtain all these things?

Obedience: The Path to Christian Salvation

The Bible makes the general statement that Jesus has become the author of salvation to all who obey him (Heb. 5:9). (Did you know the Bible said that?)

However, it has a lot more specific things to say about obtaining salvation by obedience.

At the top of this post, do you remember I defined salvation from drowning as standing on the shore? There are a lot of specific ways that you can see the fruit of your Christian salvation in the way of a transformed life. I’ve been listening to Psalms and Proverbs on tape the last couple days, and they have a LOT to say about that.

Obedience and Tangible Salvation in the Psalms

Let’s start with Ps. 111:10. It says:

A good understanding have all those who do his commandments.

I quote that a lot because Noah, the head elder of our church, quotes it a lot. What I didn’t realize is how often that’s repeated over the next 40 Psalms and the first few chapters of Proverbs.

It starts in the very next Psalm:

Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man that fears the Lord and takes great delight in his commandments.

His descendants shall be mighty on the earth.  The generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house, and his righteousness will last forever. To the upright light will arise in the darkness; he is gracious, full of compassion, and righteous. (112:1-4)

Now that’s standing on the shore, rescued from drowning! That’s real, tangible salvation!

Psalm 112 goes on and gets better than that, but so do later Psalms. How about this incredible passage from Psalm 119. It’s not even just a promise. It’s what David says was his actual experience:

Through your commandments, you make me wiser than my enemies … I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients because I keep your precepts. … How sweet are your words to my taste! Sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. (vv. 98-104)

Wow! You can’t beat that!

How’d David get so wise? How did he understand more than the ancients?

He kept God’s precepts.

A good understanding have all those who obey him.

Obedience and Tangible Salvation in the Proverbs

What sort of wisdom can you gain from Proverbs?

The proverbs of Solomon … to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear and increase learning; a man of understanding will obtain wise counsel to understand a proverb and its interpretation, to understand the words of the wise and their riddles.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. (1:1-7)

Proverbs is all about obeying God. Proverbs is practical wisdom. Leaf through the proverbs. They do not talk about esoteric things or deep theology. They talk about lending money, border disputes, laziness, getting up early, and a lot of other very down-to-earth, practical things.

But if you will obey, Jesus–who is the Wisdom of Proverbs–will give you understanding in all those other things.

If you try to get understanding of deep theology by study, then Paul tells you what will happen:

The purpose of the command is love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Some have turned aside from this to empty words. The desire to be teachers of the law, but they don’t understand what they teach nor the things about which they make confident assertions. (1 Tim. 1:5-7)

Solomon begins the Proverbs by telling his son–probably a general reference to any student listening to his Proverbs–to avoid stealing and murder and the people who steal and murder (1:10-18).

Pretty basic, isn’t it!

The fear of  the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, not deep study!

After saying only that, Solomon says that Wisdom is walking around in the streets, crying out to the simple, trying to get someone to listen.

So later, she says, when they are in trouble and crying out for her, she will not answer.

Why? Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.

Discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you; to deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man who speaks perverse things. (Prov. 2:11-12)

Do you want to be delivered from error? Obey God. Discretion will preserve you. Understanding will keep you.

Uprightness and Righteousness

This is really important. I don’t know where to put it or how to phrase it so that its importance is properly emphasized, but this is really important:

Uprightness is a choice; righteousness is a gift.

And the gift of righteousness is given to the upright in heart.

Ps. 36:10 reads:

Prolong your lovingkindness to those that know you, and your righteousness to the upright in heart.

Ps 112:4 says:

To the upright light arises in the darkness; he is gracious, compassionate, and righteous.

All these things are another way of saying what Hebrews 5:8 says. Jesus is the author of eternal  salvation to those that obey him.

Faith and obedience were intertwined in the Hebrew mind. Only we western legalists could conceive of something so utterly ridiculous as claiming to have faith in someone and then ignoring what he tells you.

Imagine a guide on an African safari. He’s leading a group through the jungle. One of the guys keeps patting him on the back and telling him, “I have faith in you.” However, the next time the group stops to rest, and the guide calls an end to the break and starts forward, Mr. I-have-faith-in-you says, “Hey, I thought this trip was by faith. I don’t have to do what you say.”

What do you think? Spiritual? Or just ridiculous?

  • The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them. (Prov. 11:6)
  • Righteousness keeps the one that is upright in the way. (Prov. 21:18)
  • He became the author of eternal salvation for them that obey him. (Heb. 5:9)
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Health Care Plan, Debate, and My One Request

Posted on 09/21/2009 by Paul Pavao

On the Health Care Plan, have you noticed how no one has talked about doctors and hospitals charging less money?

Rose Creek Village has businesses that make a good portion of  their money by working for rich doctors … doctors with jaguars, twenty thousand square foot houses, and money to spend for very fine trim, paint, and faux finishes.

I had my shoulder put back in socket at McNairy Regional Hospital, which according to the $250 book, Customized Fee Analyzer, normally charges 4 to 5 times standard rates for this area for its services, despite being in one of the poorest counties in the country. The doctor talked to me for two minutes, then had me wait for about 90 minutes on a table, during which time he didn’t see me at all. After 90 minutes, he came in and worked on my arm for a half an hour and popped it back in.

He charged me $400 for that half hour.

Doctors need to make $800 per hour???

The hospital charged me $643 for walking into the emergency room. They charged me $90 per shot for six shots I wasn’t given. I called more than 15 times to talk to someone about the six $90 shots that didn’t happen, and I always got someone who couldn’t help me and a promise that someone would call me back.

They charged me $280 for being processed out of the emergency room. They charged me $40 for the $2 scrub shirt they sent me out with because they had to cut mine off. Total charge: $2400, not including the doctor, whose charge was $400 extra.

I paid them $1200, told them I’d see them in court if they wanted more, and then they left me alone. The doctor’s office agreed to take $200, a bit more reasonable, but still $400/hour for his time.

My One Health Care Request

Require doctors to charge less!

Do they need the money? You tell me. They’re hiring our top end carpentry and painters, driving jaguars, and living in multi-million dollar homes. That has to happen?

I read this today in this news report:

Fears over rising costs have been a critical factor in kick-starting the reform debate. The US spends around $7400 per person per year on healthcare, twice the health costs in Canada, the next highest spender.

I lived in Germany as a civilian for four years. America’s health care costs are ridiculous. There’s no other explanation. Limbaugh and others can go on and on about how socialist medicine doesn’t work, but I lived there, and it worked great.

We got a visitor from America while I was there who had no health insurance.  He contracted a kidney infection and was in the hospital for a week with a catheter for most of that time. He got out, the infection flared back up, and he went in another week just being treated with antibiotics.

Total cost? $3,000.

Now I know this was 1986, 23 years ago, but I assure you it was multiple thousands of dollars cheaper than it would have been in America. I’ve been treated by Germans, and I’ve been treated by Americans, and if anything, the treatment in Germany was better, cleaner, and more efficient.

I Don’t Get It

This health care plan, if it doesn’t address America’s ludicrous costs and its over-wealthy doctors, is a waste of time. Yet I’ve not heard one news report yet addressing the issue of simply telling doctors and hospitals their costs will be limited.

Will they go broke? No. Look the world over. We’re the most expensive health care providers in the world by double. A friend of mine flew to England to have a hernia operation. He paid cash, and it was cheaper to fly there and back and get the operation than to have it in the US … in South Dakota.

Good grief.

This is completely inappropriate to the normal subject of my blog, but it’s my blog, so …

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The Councils, the Creeds, and the Salvation of Souls

Posted on 09/20/2009 by Paul Pavao

I always say there’s nothing like reading error to motivate one to write truth.

I’m prone to writing error here and there, too. I’m human. I have things I don’t understand. I have things I forget to consider.

Teaching and Truth

Hopefully those of us who take it upon ourselves to teach will at least never make errors on purpose. Some do, however, Some are so bent on some supposed truth that they couldn’t care less about facts, history, Scripture or anything else. They’ll twist anything to prove their point. (Thus, the anti-Norman Geisler post two days ago.)

Catholicism, the Councils, the Creeds and Men’s Salvation

The one today, however, is not a purposeful twisting of history, I’m quite sure. It’s simply not considering history. It’s so easy not to notice the obvious.

On a “Equipping Catholics” blog, I read:

It is very important that we take a moment to recognize the impact heresies and anti-Christ philosophies can have on the eternal destinies of their adherents. False concepts of Christ can pull people away from the only narrow path that Jesus said leads to eternal salvation. False doctrines about Christ can result in the eternal loss of one’s soul.

And that is precisely why the Father gave us the Church — to protect us from those falsehoods and erroneous philosophies about salvation, sin and judgment …

Indeed, it was the early Church Councils (such as Nicea, Ephesus, Constantinople and Chalcedon) that handed down to the 21st century Church what is still considered the orthodox Christian faith — much of which is illustrated in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

What this writer means is that it’s a good thing that these councils came along to defeat heresies like Arianism and Nestorianism, or else people might be pulled away “from the only narrow path that Jesus said leads to eternal salvation.”

What the writer did not consider–nor have most of the rest of us considered–is whether it worked.

Did the councils of Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon lead people to follow Christ on the narrow path and save their souls?

Did they not rather lead to a top-heavy hierarchy, numerous false conversions, and a church full of corruption, superstition, and false doctrines? A church which later would be rightly called antichrist by the multitudes that fled its corruption and persecution?

Catholicism and the Dark Ages

After the councils, Christians became the persecutors rather than the persecuted. Rather than desecrating temples of idols, they created temples of idols so much that the emperor Julian the Apostate declared that Christians surpassed the pagans in their hero worship (by worshipping saints).

The last of the seven councils, of which the aforementioned are the first four, approved the “veneration” of icons. That Council, overriding a previous one, declared that it was appropriate to proskuneo a picture of a saint, as long as you didn’t latreia it.

Both those words are translated worship in the NT. In fact, both are used in Jesus’ statement to the devil, when he quoted Deuteronomy, “You shall worship (proskuneo) the Lord your God and him only shall you serve (latreia).” It seems clear to me that Jesus would not have approved of the worship of a picture of Peter, any more than Peter, who rejected proskuneo from Cornelius (Acts 10:25), would.

The Church produced from these great councils refused to allow its followers to hear the Scriptures, whether written or read aloud, in a language their followers could understand.  They burned John Huss and William Tyndale alive for giving people the Scriptures in the vernacular, and they burned John Wycliffe’s bones twelve years after he was buried because they couldn’t find him while he was alive.

This Church created “the Dark Ages,” the greatest time of ignorance in the world since before Sumeria in 6000 BC, and to this day they continue to produce Christians that are well over 90% Christian in name only.

I don’t think the councils succeeded at keeping people on the narrow path for the salvation of their soul.

Would Allowing Heresy Have Done Better?

Yes.

I suppose you want me to give reasons for asserting that.

  1. It could not have done worse; that’s impossible.
  2. It may have prevented the church gaining political power, and that’s always better.
  3. The churches did not hold a council to rout the gnostics, but they were driven out, anyway.
  4. If the Church had not gone into cahoots with the emperor, they may not have admitted all those unconverted pagans who switched to Christianity for purely political reasons.

Since the Church did hold the councils, and since they did get political help to win their battles, history went the way it did. We’ll never know what would have happened had it not happened.

However, I find it impossible to believe that a lack of understanding of the Trinity, which Tertullian said was common in the church in A.D. 200,  could have led to as many people forsaking the narrow path and losing their souls than the rout of councils and creeds did.

Posted in Church, History | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments

Ronald Reagan Buried 20 Trillion Dollars in the White House Rose Garden

Posted on 09/20/2009 by Paul Pavao

My wife tells me that the ridiculous story that Ronald Reagan buried 20 trillion dollars in the White House Rose Garden actually made it to the Google news listing last night. I found a copy of it here.

As soon as I heard it, I started laughing. When  I heard it was buried in mason jars, I laughed louder.

This is not my typical blog post, but I couldn’t resist talking about this. Humor, politics, and math combined. Irresistible.

Zero Is a Really Big Number

I love math. One of the things I love about math is how big a number zero is.

Just three zeros turns 1 into 1,000. Three more zeros are worth 999,000, as they turn 1,000 into 1,000,000.

The next three  zeros are worth 999 million as they turn a million into a billion.

What’s the point?

The White House Has a Really Big Rose Garden

The article says that the money was buried in “low denomination bills.”

Yeah, right.

Let’s assume these “low denomination bills” are 100’s. If you divide 20 trillion by 100, you only get to take two zeros off. You still have 200 billion.

Do you know how much room 200 billion $100 bills takes up?

Well, assuming that it takes 250 bills to make an inch (which is close to true of 20# typing paper, and I think that money’s thicker), then you have a stack of bills 800 million inches high. Divide that by 5,280 and you get a stack of money 151,515 miles high. That’s 60% of the way to the moon.

You’re going to bury that in the White House rose garden?

We did some more math and determined that Ronald Reagan had to dig a cavern 5 miles long, 1 mile wide, and 100 feet deep. And that’s assuming there’s no mason jars or oven mitts taking up room with them.

That’s a big rose garden.

Where Did Reagan Get the Money?

I was 26 years old in 1987 when Reagan did this. I remember hearing about the deficit and the national debt. To this day, the national debt is still less that 20 trillion dollars. In 1987, the federal budget was less than a billion dollars.

So I looked up the gross domestic product for 1987. It was difficult to find, but I did find that the gross domestic product for “all industries” totaled 4.8 trillion dollars or so.

So Ronald Reagan buried something over 4 times what the entire United States spent in 1987?

Right.

Ronald Reagan’s Buried Money Was a Joke

I don’t know who started the joke, but if you read the article, it’s obviously tongue-in-cheek.

Computers are computers, even if they’re run by Google. I’m sure one of those quick spiders, which can read keywords but can’t see tongues or cheeks, picked it up.

You can’t find it on Google News today, even with a search, so some insightful (mildly) human has removed it.

It’s not April 1, so I don’t know why the story was written. It was funny, though. I loved the comment attributed to Barack Obama:

“‘Our economic worries are no more,’ announced a jubilant Barack Obama.”

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The Historic Christian Faith? – Norman Geisler, Luther’s 95 Theses, and the Bible

Posted on 09/18/2009 by Paul Pavao

Error, lies, and foolishness are always excellent motivators for me to blog.

The particular embarrassing morass of propaganda to which I am referring is John Ankerberg’s interview with Norman Geisler. The interview is such a collection of Protestant fantasy that I hardly know where to start.

However, start I will.

Norman Geisler

Geisler doesn’t believe in Purgatory. Fair enough. I don’t either.

To Geisler, however, it appears that means he can pick any parts of church history he wants and say that they don’t either. In his case, he picks Luther’s 95 theses, and then he tells us:

Luther … tacked up his 95 theses and said, “There is no purgatory. There are no prayers for the dead. You can’t buy people out of purgatory.”

That’s nice. Norman Geisler passes himself off–and is believed to be by a multitude of the ignorant sheep that will always, and should, constitute the majority of the church–an expert on “the historic Christian faith.” Yet, it is apparent from this interview that he makes up his own historic Christian faith.

Martin Luther’s 95 Theses

I have Luther’s 95 theses up on my Christian history web site. Try going there and taking a look at number 26. There Luther suggests that the pope, rather than offering to remit sins through keys of the kingdom that he does not possess, ought to seek remission by praying. The obvious context, as is clear from the rest of the theses, is that the pope ought to be praying for souls in purgatory rather than claiming the ability to release them.

Nothing in the 95 theses denies purgatory. Luther was still a Catholic priest at the time, somewhat under the delusion that the pope was going to support him in his ideas. Thesis 50, for example, says:

Christians are to be taught that if the pope knew the exactions of the pardon-preachers, he would rather that St. Peter’s church should go to ashes, than that it should be built up with the skin, flesh and bones of his sheep.

I’m pretty sure Luther would deny purgatory later, though I’ve never looked it up, and I can’t be certain of it. But during the time of the 95 theses, he was a good Roman Catholic monk.

History

This is history. History is where you read what a person said, and then you tell people what that person said.

History is not taking your own words and wishes and putting them in the mouths of historical figures. Doing that is blasphemy, lying, and deceit, and it will cause God to send you to hell.

Read it for yourself. The Bible says that all liars will have their part in the lake of fire.

Beware, Norman Geisler and John Ankerberg. I don’t care what service you think you are rendering to people by defending them from Jehovah’s Witnesses, Way missionaries, Mormons, and Roman Catholics. If you defend them by lying, you will have your part in the lake of fire. If you create a new gospel, a new Christian history, and a way that is contrary to the apostolic way–no matter how much you defend it with the Bible–then you are to be anathametized by all true Christians.

The Bible

Geisler also presents an imaginary history of the Bible in that interview. Almost nothing he says is true. I don’t have time to go into it here, nor time to research all the quotes I’d have to research for you, but I have a page on it and I can highly recommend A High View of Scripture? on the subject. A High View of Scripture? is an Evangelical book published by a well-respected Evangelical publisher, Baker Books.

‘Nuff said, as the saying goes.

Posted in Bible, Gospel, History, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Scripture: The Foundation of Truth?

Posted on 09/17/2009 by Paul Pavao

 I saw a blog recently, pretty good other than the ridiculous amount of advertising at the top, and I wrote the following response to it. I thought it was pertinent and ought to be on my blog.

Scripture and the Church

The history part of your post is excellent, and that’s unusual. While there are always going to be interpretations of history, there are basic things that simply happened, and any honest person has to at least stick to those things. Most don’t. You did. Congratulations. It’s sad that it’s so rare.

That said, I do disagree with your conclusion about carefully sticking to the Scriptures. One of the things the Scripture says to do is to test things by their fruit. I’m not very impressed by the fruit of the sola Scriptura movement. It’s pretty pitiful, in fact.

But let’s say we were to actually follow Scripture in the more important areas:love, unity, mercy, judgment, for example, and above all in how to know truth. Well, here’s some things it says.

The foundation of truth is the church and the revelation of God in the church (1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Jn. 2:27, where the “you” is plural, not singular). I’m not Catholic or Orthodox. By church, I mean the local church bonded together in Christ, not some organization.

That’s what the Scripture says. I didn’t make that up or rely on tradition. The Scripture says that if people are trying to seduce you, then you don’t have to worry if you–the local church–follow the anointing into what’s true. Hold fast to the unity of the Spirit, and God will lead you into the unity of the faith (Eph. 4:3,13).

God’s church will never be founded on micro-managing type of rules like no instruments and other things people fight over. It will be found on those who depart from iniquity (2 Tim. 2:19). People who pursue peace, faith, and holiness together (2 Tim. 2:22). And people who judge sin and put those who are obviously faking it or purely nominal out of their midst (1 Cor. 5). You will never find the church united in power and following God when most of its members have no interest in denying themselves, taking up their cross, and following God, even giving up all their possessions for one another and for the poor (Luke 9:23; 14:26-33).

Following the Scripture will lead you to know God and walk by the Spirit, so that the Spirit of God resolves all the difficulties in your midst, even the doctrinal ones. Following the Scripture as a foundation of truth, rather than knowing that Christ is Truth (Jn. 5:39-40), will have you never resolving your differences but living like Pharisees. It’s been proved over and over again.

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Accidental Series on the Church, Part IV

Posted on 08/25/2009 by Paul Pavao

I really didn’t mean to be writing a series on the church, but here goes part IV.

Most attempts at starting house churches/simple churches/”the” church don’t go anywhere. That’s acknowledged in most of Gene Edwards’ books. I’m not sure about Frank Viola’s.

Why?

Problem 1: Christians Don’t Know What the Church Is

It never ceases to amaze me that Gene Edwards and Frank Viola have been writing about starting home churches for years, and the description always remains this wonderful, free, joyful thing that practically grows and takes care of itself. While Gene Edwards acknowledges that it hardly ever works, his answer is to get more free and don’t try so hard.

Yikes!

People don’t know what they’re getting into. The Church is the most important thing on earth. It’s more important than governments and countries. If Christians get together, hear Jesus Christ and obey him, then they can conquer the world.

We did it once. We overthrew the Roman empire with love, submission, and suffering. We spread across the earth before there were government churches and conversion by the sword.

If we don’t know it, the devil most certainly does. He’s not deceived. He’s quite aware that the gates of hell cannot stand against the church (see Which Church?, my previous post), and he has no intentions of letting it exist.

He’s taking it seriously, and the followers of simple church/home church are not. The battle’s way worse than they have any idea, and it’s a lot more subtle and deceptive.

As the great Cyprian of Carthage put it in A.D. 250:

Caution is more easy where danger is manifest, and the mind is prepared beforehand for the contest when the adversary avows himself. The enemy is more to be feared and to be guarded against, when he creeps on us secretly. (On the Unity of the Church, ch. 1)

Problem 2: Christians Don’t Know What a Christian Is!

One problem with everything I’ve written so far is that I’m using “we” loosely.

Jesus said that no one can be his disciple who doesn’t deny himself, take up his cross, follow him, hate his family, including his wife and kids, hate his own soul, and forsake all his possessions (Luke 9:23; 14:26-33).

He did.

Most Christians today think he didn’t mean it.

He did mean it. I’d like to be nice and say that you can be a Christian and ignore those ideas of Jesus, but you can’t.

You can’t.

He’s the one who said it.

You can’t build a church with people that aren’t Christians.

Daring to Make It Just a Little Easier

It’s scary to me to lighten what I just said at all. After all, those were Jesus’ ideas, not mine.

However, I think it’s clear from Scripture that Christians weren’t those who did this perfectly. When Jesus wrote letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3 he acknowledged as Christians those who had some problems. He acknowledged as churches people who had a lot of problems.

But he called them to repent.

You can’t have a Laodicean church. If the Laodicean church didn’t repent, Jesus was going to spew them out of his mouth. They were not going to continue being a church.

In fact, look at the Ephesian church. They had only one thing held against them. It was one big thing, they had left their first love, but nonetheless all else said to them was positive. They had works and patience. Jesus tells them that twice. But he was still going to remove their candlestick–and that quickly–unless they repented. (History says they did, by the way.)

In other words, even the righteous Ephesian church, standing against evil and deception, were going to cease to be a church if they did not return to their first love.

Problem 3: Christians Don’t Understand Their Purpose

Jesus takes the Church as seriously as the devil. He’s a lot more powerful than the devil, too. He created the devil. The devil is not a problem for him.

But even Jesus didn’t defeat the devil without a fight. He had to stand up to him. He had to bear real temptation. Overcoming the devil is always a fight.

As Justin Martyr put it some 1850 years ago:

[The demons] subdue all who make no strong opposing effort for their own salvation. (First Apology 14)

The early Christians knew what they were getting into.

They also knew what it meant to be a Christian. Justin added this rather frightening description of the Christian life:

There is no other way than this: to become acquainted with this Christ, to be washed in the fountain spoken of by Isaiah for the forgiveness of sins, and for the rest, to live sinless lives. (Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 44)

Hmm. Impossible? His contemporaries didn’t think so:

If we Christians are compared with you [Romans], although in some things our discipline is inferior, yet we shall be found much better than you. For you forbid, yet commit, adulteries; we are born only for our own wives. You punish crimes when committed; with us, even to think of crimes is sin. You are afraid of those who are aware of what you do; we are afraid even of our own conscience alone, without which we cannot exist. (Minucius Felix, The Octavius, ch. 35)

There is room for stumbling. There is room for public repentance. There is room for forgiveness. There is not room, however, for a Christianity that says, “I don’t have to obey Jesus because it’s impossible.”

Such a Christianity knows nothing of grace.

Problem 4: We Think Real Christianity Is Too Hard

Most “Christians” will look at what I’ve written and begin making the most ridiculous excuses. I don’t know how many times I’ve been told to give away my computer so that I can have forsaken all my possessions and so scoffers and worldly Christians won’t have to read me writing about Jesus’ commands!

They’re not scoffing at me. They’re scoffing at the commands of Christ. There’s no true Christianity except the one that goes all the way with God, and the only Christians that can band together and be the church are those that obey Christ.

Everyone else is a liar.

I tried to think of a nicer word, but “liar” is the word the apostle John–the apostle of love–used (1 Jn. 2:3-4).

We might as well be honest. The fact is, I’m a human, too. The temptations that affect you affect me. I’ve had to cry out to God for mercy. I’ve lived like an American at times, not like a Christian. I fear, like Peter commanded (1 Pet. 1:17), because I know I will be judged by my works. I know how desperately I need the grace that removes sin’s power.

But it’s God that sets the standard, not me. I don’t get to lower it. I only get to submit to it.

And the church that overthrows the gates of hell is going to consist of people who submit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as he gave it, not as we wish it was in this ridiculously intellectual, divided, and carnal Christian world.

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Which Church?

Posted on 08/19/2009 by Paul Pavao

This post is the 3rd part of a 3-part series I didn’t mean to write. Better read the previous two posts. Both of them are dated today, too.

So, here’s part 3:

Which Church?

I keep talking about the church, but which church?

I’m talking about the church. The people who are Christians in your area.

You need them. They need you.

It really doesn’t matter whether we Protestants have developed a denominational system where you go to the Methodist church and your next-door neighbor goes to the Lutheran church. That’s not okay. You’re sinning.

It really doesn’t matter that the pope in Rome is the head of a huge hierarchy that claims to be the one true church; that idea has nothing to do with anything Biblical or with the historical church.

You’re supposed to be sharing your life with other Christians. You are supposed to be family. You are supposed to be more likely to take an unemployed brother and his family into your house than his parents are.

You’re supposed to call nothing your own and share with the Christians around you.

That’s Biblical, and that’s historical. [It’s not just Acts that talks about calling nothing your own. There was an early Christian tract that gave the same command, which is included in the Letter of Barnabas and the Didache. Justin Martyr in Rome in A.D. 150 and Tertullian in Carthage, Africa in A.D. 200 both claimed that Christians in general were following that command.]

That’s the church that God cares about, and that’s the church that will inherit the promises.

That’s the only church that matters because it’s the only one that can exhort one another every day (Heb. 3:13), speak to one another in love (Eph. 4:11-16), and be led together into all things (1 Jn. 2:27, where the “you” is plural, not singular).

How Does One Join Themselves to that Church?

I have no idea.

Sorry. I didn’t create the problem, and I don’t have miraculous revelation on how to solve it. I can just show you that the Bible says it’s a problem and if you try to solve it, you’ll find out what it means that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12).

The devil hates it when you try to gather the saints. It terrifies him.

I can give you some advice, though.

I’ve tried a lot of things. Others have tried things.  Here’s some of what’s worked and what hasn’t.

I tried talking to everyone around me, going to every church I could, and telling people what the Bible says.

Not very many people listened to me.

The fact is, most people who call themselves Christians aren’t really Christians. They don’t have the Spirit of God, and they don’t much care what Jesus wants. They’re not going to listen to or look for God’s will whether you show it to them in the Bible or whether God speaks it to them in their hearts. They just don’t care, and they’re not really Christians.

Some are, though, and they care. Hundreds and thousands of people have managed to gather them together to try to do the things I’m talking about here. Gene Edwards and Frank Viola have written dozens of books on what to do when you do get them together.

I’ve met dozens of those groups. What they’re doing isn’t working. They don’t grow, and they get quickly bored. Most simply fall apart quickly. Those that don’t end up going back to the institutional churches they were once part of.

There’s some problems in Gene and Frank’s books. It’s not as simple as they say it is, and there’s some key issues missing.

I gave up trying on my own. When I found people who were making it work, I moved to where they were and gathered with them.

What do I mean by making it work? I mean they were really together, God pays attention to them, and they are being taught by God.

I’ve met other groups like that, but they didn’t last. They had the tremendous joy and fulfillment that comes from being in the church; they were taking care of each other; they had revelation from God; but they fell apart, usually rapidly.

Why?

Well, I have some ideas about that, too. But I guess that will have to wait for part 4.

I didn’t mean to be writing a series, and I’m out of time for today, so part 4 will have to wait until later today, tomorrow, or the next time I can get to this.

For now, just know that the devil hates it when the church rises up. It doesn’t matter whether it looks like a home church or like an institutional church or like neither. When Christians in a local area gather together, love one another, take care of one another, and act like family, the devil hates it and attacks it.

Christians today aren’t ready for a fierce battle with casualties, so they usually lose. The devil just tears them apart.

That’s the biggest problem. Like I said, though, I’ll say more about that in the next part.

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The Church

Posted on 08/19/2009 by Paul Pavao

You might want to read the previous post before you read this one. I just finished it a moment ago.

It’s so important for Christians today to find out that Christianity is not meant to be an individual religion!

The following is what I almost added to the previous post, but I didn’t want to detract from its topic. So here it is as its own topic.

The Church

One further problem we have is a belief that Christianity is an individual religion. It is not. God has always intended for those who are saved to be added to the Church (Acts 2:47).

Unless you are part of a group of people who are exhorting one another every day, you are in constant danger of hardening through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13). God never meant for you to be delivered by yourself.

It is imperative that we get this. By losing our understanding of this we have lost everything!

Read through 1 Cor. 12 and Eph. 4:11-16. See how clearly the Bible says that we must grow together. It is only as every part supplies its “effective measure of grace” that we grow together in love.

Apart from that, we don’t grow. We just fool ourselves. Sin is deceitful, the Scripture says. We think we’re righteous, but we’re not.

We need each other.

Doctrine and Division

We have lots of reasons for separating from one another. This one believes in a 2nd experience, a baptism in the Spirit separate from salvation, and this one does not. That one speaks in tongues. This one believes baptism is symbolic; that one believes it’s not.

So important, it seems to us!

But we learn together. The Scripture has not called us to learn on our own. Study and pray for guidance all you want. The first guidance you must get is that you are not going to be led into truth by yourself!

The pillar and support of the truth, according to the Bible, is the church! (1 Tim. 3:15).

Yes, the church!

You need your brothers and sisters. As soon as you divide from them, you lose.

Doctrine and Division: The Solution

We think the Scriptures are the pillar and support of the truth. We don’t seem to care that the Scriptures say that the church is the pillar and support of the truth. We don’t believe that, so who cares what the Bible says!

Dear God, please deliver us from that sort of thinking.

The Pharisees searched the Scriptures. With the Scripture’s help, they missed Christ!

You search the Scriptures because you believe that in them you have life, but these are they which testify of me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life! (John 5:39-40)

You have the Scriptures. They testify of Christ, but where will you find Christ?

Christ, the Church, and the Scriptures

There’s an incredible verse in the Bible, found at 1 Corinthians 12:12. It’s so astonishing it’s hard for us to believe.

Ready?

For as the body is one, yet has many members … so also is Christ. (1 Cor. 12:12)

Do you understand why this is so important? Do you see what it says?

This does not say that the church is like a body with many members. It says that the Christ is like a body with many members.

Think about that a moment.

The Church: Christ in the Earth

I’ve been through a lot of evangelism programs. All of them led to a final point. That final point was something like, “Jesus is here right now. You can’t see him, but he’s here right now. Just bow your head and tell him you believe.”

That’s what’s supposed to happen. All of us Protestants know that.

Can you find it in the Bible?

There’s a fascinating story in the Bible. Saul, persecutor of the church, is on his way to Damascus. A light appears, and he is knocked to the ground.

Then Jesus appears to him. We don’t know how or in what way, but Saul saw Jesus.

If ever there was a time to say, “I’m right here. You can see me, unlike all others, so you can really pray. Just bow your head and tell me you believe,” that time was then.

But it’s not what Jesus said.

Instead, Jesus told him to go to Damascus and wait for Ananias.

The Christ Comes to Paul

We know the story. We know Ananias came to Saul. But have you thought about what happened when Ananias came to Saul?

Saul had been stricken with blindness. Ananias healed that blindness. He laid hands on Saul, and Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:17-18). He baptized Saul, and Saul’s sins were forgiven (Acts 22:16).

And Saul became Paul the apostle.

We tell people what they need is an invisible Christ in the heavens. Jesus told Paul that what he needed was a visible Christ on the earth.

Hmm …

It’s true that we need something spiritual and invisible. We walk by the Spirit not by the flesh. Ananias hands were the means Jesus used to baptize Paul in the Spirit so that Paul would be a spiritual man, able to hear the voice of God.

Our Need for the Church

No wonder Paul spoke so highly of the church. No wonder Paul said that our growth is tied to the church, tied to our speaking to one another, and tied to each of us contributing our measure of grace (Eph. 4:11-16).

That’s a lot for one post. I’ll just quit there.

I don’t know how well this is all explained, but as a great man of God once said, both Christ and the church are known by revelation. They are not “figured out.” You must ask God to allow you to see the church and to understand Christ. You will not go through the immense battle that is necessary to be part of the church unless you have a revelation of your need for it.

Oh, you’re probably asking: what church?

That’s for the next post …

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