What is the Purpose of the Church?

If I were to ask you, “what is the purpose of the church”, would you be able to give me a sound biblical answer? I wonder how many would have his or her own ideas of the purpose of the church rather than what God has revealed in His Word is the purpose of the church. I wonder how many go to church for the wrong reasons. You see, the reason you go to church is what you believe to be the purpose of the church. Do you go to be entertained? Do you go to have your social needs met by being around other people? Do you go because you believe going to church to be your spiritual duty? Do you go to church because you believe that church is to be all about you and that the church is supposed to meet whatever needs you feel you may have?

None of those reasons, along with a myriad of other reasons that you could come up with, are the Lord’s purpose for His church. We are living in a day of utilitarian religion – where Christ and His Church are utilized for selfish and secondary reasons. We are living in a day when many are trying to define the purpose of the church but they are doing it based on their own understanding and not by relying totally on what God has revealed in His Word.

Robert Schuller has said that the church must be willing to die as a church and be re-born as a mission. Now that sounds real spiritual and might even sound right at first glance, but God has never intended for the church to be a mission. For the church to be a mission would mean that the church would have to become a gathering of the lost rather than a gathering of the saints who have been called out of the world. Schuller put it this way in his book, Self-Esteem: The New Reformation,

For the church to address the unchurched with a theocentric attitude is to
invite failure in mission. The non-churched who have no vital belief in a
relationship with God will spurn, reject, or simply ignore the theologian,
church spokesperson, preacher, or missionary who approaches with Bible in hand,
theology on the brain and the lips, and expects nonreligious persons to suspend
their doubts and swallow the theocentric assertions as fact….It was appropriate
for Calvin and Luther to think theocentrically. After all, “Everyone was in the
church” and the issues were theological not philosophical. For them, the central
issue was, “What is the truth in theology?” The reformers didn’t have to impress
the unchurched so there was no need for them to take the “human needs” approach.
They were a church after all, not a mission. They would “proclaim the Word of
the Lord,” and all had better listen! Time and history have changed all that.
Today the sincere, Christian believer is a minority. So the church must be
willing to die as a church and be born again as a mission. We cannot speak out
with a “Thus saith the Lord” strategy when we are talking to people who couldn’t
care less about the Lord! We cannot start with “What does the text say?” if
we’re talking to persons who aren’t about to affirm respect for or unquestioning
obeisance to “the text.” (pages 12-13).

So for Robert Schuller, the church must stop being a gathering place for the saints and begin being a gathering place for unbelievers. In order for the church to do that it must die as a church, quit preaching God’s Word, and take a “human needs” approach to attract the lost. In other words, Robert Schuller says that the church is to abandon the real purpose that the Lord established her for and needs to learn how to bring in the crowds by learning how to be “Seeker-Sensitive.” In Schuller’s plan the services are geared toward unbelievers and neglects building up the saints in the faith.

Men like Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, and many others have taken Schuller’s philosophy and expanded upon it furthering the corruption of the purpose of the church. In his book, The Purpose Driven Church, Rick Warren cleverly shows how to cause your church to die as a church and become a mission without ever setting off too many alarms for those who should know better. Chapter fourteen of Rick Warren’s book is entitled, Designing a Seeker-Sensitive Service. In it he cleverly gives a philosophical reason rather than a theological reason for not preaching the whole counsel of God and for being more concerned with gathering a larger crowd than growing loyal Christians. He said,

“Growing up in a Christian home, I was often frustrated when I brought
nonbelieving friends to church. It seemed inevitable that whenever I’d get one
of my friends to attend a service with me, that would be the Sunday my father
would preach on tithing, some guest missionary would show slides, or we’d have a
communion service – not what my unsaved friends needed to hear or experience”
(page 251).

Warren went on to ask, “What is the most natural way to increase the number of visitors to your church? And he answered by saying, “The answer is quite simple: Create a service that is intentionally designed for your members to bring their friends to. And make the service so attractive, appealing, and relevant to the unchurched that your members are eager to share it wit the lost people they care about” (page 253).

But enough of what men have to say is the purpose of the church; what does God say is the purpose of the church? According to God’s Word is the ministry of the church to evangelize sinners or equip the saints?

First, the church service is the place for the saints to show up (4:11-12a).

The word "church" means, “gathering of the called out ones.” Therefore church services are to be a place of preaching and teaching for the equipping of the saints – and cannot be “Seeker-Sensitive” without departing from the preaching and teaching necessary to equip the saints. Evangelizing the sinner is supposed to take place outside the church services – equipping the saints is what is to take place inside the church services.

Our goal is not to bring people to church first and then to Christ later – our goal is to bring people to Christ first and then they come to church because they are now part of His body and now they love His people. “The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now” (1 John 2:9). “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death” (1 John 3:14).

I’m not saying that lost people can’t come to church and shouldn’t be welcome at our services – they can and they are – but we cannot gear our services around them and refuse to do what God has called us to do. We should be so God-focused that sinners are convicted – (1 Cor. 14:23-25). Or as Gary Gilley put it, "Evangelism was the one biblically mandated function in which believers engaged outside of the assembled church. They did not invite friends to the church gatherings to win them to Christ. The church services were not geared for the unbelievers but for the saints" (source).

Second, the church service is the place for the saints to grow up (4:12b-16)

We grow in our ability to serve the Lord and others (12b) - "For the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ."

We grow in the faith – the Word of God (13a) - "Until we all attain to the unity of the faith." We grow together in our knowledge of the Word of God and attain unity in that knowledge.

We grow in the knowledge the Son of God (13b) - "And of the knowledge of the Son of God." Growing together in our knowledge of the Word of God (the faith) leads to growing together in our knowledge of the Son of God. This is essential because this is how we are transformed more and more into His image - we become like what or who we worship!

We grow in Christ-likeness (13c) - "To a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to Christ." As we grow in our knowledge of the Word of God we grow in our knowledge of the Son of God and are transformed by the Spirit of God as we behold the glory of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).

We grow in discernment (14) - "As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming." The growing saint will begin to be able to know the difference between theology and philosophy; between sound doctrine and strange doctrine; between true teachers and false teachers; and between truth and error.

We grow in truth (15) - "But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ." Jesus is truth and as we grow in all aspects into Him we grow in truth.

We grow in love (16) - "From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body, for the building up of itself in love." We learn how interdependent God has made us of each other and we learn to love each other and build up the church in love.


Third, the church service is the place for the saints to clean up (4:17-24)

It is in the church service that we learn to take off our grave clothes and put on our resurrection clothes. This is the business of the Christian and the church. We are to help people who have been called out of death into life to take off their grave clothes. After Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb, He told the people standing around to “Unbind him, and let him go.” (John 11:43-44) – “And when He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” He who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings; and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

We should no longer look like, talk like, or smell like the lost and dead world. We should put on our resurrection clothes and dress up to the high and holy calling that we have as children of God. We should engage in helping others to get out of the tomb and out of their grave clothes. After all, this is what we have been commissioned to do by our living Lord and Savior. This is the purpose of the church and we cannot do this if we are always attempting to “evangelize the sinner” rather than equipping the saints.

I’m reminded of a poster that pictured some middle-eastern men out in front of their village with a Jeep with its hood up and these men were looking under the hood at the engine. And the caption below this picture said, “Who cares whether we know how it’s supposed to work? We’re going to take a crack at fixing it.” (See it here). That is exactly what is going on with the doctrine of the Church today with all these arising apostate movements. They are trying to tell us how to do Church when they don’t know how it’s supposed to work. Let’s do Church God’s way and let the saints show up, grow up and clean up for the glory of God and His kingdom.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Orthodoxy Determines Orthopraxy!

The coming counterfeit revival, the apostasy that must take place before the Lord returns, is in process and is being called, “a new reformation.” This is nothing short of an ecumenical movement that will culminate in a one world religion whose unity will have to be something other than sound doctrine as its quintessence. Since sound doctrine (orthodoxy) is seen as too divisive then there must be another essence to allow unity in diversity and give embodiment to the movement as a whole. It will be this other essence that will be used to unify the diverse and false religions of the world under one umbrella; the common ground that will allow a working together and getting along with one another. This will be a return to Babel, an unholy and ungodly unity, under the disguise of bringing in world peace and the utopian age.

However, this will be a counterfeit unity because it will be based on the pursuit of philosophy and culture to the exclusion of God derived unity. The unity and peace God provides is always based on truth – first pure then peaceable! But genuine unity and peace based on truth (orthodoxy) is also divisive dividing the true from the false and the wheat from the tares. Therefore world-wide unity is only possible based on something other than truth and therefore the ecumenical movement will actually serve as a gathering up (bundling up) of the tares (counterfeit Christians who are not lovers of truth) based on that which is a lie (See Matthew 13:30 and 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12).

Since truth only unites those who are lovers of truth so as to be saved and divides because of its exclusiveness - orthodox, fundamental, and creedal Christians will be disdained as trouble-makers, enemies of the ecumenical movement (falsely called the evangelical movement), and those who cause division. Even the reformation will be viewed as a failure and of a divisive nature because it failed to unite Christendom. Orthodoxy, right beliefs, sound doctrine, will have no place in the ecumenical movement because it is not the means that can bring about the desired end – world unity and peace. But there is one major problem for the ecumenical movement and its proponents – those who know and love the truth and take their stand for the truth in-spite of consequences.

These are the children of God who have received the love of the truth so as to be saved. They will be caricatured, belittled, and even persecuted as narrow minded, arrogant, fundamentalist, legalistic, sectarian, enemies of the movement of God. As Charles Spurgeon said, “Well, dear friends, we are content with the old wine since it is the best; Christ's gospel is no new gospel; and moreover, we are old-fashioned enough to believe that not one doctrine is to be altered, nor half a doctrine, nor the thousandth part of a doctrine, no nor yet the form of a doctrine. We would "hold fast the form of sound words"—not only the principle mark, but the words; and not only the words, but the very form in which the words were moulded."Words, words, words," says somebody; "what is the use of words, and forms, and creeds? Why, these are old musty crusty documents, only sectarians care about them."Ay, then let us be sectarians; let us hold with force and strength of mind the very form of sound words which has been delivered unto us. Not one of the stakes shall be removed, nor one of the cords thereof be loosened.”

So what will be the quintessence, the unifying force than can pull the many into one, and out of plurality bring singularity, and from diversity achieve unity, giving embodiment to the ecumenical movement? ORTHOPRAXY! Sound doctrine or right beliefs (orthodoxy) must give way to what is falsely being called right behavior (orthopraxy). The rally cry for the ecumenical apostasy which is falsely being called "a new reformation" is away with creeds and unite with deeds.

However, right behavior (orthopraxy) only flows from right beliefs (orthodoxy); doctrine determines duty and in the Bible the doctrinal is given before the practical is given; we are not told how to behave until we are told how to believe because our behavior is transformed by the renewing of our minds (what we believe). There can be no divorce or disconnect between orthodoxy and orthopraxy. To have orthodoxy without orthopraxy is to be like the demons and believe but unsavingly (see James 2:14-19). To have orthopraxy without orthodoxy is to pursue righteousness as though it were by works and not be subject to the righteousness of God which is by faith (see Romans 9:30 – 10:4).

Therefore a unity that is based on orthopraxy with no regard for orthodoxy is unbiblical and ungodly. It is rebellion and disobedience for God Himself has said, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Beliar, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord. And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).

This is the biblical and orthodox reason based on sound doctrine to reject the ecumenical movement and its proponents. And don’t forget – doctrine determines duty; behavior flows from belief!

First the doctrinal then the practical; first right belief then right behavior – so now we move from preaching to practice – it’s time to make application!

Having established the truth that the ecumenical movement cannot and will not have as its unifying essence orthodoxy (right beliefs) but will unify under under deeds (counterfeit of right behavior), let us make application with this orthodoxy and practice genuine orthopraxy – let us see who is violating God’s truth and come out from their midst and be separate as the Lord says!

You know, 500 years ago, the first Reformation with Luther and then Calvin, was
about beliefs. I think a new reformation is going to be about behavior. The
first Reformation was about creeds; I think this one will be about deeds. I
think the first one was about what the church believes; I think this one will be
about what the church does.
The first Reformation actually split Christianity
into dozens and then hundreds of different segments. I think this one is
actually going to bring them together. Now, you're never going to get
Christians, of all their stripes and varieties, to agree on all of the different
doctrinal disputes and things like that, but what I am seeing them agree on are
the purposes of the church. And I find great uniformity in the fact that I see
this happening all the time. Last week I spoke to 4,000 pastors at my church who
came from over 100 denominations in over 50 countries. Now, that's wide spread.
We had Catholic priests, we had Pentecostal ministers, we had Lutheran bishops,
we had Anglican bishops, we had Baptist preachers. They're all there together
and you know what? I'd never get them to agree on communion or baptism or a
bunch of stuff like that, but I could get them to agree on what the church
should be doing in the world.
And the way I expressed it is that the Bible
calls the church the body of Christ, and what's happened in the last 100 years
is that the hands and the feet have been amputated and the church has just been
a mouth, and primarily it's been known for what it's against. It's been known
for what it's against. And I am working toward a second Reformation of the
church which could create a Third Great Awakening in our nation or world, and it
may not happen in America; it may not. (Source)

Now notice that Rick Warren is saying that orthopraxy will be the unifying essence of a “new reformation.” Notice that he also implies the failure of the first reformation because it, “actually split Christianity into dozens and then hundreds of different segments.” However, this is the nature of truth and the nature of the ministry of Christ – He did not come to bring peace but a sword nor unity (except for those who are truly His disciples) but division (see Matthew 10:34-36).

Also notice that Rick Warren equates the church standing firm in truth as being known for what it stands against which he is “tired of”:

"The New Testament says the church is the body of Christ, but for the last 100
years, the hands and feet have been amputated, and the church has just been a
mouth. And mostly, it's been known for what it's against," Warren said during a
break between services at his church campus. "I'm so tired of Christians being
known for what they're against." (Source)

However, you cannot stand for something while at the same time not standing against something. You cannot stand for truth and righteousness without standing against lies and unrighteousness. This is also another serious violation of the Word of God which says that true prophets are known for what they stand against (Jeremiah 28:5-9) and that the equipped church while standing firm in the truth is standing against the schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6:10-13; read these verses and see how many times we are told what we are against).

But then again if you are for an ecumenical movement you are also against whatever resists that movement (even Rick Warren can’t live by his own philosophy because of the law of non-contradiction) – after all, he’s against fundamentalism:

JUAN WILLIAMS, NPR: Picking up on this business about the disagreements between
the fundamentalists and the Pentecostals, I mean, this struck me as news because
when journalists write about it, we go to people like Robertson and Falwell to
represent the evangelicals. And that's the way it comes across, so it strikes me
that we're ill informed or you're wrong. (Chuckles.) And secondly, that you're
not using this God-given influence you spoke of, because your influence is not
showing up in the American media in terms of supplanting people who you would
tell us are bogus.
MR. WARREN: Well, I tell you, that's the reason I accepted
this meeting, because I'm just tired of having other people represent me and
represent the hundreds of thousands of churches where the pastors I've trained
would nowhere, no way, relate to some of the supposed spokesmen of a previous
generation.
Now the word "fundamentalist" actually comes from a document in
the 1920s called the Five Fundamentals of the Faith. And it is a very
legalistic, narrow view of Christianity, and when I say there are very few
fundamentalists, I mean in the sense that they are all actually called
fundamentalist churches, and those would be quite small. There are no large
ones. (Source)

Rick Warren also said at The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that religious pluralism will be the answer to the world’s problems and that he doesn’t care why you do good (deeds) as long as you do good.

Right belief determines right behavior; orthodoxy determines orthopraxy – have nothing to do with this ecumenical movement and its proponents!

What's Driving the Market Driven Church?

The question, what’s driving the market driven church, may seem absurd and ridiculous and one may feel that the obvious answer is “the market.” However, that any church is driven by the market is only the fruit of the problem and not the root of the problem. So let me rephrase the question: what is at the root of the market driven church?

Now most surely those within and promoting the market driven church would assign pure and noble motives to their actions. They would say that they are serving God with zeal through their man-centered and market driven methods. They would see nothing wrong with taking, what Robert Schuller describes as, “the human-needs approach”, in order to impress and attract the un-churched (Robert H. Schuller, Self Esteem: The New Reformation, Word Books, Waco Texas, 1982, page 12-13). Therefore not only are the programs of the church marketed to the “needs” (and I should also say “greeds”) of the community; the preaching of the church is also marketed in the same fashion. When this happens man becomes the focus and audience, culture is elevated to the place of preeminence, the Word of God is lowered to the place of being less than the prime authority in ministry, and Christ is dethroned as the head of the church.

However, pleasing men by meeting their desires through the programs and preaching of the church has never been and never will be God’s design for His church. The programs and preaching of the church must please God and not man. The message of the Master judges men and is sovereign and not the judgment of men on the message. One of the preacher’s primary responsibilities is to remember who is the real audience and who is the real judge of the message he proclaims – “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:1-4).

So now we can see two totally opposite approaches to ministry: a man-centered approach where pleasing men is the goal; and a God-centered approach to ministry where pleasing God is the goal. A man-centered approach to ministry requires no biblical faith at all to do while a God-centered approach to ministry can’t be done without it.

This brings us to the place where we can answer the question: What’s driving the market driven church? The fear (reverence) of man!

Whenever one is more concerned about what man desires than what God desires, he is motivated by the fear of man rather than the fear of God; he is more interested in reverencing man than he is in reverencing God. Deeply ingrained in a man-centered approach to ministry is self-preservation – no persecution when all men speak well of you – and self-promotion – desiring to be popular in order to receive glory from one another and not the glory that is from the one and only God (see John 5:44).

So the question that we must answer is will we be popular, market driven, motivated by the fear of man or will we be God’s spokesmen, persecuted for the sake of righteousness, truth driven, motivated by the fear of God?

The fear of man is at the root and is driving the market driven church!

Morph! Are we really supposed to be conformed to the image of the culture?

Today we are being told to water down God’s Word in order to be relevant because people will not listen to clear truth – “This has clear implications for those weekend talks we give called the sermon. People are looking more for a path than pontification. They long for a path pointing them toward spiritual discovery – discovery those of us in the church are still experiencing with humility. Pontification that has the smell of doctrinaire arrogance is simply the phony turn off many outside the church have come to expect from those of us inside the church” (Ron Martoia, Morph: Group Publishing, 2003, pg 19. emphasis mine).

Pontificate: to speak in a pompous or dogmatic manner (Webster’s Universal College Dictionary). I guess that the man who dares to be dogmatic and preach sound doctrine is too “pope-ish” and arrogant. While there are abuses, the true man of God cannot avoid being labeled “arrogant”, “dictator”, and all sorts of evil if he is true to the Word of God. “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).

God hasn’t called me to give “weekend talks”, He has called me to preach His Word and in so doing I must speak what I have seen and heard and I must say, “Thus says the Lord.” Shall I water down God’s Word in order to be relevant? Shall I be like Ron Martoia who gave the example of Chad and Christina? Chad, who “just couldn’t buy the ‘pat answers,’ and Christina who “would try church if ‘my kids don’t get brainwashed into believing this “Jesus is the only way to heaven” stuff’” (pg 20). And then Martoia said, “A year and a half later, they’re relatively consistent attendees at Westwinds and are slowly getting involved, cautiously exploring, and becoming noticeably intrigued by those around them” (20). What has he preached in a year and half? So what if they become members and regular attendees at Westwinds? Will that make them saved or deceived? Pragmatically speaking Martoia will be very successful – but what about biblically speaking?

Not only are we being told to depart from God’s Word by watering it down, we are also being told to defile ourselves with the world by conforming to the world. Martoia’s thesis is that in order to influence the world we must “morph” into the image of the culture which is the opposite direction in which the Bible uses the word metamorphe. He even uses 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 to attempt to prove that we are to be like the world (16). In his quest for “cultural context”, Martoia completely misses “scriptural context.” The context of 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 is found and begins in 1 Corinthians 8:1, “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols…” and ends in 1 Corinthians 10:31-33, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.” Paul wasn’t speaking of conforming to the world to give them what they want – he was speaking of building bridges to give them what they need. No Jew would listen to Paul’s presentation of the Gospel if they were offended by him eating food that wasn’t “kosher.” No Gentile would listen to Paul’s presentation of the Gospel if they were offended by having to become Jews in order to be saved. No church would listen to Paul if they were offended by his conformity to the world – this man who said do not be conformed to the world (Romans 12:2) and that the world was crucified to him and he to the world (Galatians 6:14).

Martoia gives the quintessential example of philosophical humanism with his interpretation of the incarnation: “The quintessential example of genius intersection is, of course, the incarnation: God’s presence, voice, and message piercing and penetrating 1C culture. As we simply observe the potency of the incarnation, several things come to mind. God sent Jesus as a person. God could have sent the message packaged any number of ways. He didn’t choose a CD player to herald the good news, a Web page that automatically pops up every time someone logs on, or an MP3 download into our ear canal. The fact that he sent a person bespeaks God’s desire to be relevant, understandable, approachable, and relational” (pg.17 emphasis mine).

Could God have redeemed any other way? According to Martoia, “God could have sent the message packaged any number of ways.” But according to God’s Word, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendents of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted” (Hebrews 2:14-18).

Did God send Jesus for the purpose of cultural relevance? According to Martoia, “The fact that he sent a person bespeaks God’s desire to be relevant, understandable, approachable, and relational.” This is a gross misinterpretation of the incarnation. No wonder people could sit through his “weekend talks” for a year and a half and never be brainwashed into believing “this Jesus is the only way to heaven stuff.” Martoia obviously isn’t interested in preaching the truth of God’s Word but in speaking the language of the world – “they (false prophets) are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We (true prophets) are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:5-6).

Watering down the Word of God (departing from the Word) and being like the world to win the world (defilement with the world) leads to the supreme outcome of apostasy (deceived by our own works).

The Purpose Driven, Seeker-Sensitive, Emerging Church movements are harbingers to the deluding influences spoken of in 2 Thessalonians that God is going to use to “first, gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into My barn” (Matthew 13:30). “In regard to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him….Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first…(2 Thessalonians 2:1, 3).

These movements are against everything God has called me to stand for and He has called me to stand against everything these movements stand for. Let no one in any way deceive you!

Why Some Preachers' Kids Are Emergent!

What does Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, and Andy Stanley have in common? Is it that they dress the same? No! Is it that they all use their hands while preaching? Well, maybe - but that still is not the commonality that I am looking for. Is it that they are all well known leaders in apostate seeker-sensitive, self-esteem, emergent church philosophy? Yes, but here's the real commonality between these three men - they are all preachers' kids!

Why or how is it that preachers' kids can turn out to be undiscerning, pragmatic, utilitarian, Pelagian or semi-Pelagian, ecumenical, postmodern apostates held captive by philosophy?

First and foremost there has been a wide-scale abandonment by preachers to be faithful to the God-called assignment of equipping the saints for the work of service through faithful, careful, diligent study, and systematic exposition of the Word of God which results in the saints "no longer [being] children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming" (Ephesians 4:14).

Second there has been a wide-scale adoption by preachers to judge by appearance, seek the glory and honor of man, attempt to be popular, remove the offense of the cross, grow large crowds rather than loyal Christians, and pursue quantity rather than quality by using pragmatic methods based on philosophical religious humanism.

Finally, although more could be said, there has been a wide-scale acceptance of secretly introduced destructive heresies to the neglect of sound doctrine for the purpose of an ecumenical, liberal, social agenda to bring about world peace and prosperity.

At the root of the problem is a man-centered philosophy of soteriology rather than a God-centered theology of soteriology which naturally leads to a man-centered philosophy of ecclesiology and a man-centered philosophy of eschatology.

Do not be taken captive by philosophy!

The Soteriology of the Postmodern Movements

What one believes about soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) is foundational to every other theological category and will affect those categories accordingly! If the foundation is wrong then everything else built on it will not be right. In the next several posts I want to show how the Postmodern Movements of our day have a philosophy of salvation and not a theology of salvation and how that affects their ecclesiology (doctrine of the church) and their eschatology (doctrine of end-times).

As to the soteriology (doctrine of salvation) of the Postmodern Movements, they are man-centered and not God-centered. The movement as a whole can be traced back to bad roots in the area of soteriology. Primarily it is Pelagian and/or semi-Pelagian at its roots. "Pelagianism denies the fallenness of our nature; it denies original sin."

Semi-Pelagianism says, "Yes, there was a fall; yes, there is such a thing as original sin; yes, the constituent nature of humanity has been changed by this state of corruption and all parts of our humanity have been significantly weakened by the fall, so much so that without the assistance of divine grace nobody can possibly be redeemed, so that grace is not only helpful but it’s absolutely necessary for salvation. While we are so fallen that we can’t be saved without grace, we are not so fallen that we don’t have the ability to accept or reject the grace when it’s offered to us. The will is weakened but is not enslaved. There remains in the core of our being an island of righteousness that remains untouched by the fall. It’s out of that little island of righteousness, that little parcel of goodness that is still intact in the soul or in the will that is the determinative difference between heaven and hell. It’s that little island that must be exercised when God does his thousand steps of reaching out to us, but in the final analysis it’s that one step that we take that determines whether we go to heaven or hell — whether we exercise that little righteousness that is in the core of our being or whether we don’t."

In essence, both Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism, claim that man isn't really all that bad and he just needs a little help. But that isn't what the Bible teaches on the subject! The Bible teaches that man is "dead in trespasses and sin", "there is none good, not even one", and "no one can come to Me unless it is granted to Him by My Father." "The semi-Pelagian doctrine of free will prevalent in the evangelical world today is a pagan view that denies the captivity of the human heart to sin. It underestimates the stranglehold that sin has upon us."

Also inherent in Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism is the idea that "God helps those who help themselves." And again that is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that "God helps those who cannot help themselves."

Salvation is by grace alone! Only the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation and therefore all the man-centered gospel gimmicks are doomed to failure. There may be those caught up in the Postmodern Movements that claim to be "reformed in theology" but their methods betray them - "They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him" (Titus 1:16).

The Symptoms of Apostasy

I have recently been asked to reveal why I believe that the Postmodern Movements of our day are wrong or to put it another way; what I consider to be poisonous in their doctrines. This is no trivial matter, having serious ramifications either for these movements as apostate deceivers or for myself as an apostate deceiver who opposes the truth. If these movements are true then I am a liar! If these movements are apostate then I speak the truth!

In order to arrive at the truth we are going to have to reason from the Scriptures and search them daily to see if these things are so. I will labor to show the biblical violations, the logical fallacies, and the philosophy disguised as theology of these apostate movements. This may take some time and possibly more than one post.

First we will consider the symptoms of apostasy as revealed in the Bible and examine these movements carefully to see if they indeed have the symptoms. Next we will consider their soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology to see if they are operating in those areas based on philosophy or theology. And then we will consider together the coming counterfeit revival that will be the final outcome of these apostate movements.

The Symptoms of Apostasy

Becoming All Things To All Men?

1 Corinthians 9:22b says, “I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.” This is probably the second most misquoted, misinterpreted, and misapplied Scripture in all of the Bible in the day in which we live following closely behind Matthew 7:1 – “Do not judge lest ye be judged.” Today’s so-called “Church Growth Experts” have used 1 Corinthians 9:22 in an ungodly and unchristian manner. We have been told that you have to be like the world to win the world – which is the apostate’s interpretation of 1 Corinthians 9:22. They tell us that we should “drink a beer with Bubba”; mix cussing with the content of our preaching; that in our cultural awareness we need to parade before the Church those whom the world esteems; that we are to be relevant and tell people what they want to hear and not what God has said; and that if it works it must be right. If you think that I am lying then just take a close look at the methods and the messages of the “Purpose Driven, Seeker-Sensitive, and Emergent Church” philosophies.
Dear friends, men may build their churches with a tolerance for sin, but the Lord builds His Church based on truth and purity – “Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27).So what does it mean to “become all things to all men, so that we may by all means save some” and how do we do it? I want to make four observations from Acts 16:1-5 to show the biblical principles of what it means to become all things to all men:
I. Becoming all things to all men means - Preferring the Right Man (Acts 16:1-2)
A. Paul chose Timothy - a disciple! Timothy was a disciple who knew the cost of discipleship (see 2 Timothy 3:10-11).
B. Timothy was well spoken of by the brethren! He was not a successful worldly leader well spoken of by the world; he was not a successful religious leader well spoken of by the world and all opposing view-points; and he was not esteemed as wise or noble or strong. The Church has no right to prefer and parade those whom the world esteems as successful as a means of saving some because that is not God's way (see also 1 Corinthians 1:26-31).
II. Becoming all things to all men means - Practicing the Right Method (Acts 16:3)
A. Timothy had a Jewish mother and a Greek father. All the Jews in those parts knew that Timothy's father was a Greek. In order to minister to those Jews, Timothy needed to become a Jew because of his Jewish heritage. Paul took him and circumcised him. Paul was becoming all things to all men the right way by preferring the right man and practicing the right method - "For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law" (1 Corinthians 9:19-20). Timothy was circumcised not to be saved (he was a disciple) but to serve.
B. Titus was a Greek - "But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised" (Galatians 2:3). Titus was a Greek and Paul would not have Titus circumcised because it was not necessary for his salvation or his service. To minister to the Greeks, Titus did not need to be circumcised which would have offended the Greeks – “To those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law” (1 Corinthians 9:21). Paul practiced the right method. His major concern was that he would cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ (1 Corinthians 9:12) and this he did by becoming all things to all men (1 Corinthians 9:22) neither compelling the Jews to forsake their heritage nor the Gentiles to become Jews and he said, “I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it” (1 Corinthians 9:23).
III. Becoming all things to all men means - Preaching the Right Message (Acts 16:4)
A. Paul was delivering the decree that was decided upon in Jerusalem and it was an affirmation of the Gospel of Grace. The Gentiles did not have to be circumcised in order to be saved! They were saved through the grace of the Lord just like the Jews - "But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also" (Acts 15:11).
B. The message of the Gospel of grace includes the exhortation to live by love. The Gentiles were not to engage in activities that would offend the Jews - (see Acts 15:19-21, 28-29).
IV. Becoming all things to all men means - Producing the Right Ministry (Acts 15:5)
A. "So the churches were being strengthened in the faith." Preferring the right man, practicing the right method, and preaching the right message strengthens the church in the faith – not in the flesh!
B. "And were increasing in number daily." Strengthening the church in the faith produces the right ministry – “and were increasing in number daily” (true converts). Why did the church increase in number daily? Because her members were strengthened in the faith and shared the gospel with their families, friends, and neighbors.
Conclusion: Preferring the right man, practicing the right method, and preaching the right message will produce the right ministry – true converts!
But let me add a warning on the other side of this truth – a “church” that is strengthened in the flesh will increase in number daily (false converts) and may be held up as a model to follow deceiving herself and many others.
Preferring the wrong man (someone well spoken of by the world), practicing the wrong method (being like the world to win the world), and preaching the wrong message (turning the grace of God into licentiousness), will produce the wrong ministry (strengthening apostates in the flesh – false converts).

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=320815431510