Faith without works is as equally as dead as works without faith and it is an easy thing to inadvertently shift the focus of our lives away from 'Christ', to a focus of 'being' the faithful servant and doing 'the work of God' and in the process, to become a poor facsimile of what we once were. We must give comfort and give good counsel, but we must remember to trust and rely on the 'Real Counselor' - the Holy Spirit to continue to do his work in any one individual's life. If they reject us, it matters not! We are not masters. We merely serve the master. When our Religion and its ritualism replaces our relationship with God and by default, with our fellow man, we have made our religion a 'false religion', and our ritual practices become idolatry.
The final article in the "Holy, Wholly, Holey Series" was about Idolatry, and today I commence the first article in a Series I have called 'Idols in Ministry'.
It is never my intention to 'point the finger' at people, or to bring shame to anyone, but it is my purpose to present various scenarios from the world of the Church that can be useful in helping people to take a step back and examine more closely the motivation behind their actions.
Faith without works is as equally as dead as works without faith and it is an easy thing to inadvertently shift the focus of our lives away from 'Christ', to a focus of 'being' the faithful servant and doing 'the work of God' and in the process, to become a poor facsimile of what we once were.
The book of Joel is a great source of comfort for those who have sinned, repented, and called again on the Lord. It is a prophetic story of the coming judgment on the nation and final restoration of the people, but the focus of the story is 'repentance'.
There are many books in the old testament that speak to us of the rebellious heart of the ministers, leaders and people of Israel, and the promises of God to those who repent.
Romans Chapter 3 verses 3 and 23 tell us clearly that we are all sinners; all falling short of the Glory of God. None of us are 'righteous' in ourselves. The message of both Old and New Testaments is the same - 'Repent and be saved'.
For many people, repenting of an act or behavior is not hard to do. The hard thing is to deal with the after effects in the mind and heart. We can put that into more modern language and say that the ongoing psychological effects of past causes, makes the joy of our salvation not so sweet. Then again there are the physical consequences of past behavior. (Damage from alcoholism, broken relationships from disintegrated marriages, criminal histories that haunt us to name just a few.)
Many a repenting sinner needs counseling and unfortunately there are many in the Church today whose only qualification in the art of counseling is the authority of their position or their knowledge of Scripture. I do not mean to denigrate those who have no secular training, nor do I attempt to take away from their years of 'on the job training'.
To put it bluntly, the prophets warn us over and over again of the 'failed' behavior and the 'failed' responsibility of ministers that has damaged God's people and caused them to fall away from correct relationship with God.
Ezekiel 34: 3-6
Ye did eat the fat, and ye clothed you with the wool, ye killed the fatlings; but ye fed not the sheep. The weak have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought back that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force have ye ruled over them and with rigour.
In the Gospel of John Chapter 14 Jesus gives us the promise of the Comforter; the Counselor; the Spirit of Christ. He can lead us into the truth, but he does not do so by force.
Many today hear the call of God; repent of their sins, and come looking to be filled with the Spirit of Christ, but instead, are caught up with 'Idolaters'; people who within their hearts have raised up their own 'inner man' to sit in the throne of God.
It was my great misfortune many years ago, to attend a counseling workshop, the organizer of which broke every rule of both professional counseling and Christian Ministry, and I believe that at the heart of the problem, was this person's 'self-exaltation' to a place of honor, that quite removed Christ from his throne and his ministry.
This professional counselor chose to relate a particular 'real life' personal counseling experience - which of itself was fine - but in doing so, quite deliberately 'named' the person who had been counseled, and justified doing so by saying: 'we're all friends here'.
This was more than a question of 'ethics'. This person was involved in Christian Ministry and the naming of the 'sinner' breached every possible 'ethical protocol' that one can envision.
The 'sinner' was named and shamed even if only in front of a select few 'professional' counselors.
Ministry's job is to minister using every available legitimate tool to empower people to learn to walk in the Spirit and Nature of Christ and that cannot be achieved when we ourselves do not walk in the 'Spirit and Nature' of Christ.
To quote a well known Pentecostal evangelist I had dinner with many many years ago, 'I hear many people say that they are filled with the Holy Spirit but what I see in their lives is anything but Holy and anything but Christ-like'.
'We' are not 'Saviors'. 'We' are not 'Redeemers'. 'We' are not the Lord. 'We' are 'Servants' and it is our duty to 'represent' our Master. We are to show 'His' Character, Nature and Personality.
'We' might be famous - might have big churches - might have powerful ministries - might sell a lot of books - but we are not the centerpiece on the Altar, the star attraction, nor the one to be adored and worshipped.
We must lead to Christ and not to ourselves.
We must open our hearts to those who come, and quietly let go those who would not follow.
We must give comfort and give good counsel, but we must remember to trust and rely on the 'Real Counselor' - the Holy Spirit to continue to do his work in any one individual's life. If they reject us, it matters not! We are not masters. We merely serve the master.
When one reads the Bible story of Jonah and the whale, it is easy to miss the key element in the story, which was not some miracle of God delivering up Jonah from the belly of the whale but the reason why Jonah ended up in the whale's belly in the first place.
Jonah had been given a commission by God to preach repentence to the people of Ninevah but he ran away instead. Having caught a boat, bud luck struck, and he was eventually thrown overboard (at his own insistence), and was then swallowed. As we read the story we come to Chapters 3 and 4 wherein is found the reason for Jonah's disobedience.
Jonah 3:4,5
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. [10] And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
Jonah 4:1,2,3
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
The reality was the Jonah knew that if the people of Ninevah repented, that the merciful Lord would forgive them, and this was just not something that Jonah was prepared to allow.
How many religious people have you heard say that this or that religious group or individual will go to hell? And what is ultimately the foundational premise of their belief? Well we could come up with several premises were we to apply a specific example, but that is not necessary. The underlying reason for their belief is that 'THEY and their beliefs' are the only receptacles of 'TRUTH'; the true inheritors of the promises of God; the chosen people, the one true church. To put it bluntly, 'they idolize themselves and their beliefs'.
Perhaps you might disagree with this idea, so let me ask: 'Have you ever heard someone talk about 'MY Bible' - 'MY Jesus' - 'MY God' as if they OWN the Bible, Jesus and God? The idol in their life is not the Bible, Jesus or God as such, but the 'MY'. They in fact idolize their own wonderful superiority.
We could probably all think of some very successful church, evangelist, pastor or teacher of the word. The church grows beyond the capacity of the original building to contain the people. The minister, becoming far too busy to continue ministering on a face-to-face personal basis with his flock, delegates responsibilities and stewardship to new ministers employed by the church (a necessary obligation and in and of itself nothing to be criticized for).
But as time goes by, that successful minister can end up spending a lot of time away from the church ministering in other places, or become 'the star billing' of the church who must perform regularly for the assembled masses in order to maintain the high level of church attendance.
When such cases arise, we have one (or perhaps two) very definite problems related to idolatry.
The first problem, is that the show's headliner; the 'star attraction'; the chief minister becomes the 'idol' of the congregation.
The second and very possible problem, is that that minister begins to idolize his own ministry, fame, and position in the heavenly kingdom of God. In this event one must be mindful of words Jesus spoke in Mark 9:35:
If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.
Unfortunately, even as in secular life, there are those in the church who (however they may have started in ministry) seek to extend and reinforce their power, fame and position. For such people, 'The Life' they have become accustomed to, is more important than their 'one-on-one' relationship with God. We can see a very good example of this type of thinking in the story of Simon the Magician in the Book of Acts:
Acts 8:9,10 But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. [18-21] And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. (Good internet read on Simon the Magician)
No minister of the Gospel can truly idolize his own ministry, power and fame, without the skewed following of idol worshippers, and so we, in order to keep our ministers from going astray, need to keep our own moral compasses set firmly on the Lord Himself.
Many years ago the local Episcopalian Church received a new Pastor. This church was a strange mix of 'evangelical outlook' Combined with 'high church mass' rituals and predominantly catered to the older generation, but with an influx of younger people into the neighborhood, the church still managed to run a reasonably populated Sunday School.
This church had for many years been used as 'the last assignment' for prominent priests prior to their retirement and Father John (as he was habitually referred to) was a lovely man who preached vibrant sermons.
I had not previously known John but it did not take too long to realize that he was a man of the people and didn't stand on ceremony (and neither did the local bishop). We became good friends and I occasionally attended his services, and sometimes helped him out.
Father John's 'casual' attitude toward (or should I say 'failure' to enforce) many matters did upset a number of his congregation, but not enough to affect the well being of the community.
Now for a priest, Father John had a particularly interesting problem. He couldn't stomach the communion wine - it made him ill. Without saying a word publically, he switched the regular 'authorized' brand to a more 'comfortable on his stomach' peach wine.
Within his denomination, priests are required to drink all of the unused communion wine and for Father John this was problematical, for in addition to his upset stomach at drinking the regular wine, he was also 'a cheap drunk', which is to say, that he could not drink much wine at all, and to help him avoid the problem, he had a few good folk hang back at communion time and polish off the leftover wine.
One day he gave me the sad news that he had received a directive from above - presumably not from the Lord himself - that he was to discontinue the wine substitution at communion. The reason? Some persons had lodged an official complaint about his failure to adhere to the strict regulations governing what wine could and could not be used. Said persons did not bother to discuss the matter directly with father John.
Whilst it is quite probable that those who complained merely 'used' the issue of the wine substitution to vent their displeasure at the good pastor, for some people, strict adherence to ritual and formula is paramount. It can be for them a substitute for personal relationship with the Lord, which is another way of saying that they have turned ritual and formula into idols.
Years previous to the event recorded here, I was given a word for word description of a confrontation between a member of the local Roman Catholic Parish and her Parish Priest.
Now it seems that within the congregation there was a good Catholic family whose father was not a baptized Catholic, but nevertheless attended mass faithfully with his family. Additionally he was on the Parish Council and wherever and whenever hands were needed to do something within the Parish, this man was there to lend a hand. Despite his commitment to the Parish, the Parish priest would weekly refuse him the communion wafer. One day the concerned parishioner chastised the priest for not allowing the man to partake of communion. The priest pointed out that as the man was not a 'Baptized Catholic' that he could not allow him to have communion. The parishioner then pointed out that Jesus himself was not a 'Baptized Catholic' and asked what the priest would do if Jesus turned up to take Communion. 'I would not allow him' said the priest 'unless he became a Baptized Catholic!'
And therein lays the problem with rules, regulations and rituals. When our rituals and practices lock out the grace and Spirit of Christ, we have the form of religion, but not the purpose. We have in fact, made an idol of them. Jesus himself would be locked out from communion with us, if he did not fulfill our ritualistic practices.
We see prophetical correction of this 'ritualistic' idol worship in the writings of many of the Prophets, as exampled in Isaiah Chapter 58 in relation to 'religious fasting', and Jesus himself directly addressed the problem in Mark 12:42-44 - the story of the 'widow's mite', (in relation to giving -- and Hypocrisy); Luke 10: 25-37 - 'The good Samaritan' (Ritual cleanliness); and Matthew 21:12-17 - 'throwing out the money changers' (illegitimate use of legitimate regulations - And Note 21:23-27 Jesus' Challenge to the Priest regarding John the Baptist).
In each of these references we can see the underlying principle of idolatry at work; whether idolizing our own giving; idolizing our purity or idolizing our service provision.
When our Religion and its ritualism replaces our relationship with God and by default, with our fellow man, we have made our religion a 'false religion', and our ritual practices become idolatry.
M. Wallace Johnson
Idols in Ministry No 4. Doctrine
By M. Wallace Johnson
To be published at Magic City May 6, 2012
Can doctrine be considered to be an idol? Probably not but when one considers how various people treat 'their' doctrines, it really is not that difficult to see doctrine as an idol. Put another way, when people make Salvation dependent upon theology, Salvation by faith through the grace of God is nullified, and replaced with a 'Salvation through theology'.
When one puts their faith in, relies upon, trusts in, believes in, adheres to and worships something other than God himself, they are putting their trust in idols or false gods.
We have probably all encountered street preachers who call for us to repent and be saved but have you ever tried to tell one that you are 'saved'? Invariably the preacher will begin to question your foundational doctrines. They most probably mean well, but at the end of the day, what they are doing is trying to find some point of doctrinal difference that will disqualify you from receiving the grace of God.
Take the issue of baptism for instance. There are those who baptize infants; those who baptize adults by sprinkling water on their heads; those who baptize by full immersion in water; those who baptize in the name of the Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit; and of course those who Baptize in the name of Jesus only.
One wonders how a 'new convert' feels when confronted by someone who says 'but you have not been baptized correctly so you are not really saved'.
A person can come to Christ, repent of their sins, believe that Jesus is their Lord and Savior, and then be told by someone worshipping theology that all that counts for nothing because some 'essential step' has been left out.
There are those who believe in the 'Pentecostal blessing' of speaking in tongues, who will tell you that if you don't speak in tongues that you are not saved. There are those who will say that if you spoke in tongues before you were water baptized then you really did not receive the Spirit of God. And of course there are those who say that if you speak in tongues you are possessed of a devil.
I remember when I was much younger, encountering those who said that if you wore makeup, danced, went to movies, played cards, drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes, cussed or engaged in any form of gambling then you weren't saved.
I remember as a child those who said that only Roman Catholics would go to heaven and those who said Roman Catholics were idolaters who wouldn't go to heaven.
There are those who say that you must go to church on Saturday or else go to hell!
There was a time in my life when I often heard people say that it was not good enough to go to church on Sunday, you also had to attend the Wednesday night bible study AND the Friday night prayer meeting.
I have met many a distressed convert who has been told that in one way or another, they don't measure up; their salvation is not legitimate or worse, that they have lost their salvation and all because they did not receive some person's 'doctrinal approval'.
For many, even if doctrinally they could never accept it as true, their doctrine of Salvation is one of 'Salvation by Theology'.
From the very beginning of the Christian Church, there have been many doctrinal disputes and many councils have met to sort through all the problems. From Day one to today two thousand years later, groups of people have differed doctrinally whilst all claiming to follow Christ in accordance with the Scriptures.
But we must remember the basic truth of Scripture....
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. -- Ephesians 2:4-10
When people do their utmost to live their lives uprightly within the parameters of the doctrines that they have received, and they do this with full faith in the Person and Work of Christ, who then are we to deny them Salvation? Who are we to limit their salvation to doctrinal beliefs?
When we put 'Doctrine' before 'The Grace, Spirit and Power of God', we rob God of his Divinity and set up a new god - an idol called 'Doctrine'.
Recently I was sent 'a joke' about Heaven but it is not perhaps a joke. Let me share it with you.
Heaven
I was shocked, confused, bewildered As I entered Heaven's door, Not by the beauty of it all, Nor the lights or its decor.
But it was the folks in Heaven Who made me sputter and gasp-- The thieves, the liars, the sinners, The alcoholics and the trash.
There stood the kid from seventh grade Who swiped my lunch money twice. Next to him was my old neighbor Who never said anything nice.
Bob, who I always thought Was rotting away in hell, Was sitting pretty on cloud nine, Looking incredibly well.
I nudged Jesus, 'What's the deal? I would love to hear Your take. How'd all these sinners get up here? God must've made a mistake.
'And why is everyone so quiet, So somber - give me a clue.' 'Hush, child,' He said, 'they're all in shock.
No one thought they'd be seeing you.'
Those who replace the glorious work of Christ as the basis for salvation, with a doctrine of 'theological works' may one day find themselves at a destination at which they never thought to arrive.
Hebrews 12:1,2
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Isaiah 28:13
But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Hebrews 13:9-17
Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; ... We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. By him (Christ) therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
An Overview of the Prophet Amos during the reign of King Uzziah, prior to Assyrian incursions into Syria, Israel and Judah. The prophecies take place about 30 years prior to the destruction of the Northern Kingdom Israel and the exile of its people, and less than 200 years before King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took the Southern Kingdom of Judah into exile in Babylon and destroyed King Solomon's Temple. Amos Chapter 1 verse one says that the prophet Amos was a herdsman from a place called Tekoa and relates that the things which he saw concerning Israel and Judah occurred in the latter years of the reign of King Uzziah of Judah (2 years before the earthquake of 759 BC) during the final few years of the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel - perhaps no more than 6 years.
Hosea's message: The people having chosen kings to lead them, put their faith in the kings rather than God and as the Kings and leaders failed to listen to the voice of God, the people became further and further removed from God. The end result in Israel was the fulfilled promise of the destruction of Samaria. Hosea 1:4-7 states that God will no longer show mercy on the Northern Kingdom but will cause it to cease to exist. This was accomplished in 722 BC when the capital city Samaria was taken by the King of Assyria during the reign of King Hoshea and the people were sent into exile. Mercy is however granted to the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
At the height of the reigns of King Uzziah of Judah and King Jeroboam II of Israel, Israel enjoyed peace and prosperity due mainly to the weak political and military state of affairs in Syria and Assyria. One can only assume that the relative peace, security and prosperity led to a decrease in dependence on religious faith and following the Law of God. Hence we have 4 prophets arise to chastise the people and warn them of impending disaster. (Isaiah, Amos, Micah and Hosea).
The message in the books of Isaiah, Amos, Hosea and Micah are almost identical. Secular and religious leaders and those with the power that comes from wealth neither paid attention to doing what was right in the eyes of God nor treated the common man with decency and dignity. When leadership fails to set the right example for society, that society crumbles, and since these societies - Israel and Judah - were the chosen of God - 'a light of the Gentiles' - the people of God through whom the world would come to know God, that society could not be allowed to degenerate to the level of the common pagan world. Chastisement leading to repentance was a necessity and the time was drawing near.
Faith without works is as equally as dead as works without faith and it is an easy thing to inadvertently shift the focus of our lives away from 'Christ', to a focus of 'being' the faithful servant and doing 'the work of God' and in the process, to become a poor facsimile of what we once were. We must give comfort and give good counsel, but we must remember to trust and rely on the 'Real Counselor' - the Holy Spirit to continue to do his work in any one individual's life. If they reject us, it matters not! We are not masters. We merely serve the master. When our Religion and its ritualism replaces our relationship with God and by default, with our fellow man, we have made our religion a 'false religion', and our ritual practices become idolatry.
God's ways may not be our ways but his judgments tend to be accurate! God sees past all that you do and say. He sees the 'real' you. Only God can truly know whose identity is Holey, Whole or Holy. Jeremiah's job description required saying a lot of things that just didn't sit too well with the 'powers that be', both religious and secular. Moses was a rash man with a temper that made him careless. For decades his life just didn't go the way he had planned it and by the time he was content enough with his life and ready for a peaceful retirement, it was thrown into turmoil again by a pesky deity who for some reason considered him the best person for the job of 'leader'.
Definition: King's Calendar Chronological Research
The Premise: Between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE (but continuing down to at least 104 BCE), Sectarian redactors transcribed the legitimate 'solar year' chronological records of Israel and Judah, into an artificial form, with listed years as each comprised of 12 months of 4 weeks of 7 days, or 336 days per year, thus creating a 13th artificial year where 12 solar years existed.
When the Synchronous Chronological Data provided in the Books of Kings and Chronicles for the Divided Kingdom Period are measured in years of 336 days, the synchronisms actually align. [Refer to Appendix 5. to see how it synchronises the Divided Kingdom Period]
About the KingsCalendar Publisher
R.P.BenDedek is the owner and Editor of KingsCalendar.com which was originally set up to publicize his research results into the Chronology of Ancient Israel. Those results were published under the title: 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran'.
Whilst there have been many attempts to solve the chronological riddle of the Bible's synchronisms of reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah and their synchronism with other Ancient Near Eastern Nations, no other research is based on a simple mathematical formula which could, if it is incorrect, be disproved easily. To date, no one has been able to dismiss the mathematical results of this research.
Free to air Academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
During the current economic downturn, this book has been drastically reduced in price but will eventually rise as the economy improves.
Check the Chapter Precis Page to see details of each chapter and to gain access to the Four Free to Air Chapters
R.P. BenDedek writes social commentaries and photographic 'Stories from China' both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing columnist at Magic City Morning Star News in Maine USA.
(He has been teaching Conversational English in China since 2003 and currently (2013) is teaching in Suzhou City Jiangsu Province.)
