Mark #1: They Do Not Stay Long in a Single Verse

Posted on 12 October 2016 by Seth Meyers

Prosperity preachers cannot explain verses in their context. Taking a paragraph and opening up its meaning is as foreign to them as a time of silence in a modern church.

Friday night, for example, the speaker did use many verses. (Psalm 27:1-2; Rom. 8:28-30; John 12:46; 1 John 1:5; Exodus 4:16; Psalm 114:3; Exodus 10:21-23; Exodus 11:7; 3 John 2; and others) However, in each case he referenced them quickly, drew out some positive image, and applied it to the earthly prosperity of his audience. In each case, taking more time to look at the context would have disabused him of the meaning he was trying to cast on the audience.

When the plague of darkness came on Egypt but not on Goshen, he declared that we were all children of Goshen on whom “light” would shine. This was repeated for rhetorical effect at the loudest decibels. “Speak Goshen over your life. Speak Goshen over your family. Speak Goshen over your Children. Speak Goshen over your country.” Never mind that Goshen was the slaves’ dwelling—a kind of ancient squatter camp where one ethnic group lived in oppression.

Then he effortlessly applied another verse he had previously misinterpreted with this line, “When someone is sick, they must be healed because you are a god to the world.”

Using the same hermeneutic as at other times, he had us open to Psalm 114:3 “The sea looked at it and fled.” He immediately interpreted the “sea” as anything that makes our lives uncomfortable.

Moving quickly from verse to verse may not be a problem in a rare sermon if the preacher actually knows what the verse is saying. But with prosperity preachers, they use verses in order to draw men’s hearts to the earth. Though I have heard them use scores of verses by now, I cannot think of a single time when a single preacher appealed to a verse without this intended effect.

In other words, no prosperity preacher teaches verse by verse through Scripture.

Identifying Prosperity Preachers
Mark #1: They Do Not Stay Long in a Single Verse
Mark #2: They Are Intentionally Vague
Mark #3: They Consistently Disobey Explicit Scriptural Teaching About Tongues
Mark #4: They Prostitute the Old Testament
Mark #5: They Assume Their Listeners Are All Born Again
Mark #6: They Ignore the Great Themes of Scripture
Mark #7: They Have an Aversion to Humility
Mark #8: They Draw the Affections to Earth

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Identifying Prosperity Preachers

Posted on 11 October 2016 by Seth Meyers

img_3847Our Lord warned us that many false teachers would be performing miracles, casting out demons, and preaching in the name of Jesus (Matt. 7:21-22). Peter, the leader of the apostles, told us that false prophets who love money would be very common as well as popular (2 Pet. 2:1-2, 14). John says that “many false prophets are gone into the world,” and because of this we must test every pastor (1 John 4:1). Paul warns us that false pastors “plunge men into ruin and destruction.” (1 Tim. 6:5, 9-10) The founders of our faith all warned us about false teachers. So who are these false teachers?

We have been warned, but most people want us to think that we must live in a cloud without any chance of really knowing who these people are. ”Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.” (1 Cor. 14:20)

Last Friday I went to another crusade—I have been to many in the past. But I tried to ask some questions during the evening such as:

  • “Why are so many people tricked by this?”
  • “How can the average Christian discern when he is dealing with a false teacher?”

To answer those questions, I have compiled a list of eight observations to discern when an angel of light is really a tool of Satan. The marks are ranked according to their danger. The worst are at the end. Secondly, not every false teacher shows all these marks all the time, but they all show many of these marks often.

We can know who false teachers are. We can identify them, and we must identify them because the souls of men and the glory of God are at stake.

Our Lord told us,

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 “For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. 37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” Matt. 10:34-37

Do we love Jesus Christ enough to stand against those who twist His words?

I’ll post one per day for the next week or so.

Identifying Prosperity Preachers
Mark #1: They Do Not Stay Long in a Single Verse
Mark #2: They Are Intentionally Vague
Mark #3: They Consistently Disobey Explicit Scriptural Teaching About Tongues
Mark #4: They Prostitute the Old Testament
Mark #5: They Assume Their Listeners Are All Born Again
Mark #6: They Ignore the Great Themes of Scripture
Mark #7: They Have an Aversion to Humility
Mark #8: They Draw the Affections to Earth

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A Different Spirit: African Churches That Don’t Like the Gospel

Posted on 8 October 2016 by Seth Meyers

Not five meters from where I was sitting on the front row, I heard an African pastor shout, “Command it [money] into your bank account!” The scene is fresh in my mind since I just returned this evening. Here are some quotes from the night.

“The devil must see you and run away because he’s afraid.”

“When someone is sick they must be healed because you are a god to the world.”

“They shouldn’t look for a sangoma, they should look for you [because you are able to speak health and life into existence as well as stop funerals.]”

“I stand here and declare, ‘You, Money, come to me. … The Bible says, ‘Money answers all things.’ So if money answers all things it means whoever has ears to hear, so it must answer to me. [sic] To my needs. So I say, ‘Money, I have a need. Come and answer.’ Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!”

“Command it [money] into your bank account. Arise and shine. Shout to the Lord. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. That situation cannot stand in your presence.”

Is this wicked or bizarre? Vile trafficking in religion for personal gain or a good occasion for sarcastic mockery? Should I be crying for them or laughing at them? Certainly, no Christian could join them.

This is not the first time I have born witness to religious identity theft. The preacher and people thought of themselves as “Christian,” yet I heard no Christian doctrine tonight.

Let me review the evening in some categories for the purpose of helping those who live near this environment, but struggle to articulate the errors. Others who look at these antics as foreign, should pray for those of us who are laboring here, and secondly, you should not make the mistake that there is a great revival of religion in Africa. Even though statistics call 75% of this country Christian.

Marks of Entertainment
The planning of the hall said, “Show business!”

  1. The praise band had 12 members and mimicked all the common marks of popular music. A lead singer in a tight outfit, drums with a microphone poked inside, and high volume. Whatever level you’re thinking of, it was louder–just like a good band selling tickets.
  2. When the speaker began, even though he was a Venda, he spoke in English while a translator tried to keep up. It was obviously a trick because he interrupted the translator the entire sermon. He shouted over her, and when she didn’t get it right, he spoke in Venda himself. The rest of the evening was handled in Venda, but not the sermon. We all had to see that the speaker was not a dumb rural, village black–no, he was an educated, rich man.
  3. Name brand, electronic devices were highlighted. All the people sitting at the head table held Apple products visible for all to see. The speaker carried only an iPad to the podium. “Don’t call me backward or poor!”
  4. The volume was deafening. The speaker waited for a few moments before saying his first word to the huge crowd of 100 people until the microphone was turned on. Never mind the fact that at African funerals, everyone speaks to 300+ people without a microphone in the outside. They were looking for effect. Just like a show.
  5. With so many people, it was obvious that we had to have a video of the speaker projected on the screen while he spoke. But wait, the video projector man arrived late and distracted everyone while he set up, and in the end, the faces of the speakers on the screen were smaller than they were in real life. But we do love technology, don’t we?
  6. The flare of the speaker said, “I could be a star. No, I should be a star!” The bouncy diction, the bellowed names of deity, and the oozing confidence all bespoke the stage of modern entertainment.
  7. At the end of the night, he “healed” 5 people who were struggling with things like “warmness in my legs” (Today was 96 degrees Faranheit in the shade.) and a “spirit of limitation” that kept a poor man from finding employment. But he did it all with such pizzazz. Two women fell over as the word “Jesus” shot out of his mouth. A real crowd pleaser. It reminded me of a previous crusade where the pastor shouted during this time, “She’s vomiting blood here! This one’s vomiting blood!”

The night was devoted to entertainment even though they said repeatedly, “We worship you!” and “Lion of Judah! Holy is your name.” It was amateur entertainers for a group of tired people to enjoy while feeling good about being morally superior to those others who don’t come to “church.”

Marks of a False Gospel
This movement is as slippery as buttered soap in a bathtub. Many Christian sounding phrases echo around the hall if by any means God-talk can get them closer to their real end. But ask a church-goer how many of the people in that room were immoral before they were married. Ask an average church member if he knows of singers, musicians, speakers, translators, and leaders who are currently in some form of fornication. Ask a church member if the majority of church members would steal R1,000 if it were found lying with no one around it. I have asked these and other questions commonly, and my informant usually (always?) admits that most of the people do these things.

When the preaching starts, watch what happens to the people’s hearts. They are inevitably drawn by clever stories and artful use of the OT to this earth. I have even heard an African preacher say, “It’s boring in Heaven!” The goal is to move people away from any serious pondering about the next life because they have no message for the next life. In fact, tonight I heard this man twist John 3:16 into prosperity theology. He said we are promised everlasting life which means “abundant life–better life–the god-kind of life.”

And this is all accomplished by ignoring humility and repentance. After the service, I approached the speaker and asked him why he did not mention humility, repentance, or the lake of fire. He said, “I did that last night.”

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I replied, “I know there is a man here that I have been evangelizing. He told me that his name is not written in the book of life. Why didn’t you tell that man tonight how he can be saved?”

His answer, “I forgive you for condemning me. Now you need to go.”

I pressed, “What do you say to that question? Why didn’t you tell him the truth?”

He then looked for an usher saying, “He needs to go. He has a different spirit.”

Had I the wit, I would have replied, “Then why don’t you cast it out? You’ve supposedly cast out these other demons during the miracle time a few moments ago?”

Prosperity preachers love the OT. They can find 1,000 ways to preach prosperity from the first half of the Bible. Every time something speaks about Israel, we just grab that for the group sitting in the room right now. Tonight he said, “We are all in the land of Goshen!” Just like in the time of Moses though, there is no effort to discern who is a true Christian. He just assumes and expands the notion of Christian to include anyone he is talking to.

But one of the most angering aspects of these charlatans is there vague language. They use words like breakthrough, blessing, on top, above the circumstances, with Christ, winners, success, abundant life, in the light–virtually any positive expression–to mean a comfortable life here on this earth. He said tonight that if we walk in the light, thieves will run from our cars. Being unclear allows him greater protection from people who actually care about the meaning of the Bible. Sometimes using the words of the Bible is a coward’s trick to avoid accountability for your own false doctrine.

Before I came to the service tonight, I mentioned to my friend that I would look for two things: humility and exegesis rather than eisegesis. The negative score on both accounts forces me to the two conclusions that I have reached many times already.

  1. Most African churches are like this.
  2. These churches have almost nothing in common with the religion of Jesus Christ.
Posted in Accounts of African Religion, Prosperity gospel | Tagged , | 7 Comments

60 Questions to Ask About the Covenant of Grace

Posted on 22 August 2016 by Seth Meyers

For those who love Covenant Theology, and especially for Baptists who do so, I humbly offer these questions in the spirit of Jonathan Edwards: “Resolved, when I think of any theorem in divinity to be solved, immediately to do what I can toward solving it, if circumstances don’t hinder.” The first question sets forward the main theorem to be solved.

Hermeneutics

  1. Does the covenant of grace teach that essential unity exists throughout the history of redemption such that the Scriptures given to Israel as the Old Testament people of God should be used with and for the church as the New Testament people of God because these two peoples have so few distinctions that they must really be taken to be one people?
  2. Does the Scripture not explicitly call the Egyptians “my people”? (Isaiah 19:25)
  3. Does the Lord not combine Israel, Egypt, and Assyria as distinct peoples that God owns and blesses? (Isaiah 19:24-25)
  4. Does the doctrine of the covenant of grace encourage us to approve the language—the exact terms, names, and expressions—that God uses in the OT prophets and in the Revelation?
  5. Does the essential unity of the covenant of grace tend to flatten the language of prophetic Scriptures so that regardless of the words, they are always saying the same thing?
  6. If we tend to ignore differences and emphasize similarity does that not tend to reduce language down to the most common denominators?
  7. If we reduce language as a hermeneutical constant (eg. Israel means church. So does Judah, Jacob, My people, and the righteous. etc.), are we really being faithful to the doctrine of inspiration in light of the fact that God breathed out those individual names for a reason?
  8. Are there vital differences between the major covenants mentioned in the Bible: Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, New Covenant, and the Covenant of Redemption?
  9. If there are differences, then should not those differences be expressed in our teaching when we reach those texts of Scripture?
  10. Since several millennial prophecies reference sin on earth during the blessed time (Isaiah 65:20; 66:17; Rev. 20:7-8), must we not conclude that the millennium will take place on earth?
  11. If the millennium must take place on earth, and if there is only one people of God, and if Judah means the church, then what prevents the 1,000 years of Rev. 20:1-8 as being a metaphor for a very long time where the church slowly triumphs—i.e. postmillennialism?

2 Corinthians 3

  1. Does 2 Corinthians 3:6-14 emphasize the differences between the covenants or the similarities?
  2. Is it common to hear Covenant Theologians speaking about the Old Testament as a “covenant of the letter that kills”? (3:6)
  3. Is it common to hear Covenant Theologians speaking about the Old Testament as a “ministry of death”? (3:7)
  4. Is it common to hear Covenant Theologians speaking about the Old Testament as a “ministry of condemnation”? (3:9)
  5. Is it common to hear Covenant Theologians speaking about the Old Testament as a temporary covenant? (3:11)
  6. Is it common to hear Covenant Theologians speaking about the Old Testament as less glorious than the New Testament? (3:11)
  7. Are these differences the reason that Paul contrasts “reading the old covenant” with Jesus Christ? (3:14)
  8. Is there any passage in the Bible that compares the covenants emphasizing their similarities to the same degree that 2 Corinthians 3 compares the covenants emphasizing their differences?

Hebrews 8

  1. Does Hebrews 8:6-13 emphasize the differences between the covenants or the similarities?
  2. Is it common to hear Covenant Theologians speaking about the Old Testament as inferior to the New Testament? (8:6)
  3. Is it common to hear Covenant Theologians speaking about the Old Testament as having faults? (8:7)
  4. Is it common to hear Covenant Theologians speaking about the New Testament as “not according to” the Old Testament? (8:9)
  5. Is it common to hear Covenant Theologians speaking about the Old Testament as “obsolete, growing old, and ready to disappear”? (8:13)
  6. Is there any passage in the Bible that compares the covenants emphasizing their similarities to the same degree that Hebrews 8 compares the covenants emphasizing their differences?
  7. In what ways does the doctrine of essential unity brought about by the doctrine of the Covenant of Grace discourage the use of Biblical language when talking about the OT?

The Church

  1. Was Isaiah the prophet—or any OT believer, “in Christ” as Paul uses the expression throughout His epistles?
  2. If he was “in Christ” then were Adam, Eve, and Abel as well?
  3. If all these were in Christ, then did the church begin in the Garden of Eden?
  4. If all these were “in Christ” then what substantial benefit did the Holy Spirit bring at Pentecost?
  5. If all these were “in Christ” then is that not saying the death, resurrection, and intercession of Christ were not necessary to unite a sinner to the Son of God?
  6. If the church began in the Garden of Eden, what similarities does it bear with the NT church when there was no indwelling Holy Spirit, no explicit faith in Jesus Christ’s cross work, no baptism, no Lord’s Table, no church discipline, no preaching of the Word, no apostolic doctrine, and no elders or deacons?
  7. Would the Reformers or Puritans have counted that as a church which lacked any of these elements let alone all of them?
  8. If Isaiah was not “in Christ” then did the church begin at Pentecost?
  9. If the church began at Pentecost, then is that not the introduction of a major difference in the history of redemption?
  10. If Pentecost introduces a major difference in redemptive history, then should we not speak and preach as NT ministers using the language of discontinuity?
  11. If there is essential unity in the one people of God throughout all redemptive history, then why can’t members of the new covenant join as babies just as members of the essentially same old covenant did?
  12. If the new covenant makes certain changes in who can be a member (such as only adults, not infants) then does that not mean there is a change in the group itself?
  13. If there exists a change between two groups of people, is it not a fair use of language to call those groups two different groups of people, or two peoples?

The Law

  1. Does the covenant of grace emphasize the similarities between the Old and New Testaments?
  2. If we emphasize the similarities, then must we not also honor the laws of the Old Testament?
  3. If we honor the laws of the Old Testament, what hermeneutical barrier keeps us from promoting the laws of the Old Testament as laws for modern nations?
  4. If the laws of the OT are the laws for modern nations, then must we not agree with and support the death penalty for nearly all sexual sins (Lev. 18:29) as well as all false teachers (Deut. 13:5)?
  5. If these and other sinners should be justly put to death, then when is the church released from the obligation to evangelize sinners and bound by the law to take their lives?
  6. Does church history not give many examples of professing Christians who put others to death because of their religious beliefs?
  7. Were not many early Baptists put to death on the basis that their religious beliefs were capital crimes?
  8. If the church began in the OT, then why should we not use the OT “church’s” laws as the basis for the NT church?
  9. If we should use the OT “church’s” laws for the NT church, then in what consistent way may we defend freedom of religion or conscience?
  10. Do not the NT doctrines of salvation and evangelism require freedom of religion?
  11. How can freedom of religion be defended from the Pentateuch?
  12. If the covenant of grace logically binds us to obey the laws of the OT church in the NT church seeing that they are the same people, then must we not also obey those same laws in the government?
  13. If we must obey those laws in the government, then must we not also obey the laws regarding banning and even killing false teachers, false religions, and heretics?
  14. If false religion must be met with the power of the sword as Augustine and the magisterial Reformers practiced, then is that not a state church?
  15. If there was a government sponsored religion under the old covenant, then why would we not look for a government sponsored religion under the current administration seeing as there is essential unity?

Salvation

  1. If there is essential unity, and thus members may be added as infants based on their eternal election to that covenant, then may we not presume that our children are regenerate until they prove that they are not—as Abraham Kuyper taught?
  2. If there is essential unity, and thus members may be added as infants based on their eternal election to that covenant, then may we not see them as justified before they have believed in order to avoid any element of works salvation—as Abraham Kuyper taught?
  3. If we presume that our children are regenerate and eternally justified because they are members of the covenant and sanctified by their parents, then will that tend to motivate us to evangelize our children?

History

  1. Have we not seen some or all of these doctrines logically built one upon the other at different times in history such as during the Reformation in Europe?
  2. What other hermeneutic can explain Calvin’s recommendation that Servetus be beheaded (or hanged), Augustine’s interpretation that “compel them to come in” meant that the military should force the Donatists to convert, and Luther’s criminalizing of Judaism?
  3. Where did the Protestant persecution of Baptist’s come from if not from the fruits of the theological presupposition that there is a single, overarching covenant of grace that binds all revelation to the one people of God?

 

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Repentance at the Cross

Posted on 20 July 2016 by Seth Meyers

Oh, how I hate those lusts of mine
That crucified my God!
Those sins that pierced and nail’d his flesh
Fast to the fatal wood!

Yes, my Redeemer, they shall die,
My heart has so decreed; Nor will I spare the guilty things
That made my Saviour bleed.

Whilst, with a melting, broken heart,
My murder’d Lord I view,
I’ll raise revenge against my sins,
And slay the murd’rers too.

Isaac Watts

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Ethical Dilemmas of a Missionary

Posted on 19 July 2016 by Seth Meyers

Ethical Dilemmas of a missionary

Over the past few years, these lists have slowly emerged from our personal experience. At the least, these questions remind us to pray for pastors in general and missionaries in particular that they would have wisdom.

2011

  1. Should I give people a lift if I know they are going to a false church?
  2. Should I evangelize a woman if she is the only adult home?
  3. Should I give a generous offering of my salary to our churchplant?
  4. Should I baptize a young person (child) who has given a testimony of salvation, but has not shown Christian maturity?
  5. May I spend money on my family and personal standard of living even if it is above those in my village? What if it is very above? How much do I let them see?
  6. How harshly should I handle believers who fall into sin?
  7. Should I address cultural issues that are not clearly sin, but may not be consistent with a Christian worldview?
  8. Should I give jobs to church members?
  9. Should I keep doing Bible studies at a person’s home if they have shown very little initiative?
  10. Should I use expensive books, computers, and handouts to make my sermons as good as possible if I know that the next national pastor will not be able to keep the same standard?

2012

  1. Should Christians tithe regardless of their financial circumstances?
  2. Should you teach new converts how to vote?
  3. Should you pray for unconverted people in their presence?
  4. Should you church discipline or otherwise dismiss church members who are nearly permanently absent because of work?
  5. Should you give Bibles to people who can’t afford them?
  6. Should you use slang in formal settings if that is what communicates?
  7. Should you sing nominally Christian songs at a funeral?
  8. Should I take parental oversight of believers who do not have parents or at least do not have Christian parents?
  9. Should you give new Christians jobs in church right away or wait until they prove faithful?
  10. Should missionaries restrain the size of their family so that missions dollars can be used to send more families with less children?

2014

  1. Should I show frustration with incompetence?
  2. Should I sit with my wife and children in church even though many churches separate the men and women?
  3. Should I spank village children?
  4. Should I allow children to return to our yard if they have not been punished?
  5. Should I use loud speakers if that is what the culture wants?
  6. Should I ever encourage someone to pay a bribe?
  7. Should I use a literal translation that is difficult to understand or a thought-for-thought translation that sometimes oversimplifies theological discourses?
  8. Should I rebuke unconverted people for sinful behavior?
  9. Should I open civil functions in prayer if the society is nominally Christian?
  10. Should I feel obligated to stay in a place because of the investment of time and money?

2015

  1. Should I accept living together as marriage?
  2. How long should those who fall to fornication sit out?
  3. Should I ask neighbors to turn their music down?
  4. Should I rebuke prosperity preachers the first time I see them?
  5. Should I strive to use English with the people?
  6. Should I send my children to a public school for the sake of the ministry?
  7. Should I encourage my children to marry Africans?
  8. Should I start a second church before we leave the first one?
  9. Should I offer aid to a poor polygamist?
  10. Should I use expensive evangelistic tools that do not create dependency, but which the nationals could not reproduce without US funds?

2016

  1. Should I pray for my children to become missionaries?
  2. Should I congratulate unmarried couples on the birth of a child?
  3. Should I tell a polygamist before he is saved what he must do with his wives?
  4. Should I offer classes on life skills?
  5. Should a middle-aged woman be counted as married if the man does not pay the bride price?
  6. Should mothers be instructed to nurse their babies privately?
  7. Should a man be allowed to seek employment away from his family for extended periods of time?
  8. Should I pay a policeman if I am convinced that his request is unjust?
  9. Should I ask men with slimmer gifts to speak in public settings to give them more experience?
  10. Should I expect African pastors to live on a fraction of an American missionary’s salary?

2017

  1. Should I intervene in mob justice?
  2. Should I refrain from pointing out weaknesses in the culture so as to avoid offending anyone?
  3. Should I address distracting children or their parents while preaching?
  4. Should I live outside the village where I am attempting to plant a church?
  5. Should I ever help a believer with money?
  6. Should I preach at a poor, village church if the pastor invites me?
  7. Should I spend sermon preparation time on evangelism?
  8. Should I baptize someone coming from a prosperity background if he believes the gospel, but does not repudiate false teachers?
  9. Should I tell young people that their parents who attend prosperity churches are not Christians?
  10. Should I rebuke those who cling to their mother tongue even if it discourages evangelism among those of other languages?

2019

  1. Should I correct new believers as they minister in the church, or should I allow them to make their own judgments with the aim of promoting a self-governing spirit?
  2. Should I agree as much as possible with a false pastor trying to win his confidence, or should I clearly but kindly draw the line in the sand?
  3. Should I pay a pastoral intern, or should I encourage him from the beginning to support himself?
  4. Should I spend time trying to reform false churches, or should I shrewdly wait for them to seek help?
  5. Should I support Zimbabweans even though their economic conditions are perennial, or should I expect them to make plans to live in the time and place in which God has placed them?
  6. Should I continue to improve my house, or should I give that money to poorer pastors?
  7. Should I devote time for study and writing on theological issues like other pastors, or should I fill my schedule with direct evangelism?
  8. Should I tend to be skeptical of people’s words because so many lie, or should I tend to be hopeful since our Lord’s promises call for faith?
  9. Should I accept a man as a church member who believes in evolution, or should I tell him that he can join us when he accepts the authority of Scripture?
  10. Should I rebuke a Christian for living off government grants, or should I let economics sit on the side while I focus on faith, repentance, and the cross?

2020

  1. Should I cancel church in the rain?
  2. Should I collect offerings from a group where the majority have not been baptized?
  3. Should I support a wedding that occurs years after the couple has been living together as husband and wife?
  4. Should I bar an excommunicated church member from attending?
  5. Should I preach in the open air amidst homes?
  6. Should I encourage the best members of a small church to return to their home areas?
  7. Should I call a meeting with four men under 20 who have been converted and baptized a church?
  8. Should I serve the Lord’s Table when the church only has young people?
  9. Should I pay for people’s transport to come to church?
  10. Should I count two people as married who have been living together for years?

2021

  1. Should I build a house and move my family back to a village for evangelism?
  2. Should I continue to evangelize and meet for church services when religious and social gatherings are illegal?
  3. Should I evangelize at a home where women are immodest?
  4. Should I counsel two people who have been living together but are now studying the Bible weekly with me to get married or to break up?
  5. Should I count a man as a true Christian who says he believes the Bible and loves Jesus, yet he continues to live with a woman without marrying her?
  6. Should I go into a new village with the intention of planting a church or merely to preach the gospel?
  7. Should I encourage people to pray in the church’s prayer meetings who are not yet converted?
  8. Should I require that all prayers be in the same language?
  9. Should I encourage a man to leave our church, return to his village, and plant a church if his wife is not yet converted?
  10. Should I with Paul the Apostle call myself the chief of sinners and really believe it to be true?

2022

  1. Should I encourage a man to lead who has not professed faith in Christ?
  2. Should I accept a man for baptism if the words of his testimony are weak, but the evidence of his life looks like conversion?
  3. Should I leave a larger area without an indigenous church in order to evangelize in a smaller but more rural and poorer area?
  4. Should I stay at a church until it has a durable Christian culture, or leave for the next churchplant once the basic matters of personal responsibility are in place among the new believers?
  5. Should I write and translate into an indigenous language even if the speakers of that language would rather read English?
  6. Should I invest my time into ministries that help other Christians even if it is not directly targeted at the plight of the people groups among whom I live and work?
  7. Should I accept more support in order to increase the standard of living for my family?
  8. Should I help start businesses for the good of the poor?
  9. Should my attitude be marked more with rejoicing because Tsongas have been converted or sobriety because so few have come to Christ?
  10. Should I pray in faith for revival if I believe that the world will spiral downward into sin before Christ comes?
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21 Questions to Ask Before You Buy a TV

Posted on 14 July 2016 by Seth Meyers

Spiritual blessings

  1. Do I need this TV to increase my joy in Heaven?
  2. In what way will this TV increase my personal holiness?
  3. How can this TV glorify God according to 1 Cor. 10:31 “…do all to the glory of God.”?
  4. If I didn’t have this TV would it any way inhibit my growth into the image of Christ?
  5. Will this TV encourage any of the Fruits of the Spirit or the Beatitudes in my life?
  6. Will owning this TV in any way encourage a revival?
  7. Does the TV in general commonly create cultural moods and temptations that are antithetical to revival?

Children and Society

  1. Will this TV have any positive effect on raising my children in the instruction and discipline of the Lord?
  2. Does TV tend to create a youth culture that would be harmful to the maturity and spiritual discipline of my children?
  3. Do children tend to consume TV without self-control?
  4. If every house in the country got rid of their TV’s would the positive effects be greater than the negative?

Temptation

  1. Will this TV probably tempt me to lay idle longer than I should?
  2. Will this TV probably tempt me to see provocative displays of others’ bodies?
  3. Will this TV probably tempt me to enjoy murder, violence, and bloodshed?
  4. Will this TV probably tempt me to overlook the profaning of the Lord, His ways, and His name for the sake of my personal entertainment?
  5. Will this TV probably tempt me to covet what God has not given me?

Intellectual Effects

  1. Will this TV tend to strengthen my mind?
  2. Do TV shows tend to make my mind sharper, more able to follow extended arguments?
  3. Will this TV encourage me to read good books?
  4. Will this TV perform any service for me except entertainment?
  5. Is there any motive active in my heart to purchase this TV other than my personal desire for entertainment?
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Prosperity “Churches” Are Indistinguishable from Witchcraft

Posted on 13 July 2016 by Seth Meyers

Be sure to read the text on the pictures.

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And then…

 

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Is there any difference between the prosperity gospel and witchcraft?

When you pray for missionaries and churchplanters in the rural areas of Africa, these are the faces that the servants of Satan take to themselves today.

Posted in Missions, Prosperity gospel | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Toward Correcting Boring Sermons

Posted on 18 June 2016 by Seth Meyers

Some true sermons are boring, and this should not be tolerated by the preacher because he stands in the most vital office on earth. To bore someone with that which is most beautiful? To tire someone’s mind with the message that is the pinnacle of wisdom?

I have experienced a share of boring preachments as have many who are reading this. I have also heard some of the most fascinating preachers including Martin Lloyd-Jones, John MacArthur, Mark Minnick, and John Piper. What makes these communicators so engaging? Books on preaching will give us a number of answers including the Holy Spirit’s unique blessing, their personal emotional power, the beauty of their language, and the clarity with which they explain the Biblical text.

Preaching is largely teaching. Jesus Christ taught the people (Matt. 5:2), and the Great Commission commands us to do the same to all the peoples of the world (Matt. 28:19-20). One vital, but often overlooked aspect of teaching is insight. Good teachers are insightful, and bad teachers are superficial, obvious, and predictable.

Writing on such a subject should imply that boring sermons are far too common, and that insight deserves more attention in homiletics, not that the present writer can say anything other than the apostle, “Who is sufficient for these things?”

What is insight and how can its lack be cured? Insight is the aspect of teaching that interests, stimulates, and raises the mind. However, like a scent or a beautiful painting it is more easily recognized than defined in words.

Defining Insight
Though it may be hard to define, here are six categories by which to think about insight including a pair of examples from Scripture.

1.    Insight is making true, but commonly overlooked connections between ideas.
Both Samson and Christ accomplished more in their deaths than they did in their lives. And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he bent with all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life. Judges 16:30

Eve is called Adam’s helper in Gen. 2:18, but God is also called Israel’s helper with the same Hebrew word in Psalm 30:10.

2.    Insight is seeing from unexpected perspectives so that what was hidden is now in the open.
For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory (2 Tim. 2:10). Sovereign election encourages us to keep going as missionaries. It doesn’t stop us from evangelizing.

Is Christ our example? Not in everything. Christ is not a complete example for sinners because he never knew what it was to repent of sin (Heb. 4:15).

3.    Insight is grasping the relationship of individual parts to the larger system.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, (Eph. 5:25). Christ died with a special intention for His bride. There was a love for her that He did not have for others.

And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female…” (Matt. 19:4). Adam and Eve were created at the beginning of time, therefore, no form of evolution can fit with Biblical Christianity.

4.    Insight is weighing the importance of different parts of the whole so that their relative value is apparent to each other and in light of the larger body.
Christ commands us both to be baptized and to believe on Him. The second command is more important, unless the manner of denying the first command is actually a repudiation of his Lordship.

A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. “But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet (1 Tim. 2:11-12).” This doctrine is not as vital to Christianity as believing that Jesus Christ is God (1 John 5:1). However, if allowing a woman to preach is covering for a settled refusal to bow to Christ as Lord, then it is indicative of a kind of apostasy.

5.    Insight is stretching past the explicit statements to a logically coherent, Biblically sanctioned conclusion that often escapes the notice of others.
God loves the world (John 3:16), and God hates sinners (Psalm 5:5). Therefore, in the mind of God lies an infinite ability such that he can express both love and hate to the same being at the same time.

The last verse in Jonah says, “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” God has special compassion for infants and even animals.

6.    Insight is attaching the right metaphor to the right affection.
Christ loves us like a husband, not a boyfriend.

A sinner has followed his lusts like an insane person (Tit. 1:15), not merely someone who made a mistake.

In each of these six categories, there are factors that make insight uncommon. Usually it has to do with time for reflection, but presuppositions also open or close or minds to insight. In other words, insight is finding a piece of the puzzle that was not made explicit.

Finding Insight
Here are five methods exemplified by the best preachers and found in works like Watts’ Logic.

1.    Read insightful authors or talk to insightful people.
Since we learn by imitation, draw near to those who have the qualities of speech and mind that you want to see in yourself. If you are not insightful and if you have no interest in being insightful, you will not enjoy spending time with those who are. But if you have a great desire to grow in this skill, you will find yourself pulled to these men who are above you, even if you can’t understand everything they say.

2.    Teach your eyes to see the big picture.
One way to do this is to practice the art of summarizing. Try to summarize the Bible in one sentence. Then the NT. Then the OT. Then individual books. For example, Dutch philosopher, Herman Dooyeweerd, broke all of life into 15 categories in an effort to comprehend the whole of the universe under the authority of Christ.

a.     Numerical aspect: amount
b.     Spatial aspect: continuous extension
c.     Historical aspect: flowing movement
d.     Physical aspect: energy, matter
e.     Organic aspect: life functions, self-maintenance
f.      Mental aspect: feeling and response
g.     Logical aspect: distinction, conceptualization
h.     Scientific aspect: formative power, achievement, technology, technique
i.      Lingual aspect: symbolic communication
j.      Social aspect: social interaction
k.     Economic aspect: frugal use of resources
l.      Aesthetic aspect: harmony, surprise, fun
m.   Political aspect: due, rights, responsibility
n.     Ethical aspect: self-giving love
o.     Religious aspect: faith, vision, commitment, belief

What makes this list insightful? He tried to grasp all of reality in less than half a page. In order to do this he had to define each of these categories carefully. His definitions for individual parts of the system had to fit smoothly with all the other parts.

Biblical Theology tries to look at the Bible this way. This discipline attempts to show how history has one main story, and all the little episodes are just scenes in this greater drama.

3.    Closely related to this practice is the ability to make definitions.
Your mind must become accustomed to learning clear definitions for the broadest categories of life. A mind sharpened by a mastery of logic will cut hearts. This point is a summary of Watts’ Logic (pages 99-113, Soli Deo Gloria reprint) where he teaches us to define things in two steps: First, determine the basic attribute of a thing, and second, search for the essential difference—how that thing differs from all others in its category.

A mind that defines clearly will more quickly notice when his thought and preaching are disconnected. He will also be able to make connections with other ideas more fluently since he can define them as well.

4.    Learn to see the world through analogies.
An analogy is a comparison, like this sentence. The Bible is filled with analogies because that is the way God has made our minds to think. The right analogies, comparisons, and metaphors (like that list) are the best use of language because they carry not just denotations but connotations—not just propositions but affections as well. What are these comparisons supposed to do to our minds?

a.     Jesus is the Bread of Life, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Husband of the Church.
b.     God is our Father, our King, our Judge, our Shield, our Song.
c.     The devil is Satan (which means enemy in Hebrew).
d.     The church is like a light, a city on a hill, a temple, a house, a body, a bride, and a nation.
e.     A sinner is a goat, a child of Satan, a weed, dead, a plant with no roots, and a criminal.
f.      False teachers are animals, trees of a different kind, dead trees, and casual workers.
g.     The Christian life is a journey, a war, a building project, farming a field, and a business venture.
h.     Salvation is being brought out of slavery, being raised to life, being discharged from prison, and being adopted to a new family.

5.    Look for new (yet Biblical) ways to say things.
If you are preaching on repentance again, find some new way to get that same old truth. Metaphors show there worth here.

If you’re always saying, “You must repent!” Try saying, “Are you a prodigal? When will you turn your eyes to your Father?”

If you’re always saying, “Believe in Christ!” Try saying, “Hide yourself under the cross!”

Insight is such a great gift, it will not come without hard work over a long period of time. Maybe the government will give someone a degree for free, but no one will become insightful for free. We are an era of surface gliders. So our preachers are as well, but who can listen to that each week for an hour? May we find grace to speak in a manner worthy of an oracle of God.

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Ethiopia Then, Cambodia Now

Posted on 11 June 2016 by Seth Meyers

Guest post by Forrest McPhail, churchplanter among the Khmer of Cambodia

The Winds of God: How the Gospel Swept the Four Corners of Southern Ethiopia by Raymond Davis is an interesting little book. God works different ways at different times among the various peoples where He is calling out a people for His name, and it is interesting and instructive to read accounts like these. In Ethiopia, He chose to work in a very profound way, with much visible fruit, over the course of several decades (1930s-1970s). The Church was born there amidst much persecution, including murders and imprisonments, relative poverty, widespread illiteracy, occupation by the Italians in WW2, later Communism, and extreme pagan tribal culture.

In that movement of God, the Lord did use foreign missionaries, both in church planting as well as discipleship and training. National workers however, both ordained pastors, as well as their co-workers, did most of the work, of their own volition.

Funds? The movement was almost entirely sustained by the national believers. Bible conferences, supplies, love offerings for special meetings, support for evangelists, prayer houses (as they called meeting places) etc. came from the Ethiopian believers. They gave, and kept giving, and God kept blessing the forward movement during these years.

Cambodia? What a contrast! Nearly every city church is almost completely patronized by foreigners. Most pastors that are trained are funded from overseas. The Church does not pay for almost anything. Bible conferences, special meetings, pastoral support, evangelistic efforts, buildings etc. are almost always completely funded by foreigners. Cambodia is much better off financially than the Ethiopians spoken of in this volume. Why is Cambodia in this predicament?

One reason is history: the Church was largely birthed (a second time) after Pol Pot in the refugee camps and its aftermath of Communism, where emergency aid was necessary and vital to survival. Once things began to calm down and things began to normalize in the 1990s, the NGOs and Christian aid and development workers came in legion. The second reason for this endemic dependency, then, is foreign Christians who thought, and still do think, that the Cambodian church needs foreign money and projects in order to follow Christ—they could not be further from the truth!

What Cambodian churches need is the gospel, discipleship, and obedience to God’s Word, trusting God to meet their needs in their own context, not foreign funding. What happened in Ethiopia has happened among some in Cambodia, particularly among the tribals in Rattanikiri, but it is very rare among the main people group of Cambodia, the Khmer.

Missionaries who understand the need for Cambodian believers to live out the Gospel outside of financial dependence from abroad know also that God’s blessing will be largely restrained on the Church here until a change happens. This leads to frustration, thoughts of turning back, desires to look for easier places to minister, discouragement, discontentment, even disillusionment.

Yesterday I met with an American missionary who wanted to discuss ministry over for coffee. I found that he was very like-minded. He shared his burdens for Cambodia, which are similar to ours. He began to be passionate about the need for faith and confidence in God and His Word, that, if we ourselves will preach Christ in truth and keep calling Cambodian believers to biblical discipleship, God will bless. God will break through the mess and will raise up an indigenous church. Our job is to be faithful to our task and have a biblically informed faith in what God can do. I needed that encouragement from this man.

There is a growing number of foreign missionaries and Cambodian pastors that are awakening to the need for Cambodian churches to make the break from foreign funding, and, more than this, to return to biblical discipleship which would strengthen churches and lead them towards healthy NT local church life. This does not mean that foreign funding has no place, but it should definitely be a small part, if present at all, within the churches.

Pray for God to work! He is building His Church here! Pray that His people, both foreign workers and Cambodian believers, will rally around biblical truth, the power of the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit, resulting in “The Winds of God” blowing across this land in very clear ways, to His glory. Pray that we will be faithful to do our part, and full of faith in God, not ourselves.

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