He slumps at the bar. Or he laughs too louldly by the pool table. Or he flirts too much with too many of the girls at the bar. He intended to drink only two or three beers. It's quarter to one and he has to be at work at six. He turned of his cell three hours ago so his wife can't call him again.
FINALLY THE END--Part X.
When I started this series I was like the drunk. I thought it'd go two, maybe three installments. But as I dug and thought and read, the devastation done by the avoidance of precise thought in favor of the emotive and mystical has weighed and weighed on my mind. It's a desparately evil thing. I hope I've exposed well a tooth or two of this animal. I hope I've motivated one or two to strive to think biblical thoughts in biblical categories with biblical vocabulary. I hope I've comforted one or two who have been persecuted for doing it. I hope I've helped all of you to laugh at the Swami of Smarminess at prayer meeting or Sunday School. I hope you laugh up your sleeve the next time the church lady (or the fellow who wished he was more like a lady because he thinks Jesus was) looks down her long, stiff Pharisee nose at you and says you're not nearly as loving as she thinks she is------I hope the next time that happens you have a hard time not laughing. I hope the next time someone tells you that doctrine isn't important you ask them where they found that doctrine in the Bible and if they think it's really important to believe the dontrine-isn't-important doctrine. Then I hope your accuser gets embarrassed for saying something so stupid. I hope you ignore anyone who tells you this sort of thing as irrelevant. I hope you pray that their influence be quenched. I hope you pray that such folks get saved. I hope you fall more in love with Scripture and the God Who revealed it every day. More and more and more and more and more.
That's why I couldn't shut up.
THE MENTAL GHETTO ONE MORE TIME.
For those of you who may be new, this is the tenth and last of a series on the MENATAL GHETTO. You can read about it by following the link provided. Briefly, the MENTAL GHETTO is the idea that doctrine isn't important, sensitive is better than true, feeling is better than knowing, and the praise band is a ministry. I call it a ghetto because it's like the real ghetto in most American cities. It's a horrible place to be, but getting out means turning off the TV, putting away the bong, taking a shower, and filling out jobs aps. As long as a pittance of money stolen by government from working people comes in, it's tolerable. In the MENTAL GHETTO, everyone knows they don't know much about the Bible, but pastors, other congregants, even our closest friends don't hold us accountable. Few church goers can name six of the ten commandments, but never will you hear anyone rebuked for this appalling ignorance in an ME (Modern Evangelical) institution. We get away with it. Studying the Bible is hard. What's even harder is the change that biblical knowledge will require from those who come to possess it. So folks stay in the MENTAL GHETTO.
It's easier.
SENSITIVITY AS A SIN IN SCRIPTURE--MALACHI.
The clergy need their faces smeared with manure. Who would make such a vulgar suggestion? God said that. Malachi's job was to pass this message along to the folks and their shepherds, the Levitical priests.
In Malachi 2, God addresses the shepherds of Israel. Like all the prophets dealing with the descendants of Jacob, Malachi was an officer of the court. God sent Malachi to serve papers on Israel, but this section is not to all of Israel. It was just to the Levites. The papers served usually named the ways in which the people of Israel or Judah had violated the Covenant of Sinai. The papers for the Levites had to do with the covenant God made with Levi's descendants. He promised them the priesthood. In Numbers 3 God told Moses that only the Levites could attend to the tabernacle. All others would die if they tried. In return, the Levites were to be completely owned by God through Aaron, in Numbers 3:9. This special favor and wonderful privilege was to be repaid with absolute fidelity.
The Levites had broken the contract. They were not exact in the instruction of the Law of God. Here is Malachi 2:1-9 in the NASB:
1 "And now, this commandment is for you, O priests.
2 "If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name," says the LORD of hosts, "then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart.
3 "Behold, I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.
4 "Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant may continue with Levi," says the LORD of hosts.
5 "My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence; so he revered Me, and stood in awe of My name.
6 "True instruction was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity.
7 "For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
8 "But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi," says the LORD of hosts.
9 "So I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways, but are showing partiality in the instruction."
By the time of Malachi, the judgment had been set. This was not a prophecy of warning. Judgment was ordered. The time for repentance was gone. The Hebrews were about to go through 400 years of silence from God. These were probably His last words to that generation and the first nine verses of chapter two were His last words to the clergy before their damnation came upon them. Read the first two verses. "I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart," God said. What had they not taken to heart? The first part of verse two tells us. "...you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name..."
The priests had another priority and it didn't involve being wholly given to God. Any preacher who preaches for any reason other than to glorify God by being absolutely faithful to His word is sinning the sin of the Levites of Malachi's prophecy.
I don't get to preach much in churches. The story is always the same. "You're too harsh." "Can't you be positive?" "Why do you always preach judgment?" In short, I'm not sensitive to the feelings of my hearers.
The preacher of God isn't supposed to care about the feelings of his hearers. He's supposed to be given precisely and totally to God. The Levitical Covenant in Numbers puts it this way in verse nine: "You shall thus give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons; they are wholly given to him from among the sons of Israel."
See the words "they are wholly given"? Literally, word-for-word, it could be rendered, "...given ones, given ones are they..." THAT'S emphatic. That's pointed. The next two phrases are important, too. First is "to him". "Him" refers to Aaron. In other words, the Levites were given to the work of the ministry. Then comes the contrast, "...from among the sons of Israel." The idea here is that there is a distinct consecration of the Levites. Men called to minister are distinct from others. They are not the same. Are all the saints given wholly to God? Yes, but there's a special responsibility preachers have that no one else has. Their job isn't to be given to the congregation. They're God's. Only God's feelings are the preacher's concern. Men are incidental. And that's appropriate even if only the love of our fellow man is considered, since the very Word of God is life to the soul. The feelings of a man are no more important to the preacher than the pain of a patient to a surgeon. The limb must be amputated or the man dies. For the man of God, only the accurate preaching of God's word is a concern of real consequence.
Going too far? See another passage having to do with the work of presenting God's truth to men. The task of the prophet is delineated in Deuteronomy 18. This is a key passage for understanding all of Scripture, but one ignored by far too many. The reason it's so important is it's centrality to the understanding of just how any man is to relate to the word of God, preacher or not. This passage is pivotal and precursive to II Timothy 3:16 and 17. Without II Timothy 3 and Psalm 119, we would still have the doctrines of the sufficiency of Scripture, the inerrancy of Scripture, the authority of Scripture, and the necessity of Scripture in Deuteronomy 18. It even gives the foundation for order in the church. All that needs to be added to the plain teaching of Deuteronomy 18 to achieve all this is the inspiration of Scripture.
Let's take a look at just a wee bit of this passage. Verses 18-20 read like this:
18 I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And it shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who shall speak a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.
Did you notice the part about how the prophet is to consult the feelings of his hearers when deciding what to say and how to say it? I didn't either. There is one and only one criterion for deciding what to say: "...he shall speak to them all that I command him." There isn't much to consider, is there? Just say what God has said. That's all. It's simple. Either you do it or you don't.
Back to Malachi--the Levites were under God's coming judgment simply because their guiding principle was something other than God's glory. That other agenda was the "lifting of faces". Look at verse nine. The NASB and most translations say "showing partiality". Literally, it's "lifting faces". Their sin was lifting faces instead of giving honor to the name of God as prescribed in verse two. That, by the way, is the essence of the declarative side of the gospel. Bragging about God is an essential part of evangelism. See Psalm 145 for that and cross reference the first verses of I Corinthians 15. (The imperative side of the gospel is the command to repent and believe.)
"Showing partiality" isn't a bad translation. It's appropriate since that is the idiomatic meaning of "lifting faces". "Lifting faces" is commonly associated with taking bribes, too, in Scripture. See Job 34:19, Proverbs 28:21, and II Chronicles 19:7. I think it's interesting, though, that the Spirit chose the idiom "lifting faces". The Hebrews understood something. We read each other. When we please someone, they look up and their eyes brighten. As one who has taught, I can tell you with confidence a teacher knows when he has his audience. When the faces are up and bright, your audience likes what they're hearing.
But there's often a trade to be made to get this result. Men who respect the feelings of others don't fear God and don't know the wonder of God. They don't know God. Verse five. And in verses six through eight, we read that such men no longer speak the truth to men.
The dishonest preacher preaches based on what will lift the faces of his audience. It can be very manipulative. Malachi tells us just what God thinks about such men. He will smear feces on their faces, disrespect their religious service, curse their children, and throw them away with the feces produced by the eating that took place at their feasts. Verse three says, "Behold, I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it." This a picture of being thrown in the dump outside of the city, a biblical figure of damnation.
Of course this is figurative. Yet, just how nasty a picture must God paint for us to understand His hatred for those who shade the truth to please others? How disgusting a story must He tell to make us understand the damnation that awaits the pastor who is nice, but not true? Evil preachers preach to make congregants look up and smile.
What a small bribe to accept for your soul!
EXAMPLES OF SENSITIVE HYPOCRITES.
I thought I'd end this series with just three examples I've had right here at this blog and some of the blogs I've read lately. These are Evangelical "Christians" who have become very sensitive and been lead into all sorts of sin as a result. I won't give their real or full names, because I don't want to confuse the issue. Chances are you could easily give dozens of similar examples, too, so I'll make it short--just be assured that you're not crazy all those times you wondered why such sensitive folks hate so much. You're not alone.
In the previous section we looked at some Scripture having to do with sensitivity and how it can actually be a sin. "But the passages had to do with paritiality, didn't they?" Yes, but excessive sensitivity is just part of partiality. The two are inseparable and that's part of the hypocrisy of the sensitive. As these examples will show, sensitivity is seldom blind. The preacher who pleases men will always please the most important men. That's how they get and keep their jobs, after all. Even if sensitivity to the feelings of men could be practiced with complete equality among the hearers of the preacher, the preacher is supposed to be partial to God, not men. When God tells us to speak and we change what we say to accomodate men are we not being partial to men over God?
Be that as it may, the sensitive (in my experience) have never been truly even handed. They are never sensitive to the feelings of those they deem intolerant and insensitive. Demonstrate a love for biblical truth over human relationship as Scripture commands and watch as your character is assassinated, ridiculed, and all the wonderfully sensitive hate you and your family. They have a cause and anyone who opposes it are to be despised, no matter how they feel about it.
Example 1.
After my post exposing the doctrinal problems of Henry Blackaby, "Anonymous" called me and all who read my posts "fools". In those posts, the underlying biblical doctrine I defended against Blackaby was the sufficiency of Scripture. That's pretty basic. Yet, "Anonymous" chewed me out good. I should get back to "basic Bible teaching", according to him.
How basic can you get? "Trust the Bible alone" is where one starts when teaching the Bible isn't it? Pretty close, I'd say. "Anonymous" accused me of being insensitive and called me a fool. No hypocrisy here, huh? Then he ended with a request. He wanted to know if the Bible allowed for a special sexual sin he had interest in. According to "Anonymous" the answer to whether or not we could find a way to approve of his lust was "basic Bible teaching". The adquacy of the Bible isn't.
Mind-boggling.
Example 2. I recently nailed a false teacher very popular among some in the Evangelical community. He has publicly held the "Wider Mercy" doctrine for decades. That doctrine says that one doesn't have to even hear the name of Jesus or know what the gospel is to be saved. Buddhists can remain Buddhists and go to heaven. The same is true of Mormons, Muslims, and atheists. A fellow named "Randy" was very offended. I wasn't sensitive. I was wrong. I emailed him with passages of Scripture laying out the problem with that position and quotes from the false teacher. He actually admitted I was right, but told me I shouldn't say it because it made too many people too mad. When I asked him if he thought it was consistent to tell me I was right, but shouldn't be allowed to say it, he hung up on the conversation and made it clear I was not welcome in his life.........EVER.
Interestingly, "Randy" claimed to be in full time ministry and offered that as evidence that he was right, or at least that I should be sensitive enough to him to let him remain in his sin. But when I checked his profile, he works in government.
How does this happen?
Example 3. Related to the story of "Randy" is another. In this story "John" had plugged a member of the ministry team of the false teacher mentioned above. I had read "John's" blog regularly. I enjoyed his defense of the faith against doctrines like the "Wider Mercy" doctrine advocated by the likes of theological liberals and Emergents. He has done so for a long time with good humor and frankness. However, when one of his heroes believed the very same false doctrine pushed by the groups he rightly opposes, I was not allowed to object against the very doctrine "John" so correctly hates. I wasn't sensitive to a hero of his.
Sensitivity is almost always sensitivity for only a special group. It is always partial. It is never honest. But it does very well at stopping biblical and logical thought. Is there a biblical role for sensitivity? Yes, in our personal dealings. But it can never make a difference when we speak truth.
THE LAST WORD AND A WARNING.
I hope you've profited by this series. I have, simply by digging in the Scripture and thinking things through.
Here's a warning that I'd like to humbly offer: After all this talk of precise thought and achieving biblical knowledge, it's good to remember that smart doesn't equal righteous. The most effective false teachers are geniuses. NEVER look down your nose at someone who may or may not be as smart as you are. If you're right and that person isn't as sharp as you, remember two things. 1. That person is your brother or sister. Be kind and care for them. Gently teach them, pray for them, and respect them. 2. If they're more faithful to what they do know than you are to what you know, you'll work for them in the next life. God ain't partial.
If you've read any of this, thank you. I consider it a privilege to be heard. God bless you and yours.
Be holy and pray that I do, too,
Phil Perkins.
THINK BIBLICAL THOUGHTS IN BIBLICAL CATEGORIES WITH BIBLICAL VOCABULARY!
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1 comment:
Ruth,
Thanks.
Phil.
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