Only Church

I have a friend who is struggling in his work today and it is because, though his work is a ministry, it is a ministry that is necessarily outside of a local church and thus requires an organization other than a local church in which to function. Such organizations exist and in some cases, with good reason and I believe a degree of justification:

• Many missions fields are closed to those who are not a part of an agency
• Colleges, in order to provide a well rounded education, need teachers whose experience is beyond one local church (even those churches who have college ministries use pastors from other churches or at the very least, recruit students from other churches)
• Preachers need some means of fellowship among each other for encouragement, support and perhaps a work larger than themselves

But here is the problem and here is where my friend's trouble comes in, invariably these non church organizations begin applying Biblical mandates that have only Scriptural authority to the church upon those who are a part of their organization. They assume that what is true for the church is true for their organization too. They begin thinking of themselves as God thinks of His church. They begin making expectations of those who are in their organization that only their local church ought to expect.

And very frequently (and I think the worse thing about them is that ) these expectations create a conflict for their associates between their local church and the organization. The organization demands loyalty to it even above their local church. The non church organization begins to, in effect, usurp authority over that person's local church.

I do not believe the problem is answered in those ministries that are under the authority of a local church large enough to house a nationwide or worldwide effort because in every case, those ministries usurp authority over those smaller churches that cooperate with them, in effect creating something worse than a para church organization; an ecclesiastical hierarchy. The answer is a call to arms. the answer is a reminder that we are soldiers and our enemy is our own flesh. The answer is to constantly and continually mortify the tendency of self to demand loyalty to anything other than that thing God has created, which is the independent, local (and I am convinced) Baptist Church.

To expect and demand a Christian's loyalty to anything other is to pressure them into idolatry.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

Sheep Don't Bite

I read a short blog the other day that has been stuck in my craw. The writer was attempting to encourage pastors with a list of quips concerning the ministry. One of those quips was, "Sheep bite; they just do." or something like that. Though I confess that I am unable now to find the blog to reference it, I was able, through a simple Google search, to find several Web sites that contain articles about sheep biting. The idea of course is that Christians, who are characterized as sheep in the Bible often hurt there pastor, who is characterized as their shepherd or one another.

This is interesting and I think addresses a flaw in our definition of who exactly is a sheep. The fact is real sheep do not bite. Their teeth and their palate is designed to graze and bite off grass. They so not bite. Not one another; not their shepherd. This isn't to say that sheep are perfect.

• They do wonder off
• They do get ill  but
• They don't bite

Sheep are a unique animal that has no chain of authority. There is no alpha sheep in the flock. No one in a flock of sheep is fighting to be lead. It is against their nature.

Dogs, or rather biblically, wolves bite. They bite each other and they bite anything else in their way. They are pack animals and the leader must always assert and defend his lead because every other wolf in the pack is waiting for its chance to assert itself and become lead.

All of this reflects on the current concept of what constitutes a Christian and what the role of the pastor is. Today's model sees anyone who attends church or makes any sort of profession of believing as a child of God. We view Christianity as a life choice today so anyone who chooses to may claim the status of "sheep." consequently a shepherd's job in today's Christianity has the role of coaxing as many self professed sheep as possible into choosing his flock and then managing those "sheep" well enough that they won't go looking for another shepherd and some other flock. The shepherd of this sort of flock, the contention is, must expect to get bitten once in a while. It is the nature of the sheep.

I have a different idea. It sounds to me like that kind of shepherding isn't shepherding at all; I think that's just managing a wolf pack. Anyone working with wolves of course has to be careful of being bitten. That is not true of shepherds. Our trouble today is that we accept that wolves are sheep just because the wolf says he is a sheep. The Bible warns that wolves will enter among us. The Bible warns that there will be many false professors. We would do best to remember that and warn those who are prone to bite that they don't possess the character of their profession.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

Influence In Theology

I read a blog recently entitled, How To Lose Your Influence In Theology. (reclaimingthemind.org) The author offered several points that he suggested would discredit the influence of the one practicing them in theology. Some of his suggestions have merit. But some were typical among the ecumenical kind of Christianity. Among his challenges were Insisting upon an inerrancy version of the Bible Holding a particular view of end times And do so with passionate relentlessness. It is not the desire of my heart to lack grace. However I do believe that his article must at least have an answer. First, I have some trouble with the goal of having "influence." I know that influence is an outcome of either preaching or writing about the Word of God. But influence cannot be our end. To make it so is to expose our work to compromise. The goal of influence can override our goal to be true to God's calling upon our lives, the convictions we hold and to the truth of God's Word itself. Our goal must be God; to grow on grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the only appropriate goal because that is the only goal we can pursue without risking compromise. As we pursue that, God will then gives us whatever influence He may please us to have. Secondly, the blog sounds like a rehearsal of the messenger's advice to Micaiah in 1 Kings 22:13, "Here is what all the other prophets have told the king. Tell him the same thing they said and you will have credibility." Micaiah wasn't as worried about having credibility or influence with the prophets or with the king as he was about preaching God's message. This man's blog is designed to dumb down the message of the preacher until every opinion about God is as good as the next. I am aware of the objections raised concerning the inerrancy of any particular version of the Bible (They mean the King James Version - it is attacked with a hatred similar to Jehoshaphat's hatred for Micaiah). I am aware that even the translators of the King James never ascribed to it infallibility. But I remind you that John nor any of the other penmanship (with some exceptions) of the Bible never ascribed that to their books either; it was concluded that they were the very Words of God at a later date. The translators did know that they had been given a rare opportunity. They engaged in their work with reverence and completed their work with confidence that God had permitted them this privilege. It has been since its publication that the obvious blessing of God upon it and the hatred of the word the flesh and the devil against it has demonstrated that it, above all the more modern translations is the very Word of God. Someone needs to say that God can intervene in the Work of man. Someone needs to say that despite all of the protests and objections of the so called learned, God is capable of and indeed has preserved for the world a Bible that is without error. Someone has to say that the devil hasn't left us with enough of the Bible but not a perfect Bible. Someone needs to say that the message of the Word is clear. That we are not left helpless to follow only those men who gather together to tell each other what to say. That because we have a perfect Bible and because the God is still at work today and because the Holy Spirit is still the true teacher of the Word, any man woman or child can pick up a Bible, and with some sanctified study, find what God says. -- Marvin McKenzie In the fields

INDIVISIBLE

I watched James Robinsons program this morning precisely because his guest was Glenn Beck. They said Glen's radio broadcast is the third largest in our country today. Beck makes no apologies for being Mormon. His program, though thematically a political one has taken on a heavily spiritual tone and Christians who are conservative in nature have embraced his conservative politics and in many cases have even unwittingly embraced his brand of religion. Robinson said that Beck had recently spoken in his home church named Gateway and that he was sure Beck knew Jesus. I have spoken to enough Mormons myself to know these two things:
One, they will claim to have accepted Christ as Saviour
Two, they do not mean the same person as the Bible describes as Jesus.

Robinson and apparently this Gateway Church and scores and thousands of professing believers have invited a different doctrine concerning Christ into their home.

Shame!
The were lots of playful jabs between Robinson and Beck today. Beck also made some playful jabs at the Bible that were laughed at by Robinson and his audience. Beck said he had been reading First John A lot this week. Then he backed up and corrected himself. He said he had been reading chapters one through four because the author gets off on chapter five. Everyone laughed.

• Is not First John inspired? 
• Is John's epistle just his opinion about Christ? 

Chapter five is then nothing to laugh about. It says he that hath the son hath life but he that hath not the son of God hath not life. It says that there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one. That is nothing to laugh about.
 
Beck's politics may appeal to the conservative Christian today but his theology is damnable. Some careless Christians have endorsed his theology just because they like his politics.

Ones theology is so much more important than his politics we would be better off giving this country to the devil than giving one soul the false impression that Mormonism is a viable Christian faith.

--
Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

Why Does The Lord Allow It?

Luke 14:10 KJV
But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.

I have been thinking that perhaps the reason that the Lord allows this world to so abuse the Christian faith and to mock spiritual principles is because if He were to make his will be done on earth as it is in heaven, so to speak, sinful man would pervert it into some sort of money making scheme or means of self advancement. We would take to our sinful heart those words in Luke 14:10, "then shalt thou have worship... "and we would fight for the lowest rooms, they would have to build more lowest rooms to accommodate the numbers making their way into them. Perhaps the Lord allows this world to get away with so much evil
• To prove those who will believe without immediate reward and
• To find out those who will do right even when no one acknowledges them for doing it.

Moses Wrote This Song

Deuteronomy 31:19 KJV
Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.

Deuteronomy 31:22 KJV
Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.

One of the things a person picks up from the Bible concerning songs and music is that God's people used them for either worship or for education and not for entertainment. Moses wrote this song (recorded in chapter thirty two) and sang it the same day he was "gathered to his people"; he died. The song was not celebratory in nature, though Moses had written one that was after the soldiers of Egypt died in the Red Sea. This song was meant to rehearse what God had said to Israel.

Moses was inspired in his writing I know. But songs that entertain aren't generally written and sung the same day. The writer has motives behind his music that necessitate his care when first releasing the song. He needs music to be scored and rehearsals to be done. Why, the couple who sang America the Beautiful at the 2012 Superbowl practiced it a week before the actual performance: and that is a song they have surely known since childhood. Entertainment requires careful preparation.

No, Moses did neither write nor sing for the sake of entertainment. And I conclude from that that far too much entertainment emphasis is placed upon even spiritual music in our day. The purpose of music among the believers must be an act of worship and an expression of a spiritual truth. If it is not that, it is not Christian.

Greater Than John The Baptist

I came across a short quip from Tim Keller concerning Jesus remark that the least in the kingdom are greater than John the Baptist. I found it interesting because I had just written on that very subject last week. My piece at http://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com/ is based out of Luke's Gospel rather than Matthew's, which is where Keller bases his piece. I think it is interesting to compare and contrast the perspective of a Protestant and a Baptist (who approaches the Bible from a fundamentalist rather than an evangelical perspective) on the person, ministry and mark that John the Baptist makes. Keller's article may be found at http://kellerquotes.com/john-the-baptist/. I encourage you to read it. As for my piece, I will repeat it in its entirety here.

"Luke 7:28 KJV
For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

There is no doubt but that John the Baptist is a great character in the New Testament. Though his work was short lived, it introduced that which is eternal. John the Baptist, Jesus said, was the greatest of all prophets. But his ministry is much more than that, extending into the New Testament and introducing that ordinance which distinguishes the church of Jesus Christ from all others; baptism of
• A proper candidate (saved) for
• A proper reason (obedience, profession), using
• A proper method (immersion) and under
• A proper authority (a Baptist church)

Why would then Jesus say that the least in the kingdom would be greater than John? Does this mean, as many have preached, that John is not a New Testament preacher, that his message was in some way inferior? Not in the least. Consider the biblical lesson after this verse. John's baptism is the dividing line between glorifying God and rejecting God's counsel.

But what John began blossomed after his death. Like that grain of wheat that dies in the ground and then yields a hundred fold;
• After John the Baptist came the death burial and resurrection of Christ and
• After John the Baptist came the entirety of the New Testament
• After John the Baptist came not only the salvation and baptism of those in Israel but all around the world
• After John the Baptist has come two centuries of preaching that very message John preached.
True greatness inspires even greater greatness. It was his greatness that has led to greater things for Christ than he himself could have done. "

Now for a few thoughts between the two pieces:
First, I agree with Keller that these passages are overlooked. I think Protestants (even the ones who use the name Baptist) take a minimalist position concerning THE Baptist. Everything that can be done is done to make little of John the Baptist. Mostly he is just overlooked. Good on him for pointing that out.
Secondly, it seems enlightening to me that a Protestant took the Matthew eleven passage as his text rather than the Luke seven text. Luke seven places much greater emphasis on the importance of John's baptism.
Finally, I am happy with Mr. Keller's application to practicing the gospel ministry. We have got to get Christians engaged in our world. We have got to see the average believer make living his faith in the world his normal life.
Only then will our faith change our world.

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields