“What’s Wrong With You People?
The present church system has contributed greatly to forming a system of fear and dependency within a closed system of logic where the “laity” has no way to exchange dialogue with the “clergy” relative to evaluation of biblical truth. The saints simply sit and listen and are spoon-fed bits and pieces of doctrine at the whim of the pastor-“king”or his representative. Bits and pieces that may or may not be scriptural truth. With the addition of a pseudo-“tithe” system to finance whatever they can dream of in order to build their personal kingdom the control noose tightens. The addition of the false teachings of the necessity of a “covering” in order to have an umbrella of protection of the pastor-“king”and his corporate structure of cookie-cutter saints further tightens the control noose.
And so the saints become bond-slaves to a man-made system of human works, rather than to their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Careful study of the Bible shows that God always provided environments of love, life and liberty to His people. Instead, human traditions of converting others to a human held point of view, and then committing finances, time and abilities to that point of view provide additional control measures.
In effect they kill two birds with one stone: insuring total slavery for the constituents of the corporate organization and getting financial support for their personal kingdoms. Peter says in 2 Peter 2:3: “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” How many families have denied themselves proper food, clothing, shelter, automobiles, needed medical, dental and eye care in order to “give to God,” i.e., their local corporate organizational structure of glass, steel and brick? Because of fear God would “curse” them if they didn’t? “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Timothy 5:8).
Paul, the apostle warned us in 1 Corinthians 7:23: “Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.” And in Galatians 5:1: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” In John 8:36, Jesus admonishes us: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
By His death, burial and resurrection Jesus paid an unimaginable price for us to be free. What a travesty of justice for us to willingly put our own selves back into spiritual and financial bondage!
Excerpted from the article “Joel’s Army … Predator Or Protein … Let Us Reason Together,” which discusses why God and Christ are not doing a new thing, emphasizes that Bible teachings of doctrine are His eternal will and explains, biblically, that the locusts of Joel are instruments of His justice, not His saints.
If you are a die-hard fan of today’s false apostles, prophets and teachers you will not want to read the truths of the article. If you are a true disciple of Jesus Christ, i.e., a learner, follower, supporter and imitator of Jesus Christ, instead of some odd-ball self-promoting loud-mouth religious pretender, you will profit from being exposed to the truth of what your false brothers and sisters, who claim to be Christians, are, in fact, teaching and practicing.
If your comfort is derived from thinking you are making weekly payments on your fire insurance by a fake “tithe,” to your new “… mediator between God and men …” instead of Jesus Christ, of which scripture tells us, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5) you are deceived. If somehow you also find comfort in some pretend “covering” invented by man to keep you in bondage under their false “covering,” you are deceived. Did I mention assembling together with the saints? And obeying your leaders?
Don’t tithe and you’re cursed. Don’t stay under their covering and the devil will wreak havoc upon you and your family. Don’t assemble and you’re being disobedient to God. Don’t obey your leaders and you’re in rebellion against God.
What a crock!
That’s all the epitome of self-centeredness, death and bondage! And a complete and total misunderstanding and misapplication of the heart of God for His children!
God is not about self-centeredness, but love; not death, but life; not bondage, but liberty!
What’s wrong with you people? You think you can rewrite the Bible according to what you and others think you heard from God, or had a dream or a vision or an alleged “prophetic word” about? All imaginary stuff to continue to keep you in a spiritual environment of self-centeredness, death and bondage?
Our God is an eternal God. What makes you or somebody else, a short-lived human being, think what you have to say is of equal or greater eternal value that what God has so carefully preserved for us by 40 different authors inspired by His Holy Spirit? Some of those authors were on different continents and three different languages were utilized in writing the Bible over a period of about 1,500 years. The Bible is inspired, infallible, and inerrant in the original languages. If you think any prophetical utterance or teaching today is God inspired, God infallible and God inerrant and therefore on an equal footing with the Bible, then you are a fool.
The bottom line: Cause (our Creator God) is greater in power and intelligence than effect (created mankind).
Stop living in the Old Testament. Read and study the New Testament and the anti-types and substance there and then look to the Old Testament for the types and shadows that have been fulfilled in the New Testament. The institutional church system is focused upon and attempts to imitate the Old Testament. They call their building “the house of God.” Read your bible — you are the house of God! They call the front of the place inside an “altar.” That’s Old Testament terminology. They talk about a “tithe.” That’s an Old Testament law given by God to the Jews to provide social justice for the fatherless, widows, strangers in the land and the poor. Unless you are an Israelite, governed by a theocracy, and own land in Israel, and raise crops or livestock, and there is a Levitical system in place you have nothing to “tithe.” Even the Jews today don’t tithe because there is no Old Testament system in place for them to do so. Read the article “Old Testament Tithe And New Testament Giving-the will of God.”
These false apostles, prophets and teachers talk about a “covering.” That’s not Old Testament or New Testament. It’s a figment of a group of persons imaginations known as the “Fort Lauderdale Five” who instituted the practice of “shepherding” and “covering” in the late 60’s and who also later recanted of having started that junk. They publically apologized and admitted their error. But the religious zealots saw a chance to extend their manipulation and intimidation to control the gullible saints. If you bought into it it’s way past time to read your Bible. It’s really strange that these self-established hirelings, wolves in sheeps clothing, teach that we are under grace and not the law and then continue to live in the Old Testament and teach, practice and perpetuate the traditions of men.
Forget the fantasy and fanaticism. Live in reality. We have a whole bunch of people who nominally name the name of Christ, but in reality are only fans: enthusiastic followers of entertainment Christianity and admirers of Jesus Christ as a famous historical person who worked miracles, even proclaiming they are fanatic for Jesus! They are attracted to the supernatural, or spiritual, element of Christianity, hoping to satisfy the God-created vacuum inside of them (which can only be filled by God Himself) by affiliating with those who they think are “spiritual” power-houses. That’s not Christianity, folks, all that is simply a fantasy to fulfill a hidden desire for a “super-person” to save them from the bad guys in this world. It’s Superman and Captain Marvel and the good guy in the western movies with the white hat on the white horse shooting up the guys with the dark hats on dark horses. The contemporary heroes are even more fantastic. The Matrix movie franchise is another, with its New Age religious message which some seem to think portrays Christianity. All of this is religious fantasy-land with its many fans. What it isn’t is true biblical Christianity. Where are the disciples of Jesus? Those who learn of Jesus, follow Jesus, support Jesus, and imitate Jesus? Quit kidding yourselves, you are following the traditions of men and making the word of God of none effect with this contemporary pseudo-Christian fantasy lifestyle. The institutional church system today is divided about biblical truth and trying very, very hard to unite in biblical error. Time for a reality check, isn’t it? The reality is that what we’re talking about has a name: apostasy. Read the article “Scriptural Guidelines For Today’s Apostasy-pure truth of God.”
God has given us the structure of the true home ekklesias in the New Testament. Man has given us the false “church” structure inherited from Constantine in the fourth century.
Attempts to start a “home church” based upon institutional church precepts all fail eventually. Longevity of a “home church” is almost always short-lived. Why? Because some person or group of persons always wants to be in charge, instead of letting Jesus Christ, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, be in charge. I have many articles on what a true home ekklesia is, and what it’s not. (Click here to go there) The “Site Map” (click here to go there) has a list, by category, of all the pages on this web site. Check it out and get back on track with God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Nothing I have to say is as important as the Bible. The only thing I can teach you is how to think for yourself and to research the Bible for what God is really saying to us human beings.
It’s your choice as to whether you want to continue in self-centeredness, death and bondage, or to learn how to enjoy the love of the Father, the abundant life in Jesus Christ, and the liberty of the Holy Spirit.
What are you going to do now?”
http://www.angelfire.com/in/HisName/
*Note:
I think a little “disclaimer” should be in order here. I do not agree with some of the other writings of this author, posted elsewhere on his website, but I do agree with the above as a spiritually beneficial commentaries. I believe this to be a good one. I wouldn’t knowingly post anything on this blog that wouldn’t be. “First, do no harm”.
Scarlett
Spiritual Abuse Sanctuary 