© Gary W. Crisp 2004, 2005
• Part 2 •
Utterly Confused and Muddled
When certain things happen in the church, affecting and infecting the Body of Christ, sometimes a confusion and a dullness can set in, making nearly anything unclear and obscure... certain things then become hard to understand. And when certain events and situations are right, a muddle-mindedness overtakes us and besets us. Now, what I’m about to say may sound over-simplified, but bear with me. We are a vessel for Light through which Jesus Christ either shines well and bright, or He does not. What do I mean? Let’s look at some scripture, starting in the Gospel of Matthew, and see some things concerning light, most specifically...Jesus, The Light.
Matthew 4:16 tells us: “The people who sat in darkness saw Great Light; and to them who sat in the region and shadow of death Light is sprung up.” And Who is this Light? We all know that Jesus is that Light, as revealed by the apostle John in his Gospel to the church.
Before I go further, let me explain something about my teaching techniques. I almost exclusively use the King James Version of the Bible, because it is what I started with, what I find easier to study (via the Strong’s Concordance) and it seems to be what ministers to me the most. Even though I do prefer the King James Version, whenever I use or quote a verse, I generally “take out” and replace archaic words & phrases from that version. I try to change them to simpler, more easy-to-understand words, such as “thee” and “thine” to “you” and “yours”; or any word that ends in “-eth”, such as “saveth” to “saves” or the above “followeth” into “follows”. In this instance, though, I left in the “-eth” in “followeth”, because it denotes an act of continuance... continuing to follow, not ceasing to follow, and always following.
The “-eth” attached at the end of any New Testament word will always carry with it the meaning of continuance. “Believeth” denotes continuing to believe; “saveth” is continuing to save; “knoweth” means to continue to know. These are all on-going, unceasing, constant acts, and when Jesus says, “he that followeth Me (constantly and unceasingly) shall not walk in darkness”, what He’s saying here is that if we follow Him and continue to follow Him, and we do not cease from following Him, then... then we shall not walk in darkness, but we shall walk in His Wonderful Light. An “-eth” almost always implies, if not boldly declares, that there is a “condition” to what we are reading (or hearing).
I’m quick to say, as I’m sure will you, that I always want to be walking in His Light, but to do so I must faithfully and continually follow Him. But what does “follow” mean? It means “to be in union with; to be in the same way with, i.e. to accompany as a disciple; to follow, to reach (a destination)”. If we are in union with Christ, following Him and walking the Path He leads us upon, then we will not find ourselves on a darkened, lonely or confusing path. Now, what is the darkness mentioned here and in Matthew 4:16 and John 1:5? It means “to shade; to cause or bring a shadow; darkness of error or an adumbration; dimness, obscurity, dark of night”. In essence, it means darkness...and in that darkness comes some very troubling and disturbing things.
I would like to share some things I’ve seen while traveling along the internet, but before I do, let me share this... I am reminded of a once good Bible scholar and teacher that ministered in the same denomination I belonged to for many years. He left that denomination many years ago, and now he has his own television show, and even though he calls it a Christian show, and even though he has his own church, and even though he still has signs of being a good teacher, this poor soul is confused and wayward... he’s nearly as misguided as any soul without the Lord. He has lost all perception of Truth, and yet many hail him as a wonderful teacher.
Like I said, once upon a time he was a very good teacher of the Word (or so those that personally knew him have told me), but now -- if you watch him for any length of time -- you can see his confusion and his error. He sits, many times, up on his chair, center stage, smoking his cigar or pipe. He acts, at times, like royalty. He has show horses. He has so much that “glitters” in this life, but he has truly lost his way. Is he now unsaved, unredeemable or doomed for an eternity in hell? I don’t know. Only God knows his heart and his situation, but this one thing I do know...he is definitely responsible for any and all souls he leads astray with his terribly erroneous teaching. He will be accountable, as we all will, in how he dealt with and handled the Word of God.
Many who teach, preach and expound on God’s Word reveal teachings that are clearly “out there”, and by out there I am speaking of teachings that are not quite able to “stand” in the Light of Jesus Christ, being filled with error and “strangeness” (that’s the only word I can use to describe what I see). I see this more and more, and this is nothing new. I saw it when I first got saved, in 1970, and I’ve seen it all along the way until today. I see many shady and shadowy things, as I visit different Christian sites on the web. At least they claim to be Christian, or they are listed in a Christian directory or web ring or link exchange. And I also see a very real “darkness of error”. Allow me to explain.
In reading and seeing what people teach, and what they are placing on their web pages, I see a very clear case of adumbration. This somewhat strange word means “to outline in a shadowy way, as a sketch; to shade or overshadow”. In other words, there is not a clear and full picture; only a “partial” picture, and the picture that is there is not easily seen, because it is overshadowed by something “hindering” the light. Many teachings and many mindsets that I have come across in the past two or so years are as “shadows”...not quite clear enough to make out, but enough there to trouble you or alarm you. Teachings like that are brought forth by people who have ceased to “follow Me”, as Jesus said they must, and they now “walk in darkness”.
As with the teacher I mentioned above, something happened in their lives that got them “side-tracked” from the Path that Jesus was walking upon, and now they walk in shadows and in darkness and among things that are not in the “Fullness of His Light”. It doesn’t mean they are doomed to hell (for God is and will be the Judge of these things); it just means they are not seeing things as clearly as they once did. Sometimes disappointment brings this about; sometimes it is fear or doubt or failure or a combination of things, but when the darkness comes, it does not always come in an instant, or we would always be aware that we have deviated from the Light of His Path. As John admonishes us:
I know many people who claim they were saved many years ago...but where are they now? I know people who believe that once they make any kind of profession of faith, then that’s all that’s required of them, but the above verse states otherwise, and the verses we looked at earlier (Matthew 4:16, John 1:1-5 and John 8:12) all clearly show us that there is darkness out there, and the way to avoid its power is to walk in the Light of Jesus Christ, faithfully, constantly and unceasingly.
Remember... followeth is “conditional”, meaning if we will, He will...so how do we know we are following Him, as He desires? One way is by being able to fellowship one with another, which takes us back to what Jesus said, when He told His disciples: “They will know you are my disciples by how you show your love for one another” (I’m paraphrasing, of course). We should, according to John’s words, be able to fellowship with any believer, regardless of denomination or church affiliation. When was the last time we could do that?
Whether it’s surfing the net or just talking with acquaintances, you can find some “strange stuff” out there. And its not all coming from whackos, kooks and quacks; some of these people seem to be good people and good teachers, if you wade through and find some of their good teachings. However, if you are not careful, it is easy to get “taken in” by some of their error and adumbration. Anyway, here goes -- all of the following I found at “supposedly Christian” links and sites I’ve surfed along the way these past few years; here is some of what I have encountered...
...I found this first example through a friend’s link (my dear friend has since removed that link), and I fully enjoyed the several teachings I read, until I read this one teaching where the author said that all -- and that means everyone -- will be saved, including sinners, the unrepentant and the unredeemed, because some people apparently have a very hard time accepting the fact that a truly Loving God can banish anyone to hell. This author asked, “How can a God Who calls Himself a God of Love send anyone to hell?” His other writings seemed sound enough, but this one area really stuck out in a glaring way. And so, in following this mindset, he had to “add” another little goody; he had another teaching, proclaiming: There is no hell!, and from this teaching he actually had a link to another teaching, entitled: “100 Scriptures that Prove There Is No Hell!” I only read the 35 or 40 Scriptures that he had posted, and I even checked back later, but that was all he had. I’m not sure if he ran out of scriptures, ran out of time and never finished the article, or if he just tired out and quit.
So very sadly...almost all of the scriptures he included to justify his thinking had nothing whatsoever to do with suffering, torment, heaven or hell, so he really and truthfully had set forth no examples of scripture to back up his errant claim. They were just a hodge-podge of verses thrown together (or so it seemed). His ever-threading theme was: A loving God would never create something so destructive and terrifying. Of course, in conjunction with “all being saved”, he had to conclude this. No hell, and no eternity separated from a Loving God. So, we all might as well “live it up and do what we want”, because there will be no real punishment anyway.
Now, to be fair, this author did not actually say that we, as Christians, should live it up, but it was clearly “implied”. Can you imagine a new baby Christian (or even an unsaved sinner looking for answers) coming across that teaching, then having it cause them to fall into great sin or worse yet (in the case of the lost sinner) never coming to Saving Grace through Jesus Christ, because...Why should they, if all are saved? It also nullifies the Precious Blood of Jesus. Stop and think about it. If the Bible says His Blood was shed for our Salvation, but now it doesn’t really matter if we have it applied to our hearts and lives (because we’ll all get to heaven anyway!), then His Atoning Work has no real or special Value! God help us if we believe that!
I hope you know that the scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, clearly state otherwise. I will not list the many verses that I could, for my intention is not to rebutt their claims, but to warn some of you that this stuff is “out there”...way out there. We need to at least “be aware” of such things, if for no other reason than to warn our loved ones, in the event they are tempted to get led astray by such things. As you read these erroneous writings, seeing all the scriptures they use, you begin to see that they run in a vicious circle, trying to explain or “explain away” what they claim to believe (or not believe, as the case may be...as in “no hell”). It can get rather confusing. As I said, if you do not know that some of this is out there, you need to at least be aware. You may have to confront it some day. Let’s move on...
(We Don’t Need the Old!)
...I’ve also read (in several places) where we no longer need to read, study or refer to the Old Testament, because it IS the Old Testament, after all, and therefore not applicable to those of us living in New Testament times. Seriously, this teaching has been out there for centuries, and it is still out there today, gaining momentum and seducing many. Some Christians declare that anyone using and reading the Old Testament has fallen “out of Grace” and under the law! Then they state that if you keep one part of the law, you must keep it all! But Paul clearly states that the Old Testament is there for us, as New Testament believers, and it is there as an example and “for our admonition” (1st Corinthians 10:11 & Romans 15:4).
In the book of Hebrews, the Old Testament is used repeatedly to clearly show us many important things about what the sacrifice of the Lamb of God truly meant. It tells of High Priestly things and Heavenly things and how we can now enter in to the Holy of Holies, His throne of Grace, with boldness and confidence. And, most notably, we need to look at chapters 3 & 4, where we are admonished once more to look at and understand “what went wrong” with the nation of Israel, so that we do not make the same mistakes.
We must be so very careful not to exclude any part of the Word of God, for, as Paul wrote to Timothy:
If God “breathed” it (which is what
“inspiration of God” means) and Paul declared it (by inspiration of God), then I think I need all the Scripture I can get! And, it should go without saying for all of us, I cannot express the many times that Old Testament words and passages have swept through my heart and life, bringing hope, peace, joy, and restoration (for me, Lamentations 3:1-36 immediately comes to my mind).
Now I realize...some of you may think I’m “making some of this up”, to justify what I am saying, but then I’d be no better than those whom I am hoping to expose (by shedding some of His Light). I have honestly seen these teachings on Christian sites, in Christian web rings and links and in Christian search engines. They are there, if you know how to look for them. This next section deals with a very violent, a very open and a very vicious attack against the church, but I’ll break it down into three basic areas...
Teachings...
(1) Against the Holy Spirit
(2) Against the Gifts for and to the church
(3) Against every minister in the church
I found all of these while browsing through a rather large search engine category. The category was a specific author, one whom I had read before and even enjoyed. Recently, though, my wife was given a “pirated copy” of one of this man’s latest writings, which dealt with (among other things) why we no longer need established churches or ordained ministers!
First, let me say: I do not agree with people xeroxing books, pamphlets or any copyrighted materials. I think it is ethically and morally wrong, even though many Christians do it. It falls within that same category of infringing upon someone’s copyright, and I see this all over the web... and on some very good and sound Christian sites. Have you seen those images: Jesus Inside, which is a knock-off of the Intel Inside logo, which is trademarked & copyrighted? Or how about the Netscape rip-offs that declare best viewed with Jesus? There are others, and, saints of God, these are very clear violations of our law... why would you want to do such a thing? First of all, why take something of the world and copy it, then violate that world’s law by placing it on your page? Instead, why not allow God to give you a better, newer, non-law-breaking idea to put on your site? He will, you know, if you’ll trust Him.
I got a bit side-tracked there, but I believe it needed to be said. Many people, both Christians and non-Christians, are very offended when they visit Christian sites and see such open and bold disregard for the law, and what kind of testimony is this to the non-Christians?. I know we are well-intentioned, but we need to think sometimes, of what we are doing. Now, having said all of that, I will tell you I did read this piece of “illegal” writing that had been given to my wife. And, after having read the man’s opinion about the church, the gifts and other spiritual matters, I must confess that I have come across the very same mindset in many Christians of today, but this is nothing new. Paul and the other apostles of the Lord dealt with this in the first century church. Anyway...here is some of what I saw.
• We Have No Need for Ministers •
• There Are No Spiritual Gifts •
• Oh, and by the way...
...the Bible Is All Wrong!!! •
This man, of whom I speak, who has written many Christian books (some of which I found very enlightening and helpful), is not only an exponent of lessening the importance of the Old Testament, but doing away with the whole Bible as we know it. I sat stunned as I read page after page of his circuitous reasonings as to why and how the New Testament, especially, is riddled with error and confusion. His main thrust (and constant complaint) was that the scribes who originally translated and copied the New Testament either used the wrong original manuscript or completely mis-translated important passages altogether. Not only that, they placed punctuation, sentences and paragraphs where they were not supposed to be! And, to add insult to injury (his insult, our injury) this man claims that the order of the writings are all completely out of whack! This kind of thinking, in my opinion, is out of whack!
First of all...What possible difference could it make, if I read an epistle of Paul “out of sequence”? What harm can it do, if I read Romans before Corinthians, or Galatians before Ephesians? He claims that much error and confusion has entered the church, because we have, somehow, been “reading it all wrong”. He goes into painstakingly great detail “rearranging the sequence” of the letters, the gospels and everything in the New Testament. It wore me out, just reading his theory and trying to understand it, but I stuck with it, because I wanted to understand the thinking of anyone who would dispute scripture so adamantly, whether it be the writings themselves, or the order of their appearance in our Bible. Then an odd, but disturbing, thing happened.
As this author brought his book to a close, he began to take a very cavalier attitude about this whole Bible mess he had just created. He actually just sort of “smiled” about the whole thing, saying, “Oh, but you know... it doesn’t really matter that much anyway”. What? What!!?? This man had spent his entire book deriding the church, denouncing ministers and “correcting” the Word of God from all the errors he had found. He had spent many chapters “making it matter”, and now we’re supposed to just “shrug it off”? This, dear friends, is nothing less than being double-minded, and double-mindedness, confusion and muddle-minded thinking is creeping into the Body of Christ today, and -- unless we recognize it and face it head on -- we may be swept away by the very sublety and quietness of its approach.
First of all, as I said -- what difference does it make, in what order I read the Bible? Secondly, and even more importantly... God is BIGGER than all that...He is BIGGER than for me to have to worry or fret about who translated the Bible two thousand years ago, and the various times in between. I have faith in God, and that means faith that not only will He take care of me and my needs today, He took care of my needs (and yours) “way back when”, when He called and ordained certain scribes to write, copy and even edit it all down for us. I trust God was Big enough and Present enough in the hearts, minds and pens of all who wrote it down, that I do not have to worry about its Authenticity and Value today. Men and women who struggle to prove its errors, inaccuracies and fallibity are just condemning themselves. God’s Word is just that... His Word, and He is so much more capable of “taking care of it” than we ever could be.
Now, I will have to honestly say: There are certain modern versions of the Bible that “fall way short” of its intended Power and Beauty, because they weaken powerful passages and specific verses, changing words and phrasing that “seems” offensive to modern man. Of these writings I hold very little respect. Here’s but one example: Many religious leaders, in many churches, are deleting any references to the Blood and other necessary Bible Truths, such as the virgin birth. In their Bibles, their literature and even their hymn books, they change the references of the Blood of Jesus and the virgin birth. “Mary, being a virgin”, has now been changed to “Mary, a young woman”, and they claim that all will know that “young woman” means “virgin”. However, in today’s sin-sick society, that is not even close to being the case.
And, even though not scripture, here’s another instance: That great old hymn, Amazing Grace, has been changed by many denominations to read, “that saved a soul like me”, instead of, “that saved a wretch like me”. They may as well make it read like this: “that saved a wonderful person like me”, because the faithless and humanistic society thinks and believes that all men are good, noble and righteous at heart, whereas the Word says otherwise. This is why unredeemed man is making so many changes in the Bibles they use, the dogma they teach and even the songs they sing. While it may not be scripture, you can see my point and also see a trend that has been sweeping through our churches for many years.
Let those who doubt his Ability to preserve His Word realize it is just like the social and religious minds of our day who claim that God just “stepped back”, after He created the heavens and the earth -- if they even believe in creation anymore. Many believe in a “conditional” creation, claiming He just sort of created it all, stepped back, then allowed man to go on his own way, making his own decisions, sort of becoming his own god unto himself. My God (and hopefully yours) is not like that at all. He is ever-present, always involved in and attending to the lives of those who love Him and trust Him; and to those who place their faith in Him, He is their God, their Father, their Savior and their King...and so much more.
Only to the degree we limit Him, that will be His limit. As far as our faith takes us, that is what He will be to us and for us. If we cannot trust and believe that He “kept” the purity and accuracy of His Own Word, then how can we truly and honestly believe that He can “keep us” any better? Let not our unbelief or doubt limit or hinder Him in any way whatsoever, for He is our Omnipotent God!
Some of these so-called scholars say things and make claims as if they have original copies of all the first century writings, letters and manuscripts!!! I have actually heard people say things that would lead you to believe they had the original epistles at home, where they -- and they alone -- know the full and complete truth of their accuracy. If it weren’t so very sad, it would be funny, and I’d laugh. But it really isn’t a laughing matter.
Finally...I called this man, of whom I’ve been speaking, an exponent of these things. Here is how Webster defines a person who is an exponent of something: “One who represents, advocates or speaks for a cause or group; one who expounds, explaining at length and presenting a detailed statement”. This man, and several associated sites I visited on the WWW (and there were many), all represent a very scary thing happening in the Body of Christ today. He advocates the “doing away with” the Bible as we know it. Now, I’ll admit...some things in the Word of God may not always fit nice and neat like I’d prefer, but I’ve never wanted to delete portions of the Bible or change it all around to make it all right in my eyes or to suit my own needs. Like I said, if I do not understand something, then I “shelve it”.
I have shelved many a thing in the past thirty years.
“Ministers & Church: Not Necessarily Necessary...!”.
Any questions concerning this teaching?
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