ANTINOMIANISM RESURGANCE

A seemingly dumb blonde, Eve, crashes into Adam’s car writing both vehicles off. As they’re all right themselves, she says, ‘God’s reminding us of his grace.’ Adam, a ‘Duh!’ guy, nods.

Eve adds, ‘Oh look… a bottle of expensive wine in my poor car isn’t damaged. God’s telling us that it’s okay to celebrate our safety by having a drink.’ Adam agrees as she hands him the wine. Adam drinks half the bottle, notices Eve hasn’t drunk any. When he queries why not, she says, ‘Oh, I’m just waiting for the cops.’

Some ‘Adams’ never learn! And neither do some Christians in respect to some common-sense matters!

Spiritual junk food
Two years ago we warned regarding the obvious lack among Christians of a desire to know God’s word, avoid careless Christianity, and to understand Paul’s warnings to Timothy, which are still so relevant.

In 1 Timothy 4:7 he wrote: ‘Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion.’ 2 Timothy 4:2-4 was for leaders: ‘Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don't ever quit. Just keep it simple. You're going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food - catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They'll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages.’

Sadly over the years many Christians have done just that - ran after ‘the latest thing’ and in many cases have been deceived because they themselves haven’t taken time to study God’s word. They have fallen for weird so-called doctrines, have not sought a sound Bible-based shepherd’s guidance and have got caught up in wackiness. Unfortunately many end up totally confused and losing a grip on their faith.

Old spiritual chestnuts that keep coming round... 

• False end time predictions regarding Rapture dates 
• ‘Pay my ministry well, especially if you want a prophetic word’
• ‘New truths’ … ignore experienced senior ministers’ cautions 
• ‘Spiritual gypsyism’ - roaming churches to scratch itchy ears 
• Antinomianism - that first raised its ugly head destructively in the days of the early church. 

Antinomianism comes from the Greek meaning ‘lawless.’ In Christian theology it is a disparaging term for the teaching that Christians are under no obligation to obey godly laws of ethics and morality.

Even back two years back, this deceit - a wrong teaching about God’s grace - had already been going on for some months. Much confusion caused by ‘big name preachers’ and quickly grabbed by ministers not versed in scripture and God’s truths led to some Christians losing their faith through going back into worldliness.

Wolf in sheep’s clothing
For decades there’s been a saying: Weird church stuff soon filters from America to other western countries. Today spiritual rubbish has also been coming from Asia for some time.

Sadder still is this … because of wrong teaching and a lack of biblical knowledge among Christians and church leaders, Satan, that old wolf in sheep’s clothing, is able to sneak in with destructive corrupted ‘doctrine’ and bamboozle uninitiated ministers and churchgoers alike.

The erroneous resurgence of antinomianism has resurfaced! Concerned ministers who know God’s word and the Lord intimately are again hearing of false teaching such as:

• ‘The Holy Spirit doesn’t convict Christians, only the unsaved’ 
• ‘Once you accept Christ as Saviour you are under God’s grace and free to do whatever you want.’ 
• ‘It’s all right to be worldly, have extramarital relationships, smoke, booze and enjoy life to the full.’ 
• ‘You never have to ever apologise to God or ever repent of anything again!’
• ‘We’re sooooo under grace, God will overlook everything.’ 

Under grace? More like being under a spell!
And sadly some naive Christians, including leaders, have foolishly embraced this. Without God’s grace we would really be lost, condemned by God virtually every day because of wrong thoughts, wrong actions and words spoken in haste, as even the noblest but most honest leaders will admit.

Christians need to hear from the Spirit Christians may be saved and bound for glory but we’re still human and need to hear his prompting within to repent when we make human mistakes. The Spirit seeks to regenerate us – build us more and more like Christ every day, taking us really away from our old character.

Our good friend, Dr Jim McClure recently emailed the following quote from The Divine Conquest by the American Christian pastor, preacher and author, AW Tozer (1897-1963): ‘The work of the Holy Spirit is, among other things, to rescue the redeemed man’s emotions, to restring his harp and open again the wells of sacred joy which have been stopped up by sin.’

 A brilliant theologian himself, Dr Jim says simply: ‘Such false teaching is a result of eisegesis - reading one’s own ideas into the biblical text, rather than exegesis, that is, understanding what the text actually says!’

Egypt looming ahead?
Blatant acceptance of non-doctrinal garbage reminds me of that old Keith Green number, So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt.

The Israelites weren’t happy with what they had been graciously given by their caring God and wanted to return to captivity. Numbers 11: 4-6 says, ‘The riff-raff among the people had a craving and soon they had the people of Israel whining, "We ate fish in Egypt - and got it free! … all we get is manna, manna, manna.”’

 They missed the truth that God’s provision free! So is all of God’s goodness but discipleship - being a follower and obeying his word - costs! Foolishly they wanted to blindly head into renewed slavery! Accepting wrong teaching is accepting subtle devilish bondage!

Keeping the ‘new’ law
In Old Testament days God’s Spirit only came on certain people, empowering them to accomplish much. He never lived in them to help them fulfil the law. Christians live in better times, New Testament days, under the law of love and liberty, with the Holy Spirit living within to help us keep that law.

James 1: 22, 25 say: ‘Don't just listen to the word. You fool yourselves if you do that. You must do what it says… take a good look at the perfect law that gives freedom … keep looking at it. You don't forget what you've heard, but you do what the law says. Then you will be blessed in what you do.’

Yes, the Bible assures us that Christians are definitely under grace. But we can’t afford to go on breaking God’s laws! Paul strongly warns in Romans 6:1-2: ‘Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?’

The Message Bible says: ‘So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there?’

Written to Hebrew Christians who were ‘homesick’ for Judaism - like those foolish Israelites longing for ‘their Egypt’ - Hebrews 2:1 is both an encouragement and warning: ‘It's crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we've heard so that we don't drift off.’

May every Christian be on guard lest more heresy slips in.

EVANGELISE OR FOSSILISE!

Last month we spoke of the need to hit the streets as did those first disciples – the early church – after receiving their baptism of fire in the Holy Spirit. They moved out and began to turn their world upside down with the gospel message.

Years ago before my pentecostal days I had the privilege of leading a group of great young Congregationalists. One thing about them has never faded from my memory. On Thursday evenings some of those committed youngsters would gather in the church, pray earnestly for souls and then hit the streets ‘come rain or shine.’ They would seek to introduce Jesus Christ to all who would listen to their testimony. Their motto? Evangelise or fossilise!

Paul grabbed his great opportunity!
The apostle Paul did this, hitting the streets of cities and moving around evangelising and sharing his great insights about Jesus Christ and the church, the body of Christ.

However, in 1 Corinthians 16:8-9 (Message), he declares very firmly that he is ‘staying right here at Ephesus.’ He deliberately chose to remain in this particular city and give it his best shot. And this was the very city where he had worked resolvedly hard in establishing the church there but had faced much opposition. Why did he hang in there?

Paul had the best of reasons: ‘because a huge door of opportunity for good work has opened up here.’ As was his way, he was determined to build that church further not just with talk but with the power of the Spirit.

In the midst of negativity
Ephesus, a Roman Asia capital, wasn’t an easy place to minister! It was filled with immorality and negative influence and was a refuge for murderers and thieves. The city was heavily predisposed to paganism; in particular its trademark was the worship of the Ephesian goddess Diana, involving ceremonial prostitution.

Against this negative, emotional and physical environment, along came Paul, bent on seeing lives changed through the gospel message of freedom, encouragement and a positive Christian lifestyle.

It’s not easy in the midst of negativity and opposition to build a local church for Jesus... for his glory, a place where he can meet with his people to receive their worship, and speak into their lives and encourage them to reach out to others.

But it can be done, as Paul proved, with the help of committed Christians and the Holy Spirit.

Twelve keys behind Paul’s Ephesus’ ministry were…
• Vision (1 Cor.16: 9)
• Determination and stick-to-it-ness (Acts 19:8-10; 1 Cor.16: 9)
• Boldness (Acts 20:20-21)
• The Holy Spirit (Acts 19:6; 1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim.1: 6)
• The supernatural (Acts 19:11-17)
• Outreaching beyond Ephesus (Acts 19:22)
• Leadership support (Acts 20:28)
• God’s grace (Acts 20:32)
• Humility (Acts 20:19) a
• Personal example (Acts 20:33-35)
• Opposition awareness (1 Cor. 16:9; Acts 20; 31)
• Dying to self (Acts 20:24).

With the Spirit’s enabling and committed, Spirit-filled Christians, Paul ran well his race at Ephesus and accomplished much despite the heavy opposition, occult powers and anti-Paulism. God’s plans were fulfilled.

It’s easy to compare aspects of Ephesus to our own cities!
Can we see the parallels to our own city or town? If so we must have Paul’s determination and vision of a great open door of opportunity to reach the unsaved and the spiritually hurt.

Many churches today are aware that they’re on the verge of moving ahead into something exciting in God’s destiny for them. Pastors have been encouraging their people to really buy into the church’s vision, to pray, to support financially and in every way possible. And above all, to believe for church growth as they effectively touch their community and city for Christ.

Many churches today have already laid the necessary foundations …
• An openness to allow the Holy Spirit to lead, not just boards and committees.
• The church being Spirit driven, not program driven.
• Meaningful, Jesus-centred and deepening worship.
• Living in an expectation for the supernatural to occur.
• Unity and really caring for each other.
• Connecting with each other and the unchurched through Connect groups.
• Willingness to be taught by the word of God and be challenged accordingly.
• Strong prayer and back-up intercessory groups.
• A desire to see solid spiritual growth in church.
• A prayer-based yearning for salvations and new people including youth.
• Opportunities for all to be involved ministry-wise at some level or another
• Missions-minded - reaching beyond themselves (the church without walls)

The opportunities are here for every church and Christian
Like Paul, we too have opposition – occult forces, doubt, denial, negative influence, crime, prostitution and gospel adversaries around and in our city.

We can achieve much for Jesus as we move in faith, expectation and trust!

But maybe our church family presently lacks certain workers for, say, the crèche, kids, youth, worship team or technical equipment operation. Maybe there’s the great need for our own building, more equipment and finance. Earnest prayer requests bring great answers!

Like Paul we too should stay on, hang in there; we have the Holy Spirit, the right message, love, God’s grace and so much more going for us these days.

Today is not a time to merely stand in the doorway of an open door but to go through and see what God can achieve. Let’s renew our commitment and believe that as we support our local church, it can be a great one for Jesus’ glory! And not through any heavy demand of ‘equal financial giving or ministering by all’, but by all taking every equal opportunity!

Let’s be like the early church, like those young Congregationalists I once knew and was so proud of...evangelise or fossilise!

HITTING THE STREETS! The next step after great Easter celebrations

The early church may have begun as closet Christians in the upper room but all that changed when the fire of God’s power fell on them!

When the fire of the Holy Spirit came and totally encased them (‘entented’ - to re-coin a word that hit the church scene a few years back), they were changed, charged and commissioned! And they went for it!

Following that amazing outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, those first disciples of Christ immediately hit the streets praising God and letting all around visually see and hear that something incredible had happened to them.

A bit different from today when many Christians remain closet disciples, almost afraid to talk about Jesus Christ! We need to get with it!

With joy and thankfulness we celebrated the resurrection of our Saviour a few weeks ago. But Easter is passed; it’s time for the next step, time to, like those first disciples, move on!

What were the keys that undergirded the early church’s next step?
I once asked a question of a great man of God who, despite countless odds in troubled times, had hit the streets after his conversion, won hundreds to Jesus and eventually built a large city church.

‘What are some of the keys you discovered?’ I asked innocently. Abruptly he turned and looked at me almost with disdain. Then this remarkable pastor responded gruffly, ‘Keys, son? Keys? There are more doors in the ministry than keys.’

I would come to know exactly what he meant!

But in doing so I did discover three keys that helped the first church in ‘hitting the streets’ - ones that we must also employ to grow personally and likewise see our church grow corporately in a time of ongoing uncertainty with ‘wars and rumours of wars’ and strange occurrences such as spreading dangerous volcanic ash.

Really it was a time of embracing…
Firstly, they embraced the character of Christ that was theirs ‘in Christ’ as the insightful Paul put it (see Phi. 4:8-9… ‘think about such things’...and ‘put it into practice’).

Secondly, they embraced the command of Christ to share the gospel on every occasion locally and afar (see Mat. 28:18-20… the great commission).

Thirdly, they embraced the charisma of Christ to enable them to boldly share that gospel and move miraculously in the Spirit’s anointing and power (Read the whole Book of Acts, noting especially 10:38 and 1:8!).

And they went to it boldly!
They hit the streets in Acts 2, boldly explaining why they were so overwhelmingly joyous, boldly proclaiming the good news of a loving Saviour, boldly regaining lost souls into the kingdom of light and boldly demeaning Satan and his power.

Actually, Acts is the real never-ending story! Acts 2 was just the beginning, Acts 28 was not the end, and Acts 29 is still being written! That is… it’s supposed to be still being written about us and by us!

The opportunities are out there on countless occasions for someone’s life or/and circumstances to be influenced and affected by Christians moving in the Spirit - the supernatural - as did Jesus and the early church as they hit the streets in their next step.

Remember Paul’s warm welcome ‘connect’ activities from his own home towards everyone he met…the last words of Acts 28…‘Boldly and without hindrance preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ.’ And Paul was a guy who urged other Christians – us – to follow his examples (1 Cor. 4:16; 1 The. 3:7, 9).

Pentecost Sunday is coming soon…May 23
The funny thing is that while many non-Pentecostal churches every year faithfully recall that first Pentecost Sunday, so many actual Pentecostal churches don’t! Shame! No wonder the real fire is missing today.

Yes, thank God for the true meaning of Easter. But 2010’s celebration is over. It’s time to move on! Let’s be like that early church, be fired up in the supernatural of the Spirit and hit the streets!