Well meaning Christians that even sense that the time of the Lord’s return is near have offered their higher criticism for what they think is date setting on my timeline projection table. They imply that I should not have complied this projection because the Bible says no one can know the day or hour of the Lord’s return. Actually, I am not setting a date for the Lord’s return on this table, at most I imply a general season for Jesus seekers looking for the Lord’s return. My view on the no one knows the day or hour topic is just about the same as what Jack Kelly wrote in a recent article, so just read the above link.

Actually, the main reason I wrote that article was to get people to my website so they would read what else I have to say. What would you think is the number one keyword phrase through which people find my website? Is it “David Wilkerson’s prophecy” or “Enoch and Bible”  or “socialism obama” they are the top keyword search phrases that bring people to my blogs but the number one keyword phrase that brings the most people to my website each month just happens to be the phase “when will Jesus return“.

That is no accident. When I wrote the article I designed it and keyworded it so that people seeking a date for the Lord’s return will find my website and get some reasonable eschatology. I really did not write the article to tell anyone when the Lord is coming.

Many of you who are reading this blog first came to my website and blog first through that article. So should I have not wrote it because some think it seems to imply a date of the Lord’s return?  Should not the many people who are looking for answers on when the Lord will return find a realistic answer from those who study Bible prophecy? I think better that they find my article and website then those websites that are saying the Lord is coming between 2012 -2019 based on Mayan and/or Islamic pagan prophecies or even science fiction like Planet X speculations.

Now I suppose I will get higher criticism for using the term “seeker friendly” in the title (clue..articles mainly get hit on from the keywords in the title and article).

An interesting article was written by Jan Markell of Olive Tree Ministries. She talks about the 2009 leadership conference or summit lead by Bill Hybel’s Willow Creek Association. Two of the guest speakers for this “leadership” conference will be Tony Blair and Rock Star Bono.

Why would any Christian go to a Christian leadership conference to hear from Tony Blair and Bono? They both are all-paths pseudo Christian heretics. Seems to me that Bill Hybels job was to first dumb down Christianity with his seeker friendly program and then steer the pseudo Christians under his influence into the end time one world religion Harlot of Bible prophecy described in Revelation chapter 17.

Notice that Rick Warren is a board member of the Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation. Warren is even more influential than Hybels in the seeker movement. Also be aware that Tony Blair’s recent conversion to Catholicism was not just some coincidence it was for darn good reason. At some point that church will head this world harlot religion.  With Tony Blair and Bono as speakers this Willow Creek leadership conference ought to be named “The making of a Harlot.

If you count all the churches under the influence of Hybels Creeker Network and Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Movement we are talking about half of the so called evangelical churches in America!  So, in just two decades these two people destroyed the meaning of the term “evangelical Christian”.

So go ahead and continue to tell me that God is behind Rick Warren and Bill Hybels but anyone with an ounce of Christian discernment can see that these men are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

The article clearly points out the issues and gives links where you can get additional information. I hope you will read it.

When Evangelicals Dine with the Wicked

Here is a good follow-up article on Hybels and Warren’s agenda to sell religion as the hope of the world.

Jim Elliff hits the nail on the head in this article about Southern Baptist churches. Most Southern Baptist members do not attend more than once or twice a month if at all. I cannot do the article justice by the few quotes of his that I quoted below so you will have to read the full article below.

First, I will make my own observations and comments on this subject. They probably will not totally agree with Elliff’s observations and conclusions.

The issue in this article is why Southern Baptists do not faithfully attend their gathering and what should be done about it? For that matter we could be be talking about every other evangelical denomination or church in America. I have been a member of several denominations and I have attended many different churches for extended periods of time. They all have the same problem. Only about a third of those on the membership role show up on any given Sunday if they show up at all. For Sunday night and Wednesday services your lucky if 15 percent attend if they even have such a service. In church business meetings you see the same ten percent show up each month or quarter and most of them are on the board or some committee and have to be there. The rest of the membership apparently could care less about the affairs of their church.

I have been saying all along that over half of the people in evangelical denominations are not Christians at all, nothing I read or observe leads me to think I am wrong about that. When I attend Sunday school and observe that most of the few members that actually do attend do not read or know their Bible it is apparent to me that they are not serious about learning about the things of God. The churches and denominations do not encourage real Bible study either by having magazine studies about the Bible (often Lifeway Bible study material).

First lets take a look at the Membership roles and numbers. Pastors and church boards l o v e  N u m b e r s. It gives them bragging rights. I would not be in error to say that I am still an active member of some churches that I have not attended for years. Many churches simply do not remove inactive members from their roles. So, I would say Jim Elliff is underestimating that factor. The truth is that many churches are only half of the size that they like to advertise.

Next, we have to look at the purpose of the Church. Some in leadership seem to think the purpose of their church is to meet for Sunday ritual and worship. Actually you can worship at home in spirit and truth. The main purpose for the assembly of the Church is for Christian fellowship and for the members in the Body to use their God given spiritual gifts for others in the Body. The main reasons why members do not like to attend the Sunday ritual services is that they often find no fellowship and they just leave empty. Another purpose for the assembly of the Church is for teaching and the building up of each other in the faith. One of the main reasons why members do not attend is that they are not getting biblical teaching and Christian instruction at church. They go to church but hear a seeker friendly gospel lite service or in the Charismatics churches they have an emotional trip but learn nothing. If I joined a food coop to get nourishing food and they only had sweets I am ether going to go somewhere else to get real food or I am only going to get real fat and lazy. Many that attend some churches faithfully are spiritual diabetics or emotional speed junkies it is the healthy people that are long gone. So I am not sure you can even say that the people who attend the services faithfully are the Christians. The Christians might be the healthy ones who got tired of junk food or charismatic amphetamine and left.

Many unstable postmodern teachers teach that Christian doctrine divides and keep us from unity but these people are the real problem in the churches because you cannot have true Christianity unity without agreement on the essentials doctrines of the Christian faith. Here is a fine article  on this doctrine debate. There are many fine points within this article. One section is where Dr. Norman Geisler points out 14 essential Christian doctrines that all Christians have to stand firm on. There can be no unity with those who claim to be Christians but oppose these essential doctrines. The doctrine debate article also points out that those who do not understand Christian doctrine will not have a Christian worldview and that means that God will not a major factor in the choices they make in their everyday life choices. The Bara Group survey claims that where Christians do not believe the Bible is the moral standard of absolute truth only 9 percent of born-again adults and 2 percent of born-again youth have a biblical worldview (two percent of born again Christian youth!!). Here is another article that will give you even more excellent perspectives on what is going on in our chuches. If you wonder why the country is a mess, query the believes of those that attend and lead your own congregations and you will know why.

Lets face it many that are on the church membership roles are only there because someone pressured them into it. Perhaps they had to become a member to get married in that church. Perhaps they joined to please their parents, their family members, or their spouse or even their pastor. Perhaps it was to enhance their standing in the community. Perhaps it was a response to an altar call where peer pressure mind control methods were used. How many churches have you been in where almost everyone is coerced to come to the altar to get saved or rededicate their lives? You feel like the social leaper if you are one of the few people left in the pews that do not respond to such coercion. So when mind control techniques like these are used, and they are used more than you think, don’t expect it to produce genuine conversion. Chances are once these “new converts” see how they were manipulated they will avoid your church like a plague. This is what cults do to build membership. Pastors need to teach the good news for those with ears to hear but only the Holy Spirit can bring people to repentance and true conversion.

So what are the answers? Some of the answers are what Jim Eliiff gives in this articles but that is only part of it. The whole Western Christian mindset has to change. Christianity is not weekly meetings and percentage in attendance. It is a way of community life for believers. I think someone should develop a teaching series that should be mandatory before anyone becomes a member of any Western evangelical church. The series would be based on the daily life of Christians where Christians are persecuted and not allowed to assemble in buildings but nevertheless they find a way to assemble and fellowship with each other daily. The leadership of our Churches need to go back to the ways of Christianity and stop learning the techniques of the world to grow a church and produce worldly feigned success. When the church is filled with true believing Christians, where Christian doctrine is taught the Holy Spirit will lead the people there to learn about salvation but the Holy Spirit is not going to lead people to a sugar shack of diabetic sheep.

What reward will you get from God if you lead a church filled with 10,000 people but the works of the Holy Spirit are absent? It would be better for you that you led a small church where the Holy Spirit was working because then you will certainly receive a reward from God.

Southern Baptists, An Unregenerate Denomination

Like the unfortunate person above, the Southern Baptist Convention has a name that it is alive, but is in fact, mostly dead (Rev. 3:1). Regardless of the wonderful advances in our commitment to the Bible and the recovery of our seminaries, a closer look reveals a denomination that is more like a corpse than a fit athlete. In an unusual way, our understanding of this awful reality provides the most exciting prospects for the future-if we will act decisively.

Although the Southern Baptists claim 16,287,494 members, on average only 6,024,289 people (guests and non-member children included), a number equal to only 37% of the membership number, show up for their church’s primary worship meeting (usually Sunday morning). This is according to the Strategic Information and Planning department of the Sunday School Board (2004 statistics). If your church is anything like normal, and is not brand new, your statistics are probably similar. In other words, if you have 200 in attendance on Sunday morning, you likely have 500-600 or even more on your roll. Many churches have an even worse record.

Discerning who among us is regenerate is not an exact science, but a closer look at these numbers will at least alert us to the fact that most Southern Baptists must certainly be dead spiritually. That is so, unless, of course, you claim that there is no difference between a believer and a non-believer.

We don’t need better methods to get people down to the front. What we need is more biblical content and more unction in our preaching. You cannot beat sinners away from Christ when God is bringing them in (see Jn. 6:37, 44-45). When as many as 70-90% of “converts” are giving little, if any, evidence of being saved after their first weeks or months of emotional excitement, questions should be asked, both about our understanding of the gospel and about our methods. Forget the fact, if you must, that there is no clear biblical precedent for the altar call. Even considering the matter pragmatically ought to make us quit. Though prevalent in our churches for decades, it has not helped us.

The dangerous practice of receiving new members immediately after they walk the aisle must finally be abandoned. Also, more careful counsel should be taken with those entering in as members from other churches. And add to this a need for much deeper thinking concerning childhood conversion. An alarming percentage of childhood professions wash out later in the teen and college years. For unconverted yet baptized church kids, the more independence they are granted, the more they live out their true nature.

4. We must stop giving immediate verbal assurance to people who make professions of faith or who respond to our invitations. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to give assurance. We are to give the basis upon which assurance can be had, not the assurance itself. Study 1 John in this respect. What things were written so that they might know they have eternal life? (1 Jn. 5:13). Answer: The tests given in the book. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16).

5. We must restore sound doctrine. Revival, I am finding as I study its history, is largely about the recovery of the true gospel. The three great doctrines which have so often shown up in true revival are: 1) God’s sovereignty in salvation, 2) justification by grace through faith alone, and 3) regeneration with discernible fruit. Revival is God showing up, but the blessing of the presence of God is directly affected by our beliefs. God most often comes in the context of these and other great doctrines, preached penetratingly and faithfully, and with the unction of the Holy Spirit.

Which army would you rather have? Gideon’s first army or his last? No church, and no denomination, should call itself healthy unless more people attend than are on the roll.

Today, in rough numbers, it takes 300 people on our rolls to have 100 attenders. In the 1790s, it took only 33. Or, to put it in larger figures, it now takes nearly 3000 people, supposedly won to Christ and baptized, to result in a church attendance of 1000. Then, it took only 333. Our potency has diminished to such an extent that we must “win” and “baptize” over 2,000 more people to get to the same 1000 to attend.

Full article

While some Christians still get upset enough with government to contract their congressmen and talk about throwing the bums out of office, it seems that many Christians do nothing about the wolves in sheep’s clothing that have infiltrated their own churches.

The threat comes from postmodern leaders with its redefining of Christianity and the Bible. The threat is also known as the Emergent Church. The Emergent Movement now threatens to subvert once evangelical denominations. The Emergent movement is now a major emerging threat in the Nazarene denomination and is also a big threat in Baptists churches and others.

If you do not know what the big deal is about from this Emergent threat click on the link above and read the articles from Eric Bager and find out. Here is also a fair article that generally explains the Emergent Church movement. Not everything about being relevant with the postmodern people of our culture is bad but we must never compromise on the essentials. The Bible must be the final authority for our faith and practice.

Just to point out one example how postmodernism subtly infects the church, I read an article today by Dave Welch on a conservative Christian website about how the Church should hate. The article was talking about the Church hating the same things that God hates. I agree with what Welch said in the article and I am sure Welch does not believe in emergent teaching at all. However, in the article where it quotes what God hates instead of using the Bible, Welch quotes from “The Message”. The Message might be the most postmodern relevant bad paraphrase of the Bible in existence today but it certainly is not the Bible. Are not the six things that God hates clear enough in a real translation that one has to resort to quoting from bad paraphrases of the Bible? Why would an astute Christian even quote from “The Message” anyway? Eugene Peterson the author of “The Message” has no discernment to interpret the Bible because if he had any biblical discernment he would not have endorsed the cover of the heretical postmodern book called “The Shack” ?

Seems to me that the great apostasy is well underway in our church buildings. The wolves in sheep’s clothing are standing in the pulpits and the sheep sitting in the pews do not have enough biblical knowledge to discern the difference between the true gospel and what these men preach. They just follow and approve of everything their pastors do.  After all, these are men of G–O–D.

One example of postmodernism in the seeker movement is Saddleback’s Rick Warren.  I guess he has not been wishy washy enough on all his national platform opportunities already, now he is now going to speak at a Muslim convention to forty thousand Muslims. Now, that would be a great opportunity for a real Christian to give the gospel of Jesus Christ but if Rick Warren gives the gospel at that Muslim convention I will repent and send his church a large donation. I wish he would do that but you know that he won’t, so why is he called America’s pastor? Does he reflect the American Church? Why are Christians even following him? What is our great commission? Seems that most Christians no longer know. What would Paul do (WWPD)? If Paul got the opportunity to speak to Muslims and the world would he talk about what Warren will?  Warren will probably speak on interfaith cooperation and how we all worship the same God. If that is true then why did millions of Christians die for the  gospel of Christ?

If the salt has lost its savior it is good for nothing but to be trampled down and that is why hate speech laws will be passed that will trample down the church in America. “Christians” can only blame themselves.

We need to throw the bums out of our churches and Christian leadership first. Then maybe we will deserve a better government. Don’t expect any grass roots movement to change America if we cannot even get the pew sitters in our churches to install biblical pastors that will preach the gospel of Christ.

One might wonder how this Emergent Church is reaching postmodern young people that they say their programs are designed for? It is not! Churches have lost their youth even with all their postmodern youth pastors and programs. Two thirds of teenagers in Britian now say they do not believe in God. What does that say about how the Church is reaching people with the gospel and the future of Christianity?

It is not that bad in America yet but all polls say it is rapidly heading in that direction. In fact, the majority of church youth that claim to be born again Christians lose their faith by the time they graduate from college. Any astute Christian should know that it is a sin for parents to willing send their kids to our government run schools where they will certainly be brainwashed with godless philosophies of humanistic and demonically inspired men. So why do most pastors not even realize this and teach this to their congregations and suggest alternatives? Could it be because they have become part of the problem with their own emerging postmodern moral relativism?

Seems Rick Warren was not against California’s Proposition 8 and homosexual marriage after all. Quoted below is the exact words Rick Warren made on “Larry King Live”. Also in the article that I have a link to is Joseph Farah’s appropriate view of this wishy-washy pastor.

Why is Rick Warren always in the news? If he was actually preaching the gospel of Christ he would not get on the worldly media. He is CFR for a reason and he has a Global Peace Plan because it conforms with the CFR globalist socialistic agenda. Rick Warren is yoked together with very powerful globalists unbelievers for the purpose of global governance. What he preaches to the world is a form of Universalism that includes aspects of religious dominionism.

Everything Rick Warren says is a compromise with the world instead of presenting the gospel of salvation to the world. I find this to be true ranging across the spectrum from Rick Warren’s purpose driven seeker friendly gospel lite movement to his many media opportunities that never clearly presents the gospel of Christ and never speaks of man’s, sin or need of repentance.

If a Christian pastor cannot stand up for clear teachings of their faith he certainly should not be standing in your church pulpit. The only reason I think Rich Warren is standing at Saddleback church is that the church membership has been made in his image. By the way, while I am at it, here is an example of how Rick Warren grows his Church.

It is amazing to me that a “Evangelical” Christian leader would actually apologize to homosexual leaders because some of them might think he took the biblical stand against homosexual perversion and marriage perversion. Also read this article that quotes what Rick Warren actually said to his church on Proposition 8. Apparently Rick Warren was even spining the truth to Larry King about his position.

After getting all the facts here is Dr. Norman L. Geisler’s postion on Rick Warren and the Gay Marriage issue.

The real problem in America is reflected in the choice of leaders that people put into power and that is doubly true in its churches.

America’s wishy-washy pastors

“You know, Larry, there was a story within a story that never got told,” he said. “In the first place, I am not an anti-gay or anti-gay marriage activist. I never have been, never will be. During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never – never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going. The week before the – the vote, somebody in my church said, Pastor Rick, what – what do you think about this? And I sent a note to my own members that said, I actually believe that marriage is – really should be defined, that that definition should be – say between a man and a woman.

“And then all of a sudden out of it, they made me, you know, something that I really wasn’t,” Warren continued. “And I actually – there were a number of things that were put out. I wrote to all my gay friends – the leaders that I knew – and actually apologized to them. That never got out. There were some things said that – you know, everybody should have 10 percent grace when they say public statements. And I was asked a question that made it sound like I equated gay marriage with pedophilia or incest, which I absolutely do not believe. And I actually announced that. All of the criticism came from people that didn’t know me. Not a single criticism came from any gay leader who knows me and knows that for years, we’ve been working together on AIDS issues and all these other things.”

What are we to make of such mealy-mouthed, wishy-washy, namby-pamby hokum?

It’s a great illustration of America’s most prominent church leader equivocating and backtracking and saying almost nothing coherent so that he will offend no one.

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Seems almost all of the popular Christian books today are still about “me“. But, for a Christian it should not be about me it should be about thee and Thee. It is time Christians departed from me centered churches and teaching in sake of Thee centered Churches and teaching.

The ‘Me’ Centered Church

The church today has gotten away from its purpose and identity as laid out in Scripture. Again, we do well to remember:

A local church is a group of baptized believers organized together to meet for the equipping of the saints for their ministry; for provoking one another to love and good works; for exhortation; for the exercise of spiritual gifts and the observance of the ordinances (Eph. 4:11-12; Heb. 10:24-25; 1 Cor. 11:18)[8]

The church is not for “seekers” or for “Me centered” people. It is for disciples and “He centered” people. The church can and should reach out to a dying world and that means engaging the culture with the truth that Jesus is the only Way, Truth and Life (Jn 14:6). It also means becoming more like Him daily, walking in faith and His strength. Paul sums this up well when he says:

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.Galatians 2:20

At the end of the day we are all simply beggars telling other beggars where we found bread. Let us bear witness then to this fact in our Culture so that we can change the “seeker sensitive” church of ‘me,’ back to the Bible based church of He.

Matt Smith
Pastor, Barabbas Road Church

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