New Standards and Teachings
New
Standards
Let me name a few practices,
popular in our times and often found in the church, which are directly
forbidden by the Scriptures:
1.
Strong drink…
Proverbs 23:31 “Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and
goes down smoothly, In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an
adder. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things.
You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies
on the top of a mast.” They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt; they
beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink.”
Godly wisdom describes here intoxicating wine, the hangover, delirium,
confusion, sickness, numbness to pain, and lack of good sense experienced by
the drinker, which ends by the onset of addiction. One of the most
misunderstood issues concerns what the Bible teaches about wine, claiming that
it gives license to moderate drinking. It doesn’t. An interpretation to any
portion claimed by those who imbibe, contradicts this clear commandment to not
even look at wine, when it is in an intoxicating state. The Bible doesn’t
contradict itself. The word juice is
only used once in the whole Bible, and most of the time, wine, especially new wine,
means nothing more than grape juice. I understand, by those who have
investigated, that processed wine in Bible times was so lightly fermented, that
one could not hold enough in his stomach to become intoxicated.
Our
son-in-law, daughter, and granddaughter were in an accident, in which the
driver, who hit their car and was killed, had well below the legal limits of
alcohol in his blood, but he had had just enough to sway his judgment. His wife
and parents claimed that he was a good and cautious driver. A man told me of a
friend of his, with whom he played chess. His friend would always beat him,
unless he could persuade him to have a couple beers before the match. That would be enough to dull his competitor’s mind
and give him the edge.
2.
Blasphemy… Exodus
20:7 “You shall not take the name of
the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes
his name in vain.” I cringe when I hear people, who claim to be
Christians, say something like “Oh my God” or simply write “omg”. They do it so
lightly, so flippantly. They have lost their reverence and fear of God. This
one is straight from the Ten Commandments and God said that He would not
pronounce “not guilty” those who use His name lightly. That obviously holds in
the New Testament, as well as the Old. God will condemn the blasphemer.
3.
Tattoos… Leviticus
19:28 “You shall not make any cuts on
your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.” Could any
commandment be any clearer? God says this is unbecoming to His people and those
who do it do not attest to His Lordship over their lives. It is a pagan
practice and Christians are not to follow the pagans. They are to be the head,
an example to the world, and not the tail, which is influenced by the world.
4.
Immodest dress… 1
Timothy 2:9 “(I desire that) women should
adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control…” Isaiah
3:16 “The daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks,
glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with
their feet.” Here we have a very
clear New Testament command given by the Apostle Paul, joined with an Old
Testament description, to give clarity as to what God found undesirable among
His daughters. Their dress and attitude point to attention-getting lewdness,
manifesting moral decay. It certainly does not depict people, who seek to
glorify God in their lives. God says that He doesn’t like it.
5.
Long hair for men… 1
Corinthians 14:11, 15 “Does
not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for
him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to
her for a covering.” Here is apostolic teaching straight from the New
Testament. God has not jumped on the unisex bandwagon and I am sure that His
disapproval does not only concentrate on the hair, but any dress or ornaments
that make men look like women and women like men. This is where lesbianism and
homosexuality begin.
In part five, Paul states
that
the teacher is nature, that is, the natural reason and manner, for which God, from
the beginning in creation, had willed for such things. What goes against the
original purpose of God is perversion. This is true in music and in art. What is abnormal and unnatural is a
perversion. The Bible doesn’t have to mention that which common sense
teaches about what is bad and is harmful, such as music that injures your ear
drums, smoking and taking drugs.
Not every evil practice is named or covered directly in the
Bible. Many of them didn’t exist in Bible times. However, let me assure you
that there are biblical
principles that cover every area of
Christian living. The one I just mentioned can be called the perversion principle
I will point out a few more
of them:
1.
The world
principle. I commonly observed as a
boy, cows with their necks between the barbed wire, reaching as far out of
their pasture as possible, though there are acres behind them, which they
haven’t tasted. They depict the Christian, who wants as much of the world as he
can get and yet still be inside. He continually asks, “What’s wrong with this
or that. He still loves the world and the biblical principle is: “Love
not the world… if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in
him.” “You adulterers and adulteresses,
whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
Do not think of this only as a love for the world’s
styles and entertainment, although that is certainly included. It involves a
worldly mentality and manner… the world’s thinking and way of functioning. And
do not think of the love of the world as an emotional longing, although that
also is involved. But love means trust. It means looking to the world’s system
for its security and future, rather than looking to God by faith.
2.
The root and
fruit principle. “Make the tree evil
and the root evil”. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks”.
Jesus said that the state of our inner man will show itself through our body.
We have tried to say that it’s what is inside that counts, not the position of
the body. The Bible teaches otherwise. What is inside should be expressed by
the body, for good or for evil. Otherwise we are hypocrites. Just take the simple old-fashioned custom of
kneeling while praying, for instance. If our hearts do not bow before almighty
God anymore, then it is unlikely that we will kneel or prostrate before Him.
Demons seek bodies in order to fully carry out their inbred evil. God wants to
be manifested in our mortal bodies. Anything that our bodies do that does not
glorify the Lord is sin. We do not have to name specifically a given practice.
3.
The wall
principle of Nehemiah. Nehemiah couldn’t
hide his grief, even before the king of Persia, who demanded happiness from his
slaves within the court. It was illegal to be sad, but Nehemiah was gripped by
the grief of the Holy Spirit and he couldn’t help himself. What was the Holy Spirit’s
concern, manifested in Nehemiah? Jerusalem’s walls were broken down! Walls
raise a clear division between what was Jerusalem and what was not. Jerusalem
spilled out to the world and the world stormed into Jerusalem. You will notice
in this book that Nehemiah would not allow hypocritical, insincere individuals
to form part of the work and of the people.
In the first chapter of “The
Christ of the Apocalypse”, I wrote about the
difference between what we saw in the USA, before we went to Mexico in 1964
and what we found, when we came back to live in the US in 1979. I have observed
a great difference between Christian standards in Eastern Europe compared to the
West. Of course I could include other parts of the world in this comparison, up
to this day.
New
Teaching
Relatively modern doctrine
has done great damage to the evangelical church. I remember a teaching that
came in strongly in the 1950’s and 1960’s that said that Christian principle
and standards, outside of that clearly stated in the Bible, was a matter of
personal conviction. From that time on, Christian standards took a decided turn
for the worse. Once it caught hold, people became offended by preachers who
delved into these matters (they said that they had stopped preaching and
started meddling) thinking that they were interfering with their personal lives
and business.
I remember also teaching
pertaining to the pre-charismatic times, before the term “charismatic” was
coined. I am not making a blanket condemnation of that movement, because I saw
too much of the workings of God, at least in its beginnings. However, even in
that time, there were teachings and emphasis that, when they developed and
became accepted, have done untold damage and actually set evangelicalism in
another direction. Almost all those who have come into the church in the last
generation have never known anything different. They believe them as if they
were gospel truth. Many from the past generation have gradually become tolerant
on these issues. Here are some of them:
1.
Positivism. Positive thinking had already settled in. “Christian
Science” had been preaching it for decades and “Guidepost Magazine’s” Normal
Vincent Peale fueled the fire. Positive
confession worked its way in and became a very prominent teaching. Already in
the 1960’s terms were used to describe different types of preachers. I heard it
said of those who preached positively, that they “ministered life”. Those who
attacked sin and warned of judgment were called “condemnation preachers”.
2.
A discrediting
of all that was old. Old hymns were
sometimes totally thrown out, replaced by simple new choruses and songs. It’s
quite surprising that up until the 1960s, hymns that were 500-years-old had not
gone out of style in the church. Now, “old songs” are barely five years old.
They don’t have enough substance to survive a decade. The centuries-old hymns
were still “our music” and the young sang them, as well as the old. But then,
all centered on new things, based on certain texts that stated that God would
do a new thing. Church history was not relevant and even heaven was not often
preached. I remember when the song “Won’t It Be Wonderful There” became, “Oh,
It is Wonderful Here” The expression “here and now” was frequently heard in
those times.
3.
An insistence on
unity. A grave misinterpretation of
Jesus’ words and desires in John 17 were purported. Oneness with the Father and
the Son, the vine and branches principle, was not the priority, but unity among
people… anyone who called himself “Christian”. Ecumenical thought became ever
stronger at the cost of doctrinal truth. The second commandment was raised far above
the first. Loving God with all our
heart, mind, soul and strength was overtaken by unconditional love for people. Eventually,
somehow the “love your neighbor” teaching, gave way to “love yourself”, a
totally unbiblical idea. Liberal Christianity was brought into the evangelical
fold and soon even cults were included.
4.
Judge not. I got upset enough to write a tract on this subject and
you can read it on this blogspot. I cannot take the time and space to go over
all the miscalculations and misinformation that developed on the premise that
Christians are not supposed to judge.
Judge not meant discipline not and veered far away from the biblical
theme. I will just mention that Jesus taught, “Judge righteous judgment”, and
Paul said, “Don’t you know you will judge angels. Are you not able to judge the
smallest matters?” The church admitted all kinds of unacceptable teaching and
teachers due to a false view towards judging.
5.
A
misinterpretation of Christian liberty
including an antinomian, that is, an anti-law position. These people would
certainly call what I am stating here “legalism”. It is no such thing. Legalism is a way of
thinking that claims that salvation comes through the keeping of the law or
that our salvation must be maintained through the keeping of the law (or norms
or rules). That’s what Paul opposed. I
am talking about Christian standards… setting a standard for the world, rather
than letting the world give us our standards. God’s people should have high
standards!
Christian liberty began to mean take all you want of the
world and be a Christian at the same time. Have fun, mix and mingle with the
world and its people. It meant that you could give free rein to all your zest
for pleasure and satisfaction, except, of course, for the basest lusts. Galatians,
where Paul most teaches about freedom in Christ, needs to be reexamined to see
that along with that liberty are some wonderful views of the cross… “I am
crucified with Christ.” “They who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with
its passions and lusts.” “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to
the world.”
So here we are almost 15 years into the 21st
Century, engulfed by new standards and new teaching, entertaining an apostasy
such as the church has never seen in its entire history. It’s wake-up time
folks. Get rid of your idols, run from the trends of the times and start
building the walls. Get in touch with God’s people and shun the proponents of
cross-less Christianity. Burn the modern trash literature and cling to the
classics. Some of the worst junk ever presented to the church have sold millions
of copies. Vance Havner said a generation ago, “The situation is desperate, but
God’s people are not!” Get desperate; get ready to stand against the fury of
hell and the wrath of hypocrites. Heaven is near and the Marriage Supper of the
Lamb is at hand. Nothing else is important.
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