Can Change the World Again
With a Praying People.
| | Can Change the World Again With a Praying People. | |
A Brief Analysis of the Philosophy and Practice
Chapter III.
Mixed Motives and Questionable Humility.
An Ambiguous
Theology that Confuses the lines of Fellowship.
"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. . . The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. . . The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness." Matthew. 13: 24-41.
WE have clearly seen that no one can have "fellowship" with God at all while in fellowship with any form of darkness. In fact, as we have seen, all people who do this "lie and do not do the truth." Perhaps the most frequent passage quoted from the bible to deny the truthfulness of this doctrine, while maintaining the allowance of the unconverted and individual sins within the fellowship of the church, is the first part of the above text about the sower. But as we read Jesus' explanation we see very clearly the error in this common understanding. Many people suppose that the kingdom of heaven-field is the local church assembly instead of the entire world as our Master says. They suppose that we must mix our fellowship with unbelievers because, you know, 'there is no such thing as the perfect church.' It seems after the great world wars the 'church' continued attending the wounds of the injured, and became a bed for victims rather than a fellowship of saints—"holy ones" (in the original)—dressed in white robes. Churches today are obviously humanistic, and spend little time considering the wounds of our Lord by the sinners who ignore Him. The church is a hospital in which the disease of sin is expected to permanently affect it until the end of the age. Jesus has not come to save His people from their sin, but in their sin. But is this so? Not according to Matthew 1:21. Perhaps by common mistaken experience. And of course, who can preach higher than their own experience? But let us bow our knees and ask the Father to show us how to rightfully pray for the church.
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"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."
Ephesians 3: 14-21.
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But what can we say of our churches today, when our pastors, leaders and teachers do not even believe this is possible? So many who believe it is possible in word, actually deny it will ever happen in practice. They so deny it by gradualistic views of conversion and sanctification. This is humanistic pity towards sinners that would rather let them gradually give up their sins over a lifetime, than expect them to go to the pool to be washed by the Perfect Physician. Men, we have made a big mistake today! We have confused patience and forbearance for sinners outside of the church, for compromised patience and forbearance within the church. And have we helped these souls? Have they not rather plagued the church until it cannot be distinguished from the world? till it in fact has become the leavened world which the angels will gather for the fire that will consume all "those who commit lawlessness" ?
You who argue for more mercy for sinners in Zion, will you consider the ruin this has brought in history? Consider the following account of one of the greatest authorities of pure Christianity noticing its rise and fall:
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"'Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous
and the wicked, between him that serveth God,
and him that serveth him not.'
"It is by the mixture of counterfeit religion with true, not discerned and distinguished, that the devil has had his greatest advantage against the cause and kingdom of Christ. It is by this means, principally, that he has prevailed against all revivings of religion, since the first founding of the Christian church. By this, he hurt the cause of Christianity, in and after the apostolic age, much more than by all the persecutions of both Jews and heathens. The apostles, in all their epistles, show themselves much more concerned at the former mischief, than the latter. By this, Satan prevailed against the reformation, began by Luther, Zwinglius, etc., to put a stop to its progress, and bring it into disgrace, ten times more than by all those bloody and cruel persecutions of the church of Rome. By this, principally, has he prevailed against revivals of religion in our nation. By this he prevailed against New England, to quench the love and spoil the joy of her espousals, about a hundred years ago. And I think, I have had opportunity enough to see plainly, that by this the devil has prevailed against the late great revival of religion in New England, so happy and promising in its beginning. Here, most evidently, has been the main advantage Satan has had against us; by this he has foiled us. It is by this means that the daughter of Zion in this land now lies on the ground, in such piteous circumstances, with her garments rent, her face disfigured, her nakedness exposed, her limbs broken, and weltering in the blood of her own wounds, and in no wise able to arise; and this, so quickly after her late great joys and hopes: Lam. 1:17, 'Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries shall be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.' I have seen the devil prevail the same way, against two great revivings of religion in this country. — Satan goes on with mankind as he began with them. He prevailed against our first parents, and cast them out of paradise, and suddenly brought all their happiness and glory to an end, by appearing to be a friend to their happy state, and pretending to advance it to higher degrees. So the same cunning serpent that beguiled Eve through his subtlety, by perverting us from simplicity that is in Christ, hath suddenly prevailed to deprive us of that fair prospect we had, a little while ago, of a kind of paradisaical state of the church of God in New England."
Jonathan Edwards,
A Treaties Concerning Religious Affections.
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When numbers are all that is important—numerous people united in conservative values—and thorough purity and truth are belittled, then such facts will not alarm us. We might lament the resulting corruptions, but after all, we will be satisfied with the fact that there is growth in outward values. But you who follow Christ, consider His example. What did He do when thousands followed Him, deeply interested in His every word and person? Did He appoint the best men over each division to gradually grow these followers into conversion and a more conservative way of living? Just consider the opportunity and potential of all these sympathetic remnant souls! Why, they could easily be united into a movement that could win others by the example of a united church of professing Christians conscientious of conservative values! Who could pass up the opportunity! Why, these souls were willing to forsake the false legal religion of the day, and had often given up days of employment and their own food just to follow the Messiah. They were excited, and were ready to do what He said. Well, why not give them what they could handle? Why not give them a little bit of truth at a time so that they would remain? Why not slowly increase the standards so that they would be able to obey these principles and not be offended? Why not just put up with their sin, and the fear of man, and hope that one day the great mass of them might somehow win the world?
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"Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 'If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. . . So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions." Luke 14: 25-33
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Instead of working with them according to their own level and needs, Jesus told them honestly what He thought of them and expected. He did not fool them by allowing them to follow Him unconverted and in sin. He was intolerant towards halfhearted outward professions. No, that does not mean that He did not deeply care for them, and weep for them in their blinded and prejudiced condition. For so He felt. But He was a perfect leader and always did what was best in every circumstance. It was clearly His policy as He walked with us, and in every other dealing throughout the divine history, to only accept honest followers who would forsake all of their sins.
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"He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion."
Proverbs 28: 13
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Jesus was righteous, and knowing what was best for them, He rather would turn them away than delude them with a form of religion that did not forsake all sin. He did not accept mere confessions that concealed the true guilt and punishment of their sins. He was more than willing to show compassion and receive them in forgiveness and favor, but this could not be done until every idol was forsaken and the humanistic lies that their sins were unavoidable were exposed and abhorred. He was indeed forbearing and kind to them, supplying all their physical wants, while giving them numerous opportunities to know and receive Him under His conditions. But He did not confuse these differing virtues and relations under one church and movement. The facts are plain, He died practically alone and abandoned. There was no begging for followers to have great impressive numbers. His business was in purity, honesty, righteousness, and real religion. He walked lonely, like His cousin John, until he was thirty, in a city that good men wondered if anything good could come from. He gathered a few humble god-fearing men and women and He did not fail to reprove their manifest sins. And His record by standards today is one of the most pathetic and wasted ministries that ever so intolerantly missed His opportunity to win people to Himself. Why did He send them away? Why did He do this? Unless we die to fleshly gain and the praise of man, we will never gather any who really fear God and welcome the cross. The real fruit of ministry is in gathering a people who really "do the will of God," and not just desire to.
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"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7: 13-14
"On this passage Chrysostom says, Homil. 18. 'The way of Christ is said to be straight and narrow, because Christ received to himself only those who divested themselves of all sins, laid down all the care of this world and were made refined and spiritual.'"
John Huss. The Church.
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What did these people think about Jesus' stringent conditions of discipleship and fellowship? The way was so narrow that they all but left Him. And,
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"When many of His disciples heard it, they said,
'This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?'" John 6: 60
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Passing on from this subject that could fill a whole volume, we will need to pay close attention to a further observation about the much misunderstood parable of the sower. In theory it is not denied by 'The Remnant' teachers that "the field is the world", and that the world should not be part of the church. We heard Mose Stultzfus preach this. He rightly noted how people often misinterpret the field as the church. Historically this interpretation was abandoned by Anabaptists who reacted against certain interpretations of the terms "separation of church and state." They were right as Edwards notes, the church was to be made up of people who were real Christians. This was and is an important truth that is plainly revealed in our parable above. But there is something even deeper in Jesus' teaching than this. He did not define the tares as merely those who did not profess religion, or who were obviously deceived, but later distinguished them from the wheat as "all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness." It would only be giving the appearance of piety to point out the error of the many who suppose that the field is the church —while satisfying themselves with many carnal members after all, who all outwardly profess a deep desire for religion. In such a case a minister can appear to believe the field is the world by lowering his standards of conversion. It is easy to settle down with imperfect standards, or mildly carnal fellowship, while commending ourselves to be better than the obvious deception in many modern churches. Such excuses may gain human glory and interest, but will never be gathered as wheat that is free from the tares of stumbling blocks and lawless deeds. Even though this is plain enough for all Christians to see over and over again in God's word, the Master tells us a few passages earlier that many of these religious people will be so deceived by their partial piety and many good works, that they will dare to contradict the great Judge of the universe and still question His exclusive teaching. Notice again the reason why He never knew them:
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"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never know you; depart from Me, you who commit lawlessness."
Matthew 7: 21-23.
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It is not those who only partly do the will of God, nor is it those who partly depart from lawlessness, who will enter permanent fellowship with all the holy. But only such that "obey His commandments" without hesitation and "cut off their" figuratively sinful "hands" and tear out their sinful "eyes". All these know that "it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell." (Matt. 5: 29-30)
But instead many set up halfway houses where it is more pious to continually confess some of our sins rather than to deceive ourselves into thinking that we can possibly forsake them entirely! Have you not heard it said among such groups? 'We are all so full of pride, and if we think we are free from pride, then that would mean we must be guilty of pride!' Thus it has become pious to continually confess how proud they are. What is this! Shall we exchange light for darkness, and right for wrong? Is there any virtue in admitting ourselves the enemies of God whom He resists? There is no humility in merely confessing pride.
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"God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
James. 4:6
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There is not truth, but blind deception in confessing sins without forsaking them. No judge in any nation will be satisfied with the mere confession of the fact of stolen property while he continues to hold onto its possession and/or expects to gather more of the same. No parent excuses any child in the same way. As we see above, God does not give grace to the proud for confessing their pride—this is not humility—but to those who are of an entirely opposite nature: He "gives grace to the humble."
It is important to know what is going on in those who suppose the above absurdity that mere confession of sin is humility, and the thought of being humble implies pride. What they must mean is that they suppose salvation from sin, or sanctification, is by personal works entirely of our own doing, and are earthly and mixed with selfish motivation and not by faith. It actually becomes almost impossible to converse with such people for very long, as they continually assume some selfish motivation in all of your words and actions. The worst part of it is that this is done more or less directly, or hinted at with a smile that assures you that it will do you good to accept this carnal fact of human experience. But in fact such (Romans 7) legalists are sadly blinded from the true gospel and power of God, and are even more mistaken about deliverance from sin (Romans 8). It would be true that if we were left to ourselves to escape the bondage of the flesh, that we would never be free. And if we indeed experienced any victory it would be something to boast about. There can be no other reason for people to say that the claim of humility means pride, than that they self-righteously attempt to deliver themselves and thus always must fail. Yes carnal people may work very hard at resolving to put into practice many wonderful principles, and appreciate and support many commendable values in order to receive many glorious rewards, but with such underlying assumptions, who can be satisfied with their open bibles that it is not all a poor deluded shame lacking holy faith and real virtue? And all these accomplishments are admittedly tainted by selfish motivations? However we may define our words and disguise our rotting flesh with white washed tombs, the Lord is not convinced, even if the whole world marvels. Let His people be sure of His uncompromising word and not touch the unclean thing.
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"Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, 'I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.' 'Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,' says the Lord. 'And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2 Corinthians 6: 14-7: 1
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We can see that a definition of church members that includes such people who hold to and live out this above philosophy, or who suppose people can gradually grow into conversion and total consecration, amounts to the same thing as saying that the field containing wheat and tares is the church. In this case there is no real difference of character between the world and the believers. They only suppose that the tares are more lawless in outward profession and words than the wheat are. They make a mistake often made in theology and confuse kind with degree. Instead of having an altogether "new creation" or kind of character (that rises above sin by faith), they suppose only an improvement of "the old man" by various degrees (warring against the flesh with selfish motivation). But the real Christian is not merely different from the unbeliever by degrees of effort and resolution, for the unbeliever is altogether sinful and selfish in everything they do. There is no improving their condition before God by any degrees of any inward or outward efforts. Their ultimate aim in life is selfish, and unless that ultimate end becomes of an entirely new kind of aim, their is nothing acceptable in anything they do. But many people merely try and improve the outward person when they do not realize that the roots are totally rotten and will never produce real virtuous fruit. They cannot improve the roots by degrees, but must have a personal transplant: a whole different kind of heavenly roots. Selfishness and unbelief can only produce that kind and quality of fruit. Every degree of selfish and unbelieving effort will only remain just that. The highest degree is still rotten and unacceptable to God (and that is why such people suppose that is everyone's lot in this life: the holier we get the more we see how rotten we presently are!). The individual must have a foundational change of heart that affects the deepest motivations. Only as the person looks at the person of God in Christ, beholding His kind of love, and receiving that into the deepest fabric of their being, only then can they experience complete deliverance from all selfish motivation and those legal and unfruitful efforts over sin. They can then have a new kind of heart of pure water which by faith produces heavenly fruit. But the sad reality for those who only know of improving the sinner by degrees is that no partially lawless people with mixed motives will be ready and acceptable for heaven.
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"Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
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As we consider the most problematic church in the New Testament, we find no example of apostolic tolerance for sin and ungodliness of any sort. But we find that it had been moving in the direction of many churches today. Because it allowed sin to be tolerated in various cases, the whole assembly was threatened with destruction. But instead of taking gradual measures that worry of offending the sinful, Paul warns them in astonishment:
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"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Cor. 6: 9-10
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Since all unrighteous people will not inherit the kingdom of God, it follows that no unrighteous people should be mixed with the kingdom of God on earth; nor should any unrighteous acts—or theology that supports it—be allowed to infect the church:
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"Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
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Again, Paul did not take the slow cowardly approach to sinful church members, even with the weakest church under the most tempting circumstances. Below we shall see that he proceeds to confirm the Lord's teaching in the sower parable, that the field is the world, and that, as we have noted by implication, there is not to be any unrighteous, lawless, or sinful members allowed to remain in the church fellowship.
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"Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and unrighteousness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with the idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the unrighteous from among yourselves."
1 Corinthians 5: 6-13
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Notice that he mentions not only scandalous sins, but also covetousness and reviling. His concern is with all forms of "wickedness" or "unrighteousness." If any form of sin is leaven, and not pure and good for the church, then he commands us to clean it out of the church.
Paul tells us just the exact opposite of what many people suppose. It is not the non-Christians we are to avoid and separate ourselves from, but from so-called brothers who are behaving like the world in sin. So what do we do with a theology that supposes the best of Christian hearts are leavened with covetousness and evil thoughts about everyone's motives? It is certainly not the "unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." And what shall we do with the common humanistic defense against removing the unrighteous from the church, which says, 'You should not judge anyone'? "Do you not judge those who are within the church?" Unless of course we are disobedient. Naturally we realize that if we ourselves are in sin, then it would only be hypocritical to judge another as Romans chapter two and Matthew chapter seven clearly teach. True enough. But then we ought to remove ourselves from such deception and drive out the leaven out of our own souls as we quoted above.
Let us take a brief look at these passages that supposedly teach the perpetual hypocrisy of church members against the clear words of Paul above. Perhaps no greater deception and more absurd idea has ruined the visible church than a misunderstanding of these two passages:
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"Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who do such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God".
Romans 2: 1-5
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Notice that there is nothing in this passage that suggests we are to remain doing these same things. In fact it clearly says that "we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things." So if we are quietly contenting ourselves in refraining from judging others, we will still be judged right along with them. Paul was only showing them that it was no pious thing to point out the sins in Gentiles while Jews had their own sins. And because they refused to repent of these things they were storing up wrath against themselves.
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"Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."
Matthew 7: 1-5
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Most people who quote this passage fail to mention or consider the last verse. This passage is not about closing our eyes to sins and not saying a word because we all have logs in our eyes. If this was the case He would have not said a few verses later that "you will know them by their fruit." He is not telling people to remain silent sinners—as we see throughout the sermon on the mount—but rather to abandon sin and hypocritical judging: "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."
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"Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals.' Come to a sober and right mind and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame."
1 Corinthians 15: 33-34
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The fact is, all sinners always unrighteously judge each other. It has to be the most absurd thing to watch people almost violently force these 'no-judging' verses upon anyone that would reprove them or others of sin.
It is indeed amazing how people can press their faulty interpretation upon others for violating the very thing they end up doing to them; all the while actually committing the very crime which Christ warned them against! And all this while the faithful reprover appears to the unthinking and unspiritual as harsh or censorious.
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"These also are the sayings of the wise. To show partiality in judgment is not good. He who says to the unrighteous, 'you are righteous,' peoples will curse him, nations will abhor him; but to those who rebuke the unrighteous will be delight, and a good blessing will come upon them." Proverbs 24: 23-25
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Of course with an ambiguous theology that supposes we all have selfish or prideful motives—and that it is either impossible to distinguish true from false plain believers, or that anyone who holds to a few doctrines and practices is an accepted believer—it will only be natural to reprove or remove the holy from among them. This chapter applies to the professing church world at large, and not necessarily to all Charity Remnant people. There are some differences, and some people privately believe that this means a lot of people in the movement still need to have a clear conversion. But as long as anyone practically gives the impression that we can mix pure fellowship with carnal and prideful fellowship, and are responsible for leavening their fellowship by failing to rebuke sin, it does not matter what they privately believe. They cannot of course follow our Lord and Paul:
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"Remove the unrighteous from among yourselves."
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Or by check to:
Rick Friedrich
8071 Main St.
Fenwick, MI 48834-9649
