The Hour of Testing

The one church in Revelation 3 that was given a positive citation by Jesus was the church at Philadelphia. Here Jesus said that they were limited in strength and probably influence in their area, but they were determined to remain faithful to God's Word and to the name of Jesus.  They were not adding to or taking away from what they know to be true.  From the Ten Commandments we read:

3“You shall have no other gods before me.  4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God,  visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,  6but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Most of the other churches in Revelation 2 and 3 violated these verses because they added something to their understanding of God.  Many of the stories in the Old Testament are about Israel co-mingling their worship of God with the gods in their culture. There is a great temptation today to do the same. We want to be so sensitive to the culture that we are willing to compromise our understanding of God in order to infliltrate the ranks of the unbelieving.  I would propose that this compromise is a form of worship, or a form of serving culture in the name of evangelism.  Or at least that is what we say we are doing, evangelizing, by not offending the culture, we want to lure them to a Christ that accepts all lifestyles because He is a God of love. 

Now let's test this out, are we compromising our message for the sake of the culture?

In most churches, including Evangelical Churches you will not hear much about the following.

1. Judgment of God in nature and other natural disasters

2. Hell and eternal punishment

3. Wrath of God

4. Prophecy about the end times

5. Israel and God's love for His covenant people

6. Signs of His Coming

7. Moral choices like abortion and homosexuality

8. What God hates

9. Women in authority and leadership in the church

10. Repentance and sin

All of these have a Biblical base, yet, because there are a variety of opinions on these themes, leaders have a tendancy to avoid them.  Most Christian leaders don't want to create the ripple affect of controversary in our church.  Well, I realize that no one sticks their hand willingly into a hive of bees, however, avoiding such themes is not being honest with the church.  

Honesty must address all issues, including those that may not be popular among some people. If God said it, then why are we trying so hard to avoid it?  Israel and prophecy for example are  topics few pastors will address. The answer is quite simple, "controversary!"  If a pastor/chrisitan leader is called to the minsitry, he or she is already called to controversary.  If you are going to preach the gospel according the the Bible, it's controversial by nature. You don't join the army to be safe, you join the army to protect, and usually it's with your very life.  It's no different for those who enter the ministry.

This idea that pastors are called to be peace making agents that won't shake up the saints is a concept from hell.  A pastor is one who is called to be a "watchman on the wall" not a wall flower.  Read Ezekiel 33 and tell me why we have leaders who are silent on these issues?  If you are a Christian leader/pastor/teacher then take this advice from scripture...

6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand.

Silence is not in the vocabulary of the the watchman.

Keeping it honest and truthful...K

We can learn from those who have gone on before us.  The late Leonard Ravenhill wrote and spoke about the condition of the church in America.  He warned of a prayerless church would lead to a powerless ministry, and this clip is a reminder to those who teach and preach the Word of God.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gizf5JHw5s4&feature=related