For Halloween--A True Story

 I would like to tell you a story, non-fiction, proven to be true.  This is word-for-word from Tom and Nita Horn’s great book, Forbidden Gates. 

As a young preacher, Dr. David Yonggi Cho (who died in 2021, until 2008, senior pastor of the largest church in the world) had gone into a small Korean community to pioneer a church--early in his ministry.  Soon he discovered, as is common throughout much of Korea, a temple dedicated to the city’s “guardian god” atop the highest local mountain.  When the priests of the shrine learned that he was planning to start a missions outreach, they came to him infuriated, demanding that he leave the village.  When he refused, they vowed to return and put to death him and any converts he won in the meantime.

A few days later, the priests were back—this time with a mob.  The head priest, making sure the crowd was watching, called out, “Cho!  Do you really believe that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that He can still work miracles?” 

Cho replied, “Yes, I do.” 

“Then we have a challenge,” the priest yelled.  “Down in the village is a woman who has been bedridden for seven years.  She and her child are dying now of disease.  If Jesus can heal this woman in the next thirty days, we will go away and you can have your church.  But if she is not healed, you must abandon your work or we will return and kill you and your followers.” 

Cho explained how in the United States, most Americans would never respond to such a date, but that in those days and in that culture, his failure to do so would have been (in his thinking) to imply that his God was inferior to the temple deity, and would have closed the community’s willingness to consider the gospel message.

As a result, Cho accepted the contest, and the following day he traveled with his mother-in-law to the village where he found the dying woman.  He suggested to the infirmed lady that if she would pray the sinner’s prayer and accept Jesus as her Savior, the Lord might choose to heal her.  Instead, he found the woman to be very angry with any god (including Cho’s God) who would allow her to suffer the way that she had.  After several unsuccessful visits to convince her otherwise, Cho decided prayer alone would be his best alternative for her and her child. 

Over the next few weeks, he prayed earnestly for a miracle.  He made regular visits to the village and sent messengers to report back any change.  To his disappointment, the woman’s condition only seemed to worsen. 

 

As the weeks passed and the deadline loomed, Cho grew very concerned.  Finally, on the evening of the thirtieth day, he entered his prayer room and reminded God that unless a miracle occurred, people from the temple of the guardian deity would arrive within hours to kill him and his followers.  Cho said he prayed throughout that night and into the next morning “with the most passion ever.”

Then, at 2 AM, he experienced a powerful vision. He thought he saw a shadow by the front door, and a strange sound spread along the wall. Fixing his gaze on the opening, he felt primal fear, black and mindless, roll over him. 

His intuition screamed.  Something dreadful was coming his way.

Another thump, and the front door to his home began slowly opening. 

Gooseflesh crawled over his arms as “eerie Oriental music” swept in through the entrance, barely discernable at first, then growing in intensity. 

Against his better judgment, he turned his body toward the door. 

He held his breath, looked harder, squinted. The shadow slowed, became defined, an enormous silhouette of something alive creeping stealthily toward him. 

Remaining very still, a moment passed, then it emerged from the darkness: huge, snakelike, an agathodemon from ancient times bearing the body of a serpent and the head of a man.  Swaying to the melodious rhythm, the horrendous archfiend appeared wicked and menacing as it slunk along the opening into the room where Cho was.  It made eye contact with him, and in heavy modulation that sounded as if each gurgling syllable started somewhere deep underground, passed through boiling magma on its way to his mouth, and said, “Cho, if you don’t leave this town, you are a dead man.  I have been ruling this area all of these years, and who are you to come here and disturb my nest?”

With that, the being lunged across the room lightning fast, landing on top of Cho and wrapping its body around him like prey, contracting its muscles to quickly constrict the air from his lungs.  A baleful laughter, malignant and terrible, tittered, from the monster’s lips as from pebbled sockets its zenithal eyes glared mockingly down at him. 

Grotesque and engaged, the thing opened its mouth wider, exposing a hideous, forked tongue inside a nightmarish cavity lined with jagged molars and angled razor fangs.  A phlegmy gurgle more dragonlike than reptilian disgorged a sulfurous stench that distilled through the room, filling the air all around them.   

A chill radiated through Cho as seconds passed and the undulating fiend’s hide, crusty and wart-covered, tightened around him like a garrote.  He could feel his ribs bending toward the breaking point as the sheer force of the brutal creature’s strength sent his own tongue curling to the roof of his mouth in pain.  His body began reacting to the lack of blood flow, his hands and feet started going numb, and his thoughts raced:  Jesus!  I’m dying!

But at that, something caught his attention.  The creature’s eyes had seemed to dart wildly about the very moment the name of Jesus passed through his mind.  He thought it again—Jesus—and this time he was sure.  The serpent had cringed, and its grip had weakened at the very moment he  had imagined that name. 

With all the strength he could muster, Cho gasped for a breath of air and opened his mouth in a whisper:  “Jesus.”  The effect was immediate and dramatic.  The sound of the name of Jesus discharged from his lips as tangibly as if a two-edged sword had been thrown into the heart of the being. 

He spoke the name again, louder this time, and the demon jerked back, its expression filling with terror, its grip unwinding from his waist. Slipping from the coil, Cho quickly jumped to his feet and shouted “JESUS…JESUS….JESUS!”

Now the creature reeled, first one way then the other, flailing about as if punch drunk, wailing an otherworldly moan; then abruptly it fell to the floor.  Before it could gather its strength and raise up to attack him again, Cho lifted his leg and crushed the humanlike head beneath his foot.  Studying it to make sure it wasn’t moving, he picked up the front part of the carcass and dragged it toward the entry to toss it outside.  As he moved to the opening and pushed the seasoned door fully out of the way, he noticed a large crowd of villagers gathering in front of his home.  Cautiously, he surveyed his surroundings, then lifted the agathodemon’s face above him and exclaimed, “This is the god you have been serving all of these years, but now you must turn and serve the true and living God!”

With that, Cho awoke to find the serpent-man visitation had been a compelling vision or dream.  It was 4 AM, time for early morning  prayer at his tent church.  With the memory of the threats made against him thirty days earlier still fresh in his mind, he rushed out the door and up the path to meet his tiny congregation.  He knew the priests from the guardian temple would not be long in coming, and no sooner had he arrived than a Korean layman started shouting, “Pastor!  Come quickly!”  Glancing out the tent door, he saw over the hill in the rising dawn what appeared to be the entire city marching up the valley walls.     

Cho’s palms were sweating and his heart was racing as he stepped outside and watched the throng approach.  Jesus, he thought, What should we do?  Run?  Hide?  Then he noticed something curious.  The people looked happy, as if they were rejoicing about something.  A moment of silence passed as he considered them, and he thought, It can’t be!  But it was.  Leading the crowd, baby in arms, was the dying woman from the village.  She ran up to him and said, “Oh, Brother Cho, thank you so much for coming, and praying for me last night. The Lord heard your prayer and I am healed!”

Cho stared at her in amazement.  “I did not come to your house and pray for you last night,” he replied. “Oh, yes,” the woman insisted, “You came at two o’clock this morning and stood outside my window.  You said loudly, ‘Woman!  Be healed in the name of Jesus Christ!’  And I arose and found that I was healed, and my baby is healed!”  Then Cho remembered that it had been 2 AM when he had seen the vision and the agathodemon had been destroyed. 

With very few exceptions, the entire community converted to Christianity within 48 hours. 

To misquote many ads, Do Not Try This At Home without being saved and Holy Spirit-prepared. 

Acknowledgement:  Forbidden Gates, Tom and Nita Horn, 2010. 

Church of Tares (Part 1 of 2)

 

I’ve been listening to a You Tube video, “Church of Tares.”  This is a study of a movement called The New Reformation. Its Gospel message and methods began in books written by Robert Schuller and Rick Warren, and their megachurches have been “guinea pigs” for their ideas, which are radical, as we shall see.  These books have been must-reading at hundreds of seminaries by literally thousands of church leaders. Those leaders put the same methods and Gospel message in their churches.  The founding celebrity pastors, by using this name to describe themselves, have put themselves on a par with what Martin Luther did in the Protestant Reformation.   Because of their affected population and influence, they deserve serious scrutiny, to see if the methods and message are in accord with Scripture and beneficial for God’s Church, the Body of Christ. 

First let’s start with the latter textbook for the movement, Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose-Driven Life.  As he called it, “the best-selling book in English, in world history.” But, after some laughter, he rolled his eyes, catching the drift, and said, “next to the Bible, it’s the best-selling….” We must say, as a philanthropist, he has measurably improved lives around the world.  Also, I must add that his  megachurch pastor is in the past; he recently resigned from the sixth largest church in America, Saddleback.. But he is still super-active, doing organizing and speeches. He is undoubtedly the most influential religious speaker, today, in all of America. He is a numbers man, as all megachurch pastors seem to be.  Elevation Church, part of their movement, is unabashedly proud of that goal.  They say ”We are all about the numbers. Tracking metrics measures effectiveness.” (Effectiveness of what?) I have a different idea about numbers; we are not in control of it. Hear I Corinthians 3:7:

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

The Holy Spirit should be given credit, not our effectiveness to draw people in. By their standards, Noah must have been a great failure; he preached for over a hundred years, and no one outside of his immediate family believed him. In Revelation chapters 2 and 3, the judgment of the seven churches, the only churches which were not rebuked by God were Smyrna and Philadelphia—both were poor, small, and lacking in influence—again, failures by current measuring sticks. But they were faithful to God’s standards, not secular philosophy or pragmatism.  See Colossians 2:8:

 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

Paul appeared to some people like a failure (they said “his bodily presence is weak, and his presence contemptible”) and in I Corinthians 2:4-5.  But he did not reject his self-image, as you can see:

 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

It should not bother us to feel weak in presenting evangelism, because God provides the changed heart, and the increase in His Church. We feel nowhere equal to the velvet tongues of these men.  But what secret did Paul learn that we could learn? II Corinthians 12:9 starts with God telling Paul His secret:

 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” “Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may reside in me.”

Contrast that with the statement of Rick Warren: “We slander God’s character if we preach with an uninspiring style or tone.” Yes, he has people’s  attention, but no, many of them are not saved through his preaching. 

Well, I got ahead of myself--these are a taste of the debate.  If you want to know all about the facts about the New Reformation, Rick Warren has it all laid out in his books.  So let’s have a look at his main points.

·        His overall goal in the church service was expressed thusly: “create a service that is intentionally designed for your members’ friends.  Make the service attractive, appealing, and so relevant to the unchurched that your members are eager to share it with lost people they care about.”  So it’s like this:  If the unchurched like the music loud, we’ll do loud music. That way, we bring in more unchurched; maybe they get their lives turned around. The author of the video that critiques him (Elliott Nesch) pointed out that Mr. Warren’s church service followed Robert Schuller, who first put this “reformation” in action in the 1970s, reaching his peak in the 1990s. Warren followed Schuller’s advice in the approach to the service, even if he didn’t agree with all of  Schuller’s beliefs. Mr. Nesch quotes Warren’s wife Kay, who said in Christianity Today, “He (Schuller) had a profound influence on Rick. We were captivated by his positive appeal to nonbelievers.” One key word is “positive.”  I.e., not negative.  No speaking on details of sin that the audience might be guilty of, since that’s a “downer” for them; no speaking of hell or Satan. 

·        Another approach to “positive,” upon which many sermons nowadays are based: These movement pastors constantly tell their congregants:  You are not weak; you must develop self-esteem and learn to love yourself.  You are not unworthy. You have truthful thoughts from your own feelings and experience. You shouldn’t feel guilty over your sin.  God does not disapprove of you; do not take on condemnation.  You are a child of the King of the Ages.  ALL your sins are forgiven when His grace is given to you.  Bad things do not happen to you as punishment from an angry God; bad things happen to everyone—it’s how you react, how you change your thinking into positive thoughts, leading to overcoming your obstacle.  Visualize yourself as defeating the evil and the negative, and winning through power of the mind.

·         Some of these cliches come from Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, and his book The Power of Positive Thinking.  Some are from Schuller’s books Self-Esteem: The New Reformation (1982) and Self-Love (1975). These are the two philosophers that Warren learned most from. The last bullet’s ideals for thinking the way to a better life looks like they could come from any motivational speaker. That’s the point—it’s from man, not from God. I will say more on these “positive” lines of thought later.

·        The second thing we see is that the emphasis of every point in the service, including the sermon, is on the unbelievers. The messages are for anyone; they do not go deep on explaining passages (some of their congregants have hardly any knowledge of what’s in the Bible).  Dr. Peale’s words about positive thinking could be applied to anyone, believer or unbeliever; he seldom used the word “God” or “Bible” in his books.  Though he was a pastor, he is quoted as saying, “It is not necessary to be born again; you have your way to God, I have mine.”

·        Schuller had the same positivity idea, but hooked into thinking better about yourself —thus, talking about God’s redeeming us from the slavery to sin, God’s power in the blood of Christ, or the sin that places us far from God, were unacceptable —because, as he put it in Christianity Today, “sin is simply a lack of self-esteem.” So… sin was just a mental thing that simply needed rethinking.  If you train you mind to think more positively and learn to love yourself, you can be better. It seems to me, those concepts turn our attention away from God, and focused on ourselves.   He also was not into quoting the Bible much.  As he put it, “it doesn’t seem wise to quote a source in which they do not believe.”  In that sentence, you can see he is focusing, as did Warren, on the unbelievers.  He insists that you first need to “relax them so they will listen to you.” Hence the necessity for positiveness; so they would enjoy listening.  Unfortunately, this has nothing to say about conviction. Or repentance. The backbones of ‘old evangelism.’

·        Bill Hybels, another megachurch protégé of Schuller at Willow Creek (note: he stepped down five years ago when there were allegations of misconduct with women—but he ruled that church for 40 years), surveyed the neighborhood, and then designed Sunday morning services for them. He says, “for every sermon we preach, they (i.e., the unchurched) are asking ‘Am I interested in that subject or not?’ If they aren’t, it doesn’t matter how effective our delivery is; their minds will check out.” It seems to me that for those places that became a megachurch, they got there by appealing to the lowest common denominator of religion.

·        Andy Stanley (son of the famous Charles Stanley), lead pastor at North Point, in Atlanta, with nearly 40,000 members spread out over 8 campuses, believes the same way.  As he says it: I stood in front of our launch group and said, ‘Atlanta doesn’t need another church—they need a different kind of church—a church where people feel free to invite their unchurched friends.’ We’ve created a church that unchurched people loved to attend.”

So what does God have to say about all that? First of all, Scripture has no such concept as “church is for the unchurched.” As Ephesians 4:12 says, church is…

….for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ

In I Corinthians 12:4-7, Paul is explaining how each member of Christ’s body has been given a gift, and how those will be used for the maturity of everyone toward a goal of Christlikeness:

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵ There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. ⁶ And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. ⁷ But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all

Paul goes further in I Corinthians 12:27,28:

Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. ²⁸ And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.

Note that God gives these gifts to believers, not unbelievers, who are, by definition, not part of God’s Church, the Body of Christ.  The megachurch pastor sees things differently.  When frustrated members complain about the music being loud or all about feeling, or when they beg the pastor to “go deeper” into explaining Scripture, the answer is a somewhat winsome, “where have you gotten that mistaken belief?”  As Warren’s first four words of his book says, “It’s Not About You.” So we see the secret in those words: He means church is about the unchurched. We are willing to stunt the sanctification of members; their development is sacrificed for the unchurched.  If you gain anything by this approach, you could lose much more.    But I will address the Scriptural idea behind evangelizing later.

But the problem is, in trying to win unbelievers, these churches lean too heavily to conform to worldly methods, so the unchurched are comfortable.  They think nothing of Romans 12:2

do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

The second major problem we have, as Scripture explains, is that all church leadership, goals, and direction, must come from a body of elders, a plural body, not from a single celebrity pastor.  Leadership is always plural in Scripture. Your version may use slightly different words, but pastors, or elders, or bishops, or overseers are described in Ephesians 4:11, Philippians 1:1, Titus 1:5,7, and three more Scriptures as ALL PLURAL.  Pastors have one vote in decisions.  But Rick Warren’s quote here is interesting: “You must change the primary role of the pastor from minister to leader.”  When asked, “should we not talk about pastors as shepherds?”  Andy Stanley responded “Absolutely. Nothing works in our culture with that model.” (Then I ask, Why did Jesus treasure that model for directing His flock?  See John 10. Or, why is Paul using that model—I Peter 5:1,2).  Stanley maintained that shepherding was not leading, which is what he wanted. Scripture speaks the opposite of Mr. Stanley:  it wants leaders to think of themselves as shepherds (I Peter 2:25, and Acts 20:28), and a shepherd is humble and a minister. Consider Mark 10:42-44:

You know that those who are considered (pagan) rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. ⁴³ Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. ⁴⁴ And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all

 But these men have a hunger to lead, skipping the humble ministering part, or the slowdown that a group of elders might do to their ambition.  But if they attain total control, they are moving down a dangerous path:  based on history, running the show means it’s far easier for him to ride off the rails in doctrine. Ask Schuller about that:  His weakness about doctrine, like sin, was a big part of his demise.  He only gave up the Crystal Cathedral when it was ready to file bankruptcy.  It is now owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange.

Or, consider the questions about Mark Driscoll ruining Mars Hill Church in 2014, when he was forced out. Here is an insider’s view:

After he left, eleven of the Mars Hill Churches became independent churches and the remaining four churches were dissolved. The story of Mars Hill speaks to a broader story about evangelical America and celebrity pastors. Part of Cosper’s interest in the story was because everything happened online. “But also a lot of us kind of agree that Mark said things very loudly related to power related to celebrity,” Cosper says. “At some point, I think the church needs to have a reckoning with its relationship to power and weakness.” Historically, the church has served the poor and the sick through sacrifice — something places like Mars Hill invert by putting wealth in power in the hands of few individuals.

One of the ways for the pastor to grab the lead more effectively is known as “vision casting.” Everyone goes into prayer for some stated time while pastor gets his vision.  Once he comes out with it, it is often “aggressively defended” (says an Elevation churches infographic—there are more than 20 of them) by other leaders.  Everyone is expected to be fully accountable and fully loyal to his vision.  If you have influence but too many questions, and stall, you may be given two options:  follow the vision or leave the church for somewhere else.  Bill Hybels calls it “the most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal.” Getting people to work toward a united goal is admirable, but calling it a “weapon” and “aggressively defending” it is a little off the chart; and pushing people out, even when done “kindly,” when they have a doubt amounts to censuring them. (See Suzanne Sataline, Wall St. Journal, 2006).  But we need to give you the Scriptural problems too: (1) Vision casting is nowhere implied or stated in Scripture as applicable to God’s Church; (2) it implies that the pastor receives direct revelation from God; this suggests his vision was “divinely inspired,” and thus cannot be questioned.  To oppose his vision is to oppose God. Your accountability moves from the Word of God to the vision, a bad idea to remove the focus away from God.  Discernment ministries are scorned by these leaders; those guys ask too many questions, they say.  Well, all of this has led to much spiritual abuse in the history of the church. Consider II Corinthians 1:24, where Paul tries to warn us before it happens:

Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy

The third problem we have is, their message is not the Gospel as presented in Scripture. Celebrity pastors say our complaint is only on their methods; not so— their message is a problem too. Their movement is actually anti-doctrinal to its core. Warren emphasizes “deeds, not creeds.”  His view of the Judgment seat is, “God won’t ask about your religious background or doctrinal views.”  Well, I disagree--He will put some Jehovah’s Witness or Mormon feet to the fire.  Believing in doctrines that don’t make Jesus God is a blasphemy that will send you to hell.  Sound doctrine has other beneficial uses besides as a litmus test for heaven.  See what Paul says to Titus in Titus 1:9:

…holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.

Ignoring sound doctrine means people are not exhorted nor convicted.  But they feel good.  So, would you feel good under deception, ignorant of possibly spending eternity in hell?  Sorry for my bluntness.  These guys can be blunt.  I watched as Perry Noble, one of their group, pastor of New Spring Church in Anderson SC, actually said, “Who’s the jackass in the church?  The person who always screams “I want to go deeper.”” Screams?  Really?  I wonder, does II Timothy 4:3 apply to today?  It reads:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves “teachers” ⁴ and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

Please join us in a week for the conclusion of this important study

The Other Side of God

  I would like to give you, pretty much word for word, a great sermon by Dr. R.C. Sproul, preached just before he entered the hospital for respiratory treatment that eventually took him to be with the Lord.

We live in a culture, and, sadly, in modern-day churches, that, if they believe in the existence of God, do not consider what's involved for us in God's holiness.  But if, peradventure, some may think about His holiness, they don’t consider God's divine Justice as well.  And if, with the lamp of Diogenes, we are able to find a handful of people who meditate on God's holiness and justice, it is next to impossible to find someone who will add to these elements the idea that God is a God of wrath.  Because the assumption in the world and the church today is that the love of God, the mercy of God, and the grace of God either swallows up the justice and wrath of God, or certainly trumps it. Even on national occasions, where noted people are buried out of the National Cathedral in Washington, it is commonplace to hear choirs sing or bagpipers play “Amazing Grace”--but nobody believes that His grace is amazing.  Because again the assumption is, God is love, and grace; and since that doesn't mix with He is also holy, just, and a God of wrath--we need to "resolve the contradiction" by ignoring His wrath and justice.

Let's hear from God on some Scripture regarding this.  Reading I Chronicles 13:1-6, David called all spiritual leaders in the land to form a grand procession and celebration to bring the ark of the covenant from storage back to his capital city.  Let’s pick it up from verse 7:

So they carried the ark of God on a new cart from the house of Abinadab, and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart. ⁸ Then David and all Israel played music before God with all their might, with singing, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on cymbals, and with trumpets. ⁹ And when they came to Chidon’s threshing floor, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled. ¹⁰ Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzza, and He struck him because he put his hand to the ark; and he died there before God. ¹¹ And David became angry because of the Lord’s outbreak against Uzza…

David was afraid of God that day.  When I (Dr. Sproul) was in seminary, I was taught that the Biblical passages that refer to the sudden explosion and paroxysm of rage that God manifested in the Old Testament, showed that the Old Testament is not the inspired Word of God, but is simply an example of a popular religion of a tribal deity from a semi-nomadic group of people who were pre-scientific and unsophisticated.  And they would say that these episodes recorded in the Old Testament were totally incompatible with the New Testament portrait of the love of God revealed in Jesus.  So what I experienced in seminary was a revival of the Marcionite heresy (Ed. Note:  popular around 144 A.D.); they believed in an attempt to expurgate from the Bible all references to this Old Testament angry deity.  But I thought that this episode, and others like it, since they were recorded in the pages of sacred Scriptures, would at least deserve the philosophy of a second glance.  So, David is going to bring the most sacred vessel of their religion to the holy place; he is going to restore the Glory to Israel to a brand new place.  So he has a new cart made; and in the middle of a jubilant procession, the ox stumbles, and tilts the cart, and the sacred ark is in immediate danger of falling into the dirt, or mud, where it would be surely desecrated.  Instinctively, out of a sense of respect for this sacred object, lest it become marred in the dirt, Uzzah stretches forth his hand.  As soon as he did, the heavens opened, and a deep voice shouted to him from heaven, “Thank you, Uzzah!”  Well…not how it happened.  As soon as he touched the ark, instantly, he was stricken.  God executed him.

Oh! The gymnastics my Old Testament professors went through in seminary, saying, “Well, that’s the way it seemed to these unsophisticated Hebrews who were watching this. Surely the man dropped dead of a heart attack, generated by his terror that he would venture to touch that sacred object.”  Or they would say, “This is evidence of whatever portrayal we have of the wrath of God in the Old Testament; it portrays God’s as being arbitrary, whimsical, capricious…” One professor even called this “the dark side of Yahweh…the demonic element within the nature of God Himself.”

Evidently these professors never read Numbers 4.  That’s when God gave the responsibility of the priesthood and the teaching to the tribe of Levi. The sole responsibility of the clan of the Kohathites was to look after the sacred vessels for the tabernacle.  But the ark was designed by God Himself to have rings on the sides; then they used long poles, or staves, inserted them through the rings, and carried the ark, on foot, balancing the staves on their shoulders on either side of the ark. The idea was that they, as human beings, would never come in contact with the throne of God. Keep in mind that the ark was designed for the purpose of manifesting God’s holiness. Numbers 4:15 explicitly says:

…the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them; but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die.

Jonathan Edwards has a sermon about this; he says “the sin of Uzzah was the sin of arrogance.”  It looked to me like a heroic act of humility.  But herein was the arrogance; Uzzah assumed that contact with the mud would be a greater sacrilege than contact with the hand of a human being.  What is mud?  Earth and water.  There is nothing innately sinful about dirt. If the ark touches the ground, it’s not going to do any damage.  What desecrates the throne of God is not the touch of earth; it’s the touch of man.  There is sin in the hand of Uzzah.  So he was executed for profaning the most holy object in Israel.

Now please turn to Leviticus 10:1-2:

Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. ² So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.  

 Whatever made it profane, it did not please God. These young priests were simply involved in experimental worship.  Maybe to try to change the liturgy that God had ordained, in such a way that it would be more appealing to the congregation. They missed the fundamental principle of worship: worship is to be determined not by what is pleasing to us, but what is pleasing to God.  (Ed. Note:  There was applause for Dr. Sproul here; if they’re thinking like me, they’re thinking about some of the worst of contemporary religious music, always a sore spot in church lately).

God never counts noses in the Old Testament, to decide what was the “best” form of worship; convenience to the crowd is not necessary.

The most successful worship service ever recorded, which drew more
people in attendance, with singing with so much gusto that when their voices were heard miles away, on a mountain, one of the men who heard the noise of this thought a war had broken out.  He thought the noise that he heard was the tumult that accompanies battle. But when they took time to investigate it, it was not a war, it was a worship service--for the golden calf!

Nothing attracts greater crowds than the practices of idolatry.

But these young fellows were just trying to improve on the worship of Israel; they offered a new way of sacrifice. And as soon as they did it, a fire came out and burned them to a crisp.

I want to ask you this question: What do you suppose Aaron’s response to this was?  I mean, he’s their father; “God, what are You doing? These are my sons.  All they did was tinker a little bit.”  And he speaks to Moses.  Moses said to him, as it were: “Do you remember what the Lord said at your consecration?” We can find it in Lev. 10:3:

By those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy, and before all the people, I must be glorified.

But instead of regarding God as holy, Nadab and Abihu came to God in profanity. Do you realize how the Lord God Omnipotent considers our profane worship?  When we dare to come into His presence without considering Him as holy?  And without seeing our primary responsibility in our celebration of worship is displaying before the whole congregation, the glory of God.

What does it say that Aaron did when Moses gave him this reminder?  In typical masterful Biblical understatement; the verse says, “So Aaron held his peace.”  There was nothing else for Aaron to do, no room for debate. “I am the Lord, there is none other; and I will be regarded as holy by anyone who comes near to Me.”    The story goes on and Moses calls others to:

…come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp.

This seems that God is being gracious now, and we assume they will get a proper burial.  No, uh-uh.  Verses 5-7:

So they went near and carried them by their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said.  ⁶ And Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons, “Do not uncover your heads nor rend your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the people. But let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord has kindled. ⁷ You shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you.” And they did according to the word of Moses.

You see what He is saying through Moses?  “I don’t even want their bodies in the camp.  And I don’t want anybody rending their garments and lamenting in dust and ashes.  I don’t want a wake for these guys. They’re polluting My sanctuary. I want their bodies, and anything associated with them, carried outside the camp—because they have profaned Me with their false worship.”

You know, the most famous sermon ever preached in America, was preached in the 18^th century in Connecticut by Jonathan Edwards.  You all know the name of that sermon:  Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.  I had to read that for the first time in college, where it was required reading as an example of “sadistic preaching.”  And I thought, even then, if Jonathan Edwards were sadistic, which he wasn’t, and if he believed in hell, which he did, a sadistic preacher would do everything in his power, gleefully, to tell his congregation that there was no such place as hell.  And, if I were sadistic, I would secretly enjoy the inevitability of their being plunged into it.  Edwards was no sadist; he loved God, and he loved His people—and he cared about their ultimate destination. Almost everybody in America has heard the title of the sermon; almost no one is aware of the text for that sermon—from Deuteronomy 32:35:

….their foot shall slip in due time

Edwards’ sermon has also been used in classrooms because of its graphic imagery of the wrath of God.  God is poised as a dam building up water until it is ready to break, to pour forth upon mankind; as a man with a bow drawn, aimed and ready to let go and pierce the heart of a sinner, all visualized in discomforting detail.  But the only thing that keeps you from falling into hell is the hand of God.  So the sermon is on the wrath of God, but also on His grace of His stayed hand.

That sermon wouldn’t scare anybody in our culture or in our churches, because nobody, really, believes in hell anymore.  Hell, if it exists, is a place for maybe six guys--the worst of humanity.  And the greatest lie, the most monstrous lie, the most brazen lie of all, is the lie that people tell themselves, “I have nothing to worry about from the wrath of God.  My god is a god of love.”  Well, your god is an idol—and no God at all.

Edwards challenged his congregation, and said, “Can you give me any reason, since you got out bed this morning, why you haven’t fallen into hell?”  Apart from the Gospel, dear friends, I couldn’t answer that question.  I couldn’t give any reason why I’m alive this afternoon, and not in hell—apart from Christ.

My favorite illustration of how calloused we typically become, goes back to the second year of my teaching career, when I was given the assignment of teaching 250 college freshmen a course in the introduction to the Old Testament.  They were given three short term papers, due September 30, October 30, and November 30.  On September 30, 25 of them fearfully admitted to not having their paper.  They timidly added their excuse.  I graciously gave them 3 extra days, and they were most appreciative. They took Adderall, and most completed it in the three days. On October 30, 50 of them did not have their papers.  They explained calmly that it was mid-term, homecoming games, etc.  I graciously again gave them 3 extra days.  They started to sing, spontaneously, 250 voices, “We love you Prof Sproul, oh yes we do…” And I was the most popular professor on that campus—until November 30. This time, 150 students came in without their papers. I watched them walk in as cool and as casual as they could be, and I saw one of them, a Marine veteran, and I said, “Johnson—where’s your paper?”  He said, “Hey, HEY.” (Happy Days TV.) “Don’t worry about it, prof, I’ll have it for you in a couple days.”  I picked up the most dreadful object in a freshman’s memory, a little black book, opened it up, and said, “Johnson, you don’t have your term paper?”  He said, “No.”  I said “F.” “Nicholson, where’s your term paper?”  “Don’t have it.”  “F.”  And then, out of the midst of this crowd, somebody shouted what you know they would shout, “THAT’S NOT FAIR.”  I turned around, “Fitzgerald, was that you who said that?”  He said, “Yeah. Not fair.  Right.”  “Weren’t you late last month with your paper?”  He said “yeah.”  I said “Fitzgerald, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. If it’s justice you want, it’s justice you will get.”  And I went back, and changed his grade from October to an F. There was this gasp in the room.  And I said, “Who else wants justice?” I didn’t get any takers. It reminded me of a song similar to My Fair Lady: “I’ve grown accustomed to his grace.” What had happened was, the first time they were late, they were amazed by grace.  The second time, they were no longer surprised, they assumed it.  By the third time, the
y Demanded it.  I developed a lax hand, in my desire to be liked.  They believed grace was an inalienable right, an entitlement to which they all deserved.

I took that occasion to explain to my class, “You know what you have done when you said “that’s not fair?”  You have confused justice and grace. The minute you think that anybody owes you grace, a bell should go off in your head to remind you that you’re no longer thinking about grace—because grace, by definition, is something you don’t deserve, it’s something you can’t possibly deserve.

You, my friends, have no merit before God—except demerit. And if God should ever, ever, treat you justly, outside of Christ, you will perish. And your foot will slip in due time.

Any time there is a group this large, assembled, I don’t care for what reason, even a church service, I know that there are people in this room, right now, who are that far from hell (holding his fingers close together). And they’re assuming they’re not going to go there. But if there is a God, and there is, and if He is holy, and He is, and if He is just, and He is, He could not possibly be without wrath. And if you have not been reconciled through the blood of His Son, the only thing you have to look forward to—is His wrath.  Which is a divine wrath. Which is a furious wrath. And it is an eternal wrath. Because God must be regarded as holy by anyone who comes near Him.

So, my beloved, if you would come into the presence of God, consider the nature of the God you are approaching—that you may come covered by the righteousness of Christ.

Satan's Attempts to Destroy Christ's Lineage, and then Christ Himself (Part 2)

 Last week we covered 6 attempts of Satan to destroy Christ’s lineage.  God prophesied in Genesis 3:15 that He would fulfill His promise that Jesus would destroy Satan.  Later, we learned that He would be a Jew coming from Abraham’s, then Judah’s, then David’s family.  Satan was a total failure to stop it thus far.  This week we do the last 9, including several attempts to kill Christ Himself. Let’s see what happens.

Attempt #7:  This attempt was Satan’s efforts to kill David and his descendants.  This was because Satan figured out that the Messiah would be in David’s line.  How did he deduce that?  First, he narrowed his search to the tribe of Judah, based on Genesis 49:10:

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes;

Satan also saw how King Saul disappointed God by not following His instructions.  And then, there was the bravery of David, from the tribe of Judah, and how he boasted about God’s power when he defeated Goliath.  So Satan figured that David was next on the throne, and thus he wanted to kill David. Then Samuel anointed David as future king.  So Satan fills Saul’s mind with envy and hatred of David to an obsessive decree.  Saul personally went hunting to kill David day and night.  And there are many verses that proves that Saul was moved by demonic forces.  Earlier, while David tried to play music to soothe Saul’s violent temper tantrums, Saul with no reason threw a spear at David.  Twice.  Another example of demonic oppression was, Saul sought out a medium, expressly forbidden by God.

But David continued to prove his faith in God.  He was egged on by his military to kill Saul when he had many lucky opportunities, but he remained righteous—by not assassinating the king.  If he had murdered Saul, he would have possibly been an unfit candidate for the Messiah’s line, which would have served Satan well.  (Of course, after he became king, he was a conspirator to murder, but sincerely repented—which is tenderly recorded in Psalm 51. God’s wonderful grace then forgave him.)

When David died, Satan also did everything he could to tempt David’s descendants into evil, hoping to break the lineage to the Messiah that way.  Solomon was David’s son.  Solomon’s many wives seduced him into idolatry.  Solomon spent government money lavishly to build palaces and a glorious temple, burnished with alarming amounts of gold and precious stones.  Thus he taxed his people heavily.  When Solomon died, his own son refused the request of the common people to reduce the tax, and, as a result, the kingdom was split! There was the rebellious 10-tribe north, still called Israel, and south, called Judah (which included Benjamin). This was a real threat to their continued existence, since a divided nation is weaker and will be attacked by enemies. The following generations proved to be a continuing downdraft of morals and corruptions, of idolatry and religious sexual fornication.  They abandoned God and followed the pagan religions around them. They were in and out  of oppressive dominance by Canaanite nations.

Attempt #8.  Ahaziah.  This was around 885 BC.  This was 100 years after Solomon’s sons had a rift and split the nation into two parts.  We now must keep our focus on kings of Judah, not the 10 tribes of Israel in the north, because of Genesis 49:10, repeated in this week's blog:

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes

Despite the same-name confusion from II Kings and II Chronicles, Ahaziah’s story begins in II Chronicles 22:1:

Then the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his place, for the raiders who came with the Arabians into the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, reigned.

See also II Kings 8:25. As the above verses say, due to war, his brothers all died. He was alone among heirs among David's descendants.  God's lineage plan was hanging by a single thread.  Not a problem for Him.  God kept Ahaziah from being killed until he had sons, continuing the Judah lineage. He began reigning when he was 22, or, ah, 42. II Kings 8:26 says 22, but II Chronicles 22:2 says 42.  A copyist's error.  Remember, Holy Scripture is perfect in the original.  But an error like this doesn't mean we throw away God's Word.  More than likely, he was 42. He was only king for one year. That leads to the next Attempt....

Attempt #9.  Joash. We had another one-man crisis.  Seems that a guy named Jehu was ordained by a prophet to kingship over Israel (I Kings 19:16).  So he did a coup d’etat, and killed the king of Israel, Joram. And, for good measure, ordered the assassination of Ahaziah, king of Judah (II Kings 9:27).  Then he took the kingship in Israel.  When Ahaziah’s mother, Athaliah, heard of her son’s death, the wicked woman took immediate advantage:  she killed almost all Ahaziah’s sons, intending to reign herself (II Kings 11:1-3).  God's lineage was under threat.  But as II Kings 11:2 records, God saw that she missed one:

But Jehosheba (or Jehoshabeath)….sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were being murdered; and they hid him and his nurse in the bedroom, from Athaliah, so that he was not killed.

So the lineage of Christ was again preserved; one survived.  But note:  Joash was a small child (notice "his nurse") when rescued, so he didn't become capable to reign in Judah at the same time as Jehu began reigning in Israel. A council of his aides, smart men, ruled for awhile.

The story of Joash (also called Jehoash) has a semi-happy ending, as you read II Kings 11:21-12:1:

In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. 

The reason I call it “semi” happy is because while he was a good king, and reigned for a long time, II Kings 12:3 says he didn’t take the “high places” away. These were places for worship of a false god. But the point is, Attempt #9 failed; Judah still has proper lineage.

Attempt #10 Perhaps the most entertaining event in the Bible is the book of Esther.  It is short, and it is wonderful reading. It’s around 500 BC.  Romance (well, as far as they knew, romance) wins, pride loses.  I only have enough space to give you an incomplete Cliff notes. The tribes of Judah were conquered by Babylon. Then Persia defeated Babylonia, and took over the people of Judah (many of them were displaced elsewhere by now).  Persian King Ahasuerus had a beauty contest and picked a new wife, Esther.  Unbeknownst to him, she was Jewish.  But one of the king’s servants, Haman, hated her cousin Mordecai because Mordecai refused to bow to acknowledge his greatness in possessing his high office.  Haman was infuriated at this slight; he resolved to not only kill Mordecai, but all Jews in all the Persian kingdom, which was most of the known world at the time. This would again be another attempt to snuff out the Messianic lineage.  Satan may have given him the idea that it wasn’t enough just to kill Mordecai, but all Jews. (It would not be unusual, since he was from the Amalekite race, enemies of Jews). Through false witness to his king, he got the king’s signet ring to give orders for genocide.  He picked a day for the massive kill—soon.  He was willing to pay a lot of money to those who would do the killing—of every Jewish man, woman, and every child.  A grisly business.  An additional motivation toward getting the help of the Persians in the killing was the fact that whoever killed a Jew would get his land.  Haman was efficient in giving notice to every province in the vast kingdom.  But Esther heard of the plot through her maids, and Mordecai notified her that she would have to act fast to somehow persuade the king to change his mind.  They all knew that Haman was behind it.  There was one unfortunate detail of Persian law—once the king makes a law, it cannot be revoked.   Satan had made a cunning move, and it looked like the Jewish people would all be dead soon.

But God knew this ahead of time, and made His own chess moves.  God is always one step ahead of Satan.  Why not?  He is the master of the dimension of time.  He knows the entire history of everyone on earth ahead of time.  I can imagine all the future videoclips He could see at the same time.

Esther, I suspect with God’s help, made a brilliant plan.  And in the end, she, with great tears explained it all to Ahasuerus and appealed to the king’s mercy (we all know how women are). Haman made some wrong moves and was hung, Mordecai got the king’s signet ring, and while the king couldn’t change the law, he provided another law that allowed Jews to kill their enemies first!  The Jews were not only honored, but many people changed their religion to worshiping the Jewish God.  This happened in the Persian kingdom, which is Iran today.  Can you imagine today’s Iranians giving Jews the right to kill their enemies?  For sure, this whole thing was a rarity for the Jews.  God wins, Satan loses.

Attempt #11 and following show Satan’s all-out attempt to kill Jesus, whom he knew was the Messiah from prophecies about His birthplace (Micah 5:2), and by a visit by wise men underneath a supernatural star.

We won’t count as an Attempt how Joseph, when he heard of Mary’s pregnancy, was on the verge of divorcing her as his betrothed wife.  Without such an important element in culture of a man standing up to be a father, the scandal of irresponsible fornication and baby-production would have been much greater.  That would have meant that Jesus would probably have been banned from speaking at any synagogue in the land. His message would never have gone out. In any event, an angel told Joseph in a dream that Mary was still a virgin, and bore a child through the Holy Spirit.  Joseph evidently believed it—so he was definitely the right man for the job of stepfather.

Neither are we going to start with Caesar, who had the brilliant idea that everyone had to be registered in their original home province.  So Joseph and a very pregnant Mary had to travel over bumpy roads on horseback.  This endangered her; a too-early, or even, stillbirth could have resulted.

No, let’s start Attempt #11 with king Herod, who was in a fret about the wise men appearing out of the East and asking for the location of the newborn King of the Jews. Hearing about another king was bad news to him. Two more dreams were necessary from God, but the wise men were warned not to tell Herod they had found the Messiah, and Joseph was warned to escape.  So Herod’s cruelty in killing every child age 2 and under in the Bethlehem area did not produce the desired effect. Satan’s Attempt #11:  FAIL.

Attempt #12 was at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  John the Baptist had given Jesus credibility, there was a miracle of wine at Cana, and Jesus was brilliant in initial appearances speaking at synagogues.  But that was it to that point, so He had barely got going. He wasn’t a crowd-producer yet, to spread the new Gospel.  But Jesus, on one Sabbath, informed the synagogue public that ancient prophets spent some time being kinder to Gentiles rather than Jews (Luke 4).  The xenophobic Jews got a demonic gang urge, and almost threw Him off a cliff.  God suddenly engineered an escape miracle, because it simply says, without explanation, that “passing through the midst of them, He went His way.”  It was also a fact that Scripture records other instances of men’s desire to kill Him before the mock trial that finally did it.  But Jesus was smart enough to have plenty of loving followers around Him during the day, and slip away into remote locations at night. His full message had time to get out. The only way they got to Him was the betrayal of Judas.
.

Attempt #13 This was Satan’s attempt to drown the Messiah in a huge sea storm on the sea of Galilee, which had violent storms on occasion. But this storm was unusually dangerous and could have been lethal.  Why do I think that Satan was behind this?  Because in Luke 8:24, and Mark 4:39, Jesus “rebuked” the wind and raging water.  A curious word, right? But the word “rebuke” is used in Scripture for deliverance from demons (Matthew 17:18, for instance).  Yes, Satan can figure out how to have his demons make a storm.  But, Jesus can figure out the source, and deliver Himself from the weather.  A great God.

Attempt #14 Satan figured he had Jesus’ number at the Crucifixion.  Even though the witnesses against Him were false, even though Pilate and his wife did everything they could to release Jesus, the Jewish crowd were in a demonic paroxysm again; they wanted to see Jesus dead.  They even preferred to see a murderer released instead of Jesus.  They even cursed themselves, saying (Matthew 27:25) “his blood be on us, and on our children.”  God, in total disgust, rejected these Jews, formerly the “apple of His eye.” Jesus warned them several times about this. God’s judgment came down on those Jews 40 years later.  Under a vicious Roman general Titus, over a million of the Jews were slaughtered in a raid on Jerusalem.  The temple was completely torn down, as Jesus had prophesied.  But Satan was looking only at Jesus; he actually figured that the Crucifixion would do the job; Jesus would stay dead.  But in the greatest triumph of history, Jesus was resurrected, and lives!  Now His Gospel of freedom from sin and resurrection for His followers still abides in a minority everywhere in the world.

Attempt #15 is probably future.  God prophesied, through an allegory in Revelation 12, Satan’s attempt to devour Christ in the future. (He is the Child in Revelation 12;  Satan is the dragon).  In Revelation 12:13, Satan is attacking “the woman,” probably Israel. So Satan will cause many Jews to die.  Other verses suggest God's children (those that believe and follow Christ) will also be heavily persecuted. In other Scripture we find that he is attempting a giant war against Christ and His followers at Har Megiddo, also called Armageddon (Revelation 16:13-16).  But no one can be certain about the future, so I am deliberately sketchy about details.  All I know is that Satan is given one last chance, in some probable future date, as implied in Revelation 12:12, to do his destructive work. It was futile, since Christ lives, but that’s the way Satan is.  It may come during our lifetimes, it may not.  But he will be a masterful deceiver, so much so that the earth comes under one world ruler and one non-Christian religion--most people will actually worship an antichrist under Satan’s control!  Many nominal Christians will be fooled, as Matthew 24:24 says about that future day:

….false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Jesus even began His Olivet Discourse on future events by warning His followers about deception (Matthew 24:4).  He also warned His followers to stay alert and looking for Him, not to be caught up in the ways of the world, which could destroy us. Yes, it is true that Satan looks like the Cleveland Browns, as he went 0-14, as we showed above, but he is wily and is successful on getting the majority of people to be swayed and hell-bound.  Jesus confirms that in Matthew 7:13-14:

 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴ Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it

My final word of warning is from II Corinthians 11:13-15:

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. ¹⁵ Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

Christians, beware!  Do not fall for this upcoming great deception. You must endure the persecution to gain heaven. If we ever sign up with the Antichrist, our future will be in hell. Think soberly on Revelation 14:9-11:

Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, ¹⁰ he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. ¹¹ And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name

Acknowledgement:  Chuck Missler, a great man of God, who is sorely missed by his passing.