It's Getting Really Weird Out There

It's Getting Really Weird Out ThereHow would you feel if your pastor announced from the pulpit that he had uncovered a "new revelation" in the Bible? His discovery: That a church leader can have more than one wife.Hopefully, you and everyone in the building would run, not walk, out of that church and never come back until the pastor had been replaced. But I am afraid too many of us gullible charismatics might stay in the pews—and eventually give the guy a standing ovation plus a $10,000 love offering.That's how strange it is getting out there. Something has gone terribly wrong in our movement. Everywhere I turn I find that leaders of so-called Spirit-filled churches are making bizarre choices that compromise basic Christian integrity.Some examples:At one charismatic megachurch, staff pastors successfully convinced all their wives and female staff members to get breast implants. (I wonder: Was this discussed at a staff meeting?)A church in California (known for its revival meetings and prophetic ministry) recently imploded after members learned that several men in the church had been having homosexual affairs with the pastor, who was married.A leader with an international following (who wears the label of "apostle") recently informed his leaders that men of God who reach his level of anointing are allowed to have more than one sexual partner. Then his own son offered his wife to his father out of a sense of spiritual obligation.We can all say together: "Eeeuuuwww!"What has triggered this madness? The devil is working overtime, yet our discernment is at an all-time low. Satan's tactics are more brazen than ever. We might as well let him walk into church on Sunday morning and give him the microphone.We've been bewitched. What matters to us today are the carnal things. We want flash, bang and the wow factor. If a person can shout loud enough and get everyone to swoon at the altar, we don't care how he or she lives at home. Morality is irrelevant. In 2000 Charisma reported that charismatic preacher Clarence McClendon had divorced his wife of 16 years, Tammera McClendon, and married another woman after only seven days. The ceremony was performed by Bishop Earl Paulk, founder of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Atlanta. Several prominent ministers attended the wedding, lending their endorsement to McClendon's actions.Tammera McClendon later informed Charisma that Clarence had told her while they were married that God had already shown him the woman who would replace her as his wife.McClendon left his denomination, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, after his divorce became public. He began a new church, Full Harvest International Church, which currently meets in Gardena, California. His preaching is aired on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and he was a featured guest on TBN's Praise the Lord program last week.In fact, McClendon collected the offering during the network's annual telethon. When I turned on the program and saw him raising money, I stared in disbelief. How did we get in this pitiful condition? The very pulpits of America have become defiled because we are unwilling to confront sin. We are playing political games when the very health of the church is at stake.Some Christians write letters to me saying: "The Bible says we shouldn't judge. Sure these leaders have stumbled, but no one is perfect. We need to forgive."What Bible are these people reading? Mine says plainly that it is our responsibility to judge sin in the church. Of course we forgive, but forgiveness does not involve putting a preacher back on stage the next week if he just had a serious moral failure. When the apostle Paul learned that a man was living in an immoral relationship with his father's wife, he tore into the situation with a vengeance. He said: "Are you not to judge those inside the church? Expel the wicked person from among you." Those are not politically correct words. If we want a restoration of genuine, apostolic Christianity in our generation, we need to dispense with the craziness and initiate some apostolic confrontation.Source

This paragraph (in the articles) sums it up: How did we get in this pitiful condition? The very pulpits of America have become defiled because we are unwilling to confront sin. We are playing political games when the very health of the church is at stake.

It reminds of the fake wrestling on television. People know it is a fraud, yet they want to see more.In ChristJeff

That's a good analogy Jeff. It says that I would rather be entertained than confronted about my sin. It's sad but true...

this is most grievous. one thing is for sure, the retribution for these transgressions and the ones we continue to add to the pile of sins that's before God is going to be unlike anything ever before seen...For those whome the Lord has quieckened to repentance, repent, repent and repent some more.Set us Straight Lord

Brothers the sad thing is at times when I read these type of things I can't cry or weep over them.I relate to your numbness Greg. This behavior among confessing Christians is so common place, both in the pulpit and the pew, that we fall from being incensed to insensible. They readily admit that they are sinning, and breaking the hearts of their spouses and children, all with the full intention of plying God for His grace at just the right moment. There is no love for God, neither is there fear of judgement in their hearts.They don't realize that such remorseless satisfaction from sin is evidence of the severest judgement of all...that God has turned them over to their lusts. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.MC

I relate to your numbness Greg. Me too. Unfortunately much of the time, the only thing that rises in my heart is judgment. I know that Jesus is faithfully dealing with attitude of mine but when will these things lead to a breaking. Until that happens, no intercession can begin.Have you discovered that you can't really pray for someone where there is judgement in your heart (or anger or bitterness or any other sin) for someone? May the Lord God of heaven purge this wickedness of heart, so we can truly begin to intercede.

May the Lord God of heaven purge this wickedness of heart, so we can truly begin to intercede.There has to be an brokeness in our hearts before we can truly begin to intercede on behalf of men to God.Amen brothers.MC

I can beleive it, but it still makes me cry. It is indeed a strange time to live when all the thoughts of sinful men are justified in the name of -- 'don't judge' Now I am an Assemblies of God minister -- Pentecostal in my faith and life. But what the church does in the name of following the Holy Spirit is shameful. They have removed the 'Holy' from His name. How can one legitiamtely say they are walking with God if they are justifying sin in any way? A leader with an international following (who wears the label of "apostle") recently informed his leaders that men of God who reach his level of anointing are allowed to have more than one sexual partner. Then his own son offered his wife to his father out of a sense of spiritual obligation. When the apostle Paul learned that a man was living in an immoral relationship with his father's wife, he tore into the situation with a vengeance. He said: "Are you not to judge those inside the church? Expel the wicked person from among you." Now this is the contrast that is almost linked and is double perverted. It is one thing to say the Bible allows poligamy, but to then offer up your own wife to your father is just ungodly something Paul decried directly. But here is the thing brothers -- Any doctrine that appeals to the flesh will be allowed because we are 'not to judge' is even more perverted. But this judged thing is getting out of hand because Jesus' himself makes other points where he it is clear that it is a duty to judge. Matthew 18:15-17 comes to mind:If your brother sins[b], go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16"But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that (N)BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17"If he refuses to listen to them, (O)tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, (P)let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Sorry, how can you do this without judging if a person has sinned? Jesus' words in Matthew 7 (Note: same gospel) are about setting up our own standard and judging people by the standard we create. But we can judge according to the standard of the Word of God. There is a big difference.I weep because a lot is done in the name of grace these days -- grace that our forefathers did not preach or live. May we all learn to weep until revival comes -- we truly need it.Blessings.

Brothers the sad thing is at times when I read these type of things I can't cry or weep over them.Ezek. 9:3 Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; 4 and the LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.” I too have become numbed by the evil of our day. Numbness is a result of not hearing. Hebrews 5:9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, 10 called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,” 11 of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. As we draw near to Him He will draw near to us. We will then be able to sigh and cry over the abominations that surround us. In ChristJeff

A few of posts I have read remind me of Vance Havner's Getting Used to the Dark

It's is easy and very subtle to "get used to the dark."

It is indeed a strange time to live when all the thoughts of sinful men are justified in the name of -- 'don't judge' Pastor please forgive me, I wasn't suggesting this at all so if I've left that impression I'm quite sorry.When we take a stand against sin, that means the Lord has to deal with my own heart first. So I'm discovering that to pray for someone, the Lord often deals with sin in my own heart before I can truly intercede. That happened again and again in Rees Howell's life and it's beginning to happen in my own life as well.I think that's why many don't want to intercede because there is a price to be paid. If even unconsciously I'm think I'm better than someone else and I'm praying for them, the Holy Spirit will first deal with my pride before I can effectively intercede for them.That doesn't justify sin at all. If I'm unwilling to deal with what the Holy Spirit points to, then there's a falseness in my spirit and I won't see my prayer answered for whomever this person is.We must judge ourselves by allowing the Holy Spirit to search our hearts. Then we can effectively intercede.(1 Corinthians 1:31-32) But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

Habakkuk3,No need to apologize I wasn't dirrecting my comments at anyone in particular -- It just is frustrating that everytime I take the pulpit and preach against sin there is some guy (not you) saying 'don't judge'. I am holiness in a lot of my thinking so I figure if he blood of Christ cleases my conscience from dead works to serve the living God, it must be so. But when I see people doing things like this and there is no guilt of conscience like you are speaking of for yourself then I have to wonder as to their salvation. whether it was genuine in the first place or they have backsliden. I always get a bit irrate when these things happen in the church -- "the pure and unspotted bride of Christ". This one guy makes me furious -- he is supposed to love his wife as Christ loves the church and yet he gives her to another man. Divorce for such reasons as 'I think God is showing me my new wife'will fall under the same Biblical standard and fail. Do you see Christ doing either to the church? I certainly don't. God have mercy on the church when people do this in the name of Christ and then avoid all repercussions with -- 'do not judge'.I am not mad at you my friend, I understand your point -- but it makes me weep and anger at the same time when I see how far the American church has fallen and I wonder will be able to recover. The fact remains that in cases in the New Testament we are told to remove people because of their sin. That is more than intercession for them -- although that is important -- it is delivering them over to Satan for the destruction of their flesh for the sake of their redemption. This is hard becasue we want to be nice at times, but in these cases we are going to be nice to the point of sending people to hell. I can't live with that.Blessings.

This is so tragic...but has this type of thing not been going on for years among the laity? and people just said you must forgive them WITHOUT having to repent, staying in the condition they got into after ditching their spouse? If it is ok for the laity, why is it worse for the clergy?ginnyrose

I think the day is coming, like in the days of Jeremiah, when those who blaspheme the name of God by claiming to be prophets and servants of Him yet serve only their own selfish lusts, when God will have suffered long and His true prophets and servants have suffered long in prayer - that God will reach the point to releasing the burden of prayer like He did with Jeremiah:"Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee." -Jeremiah 7:16read the rest of Ch.7 and it is soberring to think of what will happen to this so-called Christian nation if we continue on this path...In the meantime, as long as there is a burden for us to interceed - until God lifts that - let's pray, pray, pray!

When I read Jeremiah 7 and 8 I think: so mankind has not changed any; actually sounds like he is talking about moderns! In the midst of all this wickedness, God still called prophets up to preach repentence. Human nature has not changed since then and neither has God nor the mesage of repentence. In an odd sense, I find the prophets and minor prophets very inspiring! About like as though I am hearing a contemporary preacher waxing eloquent in his elocution!ginnyrose