Light a candle???? - Confronting error!!!!

ANDREW STROM: Some people think I have ruined my ministryby "attacking error" - and in my more discouraged moments I am inclined to agree with them. I begin to think how much easier my life would be if I could just stick to 'Repentance' preaching alone (-though even that is bad enough for some!) But then I look at Jesus (who is supposed to be our example, after all) and I notice what an incredible amount of time He spent - not just preaching 'kingdom' truth - but actually destroying the religious lies and falsehoods that had been preached by others. No wonder the religious leaders hated Him!David Kirkwood was here recently, preaching verse by versethrough the 'Sermon on the Mount'. I had never realized beforethat even in this most 'kingdom'-oriented passage, there were so many teachings from the Chief Priests and Pharisees that Jesus was directly targeting and bringing down. -It was staggering.Little wonder that they were plotting to kill Him for monthsbefore they actually managed it. -And little wonder that He only lasted three-and-a-half years. Little wonder, too, that John theBaptist only lasted six months!If you look through the words of Jesus in the gospels, you will beamazed how often He is attacking falsehood. -This is because Hehad to clear the 'junk' away to successfully plant the Truth. Youcannot allow them both to keep growing. -Eventually the lies willbegin to choke the Truth. So actually destroying falsehoods is avital part of establishing Truth. -Which leads, of course, to this: "If they have hated me, they will also hate you."Some people believe that it is enough to simply "Light a candlein the darkness" - rather than confront the darkness head-on. Thisis a nice thought, and certainly makes for an easier life. But inconsidering the life and words of Jesus, we must come to the opposite conclusion. We must confront the darkness directly, or the 'light' that we bring will start to be affected by it. -"A little leavenleavens the whole lump." Confronting error is a vital part of establishing the gospel. If it getsus "hated", so be it. We must clear the ground of error for the Truth to do its full work. -This is the clear teaching of Jesus.Below is a brief but insightful comment by Jeff Marshall about error:DISCERNING TRUTH from ERROR-Jeff Marshall.A VERY simple way of discerning the true and false prophets, and their true and false "Gospels", is that the true (prophet/Gospel) is always pointing to eternity and what will matter then, whereas the false always points to the temporal things that will not last. And the true points to Jesus and the taking up of the cross, while the false points to the false minister and/or self - and calls any such "denying of self" as bizarre, "legalistic", old fashioned, etc. (eg. "Kingdom Keys to YOUR Financial Prosperity and Success" -the whole idea that God is like a window teller at McDonald's, waiting to "take YOUR ORDER". - That is actually the premise of a new book from one of the Metroplex's largest churches). The True says, "Count the cost" and the false says, "Call in the Blessings". It is not so hard to discern, but we are "led astray by OUR OWN LUSTS", and we play a major role in our own deception. That is why God always sends a prophetic warning to shake thesleeping awake. Those who love their comfortable spiritual beds, just roll back over and go to sleep - till judgement day. Those who have ears to ear, repent and turn away from these lies to receive the truth. This sounds so "RADICAL" and it is so fundamentally first-base Discipleship that we don't even know it when we see it. God help America and do whatever it takes to revive us again before we are too far gone for merciful offerings of grace and must receive discipline and judgement instead. Start with me, O Lord!

Confronting error is a vital part of establishing the gospel. If it getsus "hated", so be it. We must clear the ground of error for the Truth to do its full work. -This is the clear teaching of Jesus.God help America and do whatever it takes to revive us again before we are too far gone for merciful offerings of grace and must receive discipline and judgement instead. Start with me, O Lord!I agree that we should confront error, with so many false doctrines in the world today, the Truth must stand. And I also agree with your prayer, "Start with me, Lord!"

A VERY simple way of discerning the true and false prophets,and their true and false "Gospels", is that the true (prophet/Gospel)is always pointing to eternity and what will matter then, whereas the false always points to the temporal things that will not last.And the true points to Jesus and the taking up of the cross, while the false points to the false minister and/or self - and calls any such "denying of self" as bizarre, "legalistic", old fashioned, etc.I think we need the balance of the Spirit in this. Our tendency is toward lopsidedness. We either take the way of avoiding confrontation or we become those who live to confront error and in so doing we lose the proper balance.One thing I have observed in the scriptures is that the Lord Jesus never went to those in error and sought to "straighten them out". The Lord Jesus spoke to those whom He was revealing truth to. Yet as a result His fame was spreading and the pharasees came to him and were always trying to trap Him. He exposed them and said strong words to them.But in speaking to the multitudes, he exposed the hypocrisy of the pharasees and said, "beware of the levin of the pharasees". He said, "don't be as the hypocrites who do this or than, but you on the other hand..."When confronted with the errors of the Saducees He answered their questions truthfully and said, "In this you do greatly err..."It is one thing to learn the art of self defense, it is another to be one always looking for a fight. In the Same way, we should be those who are steeped in and constituted with the truth. And we should not be reluctant to expose error when presenting the truth. But we don't necessarily need to be those who go out into the enemies camp and try to expose them so much as those who speak the truth and are able to deal with those who oppose.If we walk with Christ in the spirit and speak the truth and minister Christ, we will not be lacking in those who oppose. And we should be those who live in our spirit and exercise our spirit to deal with them.But the truth which is always opposed is just Christ Himself. Whenever we preach Christ, we are in effect preacing against anything that is not Christ.A study of all the epsiltes shows that in every case when Paul is addressing error, it was always a substitute for Christ whether it be rituals, ascetic practices, the law, the ordinances, philosophy, or religion, it was inevitably something that came in to either corrupt the purity of Christ or to supplant Christ with an addition or a replacement.If we focus on Christ, His Person, His Work, and the enjoyment of Him as our indwelling Life, we will be kept from error and will be those equipped to deal with error in a proper way in a proper spirit.Graftedbranch

But in speaking to the multitudes, he exposed the hypocrisy of the pharasees and said, "beware of the levin of the pharasees". He said, "don't be as the hypocrites who do this or than, but you on the other hand..."I suspect this is one of the gravest threats to the church of our day, yet the most difficult to confront, perhaps because it is so insidious. It is not a prescribed doctrine that we can refute. Perhaps, also, it is not really what we wish to deal with, either because it is too threatening to our security, or we ourselves are afflicted. GraftedBranch, I appreciate how you so wisely brought balance to the issue of confrontation.Diane