Max has also by association endorsed SPEAKING IN TONGUES from
his
charismatic friends.
"Kalla
ma sone, da
fa kooka shores. It kin da la key la shone da la kene (his voice
becomes hoarse and is reduced to an indistinguishable whisper). Bear
fose sone ta wentta lone (voice trails off into a whisper again). Da
lotta tongue de cush--a--wong do so coo toe. Ah shon da ba she dees
... O. Lord, your good ... Gash a la mon sewer. El ah ma she sa (more
whispering). Fa kon a la ma dorman begetta see de so
lawsuit...
The
tape ends with some
meaningless and worthless "prophecies" by Rusty.
The
giddy and the gullible
bought into it. The Belmont church became Finto's church and
ceased
to
be known as a
Church of Christ. He gathered leftover hippies, street people, the
cynical, the cranky, the kooky,
the amused, the wrong--headed, and the unseeing. The building was
once again full-full of people, full of frivolity, full of nonsense. It rocked along, but
most thought it was too
irregular to be taken seriously.
Now,
fast--forward to April 22,
1997. The scene: A Nashville Hotel banquet room. The purpose: To get
Nashville ready of the 1997 Jubilee. The chairman of the
meeting: Rubel Shelly, preacher for the
Woodmont Hills Church
in Nashville. The speaker: Max Lucado, preacher for the Oak Hills
Church in San Antonio. An honored guest: Don Finto, preacher for the
Belmont Church in Nashville.
We
would have thought
Don
Finto far too
aberrant to be taken
seriously by Lucado and Shelly, but both these men endorsed Finto
that day. (This program was recorded and the words of approval and
praise for the apostate Don Finto preserved.)
Rubel
Shelly, who has a
doctorate from Vanderbilt, asked Don Finto to bless the food-not
that Finto would ask God to
bless the food, but that Finto would bless it (Shelly made this
statement three times). The speaker of the hour, Max Lucado, in his
introduction, said, "Don Finto is my hero." So, there you have
Shelly, Lucado, and Finto-birds of a feather flocking together. These
men-Shelly and Lucado-are either as much of a goose as Finto, or they
are laughing in their sleeves. I cannot tell which. In either case,
it is inexcusable.
By
Paul R. Buckley
The
Dallas Morning News
Max
Lucado has heard the
joke. Of course he has
A
guy goes to
heaven.
St. Peter gives him the tour, stopping
at room after room of various believers: Baptists here, Methodists
there, and Catholics over yonder. Tiptoeing past the last room and
shushing the wide-eyed newcomer, the great saint whispers:
"And
there are the
Church of Christ folks. They don't think anybody else is here."
Yes,
this is an old joke
largely invented by preachers to judgmentally bite the hand what
feeds them. Preachers on the church of Christ payroll are the most
prone to make stab
wounds into the body of
Christ. And of course, The Dallass Morning News suggests that this
joke doesn't apply to other groups!
If
you are a reader of history
and the web you will understand that after Catholicism, churches of
Christ come in for many, many charges of being Campbellites (that
would sentence you to hell), with being legalists (that would
sentence you to hell) and increasingly being a cult.
Harold
Bloom in
The American Religion:
[198]
become God's "last" and "only hope" for evangelizing the world
according to New Testament principles. Its numerical, financial, and
spiritual growth, as well as its evangelistic zeal, was evidence of God's blessing on
its ministry, its mission, and
its method.
Schism
would mean the death of
the myth, so schism must be avoided at all cost. Nothing could be
allowed to deter the South's most southern denomination from it's
calling to redeem
itself and win the
ultimate battle against
evil.
This passion for
triumph, for spiritual and numerical success among Southern
Baptists, cannot be understood apart
from the surrender at Appomattox. (God's Last and Only Hope [1990],
p. 13)
It
is a leap forward from the
antimission
agitation of the early
decades of nineteenth-century Baptist religion in the South, to the
actual rise of Southern Baptists
as
the
Established
Church of
the Old South, and then
of the Confederacy and Reconstruction and on into our own day.
Pragmatically,
Graves was the
precursor of the rightist Texans who now exercise Fundamentalist
control of the Southern Baptist Convention, because he inverted the
Inner Light doctrine of the spirit's autonomy. Each local church, in
Graves's view, had the
authority to dictate belief to its own members. Landmarkism, which was
still strong
after the Civil War, left a legacy of dogmatism and triumphalism highly inimical to
Baptist soul liberty, a legacy
taken up by today's Fundamentalists.
The
Baptist then and now
believe that THEY are the uniquely saved people and that churches of
Christ are CULTS.
The
Baptists still fight
against THOUGHT. Therefore, it is not a surprise that Max Lucado, the
BAPTIST in theology tells the OLD, TIRED LIE.
All
people believe in their
religion or they would be something else. Judgment day depends will
be severe to those who do not believe what the preach, or
deliberately try to Blow Winds of Change just so they can write a
book called Navigating the Winds of Change.
Max
Lucado: It's an old
one, but Max Lucado still laughs because he knows as well as anyone
the Church of Christ's no-one's-saved-but-us reputation. He's a Church of
Christ minister,
after all, as well as the hottest Christian writer around.
That
is being pretty
judgmental. However, the obverse side of the same coin is to say that
everyone who calls God "Father" is saved. Its the same old
judgmentalism but one which gets you a bigger audience.
And
he
believes that there really are Baptists, Methodists, and
Catholics in those other rooms.
Judgmentalism
begins when you
try to guess which rooms hold which groups. Harold Bloom together
with a knowledge of ancient and modern Gnosticism grasps that the
Mormons and Babtists are UNIQUELY AMERICAN RELIGIONS which he says
has little in common with historic Christianity. The Baptist
BELIEVER'S BAPTISM in fact was invented for Christians in 1525 by
Zwingli who confessed tha this view, the correct view, had never been
understand in the previous centuries. The baptism is much
like ancient pagan
baptism.
Max
Lucado, an easygoing
man of simple faith, has done what no other Church of Christ minister
has done. He has become an immensely popular figure outside the tight circle of his own tradition.
His
books and his
participation
in
Promise
Keepers have put
him in a league with evangelicals such as Charles Swindoll and James Dobson.
Sure
gone further than Elijah
or Ezekiel or Jeremiah or Jesus or Paul. Don't you really worry when
your theology has a wide and popular appeal? The gospel has always
been a scandal and those who preach it scandalized, abused and even
murdered. The message is that those who preach and practice the
message of Jesus "will suffer persecution." That is a supernatural
sign.
But
not
all of Lucado's own Church of Christ
brethren are rejoicing. Some fear that the
readers who've made
him so popular -- a multidenominational lot -- are going to hell.
And, to their dismay, they also know that more and more Church of
Christ members are thinking what he's thinking.
People
in the pews, even many
preachers, have begun to regard professing Christians at the church
down the street as the real thing.
Even
if they sing
their hymns with organs.
Even
if they take
Communion
quarterly rather than
weekly.
Even
if they were sprinkled
rather than dipped.
"So
much for the
three
primary, comprehensive
and all-important
ordinances of the
christian religion; the particular and individual observance of
which, constitute the religion of every real christian. Here let its
pause a little, reflect, and compare these ordinances, in their
proper and primitive import, order and connexion, as above deduced
from the holy scriptures,
and
contrast them
with the present views and practice--with the dull, listless, formal,
ceremonious--nay,
even
superstitious and absurd
formalities, which have almost every where, taken place of
these.
"What
is the sprinkling of a few drops of water upon
the face of a thoughtless, unconscious infant, when contrasted with
the all-important
significancy, and blissful effects of that first great ordinance of
christian
worship--that first
constitutional act of the obedience of faith. Courteous reader, do
but reflect, compare, and
consider.
"Laying
aside all popular
prejudice, say which you would choose--the joyous, blissful baptism
of the Ethiopian eunuch, or the unauthorized sprinkling of a poor
unconscious babe; never to be so much as remembered; and, in
consequence of which, it
is never after allowed to enjoy this blissful
privilege; for which,
through the grace of God, it might be duly qualified in due time.
Thomas
Campbell
Max Lucado on
Baptism: Jubilee 98 It just happens that
being popular does not guarantee
doctrinal correctness. In fact, if we look at all of the Biblical
characters we will grasp that being popular almost guarantees that
someone has compromised with the world. Too many, according to Paul,
see godliness as a means of financial gain.
Winford Claiborne,
The International Gospel
Hour Notes:
"If
I had an extra
copy of J.W. Shepherd's Handbook on Baptism
(Nashville: Gospel Advocate Company, 1972, third edition), I would
send Max Lucado a copy of this great treatise on baptism. Shepherd
amassed an enormous amount of information on baptism from dozens and
dozens of scholars, including some of the best-known denominational
scholars of all time. For example, Shepherd quotes the following
words from J.W. Wilmarth, a prominent Baptist scholar:
"To
be baptized
unto Christ, as the context seems to indicate direction of mind in
the act, the result being stated, ye have put on Christ, clothed
yourselves with Christ (so to speak), involving the ideas of unity
and conformity.
And
this is mentioned (as the
word 'for'
shows) to confirm the preceding statement, 'Ye are all sons of God by
faith in Christ Jesus.' Here, then, Faith and Baptism are
united (as elsewhere), and
united in their
relation to adoption, which results in union with Christ. All this,
of course, implies Remission" (p. 398). Shepherd
copied these revealing remarks
from Baptism and Remission in the Baptist Quarterly, July 1877, p.
310.
Albert
Barnes was, for many
years, the preacher for the First Presbyterian Church of
Philadelphia. Barnes' Notes on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker
Book House, 1951, a reprint) are in the libraries of thousand and
thousands of preachers throughout the world. I shall read two
statements from Barnes--one from his commentary on Acts 2:38 and the
other on 1 Peter 3:21. Concerning the expression "for the remission
of sins," Barnes comments:
"Not
merely the sin
of crucifying the Messiah, but all sins.
There is nothing in baptism itself that can wash away sins. That can
be done only by the pardoning mercy of God through the atonement of
Christ.
But
baptism is expressive of a
willingness to be pardoned in that
way, and is a solemn
declaration of our conviction there is not other way of remission.
He
who comes to be baptized,
comes with a professed conviction that he is a sinner; and that there
is no
other way of mercy
but in the gospel, and
with the professed willingness to comply with the terms of salvation,
and to receive it as it is offered through Jesus Christ" (p.
53).
Sure,
you judgmentally bash
churches of Christ and the rest of the world always loves to go to
the matches to see blood.
But
it turns out that Max
Lucado has to ignore or reinterpret every passage in the Bible in
order to agree with those who had their beginning in about
1600.
The
shift
in
thinking that's under
way is momentous, born of tensions loosely parallel to
those that have racked the
Southern Baptists for 20 years. The shift
isn't something that Lucado
started. He does
embody it, however.
No,
the shift is always caused
by shifters. People would not deny what Jesus said abotu baptism
unless some super guru went out preaching that Jesus didn't mean what He said. I am always amazed at
how TV pundits
are amazed at shifts in their poling when the poles reflect totally
what the people have heard from the polesters and spinners. Do you
suppose that they forget whether it is the chicken or the egg which
comes first?
Fresh
Breezes do not blow with
a blower. For instance, Rubel Shelly who endorsed Max Lucado's
Baptist views of baptism at Jubilee 97 while calling for a new rubber
wineskin big enough to include anyone who would register. The themes
of Jubilees seem to come right out of the Promise Keepers and
Vineyard vocabulary. Now, Rubel wants a fresh breeze to go along with
Jubilee 99 featuring Lynn Anderson of Navigating the Winds of Change
fame. Unfortunately he appeals to Machiavelli (who appealed to
Hitler) to understand why proposed changes don't come as easily as
the gurus might think. Click for
notes.
If
Lucado, the minister at Oak
Hills Church of
Christ in San Antonio, Texas, lacks the hard edge often associated
with his tradition, it isn't for lack of exposure. He grew up in it.
He was baptized, at the Parkview Church of Christ in Odessa, Texas,
when
he was
10.
But
"I don't think
that a lot of the more
strict teachings ever
became a part of my DNA," he says.
One
of the strictest is the belief that baptism -- by immersion and for the
forgiveness of sins -- is an act that saves the soul.
As
much as he cherishes
baptism, Lucado says, "we are saved by grace."
"Baptism
is a response to God's
gift, not a way to earn God's gift."
Straw
man: no one ever
suggested that baptism is a way to earn salvation. Do you suppose
that a soft, dull blade cuts just as deeply and cruelly as a sharp
edge.
No!
We are not saved by
grace: we are saved by the blood of Christ. No! We are not saved by
the blood of Christ: we are saved by Christ's (God's) plan to come
FULLY IN THE FLESH. No! We are not saved by God's coming in the
flesh: we are saved by God's eternal purpose. And so foolish men can
speak foolish things.
If
God can put Himself as
FULL DEITY in the man Jesus Christ who was about 98% water isn't it
blasphemy to say that God cannot put His full power in HIS COUNSEL
which involves water baptism.
You
cannot wash away your
own sins: God says that HE will do it if you just ask for a "clear
conscience" or A holy spirit by being baptised. What greater
expression of Grace could Christ rejecters DEMAND?
Why
is it that we honor people
who are still rebelling against the views taught when they were kids
rather than being pro-active and looking to Christ for the answers?
Max was mixed up by the preachers of his day who bragged about their
ignorance as he may be mixing up people today while bragging about
the source of his new theology.
No
one believes that the
"act" saves and everyone
believes that
God
saves.
If anyone
believed that the act saves then we could herd everyone into a
building and spit on them (as Max's priest friends did while
"converting" the Aztecs) or sprinkling water on an unconscious infant
and we could save the world. Making the CORE of the gospel just
calling God "Father" can erode away to Calvinism where we must not do
anything but wait for God to reveal His will to us.
That
which saves is obeying
that which we believe Jesus taught. That which damns is "rejecting
the counsel of God for their lives."
And
all the
people that heard him, and the
publicans, justified God, being baptized with
the baptism of John. Luke
7:29
But
the Pharisees
and lawyers rejected the
counsel of God against
themselves, being not
baptized of him. Luke
7:30
Click to see
how this connects to Christian
Baptism.
Max
Lucado, who is 43, has
become the
Christian writer of the moment. "His Just Like Jesus" (Word),
released in August, tops one best-seller list. "In the Grip of Grace"
ranks 10th.
Presbyterians and Baptists and charismatics are reading his books,
conversational works full of
storytelling that aims to challenge and encourage. Some people even
study them in Sunday school. To millions of readers, Max Lucado is
the guy who speaks straight to the heart about the love of their
heavenly Father.
I
just can't read stuff aimed
at 8th grade girls (according to a publisher friend). I just love to
click through the Bible on my computer had have "new revelations" pop
up in my face. I would have to wait half a century to learn from
sermons what I can learn in a few hours while listening to the Spirit
of Christ.
To
his
most exacting critics in the Church of Christ, he's a
"pseudo Gospel preacher," an ear tickler, a man to be numbered
among those who "love not the
truth."
Robert
Oglesby won't go that
far. Oglesby, for 36 years the
minister at Waterview Church of
Christ in Richardson, Texas, thinks that Lucado's a great writer. As
far as he's concerned, no one can beat Lucado when it comes to
setting a scene or making a point.
It
never should come as a
surprise that Satan turns himself into an angel of light. Wherever
error is taught, the teacher will be as smooth as silk.
And
yet
he is cautious. When Oglesby opens his New Testament, he finds verses
like this: "Repent and
be baptized ... for the
remission of sins" (Acts 2:38). When he opens a Max Lucado book, he
finds something that less clearly links baptism and forgiveness. It
isn't that Oglesby thinks baptism works like magic; it's just what
God commands.
One
of Lucado's critics is a
friend, F. LaGard Smith, who teaches law at Pepperdine University in
Malibu, Calif. Smith believes that the Churches of Christ are
suffering an identity
crisis, and he has
written a book about it, "Who Is My Brother?" (Cotswold
Publishing). The epilogue is an open
letter to Lucado that gently takes him to task for sending mixed
signals about baptism.
The
professor declined to
comment about his differences with Lucado, saying that "Who Is My
Brother?" is "an in-house book."
His
open letter suggests that
Lucado is unwittingly leading
his readers astray.
Lucado has expressed his indebtedness to a range of believers. A
Pentecostal taught him about
prayer. A Baptist taught him about grace.
A Catholic taught him about the
tenderness of Jesus.
Too
bad that Max wasn't a Bible
reader: he could have found out about grace without any help. But
grace is charisma. That means power to be conformed to the will of
Christ. Those who, like the clergy in Jerusalem, "reject the counsel
of God for their lives in not being baptized" simply reject the
avenue Christ provided for pouring out His grace. At the same time,
Peter says that this is the time when we get a clear conscience. That
means "co-perception." We get the spirit or mental disposition of
Christ and cannot belittle or explain away baptism. Such
misunderstanding of a really simple statement of fact by Jesus and
Peter cannot be misunderstood without some powerful help.
Smith
feels the same sort of indebtedness, but he cannot easily regard such
people -- unimmersed or immersed for wrong reasons -- as Christians.
He acknowledges that God has the prerogative to do as he wishes on
Judgment Day, but later he urges Lucado to "tell our 'Christian'
friends about redemptive, saving baptism. It's you, of all
people, they'll
listen to!"
Lucado
turned down an
invitation to write a response that would have been included in the
book. He says he might have thought differently if he and Smith had
corresponded privately and then decided together to publish their
letters.
Otherwise,
Lucado says,
"I
felt it was
too staged."
Why
wasn't Jubilee 97 and
Promise Keepers and Willow Creek and Instrumental music on "none-worship"
days a staged
event? Isn't that the meaning of sermons and books. I believe that
the 10 year old is still rebelling an an escape from personal
problems so profound that objective truth seems too harsh to handle.
However, you cannot be just like Jesus without getting into the face
of believers and quit speaking to the mass meetings where Jesus hid
the truth in parable.
Telling
the truth is never
judgmental.
Max
Lucado is pleased that Churches of Christ -- with 2.25 million
members, the 16th-largest church body in the United States --
are
changing. He senses an
"exciting
revival." But he is no
crusader. He toes nobody's party line. To be a good husband and
father, to be a faithful minister to his church,
to write well -- those are
Lucado's priorities.
You
simply cannot be either a
good father or minister without delivering the message of Christ as
it has been delivered. Remember that Paul preached just
Christ and Him crucified to the Corinthians. However, what Max
Lucado and the
grace-only crew do not have a clue about is that Paul gave a reason:
that reason was "because
you are still carnal."
The
meaning of the gospel and
baptism is that you have to have the mind of Christ who proved that
an Infinite, Spirit God could put His grace in a body of flesh where
Jesus said, "The flesh counts for nothing." (John 6:63). To try to
"explain away" baptism means that a person is not only not a good
minister he cannot be a Christian. Christ as God Incarnate then had
the power to put His forgiveness and grace in connection with a
simple act: baptism for the remission of sins. Yes, baptism does the
trick because God put His power in it. To deny this is to deny that
God had the power to put that Grace in a human body.
Max
Lucado: "My call in
life has never been to either reform
or represent
the
Churches of Christ," he
says. "I don't know how I could represent the Churches of Christ.
We're kind of an ill-defined group."
The
churches are a
"brotherhood" of independent congregations that claim no authority
but the Bible. "We speak where the Bible speaks and are silent where
the Bible is silent" is a favorite slogan.
Of
course, Max Lucado and
friend Rubel Shelly deny that the Bible has such authority. They
further trash churches of Christ by falsely claiming that the
Campbells invented that slogan. However,
Bible 101aaa would prove that the Bible itself defines the authority
of God's commands, examples and inferences.
Max
Lucado: Many members
regard their church as nothing more or less than the church of the
New Testament, founded by Jesus and restored in these latter days to
a doctrinal and practical purity not known since apostolic times.
The
American Restoration
Movement got rid of the "pastor" system and restored the
senior, competent males to be
teachers of the flock and the enemies of all wolves with their latest
sheep skins. "Evangelist" were sent out to preach the gospel which
included baptism and did not become a professional "located"
evangelist in an established church. This was true because Jesus
fired the temple clergy because they always took away the key to
knowledge. Because there was not a single man competent, God would
come as His own right arm or mediator or intersessor and teacher.
Jesus teaches only to the extent the performers sit down and
let Him teach
through His Word.
C.
Leonard Allen says it's
not so simple as all that. Dr. Allen taught theology at Abilene
Christian University, a Church of Christ school, for 15 years.
Allen
says, in effect, that the
church did not depend upon Jesus but upon John Locke.
Rather than being a friend of modern preachers who get their messages
from Baptists, Catholics or by Experiencing God direclty, John Locke
taught that God created mankind with a mind or spirit which is
totally adequate to understand the Mind of Christ (Holy Spirit)
revealed in the Word of God.
Max
Lucado: As an American
phenomenon, the Churches of Christ are the fruit of a "restoration
movement" that began early last century. According to Allen, its
founding
fathers were
swayed not just by the
Apostle Paul but also by the philosopher John Locke, among others.
The
result: a
tradition that stumbles
along
with an
Enlightenment
hangover, claiming all
the while to be nothing but a first-century church.
Our
guess is that C. Leonard
Allen never read John Locke. John Locke ranks over Thomas Jefferson
as the Father of our country's civil freedom and freedom from an
imposed relition.
John
Locke laid out the premise
that in order to minimize division and allow for the broadest range
of people professing different doctrine to gather together for
worship.
The
only way to do that,
according to John Locke, would be to make that worship depend only
upon direct commands from Christ.
To
reject John Locke is to
reject the notion of "inclusiveness" because whether it is Left Wing
or Right Wing, dominant pastors do not want to include those who
might rock the boat.
- A Letter of
Toleration John Locke
- Definition of
Heresy, Schism (Sectarianism)
John Locke
- Reasonableness
of Christianity John Locke
C.
Leonard Allen, like most
writers, tends to parrot what you often hear from pulpits: Alexander
was a follower of John Locke and not Jesus. However, Jonathan Edwards
is accused of the same thing. We look at a review of Edwards and
Locke HERE
This
was also the view of
Thomas Campbell. He did not establish an exclusive religion but
stripped the worship of everything not absolutely commanded or
exampled so that everyone could attend without being offended. This
left people perfectly free to believe whatever they wish.
Max
Lucado has his own agenda
and it is not that of the doctrines held by the majority of people
for the last 2,000 years on instrumental music and baptism. To work
for a group with which you disagree may be a harder edge than the
soft voice reveals.
Still,
Allen
and Lucado say
that even the movement's founders were more ecumenically
minded than many 20th-century
Churches of Christ. And they like to think that's a part of the
tradition they're
restoring.
Thomas
Campbell, understood the
"singing" passages and the fact that Paul defined worship as GIVING
HEED TO CHRIST THROUGH HIS WORD. The Campbells saw the church as "A
School of Christ." If everyone left their 'DIVERSITIES' at home then
everyone could assemble to READ and EXPLAIN the Bible. The church was
a synagogue or school of the Bible and not a pagan worship center or
a MAKE WORK PROJECT.
Alexander
Campbell would preach
anywhere people would listen -- and they usually agreed with him and
changed. He did not
fellowship in a cooperative sense with those who rejected baptism. Nor would he nor any
restoration leader, or the
denominations out of which they came, have dared to introduce instrumental music as a
way to tickle God's
ears
and "move the
worshiper into the presence of God."
Again,
Tom
Campbell:
The Holy Spirit
works only through the WORD. See how that is reversed?
>
I
am not to be understood as objecting
to the detection and exposure of a false and unscriptural experience, which,
from your words, appears to be the thing intended; for, in your foot
note, page 141, you assert, that we are taught, that
"since those gifts have
ceased, the. Holy
Spirit now operates upon the minds of men only by the word;"
and
at the close of said note,
you further assert, that "we are positive of one point," namely,
"that the scriptures
teach us not the
doctrine of physical operations of the Divine Spirit in order to
faith."
With
these declarations as I
understand them, I am quite satisfied; for, since
the sacred canon has been completed, it seems to be the
general opinion, at least of
all
the
most
eminent
Protestant
writers that have
adverted to this subject,
that
we are not to
look
for any new
revelations of the Spirit;
>>
and that, of course, his saving
operations in the production of faith
and repentance, and of every other gracious effect by which we are made
partakers of a divine nature,
(2 Peter i. 4.)
>>
is by the word of truth being put
into the mind and written
upon the heart,
(Heb. viii. 10.) f
or
this certainly
is one of the exceeding
great and precious
promises above referred to, (2 Peter i. 4.) by which the
Lord has graciously engaged to
save his people, (Heb.
viii. 10.)
>
But,
instead of such characters, the
debased
and
stupid practisers of horrid cruelties and
abominable idolatries, "do service to them
who by nature are no gods."
This, all may know to be the present as it most certainly was the
ancient state of the heathen world, in the days of the apostles and
long before.
Nor
can it be
shown,
that since the
gospel was first preached to the nations, from the day of Pentecost,
(Acts ii. 1,) until this day,
that
any portion of
the human family were ever reformed from their idolatries
and disgraceful immoralities
by
any supposed
physical operations of the Holy Spirit without the
word.
>
That
where
the word of the truth of the gospel is
not
published, the
Spirit
of Christ has
nothing to do, is
farther evident from John
xvi. 3-14, where his reproving or convincing the world of sin, of
righteousness, and of judgment,
is confined to his testifying the things concerning Jesus.
In
short, his very
character as the spirit of
Christ, as the spirit of
wisdom and revelation, for enlightening,
convincing, comforting and
establishing, in the knowledge and belief of the truth, is ascribed to him
exclusively as
revealing and testifying the things concerning Jesus. Compare
John xiv. 26, and xvi. 14,
15, with 1
Cor. xii. 3-13, with Eph. i. 13-18, and 1 Pet. i.
10-12, and ii. 18, 19, with Jude 14, 15.
Being
"ecumenical" at places
like Cane Ridge had the same motives. None of the Baptists,
Methodists or Presbyterians came together for a huge love fest. They
all came with the motive of converting people away
from the
others -- sheep
stealing if you will. Poor Barton W. Stone knoweth not what hitteth
him. How do you steal sheep? Well, the person with the greatest power
of mind manipulaion who could create the most outrageous conduct was
viewed as the person most in control of "the Holy Spirit."
Even
today, you call Max Lucado
to Jubilee 97 for the sole purpose of collecting the greatest
miscellaneous crowd. When Max is not there next year, the crowd goes
away. Or does Max suddenly awaken the sleeping shepherds by trying to
wash away baptism?
Life
at
Oak Hills Church of Christ, where more than half of the members come
from other
church
backgrounds, is
decidedly upbeat. Three Sunday morning services draw a total of 2,100
people. The music is
contemporary, enthusiastically sung.
Although instruments are used during some
weeknight services, Sunday
worship is strictly a cappella. Communion is observed weekly, as it
is in every Church of Christ.
When
you silence the
instruments a lot of those people will go away. And contemporary
songs? What happened to the absolute demand by Paul that singing is
not entertainment in the new wineskin method of pagan Corinth; it is
teaching the revealed Biblical text (the words of Christ) to one
another. I suppose Max Lucado got that from the Charismatics and not
from the Bible. Click to
see.
And
baptism is by immersion.
It is
by immersion but it
denies the historical definition of the meaning of baptism and falls
in line with Baptists doctrine formulated in about 1500 by
Zwingli and
adopted by John Smyth. It has some distinctly
pagan bits and pieces.
The
Britannical
notes of "believers
baptism" "Sometimes the
phrase total
depravity was used to
describe the human condition, though it must be said that the term
had connotations in the 16th century that were different from those that it has
today. It was used not so
much to provide lurid connotations for descriptions of the depth of
sin but rather to describe its extent; man as a total being was
in trouble.
Even
good
works,
piety,
religiousness,
and efforts, apart from justification by grace through faith,
fell
under
God's
curse.
On
the other hand, the
justified sinner could be described in the most lavish terms,
as
one who could be
"as
Christ"
or even sometimes "a Christ."
Lucado sees none
of it as an end in itself.
It's all
about grace, especially for him.
Grace
is the power
of God's Mind in us to enable us to obey His commandments and be
conformed to His image. There is no grace in worshiping and believing
the commandments of man. Jesus says that the test is easy: "If you
love me you will keep my commandments."
After
a decade of
successful ministry at Oak Hills and seeing book after book become a
best seller, he hasn't forgotten how different life could have been.
At
20, he was on the
road to alcoholism.
He
hasn't forgotten, either,
the radio
preacher God
used
to turn things
around. Lucado didn't catch the man's name. He doesn't even know what
church he belonged to. Could have been Baptist or Pentecostal. It
didn't matter.
What
mattered was the message,
and Lucado, a young college student, had ears to hear.
God
forgave him. Lucado is sure
of it. God graciously, lovingly, freely forgave, and Lucado is still
amazed.
That,
he says, is probably what
draws people to his books: that sense of being a man forgiven, that
wonder at the wideness of God's mercy.
Anyone
who understands sin
feels the urge to pronounce everyone saved based upon subjective
feelings. However, it is never judgmental to tell people what you
believe Christ meant when He associated a lack of faith which would
lead to baptism as a cause for lostness. Because they didn't get wet?
No. Because they rejected the counsel of God for their lives.
Now,
being non-judgmental means
that everyone can believe what they wish and I have no God-like need
to judge them -- that is to pass sentence upon them.
However,
faith does not exist
when it is not expressed in action doing whatever that which we
believe demands and Whom we believe commands.
Agreeing
that everyone can get
their assignment directly from God is what stops evangelists from
going out into all the world.
(c)
1998, The Dallas Morning
News.
Visit
The Dallas Morning News
on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/
Distributed
by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Reviewed
by Kenneth
Sublett
Rubel Shelly
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Restoration
Movement
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