Linkathon 7/14
Gary Lamb’s post reflecting on his failures in the ministry.
Ed Stetzer writes for Tim Challies’ blog on the problem of the pastor as a rock star.
Former pastor Brad Johnson talks to Lifeway’s Rick Howerton about Johnson’s adulterous affair (HT: Zach Nielsen)
Interesting interview with Tullian Tchividijian about how he responded to “dissidents” who challenged his taking over for D. James Kennedy at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida. Chaplain Mike Mercer from Internet Monk wrote a good commentary on the controversy this past week. It’s interesting to me not just from the angle of how a new pastor dealt with those who didn’t want him there, but also from this angle: Tchividijian’s opponents seemed to want someone to follow in Kennedy’s footsteps and fight the culture wars, while Tchividijian seems to want to fight for the Gospel. All that so say, you may have something to agree and disagree about with both sides 🙂
Bob Hyatt on whether the church should be there to meet “my” needs.
Jonathan Dodson: We are entertaining ourselves to death.
Part one of Dan Edelen’s series on what being a church family means.
Pete Wilson reflects on Michael Spencer’s book Mere Churchianity (which we’ll pick up discussion of on Thursday at BrianD blog).
Why Keith Mathison is not Arminian.
Michael Patton on his recent experience at LifeChurch (not its online campus, but one of its offline campuses. The comments section is quite active on that particular thread, and you may find it helpful to read through).
The list of speakers for the 2011 Gospel Coalition conference has been released (HT: Tyler Kenney at Desiring God).
One for you theologians – Gordon Fee was interviewed about the book of Revelation and principles for understanding the Scripture (HT: James Grant).
A 6-year-old boy born without both legs and one arm…who loves to swim every day (linked to at Abraham Piper’s 22 Words blog).
Gordon Fee’s video is excellent and will raise some hackles…but I think he has some very important things to say.
I’ve already had a response to the Tchividijian interview from a representative of the other side in the story.
BrianD,
It sounds like Ocean Hills to me…that “dissidents” story is very familiar…
I wrote this on Brian’s blog re: Fee last night
—————————————
I love Gordan Fee. I disagree with his whole premise here, but I love the guy. I always get his commentary on a book I am teaching, when he has written one.
For one thing, there aren’t too many exegetes today that are charismatic in their writings. His commentary on 1 Corinthians is must reading, especially for someone who has been raised on MacArthur, Dallas Theological guys and the like.
AV,
Why do you disagree with his premise?
I think he’s saying some vitally important things about how we read the Bible.
The reply from Gary Monzillo about Coral Rdige is interesting reading. Don’t miss it when you link there.
Michael, I meant Fee’s interpretation of Revelation. His comments about how we read the Bible are excellent.
I think Fee makes some great points about Revelation as well…I think it has a dual meaning (Fee doesn’t) but I think he nails the primary purpose of the letter.
There are several intreresting comments in the internet monk post too. For those who want to get both sides in this…
Soooo….Gary Lamb has an affair, loses his wife and church a little over a year ago.
A little over a year later he has a new wife and a new church.
What’s wrong with this picture?
He makes some good points, I’ll give him that.
The rest of what I have to say would offend greatly…
I do hope Tchividijian wants to fight for the gospel, and not for position. I would be sad if this was an OHC-type situation. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and hope I’m right.
I just found out that Chuck Smith is here in the valley tonight…I might go see him preach.
Probably won’t introduce myself, though… 🙂
BrianD,
The mass firings on takeover sound very much like what happened at OHC…
Michael…at least he seems to acknowledge what he did is wrong, and that is more than you’ll get from some pastors who were ‘restored’. I am therefore more hopeful that he will finish well.
Michael…you know what.
After what you said and the CRPC guy said on my blog…I realize I’m naive as hell.
I don’t want to broadbrush pastors nor their field of ministry. But this doesn’t help. Perhaps I know now why I didn’t follow all the Reformed guys over to Amazon to buy his books….
I’ve been an “outsider” in the Christian leadership world for over a year now and I’ve had a lot of time to reflect, observe, and pray about this and I just wanted to share some reasons today why I think pastors in today’s churches need to wake up and realize why they are open to an attack from Satan in this area.
————————————————–
Wow a year! A WHOLE YEAR! That sure is a “lot of time”
And after not just the adultery but a self-professed YEARS of “neglecting his marriage” before the adulterous action – AS A CHRISTIAN AND A PASTOR!.
By all means, go ahead and lecture all those other pastors to “wake up” and inform us about Satan. I know if I was a smack addict I would run to some guy who had a whole 12 months of sobriety under his belt. Must be an expert. (Sarcasm intended)
How long did Paul spend alone with the Lord in the desert? Without TV, cell phones and all the rest.
By the way, who remarried the guy? Would you pastors marry someone who forsook his wife only a year earlier? I sure wouldn’t.
BrianD,
You’re gracious…that’s what you are.
That is not a negative quality.
Redaing the Internet Monks comments on his post of Coral Ridge makes me pause in giving TT too much praise. Based on several comments, seems like TT has some personal issues that may disqaulify him in the future of ministry.(As muc as someone can be disqaulified todday).
Nice balance Brian D. Just when we think we know the issue, remember that there is always another side.
AV,
In that year he’s remarried and started a church…not much time for reflection.
Some things I can’t express without cussing, so I’ll leave it at that.
Michael,
If you get the chance to talk to Churck, you should take it. This may be of the Lord.
Something to consider…. 😉
Gary Lamb married the woman he had an affair with and now one year later is starting up another church with his babe. And then writes these posts lecturing other pastors all the time. Messed up train wreck.
Michael, if you go, i suspect the Holy Spirit goes with you whatever the outcome…
I’ll probably go and watch…there will be a zillion people there, I’m sure.
Michael, I thought you might say that… 😉
““For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14
Only do it if He is in it.
Let me say this. I chased skirts before I knew Christ. I rolled the dice with my life in one-night-stands many times, during the early years of the AIDS crisis. A simple, drunken “you don’t have anything do you, me neither” was all it took to be “assured” we didn’t have to worry about STDs.
Christ delivered me from those desires, praise His Name. However, I know what I am capable of..I know who I am apart from Christ. And it scares me enough to be on constant guard. So I don’t get alone with women. I don’t initiate hugs with women. I do not “neglect” my wife (which in my experience in counseling usually involves porn or some other self-pleasure).
If this guy felt his calling was to tell me to “wake up” and be careful about Satan’s temptations, I would be tempted to punch him in the mouth.
I think Jesus had something to say about pointing out other’s “specks” while a “log” is still in your eye. And he had a pretty big log if you ask me. I think it takes well more than a year to cut that thing down and haul it away.
Just curious…I know that many of us could probably think of big-name-rock-star-pastors that fit the description on Gary Lamb’s blog, but I’m wondering how many of us personally know those guys?
I know some of you run in (vastly) different circles than I do, but although I know Lamb’s description is accurate of some pastors, it sure as heck isn’t for the majority of them…at least the ones I know. In his mind, all pastors brag about their clothing & power & coolness. In my experience, I don’t personally know a single pastor that does this. Anyone that even comes close is a youth pastor with a long way of maturity ahead of him.
Maybe part of Lamb’s issue is that he didn’t know what a pastor was supposed to be in the 1st place. Just a thought…
“If this guy felt his calling was to tell me to “wake up” and be careful about Satan’s temptations, I would be tempted to punch him in the mouth.”
I’d just do it and repent later…that guy makes me mad as hell.
Tim,
You NAILED it!
Tim, you DID nail it.
It is an example of “projection” if you ask me. Where a person assumes others are like he is, whether for good or bad.
So if you are a pastor with certain sins that get you in trouble, you first assume that all other pastors have those same sins, and then you can feel pride in your new calling to warn them about those sins that you have projected onto them.
I think it is a textbook example myself…
Gary Lamb married the woman he had the affair with. She was also married at the time of the affair. He planted the new church in the same town where his old church is still going, Canton, GA. Everytime we get into the “Who should be a pastor” thing, it gets ugly, so I’ll avoid it, but I know I wouldn’t go to his church.
The Patton article about LifeChurch was very good. Challenging to me as well. I really wish the churches in my area could cooperate on some real level, but it’ll never happen.
There is a lot of pastors out there that flaunt their stuff. And for each one of them probably 50 that want to be just like them.
But I have to think Mr. Lamb suffers from incipent narcissism in that now his “new calling” is to “minister” to other who have fallen and warn others. What he fails to recognize, among other things, is that misery loves company.Who the hell does he think he is? They just can’t stay off the stage and not be the center of attention in their own little world, can they?
I understand temptation. I have women hit on me from time to time, particularly in the social circles I do some ministry in. I totally get it, and I do feel for those who have fallen. However, now we have these idiot pastors, who screw around and now want solice and comfort and hand holding from someone who has been down the same road… bah!!! confess your sin to Jesus and man up, will ya?
Also, about the pastors and their cool clothes…Gary is right. It’s an epidemic in this part of the country. Lamb is from the same little group that includes Steven Furtick and Perry Noble. They were disciples of Ed Young, Jr. and to a lesser degree, Andy Stanley. There is a very superficial aspect to the whole thing.
Paps, there is indeed more than one side to this story…and it looks like a mess that’s largely been cleaned up in the public view. I wouldn’t want to get into cleaning it up…
…but if I had to play Solomon, I’d tell Tullian to replant New City Church and be that church in the city for the city, be about the gospel, and let the people at Coral Ridge go their own way.
But what the hey. I’m just a blogger.
If that loyalty oath stuff is true, as was said in one of those comments about Coral Ridge, that is a HUGE redflag.
I would likely walk right there, and I have always been loyal to those over me.
Of course, none of them ever asked me to sign a loyalty oath either.
For that oath, was ink sufficient, or did it have to be in blood like the mafia? 😉
But what the hey. I’m just a blogger.
——————————————-
Brian, my guess is that Priscilla and Aquilla would have been bloggers today…Laypersons working during the day, opening the house for Bible study etc.
And God used them to straighten out Apollos 😉
Centy,
Every word you wrote is true…good stuff.
“I really wish the churches in my area could cooperate on some real level, but it’ll never happen.”
Why not?
Good stuff, today, Josh.
The interview with Brad Johnson was good. He shared some great insights about infidelity and the roads that lead to it.
Man,
Some serious fangs getting exercise today…..
Excellent batch of info BrianD, yet again.
I am marveling at who exactly is going to attend Mr. Lamb’s church? Since he’s publically announcing his intentions to minister to other adulterer pastors. I guess there will also be some support group for the wives too new vs reconciled.
There’s a certain Jerry Springer-esq quality to it.
no humility no shame and lots of attention seeking behavior
The Church of the Scarlet A’s
http://tonymccollum.com/2010/01/my-thoughts-on-gary-lamb/
I don’t know who this guy is but I like what he had to say about Gary Lamb.
He said, “To be clear, the question at hand is really about when someone should get back into ministry after a serious moral failure. None of this is about forgiveness. Forgiveness should be offered instantly and I believe that all parties involved are at least trying to allow the forgiveness of God to flow through them to Gary. The real issue is about restoration, which is separate and distinctive from forgiveness.”
It sure is painful when your close to a situation like this and your pastor or friend judges your efforts to help them seek God’s timing for restoration as being a show of condemnation instead.
Bob, the most depressing thing to me in that article is Rick’s very first paragraph..
I know we all on occasion probably say “my church” in a certain context, and it does not mean we need a slapdown. But the way that paragraph is written sounds to me exactly like the biography of a football coach or business CEO.
Just being honest…
“Why not?”
Cooperation is bad for competition. As long as there is money to be made, there will never be REAL large-scale cooperation. I’ve tried to get some alliance going on with a few other local music ministers/ worship leaders and it has been slightly beneficial, but I also know these guys could find themselves unemployed if there churches thought they were contributing to the growth of another local church.
I really love the idea implied by Patton, where one church does the evangelism, another the discipling, another the social care, etc. Doesn’t mean all the churches wouldn’t participate in all areas of ministry to a degree, but we could celebrate where one excelled and another did not, instead of trying to copy the other guys success.
I would love to see this, but without an outright miracle, it will not happen in my lifetime.
the reasons individuals arrive at the point in their life to step outside of their marriage are innumerable and often complicated… but to take it to such a public level. Most people i have treated are very broken and stunned at the unintended results of their actions, let alone the ones they knowingly rationalized. They do not want the publicity.
Others would have quietly approached him if they need or want his counsel.
Josh,
I suspected that was the answer…very sad.
Na’amah,
12:57…yep…
crucified,
thanks for the link to an excellent post….
That is sad Josh. I’m going to go out on a limb and ask something that is truly not intended to offend in any way, but I have been thinking it may be true. How much of that “competition” to you think is there because the folks you’re dealing with, and typically the leaders of the churches who are fighting for numbers, are male?
The reason I’m asking is that lately, through some pretty amazing “divine appointments” there’s a group of women I’ve been meeting, all of whom are “leaders” in some way in churches or corporate organizations. We’vre forming a bit of an alliance or network, if you will, that has been mutually beneficial in many ways. We don’t seem to have that sense of competiition going on. but are finding ways to help each other out on projects.
I’m not sure if it’s cause we’re females and just don’t care who has the most butts in pews or our incomes aren’t tied up in that number, or we’re just from churches that are more about cooperation than competition….I’m not sure…but what I have noticed is that for the most part, it’s the women that are finding ways to make these kinds of cooperative networks function well.
Truly not meant to be a “male bashing” post…
London, You might have someting there.
Some men may feel like they are in competition with each other to put behinds in pews. When you compete in sports, there are not many awards for cooperation, only for winning.
While there is no “I” in “team”, there is “me”. 😉
AV
I was interested more in Johnson’s answers to the questions being asked. As someone who has been there, I thought the points he was making were excellent.
crucified
The link that you posted was excellent!
Yeah Papi, it happens at work too. Programmers are the worst 🙂 because they are always competing on who can write the coolest code. I don’t care…I just want the dang thing to work. Same concept…
I have to admit, there is, in me at least, a bit of that feeling of competition too. For instance, we have woman who is a case worker with a homeless population. She has a group of 12 people that want to be involved in what we’re doing, but I don’t have anything right now for them to do. At least for a few weeks…
I’m about to call another woman that runs a charity who could use their help now. Part of me is “no dang it, those are MY resources…” and I worry about “loosing them” to this other group. But…I know that the most important thing is getting these folks hooked into some community organization so they can be “a part” of something larger than themselves and their survival.
I think if I were in a position where I was thinking that if I could just hook them into my church, help them get jobs and start tithing, then I’d do everything in my power to not “share” them (and yes I know they are not a commodity) with someone else. Probably true if I were thinking of them as part of a potential “donor base” for a non-profit too. I think that’s why we don’t see that much cooperation between non-profits either…
We’re hoping in some small way to change that. Dunno if it will work…but..it won’t work if we don’t try, that much I know.
Centorian, it was very helpful for me to read what he said after having lost a good friendship in a similar situation. I never knew I could be so demonized for loving someone enough to stay and help them overcome their mess while also loving the people who were left without their pastor when it happened by stepping up my responsibilities. I’d been much better off if I’d just left when it happened.
I’ve spent many hours trying to understand this, especially from a friends standpoint who knows very well that you are not that kind of person even if someone accused you of being like that, but when I read what this TonyM wrote about people who are in the embarrassing position of having messed up, equating forgiveness with how soon you accept their return to ministry…I got that because I felt that so well before.
BrianD,
Thanks for your diligence with this great Linkathon. I really enjoyed the Fee interview on interpreting Revelation.
Gary Lamb made some good points in his blog post article, and certainly it seems the Lord has been showing him many important lessons. However, when you read what his good friend and confident Tony wrote in his article and you see another perspective, you see that Gary is still enslaved to all of the same things that he claims to now have insight into, the things that led to the fall. And, since Gary has refused since the beginning to try and work on his marriage at all, I would not support him being in ministry perhaps ever. What a pathetic self-serving person he has become…everything is still all about him. He wants the ministry back for all of the wrong reasons.
This all leaves me wondering if Gary was ever called to pastor in the first place? Did he once have proper motives and a heart for pleasing God only, or was the ministry just one of his methods for aggrandizing himself? He definitely has no business trying to pastor a group of people right now, nor for a long time in the future.
About the Gordon Fee video. He makes some good points about trying to remove the chapter and verse numbers from your mind when you read and study the Bible, and also about looking at the original intent of any book first. However, if he is going to bash all of those who reject the preterist interpretation of the book of Revelation, then he ought to properly address all of the many complications and difficulties of his position, and not just bash those who don’t agree. Something about that interview irked me…
PTI,
What did you think of the Fee video?
JimB,
Gordon Fee is NOT a preterist.
Michael,
I agree with him that Revelation should be read primarily as a victor’s proclamation over Empire as opposed to figuring out what current events fit where in the prophetic calendar. While Fee states Rome as the main antagonist, I would take it a step further and say Babylon in general. In my opinion, Jesus, Paul, and John the Revelator all ignored Rome on purpose, a kind of slap in the face. And in the end, Jesus prevails over Babylon and New Jerusalem is established forever!
At the same time, I am not ready to completely and totally throw out the prophetic aspect of Revelation in regards to the Last Days. Not yet, anyway. 🙂
Fee made some salient points on how to read the Bible. Indeed, his book on that subject is classic. I think it would do some teaching pastors well to approach the literary style of Revelation with greater care.
What’s your take on the interview?
Michael, with my own ears I heard Fee on a radio interview with Hank Hanegraff say he was a preterist. It was maybe 4 months ago on Hank’s weeend program on local radio.
Michael,
Fee said over and over again on that video that everything in the book of Revelation was to be looked at not as occurring in the future, that is until you get to chapter 22 (actually he should have said chapter 19)?! He even said that the book of Revelation was written to show that the Roman empire would be overthrown, calling Rome the Babylon mentioned in chapters 18 and 19, and saying that when it fell that these things were fulfilled. He even claimed that the anti-Christ was someone in that first generation timeframe. That is all a preterist perspective, right?
PTI,
I’m prejudiced…I’ve been able to hear the whole class he references and I just love the man and his passion for Jesus.
I think we almost have to teach the book twice…the first time through as Fee suggests, then a second time to deal with the prophetic pieces that apply to us.
The Revelation is so much more than most of us have been taught and going through it with Fee is a privilege and a little “revelation” unto itself.
JimB,
Nope.
Fees approach is as a historicist, not a preterist.
A preterist believes that all the prophecies that surround the Second Coming were fulfilled in 70 AD or before.
Fee is a historicist and amill.
Let me refine that further…
He could be considered a partial preterist which is a different view from full preterism.
R.C. Sproul is a partial preterist.
” I entered into a physical affair with a lady who wasn’t my wife.”
First of all she was no lady…..
Does anyone else see a problem here.. He didn’t use the word SIN one time, or the word fornicator or adulterer — soften the language and you soften the seriousness of what you have done.
Talk about the softening of the language… one problem we have today is an aversion to calling sin by it’s proper names.. an affair= adultery/fornicator — a sexually active young adult = is a ????
Michael,
“I think we almost have to teach the book twice…the first time through as Fee suggests, then a second time to deal with the prophetic pieces that apply to us.
The Revelation is so much more than most of us have been taught and going through it with Fee is a privilege and a little ‘revelation’ unto itself.”
I can’t agree with you enough, here. Maybe that’s why I’m bugged when people preach a “my way or the highway” interpretation of Revelation. I think it’s very nuanced and, therefore, it contains a lot more “both/and’s” than “either/or’s”. Yet everyone wants to preach and teach it “either/or”.
Whatever the label, he is solidly against the dispensational camp in that interview.
I would add that there is also confusion between the dispensational view and those who would try to find Revelation’s fulfillment in today’s news (i.e. Hitler is the Antichrist)
Not really accurate to combine the two.
To: deadmanwalking
If your still reading, do you think I could talk to you sometime and if so, do you have a blog or anything I could get your email address from to get in touch with you?
“I think it’s very nuanced and, therefore, it contains a lot more “both/and’s” than “either/or’s”.
Exactly!
Michael,
Ok, but he is saying it was all fulfilled way back in history-past (almost like your classical preterist).
AV,
Can you tell me what other view does that?
I get five or six emails a day telling me how todays headlines is a harbinger of the end…all from dispensationalists.
Deadmanwalking is John Duncan at nowhereland@earthlink.net
When the context is only the book of Revelation – is there really a dime’s worth of difference between how the preterist will teach it and how the historicist will teach it?
I’m really asking…not making a claim with a question as I oft do.
Michael? Anyone?
Thank you sir! I’ll be in touch when I get some time.
Post-trib I guess would be the most likely.
I agree that the dispensationalists get excited about the headlines in prep for the rapture – but a dispensationalist does not feel he will be around for anything after ch 3 (until the return with Jesus of course)
So to equate something today with a verse in Revelation is not dispensational.
“When the context is only the book of Revelation – is there really a dime’s worth of difference between how the preterist will teach it and how the historicist will teach it?”
The historicist would leave chapters 21 & 22 to the future… I think.
AV,
Au contraire…
They may not think they’ll be around, but they sure as stuff see the one world religion and the one world government etc. as being manifested today…thus we have ODM’s. 😉
The speculation and literature goes well beyond chapter 3.
I am a progressive dispy by the way…
The historicist would leave chapters 21 & 22 to the future… I think.
——————————————–
That would also be the ‘partial-preterist view, right?
Among evangelical circles today, those who align with the preterist view, aren’t they more likely to be partial preterists? (and thus historicists as to the end of Revelation)
David made one point when he was busted by Nathan — I have sinned against the Lord…… that was it.
David never expressed one word about what it cost him… and it cost his a lot.
Psa 51 is his confession
Look at the language David used — transgressions iniquity sin
Yeah Michael, I hear you. My point as to the Fee interview was the criticism of those who claim Hitler or Mussolini was the antichrist, and it seemed like that sort of thing was lumped in with a dispensationalist view. A true dispensationalist does not see the antichrist as having any power now in the age of the Church. (He might be alive though 😉 )
Frankly, I look at the world and see God bringing things to His culmination – Israel being one example. However, I also recognize that we could be a century or more away too, and that we in the USA are just as likely (if not more likely) to be killed for our faith than we are to be raptured first.
Prepare for persecution, and if the rapture happens first, so be it!
Why was Saul rejected and David called a man after God’s heart? David’s sins were more — David’s sins are the ones that are more hateful to us today — so why David and why not Saul
Perhaps it was in how they dealt with sin — Saul justified himself and was worried about the people slipping away when he sinned..
1 Sam 13: 11 Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul replied, “When I saw that the people were slipping away from me, and
— and and and —
I think I’m talking to myself here but that’s common for me these days so here’s one more thought
attraction + opportunity = fall
Take opportunity out of the equation and you won’t fall
deadman, amen to your #81 – pride and self justifying really separate us from God’s truth
thanks em — and I don’t actually talk to myself, it is more like muttering to myself under my breath. I do talk to my computer though.. and it’s usually not pretty when i do.
took a half hour to listen to Fee tell me what’s what with the book of Revelation – very intellectual 🙂
glad that the early martyrs were warned (the purpose of the book, if i heard him right), glad that, except for outbreaks of tribulation here and there, it’s all behind us now; all but the end (last couple of chapters tell us the end will be as the beginning was – that’s a good and tidy thing)…
and, gee, i sure didn’t realize what a hindrance to understanding Scripture the division of the Book into chapter and verse are – his point is taken, but does the dear man really believe that people wouldn’t take verses out of context and misapply them if it weren’t for the numbers?
i understand his consternation with those of us who have undisciplined, non analytical minds, i respect him, i defer to him in knowledge of literature, history and heaven only knows what else – but i suspect that God has us all confused about the Revelation for now….
BTW – i don’t think Fee is wrong except that i think that he has only hit the surface level and i don’t think even the learned can interpret without speculation. As much as speculation goes against the disciplines to which men like Fee have successfully devoted their lives, that’s all we can do with much of the book – Revelation is prophecy and far from fulfilled. IMO 😉
on this one, i’m opinionating, not pontificating, as i’ve just come off spending some time in the Revelation
gee, i didn’t think anyone took me seriously enough that i could kill a thread 🙁 😉
Off Topic, but:
The Mormon/LDS “church” is claiming Martin Luther, Zwingli, Huss, Calvin, Tyndale, and Wycliffe created a climate of tolerance for the “restoration of the gospel”.
http://www.mormon.org/restoration (See the photo display titled “The Great Falling Away”).
Amazing…
Hi.
I found your Web Site by Google
And I wish you the best you can get,
the peace of God through Jesus Christ.
Welcome to visit my Site.
Allan Svensson, Sweden
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/INDEX.HTM
The great falling away
People think any revival is not coming. They refer to
2 Thess. 2:3 and tell about that a great falling away shall
come. But this falling away has taken place a very long time
ago. The entire Christendom was lead astray by false
shepherds and preachers, which preached false doctrines.
Since then, God’s people have been slaves under many
churches and denominations. And the great falling away is
still today continuing. The great falling away is NOW!
Waiting for the great falling away is not needed. It began a
very long time ago. The topical are now the restoration of the
Assembly of God from the great falling away. Acts 3:21.
Revival is just this, all God’s people must be released from
the great Babylon.
In the time of the apostles any church did not exist, and therefore
the word “church” occurs not at all in the Bible. Everywhere in
your English Bible where you see the word “church”, it is a
translation error, it ought to be “assembly”. Jesus did not build
any church.
I have five Bible translations in Swedish, (the oldest from 1703,
translated from the same original bible text as KJV). Nowhere in
these Bibles we can find the word “church” (kyrka). Nowhere in
the Bible we can find any hint of that the Assembly of God is
constituted of church systems and many religious organizations.
It is at least two Bible translations in English without the word
‘church’, (WEB) and (KJ3). Perhaps there are more such
translations, I do not know.
The Assembly of God is no Pentecostal church. Please, consider
what this expression “the Assembly of God” in the reality implies.
The Assembly of God must be the same as the Greek word
“ekklesia”, and the Body of Christ. 1 Cor. 12:12-31.
Then it is easy to understand that this has nothing to do with the
Pentecostal Movement. Pentecostal churches have existed about
100 years, but the Assembly of God has existed ever since Jesus
baptized his first disciples by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
gave them the new life in Christ so that they became born anew.
Then the Assembly of God was born. Since then, the Assembly
of God has lived here on the earth generation after generation.
The establishment of the first church took place in connection with
the great falling away. 2 Thess. 2:3. Since then, God’s people have
lived in slavery under Satan’s false doctrine about the Assembly of
God. We cannot use the word ‘church’ when we mean the Assembly
of God. Still to day, most Christians cannot see the difference between
the Assembly of God and the Church of Satan.
All churches have come into existence through religious fornication.
People have mixed God’s word with false doctrines of evil spirits,
and so new churches appear.
In the free churches the world around
there are thousands of preachers
and bible teachers, but none can explain
what the Assembly of God is
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/EXPLAIN.HTM#thousands
The condition of the Assembly of God
is now much worse than in the assemblies
in Ephesus, Sardis and Laodicea
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/SARDIS.HTM#condition