Six Lies That Cripple Our Faith – 4-6

Posted by Buck Jacobs on Mar 17th, 2010 | no comments home title

dentifiedLast post we discussed how the injection of a few simple, reasonable sounding lies into our culture has undercut our faith and handicapped the effectiveness of the Church in the world. We identified three, not in rank order of importance, as; You can’t legislate morality, You can’t mix faith with business, and, You can’t mix faith and politics.

These three are supported by the fourth lie. This is one of the most damaging and crippling lies and distortions of all, and has been the foundation for so much damage to the work of Christ that it can’t be calculated. It is the lie of The chasm between the clergy and the laity. This lie is so deeply embedded in The Body of Christ that it would appear hopeless to remove it, failing a truly miraculous work of God.

This lie comes to us in so many subtle ways, but they all have the same basic message; that pastors, priests, and missionaries are the truly anointed ministers of God, and that the rest of us lay people are really second class serfs who are sent to labor in the fields of the world to grub out some mammon to bring to our holy leaders that will allow them to carry out the work of God. We are told this lie subtly and overtly, and it is so powerful because it is told to us by the very leaders to whom we look for truth. And even more devastating is that the very system that depends on the perpetuation of this lie is the system that trains and prepares the leaders we look to for the truth of our way in life. The seminaries and the hierarchies of our denominations would be drastically changed, and their prominent place in religious society altered, and their security threatened, if they taught the truth of the priesthood of all believers and the true call of God on the life of every believer. Many would cease to exist entirely. Jesus warned us that “if the light that you have within you is darkness, how great is that darkness.” When we take in a lie, which is darkness, and believe that it is truth, which is light, we are doubly deceived, and this type of deception is very hard to remove.

The greatest lies are those which contain the most truth. This lie, number four, is a perfect example of this technique. It is true that pastors are gifts that God gives to The Church. They are specially called and equipped. (As are missionaries, evangelists, and prophets and teachers.) But not to do the work of ministry, their call and equipping is to prepare and equip the “saints”, you and I, for the work of ministry. It is not to do it themselves! The religious professionals are not an elite group of ministers to whom all the really important work of ministry has been delegated. They are the teachers and trainers who are called to enable and encourage you and I to do it!

The list of destructive effects that are traceable to this lie is amazingly complex. But, in sum, we can say that like perhaps no other, it hinders the work of the Church in reaching the world for Jesus, and as a little realized but devastating byproduct, robs believers of uncounted eternal rewards.

Each believer has a unique and personal destiny and ministry created in the heart of God. Finding and fulfilling that ministry and destiny is the purpose of the life on earth of a believer. The process of the seeking, learning, and doing the will of God in his/her life and unique ministry is the “reasonable service” of every believer, not only the religious professionals. How much of our true spiritual heritage, and how many eternal rewards will you and I forfeit because we feel we are “second class” Christians?

The fifth lie feeds many of our human weaknesses and temptations. It is the lie that God wants every one of His children to be rich in worldly terms, and everyone can be rich financially.

This lie is at the heart of the “name it and claim it” and “health and wealth” distortions of Christian doctrine. Again, this lie has its’ roots deep in the truth. God does want all His children to prosper “even as your souls prosper”, and Jesus did come to give us “life abundant.” But the prosperity and abundance He refers to have absolutely nothing to do with worldly riches! The prosperity and abundance of God are of the inner man and not dependent on anything external. A poor man has equal access to God’s prosperity and abundance with a rich man. When God grants one riches they are only tools to be used to fulfill His call and plan for the life and ministry of that one, and the one to whom they are given will be responsible to Him for their use for His purposes. Worldly riches are a responsibility to be carefully handled, not a blessing that God wishes He could give to all His children.

God doesn’t want all His children to be rich, He wants us to be holy. He doesn’t want us to be conformed to the image of Solomon, He wants us to be conformed to the image of Jesus.

Receiving this lie, even in part, causes many Christians, who God has called to humble service, in small businesses, churches, or ministries, to fall to the sin of comparison and envy, and to do things He hasn’t called them to do, like borrowing money, to try to grow to be as big as others. It encourages an ungrateful spirit and an unthankful heart which hurt God. It makes true contentment impossible and leads to stress and frustration. God has not made us all to be rich, but He has made us all to be wealthy in true life abundant.

The last lie we will deal with, but by no means the last Satan uses, is the perhaps the daddy of them all, at least of those we are affected by today. This is the lie that says; The Bible ”contains truth, but isn’t wholly true. There are many permutations of this lie, but they all have in common the purpose of opening a crack in God’s written revelation to man. A crack that, once opened, will allow such an increasing dilution and distortion, that over time will render it meaningless altogether. We are seeing the results of this lie in our lives almost daily as we watch one truth or one principle after another be explained away under the guise of modern critical interpretation. In our day men who call themselves Christians tell us that oral sex isn’t sex at all, homosexuality is an “alternative lifestyle”, lies that don’t hurt anyone aren’t lies at all, and that we must respect all ideas equally. We are told that we must read the Bible in the “light of the culture in which it was written”, meaning since our culture is now so different the Bible can’t be applied. This lie has been so cleverly implanted that we now have turned from the use of the Bible to judge other works, to the use of other works to judge the Bible. This lie reduces the Bible to equality with every other religious book such as the Koran or The Book of Mormon.

If we accept the lie that any part of the Bible may be untrue then we open the door that any other part may not be true. The task of picking and choosing which parts of the Bible are true and which are not is a hopelessly impossible slippery slope, and no one can stand on it. Once one steps there, there is no stopping. If we Christians give up our objective and extrinsic standard of truth, the written revealed Word of God, we have lost the fight forever. Oh, we may not appear to have done so immediately, but it is over nonetheless. ONLY if the Bible is NOT totally true can Christianity be positioned as only one of many great religions, and its’ teachings treated as optional. Jesus as He is revealed in the Bible makes NO room for other faiths. Period. The Bible never even infers that there may be even one other way to God let alone many, and only if the Bible does not tell the whole truth is that thought even an option.

To the degree we as Christians have been influenced by these six fundamental lies we are being hindered in doing what God has called us to do. Jesus said, “IF you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Free from lies and to be all He designed, and to do all He planned. Think about it:

If the Bible isn’t totally true, I can’t trust it.