Bio

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, the author of Truthspeak and his new book, The Gospel of Grace and Truth: A Theology of Grace from the Gospel of John," both available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing to Dr. Halsey at michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Comments may be addressed to michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net.

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org

Also:

Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582

Friday, March 17, 2017

OUT OF CONTROL

The Bible is a different book.

Right now, you're thinking, "Tell me something I don't already know."

What I mean by that is that the Bible never seeks to flatter the reader. The Book paints a discouraging picture of the human race: lost, blind, rebellious, and going astray from the mother's womb. It tells us that while salvation is free, discipleship involves paying a high price involving persecution, being misunderstood, hated, losing friends, even enduring family ostracism.

The Good Book also tells us about the future of the church. Contrary to the hyperbole of Christian broadcasting featuring highly emotional evangelists, the church isn't going to roll triumphantly through the world. The Bible does not paint such a rosy picture. According to recent prognostications, Islam is soon to become dominate worldwide, not Christianity. The cold hard facts are that there's not one village, hamlet, town, city, county, state, or nation in which everyone has trusted Christ as savior.

THE DIRE PREDICTION

The forecast the Bible makes doesn't use the word "triumphant" in the same sentence with the word "church" in this dispensation. No. As a matter of fact, the Bible's unflattering picture of the church is that, as the Grace Dispensation progresses, the church will continue to sink into apostasy, which is a big word meaning, "not under the authority of Christ and His Word."

Christ Himself predicted the coming apostasy of the church in the parables of Matthew 13 in which only one of the four soils represent people saved when they hear the gospel, in other parables of the same chapter, leaven corrupts the church, foul fowls rest in its branches and Paul wrote about wolves arising from within the church, as evil men would grow worse and worse.

IN THE FIRST CENTURY

Of course, you know that Jesus addressed those seven first century churches in Revelation 2-3. But did you know that five out of the seven churches had chosen to be outside of the control of Christ? The apostasy was so bad in the church in Laodicea that Christ pictured Himself as standing outside the church, knocking on the door to get in. Things were so bad inside the walls of that church, that Christ said it made Him sick. But we have free will; Christ won't break down the door and force the congregation to be under His control. But He will knock.

[Unfortunately, many are the preachers and evangelists who teach that this is picturing Christ's knocking on the door of the unbeliever's heart, but, as the context shows, it's a church whose doors are shutting the Lord Jesus outside. Once the preacher ignores the context, he misses the point of the text, invents an application foreign to the text, and may fall into false doctrine. Such out of context preaching makes for an emotional invitation period, but it's not biblical.]

 HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN?

Churches reject the authority of Christ in many ways. One way, unnoticed by even the most discerning, is through Americanism, that is, democracy. Democracy is "government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people.

In the church, we are too much influenced by Abraham Lincoln's eloquent Gettysburg Address with its "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." It was a great speech in some respects, but the church is not to have the supreme power vested in the congregation. The head of the church isn't the congregation; the head of the church is Christ (Eph. 5:23). Yet, in spite of Ephesians 5:23, church after church continues to write constitutions soaked with democracy, thereby setting themselves up for never-ending conflict.

Democracy is a petri dish that breeds  factions, fissures, political ploys, backroom meetings, voting blocs, allowing the loudest, the most raucous, the most carnal and the most pugnacious to lord it over the congregation. Within the petri dish, mobs form, mobs, secular or ecclesiastical, fighting for control. 

In a democratic church, Christ isn't the head of the church, 51% of the people are. Yet, we are so drenched with democracy, we don't know how to conduct ourselves; we can't decide any issue without taking a vote. In congregations and committees, democracy dominates while Christ is outside the meeting room, knocking on the door.

ANOTHER WAY

Churches can reject the authority of Christ by adopting a hierarchy of prelates, bishops, cardinals, and popes. The church began without a bishop, one man with absolute authority over a church, and eventually a group of churches. The hierarchy got started with Ignatius of Antioch (37-107 AD):

"Ignatius' letters also served to record the rapid development of church hierarchy. 'Follow, all of you, the bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father,' he wrote to Polycarp's church at Smyrna (now Izmir, Turkey). 'Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be, even as wheresoever Christ Jesus is, there is the catholic church. It is not lawful apart from the bishop either to baptize or to hold a church meal,' he continued in his letter to Smyrna. The instruction is also remarkable because it is the first recorded use of the phrase "catholic [meaning, universal]" (From "Christianity Today").

The Bible is a different book, but I'm sure you know that; but the more we study it, the more we realize just how different (and true) it is.








1 comment:

  1. The church today has lost its way by not having Christ in the midst of their gatherings. This has happened because they are trying so hard to bring the unchurched into the fold. However, they are trying to appeal to those people with secular enticements. For instance, gathering together around a meal. - If the purpose of the meal is to get to know each person better so that they can fellowship around learning more about Jesus Christ, then this is good. But the church today is trying to draw in secular people with secular enticements purely for the purpose of social enjoyment and entertainment. Christ is never mentioned, and is not the purpose. These can be things like musicians being brought in to give concerts, golf games, field trips and sightseeing, gatherings for games, movies, and social hour, etc. So many churches spend more money on entertainment, lighting, sound systems, and sensory appeal that they lose track of the real need of their members and visitors - Biblical centered friendship and Bible study. Instead of the experience of sensory stimulation, churches need to be feeding the people's souls with Jesus. Many of us have experienced these warped priorities in the church. I recently saw an outreach effort that would have brought in a Choir from the poor side of the city to have a concert for them so they could raise much needed money for Sunday School Supplies, and Ministry Needs in their poverty stricken area. ....The concert was cancelled because a golf game needed the parking space in their lot. There needs to be a strong board of men that watch for these wrong priorities when they slip in, and stop them before they happen. If not, Jesus gradually gets pushed outside their doors for more "fun" and "exciting" enticements.

    ReplyDelete