A really awesome
piece by Tim Challis on how churches SELF-destruct, and wonder of wonders, the
Lord had Paul tell Timothy, and us, how they do it to themselves.
An important
thing for the reader to realize that it is by the same path that believers can,
and sadly do, self-destruct the faith the Lord has given them.
Destroy a Church in 4 Simple Steps
By Tim
Challis - April 28, 2014
http://www.challies.com/articles/destroy-a-church-in-4-simple-steps
A
short time ago I learned of a church building in our neighborhood that was for
sale. For years now Grace Fellowship Church has been looking for a building of
our own, so we thought we should go and give it a look. This had once been a
thriving congregation. Faithful Christians had given sacrificially to construct
that building. They had consecrated it to the Lord and had worshipped there for
many years. Yet now that building was deserted, decaying, and up for sale.
What happened?
How did that church go from thriving to dying? How did it slide from healthy to
sick to dead? I think I know. I think Paul tells us in his second letter to
Timothy, the letter he wrote just days or weeks before his death. There, in
chapter 4, he looks into the future, he sees a church being destroyed, and he
warns us how it happens. It’s as straightforward as four simple steps.
Before we get to
those four steps we need to see one critical piece of information: this church self-destructs.
The church is not closed down through government persecution; it is not
afflicted by cultural pressure and does not succumb to the attacks of another
religion. This church is eroded from the inside, from within the membership. This
church is destroyed by people claiming to act in the name of Jesus.
Here are those
four simple steps that lead to a church’s self-destruction.
STEP 1: REJECT TRUTH
Paul warns
Timothy that “They will turn away from listening to the truth.” The first step
in destroying a church is turning away from what is true, losing interest in
the truth as God reveals it, growing weary of what God says is true and lovely.
What was once a love of truth becomes a dislike and then disgust toward truth;
what was once a hatred of error becomes an intrigue and interest in error.
Hearts begin to harden.
STEP 2: REJECT TRUTH-TELLERS
As they turn
away from the truth, they necessarily turn against the truth-tellers. So Paul
tells Timothy that in that day to come, “They will not endure sound teaching.”
It’s not that people won’t know what is true, but that they won’t endure what
is true. Because they have come to hate the truth, they will now hate those who
proclaim the truth. The very teachers that once drew them will now
repulse them.
STEP 3: EMBRACE
FALSE TEACHERS
This church has
rejected the truth and those who teach the truth. Now what? It is obvious and
inevitable: They will embrace false teachers. “Having itching ears, they will
accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.” As these people
become hardened in sin, as they grow in their rebellion, they will want to be
led by people who tell them those things they want to hear. Paul uses a great
word-picture to describe this: itching ears. These are ears that want to be
tickled by novelty, by something that will be respectable to society and
palatable to a godless world. They will soon find this kind of teacher who will
justify their turning away from truth and who will validate them in
their rebellion.
STEP FOUR:
EMBRACE FALSE DOCTRINE
Once they have
rejected truth and truth-tellers, and once they have found teachers who will
tickle their itching ears, “They will wander off into myths.” They will now
embrace full-out error, full out heresy. They will become hardened in their sin
so they will now believe error is good and true. They will become so deluded
and rebellious that they will celebrate what God hates and do it all in the
name of God. They will wander off, just like dumb sheep wandering away from
their good shepherd.The narrow road to salvation has no room to wander, but
that broad road to destruction has all the room they need to wander this way
and that.
And they will
die. In the end, those who claim to have acted in the name of Christ will be
shown to hate Christ. That church, that congregation, will die.
What happened to
the church that once worshiped in the building we visited and wanted to buy?
The people developed itching ears. They would no longer endure sound teaching,
and accumulated for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. They turned
away from listening to the truth and wandered off into myths.
The evidence of
those myths was plain to see. Their hymn book had songs like “Mother and God”
which says, “Mother and God, to you we sing: wide is your womb, warm is your
wing.” Their web site featured a video about a pastor undergoing gender
reassignment with the full support of his church. Their literature explicitly
denied that Christ is the only way to God, saying “God works in our world by a
mysterious Spirit that knows no distinction at the doorway of a Christian
chapel; Buddhist, Hindu, or Sikh temple; Aboriginal sweat lodge, Muslim mosque,
or Jewish synagogue.”
We did not get
that building. That building was sold and, if I understand correctly, will soon
be torn down. In the end the denominational leaders charged with selling it did
not want the gospel in that building, they wanted money out of that building.
They needed the money to help support two more of their floundering
congregations that will inevitably soon be gone as well.
Two thousand
years ago Paul wrote to young Timothy and told him exactly how this church, and
so many like it, would die. He also gave Timothy a charge that would keep his
own church from experiencing similar destruction and from wavering through the
time of itching ears. But I will save that for another day.
