“PROVE ALL THINGS”
We are to prove all things (I Thessalonians 5:21). That which follows in this same verse is the idea that we hold firm to that which is good. If there is no testing or proving, how then would one know what is good? If things are to be proved, then there must be a standard by which we prove all things. There was a time when God’s people were taught and clearly understood that God’s Word was the standard by which we prove all things. We are contending now with a generation which has surrendered the power of God’s Word over their lives in exchange for a “feel good religion”.
If the standard becomes what makes me feel good then I would submit that the thousands which I see attending ball games must surely be right with God. They indeed “feel good” based on their jumping up and down and the expressions on their faces. The fact that some of them are half naked and filled with spirits out of a bottle does not change the fact, that they “are happy”. I would not desire to place my salvation on any such feeling good type of standard.
Someone had sent me a DVD of the gathering in Kentucky of the Christian Church and supposed members of the body of Christ. The DVD that I saw was on the last night of the convention (or whatever it was) with Jeff Walling doing the speaking. Thing was, before Mr. Walling ever came to speak there was a stage full of individuals singing with instruments and having a beat with those instruments as good as any concert put on by any worldly band. The songs were arranged in such a way from fast upbeat drum pounding songs to more subdued songs of one kind or another. The sad part was that the audience did not realize it was being manipulated by the arrangement of songs.
After an extended period with such singing, I saw some drama group come out consisting of two men and a woman. One of the men pretended to be Jesus with a nice size earring. The purpose of the little skit was to convince the audience about the need for forgiveness. When Mr. Walling came to the podium the audience was already conditioned to accept the “fact” that the Christian Church has been right all the years and that those narrow minded people in the church of Christ need to be forgiven for treating them so wrong ever since the early 1900’s.
I pause then to ask some simple questions. Where is your proof of an unwillingness to forgive? Do you have evidence of intolerance being practiced by God’s people? It would seem necessary that we get to a level playing field to be able to answer these and similar questions. What is the standard? Because men get up in public with tears in their eyes and swap Bibles is not something on which I would risk my soul. The swapping of Bibles needs to be a good starting point; that is the Bible needs to be the standard. No matter how many teary-eyed preachers swap Bibles will not change the issue at hand.
May individuals worship God any way they choose? Go all the way back to Cain and Abel and establish the idea that it does not matter to God how men worship Him. Study through the first chapter of Isaiah and explain why God said, “…bring no more vain oblations (evening sacrifices)” (Isaiah 1:13). If it does not matter to God then I can do what makes me “feel good”. Then I come to the prophet Malachi where God charges His people who came back from Babylonian captivity to cease offering “…polluted bread upon my altar…” (Malachi 1:7). At what point do we disregard such lessons revealed by God (Romans 15:4)?
Am I to believe that the Hollywood style staged production put on by the Christian Church with the aid of Mr. Walling and others is acceptable to God? It is time for individuals to cease asserting things and start proving things. I have heard in my lifetime those who argue that there is not enough love in the church. Such assertions very seldom if ever come from those who are practicing love in their own hearts.
If you wish to assert that we have not been preaching enough about grace or did not understand grace, then prove it. Quit manipulating audiences with Hollywood style productions and let us sit down with the scriptures and prove what is asserted. Dry your eyes and hold on to your Bible and let God speak.