Guarding His Flock Ministries

Egypt in Crisis: A Prophetic Perspective

“In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord near its border. And it will become a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will deliver them. Thus the Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day.” (Isaiah 19:19-21a, NASB)

Egypt in the Present
Egypt is in the news. Mass public demonstrations against Hosni Mubarak’s régime have turned violent as demonstrators, the majority of whom are against the current government, a minority of whom are for it, throw rocks and Molotov cocktails at each other. Mubarak has offered to step down in September after an orderly transition, but the demonstrating mobs want him out now. Sniper fire has also been heard from rooftops over Liberation Square (Tahrir) in Cairo, Egypt’s capitol city. A few persons may have been killed; all of which is to say, the political situation in Egypt, a country formerly aligned with the United States and tolerant of Israel’s existence, has turned dicey. Nobody, not even the expert talking heads on network newscasts, dare to forecast where this anarchical mess might lead. So far, the Egyptian military, having been trained in the West and carrying some western values, has remained neutral. How long it will remain so is unknown. But why, it might be asked, is all this happening?

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A critical review of Lloyd Gardner’s book, Face to Face: A Dialogue with Jesus (Tollhouse, CA: Eliezer Call Ministries, 2009) 174 pages.

“Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by . . . taking his stand on visions he has seen . . .” (Paul the Apostle, Colossians 2:18)

Lloyd Gardner’s book, Face to Face: A Dialogue with Jesus, contains material that Bible believing Christians can agree with. Scriptural quotations, paraphrases and allusions appear throughout the book. Lloyd’s emphasis upon the spiritual life–the need for believers to daily take up their cross and follow Jesus, to love Him as a faithful Bride, to enter into God’s rest, and to eschew worldliness and cultivate holiness and forgiveness in Christian living–ought to resonate with all believers.

Having almost died of a heart attack near Budapest, Hungary, in November of 2006, I sympathize with the author’s living with cancer. His insights can help others who for reason of illnesses, are coping with the uncertainty of life.

As a pastor, I also identify with the naiveté with which he returned to minister in a former congregation only to be dismissed by the leadership for failure to share their vision for the church (Chapter 9), which in today’s market-driven environment of ministry demands the production of tangible “results”—increasing attendance numbers, upping the cash flow and building bigger buildings. These days, “the buck stops” in the pulpit!

In a day of “big box” churches, Gardner’s focus upon the simple, as opposed to the institutional, church—The 2:42 Formula—finds precedent in Scripture. Luke describes “the four to-s” of the early church; that early Christians devoted themselves “to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Emphasis added, Acts 2:42). [1] But these days, contemporary Christians are all about feeling comfortable in church. As one pastor observes:

Comfort has become a central goal of worship. In the face of life’s challenges, people come to church seeking therapy or comforting affirmation. They often get their wish because church leaders know that these customers will vanish from the padded seats if they’re not satisfied. [2]

So pan-evangelical congregations emphasize man-centered musical excitements and entertainment in worship, programmatic approaches to spirituality, and paid professionals preaching psychology, positivity, possibility and prosperity in order to make the audience “feel good.” These developments in America’s evangelical churches represent a radical departure, even apostasy, from the devout and simple church described in Acts.

Gardner’s book contains truth. But when compared to Scripture, the truth is mixed with error, something that ought to concern Bible believers. About mixing truth and untruth, Harry Ironside (1876-1951) wrote:

Error is like leaven of which we read, “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” Truth mixed with error is equivalent to all error, except that it is more innocent looking and, therefore, more dangerous. God hates such a mixture! Any error, or any truth-and-error mixture, calls for definite exposure and repudiation. To condone such is to be unfaithful to God and His Word and treacherous to imperiled souls for whom Christ died. [3]

We turn to discern the errors in Face to Face.
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Paul’s miracles and the handkerchief mailing scam.

“And God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.” Acts 19:11-12, NASB

A mass mailing sent out by Saint Matthew’s Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, tells recipients:

God tells Ministers to send out Handkerchiefs to people’s homes, so that blessings will start in their lives. Use this Bible Handkerchief soaked with prayer, tonight, and return it in the morning. [1]

To receive a blessing, one must take the anointed prayer-handkerchief included in the mailing, write his/her name on it, place the inscribed paper handkerchief in a Bible, believe God for whatever miracle is needed or wanted, sleep near the handkerchief and Bible overnight, and mail it back to Saint Matthew’s Church first thing in the morning, preferably with a financial contribution enclosed. What blessings will persons receive if they follow these steps? The letter from Saint Matthew’s Church is filled with anonymous testimonies like the following: “USED THE BIBLE HANDKERCHIEF . . . Blessed With $6,000.00 . . . FLORIDA–I put the Handkerchief in the Bible . . . and sent it back to you. I received a check for $3,500 . . . I received a check for $2,500 . . .” Other deliverances testified to in the Saint Matthew’s prayer letter include individuals who saw their son released from jail, their son-in-law delivered from alcohol and drug abuse, their financial debt eliminated, their physical and mental illness cured, and other big financial blessings come upon them.

At the face of it, this whole business appears to be a blatant religious scam, except for the fact that it claims to have biblical precedent and authority behind it. Support supposedly is found from the book of Acts where Luke recorded: “And God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out” (Acts 19:11-12). What, we ask, was going on at Ephesus during Paul’s ministry in that city? Does the book of Acts support the idea that ministers are to mail out prayer handkerchiefs to help people with their personal, health, and financial problems? To answer these questions, issues pertinent to the passage need to be addressed and understood.
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Can yogic practices be integrated with the Christian faith?

“Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. For Thou [O Lord] hast abandoned Thy people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east . . .” Isaiah 2:5-6, NASB

“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet . . .” Rudyard Kipling’s words accent the difference between eastern and western spirituality, between Hinduism and Christianity. But the two, “the twain” as it were, are now meeting via yogic practices promoted in various places of worship and activities of spirituality. Take, for example, one Jewish synagogue. The weekly Shabbat services of Congregation Beth-El Zedek have included such activities as “Torah Yoga,” which asks congregants to “stretch and take deep breaths” as the Torah is read, or when as worshippers enter the synagogue, they are “welcomed by Torah meditations set to drums and chanting.” [1] But Jews are not alone in adopting yogic postures and practices.
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Is Jesus Jehovah, or Yahweh (YHWH), of the Old Testament?

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.” 2 John 7, NASB

Jehovah’s Witnesses exhibit commendable moral characteristics, especially when set against the backdrop of our culture’s moral meltdown. Members are generally “clean cut” and family oriented. In raising their children, they enforce outward standards of holiness and dress, standards which shame much of what is acceptable in today’s pan-evangelical churches. Unlike many professing Christians, they also possess a missionary zeal as evidenced by their neighborhood visitations. Few after all, have not been visited by them at their front door.

But despite credible characteristics, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not possess a right understanding of the doctrine of Christ. They refuse to accept the obvious New Testament assertions that Jesus is God (Colossians 2:8-9; Philippians 2:6; John 1:1; etc.). Like Unitarians, Witnesses believe that Jehovah alone is God.

The name Jehovah is the English paraphrase of the common Old Testament name for God, Yahweh (with vowels “a” and “e” added, the name Yahweh derives from the Hebrew name YHWH). About himself Yahweh states, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD (YHWH) is our God (Elohim), the LORD (YHWH) is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4). In his indictment of the idolatry of Israel, Yahweh declared through Isaiah, “Thus saith the LORD (YHWH) the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD (YHWH) of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6). In light of Old Testament texts like these, Jehovah’s Witnesses rightly equate that Jehovah is singularly God as opposed to the idolatry, pantheism and polytheism of the pagans. But in their zeal to protect Jehovah’s unity, they deny Jesus’ deity.

So when looking at the Bible, the question arises, does the Jesus of the New Testament equate to be the personal and self-disclosed Yahweh/Jehovah of the Old? There is strong evidence which indicates that both Jesus and His disciples believed He was the incarnation of YHWH.

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From astrology to nativity: the role of the star in the Magi’s journey to find the Messiah.

“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east, and have come to worship Him.” Matthew 2:1-2, NASB

Star Light Star bright,
The first star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

So goes the Mother Gooose Nursery Rhyme that many in their childhood repeated as they wistfully lay on their beds looking out the bedroom window at the sky above. From Disney to astronomy, stars fascinate the human mind and soul. But there are mystical and spiritual worldviews, ancient and modern, associated with stars, astrology and its attendant horoscopes being but one example. Stars can promote myths.

Among others, one that has accumulated around Christmas is that by night and by day from Babylon, or from places thereabouts, an ongoing star led three wise men or magicians to Bethlehem, the birthplace of the Christ child. Enduring frigid nights and blistering days and traveling by caravan on camels over desolate desserts, these ancient astrologers followed a star that first appeared in the east where they lived and practiced the occult arts, to the West where the infant (not baby) Jesus resided. The Christmas carol “We Three Kings” perpetuates the myth. The lyrics read:

First Stanza:
We three kings of Orient are;
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.

Chorus:
O star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright;
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to Thy perfect light. [1]

Preachers too help to perpetuate the myth that to locate Him who was born King of the Jews, the wise men followed an ever present star. One has written:

The star of Bethlehem was a star of guidance. This star guided the wise men through the desert and across great distances. It guided them to the Lord Jesus Christ. [2]

Yet questions abound around this Christmas scenario. Is this understanding of the role played by the star too star-struck?
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The “smoggy” spirituality of L. Ron Hubbard.

“The lamp of your body is your eye; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you may not be darkness.” Jesus, Luke 11:34-35, NASB

Many Hollywood celebs have embraced the religion Scientology, the teachings of the late L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986). In 1950 L. Ron, a prolific science fiction author, wrote a book Dianetics that set forth his teachings. To promote these teachings, he realized the value of celebrity endorsement and to this day famous persons publicly align themselves with Scientology teachings, among them being such notables as Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Fox News legal analyst Greta Van Susteren. Through information and techniques offered at expensive seminars, Scientology offers people a method for coping with the stresses of life. The method works something like this.

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A meditation on Job 23:10.

“But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job 23:10, KJV

There is no state in life that we want more to avoid than that experienced by Job. In a short time, he lost it all–his wealth, family, friends and health. Job went from possessing everything to having nothing. No more pathetic scene exists in Scripture, save that of the passion and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, than that of Job having lost it all, having been smitten with painful boils from head to toe, sitting on the ash heap at the dump outside the city, scraping his rotting flesh with a potsherd (that’s a sharp fragment of broken pottery), his wife visiting and asking him, “Dost thou still retain thine integrity?” and finally advising him to just “curse God, and die” (Job 2:8).

Few people in life have experienced the trials of Job. Though everybody around him accused that he deserved God’s judgment because he had sinned, Job never did curse God for what befell him. Amidst all the negativity surrounding him, Job believed that God knew the way of his life. Amidst the painful circumstances life throws at us, do we also believe this?
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No formation without regeneration.

“My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you . . .” Paul, Galatians 4:19, NASB

Within evangelical movement, especially on the part of the emerging church, we hear a lot of talk about “spiritual formation.” [1] The difference I have with the spiritual formation movement is not regarding the destination—Paul wrote that Christians need to grow-up “to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13)—but over the journey, how emerging evangelicals are proposing we get there. As the Holy Spirit incorporates Christ within and among believers, He sets Christ-likeness as the objective for every believer because that is the very meaning of the name, “Christian.”

The problem with so many evangelicals today is that they are not Christ-like. [2] Three decades of “pop worship,” with its emphasis upon entertainment at the expense of edification from God’s Word, has led to spiritual-emptiness. “Happy church” has not made for a holy church, and the deficiency has provided a spiritual climate in which spiritual directors, spiritual formation, and spiritual disciplines have emerged. As evangelicals experientially embrace the mystery of faith in our postmodern era, emphasis upon spiritual formation is becoming the vogue in churches, Christian universities, Bible colleges and seminaries.

Recently, I listened to a pastor explain to his congregation why they were not an emerging church. [3] In his conversation—they no longer call it preaching—he referenced Paul’s statement in Galatians 4:19 to justify employing methods of spiritual formation. The text reads: “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you . . . for I am perplexed about you” (Italics mine, Galatians 4:19-20). Connect the dots—formed . . . formation. On this basis, the pastor assumed Paul to have been a kind of spiritual director who promoted spiritual disciplines to affect spiritual formation. The pastor’s  assumption caused me to look at the biblical text to see whether Paul was promoting such an approach to spirituality. Ironically, what I discovered was opposite from what this pastor inferred the text to say. But first some background . . .
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Why the decline of Evangelicalism?

“And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” Deuteronomy 6:6-7, KJV

The Word of God suggests there exists an intergenerational spiritual legacy which surpasses any other in value and importance. God chose Abraham because, “I know him,” said the Lord, “that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord . . .” (Genesis 18:19, KJV). For Abraham the faith was a trust to be passed on to his children for their spiritual blessing (Genesis 12:2). Fathers often begin businesses with the expectation that one day the sign on the front of the building might read, Father and Son. Family fortunes also pass from generation to generation as the names Kennedy, Rockefeller and Rothschild attest. Kings too create legacies for their descendents, for princes and princesses.

Like a baton handed-off between runners in a relay race, at least once the Christian faith was passed from a grandmother, to a mother, and to a son. Wrote Paul to Timothy, “For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well” (2 Timothy 1:5, NASB). However, with such a trust there is a danger.

We may take the trust too much for granted, and in doing so, fumble the baton. As she surveyed the spiritual carnage and wreckage within the biblical record, Ruth Graham once stated: “Christianity is but one generation away from extinction.” Part of the problem with today’s Woodstock generation is that somewhere the “baby boomers” lost or dropped the spiritual legacy of their fathers and mothers, and this failure, as the condition of our nation attests, has affected (or should I say infected?) our entire society.

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