| A Handful of Nails | ||||
 The Last Word By Ole Anthony, with Skippy R. Issue #197, January/February 2005
In the New Testament the Greek word defined as church is ekklesia, and means the "called out ones." It meant the group of believers who had been called out of the world system into a new kingdom, the Kingdom of God. They met in small groups in people's homes. When the group grew too big for the house, some of them moved to the nearest house of another believer, thereby forming small communities. There was no building called a "church" for more than 300 years. Each believer was seen as a living stone in the temple of God "not made with hands." How many of the needs of "the least of these" could be met if all the church buildings were sold and the money given to the poor?
In Acts 11: 26, Luke tells us, "the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." It was usually a term of derision used by enemies. They called themselves Nazarenes, believers, disciples or People of the Way. To call themselves by an appellation that contained the name of the Messiah would have amounted to putting the name of God on that which is corruptible, or in other words, taking the name of the Lord in vain. Our talk of Christian television stations, Christian bookstores, the Christian music industry and especially a Christian nation would have been looked on with horror. The church today is clothed with pathological self-reference and self-promotion. It needs to return to humility.
In Gloria Copeland's book, God's Will is Prosperity, she echoes all the other name-it-claim-it preachers who preach that believers have a "covenant right" to prosperity and good health through the so-called 100-fold increase. "You give $1 for the gospel's sake and the full hundredfold return would be $100," she explains. "Ten dollars would be $1,000. A hundredfold return on $1,000 would be $100,000." To understand the irony of this teaching you need to read Mark 10:17-31. The entire teaching is about the rich young ruler who came to Jesus asking how to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to sell every thing he has and give the money to the poor. Then Jesus told the disciples that even though they had left everything, they would receive the 100-fold increase of houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, lands ... with persecution. This is the natural result of living in community. It's what believers throughout all time have had—laying down their lives and gaining a new family. If it was about greed, the rich young ruler would have signed up, not turned away.
We are told by many of the large ministries embroiled in controversy that we should not look at the leader's personal lives but instead look at their fruit. Benny Hinn recently said that about Jan and Paul Crouch, leaders of Trinity Broadcasting Network. By "fruit" he meant the number of television stations in the network, the number of satellites they are on and the number of listeners and possible converts. The Scriptures are clear that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. This is the character of Christ, manifested in our flesh. It comes by repentance. Trinity Broadcasting Network is a moral snake pit, and unless there is true repentance, God will not allow it to continue no matter how large it is and no matter how many people they have convinced of its importance.
Does it bother you at all when you see a pampered professional athlete being interviewed after winning a game tell the audience, "I'm just giving the Lord Jesus Christ all the glory". (Isn't that big of him?) How about when some prancing peacock preacher tells you, "God's will for your life is to be a champion." It makes me think of a child in our community named Shannon. Shannon will never be a champion. Weighing only two or three pounds at her premature birth, with every imaginable health problem, I have often thought that from God's standpoint she is the most important member of our group. She is totally helpless with no hope of ever excelling in anything valued by the world. But she is a thousand times more important to the kingdom of God than all the champions on earth because she's totally without guile or self-seeking. Shannon teaches us all how to love. Jesus told us that, "whatsoever is highly esteemed among men is an abomination unto God." He always chooses the foolish things to confound the wise and the weak things to confound the mighty. Let the church aspire to be weak, and the world will stand in awe.
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With this issue The Door Magazine returns to its roots and becomes the Wittenburg Door (misspelled as usual), so it seemed appropriate that we nail something to the door.