findingtruthmatters.org

November, 2005

I've recently accepted an invitation to minister in Africa. I'm sure many Bible teachers get invitations to teach in various parts of the world, so this kind of invitation is nothing extraordinary, except that two things accompanied it. Firstly, it came with great insistence, and secondly, it came with a diagnosis of the spiritual condition of those who have been blessed by the current African Revival. That diagnosis was stated simply as "The tide of the current revival has spread widely and swept many into its current, but it is only a few inches deep!" Many Africans are coming to Christ, but their understanding of Christianity is minimal. Of course, the same can be said of other revivals which have taken (and are taking) place around the world. The principal of one of the largest theological colleges in Africa (around 2,000 residential students!) expressed his desperation at finding Bible teachers with the necessary exegetical skill to help his students.

I have made the topic of Biblical exegesis my life study. Along the way I have penned various documents which I hope have contributed to the pursuit of Biblical Exegesis. One of the books which I first read over twenty years ago on the topic of Biblical Exegesis (which I recommend everyone to read) was How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth (written by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart). Since then I have taken courses and read numerous books on this topic, and made some of my own thoughts available for critiqueing.

Its therefore with mixed emotions that I now almost automatically filter all sermons, books and articles through a filter of refined Biblical Exegesis. In doing this I have discovered that the most popular is not always the most sound. For example, the most popular series of Christian novels in publishing history may well be the Left Behind series of books. Yet how many Christians can detect the thoroughly weak Biblical exegesis which undergirds it? Left Behind might be popular, but it is wrong.

One of the most popular pastors in Southern California, with an enormously popular TV program was the late, Ps. Gene Scott (pictured left). He would do outrageous things from his pulpit and TV show to stir his audience. He was rarely seen without a cigar in his mouth, and one of his favorite sayings was "seats in heaven don't come cheap you know! So give me your money!" This white bearded man, who was once an AOG pastor, never married- preferring instead just to live with his three concubines one after another. He was popular (15,000 people joined his church), but he was wrong!

The problem with being popular-but-wrong is that it can lead to manipulation of the unsuspecting into extremism. For example, Tim LaHaye has channelled some of the proceeds of his Left Behind books into various ministries which promote what Dr John Stott calls "escapism" (the rapture) and the preeminence of the nation of Israel and the demise of her enemies. Some might think "No harm done in any of this." But when you realise that this is the theology of the Bush Whitehouse Administration which has fundamentally motivated its attack on Sadam Housein's Iraq (a hostile enemy of Israel) and the death of several thousand Coalition soldiers- not to mention the tens of thousands of Iraqis, we can no longer think that this form of Christian "extremism" is without consequence.

 

HOW CAN CHRISTIANS DETECT "EXTREMISM"? 

1. Direct familiarity with God's Word
(this demands a consistent Bible reading 'program', and in some cases, such as the Two-Thirds World, helping to make the Scriptures available in an understandable language, at no charge.)

2. Claims of "a new revelation" are almost certainly not from God or complementary to His Word.
(Claims by charismatic leaders that they have recently heard from God who has revealed to them some "new truth" are 'neo-gnostic'. During the late first century and early second century A.D. the Gnostics claimed to have special knowledge from God which only the initiated could comprehend. Without this knowledge, they claimed, a person could not be saved. Lately, I've heard such fanciful claims of "new revelation" as simple church, new apostolic leadership, and the coming revival - move of God. Of course, these 'revelations' can not be found in Scripture and when those promoting these extremist ideas are challenged they generally acknowledge this but claim that God has directly shown them these things.
Therefore, if someone prophesies a directive revelation which is not reinforcing God's Word, we should ask- does this 'revelation' disagree with God's established Word- such as the Mormon claims by Joseph Smith- or does this prophecy ask me to do something that Scripture does not encourage?)

3. Learn the art and science of Biblical interpretation.
(In summary these principles can be stated as- 1. Never take a verse out of context without considering its surrounding verses and theme; 2. Never interpret a verse of Scripture in a way that contradicts the overall message of Scripture; 3. Discover the original intention of the Scripture passage through researching its historic application- beginning with Scripture itself; 4. Use what the New Testament is saying to reveal what the Old Testament has said, while interpretting the New Testament with the language of the Old; 5. Once it can be established that a prophecy has been fulfilled do not speculate on further fulfiments.)

4. Take a recognised course in Hermeneutics (Bible Interpretation).
I recommend our ICI College degree course, which you can take for credit or personal enrichment.

Extremist Christian behaviour results from faulty Bible interpretation. Note the following faulty interpretations and what they have led to-

Scripture Passage	Interpretation	Resultant Faulty Application of this Mis-Interpretation
Isa. 45:11 Thus says the LORD, The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: “Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons; And concerning the work of My hands, you command Me.	The believer has the authority to command God to act on his behalf. In fact, God invites His people to command Him in prayer so that He has a licence to act on their behalf.	Faith teachers teach that God can do nothing unless invited by His people in prayer to act on their behalf. They go so far as to teach believers to abandon petitioning God, and repalce it with "commanding" God to act for them. By following the five principles for Biblical interpretation stated above, this reckless interpretation can be instantly dismissed. Instead what we discover this verse is actually saying is more closely aligned to the MESSAGE translation where the you command Me phrase is an indignant question from the Lord not a request!
Heb. 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;	When the writer to the Hebrews wrote that it was "the last days" it merely marked the beginning of the end. Therefore, if they were in the last days in 63AD we must be in the very last days today!	Dispensational teachers of this idea promote that time is running out and therefore there is no point to long-term planning, and definitely no point to sowing righteousness for generations to come (since, they claim, this is the last generation to live before the end of the world). But an exegesis of such passages which refer to "the last days" reveals that it was indeed the last days of the Old Covenant, and it was about to be done away with in 70AD- Heb. 8:13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. Christians should be salt and light in our society to the degree that we influence not just our generation and community, but generations to come and the entire globe!
Eph. 2:20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,	The Church cannot be blessed by God until we release the Apostles and Prophets to be the modern foundations of the Church today who also continue on the work of the first century Apostles and Prophets.	The New Apostolic Movement claims that there are Apostles and Prophets today who are of the same status and ministry as the original ones. The reason the Church at large has not been able to complete the Great Commission is that it has failed to recognise and release these ministries and then submit to them. God has wanted to bless the Church, but because the Church has not been structured under its Biblical authority, God has been unable to bless it with revival. But a time is coming when God will pour out His Spirit in Revival and those churches under an apostle will receive their share of this revival. But doing exegesis on this verse (which by the way was the topic of my doctorate) we discover that this verse lends no validation to any modern ministry claiming equality with the authority of the original apostles and prophets to reveal Scripture and sound doctrine for the establishing the Church. What this verse does teach, and I argue for in my book- AUTHENTIC APOSTOLIC LEADERSHIP - is that the ministry functions of apostle and prophet are ordained by God for the benefit of the Church. I've adopted a simple rule of thumb for modern apostolic ministry- anyone claiming to be an apostle today, probably isn't.
Matt. 24:24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.	Israel is the elect of God, the Church is really just God's Plan "B".	Dispensational teachers claim that Israel is the centre-piece of God's prophetic clock- they are the elect. Since Christ teaches that elect should be guarded, we should do all we can to bless, protect and honour Israel today. Much could be said about this entire passage of Matthew 24, that's why I wrote an entire book on it called THE MOST EMBARRASSING VERSE IN THE BIBLE. Suffice to say that the term "elect" has more to do with redemption than race! Literally millions of dollars are diverted out of the Kingdom and into the nation of Israel to promote their return from dispersion. Despite that Israel is experiencing a net population decline and massive de-migration, Dispensational teachers continue to claim that certain prophecies are being fulfilled by the return of so many Jews to Israel. Israel's war-crimes and breaches of U.N. Conventions and Resolutions are seen as necessary evils to help fulfil Bible prophecy. This is despite Scriptures such as - Josh. 21:45 Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

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WHAT TO DO ABOUT CHRISTIAN EXTREMISM

Christian extremism which leads to Christian misconduct needs to challenged. My concern is that vulnerable Christians will find their time, talent or treasure wasted on futile Christian causes. If you know of believers who are being swayed into an unbiblical extreme, then I suggest the following fourfold strategy-

1. If you are a pastor or Bible teacher, teach those you are responsible for, and serve, the five sound principles of Bible Interpretation (mentioned above).

2. Filter your theology through the five sound principles of Biblical interpretation.

3. Ask challenging questions of those promoting non-biblical extremist positions. See whether they agree with the five sound principles of Biblical interpretation. Ask them to defend their doctrine based on these principles.

4. Sometimes a courteous "No, I don't agree with that." is all that's needed to get some proponents of faulty doctrine to reconsider their position, especially when you maintain fellowship with them.

Naturally, some people will equate Christian extremists with other religious extremists, as if they deserve to all be lumped into the same basket. Fortunately, Christian 'extremism' is generally about 'faulty' rather than 'false' belief and practice. Most of these proponents are sincere.

Unfortunately though, extremism in other religions can be deadly! Some people claim that Christianity has led to the death of thousands of people throughout history. But upon investigation, we discover that whenever this happened (The Crusades, The Inquisitions) it was done despite what the New Testament teaches against it. Yet, whenever violence is carried out by other religions it is not necessarily a deviation from their scriptures, in fact, it may be a faithful adherence to them! Therefore, the roots of religious extremism are either a faulty interpretation of the Scriptures or faulty scriptures to start with. For the Christian, both are avoidable if we can apply the five principles of sound Biblical interpretation and the fourfold strategy for challenging extremism.

 

Andrew Corbett, November 2005

© 2005, Finding Truth Matters

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