Following Judah's Lion

A Monstrous Biblical Compromise

Rev.3:14-20 - And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Please notice that the core element of this spiritually benign condition centers around money. This does not indicate some false teachers who deny the cross or the exclusivity of Christ. In fact, the Spirit does not deal here with those issues at all. But He does identify the source of the innocuous condition of this church and of the believers connected with it. And the Spirit has much to say about money, its use, and the inordinate affect afforded to it. And that is a significant stumbling block to the western believer, but since we live in a culture of excesses and fallen values and practices, some of our own beliefs and practices are accepted and unquestioned, even though they are blatantly unbiblical.

It is quite astonishing how the church can embrace things that are openly against Scriptural teachings without blinking an “I believe the Bible” eyelash. The spirit of the Bereans is now largely ignored, and if it is used at all, it is completely centered on systematic doctrine and not the sifting of our own life revelations of the more practical Biblical exhortations. The church as a whole operates within an ecclesiastical culture that is a first cousin to the operation of a secular business. And if a handful of mature and committed believers from the second century had been frozen in ice and unfrozen today, they would be aghast at what passes for the “peculiar” people of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The western culture is built upon the love of money. And this fondness is pursued with a vigor that seeps into almost every aspect of this life. It finds its way into clothes, and shoes, and makeup, and fitness, and careers, and cars, and homes, and social strata, and education, and politics, and abortion, and a laundry list of the particulars of this hedonistic way of life. And yet the church has not only become immune to such things, it has embraced them. Some even teach that God likes them and desires to have His children practice them.

In many profound ways, money represents this world, and unless it is used as a necessary commodity that must be viewed always as a serious and poisonous temptation, it will quickly turn into a compromising component of a believer’s life. And once money is let out of its cage, it will consume its owner in open and clandestine ways. And that is the metaphor that actually applies today. Money, and its representatives like success, things, power, recreation, etc., have taken a clandestine routeto the desired destination which is the lives of believers and the church at large. And only a disingenuous spirit could deny that western believers live their lives completely unremarkable from their lost counterparts. But our stands on moral issues and our spiritual picnics on Sunday mornings must suffice to render us as “peculiar” people.

But it isn’t just the ornate buildings and the state of the art electronics that are obvious detours from Biblical moderation. And it isn’t just the inflated staff positions and the exorbitant salary packages that indicate an assimilation into secular monetary practices. And just a perusal in the Sunday morning church parking lot is not sufficient to capture the enormity of the spiritual condition concerning wealth in the church. But note this: Many churches borrow millions of dollars from secular institutions to fund buildings wherein the decedents of Constantine can meet with the atmosphere of an expensive theatre.

And when the day comes and they “move into” this new and thrilling edifice to “worship” God, they rejoice in that God has miraculously provided them with favor in the eyes of fallen institutions and allowed them to go deep into debt and also pay millions in interest to these same fallen and antichrist systems. Halleluiah! The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

How utterly pitiful and profoundly disturbing it is that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ rejoices in buildings, and even debt ridden buildings at that! How low have we fallen? Let us just pretend that there are no widows or orphans or poor or starving people. Let us just pretend that all the evangelical missionaries are well funded and have no need of anything to reach the lost and dying. Let’s just pretend there is no greater and more spiritually focused use for such funds. Even if all that were true (which it is not.), it is still openly and dramatically against the entirety of New Testament teachings to borrow money, much less borrowing money from the god of this world by the Church of Jesus Christ.

But hardly anyone blinks a doctrinal eye about that. Even the energetic doctrinal hawks whose keen eye can spot a doctrinal compromise on the dark side of the Moon remain blind and unmoved by such an egregious practice of Biblical error. Here is a church who borrows millions to fund a new auditorium/worship center based upon unbiblical written vows by the congregation promising to contribute so much a month to the project, and they move into this new and thrilling and bank owned edifice with great fanfare.

So far they remain untargeted by the doctrinal bourgeoisie of the watchman class. But let them ride a motorcycle into the service and all doctrinal hell breaks loose! So the motorcycle upsets the heavenly order, but the millions in debt is par for the course? Listen, I’m not partial to motorcycles in the gathering or all the other sensationalistic theatrics that seem to be prevalent in today’s evangelical circles, but I refuse to be blind to some of the other grievous compromises that are more acceptable to orthodox taste.

But in the midst of such a monstrous disobedient practice, much of the American church considers itself increased with goods and only in need of more! But, alas, our line of credit is limited. I will have more to say on this subject later.