NOTES ON OUR LAST DAYS IMPRIMATUR: WE ARE ALL PREACHERS NOW!

SCRIPTURE. “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”  – 2 TIMOTHY 4:1-2, NKJV

QUOTATION. “‘It was strictly forbidden to preach to other prisoners.’ It was understood that whoever was caught doing this received a severe beating. A number of us decided to pay the price for the privilege of preaching, so we accepted their [the Communists’] terms. It was a deal; we preached, and they beat us. We were happy preaching. They were happy beating us, so everyone was happy.” ― RICHARD WURMBRAND, Tortured for Christ, 1967; edited

  • NOTE. Wurmbrand at no time tried to overthrow the Romanian Regime. Rather, he simply and courageously stood firm against Compromise with a devilish system. Beloved, we are required to do the very same in firm, principled and self-sacrificial Resistance to Trump’s Christian Nationalism. And as you all know by now, the Church has capitulated to Trump. We cannot!

I.  FIRST THOUGHTS

So do I once more dare to open Pandora’s Box with still another excruciatingly close examination of the American Church regarding her allegiance to the Legacy of Mr. Wurmbrand and his valorous, biblically-defined Love.

My initial modus operandi is to drill down on the American Church’s insistence that if we just love each other more and love and praise God more and love, I don’t know, pretty much love everything and everyone more, America will get back on track again.

Hardly any mention of Truth these days, not a very popular concept anymore. Nope, just lots and lots and lots and oodles and oodles of love. So much so, that it kind of makes this old man want to gag to be perfectly frank. (You remember ‘Frank,’ met him seven or so years ago and have developed a rich and wonderful friendship with him).

Well beloved, let me throw a theological monkey wrench into the mix about here, from a brief but incisive little tome by DR. JONATHAN LEEMAN, pastor, seminary professor, podcaster, and author of over twelve books. The title of his article: “Christian: Are You Imbibing Our Culture’s View of Love” (Crossway, Nov. 7, 2018; edited).

“People in our culture today love ‘love.’ We have lots of song lyrics and movies that extol love and romantic endings. Our children pass out stale, heart-shaped candies on Valentine’s Day. You can justify anything in culture today by saying that’s loving or they love each other. Love does kind of play the role of God in many ways. It justifies. It sets boundaries for us. People in America—in the West in general—love love. Some of their views of love seem to have the Bible in the background. There are good things in it, and that’s why it’s easy for us as Christians to adopt or imbibe our culture’s view of love …

[But then] Jesus says something: ‘If you love me, you’ll keep My commandments.’ He says, ‘Even as I abide in the Father’s love because I have kept His commandments.’ In this culture, we don’t have a category for that. In other words, we need a radical reorientation of what love is. We need to look at the Bible and what the Bible says love is. We’ll find some things that our culture says are true, but we’ll also find a lot of idolatry and things that aren’t true. Let the Scriptures and all the different, complex ways the Bible talks about love inform what our understanding—as believers—of love is.

Well, well, to quote the iconic “Dorothy” from The Wizard of Oz (1939): “That’s a horse of a different color.” Indeed it is. Monkey wrench indeed. Major Church Error indeed, the size of a veritable century of wrong thinking. With that in mind, therefore, let’s move to a more blunt-edged view of who and what the American Church really loves.

So prepare yourselves; it ain’t pretty.

II.  THOUGHTS ON THE CHURCH AT NARCISSUS

NARCISSUS. “A figure from Greek mythology who was so impossibly handsome that he fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water. Even the lovely nymph Echo could not tempt him from his self-absorption. Narcissus’ name lives on as the flower into which he was transformed and as a synonym for those obsessed with their own appearance.” – MARK CARTWRIGHT, World History Encyclopedia, Mar. 5, 2023; edited

The Christian scholar who pretty much wrote the book on this painful topic is CHUCK DEGROAT, who indeed published, When Narcissism Comes to Church in 2020. What follows are some excerpts from his incisive analysis of this fatal flaw in the American Church, as part explanation for why the Christian world in America is such a hot mess, to put it bluntly.

Adapted from his article in The Banner, a journal from the Reformed perspective, December 28, 2020 (edited).

  • “Over my 25 years in ministry, I’ve become increasingly concerned about Narcissism in the Church. About five years ago, I decided it was time for a serious conversation, one that transcended amateur diagnoses and cheap labeling. As a pastor, I’d been on the inside of narcissistic cultures in churches. As a therapist and psychological assessor of pastors and church planters, I was seeing warning signs all over the place. My concern was for pastors, particularly in a culture that seems addicted to platform, influence, success, power, and relevance …
  • “But I could also see what lurked in the shadows: People confused and abused by narcissistic leaders, debris fields of pain around seemingly successful ministries, and even the shadow side of pastors who shone on Sunday morning but battled shame, depression, addiction, and thoughts of suicide when the church lights went off.”
  • “NPD is a serious diagnosis, a Disorder of the Personality that is often traced to a combination of an inherited disposition and significant dysfunction in childhood. When you hear ‘disorder’ you might immediately think about more common mood and anxiety disorders—depression, bipolarism, panic, social phobias. These are often treatable with the right therapy, support, and even medications. But personality disorders are altogether different. They’re not curable or even treatable with short-term therapy or medications. You don’t read a book and get over it. It doesn’t go away with a confession of sin. NPD is characterized clinically by a grandiose sense of one’s self, a lack of empathy for others, an entitlement to affirmation or attention, and ruptures in family and work relationships.”
  • “Former CIA profiler and psychologist JERROLD POST has written extensively on Narcissism, including books on Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. Post describes narcissists as ‘mirror-hungry,’ using their audiences and followers as a mirror to reflect back praise and admiration. The narcissistic leader’s hidden shame and pervasive sense of emptiness is alleviated, perhaps only for a little while, by the applause of an adoring crowd or the affection of a devoted follower.”
  • “But why are followers so devoted? According to Post, those drawn to narcissistic leaders are ‘ideal-hungry’ people who so long for the ideal image of strength in another that they can’t see or perhaps ignore the leader’s shadow side, including the debris field of damage he causes. For many who see themselves as weak or incomplete, a powerful other can serve as a needed battery source.”

DK.    Beloved, this is not rocket science nor advanced clinical psychology. It is a simple matter of common sense soaked a bit in Biblical perspective about the Nature of Man. We are intrinsically a ‘Selfish Species,’ period! Degroat takes us back to The Garden for example, and writes:

“Adam and Eve grasped, and we’ve been grasping ever since. Adam and Eve hid, and we’ve been hiding ever since. That’s the general plight of humanity. But here is the difference for those with NPD: ‘They never come out of hiding.’ Indeed, their fig-leaved, masked-up, self-protected selves are all we see. Often psychologically enslaved to profound shame and terror, they’re afraid to open themselves, instead armoring up to survive in a threatening world.”

My Proposal is also simple.

A Church that has gone wholesale into an arcane, cult-like following of DONALD TRUMP is a Church Lost. One largely absent of the presence of the Holy Spirit and also bereft of the Solid Doctrines that constitute the only Antidote to idolatrous commitment to false teachers and false philosophies.

To this point: American Pastors are Hiding! From what? Their sacred charge to protect their flocks from the American Narcissist in Chief: DONALD JOHN TRUMP. Thereby have our Christian Leaders become Narcissists, a twisted mirror image of their Overlord, Trump.

Worse, there is not a scintilla of documentable or observable evidence that the American Church is about to turn from her treachery. On the contrary, most astute political analysis shows White American Evangelicals at the ready to vote once again for the now multiply indicted Mr. Trump. It is breathtaking, my friends, and again: ‘Unprecedented’ in all American Church history.

So let’s take a closer look at the Theology underlying this devastating religious trend.

III.  THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”  – 2 TIMOTHY 4:1-2, NKJV

KEY TERMS. Charge; Preach; Be ready; Convince; Rebuke; Exhort; Longsuffering; Teaching

  • CHARGE. ‘Diamarturomai’ [διαμαρτύρομαι]: “To affirm solemnly; give solemn evidence, testify (declare) solemnly; to admonish, command most earnestly; to bear full and complete witness [to a matter of the gravest importance]; done with a high level of self-involvement, i.e. with strong personal interest motivating it].”   
  • PREACH. ‘Kérussó’ [κηρύσσω]: “‘To preach, publish or announce religious truth, i.e., the Gospel, the Canon with all its attendant privileges and obligations; properly, to herald a (biblical) message publicly and with conviction (persuasion); as with a public crier [or prophet] heralding Divine truth; to publish (widely) abroad.”
  • BE READY. ‘Ephistémi’ [ἐφίστημι]: “To set upon, set up, to stand upon, be present; to stand by, be urgent, befall one (as of evil), remain at hand, impend; to place oneself above [a matter]; to assault [refusing to be overcome]; the primary sense is to go, move, or advance forward; Quick; prompt; not hesitating.”
  • CONVINCE. ‘Elegchó’ [ἐλέγχω]: “To confute, convict, admonish, convince, tell a fault; rebuke, reprove; to purposely shame or disgrace; prove one to be in the wrong; to expose hidden things; to chastise in a moral sense (in order to train, instruct or correct); to demonstrate, make manifest [publicly when necessary]; to repudiate; especially to bring to light something suppressed [from view].”
  • REBUKE. ‘Epitimaó’ [ἐπιτιμάω]: “To mete out due measure; to censure, rebuke, chide, admonish; to [severely] warn; to censure, forbid, admonish strongly or severely; to charge; to punish; with the idea of restraining [wrong conduct]; to sternly correct with conviction; its fundamental sense is ‘warning to prevent something from going wrong;’ to set or tax upon by charging sharply [of some serious breach of the Covenant].”
  • EXHORT. ‘Parakaleó’ [παρακαλέω]: “To call near, invite, invoke (by imploration or consolation); to beseech, entreat [fervently]; to comfort or encourage; to advocate or warn; to summon or console, call upon someone [to carry out an important task]; to instruct or teach in order to strengthen or encourage; to incite by words or advice; to animate or urge by arguments to a good deed or to any laudable conduct or course of action.”
  • LONGSUFFERING. ‘Makrothumia’ [μακροθυμία]: “Forebearance, fortitude, patience; endurance, constancy, steadfastness, perseverance; synonymous with tolerance or gentleness; the self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate a wrong; the temper [or temperament] which does not easily succumb under suffering; earing injuries or provocation for a long time; not easily provoked.”
  • TEACHING. ‘Didaché’ [διδαχή]: “‘The Doctrine [Gospel, Canon];’ the instruction; the things taught, the precepts; the word or discourse; systematic theology; a principle or position in any science; whatever is laid down as true by an instructor or master; knowledge; doctrines of the gospel are the principles or truths taught by Christ and His Apostles.”

COMMENTARY. “‘I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ.’ — The parchment, or papyrus, in the prison room of St. Paul on which, probably, Luke (2Timothy 4:11), the faithful friend, was writing to the Apostle’s dictation, was nearly filled up. What has still to be said to the chief presbyter of the Church of Ephesus must be brief. But St. Paul would have the last words introduced by a most impressive preface. So before he sums up his directions and exhortations, he appeals to him in these stately and solemn words. The Greek word rendered ‘I charge (thee),’ is more accurately translated by, ‘I solemnly [with gravity and religious reverence] charge thee,’before those divine witnesses, the Eternal Father and the Blessed Son, present with me in this prison of mine in Rome, present equally with you in study-chamber or church in Asia …

‘Be instant in season, out of season.’ — Some difference exists between commentators respecting the exact meaning to be given to the Greek word translated ‘be instant.’ Some would give it the sense of drawing nigh to, and as it is not specified in the text to whom Timothy should draw nigh, they supply from the context ‘the brethren,’ those to whom the word is preached: ‘Draw near to Christian assemblies.’ It seems, however, best to understand this rather difficult word as an injunction to Timothy to be earnest and urgent generally in the whole work of his ministry: ‘Press on, in season, out of season.’

‘In season, out of season.’ — In other words, ‘For thy work, set apart no definite and fixed hours, no appointed times. Thy work must be done at all hours, at all times.’ Thy work has to be done not only when thou art in church, not merely in times of security and peace, but it must be carried on, in the midst of dangers, even if thou art a prisoner and in chains, even if death threaten thee.

‘So, Chrysostom’ — Who also uses St. Paul’s words here as an urgent call to ministers to labour on in spite of discouragement and apparent failure—telling them in his own bright, eloquent way, how ‘fountains still flow on, though no one goes to them to draw water, and rivers still run on, though no one drinks at them.’

‘Augustine’ — Asks and answers the question to whom ‘in season’ and to whom ‘out of season’ refers: ‘in season’ to those willing, ‘out of season’ to the unwilling. This, however, only touches a portion of the thought of St. Paul, who urges on God’s true servants a restless, sleepless earnestness, which struggles on with the Master’s work in spite of bodily weakness and discouragement, in face of dangers and the bitterest opposition.

‘Reprove.’ — Not merely those erring in doctrine, but generally those who are blameworthy: ‘Was tadelnswerthist.’

‘Rebuke.’ — A sharper and more severe word than the preceding. It is used by St. Jude 1:9, in his report of the words addressed by St. Michael to the devil: ‘The Lord rebuke thee.’ It frequently occurs in the Gospels. (See, for instance, Matthew 17:18, ‘And Jesus rebuked the devil.’)

‘Exhort.’ — Not only is he to remember ceaselessly to watch over the flock, and to reprove and rebuke the erring and sinners, but also with no less diligence to speak comfortable words of encouragement and hope to all, especially the dispirited and sad-hearted.

‘With all longsuffering and doctrine.’ — The word translated ‘doctrine’ signifies, rather, ‘teaching.’ He must reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all gentleness and patience; and in all this he must take care that ‘teaching’—the teaching which is right, and true, and full of hope—accompanies his rebuke and his words of comfort.” – CHARLES ELLICOTT, An Old and New Testament Commentary for English Readers, 1878, 1897; edited

NOTE. The Apostle’s strenuous instruction to the young Timothy was to ‘The Church,’ and not the “the Liberals” of his day! THE DOCTRINE: “For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders (non-believers)? Do you not judge those who are within the church [to protect the church as the situation requires]? God alone sits in judgment on those who are outside [the faith]. Remove the wicked one from among you [expel him from your church].” – 1 CORINTHIANS 5:12-13, AMP

Will somebody please tell me what major Church Leaders are obeying this Doctrine. Name ten, or perhaps only five. No, I shall settle for just one, beloved. Just one, but after a seven-year search, I cannot find him anywhere. My friends, what hath the Church and Donald John Trump wrought among us to bring us here, where we are now Leaderless?

For God’s sake, where are the shepherds!

IV.  LAST THOUGHTS

Oh, beloved, what more can I possibly say here that has not already been repeated over and over again, but with little indentation on the iron hard fortresses of a callous and indifferent Church?

Yet am I reminded of TWO PASSAGES serving as iron clad Promise and Command:

“So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it …Is not My word like fire [that consumes all that cannot endure the test]? says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks in pieces the rock [of most stubborn resistance]?” – ISAIAH 55:11; JEREMIAH 23:29, AMP

Therefore, though the Church be in full retreat (which she surely is!), though the Nation be in freefall from choosing to be untethered to her former Master, though the fields become fallow and infertile and yield no more harvest, and though Nightfall seems to envelop us all around, ‘we do not relent from bearing witness,’ my friends.

By our testimony. By our literal sharing of the Word. By the doing of acts of kindness. By giving of our finances to a Spirit-directed cause. By just listening to the hurting. By living our lives in such a way that the King is honored. And by our deep-structure, sincere and passionate expression of our love for Christ and His precious Canon.

And yes: By rebuking and admonishing and severely chastising our own shepherds and houses of worship for their seditious betrayal of our King. Yes, beloved, that too. Perhaps especially that as well!

Nor can we allow ourselves to lose heart as the world and even our own friends and families abandon or assault us. As the old Prophet so eloquently declared:

“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation! The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!” –HABAKKUK 3:18-19, AMPC

CODA. As I ponder the last eight years of my life since that pivotal year of 2015 when ‘The Unthinkable’ descended from his high tower, I am in awe at how faithful the Lord has been to us all to uncover the Darkness in our own souls and in our own churches. This so that we might breathe clean air and see things for what they are.

In all of this, beloved, there is a Royal Cleansing taking place for all those who wish to be cleansed. It is exhilarating, yes, and it is very hard, but ever so priceless. So much so that I can hear the Lord of All shouting to us now, above the great din that has descended upon the earth:

“Wait and listen, everyone who is thirsty! Come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Yes, come, buy [priceless, spiritual] wine and milk without money and without price [simply for the self-surrender that accepts the blessing] …

 The [Holy] Spirit and the bride (the church, the true Christians) say, Come! And let him who is listening say, Come! And let everyone come who is thirsty [who is painfully conscious of his need of those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, and strengthened]; and whoever [earnestly] desires to do it, let him come, take, appropriate, and drink the water of Life without cost.” – ISAIAH 55:1; REVELATION 22:17, AMPC

For the time left to us, beloved: We are all preachers now!

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/92fQgzhV9wg

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