NOTES ON THE FORGOTTEN SIDE OF GOD: THE SEVERE PUNISHMENT OF SHEMAIAH THE FALSE PROPHET – (WITH VIDEO)

SCRIPTURE. “Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:‘Send this message to all the exiles: This is what the Lord says about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, even though I did not send him, and has persuaded you to trust in lies, this is what the Lord says: I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left among this people, nor will he see the good things I will do for My people,’ declares the Lord, ‘because he has preached rebellion against me.’” – JEREMIAH 29:30-32, AMP

KEY TERM: “PUNISH.” ‘Paqah’ [פֹקֵ֜ד]: “From a primitive root meaning, ‘To visit (with friendly or hostile intent);’ to oversee, muster, charge, care for; to appoint to a charge; ‘to commit, count in order to do judgment;’ to attend, remember or search; it refers to God paying close attention to persons to do them good or to bring punishment or harm; i.e., ‘to test for that which has been lacking.’”

QUOTATION. “The Church is never more in danger than when it sees itself simply as the solution-bearer and forgets that every day it too must say, ‘Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner,’ and allow that confession to work its way into genuine humility even as it stands boldly before the world and its crazy empires. In particular, it is a problem if and when a ‘Christian Empire’ seeks to impose its will dualistically on the world by labeling other parts of the world ‘evil’ while seeing itself as the avenging Army of God.’ That is more or less exactly what Jesus found in the Israel of His day. The Cross was and remains a Call to a different vocation, a New Way of dealing with evil and ultimately a New Vision of God.” ― N.T. WRIGHT, Evil and the Justice of God, 2006; edited

COMMENTARY. “‘I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed.’ Punishments of this life ordinarily are extended to the children of sinful parents, for the parents’ sake, who are punished in their children, being ‘res parentum,’ a considerable part of their parents’ goods and portion. ‘He shall not have a man to dwell among this people; [i.e.], he and his whole posterity shall be rooted out. Neither shall he behold the good that I will do for My people; and neither he nor they shall live to the time of my people’s return from the captivity of Babylon.’

‘Because he hath taught rebellion against the Lord.’ Because by the falsehoods which he hath taught he hath been an instrument to make people disobey the Commands of God. We had the same clause Jeremiah 28:16, and such a kind of threatening we find Amos 7:17, denounced by that Prophet ‘against Amaziah’ thepriest of Beth-el, forbidding him to prophesy at Beth-el, because it was ‘the king’s court and chapel.’ To obstruct the Revelation of God’s will to people, or to publish what is contrary to it, to seduce people from believing it, or yielding obedience, are both crimes that have been and ‘will be of fatal consequence to them and their families who are so hardy as to incur the guilt of them.’” – MATTHEW POOLE, English Annotations on the English Bible, 1685 (posthumously); edited

1. THE TEACHING

Back in 2016, when Christian pastors were falling all over themselves in rushing to support the breathless rise of DONALD TRUMP to lead the Republican nomination for the presidency, precious few were courageous enough to speak against this treachery.

One of the ones who was is MAX LUCADO. So, let’s take a closer look at this rarity among American Church leaders, to see what’s under the hood. I have decided to insert “MARK” where we find ‘7 Marks of Moral Distinction’ in his matriculation toward authenticity and courage.

BIO. “Max Lucado (born January 11, 1955) is an American author and minister at Oak Hills Church (formerly the Oak Hills Church of Christ) in San Antonio, Texas. Lucado attended Abilene Christian University where he received an undergraduate degree in Mass Communication. [MARK 1]While a student at Abilene Christian, Lucado worked to pay his way through college by selling books door-to-door with the Southwestern Advantage entrepreneurial program. Initially he wished to become a lawyer, but has said that a required Bible course at the university and a mission trip made him change his mind, deciding instead to become a missionary. However, this required that Lucado get a graduate degree in Bible and Biblical Studies, and have at least two years’ experience ministering to a church. [MARK 2] Lucado graduated from Abilene Christian University with a master’s degree in Bible and Biblical Studies.

After graduation, Lucado became an associate minister at Central Church of Christ in Miami, Florida. His responsibilities initially included overseeing a singles’ group and writing a column for the church’s newsletter. After two years in Miami, the now newlywed Lucado and his wife, DENALYN LUCADO, moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to become full-time missionaries. [MARK 3] In 1987, Lucado’s father died from Lou Gehrig’s disease. After five years in Brazil, he brought his family back to the United States to be closer to his mother …

[MARK 4] He believes the Bible to be infallible … Lucado adheres to a Trinitarian view of God. He has stated that he believes in ‘the traditional biblical understanding of marriage’ (a male and female) and argues that same-sex marriage sinfully goes against God’s original design. [MARK 5] This said, he has strongly expressed disapproval of gay bashing, stating that, ‘LGBTQ individuals and LGBTQ families must [still] be respected and treated with love. They are beloved children of God because, they are made in the image and likeness of God …

[MARK 6] Lucado has written almost 100 books with 145 million copies in print. He was recipient of the Charles ‘Kip’ Jordon Gold Medallion Christian Book of the Year award three times for his books Just Like Jesus, In the Grip of Grace and When God Whispers Your Name), and has also appeared regularly on several bestseller lists including the New York Times Best Seller List.  [MARK 7] Lucado was named ‘America’s Pastor’ by Christianity Today magazine and in 2005 was named by Reader’s Digest as ‘The Best Preacher in America.’” – EDITORS, Wikipedia, April 26, 2024; edited

STANDING ALONE. While there were other pastors in America who spoke out against the insidious Church compromise to support Trump in 2016, Lucado stood out as one whose consistent character instructs (and shames) today’s pulpits. In an article by NPR under the title, “Pastor Max Lucado Baffled Over Evangelical Trump Supporters” in an interview on All Things Considered with interviewer MICHEL MARTIN.

Here’s some of what he had to say.

“Kind of the bottom line for me, I don’t think people come to the church where I preach to hear my view on politics. I’d like to think I’m going upriver in talking about world-view topics rather than particular political or controversial topics. So I’ve just stayed away from it through the years, which is funny because there was a time I wanted to go into politics. And so all of a sudden, here I am, I guess. I’m in the thick of it.

I would not have said anything about Mr. Trump, never — I would never have said anything if he didn’t call himself a Christian. It’d be none of my business whatsoever to make any comments about his language, his vulgarities, his slander of people, but I was deeply troubled … that here’s a man who holds up a Bible one day and calls a lady ‘bimbo’ the next. Here’s a man who calls himself a Christian and yet just has the audacity to make fun of a lady’s menstrual cycle … He didn’t just do this on occasion, but repeatedly, unrepentantly. Somebody sent me a list of 64 people he’s called loser. Just this week it’s continued.

It deeply concerns me that somebody who knows little or nothing about the Christian faith would hear Mr. Trump call himself a Christian and then make a decision based on the Christian faith, based on his behavior. ‘And so I just felt like I should say something.’ I did not expect to stir up the dust storm that this blog has stirred up …    

‘My concern is that somebody would make a decision against Christianity because of Mr. Trump’s behavior. And that’s my high concern here.’ And to that person I would say, the way he speaks about people is not the way our Master, our Savior has taught us to speak; it’s not the way our Scriptures urge us to speak. The Bible urges us to be respectful to all people, especially people with whom we have disagreements, to never libel people, to never label people. Now, this is a huge deal in Scripture, and so I would encourage that person, and the reason I’ve gone so verbal and vocal with this is because ‘I’m protective of the reputation of Christ and the Church,’ and I would ask that person not to interpret the Christian faith through the words of Mr. Trump.”

DOCTRINAL INTEGRITY. You all know by now that I make a great deal of the entire notion of Truth in my teaching, which, by definition, stands on the tall and unwavering foundation of SOUND DOCTRINE. What Max Lucado does for the American Church is provide us with a sterling example of what that looks like in public, real time.

• JUDGING OURSELVES. I have also written much recently of the Scriptural call to avoid judging “Outsiders” and focus on keeping our own house clean: “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

• CHRISTIAN INTEGRITY. What I also love about Lucado’s stance is that he is deeply and genuinely concerned about people going to Hell because of our compromise on the entire matter of the root deep ‘Heresy of Trump Christianity.’ “For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction [that challenges them with God’s truth]; but wanting to have their ears tickled [with something pleasing], they will accumulate for themselves [many] teachers [one after another, chosen] to satisfy their own desires and to support the errors they hold, and will turn their ears away from the truth and will wander off into myths and man-made fictions [and will accept the unacceptable].” – 2 TIMOTHY 4:3-4, AMP

• LOVING GOD. What I most love about this man is His unwavering commitment to: ‘Protect the reputation of Christ and Canon.’ The Church fails miserably to teach that Real Christian Love starts and finishes in Loving God first, and all the rest follows that highest benchmark. Jesus Christ’s Highest Commandments are clear: “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” – MATTHEW 22:37-40, NKJV

WHERE ARE THE OTHERS? This Question screams at us from the very Spires of Heavens’s Gates, beloved! Why have the vast majority, almost the entirety of the Christian Pastors not followed in Mr. Lucado’s lead. That will be the subject of the last section of our conversation.

II. LAST THOUGHTS ON PASTORAL TIMIDITY

I have admittedly inveighed harshly at the American Church for her sustained reluctance to take a stand for Truth and Honor in this Hour of Corruption. I have written in the past about some of the reasons why, but came across a new, though somewhat dated essay, by a bible teacher and author who brings some fresh light to the deeply troubling Question: Why?

PASTORS WHO WON’T PREACH HARD. This Question simply must be addressed for those of us who have been, ex post facto, dismissed from the Establishment American Church for our refusal to settle for a lukewarm church any longer. The title of this piece by KEVIN HALLORAN is, appropriately: “Five Reasons Some [Most] Bible-Believing Preachers Don’t Preach Judgment” (For the Church, Nov. 12, 2015; edited).

1. THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL. “Even pastors who consciously reject the Prosperity Gospel face the temptation to subtly believe it in their hearts and proclaim it from the pulpit. The American, materialistic culture compounds this. Instead of preaching Judgment, preachers blunt the sharp edge of God’s Wrath because their hearts (and the hearts of those they minister to) desire more what they can get out of Christianity instead of being totally faithful to God’s call to preach the Word in season and out of season (2 Timothy 42).”
2. THE LOVE IDOL. “Many [pastors] idolize the Love of God to the neglect—or flat-out denial—of other attributes.While Scripture is clear that ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:16), it is also clear that ‘He is holy, righteous, jealous,’ and the just Judge of the entire universe—the One to whom we must all give account. Our ‘feel good’ culture of positive thinking doesn’t like to talk about negative things like Death or Judgment—but Scripture does.”
3. HOLINESS IN ABSENTIA. “[Therefore], the Church has a tragically diminished view of God’s Holiness. The Holiness of God is one of the tragically neglected doctrines today in much Evangelical belief and practice. The Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 6 and the Apostle John in Revelation both received a special glimpse into the Heavenly Throne Room and witnessed the content of heavenly worship. In both instances, the cry of worshippers was, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy!’
4. PRAGMATISM VS. PRINCIPLES. “A Pragmatic View of ministry supersedes Biblical Truth in order to fill pews. Many churches today are run like businesses, basing their definition of success in metrics. Instead of prioritizing faithfulness to Scripture and making disciples, they care more about weekly attendance, bigger and better programs, and how much was put into the offering plate. When the goal is padding numbers for a strictly human definition of success, it is not surprising if some of the more ‘Unsavory Doctrines’—like Judgment—get left by the wayside.”
5. FEAR OF MAN. “Once we begin to fear man more than God, the desires of sinful man will shape our preaching instead of God’s desires as revealed in His Word. Preachers need to pursue the Fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10), and let him define ministry success. In ministry and in everything else, Proverbs 29:25 rings true, ‘The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.’”

HOW NOW, GOLDEN COW? I was both stunned and exhilarated to read of Mr. Halloran’s Conclusions. Citing the renown Canadian theologian, J.I. PACKER, he prophetically admonishes us with the following Call for Sound Doctrine for today’s seditiously errant American Church.

“J.I. Packer writes in A Quest for Godliness (1994) that if we neglect to preach God’s Judgment on sin …we cannot present Christ as a Saviour from sin and the wrath of God. And if we are silent about these things, and preach a Christ who saves only from self and the sorrows of this world, we are not preaching the Christ of the Bible. We are, in effect, bearing false witness and preaching a false Christ. Our message is ‘another gospel’ (pp. 164-165).

‘A False Christ cannot save sinners from God’s Wrath.’ Preaching a False Christ will cause some to not be genuinely converted and can give false assurance to many who are still unconverted. Preaching the ‘Good News’ while neglecting the ‘Bad [News’] undercuts the goodness and glory of the Good News by removing a reference point of the Wrath that is due to us. This also makes it impossible to truly understand the horror or the beauty of The Cross— that simultaneously God could satisfy His Wrath against sinful humanity and forgive us from our sins through the Death and Resurrection of His Son.”

CODA. Mr. Halloran’s essay was published just a few months following that horrendous New York Escalator Descent by DONALD TRUMP on the fateful June 16, 2015, to announce his run for the presidency to a largely unsuspecting Earth and Church.

That very ‘False Messiah’ to whom Dr. Packer alluded.

The American Church is just as indictable as the man they have adopted as their savior – on all five counts of Halloran’s List. ‘So where do we go from here, beloved?’ You already know if you have been listening. To the nearly uncontestable Reelection of former President Trump on Tuesday November 5 later this year. And then?

Agenda 47. Project 2025. And the End of the American Order. All of which is overwhelmingly due to the Church’s Refusal to Take a Stand against this Horror Show about to be visited upon a once great nation that has forgotten the God of Holiness and Justice.

We are about to be reminded of who He fully is in a matter of months, beloved. Please: ‘Get your house in order!’ While there’s still a little time.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/WrrxfarJHFc