HALF-ARMED AND BARELY DANGEROUS

Date: Wed Jan 10 21:50:22 2007

First, may I wish you and those you love a most Happy New Year. May God grant you the satisfaction that comes from achieving everything in Christ that he has laid out for you to do.

Last year at this time, I wrote a message called ìWill 2006 be the End of Christianity Lite?î (if you would like to read it, it is still on this blog). I wish I could say today that the desire of my heart came true in great measure. I know it did in the hearts of some of Godís sons and daughters, but the church as a whole remains immature, and self-satisfied with far less than the inheritance God wants us to enjoy in Christ Jesus.

Despite the growth of mega-churches, Charisma magazine has rightly noted that there is a startling shortage of Christ-like disciples. Those reputed to be leaders talk of the ìgreat traditions of Islamî, ignoring the fact that close to 90% of the worst persecution of the church today comes from Muslims (you can see the surprising names of those who honor Islam on the Center for Religious Freedomís website). A best-selling book from the largest church in America barely mentions Jesus and reads more like the Readerís Digest than a call to follow the Lordship of Jesus Christ. People continue to watch ìChristianî TV and pour billions into ministries whose tired and false litany is that every problem in your life can be solved by giving your money to their ìministryî. Meanwhile, the unholy day-to-day lives of the TV watchers are barely if at all distinguishable from those of the world.

Churches are going the ìLiteî route more and more. Pastors say that the way to growing a church numerically is to avoid spiritual gifts in the morning service. It supposedly makes those services more attractive to ìseekersî. They have statistics to back them up. The churches that grow the most numerically do indeed practice ìChristianity Liteî. You are unlikely to hear sermons like Jonathan Edwardsí ìSinners in the Hands of An Angry Godî. Instead, divorce practices, sexual practices, business practices, and TV/movie practices that are barely if at all distinguishable from the world go unchallenged each week. The pulpit is the place for the Holy Spirit to challenge folks not only to believe in Jesus but to follow him completely! The church is the place for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to operate. I say that the only growth Jesus Christ cares about is growth on the INSIDE, not mere numbers. Read the account of Gideon in Judges 6 through 8! Listen to Jesusí teaching that the BROAD way leads to destruction. Yet, Christian leaders are loath to say or do anything that will cause the lukewarm to disappear, even though in Revelation 3 Jesus said he is about to spit them out of his mouth. Why do Christian leaders want to coddle those whom Christ himself is about to spit out??? How do we think we will win the battle we are in with a half-armed and barely dangerous army? The truth is, we wonít. Israel never won when they looked good in the worldís eyes. They only won when they trusted God and God alone, regardless of the numbers, regardless of their carnal weapons, and regardless of the strength of their enemy.

Further, the main reason that so many have lost confidence in the gospel is a failure to believe absolutely in the authority of the Word of God. Secular colleges have long despised the Bible, but many strong Christians have emerged battle-tested from those venues, present company included. Nowadays, between 8 out of 10 and 9 out 10 CHRISTIAN colleges do not believe the Bible completely! Some discard the unequivocal teaching of Genesis that God made the world in six literal days and that his creation was GOOD! They allow for or even encourage belief systems that require death and destruction to have entered the world long before Adam sinned. Richard Dawkins, perhaps the most lucid exponent of evolution clearly understands the linkage between Evolution and Atheism. Why donít Christian leaders? Other schools dismiss or throw into the past the role of the Holy Spirit, miracles, spiritual gifts, and the crowning piece of spiritual armor ó praying in the Spirit that is mandated in Ephesians chapter 6.

So you may rightly say, that is the diagnosis, but what is your solution? Iím glad you asked! My solution is nothing original and nothing new. It is simply what God instructed us to do in the first place.

I Corinthians 14:26ff tells us what to do when we come together. People, not choreographers, bring hymns, words of instruction, revelations, tongues, interpretations. Not just in small groups. Not just during mid-week meetings when those ìless likely to be offendedî may show up. My God, the weak Christians need this edification more than ANYONE!!! Seekers need to SEE the power of our salvation more than anyone! The Holy Spirit says through Paul ó ALL OF THESE MUST BE DONE FOR THE STRENGTHENING OF THE CHURCH. Therefore, if we see a weak and enfeebled church, we know why. Why donít we simply follow the teaching of the Holy Spirit and DO WHAT HE SAYS????? Now you may say, I have been to Pentecostal places and they are still weak. SO HAVE I. I have heard suspect and shopworn ìpropheciesî and those who mechanically follow what is supposed to be supremely spiritual. BUT, I have also been where I Corinthians 14:26 was literally followed, and IT WORKS. Let God be true, and every man a liar!

Ephesians 6 tells us to put on the WHOLE ARMOR of God. Partial armor will not do. What can be accomplished when we are HALF-ARMED AND BARELY DANGEROUS? We are unprepared to take the offensive and cede area after area to the minions of Satan. At the same time, we are suffering untold casualties on the defensive side. Satan will simply ignore the protected areas and go for the jugular. That jugular, the place where our blood flows, is UNPROTECTED when we go not pray in the Spirit per Ephesians 6:18. When we try to follow Christ in the flesh and do not follow him in the Spirit, we are sitting ducks. That is why Christians are jettisoning portions of the infallible word of God they feel are hardest to believe. The WHOLE BIBLE is impossible to believe without the GIFT OF FAITH!!! The creation, Nebuchadnezzarís fire that could not kill the faithful, the parting of the Red Sea, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the raising of the dead óall of this is so fantastic and so unbelievable and so foolish ó to the UNBELIEVER! Yet it is the power of God to salvation, and to those who are given the gift of faith, every word of it is true and every word is profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. I love the word of God, and I am not ceding ONE WORD, ONE CONCEPT, or ONE EVENT to anyone!

Let the church be the church and let the church do what Christ commands. The uncompromising church is the church that turned the world upside down in the first century and the one that is causing revival in many parts of the world now. Christians from other parts of the world are stunned at what they see in American Churches. I for one want to change that in 2007. I am determined to present the uncompromised and politically incorrect word of God in every way I can. Are you with me? Will you do the same? If you do, you will have a blessed, prosperous, and very spiritual New Year.

Love in our Lord Jesus Christ,

Evangelist John Teets