REVIVAL IS UPON US

Did you ever notice that the Bible doesn’t deal with issues like “alien baptism”?

Why is it we as Baptists will not associate with Christians who are not Baptize the Biblical way (immersion) but, nevertheless, will not associate with Christians who offer communion in the Biblical way (wine)?

Why do we ban churches that have women as pastors? Why do we not ban churches that have a plurality of elders or just one pastor?

Did you ever notice that God in Christ does not exclude people from church based upon bad theology? Indeed, those with bad theology are encouraged to go to church in order to correct that bad theology, right?

To this day no one has ever been able to show me in the New Testament where someone was excluded from fellowship because of bad theology.

I am sure we all recall those Christians believers in the New Testament who believed that one must be circumcised and observe Jewish “cleanliness” ritual in order to be a part of the people of God. We see these people in Acts and Galatians.

Now the apostles were forced to frequently address this issue in the early church. Unfortunately, even some of the apostles slipped into this type of error (Peter and probably James).

Now notice what the response of the Apostles. What did they do? They taught against this error and continued to do the work of Christ despite the criticism of those wanting to exclude.

Now I believe that many in Baptist life (not to mention evangelicalism and even Christendom itself) are making the same error of the Jewish excluders in the NT (see Acts and Galatians).

In what regards? Note the following: charismas, mode and method of Baptism, alcohol, women in ministry, ecumenicalism, second-degree separation, moderates and liberals, emergent churches, contemporary churches, evolution, secular politics, inerrancy, BWA, CBF, and on and on and on ...

Now some of you may agree or disagree that exclusion based upon one or more of these matters should be deemed as an error. But I’m sure those who disagree with me on this matter would agree that whatever it was that those in Acts and Galatians were doing that it was wrong. So consider the following:

The apostles did not exclude from fellowship those who were advocating exclusion! In fact, the excluders who were leaders in the church were not forced to resign or even told to do so.

Again, to this day no one has ever been able to show me in the New Testament where someone was excluded from fellowship because of bad theology.

Do you know what I think? I think revival is occurring. I think that the Holy Spirit is on the move in a significant and radical way. I think we are in the midst of another Great Awakening. I think that Christians across the world are coming together in new and amazing ways to spread the Gospel and make disciples.

The collapse of modernity and the perceptible mental and spiritual ambiguity of post-modernity, the communication and information revolution, the technological revolution, and the transportation revolution, have afforded the Christian (particularly evangelical) world a magnificent and unprecedented opportunity to carry out the Great Commissions (yes, plural).

Consider the situation, especially you who give considerable attention and investigation to the Sovereignty of God:

Technology, communication, information, transportation ... all these things come from God. God is the author of these things and gives them to man for stewardship. Look how fast they are coming – unprecedented! God is up to something, right? If God was going to break out in revival THIS would be great preparation.

But I do not even believe that this is necessarily preparation; I think it is the REAL thing. Revival! Heck, we’ve been praying about it for years; why couldn’t God be answering that prayer now? And do we think revival will just come to the Southern Baptists, just to the Baptists, just to the evangelicals, Protestants and non-charismatics?

Let me ask you: does revival come from better theology or does better theology come from revival?

Which brings me to this question: why are so many Christians unaware of this Great Awakening?

1) Many Christians are not involved due to personal sin, choice, faith tradition and lack of fellowship

2) Many are occupied with other matters (ala secular politics)

3) Many are preparing for “the rapture” and not working for the “millennium”

4) Many Christians are fighting against the revival when they think they are fighting for it (and in various degrees to be sure)

It’s the latter for which I am somewhat interested – at least for the purposes of this post.

Consider these passages:

For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's {people,} that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, "I am of Paul," and "I of Apollos," and "I of Cephas," and "I of Christ." Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor 1:11-13)

For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not {mere} men. What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave {opportunity} to each one. (1 Cor 3:3-5)

And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand.” (Matt 12:25; cf. Mark 3:25; Luke 11:17)

"The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' "And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this!' The slaves *said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?' "But he *said, 'No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. 'Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.'"" (Matt 13:27-30)

John said to Him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us." But Jesus said, "Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as {followers} of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward." (Mark 9: 38-41)

Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following {them;} the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, "Lord, who is the one who betrays You?" So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, "Lord, and what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "If I want him to remain until I come, what {is that} to you? You follow Me!" (John 21:20-22)

“And He was saying to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Luke 10:2)

And the book of Acts.

Now I know what you’re thinking: this cannot be what the Bible really means. How can the God in Christ allow this?

God is putting up with a fallen world.

God in Christ is putting up with lots of heresy in his Church.

Heck, God in Christ becomes sin so that we might be saved.

There are very important reasons why God is allowing heresy and bad theology to continue in the Church - Matthew 13:27-30 is one of the reasons. Remember: God can turn tares into wheat; he does it all the time. Just be patient and trust God on this one. Just continue to follow the example of Christ and the Apostles when confronted with heresy and bad theology: teach against it.

One more time: to this day no one has ever been able to show me in the New Testament where someone was excluded from fellowship because of bad theology.

Those who truly are not of us (or you) will leave on their own accord (1 John 2:19).

I know this is tough stuff to take and that it takes time to come around to accepting it, let alone agreeing to it. But, hey, the Kingdom of God is not of this world. Read the Sermon on the Mount. Indeed, the cross of Christ is foolishness to everyone, even to most Christians (1 Cor 1:18-31).

Now consider these positions:

Missionaries
Church planters
“Pastors”
“Elders”
“Deacons”
Professors
Widow
“Teacher”
Scholar
Theologian
Worship Leader
Server
Youth Director
Chaplains
Housing Hosts


Now consider these types of people:

Women
Men
Charismatics
Non-charismatics
Non-inerrantists
Non-non-inerrantists
Conservatives
Moderates
Liberals
BWA
CBF
Contemporary Worshippers
Traditional Worshippers
Alcohol Drinkers
Emergent Churches
Contemporary Churches
Fundamentalists
Landmarkists
Bible Church
Mainline Denominations
Free Churches
Republicans
Democrats
Protestants
Roman Catholics
Eastern Orthodox
Calvinists
Non-Calvinists
Open Theists
Jews
Gentiles
God-fearers
New Christians
Old Christians
Youth
Singles
Families
Senior Citizens
Rich
Poor
Middle Class
Black
White Hispanic
Asian
Americans
Non-Americans
The French

Is it not possible that the Satan is using issues like mode of Baptism, communion, alcohol and charismatic gifts, etc. as a means to divide the body of Christ?

Let me ask you: what does the Satan fear more - a unified body of Christ or a divided body of Christ?

Now I’m not asking any of you to accept all of this. It’s extremely difficult to do so and I continually struggle with it myself. I mean, we starting to get into Ecclessiastes ethics here. Qoheleth was a mad dog wasn’t he. Brilliant!

What I am urging is that you do not get in the way of the Holy Spirit on this one.

Remember: to divide the body of Christ is to be “unworthy” at communion.

Revival is upon us. Please be careful.