The Danger of Reactionary Christianity - From one ditch to the next ditch

When you look upon the world, there's something that you will quickly come to understand. And it is that people are all reacting to something. And we should. When something is incorrect or out of order, or even evil, we must do what is proper in order to correct it. But humanity has a tendency to overcorrect, especially when we are fueled by hurt offense or when we lean on our own understanding or what we consider to be right. In fact, some of us have built entire theologies and denominations and movements out of a reaction to another. I have learned that all denominations are reacting to something. For example, the Lutherans reacted to the selling of indulgences that they were witnessing.

When a coin in the coffer rings a soul from purgatory springs.

The Baptists reacted to dead religion in the churches, and the Seventh Day Adventists reacted to an abandoned Sabbath day. And many of these reactions resulted in really good things, like a focus on restoration of many of those things that were lost. But how often does that restoration come at the cost of something else? Or how often does that restoration go too far, so much so that we swing the pendulum all the way to the other ditch, making the very same mistakes as those we were reacting to in the first place, just all on the other side? See, the problem is, you don't get truth by simply reacting to falsehood. Recognizing falsehood can set you on a journey to truth. But even the world reacts to evil. Yet they don't find the truth merely through reacting. This is important because we have all done this to a degree. I want you to consider some more examples. The Protestant movement was birthed largely out of a reaction to the Catholic Church that came before her. The Catholics, for example, claimed to have miracles and saints and things of this nature that they used to bring credibility to their own church and faith. So the Protestants responded by creating theology to support the apparent ceasing of spiritual gifts entirely. Because, of course, if their opponents are doing miracles, that places them at a disadvantage if they themselves struggle with the idea of spiritual gifts. And so, of course, we invent doctrine called cessationism, stating that gifts have ceased. And today the same thing has happened. We have people who see churches like Bethel Church or Pentecostal movements and those who claim to have seen miracles. And so the Reformed movements come and they say, no, there is cessationism. Now, these things cannot be in order to discredit these movements. But is this, for example, a logical response just because there is something that is happening in another camp, or at least is being said to be happening in Another camp does not mean that we need to discredit even things that are biblical in order to discredit a movement.

And I've often said, if these signs and wonders did still exist, do you think they would be given to people with bad theology? If those gifts existed, they would belong to the purest, most faithful, sound teachers of the Word of God to authenticate their teaching, not to harebrained people who are just spinning out whatever comes to their head and are prompted by Satan, not the Holy Spirit.

When we look at the life of Yeshua and the apostles and the others who were his disciples apart from the 12, did the spiritual gift cease within them in the time of the early church, even after the resurrection? In Acts 2 and beyond, did the spiritual gifts and the signs and wonders of God cease among them? We read by Augustine in his Letters of the the City of God, I realized how many miracles were occurring in our own day, and which were so like the miracles of old. It is only two years ago that the keeping of records was begun here in Hippo. And already at this writing we have nearly 70 attested miracles. A man who was healed of gout, another instantly cured of paralysis and hernia. Evil spirits were driven out of others by prayer. A youth whose eyes had been dislocated from its socket and severely damaged, had his side restored to perfect condition through the prayer of the believers. Many miracles, healings causing out of demons and even the resurrections of the dead. Spiritual gifts clearly did not cease. Yet there. Let's look at another example. In past times, many pondered how certain Jewish leaders were responsible for the death of Jesus, those who persecuted and ultimately crucified him. And so the Catholic Church killed Jewish people in the Inquisitions, stating that they are justified in doing so because, quote, unquote, the Jewish people are guilty for killing Christ. What about when some in the church say that Paul is anti Torah or anti law? So then some in the Hebrew roots movements declare that Paul is now a false apostle instead of perceiving what he is writing and seeing that he is not actually anti law or antinomian. What about when evangelism is not prioritized in many churches, so some evangelists have come to start their own movements that have prioritized evangelism above the need for sound teaching, promoting this thing that was lacking, but now lacking something else that was there before. What about when some evangelists have had poor doctrine and some other leaders have been wary, hurt and nervous and cautious around that role, leading to some churches demoting the priority of the office of evangelists completely and even quenching evangelism in general in their church? Or what about when some have falsely promoted themselves as prophets that has caused some to despise even true prophecies? What about when deliverance ministries at times have had strange doctrines and so the church decides to abolish casting out demons as a practice? Or what about the idea that the church lied to me about X, Y and Z, therefore everything that I have ever learned from any church before is now in question? Or what about when the Catholics lifted Mary too high and then the Protestants feared speaking of her at all? Or what about when Christianity celebrated Jesus birth on the 25th of December, so now some rarely speak of his birth at all. And in our overreactions we have caused just as much damage as those we have reacted to in hope to prevent damage. We have caused damage to the body of Christ. See, the devil is in the details, as they say, or in a lack of balance. It's not enough to correct when you're over correcting. You need to consider the full counsel of Christ's life. And importantly, you have to find him in yours. And what I mean by that is you have to. When you look upon your life and your actions and your theology, you have to see Christ in it. You have to walk as he walked. As we read in 1 John 2:6, Whenever we respond to an error or disorder or abuse, we must ensure that we in our reaction manifest what Christ taught and walked out. So if we see a church proclaiming miracles and we perceive abuses in that area, well, let us understand that Christ was a miracle worker himself. God delivers the captives through his mighty hand. From the Exodus unto today. We cannot abolish God's might because some have declared to use it disorderly. We must be willing to see and admit that our opponents at times have some things right and some things wrong. Sometimes we are so driven by our hatred for our opponents that we throw everything out with any connection to our opponents. Whether that's actually biblical or not. Our hatred is more than our love for the Bible. See, we're quick to make choices based on things that we hate or don't like, which causes us to have a knee jerk reaction that lacks a balanced discernment. I speak like this because we all do the same things. We've all had a bad experience somewhere in our life before and we have reacted to that by deconstructing and throwing that thing straight in the trash because it hurt us. Obviously it must be a bad thing. But sometimes because something that was supposed to be good meant for good was used for evil. We make a wrong connotation to it. Just like in the first century whereby many used the beautiful law of God for evil reasons. They said, if you are not circumcised according to the law, you cannot be saved. But yet that was never what the law nor circumcision was about. That was an abuse of God's word and his holy law. Do we then abolish the law of God because some have abused it? Do we throw out his righteous commandments because others have misunderstood them and their application? No. We recognize that God has given us holy laws and declared, be holy as I am holy. But at the same time, we understand where our salvation comes from through Yeshua and Him alone. And in the same way, when we respond in such a balanced way to abuses, looking upon how Christ preached and lived, then we can see ourselves as he is. But if you cannot see yourself as he is, if you do not see his doctrine, his life in yours and in your fellowship, your church, your movement, your circle, then you're in error. His power is alive. His law is alive. He has called us to worship in spirit and in truth, has he not? While we then shock to see that these are the exact areas that Satan loves to target and try to get us away from by exposing us to abuses of spirit and abuses of truth or abuses of biblical rules or abuses of what we even consider church or leadership. I mean, we see this even in politics. Our hatred for a certain politician can be so strong that we react by always taking the opposite position of our opponents, no matter what position that is. Sometimes it seems we have more hatred for the opponent than love for the biblical mandate of what God says about an issue. We see this stretch into our own characters and our own lives as it forms how we even think about the world. And this is why bitterness is so dangerous, because it deeply affects not only our character and our life, but our doctrine and how we see God and people. When we have had past hurt, negative experiences with a certain topic, and then we see someone talking of something of a similar appearance, and then we make assumptions about that person. We put them in a box and say, you must be just like those other people who have hurt me. In fact, the Pharisees, when Yeshua came around in the first century, assumed the same thing, that he was another false prophet, like the many false prophets and false messiahs that have come before. But of course, in Acts 5:36, Gamaliel stood up and talked about how before these days, Theodas rose up claiming to be a somebody, and a number of men, about 400, joined him. He was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and came to Nothing. In verse 38, he says, so in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail. But if it's from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even be found opposing God. So they took his advice. You could argue that Gamaliel had every reason to lump Yeshua into all of these false prophets that have come before. But he was wise and he avoided judging by appearances or by simply what he has seen before, lumping Yeshua in with what he has seen before. Instead, he saw each person as warranting justice and mercy, giving everyone an equal chance to show that they are who they are and not necessarily who you think they are. Lumping someone in with quote, unquote what you've seen before in order to quickly reject them and their ideas is an overreaction. And this overreaction blinds us to the truth, as it blinded many of the Pharisees who was in the presence of Gamaliel. It causes us to only have a surface level investigation and understanding. For example, I can tell you that in our ministry, we have often been challenged in this very way. When the works of the Holy Spirit has been brought up in the past, the opposing parties have often brought up bad practices done in the name of the Holy Spirit. And yes, many bad things have been done in the name of the Holy Spirit. But this warrant the accusations of, well, you're just another Pentecostal. You're not just another Charismatic. You're just like this or that movement or this or that denomination. I want nothing to do with that stuff because I have seen similar things to do with the Holy Spirit. See, when we overreact to what has been unbiblical doctrine, we cut ourselves off even from the authentic. Because our Messiah, we must look to him. What is the authentic? He is the authentic. And he walked in the power of the Holy Spirit. He said, you will do the things I have done and greater things than these, because I'm going to the Father. In Acts, chapter two, he poured out his Spirit upon all flesh. And Peter repeated Joel that he will give us dreams and visions and prophesies through his people. In Luke chapter 10, how God comes and he even pours out his Spirit on others who are not the 12, and they come back saying, even the demons submit to us as evidence of the power that comes upon us even to cause our demons and in the order and in the righteousness that Yeshua walked these things out. The pattern is in Scripture that we can and should walk as he walked. But the danger to all of this is a reactionary lifestyle and reactionary theology that we hold to that both allows and leads to slander, to gossip, to division, to pride as we look down on others who don't know what we know as we've witnessed abuse. But witnessing abuse or hurt does not mean that we are more informed regarding the truth. It just means that we've been hurt. It means that we have seen what is wrong. But as we've discussed, it takes more than to see what is wrong, it takes to see what is right. And Yeshua is what is right and what is true. And our example. I will conclude with this. Everything we are seeing is so important because it deals with the things of God and the study of God and how we proclaim His Word and live His Word out. And Proverbs 9, 10 tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Micah 6, 8. He has told you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love, mercy and to walk humbly with your God? Justice, mercy and humility. Justice do not spread false information, make assumptions or throw out what is good. But considering witnesses, evidence and the life of our Messiah who is truth, Mercy on those who don't see what we see or don't think the way we think about all things because we needed mercy too. And number three, humility. Because God raises the humble and he lowers the proud. I desire for you to be raised by the Father because you walk humbly before him, you seek mercy and justice. Then perhaps we can finally find ourselves successful in loving our neighbourhood as ourselves. Because everything is founded on love for God and neighbour. And when we don't just react hastily or out of spite for an opponent, but instead we should be acting carefully, wisely, humbly, out of love for God and our neighbor. Being careful to consider how hurt or abuse that we may have suffered may be coloring our vision of others or theology or God and even what is truth. Look to Yeshua for what is true and take off the glasses of hurt in order to be free. Father, I pray, Father, that you would come to each and every one of us who have suffered wrong, who have witnessed evil and who have tried to take a stand against evil. Father, I thank you Lord, that you've given us this heart But I ask that you would give us discernment that when we react we will not overreact any longer but that we would consider you in all things and lean on you for understanding and not on ourselves that we would audit our lives in accordance to your life that we would worship with spirit and with truth. Father we thank you for your mercy, your justice, your love for us. Help us to have that for other people as well. Help us Lord to not just put other people in a box but to see each person as made in your image having their own ideas worthy of consideration. Father, I pray that you would give us your patience. In the name of Yeshua I pray. Amen. Thank you so much for joining me this day. May the Father bless you, keep you, shine his face upon you lift up his countenance upon you give you his shalom and his mercy and his grace. We'll see you in the next one. Shalom.