They Defame the Name of My God

What got me started on this article was a recently forwarded copy of a working draft of a forthcoming book, sent to me by a friend. The author is one of the leaders of what is called, “The Protestant Papacy” here in Colorado Springs. This individual is among those who are bestowing “apostle-ships” on people, placing these apostles over different cities and regions of this country.

The author cites a local well-known clergyman as a prime example of men who are being recruited into the new apostolic ecclesiastical structure. My sadness was that several years ago I met with this “local apostle” minister for lunch. He was very threatened by the implications of our little pamphlet Prodigal Church, and dissuaded many other clergy in his sphere of influence from investigating our material.

Humble, servant-style leadership is fostered in the Hebraic Restoration and is found at the core of the earliest Church. This pattern stands in direct opposition to the Hellenistic ecclesiastical system which has become the norm for so much of the Church we see today.

When I received the book draft, I didn’t know how or if our Father wanted me to respond. As I prayed, I discerned that our Lord wanted me to clarify the very real differences between the Hebraic-based understanding of authority in the early Church, and the Hellenistic/Roman ecclesiastical systems which became entrenched in the church during the 4th century. Today these adapted Hellenist practices and Roman organizational systems are the standard for most Christian communities.

We’ve previously discussed this topic in our books Restoring the Early Church and Pastoring by Elders. Our goal at the time that we wrote these books was to inform people of what our research in Israel on the early Church had uncovered. Now, however, so much more is being required of the followers of Jesus beyond just being informed. His people need to act!

Let’s briefly review the elements of the Hellenist philosophical influence and the Roman organizational system that have so impacted western Christianity.

The Hellenist/Roman Church Exposed

In the Introduction to our book Restoring the Early Church we included comments by many Christian leaders concerning the condition of the Church in the US. Since we wrote the book 8 years ago, other information keeps coming forth to reveal the fall of the Hellenist/Roman Church system.

For instance, the article below appeared in our local paper recently. From “Secular Jobs Tempting Clergy” [The Gazette, July 5, 2003]:

Among all denominations nationwide,

1,600 ministers per month are terminated or forced to resign their pulpit ... The Southern Baptist Convention has reported that roughly 1,400 ministers per year call a toll-free crisis hot line. And nearly 100 Southern Baptist pastors leave their churches every month.

Some pastors step down after revelations of scandal, or stir up congregational conflict and division themselves. On the other hand, some are targeted by powerful factions in the churches that simply don’t want them around. (emphasis added)

This article only added to a host of information that’s come our way pointing to the rapid fall of the Hellenist/Roman church system. Destruction of pandemic proportions is impacting western Christianity, touching Protestants and Catholics alike. No denomination that we are aware of is free from this plague. [For related reading see our article, “Impudence: Reflection of the Anti-Christ Spirit in Today’s Church”, available on our website under “Hebraic Articles.”]

• One afternoon during the mid-1980’s I talkedwith a church leader of one of the top three Protestant denominations in the world about the clergy in his denomination. He admitted that the adultery rate of the clergy was in excess of 50% — and this was nearly 20 years ago! He told me, “If the people in our denomination found out, they’d leave us in droves.”
• Over a decade later we met a couple who counseled adulterous clergy in that denomination. They confirmed that the adultery rate was still over 50%. Sadly, there seems to be a 50%+ clergy adultery rate across the board in Protestantism today.
• In the mid-80’s an official Roman Catholic publication stated that up to that time, the Catholic Church had paid out over $400,000,000 in out-of-court settlements for clergy sexual misconduct. Recently headlined cases of pedophilia will cost churchgoers much higher sums than that. (The same article addressed epidemic homosexuality rampant in seminaries.)
• For the past few years, Protestant clergy have been close to the top of the infamous list of occupations that lead this nation in divorce.
• The “Bible Belt” has a divorce rate 50% higher than those who don’t attend church services. The divorce rate of the Hellenist/ Roman Church at large is higher than that of people not attending church.
• One of the leading international evangelistic ministries reported that only 4% of those who go forward at their crusades are found
• to be following Jesus even a year later. 96% walked away from something. Were they inoculated against the true Gospel?
• A major campus ministry reported less than 5% of the students who were active in their ministry during college are still walking with Jesus 5 years later. 95% walked away from something. What did they receive?
  • Church youth work in the US has been found to be less than 3% effective in training up young people who walk wholeheartedly for Jesus. The average stay of a youth pastor in a congregation today is about 9 months.

Patching the System Doesn’t Work

The deteriorating condition of the Hellenistic Church accelerated so rapidly during the past 60 years that the church itself failed to hear the warnings God was sending it. Like the Titanic, which turned off its radios so that they wouldn’t hear the warnings of icebergs ahead, the Hellenist/ Roman system drove out the prophetic voices our Father sent to warn them.

In the mid-1980’s God stirred me to go find those in Southern New England who were gifted in prophecy. I looked for them in different congregations, and discovered that most had fled. They’d been driven away from the church system by clergy who feared the divine exposure that the prophets were sent to reveal. Many of these prophetically gifted were at home wallowing in bitterness.

During this same period there was an explosive increase in para-church organizations. These ministries tried to compensate for the failure of church systems to carry on their biblical mandates. The Hellenist-based para-church reaped no more success in raising up committed believers than do Hellenist/Roman religious communities. There is a key reason for this across-the-board failure of Hellenist Christianity...

We Are Under God’s Judgment!

The rapid moral decline of this nation prompted Billy Graham several years ago to prophetically state, “If God doesn’t judge the United States, then He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Something is terribly wrong in a society that finds 95% believing there is a god, but so few living lives that evidence that belief. These painfully revealing statistics indicate a silence in which little power of the Holy Spirit is being made manifest. And what is being seen through personal excused sin and carnival-atmosphere “Christian” entertainment is tarnishing His Name!

Don’t Ezekiel’s words judge us today as well?

Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them (Ezekiel 22:26).

I believe that our Lord’s judgment is already taking place, and that people aren’t paying attention to the indicators such as those listed earlier. Know this: There are “dark days of chastisement” coming upon the US, and we have little time to align ourselves with our Father’s plan to save us from the misery that many are or will be experiencing. Only you can study the facets of the Hebraic Restoration for yourself and ask our Father if this message is for you.

Your alignment with the Restoration our Father has ordained for His children is a lot like the alignment required of the Israelites in Egypt. Before the Destroying Spirit was sent forth, He ordered the Israelites to put blood on their door posts to protect their families on the night of the Passover. Embracing the Hebraic Restoration — the relational intimacy and trust-grounded spiritual power of our forefathers in the faith — is your protection today. You need to be walking now under the protection of the blood of Jesus as His wholehearted follower in order to stand firm in the coming days.

I’m saddened for the well-meaning people who keep trying to patch up the Hellen-ist/Roman clergy system. So many of these caring men and women have gone under themselves because they are operating contrary to God’s plan. He is restoring the Hebraic foundations of the earliest Church which evidenced such spiritual intimacy and world-impacting power.

On the surface it appears as if the Hel-lenist/Roman system is beset by gross sexual misconduct at the root of its decline. But I firmly believe that something of a Divine plan is unfolding before our eyes.

God is judging a hierarchical church system that has NO biblical foundation. There were no clergy in the earliest centuries of the Church. The position of clergy was an adaptation from Hellenistic and Roman pagan practices. By Emperor Constantine’s reign in the 4th century, clergy had become the only sanctioned leadership in the Church. God hated this system that had made inroads on the infant church, and vowed to war against the people who practice it.

Many well-intentioned people have perpetuated a system that has gone on with different adaptations for centuries. By the time you finish reading this article I hope you will be convinced that our God hates this system, and take action accordingly in your own life. If God hates and wars against those who practice an unscriptural approach to worship, wouldn’t you want to let people know the truth so they could respond as well?

First, let me briefly review what we’ve already written in our book, Pastoring By Elders, that addresses this subject. Again, when we wrote the book, we were trying to be informative. Now it’s time for the true followers of Jesus to take action. As Moses warned the Israelites who were about to enter the Land, confirm what you’ve heard to be truth by putting it into action! (Deuteronomy 27:26)

 

God’s Judgment on the Nicolaitans

In the letters written to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation, two churches are confronted with the issue of the Nicolaitans. The letter to the church at Ephesus states, “But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (Revelation 2:6). These are incredibly strong words. Can you imagine participating in something that God hates? What if you are but don’t know it?

Again, to the church at Pergamum John writes, “Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth” (Revelation 2:15,16). At least the Ephesians hated the Nicolaitan practices as God did. Some of the Pergamum residents, though, embraced that teaching. What an awful situation to be in. Would you like to be someone against whom God Himself must fight?

This is exactly what our Lord is doing in the church today to expose and cast off that pernicious Nicolaitan influence that exerts power over the people. The church has become so proud in its tradition of Hellenistic practices and Roman organization that the Lord must oppose it. How else do you account for the immensity of clergy misconduct? For a divorce rate far beyond that of unbelievers?

The wide-spread use of worldly programs and entertainment for “church growth” are all part of the delusion to which God has been forced to hand over the Church in the US. Isn’t this what is really going on inside Hellenized Christianity? How can you account for so many “Christians” whom polls show have values and lifestyles indistinguishable from those of the ungodly society around them?

A “Christian” can separate himself so far from the Lord and His ways that He is compelled to let him live the lie he embraces: “For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:11).

 

Nicolaitan Intimidation Holds Power

From the book: "None Dare Call It Deception" by Clast Sonomore Copyright 1990 Thy Kingdom Come Ministry 12300 Marion Lane, Suite 2218 Minnelonka, Minnesota 55343