SECULAR HUMANISM
The Religion That Infiltrates the Church
Installment 6 – Part 2
KEYNOTE SCRIPTURE
“7It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by (H)is own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – Jesus speaking to the Disciples/Apostles after His resurrection, but before Pentecost (indwelling of the Holy Spirit). The Apostles needed Holy Spirit direction and guidance to plant the church. (Acts 1:7-8 NIV).
KEYNOTE QUOTE
“The Great Commission will not be fulfilled with our spare time and our spare money.” – David Kim, Missionary
INTRODUCTION
The previous installment introduced the concept of the “7 Mountains of Influence” developed by those who seek to understand the meaning of “…all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” as stated by King Jesus in the keynote scripture above. By His statement in Acts 1:7-8, Jesus was stating the obvious command that, as His chosen Apostles, they were to “be my witness…” to the entire world!
However, observing the teachings in many of today’s “feel-good” churches, and the resulting behavior of those congregants, you might mistakenly think Jesus said, “Go to church for one hour every week and forget about being my witness the other 959 hours in the week…that’s all I want from you guys. After all, your personal agenda in politics, entertainment, sports, the bar-scene, is all you should really care about. You’ll be back next Sunday to rid yourself of guilt, so why sweat being “religious?” Who cares about My Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, which, by the way, is what I gave my life on the Cross at Calvary for? Living your life for me 24/7/365 is only a suggestion. Foggedaboutiiiitttt!!!” Go, have another beer on me!
Call my above re-statement of Acts 1:7-8 heresy if you want! Exit out of this writing if you get offended by what I’ve said! You won’t be alone! Millions upon millions throughout history have done the same when brought face-to-face with weak Christian faith.
BUT, first, take a look in the mirror and consider the true reason Jesus came to earth. Ask yourself what Jesus taught…what He modeled by His everyday life. Study His words and their intent. Study the Apostle’s Epistles (hee hee)!
Jesus used a threshing fork to bludgeon His message into the hearts of His chosen Disciples and they FINALLY understood it. He likewise bludgeoned the religious leaders of His time with the same threshing fork yet they REFUSED to understand and accept it. Jesus hated the false religion of His day because it was tainted by false teachers who taught false doctrine and false prophecy. Today is NO DIFFERENT! Church is tainted and infiltrated by the Spirit of deceit.
The commands of Jesus have ALWAYS been for us to take or leave. This is the FREE WILL we humans enjoy. But PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not misunderstand His crystal clear marching orders to all faith-filled Christ-followers.
Infiltration by Satan into the newly-planted church happened the very second Peter established the first church and it is well-rooted in today’s church. If this wasn’t so, then Paul, Peter, and James and John wasted their entire post-conversion lives correcting church leadership during their many mission trips. Their writings mean NOTHING if the church truly did not need cleaning up and straightening up.
Your church is not exempt! All churches, because they are made up of sinful humankind, are subject to infiltration and corruption by Satan’s workings.
WHAT IN THE WORLD DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH GOD IN GOVERNMENT!?
I’m glad you asked! Here’s the link.
The gospel of the kingdom brought by Jesus IS the revealed mystery of the current and future kingdom “government” HE will reign over. Most ordinary, everyday Christian citizens, some of you like to refer to yourselves as “Patriots,” only know Jesus for the personal salvation He bought with His blood on the Cross at Calvary. But Jesus’s victory brings abundantly more. He gave us the tools, the rules and the command to take His message “…to the ends of the earth.” Civics, work, school, family, sports, recreation, gambling, politics, commission meetings, etc., are a subset of all the earth!
Patriots of the founding era of The United States of America understood this call from Jesus. They designed our Constitution around this call from Jesus.
Thus, those who claim the title, “Patriot,” must also acknowledge the call of Jesus in NT scripture encapsulated in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). For those of you that are all of the sudden confused and offended, I suggest taking a pause and reading the preceding installments in this “God in Government” series. We will wait for you! God in Government?
BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A CHRISTIAN TO BE A PATRIOT, RIGHT?
Consider this.
Would you agree you cannot be a Christian if you don’t follow Christ’s teaching and don’t acknowledge His sovereignty over ALL things in the Universe? Simply saying a “salvation prayer” once in your life is NOT the road to Biblical salvation as promised by the teachings of Jesus. By every account and teaching of Jesus, you must live out Christian principles, morals, beliefs and faith in everything you do.
Those among us who claim American Patriotism without walking out Christian values in everyday life, are sort of walking in a state of hypocrisy.
LET’S ALL PAUSE AND TAKE A BREATH HERE!
I understand my style of writing may be blunt. Bluntness is how I learn. I learned these same lessons by being smacked between the eyes with these truths. When I did, I was angry! But I was angry at myself, not the messenger. I urge you not to shoot the messenger. I share this out of love for my fellow Christian, Patriot, and Citizen, no matter what their “religious” stripes. Again, visit past installments to understand why I put the word “religion” in quotation marks.
Truth Bomb Alert! Conviction versus Condemnation
If you are getting upset right now…I may have hit a nerve. Sometimes truth convicts a person. That is good. Conviction is from God’s Holy Spirit in you! We know this is true from Romans 8:1-2, which tells us “…there is NOW no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” The “NOW” of that verse represents the very millisecond you acknowledge Christ as your Lord and Master. At the “NOW” moment you receive the Holy Spirit…if you truly believe and repent and receive this truth.
Sometimes the truth condemns! That is bad. Condemnation is from Satan. Condemnation produces anger, guilt, shame, and resentment. These emotions pit one person against another, making the person the enemy. In reality, the spirit of Satan who resides in that person is the true enemy.
Look at the mess that is now called the “Michigan Grand Old Party,” or MIGOP, and you can see condemnation, accusation, name calling and utter chaos. Satan has set us against one another because he understands us…better than we understand ourselves. Do not be ashamed of this…it is a universal truth.
People often confuse conviction and condemnation. They assign the “devil” to many of their physical, emotional, financial, and spiritual “setbacks.” You may not understand that some of those “setbacks” may be intentionally orchestrated by the Holy Spirit to get your attention. They may be intended to show you a truth you may not otherwise have learned had you not been “smacked between the eyes” with a particular truth. These are good things given by God to refine you further for use in His battle.
If you’re constantly feeling condemned, angered, resentful, and ashamed whenever Christ is brought into your everyday life outside of Sunday church, you may want to take a pit stop and have your “belief” renewed. The Lord may be wanting to get your attention.
OK, FINALLY ON TO THE SUBJECT AT HAND…INFILTRATION OF THE CHURCH BY THE RELIGION OF HUMANISM
1. What (who) infiltrates the church and dilutes and true teachings of Jesus?
To understand the answer to this question, you must first understand what is the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus brought and taught.
Acquiring this understanding for me has taken about 7 years to this point, and will take, approximately…THE REST OF MY LIFE! Jesus made it that way purposefully, so I will never credit myself with attaining the knowledge, and, therefore, believe I do not need Him. This habit of acquiring knowledge through science and philosophy, instead of God’s eternal truths revealed in the Bible, is the very founding core of the Humanism doctrine (and other religions in power). We are going to briefly examine what this looks like in the church.
I touched on the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven in Installment 1 and Installment 2 of this series. Again, feel free to take a pause from this heavy lesson and refresh your memory of what Jesus said and did and taught. As I said, none of us will completely understand this in our human lifetimes here on this fallen earth, but ain’t it a BLAST taking the journey?
To answer the question posed at the beginning of this section we can go back to Genesis 3 in the Garden of Eden. Satan used the notion of human pride to trap and control Eve, who then, through a person to person interaction, snared and controlled Adam. Satan didn’t even need to attack Adam…he used Eve to do it. The rest is history.
Fast forward to today. Humans, manipulated by Satan’s workers (other humans under the influence of Satan’s spirits) are the main tool through which Satan seeks, kills, and destroys God’s children. This is a simplified version of the Amwaytm model of empire building (no disrespect to that Christian company). Simply look at the way the producers of the “COVID 19” pandemic and the “COVID vaccine” used ordinary citizens to turn in their neighbors, divide into VAXXERS and Anti-VAXXERS, and the subsequent disastrous fallout that forever has separated families and friends and co-workers and, yes, the church.
Satan’s complete dominion of this earth (given to Him by God…by the way) happens by his control and manipulation of humans who walk in ALL institutions in this fallen world.
You see the point here? Satan’s doctrine controls many seats of power through the willing cooperation of human beings who conduct his “church” and “religion” here on earth.
2. Where in the Church, Does Infiltration Appear?
The greatest barrier to the wisdom and understanding of the true message of Christ’s Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven (or Kingdom of God) appears in the dilution of the truth of its message, the breadth to which Jesus meant His message to travel, and the disunity sewn by Satan into the first century church. Corporate denominational church division, doctrinal dogma, and blatant false teaching by today’s “mainstream Christian church” leadership is working to oppose the intended infinite expansion of God’s kingdom on earth and His eventual Eternal Kingdom where true believers will dwell.
False Teaching, False Prophecy, and Gnosticism From Day 1!
Today’s church suffers from a blending of pagan religion, half-truths in the Bible, and legitimate truths of the Bible. We might be tempted to think that all the numerous problems our modern church suffers from stem from a gradual degradation of morals over time. This is not true if you look at the history of the church.
Humanism in the form of pagan worship of “false gods” and idols was recorded as far back in the Bible as Deuteronomy 32:17, where Moses says of the people of Israel, “They sacrificed to demons, which are not God – gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.” Written in 1406 B.C., before the introduction of the church age by Jesus in Matthew 16:18, Moses spoke of the quick infiltration of human pride and desire over God’s desires (Humanism), into the nation of Israel, shortly after God gave him the Law.
Fast forward to the church age in A.D. 30 or so, after the Apostles planted the church in the known world, and we see that Jesus warned against false teachers and prophets (Matthew 23:13-37).
The Apostles Peter, Paul, Timothy, and others spent their lives traveling throughout the known world correcting false teachings in the church and rebuking church leaders that were bringing Humanism into the church in the form of Gnosticism (fancy word for a diluted form of Christianity that demonizes the material world as evil) and Apostacy (fancy word for a “falling away” from the faith in the form or falling for teachings of Satan’s doctrine, e.g. Humanism). Other forms of false teachings were confronted during the first century church realignment. Scriptures such as 1 Timothy 4:1 and 2 Peter 3:17 warn believers to steer clear of these false teachers.
Today, we see the church allowing cultural principles to blend with moral absolutes of the Bible, to form a “Christianity” that allows and endorses personal happiness over Biblical righteousness…something Jesus NEVER taught. Mainstream denominational churches have incorporated contemporary cultural morals and norms, which are ever-changing, to dictate the truths of the Bible they teach, or fail to teach. Many churches allow “flexibility” in Biblical truth so as not to offend their congregants (donors) and, hence, lose financial contributions.
This dilution is subtle and ever-festering. Eventually, this false teaching or failure to teach truth and this failure to hold their members accountable to Christ-like love, has led to major splits in centuries-old denominational churches.
A case in point is the “United” Methodist Church. This mainline Protestant denomination, in 2019, began a split over several social issues, including same-sex marriage and gender manipulation, two of the several issues clearly not taught or accepted by Biblical Christian scripture. The split continues today. As of this writing, approximately 20-30% of “United” Methodist congregations have split from the main denomination. More churches are expected to join the defection as the divide over social and cultural issues widens.1 Other traditional denominations such as Lutheran and Episcopalian have recently split over “pop-culture” issues.
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“Inward Service” and “Mega-Church” vs. Outward Focused Discipleship
The keynote quote, from Missionary David Kim, convicts all of us: “The Great Commission will not be fulfilled with our spare time and our spare money.”
This quote captures the essence of the Great Commission of Jesus: we, as Christ-believers, are commanded to take Him into all the earth. It implies this is a work of individual will, using individual time, treasure, and talent in sacrificial discipleship for Christ. If there is little or no sacrifice, there is little or no fruit produced to expand the kingdom.
How many of us hear this message from the pulpit? If we do hear it, how many of us are taught and equipped with the means to actually do it? Hint: not many!
Jesus calls us to witness Him with all we are and all He has given us in all we do. His is not a casual, Sunday-only assignment. This is to be our full-time endeavor according to our Creator. We must engage every part of the world with our witness to Jesus.
Mega-churches, many who self-identified as “non-denominational,” are the rage in American “worship” today. They often so designate themselves in an effort to distance themselves from traditional, denominational churches, mistakenly believing they will appear less “religious” to those searching the Christian faith.
They are capable of capturing hundreds, perhaps many thousands of worshippers on any given Sunday. In my travels over the past decade or so, I have attended Sunday services in numerous of the 50 United States, from New Mexico to Texas, to Michigan. I typically attend one of these “non-denominational” churches because the worship style is familiar and “comfortable.” Typically, the church service serves upwards of 1,000 to 3,500 attenders (donors) per service. Some say a church isn’t a mega-church until it reaches a minimum of 2,000 attenders (donors) every week. This really is up to personal evaluation.
I have observed that many of these churches, called “non-denominational,” typically conduct their services in nearly the exact order, with the exact timing for each portion, with nearly the exact number of songs, those being of the exact genre, and allowing the exact same amount of time for the preacher to preach nearly the exact same message, using the exact same scripture references. It is as if they all are deriving their services from the same “nationwide” “non-denominational” program or series. It makes me wonder if “Non-Denominational” churches are, in fact, a Denomination!
Also common to these mega-churches seems to be an insatiable desire to attract hundreds and hundreds of attenders (donors) to their multitude of programs. These programs range across all age groups, social and cultural preferences, and typically strive to be “relevant” to culture. Now, I’m not saying programs are bad, but shouldn’t culture be made relevant to the Bible?
The focus seems to be on recruiting numbers and on saving souls, rather than discipling and edifying the church body. Jesus gave us assignment to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded,” (Matthew 28:18-20). The desire to save souls is a noble one, but not a job for Christ-followers…you and I cannot save one, single soul…not even our own.
Why numbers? Numbers are necessary to recruit “servants” to staff the programs with volunteers. After all, Jesus wants you to come to church and find a place to PLUG-IN! Right? Wrong. Jesus desires surrender of self and the understanding you are useless to serve until He equips you for service!
You may be getting the false impression that I believe mega-churches, whether denominational or “non-denominational” are a bad thing. I don’t believe that at all. I do, however, see evidence that many that focus primarily on growth steal from the message of the gospel of Jesus. That message being to go out into all the world.
Mega-churches must feed the insatiable monster created by their “successful” attraction of new attenders (donors). The church budget grows in proportion to the growth in attenders (donors). If not careful, the focus of “ministry” may become housing more attenders (donors), rather than teaching and preaching and evangelizing the gospel to all the earth.
Where do these “new” attenders (donors) come from? Are hundreds of thousands of the “lost” suddenly coming to faith in Christ because of this new, “relevant” style of “worship?”
Who knows the answer to that except God, right? However, a casual observation of the smaller, local, traditional denominational and non-denominational church community in proximity to a “mega-church” provides a likely answer.
Mega-churches typically “steal” attenders (donors) from smaller, less “vibrant,” less “relevant,” less “socially acceptable” traditional, “stuffy,” and “archaic” denominational churches. The music is not cool. The church smells old, and there is no fog machine! I want donuts and coffee! I quit!
In the wake of a local explosion of a mega-church, there is typically left the shattered remains of the smaller, rural, traditional denominational churches. These churches struggle to keep pace with the “culture” of the mega-church, and are eventually left with small, older-aged attenders sticking around until the last one dies so they can turn out the lights. No youth infuses the church. Where in scripture does the Lord command us to hire paid musicians to lead singing? In what book does the Lord set out a corporate, paid organizational chart?
Once a mega-church gleans the low-hanging fruit of a local community, they then set up another “campus” in a neighboring community and the process begins again. The net result is rarely an increase of new converts and a net gain to the kingdom, but rather destruction of the local church demographic because they cannot compete financially with the programs the mega-church can afford. Mega-churches often have huge paid staff as opposed to smaller churches that rely on volunteers…like the Acts church of the New Testament.
The infiltration of the Satanic spirit in this mega-church model comes in the form of MONEY. Mega-churches operate on budgets ranging from several million dollars per year, to some that operate budgets over $140,000,000. According to a FoxBusiness report dated October 1, 2019, Life.Church, based in Edmond, OK, brought in $143,400,000 in cash and non-cash donations in 2018.2 Is this massive amount of money justified by fruit produced for God’s kingdom?
The Apostolic model of the first century church was one of supporting, bolstering, and unifying local churches…edifying the body of Christ, as Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:12-13. Today’s mega-churches, like gluttonous monsters, scour, scavenge, and ravage all local resources leaving local church bodies on life support…soon to die. How good it would be to see a “Community Church” actually support and edify the local church body instead of rape and pillage for their own edification. This is one of the banes of modern, “non-denominational” church. It cannot help but be a corporation; a business. And as such, it must feed and sustain its own growth. This path of operation naturally prescribes an “inward-focused” corporate model, bent on sustaining its own growth and expansion.
The bad news, or infiltration of Satan, comes in when a pastor, church board, or group of attenders (controlling donors) begins to direct the church towards its own agenda, rather than the church model Jesus spoke into being (Matthew 16:18). Jesus was the Pastor who served the flock. Modern-day Pastors many times are served by the flock, at the expense of the flock, and in pursuit of their own agenda.
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A Church is a Business. What is a Non-Profit 501(c)(3) Church (Business)?
The majority of churches in the US incorporate themselves as Internal Revenue Code (IRC) 501(c)(3) Non-Profit businesses. That’s right, your church is likely a non-profit, but it is STILL A BUSINESS, and, therefore, is subject to the same life-cycle as any other business. The introduction of MONEY in the form of donations introduces the temptation to abuse those donations. The infiltration of the Spirit of money into churches naturally takes over much of the direction of a church.
This may seem like somewhat of a rabbit-trail, but indulge me for a moment and I believe you will understand the purpose for chasing this rabbit! Right off the bat here, I want to say I am NOT accusing or condemning any church of any wrong-doing by covering the information I’m about to cover. I’m simply informing the reader of facts and following a potential pathway of behavior. SO DON”T BE OFFENDED.
Why “non-profit?”
Why do churches seek non-profit status? Very simple. Most churches do this so that their “donors,” if desired, can claim tax deductible status of the funds they give to their corporate church, AND, so the church can claim exemption from paying federal income tax on donations they receive.
It is not, then, too risky a proposition to suppose that there becomes “competition” for attenders (donors) between local and regional churches, each vying for the most possible attenders (donors) in order to book the most donations by which to fund their corporate operation (agenda).
For this reason, churches, even by their own admission, refer to themselves as “corporate” entities. You have undoubtedly heard your Pastor or church leader preach on the importance of attending Sunday or other corporate worship and to encourage you to “plug-in” to church programs. Again, corporate worship, in itself, is not a bad thing, but when discipleship is not the mission, the message of servant Christianity is diluted. Servitude with the sole intention of filling in program volunteer slots rather than edification of the body is unbiblical.
Now bear with me. Filing under the 501(c)(3) IRC designation does not, in itself, mean an organization is bad. It is quite obvious that countless of these corporations do unimaginable good with the donations they receive to fund their operations. What makes a 501(c)(3)
corporation bad is the Spirit that those who run the corporation attach to the money they receive as donations. In other words, the leaders and administrators must be “beyond reproach” in their integrity and motives for the corporation to do the most “good” according to those who judge that. Consider, for a moment, the 501(c)(3) non-profit IRC designated entity called Planned Parenthood. Would any Christ-follower assign “good” to the donations it receives and the operations it funds? I doubt it.
If the “that” is a corporate church, then we, as Christian “donors” must discern the abilities and motives of the leaders in order to believe our donations will best honor God’s will. But do they?
What is “non-profit?”
Let’s examine what “non-profit” means, and do so compared to “for-profit” claimed by a “C Corporation,” or a “Limited Liability Corporation (LLC),” or a “Partnership,” according to IRC rules. These types of “for-profit” businesses execute their business for the purpose of making profit so they can exercise the inalienable, God-given right to free enterprise. Whether they keep all the profit and pay it to the owners or shareholders of the business, distribute a portion of it to employees, expand the business and hire more employees, or throw a bunch of cash into the fire is their choice…the requirement they pay Federal Income Tax to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) being the primary responsibility.
I can tell you first-hand as a business owner, these corporate tax rates are steep and they increase (along with other crippling rules and mandated taxes and reporting requirements) as the corporation records more profit. Therefore, from a tax-liability standpoint, a “for-profit” business must strike a tenuous balance that must consider the cost of success in the form of growth and expansion, versus sustaining its current size, or, perhaps even downsizing (something our government should explore!).
Once a business invests in expansion, it must then strategize and execute a plan to financially support the expanded operation in a fiscally responsible fashion. Again, this is a simplistic explanation.
Considering the above brief explanation of profit management, one can quickly understand the appeal of attaining “non-profit” Corporate designation. Enter the 501(c)(3) IRC designation. This is a legal entity available for churches (and others) that allows declaration of “profitless” business activities. As we all know, some churches attract large numbers of people (donors), and, so, put themselves in a great position to receive tremendously large amounts of federally tax-free donations from their attendees (donors).
The “reinvestment” of “profits” garnered by a “non-profit” church must be directed so that a “profit” does not appear on the accounting ledger. Distribution of this wealth comes in many potential forms: hiring more staff to provide more “programs,” increasing wages, salaries, and benefits, expanding facilities, or endowing funds to the local community, to name a few. Does this cycle sound similar in nature to a “for-profit” IRC corporation?
Quite naturally, then, if a mega-church has maximized its “sales” effort in one community, it must soon look to other communities for more “customers” for its worship product. If it doesn’t, it must then change its operational model to one of sustenance and not geographic expansion. Its “worship product” must then rise to the quality needed to maintain financial viability in the community of established churches. However, with massive budgets and huge paid staffs and multitudes of “programs,” growth and expansion is the simplest path.
However, unless the “worship product” is far superior to all other, similar mega-churches, both physical, and on-line, it will eventually rub up against another, similar mega-church with a similar “product” and be forced into a duel for the geographic or demographic (or both) attenders (donors).
This is the natural course of all business models, whether “for-profit” or “non-profit.” At some point the growth is forced to stop and the focus must be realigned to God’s will.
Group of Business People Holding Placards Forming Customer
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Church Members as “Corporate Customers”
To all my church-leading pastoral friends, please don’t hate me for this perspective. I am simply offering an idea that I believe has value to anyone assessing the possible (potential) operating process, intention, and motivation of a given corporate church…by that I mean a 501(c)(3) IRC business designation.
Combining the description of “Church” and “Non-Profit Church” above leads to an interesting perspective I now take. Call it my analytical Biblical worldview lens.
Just Like Any For-Profit Business
If I look at a “not for profit” church body as consisting of members, then I can see similarity to any “for profit” corporation as consisting of shareholders (C Corp, for instance) or Member-owned Limited Liability Corporation (LLC). In both cases, those leading the business (CEO for a business and Pastor or Elders or Bishop for a church), because they are in fact, both business entities (one is exempt from Federal income tax, that’s all), have motivation, and, in all honesty, as well as the intention to keep their members or shareholders “happy,” or coming back. This is Business 101.
In the case of C Corporations, shareholders are happy when they receive dividend checks to cash. For church members, they are happy when they feel good about worship, feel good about serving, feel good about the church “family” they belong to, feel good about the doctrinal tenets they ascribe to and feel good when there is no strife, tension, disunity, or division in the membership body.
Alternatively, C Corporation shareholders feel bad when their dividends disappear, their stock price falls and the stocks don’t split, or if there is criminal activity and corruption in the company. Likewise, church members are unhappy when the Pastor offends them, when there is disunity or disagreement, when leadership part ways, or other bad things happen.
To take it a step farther, just as a manufacturing business must be competitive in the market of consumers buying their product, so must a church be competitive in “selling” their product to prospective Bible consumers. Let’s face it, all of us know someone who has church hopped, or church shopped, because they weren’t being “fed,” or because the preaching or teaching was “offensive.” Like it or not, we judge a church by the “product” it offers. It sounds cheap, but churches DO compete in local, as well as regional and worldwide markets. What do they compete for? I’ll let you fill in the blank.
This shouldn’t be surprising or offend anyone, really. Because churches are businesses, mostly brick and mortar business, they require an accounting ledger to manage their income and expenses. Income MUST exceed expenses just like any other entity (except our government, of course!).
Do you see where infiltration may enter the “non-profit” corporate church? Do you understand where your church spends its donations?
Just like big government, some churches may lose sight of the intended “product” they are providing, and may need to be questioned or even de-funded when they are found to be mis-managing. This is the Spirit of Mammon Matthew wrote about in Matthew 6:24, when he warned against the improper service of a Christian. Does your church leadership serve God or mammon? The wrongly-focused church is fertile ground for infiltration by Humanism.
Similar to our Government
If you were to take a brief look at the places where Satan’s doctrine has infiltrated the church, you can see the relationship to the infiltration by the same doctrine into our government via the religion of Humanism. When will the government cease its growth and overreach? Where is the accountability to its “donors?”
This is a time Christ-followers MUST abandon their self-imbibing style of worship, and turn their focus on carrying out the commands of Christ. No self-respecting Bible believer should consider any other course! The world: ALL OF IT, needs our witness!
Old News
Corrupt religious leaders and false teachings and false prophecy are nothing new. The OT Prophets Isaiah (Isaiah 1:23) and Micah (Micah 3:1-3, 6:11) (and numerous others) spoke of this potential danger from infiltration of wicked men. The church planting Apostles of the first century, likewise, encountered and tried to correct this prophesied corruption and infiltration. They were unsuccessful at removing this filth from the church as has every single effort by man throughout history up till now. Future prospects of a “spotless” church are not possible by man’s effort.
Since the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), Satan has been given dominion of this world and has operated under his own set of rules. These rules apply across all the 7 Mountains of Influence, and NO, the CHURCH is NOT EXEMPT from Satan’s infiltration. A compulsory reading of the letters and Epistles of the New Testament Bible are filled with passage upon passage rebuking church leadership and urging the correction of false-teaching, false prophecy, pagan worship inside the church, and corrupt church leaders.
Anybody who simply distills “Jesus is love” from the New Testament needs a course in reading comprehension. Most of the Apostle Paul’s missionary life was spent correcting the church leadership and ferreting out corrupt church leaders. Paul saw this as a chief reason for his four mission trips.
Has the church corrected itself over time? No. Are contemporary church leaders failing their church body? Some are. Are all church leaders corrupt? Of course not. Nobody could make that assertion. However, it is not prophesied that the world will get brighter, but will only progress toward greater darkness.
Are all church leaders subject to the temptation? YES! Church leaders need our prayers!
FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE INFILTRATION OF THE CHURCH MOUNTAIN BY SECULAR HUMANISM
This entire discussion regarding the church of today is touchy and explosive, but needs to happen from top to bottom. This treatise touched only the surface of by what means and to what levels the church has been infiltrated by Satan’s doctrine of Humanism. Loss of the church to Humanism means loss of our Constitutional form of self-government.
Because today’s church has become so negatively influenced by culture, it has bred a church body more concerned with culture than Bible truth and engagement of that truth in the community and in civics. Our understanding and involvement in both has been conditioned to exclude the very principles of truth and morality this country and this self-government was formed upon. Our own political parties are ashamed of the truths and principles their professed “Christianity” truly espouses. Consequently, we have disunity among “Christians” because some get it and some don’t.
As Bible believers, we shouldn’t be alarmed that our world is falling deeper into a state of decay, corruption, lawlessness, and chaos. The Apostle Paul speaks of this in 2 Thessalonians 2:4, saying of the author of chaos (Satan), “He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”
The church of today certainly falls into the category of “…everything that is called God, or is worshiped…” Is it any wonder that Satan has infiltrated the church? It has been prophesied!
OUR HOPE IS ASSURED
Despite the heaviness of this message, we as Christ-followers know and understand that our fight on this earth ends in glorious adoption into the family of God, living in His eternal kingdom (Romans 8:17).
Why waste our time in pitiful, meaningless worship in a dead church? I mean dead to the Lord’s gospel, not dead as in uncool music or no doughnuts! Our lives are reserved for the Lord’s service in our community, in service to the Lord, not in service to a mega corporation (mega-church) that is only interested in consuming consumers.
Don’t abandon your church body…instead, build it and edify it because all churches are ordained to the glory of God’s redemptive plan!
NEXT TIME
In the next installment, we will explore infiltration by Humanism into the Mountain of EDUCATION. This one will be simple for most to grasp, yet will still come with some surprises so stay tuned!
As always, if you desire answer to any questions pertaining to this article, please make contact at the email address given below.
If you have questions about how discover the Saving Grace of Christ Jesus and its explosive impact on your life, or simply how to more closely walk each day with God, please contact us. All correspondence is confidential.
This article copyrighted, © 6 March, 2024 by Brian Horanoff ©
RESOURCES
- The Breakup of the United Methodist Church, by Peter Weber, 05 January, 2023, The Week, online newspaper.
- Here’s How Much Money These Megachurches Bring in Across the US, by Ann Schmidt, 18 October, 2019, FoxBusiness