More and more we hear of out-of-church Christians who have left the IC (institutional church) because they believe it’s “the end of the Church Age”.

One of the biggest proponents behind this teaching is Harold Camping who claims the Church Age has ended.  Camping teaches that Christians should stop going to church and ”depart from churches.”   The teaching, however, has spread far and wide beyond Harold Camping and is rapidly gaining traction.  Many people have done exactly as Camping and others have told them to do and are now called “out-of-church Christians”.

As I’ve observed the phenomenon over the years I’ve noticed a striking lack of discernment among many who have “left church”.  The assumption is, of course, that GOD lead them out and told them to depart- that He is doing a “new thing” and that they are simply “getting in the flow” of what God is doing.  Maybe it’s time we started asking some hard questions:

1. What if God is NOT the one who told you to leave?
2. What if you’re being lead astray?
3. Could this be a counterfeit from the enemy of your soul to bring you into a place where you are away from God’s people?”

God’s Word tells us to “Test everything.  Hold on to the good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

The failure to follow this simple admonition is why so many have fallen to the seduction of bad teaching.  Over and over again scripture warns us:

“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3)

I have followed the trend of out-of-church Christians very closely because I believe God is bringing change to the church, but I am also aware that we have an enemy who is cunning and lays the snare of counterfeits.

I have no desire to find myself led astray, deceived, or walking in a counterfeit work of the enemy!  God tells me to “Test everything”, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do!

Something strange is going on here!

I’ve paid especially close attention to the out-of-church movement because I’ve written songs that address apostasy and lukewarmness in the church.  This is something I’ve thought about for a very long time- I wrote “Whatever Happened To Jesus” in 1987 .  I only recently recorded it and made it available to the public.  I couldn’t help but notice that the timing of the release of this song coincides with the ”Out-Of-Church movement”, the “Emergent Church movement” and the “End of the Church Age” trend that we are seeing… but with one vital difference- I have arrived at VERY different conclusions than all of these movements!

It is very obvious change is in the air, and as far as I can see, a fair amount of deception is accompanying whatever legitimate things God may be doing.

I believe God is bringing change to the church, (as He has often done throughout church history through periods of revival).  As history has shown, this change has most often occurred outside of the mainstream church, so it would not surprise me if that is again the case.  I have noticed one startling difference, however, between some of the current “movements” and past legitimate “moves of God” that is alarming to me- past moves of God have always revolved around His Word and restoring to the church the truth and person of Jesus Christ according to the bible.  Many of the present day “moves” that are supposedly from God actually downplay the Word of God, or twist it in imaginative ways to make it say things that it never says!

Is the Church Age over?  Did Jesus put an end to “church”?  Are we to stop gathering with Christians?

An excellent example of distorting and twisting God’s Word is found in the claim that the Church Age is over.  Many Christians have believed the lie, stopped gathering with other Christians, and think they’re actually better off sitting home alone than gathering with God’s people! 

The deception behind the claim that the Church Age is over should be as obvious as the noon day sun:  The church in the Word of God is referred to as the Ekklesia- the “called out ones”- in other words, the church is God’s people.  We are being told that the Church Age is over while the church is still here!  I keep hearing from Christians that the Church Age is over and recently I was online talking about the subject: 

“You keep saying it’s “the end of the church age”.  Please give me scripture to support your claims.  The church- the Ekklesia- is still here!  The church age has not ended.  We are still in a time of grace, people are still getting saved, the Body of Christ is still on planet earth.  Jesus is still standing at the door and knocking, He is still saying, “Be earnest and repent!”  He hasn’t left the scene or walked away from His people- “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:19-20)

You are still here, I am still here, the church is still here- the church age has not ended.

If you’re going to continue to make the claim that the church age has ended, please show us from the Word of God why you believe this to be true.”

You see, there is no reasonable explanation that can be found in God’s Word to give validity to the claim that the Church Age is over.  In fact, the bible tells us that the church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air (The Rapture)- so consider the evidence that is before us- the church is still here, the rapture has not yet happened, the Church Age cannot be over while the church is still on planet earth!

Did God really tell you to stop gathering with other Christians?

Ekklesia means “called out ones” but it also has the meaning of an assembly or congregation.

1 Corinthians 14:26: “What shall we say, brothers?  WHEN YOU COME TOGETHER, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation…” etc.

Notice what is said… “When you come together…”  The Apostle Paul assumes the church will come together- it’s a given.

1 Corinthians 14:26 makes no sense outside of the context of the church gathering together- We cannot do the things this verse is talking about if we’re sitting at home alone!

We are the “Body of Christ”, we are brothers and sisters in Christ- FAMILY!  What kind of healthy family doesn’t get together if they’re able?

“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”  (1 John 1:3)

The early church was one big family, do you mean to tell me that God is now telling us not to gather and fellowship together with our brothers and sisters in Christ, our family in the Lord?

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”  (Acts 2: 42-47)

Again, if you stop to think about it, the truth should be so obvious and the deception so clear, that no one would fall for being told not to gather with other Christians!

Finally, the scripture has warned us in advance to be careful! 

There are many people, saying many things, going about telling us what to believe and do; the scriptures warned us this would happen:

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” (1 Timothy 4:1)

I hope you will make your source of truth the Word of God, and that you will “test everything” as the scripture tells you to do, so that you will not be taken in by deception.  The Church Age is not over, and you will not be able to find anyone who can prove it is by using the bible- unless they go to great lengths to twist and manipulate scripture in their efforts to try and prove their point- and that should be the first sign that something’s not quite right with what they’re teaching!

In “Whatever Happened To Jesus?” I give a call to return to the “old paths” of faith in Christ as well as a call to return to our “first love” of Him.  I wrote the song early on in my Christian walk (about 3 years after being born again) and  noticed at that time that the church-at-large seemed to be embracing the surrounding culture rather than rejecting it.  As a brand new believer I couldn’t understand this since Jesus had just delivered me from “the world” and it’s influences- why would I want to return to the life I’d just left behind?  The amazing thing is that some in the church believe that the way to revitalization is by embracing the surrounding culture!  “If we are to be relevant to the surrounding world we must be like them”, they would say.  Being culturally relevant is seen as a way out of our lifelessness- and so we see a church today that in many ways now looks exactly like the world it was supposed to come out of.

Dead lifeless churches are obviously not God’s desire, but neither is a worldly, culturally driven church the will of God for His people- we need a return of authentic life in Christ.  An authentic walk with God does not need worldly hype and fads to produce life.  Instead of having more of the world in the church, we need more of the life of Jesus in us!  I believe we need to get back to the “old paths”- repent, return to Jesus, and get back to Jesus and the Word of God as our supreme source for life and truth.

Whatever happened to Jesus?  Isn’t this supposed to be about JESUS?

I’m as tired of dead, formal religion, as anyone else is because it keeps people from Christ rather than leading them into an experience of Him-  Jesus is alive, and if we’re not experiencing that, there’s something radically wrong.  But how did we go from wanting the church to be “alive” to somehow thinking that the way to this “life” is by embracing the world?  One of the most disturbing trends is how God’s Word is now thought of as antiquated- this belief is bringing about apostasy in the church.  

Apostasy is basically a falling away from God’s Word and departure from His truth, which leads to a falling away from Jesus.  When God’s Word is downplayed, denied, twisted, referred to as antiquated, and relegated to a place where the church prefers the words of men over the Word of God, we have full blown apostasy.  The Word of God should be the litmus test for our belief and practice, but it is increasingly being tossed aside as outdated and irrelevant.  One of the most insidious departures from God’s Word is when  biblical terminology  is thrown out and replaced by new language that often has a radically different meaning than the original- this deconstructing and reconstructing of God’s Word has again been done in the name of being “relevant”.  The whole notion that we need to change to reach the times and culture we find ourselves living in is spurious- We are the ones who have eternity in Christ; it is not we who need to become like the surrounding culture in order to change it, rather we are to “shine like stars in the universe” as we “hold out the word of life” to a “crooked and depraved generation”.

This world- it’s lusts and it’s culture- are ALL passing away, “but the man who does the will of God abides FOREVER”.  The Emergent Church (as well as those who hold to it’s obsession of being culturally relevant) are missing this important truth:

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him… everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to me.”  (John 6:43-45)

It is NOT our identification with culture that wins people to Christ, rather, it is the work of our Father who draws people to Christ.  Our obsession needs to be with our Father and with His Son, not with the latest cultural fad.  The Spirit of God points to JESUS, not to this world’s culture.

Where can I find authentic life in Christ?

Some have seen the downward slide in the church and have decided they will leave it completely.  They believe they are to “come out and depart“ from the church and leave it all behind. But is this God’s answer?  Does He want you sitting home alone, no longer gathering with other Christians?  I don’t think sitting at home alone is the answer- God may call you out of a specific church for various reasons, but do you really believe His intent for you is to spend the rest of your time here on planet earth alone and cut off from gathering with other Christians?

The fact is, we are told that in the last days there will be a great apostasy, and we are seeing it.  There is no quick fix of church structure or form that will solve the problem and sitting home alone disconnected from other Christians is no solution either- we must hold fast to Jesus and His Word and stay connected with other Christians.

If the church is lukewarm, we need go no further than ourselves to ask why.  What’s the point in talking about the church at large if we’ve failed to address our own lukewarmness?  Revival of the church begins with the individual: 

“Will you not revive us again: that your people may rejoice in you?”  -Psalm 85:6

What is true revival in the biblical sense?  Is it not God pouring forth His Spirit because we have declined and wandered from Him?  Throughout the history of the church God has called  His people back to Himself through times and seasons of revival.  These periods are usually marked by a great number within the church being impacted by the outpouring of God’s Spirit.  But is it a faceless mass on which God moves by His Spirit?  Hardly!  Revival comes as one by one, we are awakened and respond.

There’s no revival without repentance

No true revival ever comes without repentance.  Read through Revelation 2-3 and notice how many times the church is called to repent!  Spend time in Acts and the same message is clear: repentance is key to spiritual life.

One of my favorite scriptures is, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the Lord…”  Acts 3:19

The scriptural order is: first comes repentance and turning back to the Lord, then comes refreshing!

Living in Laodicea; or seated in heavenly places? 

Are you inclined to think that since we are living in an apostate time in church history there’s nothing more that can be done?  Have you resigned yourself to the status quo?  We may be living in the days of Laodicea, but there’s no excuse for Laodicea to be living in us.  Early in my Christian walk I traveled as an itinerant singer/evangelist.  Money was often scarce and living conditions weren’t always great by worldly standards.  But God always provided and I had a roof over my head.  On one occasion I was offered living quarters by a brother in the Lord who owned a very run down piece of property.  I rented a small room along with 3 other Christian brothers.  Frankly, the house was a dump!  Unfortunately, a couple of the guys I lived with decided to treat it as a dump and live like it was a dump.  On one occasion the owner of the house came home to find it in an ill treated condition.  I will never forget what He said… “Just because the house is a pigsty, doesn’t mean you have to live like pigs!”  Absolutely!  Conditions do not make us what we are, we can chose to live above them.  The Christian life is a call to “come higher”. 

Is the church in the land of Laodicea?  Understand then that “here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”  (Hebrews 13:14)  Put on your heavenly garments and live like a child of God though everything around you is decay!  You are called to come higher, to press toward the goal, that you may win the prize, for which God has called you heavenward in Christ Jesus!

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the Lord…”  (Acts 3:19)

“Why did a Holy God
even give us another thought?
He could have held His breath
and the world have died-
Adam by Eve’s own side.
and that would have been the end.”

I heard a preacher recently thunder the wrath of God.  Actually he was very soft spoken, but His words carried the message of God’s judgment.  I’m not totally against that either.  You’ll find that I talk about these things in many of my posts.  There are biblical truths that have been largely discarded, and the message of God’s holiness, wrath, and judgment is almost completely absent in today’s church.  These are truths that need to be taught again.  Scripture teaches, “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”  (Hebrews 10:31)  The NASB version puts it this way:

“It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

I wonder how often you hear that preached today?  It is the truth, and it’s something we need to remember and take very seriously.  Our God is holy and we better be careful to never forget that.  I won’t mention names, but there are some who have appeared and taken up that message, and taken it up very strongly.  You can find their videos on YouTube, their messages on various blogs, and maybe you’ve even gotten an email or two from a friend who’s been shaken by the gravity of what they’ve heard, and it’s caused them to sit up and evaluate their relationship with God.  I think that’s a good thing.  If the bible is telling us that it’s a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God while we go about acting like it’s no big deal to encounter Him, we’ve got a problem!

But I would like to mention another problem:  If we get so focused on the message of God’s judgment and wrath that we forget His mercy, we have an even bigger problem!

“He could have held His breath
and the world have died-
Adam by Eve’s own side.
and that would have been the end.”

God could have ended everything with Adam and Eve.  He could have withheld His breath and their sin would have been the last human sin He ever had to deal with, but He didn’t do that.  What does that tell us about God?  It tells me that His heart of mercy is greater than His desire to send judgment.  It tells me that His love is higher on the ladder than His wrath:  God will find a way to send mercy, and remove judgment, even if it means Him paying the highest price.  He proved that to us by sending His Son as a sacrifice who would bear the penalty for our sins, taking upon Himself the wrath we deserved. 

A return to holiness preaching

Yesterday while listening to a revival preacher in a church we were visiting I heard 1 1/2 hours about God’s judgment, wrath, and displeasure with sin, but God’s answer to our sin problem was never really presented!  I was left with the feeling that God could, and would, smote me for my disobedience and that I “better get right with God”.  The way that I was “to get right with God” was by repenting of my sin.  (More on that later…)  Furthermore, I was told (along with everyone else in the room) that when I stood before Him, if I hadn’t gotten rid of all my “blots and blemishes” I wouldn’t have a prayer in the world of getting into heaven and would be cast straight into hell!  Over and over we were told of our need to be righteous and to live right.  We were reminded that God hates our secret sin.  We were reprimanded for not truly being His disciples if we failed to live correctly, and warned that we would ultimately be found to be fakes and cast out by Jesus with a word:

“Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”

You could hear a pin drop!  And rightly so.  Where do you hear anything like this preached today with any kind of seriousness?  There are tons of places in the bible that warn of self deception, sin and God’s wrath, so why don’t we ever hear any of these things being preached? Many in the church are waking up to the fact that just calling oneself a Christian doesn’t cut it.  Just praying a prayer to “get saved” doesn’t cut it…  So we’re beginning to hear the other side:  God is a holy God and wants us as His children to be holy.  Preaching holiness is scriptural and we need it… but…

Working my way to heaven?

Somewhere during this preacher’s message I began to get concerned however.  Where was Jesus in all this?  The gospel was never really mentioned!  It was all about me “getting right” and I couldn’t help but think, “Man! Without Jesus, I have no righteousness.”  It was all about me repenting, all about me being a disciple, all about me getting rid of my own “blots and blemishes”, all about me “getting my robe clean”.  Hold on!  I thought Jesus was my righteousness.  I thought Jesus clothed me with His robe of righteousness.

“It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”  (1 Corinthians 1:30-31)

The most serious error of all!

As much as I truly believe there needs to be a return to holiness preaching and “walking as Jesus walked”, we need to be careful that we don’t fall into the most serious error of all:  Forgetting Jesus!  After everything’s said and done, the only way we can stand before a Holy God is to be hidden in Christ.  He alone is our righteousness.  The most serious error of all is to forget that fact.  Like my wife said later as we sat in the parking lot discussing this… “I could scrub and scrub my robe all day long but it still wouldn’t be clean enough.  I would still have so many stains…”  Exactly!  You can’t scrub your robe clean enough to stand before a Holy God.  If you think you can, you still don’t understand just how Holy He is, (or how sinful you are!).

Hearing this “preacher of righteousness” reminded me of a few things:

1. God’s mercy triumphs over judgment.  The fact that the human race continued after Adam and Eve proves that fact!  He could have ended the whole thing right there.  Don’t get so focused on His wrath that you forget His mercy!
2. Even so, we need to preach about God’s wrath and judgment because those things are very real too.  God sent a flood, and He tells us that the present world we live in will be destroyed by fire.  We should be telling people the whole counsel of God, and talking about God’s judgment is part of that.
3. Don’t exchange one error for an even bigger error:  God’s Word tells us over and over again that we are to live holy lives because our God is holy.  Omitting to teach and practice this truth is a serious error.  However, in our zeal to reclaim the truth of holiness we need to be careful that we don’t commit an even more serious error.  Jesus alone is our righteousness, and He alone is the reason we will be able to stand before a Holy God.  If we forget this truth we have made the most serious error of all! 

We are not saved by our works, we better very careful that we don’t give people the impression that we are!

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!  As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!”

(Galatians 1:6-9)

There’s one thing worse than not preaching holiness… it’s failing to preach that ultimately Jesus alone is that holiness for us.  No matter how hard we try, no matter how holy we get, if we don’t realize that Jesus alone is the only way to stand before a holy God, we’ve made the most serious error of all!

How do you become a Prodigal son or daughter?  It’s not that hard really; all you have to do is walk away from the Father’s love.  Sometimes we just walk away and everyone knows it; we go back to the pigpen of the world and it’s obvious to everyone.  Sometimes it happens like erosion; we don’t even know how we got where we are.  We’re still “talkin’ the talk”, going to church, smiling our Christian smile… but if we just stop to think about it, there’s nothing inside; it’s not real anymore.  You’ve become a prodigal. 

The scariest thing is that you can be a Prodigal and not even know it!  Jesus tells the church of Laodicea that they are “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked”… but they have no clue! They have “Prodigal” written all over their foreheads but don’t see it at all. You can look, sound, and act like a Christian… and be a million miles away from your Father’s house.

I wrote this song because I’ve been there, and it just seemed such a strange contradiction to be a “Child of the King” and be so empty inside. Our Father’s heart is that we’d come to our senses and return home. He’s so ready to receive us with open arms!

The Prodigal Son:  Luke 15:11-31

The song, “It Shouldn’t Be Like That”  is available at iTunes and amazon.com .  Also available on my site here, and at CD Baby here , and at other download sites.

I’ve been rereading my two favorite books on revival and can’t recommend them highly enough.  Reading books like these will remind you of what the Christian life is meant to be! They will challenge you, convict you, inspire you, and motivate you to press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called you heavenward in Christ Jesus! 

“Revival” by Martyn Lloyd-Jones is an excellent book on revival that is widely available.  Reading accounts of what God has done in the past is very revealing when compared to our present situation.  The reason so many accept the current low spiritual climate may be that they’ve never had their eyes opened to what is possible when God pours out His Spirit upon a dry individual or church.  This book is both convicting and inspiring, leading me to personally pray that God would start by reviving me!

Arthur Wallis’s book is not as widely known, but oh, is it a good one!  This book goes straight to the heart of our condition, the need of repentance, prayer and the outpouring of God’s Spirit in our lives.  It’s extremely practical and there’s no wasted filler; there are so many gems and truths here that it’s almost impossible not to be ministered to!  Mr. Wallis also gives many examples of how God has moved on His people during past revivals.  It’s convicting, but more so, inspiring.  Unfortunately this book is out of print and can be hard to obtain at a reasonable price, but copies can be found if you look hard enough.  It’s well worth it!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately on what it means to be spiritually blind.  This was the condition of the lukewarm Church in Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22) and certainly would seem to apply to us today.  The question is, “How can you make a blind man see?”

While out praying this morning, one conclusion I came to, is that if a man is blind, me holding a poster in front of his face will do absolutely no good!  Paul talks about this in his letter to the Galatians, “…before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.”  (Galatians 3.1)  And yet they were spiritually blind to it!

Think of it this way… I could take a great big poster board with a drawing of the crucifixion and HUGE letters saying “Jesus died for your sins!”, and if you’re physically blind, what good would it do?  You wouldn’t be able to see it! 

I could write the best song telling of the glories of Jesus and how He left heaven for us, but if you were physically deaf, would good would it be to you?  You’d never hear a note or word, all would be silent.

And THAT is precisely the trouble we have reaching the lukewarm church!  God’s Word tells us that part of the “lukewarm condition” is that of BLINDNESS.  You see the trouble?  “How do you make a blind man see?”

We can preach endlessly about being lukewarm, but it has no power unless God opens the eyes, and unstops the ears!  That is why in all the letters to the churches of Revelation 2-3 we read this phrase, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”. 

Our condition of spiritual blindness requires a spiritual remedy.  I can listen to 10,000 messages on “the lukewarm church” and never really “hear”.  I am DEAF!  I can watch videos and movies and never see.  I am BLIND! 

The point is, we need a move of God’s Spirit.  Jesus is the only one who can open blind eyes and deaf ears.  When he does, suddenly we see and hear!  You whose eyes have been opened… pray!  Pray for the eyes of God’s people to see.  Pray for the outpouring of the Spirit of God.   Pray that God would give His people “ears to hear what the Spirit says to the churches”!   Our great need is for revival.  We need God to come down. “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!” (Isaiah 64.1)

Our human effort amounts to nothing more than holding a poster in front of a blind man’s eyes.  We need Jesus to heal the blind man!