Church Revival Movement » NOTHING

Returning to the Blessed Bible

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:40:07 +0000

Some 350 years ago, our faithful Reformed forefathers in Scotland took hold of the covenant of grace in their National Covenant, by this means fulfilling their duty and privilege as Christ’s witnessing church in the British Isles. Thus was born the Second, or Covenanted Reformation of religion in those Isles, sustained and greatly furthered by the swearing of the Solemn League and Covenant five years later. The latter “covenanted uniformity of religion” undergirded the work of the famous Westminster Assembly, and bound the covenanting churches and nations to the adoption and implementation of that Assembly’s work (the Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms, Directory for Public Worship, and Form of Church-Government). Sadly, of these churches and nations Scotland was most faithful to pay her vows, and only for a brief time. In 1650, a deadly, Church-dividing blow was dealt by the majority of backsliding civil and ecclesiastical leaders in their support of the “Public Resolutions.” England and Ireland had already broken their sacred bond. The next four decades were times of bitter and often unrelenting trial for the faithful, protesting remnant (which included such men as Samuel Rutherford, Archibald Johnston of Warriston, James Guthrie, Patrick Gillespie, John Brown of Wamphray, Robert M,Ward, William Guthrie, Donald Cargill, Richard Cameron, and James Renwick), who themselves by God’s grace were unrelenting in their testimony against the covenant-breaking Resolutioners and the defections in Church and State. Though the merciless persecution by the civil and ecclesiastical tyrants ended with the Reformation-denying Revolution settlement of 1688, the blessed but short-lived Covenanted Reformation has been, and continues to be, opposed by many, ignored by or unknown to others, and embraced and loved by only a faithful few, who, like their fathers (and unlike the RPCNA today) truly wear the name, “Covenanter.”
There have been many in the last three centuries who have gloriously praised the work of the Westminster Assembly, yet there has been at best only an incomplete adherence to the Assembly’s doctrine and practice. Many factors have contributed to this, of which the foremost must certainly be our wretched failure to receive the love of the truth. Consequently, our righteous God has given the people and nations professing His name over to a profound blindness, in keeping with His fearful threatenings in the Scriptures (2 Thess. 2:10-12; Rom. 1:28; etc.). This “judicial blindness” has led to an increased preaching, publishing, and practicing of numerous errors condemned by our forefathers as Popish on the one hand, and schismatic and Independent on the other, in so-called “Protestant,” “Reformed,” and “Presbyterian” churches. Richard Bacon exemplifies this dreadful dynamic in our day.
As we see, then, our quarrel goes back over three hundred years – and really, back to the dawn of the human race. Our contending is for nothing less than the Crown Rights – the comprehensive Crown Rights – of the blessed promised Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, which are denied, trampled, and usurped on all sides. The Serpent and his seed throughout the millennia have unceasingly sought and fought to strip the Lamb of God of his due honor and glory in Church and State. The Lamb and his followers have continually met them in battle, being made strong through his Spirit and Word, and through his might “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). By such faithful contendings, God has graciously granted two major Reformations in days past: we stand desperately in need of a third. There is great cause for rejoicing in Zion, however, for an increasing number of God’s people are beginning to be awakened, and to return to the blessed biblical attainments of the Covenanted Reformation. We are hopeful that the prayers of the faithful Covenanters of old are being answered: that the rediscovery of their precious principles and practices are nothing less than a prologue to the third reformation and the worldwide overthrow of Antichrist.

Adventist Church Movement

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:28:16 +0000

The “Advent Movement” was begun by William Miller (1782-1849). Members of this movement believed in a personal and premillennial second coming of Jesus Christ.
Miller based his theology upon a literal interpretation of apocalyptic passages in the Bible and attempted to calculate the date of the Second Coming by using such passages, particularly those found in Daniel. His original conclusion was for the event to occur sometime between 1843 and 1844 (October 22nd, 1844, at the latest), and he convinced a lot of people to follow him in awaiting the event.
As a result, many sold their property, abandoned jobs and other social obligations, and remained in fear in anticipation of Armageddon. Obviously, nothing happened and many fell away in disillusionment – but a core group of believers remained and continue to advance many of the original beliefs even today. According to them, something did happen – but only on the spiritual plane with Jesus so that humans were not aware of it. They continued to expect the return of Jesus, but they stopped setting dates.
Contemporary churches which hold to an explicit Adventist doctrine include: Advent Christian Church, Seventh Day Adventists, Church of God (Adventist), Life and Advent Union, Church of God (Oregon, Ill.), and Primitive Advent Christian Church.

Baptists Back to the Gospel

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:50:15 +0000

A young evangelical preacher known for his no-frills sermons didn’t go soft when it came to rebuking pastors who are preaching something other than the Gospel and those who are pretending to be godly.

“I, unfortunately, with a great deal of sorrow have walked away from the idea that all of you are men and women of the Word,” Matt Chandler of The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, told a group of Southern Baptist pastors Monday. “I’ve just come to find that a lot of you are really good at clichés and really bad at tying in the Word.”
Chandler, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for brain cancer, was in Orlando, Fla., as one of several well-known speakers during the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference.
A pastors event is held every year just ahead of the denomination’s annual meeting to encourage and refresh those who lead congregations in the largest Protestant denomination in the country.
Though Southern Baptists overall are recognized for being conservative evangelicals, Chandler took the group back to the core of their faith – the Gospel. After all, someone can grow up in the church, go to Vacation Bible School every summer and participate in all the programs and still not understand the Gospel, he indicated.
Chandler has found some pastors to be preaching the Gospel as a means of justification but failing to teach the Gospel as a means of sanctification. That results in churches primarily focused on evangelism and having “no care in the world for the depths of spirituality and understanding the nature and character of God.”
Though active in bringing people to Christ, churches are not deepening and strengthening believers.
Consequently, many people end up leaving the church or becoming “dechurched,” he lamented.
Also, by leaving out the sanctification part, many pastors start to preach “Christian therapeutic moralistic deism,” a term he borrowed from author Christian Smith. In other words, they preach, “This is how a Christian behaves, this is how you don’t behave,” though they might not use that exact language.
But that’s basically setting believers up to fall short when trying to obey all the laws, the young pastor noted. In fact, Scripture spells out that no one can follow all the laws.
“If you’ve preached a lot of moralistic deism and haven’t trained your people in what the Gospel is, then you will find them doing a slew of different things to try to mortify their sin and grow in godliness, most of which do not work and have no power,” Chandler stated.
“When you say … ‘this is how you modify your behavior,’ you’ve doomed your people to a cycle of silliness that will last for the rest of their lives. [It will] end in them never really loving God fully and trying to mortify their flesh by weapons of their flesh and in the end only flesh wins.”
In his brief but piercing talk, Chandler went on to address the pastors’ own behaviors.
For those who do not understand the Gospel, they end up in a cycle of secret sin, trying to clean themselves up until they’re “externally passing the test” – whether it’s by reading popular devotionals or drinking from coffee cups that have trite verses printed on them (verses that are taken out of context, Chandler noted).
Addressing the Southern Baptist crowd bluntly about indwelling sins, Chandler stated, “Some of you think you have your sin controlled. I’m not stupid. Some of you are addicted to pornography. Some of you are flirting with women in your church, men in your church.
“I’m not naive. I’ve been around for 15-16 years now. Some of you are not the godly men and women you’re pretending to be right now. Your hearts are dark.”
“If God loves you, He’s going to expose you … and ruin your world for the sake of your heart,” he stated frankly. “Or maybe in God’s passive wrath, He’ll let you continue to be an idiot and you’ll join that terrified group of men and women in Mathew chapter seven who say ‘didn’t we do this?’ and have Jesus respond with ‘what does that have to do with me?’”
Chandler challenged the group to remember and understand the Gospel message.
“We’re prone to … forget the fact that my right standing in front of God has nothing to do with me. NOTHING!” he exclaimed.
“I have done nothing morally,” he continued. “My only hope, my only plea, my only confidence is in the blood of Jesus Christ.”
When Christians understand this, they will go to God, rather than from Him, and allow His mercy to lead them into further repentance, he said.
“[This] is a mark of Christian maturity,” he noted.
“I stand before you … as a perfect, spotless son of God by no act of my own but by an act on the cross,” the Village pastor added. “This is how we combat sin and grow in maturity – [through] an understanding of what the Gospel is.”
The Pastors’ Conference was held June 13-14 and attended by thousands of pastors. It precedes the SBC annual meeting, which begins Wednesday at the Orange County Convention Center.