“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you”

Jesus said in Matthew 23:37, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing”.

In this day, there are established, well-known and sometimes indeed ‘celebrated’ (I don’t like to use that word for people but it’s valid here)  people of God who, after a lifetime of hearing God’s voice, are ‘coming out’ in various ways. They are saying things that the conservative people in the Church don’t like. Things like how they believe that LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning) people should be completely accepted into the Church. Things like saying that Muslims may be in Heaven. Things like going against the evangelically-accepted norm of believing that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God and is the perfect manual for all life’s problems, decisions, morality etc.

These people are modern-day prophets. They are speaking God’s Heart to His Church, because He loves the Church and wants them to reflect Him, not horrible man-made doctrines like the religious-sponsored (and religious-approved) persecution of the minorities (like said LGBTQ people) and widows and orphans (divorced people and, by extension, their children). Doctrines like the inerrancy of Scripture, a doctrine that has done so, so, so much damage because it opens the door to manmade but supposedly Scripture-approved legalism. In this way the Yeast of the Pharisees makes its way through every new congregation until that church is just like all the others in its legalism.

Anyway, what happens is that many in the established church reject these people and their message. The prophets are stoned; that is, they are publicly vilified, rejected and persecuted by the very people who used to love going to hear those people speak, sing or whatever it was they did so well – and in the Spirit, too – that got them their reputations as great people of God. Stoning was a public execution, participated in by all who wanted to join in, done to those who went against the religious structures of the day, and this is no different.

Take, for example, the Christian gospel singer Don Francisco, a man who has ministered to millions in the Church over the past four decades, in power and healing, through his songs. He and his wife Wendy have recently expressed support for gay people, and have also expressed the thought that maybe we should remember that Jesus is the Word of God, and not the Bible itself. The response of modern-day Pharisees to that post on Facebook  was largely horrible; it was also the case for another of Don’s postings, when he put forward the idea that “Perhaps hope does extend beyond pat formulas” when he shared a Billy Graham quote; There was no Grace whatsoever in their attacks on him – although many people did support him too.

Another example is the great evangelist Dr. Billy Graham, whom Don quoted in the above link. Saying that he believes that truth seekers from all faiths might be in Heaven. Some people have ripped into what he said (example), but thankfully some have also supported him.

Or what about the Rev. Dave Tomlinson (one of the leaders at the forefront of the house-church movement in the UK in the eighties), who declared himself as “post-evangelical”, and has been hauled over the coals for it (‘heresy’ was of course mentioned!)

Or how about Dr. Tony Campolo, who earlier this year declared his support for welcoming gay people into the Church. Naturally, his change of heart and his resulting theology has been largely rejected by the conservative church, and he has of course been ‘stoned’ by the Pharisees in various places.

And there’s Rev. Steve Chalke, a British Baptist minister who has (fairly) recently declared his support of monogamous same-sex marriages. He’s also declared that he believes the Bible is not inerrant or infallible. And, oh guess what, been rejected by people for it. Not everyone, but still there’s been people who reject his message.

There’s Pastor Rob Bell, who, in declaring his wrestling with the concept of a loving God sending people to eternal damnation, has questioned the established doctrine of hell. He’s done it in his book, Love Wins – and the reaction against him was so extraordinary that the other day I heard one preacher using Rob’s name as a sort of byword for heresy. Something like, ‘This is the sort of thing that is said by the likes of Rob Bell‘. What an ignorant attitude….

Do I detect a pattern here? Men of God, who up until they declared either what they have been wrestling with for years, or what God has just shown them, have been ‘celebrated’, welcomed, had people flock to see them – these people suddenly become personae non gratae and are shunned by the Church – or at least that part of it that is deaf to what God is saying!

The thing is that because a speaker says something you don’t like, you suddenly turn on them like enemies, and everything they have said in the past that you have agreed with, that has blessed you, suddenly counts for absolutely nothing and vanishes like a soap bubble. You liked them well enough when they visited your church, didn’t you? They haven’t changed, you know!

Actually that’s a really a silly way of dealing with differences! It is the way that dysfunctional families deal with those who do not agree entirely with the family line – they get shunned and ostracised until they give in, fit in and agree.

Tell me: Is it better for a Christian leader to lie about how he really feels or thinks on a subject, and be accepted; or is it better for them to own up and risk rejection? What sort of leader would you prefer? I know which sort of leader I would rather work with!

Rejection of the prophets is what religious people do. It is in fact what happened to Jesus. And in the Scripture that introduces this blog post, Jesus was speaking to the religious authorities of His time, and part of their problem was that of resistance to change. People who were so entrenched in their religious position – some, partly because of their graven image of God – that they could not recognise the true move of God’s Spirit that was happening right in front of their eyes. And so they crucified Him.

In the opposite way to how these people did, we need to be careful to discern the Voice of the Spirit in our time; we have an advantage nowadays that people before Jesus came didn’t have: we have the Spirit. Remember it is the natural human tendency to drift towards a settled religious complacency where acceptance by God is felt to be achieved somehow by our actions, rather than through Jesus. This is simply not what God intends at all!

And always the same ‘proof-texts’ are trotted out. Things about people ‘following the desires of their own hearts’, how the heart is ‘deceitful above all things’, about people with ‘itching ears’. To be honest, it’s samey and boring, and these critics would make terrible chess players because of their predictability. Always these people forget the New Creation, the new heart, the Mind of Christ, that these prophetic believers are and have. Do they really think that these prophets just suddenly changed their minds from their previously firmly-held positions just on a whim?

No. These modern-day prophets have spent a lifetime listening to God, which, remember, is what got them their reputation in the first place. To set at naught the sayings of these people, just on the basis of it being different from what platitudes you might expect to hear, is not a sensible course of action. These people know the Voice of the Shepherd (John 10:27). Sure, disagree with them if you like; that is your right and your prerogative. But do not stone them. These people are not the enemy. To ignore them completely is folly. To reject them could well be to close your ears to what God is saying.

Resistance to change that is of the flesh or even the enemy is only right. Resistance to change that is of God, however, is futile and ultimately counterproductive (Acts 5:38-39, where Gamaliel says, “…if this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God.”).

So, the take-home message is that it’s time Christians stopped shunning great Christian leaders like these just because they say something we don’t like. So, for example, let’s say we loved this guy when he came to our church to speak – well, he hasn’t changed; maybe his message has, but isn’t that all the more reason to listen to him? These men do not simply change their minds overnight; if they have changed their belief system, there must be a pretty good reason, and that reason – based on their previous reputation – will be worth listening to.

Listen up, Church!!

“I have so much more to tell you, but you can not bear it now” – John 16:12

There are Christians who believe that the Bible is the final revelation from God; that not only is the Canon of Scripture closed, but also that God says nothing else outside of Scripture. All that God has said, and all He ever will say, is encased in the pages of the Bible, they claim. Many also say that the supernatural Gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased when the Apostles died (this is known as the ‘cessationist’ position).

But the Bible gives us tantalising glimpses that there is so much more to the Christian life than what is simply recorded in its pages.

For example, Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12). “I have so much more to tell you, but you can not bear it now” (John 16:12) “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25)

Here’s the thing, though. If the Bible is in fact God’s final revelation, then the logical conclusion is that it means that once you have read it, God has nothing else to say to you. Period.

Sure, you can read the Bible again, and try to pick up things you missed the first/second/last time around, but in essence, once you have absorbed all that the Bible tells you, then that’s your lot, as we say in Yorkshire. Of course, they will probably say that you can glean more than one meaning from each passage – which is true, as it happens – but still the Bible is all there is.

Writing this down and reading it, makes it all so clear to me that these ideas are plainly bunk of the highest order! How can you confine the infinite, amazing, dynamic Creator God to the mere 1200 or so pages of a single book? And, if the Spirit of Him Who raised Christ from the dead lives in you, how can He possibly not only give the life of the Kingdom to your mortal bodies (Romans 8:11), but also make that life flow out from inside you too, in the form of supernatural gifting? In John 7:38, Jesus said, ” ‘Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive”. This is simple to understand. If God’s Spirit lives in you, how can anything but supernatural things happen?

But for me the most tantalising thing is that Jesus has not yet finished teaching us all the things He wants us to know. Let’s reiterate John 16:12 – “I have so much more to tell you, but you can not bear it now”. That was spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper; His disciples were aware that something big was going down – and indeed it was: the single most pivotal event of history since the Creation was about to unfold before their eyes – and they couldn’t take it in. Also in Jesus’s words there, there is a flavour of ‘you won’t be able to understand it right now’. Two of the translations I read in my research for this piece puts it that ‘it would be too much for you’, or ‘you would be unable to grasp it’. And Jesus is also setting the scene for future interactions with His people, after His death and resurrection. The Scriptural record shows that Jesus continued to teach His disciples even after His resurrection, indeed most of the records of His post-resurrection appearances involve some sort of learning opportunity for His disciples.

So the bottom line is that Jesus hasn’t yet finished teaching us all that He wants us to know. God hasn’t finished speaking to us. Expect God to speak, and to work, in your life. If you have come to Him in faith, you can expect this – because He responds.

Remember, the Word became Flesh (human) and lived among us (John 1:14). To put a seasonal slant on it, even, this is the central message of the Christmas story. That the pre-existing, eternal Word of God – Jesus – became a human and lived for a while among us, and now lives in us by His Spirit. The Word became Flesh, not the Word became a Book!! Jesus is the Word of God – and He has so much more that He wishes to tell us, if only we will let Him! The Bible is great, but there really is no substitute for hearing His Voice direct!

Interestingly, in the morning service a couple of Sundays ago, our Vicar asked the congregation for a show of hands asking us what God’s Voice sounded like to us. Who hears Him as a ‘feeling’ inside, or sees His Voice as a picture in their head? Who has heard His voice as an audible, external Voice, or as a visible ‘vision’ in clear sight outside their head, with their eyes? Interestingly, most people put their hands up (therefore they hear God in some way); some even have even heard His Voice audibly. In my case, I have indeed heard His Voice like that, but only twice in my entire life. But I will never forget what He sounded like! Like a loud, rushing roar, like trumpets, like a waterfall, like a football crowd, is the only way I can describe it. But that does not really describe it adequately. But the point is that He does indeed still speak to us – all believers who are willing to listen – regularly.

And Father God says, too, “This is My Beloved Son; listen to Him!” (Mark 9:7) So, how can we refuse?!

“I have so much more to tell you, but you can not bear it now”

Wow! I can’t wait!

[Edit: Just realised I have already posted similar ideas on this subject in this blog post]