Why Are Churches Dead Today?
By David J. Stewart | November 2017 | Updated April 2018
Revelation 3:1,
“And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that
hath the seven
Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou
hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.”
We have a dead Christianity across America that is sitting around waiting for
a tingle. Our main duty is soul-winning. Time spent in the Word of God ought
to compel us to go win souls. Acts 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The average church
doesn't even have a scheduled time to go soul-winning. And if they do, it is
only for an hour, and half of that time is spent chatting and planning where
to eat afterwards.
There is nothing worse than a
so-called “church” that gathers around the Word, while the world goes to
Hell...
“Every truth that you
learn—if it is in fact a truth—has with it, not only the opening of your eyes
to a beauty, but opening your eyes to a duty! God says, 'You learn this, in
order that you may do, this.'” —Pastor Jack Hyles (a quote
from the timeless MP3 sermon,
Real Truth Verses
Synthetic Truth)
The apostate Bob Jones University
crowd down the street from me NEVER go soul-winning!!! They ought to remove
the name “Baptist” from their church. Revelation 3:1, “And unto the angel
of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven
Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that
thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.” The Bob Jones
camp have made a name for themselves in Micronesia, but God says they are
“DEAD” spiritually. They are naked and wretched, but don't see it. Most people
go to the church for the wrong reasons—children enrolled in the religious
school, the second to none music program, I attended the church for a year in
2014 and never heard the term “soul-winning” one time. I never heard a single
mention of the power of the Holy Spirit. I always referred to professed fellow
brethren as “brother,” but they scorned the term. I was the only one calling
anyone “brother.” In hindsight, I wonder if any of them are truly saved. No
wonder our nation is going to Hell! ...
“No truth stops at the
learning of itself, there's a corresponding responsibility! ... Oh may God
never let the day come when this church is a bunch of self-righteous,
self-contented, deeper-lifers, so-called 'deeper-lifers,' sitting around
learning more and more about the Word of God and doing less and less about
what it says!” —Pastor Jack
Hyles (a quote from the timeless MP3 sermon,
Real Truth Verses
Synthetic Truth)
It's called “playing church.” God
pity Bob Jones University affiliated churches, where dozens of Bible versions
are sanctioned and the King James Bible has competition, and soul-winning is
made light of, and faithful believers like me (who believe that women ought
not wear pants) are laughed at and mocked (I was mocked even by the senior
pastor himself, called “old school”). BJU's female graduates wear skintight
spandex in public, exposing their things and buttocks, looking sexy, not
caring that they are contributing to the lustful war against men's souls.
1st 1st Peter 2:11, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims,
abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.”
So when Bob Jones graduates walk down the street wearing their skintight
spandex, it gives Satan the victory. The church hires them on staff. One
female staff member in their school wears black leather pants in public. This
is Christianity today in America, and it wreaks with sin. Certainly, I am a
big sinner myself, as are all Christians, so I don't judge anyone. Someone
needs to talk about the elephant in the living room.
Dead Bible Colleges Produce
Dead Preachers
Beware of Bob Jones University and
other dead Bible colleges, who support dozens of Alexandrian Bible versions,
which causes confusion and divisiveness in the Body of Christ. BJU is a big
part of the problem in America, destroying the life of our churches...
“Fundamental churches
all over this nation, are sending their preacher boys to schools that'll dry
'em up. I'm talking about fundamental schools!” —Pastor Jack
Hyles (a quote from the timeless MP3 sermon,
Real Truth Verses
Synthetic Truth)
Please read my article titled, “The Big Problem Of Deeper Life Theological Seminary Professors.”
Here's why churches are dying all
over the world...
“Churches die because
they take the truth, but do not take the corresponding responsibility, that is
always accompanying truth! They, for their eyes [are] open to beauty, and
their eyes are not open to duty. So when a truth, does not have obedience to
its accompanying obligation and responsibility, when that obligation is not
carried out, you have a dead fundamental church! I call 'em 'the evangelical
church.' I don't like the word 'evangelical,' I like the word FUN-DA-MENTAL
CHURCH! Old-fashioned, hellfire, brimstone, hell-raising, barn-stormin',
window-rattlin', shingle-pullin', hollerin', screamin', bellerin', preaching
with conviction and courage and character, that teaches people to change what
they do, once they change what they know!!!” —Pastor Jack
Hyles (a quote from the timeless MP3 sermon,
Real Truth Verses
Synthetic Truth)
When I shared some sermons by Evangelist Phil Kidd with a few fellow
professed Christians in the local church down the street, who employ several
dozen BJU graduates on staff (in their 1,000 student religious school), I was
reprimanded by the church pastors, who said that “due to cultural
differences,” the local people wouldn't understand and would be offended. Uh,
I thought truth always offends! Since when are we supposed to curtail the
truth to appease sensitive people due to cultural differences? What apostasy!
“So what's happened?
We're sitting around learning synthetic truth instead of real truth.”
—Pastor Jack Hyles (a quote from the timeless MP3 sermon,
Real Truth Verses
Synthetic Truth).
God deliver us from dead churches of
religious people who are merely making a living, instead of genuinely caring
about their neighbours and serving God. The local BJU crowd couldn't care less
about me, refusing to even pray with me. They refused to meet with me. They
refused to allow me to even visit their church. They refused to reach out to
me, even when I sincerely reached out to them during a difficult time in my
life. They are the worst kind of pastors, beholding the beauty but neglecting
the duty!!!
Dr. Jack Hyles is so right, and he
has the shameful Bob Jones yuppie-type crowd pegged accurately, who want the
truth of the beauty without the truth of the duty...
“Do you know what
depth is? Depth is the display of knowledge. Shallowness is the transfer of
knowledge. ... What has happened to those churches? I'll tell you what's
happened—we have put down the seeing of the duty, and just want to examine
the beauty. So we examine the Word. You're not supposed to examine the Word,
unless you obey the corresponding responsibility that your examination has
accompanying it.” —Pastor Jack Hyles (a quote from the
timeless MP3 sermon,
Real Truth Verses
Synthetic Truth)
The Holy Bible warns against setting
a brother at nought. Romans 14:10, “But why dost thou
judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for
we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”
I'll tell you, I fully understand
why
150,000 more people decide each week in the United States to never set foot in
a church again. I loathe going to the churches I've been to. I do what I
can to be helpful on a personal level, but it's not my place to clean someone
else's house. I pray for the pastors and churches. I share solid
Bible-preaching with them. (Sadly, when I share sermons with pastors, of all
the believers that I share sermons with, pastors seem to appreciate it the
least, go figure.) The local churches that I have visited on Guam are all
dead. One pastor didn't even know if Jesus' blood is on the heavenly Mercy
Seat or not. How did he ever graduate from a Bible college? You're not going
to build a church going soul-winning an hour a week!!!
Attitude is everything. I am used to
getting the cold-shoulder from pastors. Some are in such a hurry that they
refuse to even stop and take the time to look at me while I reach out to shake
their hand. That is really bad! A pastor ought to love everyone, not hold
grudges, harbor ill-feelings,
“But the truth is,
spiritually, most of us are not burning up enough calories. And there's a
synthetic, hypocritically, so-called fundamentalism in America, that eats, and
eats, and feeds on the Word, and feeds on the Word, and folks are weighing 400
pounds spiritually, but they've never given any energy to what they're
learning.” —Pastor Jack Hyles (a quote from the
timeless MP3 sermon,
Real Truth Verses
Synthetic Truth)
Are you a mere storage tank for
Bible truth, yet never using that energy to reach the lost for Christ? This
old world's perishing without the Gospel, plunging toward Hell by the
millions, while we sit in our little huddles, in our little Bible clubs, and
Bible study groups in our living room. Truthfully, I win more people to the
Lord in my sleep (because of my website ministry), than most pastors win to
the Lord in an entire year. I say that with humility, for God gives the
increase, not me, I am just A VOICE in cyberspace. Praise the Lord! I thank
God for using a humble sinner like me to do great things for Him. It makes me
happy to know that God is using me to get thousands of people saved. To God be
the glory, great things He hath done. I have received so many precious e-mails
from people who found Christ through my labors. It is not because I am
something special; but rather, I am simply putting forth
the
simplicity of the Gospel. Romans 1:16 teaches that THE GOSPEL is
the POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION to them that BELIEVE!!! I am just a voice.
The Shameful Lukewarm
'Harvest Baptist Church' On Guam
I
do not hate the pastors and people are the “Harvest Baptist Church” (HBC) on
Guam, even though they kicked me out in 2014 for telling THE TRUTH, that the
modern Bible versions are corrupt. In particular I was reprimanded for sharing
the truthful book by Dr. Al Lacy titled, “NIV:
The Antichrist's Bible.” Well, it is the Antichrist's Bible!!! I was also
reprimanded for passing out the truthful book, “I
Never Knew You,” by Michael P. Bowen, which exposes Ray Comfort as a false
prophet. Harvest promotes Ray Comfort, Paul Washer and John MacArthur's
Lordship Salvation garbage! The pastors at Harvest Baptist Church in
Barrigada literally called me and Dr. Jack Hyles, “a cult,” for exposing the
Alexandrian-based Bible versions for being of the Devil. The church uses the “Easy-To-Read
Version” (ERV) which is even worse than the “New International Version”
(NIV). At least the NIV still refers to Christ as being born of a “virgin.”
I believe in word-of-mouth, just as
if you went to a bad restaurant. I loved my church family at Harvest and I
thought they loved me, but I was mistaken about them. They use people to build
their ministry, instead of using their ministry to build people. I was
discarded like an old shoe, put outside the gate with Jesus, unwanted and
forgotten about entirely. I remember on the evening that I was confronted by
their pastors, in the church office, that afterwards I left in tears, knowing
that I was losing my church. As a preacher, how could I not take a stand for
what I knew in my heart to be right? I took a biblical stand for God and was
despised and rejected, like the Lord Himself by His own!
Since HBC officially uses two
different Bibles (i.e., the King James Bible and the Easy-To-Read Version),
and consequently has two different plans of salvation in their church (i.e.,
the Gospel and Calvinism, or Lordship Salvation), I figured that it was okay
for me to share what I believed to be the truth of the two with others, but I
was mistaken. You see, at Harvest you can be ecumenical and believe whatever
you want, just so long as you don't take sides and raise a flag of
exclusivity. I respectfully asked for permission from the senior pastor to
give out Gospel tracts by Dr. Curtis Hutson, and he said it was okay; but the
senior pastor distributes study materials by 5-point Calvinist (Mr. Lordship
Salvation himself) John MacArthur to his congregation. So that tells me that
the pastor is okay with both conflicting plans of salvation (i.e., the
Gospel of
free grace verses
Calvinism). Folks, that is REALLY MESSED UP! Harvest is a very confusing
church, having two official opposing Bible versions, and two conflicting plans
of salvation. I feel sorry for that congregation.
As time passed I missed my friends
and church family at Harvest, so in desperation and loneliness I pleaded on
three occasions in 2017 if I could return. I knew in my heart that I was much
better off not going back, but my heart wanted to be there, part of a church
FAMILY. I had learned many great things while I attended Harvest between 2013
and 2014, despite the doctrinal heresies that abound. Their pastors
coldheartedly told me in 2017 to “go elsewhere.” They misinterpreted the
Scriptures, using Paul's conflict with John Mark as justification to set me at
nought, refusing to even allow me to simply attend church services, despite my
promise to keep quiet and just attend services. That is how apostate the
church is today.
Do you know (if I wanted) that I
could walk into any karaoke lounge on Guam (bars and night clubs), and they
would openly welcome me; but I am rejected, shunned and turned away from
attending the biggest Baptist church on Guam (5 minutes away from me), simply
because I am telling THE TRUTH. Galatians 4:16, “Am I therefore become your
enemy, because I tell you the truth?” That is
a heavy burden that I have had to bear, which has hurt so much in my soul.
Romans 14:10, “But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why
dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ.”
It is tragic that any person (like me) should ever
feel unloved by a church (Harvest Baptist Church). I once heard Evangelist Les
Ollila (at Harvest Baptist Church of all places) make the following beautiful
statement...
“Church is a place where people should be able to hurt
out loud. And I should be there to put my arms around those who are willing
to hurt out loud.” —Evangelist
Les Ollila, from the MP3 sermon, “The
Judgment Seat Of Christ.”
Sadly, the local Bob
Jones University camp down the street from me on Guam violate this truth
100%. Nobody was hurting in 2013-2014 as much as me in their local Baptist
church (which I attended for a year), yet they
kicked me out over my rightful stand for the King James Bible (and my
faithful stand against the Alexandrian
perversions). I don't count to the BJU crowd, I'm just a cult member
according to them, who stands for the inspiration of the King James Bible.
Well I CARE even if the BJU crowd doesn't!
I realized in time from listening to
Pastor Jack Hyles and Dr. Peter
Ruckman refute Bob Jones University's heretical position on the inspiration of
the Word of God (learning that most of Harvest's staff and pastors are
spiritually dysfunctional graduates of Bob Jones University), that BJU is the
real problem. America's apostate Bible colleges are destroying the faith of
young people in the inspiration of God's Word, and now sadly, Hyles-Anderson
College has also bowed their knee to Baal, no longer upholding the inspiration
of the blessed King James Bible since 2008, as was announced at Pastor's
School that year. I am not biased for or against anyone, I am always on the
side of TRUTH. If the shoe fits, wear it! To God be the glory, great things He
hath done!!!
To date, First Baptist Church of Hammond (FBCH) has arrogantly refused to
go back to their original proper position when Pastor Jack Hyles was pastor
(from 1959 to 2001 when he went to Heaven). You can hear Brother Hyles
yourself in this monumental sermon preached in 1994 at FBCH titled, “THE
BATTLE OF THE AGES,” in which he blasts BJU for making light on the verbal
inspiration of the Bible. Any pastor who supports Bob Jones University today
is NOT right with God and you cannot trust him!!! Any pastor who supports the
Alexandrian-based Bible versions is NOT right with God and you cannot trust
him!!! I speak THE TRUTH!!!!!!!
“God has
a special rebuke, again and again and again in the Bible,
toward those people who keep their neutrality in the work of God!”
—SOURCE: Pastor Jack
Hyles (1926-2001), a quote from the needful and precious MP3 sermon titled: “Where
Were You In The Battle?”
A Big Reason Why People Quit Church
The Sin of Pride Hinders
Pastors from Being What God Wants Them to Be
It
burdens my heart that so many pastors are closed-minded and proud (yet in
denial about it). I have shared fundamental sermons and books, with pastors
who are doctrinally lacking, but I might as well have threw the materials in
the garbage. I heard one Baptist pastor teaching a group of children to
“invite Jesus into their heart.” So I kindly and respectfully gave him Pastor
Max D. Younce's beautiful 24-part MP3 series titled “SO
GREAT SALVATION,” which exposes the heresy of asking Jesus into your
heart. You don't get saved by inviting Jesus into your heart, you get saved by
BELIEVING THE GOSPEL!
Sadly, that pastor still teaches
children to invite Jesus into their heart. I did all I could. Although I pray
for the pastor, he must humble himself to THE TRUTH before God can do a great
work in his ministry work. Little children don't understand what it means to
“invite Jesus into their heart.” A heart is a muscle that pumps blood 100,000
times per day. God will not bless a church that is unresponsive to the truth.
What I see is that a lot of pastors
are doing the best they can, but they just don't know how to grow their
church. The wise pastor understands that he cannot do it alone. Psalms
127:1, “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it:
except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”
God can do amazing things through a small group of believers in a church, if
the pastor will simply teach them HOW to do it! A pastor MUST teach his flock
HOW to walk with God, HOW to labor for God, HOW to pray for the power of the
Holy Spirit, and teach them HOW to be a diligent soul-warner. Pastors ought to
motivate church members to invite everyone to church.
“Church is caring
about people that nobody else cares about!”
—Pastor Danny Castle (a quote from the beautiful sermon
titled,
“Burden
For The Bus Ministry.”)
Every pastor is as an artist and his
congregation a sculpture. A pastor shapes his people, by preaching the Word of
God. But you can examine a hundred different churches, and you'll find massive
differences in the spirit that prevails in the congregation. Why? It is
because the pastor's personality, priorities and attitude directly affect the
congregation. If the pastor is a hateful man toward other people, then the
congregation will also become hateful. If the pastor is forgiving, then so
also will the people become forgiving. If the pastor is zealous about
soul-winning, then so also will the people become fervent soul-winners. Dr.
Jack Hyles (1926-2001) was zealous about soul-winning, and built the greatest
soul-winning church in history, since the New Testament Church. In Acts 2:41
we read that 3,000 people were saved in ONE DAY in an evangelistic crusade.
The magnitude of a ministry is not
determined by the size of it. I am merely one man with a laptop computer, and
yet look at what God has done over the past 15 years through my labors for
Christ. Literally, thousands of people have been saved, through simple
childlike faith in the Gospel. God sees a man's heart, and decides whether or
not to use that man based on what He sees. God knows that I am far from
perfect, but He sees that I care, and that little things are important to me.
Nothing hinders God from using a man more than pride. Pride manifests itself
in how we treat others. Arrogance cannot be hid. The Holy Bible says that a
man who hides hatred behind lying lips has seven abominations in his heart. If
you don't like somebody, it will eventually manifest itself to that person. I
decided in my heart long ago to love everyone. When I am alone at home, I
refuse to harbor ill-feelings or hatred toward any other human being. And when
I do feel a thought of anger toward someone who has hurt me, or doesn't like
me, I immediately pray for them, bringing that thought into captivity unto
obedience to Christ (2nd Corinthians 10:5). ...
2nd Corinthians 10:3-5, “For
though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strong holds;) 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.”
You'll never grow in the Lord, or be
what God the Father intends for you to be, until you completely and regularly
humble yourself before God, examining yourself, being HONEST with yourself and
God. So many believers live shallow lives, going through the motions, playing
church, never rising up to a higher level in their Christian life. The Bob
Jones camp comes to mind. They sinfully hold grudges, against people like me.
They are ungrateful toward others. They sinfully use and sanction dozens of
Bible versions. They sinfully sanction and promote the ungodly ministry of
Pastor John MacArthur, who teaches (and I quote: “There
is no such thing as a childhood conversion”). Mr. MacArthur is a
theological liar! Why would any pastor support such a man? It is because they
are sinfully proud, not heeding warnings from other believers (like me), who
have warned them. Instead, they choose rather to go along to get along with
apostasy.
I am leery of Baptist pastors who
have shallow convictions. And I am even more leery of those stuff-shirt
pastors, who have such strong convictions, that they despise and harbor
ill-feelings towards brethren who don't live up to their standards. I choose
to love everyone. I honestly think some paid religious people (full-time
Christian workers), who have to be at church three times a week, resent and
despise others who are not required to live that way. They have the wrong
attitude. It shouldn't matter who goes to church, or doesn't. A proper
attitude is that one is glad to be at the house of God, and if someone else
doesn't come to church as much as you think they should, that is their loss.
It is carnal to get upset in your heart, because someone else doesn't have to
be at church. That is so shallow. You'd be surprised how many faithful
churchgoers look down on, and despise, other believers who aren't as faithful.
Again, I fully understand why
150,000 more people decide each week in the United States to never set foot in
a church again. The article says that one-third of people quit church
because of frustration over the church itself. Another one-third quit because
they are too busy for church. I believe bad pastors are partly to blame for that. If a man's
preaching is so shallow that his people would rather stay home and watch TV,
that pastor needs to get right with God and learn how to preach! I feel
sorry for paid church staff members, or people employed to work at the
church's religious schools, who are required to attend church, and the
preaching is so dead, shallow and BORING!!!
I think a wise preacher touches upon
many subjects, leaving no stone unturned. The churches are dead because the
pastors are dead spiritually. Few men truly walk with God anymore, evidenced
by their lack of mercy and truth. When you tell someone they cannot return to
attend church services, who has a humble heart and a contrite spirit, that is
a horrible lack of mercy. God sees that injustice. But what can we expect from
the Bob
Jones crowd, when they don't care about the truth? Their
Alexandrian Bible PERversions stink with the stench of hellfire. I speak
THE TRUTH without apology! Psalms 25:10, “All the paths of the LORD are
mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and
his testimonies.”
“What
we need in this generation, is for about 30,000 churches in the
United
States to go out of business, and just shut the doors, and let who
mean
business, get the power of God, and witness to this generation!”
—Pastor Danny
Castle, a quote from the awesome sermon, “How
To Have Power With God!”
|
MP3 Sermon.
God Cannot Work THROUGH YOU
Until He First Works ON YOU
Oh my friend, if you ever truly want
to be used by God, then you're going to have to suffer. There is no other way!
I know what it is to suffer inexplicable emotional trauma and pain of soul;
not for days, weeks, months, but several years. God doesn't just use anybody.
God not only works THROUGH a man, but ON THAT MAN!!! If God cannot work ON
YOU, then He will not work WITH YOU, FOR YOU, nor THROUGH YOU!!! ...
“I'll
guarantee you, all the chipping away of a lifetime, fades into oblivion, when
God works THROUGH YOU. Everybody wants God to work
THROUGH YOU, everybody wants God to work FOR YOU, everybody wants God to work
WITH YOU; God's got to work ON YA first. It's not fun—tears, heartaches!” —Pastor Jack Hyles (a quote from the
timeless MP3 sermon,
P B P G I N F W M Y
— Please Be Patient God Is Not Finished With Me Yet).
One of the greatest sermons I've
ever heard is titled, “Why
Mama Was So Smart” (a classic MP3 sermon by Pastor Jack Hyles). If you are
suffering, God will use that affliction so He can work THROUGH YOU.
Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” If you want God to work
THROUGH YOU, and FOR YOU, and WITH YOU as a co-labourer, then He must first
work IN YOU. There will be tears. There will be sorrow. There will be
frustration. There will be loneliness. There will be heartache and burdens.
There will be decisions that you will have to make, when you feel like you're
between a rock and a hard place, and where no matter which decision you make,
it won't be easy.
That is exactly what God did to the
Hebrews in Moses' day. The Lord had delivered them out of bondage from Egypt.
At first they were so glad, rejoicing greatly, thinking that life would be
easy from that day forward. But God led them into a barren desert wilderness,
with impossible conditions of draught, no food, scorpions, snakes and
hardships. The Hebrews found themselves between two impossible extremes. They
could either return to the bondage of the Egyptians, or they could push
forward into the intolerable conditions of a barren desert wilderness. God did
this on purpose according to Deuteronomy 8:2-3, to test them...
Deuteronomy 8:2-3, “And thou
shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years
in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to
know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or
no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna,
which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might
make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.”
God gives us hard choices to make,
putting us in impossible situations, where in tears we look the only way left
to look, upward to Heaven to our heavenly Father. Only then, in that seemingly
no-win situation, between a rock and a hard place, can God begin to greatly
use your labors for Him through personal affliction. You'll never know that
Jesus is all you need, until Jesus is all you have left.
Children are very impressionable,
but so still are adults! People don't know HOW to make the Christian life work
for them. We're too proud folks. All of us! We're all too stinking proud. We
need to humble ourselves, push away our pride and selfish ambitions, and care
enough about others to simply reach out to them. Did you know that 90% of
people come to church simply because somebody invited them? It is very true!
Soul-winning is never an accident; but rather, a deliberate attempt to reach
someone with the Gospel. I have never received, nor asked, for a single penny
for all my hard work online since 2002. I wouldn't have it any other way. I do
what I do for God, by faith, because I care and am investing in heavenly
rewards. I sincerely wonder if the Bob Jones camp down the street from me
would continue their work, if they didn't get paid anymore to do it. Truly,
the love of money is the root of all evil. I guarantee you that 99% of
religious workers would quit overnight if they money stopped! A salary is the
biggest threat to the truth!
Truth has grown stale in most
churches. Entertainment is king these days! The Bible colleges are switching
from training young women to be homemakers to training nurses. 1st Timothy
5:14-15 says women belong at home, not pursuing careers. If Coystal Hyles had
been a nurse instead of a homemaker, there would be no Pastor Jack Hyles!!!
Everyone has their priorities wrong nowadays, which is why the churches have
become shady businesses, operating religious schools to educate the dead.
“It is not truth
unless it has a responsibility that accompanies it. And if you do not obey
that responsibility, that truth will grow stale!” —Pastor Jack Hyles (a quote from the
timeless MP3 sermon,
Real Truth Verses
Synthetic Truth)
It really comes down to CARING. I
care, I really do. Few Christians care these days. You show me a believer who
doesn't express gratitude toward others, and I know that person doesn't walk
in the Spirit. You show me a believer who doesn't care about the corruption of
the Scriptures in the modern Bible versions, and I know that person doesn't
walk in the Holy Spirit. So few believers walk in the Spirit of God Who
indwells them. That is why our churches are dead. People sit, Sunday after
Sunday, being taught a bunch of theological information, but never put it into
action. They never lead a soul to Christ. They never make an eternal
difference. Outside of the church walls, they are jerks, no different
than the world. I don't want to be that kind of a phony believer, and am
not!!! I treat people the way I want to be treated, with love and kindness and
fairness. We need a whole new breed of preachers and churchgoers in America!!!
I'll finish this article by
repeating a precious quote from Dr. Jack Hyles, explaining why churches are
dying all over the world...
“Churches die because
they take the truth, but do not take the corresponding responsibility, that is
always accompanying truth! They, for their eyes [are] open to beauty, and
their eyes are not open to duty. So when a truth, does not have obedience to
its accompanying obligation and responsibility, when that obligation is not
carried out, you have a dead fundamental church! I call 'em 'the evangelical
church.' I don't like the word 'evangelical,' I like the word FUN-DA-MENTAL
CHURCH! Old-fashioned, hellfire, brimstone, hell-raising, barn-stormin',
window-rattlin', shingle-pullin', hollerin', screamin', bellerin', preaching
with conviction and courage and character, that teaches people to change what
they do, once they change what they know!!!” —Pastor Jack
Hyles (a quote from the timeless MP3 sermon,
Real Truth Verses
Synthetic Truth)
Souls Are Dying!
Precious Christian
Testimonies
How Permanent Is Your Salvation?
(an excellent MP3 sermon by Pastor Hank Lindstrom,
1940-2008)
Bob Jones
University—Pulling On the Same Rope As the Devil
“The mark
of the child of God is that he loves everybody!”
(a quote from Pastor Jack
Hyles' classic MP3 sermon, “FORGIVENESS”)
Ye Must Be Born Again!
| You Need HIS Righteousness!
