The Problem With Most Christians by David J. Stewart

From http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Believer's%20Corner/problem_with_christians.htm



The Problem With Most Christians

by David J. Stewart


What's Behind the Church Walls?

"No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light." -Luke 11:33
I can write an article like this because I am a Christian Myself. I am not writing this article to attack any Christians; on the contrary, I am writing this article to wake you up if you're sleeping in this dark hour. Jesus asked His disciples to pray, but they went to sleep instead. MOST believers have gone to sleep spiritually worldwide, especially in America. I want you to awake to righteousness (1st Corinthians 15:34, "Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame"). I want to help you in the spirit of meekness (Galatians 6:1).

Where is your light oh Christian?
One of the biggest problems with Christians today is that they are hiding their light within the church walls (in a "secret place" as mentioned in Luke 11:33). "Secret place" simply means "hidden place". Why would a person light a candle and then cover it? Or in today's thinking, why would you turn on a lamp and then cover it with a box? It is just as ridiculous for a child of God to hide their light from the world. Most believers know the Biblical teaching of the candle being hid under the bushel, but the true meaning just doesn't register. There are churches all across America that meet a couple times a week behind closed doors and the local community has NO IDEA what the church believes. Their candle (light) is well hid.

Most Churches operate like the occult

Do you know what the definition of "occult" is?

OCCULT: Become concealed or hidden from view or have its light extinguished

I hate to say it, but it needs to be said...most churches operate more like occult organizations than they do local New Testament churches. Church members all across America think they only go to church to "worship" God. Show me that in the Bible. We are supposed to worship God at all times. Americas churches have fallen into the lie of the devil that we shouldn't FORCE our beliefs upon other people. This is simply not true. Christians are supposed to stand up against the evil doers...

"Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?" -Psalm 94:16

I am NOT saying that the church is the occult. I am saying that most churches operate like the occult. Most communities across America know as much about their local church as they do about Skull and Bones or the Freemasons. I believe that every community in America should know clearly what their local New Testament church stands for and believes. Will this make some people angry? Of course, but that should not be a factor because God has commanded us to stand up against evil and iniquity.

The Early Church was Persecuted for Their Faithfulness to Christ

The believers in the early church were making things happen. God gave us the book of Acts so we would have an example to follow. They were getting people saved (Acts 2:41 tells us that 3,000 souls). The Devil doesn't care what you believe, just so long as you keep it to yourself. The early believers were worrying Satan and giving him cause for concern. By Acts 4:4, the Bible tells us that 5,000 men were saved (not including women and children). By now the Devil was going ballistic. It is not surprising that Herod killed James in Acts 12:2 with the sword. Acts 12:3 says that the Jews were pleased, which prompted Herod to also put Peter on death row.
Most believers today are lazy cowards. They dare not even pray in public for fear of being mocked or laughed at (so they pray with their eyes open instead). I heard a deadbeat pastor say that he wasn't trying to grow his church. He said that he only wants to pass to the next generation the doctrines which have been entrusted to him. The guys an idiot, pardon the expression. Who's he going to pass the doctrines to?

His biggest Sunday attendance since he became pastor is about 30 people. Worse yet, the pastor has a stubborn punk attitude. I'm not talking about a fly-by-night preacher. I'm talking about a man who went to an Independent Fundamental Baptist Bible college for 4 years. He needs to go back to school because he missed something. He leads his congregation every Wednesday night to "pray about the abortion issue" while the local community never hears a word from his church about the sin of abortion. The abortion clinic down the street never sees a protester from his church. This is what's wrong with America! Churches today are mainly concerned about making money and going through the religious motions, but their candle is well hidden. When God says in 2nd Timothy 3:12, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution," He means it! If you are not experiencing persecution in this apostate world, then you are not living godly in Christ Jesus.

A Christ-honoring Church Stirs Things Up with the Truth

The early church in the book of Acts was rocking the boat, they were making people angry with the truth. Some people died, and they were willing to die for the cause of Christ. In acts 19:19 many people who had been involved with the occult brought their "curious arts" and burned them in a bonfire. The worth of the books and items were 50,000 pieces of silver (about $48,000 in today's value, and millions in Bible times). A piece of silver was a day's wage in the New Testament. The local idol makers were so enraged at Paul that the other believers had to keep him from the angry mob waiting to tear him to pieces (Acts 19:30). This is what the truth does friend, it puts the beer companies out of business. It puts the pornographic perverts out of business. It shuts down the taverns and whore houses. The truth cleans up the community. It cause women to keep their babies instead of murdering them. It puts the Rosary makers out of business. It puts the palm readers, Tarot card readers, and psychics out of business. It puts the godless video game makers out of business. It puts godless Hollywood and Devilish Walt Disney out of business. It puts the gambling casinos out of business. The truth puts the strip joints and nightclubs out of business. Praise God, when Jesus returns at the second coming, He will put all these evil people out of business!!!

Please notice that the early believers didn't just preach a salvation message. The Apostle Paul preached about all the things concerning the kingdom of God (Acts 19:8). I actually had a preacher tell me that when I came to his church he only wanted me to preach a "salvation message." He didn't like me teaching the people that all of the modern Bibles are corrupt. He didn't like when I preached against liquor. He didn't like when I preached against bars and nightclubs. He didn't like when I exposed the lies of Roman Catholicism. And he hated when I preached with zeal and fervor. He actually accused me of shouting at the people from the pulpit. I was shouting at anybody, I was zealously proclaiming the truth with excitement. I don't know about you, but I get exciting knowing that I have found the truth in Christ Jesus. Eventually he threw me out the door.
Until Christ returns, we are responsible to stand against the evils of our day (Psalm 94:16). The truth will make people angry. The truth will cause others to come to God in repentance. The truth is emotional. The truth demands an answer. The truth cannot be ignored forever. The truth is the truth! 2nd Thessalonians 2:10 tells us that we should receive the love of the truth. Do you love the truth? Now, I don't like to know of bad things, but I need to know the truth. I must know the truth!

It is Our Constitutional Right to Proclaim the Truth

When a man of God proclaims the truth and tries to reach people for Christ, he is simply exercising his Constitutional Bill of Rights, as well as his God-given call. Furthermore, EVERY believer is commanded to speak out against the wickednesses of our day! It's not just the preacher's job to witness to the lost and speak out against wrong doing...this is another lie of the devil which many Christians have fallen for...it is ALL of our jobs. So why aren't America's men and women of God doing it? Wake up!!!

To accuse a zealous Christian of "forcing his or her beliefs" unto other people is simply the Devil's lie. We have every right to speak out with contempt against contemptible things. I do NOT endorse deliberately being unkind to anyone, but unrepentant sinners will nonetheless be offended when we preach out against their wickednesses. We should attack the sin, never the sinner. Though the wicked will claim the two are inseparable, there is indeed a great difference. God HATES sin, but not people. No one hates sin any more than God, yet no one loves sinners as much as God. We must follow Christ's example by trying to do the same.

The Devils' Crowd Parades Their Wickedness

Do you think the Devil plays by his own rules? I mean...America's homosexuals proudly march up and down our streets promoting their wickednesses. When a few Christians protest the parade, the Christians end up being arrested and put into jail -Facing 47 years in prison! I just have a few webpages exposing the evils of homosexuality and the homosexuals go bizzerk, calling my everything imaginable. One homosexual told me that I'd better run when he sees me in Hell. Why can they have a parade, but I can't have a few webpages? Talk about hypocrites! I recently received an e-mail from a young man who said his teacher hated God and would sing "One nation under evolution" instead of "One nation under God" when he said the pledge. He asked me why a teacher would do that. I replied that "people need God." I sent him Ephesians 2:2 which explains that Satan's spirit works in the hearts of the unsaved ("...the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience"). The bottom line is that the righteous and the wicked will NEVER co-exist in harmony ("An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked, Proverb 29:27"). We can't stand each other. This is the plain truth.

America's Churches Need to Speak the Truth Publicly

As Christians, it is our responsibility to get the truth out. Every church in America should have a big sign out front that speaks to the drivers passing by..."Homosexuality is sin!"..."Harry Potter is wicked"..."It's Jesus or hell, turn or burn!" Every week you could change the message. I greatly admire Dr. Roy Thompson (former pastor of the Cleveland Baptist Church in Ohio). Many years ago while driving by his church I saw a great big sign..."Abortion is cold-blooded murder!" Amen! I wanted to jump out of my seat. I was so encouraged to see a man of God with some GUTS! America's pulpits are filled with sissy's and wimps who are afraid to shell the corn. America needs a generation of Billy Sundays to set the fields on fire.

"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by old-fashioned preaching." - Dr. Jack Hyles

What does the Bible mean by "the light"? The "light" is simply the truth, the truth about everything and anything. Hence, it is our responsibility as Christians to get the truth out, the truth about everything! I am so disgusted with the attitude of wishy-washy believers who say that nothing else matters except the gospel. Yes, the gospel is the most important truth in the world, but the Bible contains much more truth than just the gospel. If nothing else mattered except the gospel, then God would have only written us a gospel tract, not an entire Book...the Bible.

Some Believers are Preaching Lies

So many Christians have their own concepts of what the Bible teaches. Obviously, some are correct and others are very wrong. Truth is intolerant! 2 + 2 = 4. You can sincerely believe that 2 + 2 = 5, but you are dead wrong. There is no compromise, there is no diversity. The modern-day neo-evangelical church preaches a watered-down gospel, but little else. This is the crowd that says it really doesn't matter which Bible you use. They don't fuss over MAJOR doctrinal differences such as the blood of Jesus, etc. Basically, they are a liability to the name of Christ.

I'd like to share with you the ministry of one neo-evangelical minister in particular. The pastor (and I use the term loosely) was a disgrace to his profession and faith. His sermonettes were so weak that any Catholic or Jehovah's Witness would have felt at home listening to him. He preached a basic gospel, but never touched upon any doctrinal issues such as the deity of Jesus Christ or the virgin birth. The minister would simply promise his congregation that everything would get better in their life if they would simply say "yes" to Christ. He'd say things like, "Give your life to Jesus and you'll never have any problem again." I often wondered if he even thought about the statements he was making before he blurted them out. There are no such teachings in the Bible (Remember, Lazarus was the good guy in Luke 16...the guy begging for scraps from the garbage). Becoming a Christian doesn't guarantee a smoother life. On the contrary, becoming a Christian guarantees you persecution...

"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." -2nd Timothy 3:12
The minister I'm sharing with you didn't care which Bible he used. He told his congregation that it didn't matter what Bible they used either. He often made references in his sermons to movies because never missed a Hollywood movie. Truth meant nothing to the minister. He'd say, "We don't preach anything here but the gospel." Often he was angry because of something bad someone did to him and turned it into a sermon. His congregation starved spiritually. It wasn't a surprise to me when the ministry closed it's doors just 2 years later. Sadly, there are tens-of-thousands of such pathetic ministries still in existence today. Most churches just don't care.

Most Christians Don't Care About the Truth

The problem with many Christians is that we either don't care about the truth (like the sinister minister above) or we don't preach the truth outside of the church walls. It's critical that America's churches get riled up about the truth and proclaim it uncompromisingly and without apology. The problem with most Christians is that they're at ease on Zion, complacent in their salvation...

"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation..." -Hebrews 2:3
Hebrews 2:3 was written to Christians. This verse is not talking about being saved. This verse is simply saying that we should not neglect our salvation. Perhaps you may want to read the excellent book, Salvation is More Than Being Saved. Look back to verse one...
"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." -Hebrews 2:1

God saved us to do more than fill up 18 inches of pew. The problem with most Christians today is that they're "sitting on the premises" instead of "standing on the promises." The world needs to hear the truth. We're not going to reach the world by opening our church doors for a few hours a week and dishing our sermonettes.

Lazy Pastor Says He's Not Trying to Grow His Church

I know of a pastor in Chicago who has about 15 to 20 people present on Sunday morning. I am mentioning him again because he is the epitome of what is wrong with America's churches. I actually heard him say from the pulpit that he WASN'T trying to grow his church. He said his job was to pass on to the next generation what had been handed to him. What generation? You don't have any members! Kindly said, the guys an idiot! Every pastor should want to grow his church. Look folks, God's not interested in empty pews, He wants His house full (Luke 14:23). It wasn't a surprise when the same pastor declined to go soul winning with me.
I looked through his weekly bulletin that's passed out every Sunday in church. He had a list of things that the church was going to pray about on Wednesday. I noticed "the abortion issue". Week after week his church prays about the "abortion issue," but NEVER lifts a finger to do anything about the murdering of little children. There's an abortion clinic right down the street, but the church is nowhere to be found. The local community never hears a word of protest from that little church. The light of the truth is hidden within the walls of the "church". Like I said, most churches operate more like an occult organization than they do a New Testament church. It's a disgrace.

Why Are the Churches Silent?

In the 1970’s Anita Bryant took a stand for decency and morality standing up and speaking out against the homosexual agenda. For her efforts, she was rewarded with being abandoned by the Christian churches across the Nation and ultimately suffered a divorce when the homosexuals began to make phone calls to the churches she was speaking at threatening to blow them up. The churches decided to give in to this terrorist tactic and abandon Anita. Then in the 1980’s Pastor Jerry Falwell took a stand against the homosexual agenda and many leading pastors and churches also ostracized him across the country as being a little too political and getting off focus of preaching the gospel. As a result the churches joined in with the liberal media in labeling Falwell as a hatemonger. Well today, churches are getting to reap what they have sown...
"Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." -Galatians 6:7

Here's what Anita Bryant's husband said...
Anita Bryant's husband, Bob Green, was quoted as saying, "One thing we have noticed in letters we receive from people is the question, 'Why should it have to be a woman and mother in the forefront of this battle, instead of the Christian leadership in this country.' Since the petition drive began, Anita has had her life threatened almost daily..."
Shame! Shame on America's Christians. We out to all be ashamed of ourselves for being so complacent and careless with our freedom.
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for conscience people to remain silent." -Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson, an unsaved man, had more sense than the average Christian does. Jefferson knew the road which leads to tyranny...silent citizens. If America's Christians don't speak out, then who will? Sadly, many of the heathen are speaking out while Christians play the religious game.
"Let's quit fiddling with religion and do something to bring the world to Christ."--Billy Sunday