Monday message: The fall of the high profile

So I was thinking about doing a usual fun post on Monday... but after being distracted by garbage that I need to kick out of my life, I found myself uninspired.  I returned to my FB page which I was monitoring for the latest, and wound up halfway through the last thing I scrolled past:

God's Plan, Not Mine

God's Glory, Not Mine

Which led me to wondering how my sinful self could be any use tonight.  On Christianity Today, I saw the second story in a very few days of a high-profile alleged Christian stepping away from the faith- this time a writer for "corporate" Christians, Hillsong United.  And like the example previous, I read their story and thought, "Another one who looked at Christianity as not a relationship, but a job."  I read his Instagram 'testimony', which he left up just long enough for it to be screenshotted before he took it down, I imagine to avoid the comments good and bad that a high-profile post such as this tends to bring.  And as I read it, sorry to disappoint the Hillsong fans out there, but I wondered how anyone mistook him for a Christian in the first place.  I would like to bit by bit address his "concerns" that led to his departure from the faith.

Time for some real talk… I’m genuinely losing my faith.. and it doesn’t bother me… like, what bothers me now is nothing… 

Here we see he has shifted to his personal 'truth', meaning that he has lied on every song he wrote.  Just a job.  "...and it doesn't bother me..." Had you ever had real faith, it would.  It would tear you apart.

I am so happy now, so at peace with the world.. it’s crazy / this is a soapbox moment so here I go xx 

"...at peace with THE WORLD."  There is a telling statement.  And the soapbox he is about to step up onto is an attack on what he supposedly believed that shows just how little he knew about it.

how many preachers fall? Many. No one talks about it. How many miracles happen. Not many. No one talks about it. Why is the Bible full of contradictions? No one talks about it. 

NO ONE talks about it?  People have been talking non- stop about the fall of preachers at least since Jim and Tammy Bakker in 1987- when our "dear departing" was 8 years old.  He's literally been around the discussion his whole life.  Did he not pay attention?  Does he realize WHY not many miracles happen?  Or did he assume because Benny Hinn did them for cash every week, the world was really like that?  And I think that even my Wednesday Bible Study has discussed apparent "contradictions" enough to put his comment to shame.

Apparently, he thinks that he should have gotten a full digest of these things at breakfast with his newspaper every day.  Or maybe CNN didn't cover it when he was watching.  Jesus asks us to seek Him.  I seriously doubt from these comments that seeking Him was ever on the agenda.

How can God be love yet send 4 billion people to a place, all coz they don’t believe? No one talks about it. 

Wow.  The most fundamental part of believing in God- that He is HOLY, and sin cannot exist around Him, and that we NEED a savior- It is literally the subject of EVERY good sermon ever preached- yet, to him, "no one talks about it".

No, sir.  YOU NEVER LISTENED.

Christians can be the most judgemental people on the planet – they can also be some of the most beautiful and loving people… but it’s not for me. I am not in any more.

Now this last, I cannot gainsay.  I've fought too many battles with Christian 'trolls' to say that even true Christians are innocent of this charge.  But the very last I don't agree- "I am not in anymore."  That would imply you were ever in.

Could he change?  Could he just be going through a dark side, and will come back stronger someday?  I sure hope so.  Or, he may be what Paul warned Timothy against:

2Ti 3:1  But know this, that in the last days grievous times will be upon us. 
2Ti 3:2  For men will be lovers of themselves, money-lovers, braggarts, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 
2Ti 3:3  without natural feeling, unyielding, slanderers, without self-control, savage, haters of good, 
2Ti 3:4  betrayers, reckless, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 
2Ti 3:5  having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it; even turn away from these. 


Which brings us to the final question for me:  Where, from here?  "Let's go ahead and boycott everything he ever wrote, since he's exposed himself"?  To me, that is like, "I can't buy THIS loaf of Bunny Bread, since the farmer who provided this particular wheat is an unbeliever."  The old 'meat-sacrificed-to-idols' discussion, which on the surface seemed to have no modern equivalent (Remember: If it's in God's Word, it's there for a reason).  Do people who were saved because of Hillsong, because of Bakker, because of James McDonald, lose their salvation because of their falseness or fall?  Of course not.  Salvation is not between you and God, as moderated by so-and-so.  It's between you and Christ, alone.   But if you don't bring Christ into that equation, it's just a job.


But the last word, like the first, comes as I prayed for a closer, off a friend's FB post:


1Pe 5:10  And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 

And there, Mr No-Longer-In-It, is your miracle for today.