The
Near-Beer Gospel
The
Search for Pale Substitutes
By Orrel Steinkamp
The Plumbline, Volume I 2., No. 4,
July/August 2007
Assessing Current Teachings, Issnes and
Events with Scripture
In this issue I am going to highlight two examples of
how the church is unwittingly calling for pale substitutes from the faith once
for all delivered to the saints. Each of these examples will be drawn from two movements,
which are seemingly separated far from each other. But it is my belief that
they both represent the same basic error, that the church itself can
manufacture a Near Beer Gospel either apart from or in addition to the
unchangeable word of God. In both cases the church has been shorn of God's
actual glory as Sampson of old. The first of these could be called the
"marketing and therapeutic" movement. In it's quest for cultural
acceptance and numerical success, they have marginalized the "word of
God" and imported marketing methodologies as the focus of ministry. Work
the system and you will be numerically successful. It seems to me to echo the
first half of Jesus reply to Satan when tempted in the wilderness. Rather than,
man cannot live on bread alone, it has the feel of yes! we can live on bread
alone, rather than every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. At the
other end the spectrum, God's authorized word has been succeeded by a
succession of new words from God at the hands of thousands of newly restored
so-called prophets. Thus, the scriptures languish and are called by Tommy
Tenney "old love letters." In the one the trust is in the new
technology and tools of the culture. In the other the trust and dependence is
upon a continual flow of so-called oracles from God at the hands of those who
struggle to claim less than 50% accuracy. The above analogy of Near-Beer calls
for some explanation. First Near-Beer. Near-Beer was originally a term for malt
beverages containing little or no alcohol (one half of one percent or less by
volume), which were mass-marketed during the Prohibition in the United States.
Today the term "Near- Beer" has been revived by some people to refer
to modern versions of non-alcoholic beer. By the use of this analogy I am
suggesting the current evangelical church can be illustrated by the Near-Beer
phenomena. It’s all about substitutes which only give the appearance of the
real thing.
"Just
Give'em The Bread"
The church growth movement has by now a long and evolving history.
Donald McGavrans' 5 missionary work in India was the seed- bed of the
missionary phase of church growth. As a missionary in Vietnam I well remember
how "church growth principles" became if not our bible surely an
accepted apocrypha. It was exhilarating that we had found a road map to ensure
success in our challenging goal of making converts. Now for some decades
"church growth" has also been applied to the American scene with all
the same allurements to successful ministry. McGavran's thesis was that the Gospel
must rely for its success on the social factors of the culture. In the American
scene this has led to uncritically adopting the use of marketing and
therapeutic theories as the key to success. If the people want bread, then give
them bread. If not, they will not come to our church. If they don't come, our
church will not grow and for too many ministers this means ministerial failure.
Robert Schuler pioneered all this and he used a famous illustration. He said
the church is like circus tent. The church needs a midway barker to get the
people into their tent one way or another and then later we can transition
(bait and switch) them to the Gospel. Maybe the motivation is good, but the
outcome is troubling. The old dictum "the medium is the message"
surely applies. D.A. Carson states: "When the cultural setting is
prioritized, God's meaning is sought experientially within the culture using
the Bible as a guide. [But] this model more fully assigns control to the
context(culture); the operative is praxis (methods contra theology), which
serves as a controlling grid to determine the meaning of Scripture (Carson, Don
1987, Grand Rapids, 213-257). Church
and Missions contextualization. The goal often is to find what God is already doing in the culture
rather than enunciating God's "Word" within the cultural context.
Vincent Donovan in Christianity
Rediscovered (2003) describes
cultural reliance as a "treasure hunt that uses Scripture as a map or
guide to discover treasures to be found
in the culture" But the claim of "all things to all
people" too easily becomes a synonym for compromise, a gigantic cultural
adjustment and surrender.
Cultural syncretism is "the conscious or unconscious reshaping of
Christian plausibility structures beliefs and practices through cultural accommodation
so that they reflect those structures of the dominant culture. Or stated in
other terms, syncretism is the blending of Christian beliefs and practices with
those of the dominant culture so that Christianity loses it distinctiveness and
speaks with a voice reflective of its culture." (Van Rheenen, 1997, p.173)
Syncretism is like an "an odorless, tasteless gas, likened to carbon
monoxide which is seeping into our atmosphere." (John Orme, 2004) Cultural
accommodation can go to unusual extremes. Perhaps the most extreme was the
church that sold raffle tickets for a drawing for a new car. That is extreme,
but other cultural enticements abound offering things not really a part of the
gospel message. One Christian advertising agent, who both represented the
Coca-Cola Corp. and engineered the 'I Found It' evangelistic campaign, stated
the point brazenly: "Back in Jerusalem where the church started, God
performed a miracle there on the day of Pentecost. They didn't have the
benefits of buttons and media, so God had to do a little supernatural work
there. But today, with our technology, we have available to us the opportunity
to create the same kind of interest in a secular society." Put simply,
another church-growth consultant claims "five to ten million baby boomers
would be back in the church if churches adopted three simple changes: (1)
Advertise (2) let people know about "product benefits" and (3) be
"nice to people."
Accommodating seeker-sensitive churches do not deny the gospel as turn
of the century liberals. But they don't feature the gospel. The Gospel becomes
truncated and popular cultural themes become the operational core. The
soul-saving Gospel rarely heard in a complete way and is drown out by the focus
on a happier life and life fulfillment. So now the question is people are saved
from what? To the degree we move the fulcrum in our presentation so as to give
weight to the psychological benefits to that degree we remove the offense and
the meaning of the cross. No wonder the people want it. It's the bread they
seek, and the seeker-sensitive churches advertise and market the product. The
tool-box of popular culture can be so apparently brilliant and effective that
there no longer appears to be any real need for God. Os Guinness says the main
question is: "If the church makes anything else (than scripture and the
Gospel) the decisive principle of her existence, Christians risk living
unauthorized lives of faith, exercising un-authorized ministries, and
proclaiming an unauthorized gospel. Os Guinness relates:
Os Guinness says it all in one long quote: "The faith of John
Wesley, Jonathan Edwards,... Hudson Taylor, D.I. Moody, Charles Spurgeon,
Oswald Chambers, Andrew Murray, Carl Henry and John Stott is disappearing. In
its place a new evangelicalism is arriving in which therapeutic self-concern
overshadows knowing God, spirituality displaces theology, end-times escapism
crowds out day-to-day discipleship, marketing triumphs over mission, references
to opinion polls outweigh reliance on biblical exposition, concerns for power
and relevance are more obvious than concern for piety and faithfulness, talk of
reinventing the church has replaced prayer for revival, and the characteristic
evangelical passion for missionary enterprise is overpowered by the
all-consuming drive to sustain the multiple business empires of the booming
evangelical subculture." (Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness, Grand
Rapids, MI:Baker Books, 2003, 15)
"Just
Give Them New Words From God"
As stated in the introduction, on the other end of the spectrum the
prophetic sign-gift movement also auempts to redefme the cliureli. for them tt
is not the ~gIve'm bread approach" but rather give them new words from
God. It has developed "new authoritative words from God" into a
methodology with the goal of providin~ God with an atmosphere
in which the scriptures are added to with "present truth" and new
words from God. This "present truth" suggested as the cause of
revival and the success of the church in it's drive to take dominion in the
earth. A well know proponent of this movement is Steve Hill. After a few years
of celebrity status at Brownsville AOG he retreated to Texas. But now he is
back.
Rev. Robert S. Luchow, in Vol.12 Issue 5, May 20(~7, in an article
entitled "Here We Go Again" relates Steve Hill's new prophecy of the
coming greatest outpouring the world has ever seen which was published by
Charisma April, 2007, 14.1 will need to abridge this article for reasons of
space.
"Allow me
to refresh your memory concerning Mr. Hill. He is the individual who is often
cited as God's instrument for the so-called revival at the Brownsville AOG
(BAG) church in Pensacola, Florida.
According to
BAG mythology, here is what they claimed took place. The Pensacola church had
been divinely appointed by God to be the catalyst of [nation-wide] revival...In
1993 Dr. Paul Cho, pastor of the world's largest congregation in Korea, was in
the USA and praying for revival. He did so and the Holy Spirit told him to
point his finger on a map. As he did, he felt his fmger drawn to the Florida
panhandle and to the city of Pensacola, "I am going to send revival to the
seaside city of Pensacola, and it will spread like a fire until all of America
has been consumed by it." said the Lord to Dr. Cho.. But what Cho
allegedly received from the Holy Spirit did not come to pass. The fire did not
spread throughout all of America, nor was all of America consumed by it. The
revival did spread to certain charismatic and Pentecostal congregations and the
fruit produced by it was nothing less than spiritual heartache, disappointment,
church splits...
John
Kilpatrick was the pastor of BAG during the revival. What he failed to tell
people in the congregation was that he sent his wife and leaders up to Toronto
Airport Christian Fellowship (TACF) prior to the actual date of the BAG
revival. TACF was the North American vortex of enthusiasm and the holy laughter
revival had already been in full gear for [a few years]... So Kilpatrick primed the pump.. Their leaders (unbeknown
to many congregational members) had already bought into the TACF scene with its
manifestations of uncontrollable laughter, spiritual drunkenness, being slain
in the spirit for protracted times, shaking, hopping, arms flapping for hours
and etc... To this day BAG, Kilpatrick and Hill declare what took place at BAG
was completely different than at TACE. What they are reluctant to admit is that
BAG leaders went to TACF and brought it back to Pensacola and simply waited for
Hill to arrive. Nor does Hill admit that he himself received the "Toronto
Blessing" while attending meetings at Holy Trinity Bromptom England prior
to coming to BAG. The truth is that what took place in BAG was simply a extension
of what was already happening in Toronto. The BAG revival was a fully
coordinated and orchestrated event... [ all this contradicts the oft repeated
claim that this was totally a sovereign move of God]. But once the crowds (and
offerings) began to dwindle and the manifestations became passe', Hill was the
first leader to abandon ship. Lindell Cooley, the worship leader at BAG was the
next to leave and by 2003 Kilpatrick himself resigned... Cooley and Hill both
became pastors of their own congregations and Kilpatrick started his own
"evangelistic" association. I might add that the same thing took
place at TACF when the fire turned into cold ashes. John Arnott resigned as
senior past started his own outreach...
Now seven
years later Hill is back and proclaiming that God is equipping His church for
the GREATEST OUTPOURING the world has EVER SEEN! He says in his article that
"a fresh anointing is about to rest upon true believers... [Hill asserts]
in his article: "However
we can't ignore those who are starving for fresh bread and fresh water from
heaven. Their deep hunger pains can only be satisfied as we offer more of God's
presence, power and prophetic insight. We can do this by allowing
the Lord to show up (short hand for manifestations) in our church services...
without restraint... We must provide the atmosphere and opportunity for
miracles to take place.. I believe God is going to empower us by sending
a new wave of revelation as a foundation for operating in the prophetic.
To begin with
the world is not "craving for a touch from the creator."... Hill does
not mention how "we" are to go about offering more of God's power and
prophetic insight He does not mention the proclamation of the Gospel, which is
the power of God unto everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). God's word is the
infallible and totally sufficient prophetic insight, yet Hill calls for a fresh
new revelation flowing from restored prophets... Hill says it is our job to
provide the "atmosphere" and "opportunity" for miracles to
take place. Just what does that mean? He does not state how we can create this
atmosphere and opportunity for miracles... He goes on to [assert] what will
characterize this next greatest outpouring. The "new and unfamiliar"
ways that God will empower His people seem to be in the arena of making us
peripatetic psychics:... "The spiritually sensitive are going to
experience revelation knowledge... Hidden secrets will be revealed to the
believer, and out of a heart of compassion he or she will share
them (the hidden secrets) with the lost to prove Jesus is alive." [But] it is the word of God that reveals the
content of men's hearts, not man mystically anointed. It is the seeming (to the
world) foolishness of preaching the living Word of God that the Holy uses to
convict the world of sin and draw people to Christ, not some demonstration of
power. NEVER FORGET the Jews saw daily miracles for 40 years in the desert and
yet they died there in UNBELIEF (Hebrews 3:19). Miracles do not create faith!
Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of
God (Romans
10:17)... He closes his pron6uncement of the coming greatest revival by saying such "divine appointments" will be
commonplace in the days ahead of us and that "these words fitly spoken,
will literally shock the unbeliever into reality." What he is describing
seems more akin to TV psychics John Edwards or Sylvia Browne than any biblical
accounts of people encountering the reality of their sin in the light of God's
holiness... My friends let me state unequivocally that unless a person is
brought to despair through seeing themselves as sinful they will not cry out
"God, have mercy on me, a sinner"(Luke 18 13)...
Does the Bible
actually state that the Church and the world will experience a world-wide
soul-saving revival or not? Are there any prophetic statements that (in their
context) indicate a great sweeping (end of the age) move of the Spirit prior to
the return of Christ? [I don't have the space to quote a number of scriptures
that seem to suggest the opposite. These texts are: Matthew 24:10-12, Matthew 24:23-25, 2 Corinthians II; 13, Thessalonians 2:9-12, 2Timothy 3:1-5, 2 Timothy 4:3-4, 2 Peter 2:1-3, and I John 4:1].
In these
passages do you read anything about a great world-wide soul-saving revival? I
read of the love of people growing cold, of the danger of false Christs, false
apostles, false teachers, and false prophets. Yet at no time in recorded Church
history have there been as many people claiming to be either a restored apostle or prophet as there are today. Deceivers are going about seeming
to work signs and wonders, which are not from God. Claims of holy laughter,
spiritual drunkenness, heavenly jewels, [gold filled teeth and even angel
feathers abound in thousands of congregations. People claiming to be ministers
exploit those who follow them and make merchandize out of God's gullible sheep.
Countless numbers of professing Christians have indeed heaped up teachers who
teach them what they want to hear versus faithful teachers who will teach them
what they need to hear. Hill's article does not mention one verse of
scripture. Why not? The answer is simple, there aren't any for him to cite. He
and others must declare that the "Lord' has given them "revelation
insight" regarding the coming great soul-saving revival apart from the
bible.... I would remind you of the old saying "fool me once, shame on
you, fool me twice, shame on me." No my friends, my advice is simply this
- keep your eyes focused upon Jesus, the author and Finisher of our faith."
In both of
these movements it appears that experience precedes biblical truth. In the
church growth world the thrust is to experience growth and give them bread
first. In the sign-gift, present truth prophetic movement experience comes
first and is endorsed by purported new words directly from God. These new
revelations though most often inaccurate become the basis of truth for the
movement. Modem day prophetic revelations go back at least to the turn of the
last century. In fact it was a "new revelation" by a so-called
prophet that became the basis of the "Jesus Only" movement that
severed from the more orthodox expressions of Pentecost as m the AOG. In the
discredited mid-century Latter-Rain movement new prophetic truth, later called
"present truth" was made the basis of the teaching of New Order of
the Latter Rain. The AOG, who lost a lot of churches to the Latter- Rain,
condemned the Latter-Rain as heresy. But later in the theological fog created
by the Charismatic Renewal many of the teachings of the Latter- Rain were
recycled and renamed. Today many of these teachings are found in a piecemeal
way all over the spectrum. Charisma magazine surely espouses the validity of continual
revelation. This represents a "paradigm shift" away from the Bible to
experience in order to pave the way for the church to receive the revelatory
leadership of restored apostles and prophets. But Jesus prayed to His Father to
"sanctify them (his disciples) through thy truth, thy word is truth."
(John 17:17). So the “Near Beer" has many labels, but is a pale substitute
for the real thing.
Postscnpt
My strong suit
has never been punctuation and accidence. I lost my editor and so there may be
errors of punctuation, like misplaced semi-colons, colons etc. etc. I hope this
does not offend anyone. These newsletters are not designed for the print market
and will never be catalogued in a library.
Dr. Orrel
Steinkamp, Plumbline Ministries, 720 9th St. SW, Wilimar MN 56201
720 9th St. SW, Wilimar Mn. 56201, orrelsteinkamp@hotmail.com