THE BEREAN CHALLENGE
“Now, the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men” (Acts 17:11 12, NIV).
The Bereans were the inhabitants of the ancient city of Berea in the region of Macedonia. The modern name of the city is Veria in today’s Greek Macedonia in northern Greece. As at the time of the apostles, there was already a Jewish community in Berea large enough to have built a synagogue there although it was a Gentile town. It would appear that there was a reasonable number of Greeks (proselytes) who worship with the Jews in the synagogue.
After escaping the riot stirred up by the Jews in Thessalonica, Paul and Silas escaped to Berea and, as usual, went into the Jewish synagogue and began preaching the gospel about the Lord, Jesus Christ.
The disposition of the Bereans towards the gospel was so exemplary that Luke commended them in the short but inspiring passage he wrote about them. The worthy conduct of the Bereans have posed a great challenge to Christians of our contemporary time. Great lessons can be learnt from the noble characteristics of the Bereans.
They Were Open-Hearted
Luke says the Berean Jews, unlike those in Thessalonica, received the message with great eagerness. They were not prejudiced. They listened to the preachers with eager interest and, with their honest and good hearts (Luke 8:15), allowed the seed of the word land on good soil. They came in their numbers and listened to the message “with great eagerness of heart.”
The Bereans have proved wrong the notion held by many of today’s Christians which equate good listening with gullibility. They have shown that one can be a good listener and still not be gullible. One is gullible if he or she uncritically and unreasonably believes in whatever he or she is told.
Not all that Paul and Silas preached would be strange to the Bereans. But they must have noted the grey points in their message and took steps to verify them by searching the scriptures on their own.
Their reception of the message with all willingness of heart also portrayed them as people who were not prejudiced. Many of the Jews in the days of Christ and His apostles were hard-liners. The Pharisees and teachers of the law had indoctrinated and prejudiced them against the truth. They had some light in them because they had read the scriptures (John 9:39 – 41). However, they did not have the fullness of the light because they had misinterpreted many of the texts of the Scripture. They had also read their own manmade ideas (theology) into God’s word. And having been in adulterated, superficial and hypocritical religion for a long time, the people got their hearts hardened in it. Therefore, whenever anyone tried to give them the true light from God’s word, they obstinately refused to accept the truth (John 10:24-26; Acts 14:2; 19:9; 28:24; 2 Thes. 2:10-12). They closed their eyes, ears and hearts to the incoming light (Matt. 13:13-15). Their blind religious leaders locked the door of the kingdom of Heaven in their faces (Matt. 23:13; Luke 11:52; Isa. 9:16). The Bereans were different. They were neither gullible nor prejudiced.
What do we see in many of today’s Christians? We see crass gullibility and cast-iron prejudice playing out in them at the same time. They accept whatever teaching that comes from their leaders or denominations without making any effort to compare them with the written word in the Bible. Whatever the General Overseer or Bishop teaches is swallowed hook, line and sinker, so long it comes from his mouth or a book written by him. The teachings of the Bible have been almost torn to shreds in the churches in Nigeria. Some of the most followed Pentecostal pastors teach Trinity and Modalism (Sabellianism), two doctrines which are diametrically opposed to each other. But no associate pastor or member asks any question. Many Christians in the denominations are not willing to humbly and honestly discuss the issues on which the Christian faith is built. Christians now delight in the half-truths fed to them by their leaders. Jeremiah lamented about this attitude among his people when he said, “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in this land— the prophets give false prophecies, and the priests rule with an iron hand. Worse yet, my people like it that way! But what will you do when the end comes?” (Jer. 5:30-31 NLT).
Through the use of mind-manipulating methods of indoctrination, church leaders have built strong walls of resistance around the minds of their members such that whatever is coming from outside, whether good or bad, is resisted and rejected by them. The membership of many churches have been brainwashed to reject any teaching, opinion or correction coming from any source other than their leadership. Dangerous and dominative indoctrination by denominational leaders is one major reason many of today’s Christians are no longer like the Bereans.
They Searched The Scriptures
The Bereans brought out the scrolls and studied them on daily basis to confirm that what Paul and Silas preached was in line with the word of God. It was not Paul and Silas who scheduled the daily meetings to hear the reading of the scriptures. They organized it on their own. They were diligent in searching the scriptures in order to prove what has been preached to them. How many days, weeks, or months it took them to verify the teachings of Paul and Silas was not given by Luke but it is my supposition that it must have cost them much effort, time and sacrifice. Their effort proved that they were diligent seekers after God’s truth (Heb. 11:6). They proved Paul and Silas and believed in their teaching after convincing themselves that their message was neither unscriptural nor extra-scriptural (Acts 17:12). They were perfectly in line with the biblical injunction that we should prove all things and hold fast to what is good (1 Thes. 5:21).
It must be noted that as at the time of the apostles, the 24 books of the Jewish Tanakh (which is the same as the 39 books of the Christian Old Testament) had not been divided into chapters and verses by men. Reading through the scrolls one by one therefore entailed much effort, determination and perseverance. It was a tedious task to search the scriptures to verify desired phrases or statements quoted or preached upon by any messenger of the gospel.
Today, the story is different. It does not take up to a minute for the SEARCH function in my Bible application to bring out the passages containing a word, phrase or sentence in the entire Bible. Men have made the Bible very reader-friendly such that we ought to have more Bereans now than in the days of Paul and Silas. But, alas, such people are now hard to come by. Men’s indoctrination and the operation of the spirits of deception and delusion in our churches have reduced the Berean-type of believers to a minute fraction. It is sad to say this but it is true. Many “Christians” today do not even make any attempt to check up any biblical verse given them by anyone either to correct their errors or to instruct them about the truth. How different we are today from the Bereans!
They Placed the Message Above the Messenger
The fact that the Bereans searched the Scriptures to verify the truthfulness of the ministers’ message is evidence that they placed God’s word above the personage of the minister of the word. They were spiritually wise by testing the message with the written word. They listened to the messengers, but they went beyond that. They tested their message and accepted it after they had been convinced that the message had perfect scriptural support.
We are told to examine every message that we receive from anyone. Apostle Paul counselled Christians that whenever they meet for worship, not more than two or three prophets should be allowed to speak; while they are doing that, the others who are seated and listening to them should carefully weigh what is said or taught by them (1 Cor. 14:29). Apostle John also said, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world”
(1 John 4:1). There are spirits behind every word that is spoken. Compare John 6:63 with Matt. 16: 21-23. The words of Jesus Christ have the spirit of life in them while Satan can use the mouth of any minister to utter falsehood, deception and temptation to his hearers.
By weighing the teachings of Paul and Silas on the scale of the Scriptures, the Bereans have proved themselves to be intelligent and cautious listeners who applied careful judgement to what they heard from the apostles.
The biblical standard is that every Christian must subject whatever he or she hears or reads from any man of God to scrutiny using the Bible as the testing device. No teaching from any man qualifies to be exempted. Any teaching that agrees with the word of God in the Bible should be accepted but any teaching that fails the test should be rejected. The acceptance or rejection of any teaching should never be based on the personality, status, charisma or past acclaim of a preacher.
When Christians uncritically swallow whatever is given to them by any teacher of the word, it is a sign that they are indifferent to the truth and they regard that preacher or teacher as the final authority on what he teaches. The Bereans did not have this mindset, but that is the prevalent attitude of many Christians today. No General Overseer, Bishop, Pastor or anyone should be regarded as the final authority of God’s word. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. He alone is the Messiah. He alone is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2).
No one preacher or teacher is infallible (James 3: 1-2). The light of God is fast dying out of the churches in Africa because the churches have not gone the way of the Bereans. We have held out our leaders as infallible and perfect teachers of God’s word despite the confusing, faulty, and sometimes, outrightly false doctrines some of them have taught. Is it not a shame that one of the most esteemed Pentecostal leaders in Nigeria is teaching both Trinity and Sabellianism (or Modalism) to his large church and no one is raising any objection? The two doctrines are opposed to each other. How do you view a roundly indoctrinated pastor who insists that archangel Michael is Jesus Christ despite the hard refutation of this in Hebrews 1, coupled with the fact that Michael is said to be one of the chief angels of God (Dan. 10:13) which clearly means that Michael is not the only archangel? How can a “believer” still say that Jesus Christ is coequal with the Father after reading from the Bible that the Father is “the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:3, 17; John 20:17; Rev. 3:12; John 14:28)? Who does that “believer” believe in – Christ or mere men who have falsely arrogated to themselves perfect knowledge of God’s word? We see that many of today’s Christians have been so brainwashed by men that they ignorantly argue against Jesus Christ and the Bible.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on seeing the condition that will be present towards the end of the age had expressed grave concern. He asked, “when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Should this concern made by our Lord not make us, leaders and followers, sober up and take time to reflect on the poor state of today’s faith? Mega churches are everywhere and we are delighted to see them. We pray for many more of such mega churches. If possible, we delight to see Church auditoria that will be bigger than the largest building being built by the Chinese in Chengdu. However, what matters most in God’s sight is not the largeness or magnificence of our church buildings nor the population of professing Christians but the quality of the faith we profess.
Any minister of God can make mistakes. No one is infallible. Apostle James says, “we all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check” (James 3:2, NIV). He was talking about having slips or faults in teaching (see verse 1). That is why St. Paul told the Corinthians that two or three people may prophesy (or declare or teach the word) at any meeting but the others who are seated in the congregation should weigh or examine what is said or taught to be sure that no part of it is at variance with the truth (1 Cor. 14:29). Apostle Paul also encourages his audience to examine what he says or teaches (1 Cor. 10:15). Paul knew that as long as we are in the flesh, we cannot know everything perfectly (1 Cor. 13:9) no matter the anointing or revelation we may claim to have. Perfect understanding of the mysteries of God will be achieved in the awaited eternal kingdom of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.
All Christians have the duty of defending their leaders and indeed, all fellow Christians against any criminal attack (see Acts 19: 30 – 31). We have it as part of our duty to tell people the truth about our leaders and fellow Christians in situations when people falsely or ignorantly or presumptuously allege wrongdoing against them. We should not keep mum and allow idle talkers falsely and foolishly malign fellow believers, including our leaders. This is a moral as well as sacred duty we owe to one another as members of the body of Christ.
However, we will be falling short of the godly standard laid down by the Bereans if at every occasion, we jump up in defense of the teachings of our leaders without first comparing them with Scriptures with a view to ascertaining that what the leader has taught is consistent with the truth. We will not be helping such leaders and the church as a body. Sadly, this is one area in which many of us are failing to uphold the truth. There are many of us who are not aware that any false or erroneous doctrine or practice that stays in any church denomination is the one that comes through the leader. Satan always targets the leaders because it is through them that he can corrupt or supplant the truth (see Gal. 2: 11 – 14).
The rampant behavior found among Christians today is to believe and accept whatever the Bishop or General Overseer has taught. No one in the fold dares to scrutinize what is taught to ensure that they are consistent with the doctrines of the Bible. No one attempts to apply the rules of Bible interpretation. It is therefore taken for granted that whatever the “great” leader teaches is alright. This is one of the key unsatisfactory conducts by Christians that have in no small way encouraged the perpetuation of false and erroneous doctrines and practices in many churches of today. Nearly all associate or assistant pastors and church members are failing the Berean test. By our conduct, we have elevated our leaders to the pedestal of infallible teachers of God’s word.
The Berean standard for believing and accepting any teaching remains its agreement with biblical truth. It should not be based on the personage of the preacher. I can say with all confidence that the present-day pervasive practice of not examining whatever our “acclaimed” leaders preach is one of the things causing spiritual blight in our churches. It is one of the factors that have turned most of our churches to churches of men and empires of the leaders. This is one of the reasons God has withdrawn His holy Spirit from many of our churches.
Church leaders may claim to be under divine inspiration but that does not remove from the congregants the duty of examining what they teach by applying the rules of Bible interpretation to their teachings. If the leaders have proper understanding of the truth and have confidence in it, they will not prohibit their followers from subjecting their teachings to regular, full and free examination of what they preach or teach. If errors in their doctrines are pointed out to them, they should be humble enough to accept the criticisms and effect corrections.
Our leaders should realize that Balaam’s donkey was not regarded by God more highly than Balaam. But
God made it see the angel before God opened Balaam’s eyes to see the heavenly soldier. Let my General Overseer also know that my seeing a truth from the Bible which has not been seen by him does not mean that I am better than him. Apostle Peter did not reject St. Paul’s public rebuke when his hypocrisy was revealed to Paul. He accepted the rebuke and repented. Neither did Apostle Paul himself despise the prophecy of Agabus about the trouble awaiting him in Jerusalem. These great apostles knew that God can use anyone to do anything. They were not conceited to think that God will use only themselves to do His work. Therefore, whenever a little “Rhoda” says “Peter is the one knocking” (Acts 12: 14-15) they better listen to her; she is doing her God-assigned bit.
If Naaman’s wife had looked down on the words of her Israelite slave girl and if her husband had also despised the testimony of the poor little girl, Naaman would have died a leper. Let the church learn lesson from these seemingly insignificant people. The little stone thrown by David could not have gone into the skull of Goliath if the divine dunamis of God was not projected into the stone by the Almighty Yahweh. God, in His infinite wisdom, use both the great and the small, the leaders and the followers, to achieve His divine purpose.
Albert Barnes (1798 – 1870), in his commentary on 1 Cor. 14:29 states, inter alia, “it was possible that those who claimed to be prophets might err; and it was the duty of all to examine whether that which was uttered was in accordance with the truth. And if this was a duty then, it is a duty now … No minister of religion has a right to demand that all that he speaks shall [or should] be regarded as truth, unless he can give good reasons for it: no man is to be debarred from the right of canvassing freely and comparing with the Bible, and with sound reason all that the minister of the gospel advances. No minister who has just views of his office, and a proper acquaintance with the truth, and confidence in it, would desire to prohibit the people from the most full and free examination of all that he utters. It may be added, that the Scripture everywhere encourages the most full and free examination of all doctrines that are advanced…”
We are simply not fulfilling the divinely approved Berean standard when we accept or reject teachings or instructions on the basis of the personality of the teacher rather than the propriety of what he teaches. If we will experience God’s power as of old, we must accept the Berean challenge and begin to compare whatever our teachers tell us with the Scriptures. If any teaching of our leader is found to be at variance with the Bible, we should be ready to point it out to him with utmost humility and candour. If your leader is a true minister of Christ, he will participatively review the subject with you. If at the end of the session it is found that you have the true interpretation, he will accept and thank you for your observation. And if you are a true Christian, you will not be found vaunting that you were the one who taught your leader the truth. Always remember that Balaam’s donkey was not greater than Balaam, neither was Naaman’s slave girl greater than Naaman and his wife.
All the Christians of today must demonstrate to God that we honour His word above our religious leaders. The first Christians did that. They told the Sanhedrin tthat”we must obey God rather than human beings” (Acts 5:29). The present situation whereby Christians close their eyes and hearts to biblical truth in order to align with the teachings of their leaders is not a true practice of Christianity.
The Bereans were not willfully Ignorant
A willfully ignorant people are those to whom is availed what they need to be informed but willfully or deliberately choose to ignore the information or truth and thereby remain ignorant. They are those to whom all the evidence of a particular case is available but voluntarily shut their eyes and minds against the convincing evidence. They deliberately shut their eyes, ears and minds from seeing, hearing and knowing the truth. Their willful refusal to allow light come into them prevent them from knowing what they ought to know. It is my candid opinion that denominational brainwashing is the primary cause of this vice in people in religion.
In Matt. 13: 14-15, Jesus Christ made reference to what God had told Isaiah about the Israelites who were largely willfully ignorant of God’s holy standards (Isa.6:9-10). According to our Lord, willingly ignorant people “will listen and listen but you will mot understand. You will look and look, but you will not really see. Yes, the minds of these people are now closed. They have ears, but they don’t listen. They have eyes, but they refuse to see. If their minds were not closed, they might see with their eyes; they might hear with their ears; they might understand with their minds. Then they might turn back to me and be healed” (Matt. 13:14-15, ERV).
Apostle Peter also talked about scoffers who delude themselves by the false opinion that life on earth continues without any threat of punishment for the ungodly and worldly-minded sinners. Apostle Peter said that they willfully or deliberately ignore the historical evidence that God had destroyed the first world with water which was the element He used to create the earth (2 Pet. 3:5). They, however, chose to forget this truth that ought to convince their hearts that the judgement day will eventually come and therefore demands their repentance from all sins and placing their faith on the Mediator between God and men.
In his commentary about the Bereans, Matthew Henry writes: “They had a freer thought, and lay more open to conviction, were willing to hear reason and admit the force of it, and to subscribe to that which appeared to them to be truth, though it was contrary to their former sentiments. This was more noble.”
The Bereans did not have the mindset that there is no new thing to be learnt from the Scripture besides the ones their leaders had taught them over the years in their synagogue. According to Matthew Henry, they opened their hearts to conviction and were prepared to accept any truth, even if it went contrary to what they had earlier learnt. They were not the kind of people who hold on to an erroneous or false doctrine earlier learnt and refuse to have the truth taught to them. What mattered to the Bereans was not the timing of the doctrines they have learnt or the popularity of such doctrines but the conviction which comes from the messages preached or taught by Paul and Silas after satisfying themselves of the scriptural support the messages had.
Looking at today’s Christians we see in many of us the disposition of heart that is greatly different from those of the Bereans. We see willful ignorance having a serious stranglehold upon the hearts of many Christians, members and pastors alike. Let us consider a few examples:
Jesus Christ said that God the Father is His Father and His God (John 20:17). He called the Father His God while He was on the earth and after His ascension into heaven (Rev. 3:12). He told us in clear, explicit words that the Father is greater than Himself (John 14:28). He called Himself the true witness (Rev. 3:14) because He is the only one who has seen the full glory of the Father. No one can tell anything about God the Father better than Himself.
All the apostles, including Paul, affirmed the supremacy of the Father over the Lord Jesus Christ. See for example, 1 Cor. 11:3;15: 27-28; 3:23; Eph. 1: 3, 17; Rom. 15:6; 2 Cor. 11: 31; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rev. 1:6. There are many scriptures which have revealed that Jesus Christ is subordinate to God the Father. It is therefore a clear sign of willful ignorance for a Christian who has read these scriptures to turn blind eyes to them and believe that the Son is coequal with the Father.
The false interpretation of Phil. 2:6 is also unacceptable. Apostle Paul did not teach the equality of Christ with God in that verse. What the apostle meant is that although Jesus Christ has the same nature as God, this sameness of essence did not make Him try to become equal with God by force. Trying to become equal with God is not the same thing as being equal with God. The Good News Bible (British usage edition of 1976) renders the verse thus: “He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should TRY TO BECOME EQUAL WITH GOD” (caps are my own emphasis).
We have also been made to know that Jesus is a God who has a God, that is, a Supreme one to whom He is subject as His God (1 Cor. 15: 24 – 28). The word “subject” (Greek: hupotasso) means subordinate, to be under obedience). God is supreme over Christ (1 Cor. 11:3, GNB). God is the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ (John 20:17; Eph. 1: 3, 17; 1 Pet. 1:3). Even after Jesus Christ had ascended to heaven and seated on the right-hand side of the Father, He still declared that the Father is His God (Rev. 3: 12) thereby affirming what the Psalmist wrote about Him that, although He is God by nature, God [the Father] is His God (Ps. 45:6, 7, words in square brackets are mine throughout).
More specifically, Jesus Christ called God His Father and His God (John 20:17; Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34) while He was still in the flesh. After His ascension, He still called Him His God (Rev. 3:12). He cannot be equal with His God. He also said that “the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28).
With all these truths availed to us, nothing but willful ignorance can be ascribed to any Christian who closes his eyes to these evidences and choose to believe in that fifth or sixth century pseudepigraphon known as the Athanasian Creed whose contents are largely at variance with biblical truth.
Jesus is not coequal with the Father because He derived His existence from the Father. This is the main reason He is called the Son of God just as the angels and Adam are also called sons of God (Job 1:6; 2:1; Luke 3:38). God, the Father, is the only being who self-existed. That is why our Lord Himself called the Father the only true God (John 17:3). The Trinitarian claim that the Father was His God only with regard to His humanhood is not very true. If this claim is true the Father will not continue to be His God after Christ’s ascension and glorification. But Jesus Christ Himself continued to refer to the Father as His God after His glorification by being made to sit at the right hand side of the Father in heaven (Rev. 3:12). God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ because the Father gave Him life. The Son is not self-existed. The fact that the Father is the only self-existed Being is why He is the One God (John 5:44; 1 Cor. 8:6; 1 Tim. 2:5).
The New Testament contains very many texts which clearly and convincingly distinguish the Son from the Father. There is hardly any page of the New Testament that does not contain at least one phrase or verse which explicitly show that the Son is a separate and distinct person from the Father.
There is no need citing many scriptures here. I will cite only a few to fulfil the biblical law of proof or evidence:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son … For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world …” (John 3:16 – 17, NIV)
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32, NIV).
“Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NIV).
“Now this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God AND Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3, NIV).
“Do not let your hearts be troubled; you believe in God, believe ALSO in Me.” (John 14:1, NKJV).
“My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28, NIV).
“God is supreme over Christ” (1 Cor. 11:3, GNB).
“But God raised Him [Jesus Christ] from the dead” (Acts 13:30, NKJV).
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation …” (Eph. 1:17, NKJV).
“and [Stephen] said, Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56, NKJV).
“Then I saw a Lamb [the Son, Jesus Christ] looking as if it has been slain standing in the center of the throne… He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne [God]” (Rev. 5: 6 -7, NIV).
“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying: The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord [God] AND of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” (Rev. 11:15, NET).
These and many other scriptures leave the Christian with no iota of doubt that God and His Son are two separate and distinct persons. When Jesus Christ said that I and the Father are one (John 10:30), it was purely in the sense that both of them are one in nature, character and purpose. It was never in the sense of the two of them being one person.
There is nothing that can be said of Modalists (or Sabellianists),who believe in one God who manifests Himself at different times as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, than to admit that they are willfully ignorant. They willfully ignore the fact that this doctrine denies the Son of God as a literal and distinct person from the Father.
Part of what John the Evangelist saw in a vision recorded in the Book of Revelation are four living creatures. There are eleven references to them. The first reference is in Rev. 4:6 while the last is found in Rev. 19:4. A pastor had taught his church that the four living creatures represent Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel) and Joseph.
In the course of my study, I discovered that Ezekiel had earlier seen these four living creatures (Ezek. 1:1-5, 13, 14; 10: 15-20) and he identified them as cherubim (Ezek. 10: 20). The burden of knowing who or what these four living beings represent has been taken off our shoulders. Scripture has interpreted scripture and this should be accepted by every sincere and truth-seeking Christians. But my beloved brother teaches his church so authoritatively that the four living creatures are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel) and Joseph.
There should be no tenable reason why anyone should ignore the biblical explanation and accept manmade theory that the four living creatures are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. It is also frivolous speculation to say that the four living creatures represent the four gospels. People who bring out frivolous and fantastic interpretations of scriptures are people driven with pride and the desire to show off the scriptural knowledge they have. They are also willfully ignorant.
The following is an excerpt from the Bible Study manual of one of the leading Pentecostal churches in Nigeria:
“The corrective ministry is not just for the local pastor, overseer or leader alone; it is the duty of every sound Christian who has a precious, living and dynamic relationship with the Lord.” (Search the Scriptures, Vol. 59, Lesson 766, “Earnestly Contending For The Truth”, page 84).
No one can fault this statement. It is, however, a statement not practicalized by the members and the leaders of the church in question. The members as well as the associate pastors of the church have been so brainwashed that they will not accept anything shown to them from the Bible and from history unless the General Superintendent or “G.S.” is agreeable to it. Almost everyone in this large church, as is the case in many other churches, lack personal convictions. Their individual minds have been taken away from them by their “father in the Lord” or “G.S.” They accept whatever the “G.S.” accepts and rejects whatever he rejects. As far as his church is concerned, he is the final authority on everything that has to do with the faith. No matter the effort to make the members see any contrary view on any issue, e.g. the popular but biblically flawed doctrine known as Rapture, it is always rejected by them with great obstinacy. Many of them have, at different times, said to me, “if what you are saying is correct, the G.S. would have known it and would have told us.” Some have said, “if you could go and see the G.S. and get him convinced about your findings, he will pass his acceptance down to us and it will be easy for us to agree with your findings.” Others have asked, “Do you mean that our G.S. can be wrong?”
These types of mindsets are the natural characteristics of churches where the leader, usually the founder, is the sole teacher of the Bible for many years and where all that is preached or taught by other pastors or teachers are handed to them with strict warning not to go outside what has been written for them to deliver to the congregation. It is therefore not a surprise to find the members’ minds conditioned to believe that the domineering leader is infallible or even all-knowing and the only one who can correctly interpret and teach God’s word. Such people will never see any error in whatever their leader teaches. That church will be a far cry from the Berean church.
Look at the churches in Nigeria and Africa today. We see heart-rending gullibility, mediocrity, laziness, leader-worship, hearts hardened by indoctrination, hypocrisy, closed-mindedness, prejudice against every other group, willful ignorance, bandwagon Christianity, et alia. The vast majority of Christians in Nigeria are exhibiting attitudes which are far short of the noble character displayed by the Bereans. For years and decades, we spend time scratching the surface of Christian doctrines which are largely distorted by our leaders. The teachers are busy dictating a mixture of true and faulty doctrines and the pastors are leading the people by their own authority and the people are pleased with the poor state of today’s churches. Many of today’s Christians are pulled about by their noses and they are satisfied with it. If Peter, Paul and the other apostles were to be alive today and see the state of the church, I suppose they will not understand what the modern churches are doing. Faith is now placed on General Overseers more than on God and His Christ.
WHY ARE WE SO MUCH UNLIKE THE BEREANS?
There are so many factors at play in the lives of today’s Christians that many of us, leaders and followers, are very much oblivious of. Some of them are the following:
Mystery of Deception
Satan is at work against Christians. He employs many strategies against the church. He weighs his strategies and employs the weapons that are most effective and lethal. He corrupts the people with conceit – a feeling that “we are alright; it is the other Christians who don’t know the truth and who are not on the way to heaven.” He makes us feel satisfied that we have known all that we need to know and there is nothing more to add. He makes us believe that all that we have learnt – Trinity, Modalism, dubious new birth, fake holy Spirit baptism, et alia, are enough and there is no need to listen to anyone from outside the group. He blows our minds by the thoughts that our group is okay and that is why we have such a large following. With these funny ideas in us, we waste no time to blow out any light that is coming to us from sources other than our leader who himself is struggling to secure his empire against competitors whom he now views as poachers or pillagers. The churches of today have become the empires of the founders who necessarily must put his flock in cages so that his rivals will not “rustle” them away. Teachings that keep the group focused on God’s kingdom have become secondary.
Let us not continue to fool ourselves. The spirit that makes Christians shut their eyes, ears and minds against correction of the errors they have imbibed is not of God. Neither can the culture in our churches which allow dictation of knowledge and reject intelligent, honest and truthful discussion of issues of our common faith lead us into having better and deeper knowledge of the truth about God and His Christ. The Evil One is happy seeing us intolerant and haughty. That is why he throws arrows of pride, prejudice, narrow-mindedness, and willful ignorance, among others, at Christians. Sadly, the indoctrinations we get from our denominational leaders have helped to keep the evil arrows unremoved from our hearts.
The mysterious power of the evil one (2 Thes. 2:7) is still very much at work today. Some modern versions of the Bible say it is at work in the world. But the church is not immune to the operation of that mysterious power of sin and of the rampant desire by Christians to swim in shallow and muddy ponds of knowledge and faith.
Dangerous Indoctrinations or Brainwashing
The poor mental attitude of Christians towards the truth and towards fellow Christians is the direct result of the dangerous indoctrinations which their leaders have engrained in them. Driven by the desire to keep or retain the followership, the leaders did not know when they cross the line into unhealthy schemes of baking their hearts hard with denominational biases, prejudice against everyone who does not belong to “our” group, mediocrity, superficiality, laziness of heart, negligence, and crass hypocrisy. This disease is dangerously widespread. Willful ignorance and gullibility is now taken for reason and watchfulness.
The ultimate result of indoctrination is that the leaders have taken the hearts or minds of the membership from them and have reduced them to dummies who can no longer reason for themselves and take responsibility on matters where God expect them to be in charge. That is why the leaders are teaching blatantly false or faulty doctrines and no one in the millions is asking any question. That is also the reason many members are now idolizing and worshipping their leaders as gods. Now, no matter the overwhelming volume of clear and convincing biblical, logical and historical facts one presents before indoctrinated Christians, they will obstinately refuse to accept the truth.
Through clever and prolonged indoctrination our leaders have succeeded in producing believers who have no hearts of their own. That is why they cannot, on their own, be convinced about what is true and what is false. Is it surprising that the churches are packed with millions of “born-again”, “spirit-filled” and “tongue-talking” Christians who are now decreeing and declaring commands but the church is not impacting positively on society? In a country like Nigeria where Christians constitute about 50 percent of the population, should Nigeria be this corrupt, callous, lawless and crime-centered?
Negligence and Indifference Toward the Truth
It may be surprising to say that we call ourselves children of God but the majority of us are indifferent to the truth. Many people who today call themselves Christians do not bother about the truth. That is why many are accepting whatever men teach them as doctrines. The vast majority of Christians, including pastors, never bother to go a bit deeper than their General Overseers have taken them. There is little or no spiritual thirst and hunger in millions of Christians today. Many of us are carrying the false belief that the General Overseer or Bishop has all the gifts of the Holy Spirit and is an infallible teacher of God’s word.
The leaders themselves have become swollen with concealed pride that they have become impervious to suggestions and biblical corrections. They enjoy giving dictations and resent discussions on what they teach. Many of them have turned the church of God to their personal establishments. Is it surprising that the Spirit of God is no longer blazing in the churches as in the days of old?
I read an article recently written by one Gavin Ortlund with the caption “Why I Changed My Mind About Baptism.” It was placed on the net by “The Gospel Coalition” after they had posed a question to several pastors, theologians and other thinkers about what doctrine or issue they have changed their minds on. This was to enable them gain a better understanding of what leads to shifts along the theological spectrum.
I was amazed by the effort made by Gavin Ortlund, who was baptized as an infant in the Church of Scotland, later becoming a Presbyterian in the USA, to arrive at the conviction about Paedobaptism (or infant baptism). I saw the desire and the determination to know and stay on the truth in his efforts. It took him many years, much discussions and reading of many books on the subject. His diligence in getting out the truth was similar to those of the Bereans. God does not leave such diligent seekers for His truth unrewarded (Heb. 11:6). His article made me know what it really means to be hungry and thirsty for the truth and how we must diligently and painstakingly dig for it.
Prejudice
If in the course of a discussion with a fellow Christian he tells you that a doctrine which you have been made to believe in is false, what will be your reaction? If in addition to what he says, he volunteers some Bible passages, explanations and historical evidence in support of his view, what will you do? Will you, like most Christians, jump to the conclusion that he has no point and therefore ignore the evidence he puts before you? If you do that, it means you are prejudiced and you do not want to take a step as a diligent seeker for the truth. I suggest you change your disposition towards such people because there are many things Christians have been taught that are either erroneous or outrightly false. Those who are prejudiced against anything coming from outside may never know the truth.
A Christian writer, Bobby K. Thompson, fascinated me with his beautiful article titled “Are There Any Bereans Today?” The following are part of what he wrote:
“Prejudice is the lock on the door of the closed mind; the ignorance we usually mistake for reason; the first enemy of information and progress; it is intellectual stigmatism; a perfect combination of conceit [pride] and ignorance. Prejudice never saved a soul, nor settled any question in the light of truth and justice. It is the defense of the devil, the shell of a petrified mind and the ceiling on understanding.” Word in bracket is mine.
To this I will add that Christian leaders who have prejudiced their followers against materials or opinions coming from outside their group have done them no good at all. They short-circuit the mental and spiritual development of their followers. Satan will always outwit Christians who are closed-minded and prejudiced because while the leaders intended for them to close the doors of their hearts against falsehood, the doors will also be shut against light that is coming into them. All the Christians who were prejudiced by their leaders against materials or books produced by other Christians have never been better Christians. They always remain caged by their leaders or denominations. They revel in the errors of their leaders and they always remain mediocre Christians who, though are always studying, are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
We must all have the knowledge that God is always at work to lead all sincere truth-seekers into all truth by means of His holy Spirit dwelling in them. No satanic force is greater than the power of God working in the life of the truthful, faithful, sincere and humble Christian who is diligently digging for the truth (John 8:32, 36; 10:28, 29).
Conceit
Conceit means too much pride in one’s own worth, goodness or abilities. It is an exaggerated ego or opinion of oneself. A person who has this attitude in him is said to be conceited. In the King James Bible, it is called vainglory (Phil. 2:3).
Like individuals, a Christian group can be conceited if the vice is the characteristic found in their leaders and most of them. They see themselves as the best of Christians, but in reality, they know nothing and they are superficial. These are the kinds of groups where you will hear their leaders say, “Where else will you find a good church like this where we teach the word of God line upon line, precept upon precept?” At times the leaders will say, “In this church we will continue to uphold the high standard of holiness. There is no other church where they preach holiness the way we do.” But there is a line that separates preaching from practice. In these kinds of churches, we have found out that many of the members are not living the radiant, vibrant, and exuberant Christian life. Many of them are ignorant of many truths and the leaders are, in many cases, bunglers of biblical truth. Very often, the members know next to nothing because their leaders have mesmerized them like Simon Magus did to the Samaritans before Philip came to liberate them with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ from his stranglehold on their hearts and psyche.
In denominations where vainglorious messages are repeatedly drummed into the ears of the members while at the same time other groups are badmouthed, most of the members become conceited and look down on others and whatever opinions they hold. Members of such groups will never act like the Bereans. They will be Pharisaic in spirit and in their behaviours. Proverbs 30:13 says, “Some people are so proud of themselves, and they look down on everyone else” (ERV). They are so conceited that they believe they are the best of Christians but in reality they are not at all better than many others.
Let all Christians come down from the towers of pride and prejudice and let us learn to listen to one another. Let us put on humility as a garment and discuss the issues that concern our common faith honestly and truthfully. If a man has a scientific formula which he has developed, he has every right to protect it as his own intellectual property. But the word of God is not our intellectual property. We should therefore remove from us every vain disposition and be willing to accept the opinion which logically, textually and exegetically aligns with the Bible. We should convince ourselves that none of us knows it all. None of us has all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Only our Lord Jesus Christ, in His humanity, had all the gifts. None of us is an infallible teacher. Only Christ is. Let no one fool himself by thinking that he knows everything or that his group has the perfect interpretation.
Until we become like the Bereans, Satan will continue to have the better of us and we may never experience revival as in the days of old when they were humble and approached God’s throne as little children and not as conceited Pharisees who looked so highly on themselves but were seen by heaven as graves full of rottenness. Until we become like the Bereans, we may continue to revel in false hope and become damned on the day of judgement.
If the Spirit of God is indeed in us, it will not be difficult for us to honestly and humbly thrash out contentious issues. There will hardly be any subject in which we agree to disagree. It will become easy for all Christians to attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of God and His only begotten Son. It is only by having the mindset of the Bereans that we all can arrive at the truth which has not been hidden by God but has been twisted by men who lacked insight into the scriptures.
