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"Take
Heed" Ministries
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Cecil Andrews, PO BOX 13, Ballynahinch, BT24 8AL, Northern Ireland. Telephone/Fax 028 9756 5511. E-MAIL - takeheed@aol.com WEBSITE - http://www.takeheed.net |
‘Sowing and sleeping’
In Matthew 13:24-30 the Lord told a parable that is known as the parable of the wheat and the tares. It tells of how a man sowed good seed [‘wheat’] in his field but whilst his servants were sleeping an enemy came along and sowed corrupt seed [‘tares] and then went his way. As harvest approached it was only then that the true identity of the ‘tares’ amongst the ‘wheat’ was noticed. The Lord later in the chapter gives a full explanation of the parable to His disciples in verses 36-43.
The Lord identified this parable
as a picture of ‘the Kingdom of Heaven’. Currently the future citizens of ‘the
Kingdom of Heaven’ [‘wheat’] are being rescued from their sin and its
condemnation through the preaching of the ‘good seed’ of the true gospel and
the ‘germinating’ work of God the Holy Spirit. The task of preaching the true
gospel has been committed to the members of God’s true Church that is to be
“the pillar and ground of the truth” [1st Timothy 3:15].
Even in the first century, God’s
enemy, Satan, was seeking to sow ‘corrupt’ seed [‘tares’] via false ‘gospels’
in order to deceive and destroy people by convincing them that they had
believed God’s gospel and were part of His true church. Many of the New
Testament epistles contain warnings to God’s people, especially those in
leadership positions, to be constantly on their guard against the corrupt
‘gospels’ of false teachers.
Sadly, as a result of the work of
these false teachers, many people will discover to their eternal sorrow and
loss that unlike the ‘wheat’ [true believers’] that will be gathered into God’s
barn at harvest time [see Matthew 13:30 & 43] they will be ‘bundled and
burnt] [sent to everlasting punishment in hell – see Matthew 13: 30 &
40-42].
Earlier I referred to corrupt seed
that results in ‘tares’ and in recent times here in Belfast [4th-6th
April] I believe that such corrupt seed has sadly been sown and I fear that as
a result many more ‘tares’ will sprout
up, mix in church circles [see Matthew 13:30] and will only discover how they
have been deceived when Christ returns to harvest His ‘wheat’.
The Lord identifies ‘the field’ of
verse 24 as ‘the world’ [see verse 38]. The ‘good seed’ He sows [verse 24] are
‘sons of the kingdom’ [true believers – see verse 38] but the corrupt seed sown
by the enemy [verse 25] are ‘sons of the wicked one’ [unbelievers deceived by
Satan – see verses 38-39].
Over the weekend of 4th-6th
April 2008 an initiative called ‘Celebration of Hope’ featuring Franklin
Graham, son of Billy Graham, was held at the Odyssey Arena in downtown Belfast.
It attracted very large numbers and herewith are snippets from coverage by one
newspaper –
‘Tares’ appear as a result of
‘false gospels’ being preached so how do I assess the ‘gospel’ message that
would have been preached by Franklin Graham? On Sunday 6th April,
stand-in presenter Will Leitch interviewed Franklin Graham on Radio Ulster’s
‘Sunday Sequence’ programme.
Without going into all the details
but based on the interview I would simply summarise the ‘gospel’ message
presented by Franklin Graham as a re-run of his father’s crusading
‘easy-believism gospel mantra’ that is condensed into a few phrases such as
‘God wants to have a relationship with you: God loves you; Christ died for you
but you have to invite him in’.
Some of the preliminaries at the
meetings were described to mark the contrast between this current event and his
father, Billy Graham’s visit here in the 1960’s. At this event there was Irish
traditional dancing and contemporary and rock ‘Christian’ music. In the
interview claims were made that 150 people had become Christians at the Friday
night meeting and on the Saturday, a day very much devoted to young people,
Franklin Graham claimed that “2000 (kids) MADE DECISIONS for Christ” and added
“ I enjoy preaching…it’s so much FUN to be able to tell people that God loves
them” and earlier he declared “God loves everyone who is listening right now [to
the radio interview] – he has a plan and purpose for their life”. It all
sounds so wonderful and appealing – but is it an accurate reflection of what
God’s Word, the Bible teaches?
Before I answer that let me state
that I have a close personal Christian friend who was converted by God when he
attended a Billy Graham crusade meeting in Belfast many years ago – the
evidence of a true Holy Spirit work of regeneration is everywhere evident in
his life.
Sadly I have another friend who,
having watched a televised Billy Graham meeting, ‘made his decision’ but today
his life shows precious little if any evidence of a true work of regeneration
by the Holy Spirit. This last sad scenario has also been the experience of
Christian friends who have done door-to-door evangelistic work in Northern
Ireland. Regularly on doorsteps they have met people who have no real interest
in ‘things spiritual’ but yet profess to be Christians on the basis of having
‘made a decision for Christ’ earlier in their lives and in many cases at the
meetings held by Billy Graham.
Is it right to tell everyone,
everywhere that God loves them and that Christ died for them. It is certainly true
that “Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners” [1st
Timothy 1:15] but did He come to save everyone? The angelic message to
Joseph was “thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save HIS PEOPLE from
their sins” [Matthew 1:21]. In John 10:27-28 the Lord said “My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them
eternal life and they shall never perish”.
In the verse preceding this [in
verse 26] the Lord made this challenging statement to the Jews who had been
asking Him to answer whether or not He was ‘the Christ’ – He said “But ye
believe not because ye are not of my sheep”. That probably doesn’t sound
right to those who proclaim their ‘easy-believism gospel message’ – they would
probably want to rephrase it as the Lord saying ‘Ye are not of my sheep
because ye believe not’ yet the Lord says exactly the opposite. He says
they do not believe because they are not His sheep. If they were His
sheep, they would believe. Christ’s sheep really believe. Those who are
not Christ’s sheep really do not believe. The Bible truth is that unless
someone is a sheep of Christ, they cannot believe.
Should this Bible truth impact on
how the gospel is preached? I believe it should – I believe it rules out and
should prohibit faithful preachers suggesting that sinful man has an ability to
‘make a decision’ and so become a true Christian. That message attributes to
man an ability to assist in his own salvation and I believe that it is
responsible for many of the woes that beset professing Christendom.
In the ranks of the professing
church are I believe many sincere, but misguided and still unregenerate people
who have been deceived into thinking they have become Christians through
‘making a decision’ – one of the results of this is that false teaching can so
much more easily infiltrate the professing Church because many within its ranks
do not possess Holy Spirit discernment to recognise the errors being
introduced.
How has this situation arisen?
Going back to the parable the Lord said, “while men slept, his [Christ’s]
enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat”. Over the last few hundred
years in particular God’s evangelical people have ‘slept’ and allowed men to
come in and preach ‘another gospel which is not another’ [Galatians 1:6-7] –
they encourage sinners to place ‘their faith’ in Christ by ‘making their
decision’ – the reality is that saving ‘faith’ is a gracious gift from God as
we read in Ephesians 2:8 and is given to those whom the Holy Spirit sovereignly
regenerates.
In the run-up to this Franklin
Graham ‘Celebration of Hope’ event I was asked to speak in a church on the
concerns that I had about it. As part of my presentation I quoted from a little
booklet called ‘Decisional Regeneration’ by an American pastor, James
E Adams. I want now to include here in this article the sections I quoted
in my talk and my sincere prayer is that God will awaken His people so that the
activities of Satan will be discerned and exposed to the light of God’s truth.
‘In the nineteenth century few
controversies were so heated as the one over Baptismal Regeneration…Baptismal
Regeneration teaches that the “new birth” is conveyed by the waters of baptism.
The sacrament is performed by man and is in his control. But the twentieth [and now
21st] century Church has in “DECISIONAL REGENERATION” a more
subtle falsehood to combat. “Decisional Regeneration” differs from Baptismal
Regeneration only in the fact that it attaches the certainty of the “new birth”
to a different act. This doctrine, just as Baptismal Regeneration, sees the
“new birth” as the result of a mechanical process that can be performed by
man…”Decisional Regeneration”… prescribes a counselling procedure…There are
many variations of this type of counselling, but they all have in common a mechanical
element such as the repeating of a prayer or signing of a card upon the
performance of which the individual is assured of his/her salvation…
The counselling of “Decisional
Regeneration” produces statistics that would encourage any Christian – until he
follows up the so-called converts. In one heartbreaking experience forty
“converts” of such counselling were contacted and only one person of these
forty was found who appeared to be a Christian… C H Spurgeon invited men to
come to Christ, not an altar…Invitations such as Spurgeon gave directing men to
Christ and not to aisles are needed today. “Just as I am” the precious hymn
perhaps most frequently sung for the altar call, was written in 1836 by
Charlotte Elliott:
But that
Thy blood was shed for me,
And that
thou bid’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of
God, I come, I come.
The phrase “O Lamb of God, I come,
I come” has been widely used to encourage people to “come” down the aisle. But
it is significant that Miss Elliott wrote the hymn for the infirm and that it
first appeared in a hymnal prepared especially for invalids. [John
Julian: A Dictionary of Hymnology: London 1907: p 609] To Miss
Elliott, coming to Christ was not walking an aisle…Men need to be reminded
today that coming to Christ is not walking an aisle…
“Decisional Regeneration” does not
bring men to Christ any more than does Baptismal Regeneration. It is true that
some are converted under such preaching but this is in spite of the false
methods used, not because of them [Cecil’s comment – And sadly
multitudes are deceived into thinking that they have been converted through
such false methods]…True repentance and saving faith come as a result
of the “new birth” and are never the cause of the great change.
Repentance and faith are the acts of regenerated men, not of men dead
in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1&5)…The apostles taught that God
saves His elect through the foolishness of preaching. All new methods devised
by man can only fall far short of this ordained means of converting the sinner…
J H Merle d’Aubigne (1794-1872) in
his history of the Reformation in England states: “To believe in the power
of man in the work of regeneration is the great heresy of Rome and from that
error has come the ruin of the Church”…One of the greatest American
theologians, Charles Hodge (1797-1878) also points out the danger of this
teaching: “No more soul-destroying doctrine could well be devised than the
doctrine that sinners can regenerate themselves and repent and believe just when
they please”…
Can a man be “born again” by answering, “yes” to a certain group of questions? Can a man be “born from above” by walking to the front of a building? Can a man become a true Christian by responding to an invitation as a result of being crept up on unawares? What is man’s spiritual state? Man is spiritually “dead in trespasses and sins” [Ephesians 2:1] and “cannot please God” [Romans 8:8]. A man cannot make himself a Christian. Only the Spirit of God can create a new man in Christ. God in His grace gives men new hearts (see Ezekiel 36:26-27). Only then can they willingly repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ…
The greatness of God’s power in saving sinners can only be seen against the background of man’s desperate condition. What a glorious doctrine is the “new birth” to the helpless sinner! It is not a time to be silent; it is time to speak out…with every passing week thousands are being counselled into a false hope! Men are directed to walk aisles when they should be pointed to Christ alone… In the midst of this darkness let us pray that God may be pleased to revive His Church again…Men must turn afresh to His directions for counselling, to His free invitation to sinners and to the preaching of His gospel. Only then will our labours bring glory to God: and if God grants, many sinners will be converted for His glory.’
Let me refer back again to
something Franklin Graham said in the course of the radio interview when he
stated - “God loves everyone who is listening right now [to the radio
interview] – he has a plan and purpose for their life”. I wonder at
the meetings did Franklin Graham explain fully that God’s “plan and purpose”
for His true people may involve them being hated and martyred for the sake of
His truth.
That was God’s “plan and
purpose” for all but one of Christ’s chosen disciples. That was His “plan
and purpose” for hundreds that suffered violent deaths either by
fire or by circus-lion under the Roman Emperor, Nero. That was His “plan and
purpose” for countless thousands that suffered cruel, tortuous
deaths at the hands of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the dark and middle ages
– martyrdom that his father, Billy Graham and his Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association ‘hushed up’ by removing and eradicating from the pages of the Henry
Halley Bible Commentary entitled Pocket Bible Handbook when they
acquired the printing rights to it for a 1962 Billy Graham Crusade. They
deliberately erased the documented record of Rome’s butchery of groups like the
Waldenses and the Huguenots.
That has been His “plan and
purpose” for countless, often unreported, Christians that have been
murdered in recent decades for His sake under the ideology of Islam –
Christians such as Pastor Necati Aydin, his fellow Turkish convert, Ugur Yuksel
and their friend, a German missionary called Tilmann Geske. Thinking they were
going to hold a Bible class with a number of young Turkish Moslems they in fact
were going to be killed for the sake of Christ in a very violent,
Koran-directed way by those same Moslems on 18th April 2007.
Would it really be so much “fun”,
as Franklin Graham phrased, it if he were to spell out the reality
of what it means to be a Christian in a world that hates God, hates His Christ
and hates His true people? This ‘Celebration of Hope’ will I fear, in the
fullness of time, bring much eternal despair to many who have ‘made their
decision’ on the basis of the message conveyed at these meetings.
In conclusion, let me also say
that a mark of being a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Holy
Spirit given ability to not only discern error and false teaching but to
separate from it. The Apostle John addresses this extensively in 2nd
John. Regrettably this is an ability that neither Billy Graham nor his son
Franklin have demonstrated, particularly when it comes to the erroneous and
false Roman Catholic system headed up by the papal antichrist.
According to a report of a 2nd
April, 2005 American TV interview that Billy Graham had with Larry King, Billy
Graham apparently stated that because of his own ill-health Franklin was going
to represent him at the installation of Pope Benedict XVI and his daughter Ann
would represent him at the funeral of Pope John Paul 11.That is a collective ‘fruit’
of their ministries and concerning the ‘false prophets’ of Matthew
7:15 the Lord said in Matthew 7:20 “by their fruits YE SHALL KNOW THEM”.
A little phrase from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, although primarily
intended as an exhortation to unbelievers, also seems very appropriate for many
of God’s people today - “Awake thou that sleepest” [Ephesians 5:14].
Cecil
Andrews – ‘Take Heed’ Ministries – 8th April 2008