Conflict, Attrition and Consumerism

Posted by Michael Bunker
editor@lazarusunbound.com

“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:12-13)

January 9, 2005 – This article is an excerpt from “The Process Driven Life” book, coming soon….

“Bunker, there’s way too much conflict in your ministry; too many people signing on and then getting cross-ways with you; too many folks with too much bad stuff to say about you.  It seems that the fruit of your ministry is schism and conflict.”

What saith the scripture?

“And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known” (Matthew 10:21-26).

If it will be with the disciple as it was with the Lord… how was it with the Lord?

“But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?” (John 6:64-67).

Prophecy unto me smooth things

Most people will have a preacher or teacher who scratches their itching ears (2 Tim 4:3-4).  They will have a teacher who fascinates, intrigues or who entertains - like a dinner magician who constantly comes up with new tricks.  They will forever keep a teacher who scolds them and chides them, but what they will not ever accept is a teacher who attempts to reform them.  People will be preached at, so long as they are not expected to ever really change.  They will embrace conversation so long as it never gets too close to renovation.  They will assimilate the lexicon of true Christianity, just so they can continue to lie to themselves about experiencing Christianity.

The last thing people will ever have is a teacher who doesn’t:

1.     Covet their money,

2.     Pretend to place a high value on their opinions

3.     Throw up fences to keep them in

4.     Bend when pressure is applied

5.     Tread lightly around their self-deceptions

Some people like a vigorous, aggressive preacher – so long as he is beating up on someone else.

You are NOT ok.

Our culture rewards self-deception.  Self-deception is an integral and necessary component of the self-esteem cult – the greatest and most damnable lie of the last days.  From the womb children are taught lies about themselves; lies about their innate value, lies about their history and lies about true religion.  Most of these lies they subconsciously know are not true, but inevitably the lie is ingrained through repetition.

They see the lies on movies, on television, on the radio – and they are told the lie by their parents, friends and society.  The so-called “christian” ones imbibe the social gospel of our modernist times, a phenomenally brilliant lie concerning the fundamental nature of their eternal address.  They accept lies that fly directly in the face, and are contrary to, the teaching of Scripture, and they have no fear of doing so because they have believed other lies about the very nature and character of God.  The result?  Salved consciences, peaceful anesthetized souls with no fear of God.  One day – when they do finally come face to face with the eternal Creator of the world on judgment day, they will lie to themselves once again about why they believed the other lies in the first place.  When they do hear a sermon, scripture, or a teaching that condemns them, they lie to themselves and say that surely God is always talking about someone else.  Why, they have to, lest their delusional house of cards come tumbling down around them.

The hardest thing a man will ever do is to confront the lies he has told himself ABOUT himself.  There is no greater stronghold of the devil than self-deception.  The constant desire to save face, to be needed or considered important, to be recognized, honored, respected; to always do what the culture expects and what society requires… these desires are the prideful ramparts of self-deception.  No man ever served two masters.  Men, puffed up in their minds, useless to the kingdom because they cannot see past what they already think – filtering God’s precious Word through the sieve of what they have always thought, or twisting it just enough to make what they already do to be the minimum requirement of Christianity.  Everyone worse than them is lost; everyone better than them is saved.  Anything – so long as they are ok.

The Devil is skilled and trained immaculately in the deceits of men’s hearts.  Christianity was once just as skilled at exposing and overturning such deceits.  But modernist so-called “christianity” has mastered the defense of self-deception; it’s about enabling liars, religious atheists and un-reformed, unregenerate, religiousites to carry faux crosses while they follow the plastic Jesus they have created in their own minds.  Of religious atheists, Thomas Shepard, the great Puritan preacher and colonist said that they were:

“atheists in practice, which say there is a God, and question it not, but in works they deny him.  He that plucks the king from his throne is as vile as he that saith he is no king.  These men are almost as bad as atheists in opinion.  And of such dust heaps we may find in every corner, that in their practice deny God; men that set up other gods in God’s room; their wealth, their honor, their pleasure, their backs and bellies to be their gods; men that make bold to do that against this true God which idolaters dare not do against their idol gods; and that is, continually to wrong this God; men that seek not for all they want by prayer, nor return all back again to God by praise.” (Thomas Shepard, The Sincere Convert, works, volume 1, page 13)

Modernist “christians”, especially those who call themselves part of God’s remnant, refuse to examine their own self-deceptions – and instead will make a show of separatism, or of the words of holiness and righteousness, without substantively changing anything in their own lives; and they will only have and support a preacher who enables their self-lies.  But a true Christian ministry must constantly expose to the people of God their transgressions, so that they might find solace, grace and mercy only in the Jesus Christ who justifies, instead of by hiding in the caves and caverns of their own self-deceptions.  Any gospel preached which offers comfort, grace and solace without unconditional surrender and acquiescence to the requirements of God, is anathematized by the Bible.  Pay close attention:

“Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:3-8).

It is a false gospel that offers comfort to those who are not delivered from this present evil world.  It is a false gospel that offers separation only, finally, in heaven.  Paul specifically warns against a false, social gospel that fails to separate God’s children from the evil world.

The words of Thomas Shepard, related above, were preached to a comparatively pious and righteous people.  These people had founded their new colony on the Word of God, and their worldview did not allow for the diverse understandings that abound today.  I will tell you that, very likely, not one person reading this would have been qualified for (or accepted into) communion in Mr. Shepard’s church.  Mr. Shepard is here calling active, religious Puritans “atheists in practice”.  These were people who had left their homes and families to brave the high seas for separation.  These were people who lost children and wives during the voyage, all because they believed in fleeing into the wilderness rather than conforming to practices they felt were unbiblical and unlawful.  Almost every single Puritan, to whom Mr. Shepard addresses this statement, was a pious, religious separatist – who had forsaken riches and worldly possessions for the sake of seeking godliness.  What would he say of us?

Preach not to me, minister.  I’ll reform my life when circumstances allow.

It seems that most people want a preacher with so many motes in his own eyes that he will be forever too blind or too afraid to remove the beam from theirs.  If the preacher is actually brave enough to touch on separatism, piety and righteousness – then they will find or create some more “motes” in his eyes in order to protect their own blindness in perpetuity.

Self-deception.

“You’re not perfect preacher, so don’t preach the threats and warnings of God to me.  I’ll let you preach, just don’t preach at ME.”

An internal dialogue between Conscience and Deception:

Conscience:  He is right, I am filthy and wicked.  I know what is right to do, but I don’t do it (James 4:17).

Deception:  Oh stop it.  We are better than other men.  We do not go to a wicked Church, or partake in foolish religious traditions like the Papists and the Charismatics.  We gave up some holidays, didn’t we?  We are reading this article… we must be better than others.

Conscience: We are not better; we are far worse, for we are liars and hold ourselves out as that which we are surely not.  Hypocrisy is worse than tradition, because while tradition makes the Word of God of no effect, Hypocrisy lies about the effect, and in so doing entraps others.

Deception:  Separation, Community, and Piety – these things smack of legalism, and they are not conformable to our modern day lives at all.  Let the preacher lead the way into the wilderness, and after he has done it for a whole lifetime, I will one day follow.

Conscience:  God will not judge on the standard of the preacher, but on the standard of His Word.  If the preacher is preaching the Word of God, we are obliged to obey.  Obedience is never legalism.  Obedience is an evident sign of the gifts of faith, grace and belief.  Our modern days are indeed wicked, and it is difficult to see how Separatism can work in such evil days; but we can be sure that the wickeder the hour, the more necessary separatism is.  We are slaves of our lusts and not of our times.  When we schedule our future plans to obey, we are secretly planning to never obey.

Deception:  I do want to obey, but cannot because of my circumstances.  I have made plans in my mind to follow the Good Shepherd withersoever He goeth, and to flee Sodom as the scripture commands – but God will have to make some things happen first so that I can do what I should.

Conscience:  Lies of a liar.  You will always find a ready ship going to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3), but it takes either hard work or the belly of the fish to get to Nineveh.  You will ever find the road smooth and paved which maintains the status quo; but you must go off road and labor to enter into the Lord’s true rest.  Once again, you can never “make plans” to obey.  If you are waiting for your circumstances, then you have made your circumstances your God – and no man may serve two masters.

Deception:  You say I cannot serve two masters?  Then I will certainly not have two preachers either.  I must either silence YOU or I must silence my preacher; unless maybe I can kill two birds with one stone.  I can avoid the preacher… show up every once in awhile and apologize for my busy schedule.  The preacher can be ignored; he’s not the boss of me anyway.  I can stop going to meetings and forsake the gathering of God’s elect altogether, or even better yet, I can nod at him and tell him how moved I am to action.  I will show up, sign up… even pay up for a little while and maybe he will get off my case.  I’ll tell him I want to do right, and that I want to be reformed, and that I must pray for God’s strength and the faith to do right.  Both of my teachers will fade away if I play my cards right, and still I will have done nothing.

All those who choose to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12), but don’t you worry – you are likely immune.  You can remain persecution-proof by staying in the world.  Maybe, if you play your cards right you can drum up some fake persecution and have the best of both worlds.  Just forward some emails around about how outraged (OUTRAGED!) you are that someone banned Christmas trees from the courthouse, and won’t let Johnny pray in school.  Instant PERSECUTION!

Modernist Christianity is enamored with a social gospel, and most who consider themselves to be true, spiritual, remnant Christians are too stupid or too lazy to figure out where one gospel ends and another begins.  The false, social gospel is the one preached by the pied-pipers of the “church” today; and it is not only social, it is fascistic, synchronistic and it absolutely signs off on the biggest evils of the world, while condemning lesser crimes.  This false gospel is forwarded around the world at light speed via email by every self-deceived religious atheist with enough manual dexterity to work a keyboard.  Here’s what they want:

1.)                       Prayer in Schools.  Forget the criminal, evil and unbiblical nature of public schooling – let’s have prayer in there!

2.)                       The Ten Commandments in Courthouses.  It’s much easier than having them written on your heart or practiced in your home.

3.)                       Censorship on TV.  Let’s clean up TV and movies so they can be what they used to be… mental crutches that entertain your brain so you don’t have to talk to God or train up your family.

4.)                       Violent suppression of dissenting opinion.  The right to shut up anyone who disagrees while maintaining the right to exist as a persistent victim class and to yell “persecution” when someone who asserts their own rights actually opposes them.  Statism and Fascism are only good when the right “christians” are in charge.

The social, political gospel won’t accept wholesale changes in worldview, or the burning down of old idols; rather, it will have the old idols whitewashed, swept clean and polished up, just like in the old days

The “Wannabe” who never was

It’s easy to want to mentally affiliate with, or to feel affinity towards, the remnant; hundreds (even thousands) tried it during Christ’s ministry, and we see it throughout Paul’s ministry as well.  The remnant is a smaller club and it would seem that it is easier to get noticed, to feel a part, to feel good about participating.  But the remnant is made up of real Christians, not pretenders or religious atheists looking for a smaller club to need them.

‘The chief end of man is to glorify God’.  God’s purpose in His church is to glorify Jesus Christ through them.  The church, then, as the Body of Christ, naturally and biologically has as their primary desire the glorification of God.  The “wannabe” has as his primary goal all the mechanisms involved in maintaining his or her self-deception; respect, honor, position, approval, consumption, etc.  The wannabe never was.

The wannabe is known by his disposition and by the focus of his appetite.  The wannabe has a consumer mentality, always thinking of self first and weighing every thought, decision or issue based on how it will affect him personally.  The wannabe can not ever really accept that there are those who are not in it for themselves alone, so he learns to fake it like he thinks they do… say the same words, nod at things that sound right, but always angle for self first.  The wannabe will volunteer and serve when he will be noticed, will sacrifice when he stands to gain in the long run, will act humble at the right times, and will even tear up if the situation requires.  But there are ways to identify the wannabe.  The wannabe will NEVER help in private, will never sacrifice when there is nothing to be gained, and will NEVER apologize or humble himself unless he sees it as a means to another end.  The wannabe will be the first to applaud and the first to “hurrah” someone who is actually in the fight, but he will grow very angry, righteously indignant and combative if he is ever exposed and when he knows that the gig is up.

Consumerism

Modern “christianity” is just reformulated consumerism, and the so-called “remnant” community is no different from the rest of the world.  Get everything for free just like you did with the TV and radio back when you were in the world.  Get all you can of it, but get it for free.  Eat it up, graze, swallow what you like and spit out the rest.  I have been going out of my way for years to maintain a very small email list.  I’ve always wanted a small, intense, true-believer email list of activists.  Fat consumers and curious web trolls need not apply.  I never saw any value to having a 2000 person mailing list.  When my email list was that big, nothing ever changed.  I just got more hate mail, ruder “unsubscribes”, more unsolicited opinions and more headaches.  Even today, with our radically pared down email list – I don’t know 1 out of 30 people on the list.  Who is it that never communicates with their teacher?  Who is it that consumes endlessly without ever thinking twice about it?  I have people on my email list who have been on there for 3 years and I have never heard from them once.  No donation, no prayer of encouragement, no communication at all.  Then, when I finally get close to their private, personal sacred cow, they will make a BIG DEAL out of unsubscribing so I can know just what I have lost….

Conflict and Attrition

Christianity is about conflict.  Christianity on this earth involves a conflict of worldviews, societies and of kingdoms.  Christ came to bring a sword and not peace to the world.  The world preaches a conflict-less “christianity”.

Attrition is the gradual loss or diminution in number or personnel because of constant stress.  Stress, heat and pressure make steel harder, and coal into diamonds.  Stress separates the chaff from the wheat, and stress must be applied to fight off wolves.  Conflict and Attrition are hallmarks of a true Christian ministry, and when combined with a true love for the brethren, proper Biblical doctrine, and fruit, are the signs of the works of God being worked out in His Body.

We should follow peace with all men with whom we have true communion, and exhort one another to maintain our purity of the faith and of the Gospel once handed to the Saints.

“For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:18-29).

The Apostle to the Hebrews writes that God once shook the Church of Israel (earthly Jerusalem), because the people would not hear Him, and would not heed what His commandments required of them, for they could not bear them.  Then the Apostle promises that God will once again shake not just the earth, but the heavens as well, for the express purpose of removing all that can be shaken.  Those that will not be shaken have received a kingdom which cannot be moved.  They should proceed to serve our separated, holy and righteous God with reverence and godly fear, for He is a consuming fire to pretenders and religious atheists.  What we have in these verses is a “parallelism”, which promises that the first shaking was based on the refusal of the people who are called by His name to trust Him and follow Him and obey Him.  The first shaking was a shadow, and in it, only the mountain was shaken.  In the violent shaking that will shake the professing “church”, both the heavens AND the earth will be shaken; meaning that both the carnal world and the spiritual world will be shaken.  The parallelism ties the shaking to the same cause – because those that are called by God’s name will not obey Him, will not hear Him, and will not follow Him.

It is time for those who are the remnant Church of the risen Lord Jesus Christ to oppose the social gospel, dump consumerism and accept that conflict and attrition are part of the shaking that God has promised.

I am your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

 
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