November 10, 2002 - About these verses in Luke's Gospel, the great Puritan writer John Gill said,

"...To "strive", is to be diligent in the use of means; to search the Scriptures with care; to attend on the preaching of the word with constancy, neglecting no opportunity; to pray earnestly for spiritual light, knowledge, and grace; to contend with every enemy that opposes the salvation of the soul, as sin, Satan, and the world; to bear all reproaches and persecutions, and press through all difficulties, for the prize of the incorruptible crown."

In this endeavor we find that we are constantly called to self-examination, even more so when the accusations of worldlings grow loud in our ears, and when our ministry is called into account, and our message violently railed against - that we be not offenders, or so that we do not callously or casually afflict those for whom Christ died.  And when we find our conscience clear and our calling to be sure, we follow the example of the Apostle Paul who, when questioned by the Corinthians about whether Christ was truly speaking through him (2 Cor. 13:3), responded lively that it was the Corinthians who were in need of self examination:

"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" - 2 Corinthians 13:5

And so Paul, who preached unto them with a clear conscience and an unmistakable calling, demanded that the Corinthians stand in judgment of themselves, that if they heard not the voice of Christ in the ministry of the Gospel, then it was evident that they were not believers at all, but were reprobates from the faith.

A Time of Grief and Rejoicing

Since I have returned from Australia, I have rejoiced in the fruitful work accomplished there by God's Grace and Mercy, and have also have taken the opportunity to examine my own behavior and teaching in light of the many accusations made against me and this ministry over the last year and a half.  The accusations that I am "harsh", a "schismatic", an "attacker of the brethren", and even more base charges of being a "jerk", "impossible to get along with", and "brutal", have reached such a cacophonous din that I almost thought it better to even further remove myself from any sort of personal speaking or oral teaching ministry so as to insulate myself and my family from such accusations.

When I returned from Australia, I immediately traveled to Florida to work on the new Australia website and to fellowship with one of my true brothers in Christ.   During the 20 hour drive down to Florida, I spent many hours in prayer and supplication to the Lord so that I could come to understand His will for my future ministry.  If my flesh were my lord, I would certainly love nothing more than to cease from all strivings, leave the public ministry altogether and get a secular job that would afford me some comfort peace and anonymity which (it is admitted) has lately been my carnal desire.  Certainly, although liars and reprobates have made such charges, a cursory examination of my life and ministry will prove that we are not in this for the money, nor would my personal behavior be conducive to such an end if money were a priority of mine.  I have always found it ironic that the very people who accuse me of trying to "build a following", or to "fleece the flock", are the same ones who also accuse me of abusive, divisive, schismatic and abrasive behavior.  Strange, is it not?  Anyway, such were my thoughts and prayers as I drove towards Florida.

As I passed through Southern Mississippi, I saw a faded, old billboard that announced:

Reformed Tape Library

5^th Street, Mount Olive

I made a mental note to try to stop there on the way home, if I could find the place, and IF it was still in operation.

While in Florida, I discussed my condition with my friend, and he was helpful and supportive about the issue.  After our work was done there, I began the two-day drive home.

Paradise in Mount Olive

I found Mount Olive, Mississippi with very little trouble, and found the Reformed Tape Library right off of 5^th street as advertised.  On the window of the old building was written the words:

Sola Gratia (Grace Alone)

Sola Fide (Faith Alone)

Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone)

I knew that this was a place for me!

The Reformed Tape Library is actually a small bookstore that sells Grace oriented books, and offers Reformed theological audiotapes for rental through the mails.  The hundreds of books available were a treasure trove of solid biblical/doctrinal teachings from days past.  I was virtually broke and traveling on credit cards since the web site, travel, rental car, gas and expenses were actually a donation to the Australian ministry.  I had about $80 cash on me, so I spent $67 on some AWESOME books:

1. The Preachers of Scotland, by William G. Blaikie
   
2. Tactics of Christian Resistance — Geneva Divinity School, Tyler, Texas, 1983
3. The Great Awakening, A History of the Revival of Religion in the time of Edwards and Whitefield, by Joseph Tracy,1842
   
4. Arthur W. Pink, Born to Write — A Biography, by Richard P. Belcher
   
5. Jonathan Edwards — A New Biography, by Iaian H. Murray.

Particularly the biography of A.W. Pink was a blessing for me to find.  I have been so moved, and edified by Pink's writings that I really wanted to know more about the man who wrote SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD.  I knew that Pink was once called "The most hated man on three continents", and I knew that he had been horribly received and treated in Australia, as well as in the United States and in England.

But I could not know how particularly I was going to be blessed by this book until after I had finished it two days later.  First, some points:

1. The book was written by a Bible College professor who is obviously somewhat fond of the Doctrines of Grace as preached by Pink — but in my humble opinion is TOTALLY incapable of rightly judging Pink or his behavior due to Belcher's participation in the failed and apostate ecclesiastical/theological system that portrays itself as “Christian” today.  Pink hated and excoriated seminaries and Bible colleges, and rightly condemned them and their product.   The defensiveness of Belcher in this regard is palpable.
2. Belcher is also a compromiser and as such is one of the "Christians" that Pink so often condemned. His defensiveness in this regard is also palpable.
3. However, it is due to the authors defensiveness that he included so many quotes by Pink to "prove his point", and it is in these quotes that I received comfort, edification and peace.  So God sovereignly moved Richard Belcher to examine what (he determined) were Pink's flaws, in order that I would be comforted.

Please remember that the Pink quotes that follow were written between the 1920's and the 1940's.

On the slander thrown at him:

"Reproach and slander are exceedingly trying, and if we are not upon our guard, if we fail to gird up the loins of our minds (1 Peter 1:13), we are likely to be so cast down by them as to be incapacitated for duty.. We need to make up our minds that if, by grace we are determined to follow the example which Christ has left us we shall have enemies-especially in the religious world-who will scruple at no misrepresentations of our motives and actions."

"How much there is to dishearten him (the true servant of God):  the fewness of those who attend his ministry, and opposition made to those portions of the truth which most exalt God and abases man, the scarcity of any visible fruits attending his labors, the charge preferred by some of his officers or closest friends that if he continues along such lines he will have no one at all left to preach to, the whisperings of Satan that God Himself is frowning on such efforts, that he is a rank failure and had better quit;  these and other considerations have a powerful tendency to fill him with dismay or tempt him to trim the sails and float along the tide of popular sentiment.  We know whereof we write, for we have personally trod this thorny path."

On Pink's personality:

"...he was not a sociable person.  He did not seem to enjoy being with or fellowshipping with people.  Some found it difficult to be with him or even to be in his presence. after he preached, he would retire to his study to pray rather than greet people at the door." (Belcher, page 58)

In defense of Pink, it is only Belcher's opinion that Pink did not enjoy fellowshipping with people.  I would not agree.  In the same book Belcher quotes Pink as commenting that he had "sweet fellowship" with some people, but that he had no patience for glad-handing, back slapping, and false praise or for those who would pump up his pride.  As to the comment that he would retire to his study rather than greet people at the door, Pink stated that:

"...the flesh loves the eulogies of people, but they are not conducive to humility", and speaking about preachers, "After he has delivered his message he should retire as quietly and quickly as possible, leaving the Holy Spirit to apply the Word in His own sovereign way."

Belcher also claims that Pink lacked tact, and that he was not suited for the pastorate due to his "bluntness of speech".  Belcher claims that Pink was often "tactless and insensitive to the doctrinal state of the people to whom he spoke."  But cannot this same accusation be made of Christ, and of Paul?  Where exactly in scripture are those of us who teach admonished to "package" the message in an attractive way, or to make the Truth palatable (lukewarm) to those who are to hear it?  To soften the message in order to be "sensitive" to the hearer is to ignore the power of the Holy Spirit to utilize the sword for His own purposes.  The Truth is to be Life to those who embrace it and Death to those who reject it.

On Pink's rejection of formal education:

"The instrument through whom God did the most for Israel [Peter], and the one He used in bringing the greatest blessing to the Gentiles [Paul], was each unqualified when judged by the standards of human scholarship!"

"One does not have to enter a seminary or a Bible Institute and take a course in Christian Apologetics in order to obtain assurance that the Bible is inspired, or in order to learn how to interpret it.  Spiritual intelligence comes not through the intellect, but via the heart:  it is acquired not by force of reasoning, but by the exercising of faith." 

On leaving and rejecting the formal "churches":

"'Let us go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach' (Heb. 13:13).  This is the word God gave us; and we feel it is a timely one for many of His people today.  We are now on the outside of all denominationalism.  But blessed be the name of our Lord and Saviour, we are "with Him," and most blessedly is He manifesting Himself to His despised people.  To bear His "reproach" is an unspeakable privilege and honour."

"We have received no human call or invitation; there is no 'open door' apparent to sight. most of them who have heard of us are likely to be prejudiced because we are outside of everything ecclesiastical.  For all of this we are truly thankful, as it affords another opportunity to prove the faithfulness of Him who never disappoints those whose expectations are (by grace) in Him alone."

"'Be ye not unequally yoked together.'  This applies, first, to our religious or ecclesiastical connections.  How many Christians are members of so-called "churches," where much is going on which they know is at direct variance with the Word of God - either the teaching from the Pulpit, the worldly attractions used to draw the ungodly, and the worldly methods employed to finance it, or the constant receiving into its membership of those who give no evidence of having been born again.  Believers in Christ who remain in such "churches" are dishonouring their Lord. Better stay at home and read God's Word, than fellowship with that which His Word condemns."

On the corruption of Religion:

"...very much of the so-called worship of the present day Christendom is only soulical.  Touching anecdotes, stirring appeals, thrilling oratory of a religious character, are all calculated to produce this very thing.  Beautiful anthems by a well-trained choir, rendered in such a way as to move to tears or to ecstasies of joy, may stir the soul, but will not and cannot affect the new man."

"...real servants of God, sound teachers have now almost disappeared from the earth.  2 Timothy 4:3 is now fulfilled before our eyes; men 'will not endure sound doctrine'.  They will still tolerate what is called evangelism, they will listen eagerly to talk on 'the signs of the times' (made up of sensational items culled from newspapers with a little Scripture ingeniously fitted in to give respectability). but sound doctrine they will not endure!"

"In connection with what is styled 'Divine worship' today, the great majority of professing Christians follow the dictates of their own wisdom, or inclinations of their fleshly lusts, rather than Holy Scripture.  Others mechanically follow the traditions of their fathers, or the requirements of popular custom.  The result is that the Holy Spirit is grieved and quenched by the worldly inventions of carnal men, and Christ is outside the whole thing.  Far better not to worship God at all, than to mock Him with human 'will worship' (Col. 2:23).  Far better to worship Him Scripturally in the seclusion of our homes, than fellowship the abominable mockery that is now going on in almost all the so-called 'churches.'"

"When we receive an invitation to hold a meeting in a 'church' from which we are satisfied the Lord Himself has departed (Rev. 3:20), we decline it, for it is no place for the servant to be where his Master is not.  If a 'church' is entirely or even mainly made up of worldlings, we dare not be a partaker of their evil deeds (2 John 11).  We cannot fellowship the Christ-dishonouring mockery which now masquerades under the shelter of His Holy name."

On the admonition to leave the "churches":

'Nor forsaking the assembling of ourselves together' (Heb. 10:25) is very far from meaning the sheep of Christ should attend a place where the 'goats' predominate, or where their presence would sanction what is dishonoring to their Master."

"Our object. is to warn, admonish, and entreat others who are members of such 'churches' to immediately sever all connection with them. you are dishonouring Christ, you are disobeying the plain commandments of God, you are endangering your own soul.  There is no third alternative:  to have fellowship with anything which does not honour Christ, must be to dishonour Him."

Application:  What we have learned

Having been strengthened by God's Sovereign encouragement, we endeavor to apply those things God desires to teach us.  We are emboldened and reminded of the fact that our labors will not meet with carnal success, or if they do, the success will be balanced by hardship, persecution, pain and separation from the world.  We are resolved to change the ministry in order to more perfectly reflect what God has spoken to us His servants.

First, I must personally confess that, because of the fear of men, I delayed preaching the fullness of the Gospel, through the Doctrines of Grace, for over 2 years.  Although the Doctrines could be discerned in my talks and videos, they were "softened" and "packaged" enough to allow the message to be more palatable to the goats.  Because of this, our ministry was embraced by hundreds and thousands of the unregenerate who were comforted and not challenged by an admonition to believe the whole counsel of God.  Even after I received a clear and personal admonition from God to concentrate on the Gospel, I delayed and was disobedient until mid-summer of 2001.  I can only attribute my disobedience to fear and pride.  I humbly repent and apologize for any damage I have caused.

1. After the coming trip with our Australian friends in December, we are going to withdraw from the regular “traveling” ministry in the United States, so long as that is the will of God for us. We will still be obedient to God's call to travel anywhere at any time to minister — but, for the most part, we are not going to be planning “regular” speaking trips here in America without a clear and direct call from God to do so. We will continue travel in our efforts to build the Underground Church overseas, and to strengthen that which remains here in the States.
2. After the December trip, our personal ministry will no longer entail the “prophecy” or “technology” teaching. Although we will continue to make our past efforts available in the bookstore, and free for download off the internet (as they have shown fruit in the edifying of souls in the past), we also recognize that God has called us for a different purpose, and we must be obedient to the call of God on our life.
3. It is my desire to preach the whole counsel of God.  It is also my desire to go wherever God leads, and stay however long He will have me to stay, to preach the Gospel and the Doctrines of Grace to those who are made willing to hear it.  I pray, and ask you to join with me, that God will open up adoor for me to preach according to this calling, forcefully, without apology, and to God's glory.  Short of the Lord opening up a door for this type of ministry, I will confine myself to the ministry of the pen — and will only send the messages to those who will gladly receive them.
4. I want to thank those few close friends who have stuck with me through my ministry. You are a gift from God. 
   1. When Danielle and I left the world, we lost our worldly friends.
   2. When we left the “church”, we lost our church friends.
   3. When we began to preach the True Gospel, we lost our unregenerate, pseudo-christian friends.

We praise God that He has left us with a few REAL friends.  You have paid our bills before you paid your own.  You have financed the work with no regard for yourselves.  You have allowed me to do the work that God has used to affect thousands of people for Christ Jesus.  I praise God that He has used you, and that you have been obedient to His call.  We will continue to receive from those who willfully, cheerfully, and joyfully respond to God's voice - as it is His desire that the workman be supplied, and the teacher receive of the student.  We are going to endeavor to continue working only off of gifts and off of the sales of materials.  Although we will continue to ask for donations for OTHER ministries, it is our goal to NOT ask for donations for ourselves, but only to provide a vehicle for the regenerate and obedient children of God to be blessed through the work of ministry.

And so we determine that it is God's will that we defend the Gospel and the Truth, but not our own reputation.  That we persevere in the work, even when no one listens.  That we endure all things for Christ's sake, knowing that our reward will be in heaven.  That we defend the defenseless, and protect the sheep - while separating ourselves from the goats and the wolves who claim Christianity.  And we will rest in the certainty, that

"... they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them." - (Eze. 2:5)

I am your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker