Message to my NewSpring Church friends who have stopped talking to me

One of the most baffling things I have experienced since I left NewSpring Church is how the people I used to talk to have all but disappeared. Anyone who has ever attended NewSpring Church knows how the volunteers go out of their way to make everyone feel welcomed.

When I first started attending NewSpring Church in Greenville, I made friends with some of the staff etc... I always enjoyed talking to them when I volunteered on Sundays and during membership class.

When I started digging deep into what Perry Noble was teaching and started speaking up against some of the things going on at NewSpring Church, problems began to arise.

I went out of my way to try to contact Perry Noble several times with questions about his teachings only to be intercepted by the campus pastor. I tried to e-mail Perry. I sent him messages on Twitter, etc... only to be completely ignored. When I decided to leave NewSpring Church I wrote two letters. One letter was sent to Perry Noble with my concerns based upon the Scriptures, and the other was sent as an e-mail to the Greenville campus pastor. In the e-mail to the Greenville Campus, I did not mention any of my concerns with Perry Noble.

I know some of you read my blog. I would like to say that my concerns and complaints with NewSpring Church have nothing to do with you. It is my prayer that you will read what I have been blogging about and go to the Scriptures as your final authority. All the good works, all the good intentions, and all the outward expressions of godliness do not pardon the errors being taught by Perry Noble. No matter how much you volunteer and see "x" number of confessions, it does not cover the fact the Perry Noble is giving you "sour milk."

In the Scriptures, we see that Jesus Christ did not come to bring harmony by ignoring errors. Many times Jesus and the apostles caused some problems by simply speaking the truth.

John 8:57-59 (New American Standard Bible)

⁵⁷So the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?"

⁵⁸Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."

⁵⁹Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.

The Jews did not get angry because Jesus was a radical as Perry Noble likes to claim. Jesus Christ obeyed the Law, therefore He corrected the errors taught by some of the rabbis. These people did not get mad because they were religious as Perry likes to proclaim, but they got angry because the Word spoke against what they wanted to hear and follow.

The same thing is done by Noble when people try to point out his errors and his love of the world. He rants and raves calling us "pissed off" because we are "religious." His condemnation of people like me is based upon what? It is based upon the fact that I pointed to Col 3:8 and I Cor 13 when I tried to talk to him about his rant against being a pastor. Take a look at this blog where Perry defends a heretic named Joel Osteen and a false teacher named T.D. Jakes. Why does Perry defend false teachers like Rob Bell and rant against people like me who are sola scriptura, upholding the Bible as our final authority in all matters of faith and practice?

It really saddens me when so many of my NewSpring friends no longer respond to my e-mails, etc... All I can do is pray that God opens your hearts to the truth. What was my crime? My crime was exposing the problems with Perry Noble.

Matthew 10:33-36 (New American Standard Bible)

³³"But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

³⁴"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

³⁵"For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW;

³⁶and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD."

Speaking the truth is never an easy thing to do. Pointing out the many errors in Perry Noble's ministry must be done because Noble is teaching a form of Christianity that is against the Scriptures. See "Did Jesus argue doctrine?"

It is my prayer that you will read my blogs about Noble and understand my concerns. My problem is not with you or anyone else who volunteers/attends NewSpring Church. My problem is with Perry Noble and his rebellious carnal leadership which make the Word of God out to be some sort of "hip" and "cool" relevant game of keeping a numbers scoreboard. See "Confessing Christ, false professions, and the numbers game."

The Bible is my final authority in my life. The Bible commands me to point out errors and warn people about false teachers and dangerous doctrines.

2 Timothy 4:1-4 (New International Version)

2 Timothy 4

¹In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ²Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

I truly hope that you understand my agenda and my reasons for exposing the errors taught by Perry Noble.

Romans 16:17-20 (New American Standard Bible)

¹⁷Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.

¹⁸For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.

¹⁹For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.

²⁰The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Romans 3:3-5 (New American Standard Bible)

³What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?

⁴May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written,
"THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS,
AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED."

⁵But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.)

I stand by the Word of God as my foundation and my defense for my stand against Perry Noble and his false teachings.

Does God require me to give a tithe of all I earn?

John MacArthur addresses tithing and how we are not under the OT Law. The way many churches teach tithing is wrong and it short changes the purpose of giving.

Does God require me to give a tithe of all I earn?

Why Tithing is wrong

Puritan Belief pretty well sums up the problem with tithing as taught by the church today.

When I converted to Christianity at age 23, I started tithing because I was taught to tithe 10% by my church. The typical passages from Malachi was preached in regards to the tithe and how if we tithe then God will bless our giving.

Years later, I started researching the Bible seeking Scripture to back up all my beliefs. When I studied the tithe, I discovered that it is not taught correctly today. The book of Colossians chapter 2 deals with how we are free from the OT Law which also includes the tithe.

When dealing with the OT tithe, we must remember that when Jesus was walking the earth, He had not yet completed His atonement for sin. Because of this Jesus did instruct people to listen to the Rabbi and to continue following the requirements of the OT. After His sin atonement, Jesus gave us the new covenant of Grace thus abolishing the Law that was against us. If we are to tithe today are we also to bring sin sacrifices to the temple for our sins?

Here is the article from Puritan Belief http://puritanbelief.blogspot.com/2006/02/why-tithing-is-wrong.html

Religous but lost, to saved by God's Grace at 71

A powerful video on YouTube about the Grace of God. See Religous but lost, to saved by God's Grace at 71

Lane Chaplin Interviews Dr. James White

Lane Chaplin has interviewed Dr. James White on the topic, "Does Reformed Theology Matter?"(source) http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?itemid=3466

Confessing Christ, false profession, and the numbers game

On one of the blogs I read the subject came up about a local emergent church that places great emphasis on the number of confessions in Christ. This church uses the numbers game as proof that God approves of their church and evidence they are following Jesus. While we praise God for these confessions, some concerns were raised about possible false professions due to the liberal nature of this church. This church uses some very questionable antics by the pastor and staff which prompted me to be concerned about people buying into the church's relevant "culture" vs. responding to God's call to repentance. It's not wise for any church to be overly concerned with numbers. It's even more dangerous to use confession numbers as a poll to see if God is working in a church or not. This type of action can lead to problems like pride and arrogance. This error can grow into believing that if church "A" has more confessions than church "B" then God must be blessing "A" more than "B". In other words, church "A" is excellent and pleasing to God. Church "B" is smaller; therefore church "B" must be doing something wrong in the eyes of God.

I do not advocate confronting people who profess Jesus Christ just because we have some disagreements with their church. As ambassadors for Jesus, it's our job to fortify their faith by simply sharing Jesus in truth and love. What do I mean? Did I not just type that we should not confront or heckle them? Yes, I did. What I mean is we are to share with them our faith, God's grace, and how we love Jesus because He first loved us. We share our repentance from sin, we define repentance in our walk as Christians, and how Jesus saved us by Grace. We should clearly define salvation in a manner that is both sound in the Scriptures and uplifting to Jesus by allowing the Holy Spirit to do His job in His time.

In the Bible we see this disturbing and frightening account by Jesus:

Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB)
^7:21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
²² "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'
²³ "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness .'

This is where the numbers game breaks down and has problems. If a church bases salvation on simply saying "Jesus," repeating a prayer, and doing the works of the church then this frightening event described by Jesus Christ becomes very real. These people did wonderful works in Jesus' name only to have Jesus say that He never knew them! In our human mind we are thinking, "This just does not seem right! How could they know about Jesus but not be saved? They did great things in the name of Jesus! They worshiped Jesus and did miracles in His name! These people knew Jesus, but Jesus did not know them? Why?" The answer is they never repented and accepted Jesus. It's very clear in this passage that not everyone who says, "Jesus" is saved.

When we base serving/worshiping Jesus upon the numbers game, we are only hurting the church in the long run. The result of some confessions may be simply buying into a church culture, a youth program, a children's program, peer pressure, entertainment, relevance, excellent music & worship, following a parent's example, volunteering in the church, etc... anything other than the drawing of the Holy Spirit to repentance and salvation. It's in this type of environment where the church culture might be drawing people to repeat the name Jesus vs. the Holy Spirit drawing people to Him. Can people truly be saved in this type of environment I described? Absolutely yes.

So what should we do? How can we know if everyone who professes Jesus is saved? The short answer is we will never know. We should continue to preach the Gospel and clearly define salvation as the Lord's. We should make a great effort to define sin as sin, and explain the word "repent." We should explain repentance from sin and how we once walked in sin. We explain that God laid a foundation for our new life. This foundation is in Him and not in the love of the world. We should always preach the whole council of God regardless the number of lost people coming to our church.

If I had a church of 15 people and if 10 of those people confessed Jesus Christ as Lord, I praise God and take their word for it! If my church never grew another soul beyond all 15 of my people professing Jesus, I would continue to preach the Gospel, salvation, repentance, and knowing that you are saved by grace. I would not consider this doubting their confessions, but rather fortifying their faith and walk with Jesus. I consider it helping them when they are in need, haunted by their past, tempted by their flesh, tempted by the world, and encouraging repentance when they sin. It's a building block of assurance and teaching them about the Holy Spirit who lives within us. It's not an attack or down play on their confession.

I have an 11 year old son who confessed Jesus. I praise God for his confessing Jesus Christ as his Lord . I take my own advice and try to encourage him in his faith by explaining repentance and salvation to him. I do not want to make him doubt his confession. I want to strengthen him in Grace. I want him to read his Bible, pray, and strive to follow Jesus. I want him to be confident in his faith and know how and why he is saved. I do not want to only focus on telling him about salvation because I want him to mature as a Christian, having confidence in Christ. I know he will experience hardships and may even doubt his salvation, but I want to plant the Word in his heart so that when doubts come the Grace of God takes control, giving him peace. This is not hindering him but leading him in walking with Jesus by example.

I'm not asking for an inquisition or any other type of legalistic manner of watching people's actions to determine salvation. For those of you who want to do that, may I suggest you read about Lot in Genesis 19:6-8 in the OT, and then look in 2 Peter 2:6-8. God said Lot was "righteous," meaning he was a saved man! When we see our brother/sisters in sin we should not question their confession. We should do the following:

1. Pray for them in private.
2. Encourage them in public.
3. Rebuke them in love and compassion.
4. Refrain from gossipping about them to others.
5. Lead them by example.
6. Always point them back to God's grace by sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Churches that do not preach repentance from sin after salvation are doing new Christians a disservice because the lack of teaching leads to carnality. Carnal Christians are weak Christians who are held captive by the lust of the world. This is where I believe many (not all) false professions are born and why we see in Matthew 7 Jesus saying,"I never knew you." A child of God has convictions about sin because the Holy Spirit lives within him. I fear the old saying, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" may hold true because we try to do God's job instead of simply doing what God told us to do. We try to add "culture" to God's Word when God's Word is enough.

I'm not just picking on this emergent church. I know this problem is in every type of church. Regardless of the type of church there maybe some false professions. I fully understand that legalism is just as deadly a venom as what I have discussed in this blog about the numbers game. Following strict man-made rules such as dress codes, men not wearing earrings, only using the KJV, repeating creeds, not drinking wine, not working on Sunday, etc... can and do lead to false professions as well. In the future I will discuss legalism and how it's harmful to the church. I'm just writing about how I personally deal with these issues and expressing my concerns with the numbers game as a means to measure God's approval.

Sour milk?

1 Peter 2:1-3 (New American Standard Bible)

1 Peter 2

As Newborn Babes

¹Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,

²like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

³if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

Have you ever stumbled to your fridge early in the morning desiring a nice, cool, refreshing glass of milk? I'm sure that you have. How many of you have taken that big early morning "gulp" only to have your stomach turn? Your whole day is stained because sour milk just ruined your breakfast! I've drunk sour milk quite a few times since my sense of smell is very weak. In order for me to smell sour milk it is just rank beyond rank with chunks floating! Since I have been married, if I'm in doubt about the freshness of my milk, I ask my wife to check it for me. If it passes her test then I simply drink it.

Many times growing in the Grace of God is referred to as milk. New Christians are new creatures in Christ, therefore, as infants, we are taught the basics of Grace. In order to grow up as healthy Christians, we move from milk to meat much like we did when we were infants. Our mother nursed us in love and gave us meat as she watched us grow. The same holds true with the Holy Spirit as we grow in Grace.

One of the basic teachings from the Scriptures is seen in:

Titus 2:12-13 (New International Version)

¹²It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, ¹³while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

The Bible teaches us to say "No" to the things contrary to what God said is good. Notice the wording "present age" and how this did not only refer to the 1st century. We are to live and strive to do what God requires us to do. Living for God means to turn from our sins (repent) and not to be a partaker in the world's sinful systems. This is not legalism as defined by some Christians, but simply obeying the Scriptures as commanded by God. Living for Jesus goes beyond just saying His name, going to church, and worshiping Him once a week. Everyday prayer, study, and striving to follow Jesus are the pure milk of the Word.

The Word of God is pure milk. The word of the world is sour milk. For example: if we mix good milk with 1/2 sour milk, we still have sour milk. God told us to long for pure milk so that we can learn to grow in respect to salvation. When we grow in the Word, we see that salvation belongs to the Lord, and we learn to respect that which He gave us by Grace because we know we are not worthy. What this means is that we are not to use the Grace of God to justify sin because salvation is the Lord's. We should no longer work to try to save our sour milk by adding good milk to the mix. If we continue mixing the sour milk with the good milk, we will not notice the tainted taste. Eventually the sour mixture becomes more of the mixture and we will soon forget the taste of good milk. In other words the sour milk seems like good milk!

What we put in our mind and our heart will manifest itself in our lives. We can only process so much information before we overload our mind. If we fill our minds with the things of God then it helps us grow as Christians. Pondering and taking in the things of the world only stunts our growth. We all struggle in this area, but that is no excuse to wrap ourselves in the world's system.

Colossians 3:8 (New International Version)

⁸But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

The verses I listed are some basic things we should do as Christians. Putting aside malice, deceit, hypocrisy, slander, anger, rage, and filthy language moves us toward self-controlled godly lives in our walk through this world. If we cannot get past these basic teachings as children of God then how can we ever hope to understand the meat of the Word? Sour milk will make you feel sick, but rotten meat can kill you. We must desire the pure milk of the Word and resist the worldly temptations, our carnal desires, and principles of the world. In other words, when the things of the world become more relevant to us than the Bible we have a problem. We cannot grow in Christ if we are anchored in the world.

The world has no problem with cussing, lust, etc... and the world will tell you that since it is no longer offensive to them then it's o.k. for Christians to cuss because we are all human. Many times Christians who live in this type of rebellion will fire back, "But there are no perfect people...you are a Pharisee!" in order to justify their open sin and rebellion. I agree there are no perfect people, but we do have a perfect God. When Jesus died for our sins and the Holy Spirit moved over the prophets, God knew that we are not perfect but He still gave us commandments to follow about godly living. The book of 1 John deals with us non-perfect people when we sin:

1 John 2:1-3 (New American Standard Bible)

1 John 2

Christ Is Our Advocate

¹My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin And if anyone sins, we have an ^a]">Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

²and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

³By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.

Sometimes the sour milk comes from false prophets/false teachers that will teach us that we do not need to obey these commandments. As a newborn Christian, we might be taken captive by these types of teachers. If we study the Bible and pray, we see how God exposes these types of teachers through His Word.

1 John 4:1-3 (New International Version)

1 John 4

Test the Spirits

¹Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ²This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

Let's test the milk and see if it's pure or sour. I could use my nose defect as an excuse to blindly drink sour milk, just like I could use my past to justify living in sin, but I choose to seek help when I'm in question about the freshness of my milk. We should seek the council of God in His Word when we question if what we are saying and doing is godly. I've said many times, "The question is not WWJD but what did Jesus say in His Word?" By referring back to the Word of God we will be able to discern sin and avoid pitfalls that hinder our walk with Christ.

In order for us to grow in Christ, we must drink the pure milk of the Word so we can see the deeper meanings of the meat of the Word. We cannot see God's plan for our lives if we are still unable to digest the milk of the Word.