Today's Preface: This preface here is going to touch on a few topics....Halloween being the first. It should be a no-brainer in that Christians should avoid Halloween....which is coming up a week from tomorrow. Give me a break folks....devils and witches and mass-murderers....and we let our young children partake in this? These Christian parents....and multitudes they be were....woke before woke was cool....for that is what this is....Christian wokeness....or if you wish....Christian coolness. But I only mention that because of today's date. That date....October 31....is also what some Christians celebrate as....Reformation Day....acknowledging the day that Martin Luther pounded those 95 theses into the castle church door in Wittenberg, Germany.....the year being 1517. Twenty-five years ago we opened up a Christian bookstore.....and we sold only what would be considered....Reformation books....which could be anything from Luther to R. C. Sproul. We ran a radio commercial for the store which began with a hammer striking a nail....a radio announcer narration....and then my voice giving a description of the store. We today are also ashamed to admit to being....born again.....to observing the great blessing and command of the Lord's Day....and actually telling others that Jesus Christ is returning soon. We indeed need a reformation today.
(Original Preface) Starting back on July 2nd of last year I wrote four consecutive posts on the topic of the Lord's Day....and titled them....Do You Want Practical....Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4. The following was Part 1. I bring this back not so much because of the topic that it was written on....but that in this post I want to emphasize that none of the wonderful leaders in the church today....are perfect. There will be a problem....if we start to elevate the man....instead of Jesus whom the man preaches.
Do You Want Practical....Part One
It is just one of the changes that we need to see happening in America today.....but it is a major change. We all should know....that even our best ministers of the gospel today are not perfect. We can agree on that can we not? Let me give a couple of examples. John MacArthur is the strongest and most influential minister that we have on the national scene today.....as even the secular media respects his influence. He has spent well over a half century defending the gospel....and warning against false prophets....but even he made major mistakes in the last few years....as he denied there being a pandemic...."There is no pandemic".....and there is this....on May 8 of 2015 his wonderful Grace To You ministry radio program....(gty.org).....rebroadcast an older program titled....Beware Of False Prophets. You can easily Google this and listen to it. It was broadcast forty days before Donald Trump came down that escalator....into the middle of evangelicalism.....but John MacArthur apparently did not spot this false prophet that he warned of....as he famously said this in a telephone call...."Any real true believer is going to be on your side in this election..."
R. C. Sproul....the most magnificent preacher in our day on the holiness of God....and the great and vital doctrines of His word.....he made mistakes also. One minor one was this....in celebration of the 500 year anniversary of the 16th century Reformation....his ministry sponsored a conference....but he titled it.....The Next Five Hundred Years. We all understand the intent....and that intent was sound....but a better title would have been....The Next Five Hundred days....for the need for the day was awakening to the nearness of the return in power and glory and judgment of Jesus Christ....not....looking centuries ahead. (That conference was in March of 2017. R. C. went to be with his Lord and Savior and King....whom he exalted in his preaching and teaching for so many decades....in December of that year)
All of these wonderful men over the many centuries made mistakes somewhere along the line. Even Martin Luther made some astonishingly poor statements in his later years.....but here is one mistake that still affects us today.....by none other than John Calvin....and no I'm not referring to Servetus. Calvin was not able to both....keep the principle of the Fourth Commandment....and yet remove it from what it had become during the dark ages of the church....the consequence of which....is that that hedge of protection that God has given us....that blessing.....of keeping the now....Lord's Day....as a day primarily to refresh ourselves in the Lord Jesus....and delight in the Lord's Day....has been trampled upon....all over the world.
That hedge of protection....for America and its people....has been brush-hogged and replaced with stadium turf! Pastors who their whole ministry have either purposely ignored this hedge of protection....or been ignorant of it....are not going to all of a sudden change their mind....but those pastors who do know that there is a purpose of not only joy but protection in how the first day of the week came into being....need to begin to tell their congregations....and let God protect their ministries....and work on all of our hearts....mine needing it as much or more than anyone else.
Note: There was at lest one theologian/minister on the national scene....who changed his mind on the Lord's Day....and came out and admitted it....Michael Horton.
