I just read the current Fire in My Bones article by J. Lee Grady: “No More Monkey Business in the Ministry“. It is truly amazing how this article continues along the same line of the post I wrote yesterday. Grady documents a few more that boldly continue in the ministry in spite of major moral failures.
He quoted one pastor, Jamal Harrison-Bryant, who was accused of adultery, fathering a child out of wedlock, and divorced by his wife yet continued pastoring:
Yet Bryant preached a now-famous sermon in the church in which he used King David’s story of adultery with Bathsheba to defend himself.
“I am still the man!” he shouted from the pulpit as worshippers stood and cheered. “The anointing on my life is greater than any mistake.” He made it clear that he had no intention of being defrocked or disciplined. To Bryant, anointing surpasses character.
Grady follows with the teaching of the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 3:2-7 and makes the following 3 points:
1. There are definite qualifications for Christian leadership.
2. Those who do not meet these qualifications must step down.
3. The church will not thrive if discipline of leaders is neglected.
Response: This is a timely post and well worth the effort to read and digest. The question that keeps coming back to me the last few days is this– Is anointing more important than character in ministry? Some seem to think so in Charismatic and Pentecostal circles. But answer is obviously no if we take the Bible seriously. *Top
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End-Times: Two Sides of the Coin
(-Jerusalem via Wikipedia)
There are two articles that I read this last week which address an ‘end-times’ scenario from entirely different perspectives.
The first is an article I found today on WorldNetDaily: "Zero hour approaches" by Hal Lindsey.
Hal does what he is best at identifying how events in the Middle East are quickly progressing towards an end-time scenario. Iran is on the brink of having nuclear weapons and Hal cites the beginning of an Ezekiel end-time coalition with Russia and Iran in the lead against Israel.
Oh by the way, Hal didn’t mention this, but did anyone notice that Iran just this week put its first satellite up in space using its newest rocket? No I didn’t think so! This story should be as big as ‘sputnik’ was in the 50’s, but the news media is downplaying it and the possible implications for weapons delivery.
The Ezekiel 38-39 battle scenario now is beginning to fall in to place and coming at a time when we have a new administration that might blink when it comes to a possible confrontation with a nuclear power like Russia. Hal always does a great job at scaring the heck out of me!
The second article was published a couple of weeks ago but I just got around to reading it yesterday. It is the second part of a prophetic message for 2009 that I posted on in January: "The Last Days Anointing" by Loren Sandford.
The message that Loren Sandford brings is the flip side of the coin. While the world is literally going to hell, it is time for the church to rise up and finish the task–the gospel is to go into every nation with signs and wonders demonstrating the Kingdom of God.
While Lindsey and Sandford present two different perspectives, I find inspiration in both of them. After over 35 years of studying eschatology, all of the scriptures, and reading 100’s of books having to do with the ‘end-times’, I am of the opinion that no one has it completely nailed down.
I can find holes in every traditional approach–amil, postmil, premil: pretrib, midtrib, postrib, I like premil/prewrath probably the most. The point is, if it is published somewhere in some book than I am convinced that it is probably wrong in some way.
There are surprises ahead for the church in the last days, one of the reasons that God is raising up prophets again is to give vision to the church in these chaotic times. I know, what passes for prophecy and prophets today is imperfect and not always edifying. But just wait, a new generation of prophetic ministry is on the horizon.
I believe that the Second Coming will be similar to the first in that every single learned scholarly ‘Messianic’ expectation of the first century was proved to be wrong. The church is entering a new era when we will need to rely more closely on the Lord and it will no longer be good enough to continue doing things the way we have done them in the past. *Top
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Posted in -Bible Issues, American Church, Christian Living, Eschatology, News Commentary, Prophetic Message