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The Ten Commandments
from
Doug Perry, www.FellowshipOfTheMartyrs.com
(download
printable PDF file here)
If there is no
real persecution of Christians in America and Jesus said the more you
are like Him the more you will be persecuted, then there must not be
very many real Christians in America. See any logic problems there?
Do you think Jesus was kidding?
So ... my goal is
to bring persecution as quickly as possible by saying whatever I have
to say to get Christians to start fully and completely acting like
Christ. That will require lots of people who are willing to
fearlessly take a stand and STOP CONFORMING TO THE WORLD. I've been
blowing the trumpet and a few have gathered, but then I didn't have
the lung capacity and wisdom I have now - and probably the
willingness to do what it takes. I think the time is coming when
somebody is going to blow the trumpet REALLY loud. If not me then
someone else. Probably LOTS of people.
There's a fire
burning in me that is just getting hotter. Some stuff is coming out
of me right now that is so harsh I'm going to need folks with lots of
love around me to temper it.
For example, it
occurs to me that the "church" as we know it has a
personality, dysfunctional and disjointed as it is, it has certain
trends and behaviors that you could define as a personality. I've
done a lot of work in the area of organizational theory and believe
that groups have a personality that can be defined and diagnosed.
Maybe the same methods you would use to convict and witness to an
individual would work on a group.
Anyway, that which
we call 'church', if it is really off track according to God's Law,
should be showing bad fruit. Using Ray Comfort's method of showing
people their sinfulness using the Ten Commandments, let's take a
look. (And understand this is HIGHLY abbreviated, we could
write a book on the stats and examples for each one!)
Worship no
other gods before me.
Comfy, Sunday-only
Jesus is NOT the same God. Purpose Driven Jesus is NOT the same God
of our Fathers! Worshipping the pastor because he has a book deal or
worshipping the denomination, structure, money, or even ideology
(Calvin, KJV 1611, Pope) is putting other gods before HIM. GUILTY.
Do not make
idols or worship them.
Your heart is
where you spend your time and money. According to the stats, the
Western church loves themselves most of all and their buildings and
comforts. We spend many times more hours worshipping TV than we do
God Almighty. We cancel Sunday services to watch the Super Bowl, for
Pete's sake! GUILTY.
Do not use the
name of your God irreverently or in vain.
To justify ANY
stupid thing we want to do, we assure people that we can be trusted
since we hear from God. Touch not God's annointed! Whatever just came
out of this or that prophet's mouth must have been the voice of God -
they have a new DVD out and speak at conferences all over the world!
We have pastors, bishops, popes that stand in for God and speak on
His behalf - with or without His approval - taking His Name and
authority as their own. GUILTY.
Observe the Sabbath.
Where to even
start? I don't even know how off track we are here, but Sunday better
be more about GOD than FOOTBALL, I can tell you that! Can you
legitimately say that all it takes to "observe the Sabbath"
is two hours sitting in a pew? The Narrow Path can't possibly be THAT
narrow!! GUILTY.
Honor your
father and mother.
This means respect
them and their feelings but it also means that we are to bring them
honor. We have converted our churches into places that displace and
insult our elders. "Their music isn't loud enough. Their style
isn't hip enough. Their faith isn't deep enough. Their God isn't cool
enough. They need to get with the program and see that the wave of
the future is bigger and louder and younger and with more feelings.
If not, then we're going to have to leave them behind." We have
not brought them honor and glory. We have prostituted or murdered the
churches they built. We have lost traction on evangelism, missions,
and every other emphasis that Jesus cares about. But we have a
churches so big that they need to meet in a stadium! GUILTY.
Do not murder.
What does this
mean except that we kill someone so that we can gain something. Maybe
it's not what we MEANT to do, but we still let them die so that we
could have some advantage. Or worse yet, so we could have their
stuff. At any given moment 200 MILLION Brothers and Sisters live on
the very edge of starvation. Billions have died without Christ. But
we have REALLY shiny new cars and churches that meet in stadiums. We
sacrifice millions every month to keep our comforts. It's not like we
didn't know. We see starving children on TV and sponsor ONE for $30 -
out of an average per capita income of tens of thousands PLUS
TRILLIONS of dollars of assets between us. We should know better than
to think we're making a dent in the problem without some more
sacrifice than that. We're intentionally letting them die to keep
from having to share our stuff. GUILTY.
Do not commit adultery.
We cheat on the
Bridegroom and our First Love through programs and fads and
ecumenical movements that yoke us with those opposed to God. We have
laid down with other religions, with the "world", with
governments, with culture, with TV, with Hollywood, with Wall Street,
with Sony Records. We lay down with everything EXCEPT God! (Not to
mention that 50% of clergy regularly use porn.) GUILTY.
Do not steal.
The 'church' loses
more to fraud and embezzlement to trusted people inside the
organization ($16B) than it spends on foreign missions ($15B). We
regularly try to get little old ladies to send their last dollar so
we can buy a Bentley or a new plane or build a big building. And we
tell them God is going to bless their blind faith in us. See #6 - if
we're to share with each as they have need, then we HAVE to steal
from the Brethren in other places in order to sustain our standard of
living! GUILTY.
Do not lie.
Our denominations
regularly falsify progress reports and spending projections. We spent
BILLIONS on plans to reach the entire world with the gospel by 2000.
We barely even kept up with population growth! No apologies, no
explanations, just a renewed emphasis for more money. This doesn't
even touch on all the snake oil salesmen pretending to be ministers
of the Gospel that nobody seems to be willing to shut down and
contend for the faith. Worst of all, we tell the world that this
structure that we've built was Jesus' idea when it's really about our
own egos and greed and selfishness. GUILTY.
Do not covet.
Did you read any
of the ones above? We TEACH pastors to want bigger churches. We train
MEN OF GOD to judge their effectiveness and worth on how many people
want to come hear them speak. We TRAIN them in seminaries how to
administrate effective building campaigns and fund growth. America is
the ULTIMATE incarnation of coveting - and the 'church' is
INDISTINGUISHABLE from culture. GUILTY.
We're not just
doing this stuff a LITTLE BIT. We're talking about BILLIONS of people
injured by this and TRILLIONS of dollars of assets being misdirected,
wasted or stolen!! The lost potential in human souls in incalculable.
Somebody is going to have to answer for this at the final judgement.
Copyright Doug
Perry 2005.
Use freely
- without charge and without changes.
Link to:
www.FellowshipOfTheMartyrs.com
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