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THE IMPLODING CHURCH

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  imploding church

By Ken Blue

How do you keep from having an imploding church? Let’s assume you are going to start a church from nothing. The one thing you must consider is, where are we going to meet? Will we meet in a home, a barn, or some other facility?

Next, on your priority list will be soul winning. You can’t have church without people, and you can’t have people without some form of contact. Therefore, every thought, and effort will be on how to reach others, and get them into the new church. This will be the driving force at the time, and rightfully so.

As new families come into the church, you have the challenge of how to teach the different age groups, and provide child care for the infants. These are just a few of the growing pains, but you learn how to solve them.

New growth brings new needs. People need real discipleship. They need ministries to serve in. At this point, you may have to consider a new meeting place to care for the growth. So, property is located, buildings are built, and finances are needed. More and more the church adds new demands. The church is humming with excitement.

That is why success may be your downfall. Little by little, the vision shifts. Everyone now has someone to fellowship with. They are becoming one happy family. Everybody knows each other, and pays extra attention to each other.  The growth has brought new demands. Thus, most of the money, time and service is bestowed on the existing congregation. Everyone is busy, but something subtle has happened.

Planning meetings are no longer about soul winning, and growth. All the plans now are about how to feed the monster. The outreach has shifted to programs, and activities.  A new missionary may be added once each year for conscience sake.

The church has now reached its stagnation point. Everything is about the “church family.” The very thing that gave life and growth, is now forgotten and left behind. Most of the members have grey hair. They are comfortable and don’t want to be disturbed.

The death of the church is inevitable. The only way to keep a church alive is to have new, young blood added every week.  Where are all the great soul winning churches of fifty years ago? They are either dead and gone, or dead and being embalmed each year. Your church, too, will die unless you keep outreach hot, and on the front burner. A church must be a maternity ward, or it becomes a museum.  If you neglect these, stand back and watch the implosion.

BOOK: Standards and the Standard

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Standards

More and more, today’s Christians have become “hung up” on standards.  Standards of worship, dress, talk, music, appearance…etc. People look for a church that allows the standards that afford them the type of “Christian lifestyle” they want to live.  If they want to drink beer, they look for a church that has a permissive outlook on drinking alcoholic beverages.  If they are against drinking beer, they look for a church that has a prohibitive outlook on drinking.  Churches have “bent”, or even broken, rules of Christian conduct to “compete” for members.

Unfortunately, standards are many times not taken from the proper source–the Bible.  They have been handed down by traditions over the years or by denominational teachings.  This is often times a direct deviation from the Bible.  Christians do themselves a disservice by looking other places than the Bible for the ways that God expects them to live.

This book by Dr. Blue will challenge the reader to rethink the standards he ascribes to. Dr. Blue does every Christian a service in this book by shaking them awake so they can examine their own life; whether they are living for the pleasure of God or twisting God’s word to accommodate their own pleasure.

I pray that every reader will accept the challenge presented in this book and align his standards with what God’s Standard (the Bible) provably teaches!

This book should be a ‘bunker-buster’ for preachers and laymen alike. It should break asunder the chains of man-made rules and set the believer free to live according to God’s infallible Standard.

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MORALITY AND MORONS

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MORALITY AND MORONS

monkeysBy Ken Blue

“Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.” 2 Timothy 2:14.

Words have no meaning without a context, and the context is determined by the culture, or the text under discussion. This rule must be followed when reading any article or the Bible. There are standards in the Old Testament, and in Middle East today that would be abhorred in other cultures. The possession of multiple wives was practiced from the beginning of time, and still practiced in some parts of the world. We, in western society today, would abhor such practices. The same may be said of slavery. Our greatest error may be our interpretation based, not on Scripture, but on our own culture.

In Islam, the only acceptable dress to be worn in public is the hijab. Women of the Old Testament may have worn something similar. One could not be accused of immodesty who adhered to that custom. They were modest in dress.

Every person should be modest in appearance, and moral in behavior. We have no argument about that.  However, the only acceptable rule for this is the Bible, rightly divided.  It ought to be evident to the reader that one can make the Bible teach anything he or she likes, or dislikes, when right divisions are ignored.

It is such a weariness of the mind when we see how men ignore right division. Such words as modesty, morality, godly, standards, glorify, dress, hair, etc. must be interpreted within the context of right divisions, and the culture in question.

Every Christian makes divisions in Scripture when it suits his purpose. Right divisions may be the KEY to right understanding of Scripture, and we are commanded to do so. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15.  “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:”
1 Corinthians 10:32.

[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Such words as modesty, morality, godly, standards, glorify, dress, hair, etc. must be interpreted within the context of right divisions, and the culture in question.[/pullquote]

We must know what is written to/for the Jew, to the Gentile, and to the Church. Some will quote, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11. True, all the Bible is written for our learning. But, not all is an ensample for us to follow. The context is about Jews in the wilderness.

The word “ashamed” in 2 Timothy 2:15 is clarified in verse 18.   Hymenaeus and Philetus were teaching that the resurrection of the Saints had past. This was an example of wrong division. If these two were saved, they, along with  all they had deceived will be ashamed at the judgment. Right division would correct this error.

One can see that the Bible is not chronological, but divided by subject matter. For example, the first five books are Law.  The next 12 are history.  The next five are poetry. The next five are major prophecy. The last 12 are Minor Prophets. The division is 5-12-5-5-12=39. In the Gospels through Acts, the five books are history in transition. They are Jewish, with the exception of the last half of Acts. Following these, you have the writings of the Apostle Paul. Paul was called and commissioned like no other man. He also wrote all the church epistles. It is from these the church receives all doctrine for itself. Doctrine from any other scripture must agree with these epistles, when we make application.

This bring us to another truth; Paul never put one day above another, neither did he dictate any dress specifics, nor any diet for the Gentiles. Paul was the Apostle of the administration of grace. This is not a license to sin, but it is liberty from the laws and commandments.

Many pastors are on a “power trip.” They act as if an infallible Bible makes them infallible. They have this need to have followers and to control of others. This is best illustrated through their mishandling of the Word of God. That is, by ignoring right divisions.

This brings us to our last point, the matter of using Scripture under the Law to tell women how to dress, while ignoring what it says in the context to men. God has made the husband the head of the wife. Thus, the husband and father should deal with these issues. It is these wrong divisions that has, and is creating division and animosity among the brethren. I have found that those with whom you don’t agree on Deut. 22:5 can’t practice 1 John 4:20. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” 1 John 4:20. I am aware that I have taken 1 John out of context, but no one will notice.

Morality and modesty is right and expected. But, we need to stop pretending that the West is the standard. God said, concerning days and diets, “For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” Romans 14:2-5 . Our misuse of Scripture, and inability to make right divisions, makes us look like morons now, and will make us ashamed at the judgment.

BOOK: The Parables of Mathew 13

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The Parables of Mathew 13
The Parables of Mathew 13

When he opened his eyes he read, “That thou doest, do quickly”. The reader can see that any attempt to read the Bible as this novice did leads to confusion and destruction. Had he not read God’s Word? Didn’t the verses appear to support each other? Is not “all Scripture profitable for instruction”? Then what would he do with what he had read this day? The only way he could avoid hanging himself was to ignore the text altogether, which he did, or spiritualize it, which most believers do. (That is how they hang themselves.) Context is vital if we are to understand God’s Word. This is especially true when it comes to the parables of Jesus.

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BOOK: Dispensationalism Misunderstood

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This book silences those who reject the dispensational teaching of the Bible on the grounds that dispensationalism is a “recent doctrine” and founded by Darby. Dr. Blue not only shows the proper balance of dispensationalism, he quotes from the scholarly work of C.H. Crutchfield whose research shows right the opposite. Dispensationalism or “right divisions” of the Bible was taught, not only by the inspired writers, but by the early church fathers.

Dispensationalism Misunderstood
Dispensationalism Misunderstood

This book answers many of the shallow arguments given by those who reject dispensationalism. An excerpt: Before a child of God can move forward in serious Bible study, he must understand the different dispensations. Failure to understand the true teaching of dispensations has led many to make false applications of the Bible. Some, who do not understand the truth about dispensations, have attacked the teaching of dispensations and even refuse to believe they exist. The purpose of this booklet is to answer these objections and to help the reader understand the true nature of dispensations.

NOTE: currently out of print.