Thank you very much for your overwhelming response to my opening article. It is my desire to answer the questions asked without fear or favor. Neither this article nor the following articles are an attempt to put anyone down or any church – but rather my heartfelt desire is for true repentance and a return to New Testament doctrine and practice by God’s people. My fear is that you will read this article lightly or defensively and neither will benefit you or the kingdom.
Remember not all of these points are for everyone or every church. My wife is an excellent cook, and she tells me four things determine great food. These are ingredients, mixture, atmosphere and proper temperature. These things also make for a great church and for an encounter with the Lord Jesus. There was a time when we practiced a unity between our worship and the preached word in our services. Our music reflected the preached word without a staff meeting to organize it. It was simply two people being led by the same spirit.
Twenty-six years ago I was saved in jail under $1 million bond. I had a $1500 a day cocaine habit, and I was facing 180 years in prison. Several miracles later I was a free man, more about that in future writings. It was the blood of Jesus that washed away my sins. It was the cross of Jesus which killed the sin nature and took away the desire for narcotics. It was the Holy Ghost that kept me all these years without ever backsliding. Those that know me, have heard me say I can’t believe Jesus saved me, and I’m just glad to be at the party.
Back to the subject at hand. The past 26 years songwriters have written very few new songs about the blood, the cross, divine healing, and the coming of the Lord Jesus or heaven. Our preaching seems to have followed suit. We have omitted these doctrines so many Sundays until it would sound out of place to hear them again. We have produced more characters in the last 26 years than people of character. We have become a consumer driven church rather than seeking God’s will and God’s best. We cannot be man pleasers and God pleasers at the same time. We must be God pleasers! Under the matter of content, if we believe that man is basically good and you’re all right and I’m all right then the blood is not required. God said we need a blood covering. He said the life is in the blood. We have peace through the blood, remission of sins in the blood, access to the throne through the blood, and reconciliation to the blood. His blood is precious and unique and one-of-a-kind. It is a release from bondage and freedom from the devil. God is of the opinion that man is a fallen creature in need of a Savior.
The cross demonstrates that man could never reach God, but God must reach man. We have removed the offense of the cross in (Galatians 5:11). In many cases, churches have even removed the cross from behind the baptistery. Paul wrote in( I Corinthians 1:17) that eloquent speech will never replace the cross of Jesus Christ and in the eighteenth verse, He said it is foolishness to them that perish but the power of God to them that believe.
Modern theologians have called the cross and the blood of Jesus a slaughterhouse religion. Remember the words of the prophet Moses who said, “When you arrive in the land of Canaan, to plant no groves for they would plant lilac and orange groves to hide the stench and the site of their bloody altar.” The father intended for Calvary to be a bloody degrading shameful place of sacrifice which was to be done out in the open. Calvary cost God everything and who are we to remove it from our singing and our preaching?
I grew up in a family that believed and practiced divine healing. We were taught that healing was the children’s bread, and that it was provided in the atonement and it was the responsibility of the Elders to anoint the sick and pray the prayer of faith. This is the work of Jesus on this earth and is still ongoing. By His stripes we are healed, and, yes, it is God’s will to heal today. I have personally been healed and I’ve seen many miracle healings too numerous to list.
When it comes to the baptism in the Holy Spirit, more people were filled with the Holy Ghost in my grandmother’s home than most churches have in the last 25 years. How many people have been filled with the Holy Ghost in your church this year alone? I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to see as many as 50,000 people filled with God’s Spirit in the last 26 years of ministry. Baptism with the Spirit is a command; it is a gift and a ministry requirement. It is the New Testament norm and it is for us today.
I am not a prophecy scholar; I’ve always believed staying in love with Jesus, letting him live through you, watching and waiting and you’ll be ready when He comes. He is coming for a church that is glorious, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. He is not coming for an excuse laden harlot, or a luke warm, broken down religious machine. He is coming soon. We must stay red hot in his love. Our motivational speaking of the hour will not produce a virgin bride, but will leave us as the ten virgins asleep and caught off guard. Let us wake up for it is high time we are doing the will of the Father.
When it comes to the resurrected life, one must die to this world. In Titus 2:14, one is becoming a new creature where old habits and old ways have died. In (II Corinthians 5:17), one becomes a new person and in Galatians 6:15, it is being renewed into God’s image after the knowledge of God. In Colossians 3:10, it is living a holy life. In (Ephesians 4:24), it is the power of the resurrection that helps with our present sufferings and in (Philippians 3:10).
When it comes to the matter of sin we so rarely hear it preached any longer that I am surprised we even know what sin is. According to (Romans 6:14) sin shall no longer have dominion over you. The apostle John wrote in (I John 2:1), little children I write unto you that you sin not, he went on to tell us in (I John 3:4-10) that he the sinneth is of the devil. Even though sin was forgiven in the life of David the sword never departed from his house. I John 1:9 says that we are to confess our sin and He is faithful and just to forgive us of all unrighteousness. To confess means to say the same thing God says. If God calls sleeping around and shacking up adultery, then who are we to write it off for something else? If God calls a liar a liar who are we to say it was just a misunderstanding? Revelation 21:8 tells us that all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire.
As our final installment today we come to the subject most people don’t want to hear or discuss and rarely do, and that is the subject of Hell. The scriptures teach us that Hell hath enlarged itself from underneath. It is a place where the sinner will be forever (Matthew 25:46); it is a place of torments in the plural (Luke 16:23) where one will beg for a drop of water. When Jesus described Hell, he used the word gehanna; a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem, a maggot infested burning place which has eternal fire. Revelation 19:4. Hell was never prepared for you. Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. Matthew 25. However, according to (Matthew 7:22-23), one can preach, pray and perform and still go to hell. Worst of all is the fact that according to Jesus in (Matthew 7:14), straight is the gate and narrow is the way and few there be that find it.
This tells me that a vast majority of people will go to hell in spite of God’s supreme love and sacrifice. I am saddened by this and I wish it were not true. I don’t want anyone to go, and please, if you must go, don’t take anyone with you. May you take this in the spirit in which it was written and allow it to impact your heart and change your lives, your churches and your ministries in Jesus name.
Robert D. Pilgrim
