Comrpomise OR Confrontation

By Pastor Tim Hodge

*** WARNING ***

This will be very offensive and controversial to some (if not many).  However, someone must blaze the trail of REFORM and REVOLUTION.  Read this at your own risk, but beware – you may never be the same.

            Ah, the sweetness of Christianity.  How precious it is in the sight of all Americans.  Yeah, right!  Okay.  Now let’s get to business.  It is time to go on with this REVOLUTION thing.  Ready or not… the time of decision is upon us.

            Christianity has been credited with birthing many of our modern-day institutions (i.e. colleges, universities, orphanages, etc.).  Yet, there is one institution which in itself is not really ‘bad’, but I submit its very presence is a sign of ‘compromise’ in the annals of Christendom.  That institution is THE HOSPITAL.

            Now before you freak out please don’t hear what I am not saying.  I am not saying, “Do not go to doctors.”  I am not saying, “Do not go to hospitals.”   Thank God for doctors, hospitals, and technologies.  What I am saying is that if you and I were showing Christ to the world as He portrayed Himself we would not have hospitals filled to capacity.  Let’s go on….

            In the concluding words of the gospel of Mark we see Jesus is making some of His last statements to His disciples.  We see the resurrected Lord and a bunch of confused followers.  Jesus is well aware He is about to be *POOF* outta here with the ascension back into heaven.  So Jesus is behaving like the parents about to go on a weekend trip while leaving the kids at home alone for the first time.  Mom and dad are running around… do you remember where the emergency numbers are… you have this food and that food… remember, no parties… don’t stay out past… don’t forget to….  The list can go on and on as they’re about to go out the door.  They don’t want to forget anything.  So it was with Jesus.  He was about to leave His disciples.  He was about to entrust them with one of the greatest living concepts known to mankind: THE CHURCH.  In His final moments Jesus makes these comments as found in the gospel according to Mark: “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; (18)  They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (16:17, 18 KJV, emphasis mine).

            In the book What If Christ Had Never Been Born James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe make the following comment: “Christianity played an important role in the development of the institution of the hospital, to the point that some historians attribute the creation of the hospital per se to Christianity…” (p.141).  It is also worth noting that in the year 325 A.D. the Council of Nicea, a gathering of the religious minds of their day, decreed that hospitals were to be duly established wherever the church was established.

            This may come as a surprise to you, but if Jesus came to your city He would probably be putting your hospital staff on short-time.  Except for the discharge staff, they’d be working overtime to get this “no longer sick or hurting” crowd out of the hospital.  Read Luke 4:40.

            There was something significant about that last, going out the door on a long trip, comment Jesus made to His church, “…lay hands on the sick and they shall recover….”  This became an integral part of the early New Testament believers.  In Acts chapter 4 Peter and John are released from being incarcerated after the lame man was healed “IN THE NAME OF JESUS.”  Peter and John “went to their own company” (v.23 – the true church has nothing to do with the building, but everything to do with the people) and when “they” (v.24 – the people Peter and John were addressing) heard what had transpired they “lifted up their voice to God with one accord” (hello, that means they prayed).  Here is a portion of that prayer which the CHURCH prayed: “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.  (30)  Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (NIV).

            Like it or not friend, this is to be part of the everyday experiential gospel of Christ!  It is time for REFORM!  It is time for REVOLUTION.

            Now, back to the birthing of the hospital deal.  Why did that become such an issue for the church less than 300 years after Christ said to heal the sick?  Let me submit this answer: COMPROMISED FAITH!  The Apostle Paul said that in the last days men would “have a form of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5b).  Man’s form, ritualism, and religion had so watered down the gospel that all which remained was a shell.  That is what empty manmade tradition breeds!  They wanted to “heal” the sick, but they didn’t have the POWER!  The Holy Spirit no longer had freedom to operate in the organized church.  The people no longer allowed their spiritual gifts to flow.  The church, the Body of Christ, was no longer supernatural, but operating primarily according to the natural concepts and precepts of dictatorial leaders who snuffed out any concept of BODY MINISTRY (where everyone in the body of Christ – in the local churches have freedom, are trained, and encouraged to FLOW in their giftings by the Holy Spirit).  By the way, if you don’t know what BODY MINISTRY is then I suggest the following: (1) Pastors & Leaders… either learn it and implement it or resign from the ministry.  (2)  Body of Christ… if your leadership doesn’t promote BODY MINISTRY then GET OUT and find a ministry where God can do something and use you in doing it.

            Thank God for true leaders who pursue His kingdom and not their own agendas.  However, the theoretical problem of man’s “intellectual” answers to spiritual problems is that it leads him to this question: “If we can’t manifest the supernatural then what can we do to ‘create’ a facsimile?”  Since they could not (or rather, would not) manifest the true supernatural healing by the Holy Spirit they COMPROMISED to use their INTELLECT to bring natural healing.

God forgive us!

            The Church in America is choking on FORM, FASHION, and RITUAL.  It is time for REFORM… it is time for REVOLUTION.

            You must chose today whether you will continue to COMPROMISE through the end of this age or whether you will CONFRONT the Godless form which incapacitates the Body of Christ today.  Jesus is alive.  Let’s act like it!

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Pastor Tim Hodge