When Redundancy is Necessary

by S. Michael Durham

Real truth sounds redundant. Truth is real. And truth can’t be anything but real, can it? No, of course not, unless you manufacture your own truth. And even though manufactured truth isn’t real, you may think and assert that it is. Sadly, this has become the norm at this point in human history. We find ourselves living in an environment where facts are bothersome. Nuance is popular, and rigid truth is cumbersome. This generation thinks truth restricts freedom—freedom of expression and freedom to do your own thing even if it’s wrong. So the answer for modern culture is to cast off absolute and real truth and replace it with convenient truth. But “convenient truth” is an oxymoron—truth isn’t always convenient because it is not always lenient. It does not approve of every motive or action. It neither winks at indiscretion nor turns a deaf ear to injustice. Truth screams, “Foul!” to everything that is foul. It will not weigh the end and justify the means. The desire of an evil heart will not be approved by real truth.

So society has a choice: it can either conform to real truth or reject truth altogether. But men are not naturally anarchists. An anarchist is a person who advocates the overthrow of law. The option to remove law altogether is not logical to a society, thus society makes a third option when there really isn’t a third. It’s like Wile E. Coyote making a door out of thin air and opening the door and walking through it. The God-created moral fabric of a man knows that law and truth must exist, and since he will not have God’s truth, man creates his own version of it. His manufactured truth will be convenient for him. It will promote his interests regardless of consequences.

Recently I was talking with a young man who was a typical post-modernist who told me that we create our own perceptions of reality and truth. I asked him if he took a flame of fire and held it to his hand would he feel pain. He said, “Not unless I chose to feel pain. I create my own perception of suffering.” I then asked him if his bank statement showed an error of several thousand dollars in the bank’s favor what he would do. He replied that he would take his bank statements and records and prove the bank was wrong. I then asked him, “But if there is no absolute truth, and we can create our own perceptions of truth, what would you say to the banker if he said, ‘That’s your perception of truth and this is ours’?” The young man looked at me with disdain and got up and stormed off. He suddenly realized that there are times for absolute truth and he had no argument against it.

Many are advocating a gospel that is supposedly real and will really save. But it isn’t the Gospel of Christ or His apostles. Because of this, we deem it necessary to use a redundancy to describe who we are and what we are about. For years the media ministry of Oak Grove Baptist Church was called Living Priorities. But in the last year we have increasingly felt the need to rethink the name and find something to counteract our times and its false gospels, and definitively say this is what we are about. And of course, the Real Truth is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ.

We hope you like the new name and look of our website. We now have the ability to archive all sermons and resources for your availability. We have also added an easy-to-use online store to purchase any hard copy of the resources you will find on the site. All downloadable products will remain free of charge. We want to make available to you real truth because—real truth matters.

Can Persecution Be Far Behind?

We’ve heard it for years now. Persecution of Christians is coming to the United States! And while the evidences of hostility toward Christians have certainly grown in our recent history, it always evaded my mind how hostility from a “minority of people” could turn into full blown persecution. Plus, aren’t we guaranteed freedom of religion in a nation founded on religious principles? No matter the hatred toward Christians, we could not be outright persecuted, could we?

It did seem ludicrous to me in years past, but I am now coming to understand how it is possible and how it could actually play out in our nation. This is not prophecy in the sense of telling of future events, but the reality of persecution is now more real to me than ever.

So how can we go from a majority Christian nation to outright persecution? Perhaps the story about Christians backing Barack Obama on One News Now will help illustrate. The story states that in a recent Barna survey, Obama and McCain are tied when it comes to how born-again believers intend to vote. Barna defines born-again as those “who say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus and believe they will go to heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.” How can that be? How can half of “born-again” Christians support a candidate who openly supports abortion (and even voted against a bill that would require babies born alive in botched abortions to receive medical treatment) and openly supports homosexual rights? Hard lines are being drawn, and in those lines are the future of persecuted believers.

I believe the chink in our previously impervious amour is the seeming divisions in the Christian world such as what we see above. There seems to be two or more Christian worlds within American Christianity. And the poles continue to drift further apart. Those who adhere to Biblical values, such as those of us who know abortion and homosexuality are wrong, are vilified as the most radical element of our faith. We have people like Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, and Rob Bell in the Christian community who never raise anyone’s ire, yet there are those like James Dobson, John MacArthur, and Al Mohler who never seem to stop catching the flack of open, verbal persecution. So what is the difference? Aren’t we all Christians? This is why I used the term “seeming divisions” when referring to the Christian world. There are no divisions in true Christianity. The real division is between those who are converted and those who are not. The lines are being drawn between those who are His and those who claim to be His but are not.

And those who are truly saved are deemed as radical and dangerous. Now we can see how a nation can persecute Christians while still allowing ‘Christianity.’ Those who are truly born-again must draw the dividing line between themselves and those who are false converts. It is essential not for the sake of causing division, but for the sake of the Gospel. Yet the world will love those who claim to be the Church but in reality are not. The world will hold them up as true models of Christians and persecute those who really are. The false church is already in bed with the world and pleases it immensely. Therefore the true Church will be persecuted by a people who feel that this radical group is a danger to the state and to the state’s wellbeing. After all, the mantra for abortionists and homosexuals is one of civil rights, correct? Can you already see it coming? Bible publishers are being sued for printing scripture that decries homosexuality. Hate crime laws ban speech that agrees with scripture and Biblical teaching. The false church will flourish, and Christianity will still be accepted. . . as long as it agrees with the world and the state. This is the case currently in China.

And we will be the enemy. We will be those who oppose societal advancement. We will be persecuted. But the bright spot is that we have Christ. And He is worth it. Our treasure is not in comfort or ease. . . our treasure is in Him. And there is no difference to gain Him through ease or adversity. And persecution holds to scripture, so we should not be surprised. In fact, we can be comforted that He has told us these things before hand, and therefore His word is true.

–John 16:33 “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” - John 15:8 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” -John 16:2 “the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.” 2 Timothy 3:1-9 “1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; 9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.”

Read about our brothers and sisters who are already facing violent persecution at persecution.com

J.T.

When God Wants to Drill a Man

When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;

When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him

Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!

How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And which every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out-
God knows what He's about

Why am I a Christian?

God help me. I have seen a glimpse of God. I have seen a slice of who God is, and His holiness overshadows me. If I turn from the view of the righteousness of God and back to myself, I look ugly. I did not look so bad, at one time. I seemed pretty good. Yet God's light so shined upon my soul and my fallen humanity that my flesh recoiled and shrunk in its presence. My skin clung to the dust of the earth. Every wrinkle, every spot, every blemish burst forth in all its hideousness. Even if the light of God be removed, the view of my flesh and sinfulness remain. The light of God exposed and changed my sight forever. I can never view myself the same again. The memory of the penetrating holiness of God and the repugnancy of myself remain etched upon my being forever.

To be a Christian is to be in the only form that God finds acceptable. It is for me to put on Christ. Only through Christ are the blemishes destroyed. Only through Christ are the stains removed. Only through Christ am I made clean. To live my life now after such a revelation is in, all reality, a waste. There is no need to press forward in my flesh. It is too disturbing to even imagine. It is too ugly to comprehend. But to move forward in Christ. . . my flesh crucified so that it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives through me. . . is to let my life be lived by the Spirit of God. It is is a life worth living so that others can see His glory. I know what it means for Him to be made perfect in my imperfection. The world can see Him and His glory and His power in a life yielded to Him. He can take the death, the failure, the enmity against Him, and transform it until He gains the glory for His own good pleasure.

God help me.

J.T.

Post-Conference

Well, here we are. . . post conference syndrome. Actually, this is the first time any of us has been involved in such a ministry, so we did not know what to expect before or after. I believe God has grown us all, but I have a feeling that we are in a position now of possible testing.

We've already heard some stories of how God worked through the conference. The conference caused more than one to examine themselves, and, as a result, God may be moving upon their hearts toward conversion. For others who were serving in ministry, they were strengthened and encouraged beyond anything we could have imagined. Many have a desire for this ministry to move forward.

But, in all honesty, I feel as lost about what to do as the day we began. I believe we are being tested. Will we trust God and wait upon Him? Were we doing that to begin with? Were we filling our lives with ministry instead of Him? I personally have felt a spirit of dryness, for a lack of better terms, for the past couple of weeks. I trust my Father no matter my emotions, but it does tend to wear on one's soul to not feel him. I continue to pursue His truth and am asking Him to let it lead my heart. I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded, that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day.

I believe all of us feel so inadequate to do any of this. Yet it becomes like a fire in the bones that we cannot keep shut in. God will supply. In my case, He MUST supply. Otherwise, what I do will be pretty pathetic.

Please pray for Real Truth Matters.

Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

From For Your Joy by John Piper:

God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. Romans 3:25

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Galatians 3:13

If God were not just, there would be no demand for his Son to suffer and die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness for his Son to suffer and die. But God is just and loving. Therefore his love is willing to meet the demands of his justice.

His law demanded, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:5). But we have all loved other things more. This is what sin is--dishonoring God by preferring other things over him, and acting on those preferences. Therefore, the Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). We glorify what we enjoy most. And it isn't God.

Therefore sin is not small, because it is not against a small Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted. The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love him is not trivial--it is treason. It defames God and destroys human happiness.

Since God is just, he does not sweep these crimes under the rug of the universe. He feels a holy wrath against them. They deserve to be punished, and he has made this clear: "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). "The soul who sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4).

There is a holy curse hanging over all sin. Not to punish would be unjust. The demeaning of God would be upheld. A lie would reign at the core of reality. Therefore, God says, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them" (Galatians 3:10; Deuteronomy 27:26).

But the love of God does not rest with the curse that hangs over all sinful humanity. He is not content to show wrath, no matter how holy it is. Therefore he sends his own Son to absorb his wrath and bear the curse for all who trust him. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13).

This is the meaning of the word "propitiation" in the texts quoted above. It refers to the removal of God's wrath by providing a substitute. The substitute is provided by God himself. The substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the wrath; he absorbs it and diverts it from us to himself. God's wrath is just and it was spent, not withdrawn.

Let us not trifle with God or trivialize his love. We will never stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness of our sin and the justice of his wrath against us. But when, by grace, we waken to our unworthiness, then we may look at the suffering and death of Christ and say, "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4: 10).

Texas Style Christianity

What about us makes us want things bigger and better in everything we do? Pride? Perhaps. It is our nature. We do this with every undertaking, especially in America. Look at food portions in restaurants, the size of our grocery stores, and even at our religious landscape. We want to do things on a grand scale. But does that creep over into our mentality as Christians?

Yes, it does! God has called us to make disciples and to tell the nations about the Gospel of Christ. But even as Christians, we can buy into the mentality of doing it bigger and better than the next guy. We want to see scores saved, churches packed, and widespread repentance. Are these bad things? No. But we often fall into the trap of wanting to see the results instead of a pleased Father.

What makes it difficult is that we see so many "results" around us. Just in our local community, we have huge churches that are getting bigger, and new mega churches that seemed to spring up overnight. It is hard not to think fleshly and just wonder what they are doing right. But the secret behind it is that the gospel to them is nothing more than a product to peddle in order to get someone "in." And pastors and staff are gathering large groups of unregenerate, unconverted people together and calling it church. There may be signs of life and success on the outside, but they are full of deceived people on the inside.

But this certainly explains alot for me. Ever notice how most preachers resemble your idea of a used car salesman? They have the slicked up moussed hair, the fake smile, the please-them-all attitude. Why? Because they were hired to get results. They were hired to make this place grow and convince people they need to be here.

No one jumps into anything wanting to be a failure. But if your aim is to please your Heavenly Father, you will by no means fail. You may say, "Well, if we do the things God told us, success will naturally come. God told us how to be successful!" Not necessarily. Noah only took his family upon the ark. He had no other converts. Jeremiah spent time in prison for preaching against the sins of his people and telling of forthcoming doom. But they did not listen. Jesus gathered a huge following, but lost them all but eleven by the time of his death.

Let us not be tempted to do big things for God. The biggest thing we can do is become humble, submissive, and simply content to not look within, but look to please Him.

J.T.

Feeling Sin

Have you ever had a dream so wrought with intense emotion that you awoke to feeling that emotion as much as you did when you were asleep? I had such a dream last night. The end of the dream was intense with terror and panic. . . so much so that I woke up suddenly, and it took a good hour before those feelings subsided. But in that hour, I wondered why I did not have such intense feelings toward the enemy of sin. I do hate my sin. I do loathe its awful renderings in my life. But the mere thought of committing sin does not induce within me the feelings of terror that were associated with my dream.

Could it be that I do not see sin as dangerous as it really is? As a Christian, I see sin as something detestable, but do I really feel and know that to my core? Perhaps sin is still to much a part of who I am to be truly alien to me and cause me to revile it so. But does sin have this effect on any man? It has had that effect on at least one man. Before Jesus' arrest and crucifixion, he met with much agony at Gethsemane. In Matthew 26, it says he was sorrowful and deeply distressed and he told his disciples that his "soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." In Luke 22 it says his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground. And he cried out to the father, "if it is your will, take this cup away from me." The torment was great. The terror was real. But why was Christ, the one who had remained steadfast and bold in the face of opposition, now seemingly to recoil in fear? It was the cup. The cup of God's wrath and righteous judgement. It was a judgement against sin.

Unlike any other man, Christ had not known sin. He did know know what it meant to have sin coursing through the veins from birth. He did not know what separation from the Father meant because of sin. He was not ruled by sin or the flesh but ruled by the will of God. Yet, in a little while, he would become sin and be an enemy of God. It was something he had never known, and the terror struck him with the fierceness of all of hell. Yet he remained faithful.

Oh, may I not become friends with sin. May I not make treaties and become complacent and accustomed to its presence. May even the thought of sin. . . mutiny against a Holy God. . . strike terror within my heart. May it become as loathsome as a festering boil and as terrifying as the flames of hell.

J.T.

The Overwhelming Love of God

Is God's love overwhelming to you? It is not possible until you see your overwhelming burden of sin. And that is not possible until you see the overwhelming holiness of God. Yet his holiness condescended to us to take on the form of flesh. And his flesh condescended to take on our sin. But he did not just bear the burden of sin. He became as sin. 2 Corinthians 5:17 - "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." He BECAME OUR sin by imputation. And once that transaction occurred, God poured his wrath and his righteous anger against that sin upon him. Can you fathom the wrath of our Holy God against what he hates: sin? And then imagine that cup being poured out upon you. Yet through this act, his righteousness was imputed to us who are born again so we can be found spotless in his sight. Oh what a glorious thought!

At times this love swells the heart to beyond its capacity. The love of God becomes as an encompassing weight that seems poised to crush to us if he did not restrain his hand. How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be. How marvelous! How wonderful is my savior's love for me! May we all know the experiencing of his love today.

The Medium is the Message - Part Two

So if the way we communicate messages has a bearing on the meaning of those messages, what does that say about how we communicate the gospel? Many have taken the view that since people in America are entrenched in sports, television, and movies that we must use those languages to communicate the gospel of Christ. But ultimately, what does it do to the message? If McLuhan was right, it changes the gospel into entertainment. . . it changes it into mere fun. . . it distorts the seriousness of it. And, in recent years, the gospel has become an obligatory tack-on to entertainment. And because attention spans are short, people are apologized to when gospel presenters say, "This will only take a few minutes."

And what does it say about the message we have to communicate? By trying to smash it in to a context that would appeal to depraved minds, we are stating that there is a lack of power in what we have to say, and it has to be modified in order to be effective. I recently heard John MacArthur say something profound about our gospel. It is a transcendent message. It is a singular message. The message of the church transcends all languages, all nations, all cultures, all societal norms, all contexts, all levels of education, and all notions about status. The early church had the same message everywhere it went in a day when cultural boundaries were harder and more fixed than we see today. Acts 1:8 - "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Did Christ say witnesses to Me by the power of your cunning in crafting the message? No. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All that is needed for the power of God to be released in a situation, such as in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, is that the Truth of God be proclaimed. Three thousand souls were added that day BY GOD, not by the context of the message. Why would you change the message when the Word says that the natural man understands not the things of God? Contextualization of the message is a curse. As MacArthur says, "We have people fussing around trying to figure out if they need holes in their Levis and a skull and crossbones on their t-shirts, as if that is a means for drawing in God's elect. The message never descends to clothing or musical styles. Can your message go to any person? Anyone in your town, state, country, and around the world?"

Let me tell you about the practicality of this. In sharing the gospel with people, I have used the same message with every age group, every race, and each gender. And they all understand! Do they all receive it? No. But the Word says that the message is veiled to those who are perishing. And if it is veiled and cannot be understood by the human mind without the power of God, then how am I going to try and trump that by making it "cool." I recently saw an evangelist present the gospel message to a group of teens. The message was the same as what he would have told a man who was 90 years old. And the message was effective! God brought a certain amount of conviction upon those kids. Why do we feel that we must spend thousands of dollars, generate a great deal of research, and distort the message when all they need is the gospel!

I may sound out of touch with society, but I am in good company. Look at the prophets. Look at John the Baptist (who was probably more out of touch with society than anyone) and the Apostle Paul. For that matter, look at Jesus. He did not fit in with his society, nor did he use their depraved desires to pull them in. We must not use people's desires for the things of the world to draw them to the gospel. These things are innate to their falleness.

The true Gospel is alien to us. Men are naturally prideful. The Gospel smashes that pride. Men proclaim their goodness. The Gospel smashes their idea of what good is. And the Gospel is the power to save. It is not of man, but of God. We therefore, do not need to take what is of God and make if man.

I will end with what is probably the scariest part of all of this. If the medium taints the message, then in all reality, it changes the message. Parts of it may sound the same, but the message is changed. In Galatians 1:9, Paul says, "As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed." Let us not be in that position. Preach the Word! Be prepared in season and out of season!

J.T.

The Medium is the Message - Part One

In the early 1960's, Marshall McLuhan postulated his now famous theory of media, that the medium is the message. This means, in its most simplified form, that messages we convey to each other as human beings are tainted and shaped by the medium by which we choose to communicate them. For example, a news event that is reported on television, the newspaper, and an Internet blog will all be somewhat different. Television is a medium where brevity is key, so the message is shaped accordingly. Newspapers have limited space, but they are a little more free to expound on facts than television. An Internet blog is virtually limitless in space and storage, thus much more information can be contained. In this, the medium of communication helps to shape the message delivered. We can perceive some messages as being more important than others, or more facts or less facts give us an impression of what is truly going on. This is where we get terms such as "soundbite culture." Let me give you one visual example. Look at the following ways of conveying a message through different fonts:

As you can see, if I were conveying a message about a person named Jenny, I could give you different ideas about who Jenny is simply by my medium choice. The message is exactly the same (J-E-N-N-Y), but the medium shapes the way you perceive the message.

In more recent times, television and the Internet are shaping our way of thinking simply because they are the predominant media of our day. One result of television viewing is shortened attention spans. For example, a typical television show will change the image you see every three seconds, on average. You are moved from one shot to the next in rapid succession in order to keep your attention. Watch a television show from the medium's early days. Better yet, place a child in front of an old TV show, and watch the temptation of boredom set in. You will notice things move at a much slower pace, and the shots and images are not changed as often.

So, in the end, messages can be enhanced, obscured, or obsolesced simply by the form of communication we use to transmit that message.

So, what does this mean on a Christian blog? You will have to tune in to part two to find out! But until then, think about how the Christian community transmits the Gospel of Christ. We hold good news! And that good news must be communicated with others. How do we do that? How is that done in America now?

. . . to be continued.

J.T.

Upcoming article about the RTM conference

Paducah Parenting Magazine will graciously run an article regarding the conference in their September issue. Below is the article as it has been submitted to them:

Mark Twain wrote in his autobiography, “In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.” His words could not be more apropos than now.

In a time when many are embracing post-modernist philosophies (what is true for you and what is true for me may be complete opposites, yet they are both valid), the questioning of beliefs passed down from generation to generation are coming under close scrutiny. And perhaps none is more closely eyed than those pertaining to religion. Yet if what Mark Twain writes is true, should we not question the ideals and beliefs passed on to us? Are the beliefs and traditions we grew up with accurate? Such is the subject of the Real Truth Matters conference coming to Paducah on October 11th at the Robert Cherry Civic Center.

The Real Truth Matters conference will take an in depth look at the crux of Christian belief. . . the Gospel. Without it, there would be no Christianity. But the question has arrived: Is what we are doing today in Churches across the United States in line with the Bible, or are we just passing on traditions that in the end, mean nothing? “The question has been raised quite well by those in the emergent church,” says conference speaker Michael Durham. “But in the end, their post-modern ideas do not lead them to a logical solution. On the other end, we have Christians who claim to stand on Biblical truth in their doctrine, but they will do anything and everything to get someone into Christianity, even if it means compromising the Gospel. Others agree that many of the traditions of our forefathers are not good, but they set out to create new, equally dangerous traditions. One of the purposes of this conference is to start a dialog among Christians in our area. In an age where Christians are increasingly under attack for the faith, and persecution is on the rise, we have to make sure we get the Gospel right. It is the bedrock of our faith, and we have to keep it true.”

And the fight is not a new one. Even before the last word was penned on the book of Revelation, deceivers had already crept into the early church. “False prophets existed in the Old Testament,” says Michael. “There always seems to be a work of deception working along side any work of God. That is exactly the problem we find in the Garden of Eden. Jesus warned about them from the sermon on the mount to his discourse just before his death. Paul encountered false teachings as well as Peter and John. The book of Jude is a direct warning against such. Jude encourages believers “to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” because deceivers had crept in unnoticed. The key word is 'unnoticed.' We often think that deception will be easy to spot. But that is the very essence of deception. It is, by nature, not always easy to spot. It will often take on many forms of truth. . . dress itself up in God's word and be nearly accurate. But any errancy in the gospel renders it useless. It's like putting a drop of extremely toxic poison in a gallon of water. Not many would take the chance on drinking that water once they know what is in there.”

And even though deception is often masked under the cloak of truth, the results of it are unmistakable. In 1991, the first year of the decade of harvest, a major denomination in the U.S. was able to obtain 294,000 decisions for Christ. That is, in one year, this major denomination of 11,500 churches was able to obtain 294,000 decisions for Christ. Unfortunately, they could only find 14,000 in fellowship, which means they couldn’t account for 280,000 of their decisions. This is normal, modern evangelical results. And one of the greatest complaints against the Christian community is the fact that many who claim to be Christian are no different than those who do not claim any faith. Yet the scriptures describe a believer as “a new creation.” There is an obvious disconnect between our reality and that described in scripture.

“These are the topics we are going to tackle at the Real Truth Matters conference,” adds Michael. “We are going to look at where we have gotten it wrong, the essential elements of the gospel, and what true conversion really is. It will be a time for Christians to come together and learn the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Once that power is realized, we have no more need of man-made traditions to entice or lure people into the kingdom of God.”

The Real Truth Matters conference will be held at the Robert Cherry Civic Center on Saturday, October 11 at 10am. More information and registration can be found at realtruthmatters.com.