The Deadliest Catch

I've become increasingly aware that some of the most bitter critics of the church today are, in some cases, people who not only have ceased to attend church, but run blogs and websites purporting themselves to be a bastion of doctrinal 'trueness' and purity.

They speak as authorities on what ails the modern church, yet they are unable to humble themselves enough to attend a local church to try to implement their 'ideas'. While there are things that certainly need critical assessment in the church and in churches - I agree with Pastor Anton Bosch that biblically speaking only those who have a pastoral or teaching ministry even have the right to teach doctrine or point out false doctrine. There is no biblical allowance for critical or fault finding ministries in God's Word.

Where does this leave these self proclaimed Christian authorities who never even darken the door of Jesus' own invention and yet speak as though they alone have the plan to fix the church?

What I've personally witnessed is that these bitter souls have caught a deadly disease - spiritual pride. Spiritual pride is the deadliest catch for it keeps you from church, blinds you to think you are always right and everyone else is always wrong. Spiritual pride, in modern vernacular, is very much the 'my way or the highway' mentality. Spiritual pride is the disease that vexed Lucifer himself. It's easy to catch and hard to shake. It blocks repentance and deceives one into thinking that they themselves are doing the very work of God as they proudly check their blog daily for the 'hit count' and revel in the traffic that they are getting for their latest sharp tongued assessment of brothers and sisters in Christ to whom they are not even connected.

Spiritual pride defined is thinking that you are more spiritual and more 'right' than anyone else, including the pastor - so much so you are unable to humble yourself and submit to anyone because you think you alone have discernment that no one else has. This dangerous thinking pretty much eliminates these folks from ever finding a church home because they will never find one that suits their fancy - translated, a church ran by their specifications - and of course if a church isn't run by their specifications then that means only one thing to them - it's obviously not of God in their not so humble opinion.

I was recently told that our church wasn't biblical because we have a 501 c3 making us a tax exempt entity - "true churches aren't tax exempt" I was told. Who knew? Let's see...that's found in 2 Collisions 3:5, right? What's odd is that most of these critical types reject any 'new revelation' from God today - however they will come up with some doozy's like this which apparently came through their own private hot-line to God. Sadly their hot-line was disconnected long ago by their own pride.

Obviously, there is no such thing as a perfect church, no church has ever been perfect - not even in the book of Acts. Church pretty much became imperfect when humans showed up inside of it - a fact lost on these folks.

That's why we all must keep our eyes on the cross, humble ourselves, preach Christ and Him crucified, walk humbly before God and have I said anything about humility yet?