Is Our Modern Take on the Gospel Designed For Itching Ears?

[grasping the after wind]

John the baptist wore animal skins and ate bugs. He wasnt rich. People today want rich preachers who will promise them prosperity.

That is a shame isn't it. They seem to conflate prosperity with happiness. God's gift of a peace that surpasses all understanding is so much more precious than the vain prosperity that some would substitute for it.

 

[Calvin_1985]

We all know the scripture about those in the last days. They will have itching ears, and satisfied only when their ears are scratched by what is preached. And we all assume that means those spoken of do not include me, lol.

What comes to mind are those in it for what Christianity does for them. The prosperity gospel is a good example. Oh, the adherants of this gospel say that they are in it for the Lord and are looking for the hundred fold increase only so that they can bless others, but the truth is plain to see in the way they interact with the world.

Itching ears. Right? And that is not us, right? Or is it? I content that our modern takr on the gospel, although it does not go into the excesses of the properity, confess it-possess it crowd, is in fact still an itching ears gospel. Let me explain.

The Bible is full of both encouragements and warnings. We are to behold both the goodness AND the severity of God. And yet is this what we hear from our pulpits? No, very rarely do we see preachers taking their oversight of the sheep seriously. Their job is to grow us up in the Lord in all things, through encouragements AND through warnings, rebukes, and instructions in righteousness.

But today there is a clear goal in most churches to grow the size of the church, regardless of the quality of the saints themselves. Thus churches are competing for saints and what most view as negative preaching..... ceasing from sin, overcoming the world, the flesh and the devil,
loving not the world, avoiding being double minded, seeking holiness and purity of heart..... these things do not go over well with congregations, do they?

If pastors share as they ought, saints will simply mpve on to other pastures. Why? Itching ears. We have made corrective actions in our walks with God a 'personsl' thing, so we preach with no unction, no warnings, and put forth a no-cost gospel where you do not have to hate your old life at all. You do not have to seek holiness, because it makes us 'sin conscious' and robs us of our joy. You do not have to endure to the end. You do not have to reaist the devil, becasue even if you slip, you are forgiven, even if you do not repent! Why worry? Our fate is sealed. We are heaven bound, so all those warnings, corrections, rebukes, instructions in righteousness really are just downers.

Brothers and sisters, itching ears are on the path to becoming deceived ears. When we can finally admit that our walk with God is missing the other half of the gospel, where Jesus promises to change us into His image through His correction and instruction found throughout the new testament, a new era will begin. The church is destined to awaken to the truth of who we are, but not all will receive it. What each one of us needs to decide is, do we continue to coddle our ears and our hearts with unbalanced assurances, or do we finally lay ourselves bare before the master potter, and seek Him to actually change us into His likeness?

That decision, dear friends, will determine our everything.

blessings,

Gideon

You are broadbrushing many churches on you're own judgement while being on the outside.

 

[Calvin_1985]

A lot of pin ring out flaws across the board but yet no solid solutions has anyone given. Pull yourselves away from what you have built your houses upon and go before Father as a child admitting you don't know a thing and let him open the scriptures for you.

 

[W2L]

A lot of pin ring out flaws across the board but yet no solid solutions has anyone given. Pull yourselves away from what you have built your houses upon and go before Father as a child admitting you don't know a thing and let him open the scriptures for you.

Be careful you dont broadbrush many people on your own judgement while being on the outside.

 

[Calvin_1985]

I

Be careful you dont broadbrush many people on your own judgement while being on the outside.

I am not broadbrushing. My statement is based upon the very comments in this forum.

 

[Blade]

My brother can I say something...this is not what that verse means. To take "The prosperity gospel" ... there is no such thing. Its a NAME to do what? Bring life, point to Christ? Uplift them..them being the ones DUH are not like US that are in error or as others say FALSE ..not of God. Its a name THEY dont use. Its NOT truth. Come on..speak truth.. its to make fun of them. Do they like being called that? I cant find one that does. Not saying one is not out there. So..do we CARE about them? Love them as Christ loves you and me. Do we look for the good in them. Hey.. I didnt bring them into this.

Shall we post only from the word of God PROSPERITY verses? Most will be shocked at how much GOD promises to those that LOVE Him. And then the "confess it-possess" <---who talks like this STILL? I have not heard any of them say that or like that in wow YEARS. ..some NEVER have..yet THEY are treated as if they did. Then please WHY if so many knew they got it wrong.. I CAN SEE right now.. I watched them.. say they missed it.. repented. You think they HAVE to repent to MAN? Gods never ever going to tell you if they repented or SINNED or missed it or get it right. Opps.. left that out..

This is what happens "The Charismatic expect super powers, and what they get is nothing". This is the kind of talk we get. NO clue Jesus is real.. that what He said He will do.. and it was not Him it was GOD talking. What Peter and John did at the gate. We dont have any silver or gold. But what we do have "STOP! What did they have the YOU dont?" in JESUS name... then later said...why do you look at us as if WE did this under our own power? Its FAITH IN THAT NAME! <----thats what Charismatics have..and the Word of Faith. Jesus said it not me.. IN MY NAME you shall? Whos YOU? Who is who so ever? IN MY NAME YOU SHALL.. cast out demons.. lay hands on the sick and they SHALL recover. You doubt.. so you get what you believe..

Whats written "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;"..myths v4 ..is whats written. So.. yeah.. dont seen prosperity or Charismatic beliefs fall into myths. See Paul was talking to Timothy about when opposition to the gospel would be wide spread.. and then one cant leave out their own lusts. Now... from my study this itching ears is can mean entertainment. One has to keep reading above and below.. they refuse to hear the true gospel. ...turned into myths.

If I offended forgive me

 

[Gideons300]

I think most will agree that our modern Christianity has found that "feel good" preaching fills seats and opens wallets. I have no statistics on this, perhaps someone can help me out here, but if we remove every scripture that deals with correction, with warnings, with exhortations, or with instructions as to how to live godly in Christ, what per cent would we have left?

A third? Who knows, but it is not a lot. Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, that two-thirds is such a downer. It seems to make us feel guilty, powerless, like, well.... failures.

Should that not send up a red flag to us? Of course we have itching ears, lol. Who wants to listen to how we need to do better, try harder, act more grateful, when it seems impossible.... no, it IS impossible.

Ah.... there's the mother lode we have been digging towards. This is where our REAL red flag needs to be waved in our face. What red flag, you ask? That our mindset about holiness has been skewed and then skewered.... by unbelief in the clear promises of our God.

Why would any want to subject themselves to 'negative preaching" if the exhortations and instructions are pointless because the goal, the target, is impossible to wver hit. After all, who can stop sinnimg? So why try?

Makes perfect sense..... if it were impossible. It is not. We have simply not believed that God can and will keep us from falling to temptation, can and will change us into His likeness, can and will make us abundantly fruitful, can and will cause us to walk in victroy over the world, the flesh and the devil. We are guilty of limiting the Holy one of Israel by our unbelief, And worse, we have no hunger for that to change.

Well, guess what? Our God loves us far too much to let us languish in the religious doldrums, when we have a wedding to be prepared for. Those who long to please Him with their lives, their words, their actions and yet who find that Romans 7 is the inevitable result, are about to be gently awakened to the glorious truth of how we walk in victory.

Those who are quite content to mingle a bit with the world, or with a bit of sin (because, after all, no one is perfect, right?) will be awakened more persuasively, perhaps, but God's motive is always love, even if He has to spank us.

We will all awaken. Even the tares. We have had a Christianity that costs us nothing and delivers very little.... healed only slightly, the Bible calls it.

But something new is beginning to happen in His bride, We are slowly but surely being awakened to is true Christianity... the one that costs us everything and offers Him in us in return, and Him is us... our new nature, can and will be caused to obey Him, just like He promised!

And brothers and sisters, it will be GLORIOUS.

blessings to all,

Gideon

 

[psalm911]

We all know the scripture about those in the last days. They will have itching ears, and satisfied only when their ears are scratched by what is preached. And we all assume that means those spoken of do not include me, lol.

What comes to mind are those in it for what Christianity does for them. The prosperity gospel is a good example. Oh, the adherants of this gospel say that they are in it for the Lord and are looking for the hundred fold increase only so that they can bless others, but the truth is plain to see in the way they interact with the world.

Itching ears. Right? And that is not us, right? Or is it? I content that our modern takr on the gospel, although it does not go into the excesses of the properity, confess it-possess it crowd, is in fact still an itching ears gospel. Let me explain.

The Bible is full of both encouragements and warnings. We are to behold both the goodness AND the severity of God. And yet is this what we hear from our pulpits? No, very rarely do we see preachers taking their oversight of the sheep seriously. Their job is to grow us up in the Lord in all things, through encouragements AND through warnings, rebukes, and instructions in righteousness.

But today there is a clear goal in most churches to grow the size of the church, regardless of the quality of the saints themselves. Thus churches are competing for saints and what most view as negative preaching..... ceasing from sin, overcoming the world, the flesh and the devil,
loving not the world, avoiding being double minded, seeking holiness and purity of heart..... these things do not go over well with congregations, do they?

If pastors share as they ought, saints will simply mpve on to other pastures. Why? Itching ears. We have made corrective actions in our walks with God a 'personsl' thing, so we preach with no unction, no warnings, and put forth a no-cost gospel where you do not have to hate your old life at all. You do not have to seek holiness, because it makes us 'sin conscious' and robs us of our joy. You do not have to endure to the end. You do not have to reaist the devil, becasue even if you slip, you are forgiven, even if you do not repent! Why worry? Our fate is sealed. We are heaven bound, so all those warnings, corrections, rebukes, instructions in righteousness really are just downers.

Brothers and sisters, itching ears are on the path to becoming deceived ears. When we can finally admit that our walk with God is missing the other half of the gospel, where Jesus promises to change us into His image through His correction and instruction found throughout the new testament, a new era will begin. The church is destined to awaken to the truth of who we are, but not all will receive it. What each one of us needs to decide is, do we continue to coddle our ears and our hearts with unbalanced assurances, or do we finally lay ourselves bare before the master potter, and seek Him to actually change us into His likeness?

That decision, dear friends, will determine our everything.

blessings,

Gideon

The falling away has happened already.

 

[Alithis]

Perhaps in order to return to the teachings of Jesus over theology designed to attract the masses, there needs to be a makeover in what church means so that it is no longer necessary to operate as a business. That would mean turning away from a traditional system of man and perhaps operate in the ways of pre-corporate takeover.

For that to occur we LEAVE the old toughened wine skin of religious instituion.
It has never been able to contain new wine.

 

[W2L]

Come on..speak truth.. its to make fun of them. Do they like being called that? I cant find one that does. Not saying one is not out there. So..do we CARE about them? Love them as Christ loves you and me. Do we look for the good in them. Hey.. I didnt bring them into this.

Its not meant to make fun, people really have a problem with rich preachers getting rich selling the Gospel and then calling it prosperity.

 

[FIRESTORM314]

I think a good gauge of where a church (denomination) is at is for members to examine themselves in light of what Jesus says about the seven churches in Revelation 2 & 3. The interesting thing is that some of the churches thought they were doing better than they were, and some of them thought they looked worse in Christ's eyes than they actually did.

In my view, the church began its downhill slide when they moved into buildings and hired professional leaders. You know that all of the Acts churches actually met in homes. Where you'll find members of the body of Christ with the strongest, most-biblical faith right now are the congregations in China who must, because of the persecutions there, meet in homes. I seriously doubt the preaching there is to tickle their congregant's itching ears.

Awhile back, just to satisfy my curiosity, I Googled some of the major denominations to read their doctrinal statements. To say I was absolutely shocked would be a huge understatement. But, it also explains why there is so much misinterpretation of Scripture being bandied about. The members are simply not getting good expositional teaching, and are being steeped in false doctrines.

Yup - it's a tough one to examine yourself - we tend to see ourselves in a good light.

One measure - is if we start seeing faults in others and criticising them. Guess who's likely to have the problem ? Me. I've got to admit I've fell over this one and went bump.

Lord - if there are any dark corners in me then point them out to me. If I don't hear then shout a little louder - I pray.

 

[FIRESTORM314]

I think most will agree that our modern Christianity has found that "feel good" preaching fills seats and opens wallets. I have no statistics on this, perhaps someone can help me out here, but if we remove every scripture that deals with correction, with warnings, with exhortations, or with instructions as to how to live godly in Christ, what per cent would we have left?

A third? Who knows, but it is not a lot. Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, that two-thirds is such a downer. It seems to make us feel guilty, powerless, like, well.... failures.

Should that not send up a red flag to us? Of course we have itching ears, lol. Who wants to listen to how we need to do better, try harder, act more grateful, when it seems impossible.... no, it IS impossible.

Ah.... there's the mother lode we have been digging towards. This is where our REAL red flag needs to be waved in our face. What red flag, you ask? That our mindset about holiness has been skewed and then skewered.... by unbelief in the clear promises of our God.

Why would any want to subject themselves to 'negative preaching" if the exhortations and instructions are pointless because the goal, the target, is impossible to wver hit. After all, who can stop sinnimg? So why try?

Makes perfect sense..... if it were impossible. It is not. We have simply not believed that God can and will keep us from falling to temptation, can and will change us into His likeness, can and will make us abundantly fruitful, can and will cause us to walk in victroy over the world, the flesh and the devil. We are guilty of limiting the Holy one of Israel by our unbelief, And worse, we have no hunger for that to change.

Well, guess what? Our God loves us far too much to let us languish in the religious doldrums, when we have a wedding to be prepared for. Those who long to please Him with their lives, their words, their actions and yet who find that Romans 7 is the inevitable result, are about to be gently awakened to the glorious truth of how we walk in victory.

Those who are quite content to mingle a bit with the world, or with a bit of sin (because, after all, no one is perfect, right?) will be awakened more persuasively, perhaps, but God's motive is always love, even if He has to spank us.

We will all awaken. Even the tares. We have had a Christianity that costs us nothing and delivers very little.... healed only slightly, the Bible calls it.

But something new is beginning to happen in His bride, We are slowly but surely being awakened to is true Christianity... the one that costs us everything and offers Him in us in return, and Him is us... our new nature, can and will be caused to obey Him, just like He promised!

And brothers and sisters, it will be GLORIOUS.

blessings to all,

Gideon

Blessings Gideon.

Get ready and Don't be late for the Wedding !

Matthew 25:10
But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

 

[timothyu]

Why focus on the churches of the religion of man when the focus is to be on the Kingdom? Typical distraction.

 

[RDKirk]

A "feel good" gospel also includes any that allows me to say, "Thank you, Lord, that I'm not like that <whichever type of sinner I think I'm not> over there."

A "feel good" gospel includes any that allows me to say, "I'm doing all that's expected of me just to be sitting in this pew putting a little money into the plate."

A "feel good" gospel is any that does not leave me with a conviction and an understanding that I am part of the Body of Christ and have a role to play in the accomplishment of the mission that Christ gave to His body.

If a gospel leaves me complacent with where I am and what I'm doing, it's a "feel good" gospel.