AN EXAMINATION OF THE MANY DEVIANT BEHAVIOURS in the visible church increasingly convinces me that, from the human standpoint at least, there is one major factor which has exacerbated them above all others. I am not speaking here about the work of the demonic realm, the sovereignty of God in judgement, or the manipulation and infiltration of churches by impostors hell-bent on a corrupt mission. Those certainly are major elements in the process of ecclesiastic deviancy. But the demonic realm would never have had as many levers to pull or buttons to press if another factor had not been there in the first place. Neither would there have been so much need for the judgement of God on churches if this other factor had not been there in the first place. Similarly, the manipulators and infiltrators would never have found as much of a foothold in churches or the lives of professing Christians if this other major factor had not already been in existence.

The factor about which I am speaking is the wholly inadequate ‘conversion’ (metanoic transformation) experience of so many in the Christian scene today.

The reason that so many feel the need to run around the world seeking a ‘Second Blessing’ or some other form of pyrotechnical experience is because they never had a genuine First Blessing! The reason that so many feel the need to run around the world looking for ‘signs and wonders’ is because they have failed to receive the Wonder of Wonders — the regeneration of the soul through the power of the Spirit applying the finished work of Christ. The reason that so many feel the need to run around the world seeking numerous mystical “Anointings” from the corrupt men and women who dispense them with a wave of their hands or a touch on the forehead is because they never had ‘an anointing from the Holy One’ in the first place (1 John 2:20)! As the Apostle John says:

“I have written these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught” (1 John 2:26-7).

The true conversion/transformation experience is the REAL blessing for the human being, and it brings REAL assurance of salvation. The true anointing is an abiding anointing. But where there has not been a real conversion experience with an abiding anointing, there is no real assurance. Consequently one has then to spend one’s time convincing oneself that one is saved by seeking progressively greater highs and dynamic experiences and ‘hyper-worship’ scenarios. Easy-believism engenders enslavement to experience in the weak and untransformed. That is why so many songs have to be sung and repeated endlessly in easy-believist circles. That is why worship doesn’t feel worshipful for them unless there’s a drumbeat. That is why one has to keep on attending ‘Catch the Fire Seminars’, or ‘Holy Spirit Weekends’, or other trendy nonsense, in order to ‘recharge one’s batteries’ (as they say). The genuine disciple of Christ’s “batteries” are non-rechargeable and do not need to be charged for they are infinitely powered by the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is why those in easy-believist, pyrotechnic circles have to surround themselves with the white heat of huge meetings at which the weird and extraordinary keep happening. That is why so many have to FEEL good before they can be convinced that things really ARE good. Where the real internal, indwelling sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit is not in evidence, then any evidence that the Spirit is at work will have to be sought externally. Hence, the role that bizarre manifestations have come to play as evidence of the work of the Spirit in so many churches today. It is like a sickness — a profound sickness, which ironically is the only actual profundity which exists in such circles!

Of what is all this indicative? In essence, a lack of faith. Where there is no faith, or very little, a person walks by sight. He or she gets hung up on the EXTernals rather than focussing on what is ETernal (2 Corinthians 4:17 – 5:7). And that, I believe is what lies at the root of so many of the wayward movements of today. Their interest is in those things which are earthly, sensual and… yes… even demonic (James 3:15). It is no surprise, therefore, to discover that on the Day of Judgement there will be MANY who will say to the Lord Jesus Christ:

“‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then Jesus will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:22-23).

Those guys were heavily into religious pyrotechnics. They were high profile activists for the Lord — so they thought. They had caught the trendy fire. They were into the externals big time. But they had never really bowed the knee of their souls in the first place.

I wonder how many there are today who have undergone some psycho-religious or mystical experience masquerading as “conversion”. They know nothing of the true Lord, and nothing of the true cross (neither Christ’s nor the one they should themselves bear). But they know how to feel good. There are many others too who have “made a decision for Christ” and superficially “made a commitment” by feebly “inviting Jesus into their hearts”. But those man-centred actions do not in themselves constitute Christian conversion. Some of those who underwent them may have a pietistic interest in Christ; but they are more likely to be “almost Christians” (cf. Acts 26:28) than full-blown believers — unless later they experience the bitter-sweet-richness of true repentance unto life.

It is only when one has been truly humbled by the overwhelming sovereignty of God in conversion (metanoic transformation) that one really knows the tremendous power of God and the true dynamic creativity of the Holy Spirit. It is only when one acknowledges that salvation is all of God that one can truly grow in grace. A ‘conversion’ which is founded on a psycho-religious experience or which has been machinated by a decision of the mind, or a mere ‘commitment’, or an ‘invitation’ to Jesus to come through the door of one’s heart (for if Jesus wants you He will have you anyway, whether you invite Him or not!), is never going to provide an adequate foundation for the Christian life. A superficial ‘conversion’ will lead to a superficial Christian experience expressed in superficial Christian songs and revelling only in a superficial quasi-Christian triumphalism. And that is what we have today, with most churches being a vast number of kilometres wide but only a few millimetres deep.

The solution lies in the courage to evangelise in a biblical manner — preaching of the need for deep repentance and full-time discipleship, regardless of the hostility and notwithstanding the cost. Biblical evangelism doesn’t sweat over the quantity of conversions; but it is vitally concerned about what it means to be a new creation and reap a crop of fruit in the life of a soul. A true preacher doesn’t constantly serve up low-fat milk teaching; but he loves to preach the solid meat about “the deep things of God”. De profundis.

If you get the conversion right, the rest will follow suit. A soul which has passed through the valley of deep repentance finds itself gasping moment by moment at the supernatural artistry of the work of God in his or her life — not merely in conversion and since, but even in the events prior to the new birth and those which led up to it, even over a lifetime. Such a soul could never be satisfied singing silly ditties which need endless repetition in order to make them seem like half a song. Such a soul could never be happy to hear what barely passes as a children’s address masquerading as an exposition of Scripture. Such a soul could never countenance mumbling gibberish and then believe they’ve done spiritual warfare with the devil! Such a soul could never imagine that God wants them only to be totally healthy and wealthy as a sign of their spirituality. (Perish the thought!). Such a soul could never stand in a line waiting its turn to fall down at the touch of a man’s hand. Such a soul could never settle for putting “jelly” at the heart of “evan cal”. (When I was a child… I ate jelly. It was insubstantial and flopped around everywhere).

So many of today’s foolishnesses have their roots in an inadequate conversion! The sickness of the church has spread like an epidemic because so many churches are populated with, and led by, men and women who have been encouraged to believe that their religion is Christianity, when it is at best mysticism — at worst some kind of satanism. Does that shock you? One doesn’t have to worship Satan consciously in order to be a satanist. The Pharisees didn’t worship satan. They thought they were God’s chosen people. But the Lord Jesus said to them: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do” (John 8:44). To all intents and purposes, they were satanists. And so are we if we call ourselves Christians (God’s people) but then indulge in a plethora of antichristian activities — roasting anyone who dares to express disquiet.

We must ask ourselves all these questions: Am I REALLY saved? Did I REALLY repent, and do I go on doing so on a daily basis? Did I experience the profound heartache of knowing how much of an affront I was to God before I came to Christ? Did I understand my own contribution to Christ having his beard ripped off (Isaiah 50:6), being beaten to an unrecognisable pulp (Isaiah 52:14), and then nailed to a cross-shaped couple of pieces of wood? Did my conversion come about as a result of seeing that cross in my mind’s eye and realising the shame and contempt which He underwent for the saving of my soul. Did I get a true picture of hell (the “second death”) in that anguished cosmic cry of Christ on the cross: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me”, and then realise the outer darkness from which He saved me? [Sidebar: As you can see, Jesus was not “annihilated” on that cross — to use a common word by which faint-hearted folks try to diminish what will happen to the enemies of God after death. Instead, Jesus suffered all the pangs of hell and a sense of the destruction — the eternal ruination of the soul through full separation from God, 2 Thessalonians 1:9 — which would have been mine had I continued in life without repentance and submission to Him. And if you want to say at this point, “If hell is supposedly eternal, then why did Christ not suffer eternally?”, my reply is because His suffering was of infinite worth because the blood that He shed was the very blood of God, Acts 20:28. Here is the bottom line: If one does not understand what substitutionary atonement is really all about, one cannot even begin to understand what hell is really all about, and one will continually try to explain it away in desperation by claiming that the enemies of God will be annihilated and using trendy terms like “conditional immortality”. An inadequate, truncated view of hell will always go hand-in-hand with an inadequate, truncated view of the substitutionary atonement of Christ, because that atonement on the cross when He was in agony separated from His Father is indicative of the suffering in hell for the lost]. So, to continue the questions, we must ask ourselves: Do I appreciate that the snatching of my soul from hell like a flaming coal out of a fire is no small thing? Do I understand the full import of James’s wise exhortation to “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom” (James 4:9)? Do I treasure the fact that to go into that deep valley brings strength in order to ascend the heights? “Humble yourselves before the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:10).

But there is nothing humbling about the experience of “Christianity” offered by much of modern evangel[ical]ism. It flatters us sycophantishly by telling us before we’ve come to Christ that God loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives, when we are really destined for wailing and gnashing of teeth and outer darkness. It makes us into little gods by telling us that we have total free will and — for fear of offending us — hides from us the awful fact of our bondage to egocentricity, sin (moral failure) and Satan. It wraps us up in an ersatz world of plastic religion, encouraging us to feed ferociously on a starvation diet of crassly sensual experience and the equivalent of ‘Mexican Waves’ in mega-auditoriums. It fills our mouths with trite songs so as to shut them up from crying out the REAL questions, like “What is truth?”, or “What must I do to be saved?”, or “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?”, or “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”, or “When will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” These are the burning questions in life!

So let us do all we can to encourage a return to the kind of evangel[ical]ism and teaching-food which increases the spiritual stature and enlarges the brain. How it must have been like that in the primitive church, when Peter fearlessly rose to his feet and lifted up his voice, and thereafter all those who were saved “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship” (Acts 2:14,42)! Profound preaching leads to profound transformation. Profound transformation leads to profound spirituality and a deep appreciation of profound teaching, without which we will wither away like crops in a desert.

Let us be “de profundis” (from the depths) rather than “in vadis” (in the shallows).

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]