The Prize-Winning Oxymoron of the Week

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An adulterous divorcee who had left his wife for another woman regretted his sinful life and sought reconciliation with his ex-wife. However, he did not know how to go about it and visited a marriage counsellor for some advice.

Divorcee: Dr. I know that my ex-wife still loves me but I feel so ashamed of my gross ill-treatment of her that I do not know how I should approach her in order to return or to turn back to her. Help me please and tell me how I should return or turn back to her.

Doctor: Return or turn back to her? No, no, no, no, my dear friend, you’ve got it all wrong. There’s no such thing as returning or going back to your wife to seek reconciliation. Change your direction. Rather go forward to your wife.

Divorcee: Forward, doctor?

Doctor: Yea man, forward. Admittedly, it is not my bright idea. I picked it up from this blog I happened to stumble on. An Afrikaans guy, I think his name is Stephan Joubert, made it clear that reconciliation does not mean to return or go back, but to go forward.

Divorcee: Well doc, I doubt whether my wife will understand me when I tell her, “Honey, I’m very sorry for all the heartache I caused you. I still love you and would like to go forward to you.” She would say to me “Huh? Are you kidding me? Are you trying to be funny? What kind of a joke is that?”

Doctor: That will be 450 bucks, thank you.

Strange? Weird? No, not really. The Emergent Church followers of Jesus are so convinced that their re-interpretation of the Bible is the Gospel truth that even their oddest semantic inventions make them leap with joy. New semantic inventions? Well, they have no qualms with taking some words in Scripture and giving them “new”  meaning or to use their opposites in order to twist Scripture.

“Return to” and “turn back to” are expressions that God uses to urge lost sinners and backsliders to be reconciled to Him. Of the 17 times the phrase “Return to Me” appears in the Bible 10 of them refer to reconciliation with God. (I used the New American Standard Bible: 1995). Therefore in most cases it has a spiritual meaning that has more to do with a change in heart and mind and not a change of direction.

Jeremiah 3:6, 7 Then the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

Amos 3:13-4:1 “I will also smite the winter house together with the summer house; The houses of ivory will also perish And the great houses will come to an end,” Declares the Lord. “Yet You Have Not Returned to Me”

Zechariah 1:3 “Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Return to Me,” declares the Lord of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says the Lord.

Hosea 11:5 Because they refused to return to Me. The sword will whirl against their cities, And will demolish their gate bars And consume them because of their counsels. So My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, None at all exalts Him.

Jeremiah 24:7 ‘I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.

Malachi 3:7 “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’”

Jeremiah 4:1 “If you will return, O Israel,” declares the Lord, “Then you should return to Me. And if you will put away your detested things from My presence, And will not waver, And you will swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ In truth, in justice and in righteousness; Then the nations will bless themselves in Him, And in Him they will glory.”

Isaiah 44: 22 “I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud And your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”

Nehemiah 1:19 I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.

Joel 2:12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, Return to Me with all your heart,

I have read and heard some shocking things coming from the mouth of Stephan Joubert but the following remark tops everything. On the same blog mentioned above he said:

Leonard Sweet, world renowned futurist, theologian, author, speaker and the guru of those who seek God’s plans in new, meaningful ways, including myself, refuses to use the term retraite or retreat. He’ll immediately tell you that Christians never retreat. We advance. Therefore, the gatherings that he hosts at his island and mountain homes are called advances!

Christians shouldn’t turn back to the Bible or the church. Then we’re heading in the wrong direction. We move forward to God. We advance.

It sounds very pious and, oh so wonderful to say “We advance. We move forward to God” but the question is, “which God?” How are you going to know which God if you do not first return to His Word? How are you ever going to know that you need the God of the Bible if you do not return to His Word? Christians, and especially the “Christians” of today, desperately need to return to the Word of God, for it His Word that declares “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). The reason for their lack of knowledge is because most of them listen to and heed the advice of men and women who have lost their way, thinking that they are advancing toward God. We learn from Scripture that the Bible was written and designed for the following reasons:

1. Instruction (Romans 15:4)
2. Regenerating. (James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23)
3. Quickening. (Psalm 119:50,93)
4. Illuminating. Psalm :130)
5. Converting the soul. Psalm 19:7)
6. Making wise the simple. Ps 19:7)
7. Sanctifying. (John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26)
8. Producing faith. (John 20:31)
9. Producing hope. (Psalm 119:49; Romans 15:4)
10. Producing obedience. Deuteronomy 17:19,20)
11. Cleansing the heart. (John 15:3; Ephesians 5:26)
12. Cleansing the ways. (Psalm 119:9)
13. Keeping from destructive paths. (Psalm 17:4)
14. Supporting life. Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4)
15. Promoting growth in grace. (1 Peter 2:2))
16. Building up in the faith. (Acts 20:32)
17. Admonishing. (Psalm 19:11; 1 Corinthians 10:11)
18. Comforting. (Psalm 119:82; Romans 15:4)
19. Rejoicing the heart. (Psalm 19:8; 119:111)
20. Work effectually in them that believe. (1Thessalonians 2:13)
21. The letter of, without the spirit, killeth. (John 6:63; 2 Corinthians 3:6)
22. Ignorance of, a source of error. (Matthew 22:29; Acts 13:27)
23. Christ enables us to understand. (Luke 24:45)
24. The Holy Spirit enable us to understand. (John 16:13; 1 Corinthians 2:10-14)
25. No prophecy of, is of any private interpretation. (2 Peter 1:20)
26. Everything should be tried by. (Isaiah 8:20; Acts 17:11)

The Word should be:-

1. The standard of teaching. 1Pe 4:11.
2. Believed. Joh 2:22.
3. Appealed to. 1Co 1:31; 1Pe 1:16.
4. Read. De 17:19; Isa 34:16.
5. Read publicly to ALL. De 31:11-13; Ne 8:3; Jer 36:6; Ac 13:15.
6. Known. 2Ti 3:15.
7. Received, not as the word of men, but as the word of God. 1Th 2:13.
8. Received with meekness. Jas 1:21.
9. Searched. Joh 5:39; 7:52.
10. Searched daily. Ac 17:11.
11. Laid up in the heart. De 6:6; 11:18.
12. Taught to children. De 6:7; 11:19; 2Ti 3:15.
13. Taught to ALL. 2Ch 17:7-9; Ne 8:7,8.
14. Talked of continually. De 6:7.
15. Not handled deceitfully. 2Co 4:2.
16. Not only heard, but obeyed. Mt 7:24; Lu 11:28; Jas 1:22.
17. Used against our spiritual enemies. Mt 4:4,7,10; Eph 6:11,17.

Saints:-

1. Love exceedingly. Ps 119:97,113,159,167.
2. Delight in. Ps 1:2.
3. Regard, as sweet. Ps 119:103.
4. Esteem, above all things. Job 23:12.
5. Long after. Ps 119:82.
6. Stand in awe of. Ps 119:161; Isa 66:2.
7. Keep, in remembrance. Ps 119:16.
8. Grieve when men disobey. Ps 119:158.
9. Hide, in their hearts. Ps 119:11.
10. Hope in. Ps 119:74,81,147.
11. Meditate in. Ps 1:2; 119:99,148.
12. Rejoice in. Ps 119:162; Jer 15:16.
13. Trust in. Ps 119:42.
14. Obey. Ps 119:67; Lu 8:21; Joh 17:6.
15. Speak of. Ps 119:172.
16. Esteem, as a light. Ps 119:105.
17. Pray to be taught. Ps 119:12,13,33,66.
18. Pray to be conformed to. Ps 119:133.
19. Plead the promises of, in prayer. Ps 119:25,28,41,76,169.
20. They who search, are truly noble. Ac 17:11.
21. Blessedness of hearing and obeying. Lu 11:28; Jas 1:25.
22. Let them dwell richly in you. Col 3:16.

The wicked:-

1. Corrupt it. 2Co 2:17.
2. Make, of none effect through their traditions. Mr 7:9-13.
3. Reject it. Jer 8:9.
4. Stumble at it. 1Pe 2:8.
5. Obey not it. Ps 119:158.
6. Frequently wrest, to their own destruction. 2Pe 3:16.

(Taken from: Torrey, R. (1897). The new topical text book : A scriptural text book for the use of ministers, teachers, and all Christian workers (New Revised and enlarged.). New York: Fleming H. Revell Co.)

It is obvious that Stephan Joubert doesn’t want you to enjoy all the above spiritual benefits in your life and that’s why he says:

Christians shouldn’t turn back to the Bible or the church. Then we’re heading in the wrong direction. We move forward to God. We advance.

I would like to urge and encourage Stephan Joubert and his emergent buddies who support him in his carnal efforts to move and advance toward God to repent and return to the Bible. In doing so they will learn some of the most awesome realities about the position the genuine children of God already have in God and therefore do not need to move or advance toward God. Let’s kook at a few of these awesome realities.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. ^He that loveth me not keepeth not my words: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.

John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you  . . .

Ephesians 2: 6 & 7 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Wow! Think carefully! Let the above words sink deep into your soul and spirit, dear child of God. The genuine children of God are already IN Jesus Christ, seated IN Him at the right hand of the Father in heaven, and God has already made His abode (dwelling) IN them. They do not need to move or advance toward God. God is not in some remote place toward which His children must move or advance. They really only need to ABIDE IN HIM. Stephan Joubert and his emergent buddies are preaching and teaching a gospel of salvation by works, which is no gospel at all (Galatians 1:7). They are following the way of Cain who thought he could bring himself into the presence of God by means of his own efforts and good works. It is a false Gospel with a false Jesus and a false spirit. Paul wrote:

2 Corinthians 11:2-4 For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.

Stephan Joubert and his emergent buddies, Nelus Niemandt, Rob Bell and Leonard Sweet, have written several books. I may be wrong but I get the impression that they want Christians to return to their books in stead of the Bible. May God have mercy on us.