It just amazes me over and over again how nimbly the emergent fraternity can wring out like a sponge the essentials of certain biblical passages and conveniently highlight the lesser important essentials to fit their tailor-made agendas. Stephan Joubert proved this once again in his article “Life generously” written on 7 January on the e-church website. Before we venture into Joubert’s pearl of wisdom, we need to take a closer look at the essentials in Acts 20:17-38.
FIRST ESSENTIAL
Verse 17 to 21 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is abundantly clear that Paul’s first priority in life was to proclaim God’s Gospel of Salvation to both the Jews and Gentiles which includes repentance to Him (a return to Him) and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He preached and taught it from house to house, regardless of the many plots the Jews and the Gentiles made to kill him. Paul remained faithful to the unadulterated teaching and preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the midst of the most difficult circumstances. Please note carefully that Paul’s application of the word “repentance” is used in close conjunction with the words “faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Whereas the Emergent fraternity defines “metanoia” as a “moving beyond your reason” (Marcus Borg) or “repentance, awakening, getting beyond our current mind or condition” (Ron Martoia), (mainly with regard to your worldview and never with regard to your sinful and lost status before God). On page 8 of the brochure that was handed out at the Mosaic Congress held at the Mosaic Church in Fairlands, Johannesburg from 4 to 5 September 2009, Stephan Joubert quoted Thomas Moore from his book “Writing in the sand. Jesus and the Soul in the Gospels” (Hay House 2009)
Metanioa is the process by which you enter the kingdom. Jesus asks for a deep shift in worldview . . . One of the most difficult things to do is to change the way you imagine your place in life. Nothing is more challenging. On the other hand, once this takes place, nothing could be more vitalizing. Truly, it’s as if you are born a second time. Your eyes open to a different world . . . Metanoia comes at great cost. You are to give up an understanding of life that has been in place for a long time.
What is the process and the great cost at which the metanoia comes? In the emergent lingo it means but one thing — a sacrificial, poured out life, and service to the poor, the destitute and the downtrodden, and to engage the complexities and chaos of life. A biblical metanoia, in contrast to that of the Emergent Church’s rendering thereof, is not one of the most difficult things to do and neither does it involve the way you imagine your place in life. The biblical metanoia is about knowing and understanding your place (position) in the sight of an awesomely holy God — the position of a lost sinner who desperately needs to be saved by the grace of God through his Son Jesus Christ. It is not a deep shift in your worldview that constitutes a genuine metanoia but a profound shift in your view of your self in the light of God’s Word. Should you believe that you can enter the kingdom of God through a process of living a sacrificial poured out life and service to the community with the intention of making a better place of our world or to change it, you are misleading yourself. In fact, your metanoia experience deceives you into believing that your altruistic service to mankind has redemptive healing qualities which in turn puffs up and makes you believe you are the cat’s whiskers. Your selfless community work and “life generously” rallying cry may have a wholesome impact on peoples’ lives but it cannot reconcile them to God, especially when the Gospel of salvation of Jesus Christ is set aside for the sake of a poured out sacrificial lifestyle. As I indicated earlier in some of my previous comments, Mother Theresa lived an excellent poured out sacrificial lifestyle of service in Calcutta, India but it never benefitted the poor wretched people she took care of because she never preached and taught them the unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul, in complete agreement with the Greek Language, defines “metanoia” in superb harmony with God’s intended meaning of the word. In the Greek the words repentance (“metanoia”) and faith (“pistis”) are joined together by one article which stresses two but inseparable aspects of trust in Jesus Christ. The moment a person places his trust in Christ he simultaneously turns away from (repents of) his former unbelief. One cannot speak of a true biblical “metanoia” without a genuine turning away from unbelief to faith in Jesus Christ and his finished sacrificial work on the cross of Calvary. Anything short of this is not true salvation. In fact it is faith (“pistis”) in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross that constitutes a genuine “metanoia”
SECOND ESSENTIAL
Verses 24-25 But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face.
The course and ministry Paul endeavoured to finish faithfully was not a Mother Theresa-tistic or a Stephan Joubert-tistic kind of living to care for the poor and the destitute but to testify solemnly of the Gospel of grace of God. These two verses renounce entirely the Emergent Church’s “life generously” sacrificial kind of living and service to the community, the kind that is based on Mother Theresa’s philanthropic living amongst the Hindus and Muslims in Calcutta without her ever having proclaimed the Gospel of Christ to them so that they might be saved. Paul poured his life out and did not account it as dear to himself, to what end? . . . to alleviate the extreme poverty of the poor; to care for the destitute and the downtrodden; to muster an army of generous givers? If this had been the purpose of Paul’s ministry he would not have been any better than Maitreya who promises to bring peace on earth by teaching mankind how to share their resources with their poor brothers and sisters. In a full-page advert which appeared in the Rand Daily Mail on Saturday, 24 April 1982, and many newspapers throughout the world the so-called Maitreya said the following amongst other things:
My task will be to show you how to live together peacefully as brothers. This is simpler than you imagine, My friends, for it requires only the acceptance of sharing.
How can you be content with the modes within which you now live: when millions starve and die in squalor; when the rich parade their wealth before the poor; when each man is his neighbor’s enemy; when no man trusts his brother?
Allow me to show you the way forward into a simpler life where no man lacks; where no two are alike; where the Joy of Brotherhood manifests through all men.
Take your brother’s needs as the measure of your action and solve the problems of the world.
Have you noticed the key words “to lift our consciousness” and “to make us aware of the significance of the time we live in?” These are words and phrases that pop up ever so frequently in the vocabulary of the emergent fraternity. “To “lift our consciousness” is just another way of saying “to move beyond our present state of mind” or “to move beyond reason” and “to make us aware of the significance of the time we live in” is another way of articulating the emergents’ metanoia experience of changing your worldview. When you begin to come into sync with the quantum changes in mankind’s worldview you will experience a metanoia which, according to the emergent fraternity “is like a second birth.
Paul’s essentials were to preach the coming Kingdom of God on earth when his Son, Jesus Christ, returns to set up his millennium reign of peace on earth and not a counterfeit kingdom which, according to Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey and Maitreya, will be ushered in right here and now through sacrificial living of service to mankind and to share your resources. In the words of Stephan Joubert this is to “Life (sic) genereously.” Here are his words:
Especially precious is the apostle’s words that he worked hard to always have something to give to the poor! . . .
In these deep words of Paul we encounter the complete heart of the gospel in a nutshell, namely that we must always life generously.
Nice words, but what about sharing, preaching and teaching the only Gospel of salvation? To work hard so that you always may have something to give to the poor and “life generously” is the complete heart of the Gospel in a nutshell??? Really??? Paul would hardly ever have been persecuted by his own brethren, the Jews, and they would scarcely have plotted to kill him if he had presented to them Stephan Joubert’s brand of the “heart of the Gospel in a nutshell.” Wow! Paul, how could you have been so stupid? If only you had preached Joubert’s brand of the “heart of the Gospel in a nutshell” you could have escaped all the dreadful persecutions, hardships and hatred you encountered owing to the offense of the cross. Is this te wisdom Joubert receives from his Sage from heaven?
THIRD ESSENTIAL
Before I quote to you the originally written words of Paul in verses 26 to 31 I would first like to transcribe it in the way the Emergent Church wants you to understand it:
Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from living generously and sacrificially among you, sharing my income and resources with the poor in Jerusalem, Galatia, Corinth, Ephesus, etc. Be on guard for yourself and the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to share their resources with the poor who have learnt to walk in the rhythms of the Sage from heaven. I know that after my departure compassionate shepherds will come in among you, not neglecting the flock; and from your own selves men will arise, speaking encouraging things, to draw them with you in following the Sage from heaven. Therefore, be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to rejoice over you with much tears of happiness.
Now for the original.
Verse 26 to 31 “Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. “Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.
Paul alludes to Ezekiel 33:1-6 where God appointed the prophet to be a watchman and to warn his people of impending dangers. He would be innocent of their blood if he had warned them and they refused to listen to him. If he failed to warn them and they perished because of his disobedience God would require their blood (souls, Leviticus 17:11) of the watchman’s hands. God is not going to require peoples’ blood from you because you neglected the poor, but because you refused to preach the unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ to them. Paul preached the whole counsel or purpose of God to everyone he met on his missionary journeys. Every single individual, every congregation and church he visited knew what the whole counsel of God was. None of them will ever be able to point a finger at Paul and accuse him of negligence and failure to tell them the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This passage in Acts 20 is the core section of Paul’s message and yet Stephan Joubert ignores it completely and places the emphasis on verse 35: “In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.” “It is more blessed to give than to receive” are not found in the four Gospels. They present an oral tradition passed on to the early church. Nonetheless, it remains one of the most important and precious unrecorded sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, it is better to give than to receive. God gave his Son to a lost world and He died on a cross while we were yet undeserving sinners. The question is: who were the poor and the weak for whom Paul and the churches he visited on his missionary journeys provided? Did they provide for every single poor person they encountered? Although not stated here, the reason for Paul’s visit to Jerusalem was evidently to take the offering from churches to the poor saints in Jerusalem (24:17). In verse 34 Paul stated that he worked hard to provide for himself and also for those believers who were with him. From this it is evident that Paul first and foremost provided for the poor, infirm and weak believers (not unbelievers). His first responsibility was to believers and then unbelievers (Galatians 6:10), but he never believed that he could change the world or bring about justice through his altruistic work and he never believed that he could usher in the Kingdom of God by living sacrificially in selfless service to mankind. Paul never preached a social Gospel in an effort to make the world a better place. In fact he emphatically declared the following:
1 Thessalonians 5:3 When people are saying, All is well and secure, and, There is peace and safety, then in a moment unforeseen destruction (ruin and death) will come upon them as suddenly as labor pains come upon a woman with child; and they shall by no means escape, for there will be no escape.
Indeed, his words echo those of Daniel in Daniel 8:25
Daniel 8: 25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
Many clergy, especially those in the Emergent Church, governments, NGO’s and the like have made the eradication of global poverty their main goal in life for they believe if and when they have accomplished their goal, justice, peace and unity amongst all nations and religions will reign and the Kingdom of God will come on earth. You only need to Google “New Age,” “Maitreya,” “New World Order,” “sharing,” New Economy,” and listen to the speeches of world leaders to realize how fundamentally it has changed the Gospel of salvation to a social Gospel where sound doctrine is of very little value. Contrary to the general belief that poverty is to be eradicated the Bible often exemplifies poverty and spells out the causes of poverty. Consider the following passages in Scripture:
Proverbs 21:17 He who loves pleasure will become a poor man; He who loves wine and oil will not become rich.
Proverbs 28: 22 He who has an evil and covetous eye hastens to be rich and knows not that want will come upon him.
Proverbs 23:21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
Proverbs 10: 4 He becomes poor who works with a slack and idle hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
Proverbs 20:13 Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes and you will be satisfied with bread.
Proverbs 28:19 He who cultivates his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless people and pursuits will have poverty enough.
Proverbs 19:22 That which is desired in a man is loyalty and kindness [and his glory and delight are his giving], but a poor man is better than a liar.(There are many false teachers and apostles in our midst today who are telling God’s flock a bunch of lies]
Proverbs 28:6 Better is the poor man who walks in his integrity than he who willfully goes in double and wrong ways, though he is rich. (Double and wrong ways allude to wrong doctrines, i.e. lies).
Proverbs 19:1 BETTER IS a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is perverse in his speech and is a [self-confident] fool. [Perverse speech once again alludes to lies and false doctrines]
I sincerely hope Stephan Joubert is aware of the fact that every single verse above comes from the wisdom book of Proverbs which he views as the example of everyday living and teaches you how to follow the Sage from heaven.
Matthew 6:31-33 Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear? For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all. But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.
Psalm 37:25 I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the [uncompromisingly] righteous forsaken or their seed begging bread.
In spite of Paul’s clear example of preaching and teaching the Gospel of salvation so that lost souls may be saved and that he may be free of their blood, Stephan Joubert ends his clarion of deep ecumenical and mystical spirituality as follows:
. . . . we also work hard to be able to care for those who are suffering. Our biggest investments in God’s kingdom is to reach out every time we encounter someone that’s less privileged than ourselves. So, how about a fresh re-appreciation of Acts 20:35 here in the new year? (Emphasis added)
And so also is it Maitreya’s biggest investment!
How about a fresh re-appreciation and application of Acts 20:17-31?
