Challenging Experience At a City-Wide Religious Event

(by Bill Stevenson, September 27, 2004)

Note: This essay is not anti-Baptist. I was a member of 5 Baptist churches and an elder in two
of them. The problems indicated in this paper are true in most churches. They are
mentioned in the Bible too.
Soon after returning from the hospital, I attended a big meeting for all Baptist church
members in Hannover for celebrating the 150th birthday of the Baptist church first formalized in
Hannover. The “highlights” at the beginning of the meeting: the tree showing the various
churches which mostly came out of the first one and the short reasons give, the event’s orchestra
and choirs, and the video presentations of the youth ministries, and some of the interviews with
older Baptist leaders. And I didn’t have any water to drink. But then came the two-preacher
sermon! It was supposed to be based on Matthew 7:15-18.
"Beware of false prophets, who
come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
You will know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
Even so,
every good tree bears good fruit,
but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit,
nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
As Dolo translated for me what the two popular pastors were saying, I become stunned and
righteously angry. One of the pastors described the basic facts about a tree. The main one being
that it required fresh water via rain and ground water. What does water represent in the Scripture
and what does the command say that Christians should be rooted in and what does Jesus Christ
represent? What does Hebrews 10: 22 mean? “let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed
with pure water.” What does Ephesians 5:25-26 mean? “Husbands, love your wives, just as
Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her
with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”
So what is the spiritual water? The Apostle John gives the answer in the beginning of his gospel:
“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He
was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing
was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light
shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it…. 14 And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, ‘This was He
of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ 16 And
of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17 For the Law was given through
Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time. The
only begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Neither of these
two main points were made in relation to the water that a good tree needs. Matthew 7 goes on
and says in verses 21-24:

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“Not everyone who says to Me,
‘Lord, Lord’,
shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven,
but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day,
‘Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in Your name,
cast out demons in Your name, and
done many wonders in Your name?’
And then I will declare to them,
‘I never knew you;
depart from Me,
you who practice lawlessness!'
Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine,
and does them,
I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

What does this indicate? Grace or sanctification? Well the sermon ended up actually
declaring that the church activities should not be the main emphasis in the Baptists churches, but
manifestation of grace should be!!! The two pastors implied that the spiritual water needed for
the “good” Hannover area Baptist “tree” should be grace!! There was no mention all night about
discipleship, becoming Christ-like, confession and repentance, sanctification, or even habit
changing!! There were statements made against legalism. One of my best friends sent me an
article and appropriate quotes are as follows: “‘And if you do believe in sin, then you are
‘judgmental,’ and automatically excluded from the debate.” This is the crux of the difficulty-- a
line of demarcation that separates Bible-believing evangelicals from mainline Protestants in
whatever countries they reside. The issue is not one of semantics and superficial, theological
differences of opinion. People who steadfastly believe in the major tenets of the Christian faith
are viewed with hostility as intolerable, “judgmental” adversaries and impediments to the new,
liberal age of “enlightenment.” Most churches that I have attended do not have exhorting
preaching for making changes towards Christ-likeness!! Grace, psychology, and denominational
distinctives are emphasis in preaching. And there is very few opportunities of verse by verse
personal application discussion of Scripture for God-pleasing thinking, speaking, and doing. All
of my Bible study tools emphasize true Christian repentance for sanctification (Christ-likeness).
I am not being judgmental or legalistic. I am only trying to help others become ready for living
in Heaven and on the New Earth. I also want to have a home group Bible discussion about 1 & 2
Peter as soon as possible. Grace is very important in our Christian faith and in daily life too, but
there is much much more that God desires of His children. And most of the just mentioned
expectations are in the increasing unselfishness and compassion. Such are rarities now.
Selfishness, materialism, pride, negativism, hatred, and violence (verbal and physical) are the
current dominators, even in most Christian families and churches. And in my year stay here in
Hannover, I have met 7 Baptist pastors and Dolo and I received no Holy Spirit urged grace and
help from them. Two tried to break our relationship apart and the rest were too busy to or felt
they weren’t qualified do such counseling. So what has been learned in 150 years.
One more astonishing fact that was said in the sermon was that the Baptist churches did not
see the truth about Hitler until it was too late. Why? Because most church goers were not
“drinking” of the Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man [or woman] of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

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Does that not indicate repentance and sanctification after the grace of Salvation? Yes!! But it
does not indicate that complex study of the Bible is required, not even the knowledge of
commentaries or Greek and Hebrew. After the Sunday night meeting on the way home, one of
the piano players who is a music student in the Music High School asked me about the purpose
of the religious course he has to take starting in October. They are claiming that one needs to use
higher critical thinking in order to understand the Bible. But the fact is that the Golden Rule and
other New Testament commandments do not have difficult vocabulary words at all or various
meanings. Only with the personal knowing what pleases God via studying the Word of God can
an individual discern wrong leadership. Right now, many Christians in the United States are
being fooled by certain political candidates and Christian TV celebrities. I believe that the latter
grieves God the most by far. Are they as bad as Hitler? Spiritually leading people away from
Salvation, “Yes!” The over-emphasis about grace is keeping so many from true Christianity;
they are in the “quick sand” of religion. This is not just a Baptist problem!!!!!!!
Now read, Romans 3-6, Hebrews 10:19-39, Ephesians 2:8-10, Hebrews 12-13, Romans 8,
Ephesians 5-6, Philippians, and 2 Peter. Personal revival guaranteed!!! Most of these passages
all came to my mind as I was listening to the sermon. I am praying much more for the Baptists
pastors in Germany now. The results of 150 years are not very good. 20-30 churches is not
necessarily success in God’s view. There are so many verses in the Bible against religion and
spiritual pride. Please tell me about your responses to the Scripture passages indicated in the
first sentence of this paragraph.