Sermon Tone Analysis

! 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:10

Destined For Trials

 

/Brothers, when we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you.

For we wanted to come to you — certainly I, Paul, did, again and again — but Satan stopped us.

For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes?

Is it not you?

Indeed, you are our glory and joy/.

/So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens.

We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God’s fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials.

You know quite well that we were destined for them.

In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted.

And it turned out that way, as you well know.

For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith.

I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless/.

/But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love.

He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you.

Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith.

For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.

How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?  Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith/.

| I |

find it intriguing to review religious dynamics which mark modern society and the faith of modern man.

For instance, recent studies suggest that North Americans are among the most religious people in all the earth.

In repeated studies a great majority of the population openly profess belief in God or at least in a higher power.

Another great majority admits to praying.

Yet despite the open confession of belief in God and the admission of reliance on divine power organised religion appears to be waning in both the United States and Canada.

In conversations with denominational leaders and theological scholars a common lament is that we are now in a post-Christian society; and to some extent I am forced to concur with that dark assessment.

The institutional church continues to lose influence over contemporary minds, having scant influence on the public life as faith is privatised and the church is increasingly marginalised and as contemporary society adopts a laissez faire attitude toward religion.

One reason for this strange situation no doubt lies in the failure to provide instruction in foundational truths of the Faith.

Perhaps this failure to instruct the saints in the great realities of the Faith grows out of our supermarket approach which encourages us to seek out and settle on the assembly wherein we should worship.

Entertainment seems more avidly sought than does enlightenment.

I have often been told that Christians will not sit for a thirty-minute sermon.

Anything beyond fifteen minutes is lost on the modern worshipper.

Perhaps there simply exists widespread ignorance of spiritual responsibilities within the Body of Christ.

Whatever the source of the situation, those who seek truth are often fed spiritual pabulum and their questions are left unanswered.

This fact coupled with concurrent governmental-mandated indoctrination with the propaganda that truth is relative leaves professing believers with pronounced spiritual lassitude, rendering them susceptible to embracing every exciting teaching which appears.

Thus the Faith is subject to increasingly grave distortions.

One of the great distortions of modern times which excite the modern mind is the teaching that real Christians will not experience discomfort or pain.

This teaching is nothing less than the ancient heresy of Gnosticism reborn in modern guise.

The apostolic church could only have looked with great consternation on the manner in which such teaching is so easily and so widely embraced in contemporary religious society.

No doubt the Church would be better served to again receive the apostolic teaching of what may be expected in the Christian life and through being equipped to respond to the pressures anticipated.

The Modern Gospel of Ease and Self-Esteem — First, 'ere ever we initiate exposition of the text, consider what is being taught under the pretence of biblical doctrine in this day.

Among the favoured teachers of Gnostic error are included such luminaries as *Robert Schuller*, *Oral Roberts*, *Paul Yonggi Cho*, *Kenneth Copeland*, and *Kenneth Hagin*.

Additionally, there are a number of lesser stars such as *Morris Cerullo*, *Robert Tilton*, *Casey Treat*, and *Benny Hinn*.

Even in nearby towns may be found too many blind leaders of the blind willing to say what their itching ears want to hear [*2 Timothy 4:3*].

The message which is delivered by these deceivers is attractive to contemporary minds precisely because it promises secret knowledge which will make the possessor *like God*.

It is a virtual fulfilment of the serpent's lie hissed to our first mother.

The previous statement is no exaggeration, for virtually without exception these modern Gnostics are bold in stating that those possessing the proper knowledge are *little gods*.

If we are gods, then of course we ought not to experience any of the hardship associated with life.

As gods we will rise above the trivial trials of this transient life.

We can rebuke financial hardship, insuring wealth.

We can rebuke family problems, insuring peace and familial submission.

We can rebuke illness and injury, insuring health.

Without doubt, the promise of health, wealth and prosperity are alluring.

The message is a virtual guarantee of heaven *now*!

Consider some of the outrageous lies advanced by these popular heretics.

Kenneth Copeland, in a book he published and entitled The Power of the Tongue, wrote: [M]an had total authority to rule as a god over every living creature on earth, and he was to rule by speaking words.

His words would carry the power and anointing of God that was in him from the time he was first created.

In a sermon tape he expanded this concept by openly stating: You don't have a god in you.

*You are one*!

On the Trinity Broadcasting Network, July 7, 1986, Paul Crouch, in conversation with Kenneth Copeland, one of the more radical of the *word faith* teachers, stated: I have His name.

I'm one with Him.

I'm in covenant relations – I *am* a little god!  Critics, be gone!

As he exulted, Kenneth Copeland affirmed his error, saying: You are anything that He is.

Robert Tilton, on page 170 of his book God's Laws of Success calls man a God kind of creature … designed to be as a god in this world … designed or created by God to be the god of this world.

Morris Cerullo, in a January 6, 1988 broadcast on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, arrogantly stated: [God] made Dwight Thompson, He made Morris Cerullo a *small miniature god*.

Of course!

The Bible says we are created in the image of God.

His likeness.

Where is that godlikeness?

He gave us power … He gave us authority.

He gave us dominion.

He didn't tell us to act like a man!

He told us to act like a *god*!

Benny Hinn, on the same Trinity Broadcasting Network, stated: The new creation is created after God in righteousness and true holiness.

The new man is after God, like God, godlike, complete in Christ Jesus.

The new creation is just like God.  May I say it like this: 'You are a little god on earth running around'?

Kenneth Hagin, writing in his religious publication, Word of Faith, December, 1980, says: You are as much the incarnation of God as Jesus Christ was.

Every man who has been born again is an incarnation and Christianity is a miracle.

The believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth.

It must logically follow from this distortion of the Word that if we are gods then any discomfort is ungodlike!

A little god should have perfect health, full wealth, and absolute prosperity *now*!

Therefore, the perpetuators of this heretical cult which is so appealing to modern theological lightweights are quick to castigate anyone whom they deem to be less than perfect.

Some, such as Oral Roberts, even attempted to ban all individuals with obvious physical defects from his school.

If you have illness, if you have physical injury or discomfort, if you have less than full financial security, it is your fault because you will it to be so.

If your children have physical or emotional distress, it is your fault because you did not believe for them.

If you experience financial reversal or suffer deprivation, you are responsible because you have not spoken the words with which to enrich yourself.

If you have pressures in your family, in your workplace, among your friends, it is your own fault because you did not speak the word of faith.

Such a message is cruel in the extreme for those blessed saints who have patiently endured hurt and injury and distress.

This message needlessly injures the faithful saints who /commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good/ [cf.

*1 Peter 4:19*].

This thoughtless message insults the spirit of grace which leads us to wait patiently for the Lord [see *Psalm 37:7*].

This message of greed appeals to the modern mind set because it promises so much and demands so little.

You need but have faith in your faith and you will be able to write your own ticket.

You can manipulate God to do your will and you need never experience want, pain or discomfort.

There is only a difference in the language between this and the success cult of Amway.

There is scant difference between this teaching and that of New Age crystal gazers.

The message is unadulterated paganism and the teachers are unabashed heretics.

This is meant to be a serious warning to any who foolishly imbibe from this poisoned well.

Of such heretics as these, John wrote: Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work [*2 John 11*].

Take heed.