"GOD's SHOCKING MESSAGE to the EMERGING CHURCH"
-by Paul Proctor. (Nov 14, 2005).
The ABPnews.com headline read: "Waco pastor Kyle Lake killedin freak baptism accident."
I thought to myself:
"Yeah, I guess this one just slipped by the Sovereign God of the Universe...
'His eye is on the sparrow' but evidently not on a prominent Emerging Church leader standing in a baptistery full of water holding an electronically charged microphone before a crowd of 800 on Sunday morning following a prayer where he petitioned the Almighty to "surprise me."
"Now before some of you go indignant on me for my lack of sympathy over this pastor's sudden demise, I would ask you to consider the late Ananias and the Apostle Peter's caustic comment to his wife Sapphira before she dropped dead in front of that congregation:"
…behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out."
- Acts 5:9
I couldn't help but notice that he didn't gently take her hand and try to comfort or console her over the untimely death of her husband before breaking part two of the bad news.
Was Peter being un-Christ-like in his terse remarks to her or was he busy teaching onlookers something more important, like the necessity of fearing and obeying God?
And what about that little diatribe the Apostle Paul wrote to his young protégé' in 1st Timothy 1:20 about having "delivered unto Satan" Hymenaeus and Alexander "that they may learn not to blaspheme?"
Where's the love here, for crying out loud?
Kind of makes you want to ask Rick Warren what Paul's "S.H.A.P.E."was, doesn't it?
He also cited another false teacher named"Philetus" in, shall we say, less than endearing terms over in 2nd Timothy 2.
I think it's safe to say that comments like those from Peter and Paul would pretty much render them unsuitable for staff jobs at Saddleback or Willow Creek because you see, unlike the cowardly and enabling church leader today, they used to name the names of heretics and blasphemers; and today's glass house gospel doesn't really allow that sort of thing any longer.
So, if you are planning a career in ministry, just remember; when it comes to criticizing your corrupt contemporaries, mum's the word.
My how things have changed…
"Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear."
-1 Tim 5:20.
So, were they being cruel, unloving and disobedient to God by saying such things to the brethren?
Where's all the kind, gentle,caring and coddling compassion we are constantly commanded to show today's false prophets and their underlings who incessantly lead others astray from the pulpits of perdition in a choreographed confusion directed by the "father of lies?
"And then there was that perverse fellow Paul so harshly addressedin his first letter to the Corinthians, who had an incestuous affairwith his father's wife; commanding the church there to: "… deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that thespirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." (1 Cor 5:5)
Wow! Talk about "mean-spirited!"
Imagine hearing that in your Sunday morning announcements!
This can't be the same fellow that penned chapter 13, could it?
And let's not forget those memorable words from the Author of love and compassion Himself, Jesus Christ, when He addressed those who would dare fracture the faith of a child:
"And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck,and he were cast into the sea."
- Mark 9:42
Do you get the uneasy feeling that a completely different gospel is being preached today?
Yeah, me too…
Terry Esau, a visiting speaker to UBC and witness to the horrible electrocution of Rev. Lake that morning in Waco, was quoted in aWorld Net Daily article as saying:
"I think he [Kyle] would have said, 'There are laws of nature,electrical laws, and they were violated that day and I was in areally bad place where the violation happened.'
"I would only add that the Emergent Church is also in a really bad place right now; that many spiritual laws are also being violated;
and they would do well to heed the Word of God and repent before their artsy-craftsy plans for the future are unexpectedly altered,like Rev. Lake's.
Clearly, any man or woman who disobeys the physical laws Godhas established in this earthly domain risks dying a physical death, as evidenced by the tragic event at Baylor.
It should also be noted that those who violate the spiritual laws of God risk death, as well; and anyone who has researched with any discernment, conviction and knowledge of Scripture, the unbiblical teachings and practices of the Emerging Church movement knows all too well that the laws of the Lord and His Word are not only being violated for the sake of the sensual;
but also that the leaders of this new spirituality are teaching others to emulate them and practice many ungodly things in the name of Christ such as new age mysticism, the empty-minded mantras of contemplative prayer,labyrinths, the trivializing and minimizing of God's absolute truths and the casual dismissing of doctrine as divisive, destructive and unnecessary so as not to infringe upon one's own personal experience and opportunities for entertainment, excitement,enlightenment, illumination, stimulation and gratification.
University Baptist Church posted the closing remarks of the last sermon their pastor gave that fateful day on their web site.
It contains the words they evidently would most like you and I to remember him by.
To say the least, they are quite revealing:
" Live. And Live Well. BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply.Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now. On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows andFEEL the wind against your skin.
Feel the warmth of the sun. Ifyou run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool Autumn dayto FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE. Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time.
If you bike, pedal HARD… and if you crash then crash well. Feel the SATISFACTIONof a job well done-a paper well-written, a project thoroughlycompleted, a play well-performed. If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year old's nose, don't be disgusted if the Kleenex didn't catch it all…because soon he'll be wiping his own.
If you've recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And Grieve well.
At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you're eating and laughingat the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke.
And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to yourday. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven.
And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-Gift.
"Where's the call to repentance - the willing self-sacrifice of the redeemed - the grateful suffering and faithful testimony of a blood-purchased saint?
Where is the dire warning to the rebellious about an eternity in hell that awaits those who refuse to heed the call?
And, what about God's eternal, unchanging and indisputable Word, and the Cross of Christ that is repeatedly referred to throughout?
a Cross that was selflessly and sacrificially endured by His only Begotten Son to deliver us from this fallen world and pay for your hideous sins and mine.
Is he preaching a tantalizing message of sensory gratification,psychotherapy and escape to pleasure seekers on holiday or obediently pointing sinners toward an undeserved opportunity for eternity with Jesus Christ in a Kingdom not of this world?
Just whose life, death, kingdom and words are being exalted and memorialized here;
those of a dying man or a living God?
Compare his priorities to those of Jesus:
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." - Luke 14:26
Frankly, Rev. Lake sounds like someone who was absolutely in love with his life, the world around him and everyone in it, which is the expressed reverse of what the Bible teaches:
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
-1 Jn 2:15.
Just how is the Lord glorified in the worship of the world, the adulation of men, the gratification of the flesh, the satisfying of the senses and the personal pursuits, ambitions and "unequally yoked"relationships of the here and now in a Sunday morning sermon?
"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God"
- James 4:4
Notice the stark contrast between Lake's seductive words and those of the Psalmist:
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom."
-Psalm 111:10
In fact, nothing in Scripture even remotely resembles the heralded expressions and whimsical aspirations found in Rev. Lake's final message.
One might just as easily find such things in a secular bookstore among the esoteric writings of an atheist, agnostic,pagan or occultist;
or in a romance paperback from some cornermarket; in the songs of a struggling Starbuck's singer on a Saturday night;
or in the syrupy script of an afternoon soap.
I downloaded the entire sermon he prepared and saw the name of"Jesus" mentioned only once in passing; and even then He was not identified as the Christ, much less the Son of God or someone who died on a cross for the sins of the world.
The Gospel was simply not preached!
This is the new spirituality; and it troubles me deeply that many are not going to hear it because today's preachers won't preach it!
Can you think of anything more tragic than lost souls being baptized before an applauding audience of their peers and spending the rest of their doomed lives thinking they're saved because of it?
How do you back up and undo that kind of deceitful damage and convince them that what they underwent so innocently in front of everyone was a farce initiated by their pastor?
Don't grieve for Kyle Lake,my friends; grieve for all of those who never heard the words"sinner," "shed blood," "repent," "resurrection" or the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached!
And please don't write me to say what a kind, wonderful, generous,loving and funny person Rev. Lake was because that's not a sufficient replacement for proclaiming the whole counsel of God;
and I'm quite sure Ananias, Sapphira, Hymenaeus, Alexander and Philetus were all dearly loved and treasured by their friends, family and followers as well.
There is only one true God, one true Gospel and One Name in all of Creation that saves; and that name is Jesus Christ!
"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
- Acts 4:12
The folks at University Baptist Church and The Associated BaptistPress might consider Rev. Lake's death an accident;
but I assure you, as Romans 8:28 clearly teaches, there is no such thing between the Alpha and the Omega.
It happened; and it happened for a reason.
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From- http://www.newswithviews.com/PaulProctor/proctor82.htm
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