The latest leadership article suggests that Christians who insist on studying their Bibles are ridiculous. I kid you not...

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And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. -- 2Peter 3: 15-16 (ESV)

The business of churchianity has grown into a multi-million dollar industry over the past 20 years. While many view this positively the truth is that it provides a veneer of kingdom growth while actually diminishing the body of Christ. That is because the purpose driven focus has shifted the church from the Gospel to the seeker. From the Savior to the one that needs to be saved. How do we meet the needs of the unchurched? How do we seem relevant to the lost? The answers have not changed throughout history -- preach the Gospel. Why? Because according to Romans it alone has the power to save them! Ahh, therein lies the rub because the purpose driven church teaches up and coming pastors to build their church building, not the kingdom. The object is not to save them but to church them. That means convince them to come back, get baptized, join the church, serve in a ministry and of course -- tithe. Salvation? It is PRESUMED to occur somewhere in this process. A funny thing happened along this path to destruction though. It turns out that what seekers really do not want is Jesus. The cross offends them so pastors remove all crosses from their church buildings. The Gospel is too negative or as Joel Osteen says, people already know what they do wrong. While that might contain a sliver of truth they do not realize that what they do wrong is considered sin that will send them to hell without Christ or as we like to call it -- the Gospel. In order to accomplish these purpose driven dreams, the Seeker-Friendly Industrial Complex need two essential elements. They are scriptural ignorance and carnal leadership paradigms. When those two elements come together the arrogant lack of fear of God is so palpable as we see in this latest article from churchleaders.com:

http://churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/306011-ridiculous-emphasis-christians-place-bible-brian-jones.html

Brian Jones is a mega church pastor who like all of them apparently grew a small home group into a 2000 person thriving enterprise. These cut off cult of personality cul de sacs look great on paper but are built on the unconverted souls of goats who have been told they can be saved without repentance. Just look at the hubris in this article title! Appearing on a website supposedly designed for leaders in the church is a headlined article by a mega church pastor mocking the fact that some crazy Christians place a ridiculous emphasis on the Bible! Yes Pastor Brian, ridiculous. You hit the nail on the head there. You know why we place such a ridiculous emphasis on the Bible? Because while YOU wrote this ridiculous article, God wrote the Bible. While you and all men are fallible and change depending on the way the wind blows, the Bible is never wrong and never changes. But let us reason together beloved and see the depths of a purpose driven mind that has no fear of the Lord and thus no wisdom

"Most Christians assume that immediately after Jesus died, rose from the dead and went back to heaven, that a leather-bound copy of the Bible descended from the sky." -- Brian Jones

Sigh. Not a good sign that there will be much redeemable when your opening salvo is to mock bible believing Christians. We must understand though that this reveals the blackness of the heart of Brian Jones and purpose driven pastors who have not been raised on biblical principles but rather leadership principles offered by the greatest carnal minds this unsaved world has to offer. The Willow Creek Church Leadership Summit is revered as the best of its kind and routinely 75% of the speakers are not even Christian. Great corporate minds can teach me a great many things about leadership in this world but absolutely nothing about leading God's church. Why? Because they do not even know God! The Bible says the things of God are utter foolishness to them and I am going to seek their advice on how to lead God's church? Why? So I can come out and mock people who have faith in the Word of God as we are commanded to? Unreal.

"Complete with the 27 finalized books of the New Testament and Jesus' words etched in red, this Bible was delivered to the church and has been studied in perpetuity by Christians around the world. The reality is we didn't have the New Testament in its complete form until 367 A.D., when Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria listed all 27 books of the New Testament for the first time. That's three centuries. 334 years to be exact. Comparatively, that's like Jesus showing up in the Jamestown colony when it had only 75 people in it, teaching, dying, raising from the dead, and then the Bible coming together in its final form this Thursday right before we head out to Applebee's for lunch." -- Brian Jones

Except Israel was not like Jamestown Brian. You know that right? You understand that Israel played a certain role in both Testaments? You may want to actually read the Bible instead of mocking it and you might actually learn something. The cleverness of the comparison is not lost however. In modern times it would seem like a long time to develop the Bible. I mean 300 years while we are having lunch at Applebees? Except there were no Applebees in the early church age. There were also no printing presses. Thus all copies had to be literally copied word for word. Jones is going somewhere with this set up by trying to sound reasonable but he is comparing apples and oranges.

"It's hard to imagine what it must have been like to be a Christian without a Bible: 100 years after Jesus left it appears that some churches had copies of the collected letters of Paul and a gospel or two, but that's it." -- Brian Jones

I understand that man who clearly does not believe in the sufficiency of Scripture to begin with would simply not understand that the collected letters of Paul are still Scripture. It is still God-breathed and useful for all matters of teaching, living, and correction. I also am unsure where he gets his facts. The early believers also had copies of the Gospels themselves and as many were former Jews, the Old Testament was still relevant. Jones is painting an inaccurate portrayal of a church sitting around without Scripture. He is setting this up as the foundation of an absurd argument as we will soon see.

"Many had collections with books of debated authenticity that were later ferreted out. No-one had a final New Testament like we have today. Whatever copies existed remained in the possession of the local church leadership. No-one, it appears, owned their own copy of the Bible for personal "Bible study" unless they were wealthy enough to pay the substantial cost to have it transcribed (see Luke 1:3-4)." -- Brian Jones

While it is true that only the wealthy might be able to afford their own transcribed copies, Jones casually passes over the fact that leaders in the church did possess the Word of God! This false foundation is the same flawed argument Andy Stanley tried last year when he too was trying to undermine Scripture. That the early church got along just fine without the Bible and so should we. Not. As the key verses teach us clearly, Peter referred to Paul's letters as Scripture! At the end of the Apostolic Age in 100 AD there were already the four Gospels, and the majority of the New Testament, if not all, that we have today. Were they bound in leather and sold for 50 bucks by Zondervan? Of course not! There were no printing presses yet! The egregious error that Jones makes here is that because there were no Christian book stores yet, that the church did not use Scripture and that is historically ignorant and absurd on its face. The key verses were written before the end of the Apostolic Age and Peter already recognized the Pauline letters as holy writ. Jones finishes his foundation of shifting sand:

"Besides, with the high rate of illiteracy among the social groups represented among the rank and file of second- and third-century churches, having a personal copy of the Bible would have been useless anyway. Most Christians wouldn't have been able to read it." -- Brian Jones

Perhaps Mr. Jones would be surprised to hear that the illiteracy rates from the 1^st-3^rd century Roman Empire was probably around 10 percent. Hardly staggering but the larger point is so what? Exactly what point is Jones trying to make here? That illiterate people should not be given a chance to learn how to read using God's Word? Could these people still have learned the principles of the Bible from hearing them in church? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Jones now goes for the kill:

"I bring all this up to make one simple point: The modern-day church places a ridiculous amount of emphasis on studying the Bible. It's obvious, from historical observation alone, that one can be a sold-out, fully devout, willing to die a martyr's death follower of Jesus and spend next to no time practicing the spiritual discipline of Bible study." -- Brian Jones

What??? What historical observation is he talking about? He cannot be talking about the first century Christians because they either walked with Christ who is the living Word or they followed a generation after with people who had walked with Him! He can't be talking about anything after that because they did have Scripture regardless of their illiteracy rates! How can someone be sold-out, fully devout, and willing to die for someone they do not even know? The larger point here is what exactly is Brian Jones, Senior Pastor, advocating for? A more biblically illiterate church? An anemic body of Christ that cannot understand God? The answer beloved is yes! That is what all purpose driven pastors secretly want, whether they realize it or not. Why do people in the body, who claim to love the lord, fall for such horrific false teachings as we see today? Because they do not understand His Word. How could Christians in all nations roll around on the ground and bark like dogs for years during the Holy Laughter movement of the 1990's? How did Lakeland fall for Todd Bentley? How does anyone fall for Benny Hinn? Utter biblical ignorance and that is what Brian Jones is advocating for more of.

"Do we think it's any coincidence that the period of the church's greatest growth and expansion (33--mid 300's A.D.) occurred during the time when there wasn't (1) a Bible in every Christian's hand and (2) an obsessive preoccupation with Christians clustering to study it word by word, line by line and page by page?" -- Brian Jones

Here are some points for clarification. First of all the reason for the expansive growth is because it was when it first started. It also helped when Constantine declared Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire in the 300's. The overall point Jones keeps missing is that the absence of an official Bible did not mean that the early Christians were not armed fully with Scripture. Secondly, we see the not so subtle mocking of Biblical Christians continue from this Senior Pastor. If I am going to be obsessively preoccupied with something, it would seem the actual Word of God Almighty is a good choice. Thirdly if you read acts chapter two it seems the early church met in public and in house to house to fellowship and learn from the teachings of the apostles. You know, the Word of God. Acts also tells us that Paul considered the Bereans of more noble character because they searched the Scriptures to ensure what Paul was preaching was correct. The bottom line here is that the early church did study the Word line by line and page by page.

"Most Christians today assume that to be a Christian means to have a personal relationship with the Bible instead of the risen Jesus. To be consumed with it. To obsess over its details. To memorize curiously meaningless trivia about it. To study its root words and the historical data underpinning every sentence, every chapter and every book." -- Brian Jones

We are starting to see the NAR roots of Jones theology that formulates such poor doctrine. Beloved hear me very clearly. You CANNOT have a personal relationship with the risen Jesus without having a personal relationship with His Word. You simply cannot:

"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you? -- Luke 6: 46 (ESV)

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. -- John 14: 15 (ESV)

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' -- Matthew 7: 21-23 (ESV)

Why call me Lord and not do what I say? Where is what He said recorded? The Bible. Why do you say you have a personal relationship with me and not do what I tell you? It's the same question. So you say you are in relationship with Christ and love Him yet you not only do not keep His commandments but you mock people who try to learn them by studying Scripture? Good luck with that approach. Who does Brian Jones think are the people in the Matthew 7 verses saying Lord Lord? They are fully churched people. They even saw mighty miracles but because of their own biblical ignorance did not realize that the devil has emissaries that disguise themselves as angels of light to lead astray even the elect. Does Jesus say away from me you who have read my Word obsessively? No beloved. Away from me you have practiced lawlessness. Those who have not done what my Word said to do. Jones concludes:

"But what if we're totally missing the point? What if one of the reasons we're so spiritually dead and the church is abysmally failing at its mission is not because we study the Bible too little, but too much? Instead of being out and about extending the works of the kingdom, Christians are wasting precious time excessively "studying the Bible" in groups and feeling quite content that if they're practicing the "spiritual disciplines" at home that they've done their duty and can call it a day. Who gives a crap if I never open my mouth and share my faith today? Or forgive those who mess me over? Or share my money with those in need? Or my house with the homeless? All is good. I read my Bible today. What do you think? Do I have a point, or am I missing the point"? -- Brian Jones

No Brian you do not have a point other than to lead people away from Jesus Christ. Let's start here with the obvious. There are plenty of good intentioned people in the world who house the homeless, share their wealth, and forgive people with ease who are all still going to hell. How do you have a faith to share without the Bible? What is your faith in? Some existential sense of a relationship with a deity you do not bother to understand based upon His own words? You honestly believe that a Christian can "waste excessive time" in studying the Bible? Seriously? The not so obvious problem here is the NAR underpinnings of sloppy agape experiential Christianity. Brian Jones is obviously deceived into thinking the mission of the church on an individual basis is to do good works to people and convince them to come to your mega church to discover their purpose. He believes each individual person needs to be "out" and "extending the works of the kingdom." Even if you use the Great Commission as your justification here, what does that even command us?

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." -- Matthew 28: 19-20 (ESV)

Does the commission command us to go and extend the works of the kingdom? Does it command us to study the word less? Of course not beloved! We make disciples by teaching them to observe all that He has commanded and guess where we find that? In the Bible of course. Brian Jones does not get it. He started a small group with a handful of people and has grown it into a church of over 2000 people and he believes that is kingdom growth. In all likelihood however it is carnal growth. We can conclude that by this ridiculous carnal article suggesting that Christians read their Bibles too much. I can think of no better strategy from the devil than to get Christians to lay down their swords. It is just frightening to see he has enlisted the help of pastors to convey that message.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- July 8, 2017

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.