Blog on the Lillypad
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
 More Drivel from the Pulpit of First Baptist of Hammond
I had to cut this down to limit the stupidity, but you can catch this post over on the FFF on the Hyles-Anderson Forum under the title of "48,000 saved at FBCH: Great Commission Sunday". |
From Dr. Schaap; Sunday evening, June 22, 2003
We had [a] big huge great commission day last year. We preached the gospel and had 48,000 saved in one day....In the next several weeks you’re gonna hear some of those goals we’re gonna set.
....
Now I want First Baptist Church not to roll over and have its feet up in the air and say scratch my belly God make me feel good because I’m a member of a great big huge church that is fat and lazy, but God I want to get back on my hind legs and I want to run.
Well, first let's take a look at that astonishing number: 48,000 saved. That's almost half the population of Gary Indiana. In fact, it's equal to the entire population of Crown Point. If you ever had that many people genuinely saved, bars would close down, crime would drop, and police and emergency workers alike would testify that some great conversion had taken place. And none of that, of course, has happened.
The reason is two-fold: (1) First Baptist of Hammond is notorious for inflating figures, and (2) Jack Schaap and his cohort nincompoops do not preach salvation. They preach "repeat-after-me-salvation," in which they assure people untaught in the Scripture that if they believe (in terms of acknowledging) that Christ is the Son of God and has died and risen again and repeat a salvation prayer, they will be saved.
The problem, of course, is that even the devils believe at that level, as Christ Himself said. And even a parrot can repeat a prayer if taught patiently. Thus, numerous people falsely taught and falsely assured repeat salvation prayers, sign little cards, and merrily go on in ignorance of the Word of God and the fellowship we have in Christ, because a deceiver got up in a pulpit and told them they would be saved.
What really caught my attention in this excerpt though, is Schaap's attitude towards God--that God stands by to reward those who go out and make their churches grow to big numbers, ready to reward them, apparently, the way a master rubs his dog's belly.
The demoniac in the tombs was found in his right mind and seated at the feet of Christ. Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, took her place at the feet of the Savior as His pupil; and Christ would not allow her to be rebuked away from it. Our reward is at God's dispensation, but the growing Christian consciousness is that which seeks greater knowledge of God. To sit at His feet and learn Who He is and converse with Him as students to their Master and Father is the highest aim of the Christian and our great reward.
Granted, pleasure and rest have their roles in refreshing us and giving us joy. But this inane world of Jack Schaap's, where God's rewards will make us lazy, and blessings engender some sort of pride, is just as much a deception as the false plan of salvation that Schaap and these IFB-KJVO sectarians preach. The men and women who knew Christ most profoundly labored for Him and died for Him, still knowing Him even through suffering and death. And their works are not what is reckoned in Scripture as valuable; instead, their knowledge of Him is what's valuable. Paul's own highest goal for himself in the Christian life as he approached his own martyrdom was this "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death".
Once you get out of the book of Acts, you don't ever see the apostles or writers of the scripture referring to big conversions or having to work harder to get more saved. This focus is not excluded, but the main focus is on comprehending our salvation and knowing Christ. Labor in that field of endeavor: study the Scripture, search and see what Christ has done and what we have and are in Him, and the labor will be much more easy and natural to the Christian heart. To get a purpose, you simply have to have a purpose, and the purpose of the Christian life is to know our Savior. But when you have that purpose and see the Hand of God in everything, speaking of Him and exalting Him become a part of your everyday conversation.
