"An attitude, expressed in actions, motivated by the intent to benefit someone else, without any consideration for myself . "

A description of "Agape" love by Pastor Tony Romo
(based on Phil. 2:5-8)

The Patriot Pulpiteer

Pastor Tony Romo

Please excuse the mess as we are still building this site.

The Patriot Pulpiteer

Send your articles and comments to Tony Romo at Pastor_Romo@charter.net

Please make a donation at left to keep this site afloat or send me an e-mail to buy an ad in the space at right.

Christian Gullibility

Blog 1-09-09

This is my basic content as I guest-hosted the radio program: Understanding Our Times

on www.blogtalkradio.com for regular host Pastor Kevin Thompson on 12-27-2008. Thank you for the opportunity, Brother Kevin.

If you'd like, click on Brother Thompson's link and listen to my talk as you follow along the content below.

“These (Bereans)were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)

The people in Berea had demonstrated a character that was lacking in Thessalonica. Luke tells us that they were more “noble”. The Greek word for “noble” is eugenes. The first part of the word is eu, and it means: good or well. The second part of the word is genes and it means: beginning, birth or family. You may know someone named Eugene. Well, that’s where the name comes from. We use terms such as, “good genes”, “well-bred”, “good-stock”, etc. to convey the same idea. It gives us the impression that the people in Berea were people of a better up-bringing or better trained in their approach to learning, their attitude and comportment.

He describes them as being receptive and teachable when he says, “…they received the word with all readiness of mind,…”. But, the Bereans were not gullible because they “…searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” These Bereans were “teachable” but they were not “gullible”.

The KJV uses “readiness of mind” to translate the Greek word, prothumia which means: extraordinary mental alertness, eager receptivity or an inherent interest in learning. That is the etymology for our medical term, prothymia, which means: mental alertness.

The verse also tells us that they “searched” the Scriptures daily. It could have just as easily been translated “researched” because the Greek word used is anakrino. In this context ana is the equivalent of our English prefix re-. It implies repetition, increase and intensity (perhaps why it also uses “daily”). The last part of the word is krino and it means: to judge, discern, to examine accurately and judiciously.

These folks didn’t just have a “Bible Study”. THEY STUDIED THE BIBLE! They didn’t just search the Scriptures. THEY RESEARCHED THE SCRIPTURES! There is a vast difference in a Bible study and studying the Bible. There is a vast difference in searching the Scriptures and researching the Scriptures.

What a wonderful testimony it would be to hear it be said of Christians that they were “teachable but not gullible”. To our shame, we can’t lay claim to such a statement, at least, not corporately. There are a handful of Christians that are teachable but not gullible, but far too many of us are un-teachable and extremely gullible.

The Bereans were receptive to the preaching of the Word by the Apostles, but they didn’t commit their faith to it until they researched the Scriptures. Is that great, or what? What a wonderful job Luke has done here in characterizing these people of good judgment and sound thinking.

(1) Modern Christians are nowhere near the level of spiritual discernment that is being described here. The false teachers with their false doctrines are being hailed as “great men of God” as they drag the church to a level of irrelevance and profound ignorance. Teaching such heresies as, Open Theism (Greg Boyd, John Sanders, Clark Pinnock, et al), Contemplative Spirituality (Emergent church: Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Dan Kimball, et al), Baptismal Regeneration, (Church of Christ: and leading ecumenist, Max Lucado, et al), Purpose driven, seeker-sensitive folly (Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, et al), etc.. We buy their books, believe their doctrine, promote their un-Scriptural philosophies and mislead our families and churches. Why? Because we’re gullible. The Church of Jesus Christ isn’t equipped to detect the infusion of “new” teaching. It is driven by emotions. If it stimulates the emotions, it’s accepted as truth. The church is quite happy in it’s deceived state. The cool, slap-happy, irreverent “boys” that are being pawned off as men of God, don’t really believe that they’ll have to give an account to God. If they did, do you suppose that they would teach the heresies they are teaching today?

Even within our Fundamental Churches so much time is spent on “hot button” issues such as: KJV debates, “women wearing britches”, long hair on men, etc., that we’re not discerning the spirit of error that is found even within the AWANA program. I know of only one Church in the U.S. that has dropped the AWANA program because of our warnings of Contemplative Spirituality materials seeping into the training programs required for AWANA leaders.

In 1 Thess. 5:21, we’re commanded to “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” We are to test, judge, distinguish and prove all things to be trustworthy. If we find it to be good, we hold fast, cling to, retain and embrace it. If not, we reject, reprove and rebuke. Not too hard, is it?

The church is in spiritual bondage because it doesn’t know the Truth.

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (Jn. 8:32)

The Lord Jesus Christ has been relegated to “cool dude” status in modern churches. Pastors have taken on themselves the task of “Church Growth”. The Lord reserved that particular task for himself. HE would build his church (Matt. 16:18). He gave US the Great Commission (Matt. 28: 18-20), not the great Construction.

(2) In the cultural area, we are not engaged to the point to where we’re even taken seriously. For example, we’re all over the map when it comes to illegal immigration. We’re afraid of being called hateful, bigoted racists. And so we either ignore the terrible problem or spiritualize it by saying that God has brought these people here for witnessing purposes. Do you really think that God is going to entrust an irresponsible church with new responsibilities? We don’t even witness to Americans, and now God is bringing in lost, illegal immigrants for you to not witness to them either? If you won’t witness to those that can understand you, now you want me to believe that you’ll witness to those that can’t? …C’mon now. Your Pastor may be gullible enough to believe that, but this Pastor isn’t.

Shouldn’t we witness to them, you ask? Well, of course we should. We do and we’ve led many to the Lord. But we also teach them that as Christians, they are now obliged before God to return to their own country and witness to their own families. We also teach them that if it’s God’s will for them to come back to the U.S., to make arrangements to come back legally. God will honor their intent. And if they do return, to trust the Lord and live in dependence on Him, not the Government. And to learn English, teach it to their children and learn to “rightly divide the Word of truth”, and to learn the Constitution of the united states.

We’re also extremely quiet about the abortion issue. One preacher told me that abortion was now a “none issue”. Not only do I disagree, I condemn such thinking by any one, and particularly when it is articulated by a “preacher”. The sad thing about that statement is that it is too readily accepted by the gullible pews of America.

Another area that demonstrates the Christian gullibility in the cultural arena, is the ease by which we are so easily deceived over the internet. In particular, I refer to the “urban legend” e-mails we so rapidly forward to everyone.

For example, there has been an internet “hoax” being circulated by Christians, for a number of years now, that claims that the FCC is considering a Petition # 2493 that would outlaw religious broadcasters from preaching the Gospel on television. I’ve received it, at least, 3 times in the last 4 or 5 years. And it continues to make the rounds. Slightly different, up-dated, and tweaked to make it believable, but the same hoax. And Christians continue to “passionately” forward them with their own personal “note of encouragement”. How’s that for gullibility?

Can you just imagine what the FCC employees, that have to put up with this nonsense, think of Christians? Do you suppose that they would take us seriously if we had an opportunity to witness to these folks? I doubt it seriously. Our gullibility has indirectly condemned some to Hell.

There’s also the one about Michelle Obama’s room service order at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel consisting of steamed Lobster, Iranian caviar, champagne, etc., and gorging herself at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. As Conservatives, they wanted, so bad, that story to be true and were so blinded by their extreme dislike for her that they forwarded a hoax e-mail without even considering its validity. I know how frustrating it can be, but we must not be blinded by our animosities toward liberals. We damage our own credibility, our own testimony and the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you imagine the Bereans in today’s society? Do you think they would have jumped all over their keyboards and sent these hoaxes all over Berea? Man, they didn’t even take the word of an Apostle until they verified it by the Word of God.

In our ignorant zeal, we become a unreliable source of information and are rendered powerless when it comes to “proclaiming the truth of the Gospel”. How can we expect people to believe, or even listen to, the message of saving grace, if we’re not even reliable when it comes to simple information on the internet.

Have I ever fallen for, and participated in propagating hoaxes such as the ones described? I’m ashamed to admit that I have. But it was a long time ago. It was when I first began to get on the internet. When I was replied-to by someone to whom I had forwarded a hoax e-mail, I was extremely embarrassed. My first inclination was to forget it ( for prides sake, don’t you know?) but I knew that my credibility would suffer severely and my testimony, as a discerning believer, would be brought into question. I sent out a retraction of the hoax e-mail I had sent to all of those on my list and I apologized for it. Since then, I’ve been consciously careful to “prove all things” that come through my e-mail especially if I intend to forward them.

There are a whole lot more of those hoax e-mails flying around and you’ve probably thought of a few that you’ve received also. Corroborate the information you get before you forward it. Check it out through Snopes.com Oh,… by the way, that also reminds me of another hoax e-mail about Snopes.com. It claims that Snopes is unreliable and that it’s “in the tank” for Obama, etc. Well, if you do some “research” and corroborate your sources, guess what you’ll find? YES, even that story is a hoax! No, don’t depend on any one source. Check it out against other sources.

Remember the story about George Bush supposedly saying that the Constitution was nothing but a G-D piece of paper? Yep, that’s right, a hoax… or, at the very least, unable to confirm with another source. It came from just one story and it caught on and all of sudden, it’s off and running. Even though “W” governed as if the Constitution was nothing but a piece of paper, there is no evidence to verify that he actually said that in some meeting.

Well anyway, check them out with www.Snopes.com, www.Hoaxbusters.org, www.truthorfiction.com, www.FactCheck.org, and others that you may be able to find. Your Christian testimony depends on it.

(3) There’s also the gullibility that we display in the arena of Politics.

I’ve been had too many times myself and I know how frustrating it is to find out that the person you voted for turned out to be a first class hypocrite.

We have all kinds of sources at our disposal to check out the candidates voting record. The problem with too many of us is that we think that what we’re hearing on TV about the candidates, is true. While there may be some truth to the report, you cannot depend on the news media for your information. The News media is promoting their own candidate(s) and they will do whatever it takes (lie) to accomplish his being elected.

We’ve been duped into believing the Republican Party is the party that will stand for righteousness. When in fact, there is very little difference between the two major parties. Would you rather have your pockets picked with the “right” hand or the “left” hand? Well, of course the answer is, “we don’t want our pockets picked at all”. Then what are you still doing in the Republican Party? It only took one letter to convince me to leave the Republican Party : “W”.

My wife and I left the Republican Party around 2001 when we realized that “W” was not what he claimed to be. He lied to me. If you lie to me, you’re in essence saying, “You can’t trust me”. Bush, the Republican Party, the Democrats, and the News media have been lying to me for a long time, I just hadn’t been paying attention. I will not be their patsy anymore. We’re determined to hold our government accountable, regardless of political party.

We’ve been members of the Constitution Party for about 6 years now, and we’ve been involved and making an impact with a Christian Worldview. If this country goes under, it won’t be because I didn’t DO anything.

We should hold our government accountable to the people through the Constitution. We must.

But there is something missing. We’re not teachable. We’re too full of pride. We’re arrogant and can’t make ourselves admit that we’re ignorant. And because we’re proud and arrogant, we’re not teachable. And because we’re not teachable, we’ve become gullible.

Be teachable. Be alert and research the scriptures for your spiritual well-being. Corroborate your information with other reliable sources for your credibility’s sake. Stand for righteousness even thought you may stand alone.

Willful ignorance of the Scriptures is the rejection of God’s will for your life(Hosea 4:6). He is conveying eternal principles that will have an everlasting impact on you and the next generation.

Be a Berean. Be teachable, but please, don’t be GULLIBLE.

Pastor's Pointe Archives

Buy an ad in the Times Examiner, the independent conservative voice of South Carolina

Photo Galleries

Chuck Baldwin headlines Upcountry Freedom Conference in Greenville, South Carolina

John Weaver speaks at South Pointe Church