THE CHURCH EMBRACING CARNAL WAYS AND FORSAKING SPIRITUAL WAYS

THE CHURCH CONTINUES TO NEGLECT AND FORSAKE THE WAYS THE LORD HAS ORDAINED AND EMBRACES THE CARNAL, WORLDLY WAYS THAT HAS PROVOKED HIM.
I Corinthians 3:3, 'For ye are yet carnal:  for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?'
Philippians 3:19, 'who mind earthly things'
Colossians 3:2, 'Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth'
Deuteronomy 18:13, 'Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God'
Matthew 5:48, 'Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect'

These are a few of the verses in Scripture that draws me to consider and answer the question, 'should we use means and methods of this world to further the Gospel?'  And this is directly linked to the means and methods of church and prayer leaders touting that the church by watching 'Woodlawn' could spark revival. 
Could it?  God can do anything, and is in no way limited.  in regards to revival, God is sovereign at its coming, sustaining and allowance of its fading.  But what means and methods does God use in revival.  And is the watching of Woodlawn fall into that.  The watching and spending of money to watch TV, movies and all other entertainments in this society has been greatly used by SAtan and sin of self to push us away from God, not draw us nearer to Him.  It is a far swing to justify their statements. 

Let us answer the following questions.  Are these things of the Spirit or of the flesh?  Are we eternally minded or temporal minded with these adventures?  Are we earthly or heavenly minded?  Are these means of God or flesh? 
These are all very needful questions to answer, evaluate and respond to in regards to the push by the church leaders to embrace the new icon of our church age, movies to further our Lord's kingdom.  There are pro's and con's to this, of which I desire to address and answer in this article.

This is not a new thing with the advance push of 'War Room' and 'Woodlawn'.  I am not here to give the history of movies that the church has embraced over the years.  But there has been great success with video movie used for evangelism with the 'Jesus' video.  Reaching millions with the Gospel where the Gospel was not translate nor to those able to read.   Mel Gibson and his catholic background led him to do the movie, 'The Passion of the Christ' in 2004.  Box office profits was over $600 million.  And then followed the next marker of movie making that impacted the church, 'Facing the Giants' in 2007.  This movie was made for $100,000 and profited over $10million. 

And the trend has continued for this generation of movie watching, entertainment style worship, and focus on flesh rather than Spiritual.  Now all this movie watching has come because this is the way of our society.  We have increased with technology, and our society has dictated that TV, movie channels, and computer access has allowed for increased time to watch, go to the movie theatres and spend our energy watching movies.  All this happening while we neglect the basics of our Christianity in Bible studying and reading and memorizing; prayer time; and evangelism.  But these that are supporting and promoting these ways of movie evangelism is arguing that they are accomplishing this through making and watching movies. 

What are we gaining in the way of holiness by these movies? I believe it was Tozer that said, 'what you win them with, is what you keep them with'  Meaning that if entertainment is what we seek to bring souls to Christ with, then entertainment is what will have to be used to keep them.  But if the church returns to her proper position, that Christ and the Word (which are the same), is used to bring men to Christ, then He will keep them unto Himself. 

But when worldly fleshly ways are used, then this is what will be needed to keep them in church, and walking in Christ.  The failure to properly lead men to Christ without death to self and true repentance, doesn't help in this process.  For many confess Christ; yea, 'even the devils believe in Christ', but that doesn't make them saved.  Many have been baptized, with no death to self and no true evidence of resurrection in Christ.  Oh, how we need to return to effective evangelism that shows great, lost men in great need of a great SAvior.  And that way is told in Scriptures and led forth and converted by the Holy Ghost. 



Began:  October 24, 2015;
Continued:
Finished: