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The Bible contains a wide scope of issues and topics; God, Christ, earth, mankind, animals, angels, salvation, sin, judgment... and many more. All these were written as a necessity for God's glory, man's salvation, sanctification, teaching and warning. Therefore, to preach the full counsel of God is to faithfully teach every doctrine and every verse you come across with in the Bible; no matter how difficult or unpleasant to your hearers. It is feeding the sheep with a balanced diet of the Bread of Life; meat and bones included.
Paul was a faithful man of God as evidenced by his faithfulness to preach without holding back anything that was helpful, regardless of whether his beloved followers wanted to hear it or not. (Act 20:20).
It is in our time that many of those who rejoice in being called ‘man of God’ have become people pleasers; who, in order to keep the hypocrites inside their churches have eliminated even the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith such as repentance, salvation, heaven and the coming of Christ (Heb 6:1-2). They ignore some of these Bible topics because in their own minds, these topics are; hard to understand, unnecessary and even chase people away. Question; can something written by the Holy Spirit be unnecessary or chase people away?
A preacher is likened to a messenger of an ancient king, who would go to the marketplaces where people gathered to announce the message of the king. It would be unspeakable for that messenger to withhold some of what he’s been told to speak because in his own mind, people could not like it. In the same way, we have been given an eternal message by our King Jesus, the kind of punishment deserving of those Church leaders who deliberately ignore and deny innocent souls the full riches of Scripture is unimaginable.
Instead, these preachers select only favorite verses they like and build ministries upon a one-sided view of God and His Word. Yes God is love, but He is also the judge; both God's unconditional love and God's fearful judgment must be equally understood and faithfully taught. I challenge you to stop reading this and start going from one church to the other, in this whole African continent and I guarantee that you will never hear any sermon about hell, yet the all-loving Saviour spent most of His ministry teaching and warning about hell. Do you suppose that the Bible printing machine might have printed the word ‘hell’ by mistake or something? You see the problem?!
In some churches, a God who is gracious to save the wicked for free, even providing for the wicked food, sunlight and rain for free (Mat 5:25); that kind of God is never taught, instead a money-hungry god who only blesses people after He has first sucked their pockets dry is taught week in week out. In other places a sovereign God, who does as He pleases, controlling all circumstances according to His pleasure, purpose and will is unheard of (Rom 9:15-21), rather, only a God who can be controlled and manipulated by humans through big faith is being taught every day.
The damage done by this selective preaching is that God's people end up with an imbalanced diet of the Word and a wrong view of God. In the end, they are moved away from the true God and create another god in their minds who suit their carnal desires. Its idolatry!
Some Christians have been wrongly blamed by other believers for "not wanting people to prosper". Really speaking; who enjoys poverty? Who doesn’t want people to prosper and be in good health? The cry is against prosperity theology being the only doctrine coming out of the pulpit to the neglect of other important teachings; even twisting and forcing every verse to support prosperity theology and building large ministries upon that. That is a cause for concern for those who care, especially considering that New Testament writers are far less concerned by material prosperity, rather that people may come to the wonderful knowledge of eternal life found in Christ Jesus.
Many sermons today are nothing but a repetition of the same thing; just little changes in headings and verses; year after year. Imagine carrying your Bible with hunger to learn what is written inside, then you go to the house of God and sit to listen to someone who only opens the same familiar verses and tells you the same things you have heard your whole church life; just a cloud that promises rain but gives nothing! Why are innocent souls denied the full riches of Christ and the beautiful knowledge of our God that is wonderfully displayed in Scripture, only to be brainwashed with only one doctrine? It’s cruel and it’s not fair!
There are many doctrines that we don’t like as natural human beings, some are indeed very scary, but they must be equally accepted as the Word from the Most High that was written for us. Therefore we are praying so hard that the good Lord may bless the Church with sound men of God, who care nothing about the opinions of carnal men but that Christ may receive full glory through the faithful dispensation of His Word without fear or favour. Cry my beloved Africa!
Acts 20:26-27 - Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
Sinothi Ncube
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