I believe that God is allowing us all to see clearly the world stage. I believe we are leading up to those end days.
Let us examine apocalyptic pieces this morning:
1. The Catholic Church has moved away from Eschatological Truth. It declares it no longer believes Jesus is returning.
2. ISIS is a revolution within Islam to bring it back to its roots when it became a religion, with stricter laws. The manifestation of this is the killings and taking of nations to install the Caliph, who can enforce sharia law. This is a pernicious evil which has no regard for country frontiers, says the UN is against its principles. Wants to dominate the world.
3. Ministers are becoming increasingly anti-Israel and subscribing to the replacement theology.
4. People assuming and presuming on certain ministries they are not called to and are abusing their followers.
5. Apostasy is rife with the REJECTION OF HEBREW ROOTS TO THEIR FAITH, embrace of homosexuality in their ministry.
I see the enemy is the word “FUNDAMENTALISM”. It is at best an enemy in its manifestation. In reality is radicalises faith into a weapon, and in the minds of those who fear it, brings with it a reaction, that is eye all faith as a enemy of the state, the opening of the door to the state control of people’s faith. Policing the lives of people.
The fact is the trends we are going to examine, in this series, is to show you where we are today and how to survive and overcome the effects of these trends, keeping the Blood of Jesus over your door, so that peace and joy in the Spirit, keeps your home within the Kingdom Sphere.
Right now even we have to be careful of social media, because today it is a concentration and propogator of these trends.
Never more has the technological advances been used to spread a message of fear over the earth. This is what the hidden elites want. FEAR in the masses so that they accept laws that they would never accept in objectivity.
Whilst some look for dominance by force, some are subservient to a poisonous cocktail of immorality even when they espouse a transforming Gospel.
Whilst at one end of the spectrum we see radicalisation we see on the other a deadening of all that which manifests the true nature of the Gospel allowing for humanism and homosexuality to come into places unheard of.
Fundamentalism is a misnomer. It is misunderstood.
Fundamentalism is not abiding by the absolutes of the Word. It is using those principles as a weapon.
We need to come down to our locality and our sphere.
We see in our interpersonal relationships where radicalisation and fundamentalism is coming. I had an experience recently where someone purporting to be a prophet tried to impose on me a belief, which I was not in agreement. I had never met this person before. I therefore unfriended them on Facebook. But this experience got me thinking. Thinking particularly in 1 John where it speaks of the anointing we have been given for instructing us how to hear and follow God.
To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must:
1. Respect the integrity of another and not make assumptions otherwise.
2. Respect the decisions of another and not try to impose our opinion.
3. Assume roles in the life of another where we think we can walk in and dictate.
4. Manifest our disagreement with decision in ways that leave no room for dialogue.
5. Humiliate another publically for our own premise of belief.
6. Assume we are always right and assume we can have the authority over others…authority is given not taken.
7. Respect proper relationship boundaries and live by a healthy and definable pattern of relating and interacting.
I believe these 7 steps can avoid us going off into fundamentalism.
shalom.
The Spirit and the Bride say COME! Come Lord Jesus 
My brother,
I recently discussed this topic with several pastors/theologians and in the end we made similar suggestions while understanding the problems of human nature. Let me look at what you said in conclusion, “I believe these 7 steps can avoid us going off into fundamentalism.”
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 1. Respect the integrity of another and not make assumptions otherwise.”
By mentioning the problems of human nature, I mean we, as Christians, should never fall into the trap of telling others we should “respect” a totally contrary belief to our God-directed beliefs. Of course, that thought revolves around one’s definition of “respect.” We can never respect anti-God beliefs, especially those that result in the annihilation of other beliefs. Islam does not want to share the world with Christianity. It wants to destroy Christianity. When one knows the facts of another’s belief, they are not dealing with assumptions or opinions.
There have been atrocities in the name of Christianity, but its spread has been made primarily on the backs of saints and martyrs. Islam has spread its dominance primarily through abject violence and slavery. The worse president this country has ever had compared current atrocities made in the name of Islam to the Christian crusades of centuries ago. That only proved his unbelief and historic ignorance.
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 2. Respect the decisions of another and not try to impose our opinion.”
Now, as Christians, we must respect the vast, and too often contrary views held within the Christian movement. We do that because we look to the basic belief which we somewhat universally hold, salvation through Jesus. Some teach strict adherence to certain fundamental practices, but in the end even they admit those practices must be pinned to a belief in Jesus. I respect the views of my Catholic brothers, but do not accept all aspects of their tenets of salvation. So, I do “respect the decisions of another and not make assumptions otherwise,” I think.
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 3. Assume roles in the life of another where we think we can walk in and dictate.” I am not sure what you are saying here, but I think you meant to say “we must NOT…” Yet, we are called to spread the truth, right? Dictate, no! Share the truth, yes! Let me ask, how would you handle the situation if your teenaged child, or even your wife, turned away from the Christian faith?
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 4. Manifest our disagreement with decision in ways that leave no room for dialogue.” What is wrong with dialogue? Or, again should we add “not” after must? I think our weakest area as Christian men and women is the inability to lovingly disagree and lovingly discuss our reasons for disagreement. The best soul winner I ever knew was a 90-year old grandma who gently spoke of Jesus and sweetly allowed for disagreement.
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 5. Humiliate another publically for our own premise of belief.” Again, we must NOT… I have seen this too often when the Christian is surrounded by fellow believers and basically mocks the unsaved person they are talking with. I was leading a soul winning team many years ago, and watched a young woman quietly lead a young man to Christ. He was the son of a pastor who felt his father had humiliated him because of his falling away. He wanted nothing to do with the church until that woman spoke to him. Later, he became a youth pastor in his dad’s church.
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 6. Assume we are always right and assume we can have the authority over others…authority is given not taken.” Get those NOTs added to this! I agree with the intent here. Do not assume you are right…KNOW that you are right!! The old saying goes “to assume is to make an ‘ass’ of ‘u’ and ‘me’. I know I am right about God’s plan for you and me, and I do not mind telling you that. Soul winning, or spiritual counseling should never be “wishy-washy.” Be sure and be strong! However, being right does not give us spiritual authority over anyone. I can command my son to clean his room, but I cannot command him to accept Christ.
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 7. Respect proper relationship boundaries and live by a healthy and definable pattern of relating and interacting.” Amen!! We do not have to talk about Jesus and our church all the time. I have won more people to the Lord at baseball games just talking about life in general than I have with Bible in hand, looking spiritual. I belief soul winning should be called, “make a friend, win a soul” and done in that order. People look more at how the preacher lives than at what he says.
My brother,
I recently discussed this topic with several pastors/theologians and in the end we made similar suggestions while understanding the problems of human nature. Let me look at what you said in conclusion, “I believe these 7 steps can avoid us going off into fundamentalism.”
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 1. Respect the integrity of another and not make assumptions otherwise.”
By mentioning the problems of human nature, I mean we, as Christians, should never fall into the trap of telling others we should “respect” a totally contrary belief to our God-directed beliefs. Of course, that thought revolves around one’s definition of “respect.” We can never respect anti-God beliefs, especially those that result in the annihilation of other beliefs. Islam does not want to share the world with Christianity. It wants to destroy Christianity. When one knows the facts of another’s belief, they are not dealing with assumptions or opinions.
There have been atrocities in the name of Christianity, but its spread has been made primarily on the backs of saints and martyrs. Islam has spread its dominance primarily through abject violence and slavery. The worse president this country has ever had compared current atrocities made in the name of Islam to the Christian
crusades of centuries ago. That only proved his unbelief and historic ignorance.
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 2. Respect the decisions of another and not try to impose our opinion.”
Now, as Christians, we must respect the vast, and too often contrary views held within the Christian movement. We do that because we look to the basic belief which we somewhat universally hold, salvation through Jesus. Some teach strict adherence to certain fundamental practices, but in the end even they admit those practices must be pinned to a belief in Jesus. I respect the views of my Catholic brothers, but do not accept all aspects of their tenets of salvation. So, I do “respect the decisions of another and not make assumptions otherwise,” I think.
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 3. Assume roles in the life of another where we think we can walk in and dictate.” I am not sure what you are saying here, but I think you meant to say “we must NOT…” Yet, we are called to spread the truth, right? Dictate, no! Share the truth, yes! Let me ask, how would you handle the situation if your teenaged child, or even your wife, turned away from the Christian faith?
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 4. Manifest our disagreement with decision in ways that leave no room for dialogue.” What is wrong with dialogue? Or, again should we add “not” after must? I think our weakest area as Christian men and women is the inability to lovingly disagree and lovingly discuss our reasons for disagreement. The best soul winner I ever knew was a 90-year old grandma who gently spoke of Jesus and sweetly allowed for disagreement.
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 5. Humiliate another publically for our own premise of belief.” Again, we must NOT… I have seen this too often when the Christian is surrounded by fellow believers and basically mocks the unsaved person they are talking with. I was leading a soul winning team many years ago, and watched a young woman quietly lead a young man to Christ. He was the son of a pastor who felt his father had humiliated him because of his falling away. He wanted nothing to do with the church until that woman spoke to him. Later, he became a youth pastor in his dad’s church.
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 6. Assume we are always right and assume we can have the authority over others…authority is given not taken.” Get those NOTs added to this! I agree with the intent here. Do not assume you are right…KNOW that you are right!! The old saying goes “to assume is to make an ‘ass’ of ‘u’ and ‘me’. I know I am right about God’s plan for you and me, and I do not mind telling you that. Soul winning, or spiritual counseling should never be “wishy-washy.” Be sure and be strong! However, being right does not give us spiritual authority over anyone. I can command my son to clean his room, but I cannot command him to accept Christ.
You wrote, “To avoid fundamentalism in our faith and our relationships we must: 7. Respect proper relationship boundaries and live by a healthy and definable pattern of relating and interacting.” Amen!! We do not have to talk about Jesus and our church all the time. I have won more people to the Lord at baseball games just talking about life in general than I have with Bible in hand, looking spiritual. I belief soul winning should be called, “make a friend, win a soul” and done in that order. People look more at how the preacher lives than at what he says.