Lighthouse Trails Research Journal
36
APOSTASY: BROKEN LIVES AND SHATTERED FAITH VERSUS THOSE WHO RESIST
EDITOR’S NOTE: For several years, Kevin Reeves
was an elder at an NAR Latter-Rain church.
BY KEVIN REEVES
hese are critical days for the body of
Christ. We are in the epoch of church
history spoken of by the apostle Paul as
“perilous times” (2 Timothy 3:1). What
makes the danger all the more imminent
is that not much of the church believes it.
Many of us have owned the glorious-but-
erroneous vision of an end-times remnant
walking in unconquerable power, trans-
forming entire societies. The result has
been nothing short of catastrophic. How
soon we forget. Every cult in the world has
sprouted from the fertile soil of deception,
always initiated by a drastic move away
from the primacy of the Word of God into
the nebulous, self-defining atmosphere of
experience. At my previous church, our
desire to accumulate otherworldly wealth
(i.e., supernatural power) had ushered us
into a contrived system of personal spiritual
elevation much like such active cults as
Mormonism and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
In the case of my former congregation,
our pre-supposed love of the Word of God,
along with our ignorance of and opposition
to nearly every scriptural warning about
false doctrine and seducing spirits in the
church, left us open to bizarre teachings
and practices. As we embraced mysticism,
our biblical parameters melted away. Yes,
we were sincere, but what we were wanting
was diametrically opposed to our relation-
ship with Jesus Christ.
Like physical signs of pain, there were
signs in our church that something was
terribly wrong. But just like the person who
ignores the pain and avoids going to the
doctor, we too ignored what should have
been so obvious. That is, until it got so bad
that avoidance was no longer an option.
Why do people ignore warning signs? It’s
like a motorist painting over his oil pressure
T
Volume 7—No. 5
gauge so he won’t notice the depleting mea-
sure. But the reality of the situation will be-
come evident enough when his engine seizes
up, and the car comes to a sudden halt. I’ve
discovered that in the spiritual arena most
people will do exactly this: they take pains to
look the other way when something bumps
up against their doctrine. As a Christian,
there’s no quicker way to start a fight with a
friend than to tell him that some of his most
fervent beliefs are wrong. I know. I’ve lost my
share of friendships that way. The problem
comes when folks aren’t willing to deal with
the uncomfortable. And the horror of it is
that in spiritual matters, we’re dealing with
eternal things. While the person who ruins
his vehicle can at least purchase another, the
human soul is irreplaceable. . . .
In my own case, association with a
cutting-edge group offered me security and
personal power, and for years, the paranoia
of offending God kept me from asking too
many unsettling questions. It’s ironic that,
in a fellowship that taught a watered-down
version of the fear of the Lord, it was fear
that motivated me to stay put.
Many other Christians find themselves
in this same predicament, especially those
with a genuine heart for the truth. When
some doctrine foreign to biblical Christi-
anity is introduced into the congregation,
they want to inquire about its origin and
validity, but fear holds them in check. If it
comes from the pastor, who surely must be
more spiritual than the rest of the group,
then God must simply have approved it.
Therefore, questioning or opposing the pas-
tor or church leadership is seen as opposing
the Lord Himself.
But God doesn’t work that way. Through-
out the Bible are examples of those who love
the Lord who questioned authority when
it was wrong. And what’s more, “prove all
things” is clearly God’s instruction to the
believer (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
This manipulative pastoral attitude of
squelching sincere inquiries was recently
brought home in a frightening way. A friend
of mine attended a local church service,
knowing that the pastor was fully in sup-
port of the so-called Brownsville revival. She
was nonetheless unprepared for the chilling
threat from the pulpit. After reminding
the congregation of the judgment deaths
of Ananias and Sapphira for opposing the
Holy Spirit, the pastor looked directly at the
congregation and said, “If you think about
questioning anything that goes on in this
service . . . well, you just be careful!”
Two plus two still equals four. His mean-
ing was quite plain. If you want to end up
like that evil-hearted couple, just go ahead
and do some serious inquiry into the teach-
ings or manifestations of this group.
Brothers and sisters, something is seri-
ously wrong here. Brutalizing the saints
with a threat from an angry heart is not
the Bible way. But it is becoming quite a
fashionable pastime for leadership to silence
even well-intentioned criticism with threats
and ridicule. It has been going on for years
and has spilled over into many groups in the
church today. Name calling and ostraciz-
ing are common methods to silence critics.
Names like hypocrites, Sanhedrin, and God
mockers are merely a sampling of the invec-
tive aimed at Christians who are concerned
about doctrinal error. Nobody wants to be
labeled a Pharisee or heresy hunter. But that
is often the penalty for daring to step out
and ask for a public, biblical accounting of
doctrine and practice.
I know the feeling firsthand. I have
more than once been called legalistic and
have been accused of “going down a hard
path”—one of my own making, of course. I
had been told repeatedly that I was spiritu-
ally immature and had not understood the
importance of certain works despite their
unbiblical concepts and many outright
contradictions to Scripture.
Concludes on bottom of page 21
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019