Having A Form Of Godliness? Who?
Today we have many institutional churches, teachers, and pastors who have a form of godliness, but deny its power.
They may quote a lot of Bible passages, and sound genuine, but they are false teachers. They may sincerely believe in what they teach, but one day they and their blind followers will be judged severely by God.
If, after you read this post, you realize that you have been under the influences of their teaching or is a member of such institutional church or organization, please get out ASAP. It is impossible to stay with them and not get harmed. (Proverbs 13:20)
It’s hard to detect because they have a form of godliness, so you think you are going to a good church
2 Timothy 3:1-5 1This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
The emperor has no clothes.
They may talk a lot of talk, but ultimately what they try to do is to deny prophecies, miracles, tongues, and other manifestation of God’s power in today’s churches.
The harms they have been doing to today’s churches are vast and multilevelled. I myself had been blind to a lot of these harms in the past ten years as a member of an institutional church due to familiarity blindness. Only after I prayed to God recently and asked Him to reveal the problems of the church to me did He reveal to me the problems of my local church and the entire denomination, and I was shocked by these revelations.
At the end, God asked me to leave the unbiblical church and go out to build a church according to the model of the early church in Acts, which I did.
Examples of harms that these “Having a…godliness…power” people do to our churches
- A lot of Christians no longer seek the gift of tongue, which the Bible says can edify oneself
- Many Christians now think that prophecies and miracles ceased after the Bible was completed
- Because of the lack of spiritual power, many Christians turn to self-help, personal growth, and new age teaching for help
- They persecute churches that follow the model of the early church
- They persecute modern apostles, prophets, evangelist, and faith healers, but only allow pastors and teachers to remain in the churches, which are the two “weakest” offices in God’s appointed leadership.
- While these blind teachers preach against miracles and power of God, many Christians suffer addictions, sickness, and attacks from Satan
- Words have power. Because of their repeated teaching and preaching of human invented doctrines and human traditions in their church buildings, the spiritual atmosphere of these churches are now being filled with the power of these false beliefs— beliefs that deny the power and manifestation of the truth. So there is now very little manifestation and prosperity in these churches and in the life of their church members
- Only one man do all the talk in the church, once every week, while the rest of the church congregation sit on pews and let their spiritual gifts go stale or stay buried.
- The church congregation become so weak spiritually that they don’t even want to meet with each other often, but only twice per week the maximum
- Christians have listened to too many human doctrines that these doctrines confused the truth of God’s word and they become too powerless and confused to read the Bible themselves
The lack of spiritual power and miracles is a sign of false doctrines
1 Corinthians 4:18-21
18Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. 19But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. 20For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.
Those men spend tons of hours to discredit other people’s ministries, reinterpret God’s word with complicated but flawed analysis, discourage people from seeking any form of miracles, emphasize human reasoning and human doctrine, undermine God’s provision, and promote human’s self-sufficiency (For example, “God isn’t your matchmaker”, “God helps those who help themselves”, “God gives us wisdom to decide on our own”…)
God proves them wrong by not giving them any power. They will have all sort of educations, but they will not be able to perform any miracle or manifest any spiritual gift at all. They can only do the talk but fail to chop the chop. All they can do is to argue with complicated and twisted reasoning, but they can’t perform miracles or experience the supernatural like the people they criticize.
This was what happened in Jesus’ days. The pharisees had witnessed Jesus’ miracles, but they refused to believe and wanted other to follow them. (Matthew 13:23) I believe there are many modern pharisees who have hijacked Christians churches and seminaries, but most Christians under their authorities are genuine Christians. However, as long as these Christians remain with these modern pharisees, it will remain very hard for them to experience the power of the full gospel that is mentioned in Mark 16:17-18, which says:
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
If we can experience the power of the full gospel, which goes far beyond than just telling people how to get into heaven, then we don’t need to rely on schemes and gimmicks to attract people into the churches. We will be like the Christians of the early church in Acts, who simply went out, and performed miracles with the power of the full gospel, and followed the commands of Jesus Christ, and then God himself “add to their number who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47)
It’s easier to see the manifestation of God’s word than people think!
2 Corinthians 4: 1-2
1Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; 2But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
We can believe in God’s mercy. Because of His mercy, He gives each of us a part of His ministry.
Manifestation of the truth is a crucial part of God’s ministry. If you don’t see the manifestation of the truth and God’s power in your local church or in the ministry you are part of, then get out, find a biblical church, and seek this power first, because if there is no manifestation there must be something wrong.
Yes, I know there is very few churches out there that follow the example of the early church in Acts, but that makes it even easier for you to eliminate other choices. No more hopping around from church to church!
If a church claims that they have spiritual power such as miracle healing, prophecy, or vision from God, but fail to heal you or give you words from the Lord accurately, then maybe they are still working on it, or they are fake. But the lack of manifestation is certainly a sign of a weak church.
People can appear godly. They can have an impressive degree in theology. They can have a nice church building and church statistic. They teach good things in the Bible every week, preaching sermons that will never bring up any controversy nor impact to daily practical living.
But at the end of the day, everyone can see that the emperor has no clothes. Just compare your church with the church of Acts!
It’s easy to manifest God’s word. Just believe in everything the Bible says, and proclaim your conviction boldly. Don’t water it down. Don’t mix it with complicated, human-invented doctrines.
See how men and women of faith experience the manifestation of God’s word through faith.
Because we have no power…
Many sincere and devoted Christians are beat to a pulp. Even though they remain faithful to God, as long as they are part of a “having a… godliness… but… power” church, they will remain powerless. (1 Corinthians 12:26)
You might think that you can remain strong and independent, but if your church tolerates false teachings and resist God’s power, then these false teachings and teachers will be like a little yeast in a batch of dough— the whole batch will get fermented. (1 Cor 5:6-7) You will not be exempted.
Other Christians have started looking into the self-help, secular psychiatry, New Age, occult, and witchcraft for help. (Matthew 24:24) The lack of spiritual power create a vacuum that has to be filled by something else, so it is very tempting for them to get spiritual power from somewhere else if they can’t experience God’s power.
Church going Christians slowly get turned into minimalists. They keep their attendance in the church to the minimal. Unlike the early church, which meet almost everyday around the clock. They trim their attendance down to the bare essential.
When they finally trimmed it down to only the bare essential: a fellowship gathering and a Sunday service per week, they proceed to turn them into social gatherings.
Of course they would become minimalists, because there is only a handful of people in the church who can exercise one or two spiritual gifts on each Sunday service, which is preaching or encouraging, but most people don’t get to exercise their spiritual gifts.
Years after years most Christians are only allowed to serve as pew warmers. (Don’t tell me your church is different just because your church congregation dance and stand a lot during the worship. It’s the same thing)
Being pew warmers for too long causes their spiritual muscles to shrink. (And mine)
False doctrines (Such as Calvinism, Once Saved Always Saved, Everyone gets Raptured...) and other human philosophies are being mixed with the truth, and are being served to Christians as spiritual food, and thus destroy most of its spiritual nutrition, and the Christians eat it. They have their stomach full of sermons and teachings, but always wonder why something is still missing.
They become too weak and lukewarm to read the Bible themselves, and the “full time ministers” condemn them for not reading the Bible, which they love doing because it serves their self-importance, otherwise, who needs a “full time minister” if they all know their Bible?
And many Christians fail to enjoy the prosperity that God promised us in the Bible. Some churches preach that Christians should be poor, and some other churches preach a false version of the prosperity gospel, which won’t work. So today only a small number of Christians actually enjoy the prosperity of God.
Last but not least, is complacency. When people think they have a good church, they no longer compare it with the real church and find out what they have missed.
In the next post, I am going to talk about the biblical church model of the New Testament, and offer it as the solution to most of our spiritual struggles and needs. The pilgrimage to heaven shouldn’t be a lonely path.
Important:
Now, there are many churches that are in the situations I describe above, so the issue is very urgent here, and this is what you can do:
This post is wonderful! I have so many questions. I’m just now discovering more on this topic. I’m currently reading Reimagining Church by Frank Viola which has made me want to find a home church.
Thanks RainbowsofFaith! Stay with us here. If you want to find a home church, could you chronicle your quest in this forum? bible-verses-insights.com/forum
I suggest you use this forum as your blog, and document your challenge, your thoughts, and your motives there for all to read!
I think you are way off. the Apostles died poor. Also Paul gives the explanation after his statement and refers to some of the fruit of the Spirit and the example Paul led. Paul could of been rich but decided to live for Jesus.
Do you think that U.S. had become so rich was a coincidence? Not a blessing from God? And I didn’t say whether Paul died rich or poor. Where did you get the evidence that Paul and other apostles died poor?
This is what Paul said.
Phillipians 4: 17 Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. 18 I have received full payment and have more than enough.
Paul had more than enough. He said it. He chose to accept the amount of donation he desired, and not more than that, so the Gospel will not be hindered by his wealth. As apostle, traveling around, and spending time in jail, has no need for so much money anyway. BTW, are you an apostle? Do you have to travel around and get persecuted? When was the last time you were chased by persecutors from city to city that you found money to be of no use?
What was the last time you adopted a child? helped a widow? donated money to the poor?
i understand the weakness of the church but not to sound selfish what do i do personally when i feel that i have prayed and prayed and yet still no change in my own powerless situation? I think we need to look to ourselves and see if we are in the faith. i don’t think we should be beating up on each other and backbiting seeing we are all in the same condition of spiritual death…
“the church”? which one. Many are as good as fake. If Jesus walks in, he would do what he did to Pharisees. They are stumbling rock to genuine believers. The church you allow to influence you will dedicate ur spirituality, and you won’t even realize it because graduately it becomes normal to you. How many Christians will end up in Hell because of the corrupting influence in their churches? Anyone can open a church anytime and create a minister job for themselves.
It seems to me that your interpretation of this verse hinges on “deny the power thereof”. By taking this as the interpretive key, you pinpoint those who would deny miracles, tongues, supernatural events, faith healings, and so on.
I agree that there are those who do deny such things today, that would fall under the category of “denying the power thereof”. I must also say, however, that I believe they are not primarily in view in this verse.
The key to interpreting this section of verses is found in the next 4 verses:
“For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.”
Although they are mentioned only once in the bible, Jannes and Jambres are most likely two of the magicians in Pharaohs court that duplicated some of Moses miracles.
If this is the case, then I believe that some of the faith healers today would fall under the category of “denying the power thereof”. Moses was able to do the miracles because God commanded them, whereas Jannes and Jambres were able to conjure up miracles on their own. False supernatural signs and wonders then could be an indicator of those who “have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof”.
I would agree with you that those who cling to Psychology, Self Help, New Age movements (all of these are HUGE in the Christian Church today) are in this camp as well. There is no power in any of those.
I believe that this verse speaks of those who ultimately teach that people can do all things for themselves. They look godly, but they deny the power in that they deny that the power to do all things comes from God. This can be true on both ends of the spectrum; those who preach self help psychology philosophy,etc, and ALSO those who preach that if you have enough faith, God will heal you, prosper you, etc. Both deny that all the power comes from God, and both say the power to change comes from within (philosophy or having enough faith).
A last note on “having enough faith”. My favorite example of faith in action in Scripture is probably the Centurion in Luke 7. He understood the power of God; and he understood rightly that God’s power was the creative force that would heal his servant, not his own faith. This is a distinction that I believe many miss.
Faith healers call upon their listeners to make their own faith the target of their faith. “Believe enough and you will have it!” In this way, they “deny the power of God”, because they cause people to believe in their own faith rather than God, whose power is limitless and who is not constrained by peoples faith or lack of faith.
In contrast, the centurion understood the power of God, so he said “simply say the word and it will be done.” He was commended for having a faith unmatched in all of Israel.
I do believe that many modern churches have lost the simple message of the gospel – to be conformed to the image of Christ. And God supplies the power to do it through the new birth and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
For many, the gospel is just fire insurance.
Look at all the gospel tracts – how many talk about living like Christ? Instead modern evangelism has changed the gospel to make it attractive – free ticket to heaven…best if God is not there !!!
No wonder there is no power in their lives – there has been no conversion. It has been substituted by ‘mental agreement’ or just say the sinners prayer. Where in the bible does it teach that saying the sinners prayer will make a person ‘born again’?
This teaching has crept into the church in the last century – the church never taught that prior. Surprised?
So the church leaders invent ‘attractions’ to keep the people:
- socials instead of fellowships
- food instead of studying the word
- Christmas lists instead of church prayers
When was the last time you heard the pastor or leader teach people that they need to seek to be like Christ? to live godly holy lives by God’s Spirit.
We have substituted genuine Christianity with ‘activities’
No wonder there is no power.
I hope readers will pick up the little book ‘power through prayer’ by E.M.Bounds. It will open your eyes to what is happening into today’s pulpits
It’s my theory that the true church is a small group of believers, and they’re scattered in many churches and grieved over what is happening in the visible church.
“It’s my theory that the true church is a small group of believers, and they’re scattered in many churches and grieved over what is happening in the visible church.”
I agree.
I’ve returned to my full gospel, spirit-led, biblebased, church after having been influenced by a friend’s nameless ‘house church’ which turned out to be church of christ (non-institutional) – wikipedia covers it.
They shun healing signs & wonders, and anything pentecostal for the sake of their relational evangelism.
It was wonderful to have someone who made themself available to me constantly, yet they maintained the grudge against the ‘ institutional church’ when I clearly saw the Lord show up during worship, and bring peace & rest to me and others, and especially the fact that I was healed of lactose intolerance – they still tried to get me to ‘not focus on the in order to focus on discipleship’ – the book Twisted Scriptures speaks of their form of controlling discipleship, sadly.
I think of them in the verse ‘ form of godliness but denying the power.
I sense the Lord has me keep my friendship, but stay wary of the clear differences in our beliefs.
The one reason I thot ofas to why – if my friend sees the truth & needs support to leave the church, I’ll be there..
Among the other relationships I’m investing myself into, our church has canceled it’s wed nite service & adopted the weekly home group model to develop lasting relationships within the body of christ. It’s brilliant! It’s the ideal of what the house church tries for, but without manipulation or control. Support that is give & take – both. But you won’t be cut off or emotionally abandoned for the sake of ‘ the house church’ like my friend did to me & to many others under the guise of ‘ tough love’ bc I fought him on the red flags that their doctrines cause in those who know the truth.
It’s scary and sad to me that my friend won’t see the difference, and I think it’s bc he is so tied in by codependency to his ‘ brothers’ in the house church – I pray the Lord opens his eyes. His name is Matt if u can pray for him also.
I’m leary of several things in this website, but accepting Jesus and his power to heal and save and change ppl – so you ‘ know them by their fruits’, it takes place when we open up fully to him, receive from him, and live a life abandoned to him daily – not burning out but using his wisdom too…lol – this spirit-led existence is the true faith that overcomes the world – institutional or not. God’s choice!!
- Tom Porter