An Outdated Gospel: The Setting of the Cross in the West

Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword by Rev. Gerrie Armaly

Preface

1 Error Smuggled In

2 The Antique Cross

3 Nevertheless Not My Will

4 What About Me

5 Gateway to an Open Heaven

6 Pressed Into Conformity

7 I Did It My Way

8 On the Desert Floor

9 Testing 101

10 Temptation 101

11 Honestly, Where Are We Going?

12 The Offense of the Cross

13 Gethsemane

Author Biography

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to my son Daniel for all the technical help and who patiently worked through the editing and original cover design. To my wife Yvonne whose support and ‘space’ allowed me to work uninterrupted, and Stephanie my daughter who helped me by trying to locate ‘saved’ but lost files.

Most importantly I want to thank my Heavenly Father for His love, grace and affirmation who walked through with me and kept me at His side in some very dark times, and for guiding me through this work .

Foreword

by Rev. Gerrie Armaly

God forbid that I should glory in anything but the cross…. A book for all of us, The Setting of the Cross in the West takes a hard look at the current state of the church in North America. Have we left behind the timeless truth of clinging to the old rugged Cross? With the feel good gospel that North America has embraced, much of the church no longer understands the inner workings of the Cross – the necessity of dying to self and embracing the cross in order to move into an intimate relationship with our Saviour, Jesus Christ. The Cross that saved us is also the Cross that forms us!

Rene, a teacher in the church, has dug into the word of God with great concern as he has watched unsettling changes in the Body of Christ over the last two decades. A great alarm resounds throughout the pages of this book for the church to wake up and understand that the discipline of the Cross and dying to self are the only ways to become mature sons and daughters of the Father.

What has happened to this concept in North America? Why has the church abandoned the teachings of the early church: that to overcome in tribulations and to rejoice in trials that are allowed to come into our lives forms the character of Christ in us? Paul states in Romans 5:3 that we must glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. This book takes a thorough look at these often passed over scriptures.

Rene, like all of us, has experienced many difficulties in life, but these difficulties have caused him to press into the Lord and His Word to get his answers and to grow in grace. As his pastor, I have watched him seek the face of God for the strength to mature and worship in trials and hardships.

This book presents deep and compelling truths that were once commonplace in everyday Christianity, but now seem foreign and mysterious to much of the church. Truth rings clear throughout this book; we must become partakers in the fellowship of His sufferings to become mature sons and daughters. I encourage you to pray as you read so that you too can embrace the old rugged Cross and become all that Christ has destined you to be for the sake of His Kingdom.

Dr. Gerrie Armaly

Senior Pastor and Founder of

Antioch Christian Ministries

Preface

What book can begin to completely grasp and explain the far-reaching work Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross? Each new insight and revelation we have about the cross brings us more understanding of its various aspects clearly depicted in Scripture. As I have continued to be taught and disciplined in the ‘ways’ of the cross, a deeper personal relationship with my Father has opened up to me. These ‘ways’ have also, although painfully at times, reared me into a more balanced and mature disciple and son.

In this study, I have endeavored to present a fresh look at what I would term the ‘work of the cross in the human heart’ rather than deal with the many new and emerging teachings that seems to strengthen our natural man instead of crucifying it. Concentrating on the beauty and wisdom that God intended as the result of our applying the cross to our own lives would be time and energy, I believe, better spent.

The growing focus on the gifts of the spirit, on the manifold anointings, conference after conference intent on tapping into the power of God – these, to name a few, have captured center stage placing greater significance on ‘how to’ receive from God. I am certainly not discounting the importance of these gifts and abilities, but where is the balance? One look at the overall state of the North American Christian church reveals, in my opinion, a very carnal and shallow Christianity. We have become a consumer driven ‘organism’; our resemblance to the Corinthian church is uncanny. The believers in Corinth, though they did not lack in any gift, were still carnal, fleshy and unable to digest solid food (1 Cor.1:7; 3:3).

The cross that saved us is the same cross that conforms us into the image of Jesus Christ. Our salvation through the shed blood and sacrifice of Jesus on the cross opened the entrance into His eternal kingdom. However this is just the beginning. The cross that represents death is the cross that beckons us to lay our will aside to follow Christ into the wilderness so that we might become a partaker in the fellowship of His sufferings.

Spiritual infancy like its natural counterpart is all around us – a very self-serving mindset indeed. We have wrongly concluded that Christ-likeness is associated only with doing His works without actually learning His ‘ways’. A true passage into spiritual adulthood is marked by a passionate desire to embrace the cross, echoing the words of Jesus himself: I delight to do Thy will O my God; Thy law is written in my heart (Ps. 40:8).

The discipline of the cross is the threshold of our becoming ‘mature sons and daughters’ of God: no longer laborers in the vineyards crying out ‘give me, give me’, but Sons awakened to their inheritance pleading with the Father ‘please make me.’

Our quest as healthy, maturing believers should mirror the passage in 1 John 2:6 The one who says he abides in Him, ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

In reading these chapters, you will notice a repetition of the central theme of this book. My intent has been to weave this topic throughout like a mosaic of sorts. There is a tapestry laid out, scripturally displaying the same basic unshakeable truth: If we will reign with Him, we must also suffer for Him (2 Timothy 2:12). The reiteration is further intended to anchor the paramount teaching of the cross deep into our understanding while illustrating the divine strategy to spiritual maturity. Simply put, this strategy involves the conforming aspects of decimating the natural man by means of suffering adversity, misunderstanding, agony, isolation, barrenness and failure.

I make no apologies for what I believe scripture clearly teaches on ‘the fellowship of His sufferings’. Although, it may be difficult to embrace one’s own cross in a church world of ‘self-ism’ (if I may coin a phrase), it is essential for the Church and each disciple to once again reacquaint themselves with this subject (through renewed study) and let the word of God speak for itself. The volume of material referencing the cross is so overwhelming that it may astonish you.

Any teaching on victory over sin or doctrine of sanctification is incomplete if it does not address the ‘strength’ of our natural man. God must take hold of each disciple to reveal and subdue the natural source of his or her strength. This is considered by some to be the negative side of the Gospel. However, this attitude does not negate the fact that, quite often, before one can build - in this case the true character of Christ - a great deal of demolition is necessary. The former self-serving, self-absorbed ‘structure’ must give way to a new formation, a holy edifice: the House of the Lord established in the heart of a mature ‘son’. (The term ‘son’ is used in a general sense to describe both male and female).

We, His unique creations are waiting anxiously for the revealing of our ‘son-ship’, and the vehicle that will bring that about and remove our illegitimacy will be the loving discipline of the Lord (Hebrews 12:8). Let us not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when correction comes our way, for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines and scourges every Son whom He receives (Hebrews 12:5-6). We are exhorted by Peter to follow in the same steps as Jesus. Since Jesus suffered in the flesh, we are to arm or equip ourselves with the same mindset.

Our walk is a matter of choices. We have already made the choice to follow Jesus Christ. Now other choices face us that will determine the measure of authority and influence that will be entrusted to us in His Kingdom on this earth. These are not choices between Heaven and Hell since this has already been settled when we accepted Christ, but the choices we make from that point on, day by day, will reveal how much free access we have truly given the Lord to enter into our ‘inner sanctuary’. Here in this well protected and secure place our shared love for Jesus Christ will allow the Lord to lovingly but firmly heal and transform our thoughts, attitudes, mindsets, including areas that have been deeply entrenched, wounded, shattered and broken, places we would never choose to visit again or allow anyone else to approach.

At this juncture in our ‘crisis’ moments Christ will be able to whisper peace into our turmoil and pain as He enters in and begins to arrange our lives in ‘right order’. It is time that the children of the Kingdom embrace the cross and press into their inheritance as full grown sons of God.

God gives us the cross and the cross gives us God

Madame Guyon

Chapter 1

Error Smuggled In

Imagine for a moment a large building with a security system. All the monitors, cameras and motion sensors are in place. The doors are locked. But surprisingly, we discover that an unauthorized entry has occurred; someone has entered the building undetected and is now in the process of stealing and vandalizing its contents. The security of the building has been compromised and now all of the occupants are at risk.

The church in the West is this building and this is by no means an overstatement. In fact, if it were possible and one could review and scrutinize the church’s security tapes over the last few decades we would be shocked to see how much damage has been done and continues to be done by these, now resident, intruders. The most alarming fact is that little has been done to correct the situation. The security system has not been improved, no alarms have been sounded and no one has been held accountable for the damage. The problem continues.

We’ve all seen enough movies to understand that places of great importance have great security. The security should at least be adequate enough to protect the contents. Anything of value has to be protected and kept safe: this is just common sense. Valuables are always in danger of falling within the crosshairs of those who would gladly dispossess us of them.

The church in the West has been compromised in the sense that it has been infiltrated by teachers and teaching that have removed, obscured and replaced some of the most precious possessions it has - its foundational truth and teachings. However, few seem to be aware that this ‘slight of hand’ has occurred! In the original’s place rests a counterfeit, a counterfeit that has gone undetected. This substitute is flourishing unhindered at an alarming pace and we will realize one day, at an awful price.

We have had a number of thefts in the church over its long history, only to have the truth restored centuries later. A case in point would be Martin Luther’s justification by faith doctrine. But eventually, faith was removed and replaced with a works doctrine that slid the church into one of the darkest chapters in its history. From its very birth the church has been vigilant to defend and contend for the faith, yet there have been perilous times where the light seemed to go out, but fortunately, was never fully extinguished.

Another article of faith restored is the foundational aspects of the priesthood of the believer. The awesome calling and setting apart of each person as a priest unto God had been stripped away and replaced by a special, privileged class of learned men called clergy. These men, by human appointment, were to represent the laity: a spiritually underprivileged class of domestic, manual workers – in other words everybody else. They were considered unqualified to approach a Holy God and enjoy a personal relationship with Him. They were denied access to the Bible’s liberating truth and left to accept the dictates of craftily thought out doctrines, which in some circles continues to this day.

We could go on to enumerate the teaching of the Holy Spirit, the baptism, the infilling, the endued power in the believer’s life by the Holy Spirit, the restoring of the five-fold offices to the Church: the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, pastor and teacher.

These gifts and enablements are given to the body by the ascended Christ and by the workings of the Holy Spirit. However different their varieties and functions, it is the same God who works all things in all people. Some of these are received with open arms while others are still rejected. Yet they are nonetheless scriptural and relevant for the Church of Jesus Christ today. Biblically sound and clearly taught in scripture, they are not intended only for a certain dispensation of time but until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4: 13; 1 Corinthians 12: 1- 14). All of which I believe we have not attained.

Men of every age, pawns themselves in a war for their hearts, minds and ultimately their eternal souls have wreaked havoc on the Church, attempting to squash it either with physical powers, made up of armies and emperors, or with insidious and crafty doctrines that have crept in undetected. These, in time, resulted in splits and factions further distorting the truth and maligning the names and characters of those who have labored so hard in establishing the foundations and structure of the Church. Even to the point of denying Jesus Himself who saved them. (Read 2 Peter 2: 1-3)

We read in Jude 1:3, Beloved while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints (NASB).

One may not immediately discern the urgency of this verse or grasp the scope of the spiritual war which had already engulfed the Church. Certain people had stealthily brought error into the early Church. One gets the sense that Jude is sounding an alarm as he details the present condition of the church. He is appealing to all those called beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ (1:1).

What is the appeal? To contend earnestly for the faith or put another way ‘to struggle and fight for the faith that was delivered or yielded to the saints’. This appeal was not some unfounded Cry wolf: the wolves were already in the barn!

Starting at verse 4 we read, For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our Lord into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. This verse illuminates their threatening motive. The reason why these men crept in, or in the Greek rendering, ‘moved in stealthily, alongside’ the believers in the Church, was to pervert the true grace of God into a license to live in a continued state of lawlessness, immorality and wantonness while enjoying the benefits of the Christian community.

They could have remained in the world and lived their lives of wantonness and lust without reproof. So why become part of the Body and risk condemnation and rejection from that Body for an apparent void or lack of repentance and godly fruit? Unless of course it was a deceptive strategy with the hope to spread heresy that everyone, or many would eventually buy into. You could say this was the original prototype of cheap grace.

Dietrich Bonheoffer in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, describes cheap grace as the preaching of forgiveness without repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.(page 47)

This is a grace which places no requirements on the believer. Yes, grace needs to be preached in such liberal and generous terms that we may need to ask ourselves does this grace even allow me to sin? The answer is, no, of course not, but it makes allowance for sin. As deep, as large and as often as we fail, grace is not rendered deficient by our great need of it. …but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more… (Romans 5:20). There is a liberty and freedom in a true grace teaching