Equipping Eve Episode 9: Sad Church Visits

Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus? Well, it's true there's no shortage of candy-coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women, No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies-only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name is Mike Ebendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

The Need for Women to Be Equipped in Truth

Well, hello, ladies, and welcome to Equipping Eve, the show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth from God's Word so that we can stand strong on that Word in an age of deception where Satan is constantly throwing darts of doubt at us and distorting God's Word and causing us to question or wanting to cause us to question God's Word.

We love to open up that Word, open up the Scriptures, see what God actually says about a thing, and then we can know when we see error and we can call it out. And we are not afraid to do that here. I am your host.

My name is Erin Benzinger. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks to all of you listeners who have reached out to me via email or Facebook or Twitter. It's really a lot of fun to interact with you, and I'm sorry I don't interact even more.

You know, life is busy, but I do, I enjoy hearing from you and hearing your thoughts on things. And if you have ideas for the show, things that you'd like to hear about, feel free to email me or contact me with those, and we'll just see what the coming months bring.

So definitely check us out, Facebook, Twitter, EquippingEve .org or .com, email, etc., etc. So what's going on? There's a lot going on. It's, you know, we're kind of starting to come on spring. You know, it's the time of year when you have some interesting sermon series out there.

You have interesting movies and books coming out. You know, speaking of movies, there's a couple that I've seen kind of making the rounds, little announcements about. I guess the Kendrick Brothers have another movie coming out.

I'm not overly familiar with the Kendrick Brothers. They produced Fireproof. I think that's the only Kendrick Brothers movie that I've seen, and it wasn't my favorite. For many reasons. But I guess the new one stars Priscilla Shire, who we've not talked about here in the future.

Perhaps we will address some of her teachings. I would just, you know, warn you against her teachings for the moment. And hey, Beth Moore has a cameo in that movie as well. It's called The War Room, and I haven't seen it.

So, you know, take it with a grain of salt when I say, eh, I wouldn't spend my money. Let's see, there's also making the news that Family Christian Stores is going to start a movie studio or something.

I'm looking at this headline, christianpost .com, Family Christian Entertainment to be the Disney of faith-based films as 90 Minutes in Heaven enters production. Yes, you heard that right. Family Christian Stores, says this article.

This article is written by Emma Kuntz, Christian Post. January 15, 2015. Family Christian Stores is expanding their non-profit business into the entertainment industry this year, starting with the film 90 Minutes in Heaven.

Hey, there's a bad idea. So let's see, Rick Jackson is the entrepreneur behind FCS, Family Christian Stores. He said that the new entertainment company will specifically cater to Christian audiences and become a leading film studio, similar to Walt Disney Pictures.

We're not on a mission to teach Hollywood a lesson. I don't care about that, Jackson told the Christian Post. What I am interested in doing is speaking to this audience in a professional way, in a professional way, I assume is what it's supposed to say, and create a platform we'd almost like to be the Disney of this space.

I don't know what that means, other than you just want to make a lot of money. It does say they're going to give all the profits away to charity. Let's see, he says, relying on Christian audiences to fill theaters and buy DVDs, Jackson said profits from FCE films, including 90 Minutes in Heaven, will be donated in entirety to charity to ensure the faith-based audiences are satisfied.

With the FCE's first film, the producer shaped the entire film around believers. Well, there's a concept for a supposed Christian company. A movie, this is a quote from this, Rick Jackson? Rick Jackson, he says, quote, movies try to be all things to all people, and so one of the things we want to be, one of the things we want to, so it be authentic.

I'm quoting that, so I don't know if it was written wrong, or if that's how he actually said it. Movies try to be all things to all people, and so one of the things we want to, so it be authentic. I think he says he wants to be all things to all people, so he can be authentic.

This movie is designed to say, how would an evangelical look at this? If we hit that target, we believe it will spread out, because they are evangelical and use word of mouth. I don't know what that means.

It will be Christians going to church, Christians who are growing in their faith, but it will also appeal to a broader market. However, if no one shows up but Christians, that's fine with us. That's great.

So they want to, the movie is designed to say, how would an evangelical look at this? Well, if it's someone who's saved, the term evangelical is so broad, but if it's someone who's saved, and it's 90 minutes in heaven, then a true Christian would look at that and say, this is unbiblical, and you shouldn't watch this movie.

So that's movies. That's what's going on there. Oh, he says, here's the final quote. It's more than just a movie, Jackson said of the film. It's real modern day biblical story, and I think it's a story that Christians are gonna attach to and really like.

Huh. Okay, so this is why I don't watch movies. Right here. Family Christian stores making movies. Hey, they also, I got the Family Christian catalog. Let's go shopping, ladies. I got the Family Christian catalog a couple of weeks ago, and I've been saving this, and I opened up, and right in the middle of the catalog, there's two pages of quote-unquote prophecy books.

So you can unravel the mystery, it says at the top of the page. Is God sending America a message? Are we living in the end times? And there's books by David Jeremiah, Jonathan Cahn, Robert Jeffress, John Hagee.

Yeah, so unravel the mystery. You know, God didn't wait for Jonathan Cahn and John Hagee and David Jeremiah to come along to, you know, unearth some secret code in the Bible that's been hidden for thousands of years.

If you want to study prophecy, just study your Bible. That would be my advice to you. So we went shopping. We went to the movies, and we went shopping, and it was all bad. So that's why. What's the moral of the story?

Don't go shopping, don't go to the movies, right? Maybe not. Don't go shopping at those stores. Those are bad. Okay, so what I wanted to talk about today, I kind of had a change of plans. So change of plans, not a change in your plans, because you didn't know what I was going to do for the show.

Change in my plans. So I think I mentioned on the first episode that I am currently in grad school. Lord willing, we'll finish soon, because I am tired of being a student. I've really enjoyed my time in school, but I am ready to graduate.

I just got to get through a few more classes, so pray for me. I'm only taking one class at the moment, and that's nice. And one of my assignments for this class is to visit a few other churches and just write a little observation of the worship service and how they worship God or claim to worship God, depending on what church you visit.

And it's a really light kind of assignment. It's one paragraph or whatever for each church. So it's not anything overwhelming, but it's an interesting assignment. And so it's kind of difficult for me, especially because I so love my church, and I love the way that the Word of God is upheld there, and it is the first priority is the proclamation and the teaching of God's Word, and everything else is designed to complement that and to further exalt Christ.

And there are many, many churches out there where that is just not the pattern of the worship service. And so what I did today was I went to my church service, because I decided very easily that I was not going to skip my own church service to visit these other churches.

So I'm just trying to find service times that are a different day or time from my typical service at my church. So I went to my morning service, and then I went down the street to another church to their service, one of their morning services.

And ladies, I have to tell you, like I said, I didn't really know what to expect. This was a mainline denomination. Now, I grew up in Lutheran ELCA and Presbyterian PCUSA, so I'm familiar with some elements of some of the mainline denominations and aware of how their service in general might operate.

But I'd never been to this particular denomination. I sat down, and throughout the service, ladies, I just grew so sad. You know, I expected to go and kind of get angry at righteous anger, of course, just, you know, at the way God's Word would be treated or twisted or whatever.

And so that's kind of what I anticipated I might feel if we're going to talk about our emotions. But I sat there and just held back tears literally in the service. And quite honestly, I didn't want to cry because I didn't want them to think I was so moved by the service.

I didn't want to give a false impression. I really was holding back tears because I looked around this church at these people going through their ritual, and they were dead. I mean, I don't mean to sit here and judge their hearts or their salvation.

But as you sit through the service, and you realize how devoid it was of the gospel and of the truth of God's Word, you think, a true believer could not sit and listen to this for very long. The Holy Spirit would just convict you so to go out and search for a church that would feed you.

And this church is thriving on their external religion, their outward religiosity. And it was just so grievous to me. And it just, it really broke my heart. And I came home and I thought, well, this, I need to talk about this.

And there were some elements, I'm not going to lie, there were some amusing elements to the service. They weren't meant to be amusing, but they were. But it was almost to the point of, you know, you either laugh or you cry about it.

And sometimes it's really just amazing to me what people can do to the Word of God. I mean, you have to do some major gymnastics to come up with some of the things some of these pastors come up with. And today, this church that I visited was no exception to that.

We had some Bible gymnastics here. So what happened is I came in a little bit late. I wasn't trying to be rude. I didn't do it on purpose. But I did want to slip in kind of after everyone had sat down and just sit in the back and observe.

And, you know, I didn't want to distract anybody. I was not there to cause trouble. I'm just trying to do my homework assignment. So and this show is just a bonus. So I'm sitting there and they are, you know, I slipped in and they were singing a hymn.

And so I stood while we finished singing the hymn and we all sit down. And, you know, I'm looking at the people up at the front in their robes. And I see all the candles all around. And, you know, the organ music was beautiful.

The choir was very good, very talented people in the choir. And so that, you know, that was nice. But I'm looking around at this very clear display of external religion. And this is one of those denominations where you have every week a reading from the Old Testament, the Epistles and the Gospels.

So the first reading, of course, is the Old Testament. And as I came in, they handed me this. It's like a booklet. And what it is, is it's most of the songs that will be sung. And it's all the Bible readings so that you don't have to open a Bible.

And, you know, it's the order of service. So a woman stood up to read the Old Testament. Yes, you heard me. A woman stood up to read the Old Testament passage. So once I picked my jaw up off of the floor, I don't know why I was, I wasn't surprised by it.

It's just when you see it, you think, why? Why is this happening? And, you know, I mean, a woman standing and reading Scripture in the worship service, she's taking the authority of Scripture, standing there in that position of authority.

And it just, it should not be done. But she was reading from 2 Kings. And so I saw that they had the text in this pamphlet, this order of service. But I opened my Bible. And as I was finding the passage, I looked around and I realized, number one, there were no Bibles in the pews.

There was only a hymnal and a book of common prayer. And number two, nobody had a Bible. Nobody had brought a Bible to church. I mean, I've been to churches where maybe people don't open their Bible, but they at least bring it.

Nobody had a Bible because, hey, it's in my bulletin. I don't need my Bible. What Christian doesn't love to carry their Bible to church because they're going to hear the word of God? It just, it was so sad.

And, you know, I didn't feel weird opening my Bible. I think the woman in front of me didn't know what to do when she heard pages rustling, Bible pages rustling. She kind of turned her head a little bit, trying to figure out what that noise was right behind her.

It was me looking for my passage in my Bible. So we did that and we sang, or they sang a couple other songs. I didn't participate in that portion. And then we had the reading from the epistles and another woman stood up to give that reading.

And so Erin continued to sit there trying not to say anything, trying, trying. And I just started to pray. I just started to pray for these people. You know, God, open their eyes. God, open their eyes.

And then we had the gospel reading and it was from Mark. And there was actually a little ceremony that kind of went with this, where two of the women who had been on the platform picked up big tall candles and they came and stood in the center.

While another woman, I think she might be a pastor there because she had a little fancy sash on her robe. I don't know what all those mean. She picked up a very special Bible, fancy red gold Bible, and read from that Bible, read the gospel passage from Mark.

And she read Mark 9, 2 through 9, which is the Mount of Transfiguration. And then she, they sat, all the women sat down. And then the pastor got up, one of the pastors, the pastor delivering the sermon, I think he's the head pastor, stood up to deliver his sermon homily.

It was 15 minutes long. And my pastor preaches for an hour. And if he preaches less than that, we all wonder if he's sick because we just love to hear the teaching and preaching of God's word. And we love when it goes an hour.

We love when it goes more than an hour. So shout out to my pastor who preaches long and we love it. So this man preached for 15 minutes. It's probably good for his sake and for the people because of the content of that message.

He preached from that same passage in Mark, the Transfiguration. And ladies, you will not, you almost have to hear it to believe it. And it's one of those instances, like I said before, where you either laugh or cry.

So what he taught is that the story of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration is about discouragement. Yes, the Transfiguration. Jesus went on the Mount of Transfiguration and he was discouraged from six days earlier.

And he went up there and he was talking with Moses and Elijah. And this pastor, he thinks he knows what they were talking about. They were talking about how they were familiar with being discouraged as well.

That's something these three men had in common. They knew discouragement. Moses, he was so discouraged when he had been up on the mountain getting the tablets and the law and the commands from God. And he leaves Aaron in charge.

That was a bad idea. And then he comes down the mountain and they're all worshiping this golden calf. And I just, Moses talking to Jesus, I got so discouraged that I threw those tablets down and broke them.

And then Elijah, he was discouraged. He was being chased by Jezebel. And so, hey, Jesus, I understand discouragement too. So this is supposedly what they were talking about on the Mount of Transfiguration.

And the moral of the story, apparently, is that before you can get to the Mount of Transfiguration, you need to go through the Valley of Discouragement. This man allegorized the biblical text, a historical account, an amazing, miraculous account where Jesus revealed his glory.

He allegorized it to the point of, are you in the Valley of Discouragement? You just need a word from God and you will come to the Mount of Transfiguration. So Jesus got a word from God and it took him out of his discouragement.

Mark 9, verse 7, a cloud formed overshadowing them and a voice came out of the cloud. This is my beloved son, listen to him. And that was the word from God that will take you out of the Valley of Discouragement.

Ladies, that is not what that text is about. There is a lot to be learned from that text, but that is not it. But what this man did to the biblical text is not unusual. And whether it takes 15 minutes to twist the word or 50 minutes to twist the word, like some of these seeker-sensitive pastors do, it's dangerous.

And there are thousands, millions of people sitting in churches thinking they are going to heaven, thinking they are hearing God's word, when in reality, they are hearing lies. And then the service went on, and there's all the recitation of the prayers and the communion.

This particular church does communion at every service. And what struck me about this church when I visited their website, which is part of the reason I wanted to go witness a service for myself, was that they say, I want to say it accurately here.

Let me bring up the website. They say that they invite all people to come to the altar to receive communion. Jesus didn't turn anyone away, and neither do we. So essentially what they are saying is that, hey, it doesn't matter who you are.

It doesn't matter which God you worship. You can come to the table. It doesn't matter if you've repented of your sin. You are welcome at the altar of communion, they say. But what does God's word say?

God's word says in 1 Corinthians 11, give you a second to turn there while I remind you that when I read from scriptures, ladies, usually I am reading from the New American Standard Bible. I will tell you if I'm reading from another translation.

I'll try to remember to tell you if I'm reading from another translation. But I use the NASB in my own study, and so it's my favorite. I've been through my ESV phase. I like the ESV, but I appreciate the NASB most.

So 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23. Paul writes, For I received from the Lord that which I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Verse 28,. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. That's what God's Word says about communion. That is what God's Word says about the Lord's table.

This church that I visited is not the only church that would say that all people are welcome at the altar to receive communion. First of all, I don't know why your church has an altar. We're not making sacrifices.

But that aside, are all people welcome at the table? Anybody? Is anybody welcome at the table? Well, we can look at that a couple of ways. Does Christ save on the basis of race or color or gender? No, we see that in the scriptures.

We've talked about that before. There's no distinction in Christ Jesus. Jew, Gentile, man, woman, slave, free. We are all one in Christ Jesus. Those who have been saved by Christ, who have repented of their sins, placed their faith in Christ alone for salvation.

In that regard, there is no distinction. In that sense, all people are welcome in the sense that Christ died to save Jews and Gentiles, if you will. We can lump the world into those two groups. That is not the basis of what this particular church is saying and what many churches would say.

It is just, God loves you. In fact, as I was walking into the church, there was a big banner that said, God loves you, no exceptions. And so it doesn't matter who you are or what you've done. You just, you come.

God loves you. Well, have you repented of your sin and trusted in Christ alone? Or are you just coming in? Someone who just loves their sin, hates God. Even if you don't say you hate God, your life demonstrates that you hate God because you are reveling in your sin.

You are not welcome at Christ's table then unless you have repented of that sin and have been born again. John MacArthur writes of these verses in Corinthians. He says, one can come to his table unworthily in many ways.

It is common for people to participate in it ritualistically without participating with their minds and hearts. I witnessed that today, ladies. I saw that. This is something they do every service. They have four or five services a day.

And every week they do this communion and everyone just walks up to the altar. We all kneel around, get the little wafer, sip from the chalice, and then we go sit back down. MacArthur goes on. He says, they can go through the motions without going through any emotions and treat it lightly rather than seriously.

They can believe it imparts grace or merit, that the ceremony itself rather than the sacrifice it represents can save or keep one saved. Many come with the spirit of bitterness or hatred toward another believer or come with the sin of which they will not repent.

If a believer comes with anything less than the loftiest thoughts of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and anything less than total love for his brothers and sisters in Christ, he comes unworthily. And that's a believer.

If a believer comes with anything less than the highest thoughts of God, then he comes unworthily. And Paul says, don't come to the table in an unworthy manner. What about an unbeliever? I mean, look at what Paul says.

You know, he says to come unworthily to the Lord's table is to become guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. That's for believers. What of unbelievers that come to the table? MacArthur goes on and says, to come unworthily to communion does not simply dishonor the ceremony.

It dishonors the one in whose honor it is celebrated. We become guilty of dishonoring his body and blood, which represent his total gracious life and work for us, his suffering and death on our behalf.

We become guilty of mocking and treating with indifference the very person of Jesus Christ. And so that is what we can even as believers do if we come to the table without the highest thoughts of God.

You know, and that's why it's so important, I think, to have the pastor in a communion service emphasize that, you know, do not come to the table unworthily. Reflect on your life, you know, reflect on where you at, where you are at with God before you come to the table.

It is a serious thing. But here we have a church that's just welcoming anybody. You know, they didn't know who I was and would have been totally fine if I went up there and I was, you know, living in all kinds of sin.

It wouldn't have mattered to them. But this is such a serious thing, but yet we see it treated so lightly by this church and by so many others. And it's not just this aspect of the service that dishonored Christ.

You know, this whole external religion dishonors Christ. It is not done out of a motivation of love for the Father and a love for the Savior who bought us and a love for the Spirit that indwells us and is sanctifying us.

You know, I mentioned that this church said, you know, God loves you, no exceptions. And we love to talk about how God is love. I mean, that's everywhere, isn't it? You know, God is love. And we've spoken about this before here at Equipping Eve.

But we cannot focus on the attribute of God that is love without focusing on His holiness and His righteousness and His justice. God is a holy God, and His law is a perfect and holy law. And so you know what that means?

It means that God hates sin. Before Christ saved you, ladies, if you have been saved, you were an enemy of God. Doesn't James 4 .4 say, you adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?

Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. That was me before I was saved. I was an enemy of God. I was an enemy of God sitting in the church, the visible church, anyway.

You know, you think about it, Romans 5 .10 says, if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God.

God, sinners are enemies of God. You know, He loves His creation. He cares for His creation. There's that general element of it. But we cannot just walk around telling people God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

We need to tell people that they are sinners and that they need a Savior, that they need to repent of their sin and trust in Christ. John 3 .36 says, He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

The wrath of God. Abides on him who does not obey the Son. We go back to the Psalms. Psalm 5 .5 reads,. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood.

The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. Psalm 11 .5 says,. The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence his soul hates. God loves you, no exceptions. Here's where there are no exceptions.

Here's a call from God with no exceptions. Repent and believe the gospel. That's a call from Jesus himself. That's how he began his public ministry, actually. In Matthew 4 .17, Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

What do we see in Acts 17 .30? Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent. Some of the final words of Christ in Luke 24. Luke 24 .46,.

And he said to them,. Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

If you want to share a message with people that applies to everyone with no exceptions, it is repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Ladies, I know a lot of you probably have loved ones who are sitting in churches like this, and maybe it's not a mainline denomination, maybe it's a, you know, very popular, you know, kind of rock star, pop music type, seeker sensitive church.

It's all the same thing. You know, we go to church and we go through these motions, and that must mean I'm saved. I venture to say there are at least a few of you listening who maybe even have that story as part of your testimony, that you were sitting in a church and you thought you were saved because you went to church, and then God was gracious to open your eyes to grant you repentance and faith.

That's what he did for me. I was saved because I was going to church, I thought. I didn't think my going to church earned my salvation, but I thought it proved it. But I was sitting in a dead church, it was a lively dead church, a worldly dead church.

And even these churches that are full of rituals and robes and chanting, they are worldly because they have created their own God. I sat in a pew today among people worshiping a false God. And so what do we do with these people who we love who are worshiping idols, who are deceived?

Well, there's one approach of going in and telling them everything that's wrong with their service, everything that's wrong with their church, and it's not wrong to point out certain dangerous things as long as you are doing it from the scriptures, as long as you are taking them to God's word and saying, this is why that's bad, or this is why that's wrong, because God's word says this.

But ladies, ultimately, preach the gospel to that person. Proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in Christ's name to that person, because that is what they need. Their eyes have been blinded, and only God can open their eyes.

Open their eyes, God. That's what I was praying today. And that's a prayer we can all pray, not just for people we know personally and people we love and care about, but people we don't know who are sitting in pews, filling churches week after week, don't even know that they're blind.

Ladies, I encourage you to pray that prayer. I know after today, I will be praying it a lot more. It was a very sobering morning. I'm very thankful for it, and it made me even more thankful for the undeserved grace that God has shown me, for the mercy he has shown me.

And so I hope that this will also motivate you to offer him extra praise and thanks for your salvation, that he chose you if you have been saved, and he granted you repentance and faith, and that you know that you've been forgiven, and that he has granted you eternal life.

And what better display of thankfulness than to obey him and call others to repent and believe in the name of Christ. For there is no other name under heaven by which men or women must be saved. All right, ladies, thank you so much for listening.

We'll revisit topics like this and until we meet again, get in your Bibles, get on your knees, and get equipped. Thanks for listening. You've been listening to Equipping Eve,.

A No Compromise radio production. If you'd like to get a hold of Erin, you can reach her at equippingeve at gmail .com, or you can check out one of our two websites, do notbesurprised .com or equippingeve .org.

Thanks for listening.