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Why Preachers Leave The Restoration Movement?
George L. Faull
Dear Brother Faull,
I
am seeing a rash of preachers who used to be a part of the Restoration Movement
who have left preaching for the Churches of Christ and Christian Churches, who either
have started preaching in denominational Churches, or are working for
Para-Church organizations that are interdenominational, or quit the ministry
all together and put their membership in Baptist or Community Churches which
historically teach the absolute opposite of what the churches where they used
to preach.
My mind staggers at this and has caused me such anguish of heart that I feel
like I need to find a Juniper tree like Elijah but I know that the Lord would
rebuke me and ask me what I was doing there.
He would remind me there are 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Billy.
How
does a man who stood for years in the pulpit preaching the Old Jerusalem
doctrine, end up with those who oppose it in so many ways?
ANSWER:
1.
They
get hurt at one of our churches and blame all Restoration churches for their
pain.
2.
They
got fired and were treated bad for preaching truth and have compromised due to
family obligations.
3.
They
met a friendly unique denominational preacher they liked and followed him.
4.
They
felt excitement at the music when they attended some function and stayed (bound
by the sound).
5.
Their
kids got involved in a growing and going youth group.
6.
They
attended Promise Keepers and Max Lucado got them to repent of saying anything
bad about another’s Church.
7.
They
read Calvinistic books and never read any of the books of the great
Restorationists who refuted their false teaching.
8.
They
became Pharisees themselves when they saw hypocritical Pharisees among us.
9.
Their
colleges never taught them the difference and Restoration history was scoffed
at by their professors.
10.
They
attended inter-faith preachers’ meetings and found a bunch of nice guys who
couldn’t possibly be lost because they were “so spiritual”.
11.
They
totally lack discernment.
12.
They
followed fads.
13.
Church
growth became their idol instead of converting people.
14.
Lack
of commitment to objective truth.
15.
Led
by wives to compromise.
16.
Their
associate ministers and youth ministers, who had little or no Biblical
knowledge, sucked their whole Church into the denominational vacuum.
17.
Upon
leaving their Church, they did not want to leave their community and sell their
house so they sought out another Church in the area.
18.
They
married denominational women.
19.
They
went to denominational colleges that call us a cult.
20. They could not handle being called
“legalistic”, “self-righteous”, “fault-finder”, “radical”, “separatists”,
unchristian”, “unlike Jesus”, “sectarian”, “judgmental”, Pharisaical”, “bigot”,
“troublemaker”, “intolerant”, “old-fashioned”, “narrow-minded”, “unloving”.