False professors receive Jesus as . . . .

It is my humble opinion that many of the problems that plague our modern evangelical churches are simply due to the fact that they are absolutely full of false converts. I have spent some significant time counseling people in various churches since I began pastoral ministry in 2000, and I am convinced after several years of experience with nouthetic counseling, that the single-greatest problem with the many professing Christians is that they profess and do not actually possess Christ. They do not possess the new heart (Ezekiel 36:25-27) and their lives show it. Instead of being characterized by Christian love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control; their lives are continually patterned by the following characteristics:

1. Immorality - pornography and adultery run rampant in evangelical churches. I have counseled many a man (and some women) who are easily beset by these sins. Pornography is a common sin that is easily accessible and easy to hide. Christian men will desire to kill this sin and put it to death. False professors will covertly look for ways to continually hide it, manipulate their surroundings and schedules so they can engage in it, and will not seek to kill this sin because it a rewarding idol since it brings fast gratification with little outward and immediate consequences.

2. Impurity - pop evangelicalism is generally devoid of people with chaste and pure behaviors and motives.

3. Sensuality - pop evangelicalism, Christian Contemporary Music, and modern emergent "preaching" is rife with limelight guys and sultry chicks in tight garb, wiggly hips, complete with sassy, red-hot lyrics and lowbrow messages.

4. Idolatry - many pop-evangelicals have traded the biblical Jesus for a functional savior that only gives them temporal hope and joy. However, they quickly fall into depression and despondency after the idol stops delivering the temporal goods. This is often the trigger that flips the switch into outright apostasy for many a false professor; especially once they have discovered that their "custom-fit" version of Jesus doesn't exist. It is also important to note here that some professing Christian apologists love the joy of feeding their functional savior, which is to engage in intellectual fisticuffs. However, they have no enduring desire for the true Christ of Scripture. This functional savior can only last so long and when their creeping unbelief shatters that idol, a major paradigm shift takes place and they either outright leave their former profession in the dust or they jump from the frying pan into the fire by trading in their kit-car Jesus for another idol. Again, we have seen this with the several apostates that find their way to this blogsite.

5. Sorcery - horoscope hunters and rock-rubbing pop-evangelicals and emergents are cool with mixing New Age mysticism, medieval monastic mysticism, and other sorcery with their "custom-fit" Christ.

6. Enmity - false professors always show a general hostility towards the true Christ of Scripture, His message, and His people (Rom. 8:7-8).

7. Strife - the false professor enjoys creating contention by pointing the finger at everyone else's sin as a means to show that they possess superior sanctification. They will become angry and defensive when confronted about this particular sin as it characterizes who they are at heart: hypocrites (Matt. 7:3-4).

8. Jealousy - some false professors are not happy with your natural display the fruits of the Spirit, and they want the gifts without submitting to the Giver of the gifts. Again, this is what idolatry does, it causes people to pile sin upon sin; like compound interest.

9. Outbursts of Anger - this is a chief characteristic of many false professors, as they have not the deep God-given desire nor the ability to control their anger when their idols are assaulted or their egos are exposed by the light of Christ. True biblical teaching and preaching angers them and causes them to gnash their teeth.

10. Disputes - they enjoy a good fight for the sake of a good fight; whether its intellectual, verbal, or physical. They always want to win because they are the master of their own universe. They have their reward.

11. Dissensions - the false professor is a contentious quarreler. They love the fight and if you think they don't then just try to lovingly confront them with their divisive behavior and watch the sparks fly upward!

12. Factions - one of the characteristics of some false professors is that they are theological nitpickers who use very minor theological differences between believers as a reason for avoiding biblical accountability and discipleship. They will look for microscopic doctrinal reasons to protect their true motive, which is a heartfelt desire to avoid close fellowship with born-again believers because true fellowship, discipleship, accountability, and teaching/preaching eventually exposes their idol-laden heart for what it is, and in the famous words of Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, they "can't handle the truth!"

13. Envy - since they really can't have Christian love, joy, peace, patience, . . . . self-control, et. al. because they don't have the spiritual equipment needed to produce these fruits, then they don't want *you* to have them either. Since they can't have peace, they don't want anybody else to have peace either.

14. Drunkenness - because they lack self-control, some false professors show that lack by abusing alcohol and recreational/prescription drugs or they use their prescription drugs as an excuse to avoid being sober-minded. Many an M.D. will be glad to continue to take your co-pay in order to write you a prescription for your favorite tranquilizer, sedative, or narcotic since neither he nor you are equipped to deal with the root problem, which is the idol you are protecting.

15 Carousing . . . and things like these - the life of the false professor is characterized by a libertine lifestyle. Again, look at pop-evangelicalism. Dissolute behavior is okay because we can freely continue in sin since grace will abound, contradicting what Paul says in Romans 6:1.

It is also true that many of the apostates that have "graced" the combox of this blog are former false professors who had an emotional experience, heard some good music, and were snookered by a preacher to have their spiritual heaven-bound ticket punched so that they could receive some free "fire-insurance" from a market-driven "custom-fit" Americanized Jesus (1 John 2:19). However, they were and are still engaged in all or many of the behaviors above. A good place to start in the direction of self-examination is the article Do You Love Jesus or Your Sin? Piper also expresses my sentiments well below.