Good Intentions are Sometimes too Much!
Pastor J. R. Wilhite, author
Close Window
Since mankind has been on the earth there have been good and bad intentions. For the most part good intentions, some how, always ending up doing more bad than good. In the 4th century AD the ruler of Rome was Constantine and when he first met the Lord he got excited, as all of us do. Being the ruler, he thought he could make a law that would force all to benefit from what he had. I am sure he did not think of it as forcing but more as blessing. That was the intent no matter what he thought it was, so he passed a law that, in so many words, said that only those of Christ could own land and hold positions of power. Those not of Christ could not, so his intention was to encourage everyone to get what he had experienced. What he did not foresee was that Rome would become the church and by passing this law he was setting the church up for a fall, otherwise he never would have passed this law. So many are just like Constantine when they meet the Lord. Either they get it together and grow or the flame goes out and they fall away. What I tell people all the time is to never let the flame go out, but never go out on your own until you are hearing from God and can be directed by Him as far as where you go and what you say. If it was good enough for Jesus it should be good enough for us unless of course we think we are better than Jesus is and do not need even what He needed. The next 3 verses show that Jesus did as the Father told him, and that the Father talked through Him. John 5 30. I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. John 8 28. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. John 12 49. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. Jesus told us the same thing—to do the same as He did, not of our own or mankind but of God and God alone. John 14 26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. The good intention of Constantine mentioned above forced those who did not believe to say that they did in order to have power. The evidence of this is the dark ages, black plague, Holy Crusades, and the inquisition to mention a few. Before you think I am blaming everything that happened on the Church of Rome with no reason you are wrong. The black plague came about because those in the church at the time thought since Egyptians worshipped cats, then cats were evil and they started killing them off. The result was an ever-growing rat population that carried the plague. So by killing the cats they allowed the rats to over populate and then 25% of Europe’s population alone died as a result. The dark ages were a time of destroying everything that was not deemed of God by the church of Rome, all writings, statues, etc. Again, this was something of the physical as was the killing of the cats. The Holy Crusades, which actually were 13 attempts to take Jerusalem from those who occupied it, were all physical acts. Also, one of the reasons most of the Jews did not recognize Jesus was they were looking for a physical king to rule and conquer Rome. All of these and especially the inquisition were not of the Spirit and Grace, but of the flesh and the law because the church was run by people who were not of the spirit but of the flesh and could only think in physical terms. When the flesh is involved, instead of the Spirit, interpretation (mostly physical) instead of understanding is the result. I am sure that if Constantine had a chance to see the results of what he did he never would have done it. He was not an evil or bad man just a misguided one. Do not think Constantine was alone in this. In the 1930s the US government, out of good intentions, decided it was time to set up what became known as welfare to help those who were poor or without to not go without the basics. It was another good intention and if it had worked it would have been awesome. Maybe one of the reasons it did not work was they did not foresee the loopholes in it. The loopholes were that an unmarried woman would be supported by welfare based on how many children she had. So what happened was a lot of couples did not marry and lived together to receive the welfare checks, and some (maybe 70% or more) even had more children just to get more money. As time went on more and more couples lived together without getting married and not all did it just to get money. Subsequent generations of welfare recipients thought they had no other choice as far as they could see. The government was ending the institution called marriage and growing a population of fatherless children. These children saw how their parents abused or used the system to their own benefit (because in time it was extremely abused) and they learned by this that the only way to succeed or even survive was to take advantage of the system and people in general. As you can see the good intention brought us a fatherless generation and is responsible in most for gangs, which result in drive-by-shootings where innocent by-standers including children are killed. If you research the gangs of today, and I am talking about those of 12 years old and up, you will discover they (A) Started in the past 35 years. And (B) Are a result of a of fatherless families and a lack of parenting in general. Most if not all get into these gangs to have a structure like that they would have had if they had a father and mother who both parented them. So the good intention of the sixties in the US brought us the above plus an ever-growing debt based on the above. What might have been better was to have had some form of training, in place of a simple dole, to give those welfare recipients’ a chance at improving their lifestyle in the beginning. Think about it, since the sixties we have had developments in all kinds of new technology, DVD, CD, Cable, PC, etc that the people could have been trained into. Even before these there were the space program, medicine, and all kinds of new businesses in the seventies. What is the old saying about foresight and hindsight? Hindsight is 20/20. I have shown two times when two separate good intentions did more damage instead of helping. Of course between the times of these two and since there have been even more good intentions. If this does not show you the importance of hearing from God and having Him teach you, guide you, and even tell you what to say I do not know what will. So why has this not been pointed out before, about listening and hearing from God? It has; from generation to generation there have been those telling others but it does not fit into the mainstream so it is out on the fringes. Maybe not until the Internet was there a platform where those who had the message could reach so many for so little as compared to television, print, etc. Why is it not part of the mainstream? Wouldn't those who train up and teach pastors know this? Yes and no—in denominations the training in the word is one maybe two semesters were the rest is for people management, money management, etc. In the non-denomination they teach the word as if it is the end all, not the beginning, the way to God, and how to hear from God. Their idea is that since it is logos or rhema (Divine expression or utterance of man or God—at the bottom of this section is the Bible definitions) in so many words that the word is God's breathed word and why would anyone need any more. Some teach the word and expect the student to develop a connection with God to hear from Him on their own. This is where we differ. We believe the Bible is God's breathed word and that it is infallible and correct, but only in its original language. For the most part people believe it is God's be all and end all for us. We believe it is our way to Him and how to learn to hear from Him. Why we say it is infallible only in the original language is because when the Bible was translated from Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament) to English a lot was lost that the English language just can not express the same. Here are two words out of many that have major differences in meaning between the US and the UK. Lift in the UK is elevator in the US, and solicitor in the UK is lawyer in the US. Now add to this that the King James was translated nearly 400 years ago and that the English language of the 17th century UK and present day is different. Now add the loss from translating from Greek and Hebrew into English and you get a small part of the over all problem. To even add to the problem, the old texts were translated into Latin first, and much of the understanding used to translate into English was taken from that previous work. Below is an example of the 400 years difference alone: Job 1 8. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Many pastors, teachers, etc have used Job 1:8 to prove that we will be tested by Satan or God. That’s because they did not understand the verse. In the 17th century they read the above as if it said the same as below (which it did, but we do not take the time to study as we should and the language has changed a lot since then). 8. |0559| And said |3068| Yahweh |0000| to |7854| Satan, |7760| Have you set |3824| your heart |5650| on My servant |0347| Job? |3588| For |0369| not is {any} |0000| like him |0776| in the earth, |0376| a man |8535| perfect |3477| and upright, |3373| revering |0430| God |5186| and turning away |7451| from evil. You could learn Greek and Hebrew, read the Bible in the original languages, learn the history of times of the Bible, and believe and you still will not get it all. You might ask—Why do others who are pastors not teach this or at least not know it? Why should I believe you over the pastor of my church or the head of my church? Do you believe them because they have been supposedly educated in the Bible (by man) and/or because they have dedicated their life to God in way you have not? Both would be wrong because when man teaches man, man loses. Without God, man can not understand that which is of the Spirit or of heaven because man only has the physical (flesh) to go by. John 3 12. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? Here is another good intention—in the middle of the 20th century some men formed a committee where by they would vote on what a word in the Bible meant and change it as the majority concluded. Guess what this was part of—translating the Bible for the NIV. It was in hopes that this would make the Bible easier to read and understand and get more people to read it. You see most will always seek ways in the physical to answer or work out a problem never even considering the spiritual. The sad thing is we all say we believe in God (who is a spirit John 4:24) but our actions show otherwise. The entire reason the law was so harsh was that without the Spirit, forgiveness, etc mankind had to have strict and harsh rules to survive and not end up in Hell. But under Grace people have not sought God as they should have and ended up back in the law and operating in it and not Grace. If you do not believe this carefully read the first 5 books of the Bible (OT) and then compare it to the majority of the churches and their members today. The reason this has happened is in man’s attempt to interpret the NT there have been many varied interpretations of it. Also, it is easier to stand on the law that is straightforward and easy to understand if not easy to follow than study and try to understand the many different concepts outlined in the NT. The NT says judge not, or you will be judged. That is straightforward and easy to understand, but to many it is impossible to follow so they fall back to the law where they can judge. Matthew 7 1. Judge not, that ye be not judged. This is one of the reasons Jesus said many (which in Greek in Matthew 7 is most) will end up in destruction and not life. Many (most) are following man's church not the church (community) of which Jesus is the head. In Revelation 1-3 He addresses seven churches and only one is found to be of Him. Matthew 7 13. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 15. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. False prophets are not the only problem. In Matthew 24, Luke 21, Revelation and other books of the NT we read about false Christs, false teachers, etc. Matthew 7 20. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 21. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. How in the world are we to know who is right, telling the truth, or not misleading us if they can appear in all ways to be of the Lord? First notice that He said in verse 20, before He told us about the many who were not of Him, that we will know them by their fruits. After reading verses 21-23 we know it is not the fruits of their works, so that leaves only the fruit of the Spirit which no one can duplicate. Oh sure, maybe one, two or even three of the fruit can be imitated, but not all nine. Galatians 5 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23. Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. For those of you who want to be 100% sure and not take the chance that you are interpreting the fruit of the Spirit correctly, you only have one choice. You must hear from God who knows the hearts of all mankind. If a person's heart is not right with God it is a void to God. As God looks into our hearts He sees His Son in those who are of Him, the rest are just a giant void. John 14 26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. In this ministry, all we are called to do is teach people that they should have a relationship that is deeper than just reading His word. We teach that they should stop talking and listen to Him and let Him teach all things. The only thing beyond this we can do is save you some time in studying His word. So, where it took us a week, month or longer to hear, write, and post it only takes you an hour or two. NO MATTER WHO YOU HEAR FROM, WHAT YOU READ, OR SEE—take it all to God and let Him tell you whether it is true or not and let Him give you the meaning thereof. I have written many studies that I knew most would get little or nothing out of because only God could give that extra which is needed to bring the depth of understanding what is written. If we all listened to and followed Him and said only what He says then we would be back in Garden of Eden and everything here would be wonderful, but I know that will not happen. I just hope that those who read this receive a seed that maybe here or elsewhere will be watered and grow. God's will is simple—that we are all saved and have a relationship with Him, an actual one on one as Adam had in the beginning. Remember Jesus was sent to fix what Adam broke and what Adam broke was that one on one connection resulting in sin. John 6 39. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 40. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. Matthew 7 24. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings(words) of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: Strong's Ref. # 3056 Romanized logos Pronounced log'-os from GSN3004; something said (including the thought); by implication a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension, a computation; specifically (with the article in John) the Divine Expression (i.e. Christ): KJV--account, cause, communication, X concerning, doctrine, fame, X have to do, intent, matter, mouth, preaching, question, reason, + reckon, remove, say(-ing), shew, X speaker, speech, talk, thing, + none of these things move me, tidings, treatise, utterance, word, work. Matthew 12 36. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Strong's Ref. # 4487 Romanized rhema Pronounced hray'-mah from GSN4483; an utterance (individually, collectively or specifically); by implication, a matter or topic (especially of narration, command or dispute); with a negative naught whatever: KJV--+ evil, + nothing, saying, word.