Pablum is usually associated with a cereal suited for infants that requires no chewing. Otherwise, it can be described as dull, bland, wishy-washy, simplistic, worthless, and oversimplified.

This is an excellent description of what comes from most pulpits throughout America today and has seeped down into the pews of the congregations.

Many pastors today sound more like politicians than preachers of the Word of God.

God finally got Jonah to Nineveh to preach to them. Once he did so, they repented, from the king to the lowest servant.

“Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” (Jonah 3:2)

Jesus arrived on the scene in Israel and continued the message of John the Baptist; “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Although most ignored Him, many listened.” He instructed His disciples to “preach the gospel.”

“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)

“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 6:19)

“And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” (Acts 5:42)

The apostle Paul preached “Christ crucified.” Unfortunately to many Jews Paul’s preaching was a stumbling block, and to many Greeks just plain foolishness.

“But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;” (1 Corinthians 1:23)

Paul made it clear to the Galatians that any other message than what they received from him was not of God. He even pronounced a curse, twice, against any who would preach anything other than the gospel of Christ.

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8-9)

At the end of his life Paul told his young protégé Timothy to study and preach the word of God.

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” (2 Timothy 4:2 NIV)

Ignorance of the Scriptures is one of the problems with the modern church, and there is no excuse for it, especially in this country.

How have so many unqualified preachers gotten behind the pulpits? In some cases it is because the congregations were so unlike the Bereans they did not know what to look for in a pastor.

Many church congregations today are like the Corinthians of Paul’s day. Paul even told them, the Corinthians, on one occasion:

“Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.” (1 Corinthians 3:1-2 NIV)

The writer of Hebrews told those he was writing to:

“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14 NIV)

Far, far too many congregations across this land are being fed spiritual pablum, in others words, ‘mush.’ It is heartbreaking to know that so many Christians know so little about the very one who saved them. Consider the following Scripture passage.

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27)

Jesus explained to two gentlemen on the road to Emmaus that “Moses and all the prophets” wrote of Him. Folks this includes the entire Old Testament. The Old Testament was all about Jesus Christ. Keep in mind the New Testament had not yet been written at that time. The entire Bible is about one person; i.e. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.

How many are actually preaching the Word of God? More so, how many are preaching the entire Word of God? For example, at least 25% of the Bible is prophecy, but yet very few will approach any passage related to prophecy, especially prophecy future. There are about 300 prophetic passages concerning Jesus’ first coming, and some report at least eight times that of His second coming.

How many Christians actually understand grace, salvation, redemption, sanctification, justification, propitiation, etc.? I dare say, very few.

I challenge all Christians to study the Bible for yourselves. Do so with much prayer, asking for the Holy Spirit’s guidance in teaching you what He wants you to know. Some of you have great pastors who preach the Word, all the Word, as they are instructed by God, but most of you are not going to be fed properly from the pulpits. You don’t have to be a seminary graduate with a doctorate degree to understand the Bible. You have the greatest Teacher of all, the Holy Spirit. This is one reason Jesus sent us the Comforter, to teach us and guide us. Allow Him to do what He is here for. He is here for us, to enlighten us about our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

Don’t accept mush. Feed on the milk of the Word so you can mature to the eating of the meat. You’ll be glad you did.

Grant Phillips

Email: grantphillips@windstream.net

Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com

Rapture Ready: https://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html

 

I don’t know about other countries, but ours has gone insane with so-called “politically correct” terminology. We hear this “politically correct” nonsense every day, and this morning while reading the paper I learned another one. This one is “food insecure.” It means “lacking reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.”

Now how about that? Why not just say, “You’re not eating healthy” instead of “You’re food insecure?” I don’t know who comes up with this stuff. There has got to be a governmental department somewhere in Washington D.C. that gets paid to sit in a dark room and think up this nonsense.

Here are just a few more that we’re probably all familiar with.

• Indians are now called “native Americans.”
• When one empties their motorhome toilet the contents are called “motorhome refuse.”
• A spouse who stays home is now called a “domicile spouse.”
• One who is blind should be called “visually impaired.”
• If one is deaf, it is called “hearing impaired.”
• A disabled person is called “physically challenged or physically impaired.”
• One who is mute is called “vocally impaired.”
• An illegal alien is now an “undocumented worker.”

It’s almost like we’re trying to impress someone how righteous we are … God maybe?

This brings to mind the word “sin.” It seems to me that we as a society are trying really hard to cover up the fact that we sin. So we call it something else. Do we really think that if we call sin something else, we’re free of sin and God will accept us the way we are? We’re good enough for Heaven because we call it something else? We don’t need a Savior? Where is all this going?

For instance, we might call a woman using sex to gain what she wants a “mistress,” but the Bible says she is a harlot, whore or adulteress.

Society calls males and females who have sexual contact with those of the same sex “gays and lesbians.” The Bible calls them “homosexuals” and the homosexual act a “perversion.”

What we call “adult entertainment,” the Bible calls “lasciviousness or unbridled lust.”

Many in our country think it is a woman’s right to have an abortion if she so chooses, but the Bible calls it “murder.”

An “affair” or “swinging” is called “adultery” or “fornication” in the Bible.

We encourage folks to have an abundance of pride in their own abilities, but the Bible calls it “arrogance.”

If our intent really is to impress God, and even ourselves, that we are good enough to merit Heaven without going through His Son, we are most definitely in for a rude awakening.

Look, we can call a turtle an equestrian thoroughbred if we like, but it still isn’t going to win the Kentucky Derby. It’s still a turtle.

God’s Law for mankind is as follows, and He doesn’t butter it up. It’s very clear. (Exodus 20:1-17)

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images.
3. Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.
5. Honor thy Father and thy Mother.
6. Thou shalt not murder.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, wife or possessions.

Then Jesus summed up the whole Law in this manner with two commandments (Matthew 22:37-40):

1. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
2. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

The only way to be righteous in the sight of God is to keep all these Laws, without fail, until we die. Nobody… no one … has ever been able to do that except Jesus Christ, God’s Son. Furthermore, we are all born with a sin nature and will never deserve any part of Heaven, only hell.

Jesus died for us and paid all our sin debt on the cross. He rose from the grave three days later and is in Heaven preparing a place for all who will come to Him in belief. He requires that we acknowledge we need a Savior, cannot save ourselves and ask Him to save us by truly believing in Him.

If it is true that we as a society are just trying to impress God with how good we are, don’t fall for it.

We are living in an arrogant, egotistical society that thinks we have outgrown God and are most capable of running our own lives. “We don’t need a Savior, because, even though we may do bad things, we’re still basically good people and our good always outweighs our bad. We don’t need a Lord of our lives because it’s our body and our lives, and whatever gratifies me is my own personal business. We don’t need God to rule our society because we will have all running smoothly via education and brilliant politicians. Besides God, look how nice we are by changing so many terms to something that sounds so much kinder. We really are good people and don’t need God’s moldy advice.”

We have proven the fact that we don’t believe there is a God and if there is, we don’t need Him. We have shown what is in our hearts by removing any acknowledgement of Almighty God in our lives such as in the schools. We ‘think’ we are showing how good we are by allowing perversions to consume our lifestyles, when actually we have, again, shown our darkened hearts toward God.

We murder innocent little defenseless babies but protest if a murdering thug is put to death by the state.

Our hearts, as a society, are twisted and dark, leading us straight to hell, and Satan is behind all of this. We call the Bible’s account of our original parents, Adam and Eve, a fairy tale, but yet we have fallen for the same lie that Satan fed Eve.

“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5 NIV)

Is it not obvious, to those who have eyes and see and to those who have ears and hear, that we as a society are playing God? We, as a society, want to be our own god. We are so arrogant and ignorant we tell God what is good and what is evil. Don’t think so? Allow me to reiterate a few points society is shoving down our throats.

Abortion is good.

Capital punishment is bad.

Homosexual sex is good.

Sex outside marriage (between a man and woman) is good.

Remaining a virgin prior to marriage (between a man and woman) is bad.

Reading the Bible in school is bad.

Reading the Koran in school is good.

Praying to the one and only true God in school is bad.

Learning Islam in school is good.

Greeting others with “Merry Christmas” is bad.

Greeting others with “Happy Holidays” is good.

Saying Jesus is the only way to be saved is bad.

Saying there are many roads to God is good.

Saying all religions lead to God is good.

Child discipline is bad.

Are we getting the point? I could go on with many more examples of what we, as a society, have become. Notice the following verse.

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” (Isaiah 5:20-21 NIV)

This is EXACTLY what we as a society have become. We had better wake up, real fast, because God Almighty will not tolerate His Holy Name being mocked much longer.

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)

Have you ever wondered why our schools have turned into battle fields?

Have you ever wondered why sexually transmitted diseases are so rampant?

Have you ever wondered why the divorce rate is above 50% and climbing?

Have you ever wondered why illegal drug usage is out of control?

Have you ever wondered why our politicians are so corrupt?

Have you ever wondered why so many of our churches are a mockery toward God?

Have you ever wondered why our prisons are overcrowded and training grounds for continued crime?

Have you ever wondered why so many children are rebellious?

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)

As I have often stated, I have no idea when Jesus will come back for His Church, but I do feel we are in the season of His return. After He does return for His Church another period of time will begin not long after. It is commonly called the Tribulation. If we think things are bad now, those who are left behind will long for these days, because those seven years, the Tribulation, will be hell on earth.

Those who are wise need to heed these words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” (Matthew 24:44)

Grant Phillips

Email: grantphillips@windstream.net

Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com

Rapture Ready: https://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html