Supposed Church Growth

Most Evangelical pastors are guilty of hiding the Kingdom and blinding people to it. This is a serious sin. Their job is to preach the Bible, and people expect that, so these pastors can’t just blatantly deny the Kingdom—that would be too explicit.

Even if a bad pastor doesn’t believe in the soon Return of Christ and he “… says in his heart, ‘My Master is delaying his coming…’” (Matthew 24:48), his people would catch on to the sinfulness of an outright denial of the coming Kingdom.

These pastors can’t outrightly say that we’re not hoping for Jesus’ government on Earth. Rather, they subtly blind people to the Kingdom. They do this, in great measure, by placing immense importance on church growth. That makes them look spiritual while they do something carnal.

Their focus on church growth conceals their disbelief in the Gospel of the Kingdom. It makes them look like men of God while they deny the message of God—the Gospel of the Kingdom.

In most congregations, pastors will place fifty times more importance on church growth than they will place on the Kingdom. If you listen to a given Evangelical preacher on a typical Sunday morning and count the number of times they mention the Kingdom, comparing it to the number of times they mention their church, the ratio would easily be at least 1:50 -- Kingdom:church.

What these pastors say about the church (note that they’re not talking about the Church with a capital C, the One Body—but they talk about their particular church) is that it has a vision. They commonly use the business model and say that it has "a mission and a vision."

Inevitably the vision will be focused on church growth--their own church's growth, and it locks their members into a commitment that's not from God. They demonstrate an unhealthy commitment to their congregation or denomination, almost like a cult group.

Terminology Trends

Even the few times most Evangelical pastors mention the Kingdom, they will couch it in terms that revolve around their church. It’s become so common for them to manipulate the term, that many congregations think that the goal of Jesus' Church, the Body of Christ, is the “expansion of the Kingdom.” This is a trend in terminology in churches, but it's not from the Bible, and it's damaging to believers.

One of the trendy pastors’ favorite catch phrases is “advancing the Kingdom of God”—an expression you’ll never find in the Scriptures. Another phrase they like is “growing the Kingdom”—meaning either leading people in the “prayer of faith” or bringing people from your neighborhood, workplace, or family for the purposes of growing their church.

“Growing the Kingdom” is not an expression from the Bible any more than “advancing the Kingdom,” but it's being used profusely. Pastors have adopted the idea of “growing the Kingdom” from the Matthew 13 seed parables Jesus taught, particularly the mustard seed parable. Their misinterpretation of Jesus’ parables has led them to treat the Kingdom like something that’s growing in this World right now. But it is not.

The mustard seed parable speaks of two phases: the seed phase and the full-grown tree phase. The Kingdom is the seed in the sense that it’s just a message now. It will be a full-grown tree, the greatest of all entities--a government! But that will not happen in this age. It will happen in the Millennium, when angels will make it their dwelling place with us.

He told them another parable: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches’ (Matthew 13:31-32).

The Kingdom right now is in its seed form—a message. In the sower parable, Jesus calls the seed the message about the Kingdom (Matthew 13:19). How insignificant the Gospel of the Kingdom seems among the messages of the World now: messages about business, psychology, social reform, the military, the economy, human rights, democracy, global health, sports championships, religion, and education.

What is the message of the Kingdom compared to these topics? Nobody cares about it. It's practically invisible!

The Kingdom is still a coming Kingdom. It’s still the future Hope. The Kingdom is still to come. It hasn’t come yet. It’s not growing in the World right now. Before the End, when the Antichrist has attained maximum power and influence, the final condition of the Church will be defeat. He will fight against us and will conquer us.

The Beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months... It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them (Revelation 13:5-7).

Kingdom News vs. Church News

We can’t make the Church grow by manipulating terminology. We can’t bend the meaning of Scripture, especially regarding the Gospel itself. The Gospel is the Good News--great news of the Kingdom. The news about the Church is bad news: Apostasy—a great falling away, and coldness of heart.

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, regarding, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit, or a message, or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the Day of the Lord has come. No one is to deceive you in any way!

… it [‘the Day of the Lord’ which is also ‘the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him’] will not come unless the Apostasy comes first, and the Man of Lawlessness is revealed, the Son of Destruction, who… takes his seat in the Temple of God, displaying himself as being God (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4).

Then they will hand you over to persecution and will kill you, and you will be hated by all the nations because of my name. And then many will be led into sin and will betray one another and will hate one another, and many false prophets will appear and will deceive many, and because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:9-12).

… the Spirit explicitly says that in Later Times some will apostatize from the Faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons… (1 Timothy 4:1-2; NASB)

The Parables: Church Growth?

The Scriptures tell us that the disciples were perplexed about why Jesus would speak in parables so often. Are you perplexed? Are you confused? You will be if you interpret them to be teachings on church growth. They are not about church growth, but about the Kingdom.

The disciples came to him and asked, ‘Why do you speak to the people in parables?’ He replied, ‘Because the knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven has been given to you, but not to them’ (Matthew 13:10-11).

This response of our Lord Jesus indicates that there is something called the knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom. Do you have it? Do you have that knowledge? The apostles had it.

If you have the knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom, and the Holy Spirit has inspired you, then what is the interpretation of the parable of the sower? Jesus explained the correct interpretation when he spoke with the disciples in private after having taught the parable. The "secret" is that the message is about the Kingdom!

Jesus said this:

‘Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the Kingdom and does not understand it, the Evil One comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path (Matthew 13:18-19).

Tares Among Wheat

And if you have the knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom, then what is the Kingdom of Heaven according to Christ’s parables? Is it something that’s here now, or is it coming? Here’s Christ’s parable of the tares among the wheat:

Jesus told them another parable: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the tares also appeared.

The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the tares and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn’” (Matthew 13:24-30).

Do you understand the parable? You don’t have to decipher it. Jesus explained it in private to the disciples. The problem is that almost nobody is capable of understanding Jesus’ explanation (his concise commentary) of the parable! Here it is:

Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.’

He answered, ‘The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the World, and the good seed stands for the people of the Kingdom. The tares are the people of the Evil One, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the End of the Age, and the harvesters are angels.

‘As the tares are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the End of the Age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear (Matthew 13:36-43).

Do you have ears to hear? Can you understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven? If you gather nothing else from the parable, at least understand that the Kingdom will have its own challenges. There will be wicked people in it!

Yes, the Millennium will have mortals who are living in sin, and they will be purged from the Kingdom at the End of the Age, when angels come and throw the wicked into the Lake of Fire. Does Jesus' parable help you to understand the Kingdom better? That's what it's supposed to do.

This parable should make the timing of the Kingdom clear to you. It demonstrates without the shadow of a doubt that the Kingdom is definitely not taking place now. It will occur in the future. Are you starting to get it? Do you have a knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom?

The Dragnet

Another parable Jesus preached confirms this same truth: that the Kingdom is not manifested in the World now. It will manifest itself at the End of the Age—that is, when the Millennium comes to its conclusion.

Once again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.

This is how it will be at the End of the Age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:47-50).

Real Church Growth

Be wary of the “Kingdom of God is here now” preachers.’ They are liars. They’ll take the parables and twist their meaning. They’ll try to convince you that everything in the Bible is about church growth. The truth is that God makes a church grow, and he does it in his time.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6; ESV).

… the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved (Acts 2:47; ESV).

Of course, God does this through Jesus! He builds the Church through Jesus. That's why the Lord Jesus said:

I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it (Matthew 16:8).