How do we determine what the true church is? Many churches and denominations claim, or at least imply that they represent the true church of Jesus Christ, not to talk of the many sects/cults that claim the same!

We do find amongst many religious people a blind faith because of cultural factors. If you grow up in a very religious area or country you may get religion in with your mother's milk and may not question your own beliefs until you leave home and that's when the fun and games begin. In certain cultures though, the power of the religion is so strong that even questioning it is seen as a gross sin with the result that you rather not dare make any contradictory sounds lest you lose your life!

As someone who works in an educational environment, I am amazed at how strong this post-modern thinking of not daring to question a person's opinions has infiltrated young minds. Is this perhaps linked to the idea that there is no ultimate truth and that we all need to find our own truth as we go along in life because all opinions(beliefs) are equal? This is of course a world view or belief system in itself! This makes you wonder whether we have any right to question the ideas and opinions of Hitler, Stalin, racists and pedophiles? Or are certain opinions and beliefs more equal than others?

This trend could lead(or has it already?) to a new kind of tyranny where no real debate is encouraged and where no opinion can be challenged for the fear of being branded as a bigot or...

Christianity has in many instances become a book-religion. In an attempt to stay true to the doctrines of Christianity the Bible as a book has taken the place of the Spirit. Jesus' warning about the "yeast of the Pharisees' is relevant in this regard. Many Christians have become slaves of the letter instead of followers of the Spirit. Jesus is known "after the flesh" as a historical person, but not as the Life-giving Spirit who indwells His Body now! His warning to the Pharisees and Scribes is now as relevant as ever; "You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you'll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me!"

Some Christians make a big thing about believing every word of the Bible as the Word of God, and the fact that they see the Bible as "inerrant, infallible, and eternal', but than go right ahead and declare that, for example, the gifts of the Holy Spirit were only valid until the Canon was determined by the church, or that infant baptism is scriptural! In other words, what they mean when they talk about the Bible...

It is with a bit of a heavy heart that I write this blog as I have just learned about the "Lakeland goings on". I know it has been in the news for some time but for various reasons I did not know about it. Many self-appointed "prophets" will no doubt jump on the bandwagon and try to score cheap "political points".

My burden and concern for God's people revolves around the realisation that all this is so unnecessary if only we can buy into the kind of church Jesus is building and if we can only rediscover the Message the early Christians preached through their lives! Before I am accused of romanticising the past, I must say that many of the problems we face today were faced by the pioneers of the faith. I think here of false gospels, greedy, manipulative leaders and obsession with angels. In this blog I want to look at the Message that we miss in Christianity today, with the prayer that those thousands of sincere Christians hurt by the sins of those supposed to lead will not only be comforted but also be inspired by the richness of the Word...

It is clear that Christianity is in need of a radical redefining because over time the concept has become associated with practices that has little or nothing to do with Biblical Christianity. Most of what people see as Christianity is a mixture of the 'churchianity' of the dark Middle Ages and the evangelistic revivals of the previous eras. Even where some ministers of the Gospel see some of the new things God is doing, they find it apparently difficult to make the transition in their minds from the Christianity they know to what Jesus really wants. It is indeed necessary for those who want to see His purposes come to fulfillment to die to themselves, including their present ministries, churches, income, status or whatever gives them identity and to trust Jesus completely to raise up 'their' ministries in His own time and manner.

In the process of redefining Christianity, concepts such as the Word of God, heaven, hell, Kingdom of God, apostle, prophet, church, pastor, etc need to be redefined as well. This does not mean we define them according to popular tastes to fit more 'modern' mind-sets. No, we define them according to the Bible...

In this last article on the kind of church Jesus is building we will try to summarize the main points from the previous articles and add new ones as the Lord leads. We have seen that the church Jesus is building is being built on the foundation of a revelation and that revelation is of Christ as the Son of God. Paul unpacked this revelation in more detail and we understand that Christ the Son now lives in believers and has become their only Life( Col.3:4; Gal 2:20)

We have also seen that we need the foundational ministries of true Apostles and Prophets to impart this revelation to the church(Eph.2:20). This kind of church cannot be an organisation or institution brought forth by human ingenuity or religious zeal because this kind of church is born by the Spirit and is free from human control like the wind( John 3:6-8) The truly apostolic church is totally sold out to its King and Lord and go wherever He leads- even the cross!

The church Jesus is building is prophetic. This means that the very lifestyle of the church prophesies of another world that has penetrated this world and has made...

In our last article we tried to explain the kind of church Jesus is building as a community where true koinonia(fellowship) takes place in such a way that people are healed emotionally, spiritually and physically. In the reality of honest and open relationships based on the common sharing of the Christ-Life, people know they belong and are accepted despite their faults, ethnicity, background or social status! In this process a powerful testimony of the Incarnation is created; in other words Jesus is fleshed out and becomes a reality to all the world.

This kind of DNA can only be imparted to the church through true Apostolic foundational ministry where the central doctrine is the revelation of Christ in the human. A gospel which only preaches a Jesus who died on the cross to take people to heaven one day is lacking. A gospel which only preaches about the coming of the Kingdom to earth is also lacking. A gospel which preaches Jesus plus anything is lacking. We must preach Paul's understanding of the gospel or as he put it "the mystery of the ages" namely "Christ in us , the Hope of Glory". All biblical doctrines, be it...

In this artice we look at the shepherding aspect of the church Jesus is building. In previous articles we have seen that the church Jesus is building and in which Paul so ably participated will be the "full measure of the stature of Christ" which mean it will be Apostolic, Prophetic, Pastoral(shepherding), Teaching and Evangelistic. Only in the perfect balance of all five these aspects of Christ will the church reach maturity and be able to effectively minister to the world the saving grace of God. (Ephesians 4:11-16). This will also be linked to the manifestation of the Sons of God which in turn will lead to the liberation of all creation from futility(Romans 4:19-21).

A very important aspect of the church Jesus is building is the fact that the community which is the result of a common revelation of Christ will experience a koinonia( heart-to-heart relationship) which surpasses anything else which maskerades as "fellowship". Many groups assemble together because of a common history like Methodist, Reformed , Catholic or Pentecostal; others assemble because of a love for lively "praise and worship" and others because the Pastor is such a "wonderful shepherd". Even worse is when people assemble or...