Clarifications Needed




	We hear at The Straight Way Church web site do not rebuke those who we believe and sure to be heretics, not true Christians, we rebuke those who we believe instead, probably are true Christians (and BTW we don’t like the word heretic, we are not representatives of so called historical Christianity, so we don’t burn anyone at the stake!) We don’t rebuke weak brothers or sisters, we are not desirous of hurting anyone, we rebuke those who claim authority among God’s people, his remnant bride, who we believe walk disorderly to the hurt of God’s people. Now having said that, we had an e-mail exchange with Steve Lumbley a few days back, he answered us probably knowing that we have a tendency to make public e-mail exchanges of this sort; if Steve would like us to post the exchange we can do that; we don’t feel it necessary at this time. In the e-mail exchange Steve expressed his concern that we were painting him to be some sort of “heretic” and we replied back that we don’t believe that Steve is not a true brother and Steve mentioned to us that he didn’t see us as false teachers either. Steve believes that we are being dishonest by painting him as a “heretic”. We hope that our recent exchange with Steve Lumbley cleared up any question he or you may have had, we don’t waste time rebuking the common everyday “heretic”, if you are going to be rebuked by us, you better at least appear to have your teachings in order and present some sort of presentation of what we believe to be true. How about this, if we rebuke you, how about considering it a complement? We here see true “fellowship” among brothers differently then many professing Christians who even teach much of what we believe. As you may know, we have referred to “Apostasy Watch” as a “Mom and Pap business”. A mom and pap business is one that is run by a mom and pap team, they solely make the decisions of what to sell or teach, who gets to work for them and who is fired, what image their business portrays and they have a business bank account solely controlled by them. Now if this is not true about “Apostasy Watch”, I am certainly not aware of it, I can tell you that there was no clear denial of this in my recent exchanges with Steve Lumbley. Perhaps some of you might say “what’s wrong with that?”; well let me tell you if you don’t know. The first point should be obvious, fellowship is not a business owned and operated by anyone, but fellowship consist of a group of believers who are built together in Christ, who’s head is Jesus, who operate as a body in ministry, submitting one to another in the fear of God, operating as one in love one for another, bringing glory to the name of the Lord before an unbelieving world! When fellowship is a business, then the business owner becomes the head and not Christ. Let’s compare a minute with the ministry of Paul the Apostle who referred to his ministry over and over again through scriptures as the ministry of a deacon, a servant ministry. I would ask you to tell me; what earthly authority did Paul have over the churches that he started? Did he have a bank account where all of the funds given by the churches were placed solely under his control? Did he dictate, as he was on the road from Church to Church, who was to preach on any given gathering or what they were to preach on? Did Paul the Apostle have an army of strong men or body guards that would physically carry out the wishes of Paul’s authority by force? If a man claimed to be called by God to accomplish some work in the Churches that Paul started, did he need approval and authority from Paul to commence his work? If you believe that any of the above questions should be answered with a yes, you and I have a very different vision of what it means for Jesus to be the head of his Church, you have had your ideas influence by Babylon and not Christ! Paul the Apostle was continually on the defense throughout scripture against those who used worldly force to undermine the true authority that is in Christ and not according to the precepts of this world, worldly power and force. Others wrote letters of accommodation to further their “careers” in the Church, Paul’s letters were written in the hearts of the Saints; others used fancy speeches and great oratory skills; Paul spoke with fear and trembling, knowing nothing save Christ and him crucified; others used physical force, there were some Churches that did not receive Paul nor the Brethren, they loved to rule over them; Paul’s authority was entirely spiritual and not of this earth! As I told Steve Lumbley recently, I have yet to see such a construct at Apostasy Watch that provides any such fellowship, where Jesus is evidently set forth as the sole authority and head. Maybe Christianity today is at such a low level and fallen away from it’s foundation, maybe I am asking to much out of Steve Lumbley at Apostasy Watch, or any other ministry for that matter? Never the less, fellowship is a COMMAND in scripture, not a easy come easy go attitude, a membership numbers game! I want you to understand something, this little bit of wisdom is very misunderstood; when wicked men gather together, they promote their friends, they learn how to stroke each other just right and get acceptance from each other, righteous men are not so, they don’t promote their friends and stroke each other just right, they fear God and promote him, they promote Christ in you the hope of glory, we are to live in HIM and have our being! Right? So you can imagine when I tell ministers such as Steve Lumbley, “I am not going to serve according to your pleasure, I don’t ask you to receive me, I demand it!”; you can understand why I keep on getting rejected right? You can understand then why some folks think that it must be all about me, right? Sorry, bad judgment, I am who I am in Christ and if you reject the Christ in me, then you reject Christ, don’t you get that? We should all seek approval from Christ and not men; any man who demands that you go through him is placing himself in the place of Christ, that wisdom is worldly, fleshly and devilish and not of God. I haven’t put this web site together for my own glory, how stupid do you think I am anyway, I am very well aware that I made a pitiful, but truthful attempt on our donation page; do you really believe that I couldn’t construct a more pleasing successful approach? Don’t you understand that my interest is in turning people to Christ, rather than me? I am not going to make myself into this “humble, endlessly, selflessly, working, clergy man” that you feel guilty if you don’t send a few cents to! Can’t you see that this is false humility anyway? I am not interested in volumes of information on this web site, endless reading and perfectly performed audio and music, I am far more interested in speaking when I know the Lord is speaking through me, it isn’t about how hard I work, instead it is about the quality and value of the work that I do in Christ, sure can’t do anything by my self, that is for sure! For me it is very simple, if for me to live is Christ, then let me live, if for me to die is gain and I have no more purpose here, then let me die! I feel no different for Steve Lumbley, John MacArthur or anyone else, ONLY LET CHRIST LIVE!! Yet when it seems that men are living instead of Christ and turning disciples unto themselves, they must be confronted and I aim to do that, as the Lord allows! Robert Begnaud