In recent weeks a couple pastors of mega-churches have made
the news with their unwise comments. But even before that happened, I was
thinking about the whole mega-church concept and wondering how many of those
people attending are actually Christians from God’s point of view.
Jesus said, “Enter by
the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to
destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the
way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14
ESV). That certainly implies that the actual number of believers is
significantly smaller than we may think. According to Wikipedia, Christianity
currently has around 2.2 billion adherents, including Catholic, Protestant and
Orthodox branches. Some estimates put the historical total of all Christians
around 7-8 billion.
Somehow that number just doesn’t jive with Jesus’ words,
“those who find it are few.” Later in the same chapter Jesus said, “On that day
many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast
out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?’ And then I
will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of
lawlessness” (vv. 22-23). Yes, Revelation 7:9 does mention a “multitude that no
one could number,” but I think it’s safe to say that not all who call
themselves Christians will be saved.
I don’t pretend to know who’s in and who’s out, and I’m not
saying that mega-churches are necessarily any worse than small churches in
terms of the percentage of actual believers. There are red flags that go up
when large numbers of people follow someone who is clearly denying significant
parts of Scripture, but false teachers can be found in small churches as well.
My biggest concern is that there will be many people who
will be turned away from eternal life when the Judgment Day comes because they
were deceived into thinking they were followers of Christ when they weren’t.
They may have listened to a smooth talker who preached only what he liked. They
may have read the popular book of the day. They may have gone forward at some
crusade. But they never committed to follow Christ “no matter what” (see
Matthew 8:18-22). They never sought to know “the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth” (see 2 Timothy 2:15). They never questioned whether they
were being taught in accordance with Scripture (see 2 Peter 2:1-3).
The author of Hebrews wrote, “For though by this time you
ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles
of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on
milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid
food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained
by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (5:12-14). Unfortunately,
this seems to characterize a lot of people who call themselves Christians. They
never find the narrow way because they can’t be bothered with the “constant
practice” needed to know the truth and grow into maturity.
I suppose I’m preaching to the choir with a blog like this,
but we could all use reminders of the importance of being thoroughly grounded
in Scripture as we go about preaching and teaching and writing. I’ve
encountered plenty of authors who can present a great message, but one small
error in explaining Scripture detracts from the trustworthiness of the book.
(For example, one book I read recently attributed Hebrews to the Apostle Paul
with no explanation that the authorship is actually unknown.) From that point
on, I’m distracted with wondering whether the writer realized their error and how
many readers even notice the misstatement.
None of us are perfect, but I hope we can learn from our
mistakes and can accept correction with humility. I don’t think any of us want
to be the cause of someone missing the narrow way. So we must be diligent in
seeking God, studying His Word, and leading others by His grace.
“Not many of you
should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be
judged with greater strictness.” –James 3:1
