A man of God doesn’t charm and impress people, because he isn’t sent by God to win friends for himself. He is sent to show men their sins and their need to be friends with the Lord from Heaven. The ministers of men, on the other hand, make people comfortable being religious while remaining part of this world that perishes.
Subject: I was looking for your thoughts about Charles Stanley?
You provide extremely interesting information and I was wondering if you had any thoughts about the “In Touch” ministries? Thank you for all you do.
Blessings,
Mike
You’re welcome, Mike, and know this: The only worthy thanks for us and what we do is when people not only believe, but also act upon, the truth we preach.
After all, being hearers is never enough and being doers is never too much:
“For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified” (Romans 2:13 MKJV).
James 1:22-25 MKJV
(22) But become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
(23) For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man studying his natural face in a mirror.
(24) For he studied himself and went his way, and immediately he forgot what he was like.
(25) But whoever looks into the perfect Law of liberty and continues in it, he is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one shall be blessed in his doing.
Knowing the Lord is the only way for you to truly answer your quandary about Charles Stanley and all others like him. When you know the True, the false become manifest. Mr. Stanley is no different from all the other ministries in the world. He is no servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Charles Stanley is a friendly, comely, sociable man, but none of these are qualifying indicators of a man of God. The Pharisees were all of those things, contrary to popular notions.
Allow me to point out but a scant few indicators of many falsehoods:
No man of God titles himself “Doctor,” as Stanley does. To put letters behind, or titles in front of, your name is to call on the audience to believe you based on your theological scholastic abilities and credentials, which any man in the world is able to obtain with any intelligence, yet without spiritual regeneration (without being born again) or the calling of God to ministry. To place faith in such things and presume that others should as well is purely and simply anti-Christ.
Jesus and His disciples, apostles, and prophets had no formal education to prepare them for ministry.
“The Jews therefore marveled, saying, ‘How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?’” (John 7:15 ESV)
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13 ESV).
This is also true of Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, any of the judges, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, John the Immerser… every last one of them. Their qualifications were a living relationship with God and their calling and anointing of Him. They, with one voice, would all condemn the things Stanley does and teaches.
Paul had this to say about such human qualifications:
Philippians 3:2-11 MKJV
(2) Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision party.
(3) For we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh;
(4) though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other thinks that he has reason to trust in the flesh, I more.
(5) I was circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. As regards the Law, I was a Pharisee;
(6) concerning zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness in the Law, blameless.
(7) But whatever things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
(8) But no, rather, I also count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them to be dung, so that I may win Christ
(9) and be found in Him; not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law, but through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith,
(10) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death;
(11) if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead.
“Dr.” Stanley poses with a smile, as most such do. If you knew the Lord Jesus Christ, you would know He doesn’t do that, as though you should believe Him because He is a great and friendly guy.
It’s true that the evangelical world usually portrays Him that way, but that’s the evangelical world’s false perception of Him, which is at enmity with Jesus Christ. It’s another Jesus being preached, not the One reported and described by Isaiah:
Isaiah 53:2-4 MKJV
(2) For He comes up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; He has no form nor majesty that we should see Him, nor an appearance that we should desire Him.
(3) He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as it were a hiding of faces from Him, He being despised, and we esteemed Him not.
(4) Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8 MKJV).
Not that there is anything wrong with poses or smiles, in and of themselves, but those aren’t the “selling features” of the true Gospel of God.
On his site, he sells his Sermon Series. Can you imagine Jesus and His disciples selling their sermons?
Jesus Christ wouldn’t put His material on sale or give His ministry a formal name or register it with Caesar, as though He needed the world’s permission to save it. Isn’t that ludicrous? Think about it.
But where do you stand, Mike? That is the question now. It isn’t about Charles Stanley. Are you a part of the religious systems of men? If in the systems, do you realize the grave danger you are in? If involved, do you know how the Lord views your participation? I was there, too; I even thought it was good, until He revealed otherwise.
“Concerning the works of men, by the Words of Your lips, I am kept from the paths of the destroyer” (Psalms 17:4 MKJV).
Do you love Him? Do you want to love Him? Then obey Him. What is God’s counsel in this matter? Both Paul and John make it known:
“Therefore come out from among them and be separated, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean thing. And I will receive you and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18 MKJV).
Revelation 18:4-8 MKJV
(4) And I heard another voice from Heaven, saying, “Come out of her, My people, that you may not be partakers of her sins, and that you may not receive of her plagues.
(5) For her sins joined together, even up to Heaven, and God has remembered her unjust deeds.
(6) Reward her as she has rewarded you, and double to her double, according to her works. In the cup which she mixed, mix double to her.
(7) As much as she has glorified herself and has lived in luxury, so much torment and sorrow give her. For she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen, and I am not a widow; and I do not see mourning at all.’
(8) Therefore her plagues will come in one day, death and mourning and famine. And she will be consumed with fire, for the Lord God Who judges her is strong.”
Charles Stanley preaches many doctrines of devils, which, while revered and preached by mainstream Christianity, are not sourced in the Scriptures or of God. Read Diabolical Doctrines.
There are also many proofs of falsehood with “Dr.” Charles Stanley and In Touch Ministries at The True Marks of a Cult.
These are no light matters, are they?
We say to you and all, with Isaiah:
“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you weigh silver for what is not bread? And your labor for what never satisfies? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Bow down your ear, and come to Me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Isaiah 55:1-3 MKJV).
Victor