Chapter 6: A New Standard of Honesty. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, "You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord." But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black; but let your yes be yes, and your no no, for whatever is more than these is from the evil one. So Jesus told His subjects in no uncertain terms that they are not to swear and not to take oaths. Oaths open us to the real possibility of taking God's name in vain, and that is a serious sin. Yet, there is more to Jesus' command than just the danger of taking God's name in vain.
Jesus was introducing to His disciples a revolutionary standard of honesty. Swearing or making oaths was one of the distinguishing marks of ancient society, both Jewish and Gentile. People used oaths frequently, particularly in matters of commerce, religion, and government. Why did people use them so often? Because people couldn't trust one another. For example, let's suppose that Levi, bar Joseph of 1st century Judea, goes to the market to buy a ring.
He sees a beautiful gold ring that he would like to own, but it's quite expensive. It's worth the price the merchant is asking, if it's truly solid gold. So Levi asks the merchant, "Is this solid gold?" "Yes, it is," replies the merchant. "Pure gold." "Hmm," Levi replies as he fingers the ring. "Are you sure?" "Of course I'm sure." "But are you absolutely sure?" Levi queries. "Yes, I'm absolutely certain.
I personally know the artisan who made the ring, and he has assured me that it's pure gold." The merchant calmly assures Levi. Levi is still suspicious. He knows he can't trust even his fellow Jew, so he holds the ring lightly in his hand in an attempt to assess the weight. He scrutinizes the ring carefully for any scratches that might reveal a base metal underneath. At last, he feels fairly confident that it's pure, but he's still not absolutely positive.
So finally, he says to the merchant, "I want you to swear by the temple that this ring is solid gold and not merely gold-plated." The merchant makes the oath that Levi requests. Now Levi can buy the ring without too much worry. No God-fearing Jew would swear by the temple if he were telling a lie. This was everyday life in the ancient world. Few people were trustworthy, and there were no attorneys general and no government agencies like the Federal Trade Commission to prosecute merchants making false claims.
So society resorted to oaths. That's because most people were afraid to make a false oath. Even Gentiles had a reverence for oaths, for they feared retribution from the gods if they swore falsely. As a result, oaths became second nature in commerce, legal matters, business, and government. They enabled the flow of society. Nevertheless, by its very existence, the oath system acknowledged that there were two standards of honesty.
There was one standard people used in normal conversation, and there was another standard when they were under oath. However, in His kingdom, Jesus will have no double standard of honesty. In prohibiting His subjects from swearing, Jesus was introducing a whole new standard of honesty. For His subjects, there is only one standard: let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no. A true Christian's word is as good as an oath. But honesty and truth are not limited to commerce, law, and government.
Jesus told Pilate, "For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice." Jesus will allow in His kingdom only those who are of the truth. A love of truth must permeate every fiber of our souls, and it will if we are truly Spirit-begotten and we continue to walk in the Spirit. For Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth.
Yet, how many Christians do you know who meet the kingdom standard of honesty? How many Christians do you know whose yes means yes and whose no means no? When a fellow Christian tells you something, do you always know that you can completely rely on the truth of it? That is, do you know for certain that it's not a lie, an exaggeration, or just a rumor? When a Christian tells you he will do something, can you absolutely count on it, barring completely unforeseeable interventions such as a car accident?
Or does his yes mean maybe? When a business is owned by a Christian, the whole world should know the work performed there will be completely fair and honest. It should, but if your experiences have been like mine, it doesn't. The sad truth is that most professing Christians aren't really kingdom people. Their honesty is little different from that of the world. Christians regularly cheat on their taxes, lie to their employers, write worthless checks, and skip town leaving bills unpaid.
I'm an attorney, and I used to have a law office on the main street of our town. I tried to serve my clients well, and nearly all of them paid me promptly. In fact, I can think of only four clients who cheated me out of my fees, and all four of them were Christians. I don't mean nominal Christians; I mean persons who were very vocal about their Christianity. The dishonesty of many Christians not only shows up in their business practices, but even in the spiritual books they write.
We should be able to pick up a book written by a Christian and know that we can trust the information in it, but that's not the way it really is. Mike Warnke was, and perhaps still is, a popular Christian comedian who wrote a book entitled The Satan Seller, which was first published in 1972. The book sold millions of copies, and Mike Warnke became a Christian celebrity appearing on shows such as Focus on the Family and The 700 Club.
In his book, Warnke talks about how he had been a drug addict and later was recruited into a satanic cult. Inside the satanic cult, he quickly rose to the position of high priest, and he presided over bizarre rituals and orgies. Warnke further states in the book that as a satanic priest, he had 1,500 followers in three cities as part of a web of clandestine Satanists. It's a fascinating book.
However, in 1992, Cornerstone magazine, an evangelical publication, released a cover story entitled Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Warnke. Their article was a carefully documented exposé of Mike Warnke's claims. It demonstrated that not only was Warnke's testimony fraudulent, but also that he was guilty of all sorts of serious sins. For example, he raised money for projects that never materialized, and he was involved in serious immorality while in public ministry.
Sadly, several figures in the Christian contemporary music industry knew about the situation but failed to take biblical steps to resolve it. Now, we might think that all Christians would be highly appreciative of Cornerstone magazine for exposing this audacious fraud. And to be sure, many Christians did write and thank Cornerstone for their investigative work. However, the magazine and its editors were also flooded with letters from other Christians castigating them for their exposé.
After all, many said Mike's testimony, no matter how false, has led thousands of people to Christ. For example, here are some of the letters in condensed form that Cornerstone received in response to their investigative article. "I was not impressed with your article on Mike Warnke. You have done no more than what the secular press does. It's bad enough what happened in Mike Warnke's life, but you went way too far.
What about the scripture that says, whether it's preached for the wrong reason or the right reason, nevertheless Christ is preached? You talked more about condemning this man and making him out to be a fraud than saying we need to lift him up and pray for him. Christ didn't condemn the woman caught in adultery. Is sin different because a man is on a pedestal? Or how about looking within your own life? Yes, sirs, I am angry. I am a minister, and I come under fire about things. You spoke on forgiveness slightly.
Why not totally focus on lifting up a brother rather than condemning? Think about it. Does God condemn you even now when you mess up?" Another reader wrote, "Why are you trying to bring down Mike Warnke? He has saved more people than you can imagine. Maybe not all his life is what you think it is. I have been to three of his concerts here in Pismo Nazarene Church, and I and two friends have reached the Lord through Mike. You know Satan will go and make up lies to bring Mike down because he is afraid of Mike.
Please explain yourself to me." The response of the Christian community shocks me even more than the outrageous fraud perpetuated by Mike Warnke. Where is the love of honesty and hatred of falsehood? Obviously, if Mike is truly repentant, we need to forgive him. But this doesn't mean we sweep his dishonesty under the rug. It isn't a matter of someone simply messing up. It's purposeful dishonesty through which Warnke made hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the case of Mike Warnke is merely one example.
In the mid-1980s, my wife and I managed a nonprofit Christian bookstore for several years. I remember a fairly popular book we carried entitled Crying Wind. The book contains the remarkable story of a Native American woman who had converted to Christianity. The only problem was that the publisher had concluded that her testimony wasn't true, and so it had discontinued publishing the book.
I eventually learned that quite a few of the remarkable testimonies and miracle stories we carried were either completely false or exaggerated. For example, in her book, Satan's Underground, Lauren Stratford gives her testimony about how she left a satanic cult and became a Christian. In her book, she describes her alleged experiences while in this cult. For example, she claims she was sexually assaulted repeatedly and that she gave birth to several babies who were ritually sacrificed.
However, persons investigating her claims were able to locate Stratford's mother, who had allegedly died, her supposedly nonexistent sister, her ex-husband, cousins, and teachers, all of whom provided strong evidence that the book was a fraud. As a result, the Christian publishing house that published Satan's Underground withdrew the book, only to then assign the publishing rights to another publisher. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg.
The fact is that today's Christianity fosters a culture of dishonesty. Cheating and falsehood seem to be woven into the very fiber of the institutional church from the top to the bottom. I probably don't need to say anything about televangelists, as their frauds and vices are pretty well known. However, even some pulpit evangelists seem to have accepted the principle that dishonesty can be used in the furtherance of Christ's message.
For example, even highly respected evangelists regularly plant members of their teams among their audiences. Then, when an altar call is given, those plants get up and come forward, pretending to be new converts. The thought is that this will make it easier for the real converts to get up the courage to come forward as well. In other words, the end justifies the means. But that's the value system of the world. In the kingdom, the means by which we do something is just as important as the end that we accomplish.
We never use the world's means to accomplish kingdom purposes. Do you think Jesus planted fakes among his audiences? The culture of dishonesty in institutional Christianity sprouts up everywhere. Many evangelists use all sorts of tricks to be able to report back to their supporters a large number of decisions. Lay Christians often embellish their testimonies to fit some preconceived ideal. But probably nowhere in the church is the culture of dishonesty more prevalent than in the field of miraculous healing.
Jesus and his apostles healed the sick. In fact, healing was closely tied to the kingdom message, and I believe that Jesus still heals people today. However, the ministry of healing has also attracted a high number of dishonest people. Picture this scene. An evangelist with a healing ministry stands in the front of an auditorium before a large crowd.
He walks up to an elderly lady sitting in a wheelchair, and in a loud voice, he commands her, "Stand up and walk." The woman slowly arises from her chair on her feeble, quivering legs, using the wheelchair for support. At last, she lets go of the wheelchair and stands up on her own power. The audience gasps in excitement, and the auditorium reverberates with shouts of praise. But then something even more amazing happens. The woman ever so slowly takes a step, and then another step, and still another.
By now, all the people are waving their hands and shouting praises to the Lord. A miracle has happened. Or has it? What most people don't realize is that many people in wheelchairs, perhaps most people in wheelchairs, are able to walk. My mother is in her late 80s, and she can walk just fine, although a bit slowly. However, when we are at a hospital or a large store where she will have to do a lot of walking, we often get a wheelchair or a motorized cart for her. This way, she won't be worn out from walking.
If someone saw my mother get up out of a wheelchair and walk, they might think they were witnessing a miracle, but they wouldn't be. It's no different at healing crusades. For a faith healer to order a person in a wheelchair to get up and walk is only a charade unless that healer knows for a fact that that person in the wheelchair cannot walk. But some prominent faith healers have carried the wheelchair fraud one step further. In the 1980s, healer evangelists W. V.
Grant and Peter Popoff had ushers provide wheelchairs for many of the elderly people who had walked into the auditorium under their own power. These wheelchairs were all the same color, model, and make. The ushers then wheeled these persons to the front of the auditorium so the healers knew that the people in those particular wheelchairs could definitely walk, but they all had walked into the auditorium under their own power.
Yet, dishonestly, these healers would call those persons to stand up and walk and then act as though a miracle had just happened. W. V. Grant would even have these healed people push him in the wheelchair up and down the aisles to the cheers of the spectators. Not content with that gimmick, Peter Popoff would have his wife, Elizabeth, sit and chat with different members of the audience before the program began. She would take good notes and then leave the auditorium to disappear into a nearby travel trailer.
The trailer was equipped with a closed-circuit television and a radio transmitter. Her husband wore a tiny radio receiver in his ear, undetectable to the audience. Watching the closed-circuit television broadcast of the auditorium, Elizabeth Popoff would point out different people in the audience to her husband and tell him their names, where they lived, and what illnesses they had.
He would pretend that he was receiving a revelation from God as he walked down the aisles, pulling out names and addresses of people God would heal that night. He was finally exposed on national television, but that didn't shut down his crusade. The saddest part of the Grant-Popoff fraud is that it was agnostics who unmasked these two prominent charlatans. It should have been Christians who exposed them. But as I said before, modern Christianity fosters a culture of dishonesty.
Christians don't want to unmask bogus miracles. They want desperately to believe these miracles are true because normally these modern-day wonder workers preach a gospel of prosperity and easy believism. Their miracles bring supposed proof of the authenticity of their gospel.
No doubt, it will be these same wonder workers and their supporters who will be saying to Jesus on Judgment Day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness." So according to Jesus, neither the absence nor presence of miracles has any probative value as to a person standing with Christ.
Genuine miracles have happened through authentic Christians, and genuine miracles have happened through artificial Christians. But no artificial miracle has ever been done through an authentic Christian. Genuine miracles do not prove someone standing before God, but bogus miracles clearly prove that Christ is not behind that person's ministry. Christ never works through corruption and deception.