After we featured the story of a man whose mother groomed him from childhood as a medium (click here), he was flooded with emails. Now a pastor, Greg Hibbins didn’t mind taking up to two hours a day to help readers, but alarm bells rang about the lack of in-depth Bible teaching available to them. What follows is by Greg Hibbins.
SINCE HEART PRINTED MY STORY of going from occult practitioner to Christian pastor, I have spent up to two hours a day replying to readers’ emails.
Personal experience and opinion seem to have replaced the Bible
There was a vast spectrum of questions which needed answering in a balanced, biblical way.
And as a pastor and Bible teacher, alarm bells rang about the state of the Church in the UK. There was little evidence of transformed, biblical minds, but rather a wide-ranging confusion.
Many seem to view God as a ‘supermarket in the sky’
Personal experience and opinion seem to have replaced the Bible, the Word of God; instead of becoming spiritually mature, believers have been left confused and weak, an easy target for the enemy. These are the common threads of this confusion:
- Born-again’ believers seem to lack a basic knowledge of the core teaching of the Bible as well as a complete understanding of God’s wonderful redemptive work.
- There is widespread misunderstanding of the second greatest gift God has given to us, that of free choice. God did not create us as robots. The decisions we make will define our Christian walk, and bad decisions that ignore the clear teaching of Scripture will have negative consequences.
- Many believers seem to view God as a ‘supermarket in the sky’ whose primary role is to see to their comfort, provision and happiness. The thought that we are actually God’s ambassadors, here to put forth his opinion and no other, seems to be non-existent (2 Corinthians 5:20).
- People want to be popular and not offend, rather than speaking God’s truth in love and firmness.
The evidence before me leaves me in no doubt that the abandonment of systematic, exegetical, expository preaching has produced a confused, anemic Body of believers who are tossed here and there by every “wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14).
My heart bleeds for so many who have wasted years being fed a watered-down, bland diet of God’s Word.
We need to repent of our own puffed-up opinions and get in step with God. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God, which in turn transforms our minds.
Preaching and teaching for life change and victory need to be recovered by the Church in the UK – and this will only happen when we choose Jesus and his pure, unadulterated Word.
[divider]
My spiritual ‘toolbox’
Here are the resources that have enabled Pastor Greg Hibbins to answer all those emails!
When I came out of the occult and became ‘born again’, I devoured the Word of God and started building a personal toolbox of solid, biblical tools to help me clearly understand the Word of God (2 Timothy 2:15).
These have been critical to my Christian growth over the last 40 years; I have seen their results in my life and in the lives of the people I have pastored. Now I have been asked to spearhead the delivery of Teach Every Nation’s Bible School material in the UK and EU and was invited to South Africa in May to discuss strategies to get God’s Word back into people’s lives – whether churches, schools, prisons or other platforms – with Dr Bruce Wilkinson and other global ministry leaders.
Foundational books for Bible study:
- The John MacArthur Study Bible
- Holman Concise Topical Concordance
- Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary
- Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words
Teaching books and courses:
Walk Thru the Bible – 27 courses including:
- Biblical portrait of marriage
- God’s answer to HIV/AIDS
- Mastering your money
- Personal Holiness in Times of Temptation
- Love, Sex and Lasting Relationships
- The Invisible War
Focus on the Family – six resources including:
- Bringing up Boys
- Secret of Success
Freedom in Christ Ministries:
- 7 Steps to Freedom
Pastor Jack Hayford’s course:
- The Essentials of Worship
John Maxwell’s courses including:
- The 17 Irrefutable Laws of Teamwork
Men’s Fraternity videos:
- The Quest for Authentic Manhood
- 33 The Series
Dean Sherman:
- Relationships
- Spiritual Warfare
Christian Action Courses:
- Biblical Worldview Summit’
[/divider]