By Steve Van Nattan
In the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Surinam, and in many areas where missionaries found primitive witchcraft and occult power, a new convert was required to burn all of his or her fetishes after being born again. It was common in the recent past, and in Surinam even now, for the local church to require this event before the new believer could be baptized and join in the Lord's Supper.
As we all know, it is now the end of the Age of Grace, and men's hearts are waxing worse and worse, we also see that the salt of the earth is losing its power. God still has His faithful saints, but they are fewer and fewer. The likes of Paul Crouch and Pat Robertson are NOT changing this world with their counterfeit gospel. In fact, cannibalism, nakedness, divorce, witchcraft, and all manner of Babylonian evil is rapidly returning to so-called "civilized" nations. Indeed, there is more life changing "religion" in East AFrica today than there is in Germany, Holland, and the other Reformation countries all put together. These US Reformed fakirs like Gary North, who think they are "bringing in the Kingdom," are deluded beyond measure as they preach that things are getting better and better.
Thus, we ask the question? Is the culture of the Western nations now more pagan than those primitive cultures the old time missionaries found? Answer: YES! The words of any recent "Rap" song will bear this out. The Saturday morning TV cartoons and the nearby toy store, indeed your kids' toy box, will reveal the very face of Satan. So, we suggest that pastors of Bible believing churches around the WHOLE world should now REQUIRE fetish burnings of their new converts. Also, it would be appropriate to require all church leaders to submit to a walk through of their homes to see what fetishes they might have overlooked. Start with the Max Brand and Harlequin books, and the old 33 RPM record collection. How about all the naked breasts in your National Geographic collection? "Cultural realism" you say? I say, "You hypocrite. You have found a substitute for Playboy, and you know I am right!"
In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA, a couple of years ago, Pastor Mitchell had been preaching on the perils of television to the saints in Gettysburg Bible Church. One Sunday the deacons of the assembly came to him. They asked him if they shouldn't give the church members the opportunity to destroy their TVs. Pastor Mitchell agreed, and he set a time for the folks to do so. Nearly every family brought their TVs to the church house on the appointed day to destroy them. They set them on the hillside behind the church and blew the tubes out of them with a shotgun. The local newspaper ran an article on the event and called Pastor Mitchell the "Shotgun Preacher." What a blessed testimony. What a grand title for a Bible believing pastor! I love it.
Do you think that is too severe? Well, your editor was blessed to speak in that church for four days after the TV blasting party. The whole assembly came out for all Sunday services, for the weekday services when I preached, and for Wednesday evening prayer. Why? No TV calling, and they had the zeal that came of putting everything else behind them.
If your Wednesday night attendance is only a fraction of Sunday morning, you have fetishes in your homes. If you have anything-- ANYTHING-- that you would hide or be ashamed of if Jesus dropped by for coffee, you have fetishes. They could be things as simple as toys, adult or childish, which keep you from reading your Bible. As a piano tuner, I have seen many fetishes in the homes of Fundamental pastors. Then I have to listen to them groan about the poor zeal of their people. Ugh!
I had to destroy a fetish the other day that the Holy Spirit pointed out to me. It was a beer stein given to me with all the names of my college buddies engraved on it. I would never put beer in it and drink it, but the thing LOOKED wrong. I won't get any reward for destroying the thing. We can't expect to be rewarded for taking out the trash. But, in a way I have been rewarded. I sure do feel cleaner since I put the stein in the rubbish bin. God bless all of you who have the guts to do the right thing with the culture in your home or church. Let us hear how God has taught you in this area.
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