Popularity Seeking Preachers are Servants of Satan!
What I can see more often are pastors who not are men of God but are popularity seekers. Whenever I expose a wrong, people tell me that it's right because it's popular. Now listen, popularity isn't always wrong but it depends where you get your popularity from or what kind of popularity it is. Right now, some preachers are popular among the Elect of God, that's a good kind of popularity. Sometimes a Christian preacher or Christian ministry may get popularity for some time because of his good works. A Christian pastor may gain popularity among the victims of a calamity that even if he doesn't broadcast himself on TV, word will spread of his genuine concern. Again, I say it doesn't mean you get popular you are automatically right or you are automatically wrong. I eat certain popular foods because I love the taste, that in itself is not wrong. What is wrong is not popularity itself but when loves it. That is, when one is willing to cross morals in order to remain popular and that's the problem with popularity seeking preachers.
It just reminded me of a letter that was given to Pastor John F. Macarthur (whose sermons I listen to on Christian radio) from who I assume was a Zen Buddhist. The letter was mentioned by Pastor Macarthur in his book "Fool's Gold" which the woman wrote stuff like, "God doesn't care what you believe in as long as you are sincere." type of talk. This would somehow start to explain and expose the problem of popularity seeking pastors. When I thought of how Pastor Macarthur appeared on Larry King, he really spoke a blunt truth that, "Sin is sin. All sin is sin." and that homosexuality is always wrong. He didn't care about popular truth but instead, just spoke the truth as it should have been spoken. However popularity seeking preachers like the popular Joel Osteen (who is obviously not saved) does everything to reach popularity from openly operating as a Jesuit operative (after all, the Jesuits are indeed the most popular group of Roman Catholic priests) to kissing the ring of the Pope (not even the sleaziest rock star gets that much attention) or some preachers even allow worldly music to enter their churches to attract followers. They care too much about quantity over quality. While a church must be concerned about increase but it must also consider the quality of the increase.
I have noticed who really gets popular today in the world of preaching is a watered down presentation of the Gospel because preachers are popularity seeking, which in turn makes me doubt it if they are even saved. I just thought of the time when Pastor Paul David Washer of Heartcry Missionary preached the super duper offensive to the world "The Shocking Youth Message", he mentioned that the sermon he preached might be his last. The sermon addressed the reality of how often many Baptist churches, even among Southern Baptist churches have fallen into apostasy because of worldly compromise. Today, we have churches that are using carnal means to attract the church, in short being seeker friendly. He calls it seeker friendly, I call it as a popularity seeking church. It is a church but not a part of the Church, the Body of Christ. Such churches are severely misguided every time they water down the presentation of the Gospel according to Jesus. It is no wonder why today, we already have a lot of false converts. That salvation was based on a decision card rather than faith in Jesus Christ.
When I started to get deeper into the Word of God, I cannot deny that nothing in the Scripture is surprising. When I started to read the prophetic books and learning about the situation of prophets like Noah, Moses, Elijah, Isaiah and Jeremiah, they were not popular men. People say that if you live a miserable life, you must be evil. The situation is not always true. The world would gladly treat the Christian in the same category as a corrupt tax collector and a thief. Meanwhile, some corrupt businessmen are living with unethical protection in certain (most likely underdeveloped) areas of the world and crooked pastors like Joel Osteen keep dodging the law in spite of their shenanigans. Meanwhile some godly people are in no better position. One must remember the story of the rich man who went to Hell and the poor man Lazarus who went to Heaven. Again, the rich man didn't go to Hell for being rich but because he rejected Christ. As said, there is nothing wrong with being popular but when one loved popularity, that is where one is already wrong. After all, some Christians may get the attention of the heathen when they gracefully endure persecution and continue to do good even without recognition.
Moses for one was one man who really wasn't popular whether it was the Pharaoh's court or among his people. He was a type of Jesus who came unto his own and his own rejected him. Like Jesus, he was in danger of being killed but was saved by divine intervention. Later Moses would return to Egypt at 80 years old, empowered only by the grace of God. He would later have the help of Aaron his brother. Moses was once adopted into the royal family, he soon grew in the royal house but he later chose to suffer affliction than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Perhaps he rebelled against his legal cousin (most likely Rameses) who was the Pharaoh during the time he fled to Midian. After the Pharaoh during the time he fled to Midian died, he would have to face a young king and he was an old man. Egypt that time was at the height of popularity and he had to deliver God's message to let the Israelites go. The Pharaoh of the Exodus is a picture of Satan and the world. Moses would later have to suffer rejection from the people was assigned to lead like during the golden calf incident and later his cousin Korah (together with Dathan and Abiram) led rebellion against him which caused all who rebelled to be cast into Hell alive. Fortunately for him, his second-degree nephews who were children of Korah chose to side with him instead of their evil father.
Elijah lived in the era where the prophets of Baal were popular and that the wicked couple Ahab and Jezebel had sentenced the prophets of God to death. When Elijah came to Ahab, he was an outcast and had to hide by the brook of Cherith and later, had to take shelter with a widow who as a believer. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah was the only prophet of God who was going to stand against the 450 false prophets of Baal. In 1 Kings 19, only 7,000 out of how many people in the Northern Kingdom of Israel did not apostasize but were in God. In 1 Kings 21, Ahab had always considered Elijah his enemy. Later on, Ahab would show he was still an enemy of God in 1 Kings 22. During that time, Jehoshaphat made a serious blunder with teaming up with Ahab, even having an alliance of marriage (Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram married Ahab's Feminazi daughter Athaliah who nearly killed the Davidic dynasty had not God intervened) and guess what... Micaiah the prophet of God was locked up in the dungeon, made to be fed with the bread of affliction. Would have Ahab listened to Micaiah, he would have lived.
When I started to think of the situation of Ahab and Jehoshaphat, one can see that Jehoshaphat was still a believer in spite of his foolish alliance with Ahab. Jehoshaphat though he foolishly aligned with Ahab, he was still looking for a man of God. The prophets of Baal spoke only what Ahab wanted to hear. Ahab hated Micaiah for telling the truth that the former was going to meet his doom in the campaign against Syria. Jehoshaphat was wise enough to seek a prophet of God so he in the end, came out alive though he was rebuked for siding with the ungodly in 2 Chronicles 19. Remembering Ahab, you have to remember the prophets of Baal were the ones who were popular while Jezebel ordered the slaying the prophets of God. Remember Ahab and Jezebel were a wicked couple and they attacked every last person who rejected their idolatry. Ahab was the most wicked king and the prophets of God were executed for standing up against him and Jezebel. The prophets of Baal only cared about their popularity.
Jeremiah lived in an era no better than a convicted crook running from the law (even if he was no crook by God's standards) no matter how much he warned his people, he lived a very miserable life. Jeremiah 5:31 tells us the situation that goes on even to this very day. It says that the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests bear rule by their means, and what is worse is that the people love to have it so. The situation truly raises the moral dilemma of, "What will you do in the end thereof?" because people will refuse to listen to the Word of God. The days of Jeremiah was Judah in backsliding. The Northern Kingdom already was ransacked by Assyria, the Southern Kingdom was soon to be ransacked by Babylon. The problem has always been that the man of God is never going to get popular compared to the man of Satan pretending to be a man of God. He lived his life as an outcast who suffered for the true and the living God. Even after the exile, he was still an outcast as he found some of the Jewish people still worshiping the goddess called the Queen of Heaven in Egypt (Jeremiah 44). Jeremiah's entire ministry is a picture of what can happen to a pastor who stands by for God's Word.
In the days of Jeremiah, I would wish to elaborate the problem of false prophets. Why did people love them? Because the false prophets only spoke that the people wanted to hear. People wanted a lie that would comfort them (unfortunately it would later kill them) than the truth that hurts for now but it will heal later. One may remember the false prophet Hananiah in Jeremiah 28. Jeremiah warned the people except they repent and seek God, the city will soon fall and he was just laughed off so it's no surprise, every time I say people must repent and seek God, I also get laughed off. Instead, they delighted in the false prophet Hananiah who spited the prophet Jeremiah one way or another. Hananiah may have died on the 7th year of that year but the problem of false prophets kept going on and on. People just want to hear what they want to hear, even if it's already an obvious lie. That just reminds me why atheists prefer to listen to evolution as science than creation as science because, even if evolution is an obvious lie, they would rather reject any truth that would hurt their pride than to believe it because they arrogant.
This also reminded me of some unsaved man (who looks like a punk rocker and enjoyed lots of carnal music) who claimed he runs a fellowship in Myanmar. He joined a Bible study group online only to seek trouble among genuine believers. That time, he said that I definitely am not displaying the beauty of Christianity whenever I would tell people they were going to Hell. For now, I have no confirmation if he really runs a church, if he does it's most likely a house church or I have failed to notice its existence. He seemed to be a leader of a strange cult who believed that all roads lead to Heaven. He boasted his popularity because he's a tolerant ecumenical and that he always preached an openly tolerant message. He said that I am a suicide bomber and a bigot or that, whenever I didn't answer him (I refuse to anyway, no use arguing with him after he has been presented the Gospel on social media), said that I was probably taking suicide bombing classes from Muslim extremists. He would be one to be like Hananiah, a popularity seeking preacher. For him, he was more concerned about his popularity than the truth of God's Word.
The New Testament was no better either. John the Baptist emerged as a voice in the wilderness. He gained some popularity because of his popular preaching, even the weakling Herod Antipas heard him gladly. However it only took the word of the offended Herodias who was a incestuous adulteress. As you see, Herod Antipas was actually married to Phaesaelis a daughter of Aretas IV but he later eloped with Herodias. Herodias was married to her own half-uncle Philip I and had a freak daughter named Salome. Reading some of the history of the Jews by Josephus, it became understandable why Herod Antipas' live-in relationship with Herodias was really sinful. He was married and he committed adultery with his half-niece, who was the daughter of his much older half-brother Aristobulus. I would want to believe he had an incestuous attraction towards his half-niece Salome who was the freak daughter of Philip I and Herodias. John the Baptist did not care for his life, he rebuked Herod Antipas when he said, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." Later, he had some temporary doubt about Jesus but overcame them. He was later executed.
Jesus Christ's three years of His ministry was at first greeted with popularity because of the miracles. Remember the miracles of Jesus? His first miracle was to turn the water into fresh grape juice (which was considered as wine during the ancient times in contrast to today's modern terminology). Jesus had popularity for awhile because He healed people of their infirmities. This was when the Pharisees were revealed not only to be false teachers and legalists but they were popularity seekers. They were jealous of the popularity of Jesus because they love having the spotlight and were afraid to lose it. When Jesus started to reach out to the outcasts like the harlots and tax collectors offering them forgiveness, He did not care about His popularity. By the time He started talking against sin and the whole truth of God's Word, He started to lose popularity that a few days after He was given a welcome, the same crowd shouted "Crucify Him!" a few days later. He healed a crippled hand on the Sabbath even if He knew the Pharisees would get angry. Jesus was only concerned about the will of His Father. He spoke the truth that He was the only Son of God, which makes Him equal. He spoke the truth always even if it would mean getting into trouble. Being the perfect Son of God, He always did what was right and chose to do the Will of the Father, even to the death He had to suffer on the cross so mankind can get access to the forgiveness it does not deserve!
Before Jesus was put unto death, He had warned already about coming persecution. In John 15:18-19 He warned that Christians are not of the world, instead they will be hated by the world because they are not of the world. The world loves its own and not the Christian. God loved the world so much to send His only Son but the world rejected the Son. In John 16:2, He also warned that time will come that those who kill the Christians think they do God a great favor. The Roman Catholic institution, the Great Whore of Revelation has not only persecuted rival cults but also the true Christians, claiming itself to be the true Church that Jesus built, claimed the Popes are the successor of Peter when they are the successors of Caiaphas but instead, persecuted the true Christians while pretending to be a Christian institution when it isn't. People mock the Bible as a book of fables without realizing they themselves are fulfilling the prophecies of the Bible. Atheists who laugh at the Bible don't realize that their hatred for Christians is just proving them wrong and the Bible being right about them being God haters. The more persecution attacked Christianity, the more it grew stronger against Satan!
The ministry of the apostles was no better either and the Book of Acts shows it. Peter the pastor in Jerusalem was definitely not in good shape. Although he won 3,000 converts with fiery preaching, the rest of his ministry was attacked by persecution. Peter was met by opposition by the Pharisees of his day. Peter went to jail and he even lost one of his deacons, James the Lesser. Herod Agrippa I sought to kill him next but God decided it wasn't time for Peter to die, no not just yet. God still had work for Peter. Later on, it was said that Peter was later crucified upside down during the reign of Nero having said he wasn't worthy to die like Jesus. When Paul was still Saul the Pharisee, he was still popular. By the time Saul became Paul the missionary, he was no longer popular but was met with constant opposition. He spoke against the false religion of his day even if it meant being persecuted and beaten up. In Acts 16, he became infamous for casting out the devil that controlled the fortune teller. In Acts 17, he would be infamous for burning the evil books. Today such activities are treated as acts of lunacy, bigotry and religious fanaticism. Later, according to history, Paul was beheaded at the command of Emperor Nero.
Christianity is definitely not popular also for most of its run. It can become popular because people started showing charitable acts towards people like helping the poor, providing jobs and donating to charity without expecting anything. However the moment that Nero heard that the Christians would not submit to him as a god, he got furious and ordered them butchered. Nero did every last evil act he could to suppress Christianity and he blamed them for the flame that hit Rome (which some historians said was really his own doing). Although Nero had died and is eternally condemned to the Lake of Fire, one cannot deny that his practice of persecuting Christians remains a popular thing today. Where Islam gets its popularity, Christians are among those who enter the chopping board. Atheist governments show how "tolerant' they can be by not only ordering the deaths of people who practiced certain religions, Christians were number one in the chopping board of atheist governments. When I look at Christian videos on Youtube, they end up with "cancer inducing comments from the rest of the world.
Great men of God centuries after the Bible was completed were both hated and loved. Hated by the world, loved by their own. The Dark Ages and the Reformation were times when the Pope's power over the world was indeed at its peak. Whenever the incumbent Pope spake, people had to listen to him or die. He felt like he ruled the world, in fact he pretty much ruled every country that had a strong Roman Catholic population. The great Baptist, John Huss opposed the popularity of the Pope of his day and paid for it dearly being burnt alive. The great Baptist William Tyndale was burnt at the stake for translating the Bible. Martin Luther later read the Bible and found out that he was lied to all along spoke the unpopular truth, leaving a life of persecution. The Reformation ended the Dark Ages and people soon were able to read the Bible on their own. Later, the Roman Catholic institution created the most popular group of priests called the Jesuits to counter the Reformation one bloody way or another. The Jesuits would continue in their game of deceit of looking like decent men before men but inwardly, they were ravening wolves and deadly serpents. Today, they have become the tickets to popularity for a lot of popularity seeking preachers like Joel Osteen, Paul Crouch, Benny Hinn and Jim Bakker.
The problem even reached in the electrified world. The preacher Billy Sunday was also vilified and hated for his stand for God. The great Protestant preacher preached against the evils of his day like disco dancing (which he called a door to adultery) and liquor without any compromise. He was so much passionate in his preaching that some drinking stations of his day shut down, revivals happened and people were getting genuinely saved. Lives were changed and people who were really getting saved for real started going to Christian churches and ceased going to the beerhouses. Such an event caused the great pastor, Frank Sinatra to hate Billy Sunday. Such hatred for Billy Sunday was put into the song "Chicago" and that's why I hate that song. Frank Sinatra was a staunch atheist who hated God with a passion. Madalyn Murray another atheist who was never ashamed of her hatred for God also hated her son Willian J. Murray when he became a powerful God-fearing pastor. Pastor Murray was disowned by his own mother because he got saved. The only preachers that truly get popular are those who adjust to the evils of the world like Jim Bakker and Jimmy Schwagart who were both openly Jesuit operatives and members of the erroneous Evangelicals and Catholics Together movement.
Christian education is not popular either as more people who choose to enroll their children either in an atheist-oriented university or a high class Roman Catholic school (believe me, most Jesuit-ran schools have unreasonably high tuition fees and are usually dominated by spoiled brats). More often than not, a Christian school that truly stands for the Word of God is not going to get popular even if it will produce quality students. Some Christian schools I know are known for producing quality students but are backbitten for being "old fashioned" and having been a graduate from Bethany Christian School, I am proud to say the school is indeed a school of excellence and it can claim it. However it is not loved by the world and one incident, I remembered how some people got mad because one of the pastors teaching there namely Pastor Armando C. Borja a former mentor of mine said, "Roman Catholics are not Christians." which caused a stir and somebody I knew wanted to sue him and lock him up for "hate speech". Bob Hughes Christian Academy another Christian school always gets all the backbites for being "old fashioned", "intolerant", "bigoted" and "a prison house". I wasn't a bit surprised to find out some people really hate the guts of Pastor Armie F. Jesalva, the late Pastor Ruben Y. Lumagbas Sr. and the son Pastor Ruben L. Lumagbas Jr. for their firm stand on the Word of God.
Worse, the idea that salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ and its life changing power is also not popular. People in their pride and sinfulness would reject anything that has to deal with the holiness of God. Romans 3:19 reveals the reality of man as a sinner to the core who needs salvation, that the Law of God reveals the problem of sin. Galatians 3:24 says that the Law is a schoolmaster to bring us to faith in Christ. Most world religions remain popular because they stroke on the ego of sinful man and his pride. Fallen people think if they are good enough for Heaven regardless what they believe, God will surely accept them and it has become bigotry to preach John 14:6's timeless truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Way to the Father. Even some "bigoted" faiths are still popular because they teach works salvation which appeals to the pride and delusion of men. After all, Ephesians 2:8-10 teaches that people are only saved by grace not by works and that any good works they do is by the grace of God. The idea that salvation is by faith and not by works is very contrary to the pride of man.
Meanwhile, the idea of getting saved and sinning all you want is the polar opposite of the self-righteous doctrine of Arminianism which teaches a man loses their salvation every time they sin. People don't want to be saved because not only does Gospel preaching involve dealing with sin, they see the results of people who get saved. Why would a man who loves womanizing want to get saved if he sees a womanizer who just got saved become a proper man? So people are led to false conversions and false pastors abuse God's grace, teach a watered down view of the truth of eternal security (refusing to tell the false converts from the true converts). In sort, it's using worldly means to attract people into supposedly getting saved. Gone is exposing sin as it should be like as Charles Haddon Spurgeon would preach against sin so people will see their need for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead, we have people who are embracing people who claim to be Christians but are living very differently from the rest of the world. A "Christian" assembly can only get popular if it's ever so worldly. Some of them have become tolerant to sexual immorality such as officiating homosexual marriages and trial marriages. Also, what's pretty not so surprising is a lot of them are also aligned with the Vatican like how con artist Jim Bakker and the sexually lewd Jimmy Schwagart were both openly Jesuit operatives and Vatican supporters.
I would dare say that these popularity seeking preachers aren't saved because would have they truly cared about the Gospel, they would have not let their ego get the best of them. Instead, they are ruled by their ego and hunger for recognition or power, rather than their love for God. One cannot deny that these people are immoral and lewd yet the world loves them because they preach another gospel, not the Gospel according to Jesus. No true Christian preacher would dare to call any unsaved people claiming to be Christians as Christians, just because he is afraid of losing his popularity or if he did, he is to take his word back and decide to suffer for Christ eventually. As 1 John 4:5 and 2 Timothy 4:3 warns, time will come when people shall not endure sound doctrine but go after their lusts. Likewise, these popularity seeking preachers are God's judgment on the stubborn and rebellious sinners who refuse to repent and get saved! Even so come Lord Jesus Christ!
See also: