20/06/2026
Carnal Churches!
One of the signs of carnality in a church is the focus on some preacher or teacher as the embodiment of biblical revelation.
From I’m Glad God is Not a Typical Baptist Preacher by Ken Reamy
Jesus Christ is the embodiment of biblical revelation! Jesus is the word of God manifest in the flesh (John 1:14) and the word of God (John 1:1). He alone deserves our attention. His ministers only exist to propagate His word at His pleasure. To elevate the ministers above the function they perform at the Lord’s will is to reveal church-splitting, fellowship-breaking, division that are heatedly condemned by Apostle Paul.
In 1 Cor. 1:11 Paul says “For It hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren….that there are contentions among you.” How were these contentions manifested? “Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of paul; and I am of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.” 1 Cor. 1:12
Not a one of them in the bunch thought of himself as carnal by having his favorite preacher to uphold as the embodiment of biblical revelation. Not one. But in 1 Cor. 3:3 Paul nails them: “For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, strife, division, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”
Apparently, in Corinth, as among some of our Baptist … today preaching, teaching and ministering had become a popularity contest.
(Thomas A. Wheeler speaking) I know this to be true in my experience I to have seen this first hand. I would attend a Pastors School and all the top name preacher would come in to speak. At first I thought this was a great privilege to get to set under the preaching of some great preachers. In fact they were great preachers. But as time went on I would see these men preaching in other meetings at other churches. I started seeing the same thing Ken Reamy is talking about.
People would say hey Sam Gipp is coming to this church, Doug Fisher is going to be at Grace, Jack Wood is speaking at camp meeting. Then I started noticing divisions in churches based on which group of speakers a church would have in. Then I started seeing it went even deeper, it was, what School did you go to. That’s when I was seeing the I’m of Hyles Anderson, I’m of Bob Jones, I’m of Liberty, I’m of BBC, etc. etc.
This is one of many reasons I believe that God is more into the simplicity of promoting the Gospel through simple men of God. That’s not to say God don’t use educated men. It’s just that it removes this tendency to have this I’m a Lutheran, I’m Catholic, I’m Independent Baptist, I’m Congregational, etc. Because of training each of these Schools of theology trained into the Preachers.
