What Isaiah Said AFTER he said, "Here am I. Send me!" and how the New CGGC Priorities Mock both the Lord and Isaiah

According to Ed Rosenberry, during the recent General Conference sessions the new CGGC theme, "ONe Mission" "pervaded" the entire gathering.  In light of that, Ed said that God's call of Isaiah and Isaiah's willing response, "Here I am.  Send me!" "figured prominently."  In his last eNews prior to the sessions, Ed prepared our body for what was to come.

Ed did it in a way that, in my mind, defies biblical truth by taking out of context the Lord's call of Isaiah and Isaiah's acceptance of that call.  Previously, I noted how Ed ignored what took place before the Lord's call.  Here I note what took place after Isaiah accepted the call.


The only words Isaiah tell us that he spoke to the Lord after he accepted the call to be the Lord's prophet (in Isaiah 6) are:

“For how long, Lord?”

So, backtracking:

• Isaiah's account of his call begins when Isaiah enters the temple.
• He encounters the Lord in His purity and holiness.
• He experiences the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of both knowledge and wisdom.
• He cries out in despair over his sinfulness and says:
    "Woe to me!  I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." (v. 5 NIV)
• Because Isaiah's description of himself is accurate and he is a sinful man in the presence of the Lord, Isaiah is offered, and accepts, an act of atonement for his sins:
    "Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.'" (vs. 6 and 7)
• Only then, after Isaiah expressed despair over his sin and after his sin was taken away, did the Lord call Isaiah to be His prophet and to say to Him:
    "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" (v. 8)
• And, only then, after his painful atonement, did Isaiah stop saying "Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips...,"  and say,
    "Here am I. Send me!" (v. 8)
• And then, only after Isaiah's fearful and despairing confession of sin and only after Isaiah offered, without condition, to go for the Lord, did the Lord send him.

Now, be very careful to understand the absolutely horrid message the Lord gave Isaiah to "tell the people:"

[and note--based on their fruit--how unwilling the shepherds who lead the CGGC have been, in recent generations, to speak this message.  But also be aware, with crystal clarity, that John Winebrenner and the first members of the Church of God were perfectly willing to speak that message and did, truly, make this their core message.]

This is the message the Lord commanded Isaiah to "Go and tell this people:"

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
    be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

Make the heart of this people calloused;
    make their ears dull
    and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.” (v. 9-10)

How would you characterize the tone of this message?  Confrontational?  Condemning? Taunting?  Ridiculing?  Mocking?

Understand this:  

The only words that Isaiah utters in his account of his calling AFTER he said, "Here am I.  Send me!" and after the Lord gives him this divisive message to speak are the next words in the passage.
 
Isaiah simply and submissively asked, “For how long, Lord?”

Isaiah raised no questions about the content of the message.  No objections.  No fretting over fear that this message will make him unpopular and the object of scorn from the religious people of his day.

Isaiah accepted the message--even the tone of the message.

He only asked how long he'd be entrusted with speaking the message.

And, the Lord's answer was grim.

The Lord said,

“Until the cities lie ruined
    and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
    and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away
    and the land is utterly forsaken.  And though a tenth remains in the land,
    it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
    leave stumps when they are cut down,
    so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.” (vs. 11-13)

 And, perhaps most remarkably, Isaiah said nothing else.  

Isaiah's acceptance of the Lord's call, the awful message the Lord commanded him to preach and the life sentence he received in preaching the message was total.

Isaiah completely submitted to the will of the Lord.  He didn't speak another word.

What he DID was obey.  What he did, obeying the Lord's call, was, day after day and year after year, denounce the people of the Lord in the Name of the Lord.  He never stopped.  He spoke the message in many ways, each and every time the Lord called on him to denounce His people for their sin.

It angers and saddens me that, from this exchange between the Lord and Isaiah which culminates in the Lord commanding Isaiah to convey His wrath and to speak judgment on His people, Ed Rosenberry says, in his July 19, 2013 eNews, that from this passage our leaders derive these four "priorities:" 

1. Always we must hold to our first love, namely Jesus. This will require a radical commitment of heart, mind, soul, and strength to the message and ministry of Jesus (Mark 12:30). It is possible to be busy about many things, and neglect that which is better (Luke 10:42). Sadly, a disciple, or even the Church, can loose sight of its “first love” when engaged in ministry and thereby lose sight of its calling.
2. We must be ONe Mission in the world, seeking the lost and serving the least. Jesus ministered to people’s spiritual and temporal needs. As his disciples the Church can do no less (John 20:21). The CGGC has but one mission: to help people everywhere experience life abundant in Christ Jesus. This means walking in the way of Jesus and sharing his gospel in ways that bring deliverance from bondage (Luke 4:18-19).
3. We must work together and stand against the adversary. His attacks often come externally, but sometimes he works from within. Always the Church must be ready to stand! (Ephesians 6:10-13) Since his tactic is to divide and destroy, unity of the Spirit is a must (Ephesians 4:3) as is the love of Jesus in all things or all is naught. (1Corinthians 13)
4. We must pray on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests (Philippians 4:6). Without the prayers of God’s people nothing of lasting merit can be accomplished. Prayer has the power to unleash the forces of heaven against the forces of darkness (Matthew 16:19). The Bible is replete with examples! May the CGGC pray prayers that shake the cosmic order, seeing lives and communities delivered and transformed (Matthew 7:7).

I have never, in my life, seen a more appalling example of eisegesis.

There is nothing of these four "priorities" in this passage.

The passage in which the Lord asks, "Whom shall I send?  And who will go for us?" to which Isaiah responds, "Here I am.  Send me!" speaks: 

• of the holiness and purity of God, 
• of the abject sinfulness of humanity--even of Isaiah, 
• of the need for atonement among those who would serve the Lord, 
• of the pain a human being must endure in order to be cleansed of sin, 
• of the unconditional terms under which a man or woman must answer the Lord's call, 
• of the very harsh message the Lord often speaks to those who sin against Him and 
• of the unpopularity among people a servant of the Lord must experience in order to please and serve the Lord,
• of the absolute unconditional subjugation His servants must accept in order to serve the Lord among sinful people.

Ed's four "priorities" are nowhere to be found in this passage.  In fact, priorities that stand at odds with Ed's are present in the passage. 

God's call on Isaiah was to confront the body's immense sin, not to encourage it.

The plan Ed--and our planting team--has laid out for our body defies the spirit of the truth of the passage from which Ed purports to find it.

 

Ed, and the people who created these priorities, have created those priorities on their own--in defiance of the message of Scripture.  

 

They derive their priorities from Shepherd Mafia values, not from the truths of Scripture. 

As they often do, they hijack the message of this Old Testament passage, very important to the New Testament which, Jesus points out foreshadowed His own ministry and was fulfilled in His ministry.  

 

Our Shepherd Mafia has turned that passage's message against itself.  To use Isaiah's word, "Woe" to them.

 

And, they are offering to lead the entire CGGC body in participating in their evil.

 

Please open the Word, read Isaiah 6 and ask its Lord to show you its truth.  What our leaders find in Isaiah 6 is not present there.  

 

The path these leaders offer the CGGC, based on this powerful and important passage, is a Shepherd Mafia path--one in which shepherd values supersede truths conveyed by the Word.  Values that, in fact, pervert the truth.

 

Let me say again--as I often do--that I'm absolutely certain that, in doing this, the made men and women of our Shepherd Mafia are well-intentioned.  But, this is evil.

 

This is a very serious moment in the CGGC.  It is--as it was for Isaiah when he accepted the Lord's call--a black and white moment.  There can be no middle ground.

 

This is a moment in which the people of the CGGC must choose:  Either the Lord's truth or the message of the CGGC Shepherd Mafia.

 

We must repent.