When Milk Fails
“When Milk Fails” deals with the issue of the carnal church which teaches nothing except the milk of exhortation and comfort. While this may be fine for newly saved baby Christians, this is not OK for mature believers. If mature believers are given nothing except milk for decades on end then they will eventually tire of it and abandon Christianity altogether falsely assuming there is nothing else available but this milk teaching.
This could also be compared to feeding a child a diet of pure sugar candy which would eventually made them sick. Believers need to have the solid food of God’s word to cause them to grow and they will not grow up spiritually if the only thing they receive is the milk of exhortation and comfort.
Elementary Milk Teaching
Hebrews 6:1 (NASB)
1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
I know of a bible school near Tulsa Oklahoma whose main emphasis and teaching is focused on the doctrine of faith. But what people fail to realize is that faith is one of the elementary principles of the word of God. Therefore, faith is only “milk-teaching” just as is revealed by the above scripture that speaks of leaving “elementary” teaching about Christ and not again returning to the foundational things for new believers which includes “Faith in God” and repentance from dead works. Faith is one of the first things to teach new believers and is therefore part of “milk-teaching” to teach them how to have faith in God to meet their needs which come by faith for healing and provision and all other needs.
But if a church focuses on nothing except foundational “baby-milk” doctrines they are not going to satisfy the mature believers anymore. Mature believers are looking for something much more substantial than just “spiritual” milk. They will need to have some “meat-teaching” or they will not be satisfied in their spiritual lives.
Pastor and Spiritual Leader Who Abandoned the Church
There was a pastor who had the largest WOF church in Sweden with extension works in many nations of the world and many of cities of the former Soviet Union. It is estimated that he reached up to 500,000 people with the gospel through his church and bible school and associated outreach ministries. But after 30-years of successful ministry (which had a great impact on many nations in Europe) this same pastor resigned and gave his church to his former youth pastor. After his resignation he then decided to join a false religion which engages in many unbiblical practices.
Therefore, it was shocking that a WOF and Pentecostal pastor (who was respected worldwide) would resign his fruitful work and join the pagan religious system! Some would have thought this man must have been engaged only in “mental-assent” and therefore was never saved. But the fact that he brought salvation to about 500,000 people and since “like-begets-like” this does not reflect that he was unsaved. So typically, unbelievers could not make true converts (except for those who only follow mental assent also). It is therefore more likely that this man did have a true conversion but the problem was that he never progressed beyond the “milk-stage” of basic doctrines (such as elementary doctrines like faith in God).
Famous Pastor Placating Buddhists
There was also another famous pastor who had one of the largest churches on earth and he placated toward the Buddhists when they invited him to speak at their university. He was trying to identify with them but when they came out and asked him the direct question if he believes that Jesus was the only way of salvation-then he struggled to reply. His rambling discourse could not even be translated in clear manner because he droned on and on without clearly saying that Jesus was the only way of salvation. He was placating toward the Buddhists as if he did not want to offend them with the truth and so in the process, he denied Christ by refusing to speak the truth that there was no other way of salvation except in Jesus the Jewish Messiah!
See the link “Sin of Denial” for more details.
Again, what would cause these men who were renown spiritual leaders in their own nations and had great missionary works to other nations to end up abandoning the truth they once preached? It is much too shallow of an excuse to say that neither of them was saved and they operated only in mental assent. These men had their own fruit of thousands of believers and growing works in many cities and nations which is not typically something that an unbeliever could do to get others saved when he is not saved himself.
I know men personally who have been in the full-time ministry for decades and later abandoned the faith (even forsaking their own wives and children) and went into darkness under the world’s system. I knew them in the beginning when they walked with God and they had a powerful anointing of God upon them in the days prior to falling away from Christ. This is not something uncommon because I know people myself who have experienced “falling away” from Christ after being saved for decades.
Reason for Falling Away
I believe the reason for this falling away is the fact that these fallen preachers were not partaking of the first and second most important ministry gifts in the Body of Christ on earth.
1 Corinthians 12:28 (NIV)
28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, . . .
The first and second positions of importance in the Body of Christ are the Apostles and the Prophets (followed third by bible Teachers). The Apostles provide a foundation of divine order in the lives of believers and the Prophets provide a foundation of fear of the Lord and holiness. If these first two ministry gifts are ignored (or denied access to the pulpit) then the believers of that congregation are going to have nothing left to them except the milk of exhortation as given by a pastor (a feminine-type of gift) which can be compared to a mother’s breast milk which gives comfort to a nursing infant. But the Apostle and Prophet are masculine gifts which carry the rod of correction of rebuke to correct all disorder and sin and bring divine order and holiness to the congregation.
See “Fivefold Ministry Gifts” for more details.
But with the advent of “equal-rights” for women this has carried over into the carnal church as well and many of these churches are influenced in their “decision-making” by women. These manipulating women still cannot run the church themselves (without a man’s endorsement) but they are able to run the church through weak-willed men just as Jezebel ran the country through her weak-willed husband Ahab.
If an Apostle should get up and deliver a rebuke from the Lord for disorder or a Prophet should give a rebuke and expose sin in the congregation then it will typically be the women who will provide behind-the-scenes resistance. They only have to tell their “eunuch” husband pastors that they were not pleased with the preaching of those men and that will be the last time they are ever allowed to enter the pulpit. Thus, the carnal church is predominantly run by women who control weak-willed Ahab-type pastors.
There are even women who said that they would stay home and pray against a Prophet because they thought he was “beating the sheep” when he delivered God’s rebuke to the congregation over sin. But if the Apostles and Prophets (both masculine gifts) are denied access to the church then the congregation will be denied any type of “meat” teaching or solid “spiritual food” they might have had. Without Apostles and Prophets, the church will have nothing left except the milk of exhortation and comfort which is a feminine type of thing called (milk teaching).
What Happens When People Only Receive Milk?
This can be illustrated by having a father raise a son to become a man. A father will take over child-training after the boy is weaned from the mother’s breast. The love of a mother and father are vastly different however because the mother gives only love and exhortation and comfort to a child but the father will show his love to a son with the end of a hardwood rod of correction! The father knows that if he does not discipline his boy then he will not be able to get out of bed to go to work and will never be able to provide for himself or his future family. The father does what is right for a boy and uses the rod of correction on the buttocks of a lazy boy to correct his bad attitudes and laziness.
But a woman-raised boy will only be comforted and given whatever he wants and such a boy will grow up to be a worthless adult who cries out to be fed for free and protests and demands welfare and social assistance from the government to feed him just as his mother has always done for him. Such worthless “woman-raised” boys will never grow up to learn to provide for themselves or be a real man and never be able to take care of their own families as adults.
This same type of phenomenon also occurs when there are spiritual babies who are given nothing but feminine comfort and exhortation and were shielded from the masculine rod of rebuke of Apostles and Prophets by women who deny such men to have access to the pulpit. Such a congregation will grow up to be weak and sickly like a child that is given a constant diet of sugar candy. The believers will simply not grow if they have nothing but a constant diet of feminine exhortation and comfort. In fact, they will not make it to heaven unless they have the masculine rebukes and correction of Apostles and Prophets to put their lives in order and to rebuke sin.
Preaching What They Want to Hear
2 Chronicles 18:5-7 (NLT2)
5 So the king of Israel summoned the prophets, 400 of them, and asked them, “Should we go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I hold back?” They all replied, “Yes, go right ahead! God will give the king victory.”
6 But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not also a prophet of the LORD here? We should ask him the same question.”
7 The king of Israel replied to Jehoshaphat, “There is one more man who could consult the LORD for us, but I hate him. He never prophesies anything but trouble for me! His name is Micaiah son of Imlah.” Jehoshaphat replied, “That’s not the way a king should talk! Let’s hear what he has to say.”
Ahab hired 400-false prophets to tell him what he wanted to hear and they all predicted in unison that he would be victorious in battle. But King Ahab was selective in whom he wanted to listen to so he did not invite the Prophet Micaiah. He wanted only a positive prophecy so he controlled who was given the right to speak.
2 Chronicles 18:11-13 (NLT2)
11 All the other prophets agreed. “Yes,” they said, “go up to Ramoth-gilead and be victorious, for the LORD will give the king victory!”
12 Meanwhile, the messenger who went to get Micaiah said to him, “Look, all the prophets are promising victory for the king. Be sure that you agree with them and promise success.”
13 But Micaiah replied, “As surely as the LORD lives, I will say only what my God says.”
The 400-false prophets all predicted that King Ahab would have success and it is no wonder since they were all being fed by King Ahab and were speaking out whatever the King wanted to hear in exchange for the support they received. But this is all self-deception to only invite those who speak what people want to hear rather than speaking the truth. The Prophet Micaiah was not invited because he had the habit of speaking the truth and even giving rebukes of the Lord to the wicked King Ahab.
But the godly King Jehoshaphat insisted that they bring the Prophet Micaiah to hear the word of the Lord through him (doubting that the 400-hirelings of Ahab were speaking the true word of the Lord).
The messenger that went to get Micaiah even told him that the other 400-prophets were all speaking in unison and predicting success for King Ahab in battle. The messenger asked Micaiah to give a positive message of exhortation to King Ahab just as the rest of the hirelings were doing. But Micaiah was a real Prophet and would not compromise and said he could only speak what God gave him to say. So it was only Micaiah who predicted that Ahab would be killed in battle (and not be victorious) and Micaiah’s word came to pass and this is what actually happened.
Women Controlled Pulpits
The point to make here is that when women control who has access to the pulpit, they can end up only inviting those who exhort the people and tell them what they want to hear (like the 400-false Prophets of Ahab fed by his wife Jezebel).
1 Kings 18:19 (NASB)
19 “Now then send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
It seems that Jezebel was actually feeding up to 850 false prophets with 400 of the deity Asherah and 450 for the deity Baal. It is obvious that the 400-prophets (probably the Asherah prophets) were all on payroll and being fed by Jezebel and therefore were willing to compromise and tell Ahab what he wanted to hear so his wife would continue to feed them.
This same sort of thing also exists in those carnal churches which are run by women behind the scenes such as a pastor’s wife who determines who and who will not preach in the pulpit and her passive husband complies with her wishes just as Ahab complied with the dictates of his wife Jezebel.
This is what it means to have a “Jezebel-spirit” in operation in the church when a passive pastor is being controlled by a wife who behaves like Jezebel and makes the final decisions for the church and how it is operated (behind the scenes) manipulating her own husband and using him to endorse her to rule the church.
Again, real Apostles and Prophets are not going to be popular with the wives of the pastors who rule the carnal churches. They will not be invited back to speak because they are like the Prophet Micaiah who could not be controlled but spoke boldly what God gave him to say.
If therefore Apostles and Prophets are banned from the pulpit within the carnal churches then there will be nothing left for the congregation but the milk of exhortation and comfort. But this is going to become really “boring” for those who have been saved for decades and want something more substantial to eat. So that is why many of them drop out of the church just like the former pastor who ran the largest church in Sweden for 30-years but then cast is all away and joined a false religion.
There are many like this who even after being great leaders for many decades just trashed it all and quit. This is not because Christianity failed them but because they never left the first baby-stage level of “milk-of-exhortation” and they falsely assumed there was nothing more to Christianity than that!
But there is much more and after the baby is weaned from the breast then it is time to come under the rod of discipline of the father. This is a rod of rebuke given by both Apostles and Prophet who are the first and second gifts of importance in the church.
But it is amazing that the top two gifts in the Body of Christ are seldom even recognized. The only gifts that are mentioned are that of a pastor or evangelist who to not even rank in the top three ministry gifts in importance!
This shows that the carnal church is in pitiful condition when even Christians leaders abandon their faith after decades of service! This is because they only have been feeding on the milk of exhortation and comfort. All other teaching has been banned under the influence of Jezebel women running the church and forbidding real men of God like Apostles or Prophets to have access to the pulpit.
Only when men take their stand and permit real Apostles and Prophets to have access to the pulpit will the congregation be able to receive the solid food needed for them to develop spiritually. If they have a constant diet of exhortation and comfort, they will become sick like a baby fed a constant diet of sugar candy.
The milk of exhortation and comfort is only to be given when they are newly saved babies in the Lord. But they cannot remain on that level forever but are required by the Lord to mature to the place of receiving both rebukes and correction from the word of God. These are both delivered from Apostles and Prophets which are masculine gifts given to the Body of Christ.
The teaching of Apostles and Prophets is satisfying to the spiritually hungry like a good meal of meat and potatoes. But constant exhortation and comfort of a pastor is like “milk” for an adult which does not satisfy their spiritual hunger. All these exhorters ever say is, “God loves you!” but there is no rebuke or correction or preparation of the believer to have a successful life on earth or teaching about how to overcome sin or bondage. Neither do these “milk-teachers” ever provide any advanced training about how to enter the kingdom of God in the life to come.
Revelation 3:19 (NIV2011)
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
God loves the believers and he wants them to make it to heaven therefore he sends Apostles and Prophets to deliver God’s rebuke and discipline. Never should they be banned from the pulpit, otherwise believers will grow up to be like “women-raised” sissies who do not know how to be a man and were never disciplined in their entire life!
Hebrews 12:5-11 (NIV)
5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!
10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
There are many scriptures that speak of God giving discipline to the believers whom he loves. Again, this discipline is primarily delivered in the form of rebukes and correction from the teaching of Apostles and Prophets who set things in order and expose and rebuke sin.
After the babyhood stage is over then the honeymoon will come to an end and God will require more out of the mature believer than he does a newly saved baby. God loves them and wants them to put away all idols of the heart and to repent and qualify to enter into heaven.
See “Idols of the Heart” for more details.
Without the ministry of both Apostles and Prophets (the top two ministry gifts) the believers will not be able to qualify for heaven. They will continue living in unrepentant sin and disorder right up until the time that their lives expire on earth and they end up in hell.
See “Christians in Hell” for more details.
Hebrews 12:1 (NLT2)
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
Believers are to run their race with endurance. They cannot finish their race if all they have to eat is the milk of exhortation and if they are continually comforted and pampered like a baby without any discipline whatsoever. The Apostles and Prophets have the job of providing discipline and delivering rebukes and delivering Gods correction of the word for believers. This again is masculine love that enables the believers to enter heaven rather than being comforted like a baby until their life on earth expires and end up in hell because of the bad spiritual condition they are in.