Rising Bread Ministries

(And what we are all about)

Rising Bread Ministries is an independent association of individual Christians committed to caring for the body of Christ, the Christian church. Overall, we are dedicated to achieving this goal by:

Correctly and faithfully communicating God's unique, explicitly revealed, and absolute truth, which is found only in the Bible
Helping individual Christians know and understand God's will and character through learning how to better study the Bible and therefore learning how to hear directly from God personally
Exposing modern, heretical teachings in the church that are both attacking the faith of individual believers and are threatening the very identity and function of the church at large

We therefore take an adamant position of resistance against the many contemporary pressures for the church to transform itself into a more socially "relevant" and attractive organization and sacrificing the absolute and unchanging tenets of core Biblical beliefs apparently required to do so. We strongly believe the Bible is already relevant to today's society and to our own lives, and we believe the revelation of God's truth to mankind has not changed and will never change. So, we will endeavor to encourage the church to resist these social calls to its "evolution", especially the pressures to change our position on the basic, absolute doctrines of the Bible. We hope to encourage fellow believers to learn how to better and practically apply these unchanging and eternal truths to their own lives and to the world around them. It is our intention to communicate the unchanging message of God's love to mankind that is clearly spoken in the Bible, without diluting, softening, or changing its message to make it more socially acceptable. We also strongly desire to help fellow Christians do the same within their own sphere of influence.

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be.
Galatians 5:7-10 NIV

What does "Rising Bread" mean?
The concept of "Rising Bread" refers to Christ's and the apostles' use of that idea when warning about false religious teachings. The reason they used the metaphor of yeast in their warnings is that yeast is not visible and is not obvious, and over time it permeates and affects the whole loaf. A popular notion many believe is that we should be liberal by tolerating the possibility of some degree of error mixed in with good teaching, presumably because there may be good overall. And besides, aren't we supposed to avoid judging others? To use expressions commonly repeated which reflect this liberal view, supposedly to communicate open-mindedness, tolerance, or humility, we are told by many to just "eat the meat and spit out the bones" or "separate the wheat from the chaff", or the old standard "don't throw the baby out with the bath water". But the teaching of the Bible does not give Christians such a simplistic option when it comes to the issue of essential, core doctrines of belief, and God therefore warns us to beware of all false teaching, in whatever manner it presents itself and however subtle that may be.

Modern-day heresy (fundamentally false religious teaching)
Heretical teaching in the Christian church has lately taken the form of a more clever, "modernized" blend of a smattering of Biblical truth, humanistic philosophy, and new-age mysticism. This mixture of doctrines and ideas is often so subtly blended together and attractively presented as to not be easily recognizable or obviously different from pure truth. So God's use of the term "yeast" is the best concept when detecting false religious messages, and Christians must avoid such deception entirely. We must not place undue trust in the reliability of what we initially might deem "good" and supposedly throw out the "bad". Rather, if the yeast is there, the whole loaf is corrupted and ruined, and must be thrown out. If truly false teaching on significant doctrinal issues is being put forward, that teacher should be completely mistrusted and avoided.

What are people falling for?
We have recently observed, especially among Christians, either increasing interest in or "blindness" to religious teaching that is false, so called because it deviates from the basic principles and explicitly stated doctrines of the Bible. The deviant messages usually depart from the orthodox mainstream of Biblical teaching on doctrines concerning Jesus Christ, His clear gospel message, or the inerrancy and authority of the Bible. Many modern, deviant messages have been folded into a much more subtle, palatable, and unrecognizable blend of truth and heresy than we have observed in the past, and so are deceiving many people.

This false popular teaching attracts followers of the teacher and detracts from Christ and the Bible primarily by either appealing to peoples' desire for personal fulfillment or by capitalizing on their deep need to know and serve God coupled with their ignorance of the truths of God in the Bible. These teachers misuse the Bible by either misquoting it or by citing unreliable translations or inaccurate Bible paraphrases in order to bolster their arguments. They commonly employ modern "pop" psychological terms and principles or they use sophisticated and abstract religious jargon, blending it all together with some degree of Scriptural truths, in order to present a supposedly authoritative and logical argument for their doctrines. An especially disturbing recent trend is that some well-established and previously trusted Christian teachers and authors have begun to espouse more mystical or psychology-based movements, and they are beginning to weave these philosophies into their previously-sound Bible teaching.

So to those less discerning or less knowledgeable, these counterfeit messages often appear to be scripturally-based and present a false aura of credibility and attractiveness. These practices of subtle deception are of late amazingly and tragically common among many modern "Bible" teachers and authors. But such heresy and falling away from the faith has already been explicitly predicted by the Bible to be a commonplace occurrence in the last days before the return of Christ to the earth.

What is the "bait" -- why are people so attracted to false teachings?
These counterfeit teachers make appealing offers such as acceptance by or special connection to God, spiritual power, personal happiness, health, wealth, job success, influence with others, love, excitement or adventure, "deep" or mysterious knowledge, transcendence above the mundane, or other seemingly attractive treasures. These church leaders typically repeat their own specially-branded terminologies and doctrinal mantra, providing some sort of formula for gaining these wonderful gifts, which usually involve the exercise of a special brand of "faith", "belief" or "spirituality". And these pseudo-Christian gurus expect their followers to implicitly accept their teachings and unquestioningly trust in their integrity. Of course, these teachers are very well paid by their disciples for their profound spiritual leadership, either directly or through their "ministry", "church", or publishing company.

But a much more subtle and dangerous enticement that many "enlightened" and modernized church leaders employ to lure people to follow their doctrines is their supposedly new vision of the church's fulfillment of Christ's commandment for global discipleship, coupled with a sense of personal belonging and acceptance within small, home fellowship groups. They appeal to people's desire for personal acceptance coupled with the strong urge to be part of something big and grand, something of broad global scope, a vision of having a significant impact on the world at large. They present the past methods of the church as being obsolete and their new methods as being the only effective means for evangelizing the 21st century world. They offer a new paradigm of global discipleship and a new way for the church to fit into our modern world in order to accomplish this apparently lofty and supposedly righteous goal. But in fact, these new paradigms require Christians to discard key doctrines of the Bible in order to be effective, and they follow the wisdom of men instead of the express revelation of God. And most seriously, these new, presumably progressive doctrines have the effect of undermining the authority of the Bible and therefore questioning the very character of God.

How we counter these deceptions
Jesus warned us in Matthew 16:5,6 to avoid the false teaching of religious leaders who speak for their own interests and not for God. In the end, we must follow Christ alone, as He is the only source of real and reliable eternal truth. As He said in John 10:1, "I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber." To help Christians recognize counterfeit teaching, we will mostly concentrate on helping them know the "real thing". We will continue to add information about the Bible and about Christ to this website. We will provide helpful links for anyone interested in the Bible, Christian teaching, or other Christian ministries and services. In addition to our presentation of the truth by discussing Christ and the Bible, from time to time we will also publish information on and critiques of the questionable teachers. The Christian believer can best be ready to recognize what is false by first coming to know the Truth better (i.e. to know God and His Word through Christ). So we will devote most of our energies and resources to talking about the "real thing".

We would urge Christians to carefully read and study the account in the Biblical book of Genesis that records how the serpent (Satan) first successfully tempted mankind (Adam and Eve) to question God and rebel against His commandment, exert their own independence, and break their close fellowship with Him. This separation introduced sin, misery, and death into the world for all of human history. The Devil appeals to our selfish desires and our trust in our own understanding. In the process, he very cleverly undermines God's authority and character. Satan has not changed his tactics -- he is doing exactly the same thing today in a contemporary form, and he continues to especially target the church. To counter his attacks against God's commandments and therefore against all of humanity, the church of Christ should also not change its tactics -- staunchly standing on our firm belief in and stubbornly remaining committed to a simple obedience to God's Holy Word.

Finally
Please visit the various sections on this website. We hope the information here will help you in your search for reliable, practical truth, eternal purpose, and especially for Christ Himself. This "intangible" search for God, truth and meaning is one of the most substantial and important elements of life. And this search is satisfied only in Jesus Christ and in God's only explicit and reliable written record of truth to mankind -- the Bible. We sincerely hope to help you fulfill God's will for your salvation and holiness, accomplish His plan for you as His child to achieve good works for His glory and His eternal kingdom, and come to know Him better in the process.

NOTE: We currently do not accept financial contributions, nor do we have any plans to do so in the foreseeable future, as this effort is privately funded through our own personal incomes. If it becomes clear to us at some point that we need to accept private donations to continue this ministry effectively, we will provide that option on this website.