Random Apostasies and Heresies

Apostate and heretical teachings seem to never end; there is alway something new with which we are tempted to leave the true faith for a false one.  Pastors and teachers are always toying with the ways of the world so as to draw more people to attend their assemblies, regardless how it waters down the Gospel.

Lighthouse Trails Research ministry gives a warning about John Ortberg’s book, Fully Devoted.  It isn’t something you should be reading if you are looking for the truth, nor are his other books.  Ortberg promotes al the contemplative stuff which is the rage now.

Oh, and here we go again with new Bible versions!!  As if we don’t have enough, charismaniacs have developed the “Modern English Version,” which appears to be nothing more than the KJV cleaned up of 1611 language.  It will be coming out next year, so they say.  But look at where its promotion comes from - the site of Sam Stoms. [link gone by 9/23/20] The advertisement for his book, The Singing God, should make any Berean cringe:
“God loves you—with all your faults and failures, with all the secret sins no one else knows about. In fact, He rejoices over you so much that He breaks out in inexpressible joy and song as He thinks about you.”  Oh, really?  God just gets all giddy about me?  I don’t think this guy really understands the holiness of God.

This isn’t the only new Bible making the news, though.  Get ready for “Genesis Deflowered,” a “Bible” with lots of sex scenes so we can see in the Bible that “people actually have sexual experiences that they like, and they’re also spiritual people.”
Ahhh, Satan is having so much fun distorting and abusing God’s Word nowadays.

I’ve previously done a short review and posted some citations from Keith Gibson’s book, Wandering Stars.  This past couple of weeks The Berean Call has interviewed Gibson while discussing the book.  TBC has the transcripts for quick reading, with part one here, and part two here.

I found an excellent site addressing the lies and logic fallacies of the KJV only crowd.  This site has so many articles with excellent research demonstrating that the KJV only idea is total nonsense with no factual support behind it.  Just this one page will give you links to a large number of the articles completed by the time it was posted, and if you go to the home page you will be able to look over more recent ones.  I did a lot of skimming around through dozens of article and have found this place to be a wealth of information for countering the KJVO cultists.

Another cultic and legalistic idea is the Hebrew Roots Movement.  I have briefly mentioned this ideology in past articles, and have recommended this site as a place to go for information exposing the aberrant nature of this movement.  This week they posted a thought-provoking article about whether or not those in the HRM are lost. [9/2/13 update.  It has been brought to my attention via a comment below that the author of this site recommends teachers in the WOF cult; so while I find her reports on the HRM to be good, I can't recommend teachers she supports.]

The Mennonites supposedly have a reputation for being quite fundamental, if not even legalistic, in much of their doctrine; there are quite a few in my neck of the woods.  Which is why I found it surprising to learn that a Canadian seminary is bringing in Lectio Divina.  I guess fads have to be taken up by everyone nowadays.

Hey Pope Francis, can’t you control those guys leading your churches?  Aren’t you supposed to be in contact with God?  Aren’t you responsible for making sure your priests are following Romanist teachings?  So why am I always reading about another rogue priest or bishop violating Christian, let alone Romanist, teachings and yet not being defrocked? Now we have a Mexican bishop who is way off base with his teachings on homosexuality.  I agree with him that it isn’t a mental illness, since there is no such thing as a mental illness, but to tell a woman that she can condemn herself “because your child was formed that way in your own womb” is a bit bizarre.  Bishop Lopez has even affiliated his diocese with a “group that openly promoted the homosexual lifestyle” and saying that he was their spiritual guide.

And the Presbyterian Church slides more and more into the devil’s playground as they ordained their first openly “gay” minister.  Talk about thumbing one’s nose at God!

Finally, I have some great articles to point you towards in regards to the Mormon cult.  Two were on Mormon Coffee, the blog of Mormonism Research Ministry.
The first one discusses the honesty of Joseph Smith.  I think you’ll find plenty of information to demonstrate the the LDS missionary at the door that Smith had very little honesty.

The second article gives a good example of how the Mormons dodge teachings which they don’t want to discuss - “that isn’t official.”  Well, with the LDS, determining what is official is like trying to make Jello stick to the wall.  It’s official sometimes, but then it isn’t, but then it is, but then it isn’t. 

Janis Hutchinson has an excellent article which is part of a series refuting claims of the Book of Mormon and the LDS themselves in regards to who the white Indians of South America are.  Even if you aren’t interested in the LDS, this article has some fascinating history!