Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

I’m not going to have time tomorrow to post an RAAH, so I’m going to post this today even though I don’t have a large collection.  Still, it’s always a rough ride.

This woman’s husband is a youth pastor in a Baptist church and yet he is allowing his wife to support Muslims?!?!  He should be relieved of his position because he is not “managing his own family well.” (1 Tim 3:4)  H/T to Erin.

Evangelicals Divided, A Movement Fractured, Part 1.  Marsha West does an outstanding job of explaining what is happening in the “evangelical” Church.  Looking forward to part 2!

Cleaning out my files I came across this excellent review of John Eldredge’s wildly unbiblical book, Wild at Heart.  Don’t wast your money on this book.

I also found this short review of Jessie Penn-Lewis’ book, War on the Saints.  I read the book a long time ago and found way too many problems with it.

Another Gilley book review from that file is this one on Bruce Wilkinson’s Secrets of the Vine.   Not as bad as his “The Prayer of Jabez,” but that’s not saying a whole lot!

Answers in Genesis has a very good technical article reviewing Robert T. Pennock’s book, “Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism.”  The book’s intent is to “prove” the errors of creationism while “proving” evolution, but his charges are all easily dismantled by the reviewer.

Just too funny.  Sounds like Steven Furtick’s church.

Speaking of Steven Furtick — SIGH!

Doctrines of Demons.  The whole idea in charismatic circles is not only unbiblical and nonsensical, but also spiritually dangerous to those under the burden of such teachings!

Video exposing Beth Moore as a false teacher.

The Resurrection really happened.

Let’s end with some more humor:  Altar Call Self Defense Training.  Something you’ll need to know for those charismatic meetings!

What Happened?!?

H/T to Ralph M. Petersen

Jesus Is Lord

The thing that marks off the Christian from the man who is not a Christian is not merely that he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ unto salvation, and trusts Him and His atoning work, but that, in addition, the life of the Christian is governed altogether by this Person.  Jesus Christ is Lord; and the Christian believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.  You cannot believe in Him as Saviour without believing in Him as Lord.  If you have any belief in Him at all you believe in the whole Christ; and therefore He becomes the Lord of your Life.  The Christian does not merely do things because they are good and right, and because it is wrong to do certain other things; the differentiating mark of the Christian is the he does everything “as unto the Lord,” “in the fear of Christ,” because Christ is his Lord.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in the Spirit in Marriage, Home & Work: An Exposition of Ephesians 5:18-6:9, pg. 71-72

Never Accommodate False Teaching

“Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ” does not mean that you accommodate yourself to wrong teaching and doctrine, that you say nothing when falsehood is being propagated.  No! for that is a denial of all the New Testament.  Not only that, it is a denial of some of the most glorious epochs and eras in the Christian Church.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in the Spirit in Marriage, Home & Work: An Exposition of Ephesians 5:18-6:9, pg. 67-68

Happy Resurrection Day

Credit to Answers In Genesis

Random Things of Interest

A list of some pretty sound male teachers — you just have to watch out for the TULIPs.

What happened between the Old and New Testaments?

“A Missive Against False Teachers.”  Also some good information about how to recognize a false teacher/false prophet.

1 Peter 3:21 does NOT mean baptism is necessary for salvation.  This short video does an excellent job of explaining what the passage really means.

Teach your children to be apologists!

Biblical Fundamentalism explained and defined by Gary Gilley.

Mennoknight has posted the finale episode of his series on modesty.  I will edit my post on modesty to include this last link, “The Right to Bare Arms.”

Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

Mark Driscoll, who is definitely disqualified from being a pastor, is holding his first service in his new church on Easter.  Driscoll claims:  “God is planting The Trinity Church and we are following his leadership.  God has a plan that has been 50 years in the making.”  Yea, right.  Now this charlatan false teacher has direct communication with God.  I don’t think so.

Concerns about AWANA.

This satire article perfectly describes the market-driven church.

Exposing the false history of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The Church by the Glades has done it again — made a mockery of worship.  They just continue to feed the itching ears.

A good report on heretic Todd Bentley.  His conversion story sounds more like demons at work than the Holy Spirit, especially when you consider his history ever since!

An interesting connection between Charles Finney’s teachings and the seeker-sensitive movement.

There are not greater things than Scripture.

Why Seventh-day Adventists don’t celebrate Easter — another example of the difference between the SDA Jesus and the real Jesus of the Bible.

Another episode of Fred’s review of “Which Bible Would Jesus Use?”

Perry Noble continues to prove what a wolf he is.  In fact, he daily sounds more and more liked a Word of Faith heretic.  How many times must we remind Christians that we DO NOT TITHE.  We were never commanded to do so.

The article about Perry Noble has links to another of his ilk — a new name to add to the wolf list.  His name is Tavner Smith.  Read the other articles linked to and you will see just how dangerous this man is.

Ah, the need to be “relevant”!  You know a church has gone apostate when they do this. and, yes, this is a real “church” in Tampa, FL.  They even have a staff member titled “Creative Pastor”!  If you want some real head-shaking, look at their beliefs and what they value.  And yet they claim God called them to this ministry!

A good article by Gary Gilley explaining how we need to build up the Body.

Christians should be alert to the cult of Armstrongism.  Although the Worldwide Church of God itself has changed to orthodoxy, the followers of Armstrong’s teachings are still out there propagating them.

As if Sarah Young’s “Jesus Calling” books and junk weren’t bad enough, now there is a “Jesus Calling Devotional Bible”!  Thomas Nelson Publishers will publish any heresy which enriches them.  H/T Marsha West.

That’s it for today — a lot of things to be discerning about.  Have a blessed Easter celebrating the resurrection of our Lord.

The Original “Jesus Is My Boy Friend” Song

One “hymn” I’ve heard since the beginning of time (well, at least as long as I can remember) is “In The Garden.”  I’ve had requests to play this tune at funerals and so I learned it on the pipes, but I never really liked it because it is so sappy.  What I find disappointing is how many Christians just love this song, and claim that it means a whole lot to them.

Other than this song’s sappiness, I never gave it much thought until the new genre of “Jesus is my boyfriend” songs entered the Contemporary Christian Music world, and then I came across an article where John MacArthur was panning it (about a decade or so ago).  From that point on I’ve come to really despise hearing this song; let’s take a look at the lyrics to see why.

In The Garden

I come to the garden alone,

While the dew is still on the roses,

And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,

The Son of God discloses.

[Chorus:]

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own,

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,

Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,

And the melody that He gave to me,

Within my heart is ringing.

[Chorus:]

I'd stay in the garden with Him,

Tho' the night around me be falling,

But He bids me go, thro' the voice of woe,

His voice to me is calling.

[Chorus:]

In the first verse the author hears the voice of Jesus in the garden.  Really?  What did He say?

In the chorus, Jesus walks in the garden with the author, and carries on a conversation with him/her, and this conversation leads to an intimate joy that no one else will ever know!

Then we come to the 2nd verse and the author describes the voice of Jesus, which even caused the birds to quit singing.  The implication is that Jesus was singing, giving a melody to the author.

The last verse has Jesus really sad to see the author leave Him, all the while bidding him to go.

Do you see how this song is nothing more than claims of direct, audible and verbal revelation from Jesus?  And that they have an intimate relationship in which Jesus just has a “voice of woe” when they part?

Really, brothers and sisters in Christ, shouldn’t this song be relegated to the refuse bin?  It is unbiblical nonsense at best.  Please exercise some discernment, because this song is really about self and not about the Lord.

Beth Moore should adopt it as her theme song!

Keep Scripture in Context

It is always dangerous to turn a text into a slogan.  It generally means that it has been taken out of its context, and has therefore been treated with a certain element of violence from the standpoint of exposition.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in the Spirit in Marriage, Home & Work: An Exposition of Ephesians 5:18-6:9, pg.40

So Many Heretics, So Little Time

Did They Really Say That?!?

“Oddly, the concept for this book came complete, God delivering the title to me in full.  My Bible was open to these verses for the first time in a long while, and the instruction from the Lord came so unmistakably that I dated it in the margin: April 19, 2000.  My pen still didn’t touch the paper until almost exactly a year later when I knew His Spirit was saying to me, ‘Now.’  I headed to the mountains, and within a few weeks it was done.”

Beth Moore, When Godly People Do Ungodly Things, pg.220 (italics in the original)

SO, Beth Moore gets direct revelations from God for writing a book!  Not only did God give her the title, but He also told her when to start writing as He guided her through the process.  This would then make her book equivalent with the Bible, being inspired and directed by God.

If what Moore says is true, then why does she have so much unbiblical teachings, and so much twisting of Scripture in her writings and teachings?  Even the cited book has errors of such nature, so how can it have come from God?

This is just another example as to why Beth Moore is a dangerous teacher.  I must heartily agree with what M. Kurt Goedelman writes in his critique of Moore’s book, “Audacious” in the April-June 2016 Personal Freedom Outreach Quarterly Journal:

“With Moore, the bad and insignificant far outweigh the sparse good.  If one wants to invest time to read the further adventures of Beth seasoned here and there with a biblical flavor, then this book [Audacious] will suffice.  But be warned, it’s like cotton candy.  It may be attractive and look like a lot and when you bite into it, it may be sweet and good tasting, but there is not much substance or spiritual nourishment.  As with the other of Moore’s writings, it lacks fruitful instruction toward biblical sanctification in the life of the believer -- and that is a tragic omission from one who is hailed as presenting ‘solid biblical insight.’”

Do Nothing to Grieve the Holy Spirit

Remember that the Spirit is always in you.  Start your day by saying, “I am a child of God, and therefore the Holy Spirit of God dwells within me.  Whatever I may be, whatever I may have to do, whatever may happen to me, He will be with me; my very thought, word and deed will be in His sight and in His presence.”  Oh, how I thank God for the privilege!  how careful I should be in nothing to grieve Him or to disappoint Him!  Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed until the day of redemption.  Remember Him, remember why He is doing in you, think of the glory for which He is preparing you, and the things that grieve Him will become unthinkable.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Darkness and Light: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:17-5:17,” pg.276-277

Communications Are Corrupted In Our Culture

A coarseness, a looseness is creeping into conversation.  People use terms in public, that no one would have dreamt of using forty years ago [from 1982!].  Have you not noticed it coming into articles and journals, not only newspapers?  Is it not happening in general?  This curious tendency to be daring — indeed it has become so customary that it is no longer daring or shocking.  And it is becoming appallingly common.  Even journals of repute one cannot but notice the curious, sad decline that is so evidently taking place.  And often the godless world turns into a joke, and regards as amusing, that which is really tragic.  Why should a married man’s unfaithfulness to his wife be regarded as funny?  Why should there be constant jokes about this sort of thing?  Nothing causes greater unhappiness to men, women and children than just this very thing, and yet it is regarded as a theme for joking.  Acts of infidelity become the subjects of laughter and merriment!  Corrupt communication, corrupt conversation, is a mark of the unregenerate.  Have nothing to do with it, says the Apostle.  It is corrupt in itself and it corrupts others.  And this was the thing that was uppermost in the Apostle’s mind here, as it is in all these separate injunctions.  He wants believers to consider the influence of their words upon others, so he says, “Do not let any corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth; a bystander may hear it and it may do harm to him.  . . . 

Therefore, he says, for the sake of others, let none of this come out of your mouth.  To put it quite simply and plainly, what he is really saying is, “Stop doing that sort of thing!”  But notice particularly a further word he uses: “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.”  In other words, if it even enters your mind, if it is beginning to form on your lips and your tongue, stop!  If it has even arrived in you mouth, do not let it come out!  Crucify it, kill it, murder it, stop it!  If you yourself are guilty of evil thoughts, if the devil suggests them to you — you cannot stop him, he will hurl his fiery darts at you, he will insinuate them into your very minds, subtle innuendos — even so, says the Apostle, what I am telling you is this, “Never let corrupt words proceed out of your mouth, let them die upon your lips, for the sake of others.” Such is his negative injunction before he urges the positive.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Darkness and Light: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:17-5:17,” pg. 257-258

Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

Excellent review of “Young Messiah” which demonstrates why no Christian should waste money on it.  (Note that Focus on the Family has endorsed this blasphemy!)

The junk coming to “Christian” stores will now include all the marketing of, “Young Messiah.”   It is really, really sickening.

A book which came out a decade ago, but which is still being promoted a lot, is John Eldredge’s “Wild At Heart.”  One apologist I know called it “Wildly Unbiblical.”  You might find Gilley’s review of this book to be also worthwhile.  Part 1 here, part 2 here.

Rick Joyner’s teachings are just foolishness contrived to suit his agenda.

Mary Dalke had a very good article exposing false teacher John Hagee.  (I forgot to note this article previously.)

George Otis and the NAR’s “Spiritual Mapping”  — all part of the aberrant “Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare” movement.  FALSE spiritual warfare, by the way.  (I have a half-dozen books in my library on this topic!)

Catholic HERESY!!!!

Roman Catholicism has long taught their people to be anti-Jew.  Oh, it has supposedly been pretty much corrected over the past 50 years or so, but you can’t erase a lengthy history that quickly.  The problem began when Rome decided that the Christian Church replaced Israel, and that Jews were “Christ-killers.”  Of course the whole idea of Jews were to blame for the death of Jesus is absurd, since Jesus gave his own life to pay for sin and the actually execution was by Roman soldiers.  I’ve always thought it odd that so many “Christians” throughout history have railed at Jews for “murdering” Jesus, when if they stopped to think what would be their position if Jesus was not hung on the cross — where would their salvation be?  Yet here we have Catholic high schoolers raising the old “You Killed Jesus!” claim against Jews.  Where did they even get the idea if they haven’t heard it from their teachers?  IF Jews were responsible for the actual crucifixion, why rail at them when it was the cause of their salvation?  They should be thankful that God used man to provide the method of death for Jesus’ offering for our salvation.

On my March 3rd “Random….” post I had a note about Greg Laurie now having a show on the TBN heretic TV station, and one of those commenting on that post gave information about where Greg Laurie is headed with his beliefs.  Well, now “Berean Research” has an article demonstrating that Laurie is diving into the charismanic swimming pool.  I guess he has really become a teacher to avoid.

A short commentary by Marsh West as she directs her readers to an article at Pulpit & Pen in regards to another event where teachers who should know better are joining with false teachers.  Take a look at the names!

A problem with mega-churches.  To lighten up, though, here is some satire about Andy Stanley and his mega-church!

An old article on the Ezzo cult, but well worth it if you never heard of them.  Their books and followers are still out there.

Non-Catholics should NOT celebrate Ash Wednesday or Lent.  They are unbiblical practices.

Fred has posted part 8 of his review of Which Bible Would Jesus Use?

Mary Dalke has a collection of short videos demonstrating some heretical teachings of the Pope.

One of the worst cults ever, for those who haven’t been around long enough to know about them — the Children of God.  Sex and cults, cults and sex.  It is an inevitable mixture.  They are still around, by the way, and known as “The Family International.”

Time for some humor to end with.  A SWAT team raids a church after learning about many people being slain.  The Salvation Army and landfills are refusing "rapture" books.

Why Oh Why the “WHOAH”?!?

One of the songs we sang Sunday provided some irritant for me — of course.  It was a new one for me so I concentrated on the lyrics rather than learning the tune, which is what I do with all new “hymns” or “praise songs.”  Well this one has okay lyrics, but I didn’t think the tune was all that good for congregational singing — just one of those “radio songs” which may be fine for personal listening to and/or singing with.

Other than not being a congregational singing song, my other problem was the “whoah” towards the end. This is what soloists do for performances and not what congregations do.  It was just plain silly and I had to shake my head with a smirk while it was going on.  The instrumentalists were doing their thing and the screen had the seven “whoahs” on it.

Thank You Jesus For The Cross

My life lived for only me 

My days spent so sinfully 

My heart was dark, my eyes too blind to see 

My pride destroying me

Your life, sent for sin to die

Your blood shed to justify 

Upon the cross, my ransom to afford

This sinner’s great reward

Thank you Jesus for the cross

Thank you for the price you paid for us

Giving up your life to save the lost

Thank you Jesus for the cross

The crown placed upon your head

The nails meant for me instead

Your death became the only way to life

For me to live is Christ

Thank you Jesus for the cross

Thank you for the price you paid for us

Giving up your life to save the lost

Thank you Jesus for the cross

Whoah, Whoah, Whoah

Whoah, Whoah, Whoah

Whoah

Thank you Jesus for the cross

Thank you for the price you paid for us

Giving up your life to save the lost

Thank you Jesus for the cross

Please, music leaders, don’t make performances out of congregation singing with all the musical interludes, the “oh, oh, oh” or the “whoah, whoah, whoah.”  We aren’t in recording studios!

Do Not Sin In Your Anger

Never open the door to the devil.  When you lose your temper you open it wide; it could not be wider.  Nothing opens the door more widely than anger, and for this good reason.  The moment you are controlled by your temper you are no longer able to reason, you are no longer able to think, you can no longer give a balanced judgment, for you are altogether biased on one side and against the other side.  In other words, the power to reason and to think and to equate and evaluate — all that makes a man man — is gone; for the time being he is like a beast, the creature of his own passion and of an instinctive kind of power.  And of course that is just the very situation in which the devil sees his most glorious kind of opportunity!  It was when he persuaded Even and Adam to be angry against God that he very easily had them in his hands.  He aroused in them bitterness and enmity against God, and made them believe that God was against them; and so immediately the devil could do as he liked.  And think of the matter as you know it in life.  Is there anything that leads to more trouble than anger?  Things said in anger and in a bitter moment! — you would almost cut your tongue off, if you could, to get them back; and sometimes, though forgiven, they leave permanent wounds and scars.  What havoc is wrought in the world by sinful anger!

And then a sinful anger leads to the nursing of grievances, to a desire for revenge and to have our own back; it leads us to despise people and to treat them with contempt.  Sinful anger!  The moment it has taken over the devil enters in.  He will keep it going and insinuate thoughts and ideas and implant them.  Indeed, the whole of life can be ruined just because of anger.  Anger is always a cause of confusion, not only in the life of the individual but in the lives of all those who are involved in the business of living with such an individual.  Nothing, I maintain, so constantly gives the devil an opportunity as loss of control in anger.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Darkness and Light: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:17-5:17,” pg. 233-234

Do You Feel Moral Indignation?

Is not one of the greatest tragedies in the world at this hour the failure to feel moral indignation and wrath because of things that are happening?  Is not there a fatal tendency to be complacent  and to explain everything away, and to remain indifferent?  Even though we hear people “on the air” and on public platforms deliberately teaching “Evil, be thou my good,” still there seems to be no protest.  We seem to have lost the capacity to be roused morally by a sense of indignation.  This is, to me, one of the major problems in the world today.  There has been a steady decline in morals, not only in behavior but in outlook and reaction.  We merely shrug our shoulders and allow sin to go unrebuked.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Darkness and Light: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:17-5:17,” pg. 230

Lying Is Prominent In a Life of Sin

I would say . . . that lying is the most prominent and the most common characteristic of the life of sin.  Consider the sequence of events.  You commit a sin; you do not want to be found out, and you do not want anybody to know it, so you tell a lie.  Because you have told that lie  you have to tell another one to cover it; and on and on it goes, by a horrible process of geometric progression.  It multiplies and multiplies until the whole life becomes a lie and a sham.  Is there anything which is more characteristic of the non-Christian, sinful life than this element of lying?  Deceit and lying, sham and pretense, are more obvious in the life of the world than anything else.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Darkness and Light: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:17-5:17,” pg. 218

Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

When it comes to false teachings, it seems to be worse and worse as the weeks roll by.

Andy Stanley continues with his false teachings.  He is so arrogant!  As if kids can’t meet friends in smaller churches?!?!  And he thinks middle-school and high-school kids should be separated just like in the public schools so they will be peer oriented.  His church teaches kids to hate church!  Andy later issued a weak apology, but that doesn’t really cut it, as Tom Buck at Entreating Favor explains.  Pulpit and Pen also has an open letter to Stanley.

Another UMC heretic.  Once you allow a woman to be pastor, this comes as part of the package.

Excellent article exposing “Christian” psychology.

I guess anyone can be a “pastor” nowadays.

Some good information about heretic Christine Caine.

Christians should NOT take “personality tests.”  They are nothing but pure psychobabble. (“Spiritual gifts” tests are just Christianized personality tests.) HT to Marsha West

Chuck Pierce is another one those false teachers claiming to speak for God, and he has way too many gullible followers.

A reader asked me what I knew about Canon Andrew White, and I’d never heard of him.  He sent me this link, which I think sums up pretty good that White is someone to be very wary of.

Asleep No More seems to be THE place lately to learn about Dominionism.  In this latest article Doug even includes several links to older articles dealing with the subject.

Red Letter Christians are just another group of heretics using bad hermeneutics to support their unbiblical and dangerous social gospel ideologies.  And Tony Campolo is one of their leaders.

Jesus Didn’t Say Anything About Homosexuality?  Oh, but He did!

As we approach Easter, there might be theater re-runs of Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ.”  Or perhaps churches will have a movie night for it.  Certainly the DVD version will be prominently displayed in the stores.  DON’T buy it.  DON’T waste your time with it.  It is a horrid mix or Roman Catholicism, mysticism and unbiblical nonsense.  Gary Gilley’s old two-part review might be worth your while.  Part 1 here, part 2 here.

A testimony of a nun who became a Christian left the Catholic Church.  HT to Mary Dalke.

Don’t let anyone kid you — the Seventh-Day Adventist religion is a cult.  Here is some information about their “Bible.”

Beth Moore is what ails us.

How many commands do you think are violated in this “church”?

Frequently abused Bible verses.  I’ve addressed a couple of these on this blog.

More about the movie, “Young Messiah.”  WOW, this movie is straight from hell.

Some humor to end with.  Ah, if only pastors would get arrested FOR using Hillsong stuff!