Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

My first two items today are with a hat tip to Erin Benziger for alerting us to them on her blog.

Andy Stanley is becoming more and more dangerous in his teachings.  He’s taking a road which should not be taken.

Then we have more information about Rob Bell’s interview with Oprah and his promotion of homosexuality.  For all his claims, there is nothing about Bell’s ideology or teaching which can be called “Christian.”  He’s a heretic, plain and simple.

In regards to homosexuality, the PCUSA denomination is continuing its downward spiral into total apostasy.

Elizabeth Prata has a good blog which I follow.  I know, she’s hard-core when it comes to Calvinism, but I just tiptoe around her TULIPs and read for the good stuff.  However, she has twice within the past week made proclamations which I think are mighty presumptuous.  First, she said “Copts are not Christians.”  Then she said, “Catholics are not Christians.”  I argue that while these organizations are corrupt versions of the Christian faith and are not Christian as organizations, we cannot know the individuals’ stance before God.  There is enough of the truth among the teachings of these organizations (and Eastern Orthodoxy) that people have come to be true Christians in spite of their teachings.  I’ve known many Catholics who are true Christians, and I’m suggesting the same would be the case for Copts.  Call the organization non-Christian, but don’t judge the individuals.  These organizations are not like cults who have no true teachings about Christ, such as the LDS and JW, whose members can never be Christians as long as they remain with those beliefs.

Now that I’ve broached the subject of Catholicism, it seems they have some real problems among their ranks.   Many Catholic schools and institutions are accepting the legitimacy of same-sex unions!!!!  As long as the Church leadership does not excommunicate or somehow exercise discipline and rebuke them, these actions will continue to spread.

Then we have an assembly, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, which has a female “lay minister” which performed a same-sex fake “marriage,” and the SBC “may” expel them.  Why “may”?  The deed was done and needs discipline.  The very fact that they had a woman lay minister should be warrant enough for their expulsion.  I’m going to assume that the “may” will end up being “did.”

I agree with those who think that homosexuality will be a great falling away from God for the Church in general.  The denominations are falling like dominoes, and individual assemblies even more so.  (HT to Lindsay)

Watch out for the “IF” gathering.  It is a hotbed of false teachers.

Hip and Thigh has a good article refuting the claims of liberals, and KJV Onlyists about the inerrancy of Scripture.  He follows up with a response to their challenges.

And yet another article about Beth Moore, except this one is more about the un-discerning church which propagates Moore’s teachings.

As if Roma Downey has mainstreamed enough false teachings with her series, “The Bible,” and “Son of God,” she is now about to release a new series titled, “A.D.”, which “reenacts key events in the New Testament.”  We can certainly expect revisionist, liberalized telling of such “key events.”

An interesting way of approaching Jehovah’s Witnesses is provided by Don Veinot of Midwest Christian Outreach apologetics ministry.

Lastly, watch out for Peter Enns.  He tends to get a lot of press time from liberal Christians.  He’s a former Senior Fellow with the BioLogos group which denounces Creationism in favor of evolutionism.  As this article demonstrates, for being an acclaimed theologian, he is nothing less than heretical in his teachings.

Random Apostasies and Heresies

I’ve been quite busy lately with bagpiping: Highland games in Springfield, IL, weekly band practice, playing for a funeral 141 miles away, heading 112 miles away for a parade, and a birthday party.  We also were busy with our book-table ministry, tons of yard work, and gone away from home much too often to get much done!  I decided I’d better get this “Random” post out before all the news is obsolete!

Francis Chan has not been a teacher I can recommend because he is often so touchy-feely, and likes pop-psychology.  But now I learned some news which demonstrates that Chan is not a teacher to listen to.  He seems to be too supportive of Roman Catholicism, and has apologized for allowing Mike Gendron to speak on the subject at his church.

Heresy is running rampant in the church due to acceptance of evolution and the millions of years time scale.  It seems Adam and Eve cannot be accepted as literal people with evolutionism.  Ken Ham gives an example of this heresy entering the church.

Ham also wrote about heretic Peter Enns being sponsored by a Baptist Church in Dayton, OH, who is a prime example of the heresy of mythologizing Adam & Eve.   As long as churches continue to compromise the faith, there will be fewer and fewer solid Christians to stand for the faith when persecution comes.

Steven Furtick, and his bizarre “Elevation Church,” have been frequent subjects of my “Random” posts.  Now Matt Slick at CARM has posted a short examination of Furtick.  While I disagree with Slick about Calvinism, he still demonstrates that the man is a first-class wolf. 

Ah, good old Christianity Today Astray is at it again.  Their review of a TV show is not what you’d expect from a Christian reviewer, but with that magazine I guess I’m not surprised.   Erin Benziger said this about it:  Did I miss something? Christianity Today sings the praises of finally-ending sitcom, The Office, a show which blasphemes, mocks and in short, hates God. This article lauds the romance and trials of the relationship of well-loved characters Jim and Pam. A relationship that began with fornication and led to marriage when a child was conceived. I used to watch The Office until one day God graciously showed me that I was celebrating something that, in every story and script, went against everything I professed as a Christian. I can hear the criticism: "You're such a prude!" but, really? Television like this stunts our spiritual growth as Christians. It may make you laugh, but at what are you really laughing?

Mark Driscoll is another frequent name on these posts because of self-centeredness, his looker-room jock attitude about sex - which he talks about quite a bit - and his special revelations from God, let alone his blasphemous jokes about Jesus having tattoos.  Pyromaniacs has an excellent open letter to Mark which everyone should read to learn about this wolf in sheep’s clothing.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has been quite apostate for a long time, as I have previously demonstrated on this blog.  Recent news has them uncomfortable with the idea that God is angry with sin, and that they wanted to change the words of a hymn which reflected God’s anger.  They want a God who has no problem with sin, obviously, or else they would have major problems with their support of homosexuality.

Another name which pops up on these “Random” posts as a false teacher is Brian McLaren.  His latest money-grubbing scam sounds like what you’d expect from the Word of Faith heretics, coupled with social gospel promotion. 

A bit over a year ago I wrote an article about the false teaching in Mark Batterson’s book, “Be a Circle Maker.”  Of course my article was just from a layman’s pen, but this week Tim Challies posted HIS review and also had much critical so say about the book.

And lastly, the new pope seems to be a universalist, with a claim that atheists are saved.  Am I understanding this correctly?