Good, Bad, and Ugly

The Good:

An excellent compilation of the basic beliefs of Mormonism.

Why Atheism?  The main reason is accountability.

You’ve seen me post a lot about people of the New Apostolic Reformation, but if you have no idea what the NAR is, here is an article for you.

The 5 Tests of False Doctrine

The Church did NOT replace Israel.  Period.

Fred DeRuvo tells a bit about his time in the Charismatic Movement, and then he does an excellent examination of this movement, including the NAR, demonstrating that the whole idea of “signs and wonders” is from man and not from God.  I recommend perusing Fred’s blog as he continues his series.

The Bad:

Carl Lentz has decided that those who criticize him must “know a different Jesus,” and from his teachings I’d say he is correct — those who criticize him are the ones who know the TRUE Jesus!

A book I’d say was well-worth AVOIDING.

Hank Hanegraaff has been in the apologetics news because he recently became a member of the Orthodox Church.  However, previous to that I’ve had many problems with the theology of this “Bible Answer Man,” including his soft stance on Romanism, and his abuse of Walter Martin’s ministry.  This article exposes a lot more about this man, proving he is someone we should not hold in any esteem, but rather we should avoid all his teachings.

Another example of why Matt Chandler is unqualified to be a pastor due to his lack of discernment.  And here’s a good summation of why he is so problematic.

An excellent examination of why Lou Giglio should be considered a false teacher and a dangerous wolf.

From where did the Seventh-day Adventists get their “healthy eating” ideas?

Shawn Bolz PROVES he is a false teacher/prophet, and this poor woman is going to really disappointed when her debts are still needing paid.

Andy Stanley—sigh!

Beth Moore!

The Ugly:

Any discerning person who knows anything about Rodney Howard-Browne would know that this sign might ward of would be killers of the body, but the teachings of Howard-Browne kill the soul.

A woman “pastor” who is really bizarre.  I don’t understand why anyone would ever listen to this sort of tripe.

More information about Bethel and Bill Johnson.  This place is really bad news.

Todd White:  While wearing a symbol of the pagan religion Rastafarianism (his dreadlocks), he spends a lot of time bragging about himself.  He is a true narcissist, preaching a false gospel.  Oh, and you’d be surprised just how much he’s been fleecing his flock for!  Todd also teaches the heresy that Jesus descended into hell and spent three days being punished there (video evidence is on the Facebook site, “Bethel Church and Christianity” where Bill Johnson also teaches that heresy.)

The humorous 

Oh how I wish this could happen.

Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

Yep, it’s that time again for a scary post!

Talk about leading children astray!!  This is the spiritual danger from heretics like Rodney Howard-Browne.  (And this doesn’t even consider that she’s a young woman “preaching” and “teaching” to the entire congregation of people — who are just as deceived — when Paul clearly says this is forbidden to women.)

This is an example of what happens to people who abuse God’s Word to make a mega-church (with an assistant leader as a woman) with a cult of personality. Glyn Barrett demonstrates why he is totally disqualified as a church leader.

The Andy Stanley Cornucopia of false teachings includes sooooo many links to items demonstrating why he should be disqualified from church leadership!

More examples of the horrible teachings and abuses of Scripture by Bill Gothard.

An interesting article about the Hutterite sect.  I hadn’t studied the Hutterites (although I have heard of them) so I did a wee bit of “Googling” to get some information and found this National Geographic article. [link gone by 7/18/18]  I see a lot of similarities between them and the Amish and Mennonites, especially with some legalistic practices.  Apparently there was a television program by National Geographic which didn’t set well with some of the Hutterites.  Of course this is common when cultic groups are examined.  Wikipedia has a pretty good article about the history of this sect.

Joyce Meyer’s jokes at Steven Furtick’s “revival.”  An excellent example as to why her teachings should be avoided at all costs.

Doug Evans has an excellent examination of false teacher Steven Furtick.

If your “church” does this, leave it and find a God-honoring assembly.  Concert performances are not worship services.

What Is Heresy?

Excellent sermon examining false prophets/teachers, including Beth Moore.

Is John Piper disqualifying himself as a pastor?

Several years back the Emergent movement came up with what became known as “The New Perspective on Paul,” which is nothing but more heretical theology.  I came across articles on the subject by Gary Gilley, which were in my file, and decided it was something which should be made available for as many people as possible so everyone can avoid this false teaching.  It’s a three part series:  part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Refuting Word of Faith teachings.

I was probably one of the original haters!

Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

It really takes a lot of work to keep up with this stuff so as to warn my readers about what is happening!

Excellent article suggesting we should have “stranger danger” teaching in the Church!

Prophet Passion Java, “Bishop” Noel Jones — another false teacher/prophet I’ve not heard of before.  I just don’t get it — why do people believe this trash!?!?!

Similarly, another false prophet gaining an audience is “Prophet Nicholas,” who “launches Holy Ghost Missiles Against Singleness.”  Satan is having a field day!

Gary Gilley had an excellent series on the “Ancient-Future Faith” movement.  Part 1 is “Ancient-Future Faith Or Do All Roads Lead to Rome?”; part 2 is “Ancient-Future Faith: Its Practices”; and part 3 is “Ancient-Future Faith: Its Beliefs.”

It may be satire, but it is right on the money.

It’s pretty sad when people like Greg Laurie help promote the false teachings of Roman Catholicism.

Christians need to quit being cowards.

Priscilla Shirer is really using her popularity to get more and more bizarre with her false teachings.

Seems to me that Thabiti Anyabwile is nothing less than a full-blown racist.  And yet he is cited by so many as a wonderful evangelical teacher.

Seeker-sensitive tithe mongering.  For the members of this congregation: Four minutes of your life wasted, should be leaving you questioning why you went to this church!

Speaking of tithes, it is becoming common for churches to play the secular game of collecting offerings on-line, supposedly for more convenience. First problem is the name of this group, which reinforces the lie that Christians are to tithe.  Another problem with this is that these groups charge a percentage of the take for their own income, so not all money donated goes to the church.  They claim that stats say giving increases when people can do so on-line.  Oh, and I’ve heard it said that it also makes giving convenient when traveling.  But why can’t the travelers just give on their return?  Why do people think they have to give every week? (I get paid once a month and give once a month!)  And, really, why would people increase giving just because they have on-line access?  To lessen their guilt about not attending Church?  Does the possibility of receiving more money really justify the pragmatism of playing the secular world’s game?  Is money really that important to the Church that they will use anything that “works” to get more of it?  I certainly wouldn't want a percentage of my offering going to pay a firm to handle the money -- I want ALL of my offering to go to the Church.  This is just a way to make money off of the church, plain and simple, and the churches go along with it and praise it.

I’ve discovered another female false prophet in a 2-year old video — Stacey Campbell.  Looks to me like she’s demon-possessed.

The United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom is now approving and performing same-sex fake marriages.  This denomination no longer pretends to obey God.

It’s ironic when a church fires a false teacher, not for false teachings, but for his sins.  I think his self-image from his popularity probably had something to do with his actions.  Here’s another short report on Perry Noble’s firing.

The ultimate in pastor worship.  How about returning to worshiping God?

Russell Moore again promoting paganism.  Can you just see Paul asking all the pagans to pray together with him for peace in the Roman Empire?  Neither can I.

Part 3 of the series on the NAR’s “Passion Translation” of the Bible.

Rodney Howard Browne’s church had a 12-year-old girl blaspheming God!

Closing with this.  All I can say is, WOW!  How far down away from the Lord can CCM get?!?

Random Apostasies and Heresies

One reason why apologists such as me continue to press the issue of proper teaching and exposing false teachings is that unbiblical teaching leads to an unbiblical worldview.  The proof can be given in two examples: abortion and homosexuality.   Unbiblical teaching in regards to just these two moral issue have led to the unbiblical worldview that God approves of both and therefore we should also approve of both, no matter how much it leads to the moral corruption of our society.  These two topics, as well a the preaching of the social gospel, have led almost all the mainline denominations into varying degrees of apostasy in regards to their overall theological viewpoints.  Then this leads to more and more un-discipled Christians who remain in the flesh with their worldviews.  And it spreads like cancer through the body of Christ.

As an example of my point, the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has now decided to affirm sexual anarchy with the embracing of openly homosexual members.  Even beyond that, they are embracing the lie of “transgenderism.” 

Even Roman Catholicism has their rogues who support same-sex fake marriage.  Jesuit Priest John Whitney in San Francisco (where else?) marched in the “Gay Pride” parade in “solidarity with and respect for our homosexual brothers and sisters.”  Too bad he forgets that the only brothers and sisters of Christians are other Christians!  Will the Pope excommunicate him?  Not likely.

Speaking of the Pope, he is now offering indulgences to reduce time spent in purgatory if you will just follow him on Twitter!  Yes, the heretical idea of purgatory, and the heretical idea that one can earn their way out of such a non-existent place simply by following the Pope’s “tweets,” is again demonstrating that the Roman Catholic Church is NOT a Christian organization.  IF purgatory was real, does it make sense that God would lessen one’s time there just because they followed the pope’s “tweets”?!?!  If you think purgatory is real, and that indulgences are biblical and beneficial, I invite you to read my article on the subject.

In my last “Random” post I provided some information about the upcoming “Wildgoose Festival” and the false teachers who would be in attendance.  More information can now be found at Lighthouse Trails Research.

Elizabeth Prata has a good list with 20 Characteristics of false teachers.  If you recognize any of these characteristics at your local assembly, perhaps you should think about running out of there!

If you are interested in learning more about the false teachings of people in the Word of Faith cult or other charismania, there is a “Strange Fire Conference” coming in California in October.  The Cripplegate talks a little bit about what you will learn and who will be speaking, but they mainly give a good report about Rodney Howard-Browne’s having his dander up about the exposure people like him will be getting and what is wrong with his pragmatic approach to his false teaching.

Richard Foster has been mentioned in some of my articles about the current move to bring all things mystical into the Church.  Lighthouse Trails Research ministry has a good post about problems with his teachings.

I will end today’s edition with an interesting article about Bill Gothard’s method cultic teaching which “inoculates” his followers against those who would criticize him.  Recovering Grace ministries is a good one for information about Gothardism and the harm his false teachings have caused.

Random Apostasies and Heresies

Let’s start out by telling of the movie I watched yesterday - Man of Steel.  I had read many articles about the numerous Christian references in the film, and most of them I would never have recognized as being such without having read about them first.  I thought the movie, which was over two hours long, was a waste of my money.  The story line really diverted from original Superman history, with Lois Lane knowing who he was from the beginning of her investigations.  The makers of the movie decided an overall gray tone was artistic, I suppose, but I found it very distracting.  The movie was just too much mayhem, and too much implausible and impossible stuff even for science-fiction.  I found nothing edifying, and little entertaining about the movie.  While there were indeed some good messages in the movie, I think they were far outweighed by the violence and mayhem, and the occasional crude language from Lois Lane.

But guess what - it has become the newest movie to be Christian-promoted!  After all, it has Christian themes, so they say.  But, even worse, you can now get “ministry resources” which can be used to “educate and uplift your congregation.”  On this site, you can get “Free Videos, Sermon Outlines and Images.”  Apparently this resource site was available in time for Father’s Day. 

An example of the nonsense is this citation from one of the teaching outlines:

“Kids will better appreciate Jesus and his sacrifice through looking at scripture and the parallels in the Man of Steel movie.”  Really?  The Bible isn’t enough so we have to appeal to a worldly movie story?

This is one of the problems with the Church today - too many leaders feel a necessity to appeal to the basest character of man and provide entertainment instead of meat.  I am really very tired of movies being used for sermon material.  We are to be in the world and not of it.  Keep Hollywood out of the Church!

Catholic Charities has invited a pro-homosexual priest, Greg Boyle as a keynote speaker at their annual gathering in September.  He supports same-sex fake marriage and wants women in the priesthood. This guy is apostate even by Romanist standards, so why has he not been defrocked! 

Rob Bell.  Do I need to say more?  An interesting video of an interview with Bell demonstrates his support for homosexuality and same-sex fake marriage.  After all, “That’s just how the world is.”  But watch the video and you will notice that Bell didn’t answer the question as to whether homosexuality is sinful.  He just keeps giving an obfuscating response.  He doesn’t want to say it isn’t sin in general, but his response does de facto claim it isn’t sinful.  As to his claim that Jesus didn’t say anything about homosexuality, I recommend this blog post by Stan demonstrating the ignorance - and dishonesty - of such a claim.

More on the Andy Stanley controversy as to his view of Scripture.  Denny Burke had two good posts, both of which really need to be perused to see exactly what the problem is.  The first one was posted May 30th, and Andy commented on it.  This led to a second post on June 6th responding to Stanley and his enablers.

False teacher Rodney Howard-Browne isn’t happy about an upcoming conference exposing him and his ilk.  Phil Johnson explains the conference and posts Rodney’s response, as well as a good example of Rodney’s behavior and false teaching in an attached video.

Over at Joe’s Jottings you can read of another example of abused Scripture.  In reference to Job 1:21, Joe asks, “Does the Lord give and then take away?”

Beth Moore is always a good example of what is wrong with the pop-culture teachers in the Church.  I have many articles exposing her false teachings, and they are the articles which get me the most hate mail.  Elizabeth Prata examined an older teaching by Moore  where Moore tells us that God revealed to her that the Church “is paralyzed by unbelief.”  (This statement was in her series, “Believing God,” which I examined five years ago.)  Prata does a very good job of dismantling this claim by Beth.

Lastly, another fad of recent times is called “contextualization of the Gospel.”  This teaching says that in order to reach people with the Gospel message, you have to consider the local culture, etc.  It is a teaching apparently originating in the Emergent movement, but now it is being fostered in more and more missionary work.  Roger Oakland examines the problems with this faddish idea.