Opinions or the Word?

The reason for so much of the conflict throughout the church at the present time is that people are fighting over their opinions.  It is not a matter of opinion, yours or mine.  It is what God says that matters.  The basis for our thinking should be the principles from His Word.  They must determine our actions.  To understand this, we must also appreciate that Genesis is foundational to the entire Christian philosophy.  One major difficulty in our churches is that many people do not trust Genesis.  Consequently, they do not know what else in the Bible to trust.  They treat the Bible as an interesting book containing some vague sort of religious truth.  This view is destroying the church and our society. and it is time religious leaders wake up to the fact.  Not to take Genesis 1 through 11 literally is to do violence to the rest of Scripture.

Ken Ham, “The Lie,” pg. 53

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.