Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

I’ve been way too busy this past week or so, but I have been collecting links as I’ve gotten the chance to read — So you are in for a long one!  I like looking at some other blogs which have similar “roundups,” and while they usually have items I’ve already seen, they also have items which I hadn’t seen.  I want to give a general “hat tip” to these sites, and recommend them:
Asleep No More
Guarding the Deposit
Eternity Matters (although Neil doesn’t have his “Round Up” as often as before)
Do Not Be Surprised…

There are many more blogs I follow, but they don’t have routine “roundups.”

Let me start this week’s “RAAH” by telling you of a personal experience I had yesterday.  A local “Christian” book store, “Lemstone,” is part of the “Parable” book store chain.  The owner is retiring, so they are having a close-out sale to clean out their inventory (25% off yesterday).  So yesterday after church we decided to see if there were some books or other items we could use.  I did get a copy of one of my favorite books, “I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist,” so we have one available for giving away.  My wife got about 200 “Pass it On” cards, which we usually leave with tips at restaurants.  But I found walking around that store to be very distressing.  Except for the Bible shelf (which also included garbage like “The Message” and “The Story”), I would say probably 80% of the publications they sold were by false teachers and heretics.  The aberrant and heretical teachings in these books are what makes these “Christian” bookstores so spiritually dangerous.  Of course they also had a huge Catholic section, which, like Family Christian Stores, was added over a decade ago so as to make more money.  After all, isn’t making money more important than protecting people from false teachings?  (Yes, that is a rhetorical question.)  There were so many pictures of “Jesus,” with so many variations, that I saw that as proof that these are just idols of people’s own making.  The “religious” junk filling the store, besides the books, was mostly useless and also promoting false teachings.  So, in my opinion, this city will be better off spiritually with the demise of this store.  Now if only the Family Christian Store would also go under…

The big news this past week or so (besides Bruce Jenner having himself mutilated so he can pretend to be a woman) was about one of the Duggar men having a sinful past.  Well, I never watched the show, but I knew they were Gothardites, and part of the patriarchy and “quiverfull” movements, so nothing which came out surprised me.  What is good about this situation is that lots of exposure is being given to the false teachings the Duggar family follows.  What is bad is that the media makes it look as if this is normal Christianity.  Some examples of informative articles are this one about Gothard’s teaching about sex and this one about Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute’s home-schooling material.  Then there is this article about the entire worldview of the Duggar family; be sure to examine the numerous articles the author links to.  These, and many articles like them, demonstrate just how bizarre these types of cultic movements can be.  We must remember, however, that, contrary to what the media says, this is not a “fundamentalism” problem — it is a legalism problem.

Speaking about Bill Gothard, he has a new web site - or does he?

If you want to see what happens when you mix feminist theology with false prophets, just take a look at this article, and watch the video.  Female Benny Hinns, and about as unbiblical as it gets.

Matt Chandler demonstrates why he is not qualified to be a pastor.

Homosexual Heretics

Interesting video about “Modern Worship?”  If you let it continue, you will find the next couple videos to also be of interest.

A couple months ago I wrote an article explaining why Jesus would not want us to serve a same-sex fake wedding.  The arguments I used to demonstrate why He would not have us do so can also be used for why Christians should not even attend a same-sex fake wedding.  By attending, we are giving approval to the lie being passed of as a wedding to marriage, and approving what God has condemned is rebellion against God.  Yet a Calvary Chapel pastor thinks that attending such a blasphemous event can be okay if the couple aren't Christian!  So it is okay to sanction sin by non-Christians?

Answers in Genesis provides reviews for episode eight and episode nine of “A.D., The Bible Continues,” demonstrating the unbiblical nature and anti-historical nature of much of the series.

Commentator Matt Walsh has a good article about Christians denying the existence of Satan, and the new “Charlie Charlie” game.

Some people can be great Bible scholars, but still can’t be trusted.  Craig Blomberg has a very low view of Scripture.  In the weekly email (6/4/15) from Midwest Christian Outreach apologetics ministry, L.L. (Don) Veinot said, “I suppose I am not overly surprised. When we reviewed his book, How Wide the Divide in our article, "Why the Divide?" where we learn from Craig Blomberg that Evangelicals and Mormons agree ‘The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one eternal God.’ A line from a Simon and Garfunkel song is echoing in my mind as I think about Blomberg's grasp on the Bible, ‘Slip slidin' away.’”  I read that book by Blomberg, and learned he really has no clue about Mormonism.

Another false prophecy by Benny Hinn as he seeks to enrich himself even more.

Finally, maybe you’ll be happy to know that heretic Creflo Dollar is going to get his jet anyway.  I’m sure the money will come from his “church” coffers anyway.

Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

I’m going to start out with the Mormons today, and if there is a reader who is a Mormon it would be interesting to see their take on the issue of perfectionism.  I’m looking forward to the next installment.

I’d also like to see a Mormon explain how their President/Prophet can teach something that doesn’t represent the Mormon church!

There is a group of apostates and heretics who claim the title of “Progressive Evangelicals,” but they are really “CINOs” — "Christians In Name Only."  A group of these PE/CINOs actually have the audacity to call themselves, “Evangelicals for Marriage Equality,” while launching an anti-marriage campaign promoting support for same-sex fake marriage among the Church!  Chelsen Vicari has a good commentary about this group.

I read another blog this week which pointed me to this next item.  Charisma Magazine is a great place to find all that is bizarre in the world of charismania.  Now they have an article providing us with a prophecy of which we really should take heed.  I had to chuckle at the very first item, where the “prophet” prophecies about the Middle East; anyone who doesn’t know that the problems in that region are only going to get worse hasn’t been paying attention.  AH, but this “prophet” claims that for over a decade he has named 2014 as the year which would lead to a “boiling cauldron” over there.  From there his “prophecies” just go down hill in inanity.  Pay no attention to such self-proclaimed prophets.

Would you like to know if you are being spiritually manipulated?  Recovering Grace has a good article about the “tools” spiritual manipulators use.

As if Jonathan Cahn didn’t beguile enough non-discerning readers with his book, The Harbinger, he now has a new book titled, “The Mystery of the Shemitah.” Can someone explain why no Christians for the past 200+ years of the America’s existence have discovered all these “secrets” which Cahn and his ilk crank out? 

Of course there are many more of those who claim all sorts of things about Biblical prophecies and how they affect us today - and the funny thing is, they often disagree with each other!  This is a TV program you should be sure to pass by.

Jimmy Carter — AGAIN!  This “committed Christian” has no real understanding of Scripture if he can say with a straight face that Jesus never “discriminated against anyone.”  Didn’t Christ rail against the Pharisees?  Didn’t he rail against false teachers?  Isn’t that “discriminating”?  Carter thinks that sexual behavior is no different than skin color!!

A Bishop of the Episcopal Church worships the creation rather than the Creator.  I’d wonder why he hasn’t been excommunicated except the answer is the Episcopal Church.

Elizabeth Prata has an excellent article about the books which are being virtually inhaled by non-discerning Christians who are accepting all sorts of occult and new age teachings just because the authors claim to get their teachings from God.

Sola Sisters have a thought-provoking article about the Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements.

Lastly, in today’s Cedar Rapids Gazette I learned of an apostate “church” organization which has been around for four years:  the Affirming Pentecostal Church, International.
The claim to fame of this “church” is that they are “affirming” of sexually perverse lifestyles; they affirm and celebrate that which is an abomination to God.  It is a subject of our local news because a branch just opened locally.  Oh, and if you disagree with them, you are labeled as a “hater.”  I guess God is a “hater” also.

“Courageous” and the Patriarchy Movement

Back on September 30th I did a report on the movie “Courageous” expressing some concerns about two specific issues in the film and their links to the “patriarchy” and “Quiverfull” movements.

This past week I read two articles about the movie and also about the surrounding teachings of the patriarchy movement which I think everyone should read:

The first one is from an excellent blog which exposes this aberrational movement, Under Much Grace.  I recommend this blog for more education on this subject.

The other article is from the blog, Commandments of Men.  I can’t give hearty approval to this site because the owner is not complementarian in his understanding of roles for women in the church, so discernment is needed, but he does have some good information about these aberrational movements.  (Even more than that, the owner, Lewis, has stated this to me:  "The majority of NT ideas on gender roles come from Paul, not from Christ, so I think any individual, male or female, has to rely on the leading of the Holy Spirit rather than literal interpretations of a man's opinion in a male-dominated political/social environment 2000 years ago. Otherwise, Paul's writing just becomes a NT version of law.") 

The “Patriarchy” and “Quiverfull” movements, including such organizations as Vision Forum, are spiritually abusive and legalistic movements, as well as being a total misrepresentation of proper biblical family relationships.

“Courageous” - The Movie

I took my wife to see the move Courageous this afternoon. I was looking forward to this movie because the other ones by Sherwood Baptist have been very good.

As expected, the story was good, with an excellent message, but it certainly earned its PG-13 rating; it was not a movie I suggest taking grade-school kids to, and there were quite a few there this afternoon. The subject matter was sometimes intense, and sometimes a bit mature for youngsters.

There were a few things about the movie that bothered me a bit. First, I thought it was a much slower-moving story than the previous movies, but that was okay. But from a technical standpoint, the camera work was quite bothersome; too many in-your-face close-ups and the camera jumped around a lot. But these are minor points overall.

I found two issues disturbing. One was the whole idea of a formal ceremony for signing a resolution to be a better father and husband - as if one can‘t resolve to do so without the formalities. The other was the issue of the father with the teenage girl giving her a ring and requesting her to give him her heart for protection until she is married - again, the idea of a father having a protective role is good, but the ideology behind this belief in having the daughter give her heart to her father is aberrant. These ideas reeked of “patriarchy” and other like movements (Gothardism, Quiverfull, Vision Forum, et al) with their legalistic and aberrant teachings, including “courtship”. And at the end of the movie they thanked Jim & Michelle Duggar and their 19 kids.

Of course I know the “Christian” book stores will be selling those resolution forms by the thousands to all those who want to be just like the movie with a formal ceremony. (It reminds me of the formal certificates with ceremony Gothardites do with circumcision!) And little heart rings will sell like popcorn!

What worries me is that too many people, lacking discernment, could be easily led into these aberrational movements because of the popularity of the movie and the desire to be better fathers. This is something those watching this move should be alert for.