Random Apostasies and Heresies

Too many Christians listen to Glenn Beck and consider him a brother in Christ.  Well, he isn’t.  He is a Mormon, but on top of that he is a new-ager.  As with most Mormons, he wants to sound like a real Christian and gets involved in things only non-discerning Christians get involved in.  His latest attention-getting claim [link gone by 12/21/16] is about a book he is reading - Mark Batterson’s “The Circle Maker.”  Well, go figure.  That book is nothing but unbiblical nonsense and Beck wants to pretend to be a Christian by letting us all know he’s reading it.  Now, don’t get me wrong; Beck is a good conservative and normally has a conservative worldview, as well as a Constitutional understanding of the U.S. government.  Don’t confuse his half-way decent politics for Christianity.  He is still a lost soul.

The reviews of the last two chapters of Michael Brown’s Authentic Fire have been posted here and here.  Brown loses.

As if Rob Bell hasn’t demonstrated his heresy enough, now he’s joined false teacher Oprah Winfrey for a tour.

Ron Livesay has a good review of the “Son of God” movie.  Too bad this wasn’t available to include in my post about that movie.

Rachel Held Evans says she is leaving evangelicalism.  Funny, from my reading of all her teachings, I’d say she never was a part of evangelicalism, let alone a Christian.

Denny Burk has an interesting series going about false teachers.  He tells us how to identify them, and how to deal with them.

Another false teacher in Tim Challies’ series is Marcus Borg.

Speaking of Challies, he has some good things to say to those who focus on numbers of people in their church.

Larry Crabb is one of those so-called “Christian psychologists” who syncretizes the Bible with secular psychobabble, so he’s already been someone who's teachings Christians should avoid.  Now he’s joining forces with false teacher Richard Foster.

So much of the secular world - as well as way too many people who claim to follow Christ - paint Jesus as some nice, tolerant, “girly-man” who would never speak harshly or get angry, etc.  I read two articles this week which soundly refute such nonsense.  "Step over" to read what Stan has to say.

There is no end to the type of entertainment goatherds will use in their attempt to “evangelize.”  I wonder how we’ve been able to successfully evangelize over the centuries without all this nonsense?  Notice how the goatherd abuses Scripture as he sends a kid into a fight.

Cindy Jacobs is one of the those in the “worst false teachers” list.  If you believe her claim of having an unending pot of spaghetti or oil, and non-wearing tires and shoes, then I have a huge bridge to sell you.  But wait — she has some prophecies for 2014 which you’d better pay attention to; that is, if you want to copy them down from this video so as to prove she’s a false prophet.  She also has many unsubstantiated and anecdotal claims about previous prophecies!

When it comes to twisting Scriptures, those who promote homosexuality often hold the prize for making the Bible say what no one else has found in it.

Lastly, I spent the past week reading the book, “An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins,” by Grant H. Palmer.  Palmer is a die-hard Mormon, yet he proved that the Book of Mormon is fraudulent, as well as all the claims behind it.  He proved Joseph Smith was not a prophet, that the BOM witnesses never really saw it, that the first vision never happened, etc.  And yet he always gave these things a pass because of the culture of the time.  The saddest thing — and the perfect example of cult-think — is that it doesn’t matter because Joseph Smith taught that the main focus was Jesus Christ and how we are to follow him.  He ends the book with this: “As Latter-day Saints, our religious faith should be based and evaluated by how our spiritual and moral lives are centered in Jesus Christ, rather than in Joseph Smith’s largely rewritten, materialistic, idealized, and controversial accounts of the church’s founding.  I hope that this study contributes in some way to that end.”  What Palmer doesn’t seem to understand is that the false Jesus of Mormonism has little in common with the Jesus of the Bible, and a false savior can bring no salvation no matter how much you honor him.