Good, Bad, and Ugly

Lots of stuff coming across my computer this week, so I need to get it out before it gets too overwhelming!

The Good:

Follow-up about watching “Game of Thrones.”  I can’t understand the mentality of those who responded to the previous post.

No, reading the Bible is NOT equivalent to watching “Game of Thrones.”

Sin is NOT all the same.

Loving your neighbor.

Did Jesus visit other parts of the world?

Questions for KJV Onlyers — part 1.  Parts 2 and 3 are linked to at the bottom of the article.

Why you shouldn’t wear a crucifix.

Same-sex attraction is sinful.

The Nashville Statement — you’ll need to read this to understand some “ugly” articles below.  A good commentary on how unbelievers are responding.

The Bad:

Another reason to avoid Michael Brown. He seems to have absolutely NO discernment.

A wee bit of humor about heretics Kenneth and Gloria Copeland not stopping Hurricane Harvey.

IHOP Warning — the place is a cult with lots of false teachers.

Awana is going farther down the road to apostasy.  

The Ugly:

Christianity in the U.K. is spiraling into total apostasy.

“Transgender” heresy.  There is no such thing as “transgender” — one is born either male or female and no amount of surgical mutilation or hormones will change that.  Parents pushing that agenda on their children should be charged with child abuse.

An example of all that is wrong with Jen Hatmaker.  She continues to prove she is not a real Christian.  A lot of people are like her in regards to this subject — I saw it on the Internet.

Perry Noble — need I say more?

Monotony for Worship

I really dislike “praise choruses” because they are usually vacuous in meaning and almost always repetitious and monotonous — and that doesn’t even consider whether or not the lyrics are worth while!

Case in point is one we (congregation, not me) sang this week.  Take a look:

You Are Holy

Marc Imboden / Tammi Rhoton

You are holy

You are mighty

You are worthy

Worthy of praise

I will follow

I will listen

I will love you

All of my days

I will sing to 

And worship

The Kingdom is worthy

I will love and adore Him

And I will bow down before Him

And I will sing to and worship the Kingdom is worthy 

And I will love and adore

And I will bow down before Him

You're my prince of peace

And I will live my life for You

You are holy

You are mighty

You are worthy

Worthy of praise

I will follow

I will listen

I will love you

All of my days

I will sing to 

And worship

The Kingdom is worthy

I will love and adore Him

And I will bow down before Him

And I will sing to and worship the Kingdom is worthy 

And I will love and adore

And I will bow down before Him

You're my prince of peace

And I will live my life for You

I will sing to 

And worship

The Kingdom is worthy

I will love and adore Him

And I will bow down before Him

And I will sing to and worship the Kingdom is worthy 

And I will love and adore

And I will bow down before Him

You're my prince of peace

And I will live my life for You

You are holy

You are mighty

You are worthy

Worthy of praise

I will follow

I will listen

I will love you

All of my days

You are holy

You are mighty

You are worthy

Worthy of praise

You are holy

You are mighty

You are worthy

Worthy of praise

Oh, and we did it sort of as a round with “Guys” singing a different line than the “Gals.”  Reminded me of grad school.  I guess it is good for an emotional high, but it just irritated me; first, because there is no music to read with it so I had no idea what the tune was and, second, I despise such monotony because it takes no thought whatsoever.

“Worship” leaders, you can do better than this — get rid of these “radio songs.”  PLEASE!

Let’s end this “rant” with some humor — showing how no one pays attention to lyrics of songs they sing in church!  Ah, but it makes them feel good!

Did They Really Say That?!?

People have even argued about whether God is male or female.  But the Bible itself tells us that He’s both!  That’s right.  In the Hebrew language, all words have gender. They’re either male or female. But the Hebrew word Jehovah is both masculine and feminine. He’s as much female as He is male and as much male as He is female.

Originally mankind was that way too.  When God first made “man,” he was as much female as he was male.  Then God separated the female part out and made “wo-man,” or “the man with the womb.”  After that, man and woman had to come together to be perfectly whole.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, “Vive la Difference,” From Faith to Faith, published by Kenneth Copeland Publications, 6/28/82.

I don’t know Hebrew, and I’ll bet my bottom dollar the Copelands don’t know it either.  But here’s what I DO know:  

*Gender in language is not the same as gender in people.  Language gender may or may not directly refer to the same gender human—leastways that’s what happens in English.

*“Jehovah” is not a Hebrew word; it is a Germanic transliteration of YHWH.  My guess is the Hebrew is not “masculine and feminine,” rather it is probably neuter.

*God is neither male nor female—He is spirit.  He uses masculine terms for Himself by way of analogy as being a Father to mankind, a husband to his people (the bride), etc.

*Man was NEVER part female.  God did not take the “female part” out of Adam, rather he took a part of Adam to make a woman as a lesson to him about who and what she was. 

*“Woman” does NOT mean “the man with the womb.”  This is about fallacious as it gets.  The pun only works in English (i.e. “womb-man”)—if you can call it a pun.  Copeland just made that up out of whole cloth.

*Adam was not then remade “whole” by the woman— An unmarried man would be, by the Copeland’s claim, an “un-whole” person!

*Lastly, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland are rank heretics who have no clue about the true Gospel, and are unsaved people who are leading their followers into spiritual dangers of every sort.

Good, Bad, and Ugly

The Good:

11 Jehovah’s Witnesses’ beliefs you should know.

Josephus and John the Baptist — is Josephus correct or are the Gospels?

Is “Holy Fire” really something we want?

The Bad:

Beth Moore just keeps getting worse.

Andy Stanley — again.

More horrid stuff from Bethel Redding’s Kris Vallotton.

The false gospel of felt-needs.

Carl Lentz and Justin Bieber — their actions briefly examined, but really well done.

A little bit more about the two men.

More proof that Steve Chalke is a dangerous false teacher.

Football — America’s leading false god.

How much more evidence do you need to accept the fact that Joyce Meyer is a rank heretic?

Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, Richard Foster – Are We Wrong in Calling Them Emergent/Contemplative?

The Ugly

Perry Noble, Chris Hill, and T.D. Jakes.  An 11-minute video exposing these horrid “pastors.”

Jennifer LeClaire keeps getting worse and worse.  She is a good reason (among many) to never read Charisma Magazine.

Jen Hatmaker — sigh.

Crooked Televangelists never die, they just descend further down the rabbit hole of Deceit

Beware of Bob Lenz

This past Saturday I was asked by my retired pastor friend to find information about Bob Lenz and his program called “Dignity Revolution.”  Mr. Lenz has been invited to speak at the church my friend attends, and then the next day speak at a public school in a nearby town.

Well, looking up the program I found it to be a well-respected anti-bullying program which teaches the dignity of all people.  BUT, if Lenz was going to speak at a church, there had to be more to him than that.  So I did my usual search on Google by adding “false teacher” to his name.

Bob Lenz heads an organization called Life Promotions, which includes his Dignity Revolution program.  This organization also puts on the annual Lifest “Christian” Music Festival, and THIS is where I found a lot of troubling aspects about Mr. Lenz.

The first Lifest information I found was in regards to the 2010 event.  I thought this article calling it a “Deathfest” was quite appropriate, based on the types of “Christian” performers invited.  However, there was a huge brouhaha in regards to Lenz inviting Jim Wallis as a speaker, as there should have been (if you aren’t familiar with the outright heresy and liberal theology of Wallis’, I’ll be more than happy to fill you in).

Searching about this incident I learned some really bad news about Lenz and how he stands with Wallis — he is NOT uninformed about Wallis’ theology.  First, Lenz claims that those who speak against Wallis are slandering him (as noted in the above linked article).  I came across one article which cited Lenz as saying Wallis made him the man he is today!  But the most egregious defense of Wallis by Lenz is found in this article, which is a sermon citing Lenz in a message to his “Lifest family.”  “I know Jim Wallis. Jim Wallis loves Jesus. … He believes and upholds the Apostles Creed. I do not agree with all of his politics, or even some of his non-essential theology. But I cannot cancel him based on the accusations that have been made. I have not found enough facts or truth in them to cancel him.”  Wallis’ theology proves he worships a different Christ than the one of the Bible, and it isn’t “non-essential theology” which make Wallis problematic, yet he's was at the 2013 festival and is again slated for 2017.

Bob is apparently part of the heretical “Red Letter Christian” movement, since he writes for their site. He was a speaker at Together 2016, sharing the limelight with a whole raft of false teachers.

In regards to Lifest in general, there is much to condemn.  I found information on most of the festivals from 2010 on, and they seem to all have the same problem of bad choices for performers as well as for speakers (such as psychiatrists), many of whom are known false teachers (Wallis, Tony Campolo, Willow Creek staff, John Ortberg, Luis Palau, et al ).  They are also ecumenical, and the Catholic Mass is celebrated (2016, but this link shows the same for the 2011 version) during the festival.

Lenz also put on an event called Power of One to which he invited heretic Michael Gungor, causing a Christian radio station (with more discernment that Lenz) to pull out.

If you promote false teachers, then you are promoting what they teach — you are giving them tacit approval even if you don’t specifically teach what they teach.  If you promote what they teach, then you are actually teaching people to follow their teachings, which makes them your teachings also, which makes YOU a false teacher.  This definitely makes Bob Lenz a false teacher to be avoided.

A Meme Day

Some Good Stuff — No Bad or Ugly

We’ve been doing a lot of traveling this past week or so, with band practice, visiting friends, and a 600-mile round trip to an aviation museum.  And we have a parade tomorrow.

I’ve been getting rid of more books, as some of you know by being the first claimants.  When you see a post for a book giveaway, be sure to look at the comments section where I respond to comments not posted — that’s how I communicate with the recipient if they don’t email me.  With this past one I wasn’t able to take it down for over 24 hrs due to the trip, but I had already posted a comment to the “winner” and another comment to the second in line letting them know they missed it, yet many hours later someone requested the book.  So be sure to look at the comments first.  Of course there may be a few requests in my inbox which I haven’t gotten to because I’m away from home, so then the post will be still up without comments.  Just have patience.  And be watching — I have five more already selected but since I won’t be able to respond and/or mail for a couple days, I’ll wait for posting.

Okay, let’s look at the good stuff I’ve been reading:

What’s Natural for You

Fake news about early Christianity.

The compromised church and spiritual blindness.

About that “slain in the spirit” nonsense.

Protecting your assembly from false teaching.

An evaluation of Muslim dreams and visions of Isa (Jesus):  Part 1 and Part 2

How did the canon of Scripture come to be?

Chris Tomlin — we don’t need your new choruses for old hymns.  I’ve pointed this out many times.

Thus Saith Rome — an excellent article about Roman Catholicism.  From a 2007 Midwest Christian Outreach Journal now available on the ‘net.

Sex should be spiritual

And finally, a great quote!

A worship leader serves his congregation best when he chooses songs they can sing and sing well. He is highly attuned to their ability. He prioritizes the singability of songs over their newness or oldness or author or theological density. He gauges his success not by his own worship, but by theirs. His question is not “how did the band feel?” but “how did the congregation sing?” When he steps back and hears his church singing—really singing—, his joy is complete.  Tim Challies

Praising God is no Passing Fancy

I am aware that the recent history of the church has been beset with innumerable fads.  One new idea about theology, methodology, lifestyle, and church life follows another.  Each is presented with fanfare and excitement. Each flashes and splashes, then sparkles and sputters, and then is replaced by another new idea.  We are weary with fads.

But the praise of God is not a passing fancy!  It is one of the most elemental, fundamental, and necessary factors of the life of faith in this and any age.  It is the goal and direction of all creation.  The price of God is the occupation of all His holy angels.  The praise of God is the purpose of man.  The praise of God is the end result of all God’s wonders, all His being, and all His acts.  If man will not praise God, the very stones will! (cf. Luke 19:40).  He has redeemed us for the praise of His glory (cf. Eph. 1:6,12,14).  This is no fad!

Ronald B. Allen, And I Will Praise Him, pg.26