We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum. A.W. Tozer
Therefore let God-inspired Scripture decide between us; and on whichever side be found doctrines in harmony with the word of God, in favor of that side will be cast the vote of truth. --Basil of Caesarea
Once you learn to discern, there's no going back. You will begin to spot the lie everywhere it appears.

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service. 1 Timothy 1:12

Monday, June 11, 2018

Good, Bad, and Ugly

I am really getting behind on things.  It’s a good thing I’m retired because otherwise I don’t know how I’d have enough time to go to work!!

I’ve been doing a lot of reading articles which come my way, and I’m again going to be sharing with you:

The Good:
Some good information exposing the false nature of the Orthodox Church.  Be sure to also review my article on the topic.

How long did it take Noah to build the Ark?  One thing everyone assumes is that Noah had ONLY three sons.  The Bible doesn’t say that; the Bible only discusses the three sons who boarded the ark with him.  There is no way Noah would have lived to be 500 without any children, so he must have had many sons and daughters, but only three sons who remained faithful to the Lord.

“Courtship” can have many connotations in the Christian realm (essentially unheard of outside of homeschooling), but the severe idea that every date must be considered a future spouse is just plain stupid. Gothardites seem to be the origin of that nonsense as a way to fight the culture’s sex-saturated dating scene, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

An excellent review of Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life.  I said it was bad from the beginning and yet my pastor at the time, ignoring me, bought stacks to pass out to the men. 

A brief argument for the existence of the soul.  Good apologetics information.

A short rebuttal to KJV Only ideology.

The Bad and/or Ugly
Another examination of Andy Stanley’s “Aftermath” teaching.

False teacher Jim Bakker really needs to just shut up and go away.

Jesse Duplantis is a wolf, a con-man, but not a Christian.  He abuses the gullible people who listen to him as he robs their money.  This talk of his “need” for a new jet is nothing more than rank blasphemy, claiming Jesus talked to him and told him to lie to his followers to buy him a new jet. And he says Jesus would be flying all over the world if He was on earth now. Of course quite a few other of his ilk have done the same.  If your “pastor” or other person you follow tells you Jesus wants him to have a jet plane, run away from these wolves as fast as you can.
(Babylon Bee has a great rejoinder!)

The Anglican Church spirals farther into apostasy.

Bethel Redding — proof of just how aberrant, apostate, heretical, and dangerous that place is.

Tony Campolo continues to go off the deep end.  The man has proven to be a non-Christian.

Oh, the apostasy of the Church at large — the promotion of the secular world’s ideology with sexual immorality. The Underlying theory of this ideology is examined here.

Jen Hatmaker and Beth Moore — what a duo for false teachings!

This disgusting and occult practice of the Roman Catholic Church is mind-boggling.

The “pastor” of this “church” has no clue about Jesus if he thinks Jesus would assist people in their sin.  I examined this issue before. Run from this church!

Can’t you just see Paul and the New Testament Church hosting a pagan celebration? NO? Neither can I, but foolish Christians somehow think assisting pagans in their beliefs is okay with God.

The humorous
Paul Washer preached at Lakewood Church; it has to be true because I saw it on the Internet.

This must be what is seems like in these mega-churches.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re, courtship: "but the severe idea that every date must be considered a future spouse is just plain stupid."

Thank you. A godly grandmother I knew - now home with the Lord - said the exact same thing. This ridiculous view of courtship has been espoused by more than just Gothard. Maybe he originated it, but it caught on. In particular, one quite popular, non-Gothard book comes to mind.

I would say it's a fair criticism of the church that we truly have not offered a viable alternative to the hookup culture of the world. The young men and young women in the church truly need the opportunity to just have a cup of coffee, grab a burger, or whatever, and just get to know each other as people, as brothers and sisters in the Lord, with safeguards from the worldly way (ie, hookup culture), yet without any pressure for marriage, whatsoever.

-Carolyn

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

Carolyn,

I think Gothard is the origin, but others ran with it also. Josh Harris for one ("I Kissed Dating Goodbye") and we listened to him at a home-school conference. Outside of homeschoolers I rarely hear of it. I've had several books over the years, curious about everyone's ideas. We had our own idea of "courtship," but later realized that was a loaded word. Our idea had nothing to do with every person being a potential spouse.

Some assemblies have decent "singles groups" where they do indeed have activities for singles to get together with the opposite-sex members, but we have found that some of these groups can be really silly.

Anonymous said...

Hi Glenn,

Harris's book was exactly the one that came to mind.

-Carolyn


Anonymous said...

I became a Christian in the Anglican church, and some of the best and most faithful teaching I have received also came from the C of E. The article you quote is more than enough to make you weep. The obsession with trying to appear 'nice' to a watching world, which in fact respresents a culture which loves death.

They have lost sight of the one person whom they should really fear. For all the sirupy tolerance and moderation of the document, and its attempt to sound loving, I reckon that which they are doing 'displeased the Lord'.

No wonder the apostle Paul said 'do not be deceived - do you not know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God'. Clearly a section of the C of E is deceived and doesn't know this. What a hell of a shock they will get one day.

Ken B

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

Carolyn,

Harris was (and probably still is) a staunch advocate of Bill Gothard.


Glenn E. Chatfield said...

Ken B,

If you look at my label for "Episcopal Church," the entries there include both the Church of England and its American offspring the Episcopal Church. While the C of E has been a wee bit behind its American cousin, they've been apostate for a very long time.

Anonymous said...

Glenn,

Harris was an advocate of Gothard? Was that stated in his book?

My husband and I only knew about Harris because he of his connection to CJMahaney. We had been at a reformed baptist church that used many of those reformed/reformed baptist materials in discipleship. So we were familiar with all the big names of the reformed baptist world, but personally having nothing to do with their books/materials. A godly friend of ours told us about "Kissed Dating Goodbye" and what a train wreck that book was.

I didn't think the Sovereign Grace Ministries crowd, being strongly Calvinist, would have had anything to do with Gothard. That's why I assumed Harris wasn't connected to Gothard in any way.

Suffice to say, any time the leadership of any church has put men's books in front of us to read so we can be "discipled", we have always refused and said we would just read the Bible. As time continues to pass, our decision to ignore many-most of these popular author's books has proven to be VERY WISE.

-Carolyn

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

Carolyn,

My understanding is that Harris grew up in a Gothardite family, and supposedly his book "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" got ideas from a Gothard publication. Perhaps he's no longer a Gothard advocate. I just assumed as much due to the continued sales of his book, and the fact that he has a newer book on courtship. Possibly he's grown up and left Gothardism behind.

Anonymous said...

Hi Glenn,

Hm. Like I said, I don't know a whole lot other than that particular view of courtship isn't Biblical, and therefore any book that promotes it would not be sound teaching.

-Carolyn