Did They Really Say That?!?!

“I don’t think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and, hence, counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise, than the often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.”

Robert Schuller, Self-Esteem, the New Reformation, pp.14-15

Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

Robert Schuller died last week.   With the false gospel he taught, I can’t imagine that he was a true Christian.  Elizabeth Prata had a good report about him.

Christianity Today Astray never cease to support the aberrant, false teachers, and apostate churches.  Their glowing report about the Church of England’s first woman bishop is a prime example as to why this publication cannot be trusted.

I just finished reading Chelsen Vicari’s book, Distortion: How the New Christian Left is Twisting the Gospel & Damaging the Faith.  Aside from her positive comments about some dubious and false teachers, it is a pretty good wake-up call to the Church.  One teacher she did expose for what he is, is Andy Stanley.  On pages 130 and 131, Vicari reports about Stanley’s January 2014 interview with Kirsten Powers of USA Today.  Stanley said that he finds it “offensive that Christians would leverage faith to support the Kansas law” [regarding religious liberty vs homosexuals] and that “Serving people we don’t see eye to eye with is the essence of Christianity.  Jesus died for a world with which he didn’t see eye to eye.”  He also said, “If a bakery doesn’t want to sell its products to a gay couple, it’s their business.  Literally.  But leave Jesus out of it.”  His defense of the homosexual cause has been noted in some of my previous articles, and this just adds “fuel to the fire.”  He worships a different Jesus if he thinks Jesus would be okay with assisting homosexual practitioners with their sin.  “Leave Jesus out of it”?!?  Absolutely NOT!  I think I covered this subject well in the article I posted on Tuesday.

A Benny Hinn “anointed” false prophet, Rebecca Greenwood, is an example of all that is wrong with the charismatic movement.  Can you imagine God giving a person a prophetic ability to predict what will happen next in movies?!?  Being interviewed by false teachers/false prophets Mike and Cindy Jacobs should be evidence enough that anything said will not be from God!

An interesting tid-bit about the New Apostolic Reformation; Ted Haggard was one of the originals in that false belief system.

A couple reports to bring to your attention in regards to the new Roma Downey “A.D.” TV mini-series:  Sunny Shell and Stand Up For the Truth.

This last one should leave you shaking you head.  A perfect example of what happens when one receives poor teachings about the Christian faith is Brittney Cooper, a professor at Rutgers University.  She certainly is worshipping a Jesus of her own imagination, but these beliefs are quite common among liberal so-called “Christians.”

False Gospels

Paul cursed those who taught that one must believe the gospel and keep the law in order to be saved (Gal. 1:6-12).  Such a slight addition destroyed the gospel.  No one believing that message could be saved!  Nor is anyone a Christian who believes one of today's popular diluted gospels.

Oswald Chambers warned lest, in our zeal to get people to accept the gospel, we manufacture a gospel acceptable to people and produce "converts" who are not saved.  Today's most popular perversion is the "positive" gospel which is designed to offend no one with the truth.  Robert Schuller, for example, has said that it is demeaning to call anyone a sinner and that Christ died to restore human dignity and self-esteem.  He "wins many to Christ" with that seductive message -- but such a gospel does not save sinners.

Dave Hunt, "God's Nonnegotiable Gospel - Part 1," The Berean Call, April 1993

Random Apostasies and Heresies

Last week I came across an interesting article about “Why Impostors Love the Church.”  It’s thought-provoking, and anyone who has witness such phenomena can heartily agree with the author’s conclusions.

Last week I was asked to research Andrew Wommack, to see if he was a teacher people should be following.  Well, I came across quite a bit of information demonstrating the answer to be “NO.”  The man is just another Word of Father goatherd.  While he does seem to have some good teachings (I looked over his site), his WOF theology takes him out of the running for any teacher I would recommend.  The Christian Research Institute has a good review of Wommack and his dangers.

Meanwhile, Harold Camping has admitted he sinned with his prophetic claims.  Too bad he doesn’t repent of his other false teachings.

The Roman Catholic Church seems to be often good for amusement: they had an exhibition of relics this past weekend.  If you ever felt the need to “venerate” phony relics to “bring you closer to God,” you missed this one.  If you really believe what they displayed are pieces of the Cross and the crown of thorns Jesus wore, then let me tell you about the Cardiff Giant.

It never ceases to amaze me that Christians will participate in some of the worst of entertainment.  I personally know some Christian families who are letting their children read “The Hunger Games” series, as well as heading for the movie version.  I didn’t know anything about this subject until reading a review by Berit Kjos, and I find it difficult to justify as entertainment for Christians.  And I thought it was bad enough that Christians found the “Twilight” series worthy of their time and money!

The controversy about what Rick Warren is or isn’t doing by coddling Islam is still a big topic.  What I have learned is that the evidence proves Warren is not very truthful in some of his denials.  Sola Sisters has an interesting chart I recommend for your viewing.  Two days later Ken Silva had a good post on the same subject, and I trust you will agree that Warren is trying his best to cover his wolf-tracks.

Robert Schuller has long been one of the rankest heretics posing as a Christian, and his family pretty much holds to his self-esteem gospel.  I came across an interesting video this week, showing Schuller’s daughter Sheila giving a talk.  I didn’t realize she was one of the Crystal Cathedral’s pastors, but I guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise.  She is now going to start her own church! Just what we need, another heretical assembly.

Today’s report will end with three good apologetics articles I recommend for your perusal:

1.  Marsha West has an excellent article about the Word of Faith movement, including a wee bit of exposing Joel Osteen as an example of such false teachers.  What I really like about the article is that she isn’t afraid to “name names.”  Take a look at her list if you want to see the movers and shakers in the WOF cult, and stay away from them!

2.  Stan over at “Winging It” has a good article on discerning the wolves in sheep’s clothing.  

3.  Apprising Ministries has an outstanding article about why women pastors are unbiblical.  I think the fact that every church with women pastors (ELCA, Episcopal, UMC, PCUSA, et al) goes liberal in their theology should be evidence enough, but feminists don’t want to accept what God has to say.  They’d rather claim it was just a patriarchal system of the culture which Paul was talking about, or perhaps Paul was the problem and came up with the teaching himself.

Robert Schuller - Heretic

I've been quite busy with a project for work and haven't had an opportunity to do much apologetics lately, meaning no blog work.

This week I read the latest issue of Think On These Things, the monthly apologetics letter from Southern View Chapel, Springfield, IL. Featured this month was Robert Schuller, a first-class heretic who has one of the largest congregations (of course) and sells lots of his books in every so-called "Christian" book store in the nation. I've read lots about, and by, Robert Schuller over the years and he gets his followers only because he makes them feel good.

Rather than do a real thorough expose on Schuller, which could be quite time-consuming, I'm just going to give you a taste of his teachings from the TOTT article. If you need more evidence as to Schuller's heresy, feel free to e-mail me with that request. That said, here's Mr. Schuller's words:

"Sin is any act or thought that robs myself or another human being of his or her self-esteem." Gee, and I thought sin was rebellion against God and violating His commands.

"A person is in hell when he has lost his self-esteem." Seriously -this is Schuller's definition of hell! Has he read the New Testament at all?

"As we focus on Jesus Christ, we shall discover a new theology, one that offers salvation from shame to self-esteem." Oh, and the gospel we are to proclaim is to "tell people everywhere that God wants all of us to feel good about ourselves!" Can someone show me any of this from Scripture?

To be born again "means that we must be changed from a negative to a positive self-image - from inferiority to self-esteem, from fear to love, from doubt to trust." Hmmmmmm.

We must have a "new reformation" according to Schuller: "It is precisely at this point that classical theology has erred in its insistence that theology be 'God-centered,' not 'man-centered.'" And here I thought theology, by definition, was the study of God! I always thought our Christian - and even Jewish - faith was centered on God, but I guess I've been wrong all this time. So do we worship man now?

Schuller has called a Muslim Grand Mufti "truly one of the great Christ-honoring leaders of faith." This leads me to wonder if Schuller knows anything at all about Islam, let alone Christianity.

Finally, according to Schuller those in the kingdom of God are "Everyone who does some act that builds self-esteem and self-respect in other persons."

I could go on and on from my many reference sources, but I think you get the point: Robert Schuller has no clue what the Christian faith is really about. If he truly believes what he teaches, then I can't see where he is a true Christian either. But hundreds of thousands, if not millions, follow him ardently because he makes them feel good.

Schuller's mentor was Norman Vincent Peale, who taught a lot of the same self-esteem gospel. Schuller is also the root of the whole market-driven, seeker-sensitive philosophies, and is a mentor of Rick Warren and many others in those churches. So why do we not hear him warned against by our local church leaders? I've gone into too many homes of friends and have seen Schuller's books on their coffee tables and book shelves. I usually do not fail to give them a gentle warning about him, but what about all those we share the pews with who have no such warnings?

Robert Schuller - another of those who will be told by Christ, "I never knew you."