Random Apostasies and Heresies

The election last week has disappointed most true Christians, because even though most of us really wanted someone better than Mitt Romney for our candidate, just about anyone would be better for the Judeo-Christian worldview than Barak Obama.  

But I think Christians have a lot to answer for, because for the most part the Church as a whole has accepted and adopted the world's ways and is no longer the light exposing the darkness.  The Church allows so much aberrational, heretical and other false teaching to go unexposed for fear of "causing division" that a large percentage of Christians have no idea what the Faith really teaches, or the worldview it expects of them.  And so they follow every wind of doctrine and play marbles with the World, then wonder why the world is going amok.  Remember that unbiblical doctrine leads to unbiblical worldview.  Living and supporting an unbiblical worldview will eventually lead to a loss of our religious freedoms.  So think about that the next time you are unhappy with apologists exposing the wolves among the sheep!

I found another interesting review of Rachel Held Evan’s book, “A Year of Biblical Womanhood.”  Apparently, real Christian women are not happy with the fraudulent version Evans’ book projects.

Christine Caine, Beth Moore and Lisa Bevere have taken their aberrant and unbiblical teachings over to Greece.  “Do Not Be Surprised...” has a good report on this bad news.

Arch-heretic Joel Osteen makes so many people feel good while going to Hell that he just keeps writing more and more useless books.  Tim Challies had a good article about how Osteen’s ilk lead people to Hell as they keep on smiling and being “nice.”

Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) has always been a strong bastion of the Word of Faith heresy, and it has always dismayed me to see some solid teachers appearing on that station giving credence to it.  With scandals currently going on at TBN, there are questions as to whether real teachers should pull out.  I want to know why they compromised in the first place!

Apprising Ministries posted “The New Evangelical Christian Creed.”  While it is somewhat amusing to read - knowing how factual it actually is among some people - it is also a shame that such beliefs actually exist!

If you want to see just how bad some of the Word of Faith teachers can get, you really need to see this article about Paula White.  She is truly blaspheming God by claiming she hears from Him.

To end on a lighter note, I direct you to Mormon Coffee for an amusing interview between Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ at the final judgement.

Random Apostasies and Heresies

I am currently working on an article on Henry Blackaby, which I was hoping to be finished with by now for posting, but time has a way of getting away from me!  So today I’m giving you another episode of random things I’ve read on the ‘net.

There has been a lot going on in the blogosphere about Rick Warren and his compromising with Islam.  Information has been changing and updating almost daily.  The main point is that Warren has already compromised with Islam, and now seems to be going even farther.  I will provide links to four of the latest articles for your perusal and challenge you to follow the story as it unravels.   The first one is from Sola Sisters blog, while the second, third and fourth are from Apprising Ministries.  Personally, I think Warren is being less than honest about the situation.

Mark Driscoll revisited.  The man has sex on the brain.  World Net Daily posted a commentary by David Kupelian about Driscolls obsession with sex.  Driscoll has even been interviewed, with his wife, on The View, a TV show NO Christian should sanction by appearing on.  Yet the Driscolls went on the show to discuss their book Real Marriage.  I just don’t understand why any mature Christian would listen to this man.

An “Open Letter to Praise Bands” has been the topic of several blogs I follow.  I think the author has a lot of good things to say.  Here is the most important section, which should be given much attention:

1. If we, the congregation, can't hear ourselves, it's not worship. Christian worship is not a concert. In a concert (a particular "form of performance"), we often expect to be overwhelmed by sound, particularly in certain styles of music. In a concert, we come to expect that weird sort of sensory deprivation that happens from sensory overload, when the pounding of the bass on our chest and the wash of music over the crowd leaves us with the rush of a certain aural vertigo. And there's nothing wrong with concerts! It's just that Christian worship is not a concert. Christian worship is a collective, communal, congregational practice--and the gathered sound and harmony of a congregation singing as one is integral to the practice of worship. It is a way of "performing" the reality that, in Christ, we are one body. But that requires that we actually be able to hear ourselves, and hear our sisters and brothers singing alongside us. When the amped sound of the praise band overwhelms congregational voices, we can't hear ourselves sing--so we lose that communal aspect of the congregation and are encouraged to effectively become "private," passive worshipers.

2. If we, the congregation, can't sing along, it's not worship. In other forms of musical performance, musicians and bands will want to improvise and "be creative," offering new renditions and exhibiting their virtuosity with all sorts of different trills and pauses and improvisations on the received tune. Again, that can be a delightful aspect of a concert, but in Christian worship it just means that we, the congregation, can't sing along. And so your virtuosity gives rise to our passivity; your creativity simply encourages our silence. And while you may be worshiping with your creativity, the same creativity actually shuts down congregational song.

3.  If you, the praise band, are the center of attention, it's not worship. I know it's generally not your fault that we've put you at the front of the church. And I know you want to model worship for us to imitate. But because we've encouraged you to basically import forms of performance from the concert venue into the sanctuary, we might not realize that we've also unwittingly encouraged a sense that you are the center of attention. And when your performance becomes a display of your virtuosity--even with the best of intentions--it's difficult to counter the temptation to make the praise band the focus of our attention. When the praise band goes into long riffs that you might intend as "offerings to God," we the congregation become utterly passive, and because we've adopted habits of relating to music from the Grammys and the concert venue, we unwittingly make you the center of attention. I wonder if there might be some intentional reflection on placement (to the side? leading from behind?) and performance that might help us counter these habits we bring with us to worship.

I don’t know about you, but I am really tired of all these books purporting to be about visits to heaven.  Not a single one has anything biblical in them, yet Christians buy these books by the boat-load!  Sola Sisters has posted an article about an interview between Brannon Howse and Justin Peters discussing this topic.  Additionally, DiscernIt blog has posted an article by David Cloud which discusses other claims of trips to heaven by Word of Faith heretics.  The main thing to remember is that any claim to visit heaven is a blatant lie.

Random Apostasies and Heresies

I came across lots of interesting things this week, things which I feel all Christians should be aware of so as to protect themselves from various deceptions.

Remember that T.D. Jakes claims now to be a Trinitarian (although describing the Trinity as “manifestations”) and so is to be accepted as an evangelical pastor according to James MacDonald?  Peruse Erin’s report at “Do Not Be Surprised...” to see this nonsense between Mark Driscoll and Jakes.  The problem is that T.D. Jakes is still a WOF heretic.  

Back to Paula White, it seems she is T.D. Jakes’ “spiritual daughter” in the WOF heresy, and as a WOF heretic she should be avoided like the plague!  To demonstrate the connection between White and Jakes, and the luxurious lifestyle these people enjoy while fleecing their followers, White gave Jakes a Bentley convertible.  Of course she drives a Mercedes-Benz and lives in a $2.1 million home, while flying around in a private jet the way all these WOF goatherds do.

So now we have T.D. Jakes connected to Paula White by theology, and Paula White connected to Ralph Messer.  Where do we go from here?  Well, another TBN Word Of Faith heretic, Kenneth Copeland, claims Messer is a prophet of God!

All these WOF heretics are cut from the same cloth and yet with the Elephant Room 2 crew we have praise for T.D. Jakes claiming to be a Trinitarian, as if that is the end of his heretical belief system!

Just for people who don’t understand WOF teaching, watch this video posted by Ken Silva.  The audio broadcasts previous to the message about the false teachings, are by various WOF teachers - you might even recognize a voice or two. (While the video is about more than just WOF, the examples of WOF teachings are worth hearing.)  The massive wealth of these WOF teachers should be the very first clue that they are false teachers.

Now, just to round out this section about WOF, and especially about T.D. Jakes, you’ll be happy to know that Jakes’ May 2012 “Leadership Conference” will feature heretic Joel Osteen!  Just verifies the old adage about birds of a feather flocking together.  And yet James MacDonald is wanting Jakes to be accepted as evangelical?!? 

All the liberal, so-called “Christian” leaders support President Obama, yet Obama is clearly a false teacher when it comes to all things biblical.  For one thing, he sat under false teacher Jeremiah Wright for over 20 years learning Black Liberation Theology, as well as the social gospel.  As usual, this past week Mr. Obama again abused Scripture to support his agenda.  Midwest Christian Outreach has a good report on this.

More on the Wycliffe mis-translation problem.  Here is the first update about Wycliffe’s claims.  Yesterday this update was posted.

Pastor John Piper seems to be sliding farther and farther away from solid biblical teaching.  Now he is supporting a contemplative/emerging author, Lauren Winner.  Winner is an ordained “Reverend” with the apostate Episcopal Church (go figure).

It always amazes me to see so much apostasy in the Church today.  While most of it is due to bad teaching, some is like what happens at smaller churches such as this Baptist church in Florida who has a convicted pedophile preacher!!!

An interesting development is the “open letter of repentance” by a lady who taught from Beth Moore and Henry Blackaby.  She is now admitting her error of promoting these false teachers.  Bravo for her.

Well, there are still some solid biblical teachers out there who can provide us with some good thought-provoking messages.  Over at “the Cripplegate,” Nathan Busenitz has an excellent article about the responsibility of Christians when it comes to illegal immigration.

Janis Hutchinson has part two of “How to confirm what you believe.”  If you missed part one, I recommend your going back to read it.  

Finally, Stan over at Winging It has a provoking article about the “frog in the water” syndrome among Christians.