Tag Archives: heretic

False teachers

Of course we should keep criticizing the work of Rachel Held Evans

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The Bible didn’t shy away from criticizing Judas after he died, so why would we ignore Rachel Held Evans’ false teachings?  And given that her death will lead many to read her works, it is as important as ever to respond to her falsehoods.

The social media reactions by her fans were as sad as they were predictable.  If you dared question her salvation they immediately – and with complete tone-deafness to their hypocrisy – insisted that you weren’t a real Christian.  Meditate on that.

They used the most wicked and vitriolic language while insisting that they were the tolerant ones.  One lady graciously pointed out Evans’ theological flaws and was blasted by Evans’ kind, loving fans with the following: “wrong, gross, unkind, unloving, disgusting, opportunist, cruel, arrogant, horrid, disgraceful, insensitive, hypocrite, nasty, judgmental, condescending, Pharisee, poisonous, heathen, unsaved, good only for compost, evil, abomination, hellspawn (my personal favorite, lol), b**ch.”

Stay classy, “Christian” Leftists.

And when the unrepentant LGBTQX lobby views you as their favorite Christian and thanks you for bringing them back to “church” then you know you had bad theology.

I’ve written on Evans many times. She was similar to many others who left the church.  Their core trait was giving into peer pressure and acting like those around them.  When growing up in evangelical churches they played that part, but when they went to college they mimicked the worldviews of those around them.  Evans was just a bit more clever and milked the “ex-evangelical” bit for all it was worth.

Sure, I hope God reached her before she died, but I have the same sentiment for the ~150,000 people who die every day.  She made a living mocking the word of God and did so until the end, and her writings that survived her need to be refuted.  Here’s my catch-all.

fake3Faux evangelical Rachel Held Evans wrote A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband “Master” and in this case you can judge a book by its cover.  Evans sets out to mock the word of God that she claims to believe, and she succeeds before you even open the book. This is why the “Christian” Left loves her and why she gets so much Leftist media attention.

Exhibit A: The picture and subtitle of Evans on the roof relates to Proverbs 21:9 (and repeated in Proverbs 25:4) “It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.”

You don’t need a PhD in theology to see how badly — and deliberately? — she misapplied the verse.

  1. It isn’t a literal command to anyone. It is a colorful illustration teaching the wisdom of not marrying someone who is quarrelsome. It isn’t immoral to marry such a person, but it also isn’t particularly wise.  It wouldn’t be pleasant to live on the corner of your roof (they had flat roofs), but it would be more unpleasant to have a quarrelsome wife.
  2. The biblical illustration doesn’t have the quarrelsome person on the roof, it has her suffering spouse there.
  3. It was not a punishment, it was a metaphorical escape.

Evans didn’t let those pesky and obvious details got in the way of mocking the word of God.  She accomplished exactly what she wanted to in this book.  Her message is basically this: “Hey people, I am totally a Christian, but let me show you how silly the Bible can be.  If you find something there you think you like then that’s great, but you shouldn’t take it seriously.”

So before you even open the book you can know that she is a false teacher and enemy of the real God (as are her editors and publishers who approved it).  The only way to miss it is to not read the verses (false teachers thrive on the biblical ignorance of their followers) or to share her view that the Bible is a foolish, man-made book.

But it gets worse as Evans continues to sit in judgment of the word of God.  Unlike Job (Job 1:20-22, Evans regularly charged God with wrong.  Referring to her parents, she said:

they seemed to know instinctively that rules that left people guilt-ridden, exhausted, and confused were not really from God.

Uh, sure.  Anything you don’t like or understand isn’t from God.  That’s Creating a God in Your Own Image 101.

Then there is this:

as a woman I have been nursing a secret grudge against the apostle Paul for about eight years.

Note how she tips her hand about her belief that the writings of Paul weren’t inspired by the Holy Spirit.  The Apostle Peter had her number 2,000 years ago:

2 Peter 3:15–16 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

And like all “Christian” Left feminists, she falsely targets Paul and she ignores that Jesus only selected men as apostles.  Does she think Jesus was a misogynist, or that even though He was the creator of the universe that He was afraid to upset the Pharisees’ sensibilities?

Worse yet, she accuses the authors of the Bible of being blasphemous liars, allegedly speaking for God in literally hundreds of passages when it was “really” what they wanted.  She quoted this with her approval:

God never told the Israelites to kill the Canaanites. The Israelites believed that God told them to kill the Canaanites.

So Evans also disagrees with Jesus, who affirmed the Old Testament down to its smallest details, and insists – without evidence — that massive sections of the Bible are lies.  Or could it be that Evans is believing what she wants God to be and that she is the liar?  I suppose she thinks that the command against making a God in your own image is just another one of those passages that the writers made up.  Anyone who has actually read the Old Testament would know that passage after passage refers to the Israelites taking over the Promised Land.  Evans insists that all of those are not only lies, but blasphemous lies.  What else would it be if you falsely blamed God for what would have been unjustified mass murder and land-stealing?

Evans told people that voting for Hillary Clinton is “pro-life.”  You have to be a true Molech-worshiping ghoul to hold that view.  Hillary is inseparable from Planned Parenthood and the rest of the pro-choice extremists — including the “Christian” Left – who not only insist on legal abortions up to to child’s first breath but want more abortions via taxpayer-funding.  Yet for Evans that was the only “Christian” option.  Indeed.

Evans posted countless pictures and gushing commentary over the #womensmarch #abortionmarch but was nearly silent for the #MarchforLife — and even then she only criticized it. “Christian” Leftists really tip their hands that way, claiming to be pro-life while being the true pro-abortion extremists. If they really believed what they said they’d be opening up pregnancy centers all over. Instead, they reflexively support anything Planned Parenthood does.

And you’d think that Mrs. “Oh noes, the patriarchy!!” would find some way to criticize Islam, which has treated women inhumanely for 1,500 years.  But she was silent.

While she was quick to play the fallacious race card against Christians, don’t miss where Racist Held Evans goes on a hypocritical rant lamenting how if Roe v Wade is overturned then less minority children will be killed.  She also accused pro-lifers of being racist and not knowing that we save mostly minority lives.  Who knew?  She deleted the Tweets when people outed her but I saved them as a public service.  It was epic.

I’ll buy a Christian book by someone whose primary self-descriptor is “doubt-filled” right after I buy one from a mathematician who doubts that 2+2=4.  Having some matters you haven’t completely studied is one thing. For example, I hadn’t delved deeply into continuation/cessation particulars until recently, so I didn’t blog about it. But if you are so doubt-filled that it defines your faith, maybe you should read instead of write.

Also note how she has no doubts about abortion being legal to the child’s first breath, that you can change your gender, that LGBTQX behaviors are not sins, that women should be pastors, etc.  Oddly enough, when her views line up with the world’s she has no doubts at all.

You can also know Evans is a false teacher by those she promotes and partners with.  She works directly with Nadia Bolz-Weber, who, among other things, says there is “no shame in ethically sourced porn,” that “the Bible’s not clear about [s%#^]!” and so much more  (Just as Evans claims that “It [the Bible] fails massively at getting to the point”). This isn’t some loose pairing, either.  They co-host a freak show called Why Christian each year and endorse each other’s work..

Also check out Jes Kast, whom Evans adores, and see if her theology is biblical, or Glennon Doyle Melton, the “super mom” who left her husband to be with a lesbian.

Evans is a typical Leftist hypocrite, believing ridiculous phonies like Kristine Blasey Ford (Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser) but dismissing credible stories of abuse by the wife of prominent “Christian” Left pastor Tony Jones – who just “happens” to help with her conferences. Go figure.

As bad as the self-avowed “Christian” Leftists are, at least they own their label (sans the scare quotes).  Evans masquerades as an Evangelical while holding “Christian” Leftist views, which makes her even worse than them.

She’s been really cranky since Trump won.  She completely ignores all the sex scandals and cover-ups from Leftist politicians, celebrities and journalists and completely fixates on Donald Trump.  She won’t admit it, but I think it is pretty obvious that she planned to have a role with Caesar – er, uh, Hillary — just like she did with Obama.  Trump has false teacher Paula White, Obama had – and Hillary probably would have had – Mrs. Evans.

And her latest book is just more blasphemy, where she titled it Inspired but obviously believes it isn’t.  Typical disingenuous behavior on her part.

Run, don’t walk, from faux evangelicals like Evans. In her own words and deeds she shows how much she loves the world and not Jesus.

Update: Truly sad that she died, especially having young kids.  But I have to be candid: When I read the comments of those who supported her and were affirmed by her, I am reminded at how wicked her “ministry” was. These were typical:

Be mad at God. Be mad at the Universe. Be mad. Be mad. Be mad.

4 hours ago   I had permission to explore LGBTQ+ affirming theology & eventually come out as bisexual. She was one of the first affirming Christians I encountered in my research, & her loud support is directly tied to who I am today.

37 minutes ago The door she opened for me by saying it’s okay to be angry at the church and it’s okay to leave, led to a thousand other open doors and new pathways that created who I am now: a queer Christian woman who no longer fears the white cisheteropatriarchy.

3 hours ago   I first started exploring Side A theology, which has led to me being in a wonderful, loving, gay relationship. I’m able to be myself and live my best life because of her opening my eyes.

4 hours ago  I’m an openly queer woman serving as an elder in my church . I never could have reconciled feminism and Christianity all those years ago without her.

If that’s what she encouraged people to do then it is a tragic legacy.

Someone wrote this in response to a blog post noting Evans’ bad theology:

Rude. Heartless. So inappropriate. Can you picture Christ responding like this – calling someone an apostate immediately after their untimely death? I don’t think so. I don’t know what god you guys are serving, but it doesn’t reflect the God that I know.

The commenter was tone-deaf to the fact that that’s exactly how Jesus will respond when someone dies — either with judgment or with “well done, good and faithful servant.” Someone rightly pointed out what Jesus said about untimely deaths:

Luke 13:1–5 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Not surprisingly, Evan’s fans reject what Jesus said.

Also see

Now That Rachel Held Evans Has Died,Should We Stop Calling Her A False Teacher? | The Outspoken TULIP

Remembering the Heretic, Rachel Held Evans – Reformation Charlotte

Rachel Held Evans and the Rightness of Post-Mortem Discernment

Christian worldview, False teachers, Favorites

With false teacher Rachel Held Evans as the author you can judge a book by its cover

11 Comments

Note: An update after her death on 5/4/2019 is at the bottom.

fake3Faux evangelical Rachel Held Evans wrote A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband “Master” and in this case you can judge a book by its cover.  Evans sets out to mock the word of God that she claims to believe, and she succeeds before you even open the book. This is why the “Christian” Left loves her and why she gets so much Leftist media attention.

Exhibit A: The picture and subtitle of Evans on the roof relates to Proverbs 21:9 (and repeated in Proverbs 25:4) “It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.”

You don’t need a PhD in theology to see how badly — and deliberately? — she misapplied the verse.

  1. It isn’t a literal command to anyone. It is a colorful illustration teaching the wisdom of not marrying someone who is quarrelsome. It isn’t immoral to marry such a person, but it also isn’t particularly wise.  It wouldn’t be pleasant to live on the corner of your roof (they had flat roofs), but it would be more unpleasant to have a quarrelsome wife.
  2. The biblical illustration doesn’t have the quarrelsome person on the roof, it has her suffering spouse there.
  3. It was not a punishment, it was a metaphorical escape.

Evans didn’t let those pesky and obvious details got in the way of mocking the word of God.  She accomplished exactly what she wanted to in this book.  Her message is basically this: “Hey people, I am totally a Christian, but let me show you how silly the Bible can be.  If you find something there you think you like then that’s great, but you shouldn’t take it seriously.”

So before you even open the book you can know that she is a false teacher and enemy of the real God (as are her editors and publishers who approved it).  The only way to miss it is to not read the verses (false teachers thrive on the biblical ignorance of their followers) or to share her view that the Bible is a foolish, man-made book.

But it gets worse as Evans continues to sit in judgment of the word of God.  Referring to her parents, she said:

they seemed to know instinctively that rules that left people guilt-ridden, exhausted, and confused were not really from God.

Uh, sure.  Anything you don’t like or understand isn’t from God.  That’s Creating a God in Your Own Image 101.

Then there is this:

as a woman I have been nursing a secret grudge against the apostle Paul for about eight years.

Note how she tips her hand about her belief that the writings of Paul weren’t inspired by the Holy Spirit.  The Apostle Peter had her number 2,000 years ago:

2 Peter 3:15–16 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

And like all “Christian” Left feminists, she falsely targets Paul and she ignores that Jesus only selected men as apostles.  Does she think Jesus was a misogynist, or that even though He was the creator of the universe that He was afraid to upset the Pharisees’ sensibilities?

Worse yet, she accuses the authors of the Bible of being blasphemous liars, allegedly speaking for God in literally hundreds of passages when it was “really” what they wanted.  She quoted this with her approval:

God never told the Israelites to kill the Canaanites. The Israelites believed that God told them to kill the Canaanites.

So Evans also disagrees with Jesus, who affirmed the Old Testament down to its smallest details, and insists – without evidence — that massive sections of the Bible are lies.  Or could it be that Evans is believing what she wants God to be and that she is the liar?  I suppose she thinks that the command against making a God in your own image is just another one of those passages that the writers made up.  Anyone who has actually read the Old Testament would know that passage after passage refers to the Israelites taking over the Promised Land.  Evans insists that all of those are not only lies, but blasphemous lies.  What else would it be if you falsely blamed God for what would have been unjustified mass murder and land-stealing?

Evans told people that voting for Hillary Clinton is “pro-life.”  You have to be a true Molech-worshiping ghoul to hold that view.  Hillary is inseparable from Planned Parenthood and the rest of the pro-choice extremists — including the “Christian” Left – who not only insist on legal abortions up to to child’s first breath but want more abortions via taxpayer-funding.  Yet for Evans that was the only “Christian” option.  Indeed.

Evans posted countless pictures and gushing commentary over the #womensmarch #abortionmarch but was nearly silent for the #MarchforLife — and even then she only criticized it. “Christian” Leftists really tip their hands that way, claiming to be pro-life while being the true pro-abortion extremists. If they really believed what they said they’d be opening up pregnancy centers all over. Instead, they reflexively support anything Planned Parenthood does.

And you’d think that Mrs. “Oh noes, the patriarchy!!” would find some way to criticize Islam, which has treated women inhumanely for 1,500 years.  But she was silent.

While she was quick to play the fallacious race card against Christians, don’t miss where Racist Held Evans goes on a hypocritical rant lamenting how if Roe v Wade is overturned then less minority children will be killed.  She also accused pro-lifers of being racist and not knowing that we save mostly minority lives.  Who knew?  She deleted the Tweets when people outed her but I saved them as a public service.  It was epic.

I’ll buy a Christian book by someone whose primary self-descriptor is “doubt-filled” right after I buy one from a mathematician who doubts that 2+2=4.  Having some matters you haven’t completely studied is one thing. For example, I hadn’t delved deeply into continuation/cessation particulars until recently, so I didn’t blog about it. But if you are so doubt-filled that it defines your faith, maybe you should read instead of write.

Also note how she has no doubts about abortion being legal to the child’s first breath, that you can change your gender, that LGBTQX behaviors are not sins, that women should be pastors, etc.  Oddly enough, when her views line up with the world’s she has no doubts at all.

You can also know Evans is a false teacher by those she promotes and partners with.  She works directly with Nadia Bolz-Weber, who, among other things, says there is “no shame in ethically sourced porn,” that “the Bible’s not clear about [s%#^]!” and so much more  (Just as Evans claims that “It [the Bible] fails massively at getting to the point”). This isn’t some loose pairing, either.  They co-host a freak show called Why Christian each year and endorse each other’s work..

Also check out Jes Kast, whom Evans adores, and see if her theology is biblical, or Glennon Doyle Melton, the “super mom” who left her husband to be with a lesbian.

Evans is a typical Leftist hypocrite, believing ridiculous phonies like Kristine Blasey Ford (Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser) but dismissing credible stories of abuse by the wife of prominent “Christian” Left pastor Tony Jones – who just “happens” to help with her conferences. Go figure.

As bad as the self-avowed “Christian” Leftists are, at least they own their label (sans the scare quotes).  Evans masquerades as an Evangelical while holding “Christian” Leftist views, which makes her even worse than them.

She’s been really cranky since Trump won.  She completely ignores all the sex scandals and cover-ups from Leftist politicians, celebrities and journalists and completely fixates on Donald Trump.  She won’t admit it, but I think it is pretty obvious that she planned to have a role with Caesar – er, uh, Hillary — just like she did with Obama.  Trump has false teacher Paula White, Obama had – and Hillary probably would have had – Mrs. Evans.

And her latest book is just more blasphemy, where she titled it Inspired but obviously believes it isn’t.  Typical disingenuous behavior on her part.

Run, don’t walk, from faux evangelicals like Evans. In her own words and deeds she shows how much she loves the world and not Jesus.

Update: Truly sad that she died, especially having young kids.  But I have to be candid: When I read the comments of those who supported her and were affirmed by her, I am reminded at how wicked her “ministry” was. These were typical:

Be mad at God. Be mad at the Universe. Be mad. Be mad. Be mad.

4 hours ago   I had permission to explore LGBTQ+ affirming theology & eventually come out as bisexual. She was one of the first affirming Christians I encountered in my research, & her loud support is directly tied to who I am today.

37 minutes ago The door she opened for me by saying it’s okay to be angry at the church and it’s okay to leave, led to a thousand other open doors and new pathways that created who I am now: a queer Christian woman who no longer fears the white cisheteropatriarchy.

3 hours ago   I first started exploring Side A theology, which has led to me being in a wonderful, loving, gay relationship. I’m able to be myself and live my best life because of her opening my eyes.

4 hours ago  I’m an openly queer woman serving as an elder in my church . I never could have reconciled feminism and Christianity all those years ago without her.

If that’s what she encouraged people to do then it is a tragic legacy.

Someone wrote this in response to a blog post noting Evans’ bad theology:

Rude. Heartless. So inappropriate. Can you picture Christ responding like this – calling someone an apostate immediately after their untimely death? I don’t think so. I don’t know what god you guys are serving, but it doesn’t reflect the God that I know.

The commenter was tone-deaf to the fact that that’s exactly how Jesus will respond when someone dies — either with judgment or with “well done, good and faithful servant.” Someone rightly pointed out what Jesus said about untimely deaths:

Luke 13:1–5 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Not surprisingly, Evan’s fans reject what Jesus said.

Bible, False teachers

“Reap the whirlwind”

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Without reading further, do you know where the title originated?

One of the many, but admittedly lesser, reasons to read the entire Bible is that there are so many references and sayings that came from it.

Here’s where it came from.  I noticed it again as I was working through my “read the Bible in a year” plan again that I started last September (side note: I’m finally in the minor prophets and Revelation, so I’m almost there!).

For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7, ESV)

So that verse became a well-known saying, but what was the point of it?  How often, if ever, do people read Hosea?

You can infer from the saying that reaping a whirlwind is probably a bad thing.  But just knowing the saying doesn’t tell you the all-important context.

  • Who sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind?  The Israelites.
  • What constituted sowing the wind?  Disobeying the true God and worshiping false Gods.
  • What did the whirlwind look like?  Disease, destruction, slaughter and captivity.  Pretty gruesome stuff.

Here’s an example from Hosea:

Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute’s wages on all threshing floors. Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. (Hosea 9:1–2, ESV)

The Israelites worshiped and credited the false god Baal for their crops, acting as prostitutes earning their wages.

The false teachers in the church today, along with countless illogical and uninformed people, are fond of saying that all religions lead to God.  But you can’t flip more than a couple of pages in the Old Testament without seeing the recurring theme that the Israelites’ #1 problem was worshiping false gods and that God took that very seriously.  And the New Testament teaches at least 100 times that Jesus is the only way to salvation.  That isn’t what makes it true (his rising from the dead makes it true), but it does mean that it is impossible for Christianity and another religion to both be right on major issues.

Run, don’t walk, from those who teach that we have as much to learn from other religions as they do from us.  There is nothing anyone has to teach us about Jesus that isn’t in the Bible.  These false teachers give warning signs by claiming that other religions are valid, and they teach the opposite of the word of God on truly simple concepts (they think Jesus is pro-choice and supports “same-sex marriage,” among other things).

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. (2 Corinthians 11:13–15, ESV)

The Israelites reaped the whirlwind, and it was spectacularly bad.  Read all the Old Testament and see what I mean.

But Hell will be far worse, and forever.  Repent and believe while you have time.  If you are a believer, warn others of false teachers.

False teachers

Spong is wrong, part #17

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From Stand to Reason Blog: God Is a Person, We Are Persons — “Bishop” Shelby Spong, who denies virtually every important doctrine of Christianity while parading around in his collar to peddle his books, had this to say about knowing things about God:

I am not sure that the problem is that people throw around words [about God] so carelessly, but that the only words we humans have to use are human words, bound by time, space and human experience. Whatever God is, God is surely beyond the boundaries of human life. So the more specific we are about God, the less accurate we probably are. Let me repeat my favorite analogy. Horses cannot escape the boundaries of what it means to be a horse, nor can a horse view life from any other lens or perspective save that of a horse. Therefore a horse could never describe what it means to be human. In a similar manner, a human being cannot escape the boundaries or perspective of what it means to be human and therefore can never define or describe what it means to be God.

In addition to the critique noted at the blog, Spong also misses something rather obvious: If God wanted us to be able to know about him, then we would be able to know about him.  Who set the boundaries?  God himself.  Is that really so complicated?

Spong is wrong, again. He and those who voice that objection are just displaying false humility. They sure write and talk a lot about God for people who claim we can’t know enough about him.  People who make silly claims like his should be ignored.  Why would you pay to read books by someone whose main point is that he doesn’t know what he is talking about?

If anyone at your church or elsewhere recommends Spong to you, do not listen to them.  Have them watch this video for starters (Hat tip: JD):

False teachers

Poster people for the Second Commandment

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bible.jpgIn a thread at Marshall’s place a liberal theologian was claiming that Paul was wrong in some of what he wrote in the Bible.  Finding this amusing from a person who claims to be a Christian, I said, “Hey everyone, [name withheld to spare him further embarrassment] is right and St. Paul is wrong. Just wanted to clear that up!”

His response:

Thanks! I’ll cop to that on some things. Absolutely. Specifically, any thoughts of his that are defined primarily by his time and place and culture.

Oh, where to begin.  It never occurs to these pretenders that all they are doing is making a god in their own image.  They find a few points of agreement with the Bible, as if having your Venn diagram overlap a bit with another group made you one of them (Hey, the KKK is pro-life but that is about the only thing on which we agree).

They assume that wherever they disagree with Paul that they must be right and Paul must be wrong.  But they think we’re arrogant and “bibliolators” for taking the claims of the Bible to be true.  So they know what God really thinks but Paul didn’t, eh?  They pick and choose what they like and assume they have it right. 

They are just your basic Dalmatian Theologians, believing the Bible is only inspired in spots and that they are inspired to spot the spots.  They follow their hearts, but live in ignorance of Jeremiah 17:9: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?  They claim to follow Jesus, but ignore his views on the Old Testament, marriage and so much more.

Then there is the question begging of saying they are thoughts of Paul’s and assuming God didn’t inspire them.  Paul claims to speak for God and Peter viewed Paul’s writings as scripture.  Presumably this expert thinks Peter was mistaken as well.  So if Paul wasn’t speaking for God and if the ~3,000 specific instances where God is quoted are wrong as well, then the Bible has so many lies that I don’t know why these folks bother to open the book.

And they assume that their views aren’t unduly influence by their time, place and culture — never noticing that their beliefs are virtually indistinguishable from the far political Left and that they discovered Paul’s “errors” regarding same sex unions at about the same time that MTV did.  Go figure.

Sometimes it is just best to let others write all they like and let their words convict them — such as when they put their words over scripture.  Sort of a blogging version of Muhammad Ali’s rope-a-dope strategy. 

I really like this quote by Dionysius, an early church leader:

I myself have read the writings and teachings of the heretics, polluting my soul for a while with their abominable notions, though deriving this benefit: I was able to refute them for myself and loathe them even more. 

Bible, False teachers

Why would you care what they think about the Bible?

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bible.jpgI can’t imagine why anyone would want to attend a seminary, church or even participate in a Bible study led by a theological liberal.

Consider that these folks read the Bible and do not see the following:

  • Jesus is the only way to salvation — only about 100 direct and indirect passages about that, not to mention that the whole New Testament makes no sense otherwise.
  • Don’t worship other Gods.  Really.  Any “Christian pluralists” must not have studied the Old Testament, either.
  • Jesus is God — many clear passages on that one
  • The Bible is the word of God and authoritative and reliable
  • Jesus’ validation of the Old Testament
  • The reality of miracles
  • The physical resurrection of Jesus and its important to Christianity
  • And more!

It is like a Genesis 3:1-fest with them constantly asking, “Did God really say ___ ?”

Then consider that these folks read the Bible and do find the following that are not really there:

  • Abortion is morally acceptable
  • Homosexual behavior is morally acceptable
  • Oxymoronic “same sex marriage” is permissible
  • Liberation theology
  • And more!

The theological liberals in the church get it thoroughly wrong in both directions: Not seeing the essential elements that are so clearly there at the same time they see so many things that aren’t there.  And to make it worse, they discount the whole Bible by insisting it is man-made.

Christian worldview, Favorites

Saved and confused

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contradiction.jpgCue the Led Zeppelin soundtrack . . .

The mark of a Christian is faith in Jesus Christ.  See the criminal on the cross for exhibit A.  He never tithed, read the Bible, took communion, spoke in tongues, got baptized, did good works, wore the right clothes, sang the right songs, etc. but he was saved by faith in Christ. 

Of course, for those of us who aren’t put to death shortly after making an authentic confession then one would expect to see the sanctification process at work, resulting in transformed though still imperfect lives.

All Christians are saved and at least a little confused in the sense of not having 100.000% perfect theology. But the focus should be on the essentials, such as the divinity, humanity and exclusivity of Jesus (e.g., He is the only way to salvation), the authority of the Bible, etc.

Romans 14 and other passages address how we are to handle disputed matters. From this we can immediately infer two things (more here):

1. God knew we’d have disputed matters.
2. He gave guidance on how to handle them.

Real salvation will lead to transformed lives.  But ultimately only God knows the true state of someone’s faith in Christ. It is possible to fake it to the world.

We all have more to learn, so even if we are saved we should seek to become less confused through Bible study.  We should be like the Bereans and test things in light of scripture, and we should heed Paul’s command to the Thessalonians:

Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 Test everything. Hold on to the good.

But what of those who teach against the essentials?  Are they saved and confused, or fakes?  Do some fruit inspection.  If people consistently line up against the Bible and don’t seem interested in being corrected, I’d move on.

2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. 

Also see In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity and the importance of sound doctrine.

False teachers

Liberal theology: Ignorance, wimpiness or deceptiveness?

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Chuck Currie, the UCC poster boy for false teaching, was at it again when attacking the Jews for Jesus organization.

Are non-Christians doomed to the fires of hell for their lack of faith in Jesus? No.

That seems rather dogmatic for someone who says the remaining things that Chuck does.  Chuck’s human understanding – which he makes up himself – is that no one goes to Hell (or that it doesn’t exist – I’m not sure of his exact error).  But the word of God teaches that there is a Hell. 

And it is important to get the claim right: Non-Christians are doomed to Hell as the appropriate punishment for their sins against a perfect and Holy God.  Christians are pardoned from their punishment based on their trust in Jesus, whereby our sins were transferred to his account and his perfect righteousness was imputed to ours.

The New Testament is very clear that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and to reject him is to reject God.  Telling Jews otherwise is profoundly unkind and un-Christian.

I can say that Jesus is the truth and the light and feel confident that I’m hearing God’s word.

But why?  He and other liberal theologians dismiss the Bible left and right, so why is it true for him?  Why would the exclusive claims of Christianity be true for one and not another?

However, God is obviously bigger than human understanding and I feel confident that God speaks through many religious traditions. Christians have as much to learn from other faiths as we have to share.

This is just plain ignorance,  wimpiness or lies.  Religious pluralism is intellectually bankrupt.  What shall we learn from Hindus — that reincarnation is correct instead of that we die once and face judgment?  What shall we learn from Islam — that Jesus was just a prophet and did not die on the cross?  That would change a “few” key Christian doctrines.   What shall we learn from Buddhism — that there is no God?  And so on.

These pluralists reject the essentials of Christianity and disagree with Jesus on all sorts of important issues.  They try to affirm Jesus to please Christians and simultaneously deny him to please the world. 

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world.

If people are too gutless or uninformed to defend the faith, then Christianity may not be their forte (as my friend Ms. Green might say).  Jesus was not a pluralist.  Even the Sermon on the Mount – which Chuck and other liberal theologians claim to agree with – shows Jesus making it very clear that there are spiritual truths and lies, right and wrong ways to give/pray/fast/etc., and an eternal Hell.

False teachers

Another fan!

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Be sure to read the whole post to understand how Chuck Currie is a serial, unrepentant liar.  He falsely accused me of writing things on his blog that I did not write and despite many requests he has never provided documentation.  Why?  Because he lied.

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circle-slash.jpgThis is interesting!  I was mentioned (though not by name) in a recent sermon by Chuck Currie titled Who is a Christian?  He actually quoted this post of mine where I pointed out how odd it was for a “Christian” pastor to do a whole sermon on John 14:6 and to conclude that Jesus is not the only way to salvation and that we should find truth in other religions as well. 

John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Chuck didn’t even realize that there are 99 other verses supporting that view and that to teach otherwise was profoundly un-Christian.  He considers the Gospel of John to be unreliable but thinks the Gospel of Thomas is authoritative.  And so on.

True to form, though, he mischaracterized my piece and made it sound like I opposed being tolerant to other religions and that I said he was a non-Christian because he was tolerant.  That is a lie, and it is easily demonstrated by reading my post and listening to the audio of Chuck’s sermon.  I am all for tolerance of other religions and other people in general.  Chuck repeated his claim that God speaks to Buddhists and Muslims in their religions, which is false and profoundly un-Biblical.  My original post was spectacularly clear but Chuck took it out of context and played the martyr role.  Maybe I could conference call in to his service some time and clear things up.

Chuck disagrees with Jesus and his word, a lot.  That is why I question his authenticity.

According to his sermon, Chuck’s definition of a Christian is:

A Christian is a person who hears the Sermon on the Mount and says, “Amen.”

That’s it.  Really?  I thought it was more about repenting & believing and trusting in Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

I need to do a whole series on this, but Chuck and those like him can’t really like the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).  It portrays Jesus as being very intolerant.  He tells the Pharisees how they are doing everything wrong – worship, giving, praying, fasting, etc.  He upholds every letter and penstroke of the Old Testament.  He spoke of judgment.  He emphatically shows that there are false religions – the very thing that Chuck teaches the opposite of.  He warns strongly against false teachers – people like Chuck Currie!

I’d love for one of these religious pluralists to answer this: If they really believe that all these religions lead to God, shouldn’t they send out reverse missionaries to convert Christians back to their local religions?  Why should Christians in India be suffering so if Hinduism is an equally valid path to God? 

Chuck also played the “we just don’t take the Bible literally” game.  I don’t take it literally, either.  I read it in context.

Here’s another post where I analyzed Chuck’s games, such as using the guilt by association logical fallacy.  And another where he spread lies about Sarah Palin.

He is also pro-gay marriage and pro-legalized abortion.  Shocking.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

Lesson learned: False teachers don’t like to be called false teachers.  Maybe next time he’ll quote me in context.  At least he is reading. 

I will give him credit for one thing: His sermon was only 13:22 minutes long.  It was mainly about my comments and those of someone criticizing the UCC (the United Church of Christ, or as Marie would say, Unitarians Considering Christ).  So much for exegesis.

UPDATE: Now the “Reverend” is doubling down.  He deleted at least one of my comments on his blog.  That is no problem, since it is his blog.  I’ve deleted many comments here (though none of his) for what I consider to be good reasons.  If he considered them off topic, or just didn’t like them, I wouldn’t even mention anything. 

But when I pointed out the deletions to him he said it was because they were “racist, sexist, homophobic” and “more.”  That is a another lie.  The total number of examples he offered was zero.  I pressed him to back up his accusations, and I’m saving copies of all my comments now.  It will be interesting to see if he tries to back up his words or even posts my request.

Here is what he wrote on his blog:

The only comments that I block are those that are racist, sexist or homophobic. I also ban some comments because of offensive language. Sorry to say that you’ve done all that and more and I just won’t allow those kinds of remarks on my site.

Here is my response:

I think you are mistaken. How about proving me wrong by posting the comments that you say had all these offensive things in them? You know you have them in your email.

Be a man and prove me wrong and let me respond, or don’t libel me that way.

You have now accused me of the following comments, so if you are an honest man you’ll provide at least one example of each.

– Racist
– Sexist
– Homophobe (An irrational fear of gays? Right.)
– Offensive language
– “More” (whatever that means)

I know you are probably mad because I did the post about how you quoted me out of context in your sermon. An apology would have been nice but I didn’t expect that. But you could at least not dig a deeper hole for yourself.

I’ll be saving copies of all my comments from here on out.

I’m still waiting for him to post my comment.  Is the false teacher lying and libeling again?  Will he back up his claims?

Update: As of Dec. 31, 2008, Chuck has still not apologized for his lies.  Worse yet, when another commenter reminded him of our discussions Chuck deliberately repeated the lies.  Hopefully one of the “Reverend’s” New Year’s resolutions is to stop libeling people and to repent of his lies.