Tag Archives: Progressive Christianity

Roundup

Want to help race relations? Get involved in prison or pregnancy center ministries.

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I originally wrote this in 2017 but it seems even more relevant this year.

Race had nothing to do with why I got involved in those ministries.  I’ll share the Gospel with anyone, whether you are a black convicted murderer or the best-behaved white pagan in the free world.  And I want to help save unborn children from murder regardless of their skin color.

But the nature of these ministries is such that it is mostly whites serving mostly minorities.  And as a fantastic by-product of sharing the love and truth of Christ with these folks it does marvelous things for race relations.  It pushes a giant reset button on those who have been wounded because of their race and/or steeped in their own racism.

It has changed countless prison environments, where skinheads and Black Panther-types have become friends and led their respective gangs to change.

I’ve seen countless inmates and even volunteers note how the ministries radically changed how they view others, and how they repented of their racism.

I know a guy from prison ministry who was in the Aryan Brotherhood.   I saw him in action many times as a leader of the Christian groups inside prison and in the ways he is giving back now that he’s out of prison.  Let’s just say that he wasn’t transformed by the power of virtue-signaling social media posts.   

I realize that the race-baiting professionals of the Left — including the “Christian” Left — want to improve race relations as much as McDonald’s wants to sell less hamburgers.  If your movement demands tax-funded abortions to the child’s 1st breath that kill blacks at a rate three times that of whites and Hispanics at twice the rate, then you’ll have a tough time convincing me you really care about them.  But authentic Christians really do want to see improvements.   And ministries like these make it happen.

It is remarkably safe to say “Nazis are bad!” or “racism is bad” on Facebook in 2017 2020 in the U.S.  If you really want to do something about race relations — and more importantly, the Gospel — try something more substantial.  Look into your local pregnancy resource center or prison ministries, or anything similar that shares the love and truth of Christ with minorities – and non-minorities.

False teachers

Yes, pray that Rachel Held Evans converts to Christianity and stops misleading people

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Update: She died on 5/4/2019.  Very sad that she left a husband and two small children.  But when I’d read her fans who mourn her I was reminded of what a wolf Evans was.

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 you encouraged people to do then it is a tragic legacy.

Rachel Held Evans is apparently hospitalized and in a coma.  Just as I did when false teacher Chuck “Jesus is not the only way but He sure is a bigot” Currie had cancer, I prayed for her healing.  But more so, I prayed that God would heal her physically and make her spiritually alive, and that she would repent of her false teachings.  It would be beautiful of her to glorify God and speak the truth to the LGBTQX and radical feminists that she has affirmed and enabled thus far.

Sadly, many of those posting about her on Twitter (#prayforRHE) are gay and lesbian “pastors” or radical feminist “pastors,” all of whom credit Evans with encouraging them in their rebellion.  She is truly a Romans 1:32 poster child, affirming people in their sin. A typical example is this “Christian” who thinks it is swell that her husband is a Hindu, because whatever path you are on is yours blah blah blah.  She sees nothing wrong with being unequally yoked but is sure that we need more women in the pulpits, that God speaks to you in prayer, etc.  Check.

Of course, anyone on Twitter or blogs noting that Evans’ eternal soul is at risk or that her writings and conferences mislead countless people are dismissed as big meanies and haters.  But they commit the logical fallacy of begging the question — that is, they assume she is a sister in Christ when that is what we are questioning.

From a previous overview of Mrs. Evans

fake3

Faux 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 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.  Anyone telling you that should get an immediate ejector seat.

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.

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.

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.

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: Wow, 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.

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.

Pro-life

“Progressive Christian” sheds crocodile tears over World Vision’s reduced donations

2 Comments

Via World Vision Child Sponsorships Abandoned: It’s Almost Double What We Thought.  My comment there (which will probably get deleted):

The establishment was outraged that gay people might work at a Christian organization

That isn’t true.  They were rightly outraged that a Christian organization caved to the LGBTQX lobby and was going to hire people in “same sex marriages.”

And beyond the relational damage, there’s somewhere around 6 million dollars of funding for children living in dire poverty that has now vanished, all because thousands of my fellow Christians couldn’t stomach the idea that the person delivering those clothes or food might be gay.

And there is another false statement.  Again, we don’t want to support an organization that either agrees with the pro-LGBTQX / anti-Christ lobby or is too wimpy to stand up to them.  I’m sure they had gay employees working there without issue.  What they had every right to do was not to employ those living in God-mocking relationships.  Then again, the “progressives” aren’t big on religious freedoms these days.

I have had 3 sponsor children — one for 17 years now — and we’ve loved the experience.  I was able to visit the one in Kenya 5 times.  What a joy!  I am going to keep funding them until they are adults.  Then I’ll move that portion of my giving to more reliable organizations.

People who shifted from World Vision didn’t go burn their money.  They shifted it where they could give it in good conscience.  Why are you so harsh and judgmental to them?

I find it ironic that these “progressive” Christians are nearly always pro-legalized abortions and would have cheered for the right to kill these children in the womb — or even partway out of it if you are a “Christian” Leftist*.  And they never thought to criticize the pro-LGBTQX lobby — that they are a part of — which was the root cause of all of this.  So spare me the crocodile tears.

—–

*The “Christian” Left is far more extreme in their pro-abortion agenda than the average pro-choice person.  They insist that life begins at the first breath and insist that Jesus is fine with killing unwanted children until that point.

I realize how ridiculous their views sound and how many people must think I’m making a straw-man argument.  But that is just because their own words are so clear and extreme.

“According to the bible, a fetus is not a living person with a soul until after drawing its first breath.”

More here about how to respond, with full, in-context quotes from them: https://1eternitymatters.wordpress.com/2015/01/14/the-christian-left-is-far-more-extreme-than-the-average-pro-choice-person-2/

Uncategorized

Another bad “top 10 list” from Sojourners

6 Comments

The blog of Jim “the Gospel is all about wealth redistribution” Wallis often runs these “top ten lists” of things Christians shouldn’t say or do, such as 10 Things You Can’t SAY While Following Jesus by Mark Sandlin.  Sandlin is a “progressive Christian,” who predictably gives a list of 10 judgments on others — including his judgment on others who judge!  This time it came in at #4:

 4) It’s okay to judge.

Recently, there has been a rash of Christian bloggers defending their right to judge. I guess it’s a thing. All the cool bloggers are doing it.

Of course it is OK to judge in a proper manner (e.g., John 7:24).  Sandlin judges all the time.  Only he’s the one violating scripture by doing it hypocritically.

Then there is this bit of nonsense saying that if some Bible had a bad translation of a word that we should never appeal to it as the source of truth.  Seems like something a non-Christian would say . . .

3) Because the Bible tells me so (or “it’s in the Bible”).

The King James Bible tells me there are unicorns – 9 times.

I’m sorry, I got distracted. What was it you were telling me about using the Bible to prove a fact?

Satan and Mark Sandlin agree: “Did God really say . . .?”  Yeah, definitely don’t go to God’s word for the final answer on something.  And Sandlin displays his hypocrisy again with this entry.  Where did he get his [bad interpretation of] God’s views on judging?  Like most Leftist Christians, he considers the Bible to be authoritative on the parts he agrees with.

Wallis and Sandlin are not only enemies of the real Gospel, they are unoriginal and repetitive enemies of the Gospel.

Bible, False teachers

A simple way to out theologically Liberal Christians for the tares and wolves that they are

19 Comments

One of the easiest ways I’ve found to “out” false teachers is to ask if they believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation.  They very rarely do.  They’ll defend their false view with some tidbit they’ve heard then try to change the subject.  Some, like false teacher Chuck “Jesus is not the only way” Currie, come up with entire sermons designed to rationalize away plain texts like John 14:6 (Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.).

Theologically Progressive/Liberals who claim the name of Christ mock the cross and the blood of the martyrs.  They refer to a few Bible verses, though almost always out of context, but if you keep them talking long enough they deny nearly all the essentials of the faith.

What they don’t know is that there are more than 100 passages supporting the truth that Jesus is indeed the only way to salvation.  When you point that out they work overtime to ignore you or change the subject.  Don’t let them do that.  And keep in mind that many of them have Masters or Doctorates in theology yet they have read the Bible so little that they don’t even know that truth!  

Just ask them this: Do you believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation, or do you rationalize away the 100+ passages affirming that truth? Follow-up question: If you deny those passages, then you are denying that the Holy Spirit inspired the original writings, so what is your evidence that the original writings were wrong but that the Holy Spirit is now accurately revealing truths to you?

Here’s what one theological Liberal said on the Sojourners’ blog:

I consider myself Christian although I do not believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation. I consider myself Christian because I seek to obey and to imitate Christ.

My response:

How do you know anything about Christ? Presumably it is from the Bible. But if you dismiss over 100 passages affirming the truth that He is the only way to salvation, why do you find the other passages to be trustworthy, such as the one you quoted (assuming you understood that in context)? If people just hold to the passages they like, then they aren’t following Christ, they are following themselves — that is, the god they have made in their own images by judging the real God and choosing which of his revelations are “real.”

I encourage you to scan the NT and reconsider your views. Jesus prayed in the garden and asked for another way. There wasn’t one. To teach otherwise mocks his work on the cross by implying that it was just one option of many, but not a requirement to save sinners. It also mocks the blood of the martyrs and those being persecuted today. For if Jesus isn’t the only way to salvation, why are these people suffering needlessly for their faith? If those on the theological Left really believed what they said and really loved these people they’d send Reverse Missionaries to de-convert those Christians and encourage them to adopt their local religions. After all, why suffer if Jesus isn’t the only way?

Here’s another typical theologically Liberal comment:

I don’t think it’s possible to bring ‘evidence’, in the sense of rational proof, of the revelations of the Holy Spirit, whether these come through Scripture or through direct experience.

My response:

We agree that the Holy Spirit has a large and unique role. Spiritually dead people will not understand the word. But I encourage you to scan the book of Acts and others to see the Gospel presentations there, and how the Christians referred to facts and logic (OK, and a few miracles) to present their case.

2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

BTW that isn’t even on my list of 100+ passages, but it implicitly shows that you are a follower of the true Christ or you are perishing. You are an unbeliever blinded by the god of this age or you see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, the image of God.

Just keep pointing the Progressives back to the Bible — all of it — and not just their misinterpretations of their favorite verses.  Plant a seed of truth so that whenever they claim to be Christians they’ll know that they are disagreeing with a truth taught more than 100 times in the Bible.

And when they tell you not to judge, point out that they are reading Matthew 7:1 out of context (just read the next 4 verses to see that Jesus is teaching not to judge hypocritically) and show them that they are judging the word of God, which means they are judging God.

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Stand to Reason offers a booklet listing 100 passages teaching that Jesus is the only way to salvation, though I have found many more.  Just flip open the New Testament and start reading.  You’ll find that little makes sense outside that truth.

False teachers

On the Wild Goat — er, uh, Goose — Festival

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An annual progressive Christian festival that draws oldline Protestants and disaffected former evangelicals will feature workshops on transgenderism and “Intersex” next month.

See Wild Goose Festival Migrates through Turbulent Issues of Transgenderism, Intersex. These people claim the name of Christ.  They are wolves in sheep’s clothing.  It is your basic rebellion against God.  They can play the “we’re Christians” card because weak-willed Bible-believers wouldn’t kick them out of the church years ago.

Inspired by Britain’s annual Greenbelt festival, the Wild Goose Festival brings performers, yoga practitioners, speakers and artists to a multi-day campout in the mountains of western North Carolina August 8-11. In its first two years, Wild Goose speakers promoted an assortment of liberal causes – peppered with sharp critiques of Southern Baptists and other conservative evangelicals.

Wild Goose has broached issues of human sexuality before, welcoming gay and lesbian speakers and exhibitors in 2011 and 2012. The unofficial United Methodist Reconciling Ministries Network will have a presence at Wild Goose this year, and former Contemporary Christian Music artist Jennifer Knapp has brought her “Inside Out Faith” program to the festival. Tony Campolo and his wife Peggy have also spoken at Wild Goose about the church’s response to homosexuality.

In 2013, Wild Goose is apparently getting wilder. Among the workshops highlighted at next month’s gathering will be a talk by Asher Kolieboi, co-founder of the Legalize Trans* campaign, on creating “trans* inclusive faith communities.” Kolieboi’s talk will be entitled “Galatians 3:28,” referencing the verse “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

If they loved “trans” people they would tell them the truth. But they love themselves and their popularity more than they love others, and they follow the world, not God. Anyone who interprets Galatians 3:28 that way should be ignored.  That is comically bad exegesis, even for a theological Liberal.

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“Progressive,” counterproductive wolves

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“Progressive” Christians love to quote Jesus about the “least of these,” even they are not only pro-legalized abortion but pro-taxpayer funded abortion.  Their hypocrisy doesn’t end there.  They consider it charity when they ask the government to take your money to “give” to others.

I Was Hungry and You … Called your Congressman made some excellent points about the flaws of Progressive philosophies.

The government does crowd out giving, and takes the discernment out of it. If your neighbor breaks his leg, people will help until he is well. But once he is well they’ll stop helping. If he decides he likes everyone doing things for him, people will not help. But the government doesn’t do that. They’ll keep funding him.

Even worse, the government policies discourage marriage and cause more poverty than they cure.

If Progressives want to debate the right level for a safety net that would be fine. But they actually think it is in line with Jesus’ teachings to ask Caesar to take from neighbor A by force to “give” to neighbor B. They consider themselves generous for doing that! Regardless of the effectiveness of their public policy positions, whatever they are doing cannot be called charity on their part.

There is evidence, however, that the growth of government programs crowds out private charitable giving. Thus pruning back some of the 70 or so federal assistance programs would yield more private giving. As taxes increase to cover spending, tax credits for charitable giving decrease, and government money flows to non-profit organizations, private giving shrinks. A Cato Institute report states:

Charitable giving declined dramatically during the 1970s, as the Great Society programs of the 1960s were expanding. The decline in giving leveled out in the 1980s as welfare spending began to level out and the public was deluged with news stories about supposed cutbacks in federal programs. Then, after the passage of welfare reform in 1996, there was a large spike in private giving.

 

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Jim Wallis’ new strawman

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See Wanted: 1,000 Pastors For the Poor – Jim Wallis – God’s Politics Blog, where Wallis wants to debunk the “myth” based on the political assertion that government doesn’t have any responsibility to poor people.  It is a classic example of arguing a point that wasn’t made.

What I oppose, along with many others, are false teachers like Jim “the Gospel is all about wealth redistribution” Wallis and Chuck “Jesus is not the only way” Currie distorting what the Bible teaches and asking for a virtual blank check for their counterproductive social programs.

How about if Wallis, Currie et al sign letters asking the government to stop letting people crush and dismember innocent but unwanted human beings?  That would be worthwhile.