Attacks on Christianity Today

This is an old blog...

2011-06-22T18:30:00.001-05:00

I'm gonna keep it for the memories, but my thinking and writing has (hopefully) progressed a bit since I wrote this. Please see my more recent blog, The Long Road Home.

The Bad Pastors

2008-11-30T17:07:00.000-06:00

The Bad Pastors

Not everyone is called to be a pastor. That statement seems like it would surprise a lot of people. I often hear pastors tell people that they have a calling on their lives to preach. I have had pastors tell me the same thing. But I always wonder, “Why did God tell you my calling and not me?”

Really, I think we have too many people becoming pastors who should really spend more time studying the Bible first.

The job of a pastor is a high calling. Very high. But at the same time its not suppose to be a status thing. It is a service position. It should never make you proud. It should humble you. You should never seek the position, but only answer God’s call if and when He speaks.

I have been in a lot of churches, and frankly I am angered by a lot of the preaching I hear. It is shallow, fluffy, witty GARBAGE. The pastor tells jokes, claps, smiles, has us repeat nonsense (Say ‘the devil’s a loser!’) and dresses up the Word of God with clever titles, rhymes, or alliteration. And the whole time the congregation laughs and smiles and claps. I sit there, bewildered, wondering why the pastor is so light-hearted when he is going to be held accountable for so many souls.

I want my pastor to know Greek. Not everyone may think that is important, but that is what the New Testament was written in. Why shouldn’t he learn it?

I get paid to remodel houses and do landscaping. It’s my job. I do it about 40 hours a week, less during school. Why shouldn’t a pastor spend about that much time studying, reading, and preparing his sermon each week?

And please spare me the entertainment. I don’t want my pastor to be clever with words. I don’t care if he has great jokes. I want him to spend his week studying the bible, figuring out what it means, then coming to church on Sunday and explaining it to me. Often that requires knowing the historical context or Greek.

I DO enjoy the preaching at my church. It DOES entertain me. But that is not why I am there. I am there because I don’t always understand everything the Bible I carry around says, so I go to church to find out. It is interesting to me to know what the Bible says and means.

The word of God is what will transform your life. It brings conviction. It lifts you when you are low. It humbles you when you’re not. It teaches, comforts, inspires, condemns. It is everything. It is what the church was built on, not clever, lovable, A-type pastors.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1 [NIV]

Tolerance from the diverse and tolerant

2008-11-23T19:50:00.006-06:00

I heard about this the other day and I just happened to be writing a blog about intolerance at the time. After Proposition 8 passed in California, defining marriage as between one man and one woman, those opposed to proposition 8 lashed out.

Here is one video I watched. It shows gays harassing and blacklisting anyone who gave money to or supported proposition 8. In America we are free to believe what we want. People should never be treated this way for expressing their beliefs in the form of a vote. Why should we be afraid to support something we believe in?

Click here

Here’s another one along the same lines. This one shows that Mormon churches have been having their windows busted out since the vote. Consider: do you really think if the vote had went the other way that Mormons would have been running around busting windows out of gay bars?

Click here

And this is the worst of all I think. It shows an elderly woman being screamed at by many people who support gay marriage while the reporter says “she just wants to express her opinion.”

One of the men, who apparently has been trained in the military gets in her face yelling “you stupid, stupid woman!” Then he says to someone “We should fight! We should fight!”

Then she has a cross ripped from her hands and stomped on. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Why were they all not arrested for hate crimes? This is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Just switch roles. Imagine a crowd of Christians surrounding an old gay woman while some guy screams at her calling her stupid, threatening violence, ripping something from her hand and stomping on it. There would be outrage. Why then is this tolerated?

Here’s the video:

Click here

At the end the news man says there is anger and hate coming from both sides. If you have watched the video, please tell me where the old woman was demonstrating hate. Please. Because I see a scared old woman who is surrounded by people she knows don’t like her, but she still stands up for her beliefs. Good for her.

And this demonstrates the diversity and tolerance that people pride themselves on so much.

The Lighthearted Church

2008-11-17T23:31:00.000-06:00

I think I said this before; I love America, and I love the church, but the American church disappoints me often. It seems we just want to make the church as comfortable, entertaining, and light-hearted as the rest of our lives. But doing so is damaging the church as a body.

What am I talking about? Well, lets see. Is there a coffee shop in your church? Is the so-called, “worship service,” more like a weekly concert? Does your pastor have a bunch of jokes memorized, but has to read scripture from his notes? If so, then maybe Im talking about your church.

We have these churches in America that are fun to go to each week. We really enjoy being there. The community is amazing, the, “worship,” really moves us, and we just LOVE our pastor. But there just seems to be something lacking… maybe the Bible?

Of course there is a sermon, (or “message” as some prefer to call it). Usually it is some light-hearted sermon series with a title that sounds like it would be more suitable for children or young teens with some pop-culture or technology related theme. The pastor has some clever lines and a few concepts that, “really make you think.” But what did you really learn?

Now. I make no claim of being some kind of biblical guru, and I don’t pretend like I have all the answers. But why have I read more of the Bible, know more scripture, and grasp larger biblical concepts than people who have been Christians their entire lives? I was born again less than four years ago. This absolutely shouldn’t be.

But it is because I choose to attend churches where the pastor preaches the word of God. They read the Bible, then tell us what it means. That’s it. Doesn’t sound like fun? Well, I really don’t think we are called to have fun in church. But if you don’t find joy in hearing the word of God preached, as a teacher of mine used to say, “You might wanna check yo Jesus.”

Now, I do feel these other churches have their place. As long as they are biblical, I think it is good to reach out to people of different cultures who are attracted to different styles. I began my walk in a church like this. But once we know who God is and fall in love with Him, I think we should desire more. There is only so much spiritual maturing that a person can do in a church where the Word of God isn’t absolutely central.

Faith come from hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. (Romans 10:17) This means THE WORD OF GOD. The Word shouldn’t only be central to the message, where the pastor uses a short passage of scripture and bases his sermon on that, the message should BE the Word. Exposition and application. That’s it. Tell us what it means, then tell us how to apply it to our lives. Anything more than that is a distraction from what is important.

Intolerance

2008-11-12T11:36:00.001-06:00

It blows my mind that Christians are the ones with the “intolerant,” label. I have found that Christians seem to be the ones who aren’t tolerated by those who take great pride in their own diversity and tolerance.

Since the time I first believed and started standing up for my beliefs I have found myself being stuck into this group called the “religious right,” which is apparently the only group of people that can be looked down upon in America while maintaining political correctness.

I sit in class and listen to students and teachers alike spew anti-Christian rhetoric; condescension and disdain dripping from their mouths as they mock Christian beliefs such as creationism and young earth theory.

I see Muslims wash their feet in the bathrooms at school. I see gay couples make-out in the student lounge. As I walk through my school I am constantly confronted with things that directly contradict my beliefs. To me, they are wrong, evil, or foolish. But if I speak out against them I am called intolerant. Why, then, is it okay for others to speak against my beliefs and practices in the classroom setting?

In the spirit of diversity and tolerance, shouldn’t I be able to believe whatever I want without being belittled as I try to get an education? My beliefs don’t hurt anybody. In fact, my beliefs command me to love everybody.

So why can’t I raise my hand in class and give my opinion without having to worry about being attacked by not only my fellow classmates, but the professors themselves?

Are you angry in class today? Take it out on Christianity. There is a good chance the professor will nod and smile, praising you for your insight, while any Christian in the room sinks lower in their seat, their beliefs trampled.

Mark Driscoll's Latest Trial

2008-11-02T11:20:00.003-06:00

Mark Driscoll is the pastor of Mars Hill Church is Seattle, Washington. The church has seven campuses and is growing rapidly. Driscoll describes his church as,"theologically conservative and culturally liberal." He reaches out to many young people who may be involved in very negative subcultures.

Hump Fest is an annual porn festival in Seattle where amateur porn makers all get together in a theater and watch the porn videos, then vote on the best one.

Driscoll has faced many trials since starting his church. He describes his latest struggle:

"The big issue I’m dealing with now is the Hump Fest coming up next month. It’s the amateur porn festival. Everyone gets together in a theater and votes on which porn is the best. To make it in the festival, you need to have something in the film that shows that the film was made for this festival. This year, that’s me. People are trying to have sex around our church and in the bathrooms."

This is a tragedy. It is a picture of depravity. The fact that there are people in theaters watching porno together and voting on which one is the best is bad enough. Now they are trying to shoot the videos in Driscoll's church. It is disgusting.

This is a link to a message Driscoll delivered at the Desiring God Conference in Minneapolis not long ago where he talks about the Hump Fest. I would encourage you to listen to the whole sermon, but he talks about the Hump Fest about three-quarters of the way through the message.

click here

The Prosperity Gospel Pt. 3

2008-10-24T21:25:00.001-05:00

This is the third week I have dedicated to the prosperity gospel, and I have actually struggled with what I was going to say this week. I could rant about this for days, but of course then very few people would actually read what I have to say, so I’ll be as brief as possible.

I wonder, what do prosperity preachers make of many of the godliest men in the Bible dying brutal deaths? The apostle Peter was crucified upside down. Stephen was stoned to death while begging God with his dying breath not to hold his attackers’ sin against them. The apostle Paul, who wrote half of the New Testament, was beheaded in prison. There isn’t a single instance where someone receives monetary riches as an incentive or blessing for following Christ. So where do they get it from?

America. They get it from America. It’s a shame. I love America. I love the Church. But the American church disappoints me often. Only in America could anyone preach that God wants us to drive a BMW and not be called a heretic.

How do they explain rich unbelievers? Why are Christians, even the richest of them, not richer than Bill Gates? If God wants to bless us with riches, why is He holding back? Certainly Joel Osteen has more favor with God than Gates does, right? So why has God “blessed,” others more?

Of course, I’m being facetious. But I think it is important to reject the prosperity gospel completely. It smears the name of Christ. Christians should NOT seek to get rich. If we do, what separates us from everyone else? How are we then a light in the darkness?

We are to be content in any and every circumstance, whether in times of need or plenty. We are to seek first Christ’s kingdom and righteousness, and everything else will be provided by God. (Matt 6:33,34) Money is not to be our treasure. Christ is. And THAT is how we become a light to the world.

It is as John Piper says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him, IN THE MIDST OF LOSS, not prosperity.”

The Prosperity Gospel Pt. 2

2008-10-14T23:01:00.001-05:00

This week I will mostly just present some scriptures that contradict the teaching of the prosperity gospel. There are many more that disprove the heresy of the prosperity gospel, but the following are some that are familiar to me; I found them by simply paging through my Bible.

1 Timothy 6:7-10
…we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

The fact that anyone can read this verse and still believe God wants us to live in mansions and drive fancy cars makes me want to ram my head into a wall. It is unbelievable to me.
The Bible speaks far more of suffering for the Christian in this present life than it does prosperity.

Matthew 6:24:
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Romans 5:3,
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

James 1:2-4 teaches:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Contrast these passages with the prosperity message that says God doesn’t want us to have to worry about how to pay our bills. I agree that God doesn’t want us to worry about money or heath or anything else, but He teaches what we should do instead:

Phillipians 4:6:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Notice that it says, “With thanksgiving.” Gratefulness doesn’t seem to be something that is stressed in the prosperity gospel, except immediately following a monetary, “blessing.” But Paul says:

Phillipians 4:12
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

Lets see, where to next? Well, I think there are enough that we have seen to assure us that we will still suffer as Christians. But what does the Bible teach us to assure us that our suffering is not in vain?

Romans 8:18
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

They are not even worth comparing! If you believe the Bible is truth, this verse should give you more joy than any prosperity preacher ever could. This is a promise of God, not of man.

I think this is enough for now. (And I hope so; I’m at about triple the word count I’m supposed to be at.) I hope you will take note of these verses, look them up, and read them in context. There are far, far more. Like I said, these are ones I found by paging through my Bible. I hope you will find more of your own, it isn’t hard. It is far harder, I believe, to find ones that seem to promise money, health, and success.

The Prosperity Gospel Pt. 1

2008-10-06T21:35:00.007-05:00

The other day a man on the TV caught my eye, so I decided to turn the volume up and check it out. I ended up sitting there for a half hour, taking notes, and flipping through my Bible. Here’s a few of the quotes I wrote down:

“Nothing on Earth is as beautiful as a hundred dollar bill.”
“Whoever said money doesn’t make you happy hasn’t had enough.”
“Money just makes me feel good when I have it. I just love more people.”

Now, who do you suppose I am quoting? Some rich celebrity? 50 cent, maybe? Or the author of a new get-rich-quick book? No. Actually, these are the words of a pastor, preaching his Sunday morning message. This is the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. It’s message? God blesses Christians with material things, and health, and success in all that they do. But first, the Christian must be willing to sow their “faith seed,” a monetary offering; the more you give, the more you can expect to get back.

Some of the prosperity preachers include: Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyers, Benny Hinn, Jesse Duplantis, T.D. Jakes, Mike Murdock, and many more. They each have their own story of how God has “blessed,” them with success or riches because they were willing to sow their, “faith seed.” Many of them pastor huge churches, live in large houses, drive expensive cars, and travel in private jets as “proof,” that God has blessed them for their faithfulness.

I don’t even know where to start on this. The best advice I can give to anyone curious about the prosperity gospel is to pick up a Bible, open it randomly, and start reading. I don’t think it will be long before you find scripture that directly contradicts the prosperity message.

The first time I heard a pastor preaching this message I thought it was a joke. But it is no joke. People are following these leaders who tell them that if they give give give, they will get get get. “If you give God an offering and more comes back, that’s how you know God exists,” says Mike Murdock.

The prosperity gospel is unbiblical and dangerous. Next week I will put forth scripture that contradicts the prosperity gospels’ teaching, and the following week I will share a few of my own thoughts on it.

I hope you will watch this video which is an excerpt from a John Piper sermon on the prosperity gospel. I wept the first time I watched it...

Fish

2008-09-27T16:33:00.004-05:00

The, “Ichthys,” (pronounced ikּthus) is more commonly known as, “The Jesus Fish,” and is a symbol that has been used to identify Christians since around the first century, even before the cross. As the early church was growing, believers would hold secret meetings to protect themselves from persecution, so they developed a symbol that they could scratch into rocks, carve into doors, and draw in the dirt that would identify a meeting place. While the fish isn’t exactly a sacred symbol, it does have roots in early Christianity and early church persecution.

Today, the symbol is still used to identify Christians. Increasingly though, I see the, “Darwin fish,” which are a mockery of the ichthys. They take the Christian symbol, add legs, and write “Darwin,” or, “evolve,” inside of it to promote evolution as opposed to creationism. Thank you, evolutionists.

I understand that you don’t agree with my beliefs. But do you really have to use a mockery of a Christian symbol to say that? And why is it tolerated? Why is that somehow politically correct?

What if I were to do something similar with another religion’s symbol? For instance, I believe that my God holds the entire universe in His hands, so what if I had a bumper sticker of Jesus holding the sun in one hand and the Muslim symbol of the crescent moon in the other? Or consider this. I believe that the God of the Bible is the one true God. So what if my bumper sticker depicted Buddha bowing down to Jesus?

I would be ostracized. I would be called intolerant. Now, of course, I would never do that. I may not agree with their beliefs, but I will respect them enough not to mock their symbolism.

As the columnist Jonah Goldberg points out, the Darwin fish exists as a slam against Christians for their beliefs. Ironically, Goldberg says, the same cars that bear the Darwin fish often have a, "coexist," sticker on the other side of the bumper...

Imposters

2008-09-14T20:57:00.007-05:00

Eighty percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians, but why? They don’t go to church, read the Bible, seek God's will in their lives, or do anything else that might identify them as Christians. But still, that is how they identify themselves. But they’re not really Christians.

Whoa! That's judgmental, right? Well, lets look at it a different way. If a guy called himself a vegetarian, but ate meat all the time, wouldn't it be safe to say he isn't a vegetarian? Of course it would be. But if most of the people who called themselves vegetarians ran around eating meat all the time, would you be so quick to point at them and say that they are imposters? Probably not, because they would all band together and tell you that, “you’re wrong”, and “who are you to judge?” and “vegetarian means different things to different people,” right?

I feel like this is what has happened with Christians. There are millions of people in America who will say that they don’t think you have to believe the Bible, repent of your sins, or strive to be Christ-like in order to be a Christian. But Christianity is not defined by a consensus.

However, this consensus is having an effect on the church. It is leading people astray by misrepresenting what it means to be a Christian. Imagine if it was generally accepted that you didn’t have to abstain from meat in order to be a vegetarian.

Maybe eighty percent of Americans would then identify themselves as vegetarians...

Matthew 7:21-23

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Introduction to the Assault

2008-09-12T22:03:00.003-05:00

According to the US Census Buruea about 80% of Americans claim to be Christians. And yet, somehow I feel like since I became a Christian I am more of an outcast than I was back when I was addicted to meth. How can this be so?

The reason is because it isn't just the 6% percent of Americans who claim some other religion or the 14% percent that claim no religion at all who are attacking the church. The attacks are also coming from within.

Over the next few months I hope to illuminate the assaults coming from both inside and outside the church and share my thoughts on them. I pray that these posts reach people and soften their hearts toward my Savior Jesus Christ, who was mocked, beaten, and hung on a cross for all of His people. And for those who are already in the faith; may what you read strengthen, encourage, and energize you to stand for what you believe.

I do not believe that I am more holy, righteous, or deserving than anyone else. I don't think I know everything, or even much at all. I grow in my faith and understanding each day. I don't think my words are the final authority on anything. God's word is the sole authority. So feel free to tell me where you agree or disagree. This is all new to me, so I hope you will bear with me, encourage me, and tell me where I need improvement. I look forward to the coming months.

May God be glorified!