Commentary, analysis and opinion.

Internet Culture, Lone Ranger Christianity, And The Pornification Of Church

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Fire Breathing Christian has some questions professing Christians who choose not to attend a local church need to be thinking about…and a few things to consider:

Why settle for the ugliness of a local church body when you can have a much more attractive online version instead?

Why gather with and commit to serving with a local bunch of often incredibly immature, confused, messed up, and biblically illiterate yahoos when you can instead bond with a group of awesome people who share your understanding and your passion in the areas that light you up and make you happy?

Why sit on Sundays in a pathetic little church building alongside pathetic little baby Christians who don’t share your wisdom, your spiritual depth, and your general awesomeness when you can bond instead with your people in Facebook forums and threads on your own schedule?

Why listen to some unenlightened simpleton preacher wannabe pitch some lame-o sermon on some subject you “mastered” long ago when you can instead immerse yourself in online sermons, podcasts, and social media conversations that feed your appetites on your terms at your preferred depth, and (this is important to mention again:) on your schedule?

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The Importance of Daily Bible Reading for Spiritual Growth

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Dave Jenkins of Servants of Grace urges fellow Christians to spend time with the Lord each day. He writes:

Whenever I write or speak about the need for Christians to daily read their Bible, I almost always get some form of pushback. At the heart of most of the pushback, I hear is something along the lines of how I’m making Bible reading a duty rather than a delight. I’ll grant that sometimes I don’t always communicate in the most nuanced way on this topic. With that said I’m often left wondering after these types of conversations, “Why do we need to qualify and nuance daily Bible reading?” After all, daily Bible reading has had a long tradition in the history of the church; especially in the Reformed tradition since the Protestant Reformation.

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Faith Leader Joins Fight Against Teen Vogue’s Disgraceful Articles

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“Operation Pull Teen Vogue” is underway reports Leah Jessen of LifeZette:

Christian parents have been expressing their outrage that a magazine aimed at today’s tweens and teenagers is giving young people explicit directions about controversial sexual acts — information that is wholly inappropriate for children in general.

“How disgusting,” evangelical leader Franklin Graham said of the material in a Facebook post. “As parents and grandparents, regardless of one’s faith, we shouldn’t stand by and let this kind of trash be pawned off on our children.”

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Christianity, Inc.

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We’ll start with a quote from Erick Erickson’s piece:

The most faithful pastors in this country are not the cowards trying to figure out how to lead their churches to accept gay marriage, but the ones who are willing to stand against the world, and even the President, in favor of Christian orthodoxy.Too many Christian pastors in America, both on the left and right, have become fixated on running businesses and growing profits instead of saving souls. They will all one day be held to account.

Read Erickson’s column over at The Resurgent:

Eugene Peterson is not a name familiar to most Americans, but within evangelical circles, Peterson is well-known. He wrote a translation of the Bible called “The Message,” which is a preferred text for churches trying to lure in new members who might be put off by the “thou shalls” and “thou shall nots” of the King James Version and the more accurate scriptural translations like the English Standard Version.

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DNC Vice Chair Refuses to Denounce Party Embrace of Extreme Leftist

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According to Megan Barth of LifeZette a high level Democrat party representative has refused to renounce Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour who praised a cop killer and called for ‘jihad’ on President Trump. She writes:

As one who believes in the spirit of debate, I had the opportunity to interview Michael Blake, vice chair of the DNC, as I filled in for Kevin Wall on KBET, AM790, out of Las Vegas, Nevada.

The premise of our discussion was the DNC reaction and response to President Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity and the overall integrity of our election system. Blake cited a “leading” partisan study to proclaim there isn’t enough voter fraud evidence to justify an investigation. Yet there was enough evidence, which I had assembled from candidates and whistleblowers, to warrant a FBI investigation, still ongoing in Nevada, related to voter fraud.

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Hillsong, Bethel Music and The Great Seduction

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Satan and his minions are shrewd, deceptive, relentless and exceedingly powerful creatures!  So with this in mind, here’s a reminder from Emergent Watch:

Many have apparently forgotten that the Holy Spirit will not magnify Himself or some alleged experience, but will magnify Jesus! “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me…” – John 16:13-14

Many in the visible church seem to have forgotten that the Holy Spirit always points us to the Lord Jesus Christ, while Satan’s goal is to turn us away from Christ. One of the ways he accomplishes this goal is through “Christian” music, as you will see in the following piece:

 

For the first time, Hillsong United is uniting with Bethel (Redding’s) Music for a “Night of Worship” on July 21 @ the Redding Civic Auditorium. Note that by their participation, Hillsong is effectively declaring their affinity with Bethel Redding, it’s music, and by default, it’s doctrines.

That these two groups should join together is hardly surprising, as both have been at the forefront of the transformation of church music – from the worship of God, to effectively worshiping “worship” music – From music that exalts God, into music that exalts an experiential “encounter” with “the presence”, and which magnifies feelings and emotions.

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Female Pastors- False Teachers or Just Sinning?

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Bible study author, speaker and blogger Michelle Lesley responds to the following email:

Pastrix Paula White is one example of a woman who holds the position of pastor which goes against the clear teaching in Scripture that a woman is not to exercise authority over a man.  1 Tim 2:11-12

Is a woman who is in the position of pastor to be considered a false teacher or merely disobedient to The Word of God? Some churches in my area place pastors’ wives in the position of “co-pastor.” Would she have to be teaching some false doctrine to be considered a false teacher or does the fact that she is in the position in the first place make her a false teacher?

I love it when I hear from women – like the reader who sent in this question – who are thinking deeply and seriously about the things of God. It brings me so much joy to see God working in the hearts and minds of Christian women.

Before we start parsing these ideas out, let’s bottom line this thing. Scripture is both explicitly and implicitly clear that women are not to serve as pastors. Regardless of whether we call what she’s doing sin or false teaching, it is definitely unbiblical for a church to install a woman in the position of pastor, and for the woman to accept the position. So the bottom line is, it’s wrong and nobody should be attending such a church.

Now, onward and upward with the parsing…

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GOD TV, Bethel, Lifestyle Christianity & IAHM endorsing demonic ‘grave-sucking’

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From Churchwatch Central:

The demonic realm should be avoided at all cost. Unfortunately, so-called ‘Christian’ institutions, ministries and churches are not afraid to partner or associate themselves with people who engage in unbiblical activity, particularly the practice of ‘grave-sucking’.

In this article, we highlight the practices of necromancy of Ben Fitzgerald and those who endorse him, (such as Bill Johnson of Bethel, Reinhard Bonnke and Daniel Kolenda of Christ for All Nations, International Association of Healing Ministries, Lifestyle Christianity, GOD TV and so on).

Last year, (NAR Apostle) Dr Michael Brown invited (NAR Apostle) Bill Johnson onto his Line of Fire program to promote his book:

When liars defend liars: Dr Michael Brown whitewashes the heresies of Bill Johnson.

Seventeen minutes into the ‘Line of Fire’ program linked below, this dialogue occurs between Michael Brown and Bill Johnson:

Brown: Do you endorse, preach, teach, encourage the practice of going to the graves of deceased men and women of God to try to suck the anointing out of the earth?

Johnson: No. Absolutely not.

Once again we find, under Bill Johnson’s leadership, this is simply NOT true.

Do you remember the Bethel leader speaking in this video?

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Has the Bible Changed What You Watch?

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Being a Berean means studying the Bible so that you’ll gain knowledge and be able to rightly handle the word of truth. (2 Tim 2:15)  Believers who study God’s Word in context know His heart. They understand who He is and His ways. They know what His will is for their lives. Moreover, they know what pleases Him — and what displeases Him. One of the ways we please God is by striving to become holy as He is holy. Not perfect, mind you. God does not expect perfection from His people. What He does expect is for us to guard our minds and hearts against unholy evil influences.

That said, we want to share a guest post we came across on Michelle Lesley’s blog, penned by Leslie of Growing 4 Life.  Leslie takes on Christians who profess Christ as their Lord and Savior, proclaim their undying love for Him, and say that they believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of God — and yet….these lovers of Jesus will sit through profanity laced, sexually explicit, exceedingly violent TV programs and movies.  Leslie has a word of warning for Christians such as these. She writes:

As a young married couple, my husband and I got in the habit of watching a particular TV show. Almost every week we tuned in to laugh at the antics of its characters for a half hour. We watched it without any conviction or qualms. At that time, it was simply a funny show.

Fast forward about fifteen years when this same show started to air again in re-runs. But now we were a little wiser. We were more grounded in Scripture. And we were more discerning. And so when we tuned in a few times for old times’ sake, we were most uncomfortable. We finally realized that the fornication and other sin that we were subjecting ourselves to for a few laughs was most definitely an offense to our Holy God. We turned it off and haven’t watched it since.

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Civilized life is coming a part at the seams

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There is no question that society is smack dab in the middle of a tug of war between conservatives and liberals — the sacred vs. the secular. In this provocative piece over at truthXchange titled “Sacred Canopy” Peter Jones makes the case that sexual freedom is utterly destroying human freedom, and it all started back in the sixties with the sexual revolution…that ultimately led to the disintegration of biblical morality. Dr. Jones writes:

The ripping away of the “sacred canopy” is what has happened to Western culture during my lifetime. “Canopy” is an image used by the sociologist Peter Berger to describe a culture’s “state of predictable order,” an order assumed by all, that makes human culture work. Thus we all get along. [Berger, Peter L. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. Garden City: Doubleday, 1967]. This “ordered structure” is what we have called for a long time Western Civilization or Christendom. Today civilized life is coming apart at the seams.

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The ‘New Breed’ Among Us (Part 1): Todd Bentley

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From Churchwatch Central:

Most people are unaware that New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) leaders genuinely believe that little ‘gods’ actually walk the earth. We already have given examples of Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton trying to teach people to tap into their divine natures and encouraging them to walk as ‘little Gods’ or glorified ‘Christs’.

This is because Apostles in the NAR follow a commission (as explained by Rick Joyner) known as the ‘Apostolic Commission’. This secret commission is given to Apostles in order to raise up a ‘New Breed’ of Christians. If you want to know why the ‘glory’ or ‘supernatural school’ started appearing in churches around the world, this is because leaders of these ‘churches’ are trying to raise up a spiritually supremacist race to lead the end-time Joel’s army church.

However, the NAR use a a range of words and phrases to talk about these types of ‘New Breed’ Christians. This theology goes by many names such as Manifest Sons of God, Kings kids, Sons of Thunder/Zebedee, Manchild/Joseph Company, etc.

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Seeing the Unseen: The Nature of Spiritual Warfare

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Did the Lord Jesus teach his followers to “bind” the powers of darkness?  Should the emphasis on spiritual warfare be on prayer-infused power encounters? What exactly does the Bible teach on the nature of spiritual warfare? Well, according to Christian apologist Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason (STR), the Bible has a lot to say about how we are to defend ourselves against other worldly forces in the unseen realm. We must be armed to the teeth!

What does a Christian’s armor look like? “The very first step in arming ourselves for battle against the devil is to gird our loins with truth (Eph. 6:14).” In this piece from STR’s Solid Ground magazine, Koukl tells us what the Bible teaches about the armor of God. Some who read this will be surprised by his teaching for the reason that the way in which charismatics go about dealing with the demonic is highly unbiblical, only they don’t know it. To make matters worse, attempting to “bind Satan” is a ridiculous and foolish practice.  Taking on powerful, lying, deceptive demons is dangerous!

So with this background in mind, we urge you to open up your Bible and follow along as Greg Koukl explains what it means to “gird your loins with truth.” He writes:

Sometimes, if you know what to look for, you can “see” something that is invisible; you can see the unseen. It’s not a parlor trick, but a valuable spiritual skill. And it’s not that difficult if you know what clues to look for. I’d like to show you what those clues are.

First, though, a foundational matter. I am convinced that most Christians do not understand spiritual warfare. Either they are unaware of the unseen battle or, if they do recognize its importance, they do not focus on the central issue but instead are distracted by a secondary concern. In military terms, they have been taken in by a feint. Here is the feint.

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Shack Author Says ‘I Want to Be More Like Oprah’

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Warren B. Smith of Lighthouse Trails has the details:

Oprah Winfrey interviewed Shack author William Paul Young on July 9, 2017 on her Super Soul Sunday television program that was broadcast on her OWN network. Young and Oprah appeared to be like two peas in a New Age pod as they talked of child abuse, traded spiritual quips, and seemed to continually marvel at the other’s brilliant insights. At one point midway in their conversation, Young answered his own rhetorical question regarding where Jesus dwells—he stated that “Jesus dwells in our hearts.” His quick, authoritative response was consistent not only with Oprah’s longstanding New Age beliefs but also with The Shack’s “Jesus” who presented this same New Age heresy when he stated that God “dwells in, around, and through all things.” This false teaching is the foundational teaching of the New Age/New Spirituality/New World Religion. The Bible is very clear that God is not “in” everyone and everything.  View article →

Related:

Video — William P. Young on Oprah

Video — William P. Young on Oprah, part 2

H/T Roxanne Murphy Adams

Apologist James White Draws Concerns After Holding, Defending Interfaith ‘Dialogue’ at Church With Muslim Imam

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Heather Clark of Christian News Network carefully lays out the details of a recent uproar among evangelicals over a debate between Christian apologist James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries and Yasir Qadhi, Dean of Academic Affairs at the Al-Maghrib Institute.  The ticketed event, called “Christians and Muslims: Agreements and Differences,” was held at Grace Bible Church on Jan. 24. On his Facebook page Dr. White stated that he is thankful that Heather Clark “actually quoted from the dialogues, fairly, evenly, and then gave extensive quotes from what I’ve written since then.”

A well-known Reformed apologist, elder and professional debater is drawing concerns after presenting, and continuing to defend, an interfaith dialogue event at a Mississippi church with a Muslim imam, which he says was meant to help Christians and Muslims engage in conversation and to “get along without compromise.”

Some objectors, while noting that they support dialoguing with and evangelizing Muslims, do not believe that it was proper to give an unconverted Muslim any type of platform during a special event hosted at a church, and feel that many of the imam’s statements should not have gone unchallenged.

“I’m totally in favor of having an accurate view of what they believe,” Andy Woods, the senior pastor of Sugar Land Bible Church in Texas and president of Chafer Theological Seminary in New Mexico, told Christian News Network. “Working out our differences and sitting down and making sure we understand each other is one thing, but giving someone a platform at a church is a different matter.”

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Correction: When we posted this piece we stated that the event was paid.  We apologize for the error. The event was not paid, it was ticketed. 

Civil Religion–The Chief Rival of Biblical Christianity in America?

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Does confusing Christ’s kingdom with civil religion open the door to exchange the truth of Christianity for what amounts to a false religion, “one in which faith in the national interest eclipses the primary allegiance a Christian owes to Jesus Christ and his word.” According to Pastor Kim Riddlebarger, who is co-host of the White Horse Inn:

One of the most subtle and dangerous temptations Christians face during their pilgrim journey is the allure of civil religion.  James Davison Hunter defines civil religion as a “diffuse amalgamation of religious values that is synthesized with the civic creeds of the nation; in which the life and mission of the church is conflated with the life and mission of the country.  American values are in substance, biblical, prophetic values; American identity is, thus, a vaguely Christian identity.” (1)  Civil religion often functions as an alternative public religious framework for many professing Christians, especially those who accept the “Christian America” myth, or who find exclusive Christian truth claims too controversial to play any significant role in the public square.

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Papal Advisers Bash American Christians in Bigoted Screed

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According to Thomas D. Williams, the “sweeping generalizations” of papal advisers and their “lack of familiarity with the complex religious landscape in the United States prompts concern about the quality of advice that Pope Francis is receiving from close advisers.”  Williams has the details:

In a peculiar, rambling essay, papal adviser Father Antonio Spadaro SJ has caricatured white southern evangelicals as well as conservative American Catholics as ignorant, theocratic, Manichean, war-mongering fanatics anxiously awaiting the apocalypse.

It is “these religious groups that are composed mainly of whites from the deep American South” that push conflicts and justify belligerence, while favoring the Old Testament “rather than be guided by the incisive look, full of love, of Jesus in the Gospels.”

The article appeared in both Italian and English in the Vatican-vetted journal La Civiltà Cattolica, of which Father Spadaro is editor-in-chief. In it, the Jesuit priest says that U.S. Evangelicals and Catholics have engaged in “an ecumenism of conflict” that seeks to advance “a theocratic type of state.”

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See our Research Paper on Roman Catholicism

David Jeremiah: ‘Appreciates Sarah Young and Jesus Calling’

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So, is it time we “mark and avoid” this popular pastor, teacher and author?  Christians who are of the opinion that Dr. David Jeremiah can be trusted couldn’t be more wrong as you will see in this piece by Amy Spreeman. She writes:

Pastor David Jeremiah recently worked with JesusCalling.com to produce a podcast titled, Keeping Hope In A Darkened World. In addition to promoting his new book, the pastor also promoted Sarah Young, the author of the Jesus Calling books, studies, devotionals, calendars, and coloring book.  The transcript of the interview regarding his admiration for the multi-million dollar Jesus Calling empire is as follows:

Narrator: “As a pastor and a teacher, Dr. Jeremiah advocates daily prayer and scripture reading. He appreciates how Sarah Young has helped many with their prayer lives through the words of Jesus Calling.”

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Hank Hanegraaff Must Step Down After Converting to Eastern Orthodoxy: CRI Founder’s Family

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The following article by Stoyan Zaimov of Christian Post is posted for informational purposes and not as an endorsement of CP.  Zaimov’s story contains an interview with Jill Martin Rische, the spokesperson for most members of Dr. Walter Martin’s family, where she reveals that they’re requesting that Hank Hanegraaff leave his leadership post at Christian Research Institute (CRI.) As of this writing, daughter Cindee Martin Morgan has not called for Hank to step down.  In May, Morgan stated her view of the controversy in a piece titled “Christians Are Jumping to ‘Shameful Conclusions’ About Bible Answer Man’s Conversion to Orthodoxy, Says Daughter of CRI Founder.”

CRN has reported on Hank’s conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy since the news broke in April. You can follow the story here.

Now to Stoyan Zaimov’s piece:

Family members of Dr. Walter Martin, founder of the Christian Research Institute, are calling on current CRI president Hank Hanegraaff to step down due to his conversion from evangelicalism to Eastern Orthodoxy.

A majority of the family members have signed a statement asking the “Bible Answer Man” to leave his leadership post.

Jill Martin Rische, the eldest daughter of Dr. Martin and who leads Walter Martin Ministries alongside her husband, Kevin Rische, told The Christian Post in a phone interview on Thursday that she and many other evangelical Christians were “shocked an [sic] surprised” when Hanegraaff was formally received into the Eastern Orthodox Church back in April.

She argued that Hanegraaff has since been teaching a blend of Eastern Orthodoxy and evangelical Christianity on the “Bible Answer Man” show, which she called “fundamentally dishonest.”   View article →

Related:

Christians Are Jumping to ‘Shameful Conclusions’ About Bible Answer Man’s Conversion to Orthodoxy, Says Daughter of CRI Founder

Bible Answer Man Renounces Evangelical Christian Faith

[Added 7/16/17] Walter Martin’s daughter, Cindee Martin Morgan, was accused by Dr. Martin’s eldest daughter of being “untruthful” in her article at Christian Post in May. Cindee and her husband Rick created a video response in order to allow Walter Martin’s own words to show that Cindee was neither untruthful, or mistaken. View the video here

See CRN’s excellent Research Paper on the Roman Catholic Church

 

Group of Religious Leaders, False Teachers Surround and Lay Hands on President Trump

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According to Christian News:

Rodney Howard-Browne Facebook photo

A group of religious leaders, including several known for their false teachings, appeared in the oval office on Monday, where they surrounded President Trump and laid hands on him.

Rodney Howard-Browne, known for the “Holy Laughter Movement” and his claim of being a “Holy Ghost bartender,” said that he had been asked by prosperity preacher Paula White, who reportedly serves as a spiritual advisor to the president, to pray over Trump.

“Yesterday I was asked by Pastor Paula White-Cain to pray over our 45th president,” he wrote on Tuesday in sharing several photos of the occasion to Instagram. “[W]hat a humbling moment standing in the Oval Office, laying hands and praying for our president—supernatural wisdom, guidance and protection. Who could ever even imagine. Wow. We are going to see another great spiritual awakening.”

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Actually, Eugene Peterson Does Not Support Same-Sex Marriage

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Earlier today we posted “Eugene Peterson’s Error Isn’t About Gay Weddings” to inform you that Eugene Peterson stated in an interview with Jonathan Merritt of Religion News Service that he had changed his mind on same-sex marriage — he’s all for it. Now we learn from Christianity Today, (CT), a site we do not endorse, “LifeWay Christian Stores had reached out to “confirm with Eugene Peterson or his representatives that his recent interview on same-sex marriage accurately reflects his views.” Had Peterson indeed shifted on the issue, America’s largest Christian retail chain would have stopped selling his books, which include dozens of versions of The Message as well as A Long Obedience in the Same Direction and The Pastor.”

Now to the Kate Shellnutt’s report:

A day after a Religion News Service interview portrayed retired pastor and author Eugene Peterson as shifting to endorse same-sex marriage, the evangelical leader retracted his comment and upheld the traditional Christian stance instead.

“To clarify, I affirm a biblical view of marriage: one man to one woman. I affirm a biblical view of everything,” he said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

Peterson, best known for creating The Message Bible, also regrets the “confusion and bombast” in the fallout of his remarks, which were widely shared and commented on online yesterday.

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Getting wasted with the Holy Spirit at Bethel Redding

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In part 2 of a series Holly Pivec of Spirit of Error penned on Bethel Redding’s Firestarters course, we were alerted to Bethel Church’s attempt to draw people into the world of the occult by teaching participants how to “burn with passion for God.” In this installment Pivec reveals that students were taught to imagine themselves holding a huge bottle of wine and encouraged to “get drunk.”  This is no joke, brethren.  She witnessed this bizarre behavior and shares what she saw:

When I recently attended the Firestarters adult Sunday School class at Bethel Church in Redding, California, I was shocked by the teacher’s announcement at the start of the class. “There are only three rules in this class. Rule 1: Get drunk. Rule 2: Stay drunk. Rule 3: Get other people drunk.”

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The Dark Secret in America That Threatens Kids

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According to Dr. Meg Meeker of LifeZette, there is an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases among teens.  Yet ‘Teen Vogue’ and other popular magazines relentlessly push sex on young people. Dr. Meeker has the story:

When I see magazines, movies, or television shows that market sex to kids, I go ballistic.

Here’s why: There is a dark secret in America that is threatening our kids about which most parents and teens don’t know: Our youth are living with an unprecedented epidemic of sexually transmitted infections.

That’s according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet if your teen reads magazines, watches television, or streams movies — he will never know this.

How bad is it? Let me give you a few solid medical facts.

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Eugene Peterson’s error isn’t about gay weddings

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Amy Spreeman of Berean Research examines what’s behind Eugene Peterson’s change of mind on homosexual marriage. She writes:

Stop the presses: Another progressive Christian pastor is “gay affirming.”

Well, it’s not exactly surprising that “The Message” author and retired pastor Eugene Peterson would announce that he has changed his mind on homosexual marriage and would perform a “gay wedding” in his own church.

The real news is that this really isn’t about same sex marriages, or even homosexuality. The error is much bigger than that.

First, the hullabaloo: Folks are talking about a Religion News Service article penned by progressive Jonathan Merritt, in which Peterson states:

“I wouldn’t have said this 20 years ago, but now I know a lot of people who are gay and lesbian and they seem to have as good a spiritual life as I do. I think that kind of debate about lesbians and gays might be over. People who disapprove of it, they’ll probably just go to another church. So we’re in a transition and I think it’s a transition for the best, for the good. I don’t think it’s something that you can parade, but it’s not a right or wrong thing as far as I’m concerned.”

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Global Leadership 2017 doubles down on carnality

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Bill Hybels’ claims his vision is for a better life and a better world. According to Amy Spreeman of Berean Research, Hybles’ mission misses the point, as it completely takes the focus off of Christ. She writes:

On Aug. 10-11, 2017, hundreds of church host sites in North America along with telecast centers in over 100 nations world-wide will tune in to the 2017 Global Leadership Summit, hosted by founder Bill Hybels of Willow Creek church in greater Chicago.  That means a wide swath of pastoral and church leadership will hear how to lead their churches through following Christ and biblical principles worldly, non-Christian leadership authors, social justice organizations, and corporate gurus from Facebook and Google. When we call these leaders non-Christian, let’s be honest and call them “enemies of the Gospel,” which God’s Word says they are. (Luke 11:23 and James 4:4)

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