Commentary, analysis and opinion.

Brian Houston: ‘Jesus became you, so that you could become Him…’

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(Churchwatch Central) Brian Houston recently made the claim that, “Jesus became you, so that you could become Him.” You can watch the footage below and read the transcript. Watch the clip in context and if you agree or disagree with us quoting him, ask yourself this question – why does he think this and why did he even say it? [The video is no longer available – it was pulled from Youtube, as often happens. So CWC did an update that includes Houston’s sermon podcast. Watch it here.]

What other biblically qualified teacher would say this?

The reality is that we have been waiting for Brian Houston to say something like this for a long time. Why? … Continue reading →

Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry – Normalizing Mysticism

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Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry is nothing of the sort. It’s a sham. Just a way Bethel Church leaders have devised to get their hooks into people, especially undiscerning young people. If you’re unfamiliar with Bethel Church in Redding CA, the senior pastor is the notorious  “Apostle” Bill Johnson.  For reasons that will become clear, Bethel is considered by some to be a cult. (More on Bethel Redding here.)  Its leaders prey on those who are unschooled in the scriptures, as you will see in Rick Becker’s piece over at Famine In the Land. Becker begins with this warning: Continue reading →

The Four Terrible Things That Are Destroying Boys In Our Culture

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(Matt Walsh – Daily Wire) “He goes to school and his female classmates are dressed like strippers. He goes anywhere and that’s how the women are dressed. It seems that everyone is doing everything they can to make a degenerate and a creep out of him, even as they demand that he control himself.”

Our culture is very bad for boys. It’s bad for girls, too. It’s bad for everyone. But I think we fail to recognize and appreciate the unique struggles that boys face. Partly we fail to recognize it because we are too busy worrying about the Patriarchy’s persecution of women. Partly we fail to recognize it because, collectively, we just don’t care that much about boys. Partly we fail to recognize it because men are not as likely to talk about their own plight. And partly a man will not talk about it because everyone, even his fellow men, will only laugh at him and downplay the problem. Continue reading →

You Can’t Love Jesus with a Heart Full of Hate: 7 Reasons to Love and Forgive Your Enemies

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Bible study author, speaker and blogger Michelle Lesley offers 7 reasons God gives us in His Word to love and forgive our enemies. Here’s one example: You Can’t Love Jesus With A Heart Full Of Unforgiveness. The reason she gives is that “Your enemy – that person you hate and refuse to forgive because he hurt you – has sinned infinitely more against a holy and righteous God than he could ever sin against you.”  Sadly, most Christians never even consider that all sin is first and foremost against a holy God.

Now discover 6 more reasons Christians must forgive those who have sinned against them: Continue reading →

I’m old enough to remember when ‘evangelical’ was a bad word

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According to Jesse Johnson “evangelical suffers from an ambiguity largely owning to its diversity. The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) is different than the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, yet members of both would sign the Manhattan Declaration. If you believe the gospel and the fundamentals (inerrancy, virgin birth, bodily resurrection, personal conversion, etc.), does that make you evangelical? There is no clear answer to that question.”  But what is clear says Johnson is that “an evangelical is someone who says with their feet that Catholicism and liberalism are wrong, but they just would never say so with their mouths. They leave the Catholic church on Sundays, but turn around and call Catholics our brothers in the Lord on Tuesdays. This is evangelicalism’s squishy middle.” Continue reading →

‘Chappaquiddick’ Star: ‘Everybody Gave [Ted Kennedy] a Pass’

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(Christian Toto – NewsBusters) Jason Clarke got quite the education after accepting the lead role in Chappaquiddick.

The movie, out April 6, follows the events surrounding the 1969 death of Mary Jo Kopechne. Sen. Ted Kennedy (Clarke) was driving Kopechne, a campaign worker for his late brother Robert F. Kennedy, home on the Massachusettes island of Chappaquiddick when he crashed his Oldsmobile through a fence, landing the car in a pond. Continue reading →

How To Do Online Discernment Ministry, part 1

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Photo credit: 8:28 Ministries

“No matter if you are in your pew listening to a sermon, choosing a book at the Christian bookstore, or reading some essays online, you need discernment to determine if what you are absorbing aligns with God’s word or is a lie designed to incrementally steer you away from the narrow path.”

In this 2 part series, Elizabeth Prata of The End Time offers her perspective on assessing whether an online apologetics and discernment ministry is “operating appropriately within an edifying sphere of the gift, or is just a critical crank out to get someone or has an ax to grind.” Here’s part 1: Continue reading →

Hybels steps down from Willow Creek following allegations of misconduct

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(Manya Brachear Pashman and Jeff Coen – Chicago Tribune)  Forty-two years after founding one of the nation’s most influential evangelical megachurches, the Rev. Bill Hybels told his congregation Tuesday night that he would step down from the helm of Willow Creek Community Church six months ahead of schedule.His departure comes less than a month after a Chicago Tribune investigation disclosed that Hybels had been the subject of inquiries by church leaders into claims that he ran afoul of church teachings by engaging in inappropriate behavior with women in his congregation — including employees — allegedly spanning decades. The inquiries had cleared Hybels. Continue reading →

Francis Chan: ‘God Might Kill You If You Criticize Church Leaders’

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Francis Chan praying with false teacher Mike Bickle

During a speaking engagement*, popular preacher and author Francis Chan told the group that God will destroy anyone who questions or criticizes the teachings of Christian leaders. Steven Kozar of Messed Up Church has the story which includes a must watch video of Bethel’s guest speaker so that we can see for ourselves that he was not kidding around; he was as serious as a heart attack. Here’s Steven Kozar’s post:

There’s a recent video sermon from Francis Chan which has eerie similarities to a cult leader indoctrinating his followers. His basic argument is this: Continue reading →

Boston Marathon Runners Can Compete as Gender ‘They Specify Themselves to Be’

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(Heather Clark – Christian News) The Boston Athletic Association, the group behind the Boston Marathon, has confirmed that it allows runners to compete as the gender with which they self-identify—a controversial allowance that has raised questions about whether it gives male runners who identify as female an unfair advantage.

“We take people at their word. We register people as they specify themselves to be,” Tom Grilk, chief of the Boston Athletic Association, told the Boston Herald. “Members of the LGBT community have had a lot to deal with over the years, and we’d rather not add to that burden.” View article →

Bethel medical conference raises concerns

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(Anita Brady – Record Searchlight) “[Bethel] has the goal of infiltrating all aspects of society (the Seven Mountains Mandate) and locally/globally influence it to their version of Christian faith. Angel feathers and gold dust, grave sucking, fire tunnels, faith healings, and praying in tongues are on the agenda of this ‘church.’”

Mid-April, Bethel will hold its fourth annual Medical Healing Conference in Redding. Be assured the word “medical” is used to try to make this conference seem legitimate. It is not. Continue reading →

A warning about Hillsong’s Facebook marketing ‘con job’.

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(Churchwatch Central) Brian Houston often says that it’s by the grace of God he is where he is today. This is completely fraudulent on so many levels. With that in mind and given its wordwide impact, it is worth examining the marketing arm of Hillsong.

While biblical Christianity trusts that Jesus will grow His church through the preaching of His gospel, Hillsong has relied heavily on marketing research and innovations to grow their empire. In this example, we highlight their latest marketing ploy. Continue reading →

A Naked Emperor in the Southern Baptist Convention

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How long will it take before the Southern Baptist Convention disqualifies and/or disciplines some of its leaders such as Rick Warren, Andy Stanley & Beth Moore who are in blatant unrepentant sin, wonders Bible study author, speaker and blogger Michelle Lesley. “Is there any amount of sin these pastors and teachers, and those like them, can commit that will cause those in SBC leadership to pull their materials off the shelves of LifeWay, deny them a seat at the table, and urge them to repent and step down from their positions?” The answer is that the SBC has chosen to let sleeping dogs lie. So it appears that SBC celebs who remain in unrepentant sin will not suffer any consequences whatsoever. At least not from the SBC’s hierarchy. Continue reading →

The American Cultural Revolution

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(Erick Erickson – Dailywire) “What we are seeing is an American Culture Revolution, unleashed by a narrow-minded group of leftists who have more in common with Mao than Washington. They have become dominant in the American media and have systematically purged conservative voices from the air and print. Conservative thought is more and more relegated to a ghetto and should any prominent conservative try to leave the ghetto, the leftwing mob will take action to destroy them.”

Kevin Williamson has been fired by The Atlantic. Williamson is one of the great conservative intellectuals of our times. He has a keen wit and frequently engages in heterodox opinions that make his writing and thinking intriguing. For a decade he wrote at William F. Buckley’s National Review until hired away last week by Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor of The Atlantic. Continue reading →

U.S. Cardinal: Pope’s ‘No Hell’ Comments a ‘Profound Scandal’

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(Michael W. Chapman – CNSNews)  Commenting on the worldwide reaction to Pope Francis’ interview with his longtime atheist friend, Eugenio Scalfari, in which the latter claimed the Pope said there is no Hell and that the souls of the damned are not eternal, Cardinal Burke, an American who serves on the Vatican’s highest court, said the situation was “beyond tolerable” and “a source of profound scandal.”

Cardinal Burke also criticized the Vatican’s response to the scandal as “strongly inadequate” because the Vatican did not say Pope Francis rejcts these “heretical ideas.” Continue reading →

Invalid reasons for staying in a church you know teaches false doctrine

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Recently we posted “10 invalid arguments in defense of false teachers” by Rick Becker. Now Becker lays out 8 reasons believers shouldn’t remain in a church. One of the reasons people often cite for staying is that they feel they play a valuable role in the church, such as secretary, worship leader, Bible teacher, or even one of the pastors. Becker isn’t buying it.  He believes that those who stay are compromising. So, your choice “is between contending for the faith, or remaining content with a distortion of the faith.” You can read Becker’s piece over at Famine In The Land: Continue reading →

Scammed by a Black, a Woman, and Now a 17-Year-Old

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(Lloyd Marcus – American Thinker) “My fellow Americans, leftists view you only as pawns.  Your lives are mere tools to use to further their anti-God, anti-freedom, and anti-America agendas.  Leftists are willing to sacrifice your well-being, best interests, and lives to further their extreme causes and ideas.  This is why leftists use everything that happens in life – every accident, every tragic event, even the weather, to move the ball toward their goal.”

The I.D. (Investigation Discovery) channel re-enacts real-life crime stories.  I watched two stories in which single female homeowners heard men breaking into their homes. … Continue reading →

Beth Moore’s Legalism: A Discernment Lesson applicable to any teacher

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Elizabeth Prata of The End Time reminds us that popular Bible study teacher, author, and speaker Beth Moore’s theology is off the rails. (Prata has a page on her blog that contains past critiques of Mrs. Moore’s teaching.)  In this piece she addresses Moore’s legalism and admonishes us not to listen to Moore “or any teacher who imposes conditions on your walk that are absent from the Bible. Or who uses absolute words like unless, can’t, always, never, all the time, and so on.”  In this “refresher course” Elizabeth Prata once again takes on Beth Moore:

I have written about Beth Moore’s legalism in the past (2011). It’s hard to believe that was 7 years ago. Here is a refresher course on how, while seeming to speak a Gospel-infused sermon, Beth Moore’s speeches are really just a try harder legalism. This is a lesson in discernment. Continue reading →

MLM-ing Essential Oils at Church

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Bible study author, speaker and blogger, Michelle Lesley, responds to a question from her Mailbag: Our church has recently had a visitor come who is now promoting essential oils to the women who are flocking to a class she is having in one of their homes. This makes me very uncomfortable as it appears (to me) that she has visited to increase her MLM [multi-level marketing] customer base while touting medicinal cures via essential oils. Do you have any research on this?

Sounds like a multi-level mess! There are several different issues going on here, so let’s dig in… Continue reading →

Pope: Christians Should Feel Shame for Global Strife

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(Robert Spencer – Frontpage) “In speaking of those who have left the world ‘fractured by divisions and wars,’ Pope Francis doesn’t seem to have said a word about the religion that actually teaches that believers should wage war against and subjugate unbelievers. But of course, about that religion he has said, ‘Authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.’”

Never missing an opportunity to confuse, disappoint, and demoralize the Catholic faithful, Pope Francis, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune, said on Good Friday that “Christians ought to express shame for the actions of those who are leaving future generations a world ‘fractured by divisions and wars.’” Continue reading →

What Does Jesus’ Death Accomplish?

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(Stacie McKeever – Answers In Genesis) If Jesus suffered the punishment for death on our behalf, why do we still die?

Consider further the following:

  • Our sins are removed from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).
  • We are set free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1–4), yet we continue to sin (Paul chronicled his struggle in Romans 7).
  • Jesus “has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4), yet many continue to suffer from horrible illnesses even after they receive the gift of eternal life.
  • The kingdom of God is one of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17), yet we continue to cry and experience great sorrow.

Continue reading →