Apprising Ministries sums up some of the CRN coverage of this still developing story and brings you the latest in this post.
I also share what I learned as a result of my phone conversation with reporter Jim Hinch who broke the story.
Misrepresented by Leading Pastor – Ken Ham Responds to Tim Keller
Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis writes:
Tim Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York. He attended Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, PA.
He is known as a good Bible teacher and has a heart for evangelizing New York City. Redeemer Presbyterian’s Hope for New York outreach program seeks to satisfy the spiritual and material needs of those in the community. Hope for New York does sets a high standard for Christian participation in the larger community. But …
In a new article posted this past week, he has grossly misrepresented what I believe and teach. But first of all, let me give you some background.
Pastrix Paula White And The Scroll-Wrapping "Rabbi" Ralph Messer
Apprising Ministries shows you in this new piece how Paula White’s friendship with Ralph Messer now involves T.D. Jakes because of James MacDonald and his ER2. Largest Protestant Denomination in America Considering a New Name
The Southern Baptist Convention is going through a time of transition it appears with the proposal of a name addition, it being Great Commission Baptists. What are we to do with this idea of name changes?
Just changing a name doesn’t fix an image. This can apply across the board to many names that have a stigma attached to them. Take for example, the Walt Disney name. When Walt was alive, there was a family oriented sense to it and the theme parks were geared around that concept. Now Disney is synonymous with putting out films – even cartoon ones – with questionable material at best. The Little Mermaid, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules – all contain examples of risqué dress and promoting mythological figures for our children to look towards. If Walt Disney saw that his theme parks were turned into a money marketing plethora of these types of characters, we dare say he would not agree. They now support gay pride day at the parks in which his original innocent characters such as Chip and Dale are now paired up in a jaw dropping event.
Bigoted and Un-American? Mitt Romney, Richard Land & Evangelical Politics
Are Southern Baptists bigoted and un-American? On more than one occasion Richard Land, President of the Ethics & Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention has stated that raising questions about a presidential candidate’s religion is both bigoted and un-American. Yet, most of the Southern Baptists whom I know are very concerned about this matter. It seems ungrateful at best for Land to take the contributions.
This is the question that was running through my head when I recently attended a forum at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, entitled, ‘The Grindstone: Sharp, Theological Discussions On Topics That Matter’. The topic for the evening was ‘The Christian and Politics’ and it featured special guest panelist Richard Land.
Southern Baptist Ed Young, Jr Advancing Word Faith Pastors At C3 2012
Apprising Ministries reminds the anything goes Southern Baptist Convention that it has much bigger problems than a name change. Take a look at who it is that this high profile SBC pastor is advancing into the mainstream. Casino Culture and the Collapse of Character, By Albert Mohler
The casino stands as the great and most visible monument to the massive scale of the Gambling Industrial Complex in America. Just look across much of the American landscape, and you will see the glaring and garish lights of the casinos that serve to attract gamblers. It was not always so.
Indeed, for all but the last decade of the twentieth century, casinos were basically non-existent, except for those found in the state of Nevada. All that changed when states began to license and draw revenue from casino gambling. As Earl L. Grinols of the University of Illinois has commented: “Most areas of America had no legal casino gambling before 1990.”
SBC Pastor Ed Young, Jr With Fashion Advice For Pastors
No doubt the Southern Baptist Convention has much bigger problems than its name. For example, this kind of self-parody. Are we all Catholics now, as Glenn Beck wishes us to believe?
In his piece “Why we are all Catholics now” Glenn Beck is making yet another attempt to mainstream the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aka Mormonism. Mormonism is not Christian, as Beck would have us believe. Rather the LDS Church is a theological cult. Right off the bat Beck affirms,
I am a proud member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but today, I call myself a Catholic. Why? Because the state is telling the Catholic Church to violate its principles and teachings. So if you are a person of faith, you must call yourself a Catholic.
Steven Furtick Freestyles the Philistine at Code Orange De-vival
Apprising Ministries brings you a piece containing video clips which thoroughly demolish Furtick’s narcigesis. Got Meat? By Marsha West
Sue’s a self-professed Christian who attends church and a Bible study regularly and sings with the praise and worship team. Sue also practices yoga, consults a psychic medium, plays the Ouija Board game with friends and believes in reincarnation.
Sue and her boyfriend sleep together in the apartment she shares with two friends from church. No one questions what goes on behind closed doors. Sue and Tim, who’s an atheist, plan to marry someday so she believes God will overlook this “sin.” Her roommates are on the same page.
Because Sue is skilled at assessing a person’s character and motives—and she’s usually right—she boasts that she has the “gift of discernment.” Her roommates agree.
Wretched: Todd Bentley Dopiness
Apprising Ministries brings you a video clip of NAR “Apostle” Rick Joyner and his charge Todd Bentley. Unfortunately, he’s back. Pentagon announces removal of all barriers preventing women from combat
The National Review has posted a piece entitled ‘Grace Under Fire’:
The Defense Department has announced the opening of some 14,000 new “combat related” roles to women in the military, another incremental win for those seeking to erode the protections that have long kept women out of the most dangerous assignments.
Supporters believe the move, and the eventual removal of all barriers preventing women from combat, represents a great advance in “equal opportunity.” That belief is dubious, but more to the point, it is irrelevant. The purpose of the military is to fight and win wars. Personnel policies should be based, first and last, on combat effectiveness. If putting female soldiers on the front line had even a small adverse impact on combat effectiveness, it would outweigh whatever other, political or symbolic benefits might accrue.
Straightening Out Beth Moore On Discernment
Apprising Ministries highlights the lack of discernment evidenced by popular Southern Baptist Bible teacher Beth Moore in her teaching on…discernment. Apprising also highlights Moore’s heretical view that the Roman Catholic Church is part of the Body of Christ. John MacArthur Rebukes Joel Osteen
Apprising Ministries warns that the next heretical Word Faith preacher who is going to get a pass into mainstream evangelicalism is Joel Osteen. John MacArthur tells it precisely as it is and demonstrates the proper Christian reaction to Osteen. Your “Spiritual-but-not-Religious” Neighbor, by Peter Jones
When I came to the States in 1964, the great enemy of the Christian Faith was Marxism, with “Commies behind every bush.” My wife recently told me that as a child she would lie awake at night worrying that she would give up her faith when persecuted by godless Soviet commissars. In 1966 at Seminary, I studied the “Death of God” theology, which, we were told, represented the final triumph of secular humanism.
For a century and a half secular humanist scholars predicted the demise of religion, which Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud dismissed respectively as the opiate of the people, and a mental illness. But the materialistic utopia never materialized. Instead, people have awakened to “spirituality.” Not God but materialistic secular humanism is dead.
SBC Pastor Ed Young, Jr Pays Homage To Joel Osteen
Emerging Ecumenical Evangelephants and the Word Faith Movement
‘We Try to Respect Religious Beliefs’ — Mr. Kristof Rewrites the Constitution, by Albert Mohler
Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes that New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s 12 February 2012 piece is perplexing and offensive. The Antidote to Contemporary Evangelicalism's Addiction to Novelty
Posted by Phil Johnson:
In all of Paul’s instructions to Timothy and Titus, there is not an ounce of encouragement for the person who thinks innovation is the key to an effective ministry philosophy.
Much less is there any room for the pulpiteers of today who like to exegete the latest movies, or preach on moral lessons drawn from television sitcoms, or build their sermons on themes borrowed from popular culture. You know what I mean: the kind of preachers who insist they are being “missional” when they are merely being worldly.
Rapture Ready Radio: Tonight Matters With Ken Silva Of Apprising Ministries on the Elephant Room and Code Orange Revival
Apostasy Leads to Division
Mark Driscoll, the Acts 29 Network, and Rick Warren
Apprising Ministries reports that the Acts 29 National Resurgence Conference is to feature James MacDonald, Criag Groeschel and Rick Warren, and suggests that it is rather odd that New Calvinists should feature pragmatic synergistic Church Growth leaders like Groeschel and Warren. Are Unbelievers Spiritually Disabled or Spiritually Dead?
1 Καὶ ὑμᾶς ὄντας νεκροὺς τοῖς παραπτώμασιν καὶ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν, 2 ἐν αἷς ποτε περιεπατήσατε κατὰ τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, κατὰ τὸν ἄρχοντα τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος, τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ νῦν ἐνεργοῦντος ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας· 3 ἐν οἷς καὶ ἡμεῖς πάντες ἀνεστράφημέν ποτε ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῆς σαρκὸς ἡμῶν ποιοῦντες τὰ θελήματα τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ τῶν διανοιῶν, καὶ ἤμεθα τέκνα φύσει ὀργῆς ὡς καὶ οἱ λοιποί·
Ephesians 2:1-3, NA27
1 And you being dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience 3 among whom also we all conducted ourselves once in the lusts of our flesh, performing the desires and thoughts of the flesh, and we were by nature children of wrath as also the rest.
Ephesians 2:1-3, Possessing the Treasure New Testament V1
During his sermon today, James MacDonald made a comment that we need to be careful how we “label” unbelievers. He used the analogy that just as you wouldn’t call someone a “cripple” or “retarded” you should be careful in how you refer them as well. He came up the term “spiritually disabled.” While that would probably get a nod and a smile from those all about Political Correctness, it is not Biblical. The Word of God did not “beat and around the bush” attempting to not offend “unbelievers.” In fact, our Lord himself used such hard preaching in John 6 to purge his followers of the marginal that in John 6:66 the Word of God says, “Ἐκ τούτου πολλοὶ [ἐκ] τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ ἀπῆλθον εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω καὶ οὐκέτι μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ περιεπάτουν.” Or, “From this time many of his disciples went back and no longer were walking with him.” Why did they walk away as in 1 John 2:19? There is more to being a Christian than just making a profession.