Apprising Ministries follows up on a disturbing story out of Singapore concerning this rising Word Faith pastor. The youth at his church perform a song on video, which gives cause for real concern.
We’re well aware of the cult of celebrity surrounding Seeker Driven quasi-Word Faith pastors like Steven Furtick. Could his young Elevators be next to elevate him to the cult-like status you’ll see in the video?
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints and believers in Christ Jesus who are in Ephesus. 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Eph. 1:1–2, Possessing the Treasure New Testament v1
We are in the throes of an election year and political motives are lurking behind so much of what the “powers that be” say and do right now. I have the luxury of being quite free to simply exegete God’s Word and use the discernment and wisdom he has given me plus the spiritual gift of teaching to explain what it says while the Holy Spirit takes these truths and applies them to reader’s hearts in ways that I could never imagine. I never have to worry about compromising anything in order not to offend some group or emphasize something else beyond what is necessary in order to please another. No, I am free to simply teach the Word and so should any Pastor or church leader. Why is it that so much of the visible church is so shallow and so much like the world? Those like that long ago abandoned adherence to God’s Word as authoritative as His Word and absolute truth, which is inerrant and infallible and complete, et cetera. Instead, they took on the “wisdom” of the world and so became “liberal” and spiritually dead. They are outside of God’s purpose for his Church. Their motives for doing so may vary, but mostly it boils down to them becoming man-pleasing instead of God-fearing.
As of this posting, at his section on The Gospel Coalition blog Trevin Wax still has a post quoting Richard Rohr on the unbiblical fable of an alleged “false self” and a “true self.”
The mystic concept of this neo-gnostic teaching is a denial of the cardinal doctrine of original sin. Rather odd for an ostensibly Reformed blog to recommend favorably.
By taking you through the apostasy of Rob Bell Apprising Ministries offers this piece as further indication of where Richard Rohr’s mystic myths end up.
Apprising Ministries has been warning for some time now about the influx and danger of contemplative spirituality within apostatizing evangelicalism,
What’s happening now, even within Reformed circles is a lot of talk about “listening” to “God.” But, as they once did with Rome, these deceitful spirits are leading people astray with their teachings of demons (cf. 1 Timothy 4:1)
3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” 4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, 5 and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? 6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Matt. 19:3–6, NASB
My wife and I attempted to eat at our local Chick-Fil-A here in Olathe, Kansas this evening in support of Dan Cathy in light of the completely biased or one-sided coverage of his interview statements as a Baptist in a Baptist publication about religious and theological issues. It seems that it is perfectly fine for those with a worldview that is opposed to the traditional Christian worldview to express them, especially when it comes to the Biblical definition of what constitutes marriage, but those who hold to the Christian worldview have no right to state their beliefs, their stances, and what lines they will never cross no matter what. By the way, this was the day people were to come out in support of Chick-Fil-A and Dan Cathy en masse and we witnessed it big time in Olathe. We couldn’t even get close to the restaurant. The line to get in even beat the line we experienced at Cantler’s Crab House in Annapolis, Maryland last weekend. My wife has been ill and couldn’t stand in the sun so we had to go eat elsewhere. However, from where we sat, we could see that the crowds never diminished the whole time we were there.
17 Now while seeking to be justified in Christ, we were found also to be sinners ourselves, then is Christ a minister of sin? May it never be! 18 For if I rebuild what I destroyed, I demonstrate myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the Law I died to the Law that I may live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; 20 and it is no longer I who live, but Christ living in me, and that which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself up on behalf of me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law then Christ died for nothing. Gal. 2:17–21, Possessing the Treasure New Testament v1
We have come to Galatians 6, the last chapter of this foundational epistle that defines what the Gospel is and what it is not. Judiazers had infiltrated the Galatian churches, which Paul had planted. These Judiazers claimed that the doctrine of Justification by grace alone through faith alone as God’s gift alone was not enough. These false teachers added “works righteousness” to what Paul taught. Their flavor of “works righteousness” was that these gentile Christians must become circumcised and keep the Mosaic Covenant in order to be truly justified before God. This epistle was written by Paul to counter this evil. Why is this important for us to study this in our day? The false teaching that “works righteousness” is necessary for our justification before God is still poisoning the Church. It comes in many forms. Some are quite obvious while others are very subtle. Some are taught directly while the subtle variety, though meaning well, put Christians into bondage to the Law from which, in fact, the Gospel frees those justified by grace through faith by God himself.
12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Rom. 8:12–14, NASB
I worked for a short period of time in the late 1980s in PC marketing. I’m really not cut out for sales, but most of the other sales people I worked with were in their natural element. Most of my “customers” were just normal people coming into the store looking for a computer. Others were businessmen looking for a solution for their office environment. For example, I sold computers to oilmen who bought high end PCs with a lot of RAM and very large monitors with very expensive graphics cards to handle the software they used. All of that I looked at as God’s sending me clients so I could earn a commission as part of his providing my daily bread (Matthew 6:11). The most heartrending experiences I had during that time though were people who would come in to the store and they would be passed to me for some reason. They would come to my little cubicle and we would talk. It was there that they would see my Bible on my desk or the little plaque my wife gave me with Isaiah 40:31 on it, and then they would say they were Christians too and then they would look for a “deal.” I could tell, as I am sure most of you could too, that most of these people were seeking to manipulate the fact that I was a Christian so they could “profit.” When I refused to be manipulated that way some became ugly and spiteful and some even threatened to call the management and tell all sorts of things about me if I didn’t give them what they wanted. That was always terrible, but I think it was also quite surprising to them when I told them to go ahead. The really sad thing was that most of those professing Christians I worked with probably would have done everything under the sun to “make a sale” even if it did mean doing things that no genuine Christian should ever do to his or her employer.
Not that it’s any great surprise; however, Apprising Ministries brings you exclusive video from Bell’s Livestream event the other night proving this beyond any reasonable doubt.
Why does this even matter you may wonder? Rob Bell represents the views of a large segment of younger evangelicals. This is a battle looming on the horizon of mainstream evangelicalism.
6 I marvel that you are so quickly being turned from the one who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel; 7 which is not another; except there are some troubling you and are desiring to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel to you besides that which we preached to you, let him be a curse. Gal. 1:6–8, Possessing the Treasure New Testament v1
John Bunyan compared the life of faith to a pilgrimage in his masterpiece, Pilgrim’s Progress. On the other hand, the Apostle Paul often compares our life of faith with a race. In my younger days I was a long distance runner. I competed into my late 40’s in the Corporate Challenge and prior to that I was a member of the Oklahoma City Running Club and ran in who knows how many 5k, 10k, 5-mile and even 10-mile races in and around the OKC area. I knew all about what it took to be a good runner on race day. If I didn’t prepare right then I couldn’t race well. If I didn’t put in the miles in training to run in a 10 mile race then I certainly couldn’t run in that race on race day without problems. Our life of faith can be compared in many ways to a race. Paul used it figuratively that way in Galatians 2:2, Romans 9:16, and 1 Corinthians 9:24.
30 As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. 31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:30–32, NASB
Those who like to portray our Lord Jesus Christ as just a bundle of love who would never do or say anything to any that could possible cause offense obviously have never studied what he actually said in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In our Lord’s parable of the soils (Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:4-15) he gives us a contrast between genuine believers and those who only appear to be and others who obviously are not. I posted on this several years ago here. The point is that just are there are very religious people who have done religious works and may even appear to be “christian” to some, our Lord says that the criterion to be one of his is not by one’s own choice, but by first being chosen by God, prepared by God, then having the Good News sown into the soil of the heart by him. As our Lord said in John 8:30-32 (above), those who are truly his are those who not only hear his Word, but continue in it. They are truly his disciples and they will know the truth and the truth will make them free.
1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. 6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.” 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. Rom. 9:1–8, NASB
I just spent the last several days traveling from Kansas City to the Washington D.C. area and back. While it was merciful to get away from this dreadful heat wave and drought that has persisted since May 29th, I looked very hard for God’s people in the D.C. area, in Baltimore and Annapolis. I saw lots of church buildings, but I’m not sure I came across a lot of Christians. We ate in a restaurant in Georgetown on Saturday night and there were three men and a woman at the table next to us in a very long and serious discussion. They looked very distinguished. In between the serving of the courses they went over a very formal document in which they attempted to define what the terms “Born-Again” and “Evangelical” meant and how it would be handled by whatever “organization” that document defined. My wife and I discussed it later and she succinctly stated that I could have settled all of their confusion very quickly with some direct preaching from the Word.
Courtesy of Herescope, in carrying this article Apprising Ministries offers that it’s time now to more closely look at what guys like Chuck Missler and Tom Horn are teaching.
For example, Satan has the ability to have sexual relations with human beings, his demons did and produced hybrid human/demons called Nephilim.
Then after the Flood, demons again consorted with members of the tribe of Dan, mixing the “seed of the serpent” into the human genome once again.