This is a great poem by Taylor Mali that has been turned into a short video. I saw this at Extreme Theology and thought I’d share it:

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Perhaps some of the reasons that Christian music sucks stem from postmodern nonsense?

I was actually writing a post about the social gospel, and then I ran across Daniel and Heather’s blog post on the subject. I couldn’t have said it better….

I also recently discussed this on my post about preaching the gospel without words. Be sure to read the comments for the discussion and feel free to chime in!

I’ve promised to post more of my questions causing me cognitive dissonance here for you to answer. Here goes. In the past I’ve written about what I believe to be the false dichotomy of clergy vs. laity. I feel that the clergy/laity dichotomy perpetuates an awful falsehood-namely, that some Christians are more privileged than others to serve the Lord. The contemporary practice of ordination creates a special caste of Christian. Whether it be the priest in Catholicism or the pastor in Protestantism, the result is the same: the most important ministry is restricted to a few “special” believers. When we make the pastor a professional clergyman who is distinct from laity we begin to view ministry as something that is only his responsibility. One person is not meant to sport all of these hats. Only an every-member functioning Body can accomplish the ministry that is required to be done. It shouldn’t be “lonely at the top,” because we aren’t meant to live in a separate caste from one another. The teacher is just as vital to the Body as the cashier and the pastor. How does Protestantism reject the Catholic priesthood while maintaining its own pastoral office, all the while affirming the priesthood of all believers (1 Pet. 2:9, Rev. 1:6, 5:10)?

G.K. Chesterton said that what we suffer from “is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition . . . [and] settled upon the organ of conviction, where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful of himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.”

It is ironic how Christianity has entirely shifted from its first century staples. The Apostle Paul writes:

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained” (Philippians 3:7-16).

“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

Sounds a lot different from modern Christian rhetoric, which seems to be focused on MY shortcomings, MY “brokenness” and healing, MY spiritual journey, and MY pursuit of truth. May I contend that true Christianity lays all of those aside? In fact, we literally die to them. Paul again says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

This doesn’t mean our hurts, habits and hangups simply disappear. But it does mean we only become whole in Christ, not by focusing on ourselves. This means saying good bye to “self esteem” and saying hello to “Christ esteem,” esteeming only in Christ. We seem to have put our humility in the wrong place, wondering if we can really know truth. Meanwhile He’s been waiting patiently and lovingly.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

This quote pretty well sums up the new “chic” nonreligious Christian spirituality that has come to define much of postmodern Christendom. In a church that has become 5 miles wide and 1 inch deep, the journey has become far more important than the destination.

Kevin DeYoung makes a great point about this in the book he co-authored with Ted Kluck, Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be:

Because the journey is an experience more than a destination, the Christian life requires less doctrinal reflection and more personal introspection. The postmodern infatuation with journey feeds on and into a preoccupation with our own stories. If my grandparents’ generation could be a little stoic and not terribly reflective, my generation is introspective at a level somewhere between self-absorption and narcissism. We are so in-tuned with our dysfunctions, hurts, and idiosyncrasies that it often prevents us from growing up, because maturity is tantamount to hypocrisy in a world that prizes brokenness more than health.

I’m not advocating stuffing all our feelings, but we must learn that self-expression and being true to ourselves are not the surest guides to Christlikeness. Sincerity is a Christian virtue, as is honesty about our struggles. But my generation needs to realize that Christianity is more than chic fragility, endless self-revelation, and the coolness that comes with authenticity.

Thinking less of ourselves doesn’t help us focus on Christ, but rather thinking of ourselves less. In other words, even though we may admit that we are sinners, the solution is not to continue professing our brokenness but to begin professing Christ’s sufficiency. Instead of dwelling on ourselves, we need to dwell on Christ. Instead of being more honest about our shortcomings, we need to be more cognizant of Christ’s perfect righteousness (that is credited to us by faith!).

The focus of our spiritual journey is a person: Christ. The journey is certainly important, but not if you never get to know the one with whom you sojourn. The beauty is that we couldn’t even make the first step along the path, yet Christ decided to carry us through the journey because of His great love for us. Jesus Christ is the path itself as well – the way, truth and life.

As long as we’re still searching, we can still go on believing that we’re not accountable to any Higher Power. But once we admit that God has revealed Himself through His Word and that He became a man, Jesus Christ, we must live differently as a result. Being accountable isn’t so cool, but it’s much better than living in an ignorance that has eternal consequences.

iMonk posted a quote from Deyoung & Kluck’s recent book, Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion. While I haven’t stood on the opposite side of the fence on all of these statements, the overall truth of this quote hit me:

Consistency is not a postmodern virtue. And nowhere is this more aptly displayed than in the barrage of criticisms leveled against the church.

The church-is-lame crowd hates Constantine and notions of Christendom, but they want the church to be a patron of the arts, and run after-school programs, and bring the world together in peace and love.

They bemoan the over-programmed church, but then think of a hundred complex, resource-hungry things the church should be doing.

They don’t like the church because it is too hierarchical, but then hate it when it has poor leadership.

They wish the church could be more diverse, but then leave to meet in a coffee shop with other well-educated thirty-somethings who are into film festivals, NPR, and carbon offsets.

They want more of a family spirit, but too much family and they’ll complain that the church is ‘inbred.’

They want the church to know that its reputation with outsiders is terrible, but then are critical when the church is too concerned with appearances.

They chide the church for not doing more to address social problems, but then complain when the church gets too political.

They want church unity and decry all our denominations, but fail to see the irony in the fact that they have left to do their own thing because they can’t find a single church that can satisfy them.

They are critical of the lack of community in the church, but then want services that allow for individualized worship experiences.

They want leaders with vision, but don’t want anyone to tell them what to do or how to think.

They want a church where the people really know each other and care for each other, but then they complain the church today is an isolated country club, only interested in catering to its own members.

They want to be connected to history, but are sick of the same prayers and same style every week.

They call for not judging “the spiritual path of other believers who are dedicated to pleasing God and blessing people,” and then they blast the traditional church in the harshest, most unflattering terms.

Hmm, sounds a lot like me sometimes. While I still don’t feel that the institutional church and its corporate methods are the most effective way to do ministry, I can’t negate the fact that there are many Christ followers in those institutions who are children of God, and thus His Bride, the Church. Lord, give me the grace to present both Law and Gospel as I exhort your Bride, and continually humble me so that I do so according to your will, not my own.

I’m sick of pastors drawing erroneous insights from texts due to bad exegesis. Looking a word up in a Strong’s Dictionary does not constitute being an exegetical scholar. This is seen frequently in the writings of many major evangelical leaders today. I just stumbled upon another faulty translation (and teaching) by Rob Bell. In one of his Nooma videos, Store, he totally botches up Mark 3:5. Bell says:

And then, the Bible says [in Mark 3:5] that Jesus looked around at them in anger. Jesus gets angry. Now this story was first told in the Greek language, and there’s a subtle nuance to this word “anger” in the Greek language. It’s in what’s called the aorist tense, which is a technical way of saying that Jesus’ anger is a temporary feeling. It comes on him, and then it leaves him.

Many thanks to Andy Naselli for this competent response:

Response:

1. “Anger” is a noun, not a verb, in Mark 3:5. The participle περιβλεψάμενος (”After looking around at”) is aorist.
   • καὶ περιβλεψάμενος αὐτοὺς μετ᾽ ὀργῆς, συλλυπούμενος ἐπὶ τῇ πωρώσει τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν λέγει τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ• ἔκτεινον τὴν χεῖρα.
   • NET: After looking around at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”
2. Even if Bell had correctly parsed the word he was highlighting, his point is still guilty of the aorist tense fallacy. The aorist tense is not “subtle” or “technical.” It’s the default tense that communicates the very least about a particular action. (See, e.g., D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies [2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 67–73.)

This is not an isolated example. When Bell talks about ancient history, customs, language, etc., he not infrequently undermines his credibility. See also Bell’s faulty interpretations of Hebrew concerning the supposed feminine nature of God.

Thanks to Truth Matters for initially posting this:

I find it intriguing that Mark Driscoll even questions Rob Bell, Brian McLaren and others. VERY good explanation of the Emerging Church movement.

I found a great article on Wikipedia that breaks down what the Emerging Church is. I know many readers have been wondering what it is and how to define it. By nature, it is hard to define. Some key quotes that I found helpful are:

The emerging church (sometimes referred to as the emergent church movement) is a Christian movement whose participants seek to live their faith in modern society by emulating Jesus Christ irrespective of Christian religious traditions. Proponents of this movement call it a “conversation” to emphasize its developing and decentralized nature as well as its emphasis on interfaith dialogue rather than one-way evangelism. Members of emerging communities may be disillusioned with the organized and institutional church and often support the deconstruction of modern Christian dogma. The movement often favors the use of simple story and narrative, occasionally incorporating mysticism. Members of the emerging movement place high value on good works or social activism, sometimes including missional living or new monasticism; while Evangelicals may emphasize eternal salvation, many in the emerging movement emphasize the here and now and the need to create a kingdom of heaven on Earth.

It should be noted that there is believed to be a difference between the terms “emerging” and “Emergent.” Emerging is the wider, informal, church-based, global movement. Emergent refers to an official organization, the Emergent Village. This sub-movement, a large intellectual and philosophical network, is sometimes called the “emergent stream” within the larger emerging church

I found that helpful, I hope you do too. The article goes on to give a list of what it calls “Post-Christendom views concerning Mission & Evangelism.” To be honest, I agree with the Emerging Church on most of these. These are things the Emerging Church is AGAINST that it sees in modern Christendom and evangelical churches:

• Creation of a hierarchical church society and the loss of lay (Laos) vitality.
• Power-hierarchy created an institution rather than a community.
• Orientation towards maintaining the status quo. As church moved from the margins to the center of society.
• Wanting to control history and bring God’s Kingdom through political power. Compelled all to be ‘Christian’ with resultant loss of true mission.
• A punitive rather than restorative approach to justice.
• An interpretation of Church history that marginalizes the laity, dissident movements, women and the poor.
• Forms of Church that actively dis-empower the laity from active participation in leadership and liturgy.
• Inattentiveness of the criticisms of those outraged by the historic association of Christianity with patriarchy, warfare, injustice and patronage.
• Partiality for respectability, top-down mission and hierarchical church government.
• Approaches to evangelism that rely excessively on ‘come’ rather than ‘go’ initiatives.
• Thinking that the Christian story is still known, understood and widely believed within society.
• Preoccupation with the rich and powerful.

I must say, I am against a lot of this. Perhaps I’m more “emerging” than I realize. Maybe I really am a product of my generation. But is there anything wrong with these views? What do you think?

I hate to do this sort of thing, but I am almost moved to tears when I see this kind of deception. Charisma Magazine put out a piece on it entitled ‘A Holy Ghost Outbreak in Florida’ – “…Charismatics are flocking to the sleepy town of Lakeland, Florida. to attend evangelist Todd Bentley’s unconventional revival services.” Is Charisma preparing to hype this one to the skies like they did with Toronto and Rodney Howard-Browne? It seems perhaps they are. I keep getting emails from my Pentecostal friends about the revival breaking out in Lakeland, Florida. I did some research, and sad to say, this may be one of the most dangerous ‘revivals’ to date.

Todd Bentley is the premier evangelist at the charismatic church in Lakeland, and he has deep roots in the Prophetic movement. He has long taught that:

• We should seek to encounter angels and he continually does so
• Gold dust falls when Jesus or an angel passes through your midst
• Guided visualizations of the “Third Heaven” that are straight out of the New Age

And much, much more. Here is how Charisma describes his Florida meetings-

“His methods are far from polished. When he prayed for people in Lakeland, he usually began by laying his hand on their heads and then yelling, “Bam!” Often the people fell backward to the floor. After one elderly woman fell, Bentley told the audience: “She doesn’t know why she fell down.” The woman then laughed and said to him in the microphone: “Because you pushed me!” He prayed for her three more times that night, and she said she could hear better…During the past three weeks people have testified of being healed from heart conditions, skin rashes and back problems, and many said scars disappeared…Many charismatics are wondering if the protracted meetings will become a phenomenon similar to what happened in Rodney Howard-Browne’s meetings in Lakeland in 1993, at the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church in Canada in 1994 and at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola in 1995…”

I believe in signs and wonders, but they are given when the true gospel of Jesus Christ is being preached. Jesus didn’t come so people could bark like dogs and come under the control of demons, but to seek and save the lost.

Below is a testimony by Lynn Clark about her involvement with Todd Bentley’s ministry:

“I decided to check out Patricia King and Todd Bentley and, ignorant of their ‘third heaven’ guided visualizations, attended a five day conference of Patricia King and then two of Todd Bentley’s conferences and began to imagine third heaven visitations – guided visualization – still not realizing that these are actually spirits of darkness – the New Age calls them spirit guides – demons is what they are. And so I bought Todd Bentley’s teaching on third heaven visitations and brought it home to listen to. “I was in my living room laying on the floor listening to the teaching on how to visualize the third heaven and what to say and was getting caught up into his teaching and all of a sudden I began to shake uncontrollably and jerk and groan, and no sooner had this taken place I became frozen stiff – I could not move any part of my body and I knew this was a demon trying to take hold of me, and so with all the effort I could muster I cried out, “God save me – Jesus help me” – and as soon as I cried out to the Lord my body went limp. God spared me that night and I will be forever grateful. “I spent much of the night in tears asking God to forgive me – and renouncing all the hands layed on me and all the awful deception I had opened myself up to…”

From Sola Dei Gloria:

The “Jesus” that Todd Bentley is preaching is not the Jesus of the Bible. His “Jesus” doesn’t preach and emphasize deep repentance, denying self and carrying the cross, selling one’s possesions to give to the poor and needy, forsaking ALL to follow him, and freely bestows his “anointing” on all who have heretical or bad doctrine and loose, immoral lives.

The “spirit” that Todd Bentley is operating under is causing manifestations that DO NOT APPEAR anywhere in the Bible. He has been known to cause animal manifestations as well (clucking like chickens, barking like dogs, etc.), all of which are manifestations that have long been associated with pagan and heathen religions but are found nowhere in Scripture, except with Nebechanezzar at the judgement of God.

The “gospel” that Todd preaches is a gospel of seeking after signs and wonders. It’s hocus pocus. Angel feathers, gold dust, diamonds falling, seeing female angels, again, all of which are found nowhere in Scripture. Seeking after miracles and not after the face and heart and burden of God is a deadly delusion that will lead one straight into accepting “another spirit”. There are MANY spirits in the world, which is why we are called both to test the spirits, and to test those who purport to be prophets and teachers by their DOCTRINE. Their doctrine must be solid and sound, and Todd’s is more new age and hype than it is sound Bible doctrine.

I cannot plead with you enough to avoid this dangerous deception! Angel encounters are a constant theme in his meetings, and people just soak it all up, not even thinking to seriously question it. But who is to say these angels are truly the angels of the Lord God, and not emissaries of Satan sent to deceive? Todd claims that his healing anointing comes from an angel, but there is no record in all of Scripture of an angel giving somebody an anointing. The Holy Spirit is the only One who anoints God’s ministers. If the anointing is from an angel, it’s a huge red flag.

In my past post entitled Spirit-Filled?, I talk about how Scripture warns repeatedly against the type of miracle-mindedness which places undue emphasis on the performance of supernatural deeds rather than on the proclamation of the Gospel: “Jesus therefore said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe’” (John 4:48). Jesus warns the church against being deceived by signs and wonders which will appear in the last days to lead Christians astray: “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24). Scripture warns the world against demanding miracles from the church to prove its faith: “‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah.’ So he left them and departed” (Matthew 16:4). Luke reports: “The seventy returned with joy saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!’ And he said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven’” (Luke 10:17-20).

It is important that Christian people be warned against doctrine or teaching which is presented as the Word and will of God, when in fact the Scriptures do not clearly teach such doctrine. The Holy Scriptures forbid the teaching of pious personal opi
nions and private interpretation of Scripture as God’s Word and will: “Behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their tongues and say, ‘Says the Lord’” (Jeremiah 23:31; also 2 Peter 1:20).

The ‘revival’ in Lakeland, Florida is false and it is dangerous. When demons are manifesting in people and taking over, it should be obvious what is really going on. When Todd Bentley is teaching New Age concepts, encouraging encounters with angels, using gold dust, diamonds falling, guided visualizations, etc. some red flags should go up in our heads. THIS IS DANGEROUS! I praise God for freeing me from all of this before I got in it too deep. But now, almost in tears, I plead with you to understand that this is a deception. I have so many Pentecostal friends who are being deceived by this, and they have no clue. God please reveal your truth!

Read more here, including some personal testimonies of people who went to Lakeland and the truth about many of the “healings.”