A simple question (see image below): H/T: Extreme Theology
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From the category archives:
Emerging Trends
I received two comments in the last few days that have reeked of anti-intellectualism, a dangerous heresy that infiltrated fundamentalist Christianity, Pentecostalism, and now many mainstream evangelical churches. I posted a video recently encouraging Christians to think, and a post about how most Christians cannot explain their faith that precipitated a lot of this. This [...]
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I’ve been pointing this out for awhile. This Christian Post article shows how few Christians have any intellectual basis for their faith and most cannot explain it in an intelligible way: The faith of most Christians, even that of many pastors, will not stand up to intellectual scrutiny, according to renowned apologist Josh McDowell. This [...]
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The above image shows my recent lament on Facebook after hearing from yet another former believer who has been destroyed by the man-centered pop-psychological mantra of many American churches. Why do churches jump on this pop-psychology bandwagon? It doesn’t end well – it simply creates more self-absorbed people. Whether we pity ourselves, esteem ourselves, or [...]
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Should they? If the emphasis is on making disciples, then there really is no competition. In John 4, when Jesus finds out people have taken notice that he baptized more people than John (his disciples did, anyways), he gets out of the way, interestingly enough. Yet when churches use marketing tactics and strategic business planning [...]
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I’ve heard a lot about this lately. A church in St. Louis, MO recently canceled services in order to do community projects. Several people whose opinions I respect have mentioned the prospect of doing this lately, and several others whom I also respect have voiced strong opposition to this. Here’s a short video about this [...]
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It’s confirmed, Jennifer Knapp has come out of the closet. I’m not all about shooting the wounded, but it is safe to say that her music should no longer be classified as “Christian” (she even makes this clear in her recent interviews). Not that much of it clearly proclaimed Christ to begin with, but it’s [...]
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I was listening to a podcast on Issues Etc. earlier this week and I was struck by a profound thought. The title of the podcast was “The Vocation of Minister.” I’d normally link directly to it but the site appears to be down as I’m writing this, nothing will load. The guest speaker was talking [...]
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I am preparing a post on Steve Munsey, but found that I first needed to explain some of the heresies that he teaches, namely positive confession and the prosperity gospel. One of my favorite tunes is a song called “Wedding Dress” by Derek Webb. There’s a line in the song that asks, And should I [...]
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As I am preparing my blog post on Steve Munsey, I realized that I must first teach on the issues of positive confession and the prosperity Gospel, two erroneous doctrines that Munsey teaches. Part 1 defines these heresies and gives a simple response to them. This post is a quote from Chuck Smith in his [...]
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I’m gearing up for a lengthy post on Steve Munsey. But there are two important heresies that first need to be understood prior to discussing his teachings. The first danger that many preachers buy into, including Munsey, Joel Osteen and many others, is the “positive confession” teaching from motivational business philosophy. It stresses the inherent [...]
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Dick Rockenbach contacted me via email about this, then he posted it on Facebook: This made me start wondering about codependency and the church’s relationship with clergy members. Here’s the definition of codependency from Way 2 Hope, an organization that helps those in codependent relationships: Codependency is a condition that results in a dysfunctional relationship [...]
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It seems that Christophobia is rampant these days. Nothing causes such a stir as two simple words: “Jesus Christ.” Have you ever noticed that if a chaplain closes a prayer “in Jesus’ name,” it makes headlines, but if a religious leader prays to Allah, Benevolent Spirit, Jehovah, etc. no one bats an eye? Why is [...]
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I’m currently reading a book entitled The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals by Gene Edward Veith, Jr. It’s been a very enlightening book that talks about what constitutes genuine spirituality. I was struck by this quote: By “spirituality,” I do not mean any kind of content-free, theologically-vacuous quest for transcendent [...]
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I saw this video from Matt Redman over at Kevin DeYoung’s blog. P.S. the expression “blokey bloke” is akin to our expression “manly man”: Redman talks about how worship music has become romanticized and largely unscriptural. He says that “the church has been under-fathered and over-mothered.” Most of us are familiar with the “Jesus is [...]
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I’ve written before about the prosperity gospel and positive confession, teachings that make the gospel all about man and his health and wealth. Here’s a short video giving an interesting perspective on it: I’m not saying that we should only seek negative things, by no means. But I am saying what the Bible is saying, [...]
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I saw this at Extreme Theology and laughed at how true it is. I can’t tell you how many VBS programs are themed after very worldly things (pop-culture icons, popular movies, etc.) and do a very poor job of teaching the love of Jesus Christ to children. On the bright side, it gets the children [...]
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