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Weekly Wisdom

Dan — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:41:38 +0000

“God never clothes men until He has first stripped them, nor does He quicken them by the gospel till first they are slain by the Law. When you meet with persons in whom there is no trace of conviction of sin, you may be quite sure that they have not been wrought upon by the Holy Spirit; for ‘when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.’”

-C.H. Spurgeon

Be Radical… Proclaim the Gospel

Dan — Thu, 27 May 2010 08:30:47 +0000

Are you wasting your life living out a Christian spin on the American dream, or are you living radically for Christ and His commission to spread the Gospel?

H/T: Truth Matters

Christian Wrestling…

Dan — Thu, 13 May 2010 08:30:55 +0000

I’ve actually attended a church that does this, very interesting. I think it’s good that these guys tie it in to Christ at the end and share the good news about Christ, despite my theological quibbles with the “altar call” methodology.

So long as this is truly being done to the glory of God, I don’t see any problems with it as a Christian event. Others seem to have problems with it. I can see it being a problem if the message of salvation is not shared each time. That is, the message that everyone in the audience is a sinner in need of God’s grace, and then announcing that grace that can only be found in Jesus Christ. If the message is missing, then it isn’t Christian – no matter what it’s called or how many Christians attend or wrestle. The message pointing sinners to Jesus Christ is what makes it Christian – without that it’s just a secular wrestling event. But with the Gospel, I think it’s a great outreach opportunity. What do you think? Do you think a truly Christian wrestling event is a good way of sharing the Gospel?

H/T: Museum of Idolatry

Soundbite on Decisional Theology

Dan — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:30:19 +0000

This is a short soundbite from a talk by Bryan Wolfmueller entitled “Decisional Theology.” You can listen to the full talk at Issues, Etc. by clicking here.

Soundbite on Decisional Theology from Dan O'Day on Vimeo.

This is a short soundbite from a talk by Bryan Wolfmueller entitled “Decisional Theology.” You can listen to the full talk at Issues, Etc. here: http://issuesetc.org/2010/01/14/2446/

You’re going to hell, isn’t that funny?!?

Dan — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:30:41 +0000

What an absurd title. That would certainly be an absurd thing to say. Yet this is almost the message we get from pulpits across America today. I recently read a great blog post entitled, Is Your Preacher a Prophet or a Clown?, which said the following:

A clown’s job is to entertain, to make the crowd feel good for a while, to help them forget their problems and needs. A prophet, on the other hand, is to bring people face to face with God, to show them their spiritual bankruptcy, to make known their spiritual nakedness, to reveal to them that though they think they are rich and have need of nothing, they actually are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. He then is to exalt Jesus Christ as the only Saviour of sinners, the One who died and was raised again for their justification. He is to call people to repentance and faith in Jesus. . . .

Reducing the sermon to ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes devoid of Biblical exposition, failing to use the S (sin) word or the H (hell) word, failing to speak clearly about the glory of Christ and His person and work, coming across as a motivational speaker or clown, is to impugn the name of Christ. . . .

For example, let’s say your spouse has been diagnosed with cancer and has six months to live. How would you feel if the doctor delivered the message to you in drama, in song and dance, or in a stand-up comedy routine? Surely you would be insulted? Would you not consider the doctor to be incredibly insensitive, making light of a serious and painful issue? The medium is essential to the message. Doesn’t the sober nature of the message of life and death, heaven and hell, demand a similar form of communication? Words are what the preacher has at his disposal, words under the ministry of the Holy Spirit, words made active by the Spirit who works in both the preacher and congregation. Words will do. We don’t need drama. We don’t need song and dance. We don’t need comedy. We need straightforward words, cutting like a knife into the hearts of the hearers, opening them up to the folly of their own devices, drawing them back to Jesus who alone has the power to save and keep them until that great day.

Wow. There are some powerful thoughts here for all believers. Are we trying to communicate a serious message using inappropriate means, or do we tell it like it is?

The customer isn’t right

Dan — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:00:28 +0000

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 about how the word minister means “servant,” but most churches today prefer to look to ministers as leaders or CEO’s, and ministers are all too happy to accept this role. The proper role of a minister is that of a servant, and his chief task is to “administer” what God has given, His gifts.

The guest speaker then said this:

“We approach [the vocation of the minister] as a social issue, we look at what the people want. Let’s look at the word ministry. There’s an old saying… ‘The customer is always right.’ The customer knows what he wants and if you’re going to serve the customer, you better give him what he wants or you’re not going to do business with him. That’s precisely wrong when it comes to the church, because the customer is always wrong. And God is always right.

In other words, we must approach the vocation of the minister theologically (not socially). A minister of God must often preach God’s Law and His Gospel to people who don’t want any part of it. Often people don’t realize the depth of their sinfulness (including me), and they must hear God’s Law. Other times the Law has done its work and people have been cut to the heart, then they need to hear the Gospel. The customer (not a good term but I’m using it simply to make a point) is always wrong. He doesn’t want what he really needs. I am so often guilty of this. I often want authenticity, community, and whatever – but what I really need is the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. These other things are secondary to this primary need.

It is too easy to lose sight of Christ as the focal point of our churches when we operate with the assumption that the folks in the pews are right. That’s how we get mega-churches that acquiesce to, rather than transform, culture. Give the people what they want and you will grow numerically, but that’s not how ministry progress ought to be measured.

Positive Confession and the Prosperity Gospel – Part 3

Dan — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:00:57 +0000

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 read between the lines,
To look for blessings in disguise
To make me handsome, rich and wise?
Is that really what you want?

That’s a valid question. Does God want me to be healthy and wealthy, as the prosperity gospel teaches? Most Christian leaders condemn the “prosperity gospel,” yet observers say it is enjoying new popularity in this economically tenuous time, when many people are not prospering. What’s come to be known as the prosperity gospel began as a staple of fire-and-brimstone preaching in early 20th-century revival meetings. It surged in popularity with television preachers in the 1980s, until scandals revealed that some preachers used money donated for ministry to support their own lavish lifestyles.

Now observers say the prosperity gospel is spreading among churches large and small, denominational and independent, as well as through the ministries of televangelists such as Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer, Paula White, Steve Munsey, Paul Couch and Kenneth Copeland. These pastors, critics say, encourage their followers to “sow a seed” of faith by spending money – often in the form of a donation to their ministries – in order to reap prosperity in the future. Please note that I recognize that many people have been blessed through these ministries, but I must point out their participation and support of this misleading and dangerous doctrine.

Many Christian leaders have long condemned the prosperity gospel as aberrant theology, but most did so quietly. No more. In the past year, African-American pastors met at a national conference to discuss a problem they see spreading in their denominations. Critics have even questioned the ministries of such nationally prominent megapastors as T.D. Jakes – whose Potter’s House does extensive outreach to the poor — and Joel Osteen — pastor of Lakewood Church, the largest megachurch in the country — saying their brand of divinely assisted self-improvement is just a vamped-up version of the prosperity gospel.

Listen to these quotes from and about Jim Bakker, after his release from 5 years in prison for defrauding Heritage USA investors:

“I’d always quoted 3 John 2, saying, ‘Above all things God wants you to prosper.’ I loved that Scripture. It looks great on a TV screen when you’re raising funds, and I interpreted it as God wants you to be rich. But when I got to the words of John, I said, ‘Now this don’t make sense.’ So I took the word prosper apart in the Greek and found out it’s made up of two words-the first word means good or well and the second road. It’s a progressive word, so it’s like a journey. So, here’s John saying, basically, ‘Beloved, I want you to have a good journey through life as your soul has a good journey to heaven.’ It was a greeting! Building theology on that is like building the church on ‘Have a nice day.’ …

I began to look up all the Scriptures used in prosperity teaching, such as ‘Give and it shall be given unto you.’ When I put that Scripture back into its context, I found Christ was teaching on forgiveness, not on money. He was teaching us that by the same measure that we forgive, we will be forgiven. . . .

I had gotten my sermons from other people. The Bible warns about the shepherds who get their messages from each other. I think today the reason we have another gospel and another Jesus being preached is because men have gotten their sermons from each other and from motivational teaching. A lot of what’s being taught today is simply motivational teaching with a few Scriptures put to it” (Source: The Re-education of Jim Bakker, ChristianityToday.com, Dec. 7, 1998).

“Bakker . . . says he has had a change of heart about the prosperity gospel. . . .

The same man who once told his PTL coworkers that ‘God wants you to be rich,’ now says he made a tragic mistake. . . .

‘For years, I helped propagate an impostor, not a true gospel, but another gospel,’ Bakker has said in his 1996 book, ‘I Was Wrong.’ …

‘The prosperity message did not line up with the tenor of the Scripture,’ he said. ‘My heart was crushed to think that I led so many people astray’” (Source: The prosperity gospel, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, USA, Nov. 18, 2003).

But won’t God show us more signs and wonders and great prosperity in these last days?

People keep talking about a great end times revival, when Scripture seems to suggest mass persecution and deception in His name – the “counterfeit bride” of 2 Corinthians 4:4 and Revelation 17:5, the great whore/harlot. The end times will be full of signs and wonders, where people will chase after divine healing, prosperity and health – but will miss the whole point of the gospel. In Luke 13, when Jesus was going from town to town on His way to Jerusalem, “someone asked Him, ‘Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?’ He said to them, ‘Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. . . .’ He will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’” (Luke 13:23-27). In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” We cannot chase after signs, wonders, healings and miracles and some sort of end times revival. We must seek Christ alone and doing His will, even if His will does not ask us to operate in the realm of the supernatural. This is not to say that He won’t ask us to heal and do miraculous things, but as always, we must seek Him first and allow Him to give us direction in these matters. We mustn’t try to compete with the emerging church, new wine, and G12/cell church movements, which are heretical.

Then what is the “true” gospel?

The gospel is so simple, yet it is so common for people to leave out essential elements (or to add things like physical healing or prosperity). We must understand that eternal life is a free gift (Romans 6:23). It is not earned or deserved (Ephesians 2:8-9). No one can earn their way into heaven, because we are all sinful (Romans 3:23). Because of our sinfulness, we cannot save ourselves, we are not perfect (Matthew 5:48). However, in spite of our sin, God is merciful and does not want to punish us (1 John 4:8; Jeremiah 31:3). But the Bible also tells us that God is just, and as such He must punish sin (Exodus 34:7; Ezekiel 18:4). This creates a problem! God loves us and doesn’t want to punish us, but at the same time He is just and must punish sin. God solves this problem for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who came to earth and was fully God and fully man (John 1:1, 14)! What exactly did He do on earth? He died on the cross in order to pay the penalty for our sins and He rose from the grave to purchase a place for us in Heaven (Isaiah 53:6; 1 Corinthians 15:1-6). Jesus Christ bore our sin in His body on the cross and now offers us eternal life (Heaven) as a free gift. This gift is received by faith (Acts 16:31), which itself is a gift from God (Romans 12:3; 1 Corinthians 12:3; Ephesians 2:8-9; Hebrews 12:2).

In light of all this, Paul says in Galatians 1:9 – “If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” The true Gospel of scripture is not a gospel of earthly prosperity nor of physical healing. It is a gospel of eternal salvation.

Thanks for reading this three-part series on positive confession and the prosperity gospel. I hope it shed some light on this dangerous heresy. Please read all three posts before trying to argue based on one of them, thank you

Weekly Wisdom

Dan — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:29:40 +0000

“If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.” ~St. Augustine Related posts:Weekly Wisdom Weekly Wisdom Weekly Wisdom Related posts:

Weekly Wisdom

Dan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:13:51 +0000

“What God’s Word really means when it says that man is justified and saved by faith alone is nothing else than this: Man is not saved by his own acts, but solely by the doing and dying of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the whole world. Over against this teaching modern theologians assert that in the salvation of man two kinds of activity must be noted: in the first place, there is something that God must do. His part is the most difficult, for He must accomplish the task of redeeming men. But in the second place something is required that man must do. For it will not do to admit persons to heaven, after they have been redeemed, without further parley (talk). Man must do something really great – he has to believe. This teaching overthrows the Gospel completely.” – C.F.W. Walther

Christophobia

Dan — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:30:59 +0000

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 it that when people hit their thumb with a hammer they yell “JESUS CHRIST!” They don’t yell “BUDDHA” or “ALLAH!” It just doesn’t happen very often. It makes one wonder….

The folks who seem to fear the most when the politically incorrect name of Jesus is invoked are Christians. That’s the ironic part. I know lots of Christians who almost cringe at the mention of Jesus’ name in so-called “secular” realms.

And we seem to excuse this behavior. We seem to empathize when people hide their affiliation with Christ for job security, or to maintain a “normal” social image. Aside from DC Talk, no one wants to be labeled a “Jesus freak.”

[Jesus said,] “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26).

I sometimes wonder if those who fear the name of Jesus really understand the profoundness of the Gospel. I wonder if they really know the depths of His love.

Sometimes they are unable to know the depths of His love because they do not know the depths of their sin. If your sin is small, then your Savior will also be small. But when we recognize how depraved we really are, we can only exclaim with St. Paul,

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

“Everyone” includes you and me. Everyone includes your coworkers, the media, your students, your teachers, your boss, your family, your friends, and your neighbors. How can we pray for the Gospel to be spread when we are ashamed of it? Political correctness is part of our (fallen) culture. We are called to remain “aliens and strangers in the world” (1 Peter 2:11), to be in the world but not of it (John 17:13-18). At times this will involve breaking cultural taboos. Even if it costs us our jobs or our very lives.

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:35).

But take heart, we have a great and loving God. Be thankful.

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” (1 Timothy 1:7-14).