Speaking the Truth

By Mike Ratliff

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:4-16 ESV)

Biblical discernment is not legalism. It is not being a know-it-all who just rains on everyone’s parade, taking all the fun away from those exploring new ways of “experiencing God” or “expanding their faith.” No, it isn’t that at all. First and foremost it is done from the context of maintaining unity within one body and one Spirit through speaking of truth in love so that all truly in Christ will grow up in every way into Him who is their head. Those who exercise this discernment from this motive may at times appear to be focusing on the shortcomings of certain “Christian leaders” to the chagrin of those who follow them. Well, the reason we do that can be quite exasperating on our part I assure you. Why? Those who are deceived by these deceivers DO NOT LISTEN.

I read a comment thread the other day before I went on my short sabbatical in which people were discussing Rick Warren’s invitation to speak at John Piper’s conference this fall. Within the first 10 or so comments the reasons why he should never have been considered were plainly laid out by several of the commenters. It was in plain black and white. However, the more comments I read, the more I kept encountering those who obviously either refused to read those very well documented reasons or they either had no idea what real apostasy is or did not care. One kept saying that no one could come up with real reasons why Rick Warren should be disinvited when I had just read dozens of them in the same comment stream. I was amazed as I witnessed solid, discerning Christians get attacked by these people for speaking the truth. Truth was seen as an evil affront by these people because all that mattered to them about Rick Warren’s orthodoxy was that Rick Warren said he was orthodox so that meant he was orthodox.

From the passage I placed at the top of this post, here is Ephesians 4:15 from the ESV and the GNT:

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (Ephesians 4:15 ESV)

ἀληθεύοντες δὲ ἐν ἀγάπῃ αὐξήσωμεν εἰς αὐτὸν τὰ πάντα, ὅς ἐστιν ἡ κεφαλή, ὁ Χριστός,

Here, the word translated in the ESV as “speaking the truth,” ἀληθεύοντες is a nominative plural masculine present participle. This verb tense yields the idea of “continually speaking the truth.” Paul is telling all believers, especially those who are gifted by God to serve in roll in the Church with the speaking gifts to to speak the truth. This is why it is so tragic when Christian leaders compromise and speak that which is anything but. Also, and this speaks to why so many compromise here, speaking truth at all times can actually make enemies of some. The only other instance of a form of this word in the N.T. Is in Galatians 4:16 where Paul asks, “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” It is rhetorical. Yes, the answer is always yes to this. The truth is the only thing the Christian should speak, hence the big fuss about the Ergun Caner “crisis” at Liberty Seminary.

Yes, the truth is to be spoken. Why? Why is it imperative that we never include error or our own opinions in there with it? This is to keep error out of the Church and preserve others from error. However, we all know that this is not the norm and has not been for quite some time. The church’s vocabulary today is politically correct catch-phrases, sentimental expressions, and psychobabble. Instead of confronting false teachers with their error, we embrace them with such schmaltziness, as, “I’m going to ask him to speak and lay his cards on the table and find out what makes him tick.” Never mind that he is a heretic and the gospel he preaches is incomplete and false. “After all, our brother is entitled to his own ideas, and we should be open to it.” Uh, no, we are supposed to speak the truth.

A survey of the visible church in our day will reveal showy churches and glitzy ministries, but shunned is the preaching of truth. I find it amazing that when you hear some of these fellows talk and read some of what they write it becomes painfully obvious that they think they know more than God, more than the inspired Paul, more than many great leaders in church history. What will be the result? We are already seeing it. It’s called shipwrecks.

Soli Deo Gloria!

(HT: Possessing the Treasure)

Glenn Beck: Are You Really a Mormon?

By Justin Edwards

Todd Friel from Wretched Radio addresses the controversy over Glenn Beck's recent show where he confused many evangelicals as to whether he is a Mormon or orthodox Christian.

For more information, please see Mormonism vs Christianity and More on Mormonism - Glenn Beck.

If Glenn Beck is truly born again, then when will he come public with this and renounce the Mormon cult?

This is an excellent contrast: 

Evil Pragmatism vs the Christian's Right Focus

By Dan Philips

There's a world of difference between practicality, and pragmatism.

Practicality 

One of my least-favorite classes in seminary gave me an excellent mental image which I may have shared before. The prof asked us preachers to envision a really extraordinary individual in our audience. He said we should make him unmissable — huge, orange-skinned, green suit, hat with a flower in it.

He sits in the front row, squarely in front of us. He only knows three words in English. He repeats them over and over again.

The words?

"Tell me how."

I happen to think that, taken in the right measure, this was an excellent piece of counsel. It could be over-pressed, with the result that pastors would never preach on passages or Biblical themes they judge "not practical," such as the doctrine of God, election, atonement, and on and on. That would be a great betrayal, and a great failure as a pastor.

At the same time, it serves as a bracing caution against those of us who live too much in the ivory tower, too enamored with abstract theology or philosophy. It tells against ivory-tower thinking divorced from the dailiness of life. It wouldn't hurt one bit if we looked over the first draft of our sermon manuscript and envisioned someone asking, "So... what am I supposed to do with that?"

Certainly Jesus and the apostles could never be accused of such baffling, misty abstraction. If Paul gave three chapters of rich doctrine in Ephesians, he follows it up with four three chapters of wrapping the truth in shoe-leather. The Gospels and Epistles deal with money, marriage, parenting, childing, morality, relationships, church polity, and a host of other specific issues.

If I dare whisper the thought, I think this was a shortcoming of Spurgeon's — at least in all the sermons I know of. He preached glorious, timeless sermons on the person and work of Christ, the covenants, and the authority of Scripture. But I don't think I've yet come across a "Tell Me How" sermon opening Scripture on marriage, work, or the like. Those topics must feature in preaching the whole counsel of God.

Practicality, then, is (A) Biblical, and (B) light-years removed from....

Pragmatism

"If it works, it's good" is not a Biblical notion. We can see the inherent, fatal flaw if we bring to light the generally-unstated definition of "works": "achieves our desired results." We identify goals and imbue them with a self-justifying quality. That is, if we achieve the desired result, whatever we did to get there is eo ipso good.

Self-justifying goals Christians have set include:

• Increased "giving" (invariably financial) among churchgoers
• Increased attendance
• Increased professions of faith
• Increased actual (i.e. conversion) baptisms
• Happier people
• People who report feeling closer to God
• Greater book sales
• Compliant children
• Better reputation among the lost

I envision two sorts reading that list:

1. Those who don't see a thing wrong with these as self-justifying goals.
2. Those who have actually read their Bibles.

Speaking of which....

The Bible

I may exaggerate, but not by much. The Bible is absolutely crystal-clear on at least three things, if you'll forgive one last enumeration:

1. The Christian's goal must be to please God (Deuteronomy 6:5f.; Matthew 6:1-6, 33; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 1 Peter 1:13-17, etc.).
2. Doing what pleases God may be the direct cause of temporal disaster.
3. Doing what pleases God will be the direct cause of eternal delight.

Be perfectly clear: doing what pleases God, in the right way and from the right heart, may result in —

• Getting murdered by your brother for honoring God in faith
• Being hated by the most powerful in the land for telling God's truth
• Having people run away from your preaching (i.e. a small congregation) because you preach the truth straight
• Being out of sync with your spouse for remaining faithful to God
• Being framed, slandered, and killed for remaining loyal to your family
• Seeing your good name destroyed because of your love for Christ
• Having co-workers start a vicious slander-and-ouster campaign because of your godly excellence
• Being abused, even physically, to doing right in God's eyes
• Enduring a life of persecution, deprivation, and temporal misery

Of course, that's just a sampling. But it is enough to condemn pragmatism once and for all.

So here's the bottom-line: Christian living is a lot like flying a jet in a deep fog at night. The instruments are your only friend.

Except in our case, the "instruments" are the Word, alone.

(HT: Pyromaniacs)

Jesus Will Cure Your Lame Sex Life?

From the Museum of Idolatry

Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Chandler, AZ is hopping on the this band wagon a bit late. Thesetypes of sermon series were all the rage in the Purpose-Driven scene back in 2008. Talk about sermon leftovers. It should be named My Church's Lame Sermon Series. But, since they're really going through with this we thought we save a few of their artifacts and exhibit them here at the Museum of Idolatry.

The website put up by Cornerstone, MyLameSex.com actually promises that God will help you people their lame sex lives. Seriously, has Jesus now become the Dr. Ruth of religious leaders? If people's sex lives don't improve with the help of Jesus can folks at Cornerstone get there tithe money back? Here's the quote from the site:

"Is your sex life what you hoped it would be? Does something inside of you believe it could be better? And is better ultimately about a new technique or the latest lotion? Is it possible that what we don’t know about sex itself (about how men and women are wired), is actually what we really keep stumbling over? Is it possible that the one who created sex would actually have some insights into sex?

Surprisingly, God is pro sex and wants us to have an exciting and deeply fulfilling sex life. The problem is that most of us only experience a second rate imitation of what God intended it to be!

Would you be willing to keep an open mind and open heart while we have a conversation? All you have to lose is your lame sex life.

This is what happens when churches think that preaching the gospel, the good news of Christ's substitionary death on the cross for our sins is not enough, so they feel like they have to spice up the message by adding some more exciting worldly elements to the message. The message of the cross doesn't need sex added to it to make it more appealing. Furthermore, Jesus NEVER promised that if you believe in Him that the sex in your marriage will improve. In fact, believing in Jesus has caused many marriages to fail.

When Did We Get Protestant Purgatory?

By Dan Ecklund

What is a Christless eternity? Who thought up an eternity separated from God, or a Godless afterlife? It has become almost sinful in the eyes of American churches to use the word “Hell” unless the flames are stamped out and shaded areas are added. A person listening to our modern day preaching of hell, could easily decide that hell sounds like a place to go where there are few clouds and people are all grilling steak. Much of this is because they worry about offending someone, and the fear men. No matter of what churches or preachers say, the only thing that does matter is what the scriptures say.

How does scripture define what the biblical hell is?

There are three words translated "hell" in Scripture:

Gehenna (Greek): The place of punishment (Matthew 5:22,29; 10:28; and James 3:6)

Hades (Greek): The abode of the dead (Matthew 11:23; 16:18, Luke 16:23; Acts 2:27)

Sheol (Hebrew): The grave (Psalm 9:17; 16:10)

Hell is shown to be a place. Rather than a type of lifestyle, or just struggle as some people believe, the bible places it as a location. For those who teach that we go through “hell” in this life, they fail to see that this world is as close to heaven as most people will ever see.

The Bible refers to the fate of the unsaved with such words as the following:

"Shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:2)

"Everlasting punishment" (Mathew 25:46)

"Weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 24:51)

"Fire unquenchable" (Luke 3:17)

"Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish" (Romans 2:8,9)

"Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thessalonians 1:9)

"Eternal fire...the blackness of darkness for ever" (Jude 7,13)

Revelation 14:10,11

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

The theme for hell is eternal, and a pit, rather than a room with a door. Scripture is the basis for the doctrine, and Jesus Himself spoke more of hell than He did of heaven. It was because of love that He warned of God’s wrath and judgment.

Mark 9:43-48

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.[c] And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.[d] And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where "their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

Why would hell be so bad and eternal? Some modern day preachers argue that because God is love, hell must end, or not exist at all. Many cults argue that no one who is love would do something that sounds so evil. Such type of foolish arguments only come from men who do not understand the nature of a Perfect God, and His goodness that requires justice.

Think about your own cry for justice. When you hear a news story of an evil man, doing horrible crimes against a child, do you ever hear people say, “I hope he gets a Christless eternity!” or “I hope he never sees God.”? Obviously, a person who loves children wants someone who harms them to be caught, and justice of the law to come down on them without mercy for such wicked acts. Jesus also mentioned this when it came to harming children.

Luke 17:2

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

The time and severity of punishment for crime, is always based on the one in who the crime is committed against. If you murder a bug, you will face no punishment. If you killed a homeless drunk on the street, you might get 10 years. If you killed a police officer, you are probably going to be executed. The same act was committed each time, but what changed was the one in who you committed the act against, and their position of authority. All sin is against God, the Highest of all. Because He is eternal, so is His love and justice.

Perfect justice is one of the traits of God men should fear. Because God has promised to bring EVERY evil deed to light, and set a day to judge everyone, men should be fearful. The day is certain, as God has placed all men on death row, since we all will die. The system is perfect, in that no man will escape, even if they avoid capture in this world.

Hebrews 9:27

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.

Why is the biblical hell so awful?

Because God hates sin, He will bring wrath and justice against it. When the One in the Highest Authority is offended, the punishment is also the highest. As mentioned before, Jesus loved children, but yet in America, we can legally kill them, and many in our churches support such sinful acts. Men turn up the heat in hell on their own, as they try to stand against God’s fury.

Daniel 3:19

Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated.

Anger turns up the heat, and God is angry at sin. Some say God hates the sin, but loves the sinner. It is a common saying that is in error. God hates the sin, and promises to send those found in sin to hell if they do not repent. Despite this, every generation of man has thought that he has put himself into a better state than those they believe who have died and gone to hell. They trust in their actions and religious practices to remove them from the justice of God. Many will be disappointed.

Matthew 7:21-23

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

What about Mercy?

Mercy is another trait of God. Mercy is undeserved favor, which is why a person can not earn their way out of hell. If a person does many good works, or suffers for acts of sin, as a method of payment, then God would owe mercy to them. If God is good, can His justice be removed by mercy? God doesn’t cancel out His own traits, rather through Christ, made it possible for men to receive mercy. Because wrath and justice were brought on Christ instead of those who place their faith in Him, God can extend mercy to those who repent and trusted fully in Him.

Romans 8:1

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Without the reality of biblical hell, men fail to see the full glory of God. Everyone will bring glory to God. Either they will repent and trust in Christ for His mercy and love shown in the cross, or they will spend eternity in hell as an everlasting example of the justice and goodness of God to destroy evil. If a preacher is so foolish as to remove the justice and wrath of God, he has tried to rob God of traits that bring Him glory, and diminish the work on the Cross. The repeating warnings of scripture of God’s justice and wrath are given, and serve to cause men who listen to cling to the Savior, and run from sin as though he was fleeing from a dragon. Do not heed the foolish of those who make little of the truths of hell, rather believe them and trust the only One that took your place.

Hebrews 10:31

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

True Salvation Through Jesus Christ

By Justin Edwards

The following message from John MacArthur was one of many tools God used to finally bring me to my knees in March 2009. As I shared in my testimony HERE, my professed Christian life prior to last year was one where I was not ready to give all control to God. I was not ready to surrender to Him completely, I was not ready to give Him the reigns, I was not ready to submit to His authority, I was not ready to obey His will, and I was not ready to deny myself, pick up my cross, and follow the Lord Jesus Christ daily. At best, I was a Christian living in doubt because of the choices I was making; at worst, I was a false convert with a false security in salvation. Only God knows who I was in Christ for all of those years.

What about you?

If you are one who struggles in understanding what it means to surrender everything to Jesus Christ, or is sitting on the fence in doing so, I encourage you to read my 2 testimonies at the link above and watch the following video. Then visit the many resources on the blog and use them to drive you to examine yourself to see if you are truly in the faith as the Apostle Paul exhorts in 2 Corinthians 13:5:

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

The book of 1 John 1-5 is the best place for you to start examining yourself with the Word of God and is the most important test you will ever take. Please don't put this off any longer. There is a reason you are reading this post - there are no coincidences with God. Yield to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and surrender your everything to the Lord Jesus Christ. Until then and at best, you will continue living in doubt having no biblical assurance of salvation; at worst, you are living a lie, perhaps unaware, and the consequence will be an eternity suffering the terrible Wrath of God.

Thanks to Holly Dye from ROE for providing the transcript.

Transcript

Well, the old theologians used to say that in the human heart, there’s a God-shaped vacuum that only God can satisfy. The book of Proverbs says if you pursue riches, riches will never satisfy. The heart of man is never ever satisfied in those things. However, being satisfied with God, then you can enjoy all the things that God gives you, because you see them as coming from His good hand. If you’re just pursuing riches, pursuing riches…you know, the old Rockefeller story, “You have so much,” somebody said to him, “how much do you want?” And he said, “Just a little bit more.” If that’s what you live for then you’re never going to be satisfied, and ultimately, that is not going to satisfy your heart. God alone, Christ alone, satisfies the heart and then everything you have, even the smallest things, becomes a cause for joy and thanksgiving.

Jesus said, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself.” In other words, abandon all your own ambition, all your own will, all your own direction, your own choices, and totally and fully submit your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is to say it is the end of me and I commit my life to follow Christ, whatever the cost, even if it’s a cross, and to obey Him. And that was not what the rich young ruler was willing to do. He is a classic illustration of someone who will not deny himself. He wanted to hold on to his own will, he wanted to hold on to his own pride, he wanted to hold on to his own money, he wanted to hold onto his own ambition, his own sovereignty, if you will, in his own life.

The competing issues are these, very simple: The gospel says: give your life to Christ and He rules. And if you’re not willing to do that its because you want to keep the rule of your own life. The rich young man wanted his own life for himself. He wanted to control his own life. He had his choice sins. He had his choice religion and he wanted to hang onto control. It’s that simple. Coming to Christ means you give up the control of your life and you yield it to Christ. That’s what kept him from salvation. He was unwilling to do that.

People are happy for you to believe in God. They think its great that you believe in God. People applaud the idea of believing in God. As long as that God is not the God of the Bible. Because once you affirm the God of the Bible, then you get the God of the Bible. Then you get the Law of the God of the Bible. You get the Commandments of the God of the Bible. You get the morality of the God of the Bible. You get the holiness of the God of the Bible…the justice and righteousness of the God of the Bible and you get the punishment of the God of the Bible. So, you have to face your own sinfulness, you have to face the reality that you have violated the law of God. That you’re headed toward judgment and eternal hell and in order to be saved from that you have to turn from your sin and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.

Bottom line is men love their sin. People love their sin. The Bible says men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Now there are all kinds of gods that aren’t going to impinge on that, all kinds of religions, spiritual ideas, but not the God of the Bible. So, to say that you believe in the God of Scripture is then to say that you believe in the Law of the God of Scripture and the judgment of the God of Scripture as well as the salvation of the God of Scripture. It’s that narrowness that offends the sinner because the sinner wants to hold on to his sin.

The rejection of Christianity is not intellectual. It’s not some intellectual problem, “I just can’t get there intellectually.” There are endless reasons, logical reasons, to believe in the God of the Scripture and the Scripture that God has written. It’s moral. It’s moral. They love the darkness because their deeds are evil, not because they can’t process it intellectually, but because their deeds are evil and they cherish those.
We always say that people aren’t truly saved until they are truly aware that they are lost. See, that’s why you can’t just go in and say, “ Hey let me tell you about this wonderful message. Jesus loves you. God loves you just the way you are. He wants to bless you; bump you up a few notches on the scale of success. Help you hit home runs. Straighten out your slice in golf. Make you feel good about yourself. Give you “Your best world…your fulfillment…your purpose.” That’s not the gospel.

The gospel is: He wants to deliver you from your sins, which are going to condemn you to eternal hell. And until a person understands the reality of their lostness, and fully comes to grips with that, that they have sinned against God, violated God’s Law, that they cannot remedy that, that they are headed for hell, that they will never have any purpose in this life, any meaning in this life, and certainly in the life to come, apart from salvation through Jesus Christ. They don’t reach a level of desperation, which drives them to a true salvation.

(HT: Refocusing Our Eyes)

Heaven, Hell, and Emergent Heresy

By Eric Barger

When one does a careful evaluation of the teachings of Emergent leaders, such as Doug Pagitt, Rob Bell, and Brian McLaren, it becomes apparent that they do not believe that Heaven, as described in the Bible, actually exists. Even clearer is their denunciation against the notion of a literal Hell. Their focus is only on the "here-and-now" existence of this life and experiencing the "journey" and "conversations" it presents.

Pagitt, for example, bristles at the notion that Heaven and Hell are actual places. According to Pagitt, God interacts with all people the same way. When asked what happens to the "good Muslim" when he dies, Pagitt told commentator Todd Friel,

"God's going to judge the life and repair and restore and heal the life of everybody in the same way."

Pagitt then stated that God will interact with Christians in the same way that He will with Muslims after they die. He is very clearly stating that every orthodox idea of Christianity has been mistaken and that in the end God reconciles ALL people, regardless of what they believe or even if they believe. This is the heart and soul of so-called "reconciling" universalism. (See: YouTube clip)

Emergent godfather, Brian McLaren, made his feelings on Hell and the Cross known to "Bleeding Purple Podcast" interviewer, Leif Hansen, in this well-traveled statement: 

"The Cross is almost a distraction and false advertising for God." (Source)

McLaren also told Beliefnet Online interviewer Sherry Huang, 

"For many Christians, their faith is primarily about what happens to people after they die. That distracts them from seeking justice and living in a compassionate way while we're still alive in this life. We need to go back and take another look at Jesus' teachings about hell. For so many people, the conventional teaching about hell makes God seem vicious. That's not something we should let stand."
(Source)

Rob Bell muses his redefinition of Hell, saying, 

"When people use the word hell, what do they mean? They mean a place, an event, a situation absent of how God desires things to be. Famine, debt, oppression, loneliness, despair, death, slaughter - they are all hell on earth."
(Velvet Elvis, p.148)

In an interview discussing their 2009 book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile, Bell and co-author Don Golden say that the Church in America is in exile today. Bell and Golden say that by participating in our culture (they call America an "empire") and by supporting our government/military system and by using oil, we are "oppressors" and create suffering for others. They conveniently ignore the fact that America, in particular the Christians in her, have done more to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ than any other nation in history - hands down! But in emergent/leftist thought, anything smelling like capitalism must be shunned (except for enjoying the many benefits life in the USA offers). This is nothing less than 1960's, counter-culture, hippie liberalism now being referred to as "Evangelical Christianity!"

One might wonder how a nice evangelical kid from Wheaton ended up as perhaps the most popular leader in the heretical Emergent Church. Bell and his wife, Kristen, say that their Christian world became constricting - in Kristen's words, "black and white...." And how did the Bells find their way out of the black-and-white world where they had been so successful and so dissatisfied? "Our lifeboat," Kristen says, "was A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren."

If you wish the same fate that has befallen the Bells, all one has to do is abandon the teachings of God's inerrant Word and adopt what McLaren, Pagitt (and now Rob Bell) are selling.

How much documentation will we have to produce and how many more reasons will be needed for postmoderns with any scrap of biblical understanding to come to their senses and realize that Emergent Christianity isn't really Christianity at all? Instead, it is cultic, deceptive and eternally damning.

(HT: BPT)