Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Sifting through the Sewage: Pentacostalism

Sometimes late at night when I'm surfing channels on the boob tube, I search for shows having a bit of a humorous bent. Sure, there are funny shows such as the Family Guy, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Flight of the Conchords. For my money, nothing is funnier than watching the nonsense that flows out of TBN. From Benny Hinn to T.D. Jakes these dudes claim to be prophets of God and Bible-believing Christians. If only they read their Bible, maybe they could be Bible-believing Christians. Most of their nonsense would be funny if it were not so heretical.
Exhibit A- Oneness Theoolgy
This is basically a cute word for modalism. Within this is the belief is the idea that tongues is necessary sign for salvation,a denial of the pre-existence of Christ, a belief that Jesus was Himself the Father.
To say that tongues is necessary for salvation is utter horse crap! Just cursory glance at Scripture(Eph. 2:8-9) shows that is through grace and that sign of a believer is the sanctification by the Spirit that takes place.(2 Thess. 2:13)
On the pre-existence of Christ, I suppose they should check out John 1:1, and then try and defend the B.S. they pass off as Christianity.
To refute the position that Jesus was Himself the Father, I would like to kindly point out that Jesus is never once explicitly called the Father in the New Testament, while oddly enough there are the Father is referred to be distinct from Jesus over 200 times.

Exhibit B- Here are some quotes taken from some these great men of god(And yes, I am aware that I used a lower case "g")!
Benny Hinn - "
Jesus Christ knew the only way he would stop Satan was by becoming one in nature with him."
Joyce Meyer -
"There is no hope of anyone going to heaven unless they believe this truth I am presenting. You cannot go to heaven unless you believe with all your heart that Jesus took your place in hell."
And Kenneth Copeland -"When Jesus cried "It is finished!" He was not speaking of the plan of redemption. There were still three days and nights to go through before He went to the throne. He was referring to the Abrahamic Covenant. Jesus' death on the cross was only the beginning of the complete work of redemption. He accepted the sin nature of Satan in His own spirit. And at that moment that He did so He cried, 'My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me?' You don't know what happened at the cross. Why do you think Moses, upon instruction of God, raised the serpent upon that pole instead of a lamb? That use to bug me. I said, 'Why in the world would you want to put a snake up there - the sign of Satan? Why didn't you put a lamb on that pole?' And the Lord said, 'Because it was a sign of Satan that was hanging on the cross.' He said, 'I accepted in my own spirit, spiritual death; and the light was turned off'"

Well, if you're willing to follow their line of thinking, then you might as well throw atonement in the crapper. Without Jesus shedding His blood on the Cross for our sin, we have no Salvation. And without salvation, we might as well grab a shotgun and blow off our head, because life no longer has any meaning.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Unity?!?!

Is there a necessity of church unity today? I do not refer to the unity of believers in specific church setting, such as a baptist, methodist, presbyterian. etc. I am referring specifically to the unity of believers as a whole in the body of Christ. Why do I bring this up? For a couple of reasons, It seems within the context of Christianity we have all these quarrels and other nonsensical debates that ramble on yet do not edify anyone, but rather serve to create strife in the church community. Some examples off the top of my head are churches that refuse to associate with other churches on the basis of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Here's a news flash I think if God wanted to do away with the gifts he would have put it in the Word. As far as the other side, there are rules to which gifts are to be used.
Another example is constant haggling over Arminianism vs. Calvinism, I personally think this issue has been one major issues that has caused much of the disunity among believers.
My point in bringing this up, is that these are second hand issues that have no place in competing with the main purpose of glorifying God, which is our sole purpose. When it comes right down to the brass tacks, should make a difference if John MacArthur were to speak at Mars Hill in Seattle, or does it matter if Driscoll were to speak at MacArthur's church? Do they not believe in the same Jesus. The same Jesus who calls us to repentance.
While it is fun to discuss these second hand issues in civil discourse. Once the gloves come off and you start distancing yourself from fellow believers, because they don't think like you think. You have not only done a disservice to other Christians, you have caused unbelievers to view us as a bunch of jackasses. All because you're "brilliant" application of the Scripture doesn't jive with the other "heathen" Christians.