In it, he targeted the views of Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt and Rob Bell. While I have very little respect for McLaren and Pagitt, Rob Bell I don’t know too much of and haven’t made up my mind on yet.
But what bugs me most about this Emergent crowd is the constant need to question everything. For example, Rob Bell, in his book “Velvet Elvis: Repainting The Christian Faith,” he writes:
“What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archaeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births? But what if as you study the origin of the word virgin, you discover that the word virgin in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word virgin could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being “born of a virgin” also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse?”
This is a disturbing view in my mind and totally contradicts scripture as early as Genesis 3 where God talks about the “seed of the woman” – way before any Mithra’s or Dionysian cults ever existed. Any serious Bible student would know that God is alluding to a mysterious event here as genealogies in Scripture are usually discussed along male lines and not female.
Furthermore, Bell seems to belittle the Isaiah 7 passage regarding the virgin birth in his attempt to address this issue and ultimately pokes a finger in the face of the Gospel account. To me, the pursuit to reach the unchurched is not worth it is you trash scripture. After all, even God exalts His Word – even more then His Name.
But out of the three Driscoll targets, Bell is the least of my concerns. It’s McLaren and Pagitt who concern me in their views and activism within Christianity today. Form your own opinion of what Driscoll says. Here is the iTunes podcast link for the conference and have a listen to what Driscoll has to say.
Well it seems as if the Emergent movement has had it’s feathers ruffled as a result of this and a series of bloggers have formed a “wink club.” Fuelled by people like Adam Walker from pomomusings.com, this group of bloggers are posting a series of “wink” posts at Driscoll to show their dissatisfaction at Driscoll for what he shared at the above mentioned conference.
OK, now here’s my rant. This wink club – take it’s collective ability and impact and it doesn’t register a blimp on the radar of influence or impact in changing lives. This group of “bloggers” are emergent friendly and tend to pledge their allegiance to McLaren et al and their rebellious questioning of everything done in the name of Christianity.
Sure, there are heaps of stupid things done in the name of Christianity and the modern church needs to change in order to address this. But to question scripture and to modernise it in a way to embrace all kinds of whacked out ideas makes this group akin to the mindset of the people from the ‘Jesus Seminar” where the Gospel is assessed according to modern ideas as to what Jesus actually said and done based on a humanistic and carnal attitude.
The net effect of this this movement is to assess the life of Christ and to categorise the probability of the events actually happening to red, pink, grey or black “beads” of probability of these events actually happening.
The result of this is that the vast majority of the life and teachings of Christ are ultimately questioned instead of believed. Bell’s quote above is an example of the same attitude within the emergent movement.
Driscoll on the other hand has distanced himself from this movement. Initially a part of the movement, he tore away from it alarmed at where this group was heading. He now pastors a 6000 plus church and is among the fastest growing and most influential churches in the USA.
Among the reasons for this is that Driscoll holds Scripture in high regard. He often gets slammed for his stance of “God says it, we need to obey.” Apparently, those in the emergent movement forget the words uttered by Paul:
“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,” 2 Cor 10:5
So to the winkers I say;
I know much of what WE as the church represent is questionable to an unbelieving world and I know that we have been a bad example.
But in our attempt to converse with them, we need not attack those who hold on to scripture in high regard for even our God places His Word higher then even His Name.
For example, Adam at pomomusings lists a bunch of “ridiculous” snippets from Driscoll’s message and one of them is:
“If Rabbis don’t love Jesus, they have a bad hermeneutic.”
Well Adam, you are a student of scripture and you should take note of the following passage where Jesus says:
“You diligently studythe Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” John 5:39-40
So if a Rabbi does not love Jesus, he indeed does have a bad hermeneutic. You bring that up with Jesus if you have a problem with that – not Driscoll.
You winkers amount to pretty much nothing in the grand scheme of things and have very little impact on spreading the Gospel. Driscoll does. So get over it.
Watch any comedy show these days or listen to public opinion and Christians everywhere are made to look like idiots. What we believe in and find precious is being trodden on by an unbelieving world.
We are the butt of jokes and the scapegoats for the worlds problems. Blame it on the Muslims and you’ll have a bomb staring you in the face. The “turn the other cheek” mentality of Christians has facilitated this in a big way.
While I agree with the words of Jesus, I believe we have not mastered what He meant by these words. After all, He went nuts in the temple didn’t He? No turning the other cheek there.
Then I come across the following video by The Chasers War on Everything – an Aussie production totally irrelevant to everything and anyone:
Makes me want to seriously punch something at how the unbelieving world wants to put down the One who died for it. They don’t trash Mohammed or Buddha. They trash Jesus – and do so in ignorance not knowing that one day, their proud knee will bow before Him in terror.
“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:8-11
But watching that video also made me think how parts of the Church make us look ridiculous – therefore making us fair game to a skeptical world. In particular, Catholicism.
It always amazes me when the world thinks about Christians, they think about Catholics. They lump us all into the same basket. Well I don’t pray to Mary or any other “saint”. I don’t care less about the Pope, don’t appreciate relics and couldn’t care less about apparitions or what happened at Fatima.
But millions do, therefore making the rest of us look like lunatics. Apparitions, and the crowds they attract are particularly embarrassing and attract attention as shown in the video above.
Relics are even more bizarre. Catholics should take note of the story found in Numbers 21:4-9:
“From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”
Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”
Here we have people bitten by snakes and asked to “foolishly” look to the bronze snake on a pole and live. Christians would know that this is representing Christ’s crucifixion. Snakes represent sin. Bronze represents punishment. So it talks about sin being punished – exactly what Jesus did on the cross and was alluded to by Jesus Himself.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” John 3:14-15
So the story ended on a good note except that if you read on, hundreds of years later we see that this “brazen snake” became an object to which people burnt incense to and became, in effect, an idol. Hezekiah, an Israelite King who honoured God destroyed the relic:
“He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).” 2 Kings 18:4
Check out the Wikipedia entry on the brazen snake here and you’ll see that it’s associated with occultism. In the same way, much of what Catholics practice is occultic in nature and is downright wrong when exposed to scripture.
The net effect of this is that an unbelieving world makes a mockery of our faith. Sure even in the Protestant movement there are heaps of things done in a questionable way.
Even the practice of worship where singing songs and raising hands could be looked on as foolish. But what difference is it to attend a Iron Maiden concert and mosh away while holding up your arm and doing the devil sign?
So are we soft targets? Probably. But only cause we represent peace and actually challenge people to question their lives in a way that most people would avoid in that it exposes their depravity in profound ways. But, because of all the depravity in organised religion, we provide ample ammunition for their attacks.
It’s a totally sad reality. Oh well, at least we don’t respond by bombing people. Chew on that for a minute.
“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” Rom 7:19
This is the summary statement of Paul’s famous “I do, I do not” passage in Romans 7. Here we have Paul – author of most of the New Testament exposing his vulnerable side by declaring that even, yes Apostle Paul, struggled with sin.
Now I don’t know about you, but that makes me feel great. Cause I’m in good company. Many times, I sit back and wonder how God could ever justify a schmuck like me.
If you sit back and and take stock of who you are in light of God’s Word, you’re an idiot if you don’t conclude that that you’re a schmuck – a sinner and by default, an object of the wrath of God.
Now humanists and atheists would be jumping up and down already if they read this. JUMP HIGHER! But seriously I don’t care. I’ve had enough trying to justify my faith to people who want to trash me and my beliefs.
I go to the Word to learn about my state and have no issues with it at all.
“Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Rom 7:20-24
LayGuy translation of this is:
My soul/spirit/inner being loves God and His ways – knows that it’s true.
But I have a dual nature – at war with myself.
I have a nature which wants to please God and takes delight in Him. And another nature with the sole purpose of warring against my “inner” nature.
Where is the location of these two natures? The good side resides in my “inner being” and “law of my mind”. While the bad dwells in “my members” and my “body of death”. You get the gist yet?
Our physical bodies are the the haven for sin. Our “flesh” is where sin resides. But not my fingers, or my eyes or toes. It’s in the brain. In the chemical reactions and cravings of the human brain.
I’ve spent years in the pharmaceutical industry peddling drugs to GP’s and Psychiatrists. I talked all the time about serotonin and dopamine and and other chemicals in the brain. Go to Wikipedia and do your research on serotonin, and dopamine and endorphins. You’ll find that what we crave on a physical level often has it’s conception in the brain.
I once listened to a Psychologist talk about the chemical reactions exploding in the brain as a person consumes porn. The chase for porn triggers off all kinds of reactions. The secrecy of the activity solidifies the excretion of further chemicals. If climax is achieved, the mind and entire body is in a state of euphoria comparable to cocaine and heroin use.
When you and I sin, not matter what form it’s in, we have chemical reactions in the brain triggering off all kinds of reactions. These reactions are usually confined to the brain, but often cross the blood/brain barrier and the whole body is affected. Maybe now the following makes more sense.
“For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Rom 7:22-24
My soul and spirit desires to please God. But they are incased in a body addicted to chemical reactions in the brain – the law of sin. Is it any wonder that anti-depressants and mind altering drugs are amongst the highest used “medications” in the world?
By 2020, depression will be the highest KILLER of mankind. Human souls will be dying at unprecedented rates due to this war. We take anti-depressants to blanket the pain – but we are in a war. A chemical weapons war – spiritual WMD’s.
The only answer to all this is Jesus. He alone has the antidote for this drug addiction. The law of sin holds us captive to the addictions of the human brain. The Spirit of life is different.
“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2
It is my firm belief that only Jesus can provide us the rehab we need in order for us to be cured of our drug addiction. We enter into this rehab freely because of Grace. And our medicine is none other than the Spirit of God. We can be set free. The law of the Spirit of life is our antidote to the law of sin.
Now I just have to put this into practice. I think it’s time to pray.
Before you do anything else, I suggest you bookmark this post cause it will take you a good 4 hours to get through. Now don’t just close this window cause you’re lazy. I understand if you’re busy – but urge you to come back again and again till you have consumed the contents of this post.
I have links to two online videos below regarding the claims and, some would say, conspiracy theories, regarding 911 and subsequent attacks and wars which have happened since. I know I have posted on this before, but I feel almost obligated in sharing this as, if true, has significant implications for us all.
I have some questions…
Why did the US military have war games operating on Sept 11 which included a plane hitting the World Trade Center?
Why did this happen in London also on the morning of the London bombings – involving the exact same trains, buses and even times?
Has anyone heard of the North American Union – US, Canada and Mexico – and the planned currency of the Amero?
Do you know how the Federal Reserve Bank operates and who is behind it?
Why was film maker and politician Aaron Russo told by Nick Rockefeller that something was going to happen in the US which would be the pre-cursor to invading Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran eleven months before 911?
What do you know about WTC Building 7′s collapse?
For the sake of brevity, I wont go through all the questions in my head right now but introduce the first video.
9-11 Ripple Effect
Dave von Kleist has released the movie “9-11 Ripple Effect”. Although some parts of this movie have been heavily discredited, he does raise a number of questions in regards to the nature of the collapse of the towers and the lack of proof of any plane hitting the Pentagon.
One area of contention in his film is the issue of a “pod” being attached to the under belly of the planes hitting the WTC. This is where I have severe reservations against such films and conspiracy theories in general. They like to invent and dramatise anything which supports their “theory”. I’d rather let facts speak for themselves.
Nevertheless, I recommend you check out his film below. To make it easier, I have a YouTube player which has all 9 parts included.
Zeitgeist
The second movie “Zeitgeist” – German for “Spirit of the Age” is even more hard hitting. Broken into three parts, it’s a powerful look into the spirit of this age we find ourselves in.
What I can’t stand though, is part one – where it focuses solely on discrediting Christianity. The reason why it does this is unclear as it has nothing to do with the context of parts two and three.
In a nutshell, they try to discredit Christianity based on the myth that it resembles many pre-Christian religions based on astrological observations. Their assumptions are flawed on many different levels.
First of all, the heavens were given by God to mankind – like a gigantic Imax screen to tell of the story of redemption. The Zodiac in it’s pure Hebrew form, actually spells out the redemptive plan of mankind.
“And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. ” Gen 1:14-15
There is the story of a missionary journey to a remote part of a jungle where white man has never been. A tribe of natives was found which had never been exposed to white man. The missionaries learnt their ways and culture and began to tell them the Gospel. They were astonished at the natives knowledge of a messiah to come to save mankind. It was “written in the stars”.
Virgo – depicts the virgin birth.
Leo – depicts the Messiah will be from the tribe of Judah
Gemini – depicts the first and second coming of Christ. First He comes as the suffering servant. He returns as King
There more examples with even stars in each sign having significant meanings. Furthermore the video discusses various other religious leaders having stories similar to Jesus. I entered various characters into Wikipedia and found no such evidence of the claims. So the scholarship on the religious side doesn’t stack up. It’s inclusion in this film is bizarre as you will see, it seems way out of place.
Like a “lets take a swipe at organised religion before we make the rest of our points” kind of agenda. Having said this, mankind has and is using religion as a tool to legitimise his wicked ways. I just look at how politics in the US appeals to the religious right and I freak out how gullible most of these people are.
Perhaps the producers of the film should focus more on the exploitation of religion rather then the message of Christ. After all, they do build this whole documentary up to the climax of the world being RFID chipped in order to participate in any activity. A secular conclusion of which the Bible is very clear.
“Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.” Rev 13:16-18
I have often wondered how the world would embrace the “mark”. Under the false pretense of “War on Terror” however, I gasp at how quickly we are moving towards this reality. And it’s in this context do I suggest you watch the following film.
If you’re a church geek like me, you will love this list of America’s top 50 churches. Thanks to the work done at churchrelevance.com, I am able to compile this list of the most influential churches based on the following on the following criteria:
Being innovative, growing, multiplying and influential gives a church a huge ability to impact the lives of a culture dead to Jesus. And so I salute these churches – and more importantly the Authority behind each church. Many of them I have serious concerns about what they talk about – aka their theology. But nevertheless, this is the church – albeit on the other side of the world from me. Make sure to check out the geographical and denominational breakdown at The Church Report website.
On a personal note, I enjoy seeing Mars Hill Church rising up these kinds of lists. Although it’s lead Pastor, Mark Driscoll, cops so much crap from so many people, he is one of my favourite pastors and I enjoy his teaching immensely.
Another favourite of mine is Mosaic Church and the teachings or Erwin McManus – another guy who cops a lot of crap from the masses only because his heart is sold out to God instead of man. Also good to see LifeChurch.tv up there as usual.
If this list isn’t enough for you:
Click here to access America’s Top 25 Multiplying Churches.
Click here for churchrelevance.com’s article on 250+ churches to watch based on their inclusions on lists such as above.
I called home yesterday and my 3.8 year old daughter says, “Daddy it’s 14:18 o’clock and are you coming home soon?”
I last saw her on Sunday afternoon before I had to leave for a four day business trip to Perth, Australia – a 4 hour plane trip to the other side of Australia.
It’s been a pretty full on time here. I work in the health industry selling products to the blood banking section of the Red Cross in Australia.
I’m here on a fishing expedition to increase my sales by $140k p/a in a previously unfruitful part of my business. On top of that, I have accompanied my colleague on multiple training sessions throughout the world of business.
So it’s been business all the way for the last 3 days and tomorrow I go home. I just got back from an awesome dinner at a restaurant called “C Restaurant.” This place is on the 33rd floor of a building in down town Perth – Australia’s fourth largest city. And it rotates 360 degress so you get to see the whole of Perth about 4 times during your dinner.
Perth is an amazing place. It’s located in the state of Western Australia – a region of Australia milking the daylights out of the economic growth of China. Western Australia (WA) has heaps of natural resources and the economic boom in this state is riding on the coat tail of China’s hunger for natural resources.
We were staying at a suburb called Scarborough Beach - right on the coast line of WA. Our hotel had balcony views across the Indian Ocean. Having the sun set over the ocean is a rare treat for a person living on the eastern seaboard of Australia – so you can imagine my mesmerisation at the colours before my eyes of a skyline where the sun has set and yet reflecting off the ocean.
At tonight’s dinner table, I was surrounded by the who’s who of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS). I was sitting at my table and looking into the faces of my 5 guests and pondered upon the influence sitting at my table.
It was a surreal experience as these days, my professional reality is growing further and further apart from my personal and faith based reality. Even though I should have been pursuing major business opportunities from these people, my mind couldn’t wonder far from the homeless man I saw on the streets of Perth the other day as I was having lunch.
This guy wore torn jeans and a flannel shirt. He was bare foot and the soles of his feet were black from walking around bare foot. He was sitting metres away from where my collegue and I were enjoying a nice lunch and a fat slice of cheese cake.
I talked about this homeless man with my colleague and she dismissed the whole thing the following way, “You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.” What a huge cop out! Jesus deliberately hung out with such people simply because they were sick.
He didn’t wait till they asked for help. He didn’t look down on them. He hung out with such people. As I was having my dinner tonight and suffering in the environment of small talk with people you really have no interest or commonality with, my mind raced to where the homeless man was sleeping tonight.
I stay in the best hotels and eat in the best restaurants in Australia. However I’m beginning to despise my corporate reality. Scripture tells me to worship God with the fruit of my lips and sharing my goods with people in need. Corporate life is the exact opposite of this.
Corporate life shouts, “It’s all about me and do whatever it takes to reach your goals.” Jesus says to deny my life and in doing so, I will find it. Corporate life says to focus on goals and implement strategies in order to achieve budgets. Scripture tells me to share my goods with the poor.
So I now hope you can share with me my delight in the fact that I am going home tomorrow. I have a 4 hour plane ride and lose 2 hours in time zone difference – rendering my work day complete. The icing is in the fact that I get to hold my family again and be in their presence.
The cream is the fact that I can forget about corporate life until Friday hits. My thorn is the thought of where the homless man is spending tonight.
Well it seems as if the Emergent movement has had it’s feathers ruffled as a result of this and a series of bloggers have formed a “wink club.” Fuelled by people like Adam Walker from pomomusings.com, this group of bloggers are posting a series of “wink” posts at Driscoll to show their dissatisfaction at Driscoll for what he shared at the above mentioned conference.
