Brad’s Blog

So, I was reading a story the other day on ABCNews.com. The story can be found here. I have also posted the story here on braddena.com in case ABC takes it down at some point.

The title of the story was “Nobody Goes to Hell”: Minister Labeled a Heretic. Be sure and read the complete article.

First off, this is just a poorly written article and is biased. It starts off by saying that virtually every human culture in history has had some notion of a horrible afterlife. But, then it goes on to call hell a medieval vision. It also says that fire and brimstone are not preached as much in today’s age of reason. Ah, how smart we are? We are so brilliant today that we have outgrown those childish notions that those poor dumb people had in the past. Understand that I say this tongue in cheek.

Never mind the writing. Let’s get to the real point of this post.

Carlton Pearson, the subject of the article, is a pastor of a former mega-church. He is man-centered from start to finish. He is heavily influenced by the Charismatic Movement. This article is unbelievable. In one man’s life, we see the the last couple of centuries of church history run its course in one man. As I said, he is very man-centered, so his life starts off right where Calvinism (God-centered) was abandoned and Arminianism (man-centered) took over in the U.S.

He is very Charismatic, so he is very much caught up in experience and emotion over truth. He was fascinated with and trained by Oral Roberts. The article even states that Pearson’s stage presence is what makes him a huge success.

Then in Pearson’s life, he was met with a crisis of faith. He did not have truth to fall back on. His roots were in man-centered and Charismatic theology that emphasized experience and emotion. This caused him to begin to elevate his own reason above the revealed Word. Pearson clearly had a poor understanding of God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness.

Once Pearson was at this point, he quickly abandoned the inerrancy of Scripture. This is the first step toward liberal theology and the abandonment of God altogether. In fact Pearson even states that he now believes the Bible is not the word of God but a book by men about God. So, in Pearson’s short life, we have now seen the rise of man-centered theology, the influence of the Charismatic Movement, and then the rise of Liberalism. This sounds amazingly like church history in the U.S.

Pearson next states that God gave him a revelation that hell is not real but something created by man on Earth. Thankfully, the article states that most people left his church, which is what the Bible commands of Christians. Unfortunately, it sounds as if some Christians did not treat him with love and prayer but treated him harshly.

It is interesting that Pearson states he has asked God to show him if he is wrong. During this time, he lost basically his entire church and was diagnosed with cancer. One would think that he might at least give some consideration to if this is his “sign from God.”

The article ends with this quote from Pearson, which is basically a complete abandonment of God altogether. “My hope is that, that people will learn to love themselves, accept themselves and celebrate themselves. That’s pretty dramatic, but I think it’ll save the planet.”

The question is obviously raised, “if there is no hell, then what is the gospel (good news?” What kind of good news did we need? Why did Christ have to die? Why even bother being a pastor? Rarely do we see bad theology have such broad-sweeping consequences in one man’s life.

I have never seen these verses from the Apostle Paul and Apostle Peter so sadly illustrated in one life.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:1-5; NIV)

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. (2 Peter 2:1-3; NIV)

So sad and a reminder that but by the Grace of God, there go I.

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. My wife’s grandmother passed away a little over a week ago. She had been sick for the last couple of months, but the death came quickly and was unexpected. We were close to Dena’s grandmother, so this was hard to take.

Thankfully, Nellie had trusted in Christ as her Savior. We know that we will see her again someday and that the goodbye was just for a little while. We are thankful that when we grieve, we grieve with hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Oh, how much harder would it be if goodbye were forever?

God is a good and merciful God. The same verse that I quoted in my title (Romans 6:23) tells us in the first half of the verse why people die. The verse tells us about how our sin has cursed us and that this world is full of death and decay. This is not the way things were supposed to be. Sin has ruined and corrupted this world. BUT, God is a good and merciful God. He has provided hope in the midst of sin. The same verse in Romans that tells us of our curse also provides us with the hope that God has given us. The verse finishes with …but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is grace. That is hope in the midst of the worst that life can throw at us. In one verse, the Bible tells us of our deplorable condition but finishes the verse with what Christ has done for us. Grace is truly amazing.

I have truly been amazed by God’s grace in the last week. He has comforted a family that is hurting. He has encouraged and strengthened. He has provided hope. In something as wrong and evil as death, God’s grace and mercy triumphed. A few days before Nellie died, the doctors ran many tests on her. We were awaiting the results and preparing for the worst. It appeared that she had a long, drawn out, and painful road ahead. God called her home quickly and painlessly in the night. Even though it was hard to let go, and we were clearly not ready, God was so merciful. Nellie did not have to suffer. She did not have to know that she was going to die. She did not have to watch her family suffer knowing she was very sick. God was good.

Don’t misunderstand me. Death is wrong. It is evil. It is not supposed to happen. Death reminds us that there is something terribly wrong with this world. It is solely and completely a result of the Fall and our rejection of God. God is bigger than sin and death though. He has triumphed over it. He has provided light in the midst of great darkness.

When someone dies, it should cause us to do 2 things. First, it should cause us to examine our own lives. We all know that the wages of sin is death, but have you personally accepted the gift of God that is eternal life through Jesus Christ? Have you accepted the forgiveness that God offers us from our sin? The second thing that death should cause us to do is to hate sin. We should see the sin in our own lives and grieve over it. We should see that every time we chose sin, we are making the same choice that Adam and Eve made. We are adding to the corruption of this world. We are adding our stamp of approval to the death and decay around us. We have only ourself to blame when we see death.

To sum up, we grieve for this world right along with the Apostle Paul and await with great hope the full redemption of this world.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:20-25)

I just finished listening to a sermon by Tommy Nelson at Denton Bible Church. He is one of my favorite preachers to listen to. He has a great style and can communicate deep truths in a simple and engaging way. I have learned a great deal from him.

I have heard this sermon before, but I thought I would share the highlights here. You can listen for yourself here.

Tommy does a great job in explaining the purpose of the Law. He tells us that the Old Testament Law was never intended to save. The Law is a mirror. A mirror can not clean you, but it shows you where you are dirty and need cleaning.

The Law was primarily given to show us our need for a Savior. We can’t keep the Law. That is why Leviticus (what to do when Law is broken) follows Exodus (giving of the Law). The Law was in place to restrain evil, keep the nation separate, and guard them until the seed of Abraham (Christ) arrived.

The Abrahamic Covenant is the Covenant of Grace where a redeemer is promised through Abraham. That covenant is unilateral with no requirements by us. It is all a promise of God to provide a Messiah. It is an expansion of Genesis 3:15.

The Law (given hundreds of years later) did not replace or add to the Abrahamic Covenant. It was merely to train and to preserve the nation until the Promised One arrived. It provided shadows of what was to come for the nation with their promised Messiah.

It is similar to how you raise children. You give them laws and boundaries while they are young and immature to protect them until they reach adulthood. The Law did this until the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant with the birth of Christ and His subsequent death. When the seed of Abraham came and died (Christ), we were freed from the Law to live under grace and the Holy Spirit (cf. Jeremiah 31). You take care of a child while they are a child. The Law took care of the nation while she was immature.

The Law absolutely does not replace or add to the Abrahamic Covenant. It was a tool that was in place until the Abrahamic Covenant was fulfilled.

So, you may wonder what a dog fence has to do with the other topics in my title. We recently installed an underground fence for our dog Tucker. In case you don’t know what this is, there is a wire that runs underground that is linked to a transmitter on our dog’s collar. When he gets too close to the wire, the transmitter will give a warning beep, and if Tucker does not turn around, he will receive a shock to remind him that he needs to get back in our yard. Pretty simple concept.

So, Dena and I have been working with Tucker to teach him the boundaries that he needs to stay within. He is a Westie (a terrier breed), so he is very hard-headed and strong-willed.

So, the training starts without the shock and just the warning beep while the dog learns the boundary. After a few days, we turned on the shock part of the collar. The first day with the shock turned on, we walked Tucker around the yard, and he did great. I stayed in the yard, and Dena left the yard, and Tucker stayed. But, then he got the real test. Dena stayed in the yard, and I left the yard. As he usually does, Tucker trotted right along beside me and did not even slow down at the boundary.

He got zapped really good. He let out a loud yelp, jumped and ran back into the yard. Needless to say, this experience really scared him. We spent the next several minutes playing with him and calming him down. Of course now, we are scared when he gets close to the boundary because we don’t want him to get shocked. We know how much it hurts him, and we want him to stay safe.

How similar this is to us and our relationship to God. God gives us a wonderful backyard to play in. He gives us all we need to be content in this life and safe. He sets up clear boundaries, not because He is mean, but to protect us. He does it out of love.

How often do we get close to the boundary He has established? How often do we hear the warning beep of our sin and rebellion but do not turn around? How often do we get “zapped” by our sin only to run back into the safe haven of our yard wanting love and affirmation and protection? How much does it hurt God to watch this happen?

When Tucker got zapped, he had two choices. He could have run away from our yard. He would have run further into his “sin” and into the dark unknown and away from protection. Instead, he retreated into the safe boundary to rest in my arms of protection. This is the same as God’s true children. His true children run back to Him for protection and comfort, while others run away and further into sin and rebellion. It is heart-breaking to witness this happen.

Tucker still does not understand why the boundary is in place (he probably never will). But, he knows he must obey it. We may not know why God has placed certain boundaries on us, but we must obey them anyway. We must understand that His ways are higher than our ways, and His understanding is higher than our understanding (Isaiah 55:8,9). If this applies in my relationship with Tucker, how much more does it apply in my relationship with God?

Well, I just finished reading an article on Christianity Today’s website. It can be found here. It is long but well worth the read.

This was just a heart-breaking article to read. It is basically about “pastors” who have taken Pentecostalism to the extreme and are taking advantage of the poor and hopeless in Africa. The article really made me sick to my stomach.

It is not surprising that we have arrived at this point. Ever since the Second Great Awakening, America has been embracing a more and more man-centered theology. The American church put God’s sovereignty on the shelf during this time, and man has continually taken a more center seat in determining his destiny. As man became the sole determining factor in his salvation, the next logical step was that he could determine his circumstances as well.

Couple this with a misinterpretation of Scripture that applies the material promises and blessings to the nation Israel to the present church, and you have yourself a terrible monster on your hands. The rise of man-centered theology went in like a bullet with a small hole and has exploded out the other side with horrific consequences.

The rise and spread of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement were a direct result of these 2 errors. The Church will be suffering the consequences of these movements for decades to come.

It is so sad to read that the Africans view America as the center of Christianity so they buy into anything we feed them. Furthermore, they equate the American lifestyle with Christian faith. As the article states TBN is widely available in Africa, so this is where the people are learning their theology. They are flocking to Pentecostal pastors who promise them material wealth and salvation from their circumstances instead of spiritual wealth and salvation from their sins. These people are turning the little money they have over to these churches as “seed” money.

Many, many people are hurt by this wrong theology. What happens when God does not heal? What happens when your loved one is martyred for their faith? What happens when you don’t become wealthy? What does this do to someone’s faith and trust in God? Please, show me 1 verse said by Jesus or 1 verse penned by Paul that supports this theology.

We may read the article in Christianity Today and scoff at it. We may say that those people should know better. Are we really any better? Didn’t they learn it from us?

A national Christian bookstore in my city recently moved to a new location. I was excited to check this out and see their bigger store. I was appalled at what I found. I told my wife that the only reason they moved was so they had an excuse to get rid of any book with substance.

In the new store, I found the Bibles conveniently moved to the back corner of the store. The theology section was virtually non-existent. It mainly consisted of some shallow commentaries and Bible studies. The front of the store contained the Christian Living section, Christian Fiction, and Charismatic Interest books. There were too many T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, and Joel Osteen books to count. I only found 2 Chuck Swindoll books, 1 or 2 John Piper books (and these certainly were not prominently displayed).

What a sad, sad commentary on the present American church. This same bookstore named Joel Osteen’s book Your Best Life Now their book of the year a couple of years ago. This is a book written by a pastor who has no formal education and can not clearly state what he believes. The book is shallow longings for good parking spots, happiness, and the easy life.

You really have to wonder how things might be different today if we still had church councils that met and condemned wrong ideas as heresy and squashed movements. What if the weight of the Church would have come to bear of the initial proponents of man-centered theology and Pentecostalism? Instead, they are left to spread like a wildfire engulfing everything in its path.

I can do no better than to quote the Apostle Paul.

• Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. (Philippians 3:19, NIV)
• For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (2 Timothy 4:3, NIV)