Brad’s Blog

So, I posted about Donald Miller the other day. I hate to keep picking on the same person but decided this had to be commented on as well.

Like I said the other day…I am not really a fan of Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz). He gave the Benediction the other night at the Democratic National Convention. As I said before, I have no problem with him doing that.

Miller recently gave an interview to someone from Christianity Today talking about why he is at the DNC. The video that I saw can be found here or below.

So, in this video, Miller talks about abortion. He says, “Legislation was passed that we hope will reduce the number of abortions by dealing with systemic social problems…The Republican, Evangelical, Conservative mindset has been to make it illegal and it has never worked. I don’t see it working anytime soon.”

On the surface, this sounds kind of novel. You at first think, “I have not looked at this quite like that before.” But after about half a second, you see the smoke and mirrors. First, Miller is making the assumption that most abortions occur because a woman is under social distress. Is this really true? Or, are most women having abortions because a child is not convenient for them at that time? Will fixing social problems really change anything? I seriously doubt it.

I will agree with Miller that it is a tragedy when a woman gets pregnant and does not feel that she has the ability to care for the child. But, Miller is assuming that there are not better alternatives to abortion. Wouldn’t adoption be a much, much better alternative while we work on fixing social problems? There are many couples throughout the country that would love to adopt a child. Wouldn’t a better approach be to encourage adoption and also cut a lot of the red tape that makes this process long and expensive? If social distress is the problem, adoption is the temporary solution, not abortion.

Let’s even take this one step further. I would say that murder occurs much, much more frequently due to social distress than does abortion. Most murders occur over drugs or money or bad social settings where anger goes uncontrolled. So, taking Miller’s argument and applying it to other issues, we should allow murder in this country and focus our energy on correcting the social problems that lead to murder. If he is saying that social problems leave a woman with no choice but an abortion, then he is also saying that social problems leave a person with no choice but murder, so that person should not be responsible for that action.

Furthermore, continuing Miller’s line of thinking, murder is illegal but that has not stopped murders. Does this mean that we should repeal the laws related to murder? Absolutely not! The job of government is to restrain evil, to punish evil, and to protect the weak and innocent. Murder is illegal to restrain evil and to protect the innocent even though social problems exist. By the same token, abortion should be illegal to restrain evil and to protect the innocent even though social problems exist.

Miller sounds so brilliant and pious on the surface, but you only have to pull back a couple of layers to realize that he is not saying anything of substance.

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

Once again, I find it very sad that Miller is viewed as a Christian leader to many American Christians.

OK, first, I am not really a fan of Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz). I read his book. I did not like it. I know that I am like the lone person out there who does not think this is the greatest book ever penned. I find Donald Miller to be very shallow and basically his beliefs are just liberal Christianity repackaged to appeal to a new generation. He sounds so pious and brilliant in his views, but there is really no meat to what he has to say.

So, Donald Miller gave the Benediction the other night at the Democratic National Convention. I have no problem with him doing that. It is not a moral issue, so if he thinks this is a good thing to do, then that is his decision.

I did find it very interesting how he closed his prayer though. He said, “I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice. Let Him be our example.”

Miller actually affirmed the standard liberal Christian view of Christ’s death. The orthodox biblical view is that Christ’s death was a Penal Substitutionary Atonement. In this view, Christ took on the actual sins of believers and suffered God’s wrath and punishment for those sins.

Miller’s view of the atonement, as espoused in his prayer, is the Example View of the atonement as held by the Socinians, which is the standard interpretation of liberal theologians who deny a whole host of historical, orthodox biblical positions.

The Example View of the atonement denies that God’s justice requires a payment for sin. Basically, Christ was just a martyr and a good person. Christ died for what He believed in, so we should be courageous and stand up for what we believe in too. Basically, this view just says to be good like Christ, which is very humanistic with nothing mysterious or spiritual about it. This view is contrary to so much Scripture that teaches that Christ died for our sins; that He bore our sins; and that He was a propitiation. In the end, man really winds up saving himself by following Christ’s example.

How sad it is that much of American Christianity looks to a man as a spiritual leader who has very screwed up theological views. No wonder American Christianity is in such shambles.

So, you may think that I am too hard on the prosperity gospel people. I saw this video the other day on YouTube by John Piper. Piper does not mince any words with his assessment of these guys. I will have to say that I could not agree with him more.

Please watch the video. I think you will enjoy it.

Preach It Brother!

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.

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)