Apologetics, Emerging Church, Sound Doctrine, True Church
As expected, emerging heretic Brian McLaren told youth leaders at Hybels’ Willow Creek Community Church that we need to lessen the emphasis on eternity and get more into the here and now. Brian doesn’t believe in a literal hell and thinks we Bible-literalists have just put our own spin on things. This account of Brian McLaren’s apostasy-spewing at Willow Creek is brought to you by Baptist Press. Dctrine matters, my friends. Without biblical doctrine, we don’t even know who Jesus is or why he came. Brian McLaren rejects the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ for our sins. Yet Bill Hybels brings him in to address youth leaders. This is what spiritual battle looks like. Hybels stages Satanic error, Ligon Duncan, John MacArthur, Mark Dever and other faithful leaders strike back with biblical truth at their conference. I’m so glad that we know who wins the war over truth, aren’t you?
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
Isaiah 40:8
What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
–Jesus, Matthew 10:27-28
Categories: brian, mclaren
Monday, 21 April 2008
Quotes
I find it so funny that so many people ask and can't answer the question as to why God has done everything He's ever done. They say it's a mystery. I say it's not. I say they ought to read Ephesians. Do you want to know why God has done everything He's ever done? Do you want to know why there was a garden, why there was a fall, why there was a Christ, why there was a Cross, why there was a resurrection, and why there's you? Do you really want to know? Do you have enough time... or is your Christianity looking at the clock?
- Paul Washer
I remember when I used to ask Jesus into my heart as a child over and over again. Each time I intended to make absolutely sure that I was saved. Why do we do that? Why is it in some churches that we see the same people walking down the aisle week after week? Perhaps it is because we are looking to something we can do, or have done, to secure the kind of assurance we need. But we can't trust our feelings or our abilities of either will or effort, so we're left with having to trust in the ability of God, 'who is able to keep you from falling' (Jude 24).
-Michael Horton
One of these days some simple soul will pick up the Book of God, read it, and believe it. Then the rest of us will be embarrassed.
- Leonard Ravenhill
I'm always amazed by the people who, despite God's clear and emphatic commands through the Apostle Paul, say things like, "Ah, we need to forget about the differences in our doctrines, and we just need to love one another." as though those two are consistent goals. Surely they haven't come to realize that the only way we can love right is to live right, and the only way we can live right is to believe right.
- Mark Kielar
- Paul Washer
I remember when I used to ask Jesus into my heart as a child over and over again. Each time I intended to make absolutely sure that I was saved. Why do we do that? Why is it in some churches that we see the same people walking down the aisle week after week? Perhaps it is because we are looking to something we can do, or have done, to secure the kind of assurance we need. But we can't trust our feelings or our abilities of either will or effort, so we're left with having to trust in the ability of God, 'who is able to keep you from falling' (Jude 24).
-Michael Horton
One of these days some simple soul will pick up the Book of God, read it, and believe it. Then the rest of us will be embarrassed.
- Leonard Ravenhill
I'm always amazed by the people who, despite God's clear and emphatic commands through the Apostle Paul, say things like, "Ah, we need to forget about the differences in our doctrines, and we just need to love one another." as though those two are consistent goals. Surely they haven't come to realize that the only way we can love right is to live right, and the only way we can live right is to believe right.
- Mark Kielar
Bart Compolo
Bart Campolo (son of Tony) wrote an article entitled, “The Limits of God’s Grace” published in Youth Specialties’
It is rare for a writer to be this honest about the functional sovereignty of his own mind in determining the object of his worship. In other words, Bart Campolo is an idolater of the first-order. (Something tells me, though, that there won’t be any “protests” planned against his views.) Here’s an excerpt:
“Some might say I would be wise to swallow my misgivings about such stuff [like God's sovereignty, wrath, hell, etc.], remain orthodox, and thereby secure my place with God in eternity. But that is precisely my point: If those things are true, then God might as well send me to Hell. For better or worse, I simply am not interested in any God but a completely good, entirely loving, and perfectly forgiving One who is powerful enough to utterly triumph over evil. Such a God may not exist, but I will die seeking such a God, and I will pledge my allegiance to no other possibility because, quite frankly, anything less is not worthy of my worship.
Please, don’t get me wrong. I am well aware that I don’t get to decide who God is. What I do get to decide, however, is to whom I pledge my allegience. I am a free agent, after all, and I have standards for my God, the first of which is this: I will not worship any God who is not at least as compassionate as I am.” (end quote)
It may have been just this sort of hubris that David Wells had in mind as being “scandalous to the postmodern ear” in his book, Above All Earthly Pow’rs. Commenting on Romans 1:18ff (“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men …”) Wells said:
It is no small scandal what Paul has to say here. What is revealed to all people everywhere? It is not that God is loving, though He is. It is not that He is accepting, though sinners may find acceptance with Him. It is not that we have natural access to Him through the self, though the Greek poet was not wrong to say that “In Him we live and move and have our being” so “He is not far from each of us” (Acts 17:27-28). It is not that we can find Him on our own terms, though He should be sought (Acts 17:27).
No, what is revealed is the fact that He is wrathful. It is true that this disclosure comes alongside the fact that the creation also bespeaks His glory and the greatness of His power. Yet the greatness of His power and His glory do not obscure the fact God is alienated from human beings. Indeed, His glory is precisely the reason that He is alienated!
There is, as a result, already a faint foretaste of final judgment as the consequences of sin visit their retribution upon the sinner. This is scandalous to a postmodern ear, but locked in that scandal is the key to meaning in the world and in that meaning there is hope. (page 202-203)
It is rare for a writer to be this honest about the functional sovereignty of his own mind in determining the object of his worship. In other words, Bart Campolo is an idolater of the first-order. (Something tells me, though, that there won’t be any “protests” planned against his views.) Here’s an excerpt:
“Some might say I would be wise to swallow my misgivings about such stuff [like God's sovereignty, wrath, hell, etc.], remain orthodox, and thereby secure my place with God in eternity. But that is precisely my point: If those things are true, then God might as well send me to Hell. For better or worse, I simply am not interested in any God but a completely good, entirely loving, and perfectly forgiving One who is powerful enough to utterly triumph over evil. Such a God may not exist, but I will die seeking such a God, and I will pledge my allegiance to no other possibility because, quite frankly, anything less is not worthy of my worship.
Please, don’t get me wrong. I am well aware that I don’t get to decide who God is. What I do get to decide, however, is to whom I pledge my allegience. I am a free agent, after all, and I have standards for my God, the first of which is this: I will not worship any God who is not at least as compassionate as I am.” (end quote)
It may have been just this sort of hubris that David Wells had in mind as being “scandalous to the postmodern ear” in his book, Above All Earthly Pow’rs. Commenting on Romans 1:18ff (“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men …”) Wells said:
It is no small scandal what Paul has to say here. What is revealed to all people everywhere? It is not that God is loving, though He is. It is not that He is accepting, though sinners may find acceptance with Him. It is not that we have natural access to Him through the self, though the Greek poet was not wrong to say that “In Him we live and move and have our being” so “He is not far from each of us” (Acts 17:27-28). It is not that we can find Him on our own terms, though He should be sought (Acts 17:27).
No, what is revealed is the fact that He is wrathful. It is true that this disclosure comes alongside the fact that the creation also bespeaks His glory and the greatness of His power. Yet the greatness of His power and His glory do not obscure the fact God is alienated from human beings. Indeed, His glory is precisely the reason that He is alienated!
There is, as a result, already a faint foretaste of final judgment as the consequences of sin visit their retribution upon the sinner. This is scandalous to a postmodern ear, but locked in that scandal is the key to meaning in the world and in that meaning there is hope. (page 202-203)
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