One of the best ways to believe God is to walk in faith. I don't know Josh Rittenhouse, or his mother, Carol. But I believe we worship and trust the same almighty savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they need help. I heard about them through Lane Chaplin's blog.
I plan to trust God and pledge a monthly gift to help pay for Carol's medications. I hope you will do the same.
I’m getting a real education as a result of reading Tony Jones’ latest book. If the book is any reflection of its author, then I’m pretty sure that this education is not what Tony intended.
A young Danish man, Soren, grew up under the care of his parents, Michael and Anne (Ane). His father was a legalistic Christian, depressive, and sinner. Michael, Soren’s father, believed that the penalty for his sins would be passed on to his children. Soren’s father was so good at training him in Christian-legalism, that Soren would turn that legalism against the Danish Church.
Soren went to Theology School. His father was undoubtedly pleased. The young man’s fancy turned from Theology to Philosophy and Literature, Soren never really believed. He placed his father in the position of Christ saying, “he died for me in order that, if possible, I might still turn into something.” The father had insisted that Soren should become a Pastor. The boy felt obliged to fulfill his father’s wish.
The young man went on to far exceed his dead father’s expectations. Soren became regarded as one of the great minds of his time. He wrote many books and continues to influence many people to this day.
But Soren’s pastorate was not so successful. He became a farmer (gaard), sowing seeds of doubt around the church (kierke). His theology went askew. He reduced sin to “despair”. He taught that “doubt” is the springboard of Christian faith. This doubt-sowing shepherd taught that faith is founded on unbelief. Soren Kierkegaard continues to influence many Christian existentialists (religious doubters) to this day.
A few generations have sprung up from this Kierkegaardian pastorate of doubt. They represent the mixed multitude of the New Testament (postmodern) era. The religious doubters were keen on church membership. They didn’t think God was working unless they saw some movement. So, they started a Church Growth Movement. Church became something religious people just do. The doubters raised their children to be religious doubters too. The religious, doubting progeny left home to start their own churches. They said, “Each generation works out what it means to be Christian, so we can too.”
The New Kierkegaardians sought out teachers who were willing to teach clever-sounding things. Sayings like, “you can’t know the truth, and when you understand that, then you’ll know the truth” became music to their ears. They formed circles around their existentialist teachers and began deconstructing (tearing down) the Holy Bible. Jesus became a cheap cardboard cutout, who said; “The work of God is that ye doubt on him who he hath sent.”
Believe or doubt, what is the difference?
Soren read the Holy Bible, and he recognized that it is the only reliable standard for Truth. He realized that his father lived for him, but Christ was the one who died on his behalf. The young man put Jesus Christ before all other things. He believed in Jesus as The Way, The Truth, and The Life (John 14:6). The young pastor knew that Jesus is the real sower (Mat. 13:3-9; 13:27) and the true seed is the Word of God (Mat 13:19-23). He led many people to Jesus through faithful preaching and exposition of the Bible. He taught the members of his flock to feed themselves with the Word, daily. And many churches were spared from the leaven of unbelief masquerading as genuine faith.
Bible-believing Christians were not duped by vain conversation. They recognized that the failures of men are not the failures of God.
Tony’s “new Christianity” was birthed out of a merger between philosophy (liberalism, according to Tony) and church-growth work. Mr. Jones confesses that very plainly. Tony is not forthcoming about his Kierkegaardian theology, however. You’ll have to follow him closely to get it. Emergent sycophants refuse to see it, but those of us who read and listen carefully do.
Tony did a couple of interviews, for promotion of the book, where his theology of doubt comes out in spades.
One interview was with John Chisham. It’s an interview that apparently Tony doesn’t want people to see. When asked if he is born-again, Tony replied with a mocking response, at first. Then he spoke about his unbelief and tried to use Mark 9 and John 20 to justify his position as great faith.
Mr. Jones did another interview with Todd Wilken on KFUO’s Issues Etc radio program. We have a link to it. Tony becomes evasive and irritable when repeatedly asked biblical questions on church and pastoral responsibility.
Moreover, Tony speaks very plainly about the teachings of Brian McLaren. Jones doesn’t mind attaching the word “heresy” to Brian McLaren, because Tony thinks the word is meaningless. And don’t miss the fact that Brian McLaren made a name for himself with a book about people leaving churches to become New Age evangelists.
It's not an accident that Tony quotes Mark 9:24 between his preface and chapter one. These dubious Christian leaders want you to leaven faith with doubt.
Is this comparison unfair? I don’t think so.
UPDATE: 03/19/2008
The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) has suddenly canceled the Issues Etc radio show. Look here.
One word. Abiogenesis.
Evolution, as a doctrine in science, was originally framed in two contexts. As a foundational theory of Genetics, evolution is the framework for explaining the way environment influences mutations. As a popular theory in Biology, evolution is commonly thought to provide justification for the notion that life arose spontaneously from dead (“non-living”) matter.
Abiogenesis is the little-used term for the part the theory which claims to explain the origins of life. The abiogenetic explanation amounts to the following; “Special conditions existed way back then. We can’t reproduce the conditions. So, we can’t prove the theory by producing life from dead material. Trust us. We’re working on it.”
So Evolution is half-right. It tells half of the story, because the facts for one half of it cannot be presently established. In fact, Abiogenesis is just a fairy tale.
We find it odd that so-called Christians are willing to put Genesis, Chapter One in the realm of fairy tales…to embrace the false doctrines of men.
I've been distracted lately with several things, the deception of Joel Osteen not being the least of them. Before I say anything more about him, let's look at what he said in an interview with Larry King on June 20, 2005.
KING: Is -- have you always believed?
OSTEEN: I have always believed. I grew up, you know, my parents were a good Christian people. They showed us love in the home. My parents were the same in the pulpit as they were at home. I think that's where a lot of preachers' kids get off base sometimes. Because they don't see the same things at both places. But I've always believed. I saw it through my parents. And I just grew up believing.
KING: But you're not fire and brimstone, right? You're not pound the decks and hell and damnation?
OSTEEN: No. That's not me. It's never been me. I've always been an encourager at heart. And when I took over from my father he came from the Southern Baptist background and back 40, 50 years ago there was a lot more of that. But, you know, I just -- I don't believe in that. I don't believe -- maybe it was for a time. But I don't have it in my heart to condemn people. I'm there to encourage them. I see myself more as a coach, as a motivator to help them experience the life God has for us.
KING: But don't you think if people don't believe as you believe, they're somehow condemned?
OSTEEN: You know, I think that happens in our society. But I try not to do that. I tell people all the time, preached a couple Sundays about it. I'm for everybody. You may not agree with me, but to me it's not my job to try to straighten everybody out. The Gospel called the good news. My message is a message of hope, that's God's for you. You can live a good life no matter what's happened to you. And so I don't know. I know there is condemnation but I don't feel that's my place.
KING: You've been criticized for that, haven't you?
OSTEEN: I have. I have. Because I don't know.
KING: Good news guy, right?
OSTEEN: Yeah. But you know what? It's just in me. I search my heart and I think, God, is this what I'm supposed to do? I made a decision when my father died, you know what? I'm going to be who I feel like I'm supposed to be. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Not the end of the world if I'm not the pastor ...
Pastor Osteen, lets look at a Bible verse that many children know.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
If you are truly a pastor, Mr. Osteen, then your job is to teach that verse along with the verses that come after it.
"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:17-18)
You see, Mr. Osteen, God says that people are condemned already. The message of hope that you are supposed to give them is that Christ died on the cross to atone for the sins of whoever might believe in Him and receive Jesus as their Savior.
KING: So it's self-fulfilling. Billy Graham was here last Thursday.
OSTEEN: I saw.
KING: Might have been his last interview. Is he a hero to the evangelists?
OSTEEN: He is a hero to us all. His life of integrity. Somebody that can stick with for that long and just stick with his message. What I love about Dr. Graham is he stayed on course. He didn't get sidetracked. That's what happens to so many people today. It's a good lesson for me, a good example for me to say, you know what, Joel, you may have a lot now but I want to be here 40 years from now sitting with you.
KING: Do you share Billy's beliefs of life after death in a sense of going somewhere?
OSTEEN: I do. I do. We probably agree on 99 percent. I do. I believe there's a heaven you know. Afterwards, there's, you know, a place called hell. And I believe it's when we have a relationship with God and his son Jesus and that's what the Bible teaches us. I believe it.
Osteen is weak at best on heaven and hell, but I don't expect much from a man who refuses to put a cross in the sanctuary of his 16,000 seat church. But I think much more is going on here. Read that last bit carefully. He says that he believes there is a heaven, and afterward there is a place called hell. And then he goes on to say something about Jesus and the Bible, but he isn't clear on what they have to do with heaven or hell.
I can see why some are tempted to call this man an agent of Satan. At the final judgment, the condemned are going to stand before the throne of God to be judged. They had better get their heaven here on earth, as Osteen seems to suggest, because there will be hell afterward. They'd better get their best life now, because they might be surprised to learn that they weren't saved after all.
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Rev 20:11-15 KJV)
Too bad there isn't a man in the pulpit at Lakewood Church in Houston who cares enough to make sure they know the basics of salvation (sin and the cross). But Osteen won't preach on these things. He has willfully decided not to tell people about what they need to do to get into the Lamb's Book of Life. He'd have to preach about the cross to do that. No, he'll just toss the Book of Life into a sermon occasionally to have something encouraging to say.
By the way, Mr. Osteen, I know a little something about Billy Graham. You could learn a lot about preaching from him. He was never weak on heaven and hell. You are a poor substitute for Billy Graham. You ought to take lessons from him.
KING: But it (Your Best Life Now) doesn't quote a lot of biblical passages until the back of the book, right?
OSTEEN: It doesn't do a whole lot of it. My message, I wanted to reach the mainstream. We've reached the church audience. So I just try to, what I do is just try to teach practical principles. I may not bring the scripture in until the end of my sermon and I might feel bad about that. Here's the thought. I talked yesterday about living to give. That's what a life should be about. I brought in at the end about some of the scriptures that talk about that. But same principal in the book.
Gosh, I guess that is the hazard when you try to teach popular psychology from a pulpit. People playing church expect you to say something gratuitous from the Bible once in a great while. I'm sorry you feel bad about it, Mr. Osteen. Perhaps you could get away with leaving the Bible out altogether if you quit calling yourself a pastor?
KING: Because we've had ministers on who said, your record don't count. You either believe in Christ or you don't. If you believe in Christ, you are, you are going to heaven. And if you don't no matter what you've done in your life, you ain't.
OSTEEN: Yeah, I don't know. There's probably a balance between. I believe you have to know Christ. But I think that if you know Christ, if you're a believer in God, you're going to have some good works. I think it's a cop-out to say I'm a Christian but I don't ever do anything ...
KING: What if you're Jewish or Muslim, you don't accept Christ at all?
OSTEEN: You know, I'm very careful about saying who would and wouldn't go to heaven. I don't know ...
KING: If you believe you have to believe in Christ? They're wrong, aren't they?
OSTEEN: Well, I don't know if I believe they're wrong. I believe here's what the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe. But I just think that only God with judge a person's heart. I spent a lot of time in India with my father. I don't know all about their religion. But I know they love God. And I don't know. I've seen their sincerity. So I don't know. I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have a relationship with Jesus.
It must be great to have some kind of vague conviction about needing a Savior, Mr. Osteen. Too bad that you've decided not to share God's doctrine of salvation with those poor saps in India, or Houston, or the millions who watch you on TV. You must really have a ton of faith to trust that all those people have heard the Gospel somewhere else before you get your clutches on them. I guess as long as they believe in whatever, who are you to tell them different?
Why to hear you, Mr. Osteen, I can almost hear (bar) Jesus. "Rise and walk, thy sincerity hath made thee whole. Go and doubt no more"
The right way to teach people about the love of God, Mr. Osteen, is to tell them that Christ died on the cross so that they might have eternal life by believing on Him. The cross is an essential part of the love of God, which you purposely leave out.
I've struggled with discouragement as I contemplate Christian work. It was through that struggle that I came to gain a better perspective on how the work of the Church relates to God's Work. I am beginning to learn what my ongoing place in the work might to be.
Not many weeks ago, I finished a 7-year Bible study program. I served the last three of those seven years in their children's ministry. The study is rather demanding and serving in the children's program made it harder. It's not US Marine Corps boot camp by any means, but I wouldn't be surprised if they borrowed a few things from the Marines in setting things up. The organization that runs the ministry is has weekly classes across the US and in several foreign countries. Their's is a very rigid program which some have compared to a seminary level Bible study. I am reluctant to mention the name of the organization here, because I don't want to hinder the work. Despite whatever criticism I have against their rules and methods, I am convinced that God is working through that ministry to bring people closer to Him. He did that for me, and I pray He'll do it for others as well.
Well, I finished that study feeling broken and worn out. I was stricken with debilitating lower back pain for a few weeks after we finished our last class for the 2006-2007 program. I had been ignoring back pain for weeks, getting by with over-the-counter pain remedies. But the intensity of the pain rendered those remedies useless. Within a couple of days after that last Bible study class, I was struggling to walk. I found relief in sitting and lying down, but getting in and out of a chair or bed was a major challenge.
I was also engaged in a mental struggle over the circumstances that had brought me to that condition. My opinion at the time was that the the rigidity and rules of the organization were more that one ought to bear or tolerate. I worked with a partner in teaching a class of 8-9 year-old children. In accordance with the rules of the organization, we each had specific responsibilities which rotated each week. We had to attend a worker's meeting at 5:30 AM on the Saturday before each weekly evening class. If either of us missed the Saturday meeting then that person could not teach the following class. That also meant that the burden fell on the other man to teach the whole class. The one who missed the Saturday meeting could be there, but trust me when I say that it would probably be better for everyone if he were not there at all during the class. So it was do or die just to be there for the meetings. I could go on about more specifics, friends, but I think that should suffice in the way of details. It seemed like legalism was a big part of the work in that organization.
To be continued in part 3.
I hope and pray that my struggles with faith will be mostly private. Undoubtedly, some reader will ask why I pray for that. Isn't faithlessness in vogue these days?
After all, apostates like Bart Ehrman, John Spong, and Marcus Borg make a name for themselves with works of faithlessness. All of those men are well known for their opinions on the reliability of the Bible. Their opinion is that the Bible is not reliable as a historical document or a revelation of God. They present a picture of Christianity where people are encouraged to believe in the Bible as a metaphor, nothing more, nothing less. They present a very lack-luster, watered-down, weak picture of Christ. They deny the deity of Jesus and promote a vision of Christianity that winks at sin and preaches universal salvation. It's a picture that is devoid of judgment and is extremely popular these days.
I understand that as many as 70% of Americans claim to be Christian, but one only has to look around at our culture to see that few believe in judgment. Blogspot is an excellent example of the works of a nation that thumbs its collective nose at judgement. Just flip through the blogs here and most of what you'll see is futility, vanity, or abominations. I spent some time doing that last night, and 90% of what I saw was garbage. I didn't keep statistics, but every tenth blog was a very elaborate boilerplate advertisement for pornography. Those blogs are a clear and blatant violation of the Blogger Content Policy, but I am still searching for the correct way to report them to Google. But even if I found the magic hyperlink for reporting this blog scum, I know from past experience that corporate America is not interested in righteousness. Nor do they fear judgment.
So what is the work of God? Jesus put it in a nutshell, which you can find in the 6th chapter of John's gospel. He said, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." That is it friend. The work of God is saving people from eternal torment. God is doing that through His Son, Jesus Christ. He brings men to faith in Him through the hearing of His Word. So the work of God is to spread the Gospel.
That simple truth is a tremendous principal that I have struggled with.
To be continued in part 2.
