Dumb Church Sign
Posted: October 4, 2011 Filed under: Miscellaneous Leave a comment »This is a great reason why non-believers justifiably hate the church. Not a great way to help people hear the message of Christ.
Billy Graham on the Heart (1957)
Posted: August 10, 2011 Filed under: Daily Life, Miscellaneous Leave a comment »Rick Warren on Hell
Posted: May 31, 2011 Filed under: Miscellaneous Leave a comment »For all the flack he receives, this entire interview shows time and again that Rick Warren is extremely solid doctrinally.
For the full interview with John Piper, click here.
Here is a clip:
What an Interesting Guy
Posted: March 25, 2011 Filed under: Miscellaneous Leave a comment »[Jesus] is both the rest and the storm, both the victim and the wielder of the flaming sword, and you must reject him on the basis of both. Either you’ll have to kill him or you’ll have to crown him. The one thing you can’t do is just say, “What an interesting guy.”
- Tim Keller, King’s Cross
Love Wins, Rob Bell Loses
Posted: March 9, 2011 Filed under: Book & Media Reviews, Miscellaneous, News & Commentary 1 Comment »
Rob Bell.
That name once resonated positively with many young Christians in America. The Chicago Sun-Times once called him “The Next Billy Graham.” I have read his book first book, Velvet Elvis, twice and have seen his DVD Everything is Spiritual and the NOOMA series numerous times. Early on, Bell would come off as a little whacky and off-center, but his questioning of orthodoxy seemed innocent and for thought-provoking purposes only. As time progressed, and he aligned himself with men like Brian McLaren, it became obvious that he was not a fan of orthodoxy at all. Actually, he seems to enjoy trying to re-create our faith.
In the promotional video for his latest book, Love Wins, most evangelicals got the impression that Bell was promoting universalism – the belief that everyone will spend eternity with God with or without believing in Jesus in this life. The questions swirled and the debate waged on but now that advanced copies have been delivered, it is painfully obvious that Bell has fallen completely off the wagon.
In a must read review by Tim Challies, this quote from the book was highlighted:
A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better…. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.
Yep. That’s a real quote. And it should be enough to scare you away from it.
In short, I pray that you will completely avoid this book unless you are reading/teaching it for the purpose of exposing it. They say that any publicity is good publicity, but I hope that the outrage of Bible-believing Christians will be enough to drive this book to the trash/recycling bins of America very soon.
Paul Tripp on Biblical Counseling And Some Resources
Posted: March 5, 2011 Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: Biblical Counseling Leave a comment »Here is a video put together by Redeemer Seminary which features Dr. Paul Tripp discussing biblical counseling:
Biblical Counseling at Redeemer Seminary from Redeemer Seminary on Vimeo.
Fantastic stuff. Here is a list of some other resources for those interested:
- Check out the new Biblical Counseling Coalition website, facebook, and twitter
- How People Change
by Tim Lane and Paul Tripp. This book has been amazingly influential to me.
- CCEF.org – Christian Counseling and Education Foundation. This site has tons of great resources.
10 Random Thoughts
Posted: March 2, 2011 Filed under: Miscellaneous 1 Comment »- The popular TV shows like Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, Greyls Anatomy, and Keeping Up with the Kardashians are a major reason why our generation and culture of girls/women accept premarital and extramarital sex and material idolatry as normative.
- Josh Hamilton is one of the greatest professional sports stories of all-time, and his relapse two years ago only made it stronger, in my eyes.
- I don’t like parents who live so vicariously through their children that they exploit them for personal gain.
- I’m learning massive amounts of patience because my wedding date, June 11, still seems so far away.
- I’m tired of watching “prosperity” pastors ignore the reality of sin and struggle in every single sermon they preach to even mention the Gospel.
- The view of the stars in East Texas is amazing.
- It’s frustrating seeing people with enormous leadership potential live uninspired lives.
- Spongebob Squarepants is still the funniest sponge on TV.
- There is no better feeling than realizing that you will never get anywhere without full submission to God, and then experiencing the truth of it.
- Times are getting worse in our world, but Christ is likely not returning anytime soon according to Matthew 24:14.
Oprah Winfrey: Messenger of God
Posted: February 15, 2011 Filed under: Apologetics, Miscellaneous 1 Comment »
Apparently, Oprah is a prophet. Like, a real prophet.
According to Kitty Kelley, who wrote Oprah’s biography, Oprah has been known to claim that she is “the instrument of God. I am his messenger. My show is my ministry.” Of course, this isn’t Jesus Christ, but some god that she knows via… herself? He must be a fabrication of her mind, because he certainly doesn’t exist in the Bible. What’s most infuriating is that she has millions of women who hang on her every word, as if she truly is a prophet of God.
Here is an excerpt from a post written about her on USA Today’s “Faith & Reason” blog:
From a traditional Christian perspective, Oprah’s God is unrecognizable. In Oprah-vision: We’re all good, we should not judge each other and morality is relative. This is no Jesus-centered, born into sin and in need of salvation God who both loves and judges.
Oprah’s genius is that she tapped early into the way many Americans really view God. Less than a third tell surveys this is the might judge who has set the rules for this life and the next. Her message of hope is to believe in yourself, redeem yourself. Very popular but not very Christian.
I recently did a USA WEEKEND magazine story on how we see God and the leading answer among hundreds of replies was all about love. Less than 10% mentioned sin and salvation or Jesus.
So Oprah is indeed a fitting prophetess for big hug spirituality.
Also, here is a video of her many instances of denying Christianity:
Mark Driscoll on CNN
Posted: January 29, 2011 Filed under: Miscellaneous, News & Commentary 3 Comments »In light of Joel Osteen’s latest “controversy” in which he sheepishly admitted on CNN that homosexuality is a sin (although I do applaud this “new him” that he claims will talk about sin), here is a video of Mark Driscoll boldly standing for Christ in 2009:
Open Letter to T.D. Jakes
Posted: January 25, 2012 | Author: Brandon Smith | Filed under: Miscellaneous, News & Commentary, Pastoral Resources | 4 Comments »Bishop Jakes,
Let me first commend you on your acceptance to join the furnace that is the Elephant Room. You have taken a lot of heat over the years from pastors and theologians of all ilks, and you have handled it rather gracefully just as you did today. Perhaps the greatest compliment that one can give you is that humility does not seem to be something that
you struggle with.
At 22, I felt the Damascus Road calling to ministry and dropped everything that I was doing to pursue ministry. This led me to start school over and begin a Biblical Studies degree at Dallas Baptist University. Interestingly, the school at which I studied and lived is no farther than a few football fields from your church, The Potter’s House.
Being the young angry Calvinist that I was, my first inclination that was that you were a heretic and probably hated Jesus more than I hated the traffic your church creates outside of the campus gates every Sunday morning and evening. I often had thoughts of attending one of your services and later blogging from my dorm room in my underwear about what a shame to God’s cause you really were. When I heard that people were getting saved at your church from Potter’s House members that I had class with, I was praying for REAL salvation to come upon those who bought into your heresies. Want to know the funny part? I hadn’t so much as listened to a single sermon of yours.
So, I listened to a few of your messages and tried to convince myself that I didn’t like what you were saying (though I did much of the time) and was determined to believe that you were a snake oil salesman which a fancy suit that cost too much money. Of course, I was too busy arguing with Calminians at DBU to consider whether or not I was wrong about anything, much less whether or not you were the Antichrist.
Needless to say, the onus was on me – not you – to repent.
As the past few years have come and gone, I have begged the Lord with great fear to humble me and allow me to love my brothers in Christ, regardless of differences, so long as they are not denying the foundational tenets of our faith. When hearing about your inclusion in the Elephant Room, I was greatly excited to hear that you would be cross-examined about your theological beliefs. People were all over the Internet already accusing Mark Driscoll and James MacDonald of associating with a heretic who denied the Trinity, when in reality they were doing what they should: allowing a brother to defend himself in his own words. I was a little disappointed in your responses in Christianity Today regarding the Trinity, but leading up to the Elephant Room I re-read it and had to remember that the interview was 12 YEARS AGO. Chances are, you have developed and grown quite a lot since then.
At the Elephant Room, you answered the question everyone had been asking: Do you affirm the Trinity? Is there one God in three manifestations (a Oneness Pentecostal theology that you’d affirmed so long ago), or is there one God in three persons (the orthodox view)?
Your response: ” I believe the latter one is where I stand today. One God – Three Persons.”
You went on to explain that you’re not afraid of the word “manifestation” because Paul used it, which in context I agree with.
You were then asked the follow-up question by Driscoll: “Do you believe the Bible is the perfect, infallible Word of God? Do you believe God is Three Persons? Jesus is fully God and fully Man? He died on the cross for our sins? He rose from the dead? He is coming again? Apart from Jesus is no salvation?”
You response: Absolutely.
This letter is getting long and you are a busy man, so let me say this: I love and affirm you as a brother in Christ. There will be many people who parse your words from today and still doubt you. Sadly, people believe that you a) owe them an explanation satisfactory only to them, and b) that you’re probably still a heretic even though they can’t name a theological reason why. I don’t agree hardly at all with your methodology or even sometimes your exegesis, but I know this – you are the real deal and I can learn a lot about loving Jesus and loving others from you.
Praying for you,
Brandon Smith