Featured The Babylon Bee Strikes again

I'm not as near familiar with the pastor as you guys, so I have to ask (not arguing a point, but asking as I have not taken the time to read/listen to one of his sermons).

Since he has been preaching Christ and the Resurrection, what exactly has been his text if not Scripture? It's seems odd to me that a preacher, having abandoned Scripture all together, is even able to address the subject of Christ.

 

Basically a motivation speaker....like Osteen....bases "sermons" on Christianity in general but takes his lead from the audience?

 

Ok....I just wasted about 40 minutes of my life listening to the "Who Needs God" (Aug 13th sermon in the series). That's 40 minutes I can't get back .

His comments leading up to this "sermon" have, in my opinion, been taken out of context. But his speech was not a sermon. Basically this was apologetics 101. In this "sermon" he was trying to reason the existence of God philosophically (a poor version of C.S. Lewis...in this case anyway)....or more specifically, he was painting the picture of atheism.

Imagine a pastor telling his congregation that if they don't believe in God then they must accept the alternatives and believe such and such. It makes me wonder just what kind of church is made up of people who don't believe in God (kinda like the "Hell fire and brimstone" preachers of the past...what kind of church is made up mostly of people destined for Hell).

His argument is that those who have left Christianity were never there to begin with. The idea that they had of God was in fact a god of their own making. He indicates that his next sermon (perhaps it's out now) is about the New Testament people have accepted is not the Bible that God authored. I can't say that I disagreed with what he said, but it was not what I would consider a sermon. It was not building up the saints in the Word, but instead it was just philosophical offerings for the faith (it reminded me a little of some of the materials Tim Keller would introduce into his sermons to support or illustrate an argument....with the focus being solely on these materials).

I agree with you that his "sermons" miss the mark (at least this one). I still believe that he is trying to be controversial to attract attention (that the "heresy" is not as great as his comments would seem). But I have no interest in listening to him again.

 

The first thing a cult leader must do is get the people to ignore their bibles and listen only to the leader.

Look at Jim Jones, long before he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people (including 300 children), he told his congregation in Indiana to "put away your bibles and listen to me."

 

Dr. R. V. Clearwaters, President of the seminary I attended, used to say, "When you hear a man tell you to put down your bible and listen to him, or when he tells you that you must be loyal to him, run, don't walk, RUN to the nearest exit!"

How right he was!

 

I think the danger is greater when the "pastor" encourages men to embrace Scripture as something it is not. I am thinking here of people like Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, and Marcus Borg.