"The Church Growth Movement: Innovating like it’s 1894" from Discern.org

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GREAT article!!  Please read this:

The Church Growth Movement: innovating like it’s 1894 | discern.org

On a side note: as a former (very committed) "praise band/worship team" member, I would like these mega-churches to stop using musicians as props to lure people in; and I would like Christian musicians to think more carefully about how they might be simply "entertaining the crowds" at church, all the while thinking that they are doing God some great service. If our main goal is simply to "get people in the door" than we're Messed Up, indeed.

Super Pastor Perry Noble departs Christian orthodoxy, announces he’s staying put ← Pajama Pages

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This is an amazing example of the state of affairs in the "seeker friendly" church. If a super pastor preaches false doctrine (which is what this guy does) we are all supposed to ignore it and "move on, because we've got people to reach for Jesus..." 

Noble departs Christian orthodoxy, announces he’s staying put ← Pajama Pages

Is Your Church Worship More Pagan than Christian? by Todd Pruitt – Worship

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Very good (and short) article on this very important topic:

Is Your Church Worship More Pagan than Christian? by Todd Pruitt – Worship

Btw, I stopped playing in a modern worship band at a large Charismatic church because of many of the issues brought up by this author.

Smooth Talk and Flattery (White Horse Inn)

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This is SO GOOD!! I just listened to it twice! The White Horse Inn is always a great listen, but this particular show packs in an amazing amount of enlightening truth (and a little humor) in just 36 minutes:

Dallas Willard and John Ortberg-Very Confused Men...

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I tried reading an "important" book by Dallas Willard once; all I remember about it is that it was very hard to understand (and I never bothered to finish it). As I listened to this interview with John Ortberg I realized that he is very confused himself. These two confused "Evangelical experts" are schooled by video teacher Bezel333:

Self Piety and Easy Pickings in the Church

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This is a quote from the book "No Place for Truth" by David F. Wells:


     "The sort of Christian faith that is conceived in the womb of the self is quite different from the historic Christian faith. It is a smaller thing, shrunken in its ability to understand the world and to stand up in it. The self is a canvas too narrow, too cramped, to contain the largeness of Christian truth. Where the self circumscribes the significance of Christian faith, good and evil are reduced to a sense of well-being or its absence, God's place in the world is reduced to the domain of private consciousness, his external acts of redemption are trimmed to fit the experience of personal salvation, his providence in the world diminishes to whatever is necessary to ensure one's having a good day, his Word becomes intuition, and conviction fades into evanescent opinion. Theology becomes therapy, and all the telltale symptoms of the therapeutic model of faith begin to surface. The biblical interest in righteousness is replaced by a search for happiness, holiness by wholeness, truth by feelings, ethics by feeling good about one's self. The world shrinks to the range of personal circumstances; the community of faith shrinks to a circle of personal friends. The past recedes. The Church recedes. The world recedes. All that remains is the self.

     What remains is, in fact, a paltry thing. But what is being destroyed is not paltry and insignificant at all. Simply put, the psychologizing of faith is destroying the Christian mind. It is destroying Christian habits of thought because it is destroying the capacity to think about life in a Christian fashion. It is as if the topsoil were being washed away, leaving the land barren and incapable of being cultivated. It can no longer sustain the bountiful harvest of being able to discern between good and evil, to think about all of life in terms of God and his purposes, to construct a way of being that accords with his Word, and to contest the norms of cultural plausibility. All is lost. 

     And when people are no longer compelled by God's truth, they can be compelled by anything, the more so if it has the sheen of excitement or the lure of the novel or the illicit about it. The heretics of old, one suspects, would be sick with envy if they knew of the easy pickings that can now be had in the Church."  

(This amazing book was written in 1993)

"The Beast Gets Healed-And So Can You!" Jentezen Franklin

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This is, perhaps, the most blatant and blasphemous thing I've ever heard from a false teacher. How bad does it have to get before people wake up?? Just watch the first five minutes-I dare you:

"Silencing God's Word" (Worse Than Home Movies of that Drunk Uncle at New Years...)

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      The idiotic "preacher" (who can't preach) in this excruciatingly painful video is Kenneth Hagin.

Kenneth Hagin (aka: "Larry the Cable Guy") is the Father of the Word of Faith movement. He lived from 1917 to 2003. "Who cares about this old guy that isn't even alive anymore," you say? Well, if you like Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Bill Johnson, Mike Bickle, Benny Hinn, Rick Joyner, Rod Parsley, T. D. Jakes, Mark Chironna, Heidi Baker, Randy Clark, etc. etc. etc., you have to also like this man-because that's where they all got their new and better version of Christianity (they've all added their own spin to it, of course).

When Bill Johnson says "Did you know Jesus was the first person to be born again?" he is teaching a Hagin heresy. When Joel Osteen tells you to "speak prosperity into existence" he is teaching a Hagin heresy. When Kenneth Copeland says that "he's a little god, too" he is teaching a Hagin heresy. When T. D. Jakes tells you to "sow a seed of faith" ("give me your money") he is teaching a Hagin heresy (although Oral Roberts may have started that one first). When Joyce Meyer tells you that "you're already healed-you just need to claim it!" she is teaching a Hagin heresy. When Mike Bickle shares the latest extra-biblical "prophecy" about what God is doing now (as opposed to last year...) he is teaching a Hagin heresy.

      Do you know where Hagin received his new and improved version of Christianity? He spoke directly to God so he could receive these new teachings (that's why you should never question him or anyone like him who also hears directly from God). Oh, and he also plagiarized many ideas directly from E. W. Kenyon. Kenyon (1867-1948) took pagan ideas from the same people that created Christian Science and tried to merge them with Christianity, to make it "better." This was thoroughly documented in the 1988 book: "A Different Gospel-A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement" by D. R. McConnell. It's a great book that should have altered the course of modern evangelical Christianity. But it didn't. It was totally and utterly ignored.

      Now we Christians are not supposed to mention any of this-we're supposed to just go along with any teacher who happens to mention the name of Jesus in the midst of false teachings.

      Not me. Not ever.

-Steven Kozar

Non Sola Scriptura: the Blackaby view of God's will

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I tried reading the Blackaby book "Experiencing God" myself a long time ago; I never finished it because it seemed "off" to me, and I was uncomfortable going on the wild goose chase it recommended. So I was fascinated to read this powerful refutation (with about 90 million interesting comments following):

Pyromaniacs: Non Sola Scriptura: the Blackaby view of God's will

Should I chase dreams, visions, experiences and miracles to know more about God? | Watch Your Life and Doctrine Closely…

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Changing “Jesus Calling”—Damage Control for a False Christ

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The book "Jesus Calling" has been modified to hide it's original content (although millions of Christians didn't seem to even notice it's ridiculous New Age teachings). Christian book publishing has sunk to a new low.
From the Lighthouse Blog NEW BOOKLET TRACT: Changing “Jesus Calling”—Damage Control for a False Christ

Is Your Church Raising an Army of Skeptics?

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Ever wonder if there was something wrong with you because you didn't feel what everyone else at church was (supposedly) feeling? Read on..

Is Your Church Raising an Army of Skeptics? 


"Charismatic Bullying from the Pulpit" by Steven Kozar

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    The following is a real devotional email sent by the pastor of a large charismatic church to his congregation. This pastor had recently been confronted by a few of his church members who didn't like his "Signs and Wonders/Rick Joyner/Bill Johnson/IHOP" teachings and asked that he only use the Bible and stop referencing those other teachers and teachings. He was never asked to adopt a cessationist position; just to hold more closely to Scripture alone. Several weeks after he had the meeting with those people, he wrote this devotional message and then preached a sermon based on it. I think this is a good example of what happens when a pastor wants to divert attention away from a valid theological discussion and continue teaching his version of "Signs and Wonders" Christianity. The original article is in bold; I will make comments in parenthesis throughout the article. -S. Kozar 


                       A Personal Relationship
          "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life." John 5: 39 
(This verse is the "set-up" for the rest of the article; it's supposed to make Christians who demand adherence to the Bible look like Pharisees, but it's taken completely out of context. These Pharisees were unwilling to recognize that the Messiah had come-it was Jesus! The Scriptures pointed directly to Jesus and they were guilty of not going to Him. Jesus was not saying that you should come to Him instead of the Scriptures, He was saying that they should have found him in the Scriptures.)

       I believe many things about my wife, Jane (not real name). Some are just facts, like her birthday, her place of birth, her parents' names, and her general history which anyone who is interested could easily learn.  Other things require more personal involvement like knowing her character and her heart's desires.  My current beliefs about her are numerous, but my relationship isn't with my beliefs about Jane, it's with her.  She's a person.  Because of this reality, my beliefs are always growing and deepening as we walk together. (This line of thinking utilizes the Bill Johnson method of telling stories instead of teaching from the Bible; this way you can make any point about anything. The implication here seems to be that the Bible is not enough-it's just a bunch of facts and figures about God. We can't really know God through the Bible-we need a "relationship" with Him; which appears to be shorthand for "a subjective experience of God.")

          But what if I no longer lived with my wife?  Wouldn't my belief system become static?  I would still believe things, but they wouldn't deepen or grow because of a lack of present experience with her.  In the text above, Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees because their relationship isn't with God Himself; it's only with their beliefs about Him. (God was rebuking the Pharisees because their relationship was only with their beliefs about God? What?? No, that's totally wrong! Their beliefs were wrong-they didn't believe in Jesus! This is not hard to understand. This is totally mishandling God's Word.)

          There Is a great danger in evangelical Christianity today of making our beliefs about God an idol that takes the place of an actual relationship with Christ. (Where do we hear about this idol in the Bible?) How can I tell if I'm in danger of this idol? Here are five symptoms:

 1.     We become unteachable. We no longer believe what we read in the Bible; we only read what we already believe. (Yes, we should want people to accurately and faithfully understand God's word-not read into it whatever they want-this is very true. But how does this pastor define "unteachable?" It could be referring to anyone that disagrees with him; hmmm...)

2.     We become divisive with Christians that don't believe exactly what we believe about God and Christ.  We're experts and everyone else needs to listen to us to get it right. (This point is very important for what it doesn't say; it fails to mention that some people want a teaching to line up with Scripture. These people aren't commended for being good Bereans, they're condemned for being "experts" who want everyone to listen to them. Maybe they really just want everyone to listen to the Bible?)

 3.    We become suspicious of any fresh moving of the Holy Spirit that doesn't fit into our box of who we think God is and how He should act. (Just as in the previous point, this fails to mention that people might be suspicious of a "fresh move of the Holy Spirit" not because it doesn't "fit into our box," but because it appears false and/or doesn't line up with Scripture. This pastor believes that subjective experiences are good and acceptable, but an objective evaluation of an experience compared against Scripture is to be avoided. No wonder so many people leave Charismatic churches confused and hurt.)

4.     We find ourselves bored with worship because our hearts actually love what we believe about God more than we love God Himself. (This point is just too weird to analyse very much. Somehow, this pastor can see into the hearts and minds of people and discover that they love their beliefs so much that they become bored with worship... insert creepy 50's Sci-fi music here.)

5.     We realize we're no longer growing. We're no longer amazed by God or ever surprised by anything He does. We're sure we're doctrinally "right", but if we're dead, we can't be right because Jesus came to give life. (Let me see if I understand this; I need to be surprised or amazed by something God does in the present tense to prove that I'm growing? And if I'm sure I'm doctrinally "right" that proves that I'm dead. I would think that Jesus coming to earth as a virgin-born baby, living an amazing life full of teachings and miracles, giving His life on the cross as a penalty for our sins, rising from the dead on the third day, etc. etc. are all good enough things to embrace, celebrate and remember for all of our days, aren't they? Is it not enough to be surprised and amazed by what He's already done? Do we really need something "new" to validate our faith?  Does "growing" mean that we should adopt new and different beliefs every time the latest "prophet" has a "word for us?" The clear implication here is that just studying God's Word isn't enough to get "God's Word;"  we need extra-biblical revelation through some kind of subjective experience. Is it any wonder that Christians are biblically and theologically ignorant? If you put Post-Modern Subjectivity and Hyper-Charismatic Anti-Theology into a blender this kind of nonsense is what comes out...)



 The Scriptures are not an end in themselves, they direct us into a personal relationship with the God who loves us and died for us.  We all know "in part" and the even the part we think we know is only a seed of all that is true about the transcendent, majestic, unchanging, and uncreated God of the universe.  I think we would all do well to examine our hearts and humble ourselves before Him every day acknowledging that the mystery of who He is in Himself goes far beyond our present beliefs about Him. (But does it go beyond God's Word??)  Getting to know Him is the greatest adventure of our lives and will last for all eternity! 
(After His resurrection, Jesus met two of His followers on the road to Emmaus and didn't reveal himself; He first asked them a series of questions to see what they knew and believed about Himself. When they said that they basically didn't know what was going on even though the empty tomb had been discovered and angels had said He was risen, Jesus said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself." Luke 24: 25-26. Why did Jesus do this? Didn't He know that "the Scriptures are not an end in themselves, they direct us into a personal relationship with God..." like this pastor claims? Jesus wasted all that time explaining the Scriptures when He should have been developing His personal relationship with them. They could have, I don't know, exchanged recipes or sung show tunes together-that would have been more personal.) 

      Here's what God's Word says: "Now He said to them, 'These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.' Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them 'Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sin would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." Luke 24:44-48  "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Hebrews 4:12