Yes Lord, May You Save Us!

From Apprising Ministries. Here's an excerpt:

"There’s a new movie buzz among evangelicals. It’s been several hours since the last one so it’s about time. This time it’s a Christian movie about…how bad and stupid Christians are and how we need to change everything because we all look like Fred Phelps. Got that?

And the producers are “just trying to start a conversation…” as they use half-truths and movie manipulation to do it. This film uses some great Third Reich movie demonization techniques to make Christians look as reprehensible as possible. The Christian Problem. Hmmm. Something must be done about that. (Online source)"

TV Ad Features Obama Mocking the Bible

Remember now, Obama says he's a Christian. So that means he must be one, right? Never mind that Louis Farrakhan says he is the Messiah, which would open him up to Islamic Blasphemy charges if he's not referring to the Muslim Messiah.

Now, as I've posted before, I'm not putting a label of "AntiChrist" on Obama. Only the Lord will know until he is revealed openly to the world. But if Farrakhan is "right" about Obama, that he is the long awaited Muslim "messiah", then it follows that the converse label fits.

Just want to get that straight.

Anyway, back to the subject. Nothing like a "Christian" mocking the Bible, huh?

If you still believe Obama is a Christian and not a Muslim, I'd suggest you cut down on the drinking. . ..

Obama's Faith is What???A slip of the lip. . .Updated

This is not a political blog. However, every once in a while something happens that I just have to point out. I just found this at WorldNetDaily. The video is immediately below.




Follow the link to WorldNetDaily, watch the video and decide for yourself. . .

I would only add that here at the 'Fly, we support Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And in light of the topic at hand, it would be appropriate to ask "Would you consider yourself to be a good person?"

Here's a follow-up to this post.

And today (10/9/08) I can offer you this update as well.

I'll Take Mine In Braille

Priceless. Just priceless.

Real Preachers of Genius

Found this over at A Little Leaven. I like it. I hope you like it too!

XXXChurch How Low Can You Go?

It was nearly a year ago I posted this about my former pastor's endorsement of xxxchurch.

Here's another example (in an analysis by Todd Friel) of how low they have gotten:



Apparently, xxxchurch thinks pornography is "Ok for consenting adults".

So, for Lee Johnson, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Galesburg Illinois (as well as other pastors who would endorse xxxchurch.com) I would ask "Who are you sending porn addicts to???"

“McWorship: Authentic Worship in a Fast-Food Culture”???

Just found this at Christian Research Network. You have to see the clip and read the article to believe it. I guess the Scriptures aren't sufficient...we just have to help them along, huh?

"The Apprising Ministries reader who sent CRN the link to this piece at Truth Matters told us that it’s "a video of the church service ‘McWorship’ at my former church. They will actually have the church set up looking like a McDonalds with golden arches and cut-outs of the McDonalds characters!"



Sick yet? If not, watch this sample of what else you can look forward to at Lititz Grace Church:

Gilligan's Island and the Seven Deadly Sins "Bible Study"

The following is from "A Little Leaven" for filing under "Why not just get your lessons from Scripture???":

"If the Beverly Hillbillies "Bible Study" isn't your cup of tea, you may want to try the Gilligan's Island "Bible Study".

If we were to write the product description for this "Bible Study" here's what we'd say about it:

This light-hearted, relevant and humorous approach to the Seven Deadly Sins will have you and your small group laughing out loud as you enjoy a three hour tour of this classic T.V. show. As an added bonus you may also occasionally hear verses from the Bible. But don't worry, these verses have been diluted so that no one in your small group will feel overly convicted or judged. The best part is that this "Bible Study" is virtually "cross free". That means you can invite your Muslim and Mormon friends to your small group and they won't feel offended by an overtly Christian message about Jesus' Christ being God in Human flesh, His death on the cross for our sins and His bodily resurrection from the dead three days later.

As the Bible says, "The cross is a stumbling block for Jews and foolishness to Greeks" that's why we virtually removed the cross from our "Bible Study". We wouldn't want to put any stumbling blocks in the way of people who are trying to live God pleasing lives."

The original post can be read here.

ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY: THE DEITY OF CHRIST...or, Warren et.al. between a rock and a hard place

Hot off the presses over at Apprising Ministries....

"The following quote from Abdul Saleeb (pseudonym) comes from The Dark Side of Islam by Saleeb and R.C. Sproul. We are informed that Saleeb “was born and raised in a Muslim country in the Middle East” and was a Muslim himself until he “eventually converted to Christianity” (backflap).

He writes:

Islam rejects not only the death of Christ on the cross and the doctrine of the atonement, but also the deity of Christ. Jesus Christ is the dividing point between Christianity and Islam. Following are several passages from the Qur’an on Christ’s deity:

• They do blaspheme who say: “Allah is Christ the son of Mary.” But said Christ: “O children of Israel! Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.” Whoever joins other gods with Allah, Allah will forbid him the Garden, and the Fire will be his abode” (Sura 5:72).
• Christ, the son of Mary, was no more than a Messenger; many were Messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth, They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how Allah doth make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the Truth! (Sura 5:75)
• ...the Christians call Christ the Son of God. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the Unbelievers of old used to say. Allah’s curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth (Sura 9:30). (73)

And among those who are “deluded away from the Truth”; who are now under “Allah’s curse”, and among those “Allah will forbid” the Garden” and make Fire their “abode” would be professing Christians who signed A Christian Response to ‘A Common Word Between Us and You.’

Because at last check e.g. new evangelicals like Rick Warren and Bill Hybels, as well as, leaders in the Emergent Church like Brian McLaren and Tony Jones still at least give lip service that Christ is the Son of God.

Real tough spot for Christian compromisers: Damned by Yahveh Elohim, the one true and living God if they don’t; and damned by the demon god Allah if they do."

Death of Discernment Pt. 3Rick Warren’s Inquisition

From Christian Research Network:

"Excerpts from Joseph Farah’s excellent article at WorldNet Daily:

While mega-pastor Rick Warren has joined a group of 100 church leaders calling for interfaith dialogue and the building of "common ground" with Muslims, he has a slightly different outlook toward Christians with whom he disagrees.

In his latest missive to fellow pastors, he writes: "You’ve got to protect the unity of your church. If that means getting rid of troublemakers, do it."

"As pastors, as shepherds of God’s people, it’s our job to protect our congregations from Satan’s greatest weapon – disunity," he writes. "It’s not always easy, but it’s what we’ve been called to do…"

…Has it ever occurred to Rick Warren that pastors have been wrong? Has it ever occurred to Rick Warren that pastors might teach unbiblical principles? Has it ever occurred to Rick Warren no earthly pastor is the recipient of all Divine revelation? Has it ever occurred to Rick Warren that pastors have led entire flocks into grave error that may have eternal consequences?

Has it ever occurred to Rick Warren that he, too, might be capable of such mistakes?

Rick Warren makes a spiritually fatal error when he proclaims, without any biblical authority, that Satan’s greatest weapon is disunity. That is simply not true. The Bible reveals over and over again that even one spirit-filled believer can stand up against Satan. God is not impressed with numbers. He doesn’t need numbers for victory. He doesn’t care about big churches. He doesn’t care about the cathedrals of men. He wants numbers only because He is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).No, Satan’s greatest weapon is hardly disunity. His greatest weapon since his fall and since the Garden of Eden has been deception. In fact, Satan loves unity – as long as those unified are knowingly or unknowingly serving him. He’d love for all of us to "go to hell in a handbasket."Read the rest of Joseph Farah’s commentary here…

See related articles Satan’s Greatest Weapon: Disunity? , SBC President Not Interested In the Victims of Purpose Driven, Unity In The Teaching of Apostolic Truth Yields Godly Love , Rick Warren, Evangelicals, Invite Muslims to Love God Together** , Begging forgiveness of Islam?"

Hybels on Biblical StarvationOr, "Hybels on Bibles"

For those of you who haven't the time or the strong stomach to listen to Bill Hybels' clip from yesterday's entry, here's what I see as the most sickening part of what this "pastor" had to say.

He said that the "dedicated Christians" (Uhm, those would be real converts, Bill), are "complaining" that they aren't "being fed". His argument had been that they should be "self feeders" (true, but then the job of a "real" pastor is, in part, to feed the sheep under him, right Bill?).

Anyway, listen to this clip to hear a focused statement by Bill Hybels', showing his attitude toward believers who want to "be fed" (not to mention his attitude toward the Scriptures). Was he using humor? Yes, sick humor. But if he really didn't think this way, would he be using it as material for laughs?

Uhmmm, pastors who follow this guy? Do You Finally Get It?

Hand me the barf bag. Please!

For those of you who know pastors and other leaders who don't "get it", please send them here. I think my shoulders are broad enough and I'll take the flack. But this message has got to get out.

Did Hybels Really Repent?

Courtesy of TeamPyro:

"Out of Ur has this post provocatively titled "Willow Creek Repents," and I've been getting e-mails from people who wonder what I think about it. The tone of a few of those e-mails has been like, "See there? Now you need to get on the Willow Creek fad-wagon."

You Know You've Been at the Wrong Church When...(notes from "Camp Whattascam")

Ok. It was good while it lasted, but it's over. The tent is down, the organ is packed and the monkey has left the building. After evaluating our last church, we're done. Finished. Time to move on.

Wow!, you say. Yup. me too. It looked so good for quite a while and in a way it was. At least we got some people interested and involved in Biblical Evangelism. But the party appears to be over.

After giving us some marginal support, an "attaboy" and the customary "pat on the boom-boom", the pastor of our church has decided (no doubt via some of the founding members) that "if we are going to do evangelism, it's got to come from the SBC". Well after all, you know, we can't just go around mentioning that nasty word "repentance", now can we? Gotta fit in that "easy believism, get the numbers and prove it with tons of baptisms" methodology, don't 'cha know!

If you want to see the LifeWay "glitz machine" in action, go here. If you want to see the numbers game played out, go here.

Here's an evaluation I received via email. I couldn't agree more:

"It's not only about the numbers but what about the money?? Look below...(source)

WHAT DOES OUR CHURCH RECEIVE AT A FAITH TRAINING CLINIC?
You will experience the complete “semester of training” during a clinic and receive ALL of the teaching resources necessary to fully implement the first level FAITH in your church (to train your FAITH learners).. Clinic cost for the pastor ($325) provides all teaching resources, a sample of all training materials for your church, administrative resources, all clinic meals, snacks, and complete FAITH instruction. The fee for all others ($125) provides all the training, necessary FAITH learner resources, meals and snacks for the entire clinic. Housing can be provided by the host church at no additional cost, when requested in advance by the registrant.

Resources for those who participate in FAITH at your church (after the clinic), led by the pastor and team leaders, average around $25.00 per person.


HOW DO WE BEGIN FAITH IN OUR CHURCH?
Focus on prayer for God to work and to mobilize believers against Satan’s attack. Identify prospects for evangelism and ministry opportunities. After the pastor attends a FAITH training clinic with Sunday School leaders from your church, schedule a semester where each trained person mentors two new learners each. Endeavor to bring at least five people to a FAITH Training Clinic, each person representing one each of the age divisions of your Sunday School. Since only those persons who have been officially trained in FAITH can train someone else -- the more people you bring to a Clinic, the larger start you can have in the FAITH Sunday School Evangelism Strategy

And check this out...

A FAITH team consists of three people, always a man and woman on each team.

So, for each Sunday school class, you cannot have a class unless you have three trained people leading it. Where in the world do you think Faith Baptist will find that many people interested in doing that? Plus, if you have to have three people per class, look how many people you would have to register to take the clinic training. Even more money needed.

So, if you bring five people, plus the pastor, your church can pay them $950! to learn how to witness to people not using the words repentance or most likely using God's Law. At $25 per person for the resources (most likely just a workbook) it is a complete rip-off! But of course, they tell you to bring in even more people so you can make a greater impact in your church."

---------------------------

Me (Tim) again...

So, once again, human wisdom - 1, the sufficiency of scripture - 0. The old "If you want results you have to fork over the cash" mentality. Mind you, this is after we ran a highly successful "Way of the Master" class. But, again, it WOTM dares mention the "r" word. You don't get tons of baptisms (which serves as "proof of conversion" in modern evanjellyspeak) when you mention "repentance". You make the gate too narrow. The parable of the sower? Nah, Jesus had it all wrong. You give a message, then force the plant up and prop it up so you can show you "did something".

It's not enough to just teach people to use the ten commandments (included *Free* with each Bible!), you gotta fork over hundreds of dollars to pay a staff of three to teach you what you can read and apply from the Gospels (also included *Free* with each Bible).

$ = results
results = more "giving units" (oops, people) => more $.

Biblical evangelism, such as "Way of the Master" is about sowing seeds. It's not about visible results. The real gospel isn't about body counts. It also isn't about "my church", but rather about what Jesus did, and Jesus alone. Hopefully there will be a few people left there that can smell a gimmick before they get suckered.

This really doesn't surprise me. As Brian has been working hard to get cooperation from the local churches, they have basically never failed to "bail" when they learn it's about Jesus and not some particular church. So sad, really. "We're not interested in any revival we don't benefit from".

Nice motives, huh?

My prayer for our old church is that hopefully there will be a few people left there that can smell a gimmick. And this is a gimmick.

Do I rejoice over this? Of course not. It grieves me to see this. It's a tremendous waste of time and God's money. Is what I have to say out of bitterness? No, I really don't think so. This isn't a "gee, they wouldn't play the game my way so I'm packing my toys and going home". Not at all. Other issues were in play as well, which I won't go into detail here -- such as weak theology and a strong tolerance of marginal "Christianity". And using the word "marginal" is being very generous.

By contrast, I am thankful...very thankful to be a part of what may well become a new "work" in our town. We have a small group of believers who are totally dedicated to reaching the lost as Jesus did...and it appears that the Lord is giving an increase. There are lots of people out there that have given up on "church" because of contemporary evangelicalism. They can see what's going on and don't want to be a part of it.

Here's to obedience.

Frightened Black Family Flees Emergent Church

Here's an interesting article. Check it out!

Rick Warren Said What???

Here you go; Rick Warren at his own apostate best. If you really, really, really can't understand what is wrong with Warren, then listen and weep.

Warren on "Learn to Laugh"

Ok, I admit it. Part of the reason I selected this as a post is because I wanted an excuse to use my neat "Outer Limits" graphic. But it doesn't invalidate the point I want to underscore: Rick Warren's seeming addiction to the abuse of scripture to make his point...even if perhaps there are valid scriptures he could find to do so.

Case in point. This article from the Christian Post, where Pastor Wannabe uses Psalm 2 to promote his position that God wants us to learn to laugh.

When they were teaching hermeneutics to Rick at seminary, I am convinced he just sat there and said "Herman Who?"

Rick Warren seems to love lifting scripture out of context. Sometimes even a few words. To respond in kind to Warren, I will close this entry with a quote from The Sacred Sandwich:

In keeping with this rather self-serving model of Scripture citation, The Sacred Sandwich wishes to respond to Warren with a phrase from Romans 11:32 (NASB) to make a point of our own: "Shut up..."

Hey Rick? Maybe you should order this DVD!

The Church and Prurient Pastors

You may remember some time ago my post regarding my former church and the pastor's promotion of xxxchurch.com. Thankfully, that leader is far behind me and fading fast in my rear view mirror. However, it seems that this kind of trash continues on.

Ingrid over at "Slice of Laodicea" has done a report which demonstrates contemporary "Evangelicalism's" willingness to dabble in filth in the name of "dealing with it".

As if God's Word isn't sufficient.

Go figure.

Everything the Devil wanted me to know, I Learned from the Contemporary Church

Look like fun? Sure it does. But then the point isn't what it looks like. It's the long term that matters. And while the picture to the left may be (for now, at least) a slight exaggeration, contemporary "Christianity" does have "virtual worship experience goggles" on as it relates to the utter contempt and disregard for the clear teaching of God's Word and obedience to it.

Wanna see my "short list" of what I learned? Click here to get the file. And yes, share it freely. No, it's not exhaustive. It's not meant to be.

Mark Kelly vs. Saddleback Church!?

If by now you don't know who Mark Kelly is, he is the spin master who works for Rick Warren. He is to Rick Warren as the "Control Voice" was to "The Outer Limits" in the 60's.

Seems that Mark has a problem with the doctrine of the Security of the Believer and he's willing to warp C.H. Spurgeon's writings to support his argument. Oh well, I guess if you're willing to abuse the scriptures such as Rick Warren does in his "Purpose Driven" books, it takes less nerve to abuse the works of another human being.

Here's a link to the article at Christian Research Network.

Read it and wonder if there is "something wrong with your television set..."

Benny Hinn Shenanigans Exposed

While I do not take joy in reporting the, shall we say, wanderings in the name of American-contemporary Christianity, I believe that it is our responsibility to expose willful error for what it is. Over the years, I have known a few individuals who are faithful to Benny Hinn and his "ministry". I found this report last evening via Christian Research Network. Do you know people that send money to this charlatan? Then take a look at where their money may be going.