My Online "Discussion" With Hillsong's Executive Pastor (Part 2)

Continued from my previous post . . .

Joel A'Bell, to his credit, published my critique and then responded to the objections I raised concerning Hillsong's attempts at Gospel proclamation:

Hi Cameron, everything you stated in your post comment is what we believe, although you didn't mention resurrection from the dead or eternal judgement, but we believe those too.
I'm sorry that certain sentences were left off some of the creative liners of that album. I can assure you it was not intentional as it is very obvious what we believe.

You mentioned Gal 1:8-9, the Apostle Paul and making sure we don't preach a different gospel but you didn't add the gospel presentation he was referring to??? Was it in the next verse?
You are making serious accusations here so you need to give me the acceptable salvation prayer you are talking about... Where is it?

Joel's closing comments here set off a big red flashing warning sign in my mind. He is after the "acceptable salvation prayer" formula - is this what he thinks saves people? I responded as follows:

Dear Joel, you asked for an acceptable salvation prayer. This is part of the problem - it is Christ Who saves, not the prayer you pray. And every Christian has responsibility to present the Gospel rightly. At the fundamental level, any Gospel presentation should include these five elements:
1. An explanation of The Holiness of God - His character and nature.
2. An explanation of man's depravity - define and explain sin.
3. The necessity of judgment - heaven and hell are real places where real people go - that God is bound by His character and nature to punish sin.
4. Christ's atoning work and resurrection - that Christ fulfilled the law that sinners break, and took God's wrath on the cross in the place of sinners and that the resurrection verifies God's satisfaction with Christ's payment.
5. The call on all men everywhere to repent of their sin and believe the Gospel.
I back this up biblically here (read from the bottom up)
http://onceuponacross.blogspot.com/search/label/Anatomy%20Of%20The%20Gospel

Yes I am levelling serious charges against the gospel according to Hillsong. Why shouldn't I if it is clearly not the Gospel of Scripture - the one Paul preached! That is one debate. But even your own doctrine statement pronounces heresy on the gospel presentation found in the "Mighty to Save" CD. And to edit a Bible verse as was done with 2 Chronicles 7:14 is outrageous. The subject of repentance was avoided in the gospel presentation (even though your faith statement says it is necessary to be saved) - why shouldn't I believe that the line "turn from their wicked ways" being deleted from 2 Chronicles 7:14 was for the exact same reason. Joel, I don't blame you for this, but it's quite shocking that you are downplaying it as something less than outrageous.

I have a five part youtube series presenting the Gospel in a biblically faithful way and I welcome your feedback. It can be viewed here (just scroll down):
http://onceuponacross.blogspot.com/2010/04/due-to-requests-today-i-am-posting...

I'm giving you plenty of information here and I am sure you are a very busy man. But I urge you to engage this matter because the Gospel is a matter of first importance - especially when the material you transmit and market finds its way into a lot of homes around the world.

Sincerely
Cameron

More to come . . .

Go On To Part 3
Go Back To Part 1