Does Jesus Hate Religion - Follow Up 2

This week marks the official first week of my studies at The Master's Seminary (TMS) and it is quickly dawning on me that I really do live in another universe now. René, who is my blogging friend from Denmark (klik her hvis du er Dansk) responded to my previous post by informing me that Jeff Bethke may have responded in gracious agreement to Kevin De Young's criticism of his Why I Love Jesus But Hate Religion video but Bethke had not subsequently taken the video down nor changed it. I think René raises a good point here and it is an issue of concern to myself. One small issue that I differed with De Young's critique was that I argued that the video should either be replaced or edited whereas De Young, in his correspondence with Bethke, suggested a follow up video of clarification. As of now, to the best of my knowledge, neither have been forthcoming.

I considered René's words as I drove into TMS yesterday morning and thought to myself how nice it would be to speak with Kevin De Young about this issue. I thought it would be great to hear his thoughts on my suggestions since Kevin is in contact with Jeff Bethke. When I arrived at the TMS library very early in the morning I asked one of my fellow students about who would be the chapel speaker for that morning. Well it just turns out that in the Providence of God, Kevin De Young just happened to be visiting California from his native Michigan and just happened to have been invited to come and preach to all the TMS students that morning.

Well, I got my chance to speak with De Young after his excellent sermon. I informed him of the disturbing fact that many of the millions who have watched this video are people who are finding affirmation in a video that should be convicting them. I also mentioned the serious issue of re-interpreting the cross and how I believe we should be zealous over that as well. René, you will be pleased to know that Kevin De Young was in full agreement and will attempt to pursue the matter further. Let's keep an eye on cyberspace over the next week and see if something develops!



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Does Jesus Hate Religion - Follow Up

There is a lot of debate about my previous post concerning the massively viral "Jesus > Religion" video. The spectrum of responses runs from warm appreciation to accusations of "theological nitpicking". Although I completely fail to see how a debate over the meaning of the cross qualifies for an exercise in theological nitpicking. There are also those who are trying to defend Jeff Bethke by claiming that he is not a theologian and that this is not meant to be a "John MacArthur" sermon. Again I would respond that everyone is a theologian - the question always is whether you are a good one or a bad one. I was never looking for the expository depth of a MacArthur sermon as is evidenced by my willingness to post another video of similar style but greater Gospel accuracy. I am not against the style and innovation but I remain biblically convinced that we must be clear and accurate when it comes to the meaning of the cross - it is the epicenter of the Christian faith. Please hear me on this, I am not against Jeff Bethke or looking for a target to shoot at. I responded to this video because of the massive number of people being influenced by it, and because of the confirmation of my fears evidenced by the number of websites and people who oppose the biblical Gospel but love Bethke's video. The ambiguity has clearly stretched its appeal beyond the boundaries of service to the Great Commission.

I would also like to elaborate on another point that, in the light of recent developments, is worth expanding upon. Bethke's video gets a lot right about the Gospel. This is a video that could be easily improved into an outstanding Gospel centered statement full of redemptive value. If certain terms were defined much more clearly, and the cross defined correctly, it would eradicate the wrong affirmations many lost people have found in it. Bethke is tapping into the very real modern evangelical plague of moralism and rightly pointing out that our justification depends fully on the finished work of Jesus Christ alone. And, it would seem, Jeff Bethke is a humble man who can receive a solid biblical critique and alter course.

Kevin De Young also recently posted a critique of the video and was also able to engage in email correspondence with Bethke. What transpired is very pleasing and gives me great optimism that this situation can be redeemed and utilized for God's glory. Bethke's email response, not only affirms the validity of the criticism, it is also a very positive story of the Body of Christ behaving like it should:

I just wanted to say I really appreciate your article man. It hit me hard. I’ll even be honest and say I agree 100%. God has been working with me in the last 6 months on loving Jesus AND loving his church. For the first few years of walking with Jesus (started in ’08) I had a warped/poor paradigm of the church and it didn’t build up, unify, or glorify His wife (the Bride). If I can be brutally honest I didn’t think this video would get much over a couple thousand views maybe, and because of that, my points/theology wasn’t as air-tight as I would’ve liked. If I redid the video tomorrow, I’d keep the overall message, but would articulate, elaborate, and expand on the parts where my words and delivery were chosen poorly… My prayer is my generation would represent Christ faithfully and not swing to the other spectrum….thankful for your words and more importantly thankful for your tone and fatherly like grace on me as my elder. Humbled. Blessed. Thankful for painful growth. Blessings. Grace and Peace, Jeff

Kevin De Young responded again and wrote:

Thanks for your email. It confirms my impression of you—humble, sincere, a real love for God and the gospel. I can’t remember ever receiving such a teachable response to criticism. I’m grateful for you and your courage in taking time to write me a note. Really grateful.

I know that criticism can be hard. You are probably getting it from right, left, and center, from Christians and non-Christians. I’m sure you are getting a lot of affirmation too, and that presents its own challenges. I tried to my write my post as a friend, not as a hater. I am rooting for you, not against you. I wanted to approach this like Acts 18:26. Thank you for receiving it in that spirit….

What can I do to help you? Have you thought about posting a clarifying follow up to the video? Or maybe writing something on “what I wish I had said differently?” It could be a powerful example of the things you were talking about to come back and say, “Hey, I didn’t get everything right here. I don’t want people to take this in the wrong direction.” Do you want me to post some of your email to me on my blog so people can see your heart in this? Let me know if there is something I can do. Your friend, Kevin

Later Jeff wrote back. This is part of his reply:

Wasn’t expecting such a quick response. I appreciate you a ton, and your words really hit home…My biggest fear is that I will say something and it will be out on the internet forever. But already quickly learning all praise goes to Jesus, and same with critique…Feel free to share parts of my email on the blog if you’d like! The tone is already gracious enough but it’d be cool to show that we have had some correspondence and it’d mean a lot.

The only suggestion I would make that differs from De Young's would be to reshoot the original video because a small amount of alteration would make a massive amount of difference!

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Rob Bell's Love Wins - What They Are Saying

Rob Bell's brazenly heretical book "Love Wins" has caused a firestorm of controversy which started with his promotional video. Though the controversy is, by my estimation, five years late (go here and scroll down for earlier articles on Bell), there are some positives to "emerge" from all of this. One of the positive aspects to this saga is that when people become more overt in their apostasy/heresy, they make it far easier for undiscerning church goers to decide when to run full speed out the door. Another interesting illumination is found in the number of high profile people who have responded and taken a side. Thank you, thank you, thank you for removing that boggy middle ground and finally drawing up some battle lines!!! The following list of "for" and "against" may prove most helpful to you the reader in being selective about which wells we drink from . . .

FOR

It isn’t easy to develop a biblical imagination that takes in the comprehensive and eternal work of Christ…Rob Bell goes a long way in helping us acquire just such an imagination — without a trace of the soft sentimentality and without compromising an inch of evangelical conviction - Eugene Peterson (back cover endorsement)

Wow! Let's just hope that the spaceship returns soon to take Eugene home. If you were ever deluded enough to believe that "The Message" is a legitimate Bible translation, this latest comment from Peterson should seal the deal. "Without compromising an inch of evangelical conviction" - yeah right!!!

Rob Bell is NOT a Universalist (and I actually read “Love Wins”) . . . I know many readers will want my opinion on whether or not Rob is in fact a Universalist . . . I’m not sure; read the book for yourself and figure it out . . . I strongly doubt Rob would describe himself as a “Universalist.” But even if he did, I would recommend Love Wins just as enthusiastically as I already have - Greg Boyd

The gaps in Greg Boyd's self refuting statements are getting shorter all the time. It seems that Greg Boyd is open to a lot of things and not just theism!

A great book, well within the bounds of orthodox Christianity and passionate about Jesus. The real hellacious fight is between generous orthodoxy and stingy orthodoxy. There are stingy people who just want to consign many others to hell and only a few to heaven and take delight in the idea. But Rob Bell allows for a lot of mystery in how Jesus reaches people - Richard Mouw

Richard Mouw is the president of the very large and influential Fuller Theological Seminary. I have been asked before for an opinion on Fuller Seminary and I'll give it right now - don't go there, don't send your kids there, don't send them any money, and the leader of the Seminary has no clue what the "bounds of orthodox Christianity" are.

Rob has come to see that the biblical story is bigger and better than a narrative about how souls get sorted out into two bins at the end of time . . . A courageous minority will become more courageous because of Rob's courage in this book . . . to seize this opportunity, displaying the courage to differ graciously . . . and speak up for Rob whenever the opportunity presents itself - Brian McLaren

AGAINST

It is unspeakably sad when those called to be ministers of the Word distort the gospel and deceive the people of God with false doctrine - Justin Taylor

Farewell Rob Bell - John Piper

The Emerging Church movement is known for its slick and sophisticated presentation. It wears irony and condescension as normal attire. Regardless of how Rob Bell’s book turns out, its promotion is the sad equivalent of a theological striptease. The Gospel is too precious and important to be commodified in this manner. The questions he asks are too important to leave so tantalizingly unanswered. Universalism is a heresy, not a lure to use in order to sell books. This much we know, almost a month before the book is to be released - Al Mohler

...there are dozens of problems with Love Wins. The theology is heterodox. The history is inaccurate. The impact on souls is devastating. And the use of Scripture is indefensible. Worst of all, Love Wins demeans the cross and misrepresents God’s character - Kevin DeYoung

Repent of it, Rob: repent because there’s no shame in turning away from even decades of wrong teaching to turning over a new leaf and teaching that Jesus saves sinner from their own sins and from God’s displeasure if they repent and believe. That is actually the message of the NT, and it ought to be your message if you’re really concerned with the real people you meet every day - Frank Turk

Bell's latest heresy neither surprises nor interests me. What does intrigue me is the tragic drift of popular, mainstream evangelicalism. Here we see clearly why the evangelical movement is in grave trouble: The passions of today's self-styled evangelicals are easily aroused in defense of someone who makes a career dabbling around the edges of truth. Rob Bell likes to play with damnable heresies as if they were Lego bricks, and yet anyone who points out the glaring errors in Bell's teaching will be met with a wall of angry resistance from young, self-styled Christians who grew up in the evangelical mainstream. Where is that much passion ever employed these days in defense of the truth? - Phil Johnson

Bell is an inveterate syncretist who loves to blend “progressive” and politically correct dogmas with eastern mysticism, humanistic jargon, and Christian terminology. His teaching is full of barren ideas borrowed directly from old liberalism, sometimes rephrased in postmodern jargon but still reeking of stale Socinianism. What Bell is peddling is nothing like New Testament Christianity. It is a man-centered religion totally devoid of both clarity and biblical authority. - John Macarthur

One critique of your book says this, there are dozens of problems with love wins. the history is inaccurate, the use of scripture indefensible. that’s true, isn’t it . . . you’ve indicated one of the problems with the book, you’re creating a Christian message that’s warm, kind, and popular, for contemporary culture but it’s, frankly, according to this critic, un-biblical and historically unreliable. that’s true, isn’t it . . . you’re amending the gospel so that it’s palatable to contemporary people who find, for example the idea of hell and heaven very difficult to stomach. so here comes Rob Bell, he’s made a Christian gospel for you and it’s perfectly palatable, it’s easy to swallow - Martin Bashir (interviewing Rob Bell)

If that doesn't clear it up then this video will (here is the video it is a response to) . . .

Robbed Hell - C.A.S.T. Pearls Presents from Canon Wired on Vimeo.

When To Leave A Church

I continually get asked by my friends in Australia and the USA about when to leave a church and when to hang in there. In Denmark this gets even more difficult because almost every denomination has apostacized here (which was why we planted a new church here - Kristuskirken).

The terrible delusion that many fall into, is to think that they can be a shining light in a fellowship where the Gospel is never preached, and to be an agent of internal reform. Two things to consider with this line of thought:

1. Hebrews 10:25 tells us not to forsake being a part of a body of believers. If you are trying to reform a church that has clearly abandoned the Gospel then you are not attending a local church and therefore disobeying Scripture (I don't mean to trash those who are living in a place with no biblical churches and are stuck in a difficult situation, but if you are in that situation then you should be proactive and urgent in resolving this crisis).

2. Your desire to be a reformer in a landscape of heresy may have devastating consequences on your marriage and children. Many of my male friends who try to do this are not subject to church discipline (because they are not a part of a biblical body of believers) and therefore not held accountable to love their wives as Christ loved the church, and to lead and disciple their families. This is why a healthy local church is a pillar of family life - our fallen sinful nature needs to be interconnected to the body of believers for safeguard and spiritual nourishment. (I will be elaborating on the issue of church discipline next week - the reformers believed that a church that does not practice biblical church discipline is NOT a true church).

Jason Helopoulos recently wrote a guest article for Kevin DeYoung on the Gospel Coalition blog where he listed necessary reasons to leave a local church, possible reasons to leave a local church, and illegitimate reasons for leaving a local church. I have listed them below. Read through them, chew on them, and act accordingly!

Necessary Reasons For Leaving A Church - The Four P’s

1. Providential moving — If my job, family, or life has moved me from Dallas to Austin then I should probably find a local church in Austin, let alone if I moved from Michigan to North Carolina. It is right and good to belong to a local church and covenant with brothers and sisters in my own “backyard.”

2. Planting another church — It may be that I haven’t left my home town, but the church I belong to has decided to send me out with others to plant another church in the area. Notice though, that I am being sent out by my church, not leaving with a group of people because I am disgruntled or think it is a good idea.

3. Purity has been lost — It may take different forms, but primarily this occurs when the Word is no longer proclaimed. It could be that heresy is being taught, the Bible is never read or preached, or a much more prominent manifestation these days is that the Word is no longer seen as sufficient; it is used as a seasoning for the message of the week rather than the diet by which the congregation is fed and nourished upon. However, we must be careful here; patience should always be exercised and I must always test my own heart to see if I am “making a mountain out of a molehill.”

4. Peace of the church is in jeopardy due to my presence — This “reason” is hard to suggest for fear of it being abused, as it is by far the most subjective “reason.” However, there are cases where an individual/family can personally become a hindrance to the ministry of the local church and it is best for that person/family to move-on. If this is the reason I am contemplating leaving the church, then I must first test myself and discern whether it is because of sin on my own part. If that is the case then I must be quick to repent rather than move-on. This “reason” should always be approached with trepidation,

Possible Reasons For Leaving A Church - The Three S’s

1. Spouse — An unbelieving or non-church attending spouse is not willing to attend this church, but will attend another with you.

2. Special Needs — Every family has special needs, so this one needs to be handled with care. A possible example may be that my family has a disabled child and another faithful church in the area has a wonderful ministry to disabled people which can help us.

3. Special Gifts — Another faithful church in the area may have asked for you to use your special gifts in their midst for the building up of the body (i.e. organist). Never decide this one on your own. If it is a possible reason, then it is too easy to think too highly of oneself and go running to the greener pastures. This is always something that should be taken to the leadership of your current church and wrestled through.

Illegitimate Reasons For Leaving A Church

1. Children’s Ministry — The Children’s ministry at another church is better. This cannot be a reason for changing churches. It is rather an opportunity for you to get involved in the children’s ministry of your church.

2. Buzz — Many people will flow to whatever church in town has the current “buzz.” The argument will be that the Spirit is at work there and we want to be part of it. But buzzes come and go. And so do the people that follow them.

3. Youth Group — The unhappiness of our teenage children in the current Youth Group, because of activities, other youth, etc. is not a reason for leaving the church we have covenanted with. I know this one will be controversial. Believe me, I have empathy as a parent and a former Youth Pastor. But our children are not the spiritual directors of our home. They should not be choosing the church we attend based upon their social status and network.

4. Church has changed — Churches always change. Unless the changes are unbiblical than we don’t have a reason to move on. We don’t move on when our wife or husband changes! We are we so quick to do so with the church we have covenanted with.

5. New Pastor — A new pastor is not a sufficient reason to change churches. It doesn’t matter how stiff, impersonal, unfunny, etc. he is. The list is endless. It doesn’t even matter if he is not the most interesting preacher. He is the man God called to this church for this time. And this is your church. Again, unless he is unbiblical why move on? You haven’t covenanted with a man, but with this body.

6. I’m Not Being Ministered to — I tell every one of our new member classes, “If we all walked into church each week and had a list of people we were going to try and ‘touch,’ encourage, or minister to, do you know how dynamic this church would be? Just on Sunday mornings, let alone if we did it during the week. If we each were concerned about the other person and walked in each Sunday with that in the forefront of our mind instead of, “Why didn’t he talk to me?,” “Why doesn’t anyone care about me?,” “Why isn’t anyone ministering to me?” Start ministering to others and you will find that you are being ministered to.

7. Music — not a reason — whether it is slow, fast, traditional, contemporary, Psalms, hymns, or gospel choruses. Stop using it as an excuse!

8. There are others…we haven’t even mentioned the service is too early, the coffee is terrible, the pastor doesn’t know how to shuck corn (Yep…those are all true ones I have heard).