Filthy Lucre: The Greedy Texas ‘Pastor’s’ God

The sad thing is, this guy has a large following!  And he’s a heretic!

A Texas pastor is being accused of “blasphemy” after he sent out a fundraising plea promising that God would give a new car in “52 days or 52 weeks” to anyone who chipped in $52 to fix his helicopter.

“Do you need better transportation?” New Light Church Bishop Ira V. Hilliard asks in a letter obtained by The Smoking Section. “Do you have a dream vehicle or luxury automobile you long to purchase?”

“We have an urgent transportation need that the Lord said can be an opportunity for you to see His favor and His wisdom released to help you,” he continues. “Scripture teaches when you give to a Kingdom need God will raise up someone to use their power, their ability and their influence to help you.”

Hilliard says that he was excited when the “small voice of the Holy Spirit” told him that God would “release favor” for anyone who helped upgrade the blades on the church’s helicopter.

“I believe with all my heart this message is for you and your doing something today is the key to releasing this favor on your transportation situation!” the letter states. “Send me the transportation need or your dream you have by completing the online petition when you sow a $52.00 transportation favor seed believing in 52 days or 52 weeks you will experience a breakthrough favor!”

VILE!  These prosperity preaching pentebabbleists are the most serious issue along the lines of theodicy for me.  Why God allows them to fleece the flock, the ignorant, unthinking, foolish, stupid flock, raises all manner of questions about the righteousness of God.

Irene Hahn pointed the story out to kill me.

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Superman Sermon Notes? Really?

Because empty headed, vapid, seeker sensitive, emergent preachers can’t actually drum up a sermon from Scripture, they’ve taken to turning the latest pop movie into their subject.  How bereft is modern preaching of substance.

Grace Hill Media describes themselves as “the industry leader in church-based promotion” established “to reach an enormous and underserved population—religious America.” Their past projects are a motley crew of films including “National Treasure”, “Lord of the Rings”, “Ratatouille”, “Cinderella Man”, “Elf” and “Walk the Line”.

For “Man of Steel”, Grace Hill orchestrated a full-scale campaign that provided pastors with movie clips, sermon outlines, and a nine-page briefing titled, “Jesus: The Original Superhero” for download on a flashy Superman ministry resource site. They hired theologian and Pepperdine University professor Craig Detwiler to prepare the materials. He produced similar briefings for “The Blind Side” in 2009 and “The Book of Eli” in 2010.

Why?  Because of two reasons:  first, preachers don’t know what the Bible says so they can’t use it as the textual base for their sermons, and second, because too many pastors and too many churches want to ‘cash in’ on the popularity of various films, draw ‘audiences’ (not worshipers, ‘audiences’) to their ‘shows’ (not ‘worship’, just entertainment) and appear to the world (the same world that Jesus declares hates God and hates his disciples) to be ‘with it’.

What paltry nonsense and worst of all, what a foul and disgusting opinion such persons have of the Gospel; for what they’re saying is that the Gospel isn’t sufficient to draw people to God, fluff and nonsense and common entertainment must supplement it.  This is nothing less than heresy, regardless of whatever pop culture and pop theology’s whining purveyors may say.

Jonathan Merritt remarks

And yet, the whole ordeal makes me a little uncomfortable because it represents another step forward in the commodification of Christianity. In a land of profit and greed, these trends illustrate once again that unchecked capitalism can leverage anything—even faith, even Jesus—to turn a buck. As one comic blogger said, the effort “comes off like a money grab.” It’s hard to disagree with him.

It’s not just a money grab- it’s the bastardization of the Christian Faith.  And that, I hate.

Todd Bentley- Lying Heretic

From the twitter-

@Barthsnotes: NEW POST: Todd Bentley Recalls a Levitating Boy and a Woman’s New Breast http://t.co/2gLj0zhFlr

And people follow and support this deceiver. Appalling.

Rubbish

Not true at all. Jesus did, just ask the pharisees.

This is why you should never get your theology from t-shirts or bumper stickers.

Twitter Theology That Makes Me Sigh: The ‘Some People’s Brains Don’t Work’ Edition

That’s idiotic.  It’s like saying that if you spell one word wrong you’ve spelled them all wrong or if you are wrong about one thing you’re wrong about everything.  No one treats anyone that way- why would anyone treat the Bible that way?  Not to mention the simple fact that these KJV only people are more historically ignorant and more uninformed about the transmission of Scripture than any atheist could ever hope to be.  Indeed, even worse, they are idolaters, worshipers of a book.

The stupid.  It hurts.  Some people’s brains don’t work.

Breaking News: Joel Watts and Jeremy Thompson Prepare for SBL

They’re practicing their conference skills… so to speak… but at least they aren’t driving.

via ref.ch on FB

Twitter Theology That Makes Me Sigh

No, it isn’t.  What this is is the sort of New Age ‘positive thinking’ pseudo-spirituality beloved of Osteen, Warren, and Oprah.  Small wonder that the HuffPo retweeted the twaddle.

Cindy Jacobs is a False Teaching Heretic

Self-proclaimed television prophet Cindy Jacobs recently warned people with Native

oh for the good old days when they knew what to do with heretics

American heritage that they should “repent for their ancestors’ animism” because they are particularly vulnerable to evil spirits.

In an episode of her web series 10 Minute Prayer School last week, Jacobs said that the Leviathan spirit described in Job 41 was often the cause of “divorce, tribal wars, church splits, family feuds, sibling rivalries, ministries breaking up.”

“If you have in your bloodline any animus [sic], any Native American blood, for instance — not all Native Americans worshipped the serpent or crocodile, many did — but you might want to renounce that and repent for the generational iniquity,” she explained. “If you are — perhaps you’re Mexican and you might have indigenous blood in you or Mayan blood, those who have Aztec blood in any way, you need to repent for the sin of animism before you begin to deal with this spirit.”

Cindy, you have no idea what theology is or what Christianity teaches.  People cannot, they CANNOT repent of the deeds of others.  To suggest so is to demonstrate a complete failure of comprehension.  Cindy, YOU need to repent of your heretical teachings.  And for misleading the silly people ignorant enough to believe you.

And those people will have to repent for themselves.

[As to your 'eisegesis' of Scripture as cited above- you are beyond repair so there's no point in bothering to help you understand].

[With thanks to Irene Hahn on FB for the aneurysm].

Hooray…. Noah’s Ark Ride

Again… hooray….  I’m sure they’ve loads of biblical scholars serving as consultants.  Just like the History Channel did when it aired the Bible (and completely ignored their advice most of the time).

The Biblical account of Noah and his Ark poses a lot of questions, even for believers like the creators of the controversial Creation Museum in Kentucky.

What is “gopher wood”? How did Noah fit all those animals on the boat? And how did he stand the smell?

In an office park in Hebron, Kentucky, the designers of the proposed “Ark Encounter” theme park are trying to answer questions like these in order to build faith in the Bible’s literal accuracy. The project has run into delays because of lack of financing, which could cost it millions in potential tax breaks. Despite the uncertainty, a recent Reuters preview of the project showed that plans for the ark are continuing.

“We’re basically presenting what the Bible has to say and showing how plausible it was,” said Patrick Marsh, design director for the park, which will feature a 500-foot-long wooden ark and other Old Testament attractions, including a Tower of Babel and a “Ten Plagues” ride. “This was a real piece of history – not just a story, not just a legend.”

I know a LOT of people I’d like to put on the 10 plagues ride but, really, if they aren’t stricken with those plagues, what’s the point?  If the museum wants to be realistic, shouldn’t its plagues kill lots of people?

Mark Driscoll: Another Anti-Intellectual Posing as a Pastor

Unfortunately for Mr Driscoll, the Bible never says such a thing.  Of course that doesn’t matter to anti-intellectuals like Driscoll, who cherish ignorance because if their hearers/ congregations actually knew the contents and meaning of Scripture they wouldn’t endure the false teaching that Driscoll spews.

Consequently, it’s in Driscoll’s best interest to keep people ‘bible-dumb’.  The last thing he wants or needs is biblical scholars.  His bread and butter is pseudo-scholarship and pseudo-theology.

Another Maniacal Aussie

Is it the heat, Australia, which causes your fair land to be festooned with the maniacal?  Or is it your genetic ancestry of cons, crooks, and thieves?  Whatever the cause, we, the rest of the world, beg you to muzzle your lunatics.*

Former IT specialist Alan John Miller, or AJ as he prefers to be known, runs a religious movement known as the Divine Truth from his home near the small town of Kingaroy in the state of Queensland.  Mr Miller claims that not only is he Christ, but his partner, Australian Mary Luck, is in fact Mary Magdalene, who according to the Bible was present at the crucifixion.

Methinks he should have stuck with IT.

_______________________
*I know what you’re thinking, Australia. You’re thinking ‘hey, Jack, what about your own little hole of misery called Texas?’ Point taken and, in all fairness, well taken indeed. Suffice it to say, the folk who moved to Texas were really destined for Australia but they got lost along the way and, just as Columbus thought he had sailed to India, so too do Texans think they are in Australia.

Twitter Theology that Makes me Sigh

The HuffPo is ‘collecting’ ‘prayers’ for Oklahoma, turning an act of concern and compassion into an opportunity to act pious.  This is clearly senseless for several reasons, the most important of which are-

1- Prayers are best directed to God, not posted on the HuffPo website.

2- It is directly in contradiction to the teaching of Jesus who said quite clearly- But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. (Mt 6:6).

There’s nothing in there about posting your prayers on the website of an organization which does its best to bash Christian faith at every turn.

Satan Has Hacked Joel Watts’ Twitter Account

It’s the only sensible explanation:

Pat Robertson Thinks Cheating Husbands Are OK- Because They’re Dudes…

What a moron.  What.  A.  Moron. What an evil moron.

Instead if giving Biblical advice on adultery (grounds for divorce), Robertson told the wife to stop “talking about the cheating. he cheated on you, Well, okay, he’s a man,”

“What you do is start to focus on why you married him in the first place on what he does good. Does he provide a home for you to live in, does he provide food for you to eat, does he provide clothes for you to wear, is he nice to the children, do you have a happy family? Start focusing on those things and essentially fall in love with him again,” advised Robertson.

Robertson also lectured the wife to “give him honor instead of trying to worry about it. But recognize also, like it or not, males have a tendency to wander a little bit and what you want to do is make a home so wonderful that he doesn’t want to wander.”

What a vile and wicked moron.  Pat isn’t just a jerk, he’s a deceiving jerk.  He’s a false teacher.  He’s a heretic.

Rob Bell’s Senseless Drivel Deconstructed

In the end, my overall concern about this volume is a simple one: it is not Christian. Bell’s makeover of Christianity has changed it into something entirely different. It is not Christianity at all, it is modern liberalism. It is the same liberalism that Machen fought in the 1920′s and the same liberalism prevalent in far too many churches today. It is the liberalism that teaches that God exists and that Jesus is the source of our happiness and our fulfillment, but all of this comes apart from any real mention of sin, judgment, and the cross. It is the liberalism that says we can know nothing for sure, except of course, that those “fundamentalists” are wrong. It is the liberalism that appeals to the Bible from time to time, but then simply ignores large portions of it.

Bell’s book, therefore, is really just spiritualism with a Christian veneer. It’s a book that would fit quite well on Oprah’s list of favorite books. What is Rob Bell talking about when he is talking about God? Not the God of Christianity.

So opines Michael Kruger in his sage evaluation of Bell’s latest foray into non-Christian bookery.  True words.  Additionally, Bell’s work displays a lack of comprehension concerning the meaning of Christianity itself.  It is a true tragedy that he once occupied a pulpit, there misleading and misinforming all those who went to hear him and who were under the impression that he somehow represented the Christian faith.

He is, Kruger is right to say, simply a spiritualist who calls himself a Christian.  Accordingly, he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

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If You Are An Adherent of Mark Driscoll, I Feel Genuinely Sorry for You

Because only people without even a modicum of theological insight or biblical knowledge could sit through one of his sermons without being driven into apoplexy.

“I know who made the environment and he’s coming back and going to burn it all up. So yes, I drive an SUV.” —Mark Driscoll

Tell me again why ANYONE listens to ANYTHING this reprehensible person says?

 

(ht: Bryan Bibb)

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The Ghastly Consequences of Theological Ignorance

Proper theology matters.  The consequences of improper theology can be, and often are, simply appalling.  Take a look at what’s just happened in Chile:

Chilean police on Thursday arrested four people accused of burning a baby alive in a ritual because the leader of the sect believed that the end of the world was near and that the child was the antichrist.

The 3-day-old baby was taken to a hill in the town of Colliguay near the Chilean port of Valparaiso on Nov. 21 and was thrown into a bonfire. The baby’s mother, 25-year-old Natalia Guerra, had allegedly approved the sacrifice and was among those arrested.

“The baby was naked. They strapped tape around her mouth to keep her from screaming. Then they placed her on a board. After calling on the spirits they threw her on the bonfire alive,” said Miguel Ampuero, of the Police investigative Unit, Chile’s equivalent of the FBI.

Authorities said the 12-member sect was formed in 2005 and was led by Ramon Gustavo Castillo Gaete, 36, who remains at large.

Ghastly.  To all who believe proper instruction in dogma doesn’t matter- say so now.

Twitter Theology that Makes Me Sigh…

This is mere anthropocentric pseudo-theology based on the erroneous notion that mankind/humanity is the center of existence.  It decidedly is not.  Theology is about θεος not ανθρωπος.  It’s twitter theology that makes me sigh.  It is false theology because its beginning and foundation is built on sand, not on the rock.

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Pandering, Brooklyn Style

No, Jesus wasn’t a hipster.  And no, you can’t suggest that if he were around in the flesh today he would be.  Jesus was Jesus and if he were walking the streets of Brooklyn he would be whoever he wanted to be, so, Catholic Church, stop pandering to the silly just to draw them in.

Would a modern-day Jesus be the kind of guy who might enjoy wearing thick-rimmed glasses without the lenses and listening to great bands long before you or anyone else thought they were cool?

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn – of course — is suggesting that Christ might just have been that type with its new campaign declaring Jesus “the original hipster.”

The message behind the advertisement, which features a person representing Jesus in a long white robe with a pair of red Converse sneakers peeping out, quickly became a source of fascination for the media.

Making Jesus into your image, or an image you want him to be, is as inappropriate as all those ridiculous 19th century ‘Lives of Jesus’ whose authors looked down into the well and saw their own reflections.  Even worse, you only make him into a caricature.  And that’s just wrong.