Christianity Today

I read through a number of articles from CT last night. This magazine is commonly referred to as "Christianity Astray" because it often promotes the new liberalism of the day.

I saw Rick Warren the other day on Oprah. I was sad he did not mention the gospel even though he had a great platform to do so. He did mention his "Purpose Driven" book among other things.......

The new issue of CT has Warren on the cover (pp 32ff). He is trying to be an advocate for social issues. Rwanda is going to be the first "Purpose Driven Country." Pastors in Africa walk many miles to download Warren's Sunday AM sermonettes. His influence is not limited to America.

He was considered by TIME the 2nd most influential Evangelical living today. Warren is a multi-millionaire with book sales for PDL and PDC topping 26 million books. At one point, the Purpose Driven Life sold up to 1 million copies a month. Oprah said she read Warren's book and was really moved by it (whatever that means). I would never want to write a Christian book that unbelievers can read and not be convicted after reading it through. Joel Osteen has the same type of popular approach in his preaching. I had a friend from a previous job who was living with her boyfriend who absolutely loved Joel's preaching. I guess she "discovered the champion" in herself. :) There are many good critiques on these books/authors already in print so i won't waste your time here.

Warren PD curriculum has trained 400,000 pastors from 162 nations. His influence is MAJOR, to say the least. From the CT article it appears Warren has moved towards a "social gospel." This is nothing new. Many pastor's have warned us of this thing for some time now.

On a positive side, some of the seeker friendly gurus have used their multi-millionaire dollar empires to help the poverty problem in Africa. I believe God can use anyone to accomplish anything according to His sovereign plan. Helping AIDS orphans is always a good thing.

My prayer is that Warren, Wilkinson, and others don't water down the gospel message in their efforts to help Africa. Sadly, i don't think theology and doctrine are high priorities in the Seeker-Driven ministry. This ties in with my previous post and sermon on Luke 16:31 (see yesterday's post).


CT also has an interesting article on "Seminaries" (pp 100ff). If read discerningly it is a good read. It shows the new thinking behind the modern Evangelical seminary movement. Some of it is good, but much of it is scary. There are not many quality seminaries and Christian colleges left out there.


Think Biblically.


1 More Thing: I leave you with one quote from the President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, "I do not believe for us as Lutherans, human sexuality is a church defining or church-dividing isssue....We can live with some ambiguity about these questions." Mark Hanson

The self-sufficient Christian

Does anyone have any thoughts about the "self-sufficient Christian."

The man or woman who does not want anyone getting into his/her business? The person who thinks privacy is the ultimate Christian luxury. The boy or girl who is "introverted." Etc, etc.



Verses like James 5:16, "confess your sins to one another" among many others seem to convey a different type of life-style.


Any verses, thoughts, opinions?

Luke 16:19-31

I recently preached a 2 PT sermon series from Luke 16:19-31. (see http://www.fbccarmel.com/)
I have never heard this portion of Scripture taught prior to last year (Al Mohler at TMC). Verse 31 is one of the most powerful verses in the NT; sadly it is often overlooked.

I think the message of this parable is timely and much needed.

I attended GCC for 13 years and have a tape library with over 500 MacArthur sermons. Like all of you, John has had an enormous impact on my walk with God. I graduated from both TMC and TMS. I was privilidged to be mentored by J Wragg and C Hardy; Two gifted men of God who've also been mentored by Pastor John (they of course, in a much more hands on fashion then us).

I believe Pastor MacArthur's sermon series on Jude at this past years Shepherd's Conference were some of his all-time best. They had a prophetic tone to them. Like his previous series on "Deliverance, the Neglected Doctrine."

Here is an edited quote from his 1st sermon on Jude 3-4,
“Doctrinal shallowness, doctrinal ignorance, doctrinal indifference dominates the church today.
We are far more concerned with style than we are with substance; More concerned with acceptance than accuracy;More concerned with popularity then power; Strong doctrine is seen as the enemy of Evangelicalism today! We are more concerned with providing people enjoyment than conviction; Self-fulfillment reigns over self-denial; Honoring the sinner is more important than honoring the Savior.

Pastors have been seduced into this by size and bigness and success!Entrepreneurs have overpowered the doctrinally undiscerning church.They’ve replaced men of God faithful to the Word;And they’ve completely taken over the Church.

Entrepreneurs are the new models of ministry.”

I told God's people this past Sunday, "What I fear Church, is that these days we sound much more like the Rich Man, then we do Abraham!"

I'm thankful www.tmsalumni.blogspot.com consists of those men committed to the "outdated, insufficient Word."

Our Seminary President is a great example of this!

Preach the Word,

CK

first baptist church

Check out my new church home

www.fbccarmel.com


I am an Ast. Pastor at a Reformed Baptist Church. So far my wife and I love it here.

New

I've enjoyed reading other people's blogs so i decided to start one myself. I'll probably use this more as a resource to point other people to good web-sites and blog posts.


In Him,

Caleb