To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. (Isaiah 8:20, ESV)

A Spiritual Timebomb Has Been Planted

The online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries has been introducing you to a growing infestation of self-proclaimed, and self-styled, outlaw preachers growing up around chief outlaw “punk” preacher, the gay-affiming “pastor” Jay Bakker. Being that I am one Jesus has actually sent as one of His pastor-teachers I have good reason for doing so. For example 2 Timothy 4:2 — Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage.

It’s also part of the duty of a pastor to be holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict (Titus 1:9, NASB). God didn’t ask me if I’d like to do this; and in addition to AM, since Jesus also decided to give me Christian Research Net, so this I’ll continue to do. In fact, when CRN was given to me I immediately brought a number of fellow pastor-teachers on board.

With this in mind, you need to be aware e.g. that “queer inclusive” (her term) ELCA “pastor” Nadia Bolz-Weber has chosen to align herself with such as these. She is to be a featured speaker at the upcoming Christianity 21 EC conference; and you’ll also see in Jay Bakker Featured On OOZE.TV, that the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church—morphing into Emergence Christianity (EC)—has now come out showing its support for Bakker by pushing him forth. It was simply a matter of time.

Beyond question, there is a gay affirming agenda now being advanced by leaders such as Tony Jones within the postliberal cult of the EC; only you’d best realize that they’re not aiming anymore simply at the mainline denominations, the original cult of liberal (modern) theology already mortally wounded them by injecting their pelagian man-love into them a generation ago. As a matter of fact, you just witnessed in the ELCA And Homosexuality as one of the more conservative of mainline denominations entered their death throes.

The reason is really rather simple; we take for example, the United Methodist Church the ELCA voted to partner with: Without Sola Scriptura, and having ordained women to the pastorate for years now, no doubt soon we’ll witness the UMC itself also cave on gay clergy. The progression from Sola Scriptura follows a crystal clear pattern: ecumenicism, contemplative practices, ordaining women for “equality,” who then open the door to full inclusion of gays, and lastly for further equality, the ordination of practicing homosexuals. 

Likely as soon as the next UMC General Conference in 2012 you will witness the battle explode; if not even before, it’s only a matter of time. When decisions are made by the concensus of how people feel, instead of what the text of the Bible actually says, then upon what basis can any denomination with that corrupt view of Scripture possibly exclude any of those who say that they “love Jesus” from anything? Which brings me back around to why I’ve used outlaw preachers as an object lesson in some of my recent teaching.

You see, outlaw preachers such as Khad Young may mean well; but, they are dead wrong in their reimagined version of Gospel Reductionism; a kind of Lutheran Liberalism 2.0. Young Tweets:

If you are more concerned with being right than being loving, you are neither. (Online source)

First of all, his statement is a straw man; no one regenerated by God the Holy Spirit is more concerned with being right than with being loving. But as my friend Chris Rosebrough, who is Missouri Synod, of Pirate Christian Radio tried lovingly to explain to Young:

@khad Preaching false doctrine & sending people to hell through it is NOT Loving. #outlawpreachers (Online source)

However, we can just as easily reverse Young’s musing: If you are more concerned with a false type of love than holding fast the faithful word, than you are neither loving, nor right. In closing this for now, I leave you with the following devotional from A.W. Tozer from my morning meditations upon God’s Word. Sadly, the visible church ignored his warning concerning encroaching liberalism, and it’ll likely ignore those of men like Rosebrough and myself concerning post-modern (post-liberal) theology.

It matters not, for in every generation God always has His witness so men are without excuse; those who have ears to hear, let them hear…

Believe The Right Things

And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. (John 8:23-24)

Because the heart of the Christian life is admittedly faith in a person, Jesus Christ the Lord, it has been relatively easy for some to press this truth out of all proportion and teach that faith in the Person of Christ is all that matters. Who Jesus is matters not, who His Father was, whether Jesus is God or man or both, whether or not He accepted the superstitions and errors of His time as true, whether He actually rose again after His passion or was only thought to have done so by His devoted followers–these things are not important, say the no-creed advocates. What is vital is that we believe on Him and try to follow His teachings.

What is overlooked here is that the conflict of Christ with the Pharisees was over the question of who He was. His claim to be God stirred the Pharisees to fury. He could have cooled the fire of their anger by backing away from His claim to equality with God, but He refused to do it. And He further taught that faith in Him embraced a belief that He is very God, and that apart from this there could be no salvation for anyone….

To believe on Christ savingly means to believe the right things about Christ. There is no escaping this. TIC022.

“Thank You, Lord, that You are Who You claim to be and that our salvation does indeed rest on a solid foundation. Don’t let me ever back down from this vital truth of Who You are. Amen.” (Tozer on Christian Leadership, August 28)

See also:

POPULAR EMERGING CHURCH WEBSITE THE OOZE SLITHERS OUT OF THE GLBTQ-AFFIRMING CLOSET

HOMOPRESSIVE AS JAY BAKKER

KEN SILVA, JAY BAKKER AND HOMOSEXUALITY

ELCA, GOSPEL REDUCTIONISM, AND HOMOSEXUALITY

APPRISING MINISTRIES WITH A PEEK AT THE COMING SOTERIOLOGY OF EMERGENCE CHRISTIANITY

BUT DO EMERGENCE CHRISTIANITY AND BRIAN MCLAREN REALLY LOVE GAY PEOPLE?

DR. WALTER MARTIN ON APOSTASY