Friday, March 27
Are You Obligated To Forego Fast Food So Church Leaders Can Pose As Pious?
Redeemer Lutheran Church 3/15/15
Priests Mocked For Exposing Yoga’s Cultic Nature
Interesting how professional clergy get all excited about urban ministry yet have seen some remark that their building looks like a “country church”. What’s so wrong with a “country church”? I know must of those folks are White, but don’t they need Jesus too? Apart from massive cathedrals, “country style” churches tend to be the most photogenic.
Wednesday, March 25
Phil Robertson Enunciates One Of The Greatest Apologetic Arguments Of All Time
Homeschool Activist Insists Converts To Catholicism & Anglicanism Little Better Than Serial Killers
In his tirade, Swanson went off on how could anyone could go from the perspective that the just shall live by faith alone to one where an anathema is pronounced upon those that undermine the role of works in securing eternal salvation.
One cannot speak to the nature of the Baptist church attended by these twins in their youth, but in some of these hardline Baptist and Presbyterian churches in Swanson's orbit, often the soteriological formulations on either side of the Reformation divide have degenerated pretty much into a distinction without a difference.
Granted, this particular variety of Protestant talks an exquisite game regarding the nature of salvation as a free gift and how our works are as filthy rags.
However, from the clarifying expositions and admonitions of these pulpit homilists, it is not enough for the believer to strive for the big virtues such as loving your family, refraining from sex outside of marriage, and slipping a few dollars into the collection plate every once in a while.
According to this particular strain of Protestantism, you might not even be a Christian if you don't share particular viewpoint regarding the propriety of denying females access to education, the necessity of begetting more than five children, and the imperative of being married by 25 years of age.
Perhaps more would hold to the liberty that is claimed to be found in Christ if they were allowed to experience the liberty found in Christ rather than being forced into the spiritual slavery found under another form of legalism.
Kevin Swanson isn't even Baptist but rather Presbyterian.
So how would he like it if some fanatic Baptist raved that Presbyterianism was a slide back down into Rome's eventual embrace?
Instead of insinuating that your formerly Baptist child is one step away from being a serial killer if they become a Catholic or Anglican, perhaps Kevin Swanson will also give as much time reflecting upon what might have pushed these individuals away from a Reformed understanding of the faith in the first place.
By Frederick Meekins
Tuesday, March 24
Southern Baptists Applaud Financially Unprepared Child Marriages
It was said in a sermon that, if one visits a foreign country and one is identified as an American before one is identified as a Christian, there is something wrong in your life. Not necessarily. And what exactly is a distinctive Christian mode of dress? Given that the minister making the remark is explicitly Baptist, it is doubtful that this pastor would think that highly of clergy shirts, habits, vestments, or monastic robes. Secondly, it is not someone’s fault if they look American in terms of their physical appearance. Granted, Europeans often share a similar genetic ancestry with run of the mill Caucasian Americans. However, one is forced to admit that many Europeans possess a more gaunt or malnourished countenance. Just because the residents of the Old World might not be as fastidious in terms of their grooming, it does not follow that Americans are obligated to adopt similar practices of deliberate slovenliness
Atheist Presbyterian Insists It’s Hate Speech To Claim He’s Not A Christian
Jesuit Subversives Call For The Genocide Of The White Race
Monday, March 23
Ministerial Red Lights Necessary To Prevent Ghastly Church Accidents
In one of the the remarks, he observed that one hand must be on the wheel.
He expanded on that declaration by saying, “At the church house, someone has to be in charge. A leader is a necessity. The pastor is the scripturally appointed, God-anointed person to be the leader.”
Smith further clarified, “Many of our churches are sitting idle and getting nowhere because just before they put the pastor in the driver's seat, they tied his hands behind his back...So let's get real! And let's be scriptural about it! Let's get a driver who knows how to handle the vehicle and let him drive it. Amen!”
Very well then.
Let us be scriptural about the matter in compliance with Shelton Smith's admonition.
Where in the corpus of divine revelation is blind obedience to the pastor commanded?
If anything, it seems that quite the opposite might be called for.
Acts 17:11 reads, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scripture every day to see if what Paul said was true (NIV).”
Let's continue a bit with the driving analogies.
Despite dealing with her own doctrinal challenges as she navigates reconciling the demands of celebrity and the Christian faith, Carrey Underwood exclaimed “Jesus, take the wheel.”
How is what Shelton Smith is arguing for that much different in kind than the papal infallibility and the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church where those in the pews are expected to keep their mouths shut if they want to be considered acceptable members?
If anything, isn't the pastor more of a tour guide than a driver that is not to be questioned or challenged?
For is not Christ or the revealed Word of God in Scripture the one theoretically driving this bus?
In the age of the child predator, the fit parent reinforces in the mind of their offspring not to get into a vehicle with someone they don't know, don't trust, or have a suspicious feeling about.
In this day where all kinds of abuse (both spiritual and physical) is taking place in a variety of churches across Christianity's vast theological spectrum, contrary to the impression given by the likes of Josh Harris in his book “Stop Dating The Church”, you as an individual created in the image of God are free to get off the bus of a particular congregation any time you want.
A minister that insists upon broad pastoral powers without teaching that these are curtailed within explicitly delineated boundaries has neglected his responsibilities in a manner not that markedly different than an intoxicated motorist as he veers into lanes in which he ought not to travel.
By Frederick Meekins