As we were heading to the farm to pick blueberries, my son expressed his thoughts about a book that was given to him by a youth group he used to attend. His description of the book is what you see on my post’s title. His gripe was that the author pretty much piggybacked off of a famous author’s thoughts to sell his book.
My husband and I both had to check the book out and my son made some salient points. To be honest, it was a difficult read for me for the very fact that it is sold as his own work but has close to 70 percent of famous people’s quotes, some guy said this, He and she said this better and so on and so forth. It becomes hard to critique a person who hides behind other people’s thoughts. You get lost in the sea of thoughts from Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson, Ronald Rolheiser, Carl Jung… Yes, that’s right. How can a book marketed as Christian even have Carl Jung in there? This takes me back to my New Age days. At the mention of all this, it is apparent the man is a proponent of the Ecumenical Movement.
Separated from all the borrowed material was this man’s heresy that Jesus needed to go to the wilderness to get “clarity about his identity and calling” to “know what to say yes to and, just as importantly, what to say no to” implying that he was stripped of his omniscience when He walked this earth. Without this aspect, Jesus would just be one of us.
Sadly, this man happens to still be a pastor in Portland, OR… And people are wondering why Christians are apostatizing by the droves. Christianity as a whole is being hijacked by people who have the appearance of being learned in the Scriptures and are spewing unbiblical notions backed by their Masters Degree at some Theological seminary. Pull them away from the borrowed material and see what happens. Do they hold to the authority of Scripture or will they invoke another man’s argument apart from Scripture?
A blogger was glorying in all the compliments she was getting about how clear her post was, but when I confronted her about why she was forwarding something unbiblical, I was waiting for her explanation, but the only words I heard from her was, “I respectfully disagree.” To my surprise, the following day, she deleted her entire blog and restarted from scratch under another name. Deleting a blog because she did not want to answer the question is rather extreme.
“I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5
… Apart from me, you can do nothing.
The point of the story and the bad news is that this man is NOT hearing straight from the Holy Spirit. That is why he has scholars’ and famous quotes to support the point he is making in his book. I do not want to get into the Social Justice undertones in his book because this post will never end (he’s okay with democratic Socialism). Do not be fooled by titles. There are plenty of pastors out there who have the title for a living, but their hearts are far from the Lord. DO NOT BE DECEIVED!
Scripture is God’s Word. Nothing will explain Scripture other than Scripture itself. When it comes to Christian doctrine, resolve to not go beyond what is written to explain Scripture (1 Corinthians 4:6).
If you are not hearing from the Holy Spirit, someone else will take His place.
Who are you listening to?
Related read: Orbs & Raindrops
Your son is a wise young man, praise the Lord!
To God be the glory indeed! He blessed me with a husband who encourages the kids to read Scripture together. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.
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