Aaron Hernandez, the famed football tight-end for the New England Patriots, was convicted of the murder of Odin Lloyd who died of a gunshot wound on June 17, 2013, in North Attleborough, MA. Hernandez was arrested 9 days later in connection with his death, and was found guilty of first-degree murder which came with a mandatory life-sentence without the possibility of parole.

Hernandez was also indicted for the 2012 double homicide of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, but was acquitted earlier this year. Just days after his acquittal, Hernandez was found dead in his prison cell having hanged himself. His death was ruled a suicide. Cardboard was jammed under the cell door to make it difficult for someone to enter and stop him, and Hernandez had covered the floor in shampoo so his feet would slip and he'd be unable to save himself if he had second thoughts.

He left three handwritten letters next to an open Bible and had written the reference to "John 3:16" in ink on his forehead. He also had rosary beads hanging on the wall of his cell. In addition were drawings on the walls in his own blood. One drawing was an unfinished pyramid with the Eye of Providence and the word "Illuminati" scrawled underneath. In the notes he had written, he said he was entering a "timeless realm," that he loved his family, and no one should shed any tears for him.

Today, less than three weeks after his suicide, a Massachusetts judge acquitted Hernandez of murder, and based her decision on a legal rule called abatement ab initio. According to the rule, if a defendant dies before their appeal is heard, the conviction gets thrown out. Hernandez did not have the chance to appear before he took his own life. So though Aaron Hernandez died a convicted murderer, in the eyes of the law, thanks to this legal loophole, he is an innocent man.

There is a day that is fixed on which God will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31). Everyone will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and He will gather the nations before Him and separate them as one separates the sheep from the goats. Those who worshiped Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and did the things that Jesus did will enter into eternal life. But those who did not know Christ will suffer under the eternal wrath of God (Matthew 25:31-46).

There will be no legal loopholes. It is appointed for a man to die once, and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). None of the laws that man can devise will be able to save a person on that day. Such laws and legal stipulations have no bearing on the condition of a person's eternal soul. Jesus said not to fear the one who can destroy the body and after that can do nothing. Instead, we are to fear Him who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell (Luke 12:4-5).

A man or woman can die innocent in this life, having not broken any law of man. But on the other side, he or she will be found guilty of breaking the Law of God. As for the lawless and disobedient, the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the Law of God (1 Timothy 1:9-11).

As for adulterers, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). As for the heart that brings forth evil thoughts, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and slander (Matthew 15:19). As for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death (Revelation 21:8).

All have sinned, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 3:23, 6:23). The only way that a man can escape this sentence under the holy and righteous justice of the living God is if his sins have been atoned for by the perfect blood of Jesus Christ. This is not a "loophole." Justice has been paid, and it has been paid by Christ. This is the grace and mercy of a loving God who, though we deserve His wrath and nothing else, gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works (Titus 2:14).

The wrath of God was poured out upon Christ on the cross. He took our sentence upon Himself, and by His wounds we are healed of our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). He cancelled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:14). Jesus kept the Law when we could not and lived a perfect life, and for our sake He became sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

For those who have turned from sin and worship Christ the Lord, your sins are forgiven for His name's sake (1 John 2:12). Let your conduct in this world be honorable, so that when others speak up against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day that He returns to judge the living and the dead (1 Peter 2:12). This is the only way for you to be saved -- through faith in Jesus Christ -- and no other way. There is no other way one can stand righteous before God than clothed in the righteousness of Christ. He will forgive you your sins, cleansed from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9), and save you from the day of wrath, making it for you a day of rejoicing.

Even more than this, we will be raised with new and imperishable bodies, like the body of Christ our Lord (Philippians 3:21), and will become fellow heirs with Him in His kingdom. He will wipe away every tear and death shall be no more, neither will there be mourning, crying, or pain ever again (Revelation 21:4). Turn from sin and cry out to God for forgiveness, and you will have it. Go to church so that you may grow in the knowledge of Him, in brotherly love and kindness, stirring one another to love and good works, encouraging each other as we see the Day of the Lord drawing near (Hebrews 10:25).

No one knows the day or the hour that they will die. And there are any number of ways that you could be taken out of this world at a moment. A feather can hold itself to the ground against a strong gust of wind more effectively than you can hold your life in your own hands. As the great preacher Jonathan Edwards has said:

"It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there are no visible danger in any respect to his circumstances... All the means that there are of sinners going out of the world, are so in God's hands, and so universally and absolutely subject to His power and determination, that it does not depend at all the less on the mere will of God, whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell, than if means were never made use of, or at all concerned in the case."

It is by the grace and will of God that you have not been snuffed out in this very moment, though that is what you deserve. And God has no obligation to spare you His wrath. Who has done anything for God that He owes something to them (Romans 11:35)? He sits in the heavens and He does as He pleases (Psalm 115:3).

But it has pleased God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to atone for the sins of His people. He rose again from the grave, showing that He has power over death itself, so that all who believe in Him will inherit His eternal life. He has done this by His great mercy and love, to the praise of His glorious grace (Ephesians 1:6). We know God is true to His promises to save the people of Jesus Christ because He is true to Himself (2 Timothy 2:13).

The verse that Aaron Hernandez scrawled on his forehead, John 3:16, says this: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Aaron Hernandez did not understand this verse or any of the word of God, nor did he have the life of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, he would not have taken his own life, for no one who murders has the eternal life of Christ abiding in him (1 John 3:15).

There is no sin Aaron Hernandez committed that he would not have been forgiven. But instead of trusting in Christ, he tried many other ways to get to heaven by his own power -- not through the God of the Bible, but through the false god of the Illuminati and the false god of the Roman Catholic Church. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets to the Father but by me" (John 14:6). Jesus is not one of the ways. He is the only way to God. And whoever does not know the truth does not know the way.

Though a judge on earth may pardon the sins of Aaron Hernandez, the judge of all the universe does not submit to the will of men. He is great and He is fearful, which is why it is said, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Proverbs 1:7). Whoever does not fear God knows nothing (1 Corinthians 8:2). All of His works are wonderful. The stupid man cannot know and the fool cannot understand the mighty workings of God; that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever (Psalm 92:6-7).

Today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). This is the day to turn from your sin. Call upon the Lord and ask for His forgiveness. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will exalt you (James 4:8-10). Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved (Acts 16:31).

Hey, Pastor Gabe

We are looking for your "Jesus Calling" responses and can't find them for some reason. Can you help?

Rob, FL

Sure thing. In fact, I'll share everything I've written after reading through Jesus Calling, the flagship title of Sarah Young's bestselling devotional series. Publisher Thomas Nelson recently rolled out their latest title, Jesus Calling for Christmas, joining others in the series like Jesus Calling Morning and Evening, Jesus Calling for Kids, Jesus Calling for Little Ones, Jesus Calling Bible Storybook, Jesus Calling for Graduates, Jesus Calling for Athletes, Jesus Calling Devotional Bible, and Jesus Calling: Deluxe Edition with teal imitation leather. Spin-offs and sequels have included Jesus Always, Jesus Today, Jesus Lives, and an assortment of Jesus Delicious candy bars.

A Tale as Big as a Kite

At the start of the year, I posted a blog about the book God Calling by Two Listeners, Sarah Young's chief inspiration for her bestselling devotional. The two anonymous women behind God Calling likely never existed—author A.J. Russell invented them to give his own writing the appearance of being verified by the testimony of two or three witnesses. Nevertheless, Young followed the method for receiving messages from God detailed in the introduction to God Calling.

Like Russell and his two anonymous women, Young said that she did not feel whole with simple Bible study and prayer. Those were ways you know about God, she thought, but it's not how you get to know Him intimately. She wanted something more. Young had a specific room where she would go and listen for God to speak to her. She started by praying that her mind would be protected from any distractions, distortions, or deceptions. She only wanted to hear the voice of Jesus and understand clearly every single word He meant for her to receive. She said, "Help me, Holy Spirit." Then she sat patiently and listened.

Phrases and sentences began coming to her mind, and she wrote them down. It was Jesus speaking! Er, calling! Or something! She would later clarify, likely in response to criticism, that this was not an audible voice she heard—she "heard" Him in her mind (to the best of my knowledge, she's never explained how the voice of Jesus sounds different than her own thoughts). During these sessions, she would take breaks and read what she'd written, encouraged by such fresh, new words from the Lord.

"This new way of communicating with God became the high point of my day," Young wrote. She had changed her prayer time from monologue to dialogue—she said something to God, and He said something back to her. Which she just had to write down and get published, right? Her writings became the bestselling daily devotional Jesus Calling. And then Jesus Lives. And then Jesus Today. And then Jesus Always. Et cetera, ad nauseum. (By the way, you knew I was kidding about the Jesus Delicious candy bars, right? Don't get any ideas, Thomas Nelson.)

But as with God Calling, when tested with the Scriptures, there's no way Jesus Calling could be the voice of Jesus. Someone might say, "Well, maybe Sarah didn't actually hear Jesus's voice, but at least the content is still biblical, right?" No, it's really not.

Do You Hear What I Hear

Just like God Calling, most of Jesus Calling is spiritual marshmallowy fluff: "Shimmering hues of radiance tap gently at your conscience, seeking entrance" (January 8). "Your prayers and petitions are winged into heaven's throne room when they are permeated with thanksgiving" (February 25). "I speak to you in love-tones, lifting you up" (March 19). "Take time to rest in the Love-Light of My Presence" (May 12). "Sit quietly in my Love-Light while I bless you with radiant Peace" (June 3).

Then there are passages that are downright weird. Consider these quotes from July: "As you spend time soaking in My Presence, you are energized and lightened" (July 1). "Throw off this oppressive burden with one quick thrust of trust" (July 15). "As you listen to birds calling to one another, hear also my Love-call to you" (July 25). "Let My Love seep into the inner recesses of your being... Wounds that you shut away from the Light of My Love will fester and become wormy" (July 28). July was apparently a very strange month for Young.

Apart from the bizarre, what really does the book in are its theological issues. The most obvious problem (at least it should be the most obvious) is that Young believes she heard the voice of Jesus. This places her on the level of the prophets and the apostles who gave us the Scriptures. Bet let's set that point aside for now. Just taking at face-value the theology she presents in her writing, problems abound. Since Young claims these are the words of Jesus, we must ask, "Would Jesus actually say that?" and test Young's words with the Bible.

Not the "Jesus Calling Devotional Bible," as seen on the far right.

Young's Jesus said, "I am your Father-God. Listen to me" (July 6). No where in the Bible does Jesus refer to Himself as Father-God. This is flirting with heresy. It's way too close to the false teaching of patripassianism, which claims that God the Father and God the Son are the same person within the Godhead (I've addressed that particular false teaching here).

Now, in the footnotes to that July 6 devotional, Young included the reference to Isaiah 9:6. You probably hear this verse a lot around Christmastime: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (emphasis mine).

This is not the same as calling Jesus our Father-God. Isaiah was illustrating that the coming Messiah, Jesus, will be King. As King, He will be our Wonderful Counselor who makes wise plans; our Mighty God which is the title of the Lord Himself; an Everlasting Father, meaning that He is our federal head in place of Adam; and Prince of Peace, meaning that He is the ruler who will destroy His enemies and make peace.

My point is this: if Jesus had actually spoken to Young, He would not have referred to Himself as Father-God. If Young had a doctrinal point to make, she should have made it in her own voice. Writing as though her words were Christ's words causes confusion, and God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). Maybe Young isn't a heretic. Maybe she does believe God is Triune, and Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. At best, her reference to Jesus as Father-God is heterodoxy, meaning that she distorts sound teaching concerning an essential biblical doctrine like the Trinity of God.

Young's Jesus said, "I look for persistence—rather than perfection—in your walk with me" (June 23). Again, this is not something Jesus would have said. What He did say was, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). As Christians, we have been given a righteousness that is not our own, and we are to pursue that righteous perfection and make it our own. Paul said, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own" (Philippians 3:12).

Young's Jesus said, "Stop judging and evaluating yourself, for this is not your role." On the contrary, we are instructed, "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" (2 Corinthians 13:5). Paul also told the Corinthians, "Let a person examine himself," and he told the Galatians, "Let each one test his own work."

Do You Know What I Know

Young's Jesus said, "I abhor the use of guilt as a means of motivation among Christians. Some pastors try to whip their people into action with guilt-inducing sermons" (September 7). Again, this is not something Jesus would say. In fact, it's contrary to what Jesus said and did. Gospel-preaching pastors preach to convict the heart of sin because Jesus preached that way, addressing both believers and unbelievers.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told His disciples, "Everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire" (Matthew 5:22). He said, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28). Yet wasn't Jesus loving and gracious when He preached such things?


John Piper addressed this in his book The Supremacy of God in Preaching. Regarding the doctrine of hell, Piper referenced the great puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards who said, "This doctrine is indeed awful and dreadful, yet 'tis of God." Piper added, "Edwards could not remain silent where Jesus was so vocal. Hell awaits every unconverted person. Love must warn them with the threats of the Lord" (Pg. 92).

The Apostle Paul's letters to the Corinthians confronted specific sins in a body of believers to bring them to guilt so they would repent. Paul said, "This is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything" (2 Corinthians 2:8). Convicting sermons that warn about the fires of hell are a loving test of obedience. In chapter 7:8-11, Paul went on to say:

For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. 

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

Let me shoot straight with you—when I preach about sin and judgment from the Bible, I want my hearers to feel guilty so they would stop sinning and know the grace of God! I want them to feel bad about the evil that they have done. It's not because I enjoy making people feel miserable. I do it out of love. And I don't try to make anyone feel like dirt. My responsibility is to preach the gospel of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts concerning sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:8). I desire that none should perish but that all should reach repentance.

James said, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you" (James 4:7-10).

What makes Jesus Calling all the more objectionable is not just in what it says but also in what it doesn't say. Young does not confront any kind of serious sin in her book. She addresses things like being prideful because you skipped your quiet time with Jesus, or because you spend more time planning your day instead of reading a page of Jesus Calling (so much for "I abhor the use of guilt"). But sins like murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander, which Jesus did confront in the hearts of his hearers (Matthew 15:19), are never mentioned.

Listen to What I Say

Young's Jesus said, "Your gravest danger is worrying about tomorrow" (February 27). Seriously? Your gravest danger is that you worry about tomorrow? That's what people go to hell over—they worried about tomorrow too much? Young's Jesus also referred to worry as "wolves" (March 4). The real Jesus reserved the word "wolves" for false teachers and the wicked who are out to devour the flock of God. He said, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves" (Matthew 7:15, 10:16).

In the voice of Jesus, Young said, "I will have no other gods before me" (June 5). Specifically, the commandment says, "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). For Jesus to say "I will have no other gods before me" doesn't even make sense—there are no other gods (Isaiah 45:5, 14, 18, 21-22). The command is addressed to you so you would worship God and Him alone; with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Do not make an idol of anyone or any thing by desiring it more than God.


John Calvin said, "Man's nature is a perpetual factory of idols" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book I, Chapter XI, Section 8). It is in our nature to worship something other than God. Whatever we value more than God, that becomes an idol—which is why the Apostle Paul said that even coveting is idolatry (Colossians 3:5). Do not dare soften the truth of the nature of your heart, lest you fall into the devil's snares. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you (James 4:7-8).

Jesus Calling appeals heavily to the self-centered nature of the reader. Young's Jesus said, "Because I am omnipotent, I am able to bend time and events in your favor" (February 10). And, "Because I am infinite, I am able to love you as if you and I were the only ones in the universe" (September 29). No, God does not bend time and events in your favor, and He doesn't love you as if you were the only person in the universe to love. I hear statements like this all the time, but it's not at all the reality of God's plan of redemption.

Jesus said, "I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18). The Bible says Jesus gave Himself for us to purify for Himself a people, plural (Titus 2:14). By His death, we've been reconciled not only to God but also to the people of God (1 Peter 2:9). The bride of Christ is the church, not you by yourself (Ephesians 5:25). We are to strive to excel in building up the church, not puffing up ourselves (1 Corinthians 14:12).

Jesus intends for you to be in regular fellowship with other Christians. Yes, Christian, you have to go to church, and you are to build others up that we all may grow in maturity together. Paul prayed for the Thessalonians, "May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints" (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13).

On every page of Jesus Calling, there's a looming sense of irony that the book is never able to shake. Young's Jesus said, "You must learn to discern what is My voice and what's not" (March 3). Right, take your own advice, Sarah! Her Jesus said, "Your pretense displeases Me, especially when it is in my ‘service'" (July 22). Pretense is an attempt to make something appear true that isn't.

Young's Jesus said, "I have instructed you to trust in Me, not your own understanding" (August 7). Yet when tested with the Bible, it is evident Jesus Calling is not the word of Jesus, but it comes from Young's own understanding. She wrote, "Many voices proclaim, 'This is the way for you to go,' but only My voice tells you the true way" (November 17). Young listened to one of those "many voices," not the voice of Christ.

Finally, Young's Jesus said, "Bookstores abound with books about 'taking care of number one,' making oneself the center of all things" (October 26). Young's voice is the center of Jesus Calling, not God's. Her own words condemn her. Jesus Calling has failed its own test. None of Sarah Young's books should be sold in any Christian bookstore anywhere.

Pray for Peace People Everywhere

Someone might say, "But Brother Gabe, there are good parts of the book, are there not?" No, there are not. "You mean to say it's all bad?" Yes, that's exactly what I mean to say. "But what about where she quotes Jesus saying, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.' Isn't that true?"

In the context of Jesus Calling, it doesn't matter. As John Owen said, "If private revelations agree with Scriptures, they are needless. And if they disagree, they are false" (J.I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness, Pg. 86). So if someone says they've received a vision or a voice from God, and we test it with the Bible, and we find that it contradicts God's word, it's a lie, throw it away. If we find that it is in God's word, you can still throw away this person's special revelation because we don't need it—we have it in the Bible.

This is a very serious issue, so I have to be this harsh, but I say it in love—Sarah Young is blaspheming God with every word she writes in the pages of Jesus Calling. She is taking the Lord's name in vain. She is claiming to speak the thoughts of God that are not the thoughts of God. Therefore, none of it is good. It should all be discarded.

I will give you another example. On July 11, in the voice of Jesus, she says the following:

Worship me only. Idolatry has always been the downfall of My people. I make no secrets about being a jealous God. Current idols are more subtle than ancient ones because today's false gods are often outside the field of religion. People, possessions, status, and self-aggrandizement are some of the most popular deities today. Beware of bowing down before these things. False gods never satisfy; instead, they stir up lust for more and more.

Now, that all seems true, right? God is a jealous God, and we can make anything into an idol, exalting to the place of God something that we value above God. Here's the looming, unshakable irony: Young is lampooning idolatry in the voice of a god of her own making! If Young had said this in her own voice, it would have been fine. But it wouldn't have been a bestseller. The reason Jesus Calling has sold umpteen million books is precisely because it's written in the voice of Jesus. Remember, Young doesn't do that for mere flare—she believes and has claimed these are the words of Jesus given to her.


There are millions of Christians who will eat this up because they feel the same way that Young does: "Bible study and prayer just don't do it for me." These are the gifts that God has given us for communicating with Him: He speaks to us through the Bible, we speak to Him through prayer. But for some, that's just not good enough: "My thoughts are just as good as God's thoughts. After all, He gave them to me, right?"Yeah, flip to Numbers 12 and see how God responded to Miriam, Moses's sister, when she said something similar.

This attitude of exalting one's own thoughts is born out of a failure to understand that the human heart is selfish and corrupt. Jeremiah said, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) Jeremiah calls the human heart "deceitful." It deceives us. It deceives us into thinking that we can think thoughts as high as God's thoughts. But God said, "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9).

The only way our thoughts can be conformed to the mind of God is by reading the word of God. But Young has all but outright rejected that part from her meditation. I know she said Jesus Calling is supposed to be read with your Bible open, and she confessed the Bible is the only inspired word, but she does not believe it's sufficient. She said herself that Bible study wasn't enough, and she presented her book as the inspired word of Jesus. As far as Jesus Calling is concerned, she does not demonstrate that she truly believes the Bible is the only divinely inspired word of God.

In fact, Young is so not satisfied with God's method that she's resorted to mysticism. Remember, Young quietly meditated with pen in hand, waiting for something spiritual to come into her mind and being guided to write down whatever she "heard." This is exactly the practice of automatic writing. It's new age, akin to fortune telling or interpreting omens. A Christian using tarot cards is still practicing paganism, even if they call them "destiny cards" and claim that Jesus is speaking through them.

Young is not listening to Jesus. She is listening to herself, and claiming her thoughts are the thoughts of God. Those thoughts have clearly been influenced by years of Christian teaching and missionary work. Fragments of the Bible are scattered throughout Jesus Calling. But those clippings are often taken out-of-context or she has altered the wording—other sure signs that this word of hers is not the word of Christ.

He Will Bring Us Goodness and Light

Now, I might sound overly cynical with this last point. You may dismiss it as my own opinion, but I promise this statement is relevant. Here it is: Jesus Calling is a really, really, really boring book. It is the same thing over and over and over again. Though not a very long book, it was a bear to read. I had a difficult time getting through it.

Why is that a significant argument? Because remember, Sarah Young was unsatisfied with Bible study and prayer. So were the two anonymous women who wrote God Calling, so was A.J. Russell, and so was Dr. Frank Buchman who inspired him. If Jesus Calling is supposed to be a step-up from regular Bible study and a time of prayer, why are the results so terrible? Why so dull and lifeless? Why so flat and repetitious? And why is the theology so stinking bad?

The book of Hebrews begins, "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:1-4).

I find that news neither dull nor unsatisfying. That is the most exciting thing you could ever tell me on any day of the week! God Himself put on flesh and dwelt among us, "and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). The Apostle Paul wrote, "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). Love His word. Delight in His word. Rejoice in His word. And accept no imitation.

Permit me to begin by plugging my book 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says, which came out on Christmas Day at Amazon.com. Yes, I'm such an expert marketer, I released a book on Christmas Day instead of well beforehand, which would have been smarter. You can click here to order it in print, or click here to download it to your Kindle. In the book, I address in greater detail some of the things I'm going to respond to here in this blog.

On Saturday a week ago, The New York Timespublished an interview between Pulitzer prize winner Nicholas Kristof and apologist William Lane Craig. Dr. Craig is a world-renowned theologian, scholar, and an expert debater. He's the founder of the ministry Reasonable Faith, giving a defense of biblical Christianity. The first question asked of Craig was if it's reasonable to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, and other theological questions follow. I present the article in full with Kristof's questions and Craig's answers in bold, and my responses follow.

Kristof: Merry Christmas, Dr. Craig! I must confess that for all my admiration for Jesus, I’m skeptical about some of the narrative we’ve inherited. Are you actually confident that Jesus was born to a virgin?

Craig: Merry Christmas to you, too, Nick! I’m reasonably confident. When I was a non-Christian, I used to struggle with this, too. But then it occurred to me that for a God who could create the entire universe, making a woman pregnant wasn’t that big a deal! Given the existence of a Creator and Designer of the universe (for which we have good evidence), an occasional miracle is child’s play. Historically speaking, the story of Jesus’ virginal conception is independently attested by Matthew and Luke and is utterly unlike anything in pagan mythology or Judaism. So what’s the problem?

Now, that's certainly reasonable. If you can believe Genesis 1 and 2, you have enough reason to believe the rest of the Bible. I love the point Craig made that the virgin birth "is utterly unlike anything in pagan mythology or Judaism," contrary to the claims of those pushing the Horus and Mithras myths. But why should I believe it? What difference does it make if I believe the virgin birth or not? Why believe in God at all? These are some of the questions Craig rarely ever answers, and he doesn't answer them in this interview either.

Kristof: Why can’t we accept that Jesus was an extraordinary moral teacher, without buying into miracles?

Craig: You can, but you do so at the expense of going against the evidence. That Jesus carried out a ministry of miracle-working and exorcisms is so widely attested in every stratum of the sources that the consensus among historical Jesus scholars is that Jesus was, indeed, a faith-healer and exorcist. That doesn’t prove these events were genuine miracles, but it does show that Jesus thought of himself as more than a mere moral teacher.

Well, Jesus wasn't a faith healer—there's no such thing. Jesus didn't need faith, and sometimes the people He healed didn't have faith (see John 5:1-9). The miracles that Jesus did attested to whom He is—God incarnate. That was the reason He did miracles—to show that He is the eternal Son who was sent by the eternal Father to redeem His people from their sins.

Jesus is the Word who put on human flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). He came to lay down His life and take it up again, dying on the cross for our sins and rising again from the grave, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have everlasting life. He was born of a virgin, conceived of the Holy Spirit, and therefore free from the sin of Adam. If Jesus was not virgin born, then He can't be the spotless Lamb of God who takes away our sin. All who are born of Adam by natural generation are born into sin (Romans 5:12). But by being born of a virgin, Jesus was born without sin. He alone lived a sinless life, and He alone can take away our sins. This is why the doctrine of the virgin birth matters.

When a young man asked Jesus, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus replied to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone" (Mark 10:17-18). Jesus wasn't saying He wasn't God. He was challenging the young man's motives, as if to say, "Do you understand who I am?" If Jesus was not virgin born, He is not good. If He is not good, He is not God. It doesn't matter if He was "an extraordinary moral teacher."

Kristof: You don’t believe the Genesis account that the world was created in six days, or that Eve was made from Adam’s rib, do you? If the Hebrew Bible’s stories need not be taken literally, why not also accept that the New Testament writers took liberties?

Craig: Because the Gospels are a different type of literature than the primeval history of Genesis 1-11. The eminent Assyriologist Thorkild Jacobsen described Genesis 1-11 as history clothed in the figurative language of mythology, a genre he dubbed “mytho-history.” By contrast, the consensus among historians is that the Gospels belong to the genre of ancient biography, like the ‘Lives of Greeks and Romans’ written by Plutarch. As such, they aim to provide a historically reliable account.

Here is an example of where Craig's "reasonable faith" is inconsistent. He said at the beginning, "For a God who could create the entire universe, making a woman pregnant wasn’t that big a deal!" So that reasoning can explain the virgin birth, but it can't explain the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood, or the Tower of Babel? Notice that he's just deconstructed the very platform he was standing on to defend the virgin birth—I should believe the virgin birth because of Genesis 1-2, but if Genesis 1-2 is mythological, how does it defend the virgin birth?

Craig's "reasonable faith" needs better theology. Facts are important, but if they're not backed by biblical orthodoxy, facts are just pieces of a puzzle laying in a box. What good is having all the facts if you don't know how they fit together? Craig is great at defending the facts (well, unless it's Genesis 1-11), but he doesn't do as great at helping people see the big picture. He's said of his own ministry, "We're not doing theology. We're doing apologetics" (Reasonable Faith Podcast, March 26, 2017).

Jesus said, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24). If you know the Bible, you know the facts. You've got all the pieces of the puzzle. Now what are you going to do with them? You must repent of your sin and worship God.

Kristof: How do you account for the many contradictions within the New Testament? For example, Matthew says Judas hanged himself, while Acts says that he “burst open.” They can’t both be right, so why insist on inerrancy of Scripture?

Craig: I don’t insist on the inerrancy of Scripture. Rather, what I insist on is what C.S. Lewis called “mere Christianity,” that is to say, the core doctrines of Christianity. Harmonizing perceived contradictions in the Bible is a matter of in-house discussion amongst Christians. What really matters are questions like: Does God exist? Are there objective moral values? Was Jesus truly God and truly man? How did his death on a Roman cross serve to overcome our moral wrongdoing and estrangement from God? These are, as one philosopher puts it, the “questions that matter,” not how Judas died.

If inerrency doesn't matter, the Bible doesn't matter. If the Bible doesn't matter, "mere Christianity" is a cuckoo bird chirping in a clock shop. You will ask, "Does God exist?" the rest of your days and never find the way to God, Jesus Christ, according to the Bible. You will ask, "Are there objective moral values?" and not know what they are because you have no objective moral authority outside of yourself that dictates what is true—the Bible.

You won't even bother to ask, "Was Jesus truly God and truly man?" because no one asks such a question unless they've heard what's written in the Bible. You will not care how His death on a Roman cross overcomes our estrangement from God because the answer to that question is only found in the Bible. If the Bible errs, God errs. If God errs, He is not God. But there is no error with God, and His word is true. It meets every challenge and has been proven to be reliable.

That said, Matthew and Acts don't contradict each other concerning the death of Judas. Matthew 27:5 says that Judas returned the silver he was paid for betraying Jesus by "throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple... and he went and hanged himself." Acts 1:18 merely says Judas fell "headlong into a field and his bowels gushed out." Acts is clear that he fell, not that he threw himself over the cliff. He fell because he was already dead. Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, Judas hung himself by a rope over a cliff, and then his body fell into a field. It's as simple as that.

Kristof: Over time, people have had faith in Zeus, in Shiva and Krishna, in the Chinese kitchen god, in countless other deities. We’re skeptical of all those faith traditions, so should we suspend our emphasis on science and rationality when we encounter miracles in our own tradition?

Craig: I don’t follow. Why should we suspend our emphasis on science and rationality just because of weakly evidenced, false claims in other religions? I champion a “reasonable faith” that seeks to provide a comprehensive worldview that takes into account the best evidence of the sciences, history, philosophy, logic and mathematics. Some of the arguments for God’s existence that I’ve defended, such as the arguments from the origin of the universe and the fine-tuning of the universe, appeal to the best evidence of contemporary science. I get the impression, Nick, that you think science is somehow incompatible with belief in miracles. If so, you need to give an argument for that conclusion. David Hume’s famous argument against miracles is today recognized, in the words of philosopher of science John Earman, as “an abject failure.” No one has been able to do any better.

Again, Craig does great with defending the facts, but how is he helping people come to faith? There must be truth, but there must also be exhortation—repent and believe the truth. The truth is so compelling that it changes your life and you obey what it says. Craig's answers are like he's spilling pieces of a puzzle on a table and grinning over them, but he's not telling you what to do with them or giving you the boxtop so you know how they fit together.

The Bible addresses those other faith traditions Kristof asked about. In Exodus 20:3, the Lord said, "You shall have no other gods before me." In Isaiah 44:6-7, He said, "I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me." In 1 Kings 18, Elijah, a prophet of God, challenged the priests of Baal to a duel—whoever's God lights their altar with fire from heaven, He is the true God. Guess who won?

All other gods are false gods made by human hands. They cannot nor have they ever produced the evidence that has been shown to us by the one true God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus is that one true and living God. All of this is attested to by the eyewitness accounts of thousands upon thousands of people who were there when these things were written down for our benefit and instruction.

Peter said, "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts" (2 Peter 1:16, 19).

Kristof: You’re an evangelical Christian, and let me acknowledge that religious people donate more to charity than nonreligious people and also volunteer more. But I’m troubled that evangelical leaders have sometimes seemed to be moralizing blowhards, focused on issues that Jesus never breathed a word about — like gays and abortion — while indifferent to poverty, inequality, bigotry and other topics that were central to Jesus’ teachings.

Craig: Yes, I hear you. I sometimes cringe at the people that the media trot out as spokesmen for Christianity. The media shun intelligent and articulate Christians in favor of inflammatory preachers and televangelists. Just know that the Christian church is involved not only in defending the sanctity of life and marriage but in a whole range of social issues, such as combating poverty, feeding the homeless, medical care, disaster aid, literacy programs, fostering small businesses, promoting women’s rights and drilling wells, especially in the developing world. Honestly, Christians have gotten very bad press.

In Matthew 15:19, Jesus said, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander." There's abortion and homosexuality addressed in one verse. (To elaborate further, watch this 90-second video on Jesus and the sanctity of human life, and this video and this video on what Jesus said about homosexuality.)

Central to Jesus' teaching was to, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). Everyone will stand in judgment before the throne of God. Only those who believed in Jesus Christ and did the will of His Father will be saved and enter into eternal life. Those who did not believe and did the works of Satan will be cast into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. You have the facts. Now what are you going to do with them?

Perhaps you've seen the video going around called GOP Jesus done by Friend Dog Studios. If you haven't, you probably already get the gist of it from the title: it's Jesus saying some Jesus things but twisting His words to make fun of those hypocritical evangelicals who vote Trump (with strawman arguments, of course). In so doing, the video also argues that Jesus was a democrat and all His teachings were socialism.

The video features twelve sayings altogether, twisted by GOP Jesus. I'm going to address six of them today, and the other six tomorrow. I'll present the quote from the video with the biblical reference it's taken from, I'll show you what Jesus actually said in context, I'll explain to you what the passage means, and then I'll counter-punch with what the liberal's "Jesus" says.

Disclaimer: I didn't vote for Trump. I'm a pastor who loves God's word and hates to see it twisted for their own nefarious purposes.


GOP Jesus: 
"Whoever welcomes one of these little ones in my name might be letting in a murderer or a drug. Let's get her to a detention center." (Parody of Mark 9:37.)

What Jesus Said:
Mark 9:33-37 says that Jesus and His disciples, "came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, 'What were you discussing on the way?' But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And He sat down and called the twelve. And He said to them, 'If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.' And He took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but Him who sent me.'"

What This is About:
The disciples, like most every Jew at that time, thought the Messiah was going to be a political liberator. They talked about who was going to have the most honor and power when Jesus liberated the Jews from Rome and would "Make Israel Great Again!" (that's my paraphrase). Jesus told them that instead of seeking great status, they should care for those who can't give anything in return, like the small child he put in the midst of them. The disciples may not get any recognition from anyone. But the Father sees what they have done, and He will reward them in His heavenly kingdom.

This principle applies to us all. Desire to help those in need, whether or not you would receive any earthly benefit or recognition from such charity. Romans 12:16 says, "Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly." Philippians 2:3-4 says, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."

This passage in Mark 9 does not pertain to how we deal with those who break the law trying to get into the country illegally. Personally, I don't understand why children are being separated from their families, but I don't know the specifics of these situations to say whether the children have been taken from their families by ICE unjustly. Besides, I have a tough time being lectured on immigration politics by people who think it's okay to crush a living baby's head in forceps or suck her pulverized body into a vacuum cleaner.

Liberal Jesus:
"Whoever welcomes one of these little ones in my name must have had a botched abortion and their state hadn't legalized infanticide yet."


GOP Jesus:
"I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. And behold, now I'm all lazy and entitled. You shouldn't have done that." (Parody of Matthew 25:35-40.)

What Jesus Said:
In Matthew 25:34-40, Jesus said, "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you, or thirsty, and give you something to drink? And when did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even to the least of them, you did it to me." (NASB)

What This is About:
This was in the Olivet Discourse when Jesus told His disciples what would happen at the judgment seat of Christ. Those who did the will of the Father would enter into eternal life, and those who did not will be cast into eternal punishment. When Jesus said, "To the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even to the least of them, you did it to me," He was talking about His brothers. Who are His brothers? Jesus said in Matthew 12:50, "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

The "brothers" in Matthew 25:40 are followers of Jesus. The "least" of them are those who have given up everything for the mission of the gospel, and for this reason they have no permanent residence or possessions, they have no food or drink and get sick, and for preaching the gospel they're thrown in prison (see also Acts 9:4-5). This passage is not about helping the most marginalized in a society. There are other passages about helping the poor. Matthew 25:40 isn't one of them.

We as Christians have an obligation to care first for our fellow Christians. Just like when you get paid, you take care of the needs of your own household; then as you are able, you might give to others. So it must be the same for the church. Galatians 6:10 says, "So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith."

Liberal Jesus:
"I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. Because I'm a socialist and I took it from you. Thanks!"


GOP Jesus:
"Do unto others as you suspect they might want to do unto you." (Parody of Luke 6:31.)

What Jesus Said:
In Luke 6:30-33, Jesus said, "Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them."

What This is About:
Luke 6:31 is commonly referred to as the golden rule. As I've already mentioned, Christians should care for others, and do so expecting nothing in return. While Christians should be charitable, that does not mean they should become gullible goofs able to be taken advantage of. In Matthew 7:6, Jesus said, "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you."

The Bible says not to feed a lazy man. We read in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, "If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat." This is a command from Christ: "Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living" (v.12). To feed a lazy man who has not earned it is a harm to him, it harms yourself, and it's a waste of resources to help those who actually need it.

Liberal Jesus:
"Do unto others and make everyone else pay for it."


GOP Jesus:
"What has a man profited if he gain the whole world but lose his soul? A lot. He has profited a lot. One soul for the whole world? That is an amazing deal." (Parody of Luke 9:25.)

What Jesus Said:
In Luke 9:23-26, Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."

What This is About:
This is what it means to be a Christian. You must die to yourself and live for Christ. It is a daily submission to the Lord, not a once-a-week thing. It's giving your whole life, not merely paying lip-service. We know how to follow Jesus when we follow His word, the Bible. Whoever is ashamed of that word and doesn't do what it says will be judged by Christ on the last day. You could be so rich that you gain the whole world, but that will not save you on judgment day, for you will have lost your very soul forever. Only faith in Christ will save you.

Liberal Jesus:
"What has a man profited if he gain the whole world but lose his soul? About $1,500. Unless it's a late-term abortion, that'll be $3,000. Pay up at the front. Abortions aren't fully funded by tax-payers yet."


GOP Jesus:
"Why do you look at the speck of dust in your brother's eye, but ignore the plank in your own? Because of her e-mails." (Parody of Luke 6:41.)

What Jesus Said:
In Luke 6:39-42, Jesus said, "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck that is in your brother's eye."

What This is About:
Jesus did not tell us not to judge at all. He said not to judge hypocritically. These are instructions about admonishing one another. Notice that He said, "Then you will see clearly take the speck that is in your brother's eye." Yes, we are supposed to judge, but doing so in a right manner to point one another to Christ. Jesus said, "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment" (John 7:24).

I find it hard to believe that whoever made this video had taken the log out of their own eye before they started judging the specks they perceived in all evangelicals' eyes.

Liberal Jesus:
"Why do you look at the speck of dust in your brother's eye, but ignore the plank in your own? Because getting everyone to believe Trump is a racist distracts from the growing pile of dead babies."


GOP Jesus:
"If a man strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him and shoot him. That is the law." (Parody of Matthew 5:39.)

What Jesus Said:
In Matthew 5:38-42, Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you."

What This is About:
Exodus 21:22-25 says, "When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."

Jesus did not nullify this law. Rather, He upheld it. Judgment in the Sanhedrin had become excessive. People were abusing the laws of retaliation, like the one in Exodus 21, and taking one another to court over lesser issues. Jesus was basically saying not to make a federal case out of everything. The Apostle Paul applied this same principle when he said to the church in Corinth, "Brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?" (1 Corinthians 6:6-7)

If someone were to strike you, of course you shouldn't pull a gun and shoot him. That's an absurd retaliation. This is one of many strawman arguments presented by the makers of this video. Applying Exodus 21:22-25 in a proper way, if a man murders someone, he should get the death penalty, and his sentence should be carried out soon. Permit me to apply Exodus 21:22-25 in an even more direct context: Abortion doctors should get the death penalty.

Liberal Jesus:
"If a man strikes you on the right cheek, it's because you're a white male and therefore deserved it."

Last week, Bohemian Rhapsody was released on DVD, the Oscar-winning film about the band Queen and their lead singer, Freddie Mercury. The movie is titled after the famous song of the same name, a six-minute suite blending elements of rock and opera. It's only fitting that the album from which the song came was called A Night at the Opera, released in 1975. The star track Bohemian Rhapsody is considered by many to be Mercury's magnum opus.

With the success of the film, I thought I'd revisit the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody. What is this song about anyway? Plenty of legendary rock songs are nonsense (since a lot of these guys were probably on drugs when they wrote them), but Mercury was a meticulous and brilliant lyricist. A friend of mine recently said, "Sometimes a movie is just a movie." Well, sometimes a song is just a song. But there's more going on in Bohemian Rhapsody than meets the ears.


In order to understand the underlying message, we need a little background. Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara in a British territory of Zanzibar on the east coast of Africa. His parents immigrated from British India and were Parsis, meaning that they practiced Zoroastrianism; a pantheistic, free-will religion that teaches you must have "good thoughts, good words, good deeds." Though Zoroastrians believe in a version of heaven and hell, ultimately everyone will be "saved" whether they did good or bad, and they will be reunited with the "Wise Lord" in immortality. When Mercury died in 1991, his funeral was conducted by a Zoroastrian priest at Mercury's request.

As a boy, Mercury was sent away from his parents to St. Peter's Church of England School, an all-boys boarding school in Panchgani, India; later to finish at St. Joseph's Convent School in Zanzibar. It was in boarding school that he was given the more English-sounding nickname Freddie. A violent revolution rose up in Zanzibar in 1964, so Mercury fled with his family to England, where he attended a liberal arts college and graduated in 1969 with a degree in graphic art and design. Mercury incorporated these skills into designing Queen's logo and his performance costumes.

In 1970, Mercury wrote a song called My Fairy King. Toward the close of the song, he mentioned "Mother Mercury." He later said, "I am going to become Mercury, as the mother in this song is my mother." In the film Bohemian Rhapsody, Mercury was criticized by his father that the Bulsara name was "not good enough." The likelihood though is that it simply never mattered to Mercury. Consider the very last line of Bohemian Rhapsody:"Nothing really matters to me."

If you knew nothing else happening in the lyrics to this song, that line would tell you all you need to know: Freddie Mercury believed, "Nothing really matters." His worldview was not driven by secularism or born out of irreligion—this was his religion. Mercury's music was a hodgepodge of religious subtext, which the movie only barely touched on.

Mercury received his primary education through Anglican and Catholic schooling, all the while underscored by his family's Zoroastrianism, a religion that preaches do what you think is right and everyone is going to the same place anyway. Therefore, "Nothing really matters."


As we dissect the lyrics, let's start with that title. What is a Bohemian rhapsody? The term "Bohemian" was coined in western Europe in the 19th century in reference to gypsies who were thought to have come from Bohemia. The word would later be used to describe any person rich or poor who lived an unconventional lifestyle. A Bohemian's interests were outside the norm, particularly when it came to expressions of art, music, literature, or spirituality.

A "rhapsody" is a single-movement piece of music or an epic poem with highly contrasting themes. So by the title alone, we might expect Bohemian Rhapsody to be a musical epic about an unconventional person. Queen's guitarist Brian May said, "Freddie never explained the lyrics, but I think he put a lot himself into that song."

The song begins by asking if life is "real" or a "fantasy" we're unwillingly "caught in" from which there is "no escape." Here are the opening lyrics, sung acapella at first, then underscored with piano:

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see

I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go
A little high, little low
Anyway the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me, to me

Having mentioned the closing line, the song ends the same way it begins: "Nothing really matters to me." This was Mercury's approach to life. In his 1985 interview with David Wigg, Mercury was asked, "How do you want to be remembered when you die?" Mercury replied, "Dead and gone. Who cares?"

The song continues and gradually elevates in strength:

Mama just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger now he's dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away 

Mama, oh-oh
Didn't mean to make you cry
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters

Now we get more religious. In several of Mercury's songs, Mama represented the feminine or nurturing side of God. This opinion about God was influenced by Zoroastrianism. The Persian prophet Zoroaster referred to their god Ahura Mazda in both masculine and feminine terms interchangeably, depending on the attribute of god he was referring to.

It's interesting to note the opening line of this segment begins, "Mama just killed a man," rather than, "Mama, I just killed a man." We would be led to think Mama was the one who put a gun against a man's head until the singer sings, "Pulled my trigger now he's dead." This was intentional. What Mercury was conveying here was that God tempted me with all these things He then called evil. They pleased me, but they displeased God. Why then did God give them to me? God put the gun against my head, but I'm the one that pulled the trigger.

Since Mercury referred to what he characterized as the effeminate side of God, the singer apologizes and says he "didn't mean to make you cry." But "carry on, as if nothing really matters." Mercury thought God didn't care about anything that happened. If He did, He wouldn't allow the people He created to be tempted by the evil that He would eventually judge them for. Ultimately, according to Mercury's worldview, there is no divine mercy, nor is there lasting punishment for evil. Therefore, "Carry on, as if nothing really matters."

The "man" who was killed in the song was Mercury himself, but this doesn't mean he was thinking of committing suicide. He was singing about a series of personal yet destructive decisions that would eventually kill him. This was not unlike Mercury to write of such things. In his song Great King Rat, he sang about a man who died of a sexually transmitted disease at the age of 44. This was somewhat prophetic considering Mercury died of AIDS brought on by his homosexual perversion at the age of 45.

It's in Great King Rat that Mercury sang, "Don't believe all you read in the Bible," and "Don't listen to what Mama says," but instead, "Put out the good and keep the bad." You already know what's best for you: "I'm not going to tell you what you already know." (In the aforementioned 1985 interview, Mercury was asked whom he turned to whenever he had a problem. He said, "I have a lot of mirrors.")

When you live the way you want to live, "Very soon you're gonna be his disciple," a disciple of the Great King Rat. Through the voice of Mercury, Satan whispers, "Don't follow God. Follow me!" All these little decisions for yourself are "dirty," and will eventually kill you. Again, it's a slow death, not a sudden suicide, as Mercury notes next in Bohemian Rhapsody:

Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body's aching all the time
Goodbye everybody, I've got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth

Mama, oh-oh (anyway the wind blows)
I don't want to die
Sometimes I wish I'd never been born at all

The singer is slowly killing himself and he knows that, but he doesn't really want to die. A part of Mercury understood that after death comes judgment, hence why the singer thought it would have been better if he'd "never been born at all." Mercury lived his life feeding his sensuous appetites, but none of it ever brought him any fulfillment—even in 1975 when Bohemian Rhapsody debuted and Mercury was hardly 30 years old. As rich and as famous as he was, he was always unsatisfied and wanted more.

Zoroastrians see life as a battle between two spirits: Spenta Mainyu, the good spirit or the "Bounteous Principle," and Angra Mainyu, the chaotic spirit or the "Destructive Principle." Mercury identified himself with the destructive spirit since "nothing really matters." Though a person who lived destructively might go to the Zoroastrian equivalent of hell, all of creation is eventually renovated by a savior-like figure, and everyone returns to Ahura Mazda, the "Wise Lord," in immortality.

In Mercury's 1985 interview, Wigg asked him, "Do you think you're going to get to heaven?" Mercury replied, "No, I don't want to. Hell is much better. Look at the interesting people you're going to meet down there?" He only thought so flippantly of hell because Zoroastrianism taught him hell was just a hang-out until immortality is granted to everyone. But the Bible is clear hell is eternal punishment for those who rejected Christ and followed the devil.

From here, Bohemian Rhapsody picks up tempo and we enter into the operetta section. Likewise, the lyrics get more intense as well:

I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the Fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning very very frightening me
Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Figaro, Magnifico

Lyrics like this have led many to conclude that the song is mostly nonsense, but these lines are very revealing. The singer sees but a shadow of a man, a "little silhouetto," someone who doesn't make a great impression and is easily vanquished as a shadow disappears when someone turns on a light. A "scaramouch" is a stock clown character in Italian theater. So he's singing of someone (himself) who is of no consequence but gives everyone a few laughs for a while.

He then sings, "Will you do the Fandango?" The Fandango is a Spanish dance. It's a euphemism for hanging himself—again, keeping up the motif of slowly killing himself with the life choices he makes. "Thunderbolt and lightning" means God is displeased with how he lives his life. With that in mind, "Galileo" is not a reference to Galileo Galilei, the Italian astronomer, at least not entirely. (As a winking aside, Galileo was the first astronomer to observe the planet Mercury through a telescope.)

Galileo Figaro Magnifico in Latin means "Make great the Galilean's figure" or image. Galilean is the Roman name for Jesus Christ. Maybe the singer could break the cycle of his meaningless comedy if he were to call upon Jesus (and maybe Mercury himself was asking Jesus to search him out just as Galileo found Mercury).

Of course, this is if "Figaro" was spelled figuro instead of like the character in the opera The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini. In the opera's most famous piece Figaro's Aria, Figaro sings of "a good life! What pleasures there are." He calls out his own name multiple times, but toward the end of the aria, he's so popular that he's unable to meet the demands of all his adoring customers.

In Bohemian Rhapsody, the singer calls upon Jesus multiple times to save him from the meaninglessness of life and possibly the wrath of God. But if the inference of Figaro's Aria is to be considered, Mercury thought of Jesus as being too too busy or He just didn't care—He can't meet the demands of all His adorers (Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice made this same criticism of Christ in the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, which preceded the release of Bohemian Rhapsody by several years).

Here's where the lyric goes next, still in an operatic style:

I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go
Bismillah, no, we will not let you go, let him go
Bismillah, we will not let you go, let him go
Bismillah, we will not let you go, let me go
(Will not let you go) let me go (never let you go)
Let me go (never let me go)
Oh oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no

The singer says he's someone of no consequence no one really cares for. Being a "poor boy" means he was too immature to know that his decisions were so destructive. The accompanying choir repeats his prayer as though angels or saints (considering Mercury's Catholic influence) are also praying for him: "Spare him his life from this monstrosity." It's as though the singer is saying, "I came into these things easily; will you let me off easy?" and also, "I'm of no consequence; why bother with me?"

Then comes the line, "Bismillah, no, we will not let you go." I first heard this song a few years after it was made popular in America by the 1992 film Wayne's World. Even at a young age, the word "Bismillah" clued me in to recognizing there was more going on in the song than random lyrics. No one says "Bismillah" just because. "Bismillah" is the first word in the Quran, and it means, "In the name of God," also called, "most gracious, most merciful."

Three times it is sung, "Bismillah, no, we will not let you go." Mercury was presenting what he thought of as the personality of the Muslim god and the Christian Triune God together as the same god, whom Mercury did not think of as gracious and merciful. "Bismillah" is sung harshly. The angelic chorus pleads, "Let him go," and instead "Bismillah" curses the singer and denies him relief from cravings of his flesh: "We will not let you go."

The opera portion concludes with this:

Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
For me, for me

Again, "Mama" was Mercury's effeminate title for God. "Beelzebub" is another name for Satan (from Matthew 10:25, Mark 3:22, and Luke 11:18). Since God is not going to relieve the singer of his lusty appetites, Satan is waiting in the wings with a devil to keep the singer company while he gives in to indulging in the passions of his flesh. The demons are better fellowship for the singer than God.

Mercury blamed God for the temptation he experienced and the sins he committed as if God was the one who caused them. He was no different than Adam in the Garden of Eden, when Adam said to God, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate" (Genesis 3:12). If only Mercury understood the words of James 1:12-15, when he said:

"Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."

God is not guilty of your sin—you are. You have no one to blame but yourself. If indeed Mercury prayed to God and asked to be delivered from temptation, the reason God didn't grant his request was because he asked with wrong motives. He only wanted his guilt taken away—he didn't actually want to honor God with his life or stop doing what he was doing. James 4:3 goes on to say, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions."

At this point, the song leaves the opera and goes hard rock. Whatever your opinion is of rock, it is often an angry genre of music, and Mercury is straight-up spiteful as he sings:

So you think you can stop me and spit in my eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to die
Oh baby, can't do this to me, baby
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here

Singing "baby" and saying "so you think you can love me and leave me to die" sounds like grief over a woman who broke his heart. But nothing else in the song has set the tone for that. The singer has taken on the persona of a hard-rocker singing of his broken heart when he expresses his hatred toward God for not caring about him.

From the singer's perspective, if God truly loved him, God wouldn't let him die like this. Threats of punishment against the evil-doer are not enough to stop the singer from indulging in his temptations. He's "just gotta get out" of the cycle of temptation and guilt he can't seem to find relief for. But instead of repenting of his pride and blasphemy and finding peace with God through Jesus Christ, he relieves himself by hardening his heart and giving in.

Then the song calms way down into a ballad again, and it ends the same way it began:

Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me
(Anyway the wind blows)

Nothing really matters which anyone can see. Just like in Great King Rat, you know what's good for you. Do what thou wilt, for nothing really matters anyway.


Songwriter Tim Rice said he knew the secret of Bohemian Rhapsody. "It's fairly obvious to me that this was Freddie's coming out song,"Rice said. "This is Freddie admitting that he is gay." One of Mercury's homosexual partners agreed. "Bohemian Rhapsody was Freddie's confessional," said hairdresser Jim Hutton. "It was about how different his life could have been, and how much happier he might have been, had he just been able to be himself the whole of his life."

Brian May denied it: "What's it about? None of us know. Freddie never talked about it to my knowledge and didn't want to and that's the way it should be. He had something in his mind and he loved to spin these little pieces of magic. A little bit of reality and little bit of fantasy. If anyone tries to unravel it, they'll never manage it, because they'll never know what went into those lyrics."

I searched multiple websites and read several dissections of the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody. None of them considered the influence of religion on Freddie Mercury. He feared judgment for his sins, and the honesty of his tormented soul came out in his most famous work. But instead of repenting of his sins, he blasphemed God and pursued worldly pleasure and treasure. In Luke 4:7, the Devil said, "If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Freddie Mercury fell for it, and it killed him.

When a person believes nothing we do in this life has eternal significance, then "nothing really matters." When a person believes everyone receives eternal life and no one gets eternal punishment, they will do whatever they want expecting the outcome will ultimately be the same for all. But the Bible says that those who persist in sin will "be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thessalonians 2:12). Jesus said, "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Matthew 25:46).

Everything matters. You were made to glorify God. Do not sell your eternal soul for the fleeting pleasure of sin, leaving you empty and leading to judgment. Know the gospel of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross as a sacrifice for sins and rose again from the grave, so that all who believe in Him will receive His eternal life. Turn from your sin and follow Jesus. He will clothe you in His righteousness. You will be received by your Father in heaven. And you will live in His kingdom forever.

Next Week: My son met Mary Sue, and he hated her.

Yesterday, Francis Chan responded to the harsh accusations that he has been aligning with heretics. A recent article published at The Cripplegate was entitled Farewell Francis. The author Jordan Standridge warned that Chan "is sharing the stage with false teachers who will spend eternity in Hell (Gal. 1:6-9)." He pleaded for Chan to repent and "come back to your first love!"

Chan has been on a steady decline over the last few years. Preaching with Mike Bickle at the International House of Prayer may have been a head-scratcher, but it wasn't enough to denounce Chan as developing an alliance with the enemy. Maybe Chan didn't know that Bickle claimed to have gone to heaven and had a personal audience with Jesus. Maybe Chan didn't know Bickle teaches that we bring about Christ's return through prayer (according to what Jesus personally told him). Maybe Chan didn't know that Bickle has claimed there will be new apostles preaching things you will not be able to find in the Bible, and they will be superior to the biblical apostles.

But since his appearances at IHOP, Chan has ventured into other strange territory, like preaching at Bethel Church in Redding, CA—known for manipulative gags such as pouring gold dust in the ventilation system and calling it a glory cloud from God. Teachers from Bethel under pastor Bill Johnson also claim to have face-to-face conversations with not only Jesus but God the Father, whom the Bible says no one can see and live (Exodus 33:20, John 1:18, 1 John 4:12).

Everything came to a head last month when Chan preached at a conference in Orlando known as The Send, featuring some of the worst teachers out there—Benny Hinn, Heidi Baker, Todd White, and Bill Johnson to name a few. Following The Send, pictures started emerging of Chan being buddies with these charlatans. He embraced them as brothers and praised them for being bold men and women of God. This has prompted many, including myself, to warn people to stay away from Francis Chan. He is no longer trustworthy.

Questions have been raised for a few years regarding Chan's associations, but Chan has remained silent. Finally he responded this weekend in a blog entitled A Response to Some Concerns by Francis Chan. I won't post the entire thing word for word—you can read it for yourself by clicking the link. I will highlight some critical points, and then my response will follow.

Chan wrote:

From what I hear from friends and critics (I stay away from social media, etc), there have been a lot of conclusions drawn from my decision to speak at The Send conference as well as other venues. Some people have questioned my willingness to take pictures with anyone who asks for a picture with me. So I thought it might be helpful to explain some of my theological beliefs which have come under scrutiny as of late, as well as some of my practices/decisions. I realize there are many questions, but let me at least clarify a few things.

What do you believe regarding the "Prosperity Gospel"?

My understanding of that term is that it refers to teachings which imply that if you follow Jesus, He will make you healthy and wealthy. It is often used to attract people to make a decision to follow Jesus so that they can spend the rest of their lives in health and prosperity. I believe this is a dangerous teaching for several reasons. First and foremost (in my opinion) is that it contradicts the teachings and example of Christ and the apostles. Jesus taught His disciples "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). It was not a call to come and prosper but rather the opposite—a call to come and suffer.

Chan goes on in his repudiation of the prosperity gospel. I am not in disagreement with him here. Prosperity theology is a lie from the pit of hell. It's precisely because of Chan's views regarding health-and-wealth teaching that he has become a hypocrite in his ministry partnerships. He preaches with the worst of the worst among prosperity charlatans. Teachers like Hinn, Johnson, White, and Heidi Baker preach exactly the false gospel Chan condemns!

In a video of a Bethel Church service from March 25 of last year, Bill Johnson is seen leading his church in an absurd prayer which he called "a decree and confession." Before praying aloud together, Johnson said, "I want your faith to be recognizable in your volume. No small task." He then led the congregation to recite the following, the audience practically yelling it as they proclaimed:

As we receive today's offering, we are believing the Lord for jobs and better jobs, raises and bonuses, benefits and sales and commissions, favorable settlements, estates and inheritances, interests and income, rebates and returns, checks in the mail, gifts and surprises, finding money, debts paid off, expenses decrease, blessing and increase. Thank you, Lord, for meeting all of my financial needs that I may have more than enough to give into the kingdom of God and promote the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!

Bethel Church teaches you have the power to speak things into existence, especially your health and your wealth. By praying such a prayer, they are taught that they will have all of their professions.

Do not be fooled by Bethel's intention to "promote the gospel of Jesus Christ." Bill Johnson preaches a false gospel. He thinks the gospel is miraculous healing and has taught heretical things about God. Astonishingly, Chan has said, "Prosperity preachers often promise greater wealth if their listeners will give more to their ministries. This is never promised in Scriptures. We can never hold God to something that He has not promised." Yet that's exactly what Johnson was doing in that prayer!

What would it take for Chan to recognize Bethel Church actively advances the thing he condemns? Yet he has preached that if you criticize Bill Johnson, you are taking a sledgehammer to the house of God, and you will have to answer for that before God. He referenced 1 Corinthians 3:17 which says, "If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple." My friends, Bill Johnson's "gospel" is anything but holy. Chan is defending these guys and making people fear calling them out. That's deceptive, whether or not the intention of his heart is to deceive.

Chan's blog continues:

Why do you sometimes accept speaking engagements in places that tolerate theology that is different from yours?

I speak at events almost every week of the year. Often times, it’s more than one event a week. I don’t really enjoy it—I hate the travel, but try not to complain about it. Despite the toll it can take on myself and the family, it is always an honor to preach the Word. I believe it is my calling. Some question my choice to speak so often, but my best discernment and the discernment of the elders of our church is that it is still a part of my calling in this season.

I am asked to speak at approximately 500 events a year. I decline approximately 90% of the requests. It’s a difficult thing to do. Often times, I decline because other speakers will be at the event who believe almost exactly what I believe. My reasoning is that it may be a waste of Kingdom resources for all of us to be there, speaking largely to people who already agree with us. It seems more effective to speak where there is less Bible teaching. It has not been my practice to ask who will share the platform with me and to research the other speakers. While some may be dear friends, there are many that I know little about. This current experience has caused me to consider exercising more caution and to develop a team to help me research. That being said, I speak in many places where I am not in alignment theologically. I actually believe that is where I can be most effective, as long as they give me freedom to address anything I believe the Lord wants me to address.

I recognize, now more than ever, that sometimes my participation can give the impression that I align with every other speaker at the event. I’m not sure what to do about that other than to tell you that I don’t. Unless the elders of my church direct me differently, I will continue to be found preaching in venues with those I disagree. I will preach in just about any kind of setting if I’m given freedom to preach from any passage of scripture. The elders and I are trying to come up with more safeguards for future events to hopefully prevent misunderstandings. Pray for us.

From what it sounds like, Chan is going to be developing a team to help him decide whom he should preach with and whom he shouldn't. I appreciate that, and it will be interesting to see where this goes. Will there be change? Will Chan realize he's been teaching with liars and apologize? Or will Chan use this group he's assembling to validate his alignment with false teachers? Time will tell.

That aside, how is Chan's reasoning regarding where he preaches biblical? He gave numerous biblical references in his condemnation of the prosperity gospel—he gave no biblical references with regard to which speaking invitations he accepts. He says, "Often times, I decline because other speakers will be at the event who believe almost exactly what I believe." Does Chan think there is little to no value in preachers gathering together in doctrinal unity? Psalm 133:1 says, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!" Isn't it a better witness for laypeople to see teachers in one accord and not in discord?

Now, even at events like the Shepherds Conference or the Ligonier Conference, both held in just the last couple weeks, not every teacher is doctrinally aligned at every point. Some preachers are Baptists and some are Presbyterians—there's doctrinal disagreement right there. But those preachers rejoice in that while they may disagree on secondary issues, they are exactly the same on their love for the true gospel. They love word of God and pursue Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

When Francis Chan preached at The Send, he aligned with heretics. There may have been no true gospel presented except what Chan preached. But Chan was not there in a Matthew 23 moment calling out sons of hell that produce more sons of hell. He called Todd White "a bold, bold man of God." Todd White is a con-artist and self-professed faith healer who said his father in the faith was Kenneth Copeland. Chan did nothing to discredit these charlatans. Rather, before the audience at The Send, Chan made them appear more credible.

Romans 16:17-18 says, "I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive."

The Apostle John warned, "Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works" (2 John 1:9-11).

There's simply no excuse for Chan's ignorance. If Chan is so busy that he cannot do even a little bit of research, then he needs to say no to some of his speaking engagements and free up time to "test everything" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). This is his responsibility. It's on him, especially as a teacher. For the Spirit of God says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).

Seriously, how does Chan not know who Benny Hinn is? He needs a team of people to tell him Hinn is a charlatan? If Chan simply watched the documentary American Gospel, he would receive so much insight into the false gospel these "friends" of his have preached and the damage they are causing. Chan knows the documentary exists. He was interviewed for it because of his outspokenness against the prosperity gospel. However, he was dropped from the final cut because the director of the film recognized the inconsistency in Chan's witness.

In his blog response, Chan continues:

Why did it take so long for you to write a response?

Early in my ministry, I had a professor warn, "Don't spend your time defending yourself. Let God defend you and those closest to you defend you. You can spend your whole life dispelling rumors." I have followed that advice for the past 30 years. I hope this response doesn’t sound like a person who is trying to save his reputation just for the sake of saving his reputation. My hope was to bring clarity to those who might trust my life and preaching and assume that my being in a picture or on a stage with someone means that I align with them. In regards to pictures, I live a very strange life. Most people take pictures with their friends and family. I end up taking thousands of pictures with complete strangers who ask to take pictures with me. I have struggled over the years with whether it is wrong to sign books or take pictures with people. I would be perfectly happy to never take another picture or sign another book. It just feels rude and discouraging to say no. My intention was never to show allegiance with those who request selfies.

First of all, I can appreciate not wasting your time defending yourself against critics. I don't. Dozens of videos have been made denouncing what I've preached. I've never responded to a single one of them. A pair of former members of my congregation once wrote a 9,000-word diatribe against me and posted it on Facebook. They lied about me in just about every way they could. But I did not type a single word in response—to them or anyone else (until just now, I suppose).

But this is not a trifle criticism over some idle comment Chan made. This is Chan aligning with heretics on a digression that keeps getting worse and worse. I have made several public appeals for anyone close to Chan to reach out to him and alert this brother to what he's doing. He just doesn't get it, and he still doesn't get it.

The criticism regarding Chan's associations has never been about selfies—not even in the last few weeks since images and comments have emerged following The Send. He's not merely taking selfies. He's heaping adulation and praise onto ministers of Satan. He's standing shoulder to shoulder with them and calling them friends and brothers and men of God. Through pictures we're seeing with our eyes what we've been hearing with our ears. It's alarming! I'm not trying to spread rumors and gossip. I want Chan to repent!

This is serious—deadly serious. James 4:4 says, "You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." Chan recognizes that the prosperity gospel is worldly, yet he calls those who teach it his friends. I pray the Lord will open his eyes to whom he is playing with.

Chan concludes:

Another reason I took so long to write this response is because I read Paul’s defense of his ministry. He was able to do it out of love for people and the furtherance of the gospel. I needed a little extra time to make sure I wasn’t responding out of anger, pride, hurt, or cynicism- things that I have been guilty of. I think my heart is in a good place now, and I am writing because I believe I have a calling to proclaim the gospel and preach unpopular truths in a crooked generation. Though some are trying to deter people from my ministry altogether, I believe God has given me a calling to teach His Word. I plan on teaching faithfully until I die. I hope you take this in the spirit in which it was written.

One final thought—We should all be careful to guard against false teaching of any kind. In the process of refuting false teachers, however, we can unintentionally falsely accuse good teachers. That might be equally harmful to His Kingdom. God desires unity in His body, so it is no small crime to bring division into the church.

"As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him." Titus 3:10

"Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple." 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

Jesus deeply longed for unity amongst His children. This should not come at the expense of truth. There are times when the truth will divide. Let’s all humbly beg for wisdom from the Holy Spirit to know how to love our brothers without compromising truth. As we diligently confront false teaching, let’s show equal fervency in defending those who are truly our brothers and equal zeal in confronting those who unnecessarily divide the body.

Truly, it is weird to read Chan call for unity when he said in the same blog that he tries to preach in places where he is not in unity with other preachers. Maybe Chan needs to offer a definition of what he thinks biblical unity is supposed to look like. The guy abandoned his church instead of shepherding them as a pastor should, so I have my doubts about his understanding of unity or even his role of a pastor. Titus 1:9 says that a pastor "must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it."

But Chan didn't rebuke anyone in his blog except those who have been rebuking. Exactly who are the "good teachers" Chan thinks we are accusing of being false? He refuses to name names. He's still putting himself between the wolves and those trying to warn the flock. He's being deceptive even if his intention is to tell the truth. Until he can be more discerning, we have to dismiss Chan as lacking credibility. He will lead others into believing the false prosperity gospel even while he condemns it. People will be confused about what the prosperity gospel is and isn't when they see him aligning himself with those who preach it.

We cannot force unity. It cannot be manufactured by human will. We must be obedient to the truth, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom (Colossians 3:16), according to the full counsel of God. God will provide the growth. Chan made a reference to 1 Corinthians 3:17. Here's what that passage says in verses 18-23:

"Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, 'He catches the wise in their craftiness,' and again, 'The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.' So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present are the future—all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

Each Monday leading up to holy week, the History Channel is airing a docu-series called Jesus: His Life. The show awkwardly mixes in dramatic reenactments of the story of Jesus with commentary from an assemblage of (mostly liberal) Bible scholars.

The trailer to the show says that this is the life of Christ "told through the eyes of those who knew Him best." History has never done very well with the story of Jesus. Their mini-series The Bible (more accurately termed The Bobble) was terrible. In addition to biblical inaccuracies, it just wasn't entertaining. Jesus: His Life is equally dull. The mix of drama with commentary doesn't work. The thematic scenes fail to be captivating, and the theotwits do not add any life to the program.

Given that the show is flat and fallacious, I don't know why you'd want to bother with it enough to even read my review. But I offer this up anyway! The following is a play-by-play of the first episode, examining the life of Jesus though the eyes of Joseph. The time stamps are according to the video stream I watched on History's website, sans commercial breaks. And away we go!

1:00 — Oh, hello Joel. Yup, Joel Osteen is the executive producer of this little number, so he's one of the "experts" who will be popping up every now and then.

2:00 — The introduction is very "This is the story of how Jesus changed the world." This is not going to be about how Jesus was sent by God and died as an atoning sacrifice for those who will believe in Him. This is going to be about how Jesus bucked the status quo and brought about a revolution of social change. This show will not present the gospel. Phrases like "Savior of the world" might come up, but they'll never be explained. They'll be framed in a social context, not a gospel one.

6:30 — Aside from some questionable theotwits, the information so far has been factual for the most part.

7:45 — (Edit) There's a line I totally missed and someone pointed it out to me. When Gabriel appears to Mary, he says, "Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God. If you choose to accept His plan, you will conceive in your womb and give birth a son." Not only does this make the announcement to Mary staunchly Arminian, it's also pro-choice! Mary got to choose to have a baby. In Luke 1:31-32, Gabriel said, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus."

9:00 — Mary asks Gabriel, "Why has He chosen me?" Gabriel replies, "You are pure of heart and soul." According to the story in Luke 1, Mary did not ask that question, nor was Mary told that the reason she was chosen. Gabriel said to her, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" When Mary was troubled, Gabriel said, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God." She was favored because God chose her, not because she merited worthiness.

9:30 — James Martin says, "Notice that when she says yes to the angel, she doesn't ask her husband or her father. She says it on her own. So this is a very strong woman." The feminism is strong with this one.

11:00 — Dr. Otis Moss III says, "When Mary says, 'I'm pregnant, and you're not the father,' Joseph probably reacted in a typical male fashion. That's why I love the story because it does not sugar-coat it as making Joseph holier than thou." That's why you love the story? Because of your own conjecture? Not because it's about the birth of the Savior of the world? The show then portrays Joseph losing his temper, breaking stuff apart and throwing it around the house he had been building for him and Mary.

13:00 — Several teachers are cited as saying that if Joseph outs Mary publicly as having sex outside of wedlock, she could be killed under Jewish law. "Adultery is a crime punishable by death," according to Dr. Robert Cargill. That's true (Deuteronomy 22:20-24), but it's unlikely Mary would have been put to death. The Jews couldn't exercise capital punishment without permission from Rome. The Bible gives us no sense that Mary's life was in danger. The only people being stoned to death at that period of time were those who would preach the gospel (Acts 7:59).

13:30 — Ah, Michael Curry, the Love Bishop.

14:30 — Joseph is seen cleaning up the house he trashed after his rage fit. I've been waiting to see if anyone will actually quote the Scripture itself. No one has. Matthew 1:18-19 says:

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

Being a "just man," he knew what the law said concerning unfaithfulness. Being "unwilling to put her to shame," he was not going to make a public spectacle of Mary. He knew the law was on his side. Rage-trashing his house is not divorcing her quietly.

16:30 — An angel speaks to Joseph in a dream and tells him the child in Mary's womb is from teh Holy Spirit. When Joseph goes back to Mary, I have to admit, I found the interaction between them rather touching. But then it was interrupted by commentary...

20:00 — Dr. Cargill explains, "There are two major problems with the census described in the gospel of Luke. The first is that the census takes place about a decade after Jesus has already been born. The second problem is that Roman censuses did not require people to return to their ancestral home. Most scholars think that Luke used this census as a device to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem because the prophecies say that the Messiah will be born in the city of David, in Bethlehem of Judea."

I covered this in my book 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says. There are no problems with the census in Luke. The explanation is simple. Luke does not give an exact time reference to when the census took place. He said, "In those days," which is an unspecific period of time, and "this was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria." All Luke is pointing to is that these events were part of the same drama, not that they all happened at exactly the same time. There was no reason to use "a device to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem." Matthew didn't use such an explanation in his gospel.

The dates often used by historians for the Christmas story are based on the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus. But sometimes Josephus was off by as much as a decade. Why are scholars so quick to villify Luke but justify Josephus? Luke under the appointment of the Holy Spirit is spotless in the telling of the gospel. Oh, and contrary to Dr. Cargill's claims, people did return to their lands when a census was taken.

21:45 — Ben Witherington III says, "[Joseph and Mary] barely got [to Bethlehem] before it was time for Mary to give birth." Not true, but that's a minor point. I appreciate that the show does correct the myth that Jesus was born in a barn. He wasn't. He was born in a house filled with family.

23:30 — Professor Nicola Denzey Lewis says, "Millions of women died in childbirth." Millions of women in Judea died in childbirth?

25:00 — Shut up, Joel.

25:30 — Whenever an angel appears to someone in this show and says, "Do not be afraid," they're just kind of like, "Who are you?" No one is actually afraid.

27:30 — The show continues the myth that there were only three wise men. Except they made the black wise man the lead guy now instead of the token sidekick.

28:00 — Right before the commercial break, Dr. Cargill says of the magi, "Meeting Herod the Great must have been terrifying." They probably had no idea who he was. But gotta keep the viewers in suspense!

29:00 — The show has the magi arriving at night. There's no commotion in the city. Yet the Bible says they came to Jerusalem asking, "'Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.' When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him" (Matthew 2:2-3). The number of magi and the size of their caravan were enough to alert all of Jerusalem and earn the magi an audience before Herod. This was a big deal. In fact the question they asked, "Where is the King of the Jews," was asked of Jesus by Pontius Pilate over 30 years later.

30:30 — The magi say, "We followed a star. Our charts tell us it heralds the birth of a messiah." No, they knew the star was leading them to the Messiah because they had the Jewish Scriptures.

32:30 — Joseph tries to refuse the gifts of the magi. That was weird.

33:00 — The Love Bishop says love things.

34:00 — Right before the commercial break, Joseph rebukes the magi for coming because they've put Jesus's life at risk. Oh, good grief.

35:30 — The Love Bishop says, "Joseph keeps getting these dreams in Matthew's gospel. He gets the dream that tells him the child is a miracle of God. Then he gets the dream telling him to flee Palestine and go to Egypt." Joseph wasn't listening to dreams. He was obeying God. Matthew 2:13 says, "An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Rise, take the child and His mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy Him.'" The show doesn't depict that. Instead, the show portrays Joseph having a vision of Herod giving the order to kill baby boys in Bethlehem.

39:30 — Joseph and Mary barely elude the guards and get Jesus out of Bethlehem during the massacre of the innocents. Oh, the drama. (I really thought I'd done a WWUTT video on the massacre of the innocents. Apparently not. I'll get on that for next Christmas.)

40:30 — Joshua Dubois, Faith Advisor to President Obama, says, "The holy family become refugees." These comments are always more politically loaded than they are biblically accurate. A refugee is someone forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or have been displaced because of a natural disaster. Yes, Joseph and Mary fled Judea to escape the wrath of Herod, but they never left the Roman emprire. They would have gone to the Jewish settlement in Alexandria, Egypt. There they were quite secure among their own people, and they had the gifts from the magi to pay for their stay. This was not like we would consider a modern-day refugee.

41:00 — Dr. Moss points out that Joseph protected his wife and a child who was not his own. "Joseph becomes a beautiful model for fatherhood today. Where would we be if we had more men who operated like Joseph?" I appreciate the sentiment. But the question is better asked, "Where would we be if more men obeyed God?"

Part 2 examining the life of Jesus through the eyes of John the Baptist coming at a later time... Maybe.

Unplanned is a movie based on the true story of Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood director who famously became pro-life. The movie is produced by PureFlix, creators of such films like God's Not Dead,Mom's Night Out,The Case for Christ, and severalrapturemovies. Unplanned stars Ashley Bratcher as Abby Johnson, Brooks Ryan as Abby's husband, Doug, and Robia Scott as the wicked witch of the south. As far as the story goes, I rather liked the movie, but it was a hard watch. The violence of abortion is portrayed with chilling effect.

With the formalities out of the way, let me be upfront about two things. First, the R-rating on Unplanned is deserved. I know the film's promoters made a big deal about the MPAA slapping an R-rating on their movie. Charisma News called the rating"devious." An award-winning producer of Schindler's Listcalled it"biased." If the outrage was expressed to hype the movie and get attention, more power to them, I guess. But the MPAA should be applauded for their decision. I'll come back to this later.

The second thing I want to be upfront about is this—the gospel is not in this movie. This is a pro-life film more than it is a Christian film, and those two things are not synonymous. The God-fearing Christian cherishes all human life as sacred from conception to natural death. But not all who call themselves pro-life are Christians. While the movie might win some people to the pro-life side of the political aisle, no one will leave the theater a Christian because no one will have heard the gospel.

Unplanned pulls back the curtain on many of the horrors of the abortion industry, and I appreciate that. At the same time, the filmmakers are confused about their own message, and that's evident within the story itself.


Abortion is murder. That's what you will see in the movie—the dramatic portrayal of babies being killed. The visuals and sounds are disturbing. You will witness at least two babies being aborted. Of course, what you're watching is cinematic drama, made up of make-up and special effects, music and tension. But it's depicting something very real, done thousands of times a day in America. Roughly 3,000 unborn children are killed daily. One Planned Parenthood clinic murders as many as three-dozen babies per day.

The first abortion is within the first ten minutes of the film. It is what's called a D&C abortion, or an abortion by suction catheter. You will see hoses and tubes and containers fill up with blood and organs as a 13-week-old baby is being pulled part, all while watching the child squirm in the womb on an ultrasound screen. The story goes that this was the abortion that pushed Abby Johnson over the edge from pro-abortion to pro-life. It is a difficult scene to watch—even more-so when you know this is something that really happens.

Before the scene began, a father sitting one row back from me realized what was about to occur. He quickly took up his son, about 7 or 8 years old, and rushed him out of the theater. I don't think he returned. Really, don't bring your kids to this movie until you've seen it first. (I saw another person leave after the scene was over, and another two people left in the second abortion scene.)

The second abortion happens about ten minutes later. I thought this scene was more difficult than the first. It shows what RU-486, or the abortion pill, does to a woman, and it's not pretty. You will see a woman have her abortion (painfully) in the shower, and in a sobbing mess she tries to pick up pieces of her aborted child. At the close of the scene, the camera pans up and away from the bathroom, and you see blood in the shower and in the toilet, on the woman and on the floor.

In one scene, a teenage girl's uterus is perforated during an abortion procedure. There's blood everywhere and she nearly dies. In another scene, Abby closely examines the leftover remains of a dissected child in a petri dish. The camera zooms in on the pieces of this tiny baby. Like I said, the R-rating is well-deserved. So it's rather confusing that the filmmakers got upset with the MPAA for labeling the movie "violent."

Think about it—If abortion is a simple medical procedure to remove unwanted tissue, as Planned Parenthood wants the public to believe, then showing an abortion should be no different than any operation you might see depicted in a hospital drama on network television. But if abortion is the brutal, calculated murder of innocent children, then of course the dramatization of such butchery should get an R-rating!

Furthermore—and this has been pointed out elsewhere—the fact that Unplanned has an R-rating means that a 15-year-old girl can get an abortion without her parents' consent, but that same teenage girl cannot see a film about abortion unless her parents are with her. This exposes the seared conscience of our culture. The R-rating was a gift, but it was poorly utilized by the film's promotional team.


Though in the movie abortion is shown to be the mortal death of unborn children, as far as I could tell it was connected with death only twice. It's called "murder" by the protestors outside the abortion clinic toward the start of the movie; then in a sobbing mess during her redemption scene, Abby says that she was complicit in having "killed" over 20,000 babies. (She said this while crying, and I can't be sure that "killed" was the word she used.)

It's widely known that Abby Johnson—speaking of the real-life Abby Johnson—hates abortion protestors. She hates that anyone would stand outside an abortion clinic warning women about what actually goes on inside, which is the murder of innocent children. She's opposed to using graphic imagery like pictures of aborted babies—unless that graphic imagery is in her movie, I guess.

The movie depicts abortion protestors as fat, hairy slobs with bad teeth (I'm not kidding) carrying Bibles, hurling insults, and making death threats. But these are the only ones in the whole film to call abortion murder. The movie shows it's murder, but it won't say it's murder. Apparently us fat, hairy slobs who call abortion murder (I speak for myself) know something the filmmakers don't.

In one of the more contradictory sequences, Abby doubled-up all of her clinic's scheduled abortions in order to get them done before Hurricane Ike made landfall, and the scene is set to the song You're an Overcomer by Mandisa. It was like the film made Abby and her employees out to be heroes. What on earth were the filmmakers thinking? If I were Mandisa, I'd be horrified that my song was used in such a way. The movie regularly held up Abby as an accomplished woman, despite that her accomplishments were killing babies. Sometimes you had to wonder exactly whose side this movie is on.

The movie also portrays Abby's husband, Doug, as pro-life, but this man was not pro-life in the movie nor in real-life. As Jon Speed, pastor of Christ is King Baptist in NY, said in his review, "How in the world does someone who is pro-life marry someone who volunteers at Planned Parenthood?" If Doug truly cared about the lives of unborn children, he would not have married a woman who was complicit in the murder of three-dozen lives per day.

Speed goes on to say, "Abby told a journalist that her husband wanted her to work at the Planned Parenthood for a couple of weeks after she quit because they could not make it on one income. She couldn't take it after one week, so she quit. One more week killing babies surgically, handing out the bloody RU-486 to suburban teenagers, and doing an interview with a Feminist radio show the day after her mid-abortion conversion." (Check out Speed's review for the myths and the mythology of the movie and the pro-life movement.)


Doug and Abby are shown to be church-going Christians (their pastor is played by heretic Kris Vallotton of Bethel Church, which did most of the movie's soundtrack). When I say the film shows them as church-going Christians, I mean that in the story they were always church-going Christians. Abby was not an unbeliever who became a believer in this film. She never had a come-to-Jesus moment because the viewer is led to think she believed in God the entire time.

Her conversion in the story was from pro-abortion to pro-life, not from sinner to saint. When she's sobbing in her living room, she asks her husband how she will ever get over the guilt for the babies she killed. Doug says, "You say you're sorry and God will forgive you." She says, "But how can he do that?" Doug replies, "Because he's God."

If you went the rest of your life believing the message in that scene, you would still be dead in your sins and perish under the wrath of God on judgment day. We are forgiven when we know that we have sinned against a holy God and what we deserve is death, but God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins and conquer death by rising again from the grave. All who believe in Him will not perish but will have His eternal life.

If we ask forgiveness for our sins, God cleanses us from all unrighteousness because Jesus died in our place—not "because he's God," but because He is "just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:26). He forgives because Christ has paid. We receive the immeasurable riches of His grace by faith in Christ alone and no other way. That's the gospel. When you hear that message and you believe it, you will turn from your sin and become a follower Jesus.

Abby never came to know that message in the movie, and she does not know it in real life either. Abby Johnson is a Catholic, not a Christian. She's also not truly pro-life. When legislation came up in Texas to abolish abortion and criminalize it as murder, Abby opposed it."I do not support this bill because it is unconstitutional," she said. It's unconstitutional to criminalize murder? Abby went on to say, "I also do not support legislation that punishes women." This begs the question: If abortion is murder, who's responsible?

Like the real-life Abby's worldview, Unplanned leaves a lot of questions unanswered: Is abortion murder or not? If it's murder, who's at fault? If it's not murder, why is it wrong? How can a woman who has had an abortion be relieved of her guilt? How can the father of an aborted baby be relieved of his guilt? If a woman is convinced having an abortion is wrong, but she still doesn't think she can keep her baby, what else can she do? (See preborn.org for more info.)

As a movie, I liked the story. Movies can convey truth through storytelling, and I believe Unplanned does that very effectively—despite how uncertain the filmmakers were of their own message. When it comes to truth, we must be clear about what we are saying. We have been called to share the message of the gospel, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes in Jesus, as God has planned.

Later this week: How to prevent teen suicide. And I'm still working on that Mary Sue blog.

The following is a chapter from my book 25 Christmas Myths. Because skeptics continue to repeat the myth that the story of Jesus is either a rip-off or a composite of other pagan traditions, I've decided to post this chapter for easy reference. Enjoy! Oh, and buy my book ;)


Did you know that Jesus is actually a rip-off of the pre-Christian god Mithras? According to legend, Mithras was born of a virgin on December 25, had twelve disciples, promised his followers immortality, called himself the way and the truth and the life, initiated a communion-like meal, commanded animal sacrifice, died for world peace, was buried in a tomb, and came back to life on the third day!

Boy, that sounds a lot like Jesus doesn't it? The two are practically identical. It doesn't help the case for Christianity that Mithras predates Jesus by several hundred years. Mithras was the guardian of cattle and the waters in Persia and Babylon before the false god was later integrated into the Roman cults. This has led many skeptics to criticize Christianity for plagiarizing paganism.

Journalist Lee Strobel wrote, "A book called The Jesus Mysteries, which promoted similar themes, was named Book of the Year by London's Daily Telegraph in 1999. 'The story of Jesus and the teachings he gives in the New Testament are prefigured by the myths and teachings of the ancient Pagan mysteries,' said the authors, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy. They added:

'Each mystery religion taught its own version of the myth of the dying and resurrecting Godman, who was known by different names in different places. In Egypt, where the mysteries began, he was Osiris. In Greece he becomes Dionysus, in Asia Minor he is known as Attis, in Syria he is Adonis, in Persia he is Mithras, in Alexandria he is Serapis, to name a few.'" (1)

That might sound like a Huzzah! for skeptics and a Hush! for Christianity, right? Nope, it's a big pile of Hooey! Any and all claims that Christianity is a rip-off of some pagan religion are easily refuted with solid scholarship. I'm not going to invest the space in debunking every accusation, but let's stick with the comparison to Mithraism.

It's true that belief in Mithras predates belief in Jesus Christ. However, no Mithraic traditions came about until the end of the first century. That means Mithraism as a religion is more likely to have ripped-off Christianity rather than the other way around. Mithraism was a Roman mystery cult merely inspired by the Persian and Babylonian mythology from which it was taken.

According to the Romans, Mithras was born of a rock. So much for being virgin-born. As for being born on December 25th, that may not be Jesus' birthday, but it's not Mithras' birthday either. Remember that Emperor Aurelian chose December 25th as the date to dedicate his temple to the Roman sun god, Sol Invictus. In Roman architecture, Mithras was depicted as shaking hands with Sol Invictus. That's his connection to December 25th. (2)

Did Mithras have twelve disciples? No. None of the pagan gods had disciples (a word that means "learner"). They were gods, not teachers. Did Mithras promise immortality to those who worshiped him? Maybe. But if Mithras worshipers believed in immortality, how would that be a rip-off within Christianity? Did Mithras call himself the way, the truth, and the life as Jesus did in John 14:6? Did Mithras die for world peace? Was he buried in a tomb and came back to life on the third day? No, no, and no.

Truth be told, almost no liturgy regarding Mithraic traditions has survived. In fact, there seems to be only one similarity between Mithraism and Christianity, and that's between the Lord's Supper and the Mithraic sacramental meal. The only reason we know about the similarity is because early church fathers Justin Martyr and Tertullian said, "the Mithraic meal was a satanic imitation." (3) The Lord's supper was derived from Passover, not Mithraism.

There have been many attempts to delegitimize Christianity by saying it's a rip-off of this religion or that religion. All these claims are equally absurd. One of the earliest was in the late nineteenth century by a fraud in Egyptology named Gerald Massey. He claimed that the Jesus we worship today is a version the Gnostics came up with from the Egyptian god Horus. Massey said:

Christian ignorance notwithstanding, the Gnostic Jesus is the Egyptian Horus who was continued by the various sects of Gnostics under both the names of Horus and Jesus. In the gnostic iconography of the Roman Catacombs, child-Horus reappears as the mummy-babe who wears the solar disc. The royal Horus is represented in the cloak of royalty, and the phallic emblem found there witnesses to Jesus being Horus of the resurrection. The resurrection of Osiris, the mummy-god, is reproduced in the Roman Catacombs as the raising of Lazarus. (4)

Massey's claims were rejected by credible historians as fringe nonsense with no basis in fact. But they and similar assertions continue to be repeated by many atheists and agnostics, thanks in part to a documentary called Religulous by comedian and talk-show host Bill Maher (comedian and talk-show host—the kind of resumé a credible theologian should have, right?). According to the documentary:

Written in 1280 B.C., the Egyptian Book of the Dead describes a god, Horus. Horus is the son of the god Osiris, born to a virgin mother. He was baptized in a river by Anup the Baptizer who was later beheaded. Like Jesus, Horus was tempted while alone in the desert, healed the sick, the blind, cast out demons, and walked on water. He raised Asar from the dead. "Asar" translates to "Lazarus." Oh yeah, he also had 12 disciples. Yes, Horus was crucified first, and after 3 days, two women announced Horus, the savior of humanity, had been resurrected. (5)

But again, these claims were inspired by Massey who has long since been refuted. Maher gave no sources for his information, other than a reference to the Egyptian Book of the Dead which does not affirm his claims.

According to Egyptian mythology, Horus was born to the goddess Isis, not a virgin woman. There's no mention of Anup the Baptizer or Asar, nor is such an Egyptian name translated as "Lazarus." Horus was not tempted while alone in the desert; he did not travel the countryside healing the sick and performing miracles; and there's nothing about Horus being crucified, resurrected three days later, and announced by two women as savior of the world.

Maher and skeptics like him will say they won't believe in Jesus without verifiable evidence, yet they'll believe the "Jesus is Horus" myth without verifiable evidence! The Apostle Peter said of men like this, "They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do" (1 Peter 2:8).

Peter also said, "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty" (2 Peter 1:16). Unlike the claims of many other world religions and skeptics, the coming of our Lord Christ is not a myth. It's historical fact, verified by eyewitness accounts.

Christians do not believe in blind faith. It is the unbelieving who are blind. Jesus has opened the eyes of His followers to see the truth. In the words of Simeon in Luke 2:30, "My eyes have seen your salvation."

1. Strobel, Lee; The Case for the Real Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007), pg. 158-159.
2. Strobel, pg. 171.
3. Strobel, pg. 173.
4. Massey, Gerald; Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World, Vol. 2 (London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1907), pg. 752.
5. Religulous, Dir. Larry Charles, Starring Bill Maher (Lions Gate, 2009), DVD.

Regarding the passing of Rachel Held Evans, I express my deepest sympathies to her family and anyone else whose heart is broken over her death. Mine is, too. I cannot imagine how devastating this is to such a young family. As her husband, Dan, said, "This entire experience is surreal. I keep hoping it's a nightmare from which I'll awake."

I prayed for her while she was in a coma. Alone in my church, I walked up and down the center aisle of the sanctuary asking God to heal her, physically and spiritually. My wife and I heard about her passing before 8:00 Saturday morning, hours before the news broke to the public. I relayed the message privately to a few people, and made the decision not to say anything else outside of members of my congregation.

However, some have recognized that the last rant Mrs. Evans made on social media was in regards to a video I had made. I've been contacted and asked if I'd like to respond (I'm also still receiving scathing criticism from her followers). I had prepared a response weeks ago, but once Mrs. Evans went into the hospital, I decided the timing wasn't appropriate. I'm breaking my self-imposed moratorium to say there will be time for that later. I will wait until next month to share what I was going to share when Mrs. Evans first rebuffed my video.

For now, I'm asking that the saints join with me in prayer. Pray for Rachel's family. I pray that the gospel comes to them and the peace of God through Christ Jesus our Lord will fill their hearts. I also ask that you pray for the many fans of hers mourning the loss of such an influential figure. Pray that in their grief, the gospel will also come to them, and they will repent of their sin and live.

Evans taught many damning and dangerous doctrines and doings—things that will keep a person from the kingdom of God. Some will think of me as acting inappropriately for saying so. "Can't we just set our doctrinal differences aside and weep with those who weep?" they are saying. I tell you we should never set our doctrinal differences aside. Hold fast to the truth always—especially in grief. Pray for all, including those who hate the truth that they will repent.

Over the weekend, Rachel Held Evans' followers have been thanking her, in memoriam, for encouraging them to be gay, feminist, a woman pastor, to worship a female version of God, to not feel guilty about voting for a woman's right to choose abortion, to celebrate doubt, and to cut essential doctrines out of the Christian faith. What she taught in life, she's being celebrated for in death. And yet we who know the truth are expected to remain silent about the danger they are in? We're supposed to hide our light under a bushel until—when, exactly?

Someone might say, "Well, you can just pray quietly and not have to make a public statement about it." How as a pastor am I to shepherd the flock of God without instruction? (I did speak about these things with my congregation yesterday before coming to a blog post today.) Among the qualifications of a pastor, he is to "hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it" (Titus 1:9).

Someone might say, "Well, Jesus rebuked those who pray publicly, so keep it private." He rebuked those whose motivation was to be seen by others, not that prayer should never be public. The Spirit says to pray for everyone in every place, and men should lead lifting holy hands (1 Timothy 2:1, 8). I'm not trying to score theological points with anyone. Do you know the heat I took when I first said to her followers that if they truly cared for Rachel's well-being, they should repent of their sin lest the Lord ignore their prayers (Psalm 66:18)? Some prominent figures who fancy themselves preachers called my appeal "antichrist."

I desire that none should perish but that all should come to repentance. Galatians 1:10 says, "For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." Ezekiel 18:23 says, "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?"

Never at any point have I issued a condemnation of Mrs. Evans' soul. Perhaps in the depths of her coma, she was conscious enough that the Lord granted her a thief-on-the-cross moment. Perhaps she realized, "I am receiving the due reward of my deeds," and she was able to cry out, "Jesus, remember me!" (Luke 23:41-42). Friends, I want that ending for Rachel. I have never wanted anything else for her but that.

I have wept with those who are weeping. It is with tears that I tell you to repent. Hebrews 12:14 says, "Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." With the pursuit of holiness comes the call of our Lord Christ to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15). I love you too much not to say, "Repent, or you will likewise perish" (Luke 13:3).

Pray for peace for Rachel's family, and pray for repentance for her fans. May the Lord show mercy to Rachel Held Evans, and may she rest in peace.

Yesterday, Beth Moore went "off like a bottle rocket." Her words. What was the thing that set her off? An article by Dr. Owen Strachan of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in which he argued from Scripture that God has appointed men to be the overseers of the preaching and teaching in the church, a role He has not granted to women.

Pastors are to be men—tested, approved, and qualified according to Scripture. The Spirit of God is clear that women are not to have teaching authority over the men in the church (1 Timothy 2:11-12) pointing to the order of creation (v.13-14) and the Law (1 Corinthians 14:34-35). This applies to all people, in all cultures, at all times.

Lest that develop into any feelings of superiority, to be a pastor is to be a servant. In fact, it's to be a servant of servants. Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all" (Mark 9:35). Again, He said, "If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you" (John 13:14-15). As He said to Peter, "Feed my sheep" (John 22:17).

This is not a fight for the best seat at the table. A pastor must serve. The primary role in that service is to oversee the preaching and teaching in the church. Of course, all men and women in the church are called to serve. Women can even teach. Get this: they are commanded to teach! (See Titus 2:3-5.) But that doesn't mean you hand them the pulpit. God has ordained specifically men for the role of pastor. On this point the Bible is unequivocally clear—from creation to Law to living in the new covenant.

Oh, but Beth Moore will have none of that. In a response to Dr. Strachan on Twitter of all places, Mrs. Moore openly stated the following:

Owen, I am going to say this with as much respect & as much self restraint as I can possibly muster. I would be terrified to be a woman you’d approve of. And I would have wasted 40 years of my life encouraging women to come to know and love Jesus through the study of Scripture.

One wonders what she would have said if she wasn't exercising self-restraint! Beth Moore is "terrified to be a woman you'd approve of." What an insult to Dr. Strachan's wife. Contrary to Beth's overreaction, Dr. Strachan was not telling Mrs. Moore women can't teach women. Strachan would praise such an effort (if what Beth Moore was teaching was actually sound doctrine). He was saying what the Bible says: women can't be pastors teaching in the congregation of the church proper.

Like I said, Beth went off like bottle rocket, and there was an overflow of comments beyond that one. To Mike Cosper of Harbor Media, she said:

Mike, I've been so grossed out. Tell you this, brother. If each of us were more attentive to applying the Scriptures to ourselves than others, revival would break out. Furthermore, when a man's life verse appears to be one of the submission of women, I'm throwing up in my mouth.

Beth is "grossed out"? As if Dr. Strachan is some kind of pervert? So much for all that self-restraint she was exercising. She said, "If each of us were more attentive to applying the Scriptures to ourselves than others." Oh, the irony. Everyone else has to apply the Scriptures to themselves, but she doesn't have to apply it to herself.

By the way, in case I forgot to tell you, Beth Moore is preaching in front of her church congregation this Sunday. To a concerned supporter who asked Beth if her ego was getting in the way, Beth replied:

I have brought a message from a pulpit in an SBC church service about 15 times in 40 years. If your track record of "obedience" tops that, more power to you. This is over me speaking at an SBC church on MOTHER’S DAY.

As Michelle Lesley pointed out, "This is like saying, 'I've only committed adultery or lied or coveted or slandered or murdered or gotten drunk 15 times in 40 years.' This is sin. And we don't boast about how few times we've sinned and how obedient we are for it, we grieve over how many times we've sinned, and we repent!"

Further in her rocket rant, Beth said to Marty Duren at Lifeway:

Marty, I need to know, what do some of these dudes propose that single women and childless women who love Jesus with all their hearts and want to serve him ought to do with their lives?

Hysterically, Beth argued that single Christian women have nothing to do if they're not allowed to become pastors. Beth reiterated again that she's about to spew:

I am nauseated. I need to see their wives in their head coverings and I don't want to see any jewelry on them either or make up or any braided hair on their daughters and I want to see these men praying, lifting up holy hands. And I need them to pray for my heart as they do.

And she's a Bible teacher? That terrible exegesis alone would be enough to disqualify her. I said in a recent video that Beth makes the Bible about you. Well, I'd like to take that back—apparently she makes it about herself. If you think I can't be a pastor, she says, you better be making your wife wear head coverings and don't let your daughter braid her hair. You take the Bible too literally, and that makes you a pharisee. She said:

Marty. No kidding. Honestly, the blind spots are outrageous. This is the very thing, precisely the same thing, Jesus called out in the Pharisees. Meticulous attention to the letter of the law to protect self interest.

So a moment ago, we needed to be more attentive to applying the Scriptures to ourselves. Now meticulous attention to Scripture is Pharisaical. Which is it? The problem with the Pharisees wasn't "meticulous attention to the letter of the law." They didn't understand the law and added to the law. Again, how does anyone consider this woman a credible Bible teacher?

The only correct thing she said in her online rant yesterday was that she was going off like a bottle rocket. She's just whipping through the air with no direction or grounding. Dr. Strachan based his teaching on Scripture, in a gentle and loving manner. Beth Moore responded like a petulant teenage girl putting her finger down her throat and making throw-up sounds. Accusing Dr. Strachan or anyone else who believes as he believes that they're only trying "to protect self-interest" is slander. She's claiming she knows their motivation, and it's not a deep love for the word of Christ.

As for protecting self-interest, Beth again needs to examine herself. She's one of the most bankable evangelical women celebrities. Joyce Meyer and Victoria Osteen might be the only names bigger than hers. Beth has her brand to protect. Between her and Dr. Strachan, she's got way more to lose and was definitely more unsettled, considering how "terrified,""grossed out," and "nauseated" she became. The reason Beth is terrified might be because she knows she's deliberately disobeying God.

The Apostle John wrote, "God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love" (1 John 4:16-18).

Abiding in God means that we abide in His word. Jesus said, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31-32). He said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments... If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples" (John 14:15, 15:7-8).

Is Beth "terrified" because she knows that she is not abiding in the word of Christ, a twister of the word to serve her own self-interests? I suggest she examine herself and repent, lest something worse happen to her than an article by a seminary professor. In the meantime, Beth Moore has fully revealed herself to be in opposition to God's word. Of teachers who stray from sound doctrine, the Spirit warns:

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. (1 Timothy 6:3-5)

Apply this passage this way: Avoid teachers that go off like bottle rockets.

Extra resources:
Why Your Pastor Should Say No More to Beth Moore by Josh Buice
Why We Still Warn Against Beth Moore by Justin Bullington
Should Women Preach in Church? (video) by Albert Mohler 

Edit: The "Mother's Day" tweet and Michelle Lesley's follow-up comment were a later edition not included in the first draft of this blog.

16 "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another." Galatians 5:16-26

Over the course of this letter to the churches in first century Galatia, the argument being made by the Apostle Paul is that we are justified by faith in Christ alone, and this is the gospel. Jesus Christ has died for our sins and conquered death by rising again from the grave. Whoever believes in Him is forgiven. Jesus is enough. The work of Christ is sufficient. If someone comes to you preaching Christ plus something else equals salvation, they are preaching a different gospel. For the Galatians, they had been seized by the Judaizers into believing we are justified by faith plus works. The work of Christ was not enough, they thought, and I need to keep these works in order to be saved.

This of course was not the message that Paul first preached to the Galatians when he came to them. He said in chapter 1 verse 6, "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel, which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ." This new gospel was as good as no gospel at all. In fact, Paul said in verses 8 and 9 that to believe such a false gospel would lead not to life but a curse. The worst curse—the judgment of God.

As we considered last week, Paul said, "I wish that those who unsettle you would go the whole way and cut themselves off from the body of Christ instead of dividing it with false teaching." Sound doctrine always unite. Bad doctrine always divides. As we read last week in verses 13-15:

"For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another watch out that you are not consumed by one another."

And now verse 16: "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." To "walk" in something is a Hebrew figure of speech for how one lives their life. So another way to say this would be, "Live by the Spirit." We see multiple comparisons to walking in the faith throughout the New Testament:

• Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
• Colossians 2:6, "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him."
• 1 Thessalonians 4:1, "Brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more."
• 1 John 1:7, "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

In the first half of Galatians 5, which we looked at last week, we read about how we are set free in Christ. We are set free from the bonds of sin and death. We are released from the burden of the Law. Therefore, we should not submit ourselves again to a yoke of slavery. We should also not use our freedom as a license to sin. Consider verse 13 again: "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." In other words, you've been cleansed of your sins not so you can go get dirty again, lest you would be living for yourself. You've been washed so that you might live into God, to love sacrificially as Christ has loved you.

It is a very common pattern among professing American Christians to live life one way on Sunday, and then to live life a completely different way during the rest of the week. When I was in high school, we used to make fun of our friends and even some of our teachers who were Catholic. They lived like the devil during the week and then went to mass on the weekend to get pardoned by the priest. It would be several years later before I realized I was living my life the same way, just with no priest and fewer smells and bells.

The Bible calls this hypocrisy—calling yourself a follower of Jesus but living like you're a follower of Satan. Saying you're a citizen of the kingdom of God, but behaving like you are perishing with the rest of this fallen world. You haven't been saved from your sins. You're still dying to do them. If there's no difference with the way you live your life and the way your unbelieving friends live, examine yourself to see if you're truly in the faith.

Some people will excuse sinful living—whether it's their own sins or the sins of a loved one they don't want to believe is headed for hell. They will say this is an opportunity for God to show more grace. They might quote Romans 5:20, which says, "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more!" Or Romans 6:14 which says, "You are not under the law but under grace!" But neither of these passages are a license to sin. "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more," means that you were once dead in your sins and your trespasses, but by the grace of God you have been made alive in Christ Jesus. "You are not under the law but under grace!" means that you will not be judged by the law you previously have broken, but you will live under the grace of God which we have in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:1-4 says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."

Verses 15-18 say, "What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness."

The Spirit says we are to "walk in newness of life" and "obedience leads to righteousness." We come back again to this understanding of what it means to walk by the Spirit, and walking by the Spirit means obedience. Obedience to what? What are we supposed to obey? The Law of God. But wait, didn't we just read that we are not under the law, but under grace? That does not mean the Law no longer applies to us. Quite the contrary! It means the Law has been applied to us! Here is what I mean by that.

In Jeremiah 31 beginning in verse 31, God talks a new covenant. "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke… For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

These words exactly are repeated again in Hebrews 8:8-12 showing that they have been fulfilled in the people of God, His church, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation 21:3 says, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God." This people God will put His law within us, and write it on our hearts. This is the work of the Holy Spirit of God within us. This is walking by the Spirit—walking according to the commandments of God.

In his commentary on Galatians, Ronald Fung, professor of biblical studies at China Graduate School of Theology, said the following: "The guidance of the Spirit can be experienced as a reality in the life of the believer, a sign that Jeremiah's prophetic word about the new covenant has been fulfilled. In Old Testament times, the Israelites knew God's law as an external code, but in the New Testament dispensation, the law of God is set in His people's understanding and written on their hearts. God's will is now an inward principle, the result of the leading of the Spirit within the believer."

Consider also these words from the Lord in Ezekiel 36 starting in verse 25: "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you [a soft heart]. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules."

Same thing that was said in Jeremiah under the promise of a new covenant: "I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." The Law of God has been written on our hearts through the Spirit of God that is within us. In this way, the Law has been applied to us. It hasn't been abolished. That should be very clear considering we just read in Galatians 5:14, "The whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" Do you believe you are to love your neighbor? Then you believe the Law of God still applies.

Now, let me make this emphatically clear once again—salvation is not by the Law. "Honor your father and your mother," will not save you. "Thou shalt not murder," will not save you. "Thou shalt not commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, or covet," will not save you. You are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. We read in Galatians 3:10 that everyone who relies on works of the law is under a curse, and in verse 13, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." So do not think I am talking out of both sides of my head—saying in one instance that you are justified by faith and in another instance that you are justified by the law.

Romans 3:20 says, "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." It is through the hearing of the Law of God that you became aware that you had sinned against God. But now having called upon the name of Christ and received His forgiveness, He has written His commandments upon your heart, and your love for Him is expressed in your obedience. As Jesus said in John 14:15 and 21, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments… Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, He it is who loves me." Those who love God will keep His commandments, not because they save you, but because He has saved you.

Romans 8:3-4, "God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." Romans 13:8-10 says, "Love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."

Jesus came to fulfill the Law, and now as His follower with he Holy Spirit of God in your heart, you fulfill the Law when you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:40, "On these two commandments depend all the Law and the prophets."

In his book How Does God's Law Apply to Me? R.C. Sproul wrote the following: "Has anything changed about God that we would disregard His directives? Is His word still law? Is He still as sovereign as He was in the Old Testament? Is the God of Israel and of the New Testament church a commandment-giving God? His word is law, and His law is His word, because His law expresses His will. And that will, that law, is sweeter than honey (Psalm 119:103)."

Note that Dr. Sproul said, "His law expresses His will." When it comes to obeying the directive to "Love God, Love People," we are not free to interpret that as, "Love God in whatever way you are comfortable worshiping, and love people the way the culture says love is supposed to look like." We are to love God the way He says He is to be worshiped, and we are to love others the way Jesus said for us to love.

In keeping the word of God, we walk by the Spirit. But Galatians 5:16 says more than just "walk by the Spirit." It says, "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do."

We will flesh this out (pun) a little bit more when we contrast the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. They are opposite sides of a divided highway. You cannot be on one side headed in one direction and be in the other lane headed in the other direction at the same time. If you walk by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Your orientation must be in the direction of God. If you are facing God, the world is behind you. If you are facing the world, you turn your back on God.

I read to you earlier from Romans 8:3-4. Let me pick up that passage again in verse 5: "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

Note there that those who are in the flesh cannot submit to God's law. Continuing in verse 9: "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."

Imagine that! The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the exact same power that you have within you. This power has strengthened you, raised you up, brought your dead spirit back to life. You have been raised from death to life by the Holy Spirit of God. If that is the power you have dwelling within you, don't you think you have the power to resist the temptations of the flesh?

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that everyone here should be living in perfection, and if you aren't perfect, then you're not a Christian—that's not what I'm saying. But don't hear me saying, "Christians still sin" as an excuse to excuse your sin. Jesus said, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," and God has said in both the Old and New Testaments, "Be holy as I am holy." What this means is that you should be growing in holiness. You are not falling back into sin or old patterns. You are growing in newness of life.

Now, though the Scripture does use the word "growing" to describe our progress toward holiness, we might hear that word and tend to take a very passive approach to our spiritual maturity, thinking that it will just happen as naturally as the grass grows. I know that would certainly be the case for me. I can very easily and complacently sit back and think that spiritual growth will just happen. But my friends, resisting temptation, growing in righteousness, being a pillar and buttress of the truth, taking every thought captive and making it to obey Christ, breaking down strongholds and everything that is raised up against the knowledge of God, fleeing from Satan and drawing near to God—this is spiritual warfare. It's less compared to watering your lawn and more comparable to taking up arms.

You know the instruction to put on the full armor of God, right? What does the Scripture say? Ephesians 6:10, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."

Kim Riddlebarger of Fuller Theological Seminary says the following: "The sinful nature is not eradicated at the moment of regeneration, but the sinful nature is cut off from its source of life. It will slowly but surely whither and die. But though a defeated foe, it will nevertheless fight a determined guerrilla war until we die or until Christ comes back, whichever comes first."

We are fighting a spiritual war daily, and this battle is walking with the Spirit. Consider it your marching orders. This isn't like a brisk walk through the Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge. It's a wild frontline battle. While an unbeliever is comfortable with their sin, Christians regularly struggle with indwelling sin. But do not be discouraged or intimidated by this image of spiritual war. For we have been promised in Scripture that the battle belongs to the Lord. Victory is not in your ability to resist temptation or be holy, remember. Victory is in Jesus.

We are reminded in 1 Corinthians 15, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

If we are abounding in the work of the Lord, we are walking by the Spirit. We are not gratifying the desires of the flesh. Returning once again to Galatians 5:17, "For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do."

Now what does this mean, "to keep you from doing the things you want to do"? If you're going after the desires of your flesh, you might want to do what is pleasing to God. You might say you love God and you want to do all that is according to His will. But you won't do it. Your desire is to satisfy your fleshly appetites, not take up your cross and follow Christ. You would rather have sexual immorality rather than purity, divisions with other people rather than reconciliation, anger rather than love, intoxication rather than being filled with the Spirit, the idols you've raised up rather than Christ. So you might want to please God, but your heart wants what your flesh wants, and it keeps you from doing the things you want to do. As Jesus told His disciples, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Now let's turn it around the other way. If you're walking by the Spirit and doing the things of God, you won't do what your flesh would want you to do. The very idea of it disgusts you. Sin is gross to the believer that truly desires holiness. You don't even like to think about it. Some people love the memories of past sins. They might remember something sinful they did and savor it, like sucking on a tic-tack. But not the person who walks by the Spirit. They want to think of their sin as God thinks of sin. It makes them sick.

So instead of sexual immorality, which is any sexual pleasure outside of the marriage covenant, you want to submit your body unto the Lord as a living sacrifice. You hate the idea of holding a grudge against anyone, especially a brother or sister in the Lord. You desire to be reconciled. You are not easily angered but rather self-controlled. You are patient affliction. You do not keep a record of wrongs but forgive others. You are faithful to the Lord because you know He has been far more faithful to you. Whatever the flesh wants, you don't do it, because the Spirit of God compels you toward Christ. Galatians 5:18, "If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."

And in case you haven't picked up on it, I've already taken the liberty of contrasting the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit: "Now the works of the flesh are evident," Paul says. That means, we who have the Spirit of God know what the works of the flesh are. If the Law of God has been written on our hearts, and our desire is to please our Savior, we hate the very garment that is stained by sin, and we will want nothing to do with these works:

"Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

This is not just a matter of saying, "Hey, don't do gross things." These works of the flesh are condemnable. A person who lives their life in such a way will be destroyed in judgment. Notice that the first one, two, three, possibly four works all have to do with sexual immorality, as well as the last one before Paul says, "and things like these." Meaning, there are more sins that could go on the list, but this list is still quantifiable.

Sexual sins are the surest manifestation of someone who is selfishly gratifying the desires the flesh. Consider that the month of June has been designated "Pride Month." Everyone understands why, right? It was on June 26, 2015 that the U.S. Supreme Court declared in a 5-4 decision that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed for same-sex couples. Therefore, June is "Pride Month." It's very interesting that in their perversity, the LGBTQRSTUV movement was so willing to confess how truly prideful they are.

And that is what sexual sins are—they are nothing but prideful self-seeking, with no regard to anyone but the appeasement of the flesh. In 1 Corinthians 6:18-19, we read, "Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

As for these other works of the flesh, "idolatry" is desiring anything above God. In Colossians 3:5, Paul says covetousness is idolatry. Sorcery would not only include witchcraft, fortune telling, or communicating with the dead, it would also include taking drugs that alter the mind. The Greek word is pharmakeia, from which we get the word "pharmacy."

Enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, all seem pretty self-explanatory. Now, I've taken the liberty of going with the New American Standard translation of Galatians 5:21, inserting the word "carousing" in place of the word that the ESV uses. Those of you who have the ESV Bible, you know which word I'm talking about. I've done that for the sake of young ears in the congregation.

So we contrast the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. Now notice that it's "fruit" of the Spirit, singular, not "fruits" of the Spirit. We have nine things listed here, but it's described as singular fruit. You don't get to pick and choose which of these you want to be good at: "Oh, I think I'll try a little love and joy. I like those things. I think I'll leave the patience to someone else. Self-control isn't really my thing." You can't do that. These are the gifts of the Spirit, this is the fruit of the Spirit. The person who is walking in the Spirit, also known as a Christian, must exhibit all of the fruit of the Spirit, not just some of them.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love," love the way that God defines love, sacrificial love, putting others needs ahead of your own. "Joy," which is not dependent upon mood or circumstances. You rejoice in the Lord always. "Peace," a peace that surpasses all comprehension, according to Philippians 4:7. It is peace with God, the forgiveness of sins. And that peace will manifest itself in showing peace toward others—not causing or dwelling in division, but letting the peace of Christ rule in your heart.

"Patience." It's the first descriptor of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4. "Love is patient." We're not quick to fly off the handle with one another. We're not demanding responses right now. We're patient. "Kindness." That seems pretty self-explanatory. Not quarreling with one another. Not calling each other names. Not looking down on one another, or thinking more highly of yourself than you out to think. Instead you show no partiality and associate with the lowly. "Goodness." You take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. You abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good, what God says is good.

"Faithfulness." Faithfulness to Christ, faithfulness to His word, faithfulness to one another. You are steadfast an unmoving in your faith. You persevere under trial. You're still going to be a Christian 10 years from now, only more mature than you are now. "Gentleness," similar to kindness. You're compassionate toward others. Considerate. Kindness is more active and gentleness more passive, perhaps. Kindness, you are looking for ways to compliment and encourage others. Gentleness is the way you respond to others or your circumstances.

"Self-control," means that you are able to resist temptation. You do not give in to the passions of your flesh. You are not easily seized or taken in by wild ideas or conspiracies. You have a sound mind. You are temperate. And Paul ends this list of the fruit of the Spirit by saying, "Against such things there is no law." Another way of saying this is something that was said earlier: "Love is the fulfilling of the Law."

Verse 24, "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." This is like something Paul said earlier in Galatians 2:20. "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Verses 25 and 26: "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another." We are completely content in Christ our Savior, sufficient for our every need. We're not trying to add something to Christ in order to attain satisfaction or salvation. You are saved by grace through faith. And that is enough.

"Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load. 6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." Galatians 6:1-10

Last week, we learned about walking by the Spirit, which included the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; "against such things there is no law." Now we love to talk about the fruit of the Spirit. We even have a song about it. If you will recall, the theme of our VBS three years ago was the fruit of the Spirit. Any one of our children in this church could stand up here and give you the fruit of the Spirit, which is wonderful to think about.

But while we may rejoice to memorize the fruit of the Spirit, which is certainly worthwhile, we're not as familiar with the works of the flesh. Why is it important to know what the works of the flesh are? Let me give you three reasons. The first reason is because the Spirit says the works of the flesh are evident. In other words, we must know what they are because the Bible says so. Galatians 5:19-21—"Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these."

When we get to the fruit of the Spirit, and we read that the fruit of the Spirit is "love," we must recognize that "love" is not "sexual immorality," because as verse 17 says, "The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other." Our world equates sexuality immorality with love. But if we know God's definition of love, we won't be taken in by the world's re-definition of love. What did God say was love?

Jesus said in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." The definition of love is, very simply, Jesus Christ. And the love of Christ is sacrificial. No love will ever be greater than what Jesus did for us. But in light of what Jesus did, laying down His life for our sins, we likewise should lay down our lives for each other. That doesn't mean we can atone for one another's sins. But we understand the application of Christ-likeness given in a passage like Philippians 2:3, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." And then Paul says that thinking this way is having the mind of Christ.

Ephesians 5:25 says, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her." This doesn't mean that a husband must literally die for his wife. But he must consider the needs of his family ahead of his own ambitions. It's not wrong for a husband to have ambitions. But his priority is first to his family. Take this principle for the home and apply it to the church. Consider one another's needs ahead of your own. In doing this, we love one another, and we won't be doing the work of the flesh.

The second reason is so we don't do them. The rest of verse 21 says, "I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." This is the penalty for those who walk by the flesh rather than in the Spirit. Whoever lives according to the flesh will perish under the righteous judgment of God. This should cause us to hunger for the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation to all who believe. Just like the hearing of the Law brings knowledge of our sin, the hearing of the works of the flesh does the same. Then we reach for the gospel, which produces godliness—the fruit of the Spirit. When we walk by the Spirit, we do not gratify the desires of the flesh.

The third reason we should know the works of the flesh as well as the fruit of the Spirit is because we understand the first half of Jesus' command, "Repent and believe." Dave has been teaching through Mark on Sunday morning. At the start, Mark 1:14-15 says, "Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel."

The command of Christ to repent and believe means that we turn from something and we turn to something. We repent or turn from our sin, and we believe or turn to Christ. Apply this understanding to the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. You are turning from a sin nature which manifests the rotten works of the flesh. You are turning to a new nature which produces the beautiful fruit of the Spirit. So knowing the works of the flesh specifies what we are turning from when we are told to repent. The fruit of the Spirit specifies what we will be turned into when we obey the command to believe. Make sense?

So I have spent ten minutes this morning talking about what we talked about last week. Why have I spent so much time talking about this again? Here are three more reasons. Number one, because I like talking about it. Number two, because not all of you were here last week (no conviction or condemnation intended).

Here's the third reason: because the section on the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit is book-ended with this command: Love your neighbor. Galatians 5:14 says, "For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" Then we get to the fruit of the Spirit in verse 16-26. Now we start chapter 6 with the same command in verse 2: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the Law of Christ," the command to love one another.

Let's consider, once more, the fruit of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." What do you need in order to produce and share the fruit of the Spirit? People! You need people to show love to, do you not? You need people to rejoice with. You need people to exhibit peacefulness. You need people to be patient with. You need people to be kind to. You need people to be good to. You need people to be faithful to. You need people to be gentle with. And you need people to be self-controlled toward.

And, furthermore my friends, you need people that they may display this same fruit back to you. You need to let people love you, and do not make it hard on them. You need people to take joy in you, to show you peace, to show you kindness, to give you goodness, to be faithful to you, to be gentle with you, and through accountability, you need people to help you develop self-control.

A lot of us have this sense that the Christian walk is just about me and Jesus—just my relationship with God. My friends, it's not just about you and God. You certainly have a relationship with God through faith in Christ. But Christianity is not just about your association with God, or even just you and your family trying to tough it out in this crazy world. The Christian walk requires fellowship with other Christians. Jesus did not call you to closet Christianity. He commanded you to love each other. And you need each other to fulfill the Law of Christ.

As author and theologian Tim Challies has said, "Sanctification is a community project." You grow in holiness and righteousness and the knowledge of God and therefore also the fruit of the Spirit with other believers. You cannot fulfill the Law of Christ by yourself. You cannot grow in your faith on your own.

Second Timothy 2:22 says, "So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart." That passage is Galatians 5:14 through 6:10 simplified. "Flee youthful passions," means repent from works of the flesh; "and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace," which you might recognize are the fruit of the Spirit! "Along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart," means that you do this with the church—the body of believers who call on the Lord from a heart being made righteous in Christ.

Sometimes, loving one another means that we will need to call one another to correction. In the context of loving one another and growing together, we have Galatians 6:1—"Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted." My friends, calling one another to correction is a requirement. It is a command of Christ.

In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus said, "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."

That last statement, verse 20, we often tag on our prayer gatherings and Bible studies: "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." That's not about a prayer gathering. God is with you when you are praying by yourself, amen? This is in the context of church discipline, and it is the command of Christ that we follow it.

Notice something in this progression of discipline. It starts with a one on one confrontation, and if the person refuses to repent, it gradually becomes more and more public until the whole church is involved. Understand plainly my friends: sin is not, nor has it ever been, a private matter. It takes the body of Christ to help you overcome it. James 5:15-16 says, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed."

Consider that in Philippians 4, the Apostle Paul calls out two women in front of the whole church: "I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion," talking to the rest of the body, "help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel."

We don't know what the conflict between these two women was, but we get the sense that it had been going on for a while and had not yet been resolved. Paul names two disagreeable women before the church—it's written down in history for all of us to read—and then the apostle commissions the church to restore them in a spirit of gentleness, treating them as sisters.

All throughout this process of discipline, we are told to correct "in a spirit of gentleness." In 1 Peter 3:15, we are told to answer unbelievers with gentleness and respect, and in 2 Timothy 2:25 we're told to correct opponents with gentleness. That same gentle spirit most definitely should apply to the way we correct disagreement among brothers and sisters.

Second Thessalonians 3:13-15 says, "As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother."
Notice this directive on discipline begins with, "Do not grow weary in doing good." In other words, do not hesitate to issue correction. Proverbs 12:1 says, "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid." We often take a verse like that and apply it to the person who hates to receive correction, but it also applies to the person who will not issue correction. But love helps one another, even in fighting against sin.

Galatians 6:2 says, "Bear one another's burdens," and this is right after we read, "restore him in a spirit of gentleness," and "keep watch on yourself." To admonish a brother or sister, or even to pray for them and be heart-broken over their sin, is to bear their burden. Some of us are going to struggle more than others with the temptations of our flesh. "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ," the law to love one another. John 13:34, Jesus said, "A new commandments I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." And didn't Jesus love us though we had sinned against Him?

Look now at verses 3-5: "For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load." Now this is odd. We just read bear one another's burdens, and now we're being told each will have to bear his own load. Doesn't this seem to be a contradiction? It might seem to be, but it's not.

"Bear one another's burdens" is a different phrase than "bear his own load." In fact, the phrase "bear his own load" in the Greek is like a phrase that appeared earlier in Galatians 5:10, when Paul said of a false teacher, "The one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is." Romans 14:12 says, "Each of us will give an account of himself to God." Do you bear a burden of guilt, or have your sins been lifted by Christ? We have these moments now to bear one another's burdens, for we cannot bear their load for them at the judgment seat.

Consider the statement in verse 4: "Let each one test his own work." Second Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" You are responsible to warn your brother or sister when they step off the path of righteousness. But you can't make the decision for them to step back on.

This is a painfully difficult position to be in, to watch a loved one go astray, to have warned them, to have pleaded with them, and still they go their own way. Some of you have seen friends wander from the faith, children, a spouse. All five of my own flesh and blood brothers and sisters have either castigated me for warning them or they've left the faith entirely. I know how this feels. But you can't make them turn back. Pray and ask that the Lord would grant them a spirit of repentance. And once again, "keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted." Do not follow them off the path. "Walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous" (Proverbs 2:20).

Verse 4 goes on to say that the one who tests his own work will boast in himself and not his neighbor. I thought we weren't supposed to boast in ourselves. Second Corinthians 10:17 says, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." And that's precisely the point. If your works have been carried out in God through Christ Jesus our Lord, your boast over your work will be in Christ working through you. Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." You can't make someone else do good works. But you can do your own work, and do it all to the glory of God.

Galatians 6:6 says, "Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches." Let's summarize what we've read so far: Look out for your brothers and sisters, keep watch on yourself, bear one another's burdens, don't think too highly of yourself and deceive yourself, test your own work. Now Paul says, "Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches." My explanation of this passage may sound somewhat self-serving; nevertheless, it is for your edification.

Let's say you witness a brother in the Lord losing his temper or a sister in Christ gossiping. You follow that first instruction of Jesus to go and confront them, just between the two of you. Jesus said if they listen to you, you have gained your brother. Mission accomplished! You don't have to go to that next step of bringing two or three witnesses to confront them. There's no reason this needs public exposure.

So now what? Well, tell your pastor. Go to your pastor and say, "You have taught us that this is how we are supposed to handle the situation. We have followed the instruction of Jesus, and we are rejoicing in repentance." Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

Several years ago, I baptized a teenage girl who had repented and had been rescued from some pretty serious sin. Just a few weeks ago, her father texted me a picture of her graduating from college, and said she was still walking with the Lord. It brought tears to my eyes. I told him that, and he said it brought tears to his eyes just to text it to me.

My friends, it may feel like all hell is breaking loose underneath you. And when that happens, my door is open. I will pray with you, and where needed I will remind you of the hope and promises we've been given in the word of God, so that you may find sure footing and be able to stand firm on solid ground. But in the times when it feels like the floodgates of heaven have opened up and poured out on you, would you do me a favor and share those moments with me, too? I will share your tears of sorrow, but I long even more to share your tears of joy.

"Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches." Let me continue to press into this. Again, I say this not for my own benefit. There is another pastor sitting here: Pastor Dwight;you're your lay-elder, brother Dave. About half of you will have a different pastor within the next two years as the military moves you on to another location, so what you are learning here will also serve you there. We also have some visitors today, so you are welcome to find application in this also.

Examine the relationship you have with your pastor. Are you thankful for him? Would you consider the relationship to be a blessing, or do you not really care for what your pastor has to say? If it seems like most of what you say to him is critical, or just about any time he gives you advice or council, you disagree with it, ignore it, or try to go against it, exactly what benefit is that to you?
Hebrews 13:17 says, "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you."

Remember that the Apostle Paul is writing to a church that has lost their grasp on sound doctrine, and what has resulted is biting and devouring one another. He's trying to bring them back to the glorious truth of the true gospel, and explaining to them what the fruit of that gospel will look like. First and foremost, they will love one another: "Bear one another's burdens," Paul says. Included in that command is the relationship they will have with the elders of the church. Do not be a burden on them. Rather, lighten the load they already have to bear. And do so in this way: "Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches."

Let's look now at Galatians 6:7—"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." Remember again verse 1 says, "If anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted." There are two parts to this: restore your brother or sister, and keep watch on yourself. The Apostle Paul has given the explanation of this passage in two parts. Verses 2 through 5 explain the first part, to restore one another. Verses 7 through 9 explain the second part, to keep watch on yourself. (Verse 6 is kind of a bridge between the two parts. It could go with either part one or part two.)

Should you not keep watch on yourself and fall into temptation, do not be deceived and think to yourself, "Oh, well God is a gracious God. He'll just forgive me, right? After all, He's God! And I'm such a likeable person! How could God not love me?" That would be mocking God. You're sinning and daring God to do something about it. Stand in fear, believer. He will do something about it.

"Whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will form the Spirit reap eternal life." In other words, there are consequences for behavior. Maybe God won't destroy you for the sin you've decided to indulge in. But there will still be consequences. Maybe this one little sin won't cause a great amount of damage, but you get nothing good from it. You will only reap corruption—meaning that it may lead you to do it again, and again, and again, until you're given over to your own depravity.

Do not flirt with such danger, my fellow Christians. "The one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life!" Seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God! As we will be teaching the children this coming week at VBS, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal. The things of the Spirit are free from corruption. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

"And let us not grow weary of doing good," Paul says in verse 9, "for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith."

All of the instructions that we've been concerning ourselves with here have been for the church. "Bear one another's burdens," is an instruction for the church, how brothers and sisters in the Lord show love to one another. It is not going to be the same way we show our concern for the world. Yes, we are also to the warn the world of their sin, but we are also told not to be yoked with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14).

We are first and foremost to care for one another. When you get paid, where does your money go first? It goes to providing for your own household, right? Then whatever else you have gets invested in other areas. So that is going to be the same with your church. Care first for the body of faith. We will have opportunities to show good to everyone. But the church, your church family, is our primary concern, bearing one another's burdens that we may fulfill the Law of Christ.

I have an apple tree in front of my house that has never produced a good apple, and I get mad at it every year. But at the same time, I've never put any work into that apple tree. I don't care for it, I don't prepare it for spring, I don't spray it for bugs, I don't keep bad limbs trimmed back. And I just expect it to produce good fruit and then complain whenever it doesn't.

Apply that to your growth in the church. Are you mad that you're still fighting sin you've never seem to overcome? What kind of work have you put into it? Are you looking down on other's sins and saying, "Why hasn't Gabe done something about this?" Well, what are you doing to grow your brothers and sisters in the Lord? Good fruit takes hard work. And we've been commanded to bear one another's burdens. Do not grow weary in doing good, for you will reap a harvest if you do not give up.

In 2 Timothy 4:1-4, the apostle Paul told his protégé, "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching."

It's been almost two months since the passing of Rachel Held Evans, bestselling author and liberal theology blogger. In memoriam, she has been lauded as a feminist and an advocate for LGBTQ causes. She was very confrontational with the church, insisting it get on "the right side of history" with these issues.

Some of you are aware that I was the last person she went on a Twitter-rant about before she died (specifically regarding a WWUTT video I did). I'd jotted down some notes and planned to make a video response to her claims, hoping that maybe it would open up a dialogue with her. But then she went into the hospital on April 14, three days after her comments toward me. She was down with the flu and an infection. Of course, that wasn't the best time to initiate any kind of debate.

A few days later, word came that she had been put into a medically-induced coma, from which she never woke up. She died on Saturday morning, May 4. She was 37 years old, just a few months younger than I am, and left behind a husband and two children.

Though I will never have another opportunity to address Rachel, what she taught continues to damage the souls of countless thousands of people, and will do so for many more years. What I had prepared to say to her, I say now for the sake of those misled by her teaching.

Hanging Her Life On It

Shortly before her illness I posted a video entitled What if God is a Woman? (watch by clicking the title). The purpose of the video was to respond to common arguments liberal theologians use to justify calling God "mother" or referring to Him using feminine pronouns. One of those theologians referenced in the video was Rachel Held Evans.

I shared the video on WWUTT's Twitter account with this headlining comment: "Rachel Held Evans has said she would go to the gallows over her feminist theology that God is 'mother.' Jory Micah [another false teacher] has referred to God by feminine pronouns. But they fashion a god of their own making. A 90-second video!"

In response to this, Rachel said, "Where did I say I would 'go to the gallows'? This is a terribly researched and poorly presented argument." So Rachel was shown where, in her own words, she had made such a statement. In a blog she wrote on May 16, 2014, she said the following:

"And as a woman, referring to God as She or as Mother serves as an important, liberating reminder that I am indeed created in the image of God, not as some lesser being who exists in perpetual subordination to men, but as an expression of God's very self.

"If that makes me a heretic, you can string up the rope."

Rachel replied, "Um, seems like maybe you are the ones who misunderstand metaphor. I don't actually want to be killed for believing God's not a dude. (And how about not bearing false witness by epically misrepresenting what I actually believe?) This is a poorly produced, badly researched, and pathetically argued hit piece that misrepresents my views and leaves no room for nuance. How desperate do you have to be to protect an exclusively masculine God to make this? You can make an idol out of that, too. Deuteronomy 4:16."

That's a lot to unpack, all of it a blanket condemnation without responding to a single argument that was made about her theology. She blew me off with personal smears, which of course received hundreds of likes by her followers (and are still receiving likes—I get daily notices). Considering her comments, I doubt she watched the video at all. It only would have taken her 90-seconds!

First of all, Rachel said, "Seems like maybe you are the ones who misunderstand metaphor" and I left "no room for nuance." Is there a rule somewhere that you can't borrow from someone's metaphor in order to, say, make a point with some wit? She said "string up the rope" to convey her no-regrets attitude over calling God her "mother." I simply continued the theme emphasizing her head-strong nature by saying she would "go to the gallows." Hypocritically, Rachel did what she accused me of doing—she left no room for nuance, and she misunderstood her own metaphor!

Secondly, she said, "How about not bearing false witness by epically misrepresenting what I actually believe?" Bearing false witness how? What did I say that misrepresented what she believed, let alone doing so "epically"? One of Rachel's followers, Aideen from London, also commented, "Isn't it, like, in the Ten Commandments to not lie?" But lie how? Where was the dishonesty? Once again, the irony is that Rachel bore false witness against me by saying I bore false witness against her when I did not.

Third, she said, "This is a poorly produced, badly researched, and pathetically argued hit piece." Again, this was a deflection away from the arguments being made. When someone, generally of the liberal theological persuasion, cannot confidently or directly defend what they believe with Scripture, they tend to attack the personal character of the one challenging their beliefs. (By the way, this is exactly what Beth Moore has been doing lately.)

I believe my work speaks for itself, and you can determine if you think it's "poorly produced." As for "badly researched," my sources are cited. A commenter named Holli said, "Never heard or read these words from her. Where is your reference? Documentation?" There were references in the video, and the transcript has links. This was also not a "hit piece," since the engine that drives a hit piece is using false information to sway public opinion. In fact, it was Rachel who spread false information to sway public opinion about me.

In another comment regarding my video, Rachel said, "I've written four books, hundreds of blog posts, and dozens of articles, and only once have I used a feminine pronoun for God." Friends, that was a bald-faced lie. In the video, I clearly cited two occasions where she did this in two different blogs more than two years apart—one on April 6 of 2012, and the other on May 16 of 2014.

Furthermore, I found at least a half-dozen online comments where she spoke of God with some kind of feminine verbiage (that was just through a general search that took me a few seconds). She made a reference to a quote from liberal writer Alexis James Waggoner who said, "God is a mother." She is listed as a co-collaborator with the band Gungor and the Liturgists podcast on their album God Our Mother. These were not merely careless, occasional references Rachel made—they were thought-out, deliberate expressions of her theology.

In her own words (in the block-quote above), Rachel was unhappy with how God revealed Himself in Scripture. What the Bible said about her, being made in God's image, was inadequate. It made her feel "in perpetual subordination to men." She had to have God on her terms. She called Him "mother," and she called it "liberating." To know the Father sent His only Son to deliver His people from sin and death was not enough for her.

In another comment about my video, Rachel said, "[I'm] not looking for sympathy. I just think this says a lot about how these guys think of women. Like, how freaked out are they going to be when (if all of this is true) they enter the full presence of God at resurrection and are suddenly hit with the reality that God's not a dude?"

That's an incredibly telling comment. First, if anyone warned her that it was blasphemy to call God "mother," she would paint them as a misogynist. Second, Evans did not wholeheartedly believe Christianity was true. And third, I said in the video, quoting from Scripture, God is Spirit and not man (another reason I don't believe she watched it). Regardless, God has revealed Himself in the masculine, and that is how we are to worship Him—according to His word, not our words.

At the end of my video, I said that a person who does not repent will be judged with the nations that worshiped the Asherah, or the mother-god. In Micah 5:14-15, God said, "I will root out your Asherah images from among you and destroy your cities. And in anger and wrath, I will execute vengeance on the nations that did not obey."

Mere days after she dug in her heels and defended her mother-god theology, lashing out at anyone who would question it, Rachel Held Evans died. She entered the presence of God and has been hit with reality. Galatians 6:7 says, "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap."

Closing Comments

Following Rachel's passing, Beth Moore said, "Thinking what it was about Rachel Held Evans that could cause many on other sides of issues to take their hats off to her in her death. People are run rife with grief for her babies, yes. But also I think part of it is that, in an era of gross hypocrisy, she was alarmingly honest."

No, she wasn't. Rachel was not "alarmingly honest." Candid, yes. But being blunt is not the same as being honest. Rachel Held Evans was a liar. She vomited deception and hurled vitriol at those with whom she most disagreed. Her teaching was soul-searing acid. The venom of asps was on her lips. Thousands and thousands of people will go to hell believing the things Rachel said.

She taught as good what God has said He will judge with fire. She encouraged men to burn with passion for each other, and women to exchange natural relations for unnatural ones. She believed boys could change into girls if they wanted, but a boy who claimed to be gay could not change. She chastised the bride of Christ, His church, whenever it refused to exchange biblical fidelity for LGBTQ propaganda. She told women to become pastors, and said, "The best preachers I know are women." In an era of gross hypocrisy, she was a rank hypocrite, who claimed to be of Christ, but she hated His word.

Jesus said, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me" (John 14:23-24). The Spirit says, "Whoever says 'I know Him' but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him" (1 John 2:4).

As I said in a previous blog, I prayed for Rachel that God would have mercy on her soul. I have also been a false teacher, but God has shown mercy to me. Rachel had heard the true gospel, and I hope her heart was turned before its last beat. But whatever may have happened in her final moments, it does not redeem her damnable teaching. Let the reader be warned. Fear God and repent. Repudiate the words of Rachel Held Evans and revere the word of Christ.

Back to 2 Timothy 4:3-5, the apostle went on to tell his protégé, "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

"In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will." Ephesians 1:11

Yesterday, July 20, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of man walking on the moon. It was a remarkable achievement of determination and ingenuity, to this day the most indomitable feat of human-kind. For the first time in human history, man set foot on another celestial body other than our own planet, a quarter of a million miles from earth. The space race of 50 years ago changed the very way that we saw ourselves in the cosmos. Looking down at our planet from the moon, we had a new perspective of Earth among the stars.

When you first became a Christian, you had a very elementary understanding of your sin against God and the work that He had done to redeem you—that Jesus Christ had died on the cross and risen from the grave, and that by faith in Him, you have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God. As far as you were concerned, you decided to follow Jesus. But as you grew to understand God's word, your perspective has likely changed.

From the word of God, you come to find that you had nothing to do with your salvation at all. You were a wretched sinner enslaved to sin, incapable of doing anything pleasing to God. You came to faith not because you did anything good but because God is good. You believe not according to the purpose of your will but according to the purpose of Him who wills it.

The word of God shows us the mind of God—the perspective of God. From your perspective, you made a choice. From God's perspective, He chose you, "before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the beloved" (Ephesians 1:4-6).

Why I Believe in God's Sovereign Election

Because God is infinitely good and we are not, I believe that before the foundation of the world, God predetermined whom He would save and whom He would not. I believe the Bible clearly teaches it. Romans 9:22-23 says, "What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory?"

Every person stands before a holy God condemned for their rebellion against Him. But God elected from sinful man whom He would deliver from His wrath and effected their salvation at the cross of Christ. Those who hear the gospel and believe by faith have been called into His grace, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of glory. God will lose none of those whom He has redeemed. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ—the good news that He has saved us from our sins.

This is the doctrine of God's sovereign election. To address the elephant in the room, this view of predestination is commonly referred to as Calvinism—both by those who hold this view and by those who have objections with it. Though John Calvin taught the theology which now bears his name, he didn't come up with it. He, along with many other biblical theologians before and after him, merely affirmed what has already been written in the Bible.

I believe in and preach nothing less than the full counsel of God. Though others have called me many things, the only C-word you or anyone else has ever heard me call myself is a Christian.

Dr. Michael L. Brown once presented this question: "Do you agree with Calvin 'that nothing happens but what [God] has knowingly and willingly decreed'?" I responded to him this way: "I agree with the Bible that nothing happens but what God has knowingly and willingly decreed." I directed him to Lamentations 3:37-38 which says, "Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?"

Our faith is built—as the church always has been—on the word of God. The Bible is God's word. And what the Bible says is that God is sovereign; meaning, He is the Supreme Ruler. He has all power. Full authority. Preeminence (Colossians 1:18). No where in the Bible does it say He's given up any of His sovereignty. He's not "sovereign, but." He is absolutely sovereign.

Here are seven statements about His sovereignty according to Scripture.

1) God is Sovereign.
Psalm 103:19 says that the Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all. In Acts 4:24, the apostles praised God saying, "O Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them," and then proceeded to praise Him for what He had decreed and predestined to take place.

In 1 Timothy 6:15-16, Paul refers to God as "only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen."

2) Everything God decrees happens.
In Genesis 1:3, God decreed, "Let there be light," and it happened. Only He creates ex nihilo, or "out of nothing" (see also Hebrews 11:3).  Psalm 33:9 says, "For He spoke and it came to be; He commanded and it stood firm." Ecclesiastes 3:14 says, "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end."

Isaiah 14:24 says, "The Lord of hosts has sworn: 'As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand.'" Later in 55:11, He says, "So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Are the people of Christ not obeying that command in faithful submission to this day?

In John 11:43-44, Jesus stood at the grave of Lazarus, who had been dead for four days. And He said, "Lazarus, come out." As He commanded, so it happened—Lazarus rose from the dead.

3) Nothing happens that God hasn't decreed.
I've mentioned already Lamentations 3:37-38, where it says nothing happens that the Lord hasn't spoken. Job in his trouble said, "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" (Job 2:10).  In Job 14:5, he said that man's "days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass."

Proverbs 16:33 says, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord." In Isaiah 45:7, God says, "I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things." Amos 3:6 says, "Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?"

In James 4:13-15, we read, "Come now, you who says, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit'—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.'"

4) No one can change what God has decreed.
Job again says, "If He tears down, none can rebuild; if He shuts a man in, none can open" (c.12:14). Proverbs 21:30 says, "No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord." Ecclesiastes 7:13 says, "Consider the work of God: who can make straight what He has made crooked?" Isaiah 14:27 says, "For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?"

In John 10:28-29, Jesus said of His followers, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." In Romans 8, we are reminded, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (v.31), and told there is nothing that "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (v.39).

5) God knows and sees all.
Psalm 139 gives praise to God for His omniscience and omnipresence: "O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?"

Proverbs 15:3 says, "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and on the good." Matthew 12:36 says, "I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak." Hebrews 4:13 says, "No creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." We are told in 1 John 3:20, "He knows everything." And Revelation 2:23, Jesus says, "I am He who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works."

6) God does as He pleases.
Psalm 115:3 says plainly: "Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases." In Matthew 20:15, Jesus said through a parable to His disciples, "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?" Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

Hebrews 13:21 says that God will "equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

7) God has purposed all things for His glory.
In Acts 2:23, Peter proclaimed with the gospel, "This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." God intended even the death of His own Son, the greatest evil act ever perpetrated by men, to bring about the salvation of His elect and glory to His name.

In Revelation 6:10, the martyrs for the gospel cry out to God, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" They know that He and He alone will bring about the completeness of His sovereign decree in the fullness of time.

In Revelation 17:17, God sovereignly uses even His enemies: "For God has put it into their hearts to carry out His purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled." He has ordained the ends and the means to that end. God has purposed all things for His glory.

According to the Purpose of Him Who Works

Whatever your views are regarding the subjects of election, adoption, redemption, or predestination, I pray you'll join me in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. Many brothers of mine, and even members of my own congregation, do not view this subject the same way that I do. Yet we love and encourage one another in the faith. Let us pursue what makes for peace and mutual up-building (Romans 14:19). Here are five reasons as to why this is important (relax, it's not the five points of Calvinism):

First, so your prayers would not be hindered. If you have a limited understanding of who God is, your prayers will also be limited.

Second, so you would be relieved of your burdens. If you believe that your salvation is dependent upon a choice you've had to make or it's dependent upon your continued choices to maintain it, then you are being weighed down by an unnecessary burden. I hope you see from the Scriptures that salvation—including faith and belief, even repentance itself—is not the work of man. Salvation is from beginning to end the gracious work of God.

Third, so you will be more considerate of others. Sovereignty means supreme governance. Autonomy means self-governance. When you fight for your own autonomy—or free will, as it's termed—you oppose the sovereignty of God. This is not only a conflict with God, you cause strife between yourself and others—your autonomy vs. their autonomy. Consider others' needs as Christ considered our need by being obedient to the will of His Father (see Philippians 2:1-11).

Fourth, so you would understand your sin rightly. If we do not have a right understanding of our sin, we are prone to think more of ourselves and less of God. You also cannot repent of your sin if you don't know your sin. That affects your worship. The more we make of God, the less we make of us. The more we see His holiness, the more we're aware of our own depravity and need for a Savior, praising Him for the goodness He has shown to us. As John the Baptist said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30).

Fifth, so you may worship God appropriately. It is important that we worship God for who He has said He is, not who we want Him to be. May we understand His theology according to His own words in the Bible, and not try to fit Him in our box or impose our ideas onto His.

The late Dr. R.C. Sproul was brilliant in his articulation of the sovereignty of God over all of His creation. Consider these words:

If something happens in this world—by the power of men, by the power of nature, by the power of machines—God always has the power and authority to prevent it, at least, from happening. Does He not? And if He does not prevent it from happening, then that means at least this much—that He has chosen to let it happen.

That doesn't mean He applauds it. That doesn't mean that He's in favor of it, insofar as He gives His divine sanction to it. But He does allow—not in the sense of, again, approving all the time—but He does allow it to happen, and in so allowing, He is making a decision. And He is making it sovereignly. And He knows in advance what's going to happen, and if He decrees that it shall happen, He is retaining His sovereignty over it.

Now if things happen in this world outside the sovereignty of God, then that would simply mean that God is not sovereign. And if God is not sovereign, then God is not God. It's that simple. And if the God you believe in is not a sovereign God, then you really don't believe in God. You may have a theory of God. You may have theoretical theism, but bottom line, for all practical purposes, it's no different from atheism, because you're believing in a god who is not sovereign.

Now what are the practical implications of a non-sovereign god? Think of it now from the perspective of those of you who are professing Christians. I like to explain it this way: if there's one maverick molecule in the universe running loose outside of the control of God's sovereignty, then the practical implications for us as Christians is that we have no guarantee whatsoever that any future promise that God has made to His people will come to pass.

If I might take the liberty of filling out the rest of this statement for Dr. Sproul, God is indeed sovereign, and there is no maverick molecule, and in knowing that, you can be sure, my brothers and sisters in the Lord, that every promise God has given you in His Son will come to pass.

This blog was taken from a sermon preached on Sunday, July 21, 2019 at First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City. You can listen to it by clicking here. 

The Bible Project is an online series of free animated videos about, what else, the Bible. When I was first introduced to The Bible Project, I was quite impressed with the quality and had no problem recommending these videos to others. But someone later contacted me and suggested I take a deeper look, particularly in the way TBP creator Tim Mackie addressed the doctrine of the atonement. What I found was astonishing, and little by little more problematic teachings became apparent.

After watching dozens of videos, some of Tim Mackie's sermons, and listening to a few podcasts, I did a video of my own entitled What's Wrong With the Bible Project? (which I tried to keep under 20 minutes). The Bible Project fans weren't fans. With nearly 500 comments and counting, I've been called everything from a "chump critic," to a "hack," and a "hater." I've been told I'm "just jealous,""misguided,""still carnal," and "terrible," that I'm gossiping, I'm a pharisee, I'm on a witch hunt tour, I'm being unnecessarily divisive, I'm cowering behind a camera, one person said I talk funny, and another said I was a pastor of a "cowboy Christian church in Texas which has 19th century neo-theology."

A fellow by the name of Ryan said, "What do you have to say to the large number of people who strongly disagree with your video?" I wasn't planning on producing another video, but I figured I could scratch out a blog in response to some of these comments. Before starting with the negative, I want to begin by answering a question from someone actually looking for biblical advice. I'll follow that up with a few of the more positive comments.

One of the things I addressed in my video was Mackie's skewed perspective on the doctrine of hell. That led to this question from a viewer:

"I have a question about this, I don't mean this rudely or a mean way but... Can you be a Christian and not believe in hell?"—R.R.

You are saved by faith in Christ, not by faith in hell. Let me put that out there first. The gospel of Christ is the power of salvation to all who believe (Romans 1:16). When you heard the gospel and became a Christian, you had an immature faith. You knew that you had sinned against God, you needed a Savior, and that Christ is that Savior. God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for your sins, and whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have everlasting life. You at least needed to know that, or I would question if what you heard preached to you was really the gospel.

But then upon coming to faith, you did not have a robust understanding of the depth of your sin. You probably could not have defined the words "justification" or "sanctification." You couldn't have given a creedal defense of the Trinity. Even the term "God head" may have been foreign to you. Maybe an evangelist told you Jesus was knocking at the door of your heart, and all you had to do was let Him in (the Bible doesn't say that). If you were asked to describe hell, you likely would have given a Dante's Inferno picture of hell.

You come to God as a child—an infant in the faith. But just as we grow and mature in our body, so we must in our spirit well (1 Corinthians 13:11). You will demonstrate evidence of your faith and that your love for God is genuine by growing in the knowledge of Him. If you love Jesus, you will love His word. If you are growing in His word, eventually you're going to wrestle with what Jesus said about hell. No one in the Bible talked about hell more than Jesus did.

Our understanding of hell must be according to what Jesus said. He called hell an eternal fire (Matthew 18:8)—even an eternal fiery punishment prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41), but all will be sent there who did not follow Christ (v.46). He said the one who sins and does not repent will be thrown into a place "where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:48). He told us who will go to "the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death" (Revelation 21:8).

Why did Jesus talk about hell so much? So you would fear God, our righteous judge, and know His Son and be saved from judgment. Jesus said, "I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear Him who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him!" (Luke 12:4-5)

If you say you're a follower of Jesus, you will believe what He has said about hell. If you don't believe in hell, you don't believe Jesus. If you don't believe the word of Christ, how can you call yourself a Christian?

What else does Christ save us from but the judgment of Almighty God? And this is what Tim Mackie and The Bible Project creators do not believe, as I demonstrated in my video—they do not believe Jesus died as a propitiation for our sins, thereby appeasing the wrath of God, to be received by faith. This is the gospel, but Mackie called it a distortion of the gospel. He is a false teacher who must be avoided (2 Timothy 3:5).

Thank you for your question, R.R. I hope my answer is helpful to you. Now on with a few of the more positive comments.

"This video is truly a blessing. I've been watching your videos WWUTT and have them saved on my phone and on my laptop for the ministry. I have also seen The Bible Project videos, and I agree that some of them are good and really informational, but I've never had a chance to carefully discern the messages that are being given. Thanks to God for this video which made me realize the subtle errors that The Bible Project committed. Soli Deo Gloria."—Son

Thank you for that message, Son. Yes, as I said in my own video, the Bible Project videos are very creative, and there is some good info you can glean from them. But do you know what you won't hear much of? The Bible. Seriously! The videos feature a couple of guys telling you what they say the Bible says, often without telling you what the Bible actually says. Even when it seems they quote straight from the text, they're not actually quoting the text (as seen here). You're getting their paraphrase of the text.

"I think Mackie has been influenced by N.T. Wright. I like most of their videos. But there have been times when I have refrained from sharing some of their videos because I felt the picture of the gospel was incomplete or misleading."—Eternity

You're right, Mackie has been heavily influenced by N.T. Wright (or as John MacArthur called him, N.T. Wrong). When you go to Mackie's personal page, he has Wright listed as one of his major theological influences. Wright has gone as far as saying one doesn't need to believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ in order to be a Christian. The Apostle Paul said if that were the case, "Your faith is futile and you are still in your sins" (1 Corinthians 15:17).

"There are many serious theological errors in The Bible Project and Mackie's teaching. But because of contemporary evangelicalism's superficiality, folks don't even understand what's going on. Thanks for addressing this. Very important. If you notice the commenters who are upset are unable to provide Bible support for their argument. They just want to complain about tone, etc."—Jay

Watch out for the tone police! Yes, they're after me in person as well as online. It doesn't matter that I was patient and evidenced in my critique of Mackie's teaching. I still got accused of being uncivil. As you will see in the following comments...

"Have you ever tried to reach out to Tim to clarify instead of blasting your brother in Christ? It would've been easier to seek understanding than assume or mischaracterize him."—Alem (TX)

Did you try to reach out to me to understand a brother in Christ rather than "blasting" me on social media? There is no obligation upon me to call every false teacher before calling out his false teaching. Did Jesus speak privately with the Pharisees before He openly rebuked them as blind fools, white-washed tombs, and sons of hell producing more sons of hell (Matthew 23)? I wasn't even that harsh! The Bible says false teachers "must be silenced" (Titus 1:11).

"Have to disagree here. Although they do not talk about God's wrath and propitiation, saying that you shouldn't watch/share their videos is like throwing the baby out with the bath water. We are called to discernment, not separation from other believers who hold to different views."—Fabrizio (Louisville, KY)

We're called to discernment—why? To be a service to the church in distinguishing between spirits (1 Corinthians 12:10). We read in 1 John 4:1, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world." Titus 1:9 says that a pastor "must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it."

You recognize, Fabrizio, that Mackie does not teach the truth about God's wrath and the propitiation of Christ's sacrifice. I demonstrated in my video that what Mackie says about those doctrines contradicts what Scripture says. He, as a teacher, has a responsibility to teach right doctrine, does he not? Therefore, doesn't it follow that Mackie may not be an orthodox believer? Am I not fulfilling my pastoral duty by saying he's an untrustworthy teacher? Am I dividing him, or would he divide himself from the body because of his false teaching?

"Dr. Tim Mackey knows more on the subject of atonement than most. He—as well as Dr. Michael Heiser—studied under an orthodox Jew in order to earn his doctorate in Old Testament."—Joe (Indiana)

An orthodox Jew may only be an expert in a modern understanding of Jewish orthodoxy. He can teach me next to nothing about Christ and His atoning sacrifice, since an orthodox Jew does not believe Jesus is the Son of God. (P.S.—Michael Heiser loves to dabble in myth and speculation. He's not a trustworthy teacher either.)

"Totally disagree for what you're saying. If you would spend time to spread the Gospel rather than mocking others, souls would have been saved. SAVE TIME."—Akash

To mock is to ridicule or laugh in a scornful or contemptuous manner. How did I do that? The gospel is presented in my video. If someone watched and listened to what I had to say, they could come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. By the way, I also make time to share the gospel with my family, my church, and my community. A pastor must do all of these things (2 Timothy 4:5).

"This video is like, 'they didn't completely cover the book of Romans in a 10 minute video, so it's heresy.' The Bible Project videos serve as introductions and summaries of pieces of the Bible. To get a more in-depth study, you will need other additional resources. And plenty exist. But TBP is doing their part. A necessary part. Don't criticize them for that. We all need simple teaching in the beginning. Not everyone graduates to the level of understanding of an R.C. Sproul or a Ravi Zacharias."—Katie (Wichita, KS)

Hey, a comment from the great state of Kansas! No, I did not say, nor did I imply, that because they didn't cover Romans the way I thought they should, they're heretics. I didn't even use the word "heretic." This comment leads me to believe you didn't watch the whole video to hear my full argument. Come on, fellow Kansan! You can do better than this.

"Not sure you can claim it's an outright lie. That's kinda assuming his heart motives which you cannot know for sure."—Breanne (New Brunswick)

A lie is a lie even if there's no intention to deceive. Most lies are not deliberate deceptions. The liar may believe his motives are right. But if what he says is not true, it's a lie. When Mackie said penal substitutionary atonement was not in the Bible and that it was a distortion of the gospel, that was a lie, no matter what his intentions were.

"He didn't say hell isn't a real place. In fact, I've heard him say explicitly that it is a real place. He said 'hell isn't just,' as in, there's more to it."—Breanne (again, a few minutes later)

I see you're leaving comments before you've watched the whole video and considered the full argument. Be quick to hear, slow to speak (James 1:19). If there is another place where Mackie said something different about hell, what he said was still wrong in the audio I played. This isn't just a difference of opinion about hell. He impugned the righteous judgment of God.

"Those videos aren't meant to be deep theological expositions. They are meant to be general guidelines to help and encourage people understand whole books of the Bible and go study the Word for themselves. If you haven't gone to him in private to figure out what he actually believes, then this video is ill willed and is creating unnecessary divisions."—Randy

Randy, you didn't come to me privately to figure out what I actually believe. Therefore, can I dismiss your comment as ill-willed and causing unnecessary division? Yes, The Bible Project videos are meant to be deep, theological expositions. One of the things I appreciate about The Bible Project is how they want to demonstrate that the whole Bible is one story. But one of the things I don't like is how they hardly ever use the Bible at all.

"This video is bad really bad. So many Pharisees in this world."—Tevin

The Pharisees added to the word of God. Are you sure you understand what a pharisee is?

"I don't find pastor Gabe's arguments compelling nor exploring anything of significance and only sounds like a minor legalistic point. I think Gabe should check his motives here and stop playing the role of 'the oppressed.'"—Bucket Bros.

As I referenced in the video, God put forward His own Son "as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith" (Romans 3:25). We read in 1 John 4:10, "In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." You don't find exploring propitiation significant? If it's in the Bible, it's significant. And where on earth did I say I was oppressed? I am not millennial, and I am not claiming a victim status.

"I’m sorry, but this is garbage. Bible Project is literally changing lives and making people want to read the Bible. These are meant to be short and summarized, so of course it won’t cover all material all the time. The same dudes have very informational and more lengthy podcasts."—Sarah (Los Angeles)

I doubt Sarah actually watched my whole video, since I went straight to Mackie's podcasts to pull an example of the nonsense he was saying about the atonement. This is one of the major problems with The Bible Project—it gets worse when you go beyond their videos. There are dozens of links to study guides, podcasts, and other sermons. Everything I had the chance to listen to in those sermons or podcasts ranks from legalistic to heretical.

I listened to three Tim Mackie sermons in a row, each an hour long, and I never heard the gospel in any one of them. I heard some fascinating historical stuff about biblical times, and Mackie gave some interesting context and language lessons. But a presentation of the gospel wasn't there, nor did he confront sin or call to repentance. What he preaches are basically life-improvement messages—Jesus just wants you to live better. That's Law with no gospel. The Law brings death, the gospel brings life (Romans 8:2).

"I think, Sir, you lack understanding about the Bible Project and their videos. You're actually saying same things like with Tim Mackie. But why do you need to slander your fellow servant, when actually you are preaching the same things? Bible Project's short videos are short, which means it was summarized. I suggest you speak to Tim Mackie personally about your concern to clarify things."—Adrian

No, I'm not saying the same thing as Tim Mackie. Nor have I slandered him—I said nothing untrue in my video. By the way, you might notice this continual theme of publicly telling me I should personally express my concerns privately.

"If the motivation behind this video is to correct wrong teaching, would it be that difficult to shoot an e-mail to the Bible Project team or to Tim Mackie? We don't need to destroy each other but lovingly correct one another because we are brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus."—Tinne

Did you shoot an e-mail to me? I'm not out to destroy anyone, but I do want to destroy every lofty opinion that contradicts Scripture. The Bible says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God" (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

"Would you please publish your discussion with Tim Mackie that you had to clarify your understanding of his view of the atonement and propitiation and Hell. Oh wait, you didn’t have that discussion? If not you didn’t act in a loving manor to correctly and contextually represent your brother in Christ’s teaching."—Kawitamamayi

Would you please publish the discussion you had with me to clarify your understanding of my video? Oh wait, we didn't have that discussion? Then by your own standard of judgment, you're not acting in a loving manner.

I fear the judgment of no man. I stand in reverent fear of God alone. The Apostle Paul said, "For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ" (Galatians 1:10). May the Lord examine my heart and by His grace find me faithful. I hope this was edifying for you all.

Recently, author and former megachurch pastor Joshua Harris announced that he had left his wife and the Christian faith. The announcement came in a most 2019 way: via Instagram with a picture of himself brooding over a scenic lake (your typical Pondering Pond photo). Most known for his breakout book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, it was all too easy for a plethora of articles to emerge under the heading "Joshua Harris Kisses Christianity Goodbye."

Mere days later, Harris was posting pictures of himself at a gay pride event. Some have dared to speculate that Harris's next big announcement will be to come out of the closet. Gossip aside, it's clear that Harris does not intend his departure from the faith to be a quiet, contemplative step back. He will capitalize on his own name and the bankability of a star-pastor going rogue, having said he plans to start a podcast about his "journey." Harris is not a Christian, and he's proud of it.

Regarding Harris's apostasy, Toby Logsdon, pastor of New Beginnings Church in Lynnwood, WA, said the following: "Amazing, isn't it? That anyone could walk away from the Christian faith and feel liberated rather than absolutely terrified. But were it not for God's grace sustaining our faith and preserving our place in Christ, we would deny Christ as surely and as readily as Peter did."

With any story of apostasy, we would do well to remember the Spirit's instruction in Philippians 2:12-13, where the Apostle Paul wrote, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

Harris is not the first high-profile name to leave the faith, and he won't be the last—as we are being reminded even today. Yet another megachurch star has taken to Instagram to announce he's no longer a Christian. You may not know the name Marty Sampson, but you know his songs. Marty has been a worship leader with Hillsong and has written or co-written dozens of hits. His praise albums have sold millions of copies, and his worship choruses have tens of millions of views on YouTube.

In a single paragraph on his Instagram (martysamps), Marty said the following:

Time for some real talk... I'm genuinely losing my faith.. and it doesn't bother me... like, what bothers me now is nothing... I am so happy now, so at peace with the world.. it's crazy / this is a soapbox moment so here I go xx how many preachers fall? Many. No one talks about it. How many miracles happen. Not many. No one talks about it. Why is the Bible full of contradictions? No one talks about it. How can God be love yet send 4 billion people to a place, all coz they don't believe? No one talks about it. Christians can be the most judgemental people on the planet - they can also be some of the most beautiful and loving people... but it's not for me. I am not in any more. I want genuine truth. Not the “I just believe it” kind of truth. Science keeps piercing the truth of every religion. Lots of things help people change their lives, not just one version of God. Got so much more to say, but for me, I keeping it real. Unfollow if you want, I've never been about living my life for others. All I know is what's true to me right now, and Christianity just seems to me like another religion at this point... I could go on, but I won't. Love and forgive absolutely. Be kind absolutely. Be generous and do good to others absolutely. Some things are good no matter what you believe. Let the rain fall, the sun will come up tomorrow.

It looks like it was written with the grammar and reason of an adolescent who begrudgingly went to youth group because his parents made him. But Marty Sampson is 40 years old, a husband, a father, and a church leader. As with Harris, Marty is "so at peace" with his decision. I would be, too, if the Christianity I had was the flimsy cardboard box Marty had been living in at Hillsong.

Marty says, "How many preachers fall? Many. No one talks about it." Um, where has he been all summer? For the last two weeks, news of Joshua Harris has consumed evangelical social media. A couple weeks before that, narcissist Mark Driscoll came in on the raft he's reassembled from the shipwreck of his ministry to make fun of his former beliefs. A month before that, word had spread that Harvest Bible Chapel founder James MacDonald allegedly sought a hitman to murder someone. Shall I go on?

Marty says, "How many miracles happen? Not many. No one talks about it." Consider where this is coming from—Hillsong is a charismatic megachurch that started in the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination. They believe tongue-spieling, prophecy-revealing, spirit-feeling, body-reeling, super-healing miracles are going on all the time. Marty has seen through the ruse of charismaticism and recognized this stuff is totally fake. But instead of questioning the Hillsong bubble he was living in, he's blaming all of Christendom.

Marty says, "Why is the Bible full of contradictions? No one talks about it." How much has Marty actually tried to find answers for these things? The Bible has not a single contradiction. If at any point we think the Bible contradicts itself, that's our problem, not God's. For two thousand years, the church has not lacked teachers able to respond to such criticisms. One of my first WWUTT videos was dispelling the myth that there are contradictions between the four gospels. To say "No one talks about it" is absurdly ignorant.

Marty says, "How can God be love yet send 4 billion people to [hell], all coz they don't believe? No one talks about it." Hell is what everyone deserves because all have sinned against God. "But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). There are many teachers who talk about the stuff Marty says no one talks about. Now, it may be true that "no one talks about" hell at Hillsong because it's an uncomfortable doctrine that will keep people from buying CD's. Sales will truly drop if they go from singing about happy-go-lucky Jesus to the Jesus who will strike down the nations (see Revelation 19:11-16).

Marty says, "I want genuine truth. Not the 'I just believe it' kind of truth."That may be a picture of what Marty encountered at Hillsong. Maybe he tried to ask questions about these things, but the depth of the answers he got was "I just believe it." We as Christians are instructed to grow in the knowledge of God through the Bible. The Apostle Paul told the Colossians to be "bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:10). In Christ we find "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3), and we are to "put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator" (Col. 3:10).

Hillsong is not the place to find knowledge. One of their own pastors, Carl Lentz, was asked by Oprah, "Do you believe that only Christians can be in relationship with God?" Lentz replied, "No. I believe that when Jesus said, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life,' the way I read that, he's the road-marker." What on earth does that mean? No wonder Marty has had trouble finding "genuine truth." Jesus said, "Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice" (John 18:37). If genuine truth is what Marty wants, he must turn to Jesus and away from Hillsong.

Marty says, "Science keeps piercing the truth of every religion," which is just his way of saying, "I'm a natural-minded man who can't discern spiritual things" (see 1 Corinthians 2:14). Marty says, "Lots of things help people change their lives, not just one version of God." This is the fruit of Lentz's reply to Oprah. Jesus is not a life-improvement plan. He's the only way to God, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection from the dead!


If this is Marty Sampson's farewell letter to Christianity, then all he reveals here is that he was never a Christian in the first place. We read in 1 John 2:19, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us."

There are many who scoff at the idea that a former believer didn't really believe in the first place. But just take Marty at his own words. It is evident that he has never understood what Christianity is. When you go to his music, you find glimpses of the truth, but it's truth Marty is now saying was never truly meaningful.

In his song Elohim, he wrote, "I stand upon the solid rock of faith in Christ," and "I know my hope shall last." Apparently that was a lie. In the song One Thing, Marty wrote, "One thing I desire, one thing I seek, to gaze upon your beauty." The bridge goes, "I will seek your face, call upon your name, Jesus, all I want is you." But Marty is no longer seeking Christ and is not calling on His name. It cannot be that Jesus was all he wanted.

The chorus of the song goes, "Lord your name is higher than the heavens, Lord your name is higher than all created things." That's certainly true, but it wasn't for Marty. How could a person believe with all his heart in the greatest truth that could ever be known, and then turn around and call it a lie? Such a thing would be impossible. The truth of God cannot be denied by those who have truly beheld its power. Marty did not have faith—he had a passing opinion. He never truly believed the name of Jesus is the name above all names. If he did, he'd be falling on his face in fear of his unbelief, not comfortably musing, "I am so happy now, so at peace with the world."

Marty says, "I've never been about living my life for others." Now, what Marty means is that the opinions of others regarding his newly minted apostasy are not going to change his mind. But unfortunately, this is, like Joshua Harris's confession, a statement of pride. That's exactly who Marty is living for—he is living for himself. He's always been about living for himself. He's never been about the work of God, even if there were times it looked like he was.

His closing words are equally sad and ironic: "Let the rain fall, the sun will come up tomorrow." When the Apostle Paul rebuked some of the Corinthians for not believing in the resurrection of Jesus, he said, "If the dead are not raised, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die'" (1 Corinthians 15:32). Without hope in the resurrection of Christ, we have no hope at all. Marty is conceding to the purposeless of life apart from Jesus, whether or not Marty is aware that's what he just confessed.

Our hearts should break when we hear of stories like Joshua Harris and Marty Sampson. They no doubt have family members whose hearts are also breaking. The day of judgment will be most dreadful for the one who heard the truth, even shared the truth, and yet did not believe it themselves. That is a frightening thing to consider. May none of us ever be too proud, but may we submit to our Father in heaven with fear and trembling. Pray for one another, that we may stand strong in a time of trial. "Keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints" (Ephesians 6:18).

We worship a good God, and without His grace none of us would be saved. Draw near to Him, cling all the more to Christ, who has sealed us with His Holy Spirit for the day of redemption. Philippians 1:6 says, "I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

This morning, I listened to a sermon from Tullian Tchividjian. It wasn't a sermon he preached yesteryear. It was a sermon he preached yesterday. And he wasn't preaching as a guest speaker in someone else's church. He was preaching in his own church that he has planted in Florida.

Tullian Tchividjian—who is the grandson of famed preacher Billy Graham; who followed the honorable D. James Kennedy as the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church; who made a shipwreck of his ministry when he committed adultery with a member of his congregation; who was revealed to have had another affair; who threw his wife under the bus by making it look like she was the cause of their marriage problems; who was defrocked, then received another pastorate, and broke trust with that church; who has divorced, remarried, and returned to Florida to start his own church—is back.

Truth be told, Tullian was never gone. I can't remember a time in the last 4 years since his scandals were first exposed that I wasn't seeing his name. He never truly resigned from anything. He's always been preaching even if he wasn't pastoring. Now he has founded a church called The Sanctuary, "meeting each Sunday at the Hilton Garden Inn Palm Beach Gardens ahead of a planned formal launch next month," according to a weekend article in the Palm Beach Post.

The first 7 minutes of yesterday's sermon contains moments of irony (if not outright hypocrisy). For example, he refered to God's grace as a "scandal." He's not the only preacher I've heard use this word, and I've never been comfortable with it, but it's especially strange coming from Tullian. He also called himself a good person in the eyes of others, except, he joked, when he is "flying down Alternate A1A." Really? Breaking the speed limit is what might make us question his goodness? He also said that he has been mentoring and training young preachers. Yikes!

Within his sermon introduction, he referred to himself as the pastor of those who were in attendance. So this regular Sunday-morning gathering isn't some Bible study group meeting at a hotel and we're mistakenly calling it a church. It is a church plant. People are attending, and Tullian is their pastor. Shame on them, and shame on him. Tullian has disqualified himself from ever being a pastor again.

Now, do I believe the Lord when He says in Isaiah 43:25, "I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins"? Or when Psalm 103:12 says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us"? Or when 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"? Yes, I believe all of this and more!

If I didn't believe God is faithful to cleanse us of our sins, I'd be in big trouble, for I also have sinned greatly before God, and I, too, am in need of a Savior. God is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6). God has forgiven me of my sins. I know that He will forgive you of yours. It's what I'm devoted to preaching—"that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost" (1 Timothy 1:15).

Would God forgive Tullian Tchividjian for the sins he has committed? Absolutely! He can be restored to Christ's body and partake in the fellowship of communion at the Lord's table. But does that mean Tullian can resume the office of a pastor again? No, it does not.

The first qualification of a pastor is this: "An overseer must be above reproach" (1 Timothy 3:2, Titus 1:6-7). Every other qualification that follows explains what that means: a pastor must be faithful to his wife, he must be sober minded, self-controlled, managing his household well, and so on. In other words, the people who know him must be able to recognize his good character as an example of God's grace and Christian maturity.

"The idea is present blamelessness,"John MacArthur teaches regarding the qualifications of pastors. "It doesn't mean he had to be perfect before he was a Christian; no one could do that. Everyone, before they came to Christ, lived in sin, and more sin, and only sin. So, the point here is, that present tense, this man must have a life without blame. That is the overarching requirement." He goes on to say, "The reason blamelessness is called for at the pastoral level is because we are the example which you are all to follow."

That said, Tullian Tchividjian is a bad example for anyone, let alone as a pastor. Even unbelievers know that cheating on your wife and blaming her for it makes you a really awful person. Tullian did this as a pastor! He knew better. Think about it: Can he ever be trusted with that office again? Yes, he can be forgiven his sins and know the grace of God, in the sense that he still has an entrance in the kingdom of heaven. But for the remainder of his life, he will never fulfill the requirement that a pastor must be "above reproach."

In a recent interview, Phil Johnson, director of Grace to You, pointed out that adultery disqualifies a man from ministry "permanently." Said Johnson, "That kind of sin leaves a reproach that cannot be blotted out. And the first requirement for a pastor is that he must be above reproach. So while he can be forgiven of that sin... what he cannot do again is stand up and lead that church."

I've consistently taught this same thing (example 1, example 2). There are sins that can permanently disqualify a man from ministry. With regards to adultery, we're talking about a moral sin punishable by death in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 22:22) and given more serious warning and greater consequences in the New Testament (video 1, video 2). Praise God for His grace that an adulterous man can stand before God righteous. But with regards to standing in the pulpit, not every man is qualified, even if he is a gifted teacher. James 3:1 says teachers will be judged with greater strictness.

Though Tullian is unqualified multiple times over, he has positioned himself as a pastor again, this time free from having to answer to anyone else (The Sanctuary is unaffiliated and non-denominational). The people under his teaching should also be ashamed. When it comes down to it, they want their ears scratched (2 Timothy 4:3), and Tullian's life and teaching with antinomian undertones—that you're not held accountable to a moral law—is exactly what people will come to his church looking for. According to the article I referenced earlier, the church already has a list of 500 supporters.

If Tullian truly revered the word of God as he says he does, he needs to humble himself in the fear of the Lord and step away from the work of ministry entirely. He must attend church as a congregant, not clergy. He would still be among those who can say, "I once was that, but I've been washed" (1 Corinthians 6:11). He can still say, "Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you" (Psalm 51:13). But he must do this without holding a church office, for he has disqualified himself.

The rest of the church is responsible to hold their elders accountable. As we read in 1 Timothy 5:19-21, "Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality." It's very unfortunate that Tullian's church is not in keeping with these commands. Tullian causes his congregation to stumble, and they cause him to stumble.

I do not take lightly ever having to say that another man is unqualified for ministry. I understand full well that the call of a pastor is to be above reproach. As John Knox was famous for saying, "I have never once feared the devil, but I tremble every time I enter the pulpit." May the Lord God keep me faithful as an example to the flock, to "serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling" (Psalm 2:11).

A video was posted yesterday in which Benny Hinn—the famed prosperity preacher and faith healing hack—seemingly repents of his prosperity preaching. In the video (which you can view here), Hinn says the following:

"I will tell you now something that I think is going to shock you. I think it's an offense to the Lord—it's an offense to say, 'Give a thousand dollars.' I think it's offense to the Holy Spirit to place a price on the gospel. I'm done with it. I will never again ask you to give a thousand or whatever amounts because I think the Holy Ghost is just fed up with it. Are you—Did you hear me? I think that hurts the gospel. So I'm making this statement for the first time in my life, and frankly I don't care what people think about me no more."

He then asks his audience, "Am I shocking you?" and says, "Let's have a high-five on that one!" and he starts high-fiving members of his audience. Near the conclusion, he says:

"The gospel is not for sale. And the blessings of God are not for sale. And miracles are not for sale. And prosperity is not for sale."

"Do not be fooled," said Justin Peters. "This is not repentance." Justin has spent decades exposing these prosperity pontiffs, and he's absolutely right—we have no reason to believe that Benny Hinn understands his sin, nor has he turned from it. He's spinning around on TV handing out high-fives when he should be doubled over in mourning and giving away his wealth. "For Benny Hinn to repent," Justin went on to say, "he would need to empty his coffers, give every cent he has to good ministries, shut his ministry down, confess to his lies and false prophecies, join a sound church, and never preach again."

Brandon Kimber is the creator of the documentary American Gospel: Christ Alone, which, among other things, exposes the false teaching of prosperity theology. On his Facebook, Kimber pointed out that just today, Benny was still on television asking his viewers to "sow a seed" (that's prosperity preacher speak for "give money") and send it to the address on the screen. He even gave an amount: "I'm asking you to send $120" because "the number 120 is the number of deliverance and liberty." Is this what repentance looks like?

Notice that he wants you to send him money so God will eliminate your debt! This aired Wednesday, September 4, 2019. The clip of him renouncing prosperity theology was uploaded to YouTube September 3.

How Uncle Benny Conned His Way to Millions

Benny Hinn is one of the richest preachers on the planet, listed as being worth $42 million. He has done his traveling on a Gulfstream IV private jet (average cost of ownership: $36 million). He has stayed in some of the nicest hotels on earth, paying as much as $25,000 per night. His apparel is from from Versace, Gucci, and Bijan, and he drives around in Bentleys, Rolls-Royces, and Maseratis. Where did Benny Hinn get all that money? By conning people into believing they could be healthy and wealthy if they'd just give their money to him (though he sold it as giving their money to God).

Costi Hinn, Benny's nephew, wrote about growing up a Hinn in God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel. He said, "My uncle taught us that if we wanted God to do something for us, we needed to do something for him. This applied to everything—especially miracles. Whenever possible, Benny would preach to the masses that if they wanted a miracle for their sickness and disease, they needed to give money to God. No money? No miracle! Giving to God was the secret to unlocking your dreams. It was the secret to job promotions. It was access to our divine bank account" (pg. 46).

Costi talked about a crusade they did in Mumbai, India. About 120 billboards with Benny Hinn's picture had been posted all over the city promoting the "Pray for India Rally." Some estimated as many as 4 million people attended the rally over several days. Mumbai has about 18 million people. That means nearly 20 percent of Mumbai's population were at Benny's crusade, many of whom, Costi said, "were the most desperate of the desperate" (pg. 74).

"There, in a dark corner of Mumbai, I came face to face with a kind of despair I had never seen before," Costi wrote. "Leaving the ivory tower left me confused. From the gold palace in Dubai, to the crowd of sick and diseased people. My heart still races describing it. We were supposed to heal these poor souls Why weren't they being healed? These children were supposed to grow up healthy, wealthy, and full of joy. Why couldn't we just help them all right now? That's what we promised, but not what we delivered."

And that's just one example. Costi wrote about service after service where people were promised miracles, and received nothing. "One Sunday during a healing service, we declared everyone healed, even though half of the people were still sick when they left... At another service, people were being ripped out of wheelchairs left and right and barely limping across the stage. An elderly woman winced in pain as she was forced to wlak in front of the crowd and told, 'Just move your legs in faith! Don't limit God with your unbelief! He is healing you right now!' She was still in her wheelchair the next time I saw her."

Costi used to a be a catcher for his uncle. That meant when Benny did his "miracle working" (you've probably seen the videos of him waving his Nehru jacket around) and people fell over backwards, Costi was one of the persons assigned to catch them so they wouldn't hurt themselves more than they already were (if they were truly sick at all). This was all the power of suggestion. It was a gag. No one was ever truly healed. But they truly paid real money.

To make a long story shorter, the Holy Spirit of God continued to work on Costi's heart. He became convinced that what he was doing was evil. He repented of all of it, came to believe the true gospel rather than the prosperity gospel, and he left his family fortune. My wife and I had the chance to talk about it with him last year on our podcast. You can click here to listen to the interview. I highly recommend you pick up the book I mentioned earlier: God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel. I'd also invite you to check out the documentary American Gospel: Christ Alone, in which Costi and many others share their stories of being won out of prosperity theology, by the grace of God.

The Truth is Found in Christ Alone

The Bible says that we are saved by grace through faith and not of works (Ephesians 2:8-9). To the Romans, Paul wrote, "Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks fo the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin" (Romans 4:4-8).

God has not promised that on this side of heaven, you will be healed of all your infirmities and diseases. What he has promised is that your sins will be forgiven by faith in Jesus Christ—because of what He has done for you, not because of what you have done. Jesus died on the cross for your sins, He rose again from the grave, and He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, interceding for His people on our behalf. By faith in Christ alone, you will no longer be under God's wrath for your sins against Him, but He will shower you with His love, a love "that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:19).

All who are in Christ Jesus have been made fellow heirs of His kingdom (Titus 3:5-7). On the day when you die, if you have died in faith, you will receive the kingdom of God. There He will "wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." That passage goes on to say, "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death" (Revelation 21:4, 8).

Pray for Uncle Benny and Those He Has Harmed

Benny Hinn still sits in the lap of luxury, and we must pray for his true repentance. He still profits from the lies of his past and present. Pray also for those he has harmed and continues to lead astray. It costs him nothing to get on TV and say, "It's an offense to the Lord to say, 'Give a thousand dollars.'" Even that's a lie. There's nothing wrong with someone saying, "Help our ministry by making a donation." The Apostle Paul told the church in Corinth to give to help the ministry to the saints. He thanked the Philippians for giving to his ministry in Rome. What is evil is to say, "Give to receive a miracle."That's what Benny did, and that's what he's still doing. He has yet to consider the cost of repentance.

When Jesus came and ate at the house of Zacchaeus, the dishonest tax collector, Zacchaeus repented of his dishonesty and showed the fruit of repentance. He said, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." Jesus replied, "Today, salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:8-9).

That's the kind of repentance we should be looking for from a false prophet like Benny Hinn—not high fives and hand-shakes for those he continues to fool. Do not be deceived, brethren. I want Benny to repent as much as anyone, but this isn't the first time he's done this (listen to the interview with Costi I linked to above). Remorse is not repentance. Something must change. All of us must heed the word of God in James 4:10, which says, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you."