Polygamist welcome Supreme Court rulings on gay marriage saying, "We're next!"

Polygamy activists have spoken of their hopes that the Supreme Court's landmark rulings on gay marriage could lead to a breakthrough for their cause too.
The top court in the U.S. yesterday ruled that the federal government must recognise same-sex marriages, and allowed judges to overrule a ban on gay marriage in California.
And some polygamists predict that the decisions will 'blaze the marriage equality trail', saying that 'the nuclear family is not the majority any more'.
During the ongoing debate over gay marriage in the past few years, the topic of polygamy has often been raised by critics who claim that extending marriage to homosexuals will eventually result in marriages involving multiple people.

Decision: The Supreme Court's rulings on gay marriage could have an impact on campaigners for polygamy

Joy: Two students embrace outside the Supreme Court after hearing news of the judges' rulings

After yesterday's rulings, conservative talk-show host Bryan Fischer said: 'The DOMA ruling has now made the normalization of polygamy, pedophilia, incest and bestiality inevitable. Matter of time.'
Ken Klukowski, from the Family Research Council, also predicted that the Supreme Court decisions would open the door for polygamous marriage, pointing out that activists in Utah had already launched a challenge to the ban on multi-partner marriages.

However, now it is not only opponents of polygamy who have raised the possibility of its legalisation, but supporters too.
'I was very glad,' polygamist Anne Wilde told Buzzfeed in the aftermath of the rulings. 'The nuclear family, with a dad and a mom and two or three kids, is not the majority anymore.'
She added that many people in polygamous relationships were not in fact seeking the right to marry, but wanted to ensure that they were safe from prosecution.

March: Gay-rights supporters parade past Wrigley Field in Chicago in celebration of the rulings

Victory: Conservatives have long predicted that polygamous marriage will follow in the wake of same-sex marriage

Joe Darger, a man from Utah who has three wives, said the court 'has taken a step in correcting some inequality, and that's certainly something that’s going to trickle down and impact us'.
Anita Wagner Illig, a leading polygamy activist as head of the group Practical Polyamory, told U.S. News & World Report that gay-rights campaigners had set a welcome precedent.
'We polyamorists are grateful to our brothers and sisters for blazing the marriage equality trail,' she said.
'I would absolutely want to seek multi-partner marriage - it would eliminate a common challenge polyamorists face when two [people] are legally married and others in their group relationships aren't part of that marriage.'

Pleaed: Julie Weismann and MarDee Hansen embrace during a pro-gay-marriage rally in Eugene, Oregon

However, she also admitted that a marriage involving more than two people would involve creating unprecedented legal provisions in a way that marriage between two people of the same sex does not.
Polygamy has become more prominent in popular culture recently thanks to the likes of TLC reality show Sister Wives, which features the Brown family in which one husband is married to four wives.
Their lawyer, Jonathan Turley, said of polygamists: 'They're very modern. The women believe in divorce. They live in cities. They have jobs. But they are treated as felons.'
The Browns, who are fundamentalist Mormons, are currently suing Utah's state government in an attempt to overturn the law against bigamy.

Sounds just like a seeker-sensitive purpose-driven or Emergent church service

Members of an atheist congregation at Harvard listen to music during a recent gathering.

June 22nd, 2013

11:25 AM ET

Church without God - by design

By Dan Merica, CNN

Boston (CNN)-– It’s Sunday in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a rapt congregation listens to a chaplain preach about the importance of building a community.
A few dozen people sit quietly for the hourlong service. Music is played, announcements are made and scholars wax poetic about the importance of compassion and community.
Outsiders could be forgiven for believing this service, with its homilies, its passing of the plate, its uplifting songs, belongs in a church.
If so, it’s a church without one big player: God.
Sunday’s congregation in Cambridge is a meeting of the Humanist Community at Harvard University and the brainchild of Greg Epstein, the school’s Humanist chaplain.
A longtime advocate for community building, Epstein and his group of atheists have begun to build their Cambridge community and solemnize its Sunday meetings to resemble a traditional religious service.
To Epstein, religion is not all bad, and there is no reason to reject its helpful aspects.
“My point to my fellow atheists is, why do we need to paint things with such a broad brush? We can learn from the positive while learning how to get rid of the negative," he said.

Godless congregations
For Epstein, who started community-building at Harvard nearly 10 years ago, the idea of a godless congregation is not an oxymoron.
“We decided recently that we want to use the word congregation more and more often because that is a word that strongly evokes a certain kind of community - a really close knit, strong community that can make strong change happen in the world,” he said.
“It doesn’t require and it doesn't even imply a specific set of beliefs about anything.”
Epstein is not alone in his endeavor. Jerry DeWitt, who became an atheist and left his job as an evangelical minister, is using his pastoral experience to building an atheist church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
This Sunday, DeWitt's congregation will hold its first meeting as a "Community Mission Chapel."
"When you become a part of this congregation, this community, you are going to become part of a family," DeWitt told CNN. "There is an infrastructure there for you to land in. There is going to be someone there to do weddings and to do, unfortunately, the funerals."

Sunday school for atheists
As members of the Cambridge congregation file into a wood-paneled classroom at Harvard, singer Shelley Segal greets them with a few songs from her latest recording, called simply, “An Atheist Album.”
Taking a hint from the theme of the event, Segal strums on her guitar and belts her song, “Gratitude.”
“I don't believe in a great power to say thank you to,” Segal sings. “But that won’t take away from my gratitude.”

Harvard's humanist chaplain Greg Epstein leads an atheist gathering.

After the music, Epstein offers a few words of greeting before the meeting gets to its heart: a discussion about compassion.
A four academics and a journalist discuss the effects of religion on raising children and their ideas about compassion. Congregants listen intently, some even taking notes.
Each service has a message – compassion, evolution or acceptance - after which congregants engage in a lengthy discussion.
Before the main event, kids are invited to what some parents refer to as “Sunday school,” where Tony Debono, a biologist Massachusetts Institute of Technology, teaches the youngsters about evolution, DNA and cells.
There's little talk about organized religion, positive or negative.
Likewise, down in Louisiana, said his atheist services will not be anti-religion.
"What we are looking at doing is different," DeWitt said. "If you are a religionist and you come and sit in our pew, the only way you can leave offended is because of what you don’t hear and what you don’t see. We won’t be there to make a stance against religion or against God."

Coming out of the closet
In the last few years, the number of “nones” – those who don’t associate with any organized religion – has grown at a rate faster than any other group. Nones now represent one in five Americans, according to a 2012 Pew Research Center poll.
Although the number of atheists has grown, too, there are still a large number of “nones” that choose not to associate with the label “atheist.”
Some at Harvard’s Humanist congregation fall into this category.
“I don’t particularly have a religion,” said Anil Nyer, a neurologist who brought his daughter to Humanist Sunday school. But Nyer also said he didn’t want to label himself as an atheist.
One reason to shy away from the atheist label: Many Americans hold a negative impression of nonbelievers.
According to a recent Public Religion Research Institute poll, nearly 40 percent of Americans believe that atheists are changing American culture for the worse.
“Whenever we put atheists on a list like this and we compare them to other groups, atheists tend to come in towards the bottom of that list,” said Robert P. Jones is the CEO of Public Religion Research Institute.
“Americans tend to hold a lot of reservations about atheists.”
Epstein hopes his congregation can change that.
By formalizing meetings and building a strong community, the Harvard group hopes it can be a model for other atheist congregations forming around the country.

A group meets during an atheist gathering in Boston.

More atheists may come of the closet if they know a congregation will be there to support them, Epstein said,
“Being an atheist is something we want people to come out and be,” said the Humanist chaplain. “There are so many people, probably millions, who are humanists or atheists or nonreligious in private and nobody knows."
Epstein said he gets e-mails daily from people founding atheist meet-up groups.
“Tulsa, Oklahoma; North Carolina; London; Vancouver, Canada; Houston, Texas,” Epstein said, listing the sources of the most recent e-mails.
“One part of what we are saying is come on out and let your neighbors know” about your disbelief, he said. “It is not going to make you worse of a person, it is going to make you a better person to be more open about who you are.”

Rituals for the irreligious
For the last few years, the Humanist Community at Harvard has operated out of a small three-floor walk-up off the bustling streets of Harvard Square. The walls are littered with posters about atheism – tributes to famed atheists Eddie Izzard, Seth MacFarlane and Stephen Fry.
Because of the scattered furniture and the Harvard dorm feel, Epstein jokingly describes the space as “college broke chic.” That’s being generous – but it's also about to change.
Starting in the fall, the Humanist Community at Harvard will begin meeting in a nearly 3,000-square-foot community center with an event space for nearly 100 people.
Although the plan is to use the space at the group’s headquarters, it will also serve as a broader community center for the group that Epstein and others are trying to build in the Boston area.
“What we really would like to see is a community center where people can come by at anytime and to use it as a space to study or have a meeting for various committee,” said Chris Stedman, the assistant humanist chaplain at Harvard.
Stedman said he sees the new building as a place for people to gather, not only to become part of a humanist community, but to also become more engaged with the world.
When he talks about his plans for the future, Epstein appears to long for a time when the new community center could mimic aspects of church - a place for baby-naming ceremonies, weddings and funerals.
The success of an atheist church will depend on walking the thin line between too much and too little ritual, Epstein said.
Humanists boast a proud freethinking streak, and some at the Harvard event said they don’t want to be associated with any sort of dogma or belief system - or even a system based on disbelief.
Anyway, Esptein said his congregation will be less a group of people united by beliefs - or disbelief - and more like an opera, or a painting.
“Our community is like a work of art," he said. "Hopefully people will respond to that work of art and it will garner controversy and discussion like a work of art."

Dan Merica - Dan Merica

Stop waiting for God's manna, go reap some grain. Both are from God's provision.

The Cessation of the Miraculous

In Reformed Baptist Fellowship on Friday, June 21, 2013 at 2:50 pm
 

In Joshua chapters 3-4, the children of Israel cross the Jordan into the Promised Land due to the wondrous power of God. In chapter 5, the children of Israel celebrate by the sacramental signs: circumcision and Passover. During the Passover celebration, the author emphasizes that the children of Israel “ate of the produce of the land” (Josh 5:11, two other references in v.12). This emphasis highlights an important point: the God who promised the gift of the land with all of its attendant grain, was now fulfilling that promise and His covenant people were reaping the benefits of His faithfulness.

In Josh 5:12, we read “Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.” This highlights an important principle: the cessation of the miraculous (God’s provision of manna) does not imply the cessation of God’s active power in sustaining His covenant people. Whether through the extraordinary manna or the ordinary produce of the land, God is faithful. It is a curious fact that we are inclined to see God’s power displayed when He spares a young man’s life in an automobile accident, but less likely to see God’s power in keeping most of us from automobile accidents each and every day.

If I may draw a parallel: the church today in some quarters seems discontent with the produce of the land and appears to be seeking manna from heaven. Of course, God is still sovereign, still omnipotent, and still able to perform the miraculous. However, in this new covenant setting, the gift of the Spirit in the normal, ordinary events of church life is still our Sustainer and Shield. God is as present in a corporate prayer meeting that is conducted without bells and whistles, as He was in the prayer meeting recorded in Acts 4. The absence of tongues and prophesying, the absence of miraculous displays of healing through human instruments, and the absence of the sort of things we read regularly in the book of Acts does not mean the absence of God. We are to faithfully employ the means of grace given by our good God and enjoy His sustaining power, even if it is just the produce of the land.

Jim Butler, Pastor

Free Grace Baptist Church of Chilliwack

.

Correcting the summer-time movie sermon errors

Who Is the Hero of Your Sermon?

by Greg Breazeale on Monday, June 17, 2013 

Every sermon has a hero. Every message points to some kind of rescue from financial, relational, or ethical plight. Few would argue that someone other than Christ should be this rescuer - this hero - in every sermon. But many of us think we are pointing people toward Christ, when in fact we are not. We may talk about Jesus a lot in our sermons, but ultimately we point our people toward something or someone else.

Let's examine a few counterfeit heroes that prevent us from pointing to the Ultimate Hero in our sermons.

1. You can be the hero of your sermon

I once wrote in large letters on the whiteboard in my office: YOU ARE NOT THE STANDARD. This sparked several conversations, to say the least! Many preachers are guilty of this without knowing it. You would never tell your people "Be like me!" when you preach. But the way you use personal illustrations, particularly about your marriage, may imply you are the standard.
Or, if you are a natural exhorter who aggressively attacks sin and disobedience, you need to work on transparency to allow others to see your own struggles with sin. Otherwise, your people will feel scolded and undermined, not exhorted and encouraged. You will end up looking like the hero. If you often preach on biblical masculinity (which I agree you should), be careful to avoid lifting yourself up as the ultimate man.

You should be an example to your people, not the example. Point your people to Jesus Christ, who is the only God and Savior. Paul said, "For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord" (2 Cor. 4:5). We would do well to think through how we lift up ourselves, instead of Christ.

2. They can be the heroes of the sermon

Many sermons make the listeners the hero of the message. Rather than leaving them resting in the finished work of Christ, we exhort them to do more. We communicate that the key to a better marriage, meaningful work, and financial contentment is more action and increased effort. For many, this takes the form of using Old Testament stories for moral instruction. While the stories of David, Abraham, and Joseph certainly offer us moral examples, we must grapple with whether or not this was always the author's intent.

Other preachers make missions and evangelism the thrust of nearly every message. The church is exhorted every week to summon all their resources to reach non-Christians. Still others can elevate issues such as giving, praying, Bible reading, and church activity. The point is simple: do more!
All of these issues, and countless others, matter. We must work for the church. We must expend effort. We must evangelism our communities. But a Christian who almost exclusively hears imperatives every week will either fall into despair or puff up with pride.

Brothers, we must not separate the do from the done! Only to the degree that your people understand what Christ has done will they be able to do anything for Him. But when they rest secure in His finished work, opportunity for action abounds! Therefore our exhortations must be wrapped in declarations of what Christ did for us. You don't tell someone drowning to swim harder. Rescue them!

3. Your church can be the hero of the sermon

Among the three, this is the hardest to see. The tension is between wanting to advance the kingdom and wanting to grow your church. Pastors want both. The problem occurs when we try to "sell" our congregation during our sermons. A little talk about our particular church can go a long way. We may also, without recognizing it, subtly undermine other churches in the area. In addition, preaching too many "vision and values" sermons can steal the spotlight from Christ.

While we must preach vision and be clear about what we want our church to accomplish, we cannot make our local setting the hero of our sermons. One simple way to avoid this is to pray publicly for other congregations in the area. Ask Christ to magnify Himself through them and advance His fame in your community and city. Pray God's blessings on other pastors and their preaching. Align yourself with the psalmist who wrote, "Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory" (Ps. 115:1).

Great sermons make listeners think, "Oh wretched me! But thanks be to God for Jesus Christ!" John Stott said, "The main objective of preaching is to expound Scripture so faithfully and relevantly that Jesus Christ is perceived in all his adequacy to meet human need" (Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today, 325). In other words, make Christ the hero of your sermons every week. Only He is sufficient to save and satisfy us.

Greg Breazeale (MDiv, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, DMin student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is senior pastor at Metro East Baptist Church in Wichita, Kansas. He blogs at yearnforgod.org. Twitter: @pastorbreaz.

The cure for America's easy believe-ism

God Does Not Owe Us a Happy Ending

• Tim Challies
• 06/21/13

It is a visual age. Cameras are ubiquitous, software is cheap, computers are powerful, and together they give us a video for every occasion. We, as Christians, have a video for every occasion. I love to watch the ones that tell the story of a husband and wife who had been on the verge of divorce but rekindled the flame, the ones about the godly wife who was willing to reconcile with her adulterous husband, the ones telling about the couple who endured the difficulty of a long and complicated adoption but were able to return home triumphant, holding that precious child in their arms, the ones about the dear, elderly man who found joy and contentment in caring for the wife who could no longer recognize or acknowledge him.

These videos provide a glimpse of God’s grace in the lives of his people and they are inspiring in the best sense. They give us hope that if we were to find ourselves in those situations, we would experience the Father’s kindness and blessing.

And yet, not every story has a happy ending. This world is so broken, so marked by sin, that many of our stories do not end with a kiss, they do not end with fulfillment, they do not end with a clear purpose. I love these videos just as you do, but they tell only select stories, not every story.

For every powerful story of repentance and forgiveness and reconciliation, there are many husbands who break their vows and never repent, who walk away, never to return. There are wives who are willing to grant forgiveness, willing to save their shattered marriage, except that the husband will not have it. There are husbands who are repentant but wives who cannot or will not forgive. These stories are equally real, but we do not make films for them. We don’t see the soft camera shots and hear the music swell dramatically as she gets served with the divorce papers.

There are the adoptions that fall apart at the last moment, the man and woman who had set their hearts on a child, who had fallen in love with him, who had traveled across the world to pick him up, but who had him snatched away. I have watched a family adopt a child only to find that he was so scarred by his time in brutal Eastern institutions that he returned their love with violence, threats, and sexual deviancy so dark they felt they had to relinquish him. There were no cameras to capture the story and to inspire us with it.

I love to see the film of the elderly husband caring for his dear wife who suffers from Alzheimer’s. It’s powerful and effective and inspiring and I want to be like him should the situation ever befall me. But there is no film for the man whose wife no longer recognizes him and is terrified of him and who, locked into deeper and deeper dementia, must be placed in an institution far from the husband who loves her. There is no narrator to speak words of hope and inspiration.

It is as natural as the sunrise to want to find meaning in our suffering and often we find it, or believe we find it, in a happy ending. It was a grueling time, but I endured it and now I can say it was all worth it because I have the baby in my arms, my marriage has been renewed, my husband is reconciled to me, my prodigal son gave up his rebellion and returned home. But sometimes—oftentimes—the answers are not so readily apparent. So often these films do not represent life as we actually experience it.

But the Bible does. The Bible is full of unhappy endings or unexplained endings. There are Psalms of all praise and all rejoicing, and there are Psalms of pain and bewilderment. There is joy in the Bible, but there is grief too. God saw fit to capture many stories that end without a word of explanation. And these, too, matter to him. These, too, are important and are full of meaning and significance.
There is danger in our dedication to happy endings. We may come to believe that God extends his goodness and grace only in those situations that end happily. We may believe that a happy ending is what proves God’s presence through it. We may believe that the experiences that do not have a happy ending mean that God is somehow removed from it. We may resent the times that we do not hear the crescendo of the music and see in our own lives a story other people will want to hear.

We all desire happy endings to our suffering. Of course we do. But God does not owe us a happy ending and he does not owe us the answers. At times he chooses to give one or both. At other times he does not. Some day these things will make sense and and in that day we will acknowledge that God has done what is right. But until then, it is faith in his character and in his promises that will sustain us far more than a happy ending.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts (Is. 55:8-9).

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation. (Hab. 3:17-18)

Good words from Tim Challies

Satan Wants To Help You

• Tim Challies
• 06/13/13

Satan wants to help you—to help you sin. He is hell bent on taking you to hell with him. Thomas Books, in his book Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, drew up a list of the devices Satan uses to draw you—yes you!—to sin. Here are six of them:

He presents the bait and hides the hook. Satan shows you the pleasure and the profit that may flow out of yielding to sin, but hides the wrath and misery that will inevitably result. This is, of course, exactly what he did with Adam and Eve: he displayed the benefit of eating that fruit, but hid all the cost. "There is an opening of the mind to contemplation and joy, and there is an opening of the eyes of the body to shame and confusion. He promises them the former, but intends the latter, and so cheats them."

He paints sin with the colors of virtue. Satan knows that if he were to present sin accurately, you would run away from it rather than be attracted to it. Therefore, he conceals sin behind the camouflage of virtue so you can more easily be overcome by it and take more immediate pleasure in committing it. When he does this, pride comes in the form of neatness, covetousness in the form of thrift, and drunkenness in the form of a good time. Whatever temptation you are prone to he will likewise dress up as a virtue.

He convinces you this is only a little sin. Satan tries to convince you the temptation you face, the sin you are drawn to, is just a small and a harmless one. He wants you to believe this is a sin you may commit without any great danger to your soul.

He shows you that even noble men have sinned while hiding from you their sorrow and repentance. Satan will let you see that greater men than you have fallen into this sin and still been loved by God. He will set before you the adultery of David, the pride of Hezekiah, the impatience of Job, the drunkenness of Noah and the blasphemy of Peter. But as he does so, he will hide from you their tears and laments and he will hide from you that they repented of those very things and would plead with you not to succumb to the same temptation.

He presents God as only and ever merciful. Satan will convince you that you do not need to be afraid of this sin, that there is no real danger in this sin, for God is full of mercy, he delights in mercy, is ready to show mercy, never wearies of mercy and is more prone to pardon than to punish. And as he presents God's mercy, he deliberately conceals God's justice.

He convinces you that repentance is easy. As Satan presents a temptation before you, he will try to convince you that the work of repentance is an easy work, that it is not at all difficult to turn, to confess, to be sorrowful and to beg the Lord's pardon. And if all this is true, there is no urgent need to bother yourself with battling sin, for you can repent later just as easily as you now commit the sin.
Brooks has six more to go, but I will share those at another time. Here is a particularly thought-provoking prayer he includes:

Ah Lord! this mercy I humbly beg, that whatever you give me up to, you will not give me up to the ways of my own heart; if you will give me up to be afflicted, or tempted, or reproached, I will patiently sit down, and say, It is the Lord; let him do with me what seems good in his own eyes. Do anything with me, lay what burden you will upon me, so you do not give me up to the ways of my own heart.

And here is a challenge to understand that every sin is an act of defiance against God.

Every sin strikes at the honor of God, the being of God, the glory of God, the heart of Christ, the joy of the Spirit, and the peace of a man’s conscience; and therefore a soul truly penitent strikes at all, hates all, conflicts with all, and will labor to draw strength from a crucified Christ to crucify all sins. A true penitent knows neither father nor mother, neither right eye nor right hand--but will pluck out the one and cut off the other.

The Tweetable Puritan:

• Adversity hath slain her thousand, but prosperity her ten thousand.
• The best course to prevent falling into the pit is to keep at the greatest distance.
• Many eat that on earth that they digest in hell.
• Sin will kiss the soul, and pretend fair to the soul, and yet betray the soul forever.
• A man bewitched with sin had rather lose God, Christ, heaven, and his own soul than part with his sin.
• Sin will surely prove evil and bitter to the soul when its robes are taken off.
• There is no little sin, because no little God to sin against.
• There is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction.
• You can easily sin as the saints, but can you repent with the saints?
• Many can sin with David and Peter, that cannot repent with David and Peter, and so must perish forever.
• He who turns not from every sin, turns not aright from any one sin.
• Those who do not burn now in zeal against sin must before long burn in hell for sin.
• True repentance is a continued spring, where the waters of godly sorrow are always flowing

From Challies dot com

7 Marks of a False Teacher

• Tim Challies
• 06/20/13

No one enriches hell more than false teachers. No one finds greater joy in drawing people away from truth and leading them into error. False teachers have been present in every era of human history, they have always been a plague and have always been in the business of providing counterfeit truth. While their circumstances may change, their methods remain consistent.
Here are seven marks of false teachers.

False teachers are man pleasers. What they teach is meant to please the ear more than profit the heart. They tickle the ears of their followers with flattery and all the while they treat holy things with wit and carelessness rather than reverence and awe. This contrasts sharply with a true teacher of the Word who knows that he is answerable to God and who is therefore far more eager to please God than men. As Paul would say, “But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts” (1 Thes. 2:4).

False teachers save their harshest criticism for God’s most faithful servants. False teachers criticize those who teach the truth, and save their sharpest criticism for those who hold most steadfastly to what is true. We see this in many places in the Bible, such as when Korah and his friends rose up against Moses and Aaron (Num. 16:3) and when Paul’s ministry was threatened and undermined by those critics who said that while his words were strong, he himself was weak and unimportant (2 Cor. 10:10). We see it most notably in the vicious attacks of the religious authorities against Jesus. False teachers continue to rebuke and belittle God’s faithful servants today. Yet, as Augustine declared, “He that willingly takes from my good name, unwillingly adds to my reward.”

False teachers teach their own wisdom and vision. This was certainly true in the days of Jeremiah when God would say, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds” (Jer. 14:14). And today, too, false teachers teach the foolishness of mere men instead of teaching the deeper, richer wisdom of God. Paul knew, "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” (2 Tim. 4:3).

False teachers miss what is of central importance and focus instead on the small details. Jesus diagnosed this very tendency in the false teachers of his day, warning them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others” (Matt. 23:23). False teachers place great emphasis on their adherence to the smaller commands even as they ignore the greater ones. Paul warned Timothy of the one who “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 Tim. 6:4-5).

False teachers obscure their false doctrine behind eloquent speech and what appears to be impressive logic. Just as a prostitute paints and perfumes herself to appear more attractive and more alluring, the false teacher hides his blasphemies and dangerous doctrine behind powerful arguments and eloquent use of language. He offers to his listeners the spiritual equivalent of a poisonous pill coated in gold; though it may appear beautiful and valuable, it is still deadly.

False teachers are more concerned with winning others to their opinions than in helping and bettering them. This was another of Jesus’ diagnoses as he considered the religious rulers of his day. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves” (Matt 23:15). False teachers are ultimately not in the business of bettering lives and saving souls, but of convincing minds and winning followers.

False teachers exploit their followers. Peter would warn of this danger, saying: “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ... And in their greed they will exploit you with false words” (1 Peter 2:1-3). The false teachers exploit those who follow them because they are greedy and desire the riches of this world. This being true, will always teach principles that indulge the flesh. False teachers are concerned with your goods, not your good; they want to serve themselves more than save the lost; they are content for Satan to have your soul as long as they can have your stuff.

Inspired by Shai Linne and Appendix II of Thomas Brook's Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices.

Why Superman is the Jesus Agnostic, inclusivist, gay-affirming, community-worshiping hipsters yearn for and isn't real!

Why the Superman of 'Man of Steel' is the Jesus we (Entertainment Weekly) wish Jesus would be...

Please be aware this is not my particular position I merely think its important for Christians to see the rational behind the positions of thinking pagans, god-hating idol worshipers, and writers for American "Entertainment" Outlets.

It is often said that superheroes are modern glosses on mythic heroes of antiquity. Batman. Spider-Man. Iron Man. They are but many different modern faces of Gilgamesh, Odysseus, and the whole metamorphic Campbellian crew, and the stories of their Herculean labors contain truths about human nature, heroic character, and our innate want for freaky cosplay. Or maybe just catharsis for 9/11. Probably just that. Yes, “mythology” sounds pretentious, like the rationalization of those who need to justify spending so much time filling their imagination with weird tales of fabulous people wearing outrageous clothes while engaging in ridiculously violent or risky behavior. It’s a lot of weight to put upon the colorful shoulders of these pulp fiction icons.

But some characters carry the burden better than others. And one character in particular seems to demand it. He is the superhero who reigns Zeus-like above all others, and is more loaded than any other with mythic significance, to a degree as daunting as it is inspiring. For as the serial once said, Superman has powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. His character – his moral code – is far beyond us, too. As film critic/blogger Devin Faraci Tweeted this past weekend: “Superman should be held to the highest standards. He doesn’t get to f— up on any scale. That’s why he’s Superman.” (To some, this sacred geek icon is not a text to be interpreted; he is a set of immutable values to be evangelized.) In an interview with ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, Man of Steel producer Christopher Nolan sketched the creative challenge of dramatizing St. Superman the Comic Book Divine. “He is the ultimate superhero,” says Nolan. “He has the most extraordinary powers. He has the most extraordinary ideals to live up to. He’s very God-like in a lot of ways and it’s been difficult to imagine that in a contemporary setting.”


Not that it stopped them from trying. Indeed, the new model Man of Steel has a strong passing resemblance to a certain Son of God/Son of Man described in The New Testament of The Bible. The Superman Gospel begins a long time ago and far away in the heavens with an exalted otherworldly Father figure, whose very special son is not only proof of his awesome life giving creative powers but satisfy this story’s condition of a miraculous birth, albeit ironically: Kal-El is the first naturally conceived child on Krypton in countless years. Jor-El also plays the role of Old Testament prophet, promising fire and brimstone to a sinfully proud culture if they don’t immediately change their ways. Having failed to save his world by convincing them to reform, Jor-El executes a more radical redemption scheme through his only begotten son: The father will figuratively and literally place creation on Kal-El’s shoulders by imprinting the genetic record of his people on Kal-El. Through The Son, Krypton will be born again.
From this point forward, Man of Steel mixes (to varying degrees of success) superhero origin story, gay ‘coming out’ drama, and religious conversion narrative. The alien messiah comes to Earth as a baby and is raised by humble rural folk who are grateful for the blessing of a child, but also a little confused and even frightened by the extraordinary significance of the strange little boy. What child is THIS? Indeed. Kal-El loses his heavenly name but not his supernatural power. But in contrast Christ (and previous Superman stories), Clark Kent’s God-like identity is smothered, not burnished, by the influence of his well-meaning parents. They don’t want him acting like a Superboy, and more, have huge reservations about him becoming a Superman. But Clark can’t help it; it’s his nature to play savior. A moment when hyper-protective Jonathan Kent argues the point with Clark evokes a moment from the life of Christ, when Jesus’ parents discover him missing, go searching for him, and find him teaching the elders at the temple with a wisdom beyond his years. When Joseph scolds his adopted son for his actions and causing them anxiety, Jesus barks back: “Knew you not that I must be about my father’s business?” Jesus puts his parents in their place. Clark isn’t so fortunate. He’ll spend the rest of his youth hiding his true self from the world.

The Bible doesn’t tell us much about how Jesus spent his twenties: The gospel narratives jump from late childhood to early thirties, when Christ receives the Holy Spirit, comes into the fullness of his power, and begins his public ministry. But we are told that Jesus continued to grow in favor in the eyes of his family and God. To a large degree, Man of Steel follows suit. After sketching Kal-El’s origins, the story leaps ahead to Clark Kent in his early thirties doing good deeds, but anonymously. Seminal moments from his Smallville days are presented as flashbacks. His twenties? Undocumented. When Lois Lane tries to get the scoop, The Daily Planet reporter only finds rumors and legends of a life lived off the grid, under the radar. But after an encounter with a veritable Holy Ghost – specifically, an aspect of Jor-El, presented as hologram – Clark becomes the Son of God/Son of Man that his father intended him to be. He accepts the suit the way Christ accepted the Spirit as electric Jor-El beams with sunshiney pride. This is my son, with whom I am well pleased. And with that, Kal-El explodes out of the closet and commences with being about the business of his father in heaven. (Because Jor-El is, like, dead. Technically.) The public ministry of Superman has begun…
And it starts with an act of sacrifice on behalf of a world that he’s been raised to believe will only fear, scorn and hate him. General Zod – the film’s force of antagonism — demands that Earth surrender the last son of Krypton incognito among them. Kal-El gives himself up, hoping that by doing so, he can save Earth. He is 33 years old – the same age that Christ willingly went to the cross for the sake of the sinful human creatures that feared, scorned and hated him. Later in the movie, Superman will assay the Christ-like movement of descending into hell and rising again by flying to the bottom of the planet to stop Zod’s “world machines” from remaking the globe and producing an extinction event for the human race. Superman is pummeled into the depths, then slowly ascends and obliterates the terraforming tech and then defeats Zod, the embodiment of death for all mankind, just as Christ’s resurrection was a victory over death and brought hope of new life and procured a boundless future for humanity.

But Man of Steel is not Chronicles of Narnia. It does not express a Christian worldview. Instead, the movie critiques aspects of Christianity and God in general. Most Superman stories actually do: This god-like superhero has always been made to behave in ways God does not — or rather, in ways that contemporary peoples wish God would. Superman always rushes to solve what theologians would call “the problem of evil” wherever evil might be, whether that evil takes the form of a bad guy doing bad things to good people or some “natural” catastrophe that is actually an “unnatural” consequence of The Fall, which left man with limited mastery over nature. Moreover, Superman does not subscribe to what theologians might call the policy of “divine hiddenness.”  Most Superman stories that dote on his Smallville days give us Clark Kent that was raised to expose his godhood publicly, to be a literal light to the world: At age 18, the Kents – with not a little bit of worry – practically kick the kid out the door with a Ma-knitted superman suit. Go get a job, you good for something secular messiah! Superman usually serves the world with joy in his heart, as Christians are supposed to do (2 Corinthians 9:7: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver”), and with extraordinary internal discipline that allows him to execute his mission without being tempted to violate one of the great commandments binding Christians and superheroes – “Thou shalt not kill” – and even receive the persecution of his enemies by turning the other cheek. Blessed are the peacemakers. Especially when bullets can bounce off their chest.

But the new era Superman of Man of Steel is uniquely different than the surrogate deity of previous Superman stories. This Clark Kent was raised by parents of the post-modern age. They are decent people of uncertain beliefs. To them, the world is overwhelming and threatening (especially if you’re “different”), something to be endured, even avoided. Yes, the Kents tell Clark, you were probably sent here for a purpose. Don’t know what it is, exactly, and you should take your time to figure it out. But no pressure! Help people when you can, but be discrete, never be seen, and remember: You can’t save everyone, and sometimes, it’s okay to not save anyone, especially when it’s your life on the line; it’s not a sin to put self-preservation over public service. And don’t even think about using your powers to show up and vanquish those who bully you. Let your freak flag fly to one of them or just some, and they’ll all come after your Ubermenchy ass with pitchforks and torches. The result of this fear-based parenting is a Clark Kent who is conspicuously saddled with the limitations that the Gods of most religions have apparently decided to give themselves. Clark adheres to a frustrating policy of divine hiddenness. He does not tackle the problem of evil that way we would want him to. As we meet him in his early thirties, Clark is a Kung Fu-with-a-hint-of-Hulk wanderer who does good deeds here and there, anonymously and as invisibly as possible, trying reallyreallyreally hard from going ‘roid ragingly ballistic from an increasingly untenable identity crisis. He is a metaphor, then, for the God we have — or who doesn’t exist at all, for this “divine hiddenness” and “problem of evil” are two of the biggest reasons why atheists are atheists and agnostics are all shrugs. If God exists, why doesn’t He show himself and abide with us the way He did (allegedly) with people in the past? If God exists and good, why doesn’t He stop bad things from happening, especially to righteous people?

The Superman of Man of Steel is bothered by these questions, too. From an early age, The Man Who Fell From The Heaven struggles to square the Kents’ teaching with what feels natural to him, what strikes him as simple common sense. What do you mean I shouldn’t use my powers to save a school bus that falls into the drink? You’re seriously telling me that it’s okay to put this little light of mine under a bushel and not let it shine?! WWJD, Dad? WWJD?!?! Just when Clark gets old enough to grow a pair and tell his Dad to take a flying leap, Pa Kent does something that seems to seal the deal on stunting Clark’s development from man to Superman: He sacrifices his life so Clark doesn’t have to sacrifice his secret, to protect Clark’s freedom to be – or not to be – whatever kind of Superman he believes is proper. Some might think Jonathan did right by his boy, but I’m not so sure: The Wanderer that emerges from Smallville is a miserable, unfulfilled soul who still has no idea who he really is or what he’s meant to be — problems Jesus never had. He is a cheerless giver, and he seethes with passive-aggressive anger toward the bad guys that he’s been taught not to fight.* He could change course at any time. But he won’t let himself, because (and this is more my interpretation of the text than anything else) behaving otherwise would render his father’s heroic sacrifice for his sake meaningless. Guilt and shame – or the fearful avoidance of either — are the crappy glues that hold this flim-flam Man of Steel together. Some might say the same thing about some Christians.

*Critics and fanboy purists have blasted the wanton destruction of Man of Steel’s final hour for depicting the superhero as being oblivious to the collateral damage threatening the lives of thousands of people. Never once does the ultimate First Responder think of breaking from the battle to help imperiled bystanders. I don’t completely disagree with this complaint, although I do not share the “Superman should be perfect” frame that other critics have put on it. This is simply a mistake of storytelling or a problematic omission. By not having Superman deal with or even acknowledge the mounting human cost of his brawl with Zod, Man of Steel subverts its most provocative, emotional moment — Superman’s uncharacteristic decision to kill in order to save the day. He hates himself for doing it — he unleashes a yelp of grief — but the moment is more confusing than powerful: Where was that same anguish when he and Zod were trashing Metropolis and endangering if not killing scores of its citizens with their violence? There could have been a brief bit in which Superman barks at his military allies to evacuate Metropolis while he devotes himself exclusively to putting down Zod. Failing that, there needed to be a scene that showed us how Superman felt about the danger he was helping to produce, or (more provocatively) explained why he just didn’t give a shit. Which, given what we’ve been told about this new take on Clark, is entirely credible. Beyond the matter of Kal-El’s confused, Kent-futzed philosophy on heroism and altruism, Superman just doesn’t know how to fight, because he was raised to avoid conflict at all costs. Consequently, Superman scraps without discipline, wages war without strategy. He brawls panicked, like a rabid UFC contestant, trying to win the bout with wild swings and dirty tricks, chasing after a knockout blow that he can never land because his opponent is so formidable, and equally desperate (especially when Zod comes into his own powers in the middle of the final fight and goes mad). And let’s give this allegedly flawed Superman this one benefit of the doubt: He knows the stakes. If Zod doesn’t go down, Earth dies. Do we really expect Superman to make himself vulnerable to defeat by turning his back on Zod just to airlift a couple thousand people out of Metropolis to create a safer theater of war? If you live at Ground Zero, sure. Me in Los Angeles, sweating the prospect of what Zod will do next if he kills the only guy on Earth who can stop him? Nope.

What this emasculated, closeted Son of Krypton needs (besides karate lessons) is to wriggle free from the stifling false self of “Clark Kent” that feels so unnatural, so, yes, alien to him and connect with a more authentic, liberated identity. Clark finally gets the brass balls to break from his adopted Dad’s way of doing business when he connects with his biological father and his heritage. With a download of origin story, Jor-El almost completely reprograms Clark’s buggy godhood operating system to its original, intended, common sense settings. The Good Father reveals that Kal-El has never been wrong to feel as he does, that his impulse to respond directly to the problem of evil has always been correct, that divine hiddenness is a bizarre counter-intuitive policy for someone so innately good, who could possibly change the world for the better by simply by being known. The alien no longer alienated from himself, Superman is set free to be the superhero – and the foster God – he was meant to be.

The final snare is broken when subtext becomes text in the scene in which Kal-El returns to the small town that raised him/warped him and goes to church. It’s his (ironic) Garden of Gethsemane moment; The Man of Steel is steeling his soul in advance of going public and sacrificing himself to film’s ultimate incarnation of the problem of evil, Zod, who has threatened to destroy the Earth unless the world coughs up the Superman secretly living among them. The encounter with a minister roughly his own age is tense. (Is he the all-grown-up kid who bullied Clark as a boy, seen in the flashback that immediately preceded this scene?) Being in the presence of an almighty power that his religion can’t explain makes the man of cloth nervous. He literally, loudly gulps. Kal-El is anxious, as well: He is at the brink of a profound spiritual conversion. He’s about to renounce the upbringing that molded him and all of its strictures. No more hiddenness. No more hesitance and ambivalence in his response to evil. Is this the right thing to do? Kal-El and the minister arrive at logical resolution: If Superman takes a leap of faith — if he reveals himself and demonstrates his goodness — then the trust he wants from humanity might follow. Clark lives out the advice. And so Superman at last enters into his fullness of his metaphorical godhood.

The final book of The New Testament, The Apocalypse (or Revelation) according to John, tells of a last battle between Christ and Satan in which The Devil will be destroyed and afterward Jesus and his truest believers will live together forever in a new creation. Man of Steel turns this eschatology inside out to take perhaps its most veiled shot at Christianity and all religions that espouse a final judgment that divides humanity into sheep and goats, wheat and chaff, clean and unclean.

Zod wants Superman, dead or alive, because his generic material contains The Codex, which would allow Zod to repopulate a terraformed Earth purged of human beings with genetically engineered Kryptonians. But maybe not all Kryptonians: In the prologue, Zod expressed a desire to only see the “pure” bloodlines flourish. Zod’s the Sci-Fi Supremacist is as a metaphor for racist or discriminatory ideology. But his philosophy is also is a metaphor for any spiritual system that says Heaven is only for the truest, most faithful of believers. Superman utterly Zod’s final solution, and more, comes to a shocking conclusion about his otherworldly heritage: He doesn’t want it. Declaring Krypton a dead culture, Superman adamantly refuses to be the means to achieve Zod’s New Genesis – a dream, it should be noted, which was also shared his heavenly father, albeit sans genocide. The Armageddon of Metropolis is now seen a culture war writ Marvelously, pitting the avatar of inclusive secular humanism against the paragon of exclusionary fundamentalist religion. Man of Steel’s ironic Super-Jesus stands with the former and against the latter, and he takes The Adversary out once and for all with a much-talked-about act of violence that represents shocking violation of Superman’s storied turn-the-other-cheek, Thou Shalt Not Kill code of ethics.

But this is not your father’s Superman, or his metaphorical Jesus. Man of Steel is subversive mythology for atheists that exalts a Superman who behaves the way they think God should but doesn’t. He is also stands for a generation of emerging Christians who are more interested in social justice, redeeming the culture and tending to the here and now, and less interested in preaching turn-or-burn rhetoric, running away from the world, and punching the clock until they can kick the bucket and go to Krypton… errr, Heaven. Watching Kal-El draw upon the natural energy of the Earth to soar sonic-boom loud and streak colorfully proud through skies, watching him flex his extraordinary muscles in the film’s (admittedly excessive) fight scenes, played to these eyes as wanton celebrations of God-given identity, as if this new generation Man of Steel was expunging so much pent-up frustration from years of repression and proclaiming: I’m here. I’m queerly Christian. Get used to it – because I’m the one who’s going to save your damn planet.
Note: On June 18, this essay was updated by the author to clarify some ideas and insert additional content.
Twitter: @EWDocJensen           LINK!!

My Second Sermon

Our Adopting Father!

Good morning Calvary. Welcome to our Father’s house and a happy father’s day to you.

If you have your sermon notes we’re going to be looking at 2 parallel passages today. The first is from Ephesians chapter 1, the book we’ve been studying through and the 2^nd is from Galatians chapter 4, which is just a few pages back from Ephesians 1, so you can pull up those 2 passages and I’ll be reading those in just a bit.

But before we get into our look at Ephesians1 and Galatians 4 I wanted to tell you a little about my best friend Michael. Michael and his wife, Lindsey, are friends of ours from our old church, they are Christians and parents and just good godly people. And recently they adopted 2 girls, Amira and Brooklyn. We tend to think that the Church’s stance against abortion but for adoption is a modern social issue. But actually the Church Fathers all the way back to the Roman Empire days wrote about Christianity’s value of life and how this value pushed Christians to not only not abort children but to adopt orphaned children and even the elderly into their own families to care for them and to reflect for them God’s mercy and care for his children.

Now adoption is an extremely Biblical practice.  Think back to the many Biblical stories that have involved adoption. For example God is described as adopting the nation of Israel like a son. Moses, the one who lead the Jews out of slavery, was before that given up by his mother and adopted by pharaoh’s daughter. Esther, who saved the entire Jewish people from being massacred by Persian officials was adopted by her own cousin Mordecai, as both of her parents were dead. Ruth, one of David’s great-great-great grandparents, was adopted by Naomi when her husband died and she decided she would rather stay with Naomi than go back to her own people. David, the great king and warrior of Israel adopted his best friend Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth after Jonathan died in battle. And let’s not forget that even, our Lord, Jesus Christ was adopted by Mary’s husband, Joseph. 

With all of this background in mind, the frequency of Biblical adoptions, & parents with hearts of love big enough for more than their own natural children now I want to read to you Ephesians chapter 1:3-7 and Galatians chapter 4:4-7:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption 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.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.

(Wait just a second for them to flip back to Gal 4:4-7)

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Let’s pray:

Father, on our own we can claim no rights, no privileges, to you as our kindred, but by your grace, through faith in the work done by your Son, we can find a deeper, broader, and eternal family in you. Be with us as we dig in and dine on the truths of your word today. Be with us as we try to reflect your familial love with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Father, please empower your Word spoken through this poor sinner’s lips, encourage those who need your encouragement, exhort those who need your exhortation and draw those among us who are far away from you with this proclamation of your word…And all of the children of God said, Amen.

As our friend Charles Spurgeon said, once you’ve found your text ** smack the pulpit ** make a beeline to the cross, for unless the message be a gospel message it cannot feed the sheep of God. Now Paul gives us a gospel nugget for the feeding of our souls here in Ephesians 1:7 it says - In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. In this we see God’s mercy on sinners not that we have done for Him but that He has done for us. Spurgeon would say that the heart of the gospel is this redemption, and the essence of this redemption is substitution…in other words Christ died in the place of sinners, the just for the unjust. That is why in Christ alone is there the remission of sins, because in His perfect obedience and in his sacrifice alone is there the efficacy to satisfy the Law of God that we do not live up too.

But someone may say to us how? How can I know that this has been done for me and not another? And in the broader context of our passages Paul tells us its application so that we need not live in fear – in a lack of assurance. In Galatians 3 Paul says: Once we were all slaves under the Law, but then Christ came so that we could be justified (that’s declared righteous) by faith, and now that faith has come we are have become sons of God through this faith.  And in Ephesians 1 Paul says: Once we heard the truth of the gospel of our salvation and we believed in Christ and in his work done for us, then we received the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance.

I don’t know what you think of rock music but I read a quote this week by the front man of a huge secular rock group and believe it or not I think this guy has a better grasp of the gospel and the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith than many area pastors. Here is what he said: "I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to be my final judge. I'd be in deep s--- .” ** scratch head ** Um... It doesn’t say dung but we’ll say dung. "I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to be my final judge. I'd be in deep dung. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity." Now if that quote by U2’s Bono doesn’t strike you go home today and study Philippians 3 where the Apostle Paul says the exact same thing.

Adoption - So far we’ve looked at the Gospel and its application Justification by Faith. And at this we could already stop and worship our elder brother Christ and our Father God for their grace and mercy but even Salvation by Faith is not enough for our God. Our text answers the age-old question of why God did what he did in saving sinners, not just to forgive their sins, not just to keep people from hell, not just to get them into heaven, but to actually adopt them as sons into God’s personal family. In Ephesians 1 Paul says we bless God for the blessing with which he blessed us in Christ, in love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to His will, and for his glory.

To steal a line from Wayne Grudem – I could imagine a God who would be willing to save people from hell, and I can imagine a God who would allow people into his heaven (maybe as slaves even), but what is shocking is that this God, who knows the darkest and most wicked thoughts ever to enter our minds and hearts, he wants us to become a part of his family.

Sons - Now before we move on a quick history lesson. Why does God’s Word call both the Ephesian and Galatian Christians “sons” here were their no believing women in these cities? Are liberal theologians right in saying the God of the Bible is just some misogynist sexist? The reason had to do with 1^st century inheritance rights. Basically Caitlyn, my first born, could not be the executor of my estate. I would either need to marry her off and her husband could be in charge of caring for my family after my death or the money would go to an Uncle, who could do the same. Now the point being made for us is even more important, God is making it clear that in His family there is not Jesus, his “real” son and us lower class citizens. God is clarifying that when one is adopted into God’s family that person, as much as Christ, fully qualifies in the heavenly inheritance. Think back to my friend Michael. If you asked Michael today how many kids does he have, he wouldn’t say 2 “real” kids and these 2 others we let stay with us. He would say he has four kids. Now that they are all Heards they are all equally Michael and Lindsey’s children. Likewise, every single Christian really is the adopted child of God as precious to Him as our Lord, Jesus Christ, is to us. There are no bastard children in the kingdom of heaven, everyone in the family belongs to him and he knows and he cares for each one like they were his only child. With God adoption is legal, its equal and its eternal (as in forever).

Inheritance – So we’ve looked at the Gospel, at Justification by faith, at our glorious adoption in Christ and yet 1 piece still hangs in the air. In both Ephesians 1 and Galatians 4 Paul leaves an idea that isn’t fully expounded on – our inheritance. He says that as sons we all are full inheritors but what is this inheritance? There are many images in the New Testament being Holy and blameless Eph 1:4 is one, eternal life, fellowship with the saints, citizenship in heaven but there are 3 that I’d just like you to dwell on this week. First is in that final time to come we will be with God face to face as ultimately God is our great inheritance. Did you know that in Islam even if a Muslims reaches Paradise, they still do not get a personal relationship with Allah; he’s not there, in Paradise, with them. They are never allowed into his presence. But Yahweh, but Jesus, we will see him and know him, as he will see and know us. And the second is to be a co-heir of heaven with Christ, remember that even in Jesus’ parables he talks about the faithful inheriting cities to rule over like governors or princes along with Christ. To be honest I don’t have much to say on this point except it will be even better than I can possibly describe to you, beloved.  And finally our inheritance will be diverse, twice in the book of Revelation these adopted “sons of God” are described as being from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation and even those throughout time OT Jews, NT Apostles, Asia Minor disciples, Chinese and Middle Eastern martyrs, Early Church Fathers, Protestant Reformers, and even some American Evangelicals. That’s why when I’m in an ethnically diverse church, like ours, I smile because this is just a little bit of what heaven will be like, vast, diverse, and filled with God’s people from around the world and throughout time.

(Pause)

So where does that leave us? For Christians (for repentant believers in Christ’s work done for us) then I have nothing for you but Gospel (good news).  You do have a loving father, one whose love is described in Scripture as “hesed”, the always and forever love of God, you have a home, and you belong, with him, in Christ.

But, but if you are not a Christian if Christ’s death is meaningless to you or merely an example of an old oppressive political regime and not the very will of God being carried out by evil people then I have nothing for you but anti-gospel (bad news). What God says of himself is not that he is 1 of many gods or 1 of many paths but the 1 and only, he is the intolerant and jealous God of scripture that expects your love and demands your repentance and yet he does not invite you to climb the mountaintop of morality up to him but he descends among us, in Christ, and shows us what we all are not: good, perfect, holy, just, merciful, sinless and he pays the adoption price for us sinners to be redeemed back to God. This price is not $30 grand (the price of a common US adoption) but a much higher price; it took the very life and blood of Jesus to buy a wrenched sinner like you and like me out of our bondage to sin under the Law.

What Scripture says of those not in the family of God is on that coming day of judgment they would rather whole mountains crush them and hide them from the site of King Jesus and the Justice of God’s wrath against unbelievers. This is because the mercy and grace and peace that are afforded to Christians aren’t because they are “good” but because Christ was “good” for us, this Christ that pagan’s belittle and reject. But friends it just may be that today is the day of your salvation, perhaps today you feel His pull, today God calls you to repentance and trust in him, believe on him, be our brother or sister in Christ, and come home, do not choose to remain an orphan, outside and in the gutter, there are many rooms yet that God has prepared, believe on him and be saved, be justified, become a child of God.

This doctrine of adoption is great news for us who grew up with crappy or absentee fathers that in Christ we have a better Father, one that will not die, will not walk out on us, one that won’t get drunk and beat up on our moms. In God we find a better, more loving, more patient, more merciful father than the best dad we’ve ever met. The only application I’ll give you is this, believe in this God, mimic or be like this God. He is your adopted father.

(Pause)

There is a Reformed Baptist Hymn called, Though I was born an Orphan and I’ll just read this as our closing benediction because I cannot preach it any better:

Though I was born an orphan,
Abandoned and alone,
Enslaved and bound in darkness,
Without a hope or home,
The God of grace and mercy
From his eternal throne
Ordained to be my Father
And claim me as His own.

That I might be adopted
The Father sent his Son
To live in full obedience
And die for what I’ve done.
Now through his resurrection,
Through faith, with him I’m one.
A member of his household,
I am an heir, a son.

To soothe my fear and worry
The Spirit from on high
Was sent to be a witness
That “Father!” I might cry.
O How I love this Father!
I’m never left alone.
He’s come to dwell within me
Until he calls me home.

Since I have this adoption,
I cannot close my home
To widows and to orphans,
Abandoned and alone.
Lord, fill me with compassion
To love the fatherless,
That I might show the nations
How great my Father is!

God bless.

Lloyd Jones on Evangelism

1. The supreme object of the work of evangelism is to glorify and enjoy God, not to save souls.
2. The only power that can do this work is the Holy Spirit, not our own strength.
3. The one and only medium through which the Spirit works is the Scriptures; therefore, we “reason out of the Scriptures” like Paul did.
4. The true motivation for evangelism is a passion for God and a compassion for souls.
5. There is a constant danger of heresy through false passion and employment of unscriptural methods. 

CARM on poplar "pastors/preachers" - Bishop TD Jakes

T.D. Jakes

By Ryan Turner

Who is T.D. Jakes?

Bishop Thomas Dexter “T.D.” Jakes (born in 1957) is a popular black preacher and evangelist who is the main pastor of The Potter's House church in Dallas, Texas (founded in 1996), with a congregation of over thirty thousand members.  He comes from a United Pentecostal, or Oneness Pentecostal, background.  He has written over 30 books with many on the New York Times bestsellers list.  He has been in numerous TV interviews and has been featured in Time, Forbes, and Essence magazines, the Washington Post, USA Today, CNN, Fox News, and more.  He also hosts conferences and events, such as Women Thou Art Loosed and ManPower & MegaFest, which thousands of people have attended.  He has a weekly television broadcast called “The Potter’s House” which is televised on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and various other networks.  Among his many honors, T. D. Jakes was also ranked by The Church Report as being among “The 50 Most Influential Christians in America.”1

Good things about T.D. Jakes

Interestingly, his church has been involved in numerous community outreach events both locally and internationally.  Locally, to name just a few of his church’s contributions, the Potter’s House reaches out to AIDS victims through education and assistance and also has a large outreach to prison inmates.  Internationally, The Potter’s House launched “Faith for Africa” which is a program to reach out to the physical and spiritual needs of people near Nairobi, Kenya.  Again, this is just a small picture of the positive impact that Jakes has made through his church.

Problems with T.D. Jakes

Denial of the Trinity

Jakes unfortunately adopts an incorrect view of the nature of God.2  At The Potter House’s website, under their statement of faith regarding God, they state, “There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three manifestations: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”3
The keywords here are “three manifestations.”  If Jakes believed in the Trinity he should use words like “simultaneous,” “coeternal,” or “coequal” when referring to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’s relationship to one another.  T.D. Jakes view on the nature of God is known as modalism.  Modalism is a heresy that teaches the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do not simultaneously exist as distinct persons (see Modalism).  Rather, God at some times and places is the Father, at some times the Son, and other times the Holy Spirit.
CARM defines the Trinity as follows: “There is one God in whom there are three eternal, simultaneous persons -- the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit.  All three are the one God, coeternal, coequal, etc., yet there is only one God, not three, and not one person who took three modes, or forms.”  CARM’s statement of faith is correct.  T. D. Jakes statement is incorrect.4
Even as a result of various criticisms, Jakes will not affirm the orthodox position on the Trinity.  Instead, he skirts the issue and continues using the “manifestation” terminology.5 In one interview on a Los Angeles radio station, he even implicitly denies the Trinity and advocates a Oneness Theology view of God: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/februaryweb-only/13.0b.html.

Why the Trinity is Important

The modalism view of T.D. Jakes is a very serious Biblical error for a number of reasons.
First, the Trinitarian view of God is the correct Biblical view of God, which Jakes rejects (see "The Trinity" and the "Christian Doctrine" section under "The Trinity" heading).
Second, with the modalistic view of God, we are left with many errors regarding the incarnation of Christ.  When Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane to the Father, some Oneness theologians argue that Jesus’ flesh is praying to His divine self.  If this is the case, then Jesus’ divine self has not been truly incarnated.  The incarnation is not a true incarnation if God is sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, and then sometimes the Holy Spirit.  When Jesus was incarnated on the earth, He was fully divine the entire time.  His divine self did not leave His human nature to go govern the universe, etc.
Third, according to Scripture Jesus was eternally the Son (Heb. 13:8; John 1:1).  According to Oneness Theology, the being that is incarnating is not the eternal Son, but the eternal Father.
Fourth, for the sacrifice of God the Son (Jesus) on the cross to have any significance He must atone for sinners before God the Father.  If Jesus is dying to reconcile people to Himself, it is incompatible with the Biblical view where Jesus dies as a substitute to satisfy the wrath of God the Father (1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; cf. Rom. 5:9; Eph. 2:3-5; 1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9).
While one does not have to positively affirm the Trinity to be saved, if one denies it he or she is in serious biblical error and should not be teaching on major television networks like TBN.  Furthermore, it is true that the doctrine of the Trinity is not fully comprehensible by humans, but it is problematic when people like Jakes deny this orthodox teaching of Scripture even after numerous warnings and specific clarification.

Water Baptism, Speaking in Tongues, and Salvation

On The Potter House’s website, there is a statement of faith.  Unfortunately, like many ministries, the statement of faith is vague in a number of key theological areas.  For one, it is unclear whether Jakes agrees with his Oneness Pentecostal heritage which believes that baptism and speaking in tongues are necessary for salvation (see the Baptism section for a refutation).  Regarding salvation The Potter's House site states, “The shed blood of Jesus Christ and His resurrection provide the only ground for justification and salvation for all who believe, and only such as receive Jesus Christ by faith are born of the Holy Spirit and thus become children of God.”6
The vagueness continues in their statement about man, “Man was created in the image of God but fell into sin and is therefore lost, and only through regeneration by the Holy Spirit can salvation and spiritual life be obtained.”7  The statement of faith apparently indicates that water baptism and speaking in tongues are not necessary for salvation, but there is no clear statement one way or the other.
The statement of faith states regarding baptism, “Water baptism by immersion soon after accepting Christ as personal Savior, is a testimony of death to sin and resurrection to a new life.”8  What does this “testimony of death to sin” mean?  Is baptism a symbol or is it a means to salvation?  It would be helpful if Jakes would clarify his position on baptism and speaking in tongues since he comes from Oneness Pentecostal roots.
In the statement of faith, there is no statement of the church’s view on speaking in tongues.  While it is within Biblical orthodoxy to believe that tongues are operable today, it is heretical to teach that they are necessary for salvation (see: Is speaking in tongues a necessary sign of salvation?).

Women Pastors

While most of the pastors at The Potter’s House are males, The Potter’s House ordains women pastors.9 I am not sure exactly to what extent Jakes allows women pastors to teach and preach to men in a senior pastor position, but his ministry explicitly supports women ministering as senior pastors,10  which is against Biblical teaching (for a Biblical explanation, please see: Should Women Be Pastors and Elders?).

Summary of T.D. Jakes and The Potter’s House

Orthodox

• The Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God.
• The Bible is the final authority on issues of doctrine.
• Jesus is God.
• Jesus rose bodily from the grave.
• Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary.
• There will be a personal, imminent, pre-millennial return of Christ.
• There will be a bodily resurrection of the dead.
• Believers will go to everlasting conscious bliss, but unbelievers to everlasting conscious torment.

Unorthodox

• Denies the Trinity.
• Allows ordination of women as pastors.
• Baptizes in the name of the Lord Jesus rather than in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Unclear

• No statement whether water baptism is necessary for salvation or not.
• No statement whether speaking in tongues is necessary for salvation or not.