One of the most popular posts on this blog has been on Keswick Theology or what is sometimes known as “Higher Life Theology”. Even though the article was posted many months ago, it still gets 10-15 unique hits a day.
Andy Naselli is probably one of the best scholars in this area and on his website he has provided many materials to wrestle with this past movement that still has a profound effect on modern day evangelicalism. To access Andy’s handouts, PowerPoint, and audio resources, please click HERE.
John MacArthur with a warning regarding TBN and others who preach a false gospel.
I don’t watch much television, and when I do I generally avoid the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). For many years TBN has been dominated by faith-healers, full-time fund-raisers, and self-proclaimed prophets spewing heresy. I wrote about the false gospel they proclaim and the phony miracles they pretend to do almost two decades ago in Charismatic Chaos (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992. See especially chapter 12). I had my fill of charismatic televangelism while researching that book, and I can hardly bear to watch it any more.
Recently, however, while recovering from knee-replacement surgery, I decided to sample some of the current fare on TBN. From a therapeutic point of view it seemed a good choice: something more excruciating than the pain in my leg might distract me from the physical suffering of post-surgical trauma. And I suppose on that basis the strategy was effective.
But it left me outraged and frustrated—and eager to challenge the misperceptions in the minds of millions of unbelievers who see these false teachers masquerading as ministers of Christ on TBN.
I’m outraged at the brazen way so many false teachers twist the message of Scripture in Jesus’ name. And I’m frustrated because I’m certain that if these charlatans were not receiving a large proportion of their financial support from sincere believers (and silent acquiescence from Christian leaders who surely know better), they would have no platform for their shenanigans. They would soon lose their core constituency and fade from the scene.
Instead, religious quacks are actually multiplying at a frightening pace. One thing I discovered to my immense displeasure is that TBN is by no means the only religious network broadcasting poisonous false doctrine around the clock. The channel lineup I receive includes at least seven other channels whose schedules are filled with false teachers and charlatans. There’s The Church Channel, Daystar, GodTV, World Harvest Television (LeSEA), Total Christian Television, and several others. Some of them feature blocs of family television programing and a few fairly sound teachers who provide moments of escape from the prosperity preachers. But all of them give prominence to enormous amounts of heresy and religious claptrap—enough to make them positively dangerous. And TBN is singularly responsible for kicking that door open so wide…
To finish reading the article, please click HERE.
Brian McLaren is a very popular “Christian” personality today, especially among those in the Emerging Church movement. He has published several widely read books, such as A New Kind of Christian and A Generous Orthodoxy, which have been very influential among many Christians. So, why say his ideas are dangerous? Because his theology is an old kind of liberalism. See the list of his ideas below:
1. Living like Jesus is more important than believing in him
2. People are basically good and free from original sin
3. Objection to penal substitution
4. Unite Christians and non-Christians and emphasize our common journey with God
5. Inclusivism: extends salvation to include those who have not believed in Christ
6. Focus on this life rather than the afterlife (and hell)
For further reading on McLaren, see Michael Wittmer’s article entitled “Machen on McLaren: a New Kind of Liberal?“, which was presented at the Evangelical Theological Society’s recent conference.
Phil Johnson gives the following characteristics of what is called “hyper-calvinism” (to read his full explanation, click HERE).
A hyper-Calvinist is someone who either:
- Denies that the gospel call applies to all who hear, OR
- Denies that faith is the duty of every sinner, OR
- Denies that the gospel makes any “offer” of Christ, salvation, or mercy to the non-elect (or denies that the offer of divine mercy is free and universal), OR
- Denies that there is such a thing as “common grace,” OR
- Denies that God has any sort of love for the non-elect.
For further reading, here is a good book on the subject.
Lisa Miller from Newsweek writes the following about the Osteens:
Prosperity preachers are neither new nor unique in America, but the Osteens’ version seems especially self-serving. Victoria’s book betrays her interest in the kind of small gratifications that rarely extend to other people, let alone to the larger world. She recommends that women take “me time” every day, and indulge occasionally in a (fat-free!) ice cream. She writes repeatedly about her love for the gym. Her relationship advice is retrograde dross: submit to your man, or at least pretend you’re submitting, and then do what you want anyway. “I know if I just wait long enough,” she writes, “eventually my idea will become Joel’s idea, and it will come to pass.” When I asked her how she kept her two children interested in church, she answered that even though they were a broccoli and lean-meats household, she gave them doughnuts as a special treat on Sundays. All this is fine, in the pages of a women’s magazine or a self-help book. But what has God got to do with it?
Even Newsweek gets the problem with the Osteens. Read the entire Newsweek article.
I sometimes here folks praise the life and ministry of Charles Finney. He seems to be accepted by many Christians as a Protestant Evangelical, but in reality, he was anything but. When I was just out of high school, I interned for a high school ministry and one of the required books was Experiencing Revival. I learned that the great motivating factor for missions in Finney’s system was guilt. Click HERE to read about the disturbing legacy of Charles Finney and next time you hear him praised, be on your guard.
Not so! Check out this article from Forbes.
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