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Church Featured Heresies

Chris Blackeby Appears on Charisma Mag Podcast: Dude Believes He’s Jesus



Chris Blackeby, an itinerant Australian former youth pastor who peddles himself as one who “demystifies the mystic,” travels with the more fringe charismatics, and has been known to frequent a Charisma podcast a time or two, posted this wonderful gem on his Facebook page, recycling some of the “we are little gods” theology from hucksters of yesteryear.

Blackeby, who heads up the one-man show that is As He Is Ministries seems to specialize in proselytizing two abiding principles. One is an extreme form of “I don’t want religion, I want a relationship,” where he describes religion not as the scripture does in James 1:27, but rather as “cruel” and “poisonous” rule-keeping that has “Satan as its’ father.”

The second is some sort of interpretation of a hyper-theosis, believing that we are “the expression of Christ,” that we are sons of God, and that the “s” in “sons” should probably be capitalized in some way.

By way of background, he once was a youth pastor at a large church that might rhyme with “Billsong” who became extremely became ill in his early thirties. This prognosis rocked his whole world, explaining “I found out that either Christianity’s not true, or the bible’s not true, or God’s not true, or I fundamentally misunderstood something.” [Editor’s note: Bet on the last option to win. There is nothing wrong with God or His created religion seen in the Scriptures.]

Allegedly given 6 months to live, he decided to travel during this time, going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it, receiving revelation from Jesus and emerging healed of his sickness and armed with the message that “the gospel is not what we were told.”

Fast forward to a few years later, and Blackeby has recently appeared on Liz Wright’s Live your Best Life Podcast, which is part of the Charisma Podcast Network. He joins Michael Brown, Stephen Strange, Shawn Bolz, and a host of other theological misfits who have the words “prophetic” and “kingdom” in their names.

While Liz listens in rapt attention, he shares the following teaching, much to her joy and amazement:

You can try to be a good Christian, which is something that we’ve made up, but Jesus wasn’t a Christian. Jesus wasn’t a Christian. We’re like him. He was a son of God. He was the Son of God. The unique Son of God, and he’s made us the unique Son of God, the (unintelligible).

We are Him. You are the beloved Son. I’m the beloved Son. We are the beloved Son of God. We are him, and we have his standing immediately….

People say what’s your prayer life like? I literally wake up and walk out the front door, and I walk around and I pretend I’m God. (Liz comments, “right – because you’re one with him…”).

If a giraffe has a baby giraffe, it’s all giraffe. If God has a son, it’s all God. Like I am of Him. I’m not Yahweh that made me, I’m of his substance, and I have His nature. So the sermon on the mount is not a list of things to attain to, it describes me.”

You can see then why posting his “In Christ, I’m Christ” message should be taken as more than mere misguided theosis, but rather as the abject blasphemy it is.

We reached out to Charisma for comment but they did not respond at the time of this article.

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Church Drive-In Church Featured In-person Church Righteous Defiance

Tyrannical First! Church’s ENTIRE Elder Board Charged for Violating Lockdown Laws, Each Face $10,000 fine

In what is believed to be a first in North America, a Canadian church that gathered for worship in defiance of provincial COVID-19 lockdown laws, which limits church gatherings to 10 people, has had their elder board of six people charged under Section 10.1 of the Reopening Ontario Act (ROA) for holding church services on Sunday, December 27.

If convicted, they could each receive a $10,000 fine.

News of the charges to the elders of Trinity Bible Chapel in Waterloo, Ontario was delivered on December 30th, when in a coordinated effort, law enforcement officers showed up at each of the homes of the six elders and delivered them the court summons.

In a press release sent out about the incident, the church expressed their dismay and righteous anger at this news:

Our government is destroying our society to prevent the spread of a virus with a fraction of a fractional death rate.  This is evil. Nowhere does the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee freedom from risk or virus, but it does protect the freedom of conscience, religion, belief, and assembly.  These are unlawful laws, a violation of God-given rights, a contravention of Section 176 of the Criminal Code, and an infringement of the Charter.

Unsurprisingly, the chief of police who is overseeing and enforcing the lockdown advocated for Black Lives Matter protests several months back when they were similarly prohibited. He supported these gatherings of over 10,000 people, explaining that “we will ensure you have the support needed to practice your democratic right and have your voice heard.”

For churches, not so much.

The press release concludes with these words:

Our Saviour shed His blood to purchase the church, and therefore deeming the church “unessential” is tantamount to deeming the blood of Christ unessential, which is a public act of blasphemy.  One day our elected officials, bureaucrats, and police will stand before the court of God’s justice for these acts.  We earnestly pray that the Holy Spirit would draw them to His Son, Jesus Christ, who offers free grace and forgiveness to all who would repent and put their faith in him.

Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and therefore we must honour and obey him above all earthly governments. We emphasize that our hope in Christ’s goodness is firmly anchored.  Our Saviour is just, equitable, and loving towards his people.  He has every hair on our heads numbered, and his eyes see all things. He will lead us through the valley of the shadow of death, and we will fear no evil.  He has taught us to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and to count our sufferings as pure joy.  We embrace his will in humility by submitting to his heavy hand trusting that in the proper time he will exalt us because he cares.

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abortion Church Evangelical Stuff LGBTQQIP2SAA

SBC Prof. Calls for Church Plants to be Full of Democrats, Says It’ll ‘Look Like Heaven’

A church pastor and SBC professor elbows-deep in Southern Baptist Culture has called for more churches to be planted that contain a multitude of registered Democrats, describing such a church as looking “like heaven.”

Danny Slavich is the pastor of Cross United Church in Lighthouse Point, FL and is an adjunct professor at an SBC institution of higher learning: the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

In a tweet stream, he praised Kevin Ezell and the Send Network, the former who was a “Worst Christian of 2020” finalist. He encouraged the body to make disciples and plant churches that “look like heaven” and cited the congregation composition to be full of young kids and seasoned citizens, the rich and poor of all races, full of Republicans and Democr-

Democrats?

Yes, LGBTQF-affirming, transgendered-enabling, abortion-worshiping, sodomite-praising, mixed-bathroom-implementing, money-grubbing, freedom-stealin’ Democrats. They’re that “special sauce” needed to take the congregation from the brink of “purgatory” to soaring heights of heaven.

Slavich states that these Democrats are rowing towards the goal, which is the glory of God in Christ. But the fact that their worldview allows them to vote for and support people who want to see those things come to fruition and become the law of the land, makes us think they’re not as concerned about the Glory of God in Christ as he might suppose.


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Charismatic Nonsense Church Evangelical Stuff Heresies

Example #769 of Beth Moore Preaching About As Well As A Dog Can Walk On Its Hind Legs

That is to say, not very well. You want to hear some bad preaching? We have some bad preaching for you.

In a clip from Beth Moore preaching at Transformation Church, which is an SBC Church, by the way, the doting perfect princess of Lifeway/SBC proper and the red-headed stepchild of the faithful remnant within offers up a truly bizarre exegesis.

She starts off by explaining:

My bull meter is really, really, really well developed. And it is because I was so full of bull for so long that it takes one to know one. So I mean I know when I’m in the presence of it….

and then, being only half right, continues after a few minutes:

You set those 2 verses by one another, Galatians 5:6 [For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love] and Hebrew 11:1 [Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen], and here’s what you’re gonna see: that loving by faith is loving despite no external evidence that it is working.

Say what?

Oh somebody help me. Somebody help me with this lesson because this is where the rubber meets the road in the journey of faith. When it comes to loving by faith, Faith expressing itself through love, then anytime faith is involved in love, that means there is something unseen…

So we’re addressing what does loving by faith look like. The first one is it looks like work. The second one is it looks like the work doesn’t work. I want you to write that down. When we try to work out what does loving by faith looks like…it looks like the work doesn’t work. In other words, it’s taking all this work, but I can’t tell if it works. Expect it. Expect it.

Welp. That’s certainly a peculiar take.



So because faith is unseen, there is no external evidence that it’s working? That’s a…bad handling of the scriptures. [Editor’s note: At a minimum!] We would not be surprised if she were the first person in history to teach on that verse and come up with that novel idea.

But, that sort of confusion and making stuff is what one can expect to hear from Beth Moore, who is praised for her preaching prowess, but we just see a dancing puppy trying to stay upright on wobbly paws. I mean, she can get up there, but it’s about as clear as a dog barking. [Editor’s note: Even if the pup steadies its’ legs on the pulpit, it is still just a dog barking. Try following that exegesis. And it isn’t speaking in tongues, either…the Holy Spirit doesn’t make people bark like dogs!]

If you want to know more about Auntie Beth’s wily ways and why she’s such a dangerous teacher, click on this link to Seth Dunn’s Book So Long, Beth Moore: You’ve Been a Bad Friend to Us.

For a few more of her recent greatest hits:

Beth Moore Doesn’t Want You To Preach or Share The Gospel at The Protests

Beth Moore Openly Affirms Woman Pastrix

Beth Moore Falsely Claims ‘White Supremacy’ is Running Rampant in ‘Much of the Church’

Categories
Church Drive-In Church In-person Church Righteous Defiance

New Mexico Gov. Fines Churches $10,000 for Christmas Eve Services: Calls Them ‘Pro-Virus, Illegal, and Selfish’

(The Liberty Loft) Charlotte, NC — Two New Mexico megachurches are each facing $10,000 in fines for having held large, unmasked Christmas Eve services in violation of the COVID-19 lockdown orders. This prompted Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to imply that their pastors are “provirus.”

Pictures and videos of Legacy Church and Calvary Church’s services were posted on social media sites. They went viral according to local ABC affiliate KOAT. The images depicted hundreds of congregants gathered, mostly without masks.

On December 15, the governor instituted statewide restrictions that limited church gatherings in “red counties” to 25% capacity and required masks.

The New Mexico Public Health Department responded by levying a $10,000 fine against both churches — $5,000 for violating the capacity limit and $5,000 for violating the mask mandate. The churches are permitted to request a hearing to contest the fines.

Grisham condemned both churches and their pastors in an interview with NBC News. She said, “In violating both the state public health order and common sense, these two churches and their leaders endangered the lives, livelihoods, and health of not only their parishioners but their entire communities — and, [sic] given how quickly this virus can spread, potentially our state as a whole.”

“We all wish this pandemic were over, but it’s not, and no provirus pastor may deem it so. So many New Mexicans have sacrificed — and lost — so much in this pandemic,” Grisham continued. “These illegal and selfish gatherings will directly contribute to more suffering and illness in our state. These church leaders should reflect on the danger they’ve unleashed in their communities.”

To continue reading, click here

Editor’s note. This article was written by Seth M. Griffin and posted at The Liberty Loft.

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Church Featured podcast Polemics Report

Podcast: Cracked Nipples Don’t Make You a Pastor

On the episode for December 28, 2020, JD is back from “vacation” and ready to talk polemics. After sharing the Gospel, JD launches into an explanation for why Albert Mohler got “Worst Christian of 2020” award from Protestia (he’s been sent a trophy with a goat atop, per our annual tradition). He then discusses numerous topics, including Jonathan Merritt RT’ing a poem and woman who claims that women are uniquely qualified to be a pastor because breastfeeding gives them cracked nipples (we kid you not). JD also gives an Ode to Ken Fryer, who passed away into glory. And then, JD answers some patron’s questions and explains why people missing church for COVID-19 should be disciplined. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:22 — 70.5MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Church Coronavirus Religion

Julie Roys Beclowns Herself Going After John MacArthur (Again)

I hesitated to even write this article, lest we continue to increase attention for what Phil Johnson so accurately called “scandalmongering twaddle.” The start of this was covered last week, but many of the following points can’t be made often enough.

Julie Roys, the long-discredited pal of conservative stalwarts (ahem) like Karen Swallow Prior and Wade Burleson, launched a fresh attack on John MacArthur and Grace Community Church for daring to not report their church members’ prayer requests and private medical information to the state.

Apparently given a copy of a prayer request list from the Sojourner’s Fellowship Group at GCC (which contained health-related prayer requests – some regarding COVID-19), Roys gleefully rushed to her keyboard to express her outrage for the church (or its members) not sending a report of their prayer requests to the government:

A document obtained by The Roys Report shows John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church (GCC) last week knew of at least a dozen people in one of its fellowship groups with COVID-19.

However, there’s no evidence these cases were reported to local public health officials. This, despite an order requiring churches to report when at least three coronavirus cases are identified among a church staff or congregation within a 14-day span.

Roys’ blog has published a multitude of articles chronicling Dr. MacArthur and GCC’s “defiance” and “mocking of distancing and masks” (for the record, masks and distancing don’t work). She took a swipe at MacArthur back in March because a 90-year-old passed away after attending ShepCon and was later confirmed to have been exposed to the novel coronavirus. Apparently, GCC’s warning to attendees that they might have been exposed came a couple of days too late for Roys’ preference.

Her website publishes articles that are uncritically accepting of the government narrative on the so-called coronavirus pandemic – the same government that has lied continuously since the beginning of the virus and trampled the civil rights of Christians and non-Christians alike. She has been supportive of the “God isn’t bound to location” idea that is fine with so-called “online church.”

Let’s be clear about what Julie Roys is advocating. She believes God calls the church to lock believers out when the government says to, and on the off chance that the church gets the government to abide by the first amendment of the Constitution, the church should subject its members’ prayer requests and private medical information to the government.

News to Julie: The Church of Jesus Christ is not called to be the Gestapo for Gavin Newsom or any other would-be Caesar. Submission to governing authorities does not involve submitting our worship practices for their approval. A prayer list is neither proof of dangerous coronavirus spread nor evidence of a crime. We have one King, and He did not give anyone else authority over his Church. What you are calling for is horrifying.

While Roys has done some very good work in exposing church scandals like those perpetrated by James MacDonald and Harvest Bible Chapel, her simmering feminism roared into full force after John MacArthur told Beth Moore to go home last year. Roys calls herself “complementarian,” as if the term has any real meaning anymore in terms of the roles of men and women in the Church, yet she consistently platforms theological liberals and women preachers (she’s admitted that being on the radio helps fulfill her desire to be a preacher). Most egregiously, she refuses to call women pastors out for their blatant violation of God’s Word.

Now she’s running short of MacDonald-like scandals (yes, Jerry Falwell Jr. is disgraced and Ravi Zacharias is dead), so she is trying to remain “relevant” on John MacArthur’s coattails.

My advice to her: Stop embarrassing yourself trying to slime a faithful preacher and man of God like John MacArthur, and perhaps study up a little bit on how much of a fraud the COVID-19 “pandemic” is.

Categories
Church Coronavirus Drive-In Church In-person Church Righteous Defiance

A Gallery Of The Faithful Gathering For Church Amid Pandemic – Album Forty

The fortieth album in an ongoing series documenting faithful churches gathering for Sunday service in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. With some churches still not gathering in-person in these dark times, others being persecuted by the government for being open, and others ending services for the rest of the year, these are the congregations who are meeting faithfully at the command of Scripture (Heb. 10:25).

For previous albums: 

Album #1  Album #2  Album #3  Album #4  Album #5  Album #6  Album #7  Album #8  Album #9  Album #10  Album #11  Album #12  Album #13  
Album #14  Album #15  Album #16  Album#17  Album# 18 Album #19  
Album #20  Album #21 Album #22  Album #23 Album #24 Album #25
Album #26 Album #27 Album #28 Album #29 Album #30 Album #31 Album #32 Album #33 Album #34 Album #35 Album #36 Album #37 Album #38 Album #39

These churches are preaching outside, are back in their buildings having in-person services, or are having drive-through services.

All are being safe. All are being obedient to the scriptures. All are loving their neighbors.

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Church Critical Race Theory Evangelical Stuff Featured News Social Justice Wars

Rick Warren Blasts Christians for Having No Discernment and Not Caring about Black People

Saddleback Pastor Rick Warren, acting like he didn’t give us the monstrosity of the purpose-driven life, did an interview with Steven Strang of Relevant Magazine where he discussed issues of social justice and discernment.

Speaking candidly, he unloaded on Christians for not caring about black people after they are born, suggested they’re engaging in subtle racism, and decried many of them as not having discernment or a biblical worldview when it came to who they voted for.

These are, of course, pretty rich claims for a man who recently had a prayer meeting with a Trinity-denying heretic, affirmed Roman Catholic as Christians, and about a hundred other things as can be seen here.

In fact, Warren was last seen having racially segregated services so that the “black fold” can have a “safe space” to “heal,” and explaining how Christians and churches aren’t being discriminated against or persecuted by lockdown policies.

In this segment of the interview, he doubles down on his criticisms by employing some very Critical Race Theory language, making one wonder to what extent this ideology has been sopped up by the megachurch.

Q. We’re in an unprecedented era of political division; what’s that been like for you? Obviously, many Christians are and have always been concerned about pro-life issues. 

What I see is a lot of people only care about Black people if they’re in the womb. They don’t care about Black people once they’re born. I’m going, ‘No, no, no, no. You’ve got to care about that little girl after she’s born.’ That’s a subtle racism and you just need to own up to it.

Christians today lack biblical discernment. They’re making decisions based on political values rather than biblical values. This is a real problem. The whole election, regardless who you voted for, revealed that most Christians don’t have a biblical worldview. They don’t vote from a biblical worldview. They vote from a political worldview. Their identity comes primarily from politics. It’s partisan.

Warren laments that the topic of “poverty” is an under-taught doctrine, despite there being thousands of verses about it. He describes how he went through “Christian college, two Christian seminaries, and got an earned doctorate” without ever hearing anything about the poor, and that likewise the word “justice” is frequently used in scriptures, but Christians have an aversion to it.

Q: The Church has struggled intensely with this year’s reckoning of racial injustice in America. Looking at our response, it hasn’t been pretty. How can Christians improve our response? 

Of our 20 Saddleback campuses, most of those pastors aren’t white guys. They’re Hispanic, Asian, Black. They are Middle Eastern. But when I saw this happening, and the brutalization and racism coming back to the forefront, I thought, “OK, it’s not enough to simply be a multicultural church. We’ve been a multicultural church for 20 years. We have to be an anti-racist church.”

We have to be a pro-reconciliation, pro-justice church. I invited my Black staff to spend time with me. We did a Zoom call and I said, “Guys, I need you to just level with me. I don’t want to hear about when you experienced prejudice and rejection as a kid. I want to hear about how you’ve heard and felt it at Saddleback.” 

It was a two-and-a-half hour meeting. It was brutal. It was painful. It was beautiful. It was healing. We all cried together. We did seven staff meetings, over two hours each. They shared their stories, and then I let the staff respond. There was weeping, and there was repentance.

I had a call with all the Black members of Saddleback. People said, “Rick, I love my church, I love you. But many times, I just feel like my church doesn’t understand. I’m the only Black woman in a small group of white women. Not one person has asked me: ‘How do you feel about these shootings?’ I have a son who’s about Ahmaud Aubrey’s age and it scares me.” 

I’ve been pulled over like everybody else has. It always raises your fear level. But I’ve never been afraid somebody was going to throw me on the ground. I’ve never been afraid that somebody’s going to pull a gun on me me driving while white.

People should not be afraid in their own country. 

Look, 1619: the first slaves arrive. That’s two years before the pilgrims got here.

Slaves have been here longer than pilgrims. It’s their country too. People say, “Go home.” Well, they’ve been here longer than you. 

Categories
Church Evangelical Stuff Featured Money Grubbing Heretics News Religion

Lifeway Bible Study ‘The Psalms Don’t Fully Reflect the Ethic Taught By Jesus’

The money-grubbing publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, Lifeway, has released its quarterly Bible Study for Life, winter 2020-21 edition, and one lesson stands out as particularly excretable. Pitting scripture against scripture, it explains that “the Psalms don’t fully reflect the ethic taught By Jesus.”

Written by Janice Meier, the study on anger, based primarily on Psalms 35:1-3, reads:

Plead my cause, O Lord, with those who strive with me;
Fight against those who fight against me.
Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help.
Also draw out the spear, and stop those who pursue me.
Say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation.’

The lesson explains how David likely wrote this psalm as he was being pursued by Saul, and that it was an imprecatory prayer, whereby “many people are uncomfortable with these psalms because they seem diametrically opposed to Jesus command to love our enemies.”

In the “setting” portion of the lesson, Meier writes:

The imprecatory psalms are one category in the collection that deal with hurt and anger, and with the desire that God brings immediate retribution. Modern believers understand these psalms are pre-Christian since they don’t fully reflect the ethic taught by Jesus. However, the psalms teach us to bring all feelings and emotions to God as the means to rid ourselves of destructive anger and to find assurance of his presence and concern for us.

Later she explains:

[David] believed God cared for him, though he didn’t understand why God allowed his current predicament. Though Christians have another and higher ethic and are taught to love our enemies, unlike the emotion expressed in this verse, we can learn from this writer who spoke his frustration first to God.

The Lifeway lesson gives the suspect theological advice that “Venting our anger by bringing it to God is appropriate. It is one way we can find release from the grip of anger. We can go to our place or prayer and express whatever we feel to God without believing we will offend him since he’s big enough not to be offended by our brashness.” and then concludes by saying that “the concept of eternal judgment was evolving in the Old Testament” and that while David had the wrong idea about eternity, “Modern believers have the assurance that God will ‘sort things out’ in eternity when all men and women stand before him.”

Here’s the thing though. Jesus wrote the Old Testament and the New Testament, being the ultimate author of scripture, and so and pitting the word of God against each other is profoundly unbiblical.

Imprecatory prayers are not a lesser or less-evolved ethic relegated to the Old Testament, but rather are part of a well-rounded biblical ethic that is internally consistent and can be found perfectly at home in the New Testament.

In fact, the imprecatory genre in the scripture is not contained wholly within the Old Testament but also the New. We see this where a curse is placed, such as Jesus saying “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, neither go in yourself nor let anyone else go in.”

We see this in 1 Cor. 16:22, “if any man doesn’t love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cut off, let him be accursed.” Same with Galatians 1:8 and 9, very similarly, “if anyone were to come and preach to you a different gospel let him be accursed.”

Saying Jesus’ words don’t reflect the ethic taught by Jesus? Yet another reason why LifeWay needs to go up in flames.


Editor’s Note. We’re on record as having our own imprecatory prayer against Lifeway, writing in this post, and others:

Far from being concerned about equipping Southern Baptists with an exquisite selection of the best books that Christendom has to offer, Lifeway’s primary driving factor is the pursuit of the almighty dollar, routinely taking little sidequests along the highways and byways of the Baptist experience, on a mission to attain some of that sweet, sweet filthy lucre.

How else can you explain their propensity to stock every sort of soft-covered spiritual strychnine they can put on their shelves in any space not currently occupied by a Beth Moore bible study?

We ask that metaphorically, of course, as the Lord was merciful to his children when he took out Lifeway’s physical locations and then cursed them with a 25% drop in online sales. Consequently, we’re thankful for every hardship they endure, every calamity they suffer through, and every misery they abide. Harsh? Hardly. How else should we feel about the largest retailer of heresy in the world?

We have one prayer for Lifeway: that they utterly and completely implode into a smoldering crater for all the gangrenous blasphemy they’ve been peddling for decades. Our feelings run to the point where if the Lord tarries a thousand years, old Southern Baptist men and women will look back with solemn eyes, wistful words, and speak with deep regret and shame that they ever allowed the theological abortion known as Lifeway to be even passingly associated with their denomination.

Alternately, we pray that Lifeway steps back from the black mass they’re currently engulfed in, rend their proverbial garments, and repent for the great sins they’ve engaged in by giving Southern Baptists the knife to slit their own throats on account of all the poisonous content they’ve been providing over the years.

Until then, let it burn.