Doctrine without Love is Dead...

At least that is my opinion.

Here is an interesting conversation going on over at Spiritual Sounding Board. Come join in if you like.

My Twitter Conversation with a Pastor about Doctrine and Truth

Scapegoating Women Part II

I was looking up some stuff on Voddie Baucham on Cindy's Under Much Grace Blog and stumble on this post again. Since some of my newer readers may have missed it, I thought I'd post a link to it.

Complementarianism, Scapegoats, and some stuff about a fountain

Voddie really gets my goat sometimes.

He really got my goat last year for this reason (again, for new readers)

Voddie Baucham is Sexist.

Okay, lets just go ahead and say it out loud. He is a misogynist.

Good Quote from Waneta on Rebelling

My friend, Waneta has a blog that has been somewhat inactive. Because of it's inactivity some may miss a few good words from her.

Here is the quote:

"Instead of obeying the command given, [Complementarians] teach and practice a side of Christ that men are commanded to NOT emulate—the lordship of Christ. The lordship of Christ is reserved for Christ alone. Christ shares it with no man. Both men and women, wives and husbands are subject to the lordship of Christ, whether Christian or not. Scriptures never give males lordship over females....  We are all subjects and children. Christ alone is Lord. To teach otherwise is to rebel against God and scripture."

Here is a link to her post:

Loss of Submission to the Commandments of Scripture

Good to see post up by her again.

The Calvinist Deceptive Take Over of a Church.

Interesting discussion of Calvinism continuing on The Wartburg Watch.

Commenter Anon 1 has posted references to something called "Quiet Revolution" which is, well, interesting.

Anon 1 on "Quiet Revolution"


Very Interesting

Argo on Neo Calvinism

As I mentioned to Argo, full understanding of Neo Calvinism still defies me though I understand it better this year than last year. But while commenting on The Wartburg Watch,  I asked Argo to please "nutshell" for me the root cause of abuses in the Neo Calvinist movement which Argo has done.

In order to keep track of his comment I'm going to both link and cut and paste it here.

Mara,
Well, in a word: sure. The whole of Calvinisms despotism can be boiled down to this fact: every core assumption is designed to separate man (men and women) from himself. You are either ruled by your “sinful nature” or you are ruled by the inexorable “irresistible grace” of God. Holding all of this together is the false understanding of God’s sovereignty. Meaning God ultimately controls ALL things, which makes Him the functional author of all the good and evil you do. Which is certainly a tacit admission that God causes evil; but worse than that, and more to the actual truth of the matter, is that this leads the faith inevitably to a place of moral relativism. For two reasons. One: if God controls all things then even things that are ostensibly “evil” are God’s will. Two: if man is indeed wholly depraved, utterly wicked apart from God, then man’s morality ends with his PERSON. And this is important. IF the whole of man is evil then his “sin” is his very existence. Not only does this assumption lead to abuse for obvious reasons, but it equates fully man’s morality the same “perfection” as God’s. You end up with a disturbing gnostic dualism of sorts. God is ALL good, man is ALL evil leaves no arbiter between the two. There is no objective morality that IS the pure and perfect standard. In short, God’s good and man’s evil become mirror images of each other. This is hard to understand I know, but if we understand that man’s person (the human) is fundamentally GOOD, then the dualism is IN MAN (his sinful choices juxtaposed with his righteous human worth, as Paul states in Romans) and the perfect standard of morality is God. Now, they will say they believe this, but they do not. Calvinism’s false doctrine will never suffer the idea that there is ANY good or worth in man. And this is precisely why they cannot truly love, and why the doctrine is inherently abusive.

The authoritative source on this is the Bible, of course. But dump the reformed premises. Focus on how what you are reading actually correlates with REALITY. Focus on how Jesus interacted with “sinners”. What do you think His assumptions were regarding the fundamental worth of humans? And pray for wisdom. God will give you truth.

Direct Link to Argo's comment

All my visitors are free to make comments here, agreeing or disagreeing.
I just count Argo's comment as another step on this strange road of understanding New Calvinism.

Thanks Argo

Scapegoating Women...

... i.e. blaming Jezebel.

Here's a video that lays out how misogyny is scapegoating women using the dreaded "JEZEBEL" label to vent their hate and how men shouldn't be doing that.
Also, It's by a man which is over the top refreshing to me.

Don't Blame Jezebel

Doing Mega Churches Wrong

I'm not a huge fan of mega churches to begin with.
And I even went to one for a short time.
Without going into details, the mega church that I went to did mega churching as well as could be expected. But the pastor there started off in missions. He'd already started churches in the U.S and over seas. He had a particular large church as a home base while he went over seas. The pastor that he left in charge kind of took over and rather than make a great big dispute, the missionary pastor just started another church. That pastor had the right attitude toward his church and the members in it. He was humble in dealing with people treating them as fellow heirs of the promise. They fed the hungry, had a missions and ministry school sending out people to start churches world wide,  and were huge supporters of U.S, and International missionaries alike. That pastor did mega churching as well as it could be done. It was global in the best, most godly sense.

Mark Driscoll does mega churching wrong. He has the wrong attitude. He'd never walk away from a church willingly. Rather, he'd throw people under the bus in order to bolster his position as ruler over the church. And he holds onto whatever churches he starts with an iron fist.
There is a lot wrong with the way Driscoll does church. For someone who actually went to a fairly well run mega church, watching anything Driscoll does just makes me cringe.

Now, with a multi-million dollar budget, Driscoll claims that Mars Hill is not a wealthy church. What the heck does he hope to accomplish by that move? Whatever it is, it can't be good. Will the insanity in Seattle ever end?

Apparently Mark Driscoll now says of Mars Hill, "We're not a wealthy church."

[mege eye-roll from me over mega church shenanigans by mega church pastors who shouldn't be.]

Story of Abuse

Here is a terribly disheartening story of abuse that must be heard far and wide to see how far things have gotten in IFB churches and at BJU. The blatant injustice that this woman experienced at the hands of these religious institutions needs to be exposed.
If you have means, please pass this story on so that we can blow the lid off of these aberrant institutions.

A Christianity To Make Satan Proud

Thanks to Retha for the heads up on this one.

Exposing the Masculinist Cult Overtaking Christianity

Or better put, revealing the error that has propagated this horrible masculinist cult that has been taking the Kindgom of Heaven by force.

Wade does a good job of this on his blog in this post:

Artemis and the End of Us: Evangelical Errors Regarding Women

Thanks, Wade. I need to get your blog on my role/roll.

Voddie Baucham Forcing His Way into Power

Voddie Baucham plays fast and loose with the scriptures in order to seize power in the Kingdom of heaven. He manipulates scripture in order to secure power over his wife and daughters and whatever part of God's Kingdom that he can get his hands on.

He is guilty of this:
Matthew 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence [is forcibly entered], and violent men take it by force [seize it for themselves].

And this:
Jeremiah 8:8 How can you say, 'we are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us'?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribe has made it into a lie.

To see this fact laid out before you, check out:
Does Baucham Embrace Marriage as a Sacrament, or is it Just Another Rhetorical Trick

Though Voddie accuses others of playing fast and loose with the scriptures, the fact of the matter is, he is the one doing so and causing great damage and destruction in the Kingdom of Heaven as he grabs for more and more power.

What Is Feminism? What Are Its Waves?

As noted many places besides here, Feminism has become the dirty F-word of the Evangelical world. It has become the scapegoat of all that is wrong with modern society. And there are men and women who are in active witch hunts for that Jezebel, Feminism in order to discredit it and destroy its hold on our culture.

These witch hunters don't get it.
Feminism is not the main thing that is ripping apart American families. Feminism, like everything else, is not all black or all white. It will neither destroy nor save the world. It has good points. It also has bad points. But the point is not to try to destroy it or promote every part of it.
The point is to understand it, recognize where you agree with it and where you disagree with it rather than to just mindlessly declare it evil like Hitler going after the Jews.

Okay, rant over.
Now you can go to the link that talks intelligently about Feminism, it's different waves and what they mean.

The F-Word: Why Feminism Is Not the Enemy

The Violent Take It By Force

It is hard to watch. It is hard to hear about. But it is not something that I can pretend is not happening.

Matthew 11:12  From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence [is forcibly entered], and violent men take it by force [seize it for themselves].

The Southern Baptist Convention is being taken over by men, by force. That once paragon of Christian grace and promoter of "the priesthood of the believer" is being taken over by power hungry men who seek to build their own kingdoms. Under shepherds are infiltrating the sheep pen to fleece the flock and lay heavy burdens upon them.

Here is the latest move by Al Mohler. He closed the independent music department so that he could move his own guys in.

Who Calls the Tune in the Southern Baptist Convention

Men, who claim authority unto themselves, who cover over the sins of pedophiles in order to save face and to keep hold of their ill gotten places of power in the Kingdom, these men seek to rule and reign on this earth in God's name. They are no different than the Pharaohs of Egypt, the Pharisees in the days of Jesus, and the Borgia Popes during the times of the worse corruption in the Catholic Church.

First they twist scripture to make it say what they want it to say to support their position:

Jeremiah 8:8 How can you say, 'we are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us'?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribe has made it into a lie.

Then they congratulate each other on being such great men of God and being so theologically brilliant and being so holy etc...:

John 5:44 How can you believe; when you receive glory [honor or fame] from one another and you do not seek the glory [honor or fame] from the one and only God.

Men see the church as an opportunity to advance themselves and build their own kingdoms. They take up residence as kings and lords of the manor claiming they speak for God when really they speak from the darkness of their own hearts.

I see this over and over again. I saw it in the abusive church I went to back in the 80s. I see it in Driscoll now. And now I see it taking over SBC. It is a time for mourning.

For those who were not following my blog back in 2009, here is a link to a post on a dream that I have about violent men who forcibly enter the Kingdom and seize it for themselves.

Do you believe in dreams, pt 3

Having that dream helped me to get some perspective on these false shepherds.