3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
I expect nonsense, muddled thinking, and idle idol worship from the likes of Joel Osteen, Rodney Howard-Browne, Rick Warren, Rob Bell, but Focus On The Family? According to Elliott Nesch of Holy Bible Prophecy, Focus on the Family aired a conversation with Bono and followed up with an article titled “Why Orthodox Christians Should Appreciate an Unorthodox Bono” Daly says:
“Bono may at times be a bit unorthodox in his approach, but he is quite orthodox in the areas that matter most – loving God and loving people.”
What does Jim Daly base his theory that Bono is a Christian? Because Bono was quoted as saying "I believe that Jesus was, you know, the Son of God." So what? Even Satan knows that Jesus is the Son of God:
You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. (James 2:19)
Knowing that potatoes grow in dirt doesn't make you a farmer any more than knowing that three strikes makes an out doesn't make you a major league ball player, and knowing that Jesus is the Son of God doesn't make you a Christian. Turning your life over to Jesus makes you a Christian, acknowledging with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord and Savior makes you a Christian. Simply stating that Jesus is the Son of God doesn't make you anything other than someone who is repeating a truth.
Daly's article talks about Bono's famous philanthropy which is nice. But philanthropy is humanism, not Christianity. Philanthropy, besides being an awesome tax-break, can be evidence that we are saved and that our faith has life, but philanthropy itself is not a path to salvation and definitely is not a sign of a Christ centered life. Not all philanthropy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, much philanthropy has been based on guilt following decades of greed, or a desire to 'make a name for oneself, some has been used to obscure a lifetime of sin, and much is simply a tax break. Jim Daly knows this, but he falls for Bono's faux Christianity. We are saved by faith but that faith must be alive, and that is shown by works. And we've seen Bono's works, but what have we seen about his faith? In an interview with New Musical Express when asked which of two bands was closer to God, Bono said:
"Well first of all, I am God. And Liam is my only son."
As for the Holy Spirit he says:
“The Spirit is described in the Holy Scriptures as much more anarchic than any established religion credits” (Christian Scharen. One Step Closer: Why U2 Matters to Those Seeking God. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press. p.53).
The Holy Spirit anarchic? Anarchy is lawlessness and rebellion, the exact opposite of the Holy Spirit. Maybe the problem is that Bono doesn't read the Bible, instead he's familiar with The Message, but even in The Message the anarchic one is the Antichrist, in fact the Message doesn't even call it the Antichrist, The Message calls it The Anarchist, which alone is a reason to burn The Message.
While Focus on the Family was gushing over Bono's "Unorthodox Christianity" they chose to ignore Bono's unorthodox lifestyle which is not family friendly, especially as not defined by Focus on the Family. His "Bottom Line" is that everything you want is cool as long as you do it in the name of love. Including murdering babies abortion. Gay, straight, poly, critter, it's all good to Bono. Maybe he should have been interviewed by Focus on Fornication.
Christian? Here's a picture of our solid family man himself, enjoying the sun with a couple of bikini clad teenagers with his old drinking buddy Simon Carmody, in St. Tropez while his wife and four kids wait for daddy to come home. It appears that in Bono's Unorthodoxy is based on "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law"
Christian? Look at the picture at the top of the page. That's our unorthodox Christian Bono dressed up as MacPhisto, a character Bono invented. MacPhisto is named after Mephistopheles from Faust and is a combination of Satan, Elvis and a British toff. Bono claims that he created MacPhisto under the old adage of "Mock the devil and he will flee from you" but from research it's hard to tell if anyone other than Bono has ever uttered that adage. He even tried to blame it on C. S. Lewis claiming that the Screwtape Letters was about mocking the devil. Spoken like someone that has never read the Screwtape letters. From all appearances it looks like the adage that Bono was basing MacPhisto on was closer to "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." There is documentation that Bono stated that one
reason he donned the devil horns was to reveal a part of himself that he had
kept hidden.
Christian? Bono has repeatedly worn upside down crosses in his concerts, which are
satanic anti-christ emblems. He has displayed the inverted cross while
singing the Beatles’ song “Helter Skelter.” He has worn it while singing
the Rolling Stones’ vile song “Sympathy for the Devil”. Bono has aggressively promoted the movies of the occultist Kenneth Anger. Anger, a homosexual who has “Lucifer” tattooed into his chest, wrote the
foreword to Anton LaVey’s books The Devil’s Notebook and Satan Speaks.
Anger exalts the occultist and moral pervert Aleister Crowley in the
movie Lucifer Rising: Invokation of My Demon Brother. No Christ-loving, Bible-believing man would promote the work of Kenneth Anger.
Christian? In one song Bono blasphemously quotes the 23rd Psalm by saying, “I have cursed thy rod and thy staff, they no longer comfort me”. In another blasphemous song Bono says to Jesus, “Wake up dead man”; as he mocks Christ as being too helpless to help anyone. Bono believes that Satan used U2 to bring in unsuspecting youth, who were turned off by more openly Satanic bands. As Bono once said: “It’s all a con—a way of putting people off from the fact that it is a heavy mother. It’s probably our most serious record yet it’s the least serious title. It just fooled everyone. They thought we’d lightened up—which is totally untrue. We’re miserable bastards.”
Christian? When Bono was asked if he believed that Jesus is the way, and if that biblical injunction denied that followers of other religions could enter paradise, he answered:
I don’t accept that. I don’t accept that fundamentalist concept. I believe, what is it? “The way is narrow as the eye of the needle,” and all that. But I think that’s just to keep the fundamentalists out. . . . (laughs) I never really accepted the whole “born again”Christian - pray long and hard about your next donation to Focus on the Family.
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