Poisoning My Soul Via Radio

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. ² Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; ³ and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. (2 Peter 2:1-3)

I have a long commute to work so I listen to a lot of different things, on the way home from work I'll listen to different podcasts or audio books that I enjoy, but on the way in to work I like listening to a little news oriented programming followed by  some Christian radio. Not heretical noise, but good intelligent conversation and Gospel. There's a lot of Christian sounding noise out there and it takes a lot of discernment to find the wheat among the tares. 

I've mentioned before that I feel that the Holy Spirit has blessed me with a modicum of discernment, for which I praise the Lord and thank Him deeply, but sometimes my heresy detection isn't as good as I would like. My bride mentioned that a friend of hers listens to Ronald L. Dart on the radio and she's worried her friend is falling under the spell of a heretic. I didn't think much of her complaints because I listen to Ronald L. Dart on the way to work. But my bride asked me to research Dart because (as she said) "he's one of those Armstrong guys" 

Discernment Alarm Bells started going off - if Ronald L. Dart is in any way associated with Garner Ted Armstrong my everlasting soul is sliding backwards into hell because of the utter heresy and outright blasphemy of Armstrong's influence. So I did the Berean thing and started looking into Ronald L. Dart's theology and it was worse than I thought. MUCH worse. 

Please keep in mind there's no joy in what follows, but a lot of heartbreak and a profound feeling of loss. I truly love the way Ronald L. Dart teaches the old testament, but when he ventures into theology and his interpretation of the New Testament his words scare me, scare me bad. That being said...

Heresy 1 - Anti Trinitarianism. Dart is an anti-Trinitarian, he vehemently disagrees with the doctrine of the Trinity, and his main argument is that the word "Trinity" does not appear in the Bible. This is pure Jehova's Witness heresy (and by the way, "Jehovah" doesn't appear in the Bible either. Keep that in mind when someone hands you this weeks copy of The Watchtower) Rather than try to expand his mind around the doctrine of the Trinity, Dart takes the easy way out and invents his own doctrine that dumbs down God to his level. 

“Everything about the doctrine of the Trinity seems designed to turn God into a mystery, an enigma that man cannot understand. And what a man cannot understand, he cannot relate to. Yet God intends that man not only know and understand Him, He intends that man relate to Him. What is wrong with all this is that it attempts to reconcile an irreconcilable contradiction. One is not three, and three are not one. As long as we attempt to maintain that ‘one’ means one person, one being, we will wander through a mystifying maze of contradictions” (Knowing God: The Mystery of the Gods, Ron Dart, Bible Correspondence course, Lesson Three, p. 1, www.abcog.org/lesson3.htm)

At times Dart even denies that Jesus is God. In John 1:1 where John writes "the Word was with God and the Word was God" Dart claims that this is a conundrum, merely a matter of semantics and that “If you assume that God refers to a kind of being of which one is supreme, then the problem dissolves.” (Ronald L. Dart, The Gospel of John #1, Born to Win podcast , Podcast audio, 01 Apr 2013) In the same podcast Dart re-writes John 1:1 to read “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the supreme God and the Word was also (a) God.” As with the Jehovas Witness mistranslated bible, the Word is not God but is a different, separate god.

Dart does not believe the Holy Spirit is a person in the Godhead. When referring to the Holy Spirit Dart uses the pronoun "it." He asks "If the holy spirit is a person, why is it not the father of Jesus?" His reference is Luke 1:35. Here's a proof that God is the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is God yet Ronald L. Dart cannot grasp that concept so he dumbs down God and the Holy Spirit to a level he can understand then poisons his listeners with his theological bile. In his lesson he teaches that the Holy Spirit is God's spirit emanating  from God like an appendage and not a person.

However we know from 1 Corinthians 2:10 that the Holy Spirit is capable of though and reasoning, and in Romans 15:30 we learn that the Holy Spirit has feelings of love while in Ephesians 4:30 the Holy Spirit can be grieved. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit is treated as a person, a great example is Peter's conversation with the Holy Spirit in Acts 10:19. Against his protests, the Bible ignores Ronald L. Dart and goes ahead to list the Holy Spirit as part of the Godhead:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)

Heresy 2 - Pantheism. Ronald L. Dart believes, like the Mormons, that humans will become gods themselves. There's absolutely no biblical reference to back this up, it's pure speculation ala his mentor Garner Ted Armstrong. This is why Dart doesn't believe in the Trinity, a trinity is a closed number, but in Dart's world men can become God, and live inside God's inner circle. A closed trinity would not allow that. Here's an excerpt from Darts Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, Ron Dart, Bible Correspondence Course, Lesson Four, p. 8. See if you can spot the additional heresy he squeaks in there:

"Scientists tell us the universe has been here for 12 billion years. What has God been doing? Is this the first time He has done this? Will it be the last? God has placed in all His creatures a ‘reproductive imperative.’ Each of His creatures, great and small, must reproduce ‘after his kind.’ It is odd how man, who has the same imperative, and is made in the image of God, misses the point when it comes to what God is doing. God, also, is reproducing after His kind”

This is the first time I've ever heard of God reproducing. Look at what Dart did here, since man is made in the image of God, then God must reproduce like man. Dart shows an incapibility to think beyond the physical, which is not unusual for a man who followed Garner Ted Armstrong, however this line of reasoning not only elevates Man above his status but also lowers God to the same level as us mud-crawlers.  But it gets better. In a letter to James Kieferdorf, Dart explains his reasoning

“I have studied the topic [of the Trinity] for years, and I have come to the conclusion that Jesus is indeed God, but I also believe that in saying that we say far too little. Jesus is not merely God, He is a member of the family. I. expect that it would fall strangely on your ears to speak of being ‘merely God,’ and I don’t mean that to minimize God in any way. What I mean to say is that Jesus, and all of His brethren whom He speaks of in the Bible (including you and me) can be members of God’s family for eternity. We will be the same kind of being; with the same powers, the same love, the same creativity. (emphasis mine)

Now I firmly believe that in our glorified bodies we will be a lot more awesome than we are now, but to use the word "same"? We are and always will be created beings which can never equal the Creator. To even dream that we will be the same as God takes an amount of arrogance and pride that I pray never happens to me. Ever. 

Heresy 3 - Annihilationism. Annihilationism is the teaching that when you die you face God and if you're found wanting He erases you. Nothing more. Dart states: 

“At death sorry, you’re not going to heaven, not going to hell, not going to purgatory, you’re going to the grave. The Bible puts the lie to the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. How did we get into this mess, this convoluted idea of hell and heaven and going there immediately at death? Somewhere along the line Christian theologians decided that man has an immortal soul. ... It came from Greek philosophy.” (Tape 8109, Immortality of the Soul).

He goes on to say

Is this idea that man will sizzle and burn and pop forever in hell really what God had in mind or is it just something preachers and teachers came up with to try to get dirty rotten sinners to repent more quickly? The very concept of hell is an absolute logical absurdity” (Tape 82F8, The Doctrine of Hell).

I'm sure Jesus agrees with Mr. Dart... no wait - he doesn't. Not hardly. Not at all as a matter of fact. Jesus talks about Hell more than anyone else in all of scripture. He paints a very descriptive picture of Hell and those that are not annihilated but must reside there in Luke 16:19-31. In Mark Jesus warns against hell:

⁴³ If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, ⁴⁴ where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:43-44)

Damnation in Hell is real, and it's eternal

⁶ For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, ⁷ and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, ⁸ dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, ¹⁰ when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed. (2 Thess. 1:6-10)

What's so dangerous of this false teaching? The danger is that when someone believes that the very worst judgement that they can suffer for their sins is to just be erased - why bother? The restraint of morality is removed. If your final judgement is to cease to exist, as Atheists claim, then you can go into a theater, shoot up the audience out of sheer malice then put your last round through your skull and avoid all punishment. It seems to me that giving an atheist murderer exactly what he wants for the sins he knowingly commits falls far short of justice.

Heresy 4 - Postmortem Salvation. Dart believes that after you die, when you meet God you can become a believer and be saved. 

But what about those who have died in a state of unbelief? Is it possible to be resurrected and then be given a chance at salvation? ... These people are going to come to know God and receive His Spirit; they will be converted. Those who lived out their lives in a blinded state, those who never came to know God, will at last. receive mercy (Ron Dart, Bible Correspondence Course, Lesson Ten)

I think it goes without saying that meeting God face to face will make a believer out of everyone. Including Richard Dawkins. Dart isn't talking about those that have not heard the Gospel, he's talking about those that have heard the gospel and rejected the word of God. No where in the Holy Scripture is this miraculous second chance that Dart poisons his followers with. Jesus even spoke of this: 

He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. (John 12:48)

It's quite clear, if you reject Jesus and ignore His sayings (scripture) you will be judged. No second chances or 'do-overs' are mentioned.

There's so much more, Dart rejects being born again, he says that Jesus was talking about resurrection when he said you must be born again. But then Dart rejects resurrection of the dead, and says that what hear about resurrection is actually being born again. He claims that Jesus is the only one to be born again which if true means that no one can get to heaven because Jesus told us we have to be born again. Dart also states, ‘We’re put in the grave a human being, we’re raised a god ... we all will become spirit beings.”

It's all a confusing mish-mash of made-up psudo-theology from a failed church (The Church of God International) that was lead by a heretical sexual deviate (Garner Ted Armstrong) and passed on to the next wolf in line (Ronald L. Dart) The real heart breaker is that Dart can communicate very well, his explanations of events in Old Testament times are superb, but when he brings that perfectly modulated, methodical method of speaking to actual theological matters I can see where people who should know better fall under his spell. And those that don't know better? The new believers? They're lost.

We as Christians are tasked to prevent this from happening. Not only are we to spread the Gospel to all corners of the earth but we are to keep our Elders and teachers honest.

⁹ holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. (Titus 1:9)

Heavenly Father I beg you, please reach out to Ronald Dart, convince him of the true meaning of your words. Help those that have fallen under his spell to discover the real meaning of your words without Mr. Dart's reinventing of your holy scripture. As Your promised return draws near please help your faithful servants educate the new believers and the young to what your Wisdom truly is that we may be ready for Your triumph and serve You as You desire.