Tony Campolo: 'God Is Not in Control'

Liberal Christian Leader Tony Campolo: 'God Is Not in Control'

By Chris Queen June 5, 2018

A couple of weeks ago, I introduced you to the Red Letter Christians, a group of liberal believers whom the New York Times breathlessly profiled recently as the face of Christians who don't worship Donald Trump. One of the group's leaders, Tony Campolo, recently gave an interview with Premier, a Christian website in the UK, in which he stated that he doesn't believe that God is in control — yet.

Campolo barely touches scripture to support his assertion when he says:

So often we read the scriptures but don't pay attention to what is really going on. In the temptation story, for instance, Satan says to Jesus: "Here are all the kingdoms of the world, they are mine to give you". Does Jesus say: "Oh no they're not"? No, he doesn't!

Did you know that St Paul, in five different places, announces that God is not in control?

Of course, he doesn't cite any of those specific places. He does mention a passage in Ephesians that doesn't really support his point before he goes off on a tangent about worship music.

I have problems with a lot of the new worship music. I think it's wonderful that it's captured the music that young people can relate to and they get into it with great love and emotion. But compare 'My God reigns' with the old hymns which say: "Jesus  shall reign" - it's future tense, not present tense.

The Hallelujah Chorus never says: "God is in control". It says: "The kingdoms of this world will (when the second coming occurs) become the kingdoms of our God and he shall reign forever and ever hallelujah".

(Of course, we use the future tense when we talk about the future. It doesn't take a grammar nerd — or a theologian — to see that lyrics or statements that address the future won't necessarily be in the present tense, even if those statements are true in the present.)

WWUTT Wednesday: Jesus Christ Superstar

I remember when Jesus Christ Superstar first came out, I remember it like it was merely 48 years ago. I personally believe that this musical was the beginning of what is best described as the Contemporary Christian Music Industrial Complex. The ONLY good thing about that entire musical was that the song "I Don't Know How To Love Him" can be used as a litmus test to separate those that can sing from those that can howl.

To me the whole thing just seemed wrong but at the time in my very early teens, I just couldn't enunciate my reasons why I knew it was wrong. Was my revulsion over this production the Holy Spirit guiding me away from a blasphemous heap of noise? In retrospect I'm going to have to say yes. I didn't watch the live airing of it on Easter Sunday, but if you did, did you play Spot The Heresy?

WWUTT Wednesday - Introduction To Mormonism

Members of the Latter Day Saints really really love genealogy, in fact it's tied very tightly to one of their practices

3 As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, 4 nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. (1 Timothy 1:3-4)

This love of genealogy is tied to their practice of "Baptism of the Dead" where they baptize a living person and that baptism gets transferred to a dead person and voilà! that dead person is saved.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27)

The doctrine of baptism for the dead was first given to the Mormon church by Joseph Smith in 1836 and is found in his Doctrine and Covenants but not in the Book of Mormon., and I'm not sure if it's covered in The Pearl of Great Price

5 Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. 6  Do not add to His words Or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar. (Proverbs 30:5-6)

Montanism - Nothing to do with Montana

St. Mary's Lake in Glacier National Park Montana

I've noticed that the word "Montanism" was appearing quite often in the WatchBlogosphere lately. When you see that happening it may be the Holy Spirit using Watchbloggers to spread a word that God needs spread, so I pay attention to these occurrences.

As I said,the word that I've seen being used is "Montanism" which at first I thought was an overly complex word that Christian theologians like to invent and smack about like a badminton shuttlecock. The next thing that came to mind was 'Montana' as in the state, or 'Montaña del Norte' which was the original Spanish name for the entire Rocky Mountain area (mountainous country of the north). But, of course, Montana and 'Montaña del Norte have nothing to do with Montanism. Nor is Montanism one of those 4+ syllable words that theologians love to invent, Montanism is actually a heretical form of Christianity and has been around for quite a while.

Montanism was known by its followers as the New Prophecy and to its adversaries as the Cataphrygian Heresy. It started as an early Christian movement in the late second century and was named after its founder, Montanus. Little is known about Montanus, and what documents that survive do not paint a complimentary picture. This is probably because the beliefs of Montanus and his followers contradict orthodox Christianity. Followers of Montanism unbiblically recognized women as bishops and presbyters (overseers and priests/elders) and also unbiblically claimed that apostles, prophets, bishops and presbyters had the the power to forgive sins. Even the Apostolic Church at the time realized that only God has the power to forgive sins (however confession has to be performed through a bishop or priest) But there's more, much more.

Spurgeon Thursday - Come out of her, my people!

How many people are turning to the lies and heresy of the of false teachers like Beth Moore and Joel Osteen? How many denominations are succumbing to the temptations of the seat filling goat chow that is shoveled out by the New Apostolic Reformation?  Are ye not entertained?  C.H. Spurgeon saw this heretical nightmare in his own time, one can only wonder what he would say if he saw the clown acts that pass for theologians today. He'd probably say what he said 150 years ago:

"Neither when we have chosen our way can we keep company with those who go the other way. There must come with decision for truth a corresponding protest against error." -- C.H.S., The Sword and the Trowel, September 1887.

"Avowed atheists are not a tenth as dangerous as those preachers who scatter doubt and stab at faith." -- C.H.S., The Sword and the Trowel, August 1887.

"Believers in Christ's atonement are now in declared union with those who make light of it; believers in Holy Scripture are in confederacy with those who deny plenary inspiration; those who hold evangelical doctrine are in open alliance with those who call the Fall a fable, who deny the personality of the Holy Ghost, who call justification by faith immoral, and hold that there is another probation after death ... Yes, we have before us the wretched spectacle of professedly orthodox Christians publicly avowing their union with those who deny the faith, and scarcely concealing their contempt for those who can not be guilty of such a gross disloyalty to Christ. To be very plain, we are unable to call these things Christian Unions; they begin to look like Confederacies in Evil ... It is our solemn conviction that where there can be no real spiritual communion there should be no pretense of fellowship. Fellowship with known and vital error is participation in sin." -- C.H.S., The Sword and the Trowel, November 1887.

Emergent Monday - The Immaculate Conception May Not Mean What You Think It Means

In the liturgy of the Catholic church December 8th is the feast  of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day of obligation. A holy day of obligation is a day which those faithful to the RCC are required to attend Mass. That is unless December 8 falls on a Sunday, then the feast is transferred to December 9th because the Second Sunday of Advent outranks the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Keep in mind that not all countries have the same Holy Days of Obligation. Italy for example has six, while the primarily Muslim country of Indonesia has ten, and the incredibly Catholic country of the Philippines has three. I suppose this is due to to the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has an advantage (they claim) over protestantism - that they have a pope to rule them and make sure that everything is standardized. (That wasn't meant to sound sarcastic, but how can it not?)

Here in the United States the average Protestant would recognize a few of the holy days of obligation: Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Solemnity of All Saints (All Saints' Day), Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas), then there's the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Notice that this is not the Immaculate Conception of Jesus Christ in the womb of Mary, I can't find evidence that the romish church celebrates that actual miracle. Instead they invented one; the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrates the conception of Mary in her mother Anne's womb immaculate and free from all forms of sin.

The Catholic Church teaches that Mary was conceived by normal biological means, but God acted upon her soul keeping her "immaculate" at the time of her conception. In other words she was born without original sin. Therefore, being free from original sin from her conception Mary received the sanctifying grace that Catholics believe comes with infant baptism. Not only that but she remained sinless though the rest of her life. The biblical references for this are: 

WWUTT Wednesday - Don't Slap the Heretic

Nicholas of Myra smacks Arius

During the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, Bishop Nicholas of Myra got a little upset with a fellow named Arius. Arius was a Christian presbyter from Alexandria Egypt and was teaching at the Nicaean council that Jesus the Son was not equal to God the Father. Arius claimed that Jesus was created by the Father, is distinct from the Father, and is therefore subordinate to the Father, This belief is called Arianism and it undermines the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. 

Angered with Arius' heretical teaching, Nicholas got up, walked across the room and slapped Arius in the face. Shocked that someone would commit violence in his presence, Constantine had Nicholas locked up in prison and allowed the Bishops to choose the appropriate punishment. The Bishops banished Nicholas to the North Pole, forced him to change his name to Santa and required him to raise reindeer and distribute toys for all eternity. And that's why on St. Nicholas day we're allowed to slap heretics.

Ok, I made bit about the North Pole and reindeer up. And please don't slap anybody, even on a Monday. To a Christian the ending of the actual Nicholas myth is just as weird. And to be honest the whole story is contrived, there's no evidence that Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea or that Arius did either. The best evidence says that  Arianism was discussed and determined to be a Heresy

What is a heresy? As Amy Spreeman at Berean Research so perfectly says "Heresy is a false teaching about the essential doctrines of our faith" and to understand what a heresy is, we must first understand what those doctrines are first. The good folks at WWUTT have discovered that to remember what those doctrines are, you simply need to remember that DOCTRINE is an acronym for our doctrines. Please watch the video and don't slap any heretics. If they upset you I suppose it's ok to put coal in their stocking

WWUTT Wednesday - What "Jehovah" Is and Isn't

It's been a while since I've had the Worshipers of the Watchtower come banging on my door, I think they put a secret mark on my house: Beware! This One Knows the Gospel! and they kind of avoid my house lately. Usually doomsday cults don't annoy me, but the Jehovah's Witness cult is particularly heretical.

The Doomsday Cult of the Watchtower gets their understanding of God from the New World Translation. The NWT is the first intentional, systematic effort at producing a complete version of the Bible that is edited and revised for the specific purpose of agreeing with a group's doctrine.

The Jehovah's witnesses believe that Jesus is not God but just Michael the Archangel. Their proof? They don't really have any, but they do fire off few bible verses that mention Michael as a prince and claim they are proof that Jesus is an angel. I'll ignore the fact that according to their teaching the earth is going to end in 1874 1878 1881 1914 1925 1975 you get the idea. They even gave God a name of their own making

Emergent Monday - The NAR’s Infallible Prophet Rick Joyner (and the New Breed)

The controversial New Breed doctrine goes under many 

different names, although it is often called ‘Manifest Sons 

of God’ theology by discernment ministries in the 1980s.

This was posted on May 24, 2016 at Churchwatch Central, and I'm sure you'll agree with me that it is an excellent expose of narcissistic psudotheology gone wild. All emphasis is from the author, minor corrections in spelling and grammar have been made because I'm an English major with OCD.

The problem with cults is that it is hard to convince people that they actually teach really bizarre or far-fetched doctrines. It’s hard to reconcile that they push such illogical concepts on people contrary to human reason or biblical truths.

THE NEW BREED DOCTRINE

One such cult is the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) who believe they will raise raise up a generation known as the New Breed. This New Breed doctrine teaches that a generation of Christians will become “divine” or “God in human flesh” and will manifest Christ here on earth with powerful signs, wonders and judgments to cleanse the church and the world of all sin so Christ can return.

WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT THIS NEW BREED NONSENSE?

The reason why it is important to familiarize yourself with this teaching is because it is EVERYWHERE. You will see this theology emerge again and again in NAR revivals or in their attempt to promote conferences. You can detect it behind the theology of very popular movements that try to hide their theological ties to the NAR:

Emergent Monday - The NAR Has Their Own Bible Part 3

A fragment of a Greek manuscript of the 

Gospel of John that dates to the second 

century. This fragment is housed at the 

John Rylands Library in Manchester, England.

Holly Pivec at Spirit of Error is doing an outstanding job and exposing the New Apostolic Reformation so while my job has been quite ratcheted up, I'm going to repost these articles that Holly has revisited regarding the NAR bible. (Remember what I said about a cult? "Stay away from any group that has made their own bible")

In my last two posts (Part 1 and Part 2), I wrote about a new NAR translation of the Bible, called The Passion Translation, which features drastically changed verses of Scripture. See three of those changed verses here.

In this post, I show how the translator of this NAR Bible, apostle Brian Simmons, attempts to justify his changes to Scripture.

In short, Simmons claims that the vast differences in meaning are the result of his decision to translate many verses from Aramaic manuscripts – not Greek manuscripts.  (Yet, I must mention that even those verses he claims to translate from the Greek are still drastically different.)

Simmons said the reason he decided to translate from the Aramaic is because new discoveries have revealed that the New Testament was originally written in the Aramaic language, not Greek.

Here is what Simmons says, in his own words.

“For centuries, it has been believed that the New Testament was first written in Greek. … Some scholars now lean increasingly towards the thought that Aramaic and Hebrew texts of the New Testament are the original manuscripts, and that many of the Greek texts are copies, and a second generation from the originals! This is radically changing translation concepts, and will result in many new translations of the New Testament based on Aramaic.” [Excerpted from “Translator’s Introduction” to Letters from Heaven by the Apostle Paul, the fourth installment of The Passion Translation]

Astounding Claims

These are astounding claims. If what Simmons says is true, then that would mean that all the standard English Bible translations–including the King James Version, the New International Version, the New American Standard Bible, and the English Standard Version – are not based on the earliest and most trustworthy manuscripts and should be replaced by new, more reliable translations, such as Simmons’ Passion Translation. 

Emergent Monday - The NAR Has Their Own Bible Part 2

Apostle Brian Simmons and wife
Candice

Holly Pivec at Spirit of Error is doing an outstanding job and exposing the New Apostolic Reformation so while my job has been quite ratcheted up, I'm going to repost these articles that Holly has revisited regarding the NAR bible. (Remember what I said about a cult? "Stay away from any group that has made their own bible")

In my last post, I wrote about a new translation of the Bible called “The Passion Translation”–released by New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) apostle Brian Simmons.

In this post, I will show you three of the verses Simmons has drastically changed in his new translation to make it look like the Bible promotes NAR teachings. I will contrast Simmons’ translation of the Bible with the standard English translations.

Galatians 6:6

Standard English Translations

• Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. (New International Version)
• Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches. (New King James Version)
• Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. (English Standard Version)

The teaching being promoted: Church members should take care of the financial and other material needs of their spiritual leaders.

The Passion Translation

• And those who are taught the Word will receive an impartation from their teacher; a transference of anointing takes place between them.

The NAR teaching being promoted: The divine authority to minister with a specific miraculous gift–such as the gift of prophesying or healing people–can be imparted or transferred from church leaders to their followers.

Emergent Monday - The NAR has their own Bible.Part 1

Holly Pivec at Spirit of Error is doing an outstanding job and exposing the New Apostolic Reformation so while my job has been quite ratcheted up, I'm going to repost these articles that Holly has revisited regarding the NAR bible. (Remember what I said about a cult? "Stay away from any group that has made their own bible")

First a quick update. Since I wrote this series back in 2013, Simmons has released more installments of his NAR Bible: Proverbs, Matthew, Acts, Hebrews and James, and Romans. NAR leaders, including Bill Johnson, continue to promote this translation and quote from it in the pulpit. And rave reviews from Simmons’ readers pour in. I’m disappointed to report that the Passion Translation has been selling extremely well based on its rank at Amazon. For those who have never heard of the Passion Translation, you can get up to speed by reading my first post.

A New NAR Bible

Beware: An NAR apostle has come out with his own NAR translation of the Bible, called “The Passion Translation.”

Apostle Brian Simmons, of Stairway Ministries, is the lone translator of this “groundbreaking” project. To date, he has released four installments of his new translation:

• Psalms: Poetry on Fire
• Song of Solomon: Most Amazing Song of All
• Luke: To the Lovers of God
• Letters From Heaven by the Apostle Paul

Next in line is Proverbs, Wisdom From Above, due out in Fall 2013.

Eccumenical Monday - IHOP and Their Adoration of the Papist Church

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what
partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or
what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Cor. 6:14)

Sola Scriptura (by Scripture alone) is the foundational doctrinal principle of the Protestant Reformation. It is held by we Reformers, who know that Scripture is self-authenticating, clear to the rational reader, is its own interpreter, and sufficient of itself to be the final authority of Christian doctrine. However some denominations prefer Prima Scriptura which states that scripture is pretty good, but needs man's help through revelation and Tradition. Denominations that encourage this kind of thing are Anglican, Wesleyan Methodists, Seventh-day Adventists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Quakers, Pentecostals, Charismatics and Roman Catholics

The International House of Prayer (IHOP) claims to be all about Prima Scriptura, but may be Secundum Scriptura (Scripture is Secondary), but probably Alia Scriptura (Another Scripture). Regardless of what they are, what they are not is evangelical Christian. At the very best what they are is a Christian flavored cult. With much more focus on mysticism and contemplative spirituality than on worshipping the Lord in prayer and interceding for others through prayer, and the expectation that healings, visions, dreams, prophecies, tongues, words of knowledge, signs, wonders, etc become commonplace, IHOP sets itself apart from biblical Christianity. Which is probably why IHOP simply adores the Roman Catholic Church. Consider this quote from the Franciscan University of Steubenville: 

“The International House of Prayer (IHOP) was founded in 1999 by Mike Bickle, who says that many IHOP teachings draw upon the works of St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, as well as contemporary Catholics including Father Henri Nouwen and Father Thomas Dubay, SM. The IHOP 24 hour prayer room, he says, was inspired by the spiritual practices of  Catholic European monks, such as St. Bernard of Clairvaux. 

‘I’ve always had a passion for Catholic-Christian unity, and enthusiastically welcome this years Catholic track,’ says Bickle. ‘We may have different religious traditions, but we focus on fellowship, and unity and Jesus being glorified in prayer, worship, and teaching.’”

Emergent Monday - The Occultic Roots of the NAR

This is the gravestone of William Branham, the man whose strange teachings fuel the strange fire of the New Apostolic Reformation. Every Easter, many of Branham’s followers visit his grave in Jeffersonville, IN expecting to see his resurrection. They believe that his rising from the grave will be the sign that Jesus’ Second Coming is at hand. Branham’s grave attracts hundreds of domestic and international visitors who believe, as Branham prophesied, that he was the messenger of the Last Days.

This occult Masonic pyramid gravestone is adorned with an eagle, Branham stated many times that the Bible compared God's prophets to eagles, however, he never provided one scriptural example of where this was the case. This grave marker Lists the seven churches of Revelation on one side, and a list of seven men whom Branham believed signifigantly impacted the church. They are Paul, Irenaeus, Martin, Columbia, Luther, Westley, and Branham himself. This stone is eerily similar to the Watchtower Memorial marking the grave of Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Jehovah's witnesses. 

William Branham was a false prophet and major heretic who taught false doctrines and promoted occultism. Even with his outlandish teachings and proven false prophecies, there are many poor souls who still believe in him, promote his teachings, and are basing their ministries on his ranting.

Emergent Monday - The Spiritual Map of George Otis and the NAR

Spiritual Mapping is a discipline used by the New Apostolic Reformation to... to... to be honest I couldn't figure out what exactly they use it for. But according to the NAR it's really important. I looked up Spiritual Mapping and was lead to a spiritual mapping webpage at isaiah54.org and found a page chock full of different type faces and colors, huge type, small type, shadowed type, italicized type, bold type, subscript type, superscript type, even Micosoft WordArt type, so spiritual mapping is clearly very important. And, a good thing, there was no explosive use of exclamation points so obviously the webmasters at isaiah54.org are not crazy. 

However the meaning and definition of Spiritual Mapping seemed to escape the webmasters notice. In their section titled WHAT IS THE DISCIPLINE OF SPIRITUAL MAPPING? they defined the word "Discipline" and completely ignored the whole Spiritual Mapping part. The page is covered with blather about spiritual warefare, partial bible quotes, bible quotes used utterly out of context and nonsense like 

"Like enemy intelligence gathering during wartime Spiritual Mapping gathers the strategic information necessary for effective intercessory "smart prayer" deployment." 

There is one quote worth paying attention to which came from Georg Otis Jr, the inventor of spiritual mapping:

(Spiritual Mapping is) "Superimposing our understanding of forces and events in the spiritual domain onto places and circumstances in the material world."  (from "The Last of the Giants" by George Otis Jr.)

I didn't say it made sense, I just said it was the one quote worth paying attention to. I first came across the term 'spiritual mapping' in a description of John MacArthurs sermon The Modern Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. In this sermon Dr. MacArthur never actually says "spiritual mapping" but he does utter the finest definition of the NAR ever spoken, and his definition has become a classic in Christianity

Ecumenical Monday: Reformation? What Reformation?

I know of a fellow who says he loves God and Jesus but worships a dead woman. This fellow is full of all sorts of unique beliefs: he believes that folks who believe in justification though grace alone are crazy and should be damned, he believes that Christ's work was left incomplete on the cross, he believes that God isn't good enough to confess your sins to - you need to talk to a person instead. He also believes that the bible isn't enough and must be amended with tradition,  that you're not smart enough to read the bible, that God and Allah are the same, that Christ is not the only mediator between us and God, and even dead people can intercede for us. He even insists that salvation through grace is just crazy talk and that justification rests in specific measured works that must be accomplished before death. He also believes that when we die, we become Gods.

Oh, and he calls himself a Christian. 

The fellow is Mr. Pope Francis and not only unrepentant, he's set his sights once again on Christians. Years ago Mr. Pope's political ancestors took it upon themselves to wipe out biblical Christianity and insure that papistry ruled western theology. Starting in 12th century the Roman Catholic Church took it upon themselves to slaughter the Arnoldists, the Cathars, the Waldensians, the Fraticelli, the Husites the Beguines, and the Lollardists. Following the Reformation the Catholic Church declared war on Protestants, we were denounced as heretics and subject to persecution by the inquisition. The Roman Catholic Church's abject hatred of bible believing Christians caused eruptions of sectarian hatred such as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572 where up to 30,000 Protestants were slaughtered.

Oddly enough, 30,000 is the same number of Protestants that were persecuted in Catholic Spain between 1936 and 1975. Even though the Spanish Bill of Rights granted freedom of private worship, Protestants suffered legal discrimination and were not allowed to hold worship service in buildings which had exterior signs stating that it was a house of worship.

Giving it a Proper Label

Thanks to Calvinistic Cartoons

Emergent Monday - Getting Your Ears Tickled by Steven Furtick

Exegesis: the Bible says anything I want it to

I'm not totally sure why, but Steven Furtick keeps popping up in my life, and I've found that when someone or something starts popping up, the Holy Spirit us sending me hints that He wants me to pay attention. Since He gifted me with the ability to observe and write about my observations, that's what I do.

This is now what I call part 3 of the Furtick Cult Trilogy. You don't have to read the other parts, but if you want to read part 1 and/or part 2 go ahead and catch up. We'll wait... 

Welcome back. Recently I've had a small cadre of Furtick Followers remind me that the important part of Steven Furtick is his message. One Furtick Follower informed me that they had studied the bible for a quarter of a century and Steven's message is dead on and the best message they've ever heard. Forget the part about his anger and his badmouthing Christians and his putting down doctrine and his insulting Christians that want to learn the word of God, it's the message that I should be concentrating on.

To be honest I have listened to his message, and first I need to point out that Steven Furtick does not do sermons, he does homilies and calls them sermons. A homily is a religious discourse that is intended primarily for spiritual edification rather than doctrinal instruction. In other words, a homily is a monolog that is religious in nature designed to make you feel something, where as a sermon is a discussion on what God actually said and how to apply it. If you listen to Furtick's messages you will come out feeling something, but you will come out knowing less about the word of God than when you went in.

Steven's homilies are passionate and moving and light and fluffy. Sometimes he gets riled up when he wants to make a point, and often that point is way off the mark which makes me wonder if the whole getting riled up thing is to distract the audience, because to the undiscerning he sounds good. One fine example is his homily "The Great Emoti Con" - according to his website this is one of his most popular messages.

False Teacher Of the Year 2015

As the snow falls and the days grow shorter, it's time to recognize those special false teachers that help make the days grow darker spiritually. This year's award is coming out much later than usual, but that's because there's been so much competition for the prestigious Golden Goat award. Our first winner was back in 2013 was John Shore, leader of the Not All There Like That "Christians" who worship Rob Bell and Dan Savage over the God of Israel. Last years winner was Steven McSwain is a self-professed "Christian Atheist", a title that he oddly bears with pride. These two fellows have worked tirelessly to justify their unbelief in such a manner that the undiscerning thinks that they're being fed the Word of God, but instead are being lead through the wide gate to destruction. And that's what being a Golden Goat recipient is all about.

If the nominating committee were to hand out the prized Golden Goat award based solely on atheism in the pulpit we probably couldn't stamp out the gold foil embossed false idols fast enough to keep up with demand. For example Gretta Vosper would be presented with one every time she addresses the congregation in Canada's own West Hill United Church of Self. Or closer to home John Schuck, a man who earns the title of Psalm 14 Fool, instructs the lost to make up their own bible. He would have to add a whole new wing to the Southminster Presbyterian Goat Pen to store his Golden Goats if mere atheism were the sole qualifier.

Scientology: Sad, Silly, Satanic

It really doesn't take much to figure out what
Scientology is all about

Many years ago I used to read a lot of pulp science fiction, mostly the classic authors - Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Fritz Leiber, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp... I liked 'hard' science fiction; science fiction where the fiction was based on science rather than fantasy. A lot of the stuff I really enjoyed were based on the then unknown (at the time of the writing) physics of travel in outer space and how the heroes overcame the physics of weightlessness, mass, inertia, and saved the day.

There were some of the classic authors that I didn't like, mostly because their content leaned toward the weird: mysterious powers, parallel universes, dragons, advanced civilizations with swords and wizards, that kind of thing. When it comes to "Swords and Sorcerers" I prefer genre skewering satire, like the marvelous Diskworld series by the late Terry Pratchett or the "Another Fine Myth" series by Robert Asprin. 

One of the writers I didn't like to follow was L. Ron Hubbard. He leaned more toward fantasy than hard fiction and was not my cup of tea. Sadly, the entire science fiction genre drifted toward goofy fantasy with only an occasional flash of 'hard' science fiction. I mourned the loss of a great genre by re-reading the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov then turned my back on it completely. Well, almost completely. I read Battlefield Earth by L. Ron, and I really don't remember why I read it, nor do I remember much about the content other than finding it sophomoric, boring, and written on a level (maybe 8th grade at best) much lower than I felt comfortable with.

A few years later when the utterly horrible film version came out (largely considered one of the worst movies ever made) I suffered through that nonsense, and as I concentrated on trying not to writhe in agony at the horrible script, acting, directing, camera angles, and pathetic waste of perfectly good film stock, someone mentioned to me that the author of this disaster, L. Ron Hubbard, was also the founder of Scientology. I knew very little about Scientology, other than it was a religious cult populated by some very rich people, but now I find out that it was invented by a third rate hack science fiction writer? To be perfectly honest, other than gales of riotous laughter, my reaction was to wonder if it would be possible to go to a Scientology church, and when the collection plate came by to dip out the money I wasted on the book and the movie. 

I never did go into a Scientology church, and now that I look into this religion I know that I've been blessed by never having entered one of their buildings. They never bothered me, in fact I always thought they were doing society a favor by keeping people like Tom Cruise and John Travolta off the the streets where they would otherwise be bothering people (see: Oprah's Couch), but as I learn more and more about this cult the more I thank God for protecting me from them.