False Christian teachings, trends….
In this sermon on 2 Timothy 1:6 titled “Feelings,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones deals with the problem of feelings in the Christian life.Everybody wants to be happy. The problem is that no one can make themselves happy. The human is not a master of self and cannot produce feeling. Try as hard as one might, a person cannot generate true emotions. One’s feelings are dependent on factors seemingly outside of one’s control. As a matter of fact, feelings seek to control the person.
There has been a scandal in the Charismatic Church surrounding Shawn Bolz. This post contains a video short that provides an overview of that scandal; it also provides a 28-minute video offering a lot more coverage; finally, a 85-minute video by Justin Peters Ministries that provides thorough coverage of the scandal. The last video is embedded, so it may be listened to on YouTube, but it also may be pulled down because Justin had it pulled down once already. I did record it and will upload it in portions if it is removed by YouTube.
This post has an example from the Willow-Creek, Seeker-Friendly church model that failed miserably. It is an example of bringing the practices of the world into the church as MLJ discussed in the last post, Worldliness. There are still megachurches, they suffer from this problem. Though from the thousands who attend and appear to be excited and happy Christians you might not get that message. But the scandals are telling….
In the video SHORT of this post, Pastor Daniel EXPLAINS 7 reasons why Steven Furtick (SF) is a false teacher / preacher: SF is a manipulator; focuses on emotion; practices narcigesis; presents a false God; distorts the gospel; presents a pantheistic god [not the biblical God]; and SF presents a false Jesus. Pastor Daniel also recommended biblical preachers in the narrative of his post.
What is quenching the Spirit? In a desire to avoid making Christianity reliant on subjective religious experiences, many Christians leave no room for the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in their lives. This is quenching the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells that the Holy Spirit is a person who indwells all who believe. The church of today ought to look at the early church found in Acts to see what it looks like to rely on the Holy Spirit for power and guidance. What are the practical applications of this message on Ephesians 6:10–13?
The MLJ sermon of this post is another in his series on the wiles of the Devil. In the process of his teaching herein, he said quite a lot that applies to the word-of-faith, prosperity gospels and the Charismatic church. His words clarified their great claims via biblical passages. The thrust of his message was to show believers yet another way in which the Devil undermines a believer’s walk with the Lord, rendering them ineffective, discouraged…. [A song is attached to the post because in that song, one can hear the kind of process that MLJ discussed, in terms of laying down one’s self-striving and surrendering to Christ; quitting on self-guidance and receiving His.]
There are two sermons in this post. The first is a 3 minute 20 second video by Dr John MacArthur to introduce the MLJ sermon. MacArthur’s brief video goes right to the heart of the matter. MLJ’s words confirm what JM said, but MLJ provided a more complete explanation of the relationship between feelings and experience, because he got into the various types of inappropriate feelings and motives behind those. I think MLJ’s sermon explains much 21st century “worship,” particularly in the charismatic churches, but in all churches. MLJ’s sermon will enable you better assess the quality of your own worship.
This post contains a sermon by MLJ on Cults. Therein, he continued his series on the phrase from Ephesians 6:11, “wiles of the Devil.” The crux of the sermon is the distinguishing between a cult and the Christian faith. In the process, several other terms are defined in a user-friendly manner: heretic; apostate; and mystic. After MLJTrust’s points, I added some additional material.
This post takes a brief article on Satanist Aleister Crowley’s Law of Thelema and via inserted comments in pink font, shows how prosperity preachers encourage their followers along the same lines that Crowley encouraged his. The point is to show that prosperity preaching is as evil to the God of the Bible as is worshiping Satan, each of them glorify the self and much more.
“What is the Jezebel Spirit? We hear the Jezebel Spirit blamed for infidelity and spiritual warfare. But what does the Bible say?” Pastors Jim Osman and Jacob Tanner along with Doreen Virtue and Dawn Hill discuss the unbiblical nature of “Deliverance Ministries.” “Jezebel Spirit” is the concept they unpack as they show that those who claim to be ministers of deliverance are not speaking as representatives of God and His word. In the process, some valuable information for daily Christian life in this world are communicated. This 18-minute excerpt was posted by Doreen Virtue from a 90-minute interview.