Tag Archives: Christianity

Jul 17 2009

How Good Is Good Enough? (Book Review)

How Good Is Good Enough?Since Nobody’s Perfect ”How Good is Good Enough?” is a great little book written by best selling author Andy Stanley.  In this thought provoking book Andy will challenge you to consider man’s true nature, and how good is good enough to go to heaven. 

Good people go to heaven … don’t they?

Through this book that very question will be answered.  Find out what’s wrong with the most popular theory about heaven-and what it really takes to get there. (rear book description)

Just about everyone thinks they are good, and that is why the view/theory “all good people go to heaven” appeals to our human nature.  When in reality none of us are capable of entering into heaven on our own good deeds.  The Bible says there are none righteous, no not one.  This view also contradicts the teachings of Jesus Christ.  Jesus taught the very opposite of what most people in the world believe.  God desires to give men and women exactly what they do not deserve, and that is judgement.  Instead He offers us mercy and grace through His son Jesus Christ.

This book spends the first 8 chapters debating the fact that man can never be good enough to obtain heaven, and at the end of chapter 8 we recieve a recap of 6 major problems with the theory/view “all good people go to heaven”

I think one of the most relavant of the 6 was number 2.

2. Our internal moral gauges aren’t much help.  They don’e line up cross-culturally (or even across the street, for that matter).  And as time passes, our definitions of right and wrong tend to change. (pg. 61)

Andy does close the book in the final chapters with some hard evidence to Christ divinity, scriptural authority, and forgiveness not fairness is the solution to salvation.

Christianity is based on the premise that God laid aside fairness and opted for mercy and grace instead.  Life is not fair.  Life will never be fair.  Life can’t be fair.  The fact of the matter is that life may not be fair, however Christianity is far beyound fair.  What could be fairer than this?

  • Everybody is welcome
  • Everybody gets in the same way
  • Everybody can meet the requirement (faith-trusting in God)  (Ch.10-11)

There is a ton of wealth and knowledge to be gained from this book.  It would be an excellent gift for someone struggling with their salvation, or even someone who is questioning their very being.  I would highly recomend this book for someone who is searching for answers.  On the other hand this is not a a little tract that someone can pick up, and recieve quick answers.  You actually have to do a little bit of reading to understand the message.  Click image above to get your copy today.

Mar 2 2009

Christianity In Crisis 21st Century – Book Review

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This book was very interesting, and even though I thoroughly enjoyed reading it I am glad to be finished.  This book claims to expose darkness to light, pointing us back to a Christianity centered in Christ. It doesn’t parade around.  It gets straight to the point by exposing false teachers such as Rhonda Byrne author of “the Secret to life”, Joel Osteen author of “Your Best Life Now”, Joyce Meyer, and many others.   It also takes an in-depth look at many of the teachers and pastors within the Faith movement exposing many of the flaws in their theology and ideology.  The fabric of faith in this movement is slowly unraveled revealing a counterfeit Christ and health and wealth Christianity that leaves people with no true substance.  The testimonies of broken hearts and lost lives of former followers of these false teachings are also revealed.  In this book Hank Hanegraaff gives us the acronym L-I-G-H-T-S & L-E-G-A-C-Y to help us better translate scripture for ourselves.  In the end I was challenged to get back to the basics of Christianity.  The ABC’s – Amen (Prayer), Bible, Church, Defense, and Essentials.  I will warn you that there will be times when you are reading this book that you might become angry and offended with some of the beliefs of the Faith movement.  I know I was.  That is why it is so important that you read this book.  Be sure to check out the 5 part blog post series “Exposure” based upon this book.  It will give you further insight.  Or be sure to get your copy today from Thomas Nelson Publishing by clicking the image above.

Mar 2 2009

Exposure 5

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This will be my final post on the “Christianity In Crisis 21st Century” other than my final book review.  It has been a very interesting read, and I have discovered a lot about the Faith movement, however I am glad to be finished with this book.  In the final 5 chapters of this book we get a further insight into twisted views and beliefs of the Faith Movement.

Little Gods

It is exactly as it sounds.  Every since the dawn of time, Satan has tried to peddle the lie that mere men can become gods, and that is exactly what Faith teachers have bought into.

“The now deceased Kenneth Hagin asserted that man “was created on terms of equality with God, and he could stand in God’s presence without any consciousness of inferiority… God has made us as much like Himself as possible…He made us the same class of being that He is Himself…Man lived in the realm of God.  He lived on terms equal with God…The believer is called Christ… That’s who we are; we’re Christ!” – The God Kind of Life, K. Hagin

This kind of belief system is ridiculous, and even so radical that cult groups such as the Mormons even consider such beliefs blasphemous.  Once again man has taken scripture, and twisted it to meet their self-righteous desires.  Their foundation for this belief is found in John 10:31-39, however they have so misinterpreted this. 

“Is it not written in you law, ‘I said, “You are gods”? – John 10:34

The only reason we are referred to as gods is because we falsely idolize ourselves.   Satan is also referred to as a “god” in 2 Corinthians 4:4.  Not only does this kind of thinking demote God / Christ, it also demoralizes Him, and results in dualism.

Atonement Atrocities

Once again we come face to face with our atonement and redemption of sin.  In the Faith movement theology the cross was “only the beginning.” “For three days Jesus fought with the enemy.  It was the battle of the ages. Light versus darkness. Good versus evil.  Satan was no match for our Champion.  Jesus crushed Satan’s head with His foot.  He bruised his head. And He once and for all, forever defeated and dethroned and demoralized our enemy.  One translation says, “He paralyzed him and rendered him powerless.  He didn’t even stop there.  He went over and ripped the keys of death and hell out of Satan’s hands.  And He grabbed Satan by the nap of his neck and He began to slowly drag him down through the corridors of Hell. All beat up and bruised because He wanted to make sure that every single demon saw very clearly that Jesus was indeed the undisputed Champion of all time!” – Joel Osteen

As much as I love Joel Osteens version of Jesus visiting Hell he  misses the point.  If Jesus was to battle with Satan He would definately have laid the smack down on Satan, but where Mr. Osteen falls short is on the redemptive end.  It wasn’t in hell that you and I were redeemed, it was on the cross.  When Jesus stated “It is finished” the atonement for our sin was paid. 

“You cannot go to heaven unless you believe with all your heart that Jesus took your place in hell.”  – Joyce Meyers

Once again a poor job of interpreting the scriptures.  Jesus took my place on the cross, and the whole view of Christ being re-born or reincarnated in hell and through His resurrection is a joke.  Where do they come up with this stuff.

Wealth And Want

This chapter goes on to speak about prosperity preachers, Jesus with a Rolex, to the Cons and Cover-ups of the Health and Wealth Christianity movement within the Faith Movement.  The Faith notion that all Christians have a divine right to wealth and prosperity is rooted in the myth that God is a failure.

The question immediately arises, “How can I determine whether someone is correctly interpreting God’s Word?” – CIC 233

Hank Hanegraaff gives us the acronym L-I-G-H-T-S & L-E-G-A-C-Y

  • L – Literal Principle – Interpret it Literally
  • I – Illumination Principle – Interpret in in the Spirit of God
  • G – Grammatical Principle -
  • H – Historical Principle – L-E-G-A-C-Y
  • L – Location
  • E – Essence
  • G – Genre    
  • A – Author   
  • C – Context 
  • Y – Year      
  • T – Typology Principle – The type of writing
  • S – Scriptural Synergy Principle – The whole of Scripture is greater than the sum of its individual passages. 

In chapter 6 we come to Sickness and Suffering which I really don’t have anything to say about it, but in chapter 7 we go Back to Basics.

  • A=Amen – Prayer – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication
  • B=Bible – Memorize, Examine, Apply, Listen, Study
  • C=Church – God, Oneness, Disciples
  • D=Defense – Creation, Incarnation, Inspiration,
  • E= Essentials – Gospel, Doctrine, Deity, Trinity, Resurrection, Eschatology

The book closes with an exhaustive Epilogue, Appendix, and Apologetics that is insightful, and extremely useful. 

In closing Hank Hanegraaff and the Christian Research Institute have outdone themselves once again.  Keep up the good work.

Feb 25 2009

Exposure 4

cicFaith In Faith

I have come to part two today in Christianity in Crisis, and there are four different sections to this chapter.  They are the Force of Faith, Formula of Faith, Faith of God, and the Faith Hall of Fame.

This chapter/part continues to expose the false teaching of the Faith Movement a little more in-depth.  I plan on briefly highlighting a few of them.  The first is the Force of Faith.

“Words are containers for power. They carry creative or destructive power, positive or negative power.  And so we need to be speaking right things over our lives and about our futures if we expect to have good things happen.  Because what you say today is what you’ll probably end up having tomorrow.” – Joyce Meyer

In the theology of the Faith movement, words are containers that carry the substance of faith. If you speak words of faith, you activate the positive side of the force, if you speak words of fear, you activate the negative side of the force.  I know what you’re thinking… “I feel like I’m reading a Star Wars novel, may the force be with you.”  Anyways to shorten this view everything that happens to us is a direct result of our words.  Not only are the Faith movement’s concepts anti-biblical, it also resembles the beliefs of New Thought metaphysics.

But where does all this false theology come from.  Hanegraaff lays out the misinterpretation that Faith teachers have of Hebrews 11:1. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (KJV)  They clearly misinterpret the word substance.

Second, we come to the formula of their belief system which is actually very simplistic, but at the same time very wrong. “Say it, Do it, Receive it, and Tell it.”

I actually found myself saying today….”Is all this stuff really relevant? Does anybody really care? Maybe Hank is over emphasizing all of this.”  Then I came to page 108 of this book, and Boom!  Reality sets in.  “Why Be So Harsh?”  “Because when the core of Christian faith is imperiled, strong measures are necessary.” – Hank Hanegraaff

This section goes on to reveal the testimonies of broken hearts and lost lives of former followers of these false teachings.  As section three of this chapter is introduced Hank goes on to reveal the God of the Faith movement.  According to their cultic theology, God is nothing but a “faith being.”  God is portrayed as a pathetic puppet at the beck and call of His creatures.  That doesn’t sound like my God at all.  Apparently we must serve different Gods.

The final section of this chapter goes into the Faith Hall of Fame which I really don’t have anything to say about it.  You will have to read it for yourself.  Be sure to get your copy of Christianity in Crisis 21st Century by Hank Hanegraaff today.   http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=0849900069

Feb 19 2009

Exposure 3

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This book continues to unveil the false teaching and doctrine of the Faith movement.  In part one section three the book really takes an in-depth look at many of the teachers and pastors within the Faith movement exposing many of the flaws in their theology and ideology.  The fabric of faith in this movement is slowly unraveled revealing a counterfeit Christ and health and wealth Christianity that leaves people with no true substance.  The origin of this false religion goes all the way back to 1802 with Parkhurst Quimbly and simply branches out in many different directions all of which vary from one another, but uphold many of the same doctrines.  A huge list of Faith teachers are exposed in this section titled Cast of Characters revealing the flaws and misinterpretations of their beliefs.  Here are just a few that really stuck out to me.

Benny Hinn of the Miraculous Crusades has claimed to have healed hundreds of people with no real documentation.  In reality when many of the attendees of these crusades were questioned they responded with a notion of rejection from God in which crushed their faith.  The trail following this movement could be compared to that of  a natural disaster.  For those who did proclaim to have success stories it turned out that their symptoms and sicknesses were merely psychosomatic and Hinn was the pharmacist prescribing religious placebos.  At one point in time Hinn wished that he had a Holy Ghost machine gun so that he could blow the heads off of his critics.

That is just the beginning.  With each page teachers such as Joel Osteen with his misquotes, misinterpretations, and twisting of the scriptures are revealed.

“Osteen is fond of telling his devotees that Jesus did not finish the work of redemption on the cross.  While Jesus says it is finished, Joel says it is far from finished.”

Osteen along with many others such as Joyce Myers believe it was Christ’s triumph over Satan in hell that atoned for our sins not the sacrifice and death of the Cross.

Then to top off this cast of characters we have T.D. “Show me the money” Jakes and Rod “Miracle Seed” Parsley who are leading this nation in the Health and Wealth religion that is only providing false hope for families and leaving them with no security. (“You send an offering of $100 for this miracle send, and God will give you $10,000.” – Parsley )  If it isn’t miracle seed, prayer cloths, or Holy water he will try and sell you something.  It is this type of counterfeit Christianity that is crippling true genuine Christianity. 

Where not all Word of Faith practitioner parade about in this manner many of them find their selves struggling with peer pressure from many of the other big named teachers that they fake a variety of experiences.

In part one section four Hank Hanegraaff gives an outline of the four spiritual flaws of the Faith movement using the acronym F.L.A.W.S, and then closes with a challenge to get back to the basics. (The ABC’s)

A. Amen (Prayer)

B. Bible (Study)

C. Church

D. Defense (Apologetics)

E. Essentials

I personally think we should add Discipleship to D and Evangelism to E.  Below is the F.L.A.W.S. chart.  In the following chapters each section of this chart is looked at more in depth.

flaws

Feb 17 2009

Exposure 2

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I found myself angry and offended today as I continued reading “Christianity In Crisis”.  I started reading about the theology of the Faith movement as stated in the “Force of Faith” a composite tale of the erroneous teachings of individuals such as Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, T.D. Jakes, and many others.  “While not all the Faith teachers hold to every aspect of this tale, they have all made substantial contributions” -CIC

The teaching and beliefs held by this group are mythological in every aspect.  There is no truth or Scriptural support for any of thier rhetoric non-sense.  Their doctrine portrays God as weak and helpless under the submission of man.  It declares that man was once a god, and when sin entered we lost our sovereignty, and as a result we cast God from the earth in spite of our sin.  Now we have the opportunity to re-establish ourselves as gods of our own universes.

“God, in a flash became the greatest failure of all time.” – Kenneth Copeland

That statement alone fuels the flame of anger within me.  People talk about taking things out of context, but I don’t believe there is any mis-interpretation in that statement.  God wasn’t the failure, we were.  The views of the Faith movement go on to portray Christ as a mere idea God came up with to win man back to Him, and He never was truly the God only a god.  Hello, Jesus was the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Son of God.  Somebody needs to go back and read John chapter one.  Finally, this tale concludes by stating that when Jesus died on the cross he became a defiled demoniac a satanic being bearing our sin, only to be reborn to helplessly fight off Satan and steal the keys to hell.  Do I believe Jesus became a satanic being? No. Do I believe Jesus went to hell to get the keys? I believe interpretations differ.  Do I believe that He struggled helplessly to fight off Satan for the keys? No.  I believe Jesus died on the cross for the redemption of our sins, and if He was to face Satan He would lay the smack down on him.  Amen!  I become frustrated with people’s pathetic views of Jesus as a weak man. Jesus was the Man!

This cultic theology is seducing Christians into a false state of being.  Articles of faith held by particular groups within the Faith movement define this religious heresy as cultic on sociological and theological levels.  This particular group of so called believers are  mere pseudo-Christians.  I definitely feel that this book needs to be read by all Christians.  I have a long ways to go, but so far Hank Hanegraaff has provided textual support for every statement made in the “Christianity in Crisis”.