Greg Laurie’s “Jesus Revolution” Presents a False Gospel That Forgoes Real Repentance - Disntr

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Having now seen "Jesus Revolution," we are equipped to deal with this unnamed author's criticism of the movie and the real life people portrayed in it.

The author makes several claims about the movie, most of which are simply undocumented opinions. Further, some claims are simply false. Much of this article comes across as sour grapes, since the movie itself does an excellent job of portraying the journey of its characters into the faith.

We think the author's real problems are that the Jesus Movement was charismatic, and that its leader, Lonnie Frisbee, was a deeply flawed character. These are more like excuses, however. the real issue are, the author and people like him believe that there must be lock-step agreement with his doctrine in order for people to be used of God. He believes a "sinner" cannot be used of God. He believes that the people who happen to admire the movement reflect negatively on the movement.

There is no biblical basis for these objections, however. The author manages to quote a single snippet of a Scripture. That's it.  

Also, we should mention that we are not here to defend Laurie, the Jesus Movement, or Frisbee. Our purpose is to examine the shortcomings of the author's presentation.

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You’ve probably heard of the recently released Jesus Revolution movie that’s based on Greg Laurie’s book by the same name. The movie is being promoted by several high-profile Evangelicals including former Southern Baptist president, James Merritt and former U.S. Vice President, Mike Pence.

The movie is based on the life of Harvest Christian Fellowship pastor, Greg Laurie, and features several well-known actors including Kelsey Grammer, who plays Chuck Smith, Jonathan Roumie, who plays the part of Christian hippie, Lonnie Frisbee, and Joel Courtney, who plays Greg Laurie himself as they take part in the California “Jesus Movement” of the 60s.

But as with anything that claims to be Christian, it must be looked at with deep scrutiny to see if it actually is.

Greg Laurie has been a prominent figure in Christendom for quite some time. Many have touted him as being the next Billy Graham. In the likeness of Billy Graham’s crusades, Laurie has invested endless efforts in his Harvest Crusades since the early 1990s, reaching audiences in the hundreds of thousands at every event. Laurie’s popular style of watered-down preaching and making the adulterated Word of God more palatable to the world (Undocumented claims.)

has helped his empire grow tremendously, and transform Laurie into a celebrity.

As with nearly all celebrity Christian luminaries, there comes a time when the message they deliver has become so devoid of any convicting biblical substance that nearly anyone, whether they profess Christ or not, will be lured in by their seductive charisma. Their following essentially becomes a cult of personality, and their notoriety gains them indiscriminate immunity from nearly all criticism. (Another undocumented claim regarding Laurie, this one vague and unenlightening.)

Statistics from Greg Laurie’s crusades show that among the thousands of people who touted their “decision” for Jesus at these gatherings, only 3 to 6 percent of them show any fruits of salvation one year later. (A 2019 event held in southern California yielded 8,677 claimed conversions in one weekend that drew 100,000 people. That's about 9% of the attendees. 4,405,000 people have attended a Harvest Crusade since 1990. Statistically speaking, this means perhaps 400,000 salvations. Now, let's take the lower number of "one year laters:" About 12,000, or about 400 people per year.

The author links to a 2016 Pulpit and Pen article for the undocumented 3-6% figure. The author's point, obviously, is that it's a small number, thereby impugning Laurie's ministry. But only a year later Pulpit and Pen wrote an article about Francis Chan, who quit his successful church because 100 saved people per year was not enough. There Pulpit and Pen blasted Chan for minimizing the importance of these salvations:

The mere fact that Francis Chan would consider anyone’s salvation “not a success” is ludicrous. Who is Francis Chan to question the workings of God? The fact that God chooses to save one person is a blessing on its own, never mind a hundred. If Francis Chan truly feels that it’s “not a success” that God saved 100 people because it may take more manpower than Chan arbitrarily deems necessary, why is Francis Chan even in ministry? Who is Chan to question how many it takes to save a few? The Bible in Luke 13:23 is clear that many will perish, and few will be saved, but we are to rejoice in the Lord for those that are saved. We should not be going about “preaching” that the few that are saved are “not a success” as Chan has declared.

So now it seems to be ok to question the workings of God, eh? Essentially, Pulpit and Pen comes down on both sides of the issue, based on whether or not it serves the purpose of skewering Christians they don't like.

We also would wonder, how many salvations have happened in the author's church?)

Why could this be? Phil Johnson from Grace to You says that Greg Laurie’s current associations are representative of his theological drift, and that his “doctrinal boundaries are so hazy that there’s hardly any variety of popular religion or spiritual chicanery that he won’t align himself with, as long as it calls itself ‘Christian,’ and gains a large following.” (The author can't quote the Bible, but he can quote a sympathetic witness.)

And the same is absolutely true of Laurie’s movie, Jesus Revolution. First off, the movie presents a false gospel. (We hope the author will explain what parts of the movie teach a false gospel...)

The gospel, that Christ, the son of God, who is fully God, came to earth in the likeness of man, lived the perfect life that God requires of man, yet, stood in our place on the cross bearing the punishment of God for us, died, was buried, and rose again on the third day and ascended into Heaven so that those of us who would repent and believe in Him would have eternal life. During Jesus’ ministry on earth, he never wavered on the message of repentance. His first words during his ministry were “repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 3:15). And Jesus echoes his call to repentance all throughout, including twice in Luke 13:3-5. (Here is Harvest Church's doctrinal statement:

Repentance: This is a sincere and thorough change of mind and heart toward sin (see Psalm 51:3; 2 Peter 3:9). We must not only turn from our sins, but we must also turn to God (see Acts 3:19; 26:18; 1 Thessalonians 1:9).

(Here is a video of Laurie's short Gospel presentation, where he mentions repentance [sorry for sins and turn from them] more than once.

So, is Harvest Church lying to us about what they believe, or is the author misrepresenting them?)

There is no shortage of the call to repent in the New Testament so it cannot be a doctrine that is easily dismissed or overlooked. Yet, the entire theme of the false gospel presented in Jesus Revolution is devoid of any real call to true repentance. (Oh. Repentance. Apparently the author did not see the scene where actor portraying Laurie is standing in the water and says, "I repent of my sin.")

In fact, it’s an “inclusive” gospel that presents the bride of Christ as being filled with those who lack true repentance. For them, repentance is merely an emotion, a feeling, and the word itself a meaningless platitude, and does not involve becoming a new creation. (The movie was portraying repentance in this way? It was portraying repentance as strictly emotion? How does the author know the difference between emotional repentance and real repentance?)

Other prominent characters in the movie include Chuck Smith, who is played by Kelsey Grammer. Chuck Smith was a charismatic false prophet who preached the funeral of Christian Hippie, Lonnie Frisbee (who is credited with starting the Jesus Movement) saying that Frisbee was a “Samson figure” who was powerfully anointed by God. Yet, Lonnie Frisbee was a practicing homosexual who eventually died of AIDS after his lifestyle caught up with him. (Apparently the author does not understand the reference to Sampson, a flawed character powerfully used of God.)

Yet, Smith, in real life, preached to him right into Heaven at his funeral.

It should not be surprising that former Southern Baptist Convention president, James Merritt, who has an openly homosexual son who preaches at a progressive church in NYC whom he has praised as “faithful”, is a fan of this movie. (Gratuitous mention of an unassociated person.)

The entire Jesus Movement/Jesus Revolution that Greg Laurie and this movie are promoting is a false gospel devoid of any actual repentance and faith (We have seen this is false.)

and it is a denial of the Holy Spirit’s ability to change the hearts and minds of those who come to Christ in faith. (???? This claim comes out of left field.)

The reality is that anyone who is truly born-again should be able to see, according to Scripture, (Um, which Scriptures? Why not tell us?)

that this movie is not Christian and should be avoided at all costs.