At What Price Awakening? Examining the Theology and Practice of the Bethel Movement - Stephen Tan

Found here. My comments in bold.

----------------------

In our examination of this author's criticisms of Bethel church, we first must consider his biases. From his church's doctrinal statement:

WE BELIEVE.... that the Holy Spirit is the Divine Teacher Who fills and empowers all believers for Christian life and service, and Who guides believers into all truth; and, that it is the privilege and duty of all the saved to be filled with the Spirit. Some gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as the gift of speaking in tongues and the gift of healing, were temporary gifts, and never the necessary signs of the filling of the Holy Spirit.

So this doctrinal statement explicitly excludes at least two of the so-called supernatural gifts of the Spirit. Armed with this information, we are able to dismiss a good portion of the author's presentation as only relevant to those who agree with this doctrinal position.

For a detailed critique of the cessationist position, you may read our cessationism series.

In addition, it is not our intention to defend Bethel church or Bill Johnson, but rather examine the statements of the author.

The last thing to note before we begin is that we don't know if the author's summaries of the quotes he footnotes are accurate. So we shall take those summaries with a grain of salt.

A final observation: The author doesn't quote a single Scripture.
----------------------

10 Common Unbiblical Beliefs in the Contemporary Church - by JOSEPH MATTERA

Found here. My comments in bold.
------------------------

These aren't really unbiblical beliefs. If you thought you were going to read an article that corrects bad doctrine, you'd be wrong.

What the author is actually doing is correcting misconceptions. Or more precisely, he's correcting some of the sloppy ways we talk about things. And the author does a pretty good job of explaining the better way.

But really, I'm not really sure these are "common unbiblical beliefs." I don't think they're common at all.
----------------------

Hillsong Worship Makes “O Holy Night” Unrecognizable - BY JONATHAN AIGNER

Found here. My comments in bold.

------------------------

What we have here is someone elevating his personal opinion to the level of Bible doctrine. He doesn't like this rendition of O Holy Night, so apparently he is free to mock and criticize the singer in a most unseemly manner.

--------------------

Relevant online recently shared Hillsong’s new version of O Holy Night, claiming it will “give you chills.”

From the post:

“Hillsong Worship has released a stirring version of the Christmas classic, “O Holy Night”. The fully orchestrated take on the holiday staple not only features a full choir, but also the powerful lead vocals of Taya Smith.”

I’m really not sure what Relevant was seeing and hearing here. As with practically everything Hillsong does, it’s high on production value and low on actual substance. (We will soon find that the author's complaints are ironically without substance.)

Hillsong has long turned the commercial Christmas season into a commercially profitable one for them with wild spectacles, turning beautiful carols into money-making pop songs. (Apparently making money is a sin. And apparently, people like these things enough to part ways with their money. Alas, their tastes are sub par compared to the author's. We will find he has a degree in applied voice, so he knows better what we should like. He's an expert.)

Here’s yet another example in O Holy Night, And I find it to be in particularly poor taste. (Violating the author's taste is akin to taking the Lord's name in vain. He is the arbitrator of what's good and bad, and is happy to relegate people to the outer darkness if he doesn't like them.)

Masturbatory Worship and the Contemporary Church - BY JONATHAN AIGNER

Found here. My comments in bold.

---------------------

Here the author paints with a broad brush, dumping every "Contemporary megachurch-style worship" service into the rhetorical trash can. These generalizations are largely useless, because we don't know if there really are any churches that are this way. Because if there are, the author does not point them out to us.

It is astonishing to me how someone can make assertion after assertion with absolutely no documentation at all. He's absolutely sure that these evils are all over the place, but he cannot or will not provide us with even one example.

It's entirely possible that people are engaging in fleshly, self-centered worship. But is this a new thing? No. Is it restricted to a particular style or liturgical expression? No. 

Ultimately, I believe the author's mistake is that he excoriates certain kinds of worship services and fleshly people when he should be instructing us regarding the purpose and expression of our worship. 

--------------------- 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: A system that allows billionaires to exist alongside extreme poverty is immoral - Carmin Chappell

Found here. My comments in bold.

----------------------

This is what happens when a young person gets involved with Leftists and tyrant wannabes.

---------------------

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez agrees that "a system that allows billionaires to exist" is immoral. The freshman congresswoman made those comments at an event celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 
• She said it is "wrong" that billionaires can coexist in a country alongside "parts of Alabama where people are still getting ringworm because they don't have access to public health." 
• One of Ocasio-Cortez's solutions to America's wealth disparity is a 70 percent marginal tax rate, a policy proposal that has already made waves in Washington. 
• Ocasio-Cortez made the comments as many of the world's billionaires were gathering for the start of the annual Davos economic confab in Switzerland amid concerns over economic uncertainty and rising populism. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez agrees that "a system that allows billionaires to exist" is immoral.

The freshman congresswoman responded affirmatively to a question on the subject at an event celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday in New York, just as many of the world's billionaires were gathering for the start of the annual Davos economic confab in Switzerland amid concerns over economic uncertainty and rising populism.

"I don't think that necessarily means that all billionaires are immoral," she qualified, citing Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, both major philanthropists. Gates is expected to attend Davos again this year. (Class warfare agitprop. She really believes in class struggle, where the proletariat rises up against the bourgeoisie. 

She really believes this nonsense spouted by her peers in their little meetings as they sip lattes. And having little if any experience in the real world, she nevertheless discovers a heretofore unknown superpower, the ability to discern the morality of a group of people based on the number of dollars they have in their pocket.

The correlation coefficient r = +1 for morality vs. dollars is of course a puerile assertion. Human nature is clear in what it shows us. All people have the propensity for greed, avarice, stealing, and general mayhem, regardless of their wealth or status. Ocasio Cortez herself possesses this trait, which is ennobled by the socialist rhetoric she spouts. She doesn't realize that her obsession regarding the wealth of people she doesn't know is in itself greed. 

Thus she believes that she has a claim on other peoples' property. She believes she has the power to decides how much is too much, and those who exceed her morality threshold must surrender their excess wealth to what is to her a higher purpose: Give it to people who did not earn it.

This is nothing more than theft by majority. Theft is self-evidently immoral.)

Jesus Ended the Old Covenant Once and for All - by Andy Stanley

Found here. I find myself largely in agreement with Stanley's position.

------------------

A brief response to Robert Foster on my book, ‘Irresistible.’

I want to thank Robert Foster for reading and engaging with my latest book, Irresistible. To begin, I’d like to clarify a few points.

First, I’d like to put to rest any fears that my truncated quotation of 2 Timothy 3:16 in the book was intentionally shortened. Foster correctly notes that I only quote the first half of that verse. My purpose was to point out the OT is God-breathed and inspired, useful for many purposes, and I completely agree with the rest of that verse. In fact, that’s one reason I wrote Irresistible, to show that the fulfillment and end of the OT leads us to Jesus, and Jesus gives us a new ethic, one that calls us to sacrificial love and good works that make our faith irresistible to the world.

So I agree that God’s Word—both Old and New—is given to equip us for all sorts of good works, and I wish more Christians took that message to heart.

Foster provides three points to help us understand the function of the OT for Christians today:

• The OT can help Christians understand the implications of the gospel for our lives. 
• The OT can illuminate Christians’ understanding of God’s way in the world. 
• The OT can provide a foundation for Christian moral conduct. 

James Goll Gets Discernment 100% WRONG! - Pirate Christian

Found here. My comments in bold.

----------------------------

As is typical for the Doctrinal Police, Pirate Christian hyperventilates over an innocuous statement. 

If you visit the supplied link,  you will find that Pirate Christian is working only from the information provided by the bookseller. I sincerely doubt they read the book. 

If this is true, they have no idea what James Goll actually meant by the quoted statement.

--------------------------

These Lies Are Fueling Witchcraft Movement in the Church - JOHN BURTON

Found here. My comments in bold.
-----------------

The author does tell us that he likes to rock the boat and challenge systems, motives and traditions that exist within the local church. But he doesn't actually say what he does or to what end. 

I raise this because the premise upon which the author builds his case is the that people have wrong views of what the pastor is and does. But the author assumes the propriety of a singular authority in the church called "pastor."

Few, if any of the problems the author chronicles would gain traction if we had a biblical model of church leadership. There is nothing at all in the Bible about the church being led by one man called a pastor. Rather, there are apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists (Eph. 4:11). They are the ones who together raise up the body to maturity.

The NT teaches team leadership and Body ministry. No wonder 80% of the work of the church is done by 20% of the people. We have a bad model.

Thus the author lists several false attitudes about pastors, yet seems to reinforce false attitudes about pastors. 
---------------------

Marginal tax rates: the super easy explainer America needs - by Jason Linkins

Found here. My comments in bold.
----------------------

I actually don't have a lot to say about this. The author spends a lot of time hyperventilating about the Republican's supposed lack of understanding about marginal tax rates, while gamely doing his best to obscure the real issue: Cortez, like every Democrat under the sun, wants to raise taxes. Again.

According to this chart, income to the government has increased substantially since the recession, but spending has increased all the more. 

It's quite clear that the problem is spending, not income. Increasing taxes solves no problem. It never has and never will.
------------------------

Did God pour out His wrath on Jesus?

We want to explore the idea more fully the belief that God poured out His wrath and punished Jesus as a penal substitutionary atonement (PSA). This seems to be a very common belief, in fact, it's a core belief of the reformed branch of the Church.

The idea is, God's wrath burns against the unrighteous, and Jesus comes to intervene on behalf of the sinner. He takes the place of the sinner and bears God's wrath instead. Jesus is punished in our stead and God's wrath is now atoned for by Jesus' sacrifice.

But does the Bible support the idea?

Love and Anger at the Cross? POSTED BY NICK BATZIG

Found here. Our comments in bold.
--------------------

It seems a central tenet of Reformed Calvinism that God's wrath was poured out on Jesus at the Cross.

We have very little to comment upon here, since the author gives us not a single verse to support his position. Read it carefully. The author does not support his conclusion with Scripture.

We thoroughly discuss this matter here, here, and here.
--------------------

Beth Moore Declares “Spending Time With God and Spending Time With the Bible Are Not the Same Thing”

Found here. My comments in bold.
---------------------

My intent here is to examine the claims of the author. I have no particular desire to defend Beth Moore.
------------------

The well-known lady preacher and popular bible-study author, Beth Moore, makes an astonishing declaration–that spending time in God’s Word is not the same thing as spending time with God. (Let's see if the author actually demonstrates that reading the Bible is the same thing as spending time with God.)

Bad Worship Songs - Throne Room - Jesus Culture

Audio link here.
-----------------

From time to time we post the lyrics of what we consider to be poorly written worship songs. Our desire is not to mock or humiliate, but rather to honestly examine content with a view to calling forth a better worship expression.

With the great volume and variety of worship music available, none of us should have to settle for bad worship songs. We should be able to select hundreds or even thousands of top notch songs very easily.

But too often, the ones we select from are largely limited to what is playing now. It's sort of an Overton Window of worship music. That's not always bad, because there is some very good music being written and played on mass media.

But "what's playing now" is based on a variety of factors, including marketability, production, and content. The gatekeepers determine what access there is, and Jesus Culture has gained access to the market and is using it to continue to promulgate its material. That makes sense. What doesn't necessarily happen is continued high quality.

What makes a song a worship song? Is it enough to contain words like God or holy? How about vaguely spiritual sounding phrases? Should Jesus be mentioned? 

We think an excellent worship song should contain the following elements:

• A direct expression of adoration (God, you are...)
• A progression of ideas that culminates in a coherent story
• A focus on God, not us
• Lyrics that do not create uncertainty or cause confusion
• A certain amount of profundity
• A singable, interesting melody
• Allusions to Scripture
• Doctrinal soundness
• Not excessively metaphorical
• Not excessively repetitive
• Jesus is not your boyfriend

It's worth noting the most worship songs contain at least something good. That is, there might be a musical idea or a lyric that has merit. Such is the case with this song. Throne Room. There are some good parts, especially the first half of the chorus. But on the whole, there's just not enough here to consider it a good worship song.

Ok, Let's look at the song.

Verse one

Dream after dream, 
You are speaking to me, 
breathing word after word of kingdom come
Here at Your feet, 
I can see the unseen, 
truly one look at You and I'm undone

I run to the throne room
I run to the throne room

Read verse one aloud. Does it even make sense? Not really. There's a sense here of some disparate phrases cobbled together without regard to a cohesive narrative.

The song starts with the idea that God is speaking to the songwriter with a series of dreams about "kingdom come." Fair enough. We might object to this on the basis that we are forced to sing about the songwriter's experiences which may not be our own. Lauren Daigle also does this in the first line of her song "You Say:" I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I'm not enough. 

Those are intensely personal expressions, which in our view are outside the boundaries of corporate worship. In that vein, the song does tend to be self referential as a whole (19 uses of referents like I, me, and my).