False Prophets and what they Look Like

Jesus warned that “many false prophets will appear and deceive many people” (Mat. 24:11). Paul reaffirmed this warning:

• In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Tim. 3:12-13)

Neither exempted pastors and scholars from the company of “false prophets” and “imposters.” In Integral Christianity: The Spirit's Call to Evolve, former pastor Paul R. Smith is a good example of a false prophet:

• Jesus not only taught a radically new stage of unconditional love toward one another, he based it on a new perspective about God. He rejected the previous perception of God as violent and vengeful to the wicked which runs throughout the Old Testament. The new perspective is that God is kind and merciful to the wicked. Jesus modeled this and taught this. He stood in direct opposition to the divine violence of the Old Testament and, later on, parts of the New Testament. “Kind and merciful” was Jesus’ attitude toward the “sinners” of his day. The essence of his own relationship to his Abba God was that God was compassionate—not vengeful. Jesus practiced and preached this. If God practiced what Jesus preached, then God is not vengeful as the Old Testament vividly and repeatedly portrays. According to the new developmental stage introduced by Jesus, God is only compassion.

According to Smith, the Old Testament got God wrong, but Jesus has set the record straight with His presentation of a kinder more merciful God – “only compassion” - than the ruthless one of the Israelites. However, is this what Jesus actually taught?

Although Jesus taught that He was the bearer of a New Covenant, in no way did he ever claim that the Hebrew Scriptures had been mistaken, as Smith claims. Instead, He systematically affirmed the teachings of these Scriptures. In many respects, His teachings on God’s judgment are even more stringent! Here are just a few examples:

• Mat. 5:22 And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

• Mat. 5:28-30 Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

• Mat. 5:32 Anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

• Mat. 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

• Mat. 13:49-50 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

• Mat. 18:9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

• Mat. 25:51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

• Mat. 25:46 Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

• John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

• John 5:29 Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.

How would Smith respond when confronted with such verses? He would deny that they were really the words of Jesus! However, with the absolute freedom he has granted himself to re-invent the teachings of Jesus, he can justify absolutely anything! And this is just what he does. He is now able to trot out on his Hollywood stage a postmodern, integral Jesus who affirms just about any religion and any pathway to God – just the type of god that our educated elites are seeking after.

Smith is like the false prophets of the Old Testament, telling the Israelites exactly what they wanted to hear – “peace, peace” as destruction was about to consume them.

There are many Smiths out there to choose from. They all have a comfortable message that will fit right in with your lifestyle. No need to make any sacrifice! Jesus warned that the false prophets will deceive many:

• Mat. 24:24-25 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time.

He warned us. We have to take Him seriously!

My Response to Emergent Church Guru, Tony Jones

Tony,

I think we have to choose our battles carefully and not confront every expression of hypocrisy. However, some are so egregious that they must be addressed for the good and unity of the church – something you say you care about. However, you charged:

• Those who continue misogynistic [women hating] practices [by maintaining any role distinctions] in the church are not being faithful to the Bible or the Spirit of Christ, they are perpetuating retrograde and archaic beliefs and are doing great violence to women and men and the cause of Christ.

Indeed, Scripture teaches much about the essential equality of male and female (Gen. 1:26-27; Gal. 3:28) and the mutuality of husband and wife (1 Cor. 7:1-10; Eph. 5:22-30). However, your insinuation that the church is “not being faithful to the Bible or the Spirit of Christ” in terms of maintaining role distinctions is Scripturally insupportable. Here are some verses you might consider:

• 1 Cor. 11:3 I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. (Note that even though Christ subordinates Himself to the Father, this doesn’t imply any inferiority. Likewise, the wife subordinating herself to her husband is in no way demeaning. In fact, the greatest shall be least!)

• 1 Tim. 2:11-14: A woman should learn in quietness [of spirit] and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.  For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. (Note that this role distinction was not relative to the churches of Paul’s day but to the creation order and the Fall! Also 1 Cor. 14:34-38)

Jesus Himself appointed no women among His 12! Will you also charge Jesus with misogyny?

Is the Bible’s teaching on role distinctions injurious to women as you charge? I don’t think so! Instead, it dignifies them (1 Peter 3:7). If you choose to disagree and claim that there must not be any role distinctions among people – child/parent, subordinate/supervisor – that all role-distinctions are demeaning, then you must prove this!

You claim to be concerned about Scripture, but you show no respect for it. You claim to be concerned about the welfare of the church, but you consistently tear down the “Bride of Christ” with your charges.

Postmodern Christianity and Uncertainty

This is my response to a dialogue among post-modern Christians who doubt that confidence and assurance in the faith are possibilities:

Thai families that are selling their daughters into the sex trade were offered money by a Christian group to not do so. However, they scorned the offer and continued to do what had become culturally acceptable.

I wanted to understand what was so attractive about the rejection of certainty that they would continue in this destructive behavior. I struggle with the same perplexity as I try to understand the influence of Daniel Taylor’s “The Myth of Certainty.”

While I understand that his thesis enables us to accept our less-than-optimal Christian experience – he tells us that we lack certainty because we are the deep, sensitive and contemplative Christians – I fail to understand why you all continue in this “certainty” that undermines the very joy and confidence you can have in believing. However, it is not merely a matter of the fact that Taylor’s thesis will hurt you in the long run; it is actually problematic on other levels:

1. Most obviously, it is incoherent. Taylor claims “certainty” about his thesis while he denies certainty regarding the Christian faith. How is it that he expects his readers to embrace certainty about Christian uncertainty? Meanwhile, his certainty is destructive of the Christian faith and of Christians who try to embrace both Christ and Taylor at the same time.

2. Taylor’s thesis is entirely unbiblical. Although the Christian life is filled with struggles – doubts, uncertainty, fears, temptations – this doesn’t mean that certainty or assurance aren’t possibilities. The Bible talks much about the reality of certainty, confidence and assurance:

• Moses’ father-in-law confessed assurance: “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly." (Exodus 18:11)

• God made it possible that even the “whole world” would know of Him:  “Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.” (1 Samuel 17:46)

• He gave Israel unassailable proofs of His protection: “You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other. From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire.” (Deut. 4:35-36)

• Paul expressed a high level of confidence in the things of God (Phil. 1:25; 2:23; 2 Tim. 1:12).

• We too are promised this confidence and assurance (Eph. 3:12): “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22)

• Assurance is also something to pursue: “Be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall.”  (2 Peter 1:10)

3. Sadly, Taylor’s embrace of uncertainty undermines this pursuit of certainty. “We have not because we ask not” (James 4:3). Taylor instead wants to make us comfortable with our uncertainty.

I write these unsettling words because I want to build bridges among Christians. Even more importantly, to show you that you have found the wrong “comfort.” I pray that you will understand.