1 John 2:19 Illustrated

Jon Harris and I do not see eye to eye on everything.  He’s very Baptist.  I’m very Anglican.  And he is one of the few that can make me look moderate at times.  Nonetheless I think he hit it out of the park with his analysis of “These Evangelical Women Are Abandoning Trump and the Church.”

I am not going to rehash either his video nor the article.  But several thoughts came to mind as I watched and then read:

1. If someone would leave a church over members voting for Trump, that says more about that one’s priorities and commitment to the church than about those who vote for Trump.  People voting in self-defense for Trump against the Democrats and Hillary was not wrong.  And even if you disagree, it is not grounds for leaving a church. 

And yes, I am also talking about Jemar Tisby and other whining Woke Churchers who have oh-so lamented evangelicals voting for Trump.  They need to grow up.  Better yet, they need to repent of smearing millions of Christians who voted to stop or at least slow this country’s descent into totalitarian evil.

2. Evangelical churches are not blameless for young evangelicals leaving.  And the article actually does have some valid criticisms.  I’ve railed against The Evangelical Church of What’s Happening Now, skinny jeans and all.  Many evangelical pastors probably think catechesis is a disease.  There has been too much seeker sensitive pablum and not enough making disciples.  And, yes, some churches are among the many institutions that have enabled abuse.

But the women mentioned in the article need to look in the mirror more and blame their past churches less.  I will get to that.  Hey, I’ve had bad experiences in evangelical churches, too.  I let God use that to strengthen me in the faith instead of the opposite.

3. Bad generations happen even when leadership is excellent.  Joshua was one of the best leaders in the Bible, yet after he died, “there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.  And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.” (Judges 2: 10,11)

Parents and churches are a vitally important influence on children.  But man is evil, and evil generations can and do arise even when led well.

And, yes, I think this generation that is leaving the church and attacking America is an evil generation.  They are not to be coddled or accommodated.  The church is to call them repentance.  The church should not change to appease them.

4. Finally, and most importantly, there is 1 John 2:19:

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (ESV)

This verse kept coming to mind again and again as I watched Harris’ video and read the article.  If someone goes to work for a pro-abortion organization or for the likes of Elizabeth Warren, she is evil.  She was not a faithful Christian in the first place.  The church is better off without her.  Yes, I said it. (* But do see below.)

Yes, the church should mourn that any, especially those once among the church, so choose to run after evil.  And the church should always look to see if it is doing anything amiss.  But at the same time a church should repel such evil.   A faith that doesn’t offend anyone is not The Faith.  Furthermore . . .

…You are to deliver [such people] to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that [their] spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

In no way should they be told that their apostasy is acceptable or justified.  They should also be told they are welcome to return if they repent.

But they left their churches and descended into such evil because they are evil.  Not because church people voted for Trump. 

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* Please note that, like the article and video, I am talking about people who once were active in somewhat orthodox churches and once claimed to be Christians.  We should not expect those never or rarely in the church to exercise Christian discernment and should be much more gentle and patient with them.  I once was pro-abortion, but I repented of that and of much more thanks to God and to patient Christians who gently taught me the truth.

Blaming the Holy Spirit in ACNA

So many things on which I could post and so little time!  But I am prepared enough for my lecture later this week that I can sneak in a post on the latest from Emily McGowin, Canon Theologian of the ACNA Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others (C4SO).

She writes vigorously in defense of women’s ordination.  I concede she argues well . . . until this near the end “on the subject of theological method”:

Does the apparent work of the Holy Spirit in setting apart and empowering women for priestly ministry today—not just in the West, but in regions all over the world—have something to contribute to the discussion? Certainly, experience alone cannot be normative within the Anglican tradition, but can it be permitted a seat at the theological “table”?

Ah, yes. Blaming the Holy Spirit for one’s pet innovations. The Holy Spirit has brought about women’s ordination.  Right.

I am amazed that McGowin would make this argument.  Does she not remember that making one’s innovations a work of the Holy Spirit is “the theological method” of apostate bodies, including The Episcopal Church from which The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) fled?  Does she not remember that this is the very method used by those who push any number of ungodly innovations and enormities in the organized church?

Or at least I thought we in ACNA fled from this LibChurch “theological method.”

Really, being as sloppy as apostates in theological reasoning and exalting that even is a more alarming problem in ACNA than women’s ordination.

But the two usually go hand in hand, do they not?

Marty Sampson and the Shallowness of The Evangelical Church of What’s Happening Now (VI)

Yes, I am a bit slow to comment on Hillsong’s Marty Sampson losing his faith.  But it speaks (sings?) volumes about The Evangelical Church of What’s Happening Now (TECoWHaN) so I am compelled to comment even if this is no longer a hot topic.

First, I must say to Sampson’s credit – and likewise to Josh Harris’s credit – that he is open and honest about his no longer being a Christian.  That is a much more honorable course than that taken by, say, Spong, Brian McLaren, RHE, and any number of other misleaders: of denying the basics of the faith while still pretending to be not only a Christian but to speak and teach publicly as such.  I can have a beer and a chat with a Sampson or a Harris.  I really can’t with a Spong or a McLaren (And I think scripture teaches I should not, but that’s a whole ‘nother subject.)

At the same time, it is appalling how Sampson is ditching Christianity on the most shallow grounds. In his own words:

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Time for some real talk…I’m genuinely losing my faith…and it doesn’t bother me…like, what bothers me now is nothing…I am so happy now, so at peace with the world…it’s crazy/this is a soapbox moment so here I go xx how many preachers fall? Many. No one talks about it. How many miracles happen. Not many. No one talks about it. Why is the Bible full of contradictions? No one talks about it. How can God be love yet send 4 billion people to a place, all coz they don’t believe? No one talks about it. Christians can be the most judgmental people on the planet-they can also be some of the most beautiful and loving people…but it’s not for me. I am not in anymore. I want genuine truth. Not the “I just  believe it” kind of truth. Science keeps piercing the truth of every religion. Lots of things help people change their lives, not just one version of God. Got so much more to say, but for me, I keeping it real. Unfollow if you want, I’ve never been about living my life for others. All I know is what’s true to me right now, and Christianity just seems to me like another religion at this point…I could go on, but I won’t. Love and forgive absolutely. Be kind absolutely. Be generous and do good to others absolutely. Some things are good no matter what you believe. Let the rain fall, the sun will come up tomorrow.

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Hmm, that last sentence sounds like a song lyric. But anyway, this is the sort of reasoning I would expect from a 14 year old trying to make a sophisticated rationale for not being a Christian. Actually, that’s not fair . . . to 14 year olds.  I’ve heard much better questions and reasoning from 14 year olds and younger.

For someone who is very young or very new to investigating Christianity to have the issues Sampson mentions is one thing. But this man was a leader in Hillsong for years.  Who taught him the faith?  Who put him forth as a leader? My intent is not to bash him but to point out that it takes a profoundly shallow, short-sighted, and negligent church or parachurch to produce a leader like Sampson.  But that is exactly how shallow Hillsong and the rest of The Evangelical Church of What’s Happening Now can be.  Hillsong, TECoWHaN and “faith” without substance is what you get when you are grounded in trendy “faith” instead of traditional faith.  

God help those raised under such lightweight leadership.  If you are grounded in air, falling is likely.  As Rod Dreher recalls:

I think about what an Evangelical college professor told me in 2017 about the kids in his university: that 99 percent of them carry in their hearts a Christianity that is entirely based on youth-group emotionalism, and that has no serious theological foundation. 

There has been much alarm about how many youth ditch the faith once they leave home and their home church to go off into the world.  The shallowness of TECoWHaN is one big reason why.

It is past time to ditch TECoWHaN evangalatainment and bring back traditional catechesis. That is not a cure-all – there will always be apostates as scripture makes clear – but it is necessary. 

But most in TECoWHaN do not even know what catechesis is and might guess that it’s an infectious disease spread by too much exposure to incense in church.  If so, that would still be better than the shallowness being spread by The Evangelical Church of What’s Happening Now.

Perfect. Anglican Communion Ambassador to Rome is a Resurrection Denier.

Archbishop Cranmer is among those provoked that an open Resurrection denier has been appointed Interim Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, which is effectively the embassy of the Anglican Communion to The Vatican. Hence its Director is in effect the Ambassador of the Anglican Communion to The Vatican.

The said Resurrection denier is the Very Rev’d Dr John Shepherd, formerly Dean of St George’s Cathedral, Perth, and Chaplain of Christ Church, Oxford from 1980 to 1988.  For Easter, he has said the following and more:

The Resurrection of Jesus ought not to be seen in physical terms, but as a new spiritual reality. It is important for Christians to be set free from the idea that the Resurrection was an extraordinary physical event which restored to life Jesus’ original earthly body.
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Jesus’ early followers felt His presence after His death as strongly as if it were a physical presence and incorporated this sense of a resurrection experience into their gospel accounts. But they’re not historical records as we understand them. 

There’s video, too:

But Happy Easter anyway!

One wonders if he would have been appointed if he were an open “Climate Change Denier.”  Heck, we wonder no such thing.  We know what would have happened.

But personally I am only mildly provoked by this appointment.  It is old hat really.  And, frankly, the Romans under Pope Franco deserve an insulting appointment like this.  The Vatican has a LibPope who enables and promotes abusing and abuse-enabling LibChurchers.  Really, The Vatican deserves worse than John Shepherd.  I hope Gene Robinson and Peter Ball were given due consideration.

This appointment is also appropriate due to the history of openly apostate bishops in the Anglican Communion, none of whom have been defrocked for fifty years and more if my memory is correct.  John Shelby Spong, David Jenkins, Shepherd, and no telling how many other allegedly Anglican bishops and clergy have openly denied and even mocked the physical resurrection of Christ.  How many have been defrocked? Hmmm?

That has provoked me for decades and still does. But with that history in mind, John Shepherd is a very appropriate appointment indeed.  Canterbury and Rome deserve no less.

Communist “Christian” Anglican Idolaters March in Sri Lanka

I’ve been trying to be nice or at least nicer lately – I really have – but then George Conger makes me aware of this march.  And, no, I will not be nice about this brazen display of idolatry with deceptive “Christian” veneer splattered on it.

The former Bishop of Kurunegala and other members of the Workers Christian Fellowship (WCF) held their annual May Day march in Colombo last week. . . .

Wearing stoles and a cope covered with the hammer and sickle symbol, the Rt. Rev. Kumara Illangasinghe, who served as the fourth bishop of Kurunegala in the Church of Ceylon from 2000 to 2010 and was a member of the Anglican Consultative Council’s Standing Committee, and clergy from the Diocese of Colombo, along with trade unionists marched on May 1 in the Colombo’s Fort area to mark International Workers’ Day.

So we had a leading “bishop” of the Anglican Communion involved in this.  As for the stoles with hammers and sickles, see the photo for yourself over at Anglican Ink.  Given the tens of millions murdered by Communism, they might as well be wearing swastikas, too.  Hey, if you’re going to march for totalitarianism, why not go all the way?    

As for the Workers Christian (sic) Fellowship, here’s the sort of thing they push, from a 1984 pamphlet (emphasis mine):

We have already made the point that the Living Christ is at work in the faiths and movements for human liberation [meaning Communism.  “Slavery is freedom” and all that. - .ed]. Christ is the Word or expression of God, the Logos, the Dharma and the Dynamic of History, who provides all human beings coming into existence with the means of salvation, the path of liberation in their own religio-cultural contexts. Thus when for instance a Buddhist or Hindu finds salvation, it is by the grace of Christ as we would term it that this happens and he is incorporated then into the new life of God's Kingdom even if he knows nothing of Christianity. And it is through the sacraments of Buddhism and Hinduism, through the message of morality and the self-giving life that such salvation is normally transmitted and received. 

And that’s just some of the idolatry WCF pushes. Communion, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Marxism all mixed up with a token Jesus.  Jeroboam has nothing on these people.  And it has surely gotten worse since 1984 if that’s possible.

(NOTE: Please do not take this as a knock on honest Hindus and Buddhists.  I’d much rather sit and talk about religion with these - and have done so - than with phony LibChurch idolatrous apostates who dishonestly still call themselves Christians.  Nor should this be taken as a knock on newer Christians and seekers who need to learn and are willing to do so.)

How should Anglicans respond when a bishop serves this sort of garbage? He should be denounced as the deceptive idolatrous heretic he is.  It should be made very clear to all who can hear that he is no Christian but a liar who dresses up as a so-called bishop to deceive people so they become as damned as he is.

Do you think I am being overwrought?  Let’s flip it.  What if the stoles did have swastikas?  What if the bishop and clergy were pushing a mix of Nazism and Hinduism and were saying God uses that to save people? What actually occurred was every bit as bad.  And one who does not see that either needs to gain some knowledge of history or lose some selective indignation.

I love Anglicanism, but many Anglicans do have a bad habit of going easy and looking the other way and even rewarding and advancing such, as is the case with Illangasinghe, when there should instead be outrage and denunciation and casting off.

St. Paul’s approach is much better than the typical nice Anglican one:

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Gal. 1: 8, 9