"Most of us began our journey into faith with trusting hearts. Yet incidents of abuse, media accounts of perverted religion, personal disappointment, loss, betrayal, and even unrealistic expectations of God can cause us to develop a warped or damaged view of faith. Too often, what began as an authentic relationship with God deteriorates into a defective faith with an incomplete or poisoned view of God — one that allows the religion, not the relationship with God, to control our life." Stephen Arterburn
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"Spiritual abuse occurs when someone in a position of spiritual authority, the purpose of which is to 'come underneath' and serve, build, equip and make God's people MORE free, misuses that authority placing themselves over God's people to control, coerce or manipulate them for seemingly Godly purposes which are really their own." Jeff VanVonderen
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“The perfect church service,would be one we were almost unaware of .
Our attention would have been on God.” CS Lewis
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We must lay before him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.
- C. S. Lewis
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Our post “UNDER CEEJ – Why the Impersonation of C.J. Mahaney is NO LAUGHING MATTER” drew some interesting comments. An SGM loyalist who goes by the moniker “I think you exaggerate…” challenged my claims against SGM. I have decided to respond to his/her questions.
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Until last year, Dee and I were members of different Southern Baptist churches. Each of us spent almost a decade fully supporting the SBC. We were just “going with the flow” like so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ. During that time we were completely oblivious to the issues we discuss here at The Wartburg Watch. Then Almighty God got our attention…
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"It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satisfied; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
C.S. Lewis, author/theologian
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First, we will deal with the situation down in Florida.
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The Wartburg Watch is pleased to report that on March 31,2010, United States District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has allowed Tom Rich’s lawsuit to proceed against Assistant Florida State Attorney Stephen Siegel. Her finding in this matter is a positive point in a most distressing First Amendment matter.
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How did we come to have “Together FOUR (oops – for) the Gospel”, and why are these four men – Mohler, Dever, Mahaney, and Duncan – so revered?
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Have you been watching the countdown on the TOGETHER FOR THE GOSPEL blog with great anticipation? http://www.t4g.org/blog/ The long awaited T$G Conference is next week. Hooray!!! (OOPS! I was typing capital letters and forgot to take my finger off the shift button when I typed the "4" in "T4G"… Why is the dollar sign located just above the number 4 on the computer keyboard? Hmmm……) In honor of this important occasion on the New Calvinists' calendar, here's a re-post of our June 11, 2009 article. We will have more commentary on "Together for the Gospel" tomorrow…
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Yesterday, I had the privilege of listening, in church, to a panel made up of four scientists who happen to be Christians. They discussed their professions, how their faith impacts their science, and vice versa. All four proclaimed their sense of awe for God’s incredible creation and the complexity of the world He has made. Yet, all four of these Christians would be in serious trouble at my former church and in many others. All of them believed in an old earth and some form theistic evolution. Yet, as I listened to them, I could sense their passion for the Lord as well as their dedication to the Scriptures.
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Dee and I can hardly believe it! It was exactly one year ago TODAY that we published our very FIRST post on The Wartburg Watch. Most of you weren’t around way back then, so we thought we’d republish it. Here it is:
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We first published this post on December 8, 2009, hence the Santa reference. However, we could now call it, Tullian’s Bringing a Secret Easter Basket to CRPC. TT has close ties to Sovereign Grace Ministries, and we provide proof for our statement. We wonder if TT planned to use SGM’s hyper-authoritarian strategies from the beginning. This would certainly explain some of the tactics he has used since “taking over” Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church.
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Synopsis: This was first posted on December 4, 2009. It continues with TT’s assessment of how conflict affects the church. In particular, it shows his affinity for Matthew 18. Matthew 18 is the verse used by pastors to disregard legitimate concerns expressed by members of a congregation. His response: Throw the bums out! Far too many pastors are using this passage of Scripture to squash dissension, which, if viewed through different lenses, can bring positive change to churches. Instead, the Coral Ridge Six founded a new church with hundreds of participants , indicating that the dissidents numbered far beyond the original six. Also, it appears that the Presbytery of South Florida thinks TT may have responded rashly.
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Special note: We first posted this on December 2, 2009.We have not yet transferred our archives so we have decided to repeat these two blogs to give our readers background information which we feel is vital in understanding the unfortunate, and we believe somewhat avoidable, conflict at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church with Tullian Tchividjian at the head. We implore pastors, especially the hyper authoritarian kind to listen deeply to those they are called to serve.
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In light of the spirited discussion on the previous post, we have decided to look at a very interesting development in Tullian Tchividjian’s church situation. Then, over the next couple of days, we will highlight previous posts in which we dealt with the situation at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church.
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For those of you who have become familiar with C.J. Mahaney in recent years, you know him as the friend and colleague of the New Calvinists, namely, Al Mohler, Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, and John Piper, among others. Adrian Warnock, who hails from London and blogs for Newfrontiers, acknowledges this change in Mahaney’s associations as follows:
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The first time I ever heard the phrase “The Scream of the Damned” was on March 19, 2009, right around the time that Dee and I began our blog The Wartburg Watch. It absolutely INFURIATED me! How dare someone suggest that my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ “screamed” on the cross and that He was ‘damned’, which means “condemned, especially to eternal punishment”. I believe “damned” is a sensational word that implies someone is being sent to hell. After reading C.J. Mahaney’s book Living the Cross Centered Life, I discovered that this ridiculous phrase originated with R.C. Sproul (see yesterday’s post).
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“MAHANIACS” – Read at your own risk… What follows may challenge what you’ve been taught.
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Recently, I had the dubious opportunity to watch C.J. Mahaney give his testimony. We posted it last week but will post the video here for your convenience.
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As some of our loyal readers know, we changed formats at the beginning of 2010, and our archives have yet to be transferred over. Rest assured, we are working on it…
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When I was growing up, my mother often warned me that I would be judged by the company I keep. When companies invite speakers to their annual meeting, Wall Street watches very carefully because these speakers can often indicate the direction the company is going to pursue. Rest assured that a company would never feature a speaker with whom they disagreed.
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Surprise, surprise, surprise!!! Guess who’s speaking at the “2010 Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference”?
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“IN ESSENTIALS UNITY, IN NON-ESSENTIALS LIBERTY, IN ALL THINGS CHARITY”
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492 years ago , today, Martin Luther unwittingly started a revolution that resulted in the Protestant Reformation.Please note the base word in Protestant is “protest.” We have made Luther a hero in our churches and ,in doing so, have given him well deserved respectability. Many, including nonbelievers, would agree that he was the most influential person of the last millennium.
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"Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst."
–Reflections on the Psalms, CS Lewis
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"Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst."
–Reflections on the Psalms, CS Lewis
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"Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst."
–Reflections on the Psalms, CS Lewis
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It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.
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This series is written in honor of Adam. Although he was abused by the monster, the king, his men and the investigators, Adam stood his ground and behaved more like the Son of the Heavenly King than the king of Wonderland. May you have His peace.
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What do they teach them at these schools?”
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"It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule".
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“It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.” Lord of the Rings
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From Lord of the Rings:
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
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