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The Manhattan Declaration. It was a featured segment on Al Mohler’s radio program recently, and I admit, I’d not read it. But, eventually I became curious. Any time national religious leaders make allegedly ‘historic’ declarations, well, it makes you want to look doesn’t it? So I did. I read it, and afterwards, after being informed [...]
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Brian McLaren, a leading guru in the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church de-formation of the Christian faith aka Emergent Church—now morphing into Emergence Christianity (EC), says — “Enough is enough” in his post Religious Right Insanity, Evangelical Cowardice:
I’m disgusted by the latest absurdity from the religious right covered in the clip below. I’m also depressed by the lack of courage among Evangelical leaders to speak out strongly against it (also covered in the clip below). How about it, Evangelicals? How many of you will join Frank Schaeffer and say, “Enough is enough?” (Online source)
The clip McLaren places in his post discusses the use by some “evangelicals” of Psalm 109:8 concerning President Barak Obama. It sounds to my ears a chance for Shaeffer to use this idea, by a group he initially says is “a crazy fringe,” to promote his book while grinding an ax against the evangelical movement and taking a shot at those “deluded” people who would hold a pre-trib pre-mil eschatology.
Well now I’m saying, Enough is Enough: Religious Left Insanity, Evangelical Cowardice. You see, I’m disgusted by the latest absurdity from the religious left in the EC with their Growing Gay Agenda In Evangelicalism as they attempt to convince us that the deviant lifestyle of having sexual relations with another of the same sex, i.e the sin of homosexuality, is a viable one for the evangelical Christian.
In posts like But Do Emergence Christianity And Brian McLaren Really Love Gay People? I shared that couldn’t care less what [insert celebrity-level evangelical leader here] has to say concerning their opinions about the issue of homosexuality; I care: “What does the Bible—God’s Word—itself have to say.”
If so-and-so’s opinions, speculations, and/or teachings, line up with that (see—Acts 17:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:21) then I will agree; if not, then it matters little what they say. And since Holy Scripture is crystal clear regarding the sin of homosexuality I’m also depressed by the lack of courage among evangelical leaders to speak out strongly against the EC’s homopression in lying to GLBTQ people.
Now, if only I had a book to promote, eh.
See also:
WHY NO CONDEMNATION FOR CHRISTIANS WHO ARE HOMOPRESSIVE?
JESUS DEFINES MARRIAGE FOR RED LETTER CHRISTIANS
THE SIN OF HOMOSEXUALITY IS DIFFERENT
EMERGING CHURCH AND ADELE SAKLER TRANSFORM GAY AGENDA IN EVANGELICALISM
ROB BELL, PETER ROLLINS, AND QUEERMERGENT’S ADELE SAKLER
THE NIGHTMARE BEGINNING FOR MAINSTREAM EVANGELICALISM
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In Apprising Ministries articles like Emerging Church And Adele Sakler Transform Gay Agenda In Evangelicalism and Christian Agnostic Adele Sakler And Samir Selmanovic Discuss Christian Atheism I’ve introduced you to practicing lesbian “Christ-follower” Adele Sakler aka Existential Punk (EP). You may know that Sakler heads up Queermergent, a group within the the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church de-formation of the Christian faith aka Emergent Church—now morphing into Emergence Christianity (EC)—An Emergent Safe House for the LGBTQ Community.
As you can see in Meet Outlaw Preachers Sakler’s also made the dubious choice to align herself with that largely Biblically illiterate, and rather rapscallion bunch now sprouting up around head Outlaw gay affirming “pastor” Jay Bakker. Today I received the email below, by which time I had already read it online at Sakler’s EP website as the post Dear Ken . . . That was fine by me, and since she’d decided we’d do this publicly, in the same vein I will publish the reply I sent Adele right below her email:
Ken,
i just wanted to write and thank you sincerely for all the traffic you bring to my two blogs. Even though people rarely comment, it’s real nice that you help my stats increase!
i know we disagree on most everything related to faith. Yet, the common denominator we have in common is our faith in Jesus Christ. That, sir, is the most important thing to me. G-D commands us to Love him and to love others as we love ourselves. Kindness and grace go a long way.
i know you feel like you are doing what you are supposed to do. Free as you are, it is sad that you think anyone who disagrees with you is wrong, reprobate, an apostate, and/or going to hell. i used to believe like you but it was too tiring and painful.
i just wanted to let you know that despite all the things you write about Me even though you do not really know me, i LOVE YOU, Ken Silva! It would be nice if you would take the time to get to know someone like me, a queer who loves Christ. i can be a pain in the ass but i am really a nice person who is plodding along through life. Too bad you are so set in ‘your’ ways. We might have a cool conversation. Yet, i sense you really are not open to that since you have everything all neatly figured out and interpreted from the Bible.
i am so sorry you think i am an apostate on my way to hell. i beg to differ and i’m ok with that.
G-D bless you, Ken Silva!
Warmest Regards,
Adele Sakler
Hello Adele,
Thank you for contacting Apprising Ministries. I read this earlier on your Existential Punk website, which has also has an intro noting I’m one “who is CONSTANTLY writing negative things about me and my friends. i am starting to wonder if he is getting an unhealthy obsession with me?!” Is ok; you may rest assured I am not. Truly, this isn’t personal; I’m just doing my job is all. You asked: “Why are some people so locked in their certainties and if one disagrees with them, then they are wrong, they are going to hell, they are reprobate, they are apostates? Why can’t people like this see that there is room at the table for differing views and interpretations?”
But I could also ask you, why are some people so afraid of certainty concerning what the text of the Bible actually says? How, in their uncertainty, are they then suddenly so sure that someone like me is wrong? Why can’t people like this see that where the Bible is clear we must proclaim its truth, regardless of whether others like it or not? All depends upon how one looks at it, ya know. Adele, in the issue of homosexuality, there is no room at the table for differing views and interpretations because God has spoken quite clearly that it is sin. However, I would ask you to be careful not to just assume that I am some narrow-minded fundamentalist bigot who hates GLBTQ people; because I’m really not, and, I don’t.
Prior to being saved, I was a stand-up comic and professional musician living for years in Long Beach, and performing all around the Los Angeles area, so there really isn’t much I haven’t seen. I have many gay friends, one of which was my boss when I worked in a group home with people who are developmentally challenged people. And he was very out about his sexuality. We’d joke about it all the time; we got along great, and I even visited with him, as well as his partner, at their home many times. Also, my niece is out concerning her homosexuality. You see, strictly on a personal level, one’s sexual orientation doesn’t matter to me at all.
However, as one Jesus called to be one of His pastor-teachers, I have an obligation to proclaim His Word; and the Bible tells us homosexuality is among the sins which lead one to hell. Still, I’m not telling anyone they are going to hell; because I have no way to know their future. What I do warn someone about, who is unrepentant in their sin, is that if they do not repent and receive the forgiveness of their sin in Jesus Christ, then the broad road they place themselves upon does end up in hell (see—Matthew 7:13-14). Jesus tells us, apart from Him, they are already condemned (see—John 3:18).
In your case Adele, from reading your own testimony, you have apostatized from a previously held proper view of the Bible, and sin, so at this time you are on that broad road. In love I humbly implore you, please repent and turn to the Jesus of the Bible; as He’s the only one there is. If there’s anything I can do to help you, I would certainly be willing to try. Adele, you are correct; we don’t agree, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you, for Christ’s sake. There are many people with whom I disagree, and we can agree to disagree agreeably.
That said, sometimes God’s message has an Isaiah 6:8-10 result; and this is something I have no control over. When I link to your sites, because I’ve been blessed of the Lord with a couple of large Internet forums, your traffic will increase. However, being a former head football coach, I often use football as an analogy for this type of spiritual warfare. The truth is, you and me are on the playing field of ideas in the church visible, and like a middle linebacker, it’s my job to stop you—and the team you play for—from penetrating the heart of the defense.
One of the best ways I can do that is to link to your sources, and thereby shine the light upon what your team is actually doing, supposedly in the Lord’s Name. You said, “the common denominator we have in common is our faith in Jesus Christ.” I’m sorry Adele, but you’re wrong; we don’t believe in the same Jesus Christ at all (see—2 Corinthians 11:4). You also said, “Too bad you are so set in ‘your’ ways. We might have a cool conversation.” I say this gently, and you’re not?
The fact remains, I’m not here to have “conversation” about God when I’m on the playing field; as a pastor I am to preach His Word and teach people what He has said (see—2 Timothy 4:2). Now, as I told Tony Jones when he called me a couple of years ago, once we are off the field, so to speak, we could talk about other things over dinner. But I cannot fellowship with you as fellow Christians because you’re not playing for the Lord; though I assume you’re sincere, in my view you’re both on Satan’s team.
Finally, you also say, “i sense you really are not open to [getting to know someone like me] since you have everything all neatly figured out and interpreted from the Bible.” Adele, my mind is closed to anything that fights against Jesus because — To fear the LORD is to hate evil (Proverbs 8:13), and as I explained above, I know many people like you. And I’m sorry that you appear to have been hurt by people claiming to know Christ; however at the same time, no one credible is claiming to “have everything all neatly figured out.”
All we are saying is that, when the Bible is clear, then those of us who dare call ourselves Christians need to obey what Jesus has said. I pray this helps a little anyway.
Sincerely,
Ken
See also:
ROB BELL, PETER ROLLINS, AND QUEERMERGENT’S ADELE SAKLER
THE NIGHTMARE BEGINNING FOR MAINSTREAM EVANGELICALISM
GROWING GAY AGENDA IN EVANGELICALISM
THE SIN OF HOMOSEXUALITY IS DIFFERENT
BIBLE OUTS GAY MARRIAGE (PART TWO)
QUEERMERGENT AND NOW ADULTERMERGENT!?
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John Stott | “Evangelism is the major instrument of social change. For the gospel changes people, and changed people can change society.”
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This story defines human depravity. How can be any more clear than this.
Can God’s biblical blueprint be true in raising children?
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Paul Washer of HeartCry Missionary Society invites you to attend the NCFIC national conference – The Sufficiency of Scripture 2009. Held at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center near Cincinnati, OH, attendees will be given the opportunity to hear an array of messages covering the application of Sola Scriptura to many areas of church and family [...]
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Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. ”I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.” (Jeremiah 3:6-8)
Spiritual Practices From Roman Catholicism Now In Protestant Evangelicalism
Today there is more and more talk about apostasy that gives an appearance of having only been recently ignited within the visible Church of our Lord; and for many, it seems to have suddenly exploded onto the scene. However, Satan has been busy saturating throughout the very dry forest of intellectual evangelical churchianity, so easily passing for Christianity these days in alleged postmodern [read: relativistic] America, highly flammable Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism—which first flowered in apostate Roman Catholicism.
Now, as if by a spiritual match tossed onto the gasoline of CSM—with its critical thinking skills-paralyzing and highly existential vehicle of Contemplative/Centering Prayer—apostasy appears to have suddenly exploded in the church visible. But I offer however, that this apostasy has actually been slowly burning for years and now the Holy Spirit is simply blowing it throughout the church. And so it is just now spreading within the American Christian Church as quickly an Oklahoma wildfire in order to burn out the deleterious driftwood that’s wasting our Father’s precious resources.
You see, those listening to the Voice of the Spirit know that very rough spiritual waters lie dead ahead because we are beginning to witness 1 Peter 4:17 judgments as Christ begins shaking His Church. Men and women, you hear me; and hear me good. The time has come in the American Christian Church for division; for a reformation every bit the same as when Luther stood hammer in hand. There is no way to harmonize what you will hear in the following sermon from Dr. John MacArthur with today’s centered on the self semi-pelagian evangelicalism, and its reversal of the Reformation.
Know this, there can be no compromise with men who’s message is really rooted in the man-pleasing Church Growth Movement—be it personal betterment ala Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren, or quasi-Christian Universalism ala Rob Bell. And tragically going unnoticed within squishy evanjellyfish right now is what can only be called The New Downgrade No-Controversy. Well, I for one want nothing to do with this vain religiousity currently passing for the genuine Christian faith, and especially not as it begins to fully accept apostate Roman Catholicism as a “Christian” tradition.
Devastating Effects Of Bringing The Emerging Church Into The Mainstream Evangelical Camp
We can directly trace that foolishness back to evangelicalism’s embrace of the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church de-formation of the Christian faith aka Emergent Church—now morphing into Emergence Christianity (EC). However, what many people don’t know is that the EC had CSM, as taught by “key mentors” Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster and his spiritual twin Dallas Willard, as a core doctrine. And tragically, it would serve a Trojan Horse from which Satan would unload spurious CSM, now spreading under the guise of Spiritual Formation.
And here we arrive at the very heart of the matter: The Emerging/ent/ence Church of postevangelicalism had to attack Sola Scriptura because God’s Word exposes its own lust of the self (see—2 Timothy 3:2). If it’s ever to realize its utopian dream of some Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man then it must attempt to reverse the Lord’s Reformation with its proper Bibliology. So with this in mind, I take my leave with the following words from an excellent and prophetic sermon The Pope and the Papacy by Dr. John MacArthur.
The point we make isn’t so much about the Pope, or his spiritually bankrupt church; it’s about false religion, period. And sadly, the EC has taken such a deep root within Young Adult and Youth groups in mainstream evangelical churches, it’s “make the world a better place” religion has all but obscured the actual mission of the church — that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all nations (Luke 24:47). The truth is, the reimagined version of the social gospel of the Cult of Liberal Theology spreading through evangelicalism is another religion entirely.
Even though saying so is offensive to many; when all is said and done, the most loving thing we can do is try and call people out of this apostate form of Christianity. Having studied the teachings of CSM proponents, I can tell you that out of one side of their mouth they will sound humble in their embrace of mystery and how we shouldn’t speak with certainty regarding the things of God. But, out of the other side of their mouth, such as these who aren’t sure what they believe are sure of one thing; men like me, who advance Sola Scriptura, are wrong.
Bottom line, this Ecumenical Church Of Deceit (ECoD) is filling up with new Gnostics who are certain through their practice of CSM that God is uniting all Christian “faith traditions” in order for us to join forces to bring the world into the way God “dreams” for it to be. And in this way, the ECoD reveals she is very much like her mother the Roman Catholic Church. So what MacArthur says in reference to the Church of Rome also applies to these new Gnostics now slithering deeper into the mainstream of apostatizing evangelicalism:
I want to talk about the Pope himself, and then talk about the Papacy in general. I’m going to tell you at the beginning what is at stake because of what I am going to say will surely offend those who are devout Catholics. It will surely offend those who believe that Catholics are brothers and sisters in Christ. Some will read it as unkind and unloving but nothing is more loving than the truth.
To let somebody perish in a false system isn’t loving at all. To rescue people out of a damning and false religion is the only loving thing to do… Oh, they’ve got a clever system. How to preserve error. How to perpetuate error. Make heresy infallible. And the arch heretic unassailable, ir-reformable and absolutely authoritative… (Online source)
See also:
THE NIGHTMARE BEGINNING FOR MAINSTREAM EVANGELICALISM
THE TERMINOLOGY TRAP OF “SPIRITUAL FORMATION”
CORRUPT CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM GAINING GROUND IN EVANGELICALISM
DISCIPLINES TO DECEPTION IN SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
“INWARD JOURNEY” ESPOUSED BY RICHARD FOSTER IS A FORM OF DIVINATION
THE GOSPEL-LESS GOSPEL OF ROB BELL
EMERGING CHURCH AND ADELE SAKLER TRANSFORM GAY AGENDA IN EVANGELICALISM
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HT: Calvinistic Cartoons
Posted in Humor Tagged: bereans, calvinistic, cartoons, Church, Eddie, Eddings, Humor, obamanation, pastors 
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(Click here to download the first chapter of Bruce Wilkinson’s book, You Were Born for This.)
(Click on the following to read my earlier posts on the text: Title & Table of Contents, Table of Contents addendum, Testimonials, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, 13, the final grade for the text, and my initial public challenge to Bruce Wilkinson.)
Dear Bruce,
You’ll be pleased to know that this is my final letter to you regarding your book, You Were Born for This. After a week and a half of complete silence, it’s looking like you’re not planning on responding to these important questions.
During Tuesday’s LiveStream broadcast, I asked you if you could share with us which bible passages support the premise of your book. You said that there were so many, then you went on to speak to individual keys listed in your book, and which books in the Bible addressed them.
Bruce, you may think you answered the question, but you dodged it in a way that would make former president Bill Clinton proud.
I asked you specifically about the premise (which, for readers coming in late, says that God wants to regularly use each of us to do a miracle in the life of someone else). You spoke to particular facets in the book, which are very different from the overall premise, but you know that.
I asked you why evangelism was not mentioned whatsoever in this book. You said that you and your co-author (David Kopp) talked about that at great length, and then decided that there were already many good resources out there on that topic.
Bruce, there are plenty of resources on how God wants to use me for ministry and for good works and so on. According to your logic, there wasn’t really a need for you to have written You Were Born for This.
Clearly, you didn’t really satisfy either answer I posed on Tuesday.
That about covers the extent of it, except for one very interesting remark:
About 10 minutes in to the broadcast, you shared about non-believers being used by God to do miracles in the lives of others. Have to ask you again: Where does the Bible teach this?
That still leaves questions 1, 2 and 3 from last week’s public challenge without ever being answered:
1) The authors never identify the identity of your reader. They write so generically that both the non-believer and the Christian might believe that they are writing to them. To whom are they writing, and why be so generic?
2) Their definition of a “miracle,” which is the main topic of the text, is not biblical. What they describe as miracles in your book are defined as good deeds in the Bible. (Romans 7:4b says, “And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.” NLT) Why change the terms when the Bible (and 2,000 years of Christianity) has always understood the clear difference between miracles and good deeds?
3) The authors refer to places (attitudes, really) like “Everyday Miracle Territory,” “the Land of Good Deeds,” and “The Land of Signs and Wonders,” as though they are mentioned in the Scripture, when (in reality) they never appear. Why speak so authoritatively about things that simply don’t exist?
Like you, I have mostly positive feedback, but I’ve had a few people write in with their concerns and disagreements, too. For the record, I have written back to everyone who has written me regarding what I’ve written on this apologetics ministry.
I wonder what it’s like to not have to answer to those who disagree with me. I’m sure it must be very…liberating.
Chris
PS Next Monday and Tuesday, I’ll break each of the my questions down, so that you (and anyone else reading) fully understand the ramifications. Should be very instructional – for both of us.
PPS For new readers, my earlier analyses of Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile (by Rob Bell and Don Golden) is available for free download. Simply click on my title, Clear as a Bell, and decide for yourself whether or not Bell’s teachings match those found in God’s Word.
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Posted in Videos Tagged: Apologetics, attacks, Bible, error, inspired, john, macarthur, new, old, Romans, Sin, testament, Truth 
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