Truth War Central

Re-imagining God in the Shack

Mary Kassian a member of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and the founder of Girls Gone Wise has a thought provoking critique of The Shack written from a woman's perspective. Said Kassian:

The Shack contains terribly wrong concepts about God. Plain and simple. If you think it doesn’t, then you’re well on your way to accepting the image of the Christa on the cross. In a few years, you’ll be hanging her up in your church. I don’t think I’m overstating the case. In my book I’ve carefully documented the way it happened in mainline churches. The arguments used to justify their feminist Christa are the same ones the Shack uses to justify its feminized version of God. In essence, there’s no difference between the artistic image of a feminized Jesus (a.k.a. “Sophia”) hanging on a cross and the artistic image of a feminized Aunt Jemima Papa god in a book. If the latter doesn’t offend you, then the former really shouldn’t.

I’ve had good friends tell me that I’m missing the point of the Shack. Maybe I am. But maybe, just maybe, they are. Maybe they are getting caught up in the emotion of a heart-wrenching story and are failing to notice the horrendous theology that under girds it. The authors claim that “at its core the book is one long Bible Study.” This isn’t an ordinary story book. It’s a book that seeks to transform people’s ideas about God. The fiction is merely a vehicle for the theology.

How we image God matters. So the image of God the book presents matters. It matters a great deal. I seem to recall that God wasn’t terribly amused when his people imaged him in the wrong way, as a golden calf. If you’re not convinced that we should refrain from imaging God as female, and are interested in understanding more about the feminist theology rampant in the Shack, check into my book, The Feminist Mistake. If you take the time to understand the impact that feminism has had on society and church, then maybe you’ll understand my distaste for the Shack’s feminine god rendition.

Click Here to Read the Rest of Kassian's Review

God in a Box or God As HE Has Revealed Himself?

Here is an excerpt from an important article published at ExtremeTheology.com entitled "God in a Box or God As HE Has Revealed Himself":

Today, if you happen to be conversing with a group of CHRISTIANS and you boldly, confidently, and succinctly talk about God and His characteristics, attributes and what He has done you are very likely to be accused of 'putting God in a box'?

One of these Christians might even throw a Rob Bell quote or two in your face and tell you that you need to not be so arrogant and should adopt a more humble hermeneutic. According to Bell, 'The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God. We are dealing with somebody we made up.' (Velvet Elvis, Page 25)

Poppycock!

In the scriptures we have God's revelation of himself and that divine self-revelation gives us some very hard neat lines and definitions about who God is, what He is like, what He has done and what true worship of Him entails"

Click Here to Continue Reading This Article

The Gospel in 6 Minutes

Texas "Christian" University Cancels Plan for Gay Student Housing

Texas Christian University has for now scrapped plans for a gay-themed student housing, pending a review by the school's officials. (yeah but their decision had nothing to do with the fact that Homosexuality is a SIN)

The university's chancellor, Victor J. Boschini, Jr., announced the cancellation in a statement Monday, saying university officials 'will assess whether the concept of housing residential students based on themes supports the academic mission of the institution, as well as our objective to provide a total university experience.'

The DiversCity Q community was set to launch this fall as part of the Tom Brown-Pete Wright apartments. Eight students had signed up to join the community which would have been opened to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students and their supporters.

The themed housing was part of a new initiative by the university's Office of Residential Services and Living Learning Communities to allow students to create their own community based on shared interests."

Online Source Christian Post

The Rape of Solomon's Song

John MacArthur has weighed in on the issue of pastors using graphic sexual language when preaching on the Song of Solomon. Said the Rev. Doctor MacArthur:

Apparently the shortest route to relevance in church ministry right now is for the pastor to talk about sex in garishly explicit terms during the Sunday morning service. If he can shock parishioners with crude words and sophomoric humor, so much the better. The defenders of this trend solemnly inform us that without such a strategy it is well-nigh impossible to connect with today's 'culture.' (In contemporary evangelicalism that term has become a convenient label for just about everything that is uncultured and uncouth.)

Sermons about sex have suddenly become a bigger fad in the evangelical world than the prayer of Jabez ever was. Everywhere, it seems, churches are featuring special series on the subject. Some of them advertise with suggestive billboards purposely designed to offend their communities' conservative sensibilities.

Quite a few pastors have earned widespread media coverage by issuing 'sex challenges' to church members. These are schemes that make daily sex obligatory for married couples over a specified time—usually between seven and forty days. (How people are made accountable for this is a question I'm afraid to raise.)

I would be the last to suggest that preachers should totally avoid the topic of sex. Scripture has quite a lot to say about the subject, starting with God's first words to Adam and Eve ('Be fruitful and multiply'—Genesis 1:22). God's law has numerous commands that govern sexual behavior, and the New Testament repeatedly reaffirms the Old Testament standard of sexual purity. Finally, in the closing chapters of Scripture we are told that sexually immoral people will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8). So there's simply no way to preach the whole counsel of God without mentioning sex."

Online Source: Shepherd's Fellowship

Most American Christians Do Not Believe that Satan or the Holy Spirit Exist

A new nationwide survey of adults’ spiritual beliefs, conducted by The Barna Group, suggests that Americans who consider themselves to be Christian have a diverse set of beliefs – but many of those beliefs are contradictory or, at least, inconsistent.
The survey explored beliefs about spiritual beings, the influence of faith on their life, views of the Bible, and reactions to faiths other than their own.

Views on Spiritual Beings

The Barna survey asked questions about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Satan, and demons.

All 1,871 self-described Christians were asked about their perception of God. In total, three-quarters (78%) said he is the ‘all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the universe who rules the world today.’ The remaining one-quarter chose other descriptions of God – depictions that are not consistent with biblical teaching (e.g., everyone is god, god refers to the realization of human potential, etc.).

For the other survey items a four-point opinion scale was used to measure people’s reactions to statements about each spiritual entity.

Four out of ten Christians (40%) strongly agreed that Satan ‘is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.’ An additional two out of ten Christians (19%) said they ‘agree somewhat’ with that perspective. A minority of Christians indicated that they believe Satan is real by disagreeing with the statement: one-quarter (26%) disagreed strongly and about one-tenth (9%) disagreed somewhat. The remaining 8% were not sure what they believe about the existence of Satan."

Online Source: Barna

Survey: Slim Majority of Dutch Know Easter is Christian Holiday

Slightly more than half of Dutch nationals know that Easter is a Christian holiday, revealed a new survey published this past Thursday.

Furthermore, only 15 percent of Dutch nationals correctly identified Good Friday as the day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The study had surveyed 12,000 Dutch nationals about the Easter holiday.

In contrast, the vast majority of the American public knows the meaning of Easter."

(Via Christian Post.)

Charity worker suspended over 'religious debate' with work colleague

Charity worker David Booker has been suspended after a 'calm and friendly discussion' about religion with a colleague.

Mr Booker says he was on the night shift with a female member of staff at the hostel where they worked when they had a wide-ranging chat in which he voiced his opposition to same-sex marriages and to homosexual clergy.

Mr Booker, who vehemently denies being homophobic and who says he has homosexual friends, says that within 24 hours he was suspended from his £19,000 a year job as a hostel support worker."

(Via The Telegrah.)

If I was Dying & I Walked Into Your Church

Poignant.

The Point of the Gospel: Jesus Wants the Rose

In this video Pastor Matt Chandler demonstrates how the church oftentimes becomes the enemy of conversion due to its abject lack comprehension of The Gospel.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.