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

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

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.

Is Biblical Doctrine Really that Important?

The Cal.vini.st blog has recently published a series of articles on the the importance of Biblical Doctrine that are worth the read. Author Andrew E. Courtis does of fine job of arguing that Biblical doctrine informs us about what God has revealed about himself, that right doctrine leads to right practice and that right doctrine combats error.

You can read Courtis' articles by clicking the links below.

Is Biblical Doctrine Really that Important? Part 1

Is Biblical Doctrine Really that Important? Part 2

Is Biblical Doctrine Really that Important? Part 3

Is Biblical Doctrine Really that Important? Part 4

Issues Etc. Cancellation Update!!

HT: Save the LCMS

If Christ Has Not Been Raised...

A Little Leaven posted this video of heretic liberal "scholar" John Dominic Crossan claiming that if they found the bones of Jesus that it wouldn't destroy his faith. This is absolute proof that the faith that Crossan has is not Biblical Christianity because the scriptures are undeniably clear that "if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain (1 Cor 15:14) and "and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. (1 Cor 15:17).

On a related note, A Little Leaven also shows how Emergent Kingpin Brian McLaren uses Crossan's "scholarship" to completely redefine The Gospel. Click Here to Read.

Pierced for Our Transgressions

The Emergent and Neo-Liberal attacks against the Biblical teaching of the Penal Substitutionary Atonement is a battle for the VERY Gospel itself. The latest edition of the White Horse Inn radio program deals with these attacks and definitively lays out the irrefutable Biblical texts that bring us the good news that Jesus was pierced for our transgressions and that his death on the cross propitiated God's wrath against us due to our sins. Click Here to Listen.

Gospel-Driven Sanctification

Are you on the treadmill of a 'performance based' version of Christianity? If so then you may be a victim of bad doctrine and bad preaching. Did you know that the Gospel still applies to you as a Christian and that Christians need to hear the Gospel just as badly as non-Christians? We strongly recommend that you read this excellent article from Modern Reformation Magazine by Jerry Bridges on Gospel-Driven Sanctification. Here's just a taste of what you will read:

My story is not unusual. Evangelicals commonly think today that the gospel is only for unbelievers. Once we're inside the kingdom's door, we need the gospel only in order to share it with those who are still outside. Now, as believers, we need to hear the message of discipleship. We need to learn how to live the Christian life and be challenged to go do it. That's what I believed and practiced in my life and ministry for some time. It is what most Christians seem to believe.

As I see it, the Christian community is largely a performance-based culture today. And the more deeply committed we are to following Jesus, the more deeply ingrained the performance mindset is. We think we earn God's blessing or forfeit it by how well we live the Christian life.

Most Christians have a baseline of acceptable performance by which they gauge their acceptance by God. For many, this baseline is no more than regular church attendance and the avoidance of major sins. Such Christians are often characterized by some degree of self-righteousness. After all, they don't indulge in the major sins we see happening around us. Such Christians would not think they need the gospel anymore. They would say the gospel is only for sinners.

Click here to read the rest of the article.