Another Ancient Discernment Minister is ready to come in a speak God’s undeniable truth to emergents, evanjellyfish, and all other deniers of the truth:
2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
Tony Jones has gone far beyond secretly bringing in destructive heresies. He has gone right to blasphemy in some of his most recent posts:
Tony JonesSo deeply did God enter into the uniquely human experience of godforsakeness that God even died. God experienced grief in the shattering of the eternal relationality of the Trinity. Yes, God really died.
So, when Jesus rose from the grave, it was more than the resusitation of a corpse (hell, I’ve seen Criss Angel do that!). Instead, it was a foretaste of the eschaton. I described Jesus’ miracles in the last post as significations of the new, eschatological age that Jesus the Messiah inaugurated. The resurrection is the capstone event in the inauguration.
No, God did not die. The Incarnated fully God fully man died. And it was nothing like Cris Angels parlor tricks. Jesus Christ had the wrath of God full poured out on him, taking our penalty, making atonement for our sins. Indeed, God made him to be sin who knew no sin so that we might be made the righteousness of God. In denying this or rewriting this, he is denying the master that bought him, as he has denied the authority of the scripture in declaring that homosexuals ought to be able to marry. In this way, he has also followed his own sensuality- abandonment of moral behavior-in approving of the act of homosexuality in approving of the consumation of a gay marriage (see Romans 1:32 32 Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. He has blasphemed the way of truth, indeed the very Gospel in comparing it to a parlor trick. He has denied the truth in stating that it is okay in his opinion for homosexuals to marry. He is exploiting the young people of this world ( he is quite popular in youth and college aged circles) with his false words. He does this for material gain (see his books and speaking tours). In other words, he makes a living out of telling lies about God, the nature of salvation, indeed the very Word of God.
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but v cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, a making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.
We are living ‘as in the days of Noah’ (See Matthew 24) where God spared the preacher of righteousness Noah and his family, while destroying the earth with a flood. Those who hold fast to salvation in Christ alone as He is presented in the Holy Scripture (the resurrected one..hallelujah!) , to the God who will one day judge the world in righteousness (as he did in the days of Noah) to the Bible as it is written, will be spared the coming judgment. Like Noah, who preached righteousness for 100 years as he built the ark, warning those who were headed for destruction, the modern preachers of righteousness have a burden and a call to proclaim the good news as the warn the many who are living in error. Tony Jones even denies Jesus’ multiple and authoratative claims that He was (and is) God:
Another problem with PSA, it seems to me, is that there’s really no reason for the resurrection. It’s little more than Jesus, “Ta-Da! See, I told you that I was divine!” (Which, by the way, Jesus attests only ambiguously, and primarily in the Gospel of John. Take a deep breath, people. I’m not questioning Jesus’ divinty; I’m just saying that Jesus himself wasn’t particularly adamant about it.) There must be more to Jesus’ resurrection than another proof of his divinity
Tony, the reason for the resurrection is the confirming proof that God was pleased with and accepted his Son’s sacrifice on the behalf of sinners. Indeed:
1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Penal Substitutionary Theory of the atonement captures not only the penalty paid by our substitute, foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament by the sacrificial system, as well as the festivals such as Passover, the feast of Booths, etc. It also screams of Jesus as our high priest who made the sacrifice, was the sacrifice, and God accepted the sacrifice proven by the resurrection from the dead.
Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, Accursed children!…… 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
These circuit false preachers (like Doug Pagitt, Phyliss Tickle(-your ears) Rob Bell, Tony Jones, Tony Campolo) go all over the country speaking to anyone who will hear and sell their books and their consultation in opposition to God. Make no mistake, they are like Baalam who was willing to falsely prophesy for the love of money until he was stopped by an angel of God through a speaking donkey. What will it take to stop these folks? God only knows. But as Peter and Jude, Ancient Discernment ministers proclaim, their judgement will be sure and swift. Peter goes on to describe these false teachers:
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
Christ calls out to us to take in the fountains of living water (see John 4, 7) found in Him, but these modern day Baalams and Alexanders are waterless springs. In the end, if people love the tickling of their ears by these false teachers, they will wind up seeking like the rich man to have those who follow Christ dip their finger in water to allay their thirst if only for a moment. They have reservations in the outer darkness that has been prepared for those who hate and rebel against God. They promise freedom- (indeed, freedom from God and his Holy Word) but they are slaves of corruption- they are dead in their sins and will experience eternal damnation, unless they will repent. Unfortunately, they are slaves to their vain philosophies and teachings.
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
And this is the danger of allowing our children, our young adults to be sucked into the teachings of these post-modern false prophets. As they have been raised in a Christian home, and they go out, they become entangled in the perverted (twisted) semi-christian/new age/ eastern mysticism of these teachers, they are far worse off. Believe me, I have shared the Gospel with some of these very people! The religious lost have overtaken the pure pagan in our society. With this semi pelagian teaching itching their ears, they return to their former life, or engage in a lifestyle of license, founded in cheap, non-transformational grace that is not of God. They have a form of godliness, but deny the power. The return to their former life before Christ, like Peter says in this proverb:
22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
I saw many of these in Panama City Beach, and I see many of these populating the emergent conversation/church?/movement. I weep, I am moved with compassion, and that is why I join with Peter to proclaim the good news, and discern and warn about false teachers.
