The pastor of my home church, that led it in its heyday in the late seventies and early eighties, brought the state leading baptism rate and growth rate to a sudden halt when he stood up one Sunday calling it quits and taking the blond in the skimpy summer dresses on the front row of the choir with him. She had been "counseled" by him. They wed a short time later and he moved to another denomination that would ignore his blatant manners and would welcome a loose gun. A loose gun he is...albeit with success...or is it?
I contacted him when I went to seminary. Everybody I grew up with spoke of him as a hero and I guess I needed some affirmation from a 'hero.' Through that contact, I got put on his church mailing list. Shortly afterwards, I was slightly overwhelmed with some of his comments and felt I should respond. He wrote on how a new Southern Baptist article of faith in the Baptist Faith and Message concerning the family would lead to abuse because it promoted submission in the home. The article was almost a direct quote of Ephesians 5:22. He wrote of his disappointment with his current denomination to not accept homosexuals into leadership in churches and how naive such a decision was. Then he promoted his summer lakeside series on the bridges that Buddhism and Christianity can build when you dovetail their truths to make a stronger bond within every individual. I had enough. I stamped out a letter that basically asked 'what along life's journey has led to you to deem your ideology of life's experiences higher than the timeless evaluation that Scripture gives to the matters in which we face and walk through?' He barked out a letter a little faster and challenged me not to be 'spiritually fat and lazy' but to open my mind...blah, blah, blah. I picked up the phone and called him and we had a pleasant, Christian confrontation over the difference of our 'humble' opinions. He basically told me that his life experiences and hours of counseling to thousands of people had taught him better.
I have remained on that mailing list and am always entertained by the heresies that he throws out and the people that have their dogs blessed by him and listen to his waterless cloud sermons that say very eloquently little to nothing at all. (Of course, I get that from his newsletter articles and the 'stands' he takes in his writings. I feel sure his sermons are not much different.)
We received a few weeks ago the announcement of his lakeside summer series which is titled "Why I take the Bible Seriously But Not Literally." He is preaching sermons this summer on how God did not bring catastrophes in which Scripture speaks, and the fallibility and the errors of the Bible. He preaches on the weaknesses of the creation story and the Bible's misjudgment of women. Still to come is the sermon on Mary not being a virgin when Jesus was born and the lack of truth in Jesus' proclamations of an eternal and fiery hell. All the while people sit under the trees and enjoy the lakeside breeze while they open their minds so wide as to let their brains fall out and be replaced by Scripture-less truths like these. Of course, remember it is all based on the experience of his journey instead of the power and validity of the Word. This month he beamed proudly about how local pastors had called him a heretic and then proudly proclaims himself to be one.
He is a great example of what I read about this morning in I Peter 2: 1-2- 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...And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.
You may ask- Why do you still get his newsletter? It helps me to get a better knowledge of the schemes of the evil one even in the pulpits in America. In other words, it makes great preaching fodder, because it is a modern day example of what Scripture speaks of.
Stick to the Word. Once you have interpreted it properly, exegetically, literarily, and contextually, stick to it. A prophet is not a foreteller but a forthteller and the question you must always ask is- What is he speaking forth- God's Word or His thoughts?
I always want to ask someone like that- what parts of Scripture can you rely on and how do you make that determination? If there is that kind of uncertainty, why preach from Scripture at all? Just pick up the latest soothsayer's work and have at it. Then I realize, that is exactly what he is doing.
I hope that gives you something to think about today. Enjoy the Word and have a great day.
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