Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
Judah was on the TBN “Praise the Lord” show from TBN with Pastor Steve Munsey as the host at 7:00 PM PST. I found a few clip of Steve Munsey on You Tube in the fall “Praise-A-Thon” for TBN promising people if the give $$$ to TBN all their problems will be solved.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9QKYmxYcrGg
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NuydWziggVM&feature=related
The scripture is very clear about these teachers, and the compiler of the first video puts some of the scriptures on the screen as he preaches. It sickens me because they prey on those who are broke, and become wealthy off of their giving with outlandish and unbiblical promises.
I hear the argument that the city church preaches a “balanced” view of prosperity, but they keep the company of the people who cause people to speak evil of the way of truth. All you have to do is turn on the TBN “praise-a-thon” to see the length they will go to twist scripture for money.
As for pastor Judah, it was pretty cool seeing him up there talking about his new book “Dating Delilah”. Even though I disagree with him on the teachings of the city church, I have always liked Judah. If only he could take his speaking skills and passion and be taught by good biblical teachers who are not hyper-faith and hyper-prosperity he could make great gains for Christ. I often wonder how one could come out of a cloud of such teaching when so much of your life is invested in a specific false teaching.
My niece was watching with me, who is unsaved. She made the comment that Judah seemed sincere and passionate. I agree. But I asked her if the suicide bombers who blow themselves up are sincere and passionate. I think she got my point.
It reminded me of a time I was witnessing on the streets when I met a girl who said she was a Christian, so I shared the gospel with her anyway. After I was done, I asked her if she had ever heard the gospel before, and she said no. I then asked her if she still thought she had been born again, but she said no. I asked her where she went to church, she said Generation Church in the University District (under Pastor Judah). I asked if it caused her concern that she was never presented the true gospel and she said yes. I didn’t ask, but I bet she could quote Malachi 3:10 for me though.
What a shame.
The question isn’t if we are passionate, the question is what are we passionate about. We can be sincere, and we can be sincerely wrong. If people aren’t learning about the true gospel when they go to church, what are they learning?
1 Timothy 4:16
Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
Tags: City Church Kirkland, Pastor Judah Smith, TBN
Monday, April 7th, 2008
I heard Judah Smith (and his wife Chelsae) will be on the National TBN broadcast at 6:30 PM (not sure if that is Pacific or Eastern time). It was announced by Wendell yesterday before the service.
Anyway, I hope someone gets to watch it at 3:30 and let us know if they are on at that point. If they are, it would be great to get a report of what they are doing, since that is scheduled to be the “praise-a-thon” (view the TBN schedule for today). The 6:30 PST show is Jesse Duplantis, and I doubt they will appear at that point.
Tags: City Church Kirkland, Pastor Judah Smith, TBN
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
One of the things “word of faith” and “prosperity churches” like to do is tailor messages for the congregation from one verse in the Bible and spend 1 hour telling stories (mostly) about themselves. This message was no different. The following verse was used:
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30
Pastor Judah says we all have a yoke made for us by Jesus, and we are to put it on. It is our calling and it is “The Perfect Fit”. Pastor Judah says his “perfect fit” is preaching. He is very eloquent and able to tell stories very well. Unfortunately he strayed from the message and talked about his wife, traveling to Australia for ministry, and he told the story about how he was told he was a “genius” communicator by a doctor at the age of 14 (or so).
Basically, he said at 14 he understood his yoke was to be a pastor because it is easy to him (he said he is good at talking). Unfortunately he forgets that people God used to communicate were not like him. Moses was not a good communicator, he had to have Aaron speak for him. Paul said he didn’t preach the word in eloquence. Judah is saying one of the things that qualifies him as a pastor is his eloquence and “gift of gab”. We shouldn’t forget that God uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.
Back to the scripture (Matthew 11:28-30). I don’t think it has anything to do with what Pastor Judah preached on for 1 hour. Here is the scripture in context:
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:25-30
The context of the scripture is knowing the Father, not finding your “calling” in life. I believed Jesus called those who were laboring under the yoke of the law, and trying to know God in a time of spiritual apostasy in the leadership of Israel. When we come unto Jesus we find rest in our Souls, because He said if we see Him we see the Father.
I find it interesting that he also equates the “yoke” of Jesus as being a worldly yoke. Pastor Judah told a story about a young man he mentors who likes do to computer programming. He is very good at it and successful at Microsoft. Pastor Judah said this was the guy’s yoke. Since he is good at programming, he is anointed to do it. I know a bunch of anointed heathens if that is the case.
The conclusion I came to from the scripture was Jesus Christ was trying to lead people to the Father, and was telling them to take off the yoke of the law, sin and religious leaders of that time and to follow him (through His teachings). Those who followed Jesus and His teachings were shown the Father. I think by misusing this scripture, Judah was doing the exact opposite. He was telling people the yoke was works (a calling). To his defense, he was saying the works would be easy – “a perfect fit”.
It is sad to me that preachers can get in front of thousands of people and pull scriptures out of context as a biblical “grab bag” to support whatever point it is they want to make. This seems to be the case to me.
Does anyone have a good biblical argument for Pastor Judah Smith’s use of this scripture for a personal calling? I would be very interested to hear it. If I am wrong (I have been known to be) please call me on it.
You can listen to the message here: http://www.thecity.org/message/the_perfect_fit1/
Tags: Pastor Judah Smith
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