Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
I’ll be honest. Doing a blog that challenges the doctrines of a large and popular church in the area is a daunting task. I don’t want to be disobedient to the Lord and I don’t want to be doing it with the wrong motives. After the prosperity with a purpose conference I kind of thought of when Jesus said “let the blind lead the blind”, then I get an email like the one below. I asked Nathan for permission before posting the email, so don’t think just because you send me an email I will post it (although I might).
Also, thank you to others how have also sent emails of encouragement during my time of inactivity – your emails and prayers are very appreciated! I think Nathan’s story is like many out there who see the emptiness of false doctrine and a self-serving form of religion that only puts our eyes on what we can gain in this life, when all we need to gain is Christ.
Hi Craig
I just wanted to share with you some of my story over the past year. I’m an 18-year old living in Ontario, Canada. I was involved with the Pentecostal church for a few years through a local youth group and then their church. I left the Pentecostal church last March after much emotional and some psychological pain and stress.
I was at a youth convention in 2005 where Judah Smith was the speaker, and I found what he had to say really connected with me. Over the next couple years, I began downloading and listening to his podcast sermons, at first only once in a while, but eventually on a weekly basis. I built up a library of Judah’s and other TCC and guest pastors messages that was well over 100.
Through these messages, I effectively became a part of Generation Church despite being thousands of miles away. I loved listening to Judah and Jude Fouquier preach; I enjoyed their elaborate and funny stories, and I always felt that I got some life changing out of each message. Listening to those messages, I believe, brought me a lot closer to God, and made me a lot more enthusiastic about studying my Bible than if I hadn’t heard them.
At the same time, I would sometimes get that little twinge when listening to Judah preach that he seemed to be going off in a weird direction, or might be just a little too arrogant. I’m Anglican-raised, so I guess I have a built in aversion to over-the-top spiritual emotionalism. Anyway, the power of whatever altar call being given at the time was strong enough to convince those doubts to quietly go away. After all, nobody’s perfect, right?
As I mentioned earlier, I went through a long and painful breakup with my local Pentecostal church, which I won’t detail here except to say that it was an extremely difficult time, and a necessary one that brought me closer to God. It was very soon after I left in March 2007 that I stumbled onto your blog. Even thought I had left the Pentecostal church, I was still a loyal disciple of GC, and reading your blog gave me quite the shock. I read the exchange between you and Wendell Smith and had my TCC world rather rocked by it. I didn’t want to accept what you were saying, or I tried to find some kind of explanation for it that would also exonerate TCC and GC. But I kept going back to your blog to read more and more, and the more I read, and the more accounts I was exposed to, the more I saw that TCC was falling deeper and deeper into false teaching¦teachings that I was eagerly lapping up through the podcasts.
Sometime after starting to read the blog, about two months after I started, I just stopped listening to GC messages. It was like a mechanism flipped inside and I just didn’t desire them anymore, where before I craved them like a drug. That’s the best analogy I can come up with; being addicted to Judah’s preaching. While my desire for Judah’s preaching died, the disciplines of Bible study and prayer he helped inspire in me stayed on, ironically. I’ve since gone back and listened to a couple old messages and heard things there I missed before, indications of false teachings and unbiblical doctrines that I was too blinded by to see until later. Having now seen where they’ve gone, I am deeply thankful that God opened my eyes when he did, as it seems things have gone from bad to worse.
I write all this to encourage you, Craig. I enjoy reading your site very much, and I’ve been a bit worried at the lack of posting. I understand we all lead busy lives that take priority, but in case you were feeling really down or discouraged, I want to remind you that you are reaching lives not just in Seattle, but across a continent. The influence of TCC is larger than the city, thanks to the Internet, but so is the reach of your blog I thank God for putting me onto your site. I love the truth, and God used that love, anchored onto your site, to bring me out of my TCC-fueled fantasies and false doctrines. Your open, honest, and humble words, along with many of the loyal commentators, have helped me in my own walk with God. Keep fighting the good fight, keep doing it the way you have been doing it, with humility and truth. Be encouraged, and know that you are being used by God, even when it’s just something as lowly as typing on a keyboard. I’m praying for you Craig. God bless you.
Nathan
Tags: Generation Church, Judah Smith, The City Church, Wendell Smith
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
I have listened to several sermons by Pastor Wendell and their doctrine on healing has been pretty well laid out in the healing series. I agree with them that healing is for today and that God can miraculously heal today just as Jesus during His earthly ministry. I believe all healing comes from the Lord.
In listening to their sermons and it seems they feel a need to give God a PR job regarding healing. While giving their sermons they say God is a good God, and because He is good he wants to heal everyone in this life and because He is good He will never put sickness on anyone. It seems to me that they have said if God makes people sick, then He is not good. Also, if God does not desire to heal everyone in the here and now, then He is not good. Below are the reasons I think their definition of good needs to be conformed to the bible.
STATEMENT ONE: God will never, ever put sickness on anyone.
To see this is false, all we need to do is read a little bit of the Bible.
- What did God say the punishment for Israel was for not carefully observing His words?
“If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, then the LORD will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues great and prolonged plagues and serious and prolonged sicknesses. Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Deuteronomy 28:58-60
It sounds like God will make them sick.
- In Numbers, God sent a plague that killed 14,700 of the Israelite people for complaining against Moses and Aaron.
- In 2 Samuel 24 God sent a plague on Israel because David performed a census of the people that killed 70,000 people.
- God struck Uzziah with leprosy for burning incense in the temple in 2 Chronicles 26:19-21.
- In the New Testament we find Christians becoming sick because of the judgment of the Lord regarding communion. See 1 Corinthians 11:29-31. Paul says if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. The only judge I know of is God.
- In Acts 5 we read of Ananias and Sapphira (Christians) who are killed by the Lord for lying to the Spirit. I would rather catch a cold that be killed.
- In Acts 13:7-11 Paul struck blindness (through the power of the Holy Spirit) on a sorcerer.
It does not take much time to see that God does put sickness on people in His sovereignty. His ways are higher than our ways, and if we don’t like an attribute of God we should not make up things contrary to how God has revealed Himself to us. I think the 2nd commandment says something about making a god in another likeness.
One analogy they use is that ‘good earthly father’ analogy that goes something like this – “what father would put sickness on their children to teach them a lesson”. The obvious answer to this is – none. But if we think about it a little further, we see that God’s main purpose isn’t to make us comfortable, but to conform us to the image of His Son. Just as parents send their children to chicken pox parties to make them immune so later in life they won’t get the disease and perhaps die, why wouldn’t God let us get sick or injured if the end result is that we are more sanctified and made closer to the likeness of His Son? What is our main goal here? To live a pain-free life or to be more like Christ?
STATEMENT TWO: It is God’s will that everyone be healed.
The main contention I have with this is that the Bible does not say this plainly anywhere. Yes, God is the God who heals us, and yes God does heal today. The problem with the idea that it is God’s will to heal everyone is that not everyone is healed. Many Christians die of sickness and disease, so does that mean God is not powerful enough to heal them? That is absolutely not the case. The only other option we have then is that we are not doing something right to get healed (lack of faith).
I think the statement above is a sad one to make at a church. They do not think through the true ramifications of their doctrine and the faith of many become shipwrecked. Those who are not healed think they do not have enough faith to be healed…do they have enough faith to be saved?
I think the City Church answer to this is comical. They quote Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
They are saying that when Christians die of sickness that since we know it is God’s will to heal everyone that when God does not heal a Christian who is praying for healing that God made a “secret things” decision.
Let me translate what they are saying “IT IS NOT GODS WILL TO HEAL EVERYONE”. They just don’t want to say it. They want a feel good God who is looking out for our health and wealth, so they make contradictory statements to keep the god who pleases them. If God decides in the “secret things” to not heal someone…it is not His will to heal them.
What is our hope then?
Our hope is in the resurrection of the dead. This world is filled with sin, and sickness and death is the result of a sin filled world. There is not condemnation on the sick, they are just dealing with the outcome of sin in our world (disease and death). If we are sick or healthy we need to continually examine our life in the light of scripture to see if we are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). If we are sick, we should pray for healing and go to the elders for prayer (James 5:14).
Jesus Christ will come again and abolish all sickness and death. We will have a new resurrected body not tainted by sin, disease and death. We should have our eyes on the prize, eternal life. I think Paul said it well:
Philippians 3:10-12
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Preaching that God wants to heal everyone is a good way to fill the pews and get people riled up, but it is not true to scripture.
I think Cameron did a good job explaining the healing verses used by the pastors of the City Church in the following article, it debunks their use of 1 Peter 2:24 and it explains why healing is not guaranteed with communion.
Read The Lord’s Supper at Cameron’s Blog.
To end, I would like to say I do believe God still heals today and there are many miracles done by His hand. That is a statement to refute the claim Pastor Wendell makes that I am an “unbelieving believer”.
Tags: Healing, Sickness, The City Church, Wendell Smith
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
I have changed my position over the past few years from being a pre-tribulation view to being a post-tribulation and even flirting Amillenialism. To be honest, I haven’t spent much time on the subject lately and I am a bit rusty…so I thought I would try and stir up the hornet’s nest with a good article about the post-tribulation rapture.
I personally enjoyed this quote (relevant to the comments from people defending the prosperity gospel)…
Those who are not disciples think of blessing only in terms of God giving them things. Those who are disciples recognize that it is just as much blessing – perhaps even more – when God takes them away. Thus we can know whether we are disciples or not.
The Church and The Tribulation — Zac Poonen
We are told in Eph. 3:10 that in the new covenant, God desires to manifest His wisdom through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. From Eph. 6:12, we know that these rulers and authorities in the heavenly places are Satan and his hosts of wickedness who dwell in the second heaven (where they dwell ever since being cast down out of the third heaven, where God dwells – 2 Cor. 12:2)
We know that we are to be Christ’s witnesses unto all men. But here we are told that we have to have a testimony to the evil spirits too. What testimony is this? It is a testimony to the wisdom of God (Eph. 3:10). It is the joyful confession of our spirits that God has ordered everything in our lives according to His perfect wisdom. It is the testimony of lives that have partaken of the wisdom that is from above.
(more…)
Tags: End Times, Escatology, Zac Poonen
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