As the year draws to a close and people everywhere begin reflecting on their favorite things from 2009, I’d like to offer you something a little different. During the year I dug up the following videos and filed them away for just such an occasion as this. So here are my top seven picks for “heretical crazy-talk video of the year”:
Number 7: Rick Warren on the “Gospel of Doing”…
Pastor Warren explaining to his congregation all of the things they have to “do” if they want to get to heaven:
Number 6: Bill Hybels on “Holy Motivation”…
Pastor Hybels explains how getting angry and then using that anger to fuel a fervor for social justice issues is a biblical concept (who knew!):
Number 5: Megachurch Sermon Trailers–In Search of Relevance…
Ah…smell the moralistic therapeutic deism. Obviously, if getting into heaven is about all this doing that we have to do (as Pastors Warren and Hybels have asserted), then the preacher had better get busy with giving us some practical things to be doing:
Number 4: Benny Hinn on the Trinity…
Is this even real?
Number 3: The Prosperity Gospel…
This is actually an excellent refutation of the Prosperity Gospel, but the examples are too much fun to pass up. This one’s packed with more nuts than a Snickers bar!
Number 2: You Were Born For This? (From the Author of “The Prayer of Jabez”)…
Of course, if the Prayer of Jabez had actually worked for everyone, we wouldn’t need a follow-up book about how to “live a life of predictable miracles”:
And for my number 1 Heretical Crazy-Talk Video of 2009, I give you…John Dominic Crossan on the Resurrection!
Doesn’t that just warm the heart? (In the unforgettable words of Rod Rosenbladt, “…it doesn’t make me so much want to send them a copy of the Bible as it makes me want to send them a copy of Adler’s book on how to read a book!”)
Happy New Year, Everyone…
COMMENTS
15 responses to “My Seven Favorite (Heretical Crazy-Talk) Videos of 2009”
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sigh…
each of these is an occasion for me to repent of the very sins I see here.
I confess that often I want a rescue from the me and my neighbor that I am tired of. I want something that will fix me and them.
too often I allow myself to get drawn into a conversation that becomes about winning the conversation and my ego rather than being about subduing my ego and so being of service to my neighbor and so help him see error for what it is.
I don´t see that I am a whole lot different from these people here. that scares me. I want evil to be about "those people". when I see that they look about like me…
Man I need to repent and stop relying on my own power of reason and faith.
please pray for me!
Loved this, Jeff. You're a hoot.
And can't wait for the awesome MB conference you have planned in just another 30 days. WOO-HOO!!!
T minus 30 and counting….
Paul in Romans 16 warns his readers saying, "I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people." Paul’s talking here about heretical teachings and teachers.
Not only did Paul warn against the false teachers and teachings of his day, he warned us about the future in his second letter to Timothy, saying that, "the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."
And just as Paul warned against the smooth talk and flattery of his day, today we are still faced with the same heresies and flattery in many quarters of modern Christianity, as these videos illustrate.
The first three videos highlight the Pelagian bent of the megachurch movement, while the second three shed light on the Gnostic tendencies of the Word of Faith movement. That last video is a bonus from the liberal Jesus Seminar movement, but is a thought that could easily be shared by either camp.
These videos are actually the media for one of the breakout sessions I'm writing for the upcoming Mockingbird Miniconference in Pensacola on January 29th and 30th, entitled "The Beat Goes On: How Ancient Heresies Thrive in the Modern Church." I hope to see you all there!
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The "commentary" on the edited Warren video was pretty poor, theologically, and lacking in charity–IMO.
JT
JT,
Just curious, what part of the Warren video's commentary did you consider to be theologiclly "poor"? The video is from Chris Rosbrough over at fighting for the faith, and it's theologically spot on, IMO. If life is a test or even a trust, then I am altogether doomed! Thank God Warren is dead wrong.
Warren seems to be echoing, in the beginning, James' argument that faith not expressing itself in love and works is no true faith, and the commentary looks as if it's pitting Paul against James.
In the rest of the video, Warren seems to be addressing Christians regarding their responsibilities and requirements. I'm not saying that I'd put everything the way Warren does, but bringing up the thief on the cross in that context seems like a theological cheapshot to me.
Blessings,
JT
JT,
Respectfully, Warren is espousiong works righteousness in both examples. In fact he's preaching pure Pelagianism throughout, and I believe bringing up the thief on the cross to refute the second example is right on point.
Warren in both examples is asserting salvation by works with absoluelty no reference to grace, faith, or Christ's substitutionary atonement. Warren is clearly not preaching the Gospel, and Rosbrough is rightly crying foul with a poignant example from Scripture. That's how I see it…sorry to differ.
Jeff
Warren's stratification of heaven seems a whole lot like every other world religion. The idea that my works on earth will dictate my status and responsibilities in heaven is a back-door to works righteousness.
The Benny Hinn clip is real alright – that each member of the Trinity has a body soul and spirit is straight of out the Dakes Bible
That is quite interesting, chris e… thanks for sharing it!
I'm not familiar with Dake, but apparently his theology of the Trinity was quite controversial, to say the least. It appears just from cursory research that his views on the Trinity have been roundly rejected by trinitarians and pentecostals alike, and yet here they are being espoused by Mr. Hinn. How strange…
The scary thing about Crossan is how often he's asked to appear in programs about the Bible or Christianty.
One the most dumbfounding comments of his was that, when he sees the reports of Christ's bodily rssurection in the Bible, he doesn't believe he's seeing a factual report of an actual event. What he believes he's seeing is hope.
To paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield, "Hope in what? I have no idea."
Wondering how come Wilkinson's miracle thing didnt' work for him in Africa?
I agree with JT on the Warren comments. It's certainly not heretical to insist that true faith produces works, and the NT, Reformed tradition, etc. are clear that the saved are those who have indicated their works–not that those works save them, but they testify to the reality of faith. Thus encourage works and obedience accordingly.
Warren's use of distinctions in heaven is a bit harder to support, of course. Craig Blomberg has an article in JETS from the early 1990s taking aim at that. But it's hardly sub-Christian as many leading believers, based on exegesis of biblical texts, make such a claim (cf. Randy Alcorn–hard to accuse that guy of works righteousness or having another religion!).