We're Baaaaaack!
It has been a good, good month for the Heisler/Nitz clan. The Lord has given us a big bruiser of a baby boy, Jack Heisler. And the Lord is opening and clarifying new life opportunities for us. I'm wearing a big, silly smile as I write this. . .
But we have some unfinished Kingdom of God business here yet. Nobody ever does this when a writer asks them to, but I ask that you take the few minutes required to reread the May-June posts. I'm continuing that theme.
It is my habit to wind up my days with two or three hours of reading: all kinds of stuff. Just finished a couple books by one of the contributors to the Jesus Seminar, a radically liberal group of teachers who worked very publicly in the 1980s and 90s to discredit the New Testament Scriptures. One example. A recurring theme in the book is the argument that the Gospel accounts of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection are not at all to be understood as historical. But parabolic. That is to say, they are just stories, and should not be understood to have anything to do with time/space history. That is such an insidious argument! Used to be that unbelieving liberal teachers would just come right out and admit they don't really believe in anything. . . the sneak factor has now been introduced so that liberal teachers can still claim to believe the Bible. But when you stop and examine the arguments, you realize they are just playing with Bible words; they still don't really believe in anything. Pertinent to our blog theme, on the back of the volume is just one big, long plug. That support comes from Brian McLaren, a most vocal and prolific writer for "progressive Christianity." Mr. McLaren has powerfully influenced the "emergent church" teachers we have seen so much of over the last six or seven years. I have in mind particularly Rob Bell and Tony Jones, both obviously bright, charismatic leaders; but they have come unmoored from the Truth, and continue to drift further and further into the murky waters of postmodern thinking.
The assumed freedom to play so fast and loose with the revealed Scriptures is the result of these teachers' roots in postmodern philosophy. One tenet of Postmodernism, the way of thinking of the world that surrounds us, is that one cannot know anything with certainty. So Postmodern Christian teachers customarily suggest maybe this/maybe that. . . This is the way it is, or is it? . . So the teachers named above feel free to reinvent God as they want Him to be. Reinvent the Kingdom of God as they want it to be. Redefine eschatology (teaching in the Bible about the end of things) in terms they find palatable. Decide for themselves what paragraphs in the Bible they like and which just cannot be taken seriously.
If we stand back and view our American culture, we see a huge market of poorly taught, nominal Christians. Millions upon millions of people who have only fuzzy notions of who God has revealed Himself to be, and precious little personal experience with the Word of God. People whose take on the Christian faith has been shaped by Hollywood. These masses who have family and cultural roots in the Faith, and would still prefer to consider themselves spiritual, or Christian, are now offered a "new kind of faith" which is so much cooler, which is not offensive to anyone (no "offence of the cross"). And this new faith just fits so well with American culture.
These teachers are indeed populists; they like to sell books and have influence, so are famously silent on many issues on which the Church should speak for God and His creation order: abortion, gender definition, sexual boundaries. And they are getting more vocal on two historically and clearly heretical teachings: universalism (God will save everybody some day; there is no hell); and denial of the substitutionary atonement (Jesus died by design to pay the penalty of sin once for all for God's people).
Our enemy's (Satan) strategy here is plain to see. At issue is not whether preachers should wear special collars, or whether gospel songs written by Fanny Crosby in the 1940s are more pleasing to God than the praise music of Hillsong United. The matters above lie at the very heart, the very core of God's eternal plan for His creation. I say He has revealed what He wants us to know and believe about all these matters. The issue is simply whether we believe or disbelieve. God is God.
I heard a man on the radio the other day telling his life story. From a formally religious family, Yale-educated and a thoroughly convinced atheist at age 30, when he began a friendship with a coworker who talked to him about Jesus and the Bible. He said he went to sleep one night pondering the subject, and woke up in the morning entirely believing Jesus was Who He said He was. Experienced a radical transformation in every area of his life. The night before he would accurately have been described as a Postmodern Atheist. The next morning he was a Christian Theist. ENTIRELY DIFFERENT WORLD VIEWS.
I relate this story for you (and I suspect something similar has been the experience of many of you) to remind you that what Jesus wants to save you from is not only the final punishment for your sin, but from all the false beliefs of your old life (the philosophies of the world, Paul called them). He calls you to KNOW Him, to KNOW you have eternal life. In the Scriptures we can KNOW a great deal about God and His world, our place here, and the future.
That's why I title this blog "Jesus died to save you from Postmodernism."
-David Nitz
I've never heard of Rob Bell until today. Watched him on you tube at . I was extremely disturbed by what I heard him saying. He makes it sound like he believes people will still have a chance to get right with God after death. That is against what the Bible says. I believe he tries to lead people into the thought that everyone, or pretty much everyone, will be safe from hell as well. That is also against what the Bible says. So to believe either of those things, you would have to disbelieve the Bible. In Revelation 20:11-15 it says, "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books,, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." So, if you believe the Bible, you can't believe that everyone will make it to heaven. I have seen no evidence in the Bible that there will be more chances after death for people to obtain salvation. And in many places it says clearly that if you haven't been born again through Jesus Christ, you will die in your sins, and then be judged. It really concerns me that so many people seem to be getting so, so, so far from what the Bible says. So few seem to base their life on it anymore. I know I have been very guilty of such. Thank God, He has helped me to repent and to continue to repent daily of my sins and to follow him as well as I can, which also requires a lot of help from Him. If you don't believe the Bible, you are wide open to believe anything and everything else. I believe it is SOOOO important for all of us to daily search what the Bible says, pray earnestly that God will help us live as he wishes us to and believe what is true, and do our best to obey His Word. If we don't know what the Word says, it will be easy for Rob Bell and others to convince us that nothing you can do could ever result in you going to hell, that you can still repent after you're dead, etc, etc, etc.
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