Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

The following description is taken from YouTube - GRK

First, I highly recommend reading this article by Christian Smith:
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

If you go to a "Christian Church" where they actually are against preaching the Scriptures, it's a good chance that you're not going to a Christian church at all. Christian Smith has coined the phrase to describe this new religion that is permeating many of these "seeker" churches as "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism".

Here is how Smith breaks down the religion:
1. A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in ones life except when he is needed to resolve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

Here are the words "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" broken down:

Moralistic: Characteristic of or relating to a narrow-minded concern of the morals of others; self-righteous

Therapeutic: Having or exhibiting healing powers: a therapeutic agent; therapeutic exercises.

Deism: Strictly, the term denotes a certain movement of rationalistic thought which was manifested chiefly in England from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century.

Affirmatively, deists hold to
(1) the existence of a personal God, Creator and Rule of the universe;
(2) the obligation of divine worship;
(3) the obligation of ethical conduct;
(4) the necessity of repentance from sins;
(5) divine rewards and punishments, here, and in the life of the soul after death. These five points were stated by Lord Herbert Cherbury (1583-1648), called the father of deism.

Negatively, the deists generally denied any direct intervention in the natural order on the part of God. Though they professed faith in personal Providence, they denied the Trinity, the incarnation, the divine authority of the Bible, the atonement, miracles, any particular elect people such as Israel or the church, or any supernatural redemptive act in history."

(Adapted from Baker's Dictionary of Theology, s.v. "Deism")

It's another religion, folks, and it completely explains why passages in the Bible are selectively cited while others are overlooked. For those of you who are familiar with the "seeker" movement: think about the verses they selectively cite. Do the verses, out of context, not support the religion of moralistic therapeutic deism? Do not the verses that are omitted speak against the religion of moralistic therapeutic deism?

Thanks to Mark Kielar and CrossTV for allowing this video to be posted. To get this program, go to http://www.crosstv.com or call 1-877-CROSSTV