The False Gospel of Self-Esteem

COUNSELING

“Christian counseling” has become a very prominent feature of the Church of Jesus Christ. The fact that the general area of “counseling” is rife with the philosophies of man results in great danger that the “wisdom” of this world will infiltrate the message of the Church at the expense of the wisdom of God. A growing deception found in Christian counseling (and throughout society) is the false gospel of “self-esteem” which is incompatible with the Biblical Gospel of the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Increasingly, the counseling mentality is that “low self-esteem” is the root cause of a teenager deciding to engage in pre-marital sex or of a house-wife who is always depressed. In fact, prominent Christian personalities can be heard to claim that society’s greatest problem is that of “low self-esteem”, and that everything from abortion, school drop-outs, teen pregnancy to rape, robbery, and poverty can be solved if only we help people to esteem themselves more highly; to love themselves more and more; and to realize their great self-worth!

Those of us who call ourselves Bible-believing Christians must ask some crucial questions. Is mankind’s problem a lack of self-esteem or is it pride, self-centeredness and rebellion? Is the answer to our problem “building self-esteem” or is it brokenness and repentance at the foot of the Cross? And how about my “self-worth”? Doesn’t God’s Word say that in-and-of my “self” I am worthy of eternal hell?

THE REBELLION OF SELF

The origin of the theology of “selfism” can be found in Isaiah 14:12-14 where Satan’s long list of self-exalting “I will’s” are recorded. Satan then took his message of “Self” to the Garden of Eden in Genesis three where, in the form of the serpent, he told Eve that she could be her own god and decide for herself what is right and wrong. Revelation 12:9 says, “…that serpent, Satan, who deceives the whole world.”    Continue at Christian Research Service

What's Wrong With Joel Osteen?

On Sunday night, 41,000 fans packed Nationals Stadium in Washington, D.C., to hear a message of hope, inspiration, and encouragement from Joel Osteen. Most paid about $20 (including fees) for the privilege.

Osteen sold out the stadium — a feat the Nationals rarely accomplish. But did he have to sell out to do so?

Osteen is the latest embodiment of the American Religion — Revivalism. For centuries now, preachers have known how to fill stadiums or circus tents and send people home with hope in their heart and a skip in their step. Osteen promises you will leave a transformed person — at least until his tour comes around again next year, when you can be transformed again.

Osteen’s message is a positive one for a difficult time. Every one of us has seeds of greatness inside, potential that has not yet been released, buried treasure waiting to be discovered. If you were a car, you would be the fully loaded and totally equipped model — “with pin stripes,” he says, gesturing to his suit.

Before God created you, he planned great things for you. As you stretch your faith, “God is going to show up, and show out, in tremendous ways. … If you don’t step into your destiny and release your gift, then this world will not be as bright as it should be.”

That’s a pretty positive message. What could be wrong with that?

The biggest problem with Osteen’s message about God is that it is really a message about me. God is a potential, a force, a co-pilot, waiting to be tapped and deployed. I may have a net below me, but I am the one that has to take the first steps on the wire:    Continue at Daily Caller

See also: Joel Osteen Worships Himself

Witchcraft Exposed (and Defeated)

Galatians 3:1 “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? (literally, who has put the evil eye on you or brought you under their spell) It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.” 

 

Witchcraft is a dark, forboding, demonic force. It is easy to recognize in its various outward forms. However, there is a subtle form of witchcraft that this verse in Galatians exposes. Witchcraft, in its overt and visible manifestations seeks to do its damage to the people of God. Yet by stealth and through the means of false teaching, witchcraft also seeks to obscure the message of the cross in the Church. 

Paul rebukes the Galatians, saying in so many words, “What’s wrong with you people? Who has brought you under their spell? You saw the cross. It was so very clear to you. What? Can’t you see it anymore?”

Let me state it once again, witchcraft seeks to obscure the message of the cross in the Church. 

What Paul writes is intriguing. How could he make this comment, “It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified”? How could Paul suggest such a thing? 

Did Paul forget who it was he was writing to? Did he have some mental aberration and think he was writing to the Christians at Jerusalem and not in Galatia? The Galatian Christians were not at Golgotha to see the Lord crucified.  Continue at John Samson

Counterfeit Gospels

Another book about the gospel. We have seen the release of all kinds of books about the gospel lately—books defining the gospel, books preaching the gospel, books sharing how to live with the gospel at the center of life. Is there any room for another one? Absolutely there is, and Trevin Wax has delivered it in the form of Counterfeit Gospels: Discovering the Good News in a World of False Hope.

Wax is convinced there is crisis in the church today, a crisis created by counterfeit gospels—gospels that appear to have elements of the real thing, but which are, at heart, fraudulent. This crisis has 3 elements:

• A lack of gospel confidence - we have lost our faith in the power of the gospel to change life.
• A lack of gospel clarity - we are unsure of what the gospel message truly is.
• A lack of gospel community - devoid of confidence and clarity, our churches have begun to lose their distinctiveness. We’ve lost what makes the church the church. Keep Reading...

A Half-Gospel is No Gospel

Too often in modern Evangelicalism, the preachers only give half of the Gospel. Many will speak many gospel-truths but will often leave out many essential components that make it what it is. Recently I heard a man preach of God’s sovereignty and man’s necessary actions in glorifying Him. He also spoke on how men will not find happiness or purpose in this life without it. These are all half-truths; for the speaker left out some very essential facts. He left out man’s sins and sin nature discussing the reason why Christ has come to give us a gift of salvation, and more importantly he left out what we are saved from, namely God’s wrath.

This half-gospel is quite pervasive over the majority of the country’s churches. The mainstream Protestantism has been replaced by mainline Evangelicalism which happens to be falling in the same pits as their predecessors. The gospel has become another self-help formula, a how to guide giving man his self-purpose and security. All of these things have been made equivalent with the American dream and the pursuit of happiness. Keep Reading>>>

Can We Rock the Gospel?

And finally, a quote from John Blanchard and Dan Lucarini's Can We Rock the Gospel, which attempts to expose rock music's impact on worship and evangelism. The book is premised on the view that rock music is dividing the church, destroying local congregations and turning Christian against Christian in arguments about musical styles. They ask, given rock music's well-earned "worldly reputation..."

Why do worship leaders, evangelists or church musicians work so hard to perfect the use of it? To accommodate this inconsistency, Christian rock apologists have had to construct a new faith system to offer religious cover to those who do so. This system requires adherence to one or more of the following credos:

* God created all music--therefore rock music was inspired by him.
* Although rock may have been corrupted by bad people, we have the power to redeem it for God.
* Music itself is neutral and amoral, and only the lyrics matter. Therefore, there is no such thing as "evil" or "good" music.
* The end justifies the means--if it brings someone to Christ, God can use it. If it brings me into God's presence during worship, it must be from God.

The lyrics of Christian rock songs may in and of themselves be respectful of God and Christian principles, but can anyone honestly say that these Christians have created a "new" song, or that their music compositions are inspired by God rather than by men? The evidence suggests otherwise and leads us to believe that Christian rockers are simply copying and imitating a music style that was created and inspired by men who in their lust for freedom--for sex, freedom to get high on drugs anytime they please, freedom to seek a god of some sort through altered states of consciousness, and freedom from any kind of authority--have rejected the God of the Bible.

HT: Tim Challies

Shepherds' Conference 2009 - Steve Lawson

Re - Everything?

A few weeks ago I was recording some of the many thoughts that float through my mind everyday. On that particular day I was thinking about all the "re's" that we read about in books, blogs, and hear on the radio. We have Re-think Conference , Re-inventing Jesus , Re-imagining the Church , Re-Jesus , Re-structuring the Church, Re-write Church History, and the list could go on and on.

Then we have a bunch of words that end with "al". Missional, Attractional, Incarnational, Reformissional, and Conversational.

We have Contemplative Spirituality, Spiritual Mapping, Prayer Walking, Walking the Labyrinth, Centering Prayer, Lecto Devina and on and on and....

We have "Shift", and Everything Must Change .

When will all this Evangelical Doping stop? Why are we taking cues from men like N. T. Wright, Brian Mclaren, Rob Bell - and a host of other not so Orthodox people? Why are we fishing in a poisoned pond? Is the Word of God our only and final authority for faith and life?

We can spend the next 10 or 20 years discussing all these alternative ways of "doing Church" and we will just be going in circles. We already have a Book that tells us how to do Church. We have a host of Godly men who know, from a Scriptural vantage point, what it takes to BE the Church of Jesus Christ. We can go on and trash all the ministries that we don't agree with and we'll never get to the real "business" of the local Church - Eph. 4:10-16; II Timothy 4:1-5.

And one more thing about another "re": The only "re" that will work is a Holy Ghost "Re-Vival" - and God will do it, not men and their clever marketing strategies.

For your consideration:
Thirsty Theologian

Why Does God Permit False Prophets?

Many Paths to Heaven?

Christian believers who named at least one non-Christian faith that could lead to salvation included 34% of white evangelicals, even though evangelical doctrine stresses that salvation is possible only through Jesus.

Higher levels of church attendance made some difference, particularly among white evangelical protestants. But an overall majority (54%) of people who identified with a religion and who said they attend church weekly also said many religions can lead to eternal life. This majority included 37% of white evangelicals, 75% of mainline Protestants and 85% of non-Hispanic white Catholics. (USA Today)

"A New Era, A New Role"

I wonder if Mr. Warren will tell his audience anything about the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ?

"And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

"Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:14-15)

A. W. Tozer said: "My fear is that the modern conception of faith is not the biblical one, that when the teachers of our day use the word they do not mean what the Bible writers meant when they used it. The causes of my uneasiness are these":

1. The lack of spiritual fruit in the lives of so many who claim to have faith.

2. The rarity of a radical change in the conduct and general outlook of persons professing their new faith in Christ as their personal Savior.

3. The failure of our teachers to define or even describe the thing to which the word ‘faith’ is supposed to refer.

4. The heartbreaking failure of multitudes of seekers, be they ever so earnest, to make anything out of the doctrine [of faith] or to receive any satisfying experience through it.

5. The real danger that a doctrine that is parroted so widely and received so uncritically by so many is false as understood by them.

6. I have seen faith put forward as a substitute for obedience, an escape from reality, a refuge from the necessity of hard thinking, a hiding place for weak character. I have known people to miscall by the name of faith high animal spirits, natural optimism, emotional thrills and nervous tics.

7. Plain horse sense ought to tell us that anything that makes no change in the man who professes it makes no difference to God either, and it is an easily observable fact that for countless numbers of persons the change from no-faith to faith makes no actual difference in the life.
- A. W. Tozer, “Faith: The Misunderstood Doctrine”