Friday, July 11, 2008

A Fearful Thing

Need to cringe for a second or two? Or maybe be terrified and/or annoyed for a paragraph or two?
A sister in Christ sent me a couple of articles from the Pulpit Magazine about a visit to Mars Hill. The writer, Nathan Williams, describes the whole event from the moment he entered the church to the worship time, to what the Sunday sermon was about. Taking in consideration that Mars Hill is pastored by Rob Bell of the emergent/emerging(?) church movement. Here are some excerpts:

"The teachers for the morning were Don Perini and Jeanette Banashak. Both serve as professors at nearby Cornerstone University...These two were specifically asked to speak on creativity because it is one of their specialties. They announce a couple of times during the message that they will be teaching a multi part class in the coming months at Mars Hill on creativity."

"The dual teaching method creates an interesting dynamic. One person sits on a stool on stage while the other does his (or her) teaching..."

"The title for the message the morning I was there was “A Journey to Unleash Your Creative Potential.”"

"Don began the morning by lamenting the fact that as we grow older we tend to play less games and tend to be less creative. The busyness of life creeps in and we no longer take the time to play and imagine. Once Don finishes his introduction, Jeanette asks us to open to Matthew 28 and take a look at the great commission. She reminds us that we are supposed to be making disciples and baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. She makes the connection between the Trinity and the discipleship commanded in the great commission."

"...She noted that the first verb in the Bible is to create and that obviously our God is a creative God. Since Genesis 1:26 tells us that we are made in the image of God, we must learn to be creative like God is creative. Then she explained that since God is a Trinity the Trinity must hold some clues as to how God is creative and therefore how we should be creative."

"The entire message was based on the idea that every bit of human creativity resembles the Trinity. The creative idea we have is like God the Father, the action that we perform because of that idea is like the Son, and the influence and power of that creative idea is like the Holy Spirit."

"...after Jeanette taught on the idea of creativity and that being analogous to God the Father, Dan taught on the top ten places for creative ideas to come to us. After the section dealing with Jesus and the creative idea being put into action, Dan taught on several habits of creative people."

"The ultimate point of the message was for us to learn to be creative and then use that creativity for something useful. The Sayers quote which they kept using throughout the lesson was “…that we may redeem the Fall by a creative act.” "

"The point of the message was that we can use our creativity to redeem the fall. In other words, our world is in a rough situation. All of the pain and hardship in society comes as a result of the fall. We must use our creativity to fix the problems created by mankind’s fall into sin.""
"Sadly, throughout the message there was no mention of the gospel of Jesus Christ being what redeems men from the fall."
Ugh to twist Scripture like that!!! We can use our creativity to redeem the fall!??? JESUS CHRIST, the HOLY SON of GOD had to DIE on a Cross, BEAR OUR NASTY HORRIBLE STINKY SINS AND drink in God's WRATH, He was HUMILIATED, SPAT ON, TORTURED, BEATEN and CRUCIFIED so that we PUNY exceedingly sinful men and women could be redeemed, so we could be justified before the Lord. He got what WE DESERVE. And these people have the guts to even utter those words that with our filthy rags of good "creative" works we can redeem the fall?? Talk about spitting on the Blood of Christ and trampling on His work on the cross.
I'm sorry I just get a little annoyed at things like these, please pray for these people who received this teaching. And pray for me as well!

5 comments:

Penn Tomassetti said...

Lord, I pray that you have mercy on those emergents who need to know your creative power in making "new creatures" in Christ Jesus. And I pray for Ms. Martinez, that she will continue to be fired up for Christ and His glory in dying to save unworthy sinners who trust you. Amen.

Okay, I've prayed (and that sincerely). I am glad you wrote this, because now I understand a little more about what emerging people are listening to.

Grace to you.

Penn Tomassetti said...

Your blog is a surprise to me. Here's why: I found out from browsing that...
You seem to be full of the word of Christ.
You love evangelism.
You seem to love God's Sovereign Grace.
You read Grace Gems! :)
You are from S. America.
You write perfect English.
You read Pyromaniacs.

These things make me laugh with joy, because I felt like I was the only one.

Jennifer said...

Rita, I don't follow the false teaching movements too much because I am super busy, but I am really glad that people like you are here to provide us with updates. It's amazing how people cannot see this is just New Age Philosophy recycled. Thanks for posting this. Now I have yet another place to point my friends when they ask me why I claim this type of thing is not Christianity.

Moon said...

Penn Tomassetti
Hey there brother! thank you so much for your prayers and for visiting my blog!
It's always a blessing for me to know that my blog in some way or another is edifying or at least helpful!

I do love evangelism, i never thought I'd even say that its wonderful! :D
Grace Gems are the best! seriously I have yet to read one that is not a gem, they're so edifying and some of them sooo convicting!
anddd one last thing the Dominican Republic is actually in the Caribbean :D although there are some smaller island that are located in the Caribbean but are considered part of South America
again thanks for your comments!

Jen
Jennn I finally know your last name! now I understand why in AiC your name was Jen NOT Guerrero :P
As for the post, I on the other hand have an amazingly amount of free time which I've been trying hard to use wisely. I used to follow those false teachings/teachers way more but I realized it wasn't doing me any good so I stopped reading certain blogs and now I just keep an eye out here and there so that I may be able to point others in the right direction.
I talked to the sister who sent me those articles this Sunday after church, she said the articles reminder her of me because one time I had warned her and some others about Mr. bell when I saw them watching those Nooma videos.
Thanks for your comment Jen!

Penn Tomassetti said...

Rita,

I'm sorry, I didn't think about the DR as being in the Caribbean. I also didn't mean to make it sound like I am from S. America or speak Spanish. I am from Pennsylvania, and I don't speak Spanish, but am learning a little bit. The other things: Sovereign Grace, Evangelism, Grace Gems, Calvinist resources on the Web (i.e. Team Pyro) are things I have been enjoying. God bless.