Protect Your Kids From Jesus

The world hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. – Jesus (John 7:7, 15:18)

Tuesday was an amazing day in America. Nearly 200,000 copies of the new documentary, 180, were distributed on over 100 campuses in the United States and Canada. Most of these were college campuses, some were high schools. There was not as much opposition as I expected, but there was definitely much. Several police reports were filed, four citations were given, and many people were detained while police checked the legality of the hand-out.

Elsewhere, prayer is banned from public schools and football games, and evangelism is non-existent. As we evangelize at local high-school football games, police make up laws to seek to stop us.

Students were successfully protected from the message of Eternal Life. While we were prohibited from our free-speech rights, students were being taught evolution, homosexual agendas, communism, sports idolatry, sexual lascivious and irresponsibility, a blurring of the judicial/executive branches as police make up laws on the spot, and Islam is lauded as a religion of peace. I regularly preempt fights at football games and seek to witness to both parties involved. The world does its best to protect your children from Jesus Christ. He makes radical demands, so the world is quick to promise freedom, but they don’t admit to you that they are themselves slaves of corruption. They cry out, “Let us throw his laws off of us, ignoring his commands.” But in rejecting the freedom of Christ, they sink into the bondage of sin, and ensure that all around them fall headlong into the mire.

Martin Luther ominously said,

I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth.

This isn’t just happening in schools, this is happening in churches. Within every denomination, even the orthodox ones, you’ll find people protecting children from Jesus. Within several denominations, the hymnals have been rewritten to remove references to the cross, and especially to blood. Blood is clearly offensive not just to children, but to everyone who should recognize that blood is offensive for a reason, that something is wrong in the universe and death is a constant reality. These denominations (PCUSA, Episcopal, United Church of Christ, etc.) have successfully protected their children from Jesus and forgiveness, for there is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood, as Jesus said, “This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins of many.” (Hebrews 9:22, Matthew 26:28)

To be fair, the United Methodist Church has come out against this editing, and I want to applaud them in that regard. They write,

In Wesley hymns, the blood “pleads,” “avails,” “washes,” “purifies,” “saves,” “cleanses” and is “applied.” In the 80 Wesley hymns originally considered for inclusion in the 1989 hymnal, the word “blood” appears 31 times. Twenty-five of the hymns have a clear reference to the atonement. Whether or not blood atonement is taught in the seminaries or preached in the pulpit, it is still sung in the pews.

Elsewhere, practically all denominations protect their children from Jesus by retelling Bible stories. The story of Noah’s Ark has become a story of fuzzy animals, not the wrath of God against millions of reprobates or the salvation of a relative few through means provided and prescripted by God. The anathema Veggie Tales have removed death, destruction, wrath, and judgment from the biblical accounts, and have turned sin into a mild inconvenience that might result in you being covered in pie. They do a fantastic job of protecting kids from Jesus by not even mentioning him.

Any means of teaching that removes offense is necessarily against God. False prophets in the Old Testament protected people from Jesus by declaring PEACE, PEACE, when there really was no peace. They appeased the offense, they settled consciences, and the people faced the severe consequences of the wrath of God against their sin.

Undoubtedly one of the people Jesus hates the most are those who preclude the little ones from coming to him. He threatens them explicitly in Matthew 18:6. The danger is great for protecting a child from Jesus. Both the child and the protector will face God as his enemy. The one who stands between men and God will be judged with greater strictness. Jesus cries out to those protecting people from him, “Woe to you! You shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces! You neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in!”

So, reader, wherever you stand in relation to this blog, repent of protecting kids from Jesus. Preach the entire message of the entire Bible, which is that mankind is fallen, God is angry, and something radically drastic was required to appease the wrath of God and reconcile men. The Son of God himself put on a body, because heretofore Jesus was a spirit, and spirits don't have blood, so Jesus put on a body, he lived a perfect life, and he poured out his blood on a cross. He was beaten beyond human recognition, the hatred of men against God was demonstrated on a cross, and the hatred of God against sin was demonstrated on a cross, and Christ bore the indignation of both men and God, giving his life as a ransom, glorifying God in his obedience. Three days later he defeated death, he will deliver everyone who trusts in him from their bodies of death into perfected bodies in Heaven. In Heaven he will wipe away every tear of his saints as death, suffering, and sin become a thing of the past.

You can only protect yourself and others from Christ for so long, for we all have an appointment to meet him. I pray that on that day you meet him as a friend and a Saviour, and not as an enemy and Executioner. If you refuse to come, then stand aside and let evangelists preach the message to those who will, do not stand in the way of the salvation of some-one else.

In conclusion, once while we were preaching in Tampa, Florida, a woman cried out, "Please wait until we leave, I don't want my seven year old exposed to this!" I responded with a George Whitefield paraphrase, "Ma'am, if you won't go to Heaven, then for your son's sake, don't prevent him! Young man, come to Jesus apart from your parents if need be!"

Come then, ye little children, come to Christ; the Lord Christ shall be your righteousness. Do not stay for other people! If your fathers and mothers will not come to Christ, come without them! Let children lead them, and show them how the Lord may be their righteousness. – George Whitefield

Biblical Fidelity

Introduction

If there is one point of contention that rises more often than any other in opposition to myself and my ministry, it is that I hold too many doctrines as essential. I do not deny this, I readily state that every doctrine has a level of essentiality, and I would even state that the division between essential and non-essential doctrines can be an essential doctrine.

Let me give some examples, eschatology is generally considered to be a non-essential doctrine, and I agree, I have no problem calling everyone from pre-mil to a-mil to pre-trib to post-trib my brothers. However, full-preterists have stepped away from biblical teaching and should be confronted as to their sin; similarly, arch-heretic Mike Bickle has an “over-realized” eschatology which calls for believers in this age to be the John the Baptists who will usher in Christ’s Second Coming.

The second example is the relationship between God’s love and hatred of sinners. There are varying views on how God can simultaneously hold wrath and charity towards the same person, and by and large this is a non-essential doctrine. But when someone denies that God has any enmity towards sinners, then they deny the essential nature of God’s Word (Psalm 1:5, 3:7, 5:5, 7:11, 11:5), and thus God’s love and hatred becomes an essential.

The third and last example is the phenomenology of prayer, which is another doctrine generally considered a non-essential, but if someone claims that prayer can be heard apart from Christ or that prayer earns favor with God, then they have associated the doctrine of prayer with the essentials of soteriology and Christology (John 9:31, Psalm 34:15-16, Isaiah 59:1-2, compare: Privilege of Prayer), and prayer becomes an essential doctrine. Generally when someone elevates a non-essential into blatant heresy, it is not their only heresy; a non-essential gone terribly awry usually points to much deeper problems in essential doctrine.

As I’ve written recently here, what we ought to be looking for is not a check-list of doctrinal beliefs, but rather we ought to be looking at the fruit borne out of such beliefs. We can declare Mike Bickle to be a heretic because of his cult-like organization. He is not just wrong on one doctrine, but on the corpus of his beliefs, and these are a result of his lack of regeneration. He claims to be fleeing from the wrath to come, hastening the day of Christ, but he is not bearing fruit keeping with repentance, and so on biblical authority, we can declare that his religion is worthless and that he is a false-prophet and deceiver.

But not every wrong belief should be looked at so strongly, for there are sins that do not lead to death, there are non-essential doctrines that if wrong (such as dispensationalism) do not instantly mean that the holder of such doctrine is unregenerate and a false teacher. Does that mean that we ought to just let these errors go unaddressed? By no means, we ought to be seeking biblical fidelity in every facet, and call those who believe wrongly to conform their beliefs to match the Bible. For example, those who baptize babies are WRONG, but they will not lose their souls for such wrong belief, but the result of their wrong belief often results in future generations thinking baptism saves and thus losing their souls for lack of faith in Christ. Therefore this non-essential, or any other, should not go ignored.

So what does the Bible say about biblical fidelity? Why should we preach the truth? There are several reasons why we must not allow small heresies into our churches, these range from damage to man, to an affront to God. Some of these cost their hearers their souls, some merely damage growth in grace, but all are damnable, worth crying over, and to be avoided at all costs.

A Little Does a Lot

Jesus tells the parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” – Matthew 13:33

This parable is twice exposited by the Apostle Paul to say, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump,” (Galatians 5:7-9, 1 Corinthians 5:6-8) describing the leaven as sin and false teaching; elsewhere leaven is always allegorically representative of sin. Recently I heard the worst sermon I’ve heard in person in a church, it attacked the doctrine of scripture, God’s sovereignty, Christ’s glory, and salvation by grace alone. It was truly a wicked sermon, but seemingly I am the only one alarmed to the danger that such sin can have on a church. It was only one bad sermon, but there is no telling what sort of heresy will flow out of those who heard and embraced it, or the preacher who preached it.

Probably the best example of the power of sin to corrupt and destroy is the heresy of free-will. A belief in free-will does not preclude a person from being regenerate, but every great heresy in history has its foundation in free-will, of desiring to do something to earn God’s favor. Whether that thing be choice, religious service, or humanitarian service, the leaven of free-will is found worldwide, inside and outside of the church. Some claim to be inside, but are clearly outside, one needs only to look at the Roman Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, the Jehovah’s Witnesses as examples; these are all utterly captured by the lie of man’s free-agency.

It Spreads

“Avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene.” - 2 Timothy 2:16-17

Not only does false teaching lead away from holiness and Christ, but it also quickly infects those who hear it. These hearers see that their teachers approach the Bible flippantly and with disregard to teaching it faithfully, and have no problem doing likewise. This sickness will lead to crippled church bodies and members who are unable to function and are actually a hindrance to ministry.

False Teaching Hinders Service

“You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” – Galatians 5:7

False teaching puts the focus everywhere but where it should be. When the focus is on an idol, then work done towards that false-god is directly contradictory to obeying Christ, for he says that you are either gathering with him, or scattering (Matthew 12:30).

When the focus is on the individual, then selfishness ensues, and loving God and loving neighbor fails. The Bible contains great and lasting promises that the believer may know that they are saved (1 John 5:13); one of the reasons it does this is so that the believer can stop fretting over his own self, and set his affections fully on Christ. When I teach on how to know you are saved, I conclude with, “Once you know you are saved, you can stop worrying about your salvation and start focusing on seeing others saved.”

False Teaching Quenches Love

“Many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” – Matthew 24:11-12

The pendulum swings two ways under false teaching, either to legalism, which will be discussed in a moment, or to libertinism, the throwing off of the law, living for oneself, and lacking the charity and lovingkindness towards others to seek their highest and best benefit.

This lawlessness masquerades under the titles of love and tolerance, claiming that it just wants people to be happy, but it ignores skyrocketing depression rates, decreased lifespans, and Christless eternities.

False Teaching Crushes

“They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” – Matthew 23:4

Legalism imposes laws upon hearers that cannot possibly be kept. Instead of recognizing that the law is perfect and holy and good, that it points to an infinitely holy God, they edit it to be attainable, changing commands and imposing strange requirements for those unfortunate enough to be burdened by an impossibly righteous law. The end of the law is ignored, for the law is meant to lead the hearer to Christ and exhort them to shoulder his burden, which is light.

For if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.

False Teaching Enslaves

“They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption.” – 2 Peter 2:19

Perfect love drives out all fear, for fear has to do with punishment. All of the false religions claim that if you do good, something good will happen to you. But under these religions is that nagging question of whether or not you have truly done enough. These efforts can never cleanse a conscience, for how thoroughly must you wash your hands in order to cleanse your soul? (cf. Mark 7:20-23)

Idolatry Stifles Growth

“I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.” - 1 Corinthians 3:1

Elsewhere it says that certain people should have been teachers by now, but that they were still babes (Hebrews 5:12-13). False teaching that exalts man, wisdom, eloquence, free-will, or any false doctrine will result in spiritually immature members who cannot articulate their faith, nor go among unbelievers to seek to persuade them to trust in Christ. Like a ship without an anchor these will be blown about by every wind of false doctrine, human cunning, and deceitful scheme.

False Teaching Shipwrecks Faith

“They are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.” - Titus 1:11

Elsewhere it says that these teachers make shipwreck of their faith (1 Timothy 1:19); biblical infidelity does not strengthen a church in unity, but destabilizes it in disunity. It may claim to have noble intentions, but its end-result betrays this claim. Jesus prayed, “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” (John 17:11) This can only happen through the sanctification of the Word of Faith (John 17:17,20-21, Romans 10:8-17), therefore the person who misrepresents the Word of Christ destroys unity, and leads hearers down a dangerous path.

Their Last State is Worse than their First

“For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.” – 2 Peter 2:20-21

Many believe they are rejecting Christianity, when what they have actually rejected is not Christianity at all, but a weak counterfeit of it. The false teacher says, “Come to Jesus so you can be healthy, wealthy, and powerful,” but when such things do not happen, the sinner flees from Christianity. When powerless free-will sermons are preached and the person “asks Jesus into their heart” twenty-three times and nothing happens, they have no qualms with walking away from the Bible and their perception of God forever.

These false-converts, backsliders, and cold-coal have been effectively murdered by those who claim to represent God but who have no part nor lot in his kingdom.

God is Dishonored and His Name Blasphemed

“If you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, ‘The name of God is blasphemed among the nations because of you.’” – Romans 2:19-24

False teachers profess to represent God and his law, but in so doing they fail to show how transcendent God is, that he is high and lifted up, holy and righteous, just and justifier. They usurp some of his glory, teaching salvation and/or sanctification by works, and in so doing are looked at as being failures in such works, and hence the God they represent is looked at as unjust and inept.

Conclusion

The truth is precious, because it points at the only begotten Son of God; Christ promises that his saints will know the truth and the truth will set them free. Every Christian ought to be concerned with rightly representing Jesus Christ in thought, word, and deed: never speaking or doing anything that may bring him reproach.

There are such things as essential and non-essential doctrines, but beloved, always err towards essential, looking for the ramifications of heresy and whether the doctrine in which you are in disagreement over radically misrepresents God or points hearers towards destruction. When the issue is non-essential, look at it again to be sure that it is not a symptom of a larger problem. Many a humanist betrays his heart by preaching Christ merely as a means to the happiness and eternal bliss of man, instead of as the only God and Saviour, just and justifier, righteous and true, faithful, gracious, and sovereign. In you confronting this person it could be that God peradventure grants him repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.

For the sake of Christ and his church: preach the truth, confront error, correct in love, strive to present every member mature in Christ. Proclaim Christ as a firm anchor of the soul, strive to present every member in the full measure of stature in Christ, that they may not be blown about like a ship adrift.

Augustine said, “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity.” Let us keep these in mind, recognizing that true love strives for maturity in Christ. The most unloving thing we can do is let someone continue in a grievous error, knowing that potentially the soul of the fallacious teacher is on the line, and certainly the souls of his hearers.

“Therefore let us put away falsehood, and share the truth with our neighbor.” – Ephesians 4:25

Our Selfless Self-Centered God

Introduction

In my review of David Platt’s first book, Radical, I noted some fatal flaws in an outright dangerous book. I felt that Radical strayed far from Platt’s beliefs and actions, and was inconsistent with his philosophy of missions and ecclesiology (how he does church). I would not be exaggerating one bit to say I hated Radical and was seriously worried about the future of David Platt’s ministry direction and his disciples.

It is, then, with great joy, that he has released his newest book, Radical Together. This book recants several mistakes of Radical and addresses several points that were addressed in critique of his book. At location[1] 654-2180 he says, “I began sensing a tendency in our people to define holiness by how much we do for God. Amid all our talk of radical obedience, we were losing sight of gospel grace.” In another place he says, “I get frightened when I think about Radical in [a legalist’s] hands.” (loc. 396)

While I sent Dr. Platt two e-mails about this book, the first my critique, and second a plea to reconsider his humanistic leaning, I never received a reply. As a lightly-read mostly unknown bivocational volunteer associate pastor, I didn’t expect a response, but it is nice in Radical Together that there is some evidence that Platt read my e-mails. I began my critique with 1 Peter 2:9, and early in the book (loc. 143) Platt introduces the purpose of his book with 1 Peter 2:9; later in the book he quotes a story from Paris Reidhead’s sermon against humanism (loc. 1517), which I posted both in my review and sent in my e-mail. Whether these are coincidences or not, I am quite glad that Platt is making strides in Radical Together to correct the mistakes he published in Radical.

Having read Radical Together, I am now much more comfortable with Platt’s ministry and theology, and am glad for the work he is doing both abroad and locally. I am glad for his emphasis on the church body, the Bible, and local missions and discipleship. Unfortunately Radical Together still has some serious mistakes concerning humanism, and just a touch of mysticism, though both are considerably better than Radical. It is also a bit light on Jesus (not on God, but on the cross of Christ), and tends to make mankind more a victim of sin than a practitioner of it.

This review will focus on three major topics in Radical Together, starting with Platt’s best point, Ecclesiastical Accountability, then moving to a major improvement in Platt’s writing, concerning Mysticism, and will conclude with a look at Platt's humanism. In my prior review I mentioned that Radical was horrendously written with almost no continuity; Radical Together is written considerably better, definitely with more movement. As the reader will see later in this review though, from topic to topic there are some major contradictions in Platt’s writing from chapter to chapter. What is important in this point is that his writing and theology have improved drastically from Radical to Radical Together. By far the best improvement is in how he presents the believers role in a church body.

Ecclesiastical Accountability

In my original review I made the point that Platt presented the individual Christian as one “who saves the world of their own accord,” Platt agrees with this individualistic assessment, stating, “In my first book, Radical, I explored how the biblical gospel affects individual Christian lives.” (loc. 99) In Radical Together Platt focuses much more on the role of the church in missions and the role of the individual in the church. This is obviously his main point, as the title attests, that Christians ought to be together with other believers in order to form a working body. The introduction of Radical Together points out that Christians drastically decrease their effect when they “journey alone.” (loc. 99)

One of my major contentions with Radical was that, “the local church is overlooked”, in Radical Together Platt puts a much better emphasis on local missions and the local church, giving a multitude of examples of how his church ministers in Birmingham’s poorest communities (loc. 315), adopts children both locally and abroad (loc. 492), and focuses on God-centered worship (loc. 1489). Platt shares a story (loc. 1489) of a young man who was called to repentance by seeing the church worship a holy and righteous God who is both just and justifier. It is a powerful call to the church to focus on making disciples of Christ rather than trying to meet their earthly and/or sinful desires; Platt doesn’t explicitly quote Matthew 6:34, but no doubt he would give a hearty amen to it, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

In order to seek first the kingdom of God in everything, Platt calls the church to focus much more on people than performances, places, programs, or professionals (chapter 4). This call requires looking at what the church is doing, and instead of asking, What is wrong with what we are doing? it is better to ask, What is right with it? (loc. 236) This question leads to doing away with things that are not inherently wrong, but which are not using the resources and people of God to their highest and best usefulness.

There is a wonderful movement within Christendom recently to call for greater church oversight of evangelists, missionaries, and small group leaders; not telling them what to do or how to do it, but ensuring they are orthodox and striving for holiness. There are rogue evangelists and missionaries operating every-which-where preaching every sort of heresy, and so every call for better oversight is wonderful, and Platt’s book does so with tact and biblical support.

Churches and church-members who are encumbered by things that are not “wrong” but are also not right will be challenged and improved by taking Radical Together seriously. However, Platt’s ecclesiastical call is not all good.

Ecclesiastical Errors

Another of my greatest contentions with Radical was that David Platt was forcing his ministry focus on everyone, I put it this way,

This all plays out most damnably in Platt’s application, that this radical lifestyle should be true of everyone. What makes him think that someone who won’t volunteer at the homeless shelter in Birmingham will sell their Mercedes and volunteer at the homeless shelter in Mozambique? Why does David Platt’s ‘thing’ have to be my ‘thing’? Are not some called to be evangelists, others pastors, some teachers?

Platt has somewhat improved on this point, but not completely, he points at many ways in which his flock are ministering for Christ, but he continues to perpetuate his error of projecting his own desires on the whole church, stating,

So for you and me not to be intentionally engaged in taking the gospel to unreached people groups is disobedience to the command of Christ. Our churches are in the wrong before God if we are not prioritizing the spread of the gospel to every people group. (loc. 1178)

This error continues to think that the goal of Christianity is to save one person from every nation, tribe, and tongue, and not to call all saints to immersion in Christ. I’m sure Platt would disagree with the following ludicrous statement, “Because Anglo-Saxons, Pontians, and Afrikaners have seen someone repent and come to Christ, missions to these people groups should cease.” But the way he has made his call to world evangelization makes it seem like it is more important to call uncalled peoples to repentance than it is to call everyone to repentance.

Platt seems to misunderstand that the Lamb’s Book of Life, penned before eternity began, includes a certain number of names of people who will certainly come to repentance (Revelation 13:8, 2 Peter 3:9). Radical Together contains far fewer heresies (please note that not all heresy is damnable to the preacher) than Radical, but probably the one that bothered me the most was “What we need to understand is that Jesus did not command us simply to take the gospel to as many individual people as we can.” (loc. 1152) I refute that, even the "simply", because Christ commanded his followers to go and compel everyone they met to come in (Matthew 22:9), Christ cares and prayed for each individual saint (John 17:20), therefore the church must be in the business of spreading the gospel in their hometown, in the surrounding area, to the end of the country, and even to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8).

David Platt’s fruit speaks for itself, I love him as a brother; even so, I must make a harsh statement. These errors would be easily avoided through a cursory study of the Book of Acts or the doctrine of predestination, or just letting the Bible speak instead of forcing a hermeneutic of radical world evangelization on every passage.

Mysticism Revisited

Evangelicalism has many great enemies, both external and internal, and one of the most dangerous I see is a slippery slope towards extrabiblical revelation, or operating off of "feelings", or "callings", or "hearing from God in prayer". David Platt's first book was bursting with mysticism, David Platt's second book is almost devoid of it.

There is only one blatant example of mysticism in the book, and it is very oddly placed and seemingly out of context since it is never expanded upon. Platt, when speaking of cutting "not-right" programs within the church, gives a list of very good questions, then states mystically, "And then wait for God to answer." (loc. 185) Platt gives no indication how to hear from God, how he may answer, or how to know that it is God actually answering. This is one of Platt's only single sentence paragraphs in the book, and I have to wonder if it was a point he meant to expand upon. Whatever the reason for this sentence is entirely a mystery to me, and I am glad that it was the only blatant example of a dangerous heresy infecting Evangelicalism.

Not long after that statement Dr. Platt dives into a beautiful defense of the sufficiency of scripture. He starts by attacking ideas that the Bible is insufficient, then states that an effective church must, "be competent to communicate and faithful to follow the Word of God." (loc. 592) Platt makes a lengthy defense for holding to the Bible, rejecting unbiblical ideas that the Bible cannot address modern congregations, and calling more churches to preach the Word instead of trying to be innovative. He makes a cutting statement that is sure to wound many pastors and teachers operating today, "Even among those who stand by the spoken word, many lack confidence in the sufficiency of God's Word." (loc. 672)

I hope and pray that this is the future of Dr. Platt's ministry, rejecting mysticism and holding fast to the revealed Word of God in the Bible. It is, after all, the Word of Eternal Life, by which faith comes to men by which they may be saved by the grace of the Resurrected Christ (John 6:68, Romans 10:17, Ephesians 2:8-9). Platt somewhere claims that this view is by no means new, and I readily affirm that statement, holding to scripture alone is an essential and I am glad he is gravitating towards that belief.

How then, does Platt make such mistakes concerning certain doctrines? I believe it is because of his extrabiblical exaltation of the salvation of men over the glory of God. He asks early in the book for the reader to be willing to look at the Word and the world with a "fresh, honest, and open perspective." (loc. 116) This unfortunately implies that in the past the church has failed, has stagnated, has corrupted, and has become intolerant to the Word; this may certainly be true in many so-called modern churches, but it unfortunately rejects millennia of Christ-exalting missions. What Platt wants us to be open to is not a better Christianity, it is called humanism.

Platt's Great Heresy: Humanism

I am not a textual critic, I don't claim to know for sure what an author was thinking when they wrote a book, but within Radical Together there is such a radical contradiction between the synergism of the beginning parts of the book and the monergism of the latter parts that something major must have happened to Platt in the middle of the book. For that reason, I must break this section into two parts, the first dealing with Platt's heresy, and the second with Platt's orthodox views.

Humanism states that the chief end of God is the happiness of man, that God is doing everything toward mankind towards their greatest good, desiring them to reach a state of eternal bliss, even to the detriment of himself. Platt is right in many places to state, "We are selfless followers of a self-centered God." (locs. 87, 129, 565, 1434, 1653, et al) However, as the title of my review is meant to convey, God is God-centered, but that does not require God to be selfish, afterall, in Philippians 2 we see that Christ was selfless, he poured himself out, he died on a cross counting others as worth more than himself. His selflessness led to something amazing, his exaltation, as God has given him a name above every name. The biblical position is that God is explicitly using men to glorify himself; I have not had the opportunity to speak with Platt on this or any other topic, but I expect we would disagree greatly on this topic.

On location 398, Platt warns legalists reading his book that it is impossible for them to be good enough to be right before God. While this is true in our current inherited depravity, it is not entirely a true statement. The Bible teaches throughout its pages that a perfect person who abstains from evil and does what is right will stand before God blameless and accepted (Psalm 24:3-5, Galatians 5:3, for example). There are two ways to Heaven presented in scripture, one, the way which Jesus attained Heaven, by being totally righteous, and two, the only way by which men may be saved, the righteousness of Christ attributed to them, their sinfulness having been attributed to him. Dear reader, I am not sure that I can fully convince you of the dangers of humanism, often Christianity and humanism seem indistinguishable, but I assure you they are polar opposites, and presenting Christ as merely a justifier without showing him to be just as well is a great error, he is not just redeemer, he is also righteous. He does not merely try to save people, he perfects them in a single sacrifice.

Where humanism becomes most dangerous, in my opinion, is that it presents God as having done everything he possible can to save someone, and is desperately hoping that they will complete what is lacking in his effort. Modern Christianity (not Platt) puts it this way, “Accept Jesus,” “Ask God into your heart,” “Give your life to Christ,” "Surrender to God," etc etc. It makes man sovereign over God, and in it the name of God is blasphemed among the nations.

Let me convince you that this is Platt’s belief, he says, “Until they get a right understanding of the gospel, they will never be a part of accomplishing the purpose of God.” (loc. 390) Elsewhere he says, “I am convinced that in the church we can actually prevent God’s people from accomplishing God’s purpose. If we are not careful, our activities in the church can hinder the advancement of Christ’s kingdom.” (loc. 116) This can be lumped into a heresy called Synergism that God is working with man, both for salvation and for his purposes. Christ states explicitly that he is building his church (Matthew 16:18), Peter asks, “Who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” (Acts 11:17) Christ doesn’t work WITH us, he works THROUGH us (Ephesians 2:10, 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, et al), so to think that we can impede the progress of the kingdom is foolish, and shows a deeper problem.

The Bible describes mankind as worthless (Romans 3:12), but Platt says, “[the local and the foreigner] are equally valued by God and equally lost without God.” (loc. 1266) Platt writes a nice piece of prose from location 1493 to 1511 on why we ought to be motivated by seeing people rejecting God to their own detriment to take the truth to them. As nicely as it is written, it is utterly humanism because it assumes that the animistic tribes are looking for the Creator, the Mohamadian factions are looking for a graceful God, and the followers of Buddha are desiring a better prophet. This thinking was directly refuted by Paris Reidhead, by experience, in his sermon, “10 Shekels and a Shirt.” The unbeliever is hostile in their mind towards God, with their mind set on the flesh it is impossible for them to seek God. The Christian is not doing them a favor by taking the gospel to them, the Christian is actually waging spiritual warfare on their soul, calling them to commit treason with the world and turn to their greatest enemy, who is God, for grace and mercy.

Platt frequently points the purpose of the gospel at the glory of God, but in effect he is still striving to see the happiness of man perfected in God. The Christian is called by Platt to save animists (all things, living and dead, have souls) from idols in Africa (loc. 1502), and calls the American materialist to trade their possessions for God (loc. 194). The man in Matthew 22:1-14 who came into the party for personal gain was rejected by the King, it is imperative that we focus on Christ’s glory and not the eternal happiness of men, for the glory of Christ as the end goal will result in the eternal happiness of men, but the eternal happiness of men as the end goal will never reach that goal.

An important point against humanism is that if Christ never saved another person ever, he would still be glorified for his past work of grace and for his current work of justice. Platt overwhelmingly made salvation a contingent to success in Radical, and unfortunately continues that motive in Radical Together, stating, “It is worth it for billions of people who do not yet know that Jesus is the grave-conquering, life-giving, all-satisfying King.” (loc. 150, emphasis mine) This humanistic belief leads to a direct contradiction of scripture in Platt’s recent book. Jesus said, “Pray for laborers…for the laborers are few.” (Luke 10:2) Platt on the other hand, assuming the church is working with Christ instead of him working in the church, says, “We will always have enough people.” (loc. 1067) It was without surprise when Platt prints a misinterpretation of 2 Peter 3:9, quoting a missionary, “God is not willing that any should perish, and neither am I. He wants all people to know him, and that’s why I am going.” (loc. 1537) This humanistic doctrine blasphemes God, making him impotent to save everyone whom he desires to save, making humanity in charge, and it impugns faithful ministers who have very small, or even non-existent, conversion rates (think Noah and Jeremiah for example).

Humanism is dangerous, it has cost at least one man his soul (Matthew 22:13), it will undoubtedly cost many others theirs, it presents God as imperfect and incapable of accomplishing his will, it demeans his sovereignty, and it discourages missionaries who do not see mass conversions. Christ knows exactly who he is praying for, he knows exactly how it will be accomplished, and he knows that it will be perfect (John 6:44, 10:28-29, 17:20). God is willing that many shall perish, since many do perish, he is as glorified through demonstrating his wrath on a reprobate as he is in lavishing his grace on a saint.

Humanism is to be rejected in total, it is not to be dabbled in, it is not to be perpetuated. I sincerely pray that Dr. Platt will soon repent fully of following this man-centered error.

Rejecting Humanism?

Late in the book, Dr. Platt rants AGAINST humanism; I do not know whether or not he realizes how much the rest of the book contradicts his tirade, but it does give me great hope that he will soon be Christocentric instead of anthropocentric. At location 1678 he states,

God does not need me.
God does not need my church.
God does not need you.
God does not need your church.
God does not need our conferences, conventions, plans, programs, budgets, buildings, or missions agencies….
…all the stuff we have created could turn to dust, and God could still make a great name for himself among the nations.

Elsewhere Platt describes a man telling communists that if he is forbidden to speak, then rocks would preach (loc. 1028). Platt understands, at least a little, that God is not synergistic (working with us), but monergistic (working all things by himself), and I look forward to a day when Platt writes a book from the monergistic side of missions and ecclesiology.

Conclusion

Jesus told Peter that if Peter loved him, he ought to tend and feed Christ’s flock (John 21:15-17). Radical Together has done a much better job than Radical towards this goal, recognizing that the church is the way in which Christ is accomplishing his goals. Overall I was edified by the call for the church to work together, for Platt's adherence to the Bible as the final rule of faith and practice, and in his later refutation of man-centered missions.

Radical Together is sure to produce more gospel-centered and graceful ministers than Radical, I am pleased with the direction of Platt's ministry and am hoping that his next book will have nothing radically wrong with it. I pray that he, and you dear reader, will see the dangers of mysticism and humanism and reject both outright. I pray that we can stand together and pray, "May the Lamb who was slain receive the reward of his suffering." (loc. 1517, Revelation 5:12)

David Platt's church is a model of both local and overseas missions, and I hope that by his example many churches will engage the world, strengthened and upheld by Jesus Christ himself. We have such a great and lasting promise from God that he will not lose even a single one of his saints, not willing that even one should perish, and that when the gospel of the kingdom is preached in every nation, every saint reaching repentance, then the end will come. So let us go into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in to honor the One who was dead, but yet lives, who is always making intercession for his saints.

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[1] All citations are Kindle locations; in order to convert these to page numbers, the reader ought to divide roughly by 16.7.

Spiritual Purity - Rejecting False Jesuses

Spiritual Purity
Canyon Shearer
8 December 2010

Text - 2 Corinthians 11:2-4

Beloved, it is such a pleasure to have the opportunity to address you this evening. I pray that I have adequately prepared this lesson, that it will impact you and drive you towards the truth, and that if you are offended, it will be the truth doing the offending and not myself. I am very glad to have an opportunity to talk about this topic today, the topic of a spiritual purity, a doctrinal purity, a theological purity, because if we get this right, it will bring everything else into line and this youth group will continue in the truth and will be utterly consumed with Christ. Let's pause here to pray to the true Christ and ask that he sends his true Spirit to enlighten us.

Just last Sunday I taught briefly on the importance of sexual purity in Christ's church, and as important as this is, it is far more important than we are pure in our understanding of Christ. You're going to see in a bit that Paul draws a straight line between physical purity and doctrinal purity. So please turn to Second Corinthians 11, if you don't have a Bible, we have Bibles up here. If you don't own a Bible, please see us before you leave and we'll make sure you get a Bible. Our first lesson before we talk about anything is that this Book is how we know anything about God, it is how he speaks, it has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error for its content.

Now, a little background before we read our passage. Second Corinthians is the follow-up letter to First Corinthians. It's a funny coincidence that the second follows the first...but both of these letters were written by the Apostle Paul after he planted this church in AD 51 with his friends Timothy and Silas. After they left, this church became the worst church ever, they broke up into little cliques, they worshipped knowledge more than God, they were falling into all sorts of sexual sin, forbidding marriage for some and requiring it for others, living according to all sorts of silly rules, like what could and couldn't be eaten, getting drunk during communion, making fun of people who didn't have their same giftings, rejecting love, and it all came together in their church services where everything was out of control. They'd have several people preaching at once, some in real languages, others in made up tongues, everybody was praying in "concerts of prayer" where everybody prayed outloud at the same time, and Paul said, "QUIT IT!" He called for the service to be a time of building up, prayer outloud for the sake of edification, and tongues to be outright heresy and totally worthless. A lot of this was led by crazy preacher ladies and Paul told them to sit down and shut up.

Now, why was this church so wrecked? In chapter 15 it tells us it was because they were worshipping a Christ who lived and died and saved them from Hell. They missed the fact that he defeated death and proved a resurrection and that when we die, our bodies will die, but our souls will live forever. They denied the resurrection, and First Corinthians is written to fix all of these problems.

Second Corinthians is written to follow up, and lo and behold, this church has repented. They've become a pretty decent church. In chapter 3 we see that the dude in First Corinthians who was sleeping with his step-mom has repented and has been welcomed back into fellowship. We see in chapter 7 that Paul is super happy that his first letter made them repent, saying it didn't just make them feel bad, but it showed them they had sinned against Heaven, they had blasphemed Christ's name. This church isn't yet perfect, they're still sort of being legalists, coming up with rules instead of principles. One thing they are doing in chapters 8 and 9 are still holding to a rule of a tithe, of a tenth of your money being mandatory to the church. Instead he says you ought to give out of your abundance, this may be 1% or 10% or 99.8%, and he's very clear that if you're not giving, you are robbing both God and yourself. And of course this isn't just to the church, I don't get paid by the church so I can say this, but I highly encourage you to take Paul's advice and give away money for the ministry of the kingdom.

In chapter 10 Paul changes gears to address some false teachers who are still in the church. Guys that are trying to say they're super amazing and better than Paul. Paul attacks the idea that he's not a true Apostle, that he's bold in letter, but weak in presence. I can imagine some of the angry false teachers in Corinth writing to Paul and saying, "Why don't you say that to my face?"

The false teachers are preaching about the name of Jesus, but they're not talking about the true Jesus. I want to show a video clip of some modern day versions of these guys and see if it doesn't make you mad, because it definitely makes God furious.



These are similar to the false prophets in Corinth, making up a Jesus they like more than the true Christ. Let's read our passage,

2 Corinthians 11:2-4 I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Our first point that we need to see is that there are indeed different Jesuses, who though they share a name, have nothing in common with the true and living Christ. Let me tell you a story to really drive this point home. About six months ago I was driving to work at 10pm on a Friday. I know it was a Friday because on Friday's I made it a point to stop at my favorite Mexican restaurant to grab lunch before I went to work. As I was walking in I passed three teenage skaters hanging out on the sidewalk. I thought momentarily, I should witness to those guys. I decided, if they're still there when I come out, I'll witness to them. Well I ordered and my conscience got the better of me and I told the waitress I'd be right back. I went outside and they were still there and so I struck up a conversation and took them through the good person test and they found out they were lying thieving blasphemous adulterers at heart. They were sure they were on their way to Hell when I asked if they knew what God did so they wouldn't have to go to Hell. They didn't know, so I told them, "2,000 years ago, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ..." One of them interrupted and said, "Hey, that's my name!" I said, "Your name is Jesus Christ?" He said, "No, it's Jesus." I said, "Good, then your name will help you guys to remember this." And I finished the gospel for them and hopefully they've repented and gotten saved by now.

There are a ton of different Jesuses who aren't the true Jesus. For example, the Jesus of revisionist history was just a charismatic rabbi, the Jesus of Mormonism is the brother of Satan, the Jesus of Islam was just a prophet, the Jesus of Catholicism is unapproachable but has a soft spot for his mom, the Jesus of Philips Craig and Dean is schizophrenic and morphs from being the Father to the Son to the Spirit, but never at the same time, yet prays to himself. Cult leader David Koresh claimed to be the second coming of Jesus and many died because of it, Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda claims to be the second coming of Jesus right now in Miami, and I expect before it's over it will die in a mass murder-suicide. There are no lack of false Jesuses. Similarly the Holy Spirit is called everything from a force, or a personification of goodness, like Jack Frost is the personification of winter, to a girl, to an it. False Jesuses and false spirits abound.

I was open air preaching once at Kennesaw State University and a girl said, "My god would never send anyone to Hell." I was standing on my little box and replied, "You're right, your god wouldn't send anyone to Hell, because he can't, because he doesn't exist!" And when I said that I fell off my box.

Paul sees a tendency for this church, and indeed every church, to be led astray into false doctrine and away from Christ and ultimately into sin. We see these extreme versions and think, "I'd never be led into the idea that Jesus was anything less than God, and definitely not that he is the brother of Satan." And that's great, but we also have to look for smaller errors in our view of who Jesus is.

For example, it's popular in bumper-sticker theology to say, "Jesus loves you." Or in that crazy song, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." That song would be much better sung, "Jesus has a long-suffering sacrificial lovingkindness towards me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."

Turn to Hebrews 1:8-9, in Romans 12:9 it tells us that true love hates wickedness and holds to the truth, that a person that truly loves good also has to hate things that aren't good.

Hebrews 1:8-9 But of the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions."

Right there it says he hates wickedness. And that leads us to our next different Jesus, the Jesus who hates sin but loves the sinner. Be turning to Psalm 69. Let me give you an analogy, say there is an assassin who kills someone you love very much, let's say your best friend. Are you going to hate the bullet, but still love the assassin? Beloved, the bullet, the sin, is nothing apart from the assassin, the sinner, to put it into action. As Pastor Aaron said, God doesn't send sin to Hell, he sends sinners. Let's see somewhere where Jesus very much hates a very specific audience. Psalm 69 is Jesus' prayer from the cross, he is near to death and has been beaten beyond human recognition, he has looked for friends but they have all abandoned him, he has looked for pity but found none. He is dying for a very specific purpose, to pay for the sins of all who will trust in him. But for those who will die in their sins, he has a much different response. Read with me from

Psalm 69:19-33 You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you. Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually. Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded. Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from you. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous. But I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high! I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. This will please the LORD more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. When the humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive. For the LORD hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.

This is what is called an imprecatory prayer, and it's coming straight from the heart of Jesus Christ. He asks his Father to add punishment upon punishment and to not forgive them. This then leads us to another false jesus, the one who we think loved us so much that he would rather die than live without us, or the jesus who concocted a world in which the largest number of people would be saved of their own choosing, the jesus who loved us "this much." I can't say it any worse that a song which by and large is a fantastic song, but concludes at the end with, "And thought of me, above all." Just as Pastor Aaron said a few weeks ago, this is a lie from the pit of Hell; on the cross Jesus Christ was thinking utmost to the glory of his Father. If you ever have an opportunity to play or sing that song, I highly encourage you to substitute for that last line, "For his glory, he gave all." Jump back a few verses in Psalm 69,

Psalm 69:6-7 Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel. For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face.

Check out Matthew 19:4-7 "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."

Jesus never condemned homosexuality. Hmm...right there he did, have you not read that God created them male and female? That a man should marry his wife? Yet there is a false jesus of Elton John who thinks homosexuality is the greatest thing ever.

So, we've talked about the person of Christ, what he loves and hates. Let's move on to the work of Christ, where likewise there are no lack of false Jesuses. In that Ricky Bobby movie we see that some people would rather have a baby Jesus; this Jesus they think is impotent and not able to judge or condemn and might grow up to be anything. Let's take a quick rabbit trail to make this is a Christmas sermon. After Jesus was born he was taken to the temple, a man named Simeon, my hero, took the baby and recognized that this was the Sovereign Lord of the Universe. Check this out, Simeon was holding the Baby, and the Baby was holding every molecule in Simeon, in the world, in the universe together.

Thirty-Three years later Christ was crucified. The Roman Catholic Church celebrates this weekly with a crucifix in a masse when they RECRUCIFY Christ. The Jesus of Catholicism cannot save totally, he cannot make his saints perfect, he must continue to make payment which hopefully is added to your own goodness which along with Purgatory will see you into Heaven...hopefully. This is a false jesus, unable to save to the uttermost those who draw near to him.

Three days later, he rose, he defeated death, beloved, the tomb is empty. But if you're a Jehovah's Witness, it's not. They believe jesus was raised spiritually from the dead, that his body is still somewhere on earth, hidden though so that we can't find it. The church at Corinth made this same mistake, believing Christ died to save us from Hell, but could do nothing to save us from death. But beloved, death is swallowed up in victory, death has lost its victory, death has lost its sting, for the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

The true Jesus was born as a baby, grew into a man, was tempted in every way we've been tempted, yet without sin. He willingly went to the cross, crucified on the charge of claiming to be God, he paid the whole price for the sins of his saints, he was buried in a borrowed tomb, and on the third day he defeated death and ascended bodily into Heaven. He lives this day to make intercession for his saints.

Paul sums this up in 1 Timothy 3:16, I love this verse because beloved, this is the verse that got me saved. I was standing in Hyde Park in London, which is a famous place for all sorts of people to yell at people, everything from religion to politics to hunting to whatever. There was an absolute loony preaching there that the reason the world is going to Hell is because women are allowed to speak in church. I don't believe this man's jesus was the true Jesus, but he was preaching, and I was listening for a laugh. But beloved, somewhere in his sermon and completely out of context of the rest of the message, he preached 1 Timothy 3:16, that Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh. That one verse rocked my worldview, I'd never heard it before and it became a whole different issue that Jesus wasn't just some guy dying on a cross, but was the King of Heaven stepped into human existence to pay for the sins of his creation.

1 Timothy 3:16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated (proved holy, innocent, and undefiled) by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

This true Jesus will set your doctrine straight; because he counted others as worth more than himself, so will you. Because he gave all glory to his Father, so will you. Because he entrusted himself totally to his Father who judges justly, so shall you. Because he loved righteousness and hated wickedness, so shall you. Because he sent his Spirit to be your helper and counselor, he will guide you into all truth.

False gospels will become abhorrent to you. You will hate it when people say there is salvation in any other name than Jesus Christ. You will hate it when baptism or circumcision or church membership is added to the completed work of Christ for salvation. You will hate it when sin is made beautiful and hides Christ from the people, that many who think they are ok because they believe in someone named jesus will be turned away from the gates of Heaven for rejecting the true King of Righteousness for an impotent and imaginative false savior.

It was to this effect that Jesus could scream at the Pharisees, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single convert, and when he becomes a convert, you make him twice as much the child of Hell as yourselves."

Beloved, you have two options, you can reject these false jesus' and trust in the King of Heaven who lived and died and lived again, who gave all for the glory of his father, who in a single sacrifice perfected all who are being sanctified, or you can follow after a Jesus that comforts your conscience, who doesn't hate sinners, who only tries to save, who needs your consent to accomplish his will. Let's conclude with two verses, choose this day which Christ you will follow.

Hebrews 3:12-14 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Or to those false jesuses, let's let Paul tell us their fate,

2 Corinthians 11:12-15 And what I do I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

Their end will correspond to their deeds. A false Christ, a false savior, is not savior at all, and they will die in their sins and be judged with great strictness. It is for them that the gloom of the worst parts of Hell are reserved.

A church that trusts totally in the true Christ will accomplish his mission and its members will be welcomed into Heaven on the phrase, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master." This church will have unity of mind, unity of purpose, and unity of love.

But the church that trusts in its own understandings, which makes up a Jesus to appease their consciences and allow them to boast in their works, who can say, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?" will be turned away at the gate, and hear, "Depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you."

Beloved, I pray that this will be none of you. Let's pray.

Lord Christ, maker of Heaven and Earth, we with boldness approach your throne of grace seeking help in our time of need. Many deceivers attack us on every side, trying to tell us you are not who you say you are. Set our hope on you, set our affections on you, you are all we have in Heaven and on Earth, you are the strength of our hearts and our portion forever. Sanctify us in the truth, your word is truth. If there are any here who have not repented and trusted in you, I pray that this day you grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, that you would transform them into new creatures able and willing to do your will. And Lord Jesus, I pray that we forever remember that you came as a humble baby, gave your life in substitution for ours, and defeated death, and that we would see that there is an empty cross and an empty grave, that death is beaten and you have won the day, that we would all shout it out that you are alive. And King Jesus, I pray that one that final day I would not hear it just once, but that for each of these students I would have the extreme privilege of hearing you tell them, "well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master." Let us do all things for your sake, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever, amen.

Veiled to the Perishing

My least favorite rules when working with youth are the reactionary ones, rules like, “Don’t put full soda cans in the leaky trash bag in the shuttle.” Or, “Keep water games away from expensive electronics.” And especially, “Don’t cut down trees while someone is standing in them.”

These may sound funny, but the reason they are reactionary rules is because who would have ever thought they needed to be rules until someone did exactly what the rule now forbids after the fact. Similarly, my least favorite theological clarifications happen after some heresy has become engrained in the church. Currently, as I see it, there are two great heresies operating within Christianity, the first is the unholy relevatism of the semi-emergent church; I have no lack of blog posts addressing this driscollism, mysticism, and humanism.

The other great heresy facing Christianity today, in my opinion, is the call for ecumenicalism within the sovereignty debate. One of us is obviously wrong, yet for over a century the church has tolerated unbiblical preachers like Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and Luis Pilau who preach an impotent Christ and the sovereignty of man. This blog post was conceived under one such ecumenical call, “Our differences in doctrines only convolute God’s message to non-believers.”

I have to wonder if this person has ever read Second Corinthians 4? He’s almost quoted it, though Paul was on the exact opposite side of the ecumenical call than him,

We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord… - 2 Corinthians 4:2-5

Jesus said it better even than Paul, “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. Because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.” (John 8:43,45)

Wow! What has convoluted the message? Is it the Calvinist/Arminian argument, or the Cessasionist/Mystic debate, or Eschatology discussions? No, it is the very truth of God, for if the message is convoluted, it is convoluted ONLY to those who are perishing. This is exacerbated in that the god of this city (whom Christian radio frequently sings songs to and about) has blinded their eyes so that as Paul said earlier, “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)

The call to ecumenicalism and tolerance may seem noble at first, but we see that it is tampering with God’s word, editing our statement of truth, proclaiming our own opinions instead of Jesus Christ as Lord. Phil Johnson, over at Pyromaniacs, said it best with,

We live in a culture that has lowered the tolerance for phony gentleness. “Let’s just agree to disagree”. The refusal to fight for truth has done much damage. Lets agree to argue until one of us refutes the others and we come to the correct conclusion.

If the gospel is convoluted, it is convoluted to those who are perishing. We must not substitute a phony call for gentleness, an editing of God’s harshness, under the guise that our theological disagreements may keep someone out of Heaven. And let me add a very very minor caveat, we must not seek to install inappropriate stumbling blocks, but those that stumble over the truth of Christ do so because God has doubly predestinated them to (1 Peter 2:8). If they will stumble and fall, then let them stumble and fall over the absolute truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, not perishing because we failed to shine the full light of the gospel; Christ in us.

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Zeal Without Knowledge

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Introduction

I like David Platt, I think he is an awesome preacher and has done a lot of good, I think he is a Christian and is on the narrow road to life. I hope and pray I can have the impact he is having on many. I pray that he will continue to preach the gospel and will impact the kingdom for many years to come.

That said: I do not think David Platt is a Pharisee, but Radical is Pharisaical. I do not think David Platt is a bad communicator, but Radical is horrendously written. I do not think that David Platt is a heretic, but Radical contains some outright heresy. I do not think David Platt should be thrown out into the flaming fires of Gehenna, but Radical should.

I do not think I would be exaggerating to say that there was something on just about every page of this book that made me cringe. David Platt, I believe, employed too much hyperbole to make his points and this pushed this book far outside of orthodoxy and usefulness. I agreed with a few of Platt’s starting presuppositions, but quickly I rejected his applications. This review will largely ignore the last chapter, “The Radical Experiment” which could be quite a good chapter but is tainted by my knowledge of the rest of the book.

This article will address four major points, the first being the focus of God’s gospel as compared to Platt’s gospel, second the American Dream and how Platt’s book has not destroyed it but replaced it, third is Christ’s emphasis on poverty and Platt’s emphasis on poverty, and fourth will conclude with Platt’s poor Bible reading as evidenced by his mystical heresy and bad hermeneutics.

The Emphasis of the Gospel

First Peter 2:9 describes the effect of the gospel, that we are chosen, holy, priestly trophies and ought to proclaim Christ’s wonderful character and works. I believe that Platt believes this, but Radical doesn’t preach it. If you look on page 88, Platt presents a radically small view of Jesus Christ,

He would intentionally shun titles, labels, plaudits, and popularity in his plan to turn the course of history upside down. All he wanted was a few men who would think as he did, love as he did, see as he did, teach as he did, and serve as he did. All he needed was to revolutionize the hearts of a few, and they would impact the world.

It all sounds rather pious, but Jesus didn’t attempt anything or need anything, he told these few men that apart from him they could do NOTHING. A Christian does nothing apart from Christ getting the glory for doing the work, Christ doesn’t need anything to impact the world.

But Platt needs to deemphasize sovereignty in order to present the Christian who saves the world of their own accord. I start with this point because it definitely makes me the most mad. There are three clear purposes in Platt’s book for spreading the gospel, first men spreading God’s glory, second to save the poor, and third for the humanistic purpose of getting people into Heaven. None of these remotely is intertwined with the other, and it’s almost like Platt is preaching three sermons unwittingly and not realizing that they he has failed to relate them.

The idea that the emphasis of the gospel is placed on men manifests itself rather strangely, and, if I didn’t know Dr. Platt’s normal self, connivingly through the utter unbiblical cornerstone of the book that, “God really is in the business of blessing his people in unusual ways so his goodness and his greatness will be declared among all peoples.” (p.67)

So the emphasis of the gospel is apparently to show salvation to all peoples…(p.66) Go back to Peter’s purpose, he calls us a people for God’s own possession to declare God’s glory, not to be a “conduit of God’s blessings to all the peoples of the earth.” (ibid)

It is a minor distinction, but Platt’s emphasis of the gospel is quite different than Christ’s. Platt overemphasizes this point to the exclusion of all else, for example, the local church is overlooked, holiness and sanctification are wickedly missing, and ultimately it is quite unbiblical, despite Platt asking a poorly written rhetorical question, “It all sounds idealistic, I know. Impact the world. But doesn’t it also sound biblical?” (p.83)

It does sound idealistic, but it doesn’t sound biblical. The Apostle Paul points out that he was called to a specific people, the Hellas, which is not the word for Gentiles/Nations as Platt either misunderstands or doesn’t care, but is the Greeks. (p.74) Platt sends his hearers outside of the country to the whole world, yet ironically includes a beautiful story of a man doing much good in New Orleans, which is totally out of character with the rest of the book. (p.96)

And we see ministers like Jeremiah (zero converts), Noah (seven converts), and Christ (one-hundred-twenty converts) who really did little to accomplish Platt’s goals, but did much to accomplish God’s goals. This plays out awkwardly in the making of disciples, Platt seems to think it is a lifelong endeavor (p.93), while many in the Bible are made disciples after a sermon. And the “teaching them to obey” gets a sentence (ibid), which is perhaps why Platt’s emphasis is so radically different from God’s in this book.

Replacing the American Dream

There is no doubt that the American Dream is idolatrous and unbiblical. Platt does well to point this out. But instead of killing the American Dream and substituting biblical teaching, Platt tweaks the American Dream and reemphasizes purpose over materialism. I could argue quite effectively that Radical is still the American Dream because I’m pretty sure the dream was taught to me that as long as you’re happy then you’re successful.

Platt’s mere reemphasis is expounded most clearly on page 160 when God’s will is described as taking the gospel to those poor lost Algerians. This is somewhat different from God’s genuine will for your life, which is your sanctification. Granted, your sanctification may lead to you going to the Algerians, but when Platt removes/ignores the middle-man “holiness” he is not doing anyone any good.

The American Dream rejects slavery, and so does Dr. Platt. (p.92) Ironically God does not. (1 Peter 2:18ff) Platt allows for the American hermeneutic to bastardize the plain reading of scripture, and worse yet he uses his false dichotomy to call his readers to follow his radically wrong interpretation of the Bible. (See my article on slavery: http://trustobey.blogspot.com/2007/07/doctrine-of-slavery.html)

The American Dream is not killed in Platt’s book, it is minorly redirected and America becomes the hero delivering the gospel to all people who have a right to hear it, who deserve not to live in a slum, and deserve to live. (That’s humanism, if you didn’t catch it, see Platt p.108) This accomplishes two radically wicked goals, first Platt removes Christ and the Holy Spirit from his efforts, and second he makes the creature the goal of the church’s efforts and utterly ignores the Creator. This is summed up radically on page 163, “If these clinics were used by God to lead someone to Christ, then it was all worth it.” (That one statement condemns Jeremiah’s entire ministry.)

Platt has safely and effectively substituted his dream for the American Dream, giving people a goal which they can devote their entire lives to which is not God. (p.140) It was rather sneaky, ingenious, and seemingly it has been very effective.

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

The major goal of Platt’s efforts is alleviating global poverty. There are numerous things wrong with this, not just that it takes the emphasis off of local poverty, or that Christ said the poor would always be with us, but that being poor and destitute is not a sin and is not always something to be rescued from. James calls the rich to rejoice in their humiliation, Christ said it was impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven, and he affirmed that those poor in spirit will inherit the kingdom.

I am certainly not rejecting the idea that the poor should be taken care of, but I am rejecting the idea that the poor should be taken care just because they are poor. The Psalmist said he would rather watch the door of Heaven than dwell in wickedness, I would rather live in a slum with God than a mansion without. But Platt misunderstands this point radically, even going so far as to misquote Luke 18:22 on page 117, utterly ignoring that there is great treasure in Heaven for the one who becomes poor for Christ’s sake. And Platt uses that passage as his favorite proof text for selling stuff and giving it away, when the context of this passage is clearly not one of stewardship, but of soteriology. Christ was showing the man that his money would keep him out of the kingdom, and that what he would lose in repentance was nothing in comparison to what he would gain in Christ.

Here is where Radical gets Pharisaical. Jesus stated, “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” Platt ties up this heavy burden of needing to sell everything, yet he himself fails to sell everything and give it to the poor. He justifies his own command wickedly by living on less…but that is not at all keeping with his interpretation of the necessity to sell everything and give it to the poor. I’m pretty sure this is what Ananias and Saphira died for.

Mysticism and Bad Hermeneutics

There is a terrible and wicked pandemic sweeping Christianity, the idea that God is going to speak to you personally. This personal revelation is known as mysticism. Platt falls for this heresy and promulgates it by saying that not everyone is called to sell everything and give it to the poor, but that God might call you to sell everything and give it to the poor. (p.120-121) This is godless and unchristian.

God will speak to you only through the Word, he will not vocalize (pp.121, 213) his personalized plan for your life to you. This is a terrible heresy, because it causes people to stop reading their Bibles and start listening for a voice that either will not come, or will come by a guy who looks a lot like Christ but is very unlike him. (2 Corinthians 11:14) By Platt preaching this godless heresy of mysticism he causes his reader to fail to follow biblical stewardship plans, to stop striving for holiness, and to forget to seek to glorify God in everything they do. I hate this heresy and so does God.

Small mistakes show Platt’s poor planning and follow-through in this book, such as his statement that Matthew 28:19-20 is Christ’s last command (p.92), when clearly there as a command given the morning Christ ascended into Heaven. (See Acts 1:4) On page 198 Platt uses language that a Modalist would be comfortable with, “He sent himself…” but I’m fairly certain Platt is a devout Trinitarian. These small mistakes, added to blatant theological errors, permeate the book.

Platt somewhat covers his tracks with the use of endnotes instead of footnotes or parenthetical notation. This is partly just plain bad writing, but is also a nifty way of hiding poor biblical application. This must be remembered in the misquotation of Luke 18:22 where Platt leaves off the purpose of his command to sell everything, but the reader has to dig to even know which verse he’s misquoted. On page 226, endnote 11, Platt admits to using a verse out of context, yet how many readers would realize that? And using soteriological verses to support stewardship concepts has led to Platt straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel (albeit a small camel), because he radically downplays grace and introduces a mild form of legalism through applying Luke 18 to stewardship.

And this all plays out most damnably in Platt’s application, that this radical lifestyle should be true of everyone. What makes him think that someone who won’t volunteer at the homeless shelter in Birmingham will sell their Mercedes and volunteer at the homeless shelter in Mozambique? Why does David Platt’s “thing” have to be my “thing”? Are not some called to be evangelists, others pastors, some teachers? Are there not poor in our own backyard that we ought to be radically helping? Shouldn’t we disciple those in our churches before we disciple those in other churches? Isn’t Christ worthy to be praised whether or not he saves anyone?

Ultimately this book is a fantastic example of the hermeneutical failing of eisegesis, or smashing your own beliefs into the Bible. God does call his people to be radical and to do radical things, but not at all in the way which Platt describes.

Conclusion

The emphasis of the gospel is God’s glory, this is accomplished in many ways, all of which are through the church being sanctified trophies of grace, ministering through the proclamation of Christ’s excellencies. It is not going to the nations, albeit that is a minor part of it. The American Dream is damnable, but so is a Christianity without Christ at its center. The poor will always be with us, and we must ensure our motive is to exalt Christ and secure eternities before we save bodies and exalt men. And finally, the Bible says what it means and means what it says, we cannot and should not edit it to support our own radical goals, no matter how pious they seem. God speaks only through his Bible and speaks to all believers equally; there are no secretive meanings to the superspirituals among us.

Radical is poorly written, unbiblical, legalistic, and contains a fair amount of heresy. I pray that Dr. Platt will recant this ungodly work and write a more balanced and biblical call to Christian zealousness, one that accounts for radical holiness, love, purity of doctrine, and Christlike living and preaching. Hopefully Platt will in the future start from a biblical viewpoint and never again try to make the Bible support his own unchristian beliefs.

For more information on humanism, I ask you to listen to Paris Reidhead’s crowning work, “Ten Shekels and a Shirt”. http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=710081423448

And for more information on mysticism, I recently wrote, http://trustobey.blogspot.com/2010/04/mystics-in-our-midst.html

It has been said that the United States is the greatest exporter of heresy in the world, and Platt’s book with its weird mystical leanings and excessive humanism is sure to continue that tradition for at least the next generation.

Please don’t partake in it; instead, read your Bible, discover your gifting, and minister in a way which promotes holiness and proclamation of the gospel. If you are able to learn Burmese easily, then go to Burma. If you are terrible with children then don’t be a youth minister. If you can stand on a soap-box and articulate the gospel and you don’t mind looking like an idiot, then join me at KSU sometime soon. If you don’t know Christ or his Bible, then keep your mouth shut. For believers, in everything you do, know that Christ is your Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, and that his decree will be accomplished with or without your help, but that he calls for obedience in any number of ways. Don’t feel guilty that you still own a car and aren’t getting shot at by freedom fighters; rather love God, then glorify him through your thoughts, words, and deeds. Whatever you do, don’t let it be said your efforts were apart from Christ.