spiphywarfare

Category: Church

  • This Year

    Ephesian 5:15 & 16 “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk – not as unwise people but as wise – making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” (HCSB)

    That reference to making the most is literally “buying back the time” but I like the translation of “redeeming the time.” Sadly, I confess right here, I have done a poor job of redeeming the time. To be honest I’d say I’ve wasted too much of it. Left me do that no more. My primary, though not exclusive, focus for the near future on this blog, and elsewhere, will be on The Church. More on why and what that means in this video:

  • Dear Fellow SBC-Affiliated Church Member: What are you Funding?

    I fear too many members of SBC churches are giving money, intending to further the Gospel of Christ, and unknowingly funding the teaching of a false Gospel in our seminaries. This is happening through professors and leaders who embrace false teachings and knowingly hide what they are doing.

    Walter Strickland is one such professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Like other SBC affiliated seminaries, some of their funding comes through the SBC Cooperative Program which gives about 22 percent of its funds to the seminaries. And?

    Strickland’s “favorite theological book of all time” is “Liberation and Reconciliation: A Black Theology,” in his own words​1​ (Jude Three Project, 2016). In this book, author J. Deotis Roberts writes that Black Theology needs “to be informed not only by the Christian faith but by the explorations into the unconscious by Freud and his associates, as well as the analysis of social, economic, and political ills by Marx and other social philosophers” (Roberts, 2005, p. 54) ​2​. He also claims that “Whites desire to be ‘as gods’ to blacks” and claims they become angry if blacks respond with Matthew 23:9 (Roberts, 2005, p. 57). He also claims that whites are collectively guilty of racism and should be haunted by the sins of the fathers and mothers (Roberts, 2005, p. 57). Whites appear to be reduced to viewing blacks in one of two ways: they can be overt racist that hate blacks, in which case they can change and be reconciled in love to blacks; or they can be “not aware of any race problem” and therefore be guilty of “preconscious racism” (Roberts, 2005, p 53).

    Our Lord and Savior taught in Matthew 12:31 that “every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” There is one. One. Unforgivable. Sin. What does Strickland’s all-time favorite theological book teach? Roberts writes on page 59 that “Preconsious racism is a type of [emphasis added] ‘unpardonable sin’” (2005) that cannot be forgiven of since it can’t be recognized and repented of. By classifying it as a “type of” unpardonable sin Roberts contradicts a direct teaching of Christ. If whites won’t admit they are racist, they can’t be forgiven of sin.

    Strickland also embraces the teachings of James Cone. The New York Times reports that “Reading the black liberation theologian James Cone helped Mr. Strickland, the theology professor, see how white theologians often ignore the structural sources of earthly suffering” ​3​ (Worthen, 2019). Strickland states in this article that Cone’s ideas “are in play” but he won’t actually use his name when he’s speaking to white congregations. Wonder why?

    Perhaps here would be an appropriate place to draw on the efforts of Neil Shenvi, a Christian apologist who has done excellent work in the area of Critical Race Theory. His page of quotes from Cone’s “A Black Theology of Liberation” could shed light on why Mr. Strickland feels the need to sneaks Cones theology “in the back door by walking around the linguistic land mines” when it comes to orthodox Christianity (Worthen, 2019). Go to Shenvi’s page above and you can find quotes about “taking honkies out,” about the Bible not being infallible, how “God was not the author of the Bible,” and discover that, the teaching Strickland brings into churches and the seminary has this as its goal: “The goal of black theology is the destruction of everything white, so that blacks can be liberated from alien gods” (Shenvi, unk)​4​.

    Finally, while I’m not sure what I feel about the site this is hosted on, this video sounds as if he believes THE purpose of the church is to social ills. Otherwise, the gospel is just a white man’s religion (Maples, 2020)​5​.

    Walter Strickland brings perspective that is racist, violates/dismisses God’s Word, and he passes it on to our future pastors and missionaries. He is partly enabled in doing this through the giving of many unsuspecting (I hope) faithful members at SBC churches across the country.

    1. 1.
      Jude 3 Project. 6 The Balanced Scholar: The Life and Work of J. Deotis Roberts | Walter Strickland. YouTube. Published October 2016. Accessed January 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxqW-HQ8Fuc
    2. 2.
      Roberts JD. Liberation and Reconciliation: A Black Theology. 2nd ed. Westminster John Knox Press; 2005.
    3. 3.
      Worthen M. Can Black Evangelicals Save the Whole Movement? New York Times.
    4. 4.
      Shenvi N. Quotes from Cone’s Black Theology of Liberation. Shenvi Apologetics. Accessed January 1, 2021. Quotes from Cone’s Black Theology of Liberation
    5. 5.
      Maples J. SBC Seminary Professor Says He Had to Embrace Another Gospel to “Keep His Faith.” Reformation Charlotte. Published November 2, 2021. Accessed January 1, 2021. https://reformationcharlotte.org/2020/11/02/sbc-seminary-professor-says-he-had-to-embrace-another-gospel-to-keep-his-faith/

  • Who’s Going to Build This Temple Anyway

    Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

    1 Corinthians 3:16 & 17

    It is a good reminder of the seriousness of caring for the Bride of Christ; as well as where our true identity lies. I love verse 16. So much so, that it is the only verse on a wall in my house. I have other ones hanging in frames, but this verse in on the wall itself. As such, it isn’t surprising that it came to mind when I was reading this today.

    Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.” But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.” Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

    Ezra 4:1-6

    Because it has been on my mind so much lately (I think), the whole Critical Race Theory (CRT) debate came to mind on this. It has been particularly alarming to me as a long-time member of a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) affiliated church. As I’ve read more and more on the topic, it seems the pattern for the SBC has been, “We don’t know what CRT is” → “We don’t have any CRT in the SBC or it’s seminaries” → “Well, it can be a useful analytical tool” → “CRT is incompatible with the Baptist Faith and Message” → “Fine, we’re leaving the SBC if they don’t support CRT.” Obviously that’s over simplified, but once Resolution 9 was adopted, CRT and it’s impact on the church moved front and center.

    SBC leadership has been twisting and turning, avoiding, dodging, and trying to have the church and culture too. Now, feet are being held to the fire, and folks are being made to admit that CRT is opposed to Scripture. Certain elements in the SBC now are leaving since the SBC seminaries refused to accept an opposing worldview.

    One pastor says “We out” regarding the SBC after the “final straw” which was:

    On Dec. 1, all six of the SBC seminary presidents — without one Black president or counter opinion among them — told the world that a high view of Scripture necessarily required a corresponding and total rejection of critical race theory and intersectionality.

    Religion News

    Another says:

    “I can’t sit by and continue to support or even loosely affiliate with an entity that is pitching its tent with white supremacy,”

    Washington Post

    Imagine that. These two, and others, are not leaving because of the SBC rejecting scripture, but because the SBC seminaries are rejecting a racist ideology born of a godless, truth-rejecting worldview. Marxism.

    When I read Ezra this morning, I couldn’t help but think that it provided an example of enemies of God’s people who easily lied and claimed they wanted to help build the temple. This, at a time when Israel was struggling to maintain their unique identity as God’s people.

    Today the church struggle to maintain an identity separate from the world. It’s high time we tell the divisive, lying, saboteurs that they have nothing to do with building God’s temple today. Kick them out and drive them away. Do so knowing full well they will work to discourage, frustrate, and make fearful, those who are carrying out God’s Will in building the true church.

  • Christian Nationalism: Next Talking Point for BigEva?

    What is Christian Nationalism? Good question. One that needs answering as it looks to become the next talking point to used to try to shut down people who want to speak honestly about God, His Word, and His Church. Like Critical Race Theory (CRT), the term has been around for a while. This person, who I do not know, starts out as if they’re going to give it a sound, clarifying definition and then goes on for thirteen tweets to say, “All that to say, the threat of Christian nationalism to the Church & to the gospel is deep.” So the intention was never to define the term, only to use it as a term to vaguely cast aspersions on folks who won’t toe the line and label it, whatever it is, as a threat.

    It appears that Christian Nationalism will be the next catch-phrase used to demean, dismiss, and slander Christians. I don’t know if it is because “racist” and “white supremacist” are getting worn out and need replacing, or if it will become just another politicoreligious word in the arsenal used to shoot accusatory, fiery darts against the saints.

    Beth Moore used it to define a threat to the Gospel (if one accepts she actually knows what the Gospel is). She says “Trumpism,” whatever that is, is the most dangerous and seductive thing she’s ever seen the saints of God face. She then says, “This Christian Nationalism is not of God.” I guess he must not have given her a special word about it.

    Jon Harris is on it, and so is AD Robles (both links go to YouTube videos). These two guys each use their own tactics when dealing with issues and I appreciate them both. If you have the time, watch both of these linked videos discussing this issue.

    I’ll be trying to follow-up on this post with information that defines this but, sadly, I don’t hold my breath for clarity. Why? I asked for a definition of someone else online who wondered about Christian leaders pushing back against Christian Nationalism. I was given this article. It’s an article of over 3,000 words that, in the end, does not give a true definition. That’s one of the tactics I’ve noticed is so often used by unbelievers infiltrating the church. Obfuscate, muddy the water, and never define what the term used to slander believers means. I guess it makes their job easier.

  • The Sin of Achan

    The Sin of Achan

    I’ve been reading through the book of Joshua recently. Normally when I read Old Testament events regarding Israel, I don’t necessarily feel like they have a direct application today. Am I wrong? Maybe.

    I do think they are insightful into God’s character and valuable to understanding our faith. Chapter 7 of Joshua hit me differently. Maybe it’s because of events going on in our country and in the “church” in America. Maybe it’s because so many groups seem to have co-opted the word “church” without really belonging to the body of Christian believers. Whatever the reason, when I read it, as I thought about God’s character and his disposition towards his people, I couldn’t help but think of how that applied today.

    In Joshua 7:1 we find, depending on translation, that the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, that it was kindled against Israel, or that the Lord was furious with Israel. Why? Achan had taken things into the camp that were described as devoted, devoted to destruction, forbidden, or he is described as acting unfaithfully in regards to things under the ban.

    The rest of the chapter deals with the adverse effects of bringing the forbidden into the camp. It deals with searching out the offenders and removing them, in a most permanent way, and restoring God’s people to a right relationship. To be clear, I am not calling for burning anyone and their household in what follows.

    I am wondering if the church, God’s people today, have brought in things that are forbidden. Perhaps strongholds that should be demolished (2 Corinthians 10:4) have instead been looked at with greedy hearts and brought into our camp. Are we accepting banned things into our teachings in the church? I think we are. I implore you, if you’re claiming the name of Christ… READ. YOUR. BIBLE. Don’t just assume that what someone is telling you it says is truth, read it yourself.

    If we have done this thing, we should search it out and repent of it. Jesus is quite clear that he will come against the church in Pergamum with a sword (Revelation 2:16) for holding to teachings they ought not. In Thyatira, the church tolerated “Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess” and those who practiced adultery with her are promised great tribulation (Revelation 2:20-23).

    In his own words, our Lord did not come to bring a worldly peace but a sword (Matthew 10:34). The Rider on the White Horse comes in a robe dipped in blood, making war on the nations, treading out the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God, and rules the nations with an iron scepter (Revelation 19:11-16). It is not hard to imagine that same God having his anger burn against the church when it has gone astray or brought in things that are forbidden and devoted to destruction.

    I pray that all believers would have peace. Not a false peace of being comfortable around everybody and never being offended or offensive. Not a peace with the world, but a peace with The Creator. I pray God’s people will be bold and protect the truth by removing the forbidden, and those bringing it in, from within the church.

  • The Social Justice Gospel

    The church is infected. The infection is an ideology based in Marxist thought that fundamentally opposed to the all-sufficient, saving work of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Like most things infected, it starts stinking if left untreated. Unbeknownst to me, the infection has been going on for years and the stench of it finally caught my attention.

    It goes by many names: critical race theory, social justice, social gospel, far-left orthodoxy, etc. It’s all the same stuff and uses the same special vocabulary. When you repeatedly hear terms like whiteness, white privilege, systemic racism, woke, and other similar phrases,  you are witnessing the infection. Bear in mind, I’m speaking of it in the church. Obviously, we should not expect those outside the family of God to adhere to God’s truths since they remain in rebellion. It appears some of the church’s “leaders” are in rebellion as well. There is something systemic, and it is this demonic doctrine.

    I’ve spent much of my free time for the last couple of months studying on this. It’s dizzying, disturbing, dangerous. Dizzying because its proponents use amazing communicative gymnastics to say what they are saying without saying it. Disturbing because it is so twisted. Dangerous because it has so embedded itself in the church.

    Rooting it out requires that we understand what we are looking at/for. Like I said earlier, they don’t speak clearly because they can’t. If they did, they would out themselves instantly.

    I came across this video. While it just scratches the surface in the hour it takes to watch it, this is probably one of the best places I’ve seen the problems this ideology presents when it is blended with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Very good info in the video description as well.

    I recommend this video.

  • At a Loss

    I’m at a complete and total loss. The more I go to look into the nasty, devilish teachings of Critical Race Theory (CRT), the more I find it has infiltrated into an institution I’ve long affiliated myself with. The Provost and Sr. VP of Southern Seminary, an institution of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), claims that “faithfulness, and orthodoxy, and truth, and righteousness, and justice” are actually a rotting corpse of white supremacy.

    Now, before I continue, I need to make something clear. If you’re not familiar with Southern Baptist church polity, it follows a congregational form meaning the SBC holds no authority over local congregations. This is important because you can’t conclude that every SBC congregation, or even a majority of them, are embracing what I am talking about. Although if not stopped, in the future the majority will. I surely haven’t seen this at the congregation I attend, or I would have withdrawn my membership there.

    Sadly, many of those sitting in the pews of those congregations are unaware that some of their giving is going to furthering the introduction of CRT into our seminaries. CRT makes a mockery of the work of Jesus on the Cross when it is blended in Christianity. We need salvation through Jesus, and then some more. At its core, it is a theory based on Marxist thought and as such is concerned only about power, and adheres to the idea that “truth has no independent existence.” Could anything be farther from what our Bible teaches?

    That’s how it becomes acceptable to teach future SBC ministers that “faithfulness, and orthodoxy, and truth, and righteousness, and justice” are ideas based on “the rotting corpse of white supremacy.” Do you want to be faithful? Congratulations, you’re practicing white supremacy! Do you want to express orthodoxy in your beliefs? Congratulations, you’re expressing white supremacy? How about the truth? That thing Jesus says will set you free. Do you want to proclaim it? Congratulations, you’re proclaiming white supremacy! And to top it off, your beliefs, truths, faithfulness etc. are a dead, rotting corpse. Don’t just take my words for it, hear him in his own words. The video below will start a few seconds before he lets that doctrine of demons spew out of his mouth.

    If you want to embrace these teachings, fine. Go ahead. Just know you will have to reject Ephesians 2:14-16. You have to reject 2 Corinthians 5:17. You have to reject Ezekiel 18:19-20. You will have to reject truth, faithfulness, and righteousness.

    Alternatively, you could keep all of that, embrace 1 Timothy4:1, and wonder if we’re near the end.

  • Deadly Familiarity

    Deadly Familiarity

    Several days a week find me commuting a little over 70 miles. Once in a while a take an alternate route that takes me through open range land. You know you’re in open range land when you’re driving down a road, usually a Farm-to-Market road, and you suddenly cross cattle guards and the fences disappear. This type of driving demands your attention so toss the phone in the seat beside you. Why? Because livestock has just as much right to the roadway as you do and a 1,200 lb. piece of beef will destroy you and your vehicle.

    So I noticed a few months ago when the little beefs were just learning to walk/run that when I approached they appeared to briefly think for a nanosecond or two and would then bolt off in whichever direction they happened to be facing at the time. Of course, sometimes that direction would send them bolting in front of the 3-ton truck I was expected to keep under control.

    Obviously, one of the safest things for me to do was to slow down when I approached them. A few months ago the sight of one of our bovine friends would bring me to a crawl of about 30 mph. Not so much today. Today, I continued past them at a nice 50-60 mph, depending on their proximity to the roadway.

    One of the things that occurred to me today was how their mommas would never panic. Momma cows always looked at the approaching vehicle and then went back to munching on grass. Why did that occur to me? Because, today, most of the calves (when do they stop being calves?) did the same thing. They’ve gone from panicked rushing in whatever direction, to dashing away from the road, to taking a few steps away from the road. I expect that soon enough they will, like their mothers, look up and not react at all.

    This occurs even though the 6,000+ tons of steel still pose a mortal threat to my little bovine friends, despite being familiar.

    When I was thinking about that, I couldn’t help but wonder, how often do we as individual believers or the church do that? How many issues have we accepted culture’s changing norms as okay? How often do we not fear what we should due to our familiarity with the threat it poses?

    Culturally, where are we? Do we accept things that could kill us spiritually simply due to their familiarity?

  • Wait. What? Things I Didn’t Know About the Bible

    I was raised in church. I’ve often joked with folks that in the church of my youth, the pastor had to push his way through the our family to get the doors unlocked. That experience formed me and gave me some connections that have lasted my lifetime.

    We changed our church affiliation when I was 13.  The involvement didn’t change at all. I did the Monday evening visitation where we’d go and knock on neighborhood doors to talk to folks about Christ. I sat in Sunday School. I sat in Sunday Morning Services. I sat in Wednesday evening services. I was taught all the standard things that I assume almost every other Western Evangelical was taught.

    I don’t remember anything being taught to me about the sons of God taking daughters of men as wives. I was not taught that chapter 6 in Genesis records an episode where a divinely established order was violated and resulted in the birth of part-spirit being, part-human giants (nephilim).  I wasn’t taught anything about the divine/spiritual realm other than about Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and Satan. I was certainly never taught anything that included “other gods” in any meaningful way.


    For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

    Psalm 95:3

    But without other gods, if they are nothing and non-existent, what is this verse saying? Is it saying the LORD is a great King above made up beings? Above nothing? Further, what do we do when the god Dagon[ref]1 Samuel 5:7[/ref] is referred to in the same manner, with the same word,  as the LORD[ref]Exodus 3:18[/ref]?

    Along with this what was left out, there were things I was warned away from. To me, apocrypha might as well have meant anathema. I came to the conclusion that these books were deceptive and had no value. They weren’t scripture, and were therefore useless. They were to be avoided and I obeyed. I remained willfully and intentionally ignorant of their content.

    Maybe we should treat them like bible commentaries or Christian books written today. That was my moment. Wait. What?

    That’s what started my latest journey in understanding. I’d noticed that some quotes in the New Testament didn’t have the little letter and the note referencing the scripture that was being quoted. Many did. I use my references and always try to check them. Once in a while, you find new testament writers quoting a work that existed outside of scripture. Jude:14-15 for example.

    I was a bit stunned to find that some were quotes from the Book of Enoch. You know, one of those books to avoid. I ended up stumbling across this guy, Dr, Michael Heiser[ref]https://drmsh.com/[/ref] and some of his teachings. The understanding his teachings give has helped the Bible make much more sense to me. I’d challenge you to listen to some of what he teaches.

    This is longer than I intended so I’ll end it now with a summary of what he says to relieve any ideas he may be heretical:

    • The Book of Enoch is not, and should not, ever be part of the Canon;
    • God, our LORD, is a unique being and there is no other being like him;
    • God is the creator of everything, including other divine beings;
    • Jesus Christ is/was/will be God and is the sole pathway to salvation.

  • Tozer on Watered-down Religion

    I’ve really taken a liking to A. W. Tozer over the past two years. He would likely be stunned even more in some of today’s “church” services.