Examples of "art" produced by students at a Canadian "evangelical" university

Another example of wordliness from an "evangelical" university; as advertised by Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, November 29, 2022 (bold, text links in original):

2022 In Review: Art + Design exhibition celebrates a year of creative production by TWU art, design, video game and animation students

Newest student exhibition celebrates a year of creative production by art, design, video game and animation students in TWU’s School of the Arts, Media + Culture.

2022 In Review: Art + Design Student Exhibition

Dates: December 2, 2022 – February 2, 2023

Opening Night Artist Talks: Thursday, December 1, 6:15-7:30 p.m.

Location: SAMC Gallery, Norma Marion Alloway Library, Trinity Western University (22500 University Drive, Langley).

This exhibition celebrates a year of creative production by SAMC art, design, video game and animation students. Produced over the course of 2022, the works in this exhibition span the diverse media that students are exposed to in the program, including drawing, painting, animation and digital design. 2022 In Review provides a space to reflect on the growth and learning that has taken place this year as students have honed their technical skills, deepened conceptual capacities, and discovered their authentic visual voice.

A foundational question resonates throughout the work gathered here, a question that is taken up in each of the courses offered in the Art + Design program: what does it mean to be created in the image of a creator God? As these student artists participate in the act of creation, they each reveal the Creator in a unique way. The act of creation draws these emerging artists near to the heart of a God who delights in the beauty and diversity of His creation.

This exhibition is on view from December 2, 2022 to February 2, 2023. All are welcome to join us for opening night artist talks on Thursday, December 1 at 6:15 p.m.

...

About Art + Design at Trinity Western University

We are a community of professional artists, designers, scholars, and students who look at visual ways of creating. Within a variety of interdisciplinary historical, critical, and theoretical contexts, we explore how visual art and design practices can be used to create and critique culture. Our program empowers students to become creative leaders who are able to adapt and innovate in our rapidly changing world. Learn more at Art + Design.

Mojgan Mirzapouralamdari, Untitled, Mixed Media on Canvas.

Zaeya Winter, What We Preserve, Mixed Media on Canvas.

Sofia del Castillo Medina, My Essentials, Acrylic on Canvas.

Yihan (Martin) Wang, Subtractive study, graphite and charcoal on cold pressed watercolor paper.

Cecilia Nguyen, Personal Brand, Adobe Illustrator.

Candace Genesis, Book Cover.

I see nothing in any of these works of "art" that could be said to "reveal the Creator in a new way"--nothing distinctively Christian, depicting the good, beautiful, and true. Most of this "art" is ugly and incomprehensible; I'm reminded of Winston Churchill's description of Graham Sutherland's portrait of him as "a remarkable example of modern art." The work by Mr. Wang is at least recognizable as a can opener (assuming that's what it's supposed to be), and Book Cover is indeed a picture of a book cover. The amount of creativity on display is breathtaking; and these are just the works shown at TWU's website.

Apostate Congregational church in Nebraska offers drive-by Easter egg hunt

I'm a few weeks late in posting this, but here it is for the record, as reported in the Lincoln Journal-Star, April 3, 2020 (link in original):

First-Plymouth Congregational Church will offer a drive-by Easter Egg Hunt Sunday, April 12, from noon to 7 p.m. around the block outside the church at 20th and D streets.

On Easter Sunday, First-Plymouth encourages families to pile in the car to take an afternoon drive to see over 300 large and colorful Easter egg signs around the church block. Everyone is asked to respect social distancing and remain in your vehicles as you drive by. Planners hope the event will brighten things up a bit during this difficult time.

For more information on First-Plymouth, go to firstplymouth.org or call 402-476-7565.

A quick glance at the church's Who We Are page shows it to be a member of the United Church of Christ, claiming to be Christian while denying every fundamental Christian doctrine, and sounding more like Unitarians than Christians (bold inserted by blogger):

First-Plymouth strives to blend tradition and innovation, the historical and the contemporary. Our worship services have a quality that echoes through the ages and yet, speaks to the present and points to the future. Our religious life is shaped by five guiding principles: We are Christian, Open-minded, Spiritual, Evolving and Diverse. First-Plymouth Congregational Church is part of the United Church of Christ.

WE ARE CHRISTIAN

"Christian" means we perceive in Jesus the divine qualities of love, peace, joy, and justice. It does not mean we think Jesus is the only path to God.

"Christian" means we eagerly explore the Bible for its spiritual wisdom contained in symbol, metaphor, and history. It does not mean a literal or heavy-handed approach that uses the Bible to prove we are right or righteous.

WE ARE OPEN-MINDED

"Open-minded" means we understand faith as a quest, not a clutched certainty. "Open-minded" flies above the tired distinction between conservative and liberal, and does not refer to one’s specific beliefs, but how one relates to those beliefs. It means we do not assume a defensive posture, but rather enter appreciatively into different points of view with the expectation of learning and growing.

WE ARE SPIRITUAL

"Spiritual" means we believe God is a spirit of love that can be felt and known by each one of us. It means Christianity is as much about the heart as the head, as much about the body as the mind.

"Spiritual" means not merely hoping for a better world or pining after justice, but rolling up one’s sleeves and starting to feed the hungry, care for the sick and anguished, house the homeless and advocate for a more just society.

WE ARE EVOLVING

"Evolving" means rather than resisting change or innovation, we eagerly experiment with new ways of being faithful and new understandings. We strive to be rooted but not stuck.

WE ARE DIVERSE

"Diverse" means we celebrate the differences among us such as sexual orientation, ethnicity, class, mental abilities, physical capabilities, personalities, and backgrounds.

"Diverse" means we trust that these differences inform and strengthen community. A diverse spiritual community welcomes conventional believers, curious agnostics, and questioning skeptics.

And, finally, "diverse" means you are free to seek your own guiding principles in our midst. These principles are not a creed to which one must ascribe. Rather, they are one attempt to describe the spirit and nature of our congregation.

– Jim Keck, Senior Minister, First-Plymouth Church

The current sermon series promotes mysticism:

THE MYSTICAL HEART OF RELIGION

This week Dr. Keck continues his sermon series on mysticism. Using three mystical exemplars from history - Girodano Bruno, Joan of Arc and Howard Thurman - he will propose that the mystical heart of Christianity can be reclaimed through the theological imagination(Bruno), an embrace of high tradition (Joan of Arc) and an appreciation of nature mixed with a thirst for justice (Thurman). Join the journey this Sunday!

Display of politically-incorrect New Testament passage leads Belgian politician to call for a ban on religious programming on publicly-funded television networks

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Ephesians 5:22-33

As reported by James Crisp of the London Daily Telegraph, September 4, 2018:

Brussels - An onscreen Bible reading which demanded women be submissive to their husbands has sparked calls to end religious broadcasting on public television in Belgium.

The New Testament reading, from Ephesians 5.22 - 33, was broadcast on radio and Flemish TV station VRT from a Catholic mass in the town of Grimbergen.

A lay reader said, “Women, be submissive to your husband as the husband to the Lord. For the man is the head of the woman as Christ is the head of the church.”

Sven Gatz, the media minister for the Dutch-speaking Belgian region of Flanders who represents the Flemish liberal party, tweeted: “No outdated, woman-unfriendly statements … please. What if, for example, an imam would have said this?”

He told newspaper Het Nieuwsblad: “The fact that they come from an old book is not an argument for letting them go to our people. This is not of this time, and that it is broadcast on the VRT for the whole of Flanders is already completely crazy.”

Mr Gatz has been unsuccessfully calling for the end of Songs of Praise-style programmes at the taxpayer’s expense since last year, but he now hopes the controversy will reignite the debate and insists different solutions could be found for religious people who are unable to attend mass.

“I want to examine all the technical possibilities to give these people their weekly celebration. But this cannot be an argument to keep these broadcasts, at the expense of the taxpayer," he said.

VRT said it had “no problem” with its broadcasts leading to debate and discussion, while the Dutch Bible Society, which has Flemish members, said that the reading had been taken out of context.

“The contested statement is preceded by a very different sentence: ‘Accept each other’s authority out of respect for Christ’. This indicates that this is a very different matter than legitimisation of the oppression of women by men,” a spokesman for the society said.

And now for something completely different: "Ace Pride"

If there haven't been enough sexual minority groups coming out of the closet, here comes another one: the asexuals, or "aces," as reported by Justina Reichel of The Epoch Times, January 22, 2014:

Asexuality? It’s Normal, Says Expert

Go here to see the abstract of Brock University professor Anthony Bogaert's 2004 Journal of Sex Research article Asexuality: prevalence and associated factors in a national probability sample. I take issue with the contention that asexuality is "normal." If Professor Bogaert is correct in his estimate that at least 1% of the population is asexual, that means that close to 99% of the population is not asexual, which, it seems to me, makes asexuality statistically abnormal.

While asexuality isn't God's will for humanity, at least asexual behaviour doesn't cause or spread disease. I suspect that a factor contributing to asexuality is that so many people today go out of their way to make themselves as sexually unattractive as possible. Living in Edmonton, Alberta, for example, is a dreary existence for those of us who appreciate feminine women. A disproportionate amount of Edmonton's female population consists of fat, ugly, waddling slobs with butch haircuts, body piercings, and tattoos. The sight of a good-looking woman who's nicely dressed is so rare now that when I see one, I'm both encouraged and depressed--encouraged to know that feminine woman haven't yet become completely extinct, and depressed because such sightings are now so rare.

For people to hold a parade to celebrate their pride in something they don't have and are uninterested in doing sounds like an idea for a Monty Python skit, but an asexuality parade actually took place in London in 2012 and a WorldPride Asexual Conference will be taking place in Toronto on June 28, 2014--which is more evidence that you can't be a satirist anymore.

California pastor protests Costco's classification of the Bible as fiction

As reported by Joel Furches of Jarrettsville Christianity Examiner, November 20, 2013:

On November 15th, 2013, Pastor Caleb Kaltenbach was shopping at his local Costco in Simi Valley, California, when he was surprised to see a Bible in the Fiction section. On inspecting the $14.95 price tag, he found that, sure enough, it was labeled as Fiction.

Upset, Kaltenbach attempted to complain to Costco, but was unable to find an employee, so instead tweeted a picture of the Bible and its label.
Kaltenbach argues that this is a matter of tolerance. He claims that labeling a Bible as Fiction is tantamount to calling out Christianity as untrue, a claim not to be made lightly, and certainly one that should be avoided by a public company such as Costco.

There are four attitudes likely to be adopted on this news item: those who consider it a bold and proper stance for Costco to finally label the Bible for what it really is; those who hold that the Bible is an accurate representation of history, or at the very least, a legitimate and ancient system of belief, and should therefore fall in the category of non-fiction; those who would be willing to give religious believers their freedom to believe, but don't think that the Bible rises to the level of "non-fiction"; and finally, those who think that the whole affair is much ado about nothing, and couldn't care less what Costco chooses to label their Bibles.

In an increasingly Postmodern culture, rigid categories such as "Fiction" and "Non-Fiction" may be seen as increasingly too narrow, especially to classify a book as controversial as the Bible. More than ever, a distinction is being made between the categories of History and Religion. More and more people - professing Christians even - would consider the Bible to be a kind of "Religious Truth" without being a historical one. Only those at the extremes would continue to maintain that the Bible is either true or it isn't; that no shades of grey are permitted to enter the discussion.

Adding to this confusion is the fact that there is a very real argument to be made that the authors of scripture claimed to be transmitting actual history...

...Not only does the Bible claim that it is literally true, it admits that if it is not true, it is a lie and a vain faith.

If the Bible cannot be taken literally, it cannot be taken at all. It does not, by its own admission, leave anyone the option of an airy, poetic, spiritualized reading that sets it aside as historical fact.

The first century Christians certainly didn’t have that option. Of the handful of writers that composed the New Testament, most of them were supposedly executed for their beliefs according to early church writers, including Peter, Paul, and James. Men do not willingly suffer such abuses for what they believe is not literally true.

By the same token, the concept of scripture as Fiction is a mockery of those in totalitarian countries who, today, are imprisoned or executed for their beliefs...

...The Bible is either true or it is a lie. It is either fact or it is fiction. There is no third option.

Amen, Mr. Furches and Pastor Kaltenbach.

200 years ago: The birth of Soren Kierkegaard

May 5, 2013 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. Mr. Kierkegaard has been called the father of existentialism, and his ideas tremendously influenced the 20th century strain of pseudo-Christian liberalism known as Neo-Orthodoxy. He believed that truth was subjective rather than objective, and that one comes to knowledge of God through mystical experience. As Francis Schaeffer argued, "Through a "leap of faith" one must try to find meaning without reason...optimism will now always be in the area of non-reason." (How Should We Then Live?, 1976, p. 163).

Mr. Kierkegaard, who died on November 13, 1855 at the age of 42, is one of the figures profiled in Dave Breese's book 7 Men Who Rule the World from the Grave (1980) and in Brannon Howse's book Grave Influence (2009).

I don't have the desire or energy to do a long-winded post on Mr. Kierkegaard, but I recommend the books mentioned above (as well as Francis Schaeffer's book Escape from Reason (1968)) for further information on Soren Kierkegaard and his effect on modern Western philosophy and theology.

20 years ago: The death of John Cage

On August 12, 1992, American composer John Cage died at the age of 79, just a few weeks short of 80. Mr. Cage was known for “compositions” such as 4’33” (four minutes, thirty-three seconds) (1952) that illustrated his belief in the existence of an impersonal universe and blind chance, rather than an infinite and personal God. American musicologist and critic Sigmund Spaeth, in his book The Art of Enjoying Music (1949), defined music as “the organization of sound toward beauty,” thereby implying that there is such a thing as beauty that we can appreciate. Mr. Cage’s “compositions” wouldn’t qualify as music according to Mr. Spaeth’s definition.

Francis Schaeffer, in his book The God Who is There (1968), devoted several pages to Mr. Cage as an example of modern mysticism:

If God exists and we are made in His image we can have real meaning, and we can have real knowledge through what He has communicated to us. If this is taken away we are left only with man and his finite self-expression. At his point all one has is the expression of the individual man. But Cage quite logically sees that this will not do, and so he carries man’s dilemma further, smashes self-expression and leaves chance speaking. This is the basis of his music…

…Back in the Chinese culture long ago the Chinese had worked out a system of tossing coins or yarrow sticks by means of which the spirits would speak. The complicated method which they developed made sure that the person doing the tossing could not allow his own personality to intervene. Self-expression was eliminated so that the spirits could speak.

Cage picks up this same system and uses it. He too seeks to get rid of any individual expression in his music. But there is a very great difference. As far as Cage is concerned there is nobody there to speak. There is only an impersonal universe speaking through blind chance.

Cage began to compose his music through the tossing of coins. It is said that for some of his pieces lasting only twenty minutes he has tossed the coin thousands of times. This is pure chance, but apparently not pure enough; he wanted still more chance. So he devised a mechanical conductor. It was a machine working on cams, the motion of which cannot be determined ahead of time, and the musicians just followed this. Or as an alternative to this, sometimes he employed two conductors who could not see each other, both conducting simultaneously; anything, in fact, to produce pure chance. But in Cage’s universe nothing comes through in the music except noise and confusion or total silence. All this is below the line of anthropology. Above the line there is nothing personal, only the philosophic other, or the impersonal everything.

There is a story that once, after the musicians had played Cage’s total chance music, as he was bowing to acknowledge the applause, there was a noise behind him. He thought it sounded like steam escaping from somewhere, but then to his dismay realised it was the musicians behind him who were hissing. Often his works have been booed. However, when the audience boos at him they are, if they are modern men, in reality booing the logical conclusion of their own position as it strikes their ears in music.

Cage himself, however, even though he continues to compose such chance music, is another example of a man who cannot live with his own conclusions. He says that the truth about the universe is a totally chance situation. You must live with it and listen to it; cry if you must, swear if you must, but listen and go on listening.

(pp. 71-73)
Mr. Schaeffer then quotes from a profile of Mr. Cage by Calvin Tomkins in the November 28, 1964 issue of The New Yorker where it states that Mr. Cage had become so interested in the mushrooms growing near his home that he had become one of the best mycologists in the United States. Mr. Cage admitted that when it came to identifying mushrooms, he couldn’t approach them according to his ideas of chance, because it would kill him. Mr. Schaeffer comments:

In other words, here is a man who is trying to teach the world what the universe intrinsically is and what the real philosophy of life is, and yet he cannot even apply it to picking mushrooms. If he were to go out into the woods and begin picking mushrooms by chance, within a couple of days there would be no Cage!

We have said before that the ideas of modern man are destroying what man is himself. But not only that, their views cut right across what the existence of the form and structure of the external universe would indicate as well. As we see in the dilemma of Cage and his mushrooms, they cannot live on the basis of a consistent application of their views in regard to the universe, any more than they can in regard to man.

However, while Cage is forced into a hopeless dichotomy with his mushrooms, with his music he has continued to live consistently with is position, even though his music is nothing more than noise or silence. He has resisted the pressure to dress up impersonal Being in connotation words or sounds. Most modern men have not had this much courage.

(p. 74)

A secular columnist accurately assesses Canada's declining liberal churches

Even secular journalists can see what has caused the decline of the mainline churches. Unfortunately, evangelicalism is heading in the same direction, for the same reasons. Margaret Wente of the Toronto newspaper The Globe and Mail assesses the decline of the United Church of Canada in her column of July 28, 2012:

Two weeks from now, the United Church of Canada will assemble in Ottawa for its 41st General Council, where it will debate church policy and elect a new moderator. The top item on its agenda is a resolution calling for a boycott of products from Israeli settlements. Fortunately, nobody cares what the United Church thinks about Israeli settlements, or anything else for that matter, because the United Church doesn’t matter any more.

For many years, the United Church was a pillar of Canadian society. Its leaders were respected public figures. It was – and remains – the biggest Protestant denomination in a country that, outside Quebec, has been largely shaped by centuries of Protestant tradition.

But today, the church is literally dying. The average age of its members is 65. They believe in many things, but they do not necessarily believe in God. Some congregations proudly describe themselves as “post-theistic,” which is a good thing because, as one church elder said, it shows the church is not “stuck in the past.” Besides, who needs God when you’ve got Israel to kick around?

The United Church is not alone. All the secular liberal churches are collapsing. In the United States, the Episcopalians – facing many issues similar to those of the United Church – have lost a quarter of their membership in the past decade. They’re at their lowest point since the 1930s. Not coincidentally, they spent their recent general meeting affirming the right of the transgendered to become priests. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But it doesn’t top most people’s lists of pressing spiritual or even social issues.

Back in the 1960s, the liberal churches bet their future on becoming more open, more inclusive, more egalitarian and more progressive. They figured that was the way to reach out to a new generation of worshippers. It was a colossal flop.

“I’ve spent all my ministry in declining congregations,” says David Ewart, a recently retired United Church minister who lives in British Columbia. He is deeply discouraged about the future of his faith. “In my experience, when you put your primary focus on the world, there is a lessening of the importance of worship and turning to God.”

The United Church’s high-water mark was 1965, when membership reached nearly 1.1 million. Since then it has shrunk nearly 60 per cent. Congregations have shrunk too – but not the church’s infrastructure or the money needed to maintain it. Today, the church has too many buildings and too few people to pay for their upkeep. Yet its leadership seems remarkably unperturbed. “It’s considered wrong to be concerned about the numbers – too crass, materialistic and business-oriented,” says Mr. Ewart. The church’s leaders are like the last of the Marxist-Leninists: still convinced they’re right despite the fact that the rest of the world has moved on.

Clearly, changes in society have had an enormous impact on church attendance. Volunteerism and other civic institutions are also in decline. Busy two-career families have less discretionary time for everything, including church. Sundays are for chores and shopping now. As for Sunday school, parents would rather take the kids to sports.

But something else began changing in the 1960s, too. The liberal churches decided that traditional notions of worship were out of date, even embarrassing. They preferred to emphasize intellect, rationality and understanding. “When I went to seminary, we never talked about prayer,” says Mr. Ewart. “I had an intellectual relationship with Jesus. But love Jesus? Not so much.”

As the United Church found common cause with auto workers, it became widely known as the NDP at prayer. Social justice was its gospel. Spiritual fulfilment would be achieved through boycotts and recycling. Instead of Youth for Christ, it has a group called Youth for Eco-Justice. Mardi Tindal, the current moderator, recently undertook a spiritual outreach tour across Canada to urge “the healing of soul, community and creation” by reducing our carbon footprint. Which raises the obvious question: If you really, really care about the environment, why not just join Greenpeace?

According to opinion polls, people’s overall belief in God hasn’t declined. What’s declined is people’s participation in religion. With so little spiritual nourishment to offer, it’s no wonder the liberal churches have collapsed...

...Should anybody miss the church? Yes, says Mr. Ewart. The church gave families a way to participate together in a community larger than themselves, for a purpose greater than themselves. Most of us don’t have a way to do that any more. Our kids won’t even have it in their memory bank.

In the past few years, Mr. Ewart has spent time hanging out with evangelicals – people who actually talk about loving Jesus. He admires their personal, emotional connection to God. Lately, he has even started praying. Perhaps he could pray for the church in which he spent his life to stop its self-immolation. But it’s probably too late.

Rob Bell says goodbye to his megachurch, hello to his own "reality" TV show

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. Proverbs 26:3

Rob Bell, formerly a rock guitarist, has now decided to return to the entertainment world.

As reported by Niraj Warikoo in the Detroit Free Press, January 11, 2012:

One of Michigan's most noted religious leaders said good-bye to his congregation this week as he prepares to help create a TV series loosely based on his life.

Rob Bell, the founding pastor of the Mars Hill megachurch near Grand Rapids, is moving to California, where he will continue writing books and work on a TV show for ABC with the producer of "Lost."

According to Deadline.com, the series will be called "Stronger," about the life of "Tom Stronger, a musician and teacher, and his spiritual journey." The show will feature "autobiographical elements" from the life of Bell, Deadline said.

Bell was in a rock band before he became known as a Christian pastor.

Bell did not return phone calls seeking comment, and officials at Mars Hill declined to talk about his departure. "We're not taking interviews or discussing our transition plans," church spokesman Lee Jager said...

...It was at a Time gala that Bell met Carlton Cuse, the producer and writer with "Lost," according to Deadline. Bell's last appearance at the church was during a farewell service Sunday.

In his last sermon, delivered Dec. 18, Bell told his congregation that when members of the church found out he was leaving, "for many of you it was like a bomb going off -- you didn't expect it, you weren't looking for it."

He said that "through you, I have experienced the mysterious joy of creation. ... Thank you."

"Second verse, same as the first:" More Social Gospel at a Christian and Missionary Alliance assembly

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:1-4

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:21-23

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. John 6:28-29

One of the most insidious trends in evangelicalism in recent years has been the increasing emphasis on Christianity being defined in terms of actions rather than doctrine. In 1980 the World Council of Churches, already hopelessly apostate, defined the Kingdom of God as a social and political kingdom brought in by human effort. Fundamentalist and evangelical churches, if they were paying attention, rejected this view of the Kingdom of God, but three decades later, the evangelical churches are in about the same position that the mainline churches were earlier, and the idea that man will bring in the Kingdom of God is rapidly increasing in popularity in so-called evangelical churches.

Two years ago I posted about the assembly of the Canadian Pacific District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Langley, British Columbia, where Erwin McManus was the guest speaker and the social gospel and postmodernism was promoted. I don’t care to repeat what I said in my previous post (because it’s easier to provide a link), but it’s as relevant today as it was then. Two years later, it’s time for the next assembly of the C&MA’s Canadian Pacific District, and nothing has changed except for the guest speaker.

From the site of the Christian & Missionary Alliance Canadian Pacific District:

SENT
"Empowering and Multiplying Missional Communities"
The biennial District Conference and AGM is coming up on May 17-19, 2011!
Registration is starting for your church to send delegates!

The conference will be held in the Lower Mainland at the Langley Events Centre and at Mountainview Alliance Church.

Cost: $175/delegate
This price includes lunch and dinner on Wednesday, all sessions with our speaker and materials, as well as lunch following the AGM.

Our Guest Speaker: Hugh Halter

This year, Hugh Halter, co-author of The Tangible Kingdom will be speaking to us. His newest book "AND" speaks about what it looks like to be the Church gathered and the Church scattered. Along with being a speaker and author, Hugh is a pastor in Denver to a community called Adullam. We are looking forward to having him join us during our District Conference!

As for Hugh Halter, I don't know who he is, but I do know this...I found the following on the home page of Adullam Communities:

Adullam communities are about the transformation of individual lives, local neighborhoods, and ultimately the world. What do we mean by transformation? We believe God exists as the primary protagonist in the unfolding story of creation. Transformation is simply what describes the journey of changing our roles in the story, going from antagonists-driven mostly by personal gain- toward joining a collaborative mission of redemption as God’s fellow protagonists. In doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly together in community we believe that what’s been broken in our lives, our communities…our world, has a chance at redemption.

While we are unashamedly a community of Jesus followers we believe that transformation isn’t about going to church. Actually, in most of our experiences simply "doing church" has often been a major distraction for people, both saint and sojourner, who want to relate to God and live out the Kingdom life. When Jesus spoke of the Kingdom we believe it was an invitation to not only dream of a better world to come, but an invitation to start leaning into and living out of that new world in the here and now.

The Emergingese jargon in this passage may prompt the reader to search for an online translator, but I’ll try to render it in English in one sentence: The Kingdom of God is brought in by human effort. Check out Mr. Halter’s blog, and you’ll find scarcely a mention of the cross of Jesus Christ, and I didn’t see any mention there of His return. The true gospel is a message about what God has done, i.e., sending His only begotten Son to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. As the passage in John 6 cited above says, the work of God is just to believe on the One whom He has sent. The "social gospel," which is not really a gospel at all (see Galatians 1:6-7), emphasizes what man does and must do rather than what God has done for us. Go here for more on The Tangible Kingdom and the movement behind it.

As for the idea that man can usher in the Kingdom of God, I can’t top the words of Malcolm Muggeridge:

To proclaim a kingdom of heaven on earth, on the other hand, is both deceptive and intrinsically absurd. The maintenance of such a notion requires mental gymnastics so extreme and so strenuous that they usually produce dementia.

--from Backward, Christian soldiers!, an essay from Mr. Muggeridge's book Tread Softly, for You Tread on My Jokes, 1966

Dallas Willard denies that Jesus Christ finished His work of salvation on the cross

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:5-6 (NIV)

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. I Peter 2:24 (NIV)

For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit... I Peter 3:18 (NIV)

The fact that an essential Christian doctrine such as penal substitution is even a matter of controversy shows how far down the road of apostasy the professing Christian church has gone. I’ve noticed two related characteristics of those who object to the doctrine: 1) They argue against the teaching on the basis of an emotional reaction rather than on the basis of what scripture actually teaches; 2) They have trouble accepting that human nature is as sinful as the Bible says it is.

Christian Research Network has posted a link to an interview between Gary Moon and Dallas Willard. More Books and Things has a post here on Mr. Willard's view of penal substitution.

I noticed a few other things in that interview:

You’ll find Leslie Weatherhead quoted approvingly by both men. Dr. Weatherhead was a mid-20th Century apostate who said in his book The Christian Agnostic, "No one, short of information not available, can say that Christ is ‘the only begotten son of God.’ There may be a son of God on Mars." (Associated Press dispatch from London, August 30, 1965, cited by Carl McIntire in Outside the Gate (1967), p. 24).

Throughout the interview, Mr. Willard uses philosophical rather than biblical reasoning, and straw man arguments to characterize views he doesn’t like. Nowhere does he address important biblical passages that teach penal substitution such as those at the top of this post. This is the same complaint that Bob DeWaay has about Mr. Willard's book The Spirit of the Disciplines (1988): Dallas Willard doesn’t even address the passage in Colossians 2 that refutes his argument. To hear Pastor DeWaay’s broadcasts on this, go here and here.

Go further down in the Moon-Willard interview and you’ll find this:

GWM: Christ’s work on the cross was not the end?

DW: No.

GWM: I knew that, but I’m trying to help you out.

DW: Christ’s work on the cross was not the end. Now, there was something finished. Primarily, it was, in the biblical sense, the days of His flesh were finished. But to think that redemption was finished or that everything needed for salvation was finished is simply a brutal misunderstanding of the New Testament teaching about the life of Christ.

If anyone is guilty of a "brutal misunderstanding of the New Testament teaching," it's Dallas Willard. In John 19:28 we read, "...Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled..." In verse 30, Jesus Christ, while on the cross, said, "It is finished." His statement in verse 30 results from His knowledge in verse 28. I've always heard that the phrase used in John 19:30 was an accounting term meaning "paid in full." The word "finished" in verse 30 and "accomplished" in verse 28 come from the same Greek word, teleo. According to Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, this word "frequently signifies, not merely to terminate a thing, but to carry out a thing to the full." (W.E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (1940).

When it comes to redemption, the scripture says:

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Ephesians 1:7

The Greek word for redemption in the passage above is apolutrosis, which according to Vine, means "a releasing, for (i.e. on payment of) a ransom. This verse, which says that we have redemption through his blood, i.e., his blood shed on the cross--not through his blood plus something else, bolsters the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the passage from John 19 cited above. By the way, the ransom was paid to God the Father to satisfy His conditions--not to Satan, as some erroneously believe.

Mr. Willard, to put it mildly, really doesn't handle the word of God very well. The perceptive reader will notice that this is yet another example of denial of essential Christian truth that isn't coming from outside the professing evangelical church, but from within.

HT: More Books and Things

Social Gospel and postmodern heresy at a Christian and Missionary Alliance assembly

More Books and Things has a post about Erwin McManus being invited to address the biennial assembly of the Canadian Pacific District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Langley, British Columbia on May 19-21, 2009. My views on Mr. McManus’s book The Barbarian Way have already been posted. As a Christian and as a member of a C&MA church in the neighbouring province of Alberta, I was not only disturbed by the invitation to Mr. McManus, but also by what I saw when I clicked on links at the assembly website. Some examples are found below.

"Missional" and "transformation" are currently popular buzzwords in the emerging and dominionist camps. "Missional" is a particularly popular word with postmodernists. Like postmodernism itself, which denies that words have objective meanings, "missional" seems to mean (a la Humpty Dumpty in Alice in Wonderland) whatever its users want it to mean. As far as I can tell, "missional" is largely used as a code word for those of like mind to be able to identify one another. "Transformation" and its derivatives aren’t used in the sense of Romans 12:2 (...be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind...), but in the sense of transforming society and the world. These are 21st Century terms for the old 20th Century social gospel heresy of man bringing in the Kingdom of God on earth. For those who want to research these terms and topics further, I particularly recommend Lighthouse Trails Research Project; Herescope; and Kjos Ministries.

Sustainable… Missional…Church… Movement…
The 2009 District Conference
"Living Out - Bringing God's Kingdom into our Communities"

We believe in encouraging an environment that empowers the family of churches in the Canadian Pacific District to be a missional movement where God given dreams, visions and passions can be unleashed with life-transforming power.

About | Mission
Evangelism Life Zone

BIOMES : Environmental Transformational Plan

A 'biome' is a life zone, or a region, where special kinds of plants and animals live in a special climate. A biome is made up of unique environmental factors that sustain a particular type of organic life. The language of ecology can be used to express spiritual realities. For our context, biomes are spiritual life zones.

Our objective was to identify strategic life zones and creatively influence the environmental factors surrounding those life zones to stimulate missional transformation.

Just imagine an evangelistic environment where . . .
1. Believers in local churches are missionary to their core, engaging with their community to discover what people need and how they can meet those needs.
2. The local church is seen by the unchurched as a vital part of the health and hope of a community.
3. Each local church identifies its parish and uncovers opportunities to minister kindness and compassion to the marginalized and least reached.

"How about that!," as Mel Allen would say--"Biomes," "spiritual life zones," and "missional transformation" all thrown together. It reads like the bafflegab that the New Age Movement has been serving up for the last 25-30 years. "Biome" is a word I haven’t heard before, but I won’t be surprised to see it catch on in evangelical circles. Note too, that the word is lifted from its proper context of the physical environment and applied to the spiritual environment.

Take the word "church" out of the three points above and substitute "community social service organization" or some such phrase, and the meaning would be the same. The presence and direction of God isn’t necessary for these things to take place; man can accomplish this just by employing the proper paradigm, strategy, and research. It might be pointed out that the church in the book of Acts didn’t bother doing this kind of research. In Acts 11:27-30 we read that a prophet named Agabus came from Jerusalem to Antioch and predicted through the Holy Spirit that a severe famine would spread throughout the entire Roman world. The disciples there provided help for their fellow Christians in Judea, sending their gift by the hands of Barnabas and Paul. There’s no evidence that they let their community know of the coming famine, or provided for their "felt needs." This was when the church was under the leadership of the Apostles, men commissioned directly by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Ministries | Global Ministries
Global Connecting for World Transformations

Our main purpose is to resource and network Churches, Missions Teams, and Missions Commitees and help in the building of a roadmap for the reinvention of church-based missions.

Ah yes, "reinvention." Why is it that in the new "paradigm shift" everything must change right now? It sounds like the old Hegelian dialectic at work: thesis + antithesis = synthesis. It helps the process along to bring in a lot of changes at once--you may be successful at neutralizing potential opposition by keeping people off balance in this way.

Ministries | Church Effectiveness | Church Conflict Assessment & Resolution

It is not enough to just work through a present conflict but we must help our churches develop a clear pathway to exercise biblical peace-making as part of their spiritual DNA.

An interesting and informative article on the term "spiritual DNA" and its connection with the New Apostolic Reformation has recently been posted at Deception Bytes.