Over at Lampmode, someone asked me a question about my Avatar:

I posted this response:

Anonymous wrote:

The apostles mention many false teachers and wrote many passages condemning them – but never mocked them. For us to do so is not only unbibilical, it’s also ungracious and unloving. I don’t see how God get’s no glory when saints take to such practices.

I replied:
Oh, there’s a few mocking passages in the OT and NT. In the NT, the one that sticks out the most is:

Galatians 5:12 – As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

Quote:

Just a friendly word of caution from a fellow Christian soldier

peace

Ely

I responded
Taken in the spirit of brotherly love. Thanks.

I don’t believe mocking folks like Hinn is always in order. I’ll eventually change my avatar to something else interesting. There’s a time to be Elijah @ Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18:20-40):

Quote:
27About noontime Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or he is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or he is asleep and needs to be wakened!”

28So they shouted louder, and following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out. 29They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no reply, no voice, no answer.

and there’s a time to be calm, cool and loving as possible and influence by relationship. Hanegraaf, while having a tumultuous relationship with some folks on TBN (i.e.- Paul and Jan Crouch), got to have personal relationships with some of the other folk he criticized in counterfeit revival (from Brownsville) and sought to bring them to a more orthdox position concerning the gifts of the Spirit.

Hinn’s been approached by multiple folks and ministries over the past decade and has shown no repentance and is not open to correction (don’t forget the infamous “I wish I had a Holy Ghost Machine gun – I’d blow every one of their heads off” (talking about Hanegraaf, MacGregor Ministries and other groups that were critical of him in the 90’s). His ‘jesus’ isn’t the Jesus of the Bible….. so no, I don’t count him as a believer.

Jakes’ name-it-and-claim-it theology is only one part of the problem. The other major with him is that he’s refused to clarify his organizations’ position on the Trinity….. his website, STILL has directly modalistic language in regard to their belief on Who God is and even after all the stuff with CRI and Christianity Today, he’s refused to clarify if he meant to affirm Trinitarianism or modalism. Sermons he’s given have promoted a modalistic view of God. That puts him outside of the faith, plain and simple. THAT is my major issue with Trinity Denying Jakes.

With the average person…. I’d probably refrain from mocking him, Dollar, Hinn, Hickey, Meyers or others and primarily focus on their teachings, which are the major issue. If folks won’t listen to the scriptures, they won’t listen at all, period.

And I do pray that God grants Hinn, Jakes and all these other cats repentance. But in the meantime, they are enemies of the gospel and as such:

Quote:
I’m going to write letters to ministries like T.D. Jakes and Creflo Dollar and ask them to stand up for the truth or stop calling yourselves Christians. And if they chose to remain in error, by the power of the Holy Spirit within me Who testifies of the God-Man Christ, I will oppose such false teaching and continually preach ‘REPENT!’ until the last breath of air passes from my lungs and the Triune God
Himself calls me home.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apologetics/message/19459

and that’s real.

Soli Deo Gloria
Kerry

Well….the Lord gave me an ‘add on’ to this last night.

Pray for my HS sweetheart and her roommate.

I had a convo last night where her roommate got all heated (as the non-Christian usually does) about the exclusive claims of Christianity. She did the usual ‘We can’t know anything for sure and you’re arrogant for thinking that you can, especially in regard to religion’ (free copy of ‘This We Believe’ for anyone who can see the problem with that statement and PM me the best explanation of why- seriously – I have 5 and I’m giving them away contest style) argumentation…..

Both (especially the roommate) are filled with so much mess and hatred for Biblical Christianity….. my heart actually aches for them both, my HS sweetheart more…. my eyes water and my heart feels heavy. Blindness envelops them both and in their own eyes, they appear to be wise.

Pray that I would maintain my Biblical testimony before them both. Pray that the Word would fall on good soil.

In the midst of this, though, I thought about this thread and remembered – even in mocking the false prophets of Baal, God takes no pleasure (in one sense) in the death of the wicked and He would prefer them to repent and believe. I’m reminded that these are still PEOPLE – God-hating, God-cursing, non-God-fearing people, but still people. And it DOES matter that they repent or don’t repent.

I definitely would NOT make a good hypercalvinist

Thanks Ely. Between your post and last night’s experience, and in light of my latest streak of mockings of folk with heretical viewpoints, this helped bring the more important issue back to the forefront of my mind.