With more than 50 years of faithful preaching of the Scriptures and zero public scandals, Pastor Begg had certainly earned my unofficial designation as a “solid” celebrity pastor. However, his recent handling of a cultural matter countered a Biblical worldview, and this was not at all consistent with the reputation that has long preceded him.
Which begs the question that many have raised in recent weeks: What are we, as Believers, now to do with Alistair Begg?
Since publishing the original SITMAC series in 2018, I’ve received several requests to write another installment. Admittedly, I didn’t believe one would be necessary because, as my logic went, by exposing the up and coming protégés of the old guard (see Joel Osteen, TD Jakes, Kenneth Copeland, etc), it should be easy to sniff out other false and extremely problematic preachers and pastors by association. Those birds all seemed to flock together, so writing about yet another member of their coop felt redundant.
What I didn’t consider at the time, however, was the role social media was beginning to play in platforming charlatans who don’t necessarily have ties to the old guard. I also didn’t consider how, thanks to social media, false teachers and problematic brothers (and sisters) no longer need a pulpit or a local church to sow error and confusion before a mass of God’s people.
Prior to episode 902 of the Relatable Podcast with Allie Beth Stuckey, I had extremely little knowledge of Kat Von D.
I’ve certainly heard her name in passing as I’ve consumed pop culture news over the years. In recent weeks, for example, I’d seen various headlines reporting on her recent baptism into Christianity. So, indeed, I’ve definitely heard of her.
Yet, I’m embarrassed to admit that I was so unfamiliar with her claims to fame and professional résumé that I initially confused her with the burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese. In my defense, both women do have “Von” in their names; they’re both undeniably gorgeous, fair-skinned brunettes who often rock a bold, red lip; and they are both closely associated with Marilyn Manson.
In the premiere episode of Season 4 of Truth + Fire: The Podcast, host Veritéetfeu tackles "married single motherhood", a parenting phenomenon where married mothers take on the sole responsibility to care for their children. But is this practically beneficial for the mother, the father or their children? More importantly, is it Biblical?
While browsing through Twitter the other day, I happened upon an interesting post from one of my favorite Christian writers, Samuel Sey.
In it, he declared:
“If a woman doesn’t want to be a mother, she shouldn’t be a wife. My dude, stay away from her.”
Founder and blogger at slowtowrite.com and contributing writer for various other outlets, Sam has done well to pen prolific thought pieces on the state of our culture, and he always endeavors to do so through a Biblical worldview. We also share a platform at Pyrolithos Foundation, where we each publish articles that address cultural issues from a Biblically-conservative perspective. In other words, Sam and I are on the same team; he is indeed my brother in the Lord; and, in most instances, I agree with his commentary.
Yet, admittedly, I found his tweet to be a bit provocative and potentially discouraging.
In this episode of Truth + Fire: The Podcast, host Veritéetfeu revisits The End is Near: 5 Things You Need to Know about the Rapture, a Truth + Fire blog post from 2016 which challenges five popular beliefs concerning the return of Jesus Christ.
Are we cowards? In this three-part special, we’re talking about the Christian response to COVID-19. Declared a global pandemic, COVID-19 has impacted political, social and economic practices around the world. But how has it impacted the Church? And, most importantly, has the Christian response been Christ-like? In Part 2, we examine new social and hygienic measures that could easily take Believers down an unloving and hypocritical path. Available on all podcast streaming platforms.
Proclaiming Christ, defending the faith and sharing the deeper mysteries of the Gospel give me absolute life. I sincerely enjoy it. But, admittedly, I recently experienced a bout of near exhaustion, and I noticed that I was becoming easily frustrated by those who rejected the truth. It's disappointing to see many willingly remain in sin and confusion even after you’ve taken them through the Scriptures - line by line, precept by precept - to show them that Jesus truly is THE way! And it's all the more infuriating when you're demonized by those who, themselves, do the work of satan by suppressing the truth! It's enough to tempt one to grow weary in well doing!
Yesterday, we celebrated the 241st "birthday" of our nation's Declaration of Independence. But for the past few weeks, I've actually been contemplating matters relating to our Constitution. I'm aware that the U.S. Constitution wouldn't become the law of the land for another decade, two months and 13 days after we declared our independence from British rule. And I can respect the amount of painstaking time, energy and thought our Forefathers put into creating our "more perfect Union" and the "supreme law" that would rule it. Yet, with all that is going on in our nation and the world, I've been considering lately how desperately fragile this document, and the rights granted therein, actually are.
Truth is, I'm of the mind that Christian persecution will become a widespread norm in the United States - probably in my lifetime. I don’t mean persecution of the "Starbucks-removed-the-Christmas-tree-from-their- red- cups” variety (which, by the way, isn’t persecution at all given that Christmas is a man-made holiday rooted in pagan practices AND one that Jesus never told us to celebrate in the first place. But that’s another post). I’m talking about the type of persecution the early Church endured.
One thing that has been pressing on my heart lately is the “pre-tribulation/post-tribulation” debate that has creeped into the Church. For those who aren’t familiar with it, the “pre-trib/post-trib” debate includes opposing views on exactly when and how Jesus Christ is to return for His Bride.
Certainly, some would just plant themselves some place in the middle of these two arguments. Others would say neither argument matters – after all, as long as we’ve accepted Jesus, we’re good.
But here’s the truth: It matters! And what you believe (or don’t) can have grave consequences.
So, to bring you up to speed, here are 5 things you need to know and should begin to study about Jesus’ return.
Welcome to the second installment of "Ummm...That Ain't in My Bible". If you've had a chance to read Part 1 of this series, you know my entire goal is to examine and tear down some of the things non-believers and lukewarm Christians have been known to say when discussing or explaining matters of the Christian faith. I was inspired to write this piece because even I uttered some of these falsities and half-truths until I grew more committed to my walk with Christ and got serious about studying God's word.
So, in an effort to begin to speak the truth (and to help us graduate from lowly lukewarm status), in this installment I'm debunking a couple of phrases that tend to misrepresent God's attributes and Jesus's purpose.
