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Truth in Conviction offers insights related to politics, religion and social happenings in the US and worldwide. The columns' philosophical base is conservative. Regarding
religion, it is evangelical. Concerning social matters, it is grounded in biblical ethics.
Swank has BA and MDiv degrees with graduate work at Harvard Divinity School. Married for 49 years with 3 adult children. Author of several books and thousands of articles in various Protestant and Catholic magazines, journals, web sites, and newspapers. Writer of weekly religion column for PORTLAND PRESS HERALD newspaper, Portland ME. |
Tue Feb 23, 2010
NAZNET’S GURU BRIAN MCLAREN = ALL RELIGIONS OK
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
When a NazNet moderator posts that the Bible is not important, that’s apostasy.
Read NAZNET DEBUNKS SCRIPTURE at http://naznetdistorts.blogspot.com/2010/02/naznet-rejects-gods-infallible-word.html
When that moderator claims Jesus is The Only Item, downplaying Scripture, that’s apostasy.
Further, it is also old-fashioned theological liberalism, the type that I was taught long ago when a student at Harvard Divinity School.
Therefore, when NazNet moderators adopt Emerging Church Brian McClaren as their prime guru, they are embracing Unitarianism, the foundational theology that governs Harvard Divinity School.
Read NAZNET = MORE UNITARIAN THAN NAZARENE at http://naznetdistorts.blogspot.com/2010/02/naznet-more-unitarian-than-nazarene.html
How far then a “friend” to the Church of the Nazarene, namely NazNet by its own advertisement, attempts to swing this holiness church into blasphemy.
Read DISASTER AREA: NAZNET DAVE MCCLUNG AXES COMMUNITY at http://naznetdistorts.blogspot.com/2010/02/disaster-area-naznet-dave-mcclung-axes.html
If Nazarenes go for the blasphemy, God will level His wrath upon the denomination. It will crumble. If Nazarene leaders do not weed out this demonic intrusion, the structure will disintegrate globally in short order.
Read NAZNET SNUBS GOD’S BIBLE TRUTH at http://naznetdistorts.blogspot.com/2010/02/naznet-snubs-gods-bible-truth.html
McClaren states: “. . . help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu or Jewish contexts. . .”
That is theological liberalism—plain and obvious. It is not what evangelical biblical disciples hold to. Liberalism’s anti-Bible dogma is at the very opposite end of the evangelical spectrum.
Therefore, when NazNet claims moderators Hans Deventer’s and Scott Cundiff’s pro-McClaren conclusions as posh doctrine, NazNet betrays God, the Bible and the Church of the Nazarene.
Read NAZNET’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH EMERGING CHURCH at http://naznetdistorts.blogspot.com/2010/02/naznets-love-affair-with-emerging.html
Not only does Deventer betray his own church, but Cundiff betrays his own pastoral vows for he is the minister at the Alvin Texas Church of the Nazarene.
His church’s web site portrays Cundiff as a “holiness preacher;” however, his NazNet Unitarian-type doctrinal positions are just the opposite of Nazarene teaching. In other words, Cundiff lives theologically a “double life” kept secret from his small congregation.
Read NAZNET PASTOR SCOTT CUNDIFF’S ‘DOUBLE-LIFE’ EXPOSED at http://naznetdistorts.blogspot.com/2010/02/naznet-pastor-scott-cundiffs-double_15.html
Garbled McClaren continues his mix-and-match beliefs with such nonsense as the following: “To help Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, and everyone else experience life to the full in the way of Jesus (while learning it better myself), I would gladly become one of them (whoever they are), to whatever degree I can, to embrace them, to join them, to enter into their world without judgment. . .”
Do you get the wishy-washy feel of this swing-and-sway McClaren give-forth? It is gibberish. It is whatever-makes-you-feel-fuzzy religion. This infantile approach to doctrine is mirrored by the likes of Deventer and Cundiff on NazNet.
It is, however, more than that. It is a collection of belief statements that will damn McClaren’s soul, a popular false prophet in these confused times.
NazNet moderators who adopt McClaren’s false teachings are likewise in danger of damning their souls for they have wedded into his apostasy. They do more than that, however. They proclaim same on the Internet for the world to read, hoping the readers will agree with their devilment.
Read NAZNET DISTORTS at http://naznetdistorts.blogspot.com/
NAZNET’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH EMERGING CHURCH
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
NazNet’s guru is Brian McLaren who states: “I believe people are saved not by objective truth, but by Jesus. Their faith isn’t in their knowledge, but in God.”
NazNet moderator Hans Deventer parrots this apostasy by stating Deventer does not believe the Bible, only the part about Jesus forgiving sins. Deventer, opportunist maximum, wants Jesus’ forgiveness to get into heaven. That’s all. Figures.
Deventer commits blasphemy by following Pied Piper McLaren rather than God’s infallible Bible. Deventer will pay at the Judgment Seat of Christ, as will all others who discount the divine revelation for their own egocentric “theologies.”
For McLaren to say he rejects “objective truth” is to state that he discards moral absolutes. That is exactly what the adolescent emergent church is built upon—the sand of their own situation ethics.
One does not throw away God’s absolutes in Scripture for a sweety notion of Nice Guy Jesus. That is anathema, yet McLaren and NazNet disciples fold right into such heresies.
NazNet founder Dave McClung does nothing to discount this on his web site. Instead, McClung along with other moderators such as Scott Cundiff and former moderator Barbara Moulton say Amen to it.
Do not these mortals factor in the Judgment Seat of Christ? They were all reared in the Scripture; now they throw the Bible to the winds for their own moral relativism.
McLaren states: “I don’t believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion.” McLaren espouses one world religion, as does NazNet.
Yet NazNet claims to be a “friend” to the holiness Church of the Nazarene. What will the Board of General Superintendents, Nazarene Theological Seminary, Nazarene Theology School, Nazarene Bible College and Nazarene college religion department heads do about such heretical intrusions?
Time will tell.
Thus far, McClung and clique have relied on their political cronyism to keep them intact with the power structures throughout the denomination. Will that continue? If so, God’s wrath will descend upon the church. God will not tolerate blasphemy.
Alvin Texas Church of the Nazarene Pastor Scott Cundiff in particular is enamored by the likes of McLaren. Cundiff posts on NazNet that the more he studies Scripture, the less he knows God. He states that when meditating on this concept, it keeps him more in line with his Wesleyan theology.
Is that not crazy? Is that not evil? Wesleyan theology siding up to discounting the Bible as divine revelation? Wesleyan teaching a companion to moral relativism?
NazNet is one of the most dangerous web sites on the Internet in that it slices and dices the biblical call to heart holiness—the highest calling from the divine.
Read NAZNET DISTORTS at http://naznetdistorts.blogspot.com/
FOOTNOTE: JUDGMENT DAY
Hebrews 9:27:
It is appointed unto men once to die, but after that the judgment.
Matthew 7:21-23: the words of Christ:
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 12:36-37: the words of Christ:
But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Romans 2:6-11:
God who will render to every man according to his deed: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immorality, eternal life; But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honor and peace to every man that worked good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God.
Romans 14:10-12:
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
I Corinthians 4:5:
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsel of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
II Corinthians 5:10:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Numbers 32:23:
Be sure your sin will find you out.
NAZNET NIXES THE SAVED = PRONTO HEAVEN
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
Apostle Paul writes: “We are confident. . .to be absent from the body (is) to be present with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:8
NazNet moderator Hans Deventer states that when one dies the soul goes into an “intermediate state,” whatever that means. The saved soul, per Deventer, does not go “to be present with the Lord.”
Deventer does not mind discounting the Bible. When in his whim, he does so frequently on NazNet.
Yet NazNet is represented as “friend” to the Church of the Nazarene, per web site founder Dave McClung. That church does not teach an “intermediate state” upon death.
The Church of the Nazarene has always held to the biblical data of the saved going immediately to heaven and the unsaved going immediately to hell.
Deventer makes up his anti-Bible “theology” as he goes along his moderator trail. He posts that he does not believe the Bible, for instance. What he does believe in that Book deals only with Jesus’ mercy for obviously Hans wants to go where Jesus is when Deventer dies.
However, because Deventer contradicts himself throughout NazNet, upon death he cannot go where Jesus is until Deventer first passes through his “intermediate state.”
By the way, Deventer posts on NazNet that the unsaved souls are annihilated. However, once again confusion reigns. Does the unsaved soul first go to an “intermediate state” before being annihilated?
Deventer discounts such biblical warnings concerning hell: Matthew 5:22, 29, 30; 7:13; 10:28; 13:38-42, 49-50; 23:15, 33; 25:28-41, 46; Mark 9:43-47; Luke 12:5; 16:23-26; II Thessalonians 1:9; James 3:6; II Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6; Revelation 1:18; 6:8; 9:1-2, 14:10-11; 19:20; 20:10, 13-15; 21:8.
Does McClung do anything about Deventer’s heresies? No. McClung permits them to remain on NazNet.
Yet McClung is esteemed by the Church of the Nazarene as an outstanding wealthy layman, even appointing him to prestigious denominational boards as well as one-time President of Eastern Nazarene College, Quincy, MA.
The sad picture then comes into focus: McClung has ingratiated himself politically into the ecclesiastical machine so as to be permitted trashing the Bible as well as destroying the denominational foundations.
In short, politics counts more than biblical truth. Just another travesty of these confusing religious times.
FOOTNOTE: HEAVEN
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. II Corinthians 5:8
Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Matthew 25:34
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. I Corinthians 2:9
Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6:20
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:l6
Jesus said: I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. John 11:25
For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. II Corinthians 5:1
If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:11
This is the promise that He has promised us — eternal life. I John 2:25
He who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. Galatians 6:8
Jesus said: My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. . . John 10:27-28
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