Gang,
I was just on CGGC.org and the huge part of me that is truth oriented was stunned and profoundly offended.
At the top of the page rolled various exhortations beginning, "Join Jesus..."
Join Jesus...on the journey/in mission/in community.
What heresy!
And, so dysfunctionally shepherd dominated.
In the CGGC these days, Jesus is your celestial buddy, your friend, your heavenly homey.
But, in the BIBLE, He is Lord. Remember the parables? He is the Son of the King.
He is the One before Whom all people will stand to be judged for all eternity. He is the One who will say to "many" "away from me."
He moved through the world saying, not "join me," but FOLLOW me.
My brothers and sisters, this is no small issue. Is this reverse blasphemy? Not making ourselves God, but making God one of the guys. Not seeing Jesus as a King before Whom we should humble ourselves and Whom we must fear and obey.
Join Jesus?
Repent and beg for forgiveness.
No. FOLLOW Him. He is Lord.
What heresy.
IMO, everyone with an office in the headquarters in Findlay must be fired over this and disciplined for the sake of their eternal souls.
Will anyone in the CGGC stand for truth!?!
Do you understand that this "Join Jesus" stuff connects, in terms of the content of the gospel, to essential teachings regarding what many refer to as the Second Person of the Trinity?
ReplyDeleteThis is, typical of shepherd thinking, a dumbing down of Jesus and the, as Paul would say, mystery of the gospel. The best evidence of this is that this language is, absolutely unbiblical, and even anti-biblical. Nowhere in the Word are people offered the opportunity to JOIN Jesus.
It strips Jesus of Lordship.
This comes from the heretical way of thinking that Jesus can be Savior, friend even, without being Lord.
The biblical gospel demands that salvation must come through the atonement made possible through the sacrifice of the Holy Son of God who is Lord of creation. To make of Jesus Someone who can be joined, not followed, is to destroy the gospel because it robs, from the Christian message, a Savior Who can save all people from all sin once for all.
This imperils all people who fall for this join Jesus malarkey for eternity.
Please care about this essential and eternal truth.
In addition to denying the Trinity, this Join Jesus notion strikes me as possessing another serious theological flaw, that is, it is fruit of a faulty understanding of the grace that makes human salvation possible. Bonhoeffer call it CHEAP GRACE: Grace without repentance or confession or sacrifice.
ReplyDeleteIt is discipleship without hatred of father and mother and brother and sister and children, without self-denial. It is coming to him not being weary and heavy-laden, without needing to be given rest, without taking His yoke, without learning from Him, without needing to understand that He truly is gentle and humble and that He gives rest to the weary soul.
It is grace without weariness and the godly sorrow that leads to repentance which brings salvation--according to Paul, anyway.
It is shallow, tragic error.
As I've been thinking about it, a flawed understanding of Jesus would require a bad understanding of grace. And, that seeing Jesus as a heaven homie would be one route to cheap grace by creating a Jesus Who could be joined and not followed.
ReplyDeleteIt really seems to me that truth doesn't matter in the CGGC under this regime.
Well, the CGGC power grid is soon to shift. Perhaps there will be repentance then.
It also strikes me that this JOIN JESUS thing is a handy little case study in "To Talk is to Walkism" and "Organized Hypocrisy," two of the characteristics of the CGGC brand.
ReplyDeleteI just read through WE BELIEVE's assertions about Jesus. It's very orthodox, very NICENE creed-ish. It affirms the divinity of Jesus in a way that is consistent with ancient declarations of Christian theology. It asserts that Jesus was God in human flesh. And, it describes Jesus as Lord.
It presents a Lord who can be followed. But, not a buddy who can be, as the web page exhorts, joined.
So, there is conflict between how the mountaintoppers talk and how they walk. They talk historic, orthodox Christian talk but they walk a faddish, New Agey walk.
Be disgusted. Feel godly sorrow. Repent. Then, stand boldly for truth.
Sadly, what I think we are is a leadership culture empowered to flirt with the latest theological fads currently enticing denominations and to talk big about them until they become bored, a relatively small core of sycophants who mindlessly embrace each new fad and pat leaders on the back, shouting, "Amen! Amen!," a large group who have become apathetic about the CGGC and wallow in local traditions and are dying and a smaller group that has moved beyond apathy into cynicism.
ReplyDeleteThis is why we need to examine ourselves as a group.
In a shepherd dominated culture we often lose sight of the reality that the faith that saves a person is an active faith (see Rom. 4, Hebrews 11, James 2, Ephesians 2:8-10, etc.).
ReplyDeleteTherefore, the verb we use to describe the way we connect to Jesus in active faith is essential to the question of whether our faith saves us. To suggest that we can JOIN Him suggests profound and dangerous heresy which, as I've said, robs Jesus of lordship, thus denying belief in the Trinity.
This is no small matter or a mere matter of semantics, as I'm sure the shepherds are thinking.
Please care about this!