I once heard a Senior Pastor preach a sermon in which he referred to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as “Big Daddy, Junior and the Spook.” YIKES!
How does a Senior Pastor of a church in the “Bible Belt” come to view the Lord God Almighty in such a denigrating way? By supporting and allowing heretical teachers/preachers to bring their conferences to their churches, sending their pastors to conferences sponsored by heretical teachers/preachers as well as quoting them or reading any of their materials. While well meaning pastors may not agree with everything heretical preachers espouse, many pastors are sadly deceived into believing that they are discerning enough to be able to use only the “good” portions and sift out the bad. It’s written: “A little yeast [false teaching] works through the whole batch of dough.” (Galatians 5:9) “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’ ”(1 Corinthians 15:33) Having anything to do with those who are more concerned with making God more acceptable to people rather than helping people become more acceptable to God (through faith in Jesus Christ alone) is a very slippery slope.
So be very careful and have nothing to do with Oprah, Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Doug Padgitt or Bill Hybels. Why am I including Bill Hybels on this list? Because Bill Hybels, Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church supports, promotes and even enlists the help of known heretics like Brian McLaren to lead their church’s conferences. Also, Bill Hybels is a great proponent of the “seeker friendly” movement that has been the catalyst to the emergent church movement.
Churches who have associated themselves with this movement have resolved to resolve nothing, but only to question everything. They have belittled the name of God, His Word and the Gospel of Jesus Christ by making everything written in the Bible, just a book of stories about God.
The Bible is not a compilation of stories of people and God’s relationship with them. The Bible is the Word of God: “In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning...The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-2 & 14)
Emergent theology (which really isn’t theology, it’s human psychology) has aided in birthing many false converts, idolaters, cults, heretics and blasphemers all in the name of Jesus. Not Jesus of the Bible, but a Jesus they’ve made up that makes them feel better about themselves. And what does this do? This causes a Senior Pastor to not even think twice about demeaning the name of God by referring to the Name of the Lord with casual disrespect. It’s heartbreaking to hear someone dishonor and desecrate the most holy name ever spoken from the lips of man - the Lord God Almighty, Jesus the Christ, the Holy Spirit of God, our Messiah, Redeemer, Counselor, Holy Father.
Please be very leery of anyone who insists that being a “friend” of God means He’s your buddy, your pal, your homeboy. He’s not, He’s God. We need to be in awe of the fact that we have friendship with God and what that really means. It means that we’re not His enemies anymore, and therefore will not be destroyed! WOW! Having friendship with God does NOT mean we bring Him down to our level or that we rise to His. There is no one else like God. God has no equal. God has no one above Him or beside Him. He alone is God and holds a position we could never imagine to attain or even fully comprehend.
In conclusion, God is not my "Big Daddy" or any other name someone might want to give Him. He is my Father God who is in Heaven, hallowed be His holy Name! AMEN.
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