WHOM DO YOU WORSHIP?

Posted on by

Everyone worships something . . . that is just how God made us. But in a world that is corrupted by sin and in constant rebellion to its Creator, that worship gets distorted and twisted in ways that dishonor God. We can understand how that would happen in a jungle tribe where there is no direct access to what God has revealed about the right way to offer worship, but what about in America today? There is access to the Bible on everyone’s phone or laptop, and the instructions are clear.

But That’s the Problem

Many people claim that the problem is just that—the God of the Bible is much too demanding. He expects people to only worship him, follow a list of rules, act a certain way, hang out with certain people, and avoid certain people. So many expectations and such harsh judgment! They would prefer a loving god who accepts them for who they are and validates their choices. If they could find that god, they would probably worship him . . . or her.

A recent commercial from Apple has a ‘Mother Nature’ Figure and the Divine Feminine. It presents several illogical aspects, as we would expect from any worldview that doesn’t begin with God’s Word as its foundation. The key point comes in replacing God with a goddess and attributing his attributes to her. This goddess claims the weather was “however I wanted it to be”, then why doesn’t she just fix climate change? People accuse God of being a capricious, malevolent bully who could exercise his omnipotence to end suffering if he wanted (an oversimplified view that divides God’s character rather than acknowledging his whole being), but this seems to be overlooked in this Mother Earth character. She is claiming to have all-powerful control over the weather, the same ability as the true God. If she can make the weather however she wants it, then why doesn’t she do something about famines and wildlife population devastation through habitat loss (from wildfires, flooding, etc.)? It sounds like she really doesn’t care about these things. And it sounds like she is capricious and malevolent. Yet these technocratic overlords are willing to worship this goddess and demand everyone do the same while telling Christians that our God is evil for not preventing hurricanes, droughts, and melting ice caps. It seems there is a double standard at play.

Dr. Owen Strachan addresses many of these aspects in his Grace & Truth podcast episode “Apple’s ‘Mother Nature’ Figure and the Divine Feminine.” As Dr. Strachan notes, it is not a rejection of any divine being, but the embrace of a divine image that condemns people for their actions and requires sacrifices for those sins. She doesn’t offer up herself, but her gospel is a message of work harder and do more to prove you are worthy of my affection—that is a capricious and malevolent god. The gospel of our technocrat overlords, as Dr. Strachan calls them, is not a gospel of grace, but a gospel of works, which demands acts of sacrifice before love is extended.

2000 CHRISTIANS GATHERED IN STREETS OF SEATTLE TO WORSHIP GOD

Posted on by

More than 2,000 Christians gathered in the streets of Seattle in a “worship protest” Monday in defiance of public officials, who shuttered a local park to prevent them from participating in a prayer rally organized by missionary and political activist Sean Feucht.

The rally was supposed to take place in Gas Works Park by Seattle Parks and Recreation but officials abruptly announced the park would be closed all day Monday “due to anticipated crowding that could impact the public health of residents.”

Despite efforts to keep the rally from happening, Feucht announced on Facebook Tuesday that their worship session led to miracles and baptisms in a session that lasted about two hours.

“They shut the park, so we took the WORSHIP PROTEST to the streets!! The church of Seattle WILL NOT be silenced! Over 2000 took to the streets and GOD LIT THE PLACE UP with miracles, baptisms, salvations, racial reconciliation (with the police!) and HOPE!!” Feucht wrote.

Feucht, who has helped local pastors host 19 prayer rallies in defiance of coronavirus guidelines in 19 cities over the last eight weeks, told KIRO 7 that he believes the shuttering of the park to his gathering was “blatant discrimination.”

“If this was about COVID that would be one thing,” he said. “But this is about a blatant discrimination against Christians because the same questions were not asked and are still not asked about protesters.”

You can click on link and watch it on Facebook.

Pastor Michael Lee, who leads All Nations Community Church in Bellevue, said regardless of the actions of protesters, Christians needed to do the responsible thing and not gather in large numbers.

“I feel like it’s a responsible thing to do for a Christians to minimize the spread and risk of COVID,” said Lee. “You can do all of those things in smaller group contexts.”

CONFUSION ABOUNDS IN UNION SEMINARY

Posted on by

On Tuesday, Union Seminary, New York posted a photo of the chapel service which showed a student sitting on the ground before several potted plants to offer confession, mainly over failures to protect the environment.

“Today in chapel, we confessed to plants. Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow in prayer; offering them to the beings who sustain us but whose gift we too often fail to honour. What do you confess to the plants in your life?” tweeted Union.

Offering their prayers to plants?

The Seminary stated, “We are in the throes of a climate emergency, a crisis created by humanity’s arrogance, our disregard for Creation. Far too often, we see the natural world only as resources to be extracted for our use, not divinely created in their own right—worthy of honour, thanks and care.We have played a deplorable role in degrading God’s creation. We must birth new theology, new liturgy to heal and sow, replacing ones that reap and destroy.”

Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, denounced the chapel event and tweets made in defense of it on his podcast “The Briefing” as coming from a “modern secular worldview.”

“If you do not worship the Creator, you will inevitably worship the creation, in one way or another. That is the primal form of idolatry,” said Mohler.

“We cannot be pleased with the desecration of creation, but we can also not be pleased or ever satisfied with the idea that creation exists unto itself, that human beings are a blight upon creation, and that it is wrong for human beings to exercise dominion over creation.”

Mohler also took issue with Union referring to the plants as “beings,” explaining that a “being is one who has consciousness, and has consciousness of consciousness. A stalk of wheat is not a being, nor is a rhododendron, nor is an oak tree, nor even an acorn, nor is an entire forest. Plants are not beings, but what you see here is the confusion that happens when the biblical worldview is abandoned,” he continued.

Union Seminary was founded in 1836 by a group of Presbyterian ministers and sees itself as rooted in Protestantism. Nevertheless, the school states on their website that they seek to train students of all religions to advance social justice.