Posted on 06/13/2015 5:36:58 AM PDT by xzins
There’s no way to come up with pro homosexual marriage if you’re using the bible, so there’s no telling what he was using.
I remember Campolo’s early years...probably in the 80’s...and he was a socially concerned evangelical. Then his sociology degree displaced his bible and it all went to his head. Too bad. He was an excellent communicator.
Did he take a break from hosting conferences to apologize for slavery? That's been one of his highlights this year.
I don’t know Moore. I read Mohler regularly.
I am more concerned about these numbers:
You can access the "Protecting Ministry Guide" referenced (it's no charge). 44-pages of mostly high level checklists for statement of faith, fair use policy, membership policy, etc. Cases highlight include the florist, bakery, etc.
Campolo has been lying for years, and probably yucking it up with his degenerate wife behind the scenes over Christians falling for it.
Those with discernment knew he was a snake long ago.
Is Osteen an SBC church?
see #41
I don’t remember exactly, but I think I saw Campolo at an Ichthus music festival, maybe in the early 80’s???
Losing numbers is not necessarily a bad thing. The culling will happen when God demands seriousness of profession from his professors. The chaff always blows away with the wind when it changes, leaving the pure, valuable wheat.
Not sure...I think when his father started Lakewood it was Baptist....not sure about SBC tho!
True, but we should attempt to understand why the decline is happening. Are true believers walking away (the “nones”) or are their hearts really hardened? Are some leaving and starting “home churches”? Not sure, but if you believe those numbers, we are not meeting the great commission directive.
I agree. I’m sure it was Baptist...just not sure it is now or ever has been an SBC.
Osteen, I think, has always avoided the homosexual marriage question. I could be wrong. Maybe he’s finally answered one way or the other.
I think we can overthink this issue, when the clear evidence is before us in the Church. Having grown up in the SBC churches, very embedded in the ministry through my father's ministry, I have seen first-hand the marriage between much of the Church and the culture. It got so ridiculous during the 70's and 80's that churches were actively courting sports figures for their "testimonies" to entertain the sheep, although these testimonies were almost always very shallow and the sport's celebrity was what what being recruited for promotional effect. This, and the cult of "Christian contemporary music" metastasizing during this same time period are unmistakable indicators that much of the Christianity in church groups was not genuine. It was enormously easy to be a "Christian" in this entertaining, social-event-based culture, and all that was needed in order to join the club was a walk down an aisle and a repeated prayer - no evidence of repentance required.
Speaking of the Christian contemporary music craze, it is revealing that many of these artists who proliferated during the height of its popularity have apostatized horribly since then, revealing the shallow, or completely false nature of their professions. Sandy Patty's affair and then divorce to marry her stage manager. Amy Grant's unbiblical divorce and remarriage, and then her subsequent damnable capitulation to the sodomite worldview of redefining marriage into an unutterable form. Petra's Ray Boltz coming out and "proud" as a sodomite. I could go on for pages.
Are some leaving and starting “home churches”? Not sure, but if you believe those numbers, we are not meeting the great commission directive.
I think we misunderstand the Great Commission, which is NOT aimed at attain numbers, but at the most widespread broadcast of the Gospel as possible. Making false converts is actually the antithesis of this Commission.
Hardly. Lakewood was always a part of the heretical Word of Faith movement, charismatic in nature, even under John Osteen, so it was never Baptist and least of all Southern Baptist.
A year later, on Mother's Day May 10, 1959, he and Dodie started Lakewood Baptist Church in "a dusty, abandoned feed store" in northeast Houston as a church for charismatic Baptists.[3] The church soon dropped "Baptist" from its name and became independent and nondenominational.
In the mid-1980s, Osteen launched the Lakewood Bible Institute (LBI), an "unaccredited school devoted to biblical training from a charismatic perspective." LBI offered a variety of classes including principles of Bible study, healing, conversion, and prayer. Osteen served as LBI's president until its closure in the late-1980s
Problem is he must make each subsequent promotion greater than the prior one to generate a crowd. After the glitz and glamor is gone, folks won't stay around if they are only there to "win" prizes.
Apples and oranges
BTW..Evangelical does not = saved
Too true. The gimmicks used by many churches is sickening.
We were discussing this the other night. It seems the majority of people do not have an issue with other sins. Stealing, adultery, murder, etc. are generally accepted as wrong. This is why this issue, the acceptance of homosexuality as normal will be the dividing line. It will bring about the persecution of Christians.
Not the point. The point is guilt by association.
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