Posted on Jun 26, 2008 under Ron News |
It has been almost a decade since I have been to a concert like this. I have really fell in love with this band. Few groups out there express a true biblical view of sin in their lyrics. Not only does Demon Hunter do this, but they do it well. I will give you the low down after the show.
Post Show Update
Here are my observations from the show.
1. Next time bring earplugs. ( my head is still ringing and I am afraid to talk because I might be yelling at someone) LOL
2. At my age 1:00am is too late to get in bed when you have to work the next day.
3. Of the 5 bands last night the first one was not that good the other 2 bands were pretty good
4. I do not want to become my friend Scott Moore and bash the music people, but who ever was working the mixing boards needs to go back to nashville tech, or stop smoking before he goes to class if he went to MTSU. Because he had no clue how to mix a show.
5. The best mixed band of the night was a group called “The Famine”
6. Another good band which was not mixed well was “Oh Sleeper” they are pretty good .
7. Living Sacrifice was awesome the mix was ok, not good, not bad, just ok. But they rocked it.
8. Demon Hunter puts on a good show and they were taping for MTV that night as well. The mix was horrible, the drums were way to high in the mix and the vocals were largely inaudible about 50% of the time. But the energy was great , and he worked the crowd well.
9. I have not done anything like this since the time I met my friend Scott in Redondo Beach, CA. I may be to old to do this again. Man is my head hurting.
Posted on Jun 26, 2008 under False Religion |
James Dobson was evaluating some examples that Obama has cited in asking which biblical passages should guide public policy. For Example, Obama has said Leviticus suggests slavery is okay and eating shellfish is an abomination. Obama has also made comments about Matthew 5,6,7 also known as The Sermon On The Mount. Obama has said it is
“a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application.”
You really need to understand the backgrounds of these two people when looking at these statements. Dobson believes in biblical based theology from what I have read and listened to over the years from his organization. I can’t say for sure what Obama believes because I do not know him. I do not know James Dobson either, but he has enough info on record to make a good deduction of what he stands for. As for Obama we can look at his stance on abortion and his statements about Leviticus. We can also look at where he has been to church for the last 20 years. You will see that where he has been going to church is a big one. Dobson Said
“I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology,”
He also said
“… He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.”
Lets look at a difference between a church Dobson has been known to frequent then lets look at a church that Obama spent 20 years at. Lets look at the about us pages.
First Obama’s former church at http://www.tucc.org/about.htm
United Church of Christ Statement of Faith in the form of a doxology
We believe in you, O God, Eternal Spirit, God of our Savior Jesus Christ and our God, and to your deeds we testify: You call the worlds into being, create persons in your own image, and set before each one the ways of life and death. You seek in holy love to save all people from aimlessness and sin. You judge people and nations by your righteous will declared through prophets and apostles. In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Savior, you have come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the world to yourself. You bestow upon us your Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and races. You call us into your church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be your servants in the service of others, to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ’s baptism and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory. You promise to all who trust you forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace, courage in the struggle for justice and peace, your presence in trial and rejoicing, and eternal life in your realm which has no end. Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto you. Amen.
We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian… Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain “true to our native land,” the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.
The Pastor as well as the membership of Trinity United Church of Christ is committed to a 10-point Vision:
1. A congregation committed to ADORATION.
2. A congregation preaching SALVATION.
3. A congregation actively seeking RECONCILIATION.
4. A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA.
5. A congregation committed to BIBLICAL EDUCATION.
6. A congregation committed to CULTURAL EDUCATION.
7. A congregation committed to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA.
8. A congregation committed to LIBERATION.
9. A congregation committed to RESTORATION.
10. A congregation working towards ECONOMIC PARITY.
Now lets look at a church that Dobson has been known to attend.
http://www.eastboroughnaz.org/about.html
ABOUT US
Our Heritage
Started in 1959, Eastborough Church of the Nazarene began as a home mission with just ten charter members. Five years later, after a few changes in name and location, we decided to move to a desolate and windy hill on east Pikes Peak Avenue, where there were just four other houses in the entire area. With a brand new building and a vision of the future, we began to grow and reach out to the community, and as the neighborhood grew, so did our church.
In 1972, another new building, our current facility, was dedicated and put into use - and used, it is! Almost every night of the week you can find Eastborough’s friends and neighbors gathered to celebrate what God has done. The Lord has been faithful to us as we have been faithful to Him, and we praise Him for it.
God has placed us in the heart of the community that surrounds us, and it is our desire to be a church for our community. From just four houses ’til now, God has given us a wonderful mission in reaching our community, preparing our Bible College students, maturing believers, and worshiping God. Through it all, our desire is to be pleasing Him in all that we do.
Our Beliefs
We believe there is only one God, who created all and has always been. He reveals Himself to us through three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Supporting scripture: (Genesis 1; Leviticus 19:2; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Isaiah 5:16, 6:1-7, 40:18-31; Matthew 3:16-17, 28:19-20; John 14:6-27; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Galatians 4:4-6; Ephesians 2:13-18.)
We believe in Jesus Christ, that He was one with the Father. We believe He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and was born of a virgin. We believe He died for our sins and rose from the grave and ascended into heaven.
Supporting scripture: (Matthew 1:20-25; 16:15-16; Luke 1:26-35; John 1:1-18; Acts 2:22-36; Romans 8:3, 32-34; Galatians 4:4-5; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:12-22; 1 Timothy 6:14-16; Hebrews 1:1-5; 7:22-28; 9:24-28; 1 John 1:1-3; 4:2-3, 15)
We believe the Holy Spirit is ever present, convicting the world of sin, empowering those who repent, and sanctifying believers.
Supporting scripture: (John 7:39; 14:15-18, 26; 16:7-15; Acts 2:33; 15:8-9; Romans 8:1-27; Galatians 3:1-14; 4:6; Ephesians 3:14-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 John 3:24; 4:13)
We believe that the Bible is the inspired and infallible Word of God.
Supporting scripture: (Luke 24:44-47; John 10:35; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; 1 Peter 1:10-12; 2 Peter 1:20-21)
We believe that because of sin, mankind that God created to be pure and holy has fallen, but can be restored to a pure and holy nature.
Supporting scripture: (Matthew 22:36-40 {with 1 John 3:4}; John 8:34-36; 16:8-9; Romans 3:23; 6:15-23; 8:18-24; 14:23; 1 John 1:9-2:4; 3:7-10)
We believe that people cannot save themselves by good works but that salvation is only found by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Supporting scripture: (Isaiah 53:5-6, 11; Mark 10:45; Luke 24:46-48; John 1:29; 3:14-17; Acts 4:10-12; Romans 3:21-26; 4:17-25; 5:6-21; 1 Corinthians 6:20; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21; Galatians 1:3-4; 3:13-14; Colossians 1:19-23; 1 Timothy 2:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 2:9; 9:11-14; 13:12; 1 Peter 1:18-21; 2:19-25; 1 John 2:1-2)
We believe that after salvation, God has called us to a holy lifestyle that was modeled for us by His Son, Jesus Christ.
Supporting scripture: (Matthew 5:1-7:29; John 15:1-11; Romans 12:1-15:3; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Ephesians 4:17-5:20; Philippians 1:9-11; 3:12-15; Colossians 2:20-3:17; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 4:7-8; 5:23; 2 Timothy 2:19-22; Hebrews 10:19-25; 12:14; 13:20-21; 1 Peter 1:15-16; 2 Peter 1:1-11; 3:18; Jude 20-21)
We believe that Jesus will come again to gather the believers, and on the final day we will all stand before God for judgment.
Supporting scripture: (Matthew 25:31-46; John 14:1-3; Acts 1:9-11; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 9:26-28; 2 Peter 3:3-15; Revelation 1:7-8; 22:7-20)
What you see is very different you see one very focused on Christ and the Bible, and one with a lot of focus on being black. Dobson said:
“I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology.”
To take Obama’s former church further lets look at their core theology. They practice something known as Black Liberation Theology. This was a movement started by James Cone.
From http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89236116
The Rev. James Cone is the founder of black liberation theology. In an interview with Terry Gross, Cone explains the movement, which has roots in 1960s civil-rights activism and draws inspiration from both the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, as “mainly a theology that sees God as concerned with the poor and the weak.”
Cone also comments on controversial remarks made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s former minister and a black liberation theology proponent.
In a now-famous 2003 sermon, Wright charged that an ingrained, abiding racism in American society is at fault for many of the troubles African-Americans face, and he thundered, “No, no, no, not God bless America! God damn America — that’s in the Bible — for killing innocent people.”
Cone explains that at the core of black liberation theology is an effort — in a white-dominated society, in which black has been defined as evil — to make the gospel relevant to the life and struggles of American blacks, and to help black people learn to love themselves. It’s an attempt, he says “to teach people how to be both unapologetically black and Christian at the same time.”
But what does this theological system say about God?
From Wikipedia
God
Intricate and largely philosophical views of God are largely ignored in preference for the concerns of the oppressed. White Christian concepts taught to the black man thus are to be disregarded or ignored. God’s person, the Trinity, his supreme power and authority as well as “subtle indications of God’s white maleness” are said not to relate to (and in some cases antagonistic to) the black experience. The dominant perspective on God is God in action, delivering the oppressed because of his righteousness. His immanence is stressed over His transcendence, and as a result He is seen to be in flux or always changing.
Trinity
The Trinity is not stressed. However, Jesus is God, but in the sense of God’s visible expression of concern and salvation.
Christ
He is One who delivers, almost exclusively, in social ways. He is a liberator, or “Black Messiah” whose work of emancipation for the poor and rejected of society is the parallel to the blacks’ quest for liberation. Christ’s message is “black power” (Henry). His intrinsic nature and spiritual activity receive little or no attention. Some even deny his role as the atoning sacrifice for the world’s sins and provider of eternal life (Shrine).
Revelation
Black theology is not bound to biblical liberalism, but is of a more pragmatic nature. Only the experience of black oppression is the authoritative standard.
Salvation
Salvation is freedom from the oppression and pertains to blacks in this life. Proponents of black theology are concerned specifically with the political and theological aspects of salvation more than the spiritual. In other words, salvation is physically liberation from white oppression rather than freedom from the sinful nature and acts of each individual person. Presenting heaven as a reward for following Christ is seen as an attempt to dissuade blacks from the goal of real liberation of their whole persons.
Church
The church is the focus of social expression in the black community where the blacks can express freedom and equality (Cone). Thus the church and politics have formed a cohesion where the theological expression of the desire for social freedom is carried out.
Martin Luther (Not martin Luther King Jr., but the 16th century Monk and church reformer) once said:
“Christ is the Master; the Scriptures are only the servant. The true way to test all the Books is to see whether they work the will of Christ or not. No Book which does not preach Christ can be apostolic, though Peter or Paul were its author. And no Book which does preach Christ can fail to be apostolic, although Judas, Ananias, Pilate, or Herod were its author.”
So when we look at the 2 churches about us pages can we apply a similar test?
Is it about Christ or something else? If it is about something else then I will challenge if they are truly a Christian church.
This is what Dobson is talking about when he says Obama is twisting scripture to match up with his theology.
This is deeper than just Obama; Fox news posted a story here recently
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,370588,00.html
One of the things it said was this.
“By many measures, Americans are strongly religious: 92 percent believe in God, 74 percent believe in life after death and 63 percent say their respective scriptures are the word of God.”
Here is the Kicker
“Nearly across the board, the majority of religious Americans believe many religions can lead to eternal life: mainline Protestants (83 percent), members of historic black Protestant churches (59 percent), Roman Catholics (79 percent), Jews (82 percent) and Muslims (56 percent).”
So I would say that only 17% had a correct biblical view of salvation. Either 83% do not know what they believe, or they are calling themselves a Christian and they are not.
What did Jesus have to say about the way to salvation?
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus also said he only prays for those which the Father gave him.
John 17:9,10
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
We can’t do anything to save ourselves
Romans 9:
16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
I have not even gone into the black theological movements apparent lack of teaching on the trinity.
You can watch my video podcast on “who is Jesus, and what is hypostasis” Coming soon
I will address these issues there.
The main issue here is biblical theology vs social theology. The two are incompatible, we do not live by the old testament we live by the new testament. For Obama to say things about Leviticus supporting slavery, shows his jacked view where his social agenda supersedes scriptural truth.
