So first Benny Hinn gets up on a huge stage and talks about false prophets.
Now John MacArthur is on TBN and brings the hammer on the prosperity gospel! Uh... What?
What is going on? I can't figure this out. Can someone explain this one to me?
These videos are powerful, I just can't figure out why the TBN cash cow would allow John to say the things he did. Did they not know what the interview would be about?
You can sense that Dr. MacArthur is a bit stiff in the first few minutes (who wouldn't be knowing what he was going to say), and you also can hear the awkward silence from the crowd, but then he gets really warmed up in the second video. You will be moved if you love the gospel.
Someone needs to explain this to me.
(HT: Pure Church)
13 comments:
TBN carries the Way of the Master TV show, with Kirk Cameron, who is friends with John MacArthur. Because of the WotM affiliation, Kirk has been asked to host PTL on a number of occasions, inviting people like Ravi Zacharias, Paul Washer, Todd Friel, and Johnny Hunt to be on TBN. This is a case of using Word of Faith proponents' lack of discernment to further the true Gospel.
Ditto to what Joe said. Kirk purposefully invites guys like J-Mac with the intent to bring the true gospel to a TBN audience that rarely if ever gets to hear it. I love it.
Is that Kirk Cameron????
It is Kirk. He rocks the flock.
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I thought he got "left behind"...hahahahahahahahahaah I crack myself up!
The only explanation: "He opens doors that no man can shut"...and He is much more interested in getting the (true) that-which-is-of-first-importance gospel out than we are...Thanks be to God!
I thought it was cool that the people in the audience responded...no crickets chirping when he talked about substitutionary atonement. That is awesome. T
do you all REALLY believe that Jesus made NO promises for this earthly life? i think John is wonderful, but this is just going to other extreme.
I'm a Master's College grad (the school in which Johnny Mac is the president of) and I remember him and Kirk coming to chapel and talking about this experience. They both said they couldn't believe they had this time on TBN and gave God the glory for the opportunity.
I'm kind of Catholic when it comes to total depravity, so.... I've got my issues with a bunch of what was said.
However, it was pretty darn amazing to see those two on TBN. That is just mind-blowing.
Nice pot-shot in there to Rick Warren's Purpose driven life, btw.
Seth,
I'm curious-- what is your understanding of Total Depravity?
Did this actually happen? *John Calvin* was mentioned, and mentioned positively, by *John MacArthur* on *TBN*! I am not believing that this happened! To quote Red Foxx as Fred Sanford, "This is the big one.... Elizabeth, I'm comin' to join you, honey!" :-)
Seriously, TBN's programmers just seem to have no discernment at all, and while that fact, in and of itself, is bad, it can occasionally turn out well. It seems as if *anyone* who even mentions the name "Jesus" can appear on TBN. There doesn't have to be any context or explanation; just use the name, and you can be on TBN. In this case, in God's providence, it led to Kirk Cameron and John MacArthur proclaiming the Gospel on a largely heretical channel! Praise be to God!
On a side note, I'm half-jokingly wondering if this audience was flown in from Grace Community Church? They were surprisingly receptive to the "hard words" of Jesus about worldly riches and dying to self!
Christopher, there are several shades of total depravity in the five points that have evolved over the years and Mac seems to make his dwelling in the rather darker areas where man and his soul is completely ruined and the belief that everything in this life is just crap, including our dreams and passions and that's just the way it is.
I like this quote from Thomas Merton (One of the few contemporaries of Lewis actually admired.)
“Human nature is not evil. All pleasure is not wrong. All spontaneous desires are not selfish. The doctrine of original sin does not mean that human nature has been completely corrupted and that man’s freedom is always inclined to sin. Man is neither devil nor an angel. He is not a pure spirit, but a being of flesh and spirit, subject to error and malice, but basically inclined to seek truth and goodness. He is, indeed a sinner: but his heart responds to love and grace. It also responds to the goodness and to the need of his fellow man.”
From what I'm hearing from Mac, to follow Christ, is to live a miserable life where our only hope for joy is found in the hereafter.
Knowing Christ brings sanity, and yes, that means a better life is in store for you now, even if you suffer physically more than you did before you knew him.
I do not subscribe to the idea that the abundant life does not include things to be enjoyed in the physical world. Knowing the Lord brings an absolute spirituality to every single physical pleasure. Knowing Him makes them "right." I attribute all things that bring fulfilling joy (my wife, my future kids, this coffee, God's financial blessings) to God as good gifts from Him. This is not something I would have enjoyed in this way before I knew the Lord and the life more abundantly that he gives.
The blessings we have now are both temporal and eternal as we that know the Lord are now immortals. They can be given and they can be taken away as the Lord sees fit.
Eternal life begins now, and the Kingdom is here. These are undeniably part of that Abundant Life that Jesus spoke of, even though they are mere shades of the Joy to come. After all, the Lord created the world for us to enjoy and take care of.
Sorry for some of the sweeping generalizations here, it is impossible not to generalize when commenting about stuff like this on a blog. I'm sure I'm in the minority here and probably got some things wrong on the first listen, but since you asked...
I hope I didn't offend anyone.
I do have a lot of respect for Mac. He is a brilliant mind.
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