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Fall To Grace by Jay Bakker
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Here we go again. Under the guise of ministering to the GLBT community, another Bible-rejecting pastor tries to dumb down the gospel, in the process turning it into meaningless drivel.
What is it with liberal christians? Why are they constantly talking about not judging anyone and then they attack Christians who believe the Bible? If you're really SO against judging others, why are you judging others?
Are you too obtuse to realize that your "don't ever judge" monologue ALWAYS ends up judging and attacking Christians who believe the Bible?
Jay has written a new book (which contains nothing new), which is kind of an emergent church primal scream. Its basically a liberal rant toned down a bit but a liberal rant nonetheless.
In the kind of fuzzy interior dialogue which passes for thought in liberal circles, it covers most of the required anti-Bible, anti-Christian biases which liberal rants must cover. And for that reason and in spite of its intellectual barreness it will probably be a best seller.
This about sums up Jay's book.
1. Christians who believe the Bible are TOO judgmental. Liberals aren't judgmental for judging Bible-believing Christians as judgmental mind you. Only Christians who believe the Bible are judgmental.
2. Our New Age touchy-feely God wouldn't send anyone to hell. See, we liberals are too busy promoting justice and criticizing Christians who believe the Bible. And we're too lazy to study the Bible and too intellectually elevated to believe the Bible and too afraid of public opinion to preach the Bible so we make up our own religious rules while decrying the rules of those who believe the Bible. Our rule is that we must never believe or preach ANYTHING in the Bible which is negative.
3. No one needs to worry about God's judgment because God is all about love, according to somebody from my transcendental meditation class. Because judgment and hell and the lake of fire are negatives, we never mention them as Bible truths. Instead, we make fun of people who still believe in that scary old judgment stuff.
4. Did I mention how judgmental most Christians are? Yeah, they judged me when I was a drunk and a druggie, sneaking out at night, lying to Mom and Dad. I could have repented and got my heart right with God but hey, I don't believe all that judgment stuff. Don't believe me? Read my cool new book, Fall To Grace.
5. Christians criticize people who get drunk, get high, have promiscuous sex and refuse to take responsibility for their actions. If you tell anyone anywhere that anything is wrong or sinful, you're being critical and judgmental. And we all know that ain't politically correct baby!
6. It irritated me when they judged me for my drunken, drug-addled ways so maybe now I'm gettin' back at'em by dissing their Biblical beliefs. And I'm promoting the false doctrine of universal salvation even though its never mentioned in the Bible. I'm just makin' it up as I go.
7. I'm denying that anyone anywhere needs to get saved cause ya know, everyone is already saved. Of course, Jesus never taught that and I claim to be following Him but what the hey, its a free country. I can promote any weird belief I want to promote. Is this a great country or what?
8. To prove my point I'm redefining grace to mean #7 above. No condemnation. No judgment for sin. No repentance. No salvation, well, we're all already saved even if we haven't believed in Jesus. Yeah, that's the story. We're all already saved.
9. My new gospel is palatable and non-judgmental. See, when you rework what the Bible says and chop out all the negative stuff, people will listen to your message in a bar. And if they're drunk enough, they'll think you're a cool preacher.
Wanna know what Jay Bakker really believes? Click the title of this post.
13 comments:
Thanks for the review Rick
God is good
jpu
You're welcome John. I am thoroughly disgusted with the way liberals trash the Bible and the gospel.
Its time Christians said, Enough!
Sounds like a book not worth reading... Thanks for doing it for us Rick.... Dwayne
Its time for Christians to exercise discernment and reject the tsunami of false teaching from people like Jay Bakker.
We can go any distance on the right road with anyone. But it is sin to go any distance on the wrong road with anyone.
Nice book review, merry Christmas.
Thanks Toyin - Hope your Christmas is joyous too.
I guess Jay is right to have
his own views of the bible and
his family did suffer quite a bit from pretty hostile preachers. When he talks about judgement, he does have a context.
Everyone approaches the truth of the Bible from a context. And everyone has to deal with difficult life experiences.
Our duty is always to believe and live the truth of the Bible instead of making up false doctrines as we go.
We are told to "be transformed by the renewing of our mind," Romans 12:1-2.
If we teach and write the opposite of what the Bible and Jesus says about salvation and judgment, then we are exalting our personal prejudices over God's truth - precisely what Jay does in his book.
Jay Bakker here, I find your comments quite interesting and a bit off putting, The advanced uncorrected proof of my book you reviewed is a bit different then the final draft and I hope you'll take time to look it over as well. I do have a View of the Bible that differs from yours, this much is true. I Hope you can agree that theology is a complicated issue and none of us get it 100% right. I hope we may be welling to give grace to the other and realize at the end of the day none of us no ultimate truth till the day we stand before God. In Grace, Jay Bakker
Hi Jay-
Your words seem to imply that your book may be substantially different than the Advance Readers Copy. Am I to understand that your published book will correct your false teaching on salvation, judgment, hell and the Bible? If not, you're just blowing smoke.
For me the bottom line is always, What does the Bible say?
The Bible and Jesus NEVER say about salvation what you say in your book, that all of us are saved and etc.
Jesus clearly and unequivocally contrasted lost folks and saved folks, John 1:12, 3:3-7, 3:18, 3:36, 10:9, 14:6.
Affirming your false teaching about grace equals the blind leading the blind, Matthew 15:13-24, Luke 6:39-40.
Extending grace to each other does not mean being wishy washy about doctrine, especially the doctrine of salvation.
As always, I extend to you the grace of God "according to the scriptures," 1 Corinthians 15:3-5.
The Bible also explains how believers are to deal with false prophets and false teachers. See my detailed review of Fall To Grace here.
Your false teaching in Fall To Grace needs to be repented of, repudiated and corrected, as publicly as your false teaching has been propagated.
I found the book refreshing. Does Jay Bakker, in this book, wax wise beyond his years on theological accuracy? No. But his willingness to risk everything for what he believes in is refreshing. He admits he is not to the point in which he is able of loving others unconditionally, as Christ has loved us, but he paints a picture of grace that takes the reader back to the days of Martin Luther, and he has the passion of Luther. He makes Christianity a faith of inclusion, not exclusion. If you grew up in fundamentalist churches, you would understand the oppressive impact of a gospel of guilt, hell, fire and brimstone. There is no power in that message, only power to cripple Christianity and breed self-righteous hypocrites.
Is it possible you have not grasped how Jay trashes the gospel of God's grace with his false teaching about grace?
Martin Luther's grave must look like a high speed rotisserie about now because Jay tries to give the impression that his false teaching is like Martin Luther's teaching on grace.
YOU have a choice to make. You can believe the Bible or you can believe Jay's false teaching.
I hope you have the guts to reject Jay's false teaching and embrace grace according to the Bible. It isn't cool to trash the Bible and what Jesus taught and then act like you're walking in grace.
I want to have this book. This could be a big help for me to be reminded. Thanks!
Non-denominational
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