You know it's very interesting the way people flock to celebrities. It's almost like we feel if we are somehow tied to them (i.e. wearing their clothes line, autographs or their line of dishes) that we will be a celebrity to. Lately though we have seen celebrities advocating the religion they support unabashedly (i.e. Tom Cruise and Scientology). The one that I have tried to steer clear of is Oprah though. When she endorsed "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne I shrugged it off to her version of "Scientology". But lately Oprah has taken on a new sense of spiritual enthusiasm. It wasn't until I read this article this morning that I realized that this is getting to be like a fire in So. Cal. on a day that the Santa Ana's are blowing a gale.
Oprah has taken this idea of informing us of her religion to the next step, which is evangelizing us with her religious beliefs. Even in our Post Modern, everyone has their own personal truth culture, her "religion" seems pretty out there. As shown in this article even the press seems to be hammering on her choice of people to support as her guru's. So why did I feel now was a good time to bring this up?
2 Timothy 4:3 says, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but {wanting} to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,"
I believe that we live in a culture that typifies what Paul was telling Timothy in the above verse. We live in a culture first that cannot "endure" sound doctrine. Thats just it isn't it? They do not have the foundation to endure that battle at hand. When you have a solid foundation in God through Christ by the reading and understanding of His word then and only then will you be able to endure the battle at hand. This is not to say that it will be easy, but you will have the armor that is required to fight.
So then when believers in our culture do not endure we see that they give into a doctrine that "tickles" their ears. The idea is that because the Gospel is so hard to believe they seek a palatable gospel. This is where the post modern church steps in. They have a gospel of love so that they can attract more people. They take away the necessity for the cross so that they do not have to be sinners in the hand of an angry God. Our culture also will take away the singularity of the truth so that their sin can become tolerable. If we reduce God to our level, if we say that God is not all knowing, if we say that God is not everywhere or if we say that God is not all powerful then we teach a heretical gospel. When we do not endure we will seek a Gospel that does not convict us.
Then comes the last verse and what I feel sums up our culture to a tee. They seek teachers in accordance to their desires. Since these people are not well grounded they seek out teachers that teach a doctrine that is easy to believe. Not only are there pastors teaching Gospel lite, but there are people that want a lite Gospel. This is where we come to Oprah and her bizarre religious beliefs. Since her religion talks about how we are all good and that we just need to find ourselves. Believers we need to defend our faith from the attacks by people like Oprah and the Post Modern Church. It's more than that though, it's also evangelizing the people caught up in these ministries. We must desire to see them come to know the one true Gospel. Pray that many warriors would be raised up for this battle.
If you would like to listen some powerful messages on teaching the one true Gospel, listen to these messages from the Together for the Gospel conference.
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