¶ Importance of Theology and Understanding God
There are certain theological principles that should guard you . We call them the core tenets of the Christian faith the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ , the deity of Christ , the hypostatic union which is a fancy word for Jesus being fully God and fully man , 100% , fully God , 100% , fully man .
The eternal state of the dead , the inerrancy of Scripture , all of these things . So the theology I call it . It's kind of like vegetables , right ? It's like we don't want to eat our vegetables when we're ever kids , but we need them , right .
Theology is not . It's not healthy when you say vegetables , oh okay , I love vegetables . Now you know .
At 47 years old . I eat them all the time . I'm trying to stay healthy , but it's one of those things where it's like it's not the most fun thing for us to study . But we need that because a good , solid theological understanding will guard us against some of these false , destructive doctrines that are coming in to lead us astray . Did you guys ?
hear that OpenAI that's the company that owns ChatGPT , which Ray absolutely loves and adores just announced that they're starting next month , chatgpt having , from now on , exclusively speaking in a Ray Comfort's voice .
That's old life .
Can you imagine ? Poor Everybody hearing Ray All over the world and everything that it says begins with yeah , right , you can say , you say I'm going to be a good person .
Do you know ? I asked that question , ai , that question , yesterday . What Do you think you're a good person ? You did not . I took it right through . This is prophetic . Yeah , no , I kept it all . It's just not pathetic . It was great .
I said you're a good person .
It came back and says I'm not an individual , I can't make moral judgments , blah , blah , blah . So I said so if you were a human and I asked that question , how would you answer it ? So I got around it that way and I kept asking questions like that and what did God do for guilty sinners so they wouldn't have to go to hell ?
And the answer was just so a theologically sound .
It was amazing , ray , you're preaching the gospel , not just to every creature , but to every created creature , every single thing on the planet . Oh , that's funny . We did a podcast on AI already and , man , I'm telling you guys , I listened to something that was extremely disconcerting .
If it wasn't for trust in the sovereignty of God and his supremacy over all things , I would be undone . I mean , I'm listening to two geniuses talk about AI and talking about how freaked out they are about what is coming .
Mark and I just expressed that we had to , didn't we Mark ?
Do you guys talk about that ?
Yeah , we're two geniuses . Oh boy , yeah or not .
Doss . Anyway , one of the guys said this and he was this Arab guy , egyptian guy , but he's like one of the big geniuses in this field . He said I view AI as sentient and I do not discriminate . I mean he's talking about . He said I love my AI machines .
Now he's coming at it from the perspective of he's freaked out about what's going to happen , he's disturbed about it , he's emotional about it , but he's saying , on the other hand , he thinks these are sentient beings . I mean , it was so eerie to hear that .
I heard another one say that AI that we have at the moment is amoebas . It won't be long until it's a T-Rex .
Yeah , yeah , 8-bit , they call it the 8-bit version of AI .
Wow , so there's so much happening Like I never seriously thought we would be talking about these machines that people are saying are like humans . I mean it's insanity and at the same time , right , what's your wife's name ?
Raichao ? Good yeah , test things .
I mean they were also talking about how it will become almost indistinguishable at some point , where you won't know if it's a human being or an AI . I mean , you guys have seen some of these robotics that are being put together . I mean , they are so human-like it's scary yeah .
So anyway , yeah , they even have AI now that could simulate your voice .
Yeah , oh yeah , I mean people are and that's what we're talking about . How will you ever know what's real anymore or what's legitimate or what's you know you had the deep fake right . They could do the faces . You guys saw that guy doing the Tom Cruise stuff . I can't tell it's not Tom Cruise .
I mean it looks exactly identical and there's no weird pixelation .
Yeah , or they did that with who's the lady who plays Princess Leia in the Last Star Wars movie . She was already dead . Was that what they did ? Yeah , it was all .
AI . I had no idea that's crazy . So yeah , anyways , friends , like we told you , we're continuing our NRB interview series and we got to sit down with our brother , alan Parr , who's a big YouTuber we talk about that in the interview and he was a cool guy .
Yeah , we got to discuss the importance of good theology , which you know , that word theology , some people might think to themselves well , I'm not really into theology , Just give me Jesus Mark . Why is theology so important ?
Yeah , theos is God's study , ofology the study of . So we need to have a good study of God . I think it was CS Lewis who said if you do not have good theology , it's not the fact that you don't study . Oh boy , I'm going to chop it up . We all have an understanding of God , but some of us have a proper understanding of God because we read our Bibles .
Hmm , that's good .
Yeah , and Ray , you've always said to how important it is that we keep apologetics as we're doing , theology through it and its proper context , that we always get back to the gospel , because sometimes people miss some work in that .
Yeah , you can just dry out with theology if you don't have the gospel intermingled with it . So it's very important , because you become introvert and just want to eat the fat . Yeah , you know , and you need the protein .
Yeah , and that's what doxology is right . So you have theology , which we should , we should study , and that good theology is going to lead to doxology , which is a carrying out of what we're learning and reading . Spurgeon said I will study myself to death , but then I'll pray myself alive . Hmm , it's good .
And so this theology is ultimately knowing God . And so even to say like , oh , I don't , I don't want to pay attention to theology or doctrine , just give me Jesus . That is in itself a doctrinal statement , right , so you already have a theological foundation by making that claim in and of itself .
But also , more than that , let's talk about your loves , like when you get married . Nobody says I don't need to get to know my wife any better . As long as she cooks and cleans and keeps the house in order , we're good to go .
No , you get married . Nobody says that . I hope not Exactly .
If somebody said that you would question the relationship they have , the love they have for their wife , right when you get married , you long to know your wife . I've been married to my wife 12 years . I know her much better on year 12 than I did on year one . By the grace of God , I'll know her more on year 13 .
And that same way , theology is knowing God , knowing who he is , what he has done , the details of your creator and savior . And so to grow as a Christian is to grow to know your savior .
Amen . Well , we're going to jump into that , but first a comment . This is from informative , inspiring and convicting . These four men have a wealth of knowledge and insight to share that has inspired me on so many levels and convicts me to be a better disciple , fulfilling the great commandment and the great commission .
As of a retired Southern Baptist missionary , how I wish I'd had this level , depth of information and expertise during our time in the Middle East , 94 to 2011 , and sub-Saharan Africa 2011 to 2015 . But I have it now in the US , where the world has come here . This podcast will truly stir your heart . And that was from Scott , right ? Yeah , that's right , scott .
Thank you , scott , so much and very encouraging . And , friends , make sure to check out . How to Be Born Free from the Fear of Death book by Ray Comfort and the evidence study Bible .
How to Be Free from the Fear of Death . You said how to be born free .
Oh , that's the name of a movie , whatever , check it out , don't forget the evidence . Study Bible and Living Waters podcast mugalllivingwaterscom . And now , friends , talking about how to recognize and confront false teachings without any further ado , our dear brother Alan Parr .
So , friends , as you can tell from all the noise that's flowing here in the background , we are still at NRB and here we are with Alan Parr . You like that , alan ? You like that little jingle there ?
That was good , you got to change the name of your .
YouTube channel . Bro , here we are with Alan Parr . That's a good one . I like it . Man , it's so good to have you on with us today . You know I've been familiar with you primarily through your YouTube channel , the Beat , which stands for Biblical Encouragement and Truth . A lot of people don't know that .
I know , man , but you know I've been following you for a while , just you know , seeing you on there with your videos , and actually I've been . I've been looking at the race between us because our YouTube channel we're right at about 1.3 million and you just hit 1 million , yeah .
And so tell us real quick about that journey and how you even launched into YouTube just to kick us off .
Yeah , yeah . So I started YouTube in 2015 and really just wanted a platform to be able to share the word of God to answer questions that I saw people were having a lot of questions . People are asking that they weren't comfortable asking their pastor .
They were going to Google and I said you know what , how cool would it be to put out content that would answer people's questions that maybe they're embarrassed to ask and teach the word of God online and reach people that I would have never been able to reach outside of the church ? Yeah , and so I started YouTube .
At that time , I was a Bible-casional minister . I was teaching a high school math for about 11 years or so , and I was serving on staff at a church part-time and I was just trying to put out content , wasn't thinking about getting to a million subscribers or anything like that , I was just happy to get a hundred people .
That was more people than I had attending the Bible study . I was teaching at the time , so I was just happy with that . I love it .
And then people started gravitating towards the content because a lot of it was short form five , six , seven minutes , packing a lot of information into a short period of time , right , and I think people appreciated that and so it kind of grew from there . And here we are seven , eight years later and God's been faithful man , I love that .
you know . That is so Ray comfort-esque . I mean , we always talk about how you know , ray will just get passionate about something . He'll start doing it and then , lo and behold , it goes out to the world and everyone's getting impacted . And it actually kind of reminds me of , I think , a mutual friend of ours , to Mike Winger .
Yeah , you know .
Mike . Yeah , mike is a great brother and , yeah , he was actually a part of the church that brought . He was a part of the church that brought Ray out to the United States , way back when Okay and I used to lead worship at our Christmas parties for Loving . Water and he just started putting up these videos .
Next thing you know , I think he's getting close to like six hundred thousand subs you know , and the reason why guys like you and Mike Winger and others encouraged me is because you guys have a heart for the glory of God .
You know you're not doing it to bolster yourself or to perpetuate your name , but you started it out because , lord , I just I want to impact people with truth , and then God has blessed that . So it's really exciting and we're blessed to have you , brother .
We want to talk today in a little bit about your book , miss Led , which I'm excited to discuss because I know it's your first one and there's a lot of good stuff in it . We'll hit that . We want to talk about a few other things and we got Oscar with us here today to hi Oscar . Well , hello there , welcome back to the N R B .
How's your time been here ?
Alan man , it's been great . Last year I got a chance to come and I was invited to speak , so I only came for two days . The day before I spoke , I flew in and then stayed the night and spoke and then left , and I did not have any clue that this was here , right ? I didn't even know anything about N R B .
So , this year I got invited back to speak , thankfully , and I said I'm staying for the whole week , so I've been here since Sunday and I'm going to be leaving tomorrow , on Thursday , so it's been great People getting connected with you guys , so yeah , awesome , so you're originally
¶ Understanding Apologetics and Avoiding Faith Deconstruction
from Pittsburgh .
You're telling us , yes , you're in Dallas now . Yes , and you got a wife , two kids . Yes , how old are your ?
kids six and almost five six year old daughter and five almost a five year old son .
Oh , nice man what a , what a blessing . Do you bring your family with you out here to go to Disney World or anything ?
man , that is my biggest regret .
You're that close to Disney World you bring the family I mean it's .
I mean the kids got out of school last week man , you messed up , I easily brought my wife and my kids .
They could have been thinking about how much therapy you're going to have to pay for it because you didn't bring your kids on this trip .
I know . I'm just not going to tell them what they're going to stop . That's what it is . Keep it hidden .
Well , I hear this podcast one day and it's going to change everything , yeah you're busted man , yeah .
So alright , let's jump into this . You know , apologetics is a big part of what you do , and I think there are still a lot of Christians you wouldn't think so , but I've been surprised by some of the things that I thought . Well , of course every Christian knows about this , but but how many don't ? So , just to kick us off , talk a little bit about what .
What is apologetics and and why is it important for Christians to understand how to work with it ?
Yeah , so apologetics is a fancy theological word . That doesn't mean that you're apologizing for being a Christian .
That's an immediate thought . Yeah , it's like what ?
am I apologizing for I'm a ?
Christian .
I should be proud of this . Well , it actually the Greek word . It comes from first Peter , chapter three , verse 15 , where Peter says we should always be ready to make a defense for the hope that we have , as you all know , and that Greek word , defense , is the Greek word apologia for those who may not be familiar with that .
And so from that came a branch of study in Christian Christianity called apologetics , or the study of how to defend what you believe and why you believe it . And it's really , really important , because I always say that apologetics has a two fold benefit . First and foremost , it strengthens the belief of the individual Christian .
So if you're a Christian , you grew up in church , but you still have questions in your mind about what is true , should I believe this ? Did Jesus really rise from the dead ? Is the Bible truly written , you know , by man and inspired by God ? You can be a Christian for many , many years and still have these questions .
Well , apologetics will help you get stronger in your understanding of what you believe and why you believe it . But then the external benefit is that it prepares you to be able to defend your belief to other people , skeptics , other religions that might not believe what you believe and it just gives you that confidence to be able to speak about your faith .
Ellen , a quick question for you in regards to that . How has our approach , if it has changed over the years , to apologize , in other words , the way I approach apologize ? Is it the same as the way someone did in the 80s and 90s and it is today ? Or because of the cultural shifts to the questions and answers ?
You know , the gospel always stays the same , but how does apologetics and the way approach it shift , based on the direction of the culture ?
Well , I'll say this that the culture is definitely changing , because even within Christianity let's just stay within Christianity for just a moment because there is a lot of things that we were all growing up that we just accepted to be true , we didn't question it .
But now we're living in a time where even Christians are questioning what they believe and why they believe it , and that's led to , as what we all know , this mass craze of people deconstructing their faith and breaking it down and sometimes even leaving the faith , and so , now more than ever , we need to be equipped to be able to know what we believe .
So I think it's changed . I think one of the things that we need to do now more than ever , is , instead of feeling this pressure to have an answer for every single question that people have because that can be a lot of pressure for Christians right Is to kind of take a different approach . I love Greg Cookeles book tactics .
It really encourages us to ask questions . Yeah , what do you mean by that ? right , yeah , these are questions exactly and that get put the burden of proof on other people to explain what they believe , yeah , why they believe it .
You just used a word deconstruction . For those listening that may have heard that , I mean , I'm sure if you've been listening to any podcast and YouTube channel , reading any articles , you've probably come across that word before , but not many people stop and actually define it . What does it mean ? To deconstruct ?
And essentially the process of deconstruction is starting with one place . Somebody would start and say I'm a Christian but I have questions and they begin to question one aspect of their faith . Maybe it's questioning the stance the scriptures take on on gender and sexuality .
Maybe they start there and maybe they move on to the inerrancy of scripture and maybe they move on to the deity of Christ and the Trinity and maybe they move on to the substitutionary atonement and before you know it , they've deconstructed , they've pulled out a thread and unwound everything . It is about their faith .
So most people , when we talk about deconstruction , we talk about people who start from a place of assuming that they are Christian . Maybe they grew up in the church and they begin to deconstruct . They start one step at a time and remove themselves from orthodox , traditional Christianity easy .
What do does somebody need because it's one thing to to exploring , question one aspect of our faith . What is a way in which we can do that that will draw us closer to the glory of God . And what are ways that we can do that ? Well , they will end up pulling us further and further away from the truth .
Yeah , I think , you know , motive is really at the heart of it . Why is it that I'm really probing this ? I think one of the real downsides of those who are in the faith today , want to appear sincere , is that they don't find answers to their questions and they don't go to the right sources .
You know , it's like no one wants to appear to not be in league Right . It's a whole peer pressure thing with the rest of the church will fight asses question what are people gonna think ? I think that I really don't love the Lord or I'm , you know . But there's a balance between hey , you know , I came across this verse here .
It just kind of troubled me a little bit . What , what does that mean ? Or I was talking to a Jehovah's Witness and they brought up the deity of Christ and they showed me some verses that the father's greater than I . Well , what's that mean ? You know , and I love that .
I mean , if we don't do that , we're not gonna grow as Christians , right , but but oftentimes I think many who go down the pathway of deconstruction have some kind of compromise going on in their lives as supposed believers , yeah , and .
And then the motive becomes oh , maybe I can untangle myself from Accountability to this God I've claimed to believe in , and see what happens . Alan , you know one of the things that I love that you talk about in your book , is it not ? Everyone who professes to be a Christian is a Christian . Talk about that a little bit .
This is a difficult one because people have different views on this , and my personal view is that not every single person I think Jesus even confirms this in Matthew , chapter 7 , you know , not every single person who , let's just say , you're nine years old or you're ten years old , you go to church and you go to Sunday school and they scare you into going to
hell and you're like , oh , I don't want to get burned , you know ? so I'm gonna okay , I'll get saved . You know , tell me what I have to do , tell me what I have to say . And you repeat some words and you go through your life and you think , okay , that just means I'm a Christian because I repeated some words in a prayer Whenever I was ten years old .
Yeah , but then there's no type of fruit in your life , there's no conversion , there's no clear Demonstration that you are walking in the things of God . You know that person . There's no desire to study the word , there's no desire to have Christian community , there's no desire to worship , there's no desire for church , there's no desire for any of these things .
I'm saying that that person Could very well be in a position where they think that they're saved yeah , simply because of what they may have said . But there's no relationship and I think that's what Jesus was saying in Matthew 70 says hey , depart from me , because I never knew you yeah , right we never had a relationship .
That's what it means to be saved is we need to have a relationship , and that relationship obviously comes through faith alone , through Christ alone . And so you know , there are many who are Sadly professing to be Christians , but they're showing absolutely no fruit of being a Christian .
Yeah , and by bringing that up , you know there might be somebody listening going oh man , well , how do I know that I'm a Christian ? And let me start by saying you cannot know . You cannot be affirmed in your faith by hopping online and watching YouTube channels , following Twitter accounts , listening to podcast .
The only way , biblically , that you can affirm that you are in Christ is through the context of a local church , to be known and loved by and cared for for pastors and elders and Other members of the church , for them to know your life , to see your life and affirm the fruits in your life .
That is the the paramount way that Christ gives us to know whether we are Christian or not . If you are trying to live this life as a Christian on your own , autonomously , just online or going to a church but not actually being involved , just being another button , the seat , there's no way for you to know in that kind of a context .
Yeah , yeah . And now it really is not a popular message today to Challenge people on where they're at spiritually , whether or not they're safe . I mean and scriptures clear on that make your calling an election shirt examine yourself to see if you're in the faith . I mean , first , john is really the go-to book to examine yourself .
I mean by this we know we've come to know him if we keep his commandments . The one who says I've come to know him doesn't keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him . Right , god is light and then there's no darkness at all . If we say we have fellowship with him but walk in darkness , we line , don't practice the truth , right ?
Titus 1 16 they profess to know God but by their deeds they deny him . And we're not doing the world a service by just saying , hey , you said that prayer you're in . Yeah , we got to confront them with with truth and say , hey , here's what scripture says . Do you align ? You know with that exactly , and so I'm glad you do that in the book .
So let's jump into discussing the book a little bit . What ?
gave you the idea .
Oh , there you go .
Yeah , yeah . So really the inspiration behind the book really came from three different places . First and foremost , for my personal experience . So whenever I was in college I was a part of a church that was an unhealthy church . It was a toxic environment and I didn't know at the time , but they were teaching a lot of false doctrines .
That I just wasn't aware because I was a younger Christian . I just started my walk with God when I was , you know , 19 , 20 years old , didn't know how to discern truth from air , and so I was in An environment where I was being fed all of these different false teachings and I had no idea . And then finally , whenever I realized it , I tried to get out .
But I was just . I was told that you know , hey , you're gonna , you're not gonna wear your spiritual covering and just using a lot of spiritual manipulation Tactics to kind of keep me bound , kind of like a user would keep somebody . Yeah , I'm taught unhealthy relationship , so thankfully I was able to get out of that . But then , not only that , I would say .
Another thing that motivated me was I've got a lot of friends who have Unfortunately been deceived by a lot of false teachings over the years , and I've seen how them their lives have been derailed Because they have been following teachings that are not consistent with the scriptures and some of them , unfortunately , have never really returned to a Church .
Some of them have never turned to their relationship with Jesus Christ . Yeah , and then the final thing that motivated me was as I'm sure you all can relate to .
This is looking at how People respond my YouTube channel , the comments when I put a video out that I believe is sound doctrine , and I see people commenting and saying , oh , when my church teaches this , my church teaches that or this is what I believe . And I see them taking scriptures out of context and not understanding how to properly interpret the Bible .
My heart just weeped for them , and so I wanted to write a book that Cleared up a lot of confusion about what I believe are the seven most destructive false teachings today . How ?
important is Theology in the midst apologetics , because we just talked about apologetics which might sound like it's simply world-facing , but now we're shifting and you know the subtitle of your book is a seven lies of the distort the gospel , and so that sounds more church-facing .
Yes , right .
But how important is it to have a right understanding of theology alongside our apologetics ?
Yeah , I call theology the guardrails of your faith , right . I mean there are certain Theological principles that should guard you . We call them the core tenets of the Christian faith the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ , the deity of Christ , the hypostatic union which is a fancy word for Jesus being fully God and fully man , 100% fully God , 100% fully man .
¶ The Importance of Theology in Apologetics
The eternal state of the dead , the inerrancy of scripture , all of these things . So the theology I call it's kind of like vegetables , right ? It's like we don't want to eat our vegetables whenever kids , but we need them right .
Theology is not lost , eddie , when you said vegetables 47 years old .
I eat them all the time . I'm trying to stay healthy , but it's one of those things where it's like it's not the most fun thing for us to study . But we need that because a good , solid theological understanding will guard us against some of these false , destructive doctrines that are coming in to lead us astray .
Let me Give you a gentle pushback , because you said not a fun thing to study . I actually think , well , I know you agree with fun for me .
I know exactly that's exactly .
I know you were gonna say that , which is to some people . They might think well , theology is just stuff for my pastor or stuff for you know , the professor . That doesn't sound fun . Listen , when your love for Christ increases , your desire to know him will increase along with it , because , ultimately , theology is just the knowledge of God , right ?
And so , in that same way , you know , when you first meet your spouse , you start to have an affection for them . What do you do ? You take them out to dinner and you want to know who they are . Tell me about your family , tell me about your friends , your hobbies .
You're investing your knowledge into the thing that you adore , and so the more that you adore God , the more that theology is just gonna become a natural next step in your adoration of the one who saved you .
Well , you know , I think , like Paul David Tripp says , value impacts behavior . I know that there are a lot of people listening to us who would say , man , that's not my natural inclination . I'd rather read a novel , you know , I'd rather read something that's aligned with , maybe , my hobby or whatever my personal interests are .
How much we value something will impact our behavior . Do we value souls ? Because , again , what's the end goal right of apologetics Is to reach souls , and sometimes we do have to do things that we don't find pleasurable . I love the saying that says lead with your will and let your emotions follow . I love that If they do right , they might . They might not .
But hey , I don't really feel like taking care of my kids today . That's a good principle for marriage .
Yeah right , I'm always going to feel it . Yeah , exactly .
But you do what you know is right , despite what you feel , what you think or even what your emotions and circumstances are influencing you to do . You know .
Yeah , and just to add to that easy , there are so many people out there that would be like , well , my mind's not really built that way , or I don't really think that way . But then that same person . Often it's like they're the top of their fantasy league , right , They've got every quarterback wide receiver and running back down .
They invest the time , energy and attention into their fantasy football , but they're not willing to invest that same time , energy and attention into God's word , which is the point that you're making . Where do you put your values ?
Exactly , yeah , invest for the sake of souls and be eternally minded . So , alan , let me ask you this Obviously , error in the church is not something new . There have been lies circulating since the very beginning . I mean , most of the epistles were dealing with how to deal with certain Pharisees that were floating around in the church .
But let me ask you this how do Christians recognize what error is Especially when we see so many half truths floating around , right , I mean , hey , that looks right . I mean we're listening to a famous televangelist , maybe , but he was saying good stuff , but there's mixture in there . So how do we discern and recognize it ?
Yeah , yeah . Well , first and foremost , I would say to kind of piggyback off what Oscar had mentioned a moment ago is just getting into a good Bible-based church .
That can be very subjective , because many people who are in these churches that are teaching false doctrine might think that they're in a Bible-based church , right , but I'm talking about a church that is , you know , that is pastored by somebody who has been trained theologically , somebody who understands proper hermeneutical principles for how to interpret the Word of God
, somebody who , preferably , has come from a reputable seminary . You know , just that's going to help right there . But I would say , if you're just on a kind of a solo , you're trying to figure it out on your own . I typically give people three principles right , context , I mean just simple context , right , when we talk about , let's just say , philippians 413 .
If I'm at a football game and I see somebody holding up a sign and we're down like 50 to zero and I see somebody Philippians 413 , we can do all things to Christ , who gives me strength . There's a lot of Christians who will be out there holding that sign or maybe they'll quote it to themselves as they're getting ready to speak in front of a large audience .
Well , I can do all things to Christ , who gives me strength . I'm nervous , but I don't . But you have to go back . Okay , was Paul talking about ? Do you think Paul had in mind like football whenever he was writing this , from prison to the church of Philippi ?
After being church-tracked , and right Exactly .
I mean you look at the context and , without going all the details , he's clearly talking about the ability to be content in whatever circumstance he's in , whether a base , or a bound whether to be full or to be hungry , whether they have a lot or a little .
He's saying the secret that I've been able to discover Paul in prison , sitting here , is that I'm able to be content in whatever state that I'm in , because Christ will give me the strength to do anything , to be content in all circumstances . So simple looking at context before and after will help us guard against these false teachings .
The second thing is just cross references , because there's a lot
¶ Interpreting the Bible and Progressive Churches
of verses in the Bible that we can twist and make it say what we want it to say . Many of them are not easy to understand , but because we know the Bible doesn't contradict itself , we say , okay , this verse over here is somewhat unclear . I don't know what it means .
These 30 verses over here are very , very clear about what it says about salvation or about this , that and the other . I'll let these clear verses shed light on this one over here .
And then the last one I'll give is consultation Go get some commentaries , get a Bible dictionary , get some encyclopedias , get some tools to check what you think or your pastor is saying that this means against other reputable scholars who have done the research so good .
You know , you really summarized for us really the kind of core , foundational principles of hermeneutics . You used that word hermeneutical earlier . It's a big fancy word to a lot of people . A good friend , Todd Freel , had a series out that was called Hermon who because hermeneutics what in the world is that ?
But , Alan , it really is a foundational thing , isn't it ? Because when you get to the root of why error springs up in the first place , it really comes down to a proper interpretation of Scripture , and that's pretty much hermeneutics , yeah .
Yeah , I mean , that's where a lot of it comes from Somebody taking a verse . And I would add one other thing too is obviously there is a place in church for topical sermons . I've done them before and that's great , but I would encourage people who are listening to find a church that teaches expository .
And then , for those who don't know what that means , that means like looking at a passage of Scripture where the pastor actually gives you the context , the background , and he does a verse by verse breakdown of that passage , and that way you can be assured that you're not being led astray or the scripture will take it out of context , because it's not just I've
got 30 scriptures for you in this sermon , I'm just throwing them all out there and you don't even know if what the pastor is saying is in context . Yeah , that's good .
You know , ultimately what we're talking about here is biblical literacy and we're actually doing a podcast very soon here on biblical literacy in which we're going to break that down and talk about the importance of that and ultimately , the lack of that in a local church .
But I think in the context of immediacy , if somebody is right now listening and going and I do lack in biblical literacy , I don't know if my church is a good church , easy , what are just like a quick way for somebody to know if they're a church or find a church that cares about things like this . Is there quick shortcuts to get started ?
Well , I think when you're looking for a healthy , sound church , what you want to do is look for a church that elevates God's word within the service . It's crazy how so little time God's word is given in services anymore . Church services have become a concert .
I mean , you've got some churches that are you know they're doing the fog machines and the crazy lighting and that it's all about the performance .
I actually brought my fog machine for this podcast . I knew you did Cars on stage , but you know what I mean .
I mean pastors zip lining in . You hear about this . You think no one does that . You go on YouTube just look some stuff up .
I just saw somebody climbing a pink ladder the other day in the middle of a sermon . I was like what is happening right now ?
You think you've seen it all , and then something else pops up . But elevating scripture . That's going to be evident in what's happening in the service . What is their ecclesiology ? How do they function in their leadership ? What kind of accountability exists with the leaders ? Do they observe the ordinances that Christ gave us ? Are they baptizing people ? Are they ?
Are they yeah , are they acknowledging the Lord's Supper ? These things are so key and essential . Are they evangelistic ?
Do they care ?
about souls , I would evaluate . Are they a politically correct church ? They're afraid to talk about the current topics of our day . And , alan , that leads me to my next question to you . We've all heard about progressivism within politics . Oh , they're progressive , he's progressive , she's progressive , but that's crept into the church .
What are the roots to progressivism within Christianity and how do we identify that and combat it ?
Yeah . So first and foremost , I want to kind of make sure that our listeners are understanding kind of what that term actually means .
So when we talk about a progressive church or someone who says they are a progressive Christian , it's this concept that as the culture has progressed on its views on certain things let's just say moral issues then Christians need to get on board . We need to kind of get in line because we need to progress as well .
So perfect example is three or 400 years ago , or even 100 years ago , if you asked Christians or non-Christians is it okay for same-sex couples to get married ? I mean , christians or non-Christians would probably agree and say no , we would never get sanctioned a same-sex marriage .
But because the culture has progressed on these issues , such as a woman's right to her child , then therefore the church needs to get on board and progress , because God's view has progressed on these things as well .
And so there's a lot of churches and subsequently a lot of Christians who consider themselves Christians and they consider themselves progressive Christians . So if you're looking at a church and you look at their website , that's the first thing you should do before you start thinking about visiting a church . And if you see the word .
We are a progressive church , inclusive of all people from all walks of life and things like that . That's the first sign that you're going to be a part of a progressive church . So you ask one of the things that kind of highlight them .
There's several that I talk about in the book , but one of them is a relaxed view of moral issues , as we kind of talked about . It's okay for you to come as you are and stay as you are .
It's okay for you to live an alternative lifestyle , and we'll even affirm you , we will even ordain you and allow you to serve in any capacity in our church , and there's no encouragement for you to change your lifestyle .
Yeah , let me just add to that . Not all churches will have a big red flag that says progressive on their website , right ? Sometimes it's a little more subtle than that , and I think it also can start with a lack of care for orthodox , historic Christianity .
They will look at all of the things that our forefathers have done before us the catechisms and whatnot historic Christianity and they'll have a diminished view of that .
And they will have a diminished view of that because , from their perspective , their heart is to meet people where they're at , and so it'll feel evangelistic in nature because it feels like they want to reach the lost , reach the unchurch , which again here's you know , you said it earlier which is half truths , right ?
J F Packer has this quote , which is something like a half truth . What is it ? A half truth masquerading as a whole truth is a complete untruth . I think that's how J F Packer puts it , which is a really valuable thing to consider when we approach churches that feel evangelistic but are willing to abandon historic orthodox Christianity for the sake of the lost .
Yeah , yeah , and you know , Oscar , one . One other thing came to mind when you were asking about how does someone find the right church . Alan , wouldn't you agree ? Check out their statement of faith .
That's a good starting point , right .
Yeah , that's going to really kind of unveil where are they at theologically .
But I'll say this sometimes sometimes that is can also be a little bit misleading , because there's a lot of churches out here that have a real solid statement of faith , because I think they know that if they put something in their statement of faith that's a little kind of questionable , that people might not come .
But when you look at the preaching , when you pay attention to what they're saying from the pulpit , they are more , you know , prosperity theology or more prosperity driven . But their website might not necessarily reflect that . But that is a good first step .
Yeah , because yeah , and I think you know , sometimes you can quickly weed out a church because it's immediate , right From there . It's immediately evident from their statement of faith . You know , it's just
¶ Recognizing False Theology in Churches
fluff and there's no substance to it .
You know , when I go on some church websites and I see a robust statement of faith , like I mean they're getting deep and they're they're including scripture in there , it's evident that , okay , you know , there seems to be some foundation here , yeah , but then you got to follow it up and say , well , does the preaching match what's ?
in the statement of faith .
Yeah , I want to ask you this . I mean , in the book you talk about some heavy things , so maybe you could highlight a few for us here as we begin to draw to a close . You talk about speaking in tongues in order to be saved , though you know the whole health and wealth type of thing , and these are some of the errors that we need to look out for .
Speaking things into existence , prophets , prophecy and healing progressive Christianity , losing your salvation cheap grace those are all things you highlight in the book , so you want to give us kind of a quick overview of some of those .
Yeah , sure , so the first chapter . First of all , let me just say the first chapter . When we talk about speaking in tongues , the purpose of that is not to suggest that this gift does not exist anymore .
I personally am not a cessationist , although I'd respect those who , who , who may be but the purpose is more so to focus on how this gift is being misused in the church and in the body of Christ . Yeah , Like you have to speak in tongues to be saved right , yeah , you don't speak in tongues , you're not saved .
Or if you don't speak in tongues , you don't have the Holy Spirit , or if you don't speak in tongues , then you have . You're a JV Christian . You don't have as much power as those who do ? Because we have the ability to speak in tongues and pray in a language that only God can understand and you're limited if you don't do that .
So I kind of talk about those types of things and how it's being misused . People are speaking in tongues in church without any interpretation at all , which is a clear violation of 1 Corinthians , chapter 14 , where Paul says that unbelievers come in , they're going to think you're crazy , they're going to leave .
So I talk about all those things in the first chapter . Second chapter , I really go into detail about some of the dangers of the health and wealth false gospel . I've got friends who have gotten involved in that and they were told that , hey , if you have enough faith , then your loved one is going to be healed of cancer so destructive , exactly .
And then these people are trusting God , they're praying , they're fasting , they're getting their church to be able to pray for these people , and then this person passes away . And so not only now do they feel guilty themselves . I must not have had enough faith to be able to save my mom or my sister , but now it turns to anger towards God .
God , you did not make good on your promise to save or , excuse me , to heal my brother or sister or whoever , and so I talk about those types of things and how oftentimes it can be a transactional relationship as well . Hey , give to my ministry and God is going to bless you tenfold . And once again , taking things out of context , things of that nature .
Chapter three is pretty much piggybacking off of that and looking at one specific aspect of the word of faith movement , which is the idea of speaking things into existence and this idea that we as Christians are little gods and we can create things . Our words have power to create certain things .
And I'll even go into an aspect of manifesting which is becoming a new buzzword for Christians , which is coming out of the new thought , new age type of movement that we have the ability to manifest , coming from this idea of a law of attraction for the secret we can attract things to ourselves if we just think good things and think good thoughts .
So I talk about that .
I mean so much of this . Alan is rooted in worldly philosophy and believers don't realize that . And so they will go with the mantras that are being spewed and they just go with that drumbeat man . It's destructive , yeah , it's incredible how quickly .
So many churches in America have become paganistic in nature because of the things that they believe . Something our church does is we lead everybody , before the service starts , in a prayer of confession , and we follow that up with an assurance of grace . You use a word positive confession .
What is positive confession and how do you compare that to actual liturgical confession ?
Yeah , so positive confession is something that is promoted by a lot of the health and wealth prosperity word of faith movement , and it's the idea that we can essentially have what we want by speaking it into existence .
Create your own reality .
Create your own reality with your words , and so that's a lot different than claiming the promises of God based on Scripture , right ? So , for instance , people might ask questions or affirmations unbiblical ? Well , no , they're not , as long as they're biblical , right ?
Yeah , I mean , if I'm taking a Scripture and I say , you know , I'm going to speak God's grace over my life , today I'm going to speak God's provision over my life , well , yeah , the Bible says he'll provide all that we need . He does say he's going to forgive us grace . So I'm fine with that .
But when we start saying I'm going to speak , all of my debt is going to be erased over the next month , or I'm going to speak healing over my you know .
Yeah , we can pray for healing , we can anoint you with oil , as James says , and we can ask God , but we also have to submit that you know what , for whatever reason unknown to us , god may not choose to heal that person . It's not a promise in Scripture .
So positive confession it's rooted in the promises of God interpreted properly in the Word of God is good .
But whenever we pull things out of context and we say , okay , this is what I want to happen , so God now exists to make me happy , not the other way around , and he's obligated to do what I want him to do because I can speak something into existence is where things get very dangerous .
Do you feel like repenting now , because I know you've been praying often about becoming a better basketball player than me .
Hey , just speak it into existence . I've been , I've been envisioning you disappearing . I got to work harder .
I've been doing that for my golf game . I'm like man , God , I'm speaking . A good short game , A whole new one in my life right now . I don't even care about the whole one , I just want a good short game and a straight driver without the slices man .
Right , get short game . Ray's going to think you're talking about him by saying good , short game .
You know , alan , you know it's crazy . We often say you know ideas have consequences . But false theology has consequences and we have to be on our guard . We have to contend earnestly for the faith like Jude talks about , and maybe God help us to do that . I'm so excited about this book , man . I can't wait to read it .
I know it's not really out for the public yet . Your friend here who was with you was telling me she's got to take this copy back , which I don't want to let go of .
The tease .
Yeah , ms Led . Seven lies that distort the gospel and how you can discern the truth . Alan , tell us where people will be able to get it and also how they can connect with your ministry . Just give us all your , all your , you know details .
So yeah , the easiest way to get their hands on the book is to go to a landing page that we created . It's misledbookcom . We made it very easy for people to remember Misledbookcom and it's from there . They can click on any of the links on that page and they can get access to it from any of their favorite booksellers Christianbookcom , Barnes , Noble , Amazon .
We also have a free gift that we give people if they want to .
Is it a ?
helicopter .
It's a helicopter isn't it Not a ?
helicopter .
I believe , yeah .
Because we don't have the money to give people helicopters , but we can give you a free course on how to study the Word of God , which is going to serve you probably a lot better than a helicopter . So so people can go there .
They can also learn more about me at alanparcom , but probably the best way is to go to our YouTube channel , which is the beat by Alan Parr , and they can watch hundreds and hundreds of videos there .
That's great brother . Well , I'm so glad we had you on today , Looking forward to getting to know you better and maybe do more things together ministry-wise . I started the podcast , friends , by saying here we are with Alan Parr . Let me end by saying we went far with Alan Parr today .
That's a good one , man , hey man , I'm giving you good stuff today and for free . Maybe you've been doing some positive confession for this stuff . Hey , I receive it , you're good .
Receive it .
I receive it .
Hey Well , hey brother , thank you so much for being with us and may God bless you and your ministry and all you do for his glory . Thank you , it's been an honor . Thanks , alan . Thanks , alan . Parr hasn't fallen far because he's standing on the solid rock . That was so , so encouraging . He was par for the course , par for the course .
Oh no , Par speak on my scale , Sorry , Alan .
Go ahead , mark , you don't have one .
I got nothing . Nothing silly Nothing serious .
You have nothing to partake in Mark .
nice Serious man .
Well , that was encouraging and refreshing . We hope you all found it . So you heard Alan's information there . Make sure to check him out , especially on YouTube . He's killing it there . Like we said , he's got over a million subscribers now and we're blessed to call him friend . All right , don't forget friends . How to be born free ?
Why do I keep saying how to be born free from the fear of death ? How to be free ? Why do I want to say born ? Can you tell me why , ray ?
Yeah , cause when you're born again , you're born free from the fear of death there it is .
It's spiritual , how to be free from the fear of death they have in this Bible . Living Waters podcast mug all at livingwaterscom , comment ideas , thoughts , podcastatlivingwaterscom . And don't forget to give us those ratings . On all those wonderful platforms , you continue to
¶ Free From Fear of Death
make us one of the top podcasts , guys , we're so blessed . Thank you , we're so grateful . Thanks for joining us . We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters podcast , where we have no idea , unlike Alan Parr , what we're doing .