Don’t believe anything “the inclusive pastor” says about God

Labelled “the inclusive pastor”, this guy is getting all the applause he ever will here and now, from the world. There’s not likely to be any “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” when he gets to Heaven. I’m not assuming he won’t get to Heaven, but I am assuming Jesus was serious when He said, “If anyone causes those who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.“¹

And if by “faithful” Jesus is referring to at least a modest level of diligent adherence to His teachings, such as on marriage “as it was from the beginning“² still being between a man and a woman, then Ryan from Eastlake Community Church isn’t very faithful.

I hope he gets time to repent for misleading people, because his deception doesn’t simply end there. He says inanely stupid things in this video like:

1. The God Who loves us is going to send most of human history to hell. Like, that’s the “good news”.
2. Eastlake would be moving forward as an open and affirming church.
3. I don’t have a problem with anyone in the LGBT community, and I think we’ve all remained perpetually immature.
4. Hell is knowing your truth and lacking the courage to live it.
5. I don’t care if the Bible says “gay people suck.”
6. The Bible is pro-slavery, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
7. It doesn’t have a very great view of women leading and teaching.
8. I have lots of things I disagree with about the Bible.
9. If we have to consult an ancient book to know what to do when a human being is in front of us, I think we’re screwed already.

Nine points of confusion that disqualify this guy from leading any community of faith. I mean, seriously, why take your car to a mechanic who says the car you’re driving is bullsh*t, the manufacturer hates you and wants you to die, and their design was more of a guide than a manual. That mechanic is going to get you killed! So will this “pastor”.

I break it down and correct the record in this video:

The God Who loves us is going to send most of human history to hell. Like, that’s the “good news”.

There is a fate worse than death. To an abortionist, it’s poverty or some 1st world definition of suffering; but to God, an eternity excluded from the unimaginable perfection & exquisite joy He prepared for us with Him is a fate worse than death. And so His plan was to self-sacrifice His life in exchange for ours. So, no, Ryan: the God Who loves us isn’t sending anybody to hell, anymore than the station master makes you miss your train because you don’t get on board, even after he paid for your ticket. The Good News is that even though you couldn’t afford the price of entry ever, it’s His shout. For everyone. All you have to do is say thank you, accept it, and get on board before the whistle blows. It’s a lie from the pit of hell that ending up there was God’s choice for you, and not the lack of your choice for God.

Eastlake would be moving forward as an open and affirming church.

Second on the list of heresies this bloke’s dealing in is that church should be “open and affirming”. We have the vagaries of ambiguous definitions to contend with here, so I’ll deal with the one’s mostly likely understood by people watching this trash. Open: not excluding people who experience same sex attraction or live a homosexual lifestyle. Great. I get that some churches aren’t like that, but that’s nothing new. I’ve never been to a church that isn’t open, and I was raised in the same traditions as good old Ryan. If you do go to a church that sneers at sinners, don’t go back.

Sure, some people in any group of people are less mature than the average, and some are just jerks, but Jesus accepted everyone as they are. He also told them to stop sinning, because He loved them too much to leave them as they are. He affirmed their dignity, not their decisions. Yes, He went to the woman at the well who the modern bleeding heart progressives would call an intersectional victim due to her being female, ethnic minority and involved in five failed marriages, and He not only treated her with dignity and acceptance, but He commissioned her to be the first evangelist, and she did a great job! He never said sinning was okay – “live your truth, man”. He did say only He could give eternal life, deliberately exclusive.

I don’t have a problem with anyone in the LGBT community, and I think we’ve all remained perpetually immature.

Yeh, well, not me bro’. I don’t know if he had a problem with gays before, it doesn’t sound like he did, but I never have. I agree with Jesus that it’s contrary to God’s design for marriage, and that like any sin, it’s enough to separate us from God without us first accepting Jesus’ sacrifice to redeem us from a hopeless eternity in hell. If that constitutes me having a problem with gays, then this “pastor” is indeed perpetually immature, despite his self-congratulatory moral relativism.

Hell is knowing your truth and lacking the courage to live it.

Actually, no. It’s not. Hell is a place created for satan, the biggest loser in all eternity. He rebelled against His Maker, thought he would defy His authority, and totally lost. He and his evil minions are going to wind up in unimaginable suffering. Try and think of anything that might relieve your prolonged paid and torture, and then forget about it. Won’t be there. There’ll be no relief. You can’t possibly imagine how tragic an outcome that would be for anyone designed to be in Heaven forever, like us. It’s a gross injustice for a pastor to tell anyone that anything on this earth, that any current suffering, could possibly compare to that which is to come for those who refuse God’s extremely generous offer to be saved from that.

And what’s this puerile nonsense about “your truth”. Oxymoron alert! You don’t get a version of the facts. You can have a perspective, but that’s just a fancy way of saying one angle of an incomplete picture. Jesus said He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, brother, and hell is the consequence of lacking the courage to choose eternal life in Him. That’s the Truth. So stick your ear-tickling feel-good philosophy in your pipe and smoke it.

I don’t care if the Bible says “gay people suck.”

Why would you say such tripe? Of course the Bible doesn’t say that? What kind of moron goes around making room for the possibility that it might say that, when it most certainly doesn’t? Here we have another example of a bleeding heart clown failing to distinguish between ideas and individuals. The Bible says sexual immorality of all types sucks, and it’s counter productive to getting into God’s Presence. Duh!

But even if it did say that – and it most certainly doesn’t – than who the hell do you think you would be to contradict God? You don’t need to understand it, or agree with it, or approve of it. The Moral Law Giver is He Who decides right from wrong, not His puny creations. Should a lump of clay criticise the Potter? Should the Mona Lisa demand a toothy grin? By all means, questions are welcome, invited and encouraged – but questions are not answer, and the lack of understanding should provoke a search for understanding, not an assumption that you or I of all people is holier and more upright than God.

The Bible is pro-slavery, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

No it’s not. I wish I had a dollar for every time some ignorant or amateur theologian like Kevin Rudd pontificated this facile heresy. The Bible is a library, not an Ikea instruction manual. Don’t do everything you see illustrated in it! It includes history and narrative as well as poetry and doctrine. Do the doctrine, don’t do the history. Here’s the idiot’s introduction to Christian doctrine for unbelieving pastors like this semi-religious ringmaster. Whatever Jesus did and said, that is what Christians imitate. Like Jesus said, check the fruit to figure out what kind of tree you’re looking at. Yes, He taught us how to sensibly judge people.

It doesn’t have a very great view of women leading and teaching.

I don’t know if Ryan from Eastlake Community Church is trying to tick every box for white-guilt, 4th wave feminist progressivism, but he’s off to a flying start. It would’ve been better for him to read the Bible though, than HuffPo articles on the patriarchy.

Even in the Old Testament, we see Miriam leading a nation in worship, we see Deborah leading her nation to war. We saw women praying directly to God without need of a husband or father. When God called women a helper for men, the word is identical to the one God uses for Himself as our Easer – not a term of subordination or subjugation.

Counter-culturally, Jesus considered women equally worthy of theological instruction, and gave one of the most profound theological revelations of the New Testament to a woman called Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, and they will never die.” There weren’t men around to hear that. Jesus just spoke that to Martha.

The greatest Truth on which the Gospel hangs is the resurrection. Paul wrote, “If Christ be not raised from the dead, our faith is in vain.” Why then did Jesus reveal Himself after the resurrection to women first, and instruct them to go and tell the message? All of Easter hangs on the testimony of womankind with whom He entrusted the entire Gospel. In a culture where a woman’s testimony was worthless because she was worthless, Jesus elevated the value of women beyond anything the world had seen.

Women like Phoebe, who was highly commended by Paul, led the church in Rome, and he told them to do whatever she asked of them. Paul calls men to love their wives in the self-sacrificing way Christ loves the church. In a culture where a wife was property, and a disrespected piece of property at that, Paul elevates women to a position of honour previously unknown in the world.

I have lots of things I disagree with about the Bible.

Quit being a pastor, now. Hand the keys to a Sunday School teacher, and go pump petrol or flip burgers. You’re in the wrong job.

If we have to consult an ancient book to know what to do when a human being is in front of us, I think we’re screwed already.

Take a deep breath, Dave.

First of all, Ryan from Eastlake Community Church, did you know that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God? Did you know that the Word of God is not just a book that fell from the sky, as you flippantly dismiss it? It is Christ Himself, not ancient – but alive and active. I’m not sure if you’ve heard this before, but “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.“³

Of course we’re wrecked without God’s Word. That’s the job you’re meant to be doing – teaching it to people who are jacked up because they don’t have it, don’t read it, don’t believe it, and don’t understand it. Unfortunately you’re a case of the blind leading the blind, and all the hugs in the world aren’t going to be an adequate substitute for a humility honest enough to admit that you need God, His Son and His Word to know what to do. It’s the post-Christian, humanistic relativism that you’re now preaching which has preceded the polarising identity politics and victim olympics of the societies we now live in. The very, very sad thing is you have the answer to equality, unity, peace, love and objective, eternal Truth in your hand, and you have no idea what treasure it is for the people I’m equally sure you’re loving and tragically misleading.

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¹ Matthew 18:6
² Matthew 19:4
³ 2 Timothy 3:16-17