There’s a video titled “I Stopped Believing In God After Pastoring A Megachurch” that went viral posted by Buzzfeed.
The original video is here:
I wanted to write a response but I see there’s no need to reinvent the wheel since there’s a Christian video response already out there:
I thought the response did a good job pointing out the incorrect transactional model of God that led this “pastor” to atheism. But that’s not the Gospel nor biblical Christianity.
For those interested in the past I wrote a post titled Apostasy and a Biblical View of Life’s “Problems”
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Bad theology has consequences. This couple and their church friends didn’t understand the Gospel at all. That church leaders like them could be so hopelessly wrong on the basics of Christianity says so much about the state of churches in general, and especially megachurches.
Indeed if you watch the actual video from Buzzfeed she talks about her and husband trying to outdo each other with being heretical…which tells me her and her churches don’t understand the Gospel if that’s what they think is cool. In my college campus evangelism I’m genuinely surprised at how biblically illiterate apostates usually are…even this “Pastor” is no different. It seems 1 John 2:19 is quite true isn’t it?
I had not seen this. Thanks for posting!
You’re welcome! Hope you are doing well sister!
Excellent! Thanks for sharing. Very helpful.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Thanks for the reblog!
Yankee Whiskey Bravo
Hmmm….this could have been me. Thank God my faith has carried me through the trials.
Thanks. Good counter-arguments to this woman’s “testimony.” Sadly, I think a big percentage of so-called “evangelical Christians” are following this transactional model via the prosperity, word-of-faith, false gospel.
“Sadly, I think a big percentage of so-called “evangelical Christians” are following this transactional model”
Response: It’s so prevalent but its so pagan….It’s always heart breaking for me to see something totally pagan get passed for Christian doctrines, it has deadly consequences for eternity and practically as this apostate’s testimony demonstrate…pagan doctrines isn’t only common in Romanism but Gospel illiterate pop “Evangelicalism,” sad huh?
Yup, it’s sad to think about all the millions of people who go to prosperity churches every week who get pumped up about all the amazing health & wealth miracles God has lined up for them, but when they don’t materialize after a month, a year, five years then they end up like this Michael and Lisa Gungor.
Hi brother we warn them about false teachers like Joel Osteen but people refuse to listen.
Hi brother. Yeah, the prosperity gospelers appeal to people’s greed plus there’s usually a lot of subjective emotional experiences going on at most of those churches which is like a drug for many people.
Yes I don’t know how many times I have warned those who listen to Joel Osteen and they refuse to listen.
here in Brazil there are many of this theology of prosperity, the best known is Edir Macedo, he built the “temple of Solomon”.
There needs to be a theology of apostasy taught today. She totally have a wrong gospel in the first place and wrong focus of fear
Here’s something to chew on: https://veritasdomain.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/apostasy-in-pastoral-theology-thesis-by-steve-hays-online-pdf/
Thank you for the link
Reblogged this on BibleProphecyWatch.
Thank you for reblogging this
Your welcome.
What struck me immediately was her repeated reference to their pastorate as “a job.” That sure speaks to the transactional nature of her concept of faith. Preaching is a calling, not a “job;” In fact, nothing in God’s work is a job. If we do it expecting some payment, then we have missed the entire point of the Gospel.
Hi the people we are talking about don’t get it but we don’t do what we do on WordPress ourselves but for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and The Gospel.
That’s a fact, brother.
Yes.
Good point Wally; she talked about it as a good job for someone who is young. It is one of so many things that was off with her view of things and I’m sure it all contributed to her apostatizing although I think we should keep in mind 1 John 2:19.
Ah..good one.
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Loved the response.
Check out this Bible Verse. 1 John 2:19 New King James Version (NKJV)
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
Reblogged this on RG's 2 Cents Studios and commented:
Thank you for this, Jim. Several thoughts came to my mind as I watched these videos. Her doubts actually seemed to begin when she (as a very young adult) was faced with a lot of challenges to her perception of how God should deal with his people. True, a lot of mega Churches teach that if you have enough faith, you can pray away anything bad that happens to you. When I got sick, I was faced with the same teaching. On the other hand, when I didn’t reach complete healing for over a year, I didn’t say “God doesn’t exist.” Rather, I tried to help them realize that God was at work with far more than they realized (in my situation). Alas, I don’t think I was very successful, since it is so much easier for some folks to believe in ‘lack of faith’ than God teaching us through hard times. Course, I was older than she by a couple of decades, and my illness wasn’t the only bad thing I’d been through, so I think that her loss of faith had a lot to do with her lack of experience. When I was her age, I could have be described as an agnostic (though I still believed in God) and thought I knew everything myself. I suspect she may go through many spiritual transitions as she gets older, and I hope she actually studies The Scriptures and learns what The Gospel is really about.
Thanks for reblogging this; will read your post late tonight, gotta run to teach Bible study!
Your welcome, Jim. It seemed like a very important article to me.
My prayer, too. Well said.
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Reblogged this on The X Mass H8rs Blog and commented:
SLIMJIM: “Sadly, I think a big percentage of so-called “evangelical Christians” are following this transactional model”
Response: It’s so prevalent but its so pagan….It’s always heart breaking for me to see something totally pagan get passed for Christian doctrines, it has deadly consequences for eternity and practically as this apostate’s testimony demonstrate…pagan doctrines isn’t only common in Romanism but Gospel illiterate pop “Evangelicalism,” sad huh?
Tom: Yup, it’s sad to think about all the millions of people who go to prosperity churches every week who get pumped up about all the amazing health & wealth miracles God has lined up for them, but when they don’t materialize after a month, a year, five years then they end up like this Michael and Lisa Gungor.
We warn those we know who listen to Joel Osteen but most of the time they refuse to listen.
We do as we are told to do by God in warning and in praying and leave the results to Him. But its hard not to cry and scream and shake them though! 😥
Yes I agree it’s just I get the basic you don’t listen to Joel so you don’t know what he says when they refuse to listen to what videos I have watched or stuff I have read exposing Joel.
It’s like I want to scream at them don’t you get it Joel Osteen is a false teacher I said once that Joel Osteen is damned they didn’t like that at all.
Wow Sherry thank you for the reblog!
The Church I use to attend was teaching the same things. I use to think that was Christianity . BUT GOD….
Glad you’re at another church now; seriously. Grateful Crissy, so grateful for me to hear that.
This is great, thank you!
[…] 6.) Response to “I Stopped Believing In God After Pastoring A Megachurch” Buzzfeed […]
Thanks for your like of my post, ” You Must Be Born Again!;” you are very kind.
You’re welcome, God bless you!
Thank you very much.
Thought-provoking post SLIMJIM. Definitely will have to watch this a few times to unpack it all. It’s heartbreaking that one of God’s sheep would wander off and that the folks that are supposed to love you most don’t come after you. Having experienced the “left foot of fellowship” myself, I can certainly relate. But giving up on God and the church aren’t the answer. Appreciate all you said in your response as well. God’s not an ATM showering out blessing, blessing, blessing. Does sin have consequences? Absolutely. But it can be a tricky road, as the Bible demonstrates in several places, for us as flawed human beings to decide what is God’s wrath versus His blessing in disguise. From a human perspective, what the Disciples endured can be seen as a curse. In the eyes of the Disciples, they likely considered it a blessing to die for their faith.
in my opinion, the biggest mistake was to begin teaching, and the apostle Paul forbade women to teach. it is a fact that liberal Christians are more likely to be atheists.
Love this blog! Please give my blog a read as well💕
http://www.kyliesministry.com
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