Church Crucifies IRON MAN During Sunday Service?!

Fight For Truth

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where the Bible and critical thinking meet to give you Christian commentary about the things that matter.

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In today's video, we're going to be watching a very cringey worship service in which apparently someone thought it would be a good idea to do a mock crucifixion of Iron Man during their

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Easter church service. And I wish I was joking, but I'm actually not. Watch this at your own risk.

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Well, happy Easter, everybody. I trust that you enjoyed our presentation of the

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Easter story. You know, Iron Man, I may have missed the point, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it.

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It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it.

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It's the end of the world as we know it. I feel fine.

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Knocked down. They're gonna keep me down. I get knocked down, but I get up again.

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So if anyone's wondering, yes, that actually happened. And no, this is not fake. So I simply want to take what you just saw and ask some important probing questions comparing this to the word of God.

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Let's start with probably the most important question here. What is church for? For what purpose or purposes do we gather on the

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Lord's day to have teaching and singing and fellowship among other things? Well, Colossians 3 16 says this, quote,

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Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God, end quote.

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So we can clearly see that teaching is a reason to gather. Admonishing one another is important when we fellowship.

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We also give thanks together as we sing God -honoring songs and hymns as a collective. In 2

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Timothy 4 2, pastors are instructed to, quote, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching, end quote.

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Church leaders are supposed to preach the word and to shepherd the flock and even offer correction where it is needed.

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So we can clearly see that we gather as a church to worship in song, but also to worship through teaching, fellowship, thanksgiving, communion, offerings, and even doctrinal correction at times.

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The biblical purpose of church then is to unify the body of Christ in fulfilling the task set before them by Christ through his word.

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That is what the historic Christian church has taught for a long, long time. But with our modern age came what has become known as the seeker -sensitive or seeker -driven church model.

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And this model is entirely different because it's not founded in scripture. You see, the pagans, the nominal

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Christians, had grandfathers and grandmothers who attended church, but they knew better than these old people.

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They were more enlightened than them. They stood up and said, why do I have to go to church anyway? I don't enjoy it.

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In fact, I don't like it at all. It's boring. And people try to talk to me. Don't they know I'm an introvert? Don't they know

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I'm an Enneagram seven? Don't they know that? Plus I don't like the old hymns. Can't they just play something with a little spunk, a little more energy and the pastor?

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Oh, that pastor. He's always standing up at the pulpit and he's convicting me of my sin. Who needs that anyway?

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And who is he to judge? The church should have responded to this quickly. We should have rebuked these people lovingly and asked them to check their hearts.

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As second Corinthians 13 five says, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith test yourselves.

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End quote. We should have told these people who apparently hate church and want to change everything about it to ask themselves whether or not they're even

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Christians. These people should have been warned lovingly. They needed to be told that we're not going to reinvent church for their entertainment.

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Church is not about them. It's about God and his people. All church leaders should have corrected this as one.

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All the passages I've quoted for you say that this is part of the job of a pastor. But no, many pastors listened to these complaints and they even agreed with them, taking them seriously.

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People like Bill Hybels and Rick Warren. These are pioneers of the seeker driven church model and churches that operate out of this model.

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They say to one degree or another, just make the kind of church that people, especially unbelievers and especially casual

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Christians will actually enjoy attending. And that's precisely what they did. The video you just watched is the perfect example of it.

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That's the outcome of all this. In their view, church fun and church events are made to be the drawing force that brings people to Christ.

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Therefore, the church needs to be entertaining, relatable, fun, culturally acceptable, welcoming in every way, and above all else, exciting.

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But this is the exact opposite of the biblical purpose of church, which I mentioned earlier. The church gathering is biblically supposed to be a place where people gather to sing spiritual songs, admonish, encourage one another, take communion, receive teaching from the word of God in sound doctrine, etc.

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Basically, we should be following the Bible's directions. In other words, most of the time, church was the place you went, you attended because you were already a

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Christian, because you loved Christ. It was not primarily a place you attended and invited your friends to so that everyone could have an emotional conversion experience because the things inside the church were so fun and exciting.

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The fun and relatability and excitement of church are not the forces which draw people to Christ.

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As Jesus says in John 644, no one can come to me unless the

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Father who sent me draws him. So you see, the seeker -driven model is based in a falsehood.

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It's based in worldly tactics, cultural relatability, fun and games, which they think will draw people to the message of Christ.

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Instead, we should be proclaiming the clear gospel message of Christ and praying that the Father would draw whomever he would.

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So you see, one method relies on yourself and your abilities, the other relies on God.

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That is the fundamental difference. And until we see this view of the seeker -sensitive church change fundamentally, we will continue to see this

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Iron Man Christianity in what is so -called a church gathering. So the next question

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I have to ask is this, in the video you watched, did you see the kind of reverent and respectful behavior that is proper for a church service?

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I think we'd be kidding ourselves if we said that. This looks more like something that wishes it could be on Broadway, but unfortunately found itself stuck in a local church.

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And of course, it's decided to make the most of this opportunity nonetheless. Contrast this with Hebrews 12 28, which says, quote,

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Thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire, end quote.

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Is crucifying Iron Man reverent behavior towards the Lord during a church service? Certainly not.

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It's a parody. And by definition, parody has irony and humor built into it from the very foundation.

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It's meant to be a caricature of something else. And let me tell you, drawing a caricature of Jesus on the cross is the opposite of reverent.

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In fact, it's deeply irreverent. Ephesians 5 21 talks about, quote, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ, end quote.

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So here again, we see this same theme, having an awe, a reverence, a solemn respect for Christ and his sacrifice.

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We all fail in this regard. Don't get me wrong. No one's perfect at this. And therefore we must repent of it and pray that the

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Lord would help us have more reverence. But does this mean that you can't make a joke with your family on the way home from church?

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Does this mean that it's inappropriate for your pastor to make a comment that might make the congregation chuckle during a sermon one time?

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Of course not. All I'm saying is that crucifying Iron Man on Easter Sunday at church is much too far.

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And it's way outside the bounds of reverent and respectful behavior. I think we can all see that it's a common sense thing.

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Look at how the Bible talks about Christ's sacrifice and then compare it to that video. I assure you there really is no comparison.

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So finally, let me ask another underlying question. Is this a worshipful act of excellence for God's glory?

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Or is it merely a pitiful attempt to look like the world in order to get butts in the seats of the church?

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Obviously it is the latter. And I think that can be demonstrated. Think about it. Why is it that tens of thousands of people can be seen jumping and clapping and getting really excited any given week at a concert, sporting event, club, or bar to varying degrees and in different ways?

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Because entertainment is easy. It's convenient. We can enjoy something entertaining without any effort.

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That's why we're so often thoroughly entertained, as all we're doing is sitting on the couch passively eating potato chips.

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We see this in culture. Everyone wants to get together and talk about the big game. But only a tiny amount of people want to get together and talk about last week's sermon.

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Now is talking about the game sinful? No. That's not the point at all. The point is rather that entertainment is passive and pleasing to oneself.

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But devotion to God, the type that is befitting of a church gathering, is active and often it's self -denying.

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Now am I saying that all entertainment is wrong and sinful then? No, not at all. We should receive these things appropriately with thanksgiving.

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My point is that the seeker -sensitive church leaders, they know these things. They know that Iron Man and Thor and Captain America tap into the entertainment vein, so to speak, that we have in the modern world.

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They know that solemn hymns, strong teaching, deep theology, and genuine fellowship are not as effective in gathering people to your church when compared to emotional experiences, song and dance numbers, smoke and mirrors, and clever motivational speaking campaigns from the pulpit.

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That's why they do these things, because they've seen it work in the secular culture time and time again.

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They're just borrowing from the secular playbook. You'd be surprised how many millions of people attend so -called churches like the one you just saw in that video.

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Yes, entertainment is very effective in filling auditoriums, in getting butts in the chairs.

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But it's not what you were called to if you're a church leader. Pastors are not clowns or mimes or movie stars.

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They're elders in God's church. They are called to preach the word, to correct and rebuke unsound doctrine lovingly.

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The church was called to be reverent and to worship God with dignity and awe. And we don't do this out of legalistic tradition, but rather because God and his word simply deserve respect.

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A church service ought to look like the Bible says it should. We should try to mirror scripture and the way it treats these serious things.

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This is not yours to experiment with, as you will, in order to hit the numbers of attendance that you want to hit.

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The church is not your private entertainment company. So if you go to a church that does this kind of thing, you need to find a biblical one instead.

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You need to stop. And please know this, I do not offer any of this correction from a high -and -mighty position.

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I'm no better than anyone else, and I know that. I am nothing but a wretched sinner saved by the grace of Jesus Christ.

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So please, let's pray for so -called churches like this one that they would stop this nonsense, this irreverence, and turn to the truth of God's word.

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