The Chosen leaves out Transfiguration / Greg Locke & Benny Hinn / Andy Stanley learns from Atheist

Okay, news roundup. We're going to be looking at several stories in Christian news and generally the stories that I collect are from three websites. The three I use most are The Dissenter, The Christian Post, and Protestia.

Dallas Jenkins, The Chosen, and the Missing Transfiguration

So the headlines for this week, number one, Dallas Jenkins of the TV show The Chosen says that he does not plan to cover the transfiguration of Jesus because he says he doesn't see what purpose it would serve our story.

Really? So that's headline number one that we'll cover. The second headline is Pastor Greg Locke is now teaming up with televangelist Benny Hinn. So this is an interesting development. So you say, well, why does that matter?

Well, I'll tell you. And then number three, Andy Stanley, what would a news roundup be without a story about Andy Stanley, right? Andy Stanley, one of America's most famous pastors, he says, in order to be a Christian, you don't need to believe the Bible.

You only need to believe that at least one gospel is quote, generally reliable. Oh, okay. The first headline, Dallas Jenkins, who is the creator of the popular TV show, The Chosen. Everyone's, this is like the big thing right now in evangelicalism, right?

Remember it used to be the purpose-driven life. And then I guess the prayer of Jabez was, I don't know, I must not have been paying attention during those few years. I don't really remember that. The shack though, I remember the shack was huge and this is all very bad theology.

Purpose-driven life is easy believism. The shack is overtly religious heretical, I would say. And this, the TV show, The Chosen, I think it's generally okay what you see on the screen. But if you actually compare it to the Bible, it's like, that's not how it happened.

Wait a second. Jesus never said this. Jesus never did that. And the thing that bothers me about the show most of all is that the apostle Peter doesn't believe in the ministry of John the Baptist. Peter consistently, at least he did in the first season or two, he would call John the Baptist crazy John.

Like, this guy's nuts. Like, I'm not going to listen to him. So it's just, is that really what happened? That Peter denied the ministry of John the Baptist? See, that's, to me, that's a big problem. And they depicted the apostle Peter as really being a traitor to his own people and working with the Romans.

And it's like, that never happened. That's not in the Bible. So there's, I can see how someone would watch the show and really like it and think that it's, oh, this is pretty biblical. But you know, if you pay attention and you look at some of the things going on behind the scenes, there's some real issues with the show.

So the creator and director, Dallas Jenkins, he says that he doesn't plan to cover the transfiguration of Jesus. And he's responding to a question from a viewer who asked him if the transfiguration would be included in this upcoming season.

And Jenkins said, no quote, what purpose would that serve our story? Okay. Now my initial reaction is, wait a minute, your story. I thought this is the story of Jesus. Okay. I'll let that slide. But my initial reaction is I'm not surprised, right?

The transfiguration of Christ is one of the most clear moments in the new Testament that shows his divinity. And I'm not sure that's the focus that Jenkins wants to highlight the divinity of Christ. I don't know.

Maybe, maybe not, but I don't believe that he is representing the authentic Jesus as he claims. Here's why the theology of Dallas Jenkins in the show, it's, it's a total train wreck. I do not believe it is possible for a person with bad theology to present the authentic Jesus.

And it's not just, Hey, I disagree with some things like the mode of baptism or something like, no, no, no. There are real issues. Jenkins. We saw a month or two ago. Remember he had no problem at all with gay pride flags being displayed on the set.

Dallas Jenkins said Mormons are true brothers in Christ. And they love the same Jesus that we do. And the show is being funded by Mormons, but Dallas Jenkins says, yo, no Mormons. Yeah. Yeah. They're brothers in Christ.

They believe in the same Jesus. We do, even though the Mormon Jesus, you probably know this, the Mormon Jesus is a different Jesus. That's the spirit brother of Lucifer. And their Jesus is the child of a man who once lived on a distant planet near the star Kolob.

Now, if that sounds biblical to you, I don't, I don't know what to tell you. Mormonism is polytheistic. It's not Christianity by a long shot. So when the point is when Jenkins calls the chosen, you know, our story, you know, I think, yeah, actually you're right.

That it is your story. It's not the real story of Christ from the Bible. There are similarities, right? And this is true with, you know, a lot of preachers who are not someone you should listen to 90 of what they say might be true technically, but it's the 10 that you got to worry about.

So the Lord of glory being transfigured as recorded in Matthew 17, where God, the father says, this is my beloved son, hear him. That's my advice to you. Hear him. In other words, if you want an, if you want the authentic Jesus, read the Bible, listen to the Jesus in scripture, not the long haired guy on the TV show, the chosen claiming to be Jesus.

Amen. And all God's people said, okay, not everyone's going to say amen to that, but I think you should. So, but if you watch the show, I mean, that's your choice, but just, just be aware of these things.

Cause I'm just afraid of the direction that it's going to end up. And it could, if people get emotionally connected to the show and the show starts to drift, which I think it already is, uh, that's my concern.

Greg Locke, Benny Hinn, and Christian Celebrity Discernment

The second headline, pastor Greg lock teams up with televangelist Benny Hinn. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this story, except to give my assessment of the situation. Greg lock, uh, became famous because of his Facebook page had like 2 billion views or some insane number like that.

So he got famous on Facebook when he did this rant about target and transgender bathrooms that was back in what, 2015, 2016, whenever it was, but Greg lock, he used to be an independent fundamental Baptist until he left his wife and married the church secretary.

And that kind of thing, as you may know, is not allowed in Baptist circles. So Greg lock was no longer accepted by his fellow Baptists. So he went charismatic, which, you know, and I don't say this to be, you know, um, I'm not trying to, uh, put anyone down, but there's some looser standards in the charismatic movement.

Okay. I mean, just think of Benny Hinn himself, uh, had an affair like him and Paula white were caught together in Rome by the tabloids, you know, staying in the same hotel, holding hands. Um, and one of them was married to someone else at the time.

So, uh, the point is, uh, when Greg lock left, uh, the Baptist world and joined the charismatic world, and now he's teaming up with Benny Hinn. Um, this just kind of proves that Greg lock was somebody that you probably shouldn't have been listening to back then.

I remember one video he did of, he was known for his ramps, which Hey, a good rant every once in a while, God bless you, you know, but he said he went to Dunkin' Donuts and the guy working there said something that he didn't like.

And he went on the internet and said he wanted to kick the guy's teeth in. So whenever you have a pastor who says he wants to kick in someone's teeth, that's kind of a bad sign, just saying. So a lot of these guys have had affairs, uh, Greg lock, you know, uh, Benny Hinn and Paula white, uh, even John Hagee.

This happened with John Hagee back in the seventies, and they just continue on in ministry. And what's worse than their personal behavior is quite frankly, their false doctrine. So the fact that Greg locks is teaming up with Benny Hinn, um, I've been pretty clear and anyone with discernment would probably know this anyways, but you don't want to be following Benny Hinn and his teachings and Greg lock.

It's just sad to see, but we need to be careful about who we're listening to be careful about Christian celebrities. If some guy comes out of nowhere, cause he makes a name for himself on social media as a social media influencer and everyone's talking about him, everyone's listening to him.

You know, you have to, you have to ask, okay, do I even know this person? Are they trustworthy? And we really need to be careful who we're listening to, which leads to the next headline, headline number three, Andy Stanley says, in order to be a Christian, you don't need to believe the Bible.

Andy Stanley, Biblical Authority, and Deconstruction

Really? I did. I've been going to church my whole life and I never heard that before. Can you imagine a preacher saying this? You don't need to believe the Bible. So what does he say? Well, all you need to do is believe that at least one gospel is generally reliable.

Now you don't need to believe in the infallibility of the word of God or the inerrancy of scripture, or even just generally believing the whole Bible is reliable. No, it's just pick one gospel you like.

And as long as you think that gospel is generally reliable, which means you can deny parts of that gospel. If you want, now that's good enough. I mean, that's what Andy Stanley is saying. And how is this guy, the most popular pastor in America?

Well, that tells you something about the state of evangelicalism today. You know, people want, they have itching ears, right? As I like to bring up from Paul's letter to Timothy, but this really has been common.

This is Andy Stanley's whole apologetic argument in recent years. And I want to, I've talked about this a lot, but I want to kind of get down to the root of it. In one video I saw, Andy Stanley admitted this, so you can find this online.

Andy Stanley admitted that one night, many years ago, he was watching a video of a famous atheist. And this atheist, according to Andy, was just dismantling people's faith in God's word. How is he doing that?

Well, Andy said that this atheist was just showing people how absurd the Bible was. And he was talking about all those parts of the Bible that make people cringe and all the rest. And Andy said that the atheist, that night, watching an atheist, totally changed his approach to ministry.

From that moment on, Andy Stanley stopped saying things like, you know, the Bible says this. He stopped saying that in his sermons. And again, Andy admits all of this. I guess you could make the argument that Andy's faith, his faith, was dismantled that night.

But either way, this is a big problem. When you change your approach to preaching because of what an atheist is saying, because he's mocking the Bible, and you're like, you know, he has some good points.

I mean, this is a huge revelation, right? We've talked about this a lot, Andy Stanley, and deconstruction. So this is really just further evidence, because the faith Andy Stanley is preaching is very different from his father, Charles Stanley.

And I think Charles Stanley, I've appreciated his ministry over the years. Of all the guys on TV, I like Charles Stanley the best, I think. Unfortunately, in later years, Charles Stanley failed to admonish and correct his son.

But I would say, in general, the teachings of Charles Stanley tend to be quite reliable. His son, however, the apple fell far from the tree. Andy's doctrine is totally different from his father's. And more importantly, Andy's teaching is very different from Jesus, who said about the scripture that man shall live by every word.

Compare Andy Stanley to Jesus. Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God. Andy says, no, you just need one gospel that's generally reliable.

You don't need to believe the rest of it.