Dale Partridge - Real Christianity #140： Most Popular Episode #1

00:00:00.000 Welcome to this episode of Real Christianity.

00:00:11.240 My name is Dale Partridge, where each week I offer 15 to 20-minute answers to tough theological

00:00:16.600 and pastoral questions.

00:00:18.420 This is a 100% listener-supported audio ministry of Relearn.org.

00:00:24.180 And for those who don't know, our mission at Relearn.org is to educate and equip ordinary

00:00:29.640 Christians to plant biblical, confessional, and missional house churches. For more information,

00:00:35.680 just visit relearn.org forward slash house. Welcome to the Real Christianity podcast. I'm

00:00:42.440 your host, Dale Partridge. For those who have been listening the past several weeks, we have

00:00:46.320 just finished our Theologian series, where I interviewed five of the leading theologians

00:00:50.920 discussing several critical issues facing the church. For the next five weeks, we will be

00:00:56.280 resharing or re-airing our top five Real Christianity episodes of all time. These are

00:01:03.040 episodes that boast between 40 to 50,000 listens, and yes, a few of them are including my lovely

00:01:10.560 wife, Veronica. As many of you know, I am on sabbatical for the next few weeks and will return

00:01:17.200 with a regular schedule for Real Christianity coming this May. So for today, our most listened

00:01:23.200 episode is episode 81, titled The Bible on Yoga, Enneagram, and Progressive Christianity. I hope

00:01:30.840 you enjoy it. All right, guys, a lot of you have been asking me for this episode, and I tried to

00:01:35.580 fit like three topics into one episode. So I'm doing this as a solo show just so I can fit a lot

00:01:43.100 in, and this is also going to be an audio-only episode just so I can reference my notes here.

00:01:49.120 um first welcome to the show if this is your first time here we're happy to have you if you're a new

00:01:55.680 listener um man we're just excited to have you part of the real christianity family if you're

00:02:00.060 been here for a while and you've listened to several episodes we'd ask that you leave a review

00:02:05.240 you just go to itunes you just need to tap the stars you don't even need to write anything but

00:02:09.080 if you do write something we will read it and that really does help the exposure of the show

00:02:14.760 We have something like 4,500, maybe more reviews, and it is a huge part of the success of this show.

00:02:22.540 Additionally, I wanted to tell you guys about Ultimate Marriage.

00:02:26.880 Again, I remind people most of the time to pick up or to go to ultimatemarriage.com if you want to be a part of our six-week marriage mentor program.

00:02:35.480 It's a really effective program for building a biblical marriage.

00:02:38.900 It's Veronica and I. It's six videos, PDFs, tasks for you and your spouse to do.

00:02:47.380 It's a really great program, and I'd say it's very affordable.

00:02:50.480 It's something that you want to do proactively.

00:02:52.940 You don't want to do it when your marriage is already hurting.

00:02:55.380 So the other thing I want to talk about is donations.

00:02:58.680 This is a new year, 2020.

00:03:01.160 We have some great visions for an online church planting school

00:03:06.060 that's, I guess, online and in-person hybrid model

00:03:09.180 for here in Bend, Oregon, as well as an online program.

00:03:13.020 We are redesigning the entire relearn.org site

00:03:16.000 to bring more resources, more free resources,

00:03:18.900 articles, podcasts, videos, more digital content.

00:03:22.300 I'm trying to publish at least one more,

00:03:26.060 maybe two more books this year.

00:03:28.760 But the main initiative is, yes,

00:03:30.720 getting this church planting school created

00:03:32.840 and continuing to bring great content.

00:03:35.600 This stuff, guys, it costs a significant amount of money to continue to proclaim the gospel,

00:03:42.220 to continue preaching in this capacity.

00:03:46.140 And we just ask that if you guys are already supporting,

00:03:49.500 which many of you guys are supporting at $10 a month, $20 a month,

00:03:53.700 if you guys are regular consumers of the show, it is a huge blessing to our team.

00:03:58.800 And we would love to hire somebody.

00:04:00.680 We're looking to hire a donor manager right now.

00:04:05.120 it's kind of like I'll sometimes do that, and Christy will sometimes do that, and Simon will

00:04:10.040 sometimes do that. We only have really three people. I'm the only full-time person in the

00:04:14.340 ministry. We have two part-time people and some contractors. We'd like to grow our team to build

00:04:19.160 the stability of the ministry out, and so your donations are really important. So we just ask

00:04:24.680 that you go before the Lord, and whatever He would have you do, you know, and it might just be prayer,

00:04:30.640 but every little bit counts. It could be a one-time donation. It could be 10 bucks a month.

00:04:35.740 You just go to relearnchurch.org forward slash donate and that could be done there. So thank

00:04:42.680 you guys so much just for even considering us there. It will be put to good use and we will

00:04:46.920 be good stewards of those resources. So guys, let's dive in on these topics. I'm going to

00:04:53.420 actually open up with kind of the progressive church and then we'll kind of lean into yoga

00:04:58.120 and then to the Enneagram. So, if you're not aware, the church, you know, is kind of a hot

00:05:04.820 mess in the West, and, you know, biblical Christianity is, I would say, becoming the

00:05:10.840 minority, and the enemy is kind of birthing a variety of, like, perverted and distorted versions

00:05:16.580 of the gospel every year, it seems like. Doug Wilson, he recently said in one of his podcasts,

00:05:23.180 he said, as it is not possible to make a good omelet with rotten eggs, even with the best

00:05:30.240 recipe and superb equipment, you cannot make a sound church with a rotten gospel.

00:05:35.600 We're a deceived church because we're an untrained church. And we're an untrained church

00:05:42.280 because we would rather be entertained as a church than be a church that loves doctrine

00:05:49.680 and wants to study the Word.

00:05:52.220 And what I'm saying is this, 1.00

00:05:53.240 that the reason Christians are falling prey 1.00

00:05:55.880 to all these heresies

00:05:57.720 that are part of kind of this progressive movement,

00:06:01.620 the prosperity gospel, the workspace gospel,

00:06:03.940 the repentance-free gospel,

00:06:05.660 all these things that we'll be discussing today

00:06:07.960 in addition to this,

00:06:10.720 on top of that, I would say even the cultural fads,

00:06:13.840 is because many people in the church

00:06:15.580 don't know their Bible.

00:06:17.400 And in turn, they don't understand the gospel.

00:06:20.440 And when you don't understand God's truth and God's grace, you can't understand God's

00:06:24.520 expectations for how he calls us to think, act, and speak.

00:06:29.000 And as a result, the church becomes vulnerable to all types of counterfeit doctrines and

00:06:32.800 cultural ideas and experiences, and that's what we're seeing today.

00:06:36.200 So to give us, you know, an objective point of reference, let's use biblical Christianity

00:06:42.020 as our mark for a second.

00:06:43.300 And all Christians should aim to be biblical because the only reason they heard the gospel or heard about the gospel is because it was passed down in writing.

00:06:58.340 And what I mean by that is, you know, we're Christians because we heard the gospel by means of the Bible.

00:07:04.480 And how weird is it to accept the gospel from the pages of the Bible while rejecting other doctrines from the same book?

00:07:12.500 That's weird, right?

00:07:13.660 So that would be cherry picking like, oh, I like the saved by grace through faith,

00:07:17.580 but I don't like this passage four verses over.

00:07:22.200 Now, if you're going to hear the gospel from the Bible,

00:07:24.820 then why aren't you going to accept the rest of the Bible as well?

00:07:29.120 So from that position, let's start.

00:07:31.900 I want to first contrast against biblical Christianity, progressive Christianity,

00:07:38.140 or what some are calling moderate Christianity against, again, biblical Christianity.

00:07:44.260 And I think after that, we'll touch on yoga and then the Enneagram.

00:07:49.000 So to be a moderate Christian is just like a sanitized way of saying you're a lukewarm Christian.

00:07:56.760 Or you're a lukewarm Christian.

00:07:58.280 So it exposes the idea that if you're a, quote, well-balanced Christian that can find harmony with the culture,

00:08:08.140 that you're somehow a more evolved or woke or enlightened form of a Christ follower.

00:08:15.500 And this idea is not found in scripture.

00:08:17.680 Like, you know, in fact, Jesus says in Revelation 3.16, 0.99

00:08:22.380 So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold or hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

00:08:28.740 And so God would rather you deny him fully than accept him partially. 0.97

00:08:32.880 And so God hates partiality and half-heartedness.

00:08:36.300 James 4.4 says,

00:08:37.920 You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

00:08:42.940 Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

00:08:47.340 Romans 12.11 says,

00:08:48.860 Do not be slothful in zeal.

00:08:52.100 Be fervent in spirit.

00:08:53.500 Serve the Lord.

00:08:54.760 2 Timothy 3.12,

00:08:55.960 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

00:09:01.780 Okay, so let's just kind of put the moderate Christianity heresy to rest real quick.

00:09:06.640 God wants you to either be on fire for him, you know, or like he'd rather you just be cold, right? 0.71

00:09:15.040 He doesn't want you to find a cozy balance of costless, cultural, lukewarm, moderate Christianity. 0.61

00:09:21.960 Okay, that's not what he's looking for.

00:09:25.180 So next I want to talk about this, you know, the segue here is that moderate Christianity,

00:09:30.220 I want to talk about the term now, progressive Christianity or the progressive church.

00:09:35.420 And so to start, you know, the progressive church or progressive Christianity implies

00:09:40.560 that Christianity evolves.

00:09:42.680 It doesn't evolve.

00:09:44.340 Hebrews 13, 8 says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

00:09:48.640 Malachi 3, 6 says, for I, the Lord, do not change.

00:09:52.560 Isaiah 40, verse 8, the grass weathers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will

00:09:57.760 stand forever.

00:09:59.300 Jesus closes with a bomb in Matthew 24, 35.

00:10:02.400 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

00:10:07.240 In my book, Real Christianity, that just came out a couple months ago,

00:10:11.760 I referenced a quote from Dustin Bench that said,

00:10:14.280 the scriptures don't change, they change us.

00:10:16.980 If we disagree with something we read in scripture,

00:10:19.020 it's not the Bible that needs to change, it's us.

00:10:22.160 And so look, the enemy is good at his job,

00:10:24.540 and he's going to choose some attractive words

00:10:28.400 for his campaign. Like, who doesn't want progress, right? Satan's core job is deception, and he's

00:10:35.400 all about counterfeits. And remember, a good counterfeit looks like the real thing. And the

00:10:41.420 only way to detect a counterfeit is to really have a deep and, I would say, certain understanding of

00:10:48.720 the real thing. And again, this is why we need to be studying, not just reading the Word of God.

00:10:55.040 And we need to be studying it not like, you know, we're sola scriptura, meaning that the central authority is Scripture alone.

00:11:04.020 But we're not solo scriptura, meaning that we're only looking at the Bible.

00:11:09.240 We're not reading any other theological books.

00:11:11.080 We're not talking to anybody else.

00:11:13.000 That's not me and my Bible in the corner theology.

00:11:15.900 It's my Bible looking about historical, theological, like what has the church history through the Holy Spirit already determined is truth.

00:11:25.040 that aligns with scripture and your understanding, like that's important. Like what is classic,

00:11:29.520 historic, evangelical Christianity? So basically Christianity is not progressive.

00:11:37.520 It's stationary. You cannot progress on what is already perfect. And this is different than 0.98

00:11:44.080 reforming. Reforming is bringing the church into alignment with scripture, where I would say

00:11:49.440 progressivism is an attempt to bring the church into balance with the culture. It's like someone

00:11:55.380 standing between two enemies, like Christ over here on the left and the culture over here on

00:12:00.700 the right with their hands out, hoping to become the bridge. That's progressive Christianity. It's

00:12:06.980 not biblical and it should be called out for what it is. Hey, Dale Partridge here. If you don't know,

00:12:14.680 our mission on this podcast is to bring the church back to the Bible. And basically,

00:12:19.520 we want to make sure that you're experiencing biblical Christianity and not the culture's 0.86

00:12:24.140 counterfeit. And sadly, the Western church is filled with Christians who accepted Christ

00:12:29.180 without really understanding what that means. And the modern church hasn't done the best job 0.97

00:12:34.520 in helping believers understand the deeper doctrines of the Bible. And for that reason,

00:12:39.480 I wrote a short and bold book called Real Christianity.

00:12:43.160 The subtitle is How to Be Bold for Christ in a Culture of Darkness.

00:12:47.180 The question this book answers is,

00:12:49.340 what does it really mean to be a Christian according to scripture?

00:12:53.180 Now, guys, this is an easy 75-minute read

00:12:56.080 that aims to lay down the theological building blocks of the Christian faith.

00:13:01.100 And for those who want more,

00:13:02.540 I created a printed companion study guide as well.

00:13:05.280 And you can buy both in our store at shop.relearnchurch.org or pick them up on Amazon and print, Kindle, or audiobook.

00:13:15.140 Now, how does progressive Christianity link up with yoga and the Enneagram?

00:13:21.100 Well, there are just, you know, I'm going to say these are just like two examples of how worldly ideas, you know, have been accepted and adopted by the progressive church.

00:13:33.220 And by that I mean these two are unique because it's not just that we have a few Christians doing yoga at a fitness center or that their employer had them take the Enneagram to better understand their personality.

00:13:47.580 No, it's actually quite deeper and I would say much more extreme than that.

00:13:54.160 We have a church who is sanctioning yoga classes.

00:13:58.720 It's called Holy Yoga or Praise Moves.

00:14:01.300 the church is hosting these things. It's endorsing this. It's promoting this. We even have pastors

00:14:10.160 who are now doing and creating an entire 10-week sermon series on the Enneagram. I've actually

00:14:16.800 seen several pastors do this. And so let's quickly talk about this idea of, quote, holy yoga.

00:14:23.280 um first the origin of yoga is vedic and vedic is the precursor religion to hinduism and classical

00:14:33.620 yoga and its poses are really just religious positions of worship to animals mystical qualities

00:14:39.900 and to other gods and the act itself really is a worship act and for that reason it cannot be done

00:14:48.020 in a way that is not spiritual. This is why people have integrated it with churches because it is

00:14:55.980 spiritual. We don't integrate Pilates and CrossFit at church because they are obviously not spiritual

00:15:03.320 and everyone knows it. And so just understand that point is that the reason that we have yoga at

00:15:10.360 church is because it's basically admitting that it is a spiritual activity. And there's a reason

00:15:18.520 why we don't do that with other things like Pilates and CrossFit, and you can name a bunch

00:15:23.200 of other examples there. So that's a really important point. The other point is that there's

00:15:30.500 like a birth of this stuff. There's Christian yoga companies, like one's called Holy Yoga,

00:15:35.660 the other one's, as I mentioned earlier, is called Praise Moves, which again are titanic

00:15:39.500 contradictions um you you can't have those things in the same bucket um it's like kind of like 0.69

00:15:46.460 saying you know um like holy islam you know in terms of um you know using another religion

00:15:53.580 there holy buddhism it's a different thing here and so another fascinating piece of evidence is

00:16:00.940 that true yogis are actually upset that the west has vandalized their religion imagine if the like

00:16:09.340 entire Chinese culture, for example, started taking the practice of Christian baptism and

00:16:14.520 communion while denying any religious connection to these sacraments and then secularizing them

00:16:20.380 in a way that distorts it from the Bible. It would probably make a bunch of Christians upset. 0.81

00:16:27.760 And again, this just points to the reality that yoga is spiritual, and yoga's own participants 0.72

00:16:33.860 will confirm this. I would say, try to find a legit yogi who denies the spirituality of yoga.

00:16:41.660 You won't find that. But the truth is, westernized yoga is not outwardly religious.

00:16:51.040 However, it is the gateway to its religious sister. Actually, here in Bend, Oregon,

00:16:59.820 there's a yoga studio that when you join, you have to pick your God before you participate in a

00:17:06.520 session. And so it's not like just over in India that this kind of stuff's happening. I actually

00:17:11.520 remember a story, some acquaintances that we had several years ago, they were a part of the church

00:17:18.060 and then all of a sudden they kind of left the church and they didn't recommit to a church.

00:17:23.740 They'd been Christians for many, many years. And I remember noticing the spouse, the woman,

00:17:29.820 started going to yoga classes and sharing about that on the internet, and then I started noticing

00:17:34.880 her going to yoga retreats, and then I started noticing her make statements that were really,

00:17:43.560 you know, not scriptural and leaning on this kind of, you know, yoga ideology and theology that is

00:17:53.180 opposite from scripture, and, you know, it's several years later, and last I checked, they're

00:17:59.240 really not walking in step with God or Christianity. They're very much walking away 0.80

00:18:06.380 and finding the solution to their problems in yoga. And so this is how it happens. Satan is a

00:18:12.840 patient incrementalist. And so he's all about the slow fade. So just want you to kind of be aware of

00:18:19.460 that. But, you know, most Christians are going to say, well, I don't worship the Hindu gods when I

00:18:28.140 do yoga. I worship Jesus when I do yoga. It's, again, kind of like they're trying to tell you

00:18:33.840 that they've redeemed yoga somehow. Basically, they're slapping, you know, God onto their

00:18:40.700 worldly practices, hoping that, you know, by sprinkling some Jesus on it, God's going to

00:18:46.600 endorse their activity in some way. This is the same heart behind, like, ethical pornography or

00:18:53.680 spouse-approved adultery or evangelism inside the porn convention. It's lipstick on a pig. 0.99

00:19:01.260 You know, imagine walking into a Muslim mosque and participating in Islam's five daily prayers 1.00

00:19:08.320 of Salat. Okay, but you're really just praying to Jesus. How do you think God feels about that?

00:19:15.080 Well, we don't have to guess because he tells us in his word how he feels about that. So I'm going

00:19:20.600 to look at Deuteronomy 12, 29 through 31. It says, when the Lord your God cuts off before you the

00:19:28.200 nations whom you go in to dispossess, the land of Canaan, and you dispossess them and dwell in their 0.83

00:19:33.980 land, take care that you do not, that you be not ensnared. So first it says, take care that you be

00:19:41.200 not, this is command, be ensnared to follow them after they have been destroyed before you, and

00:19:46.900 that you, quote, do not, here, inquire about their gods, saying, how do these nations serve

00:19:52.260 their gods, that I might also do the same? Verse 31, you shall not worship the Lord your God in

00:19:58.660 that way. For every abominable thing that the Lord hates, they have done for their gods. For

00:20:04.820 they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. So first, this passage

00:20:10.960 in Deuteronomy tells us that there is a way to worship the Lord, and it's not by adopting the

00:20:18.700 worship practices of other religions. So that's one thing. And why? Well, he gives you the reason

00:20:25.540 in the text. Because the Lord hates what they have done for their gods. And this would include

00:20:32.460 him hating what the people have done for the Hindu gods, which is quite gross if you want to do some

00:20:39.540 research online, but we don't have time to talk about that right now. John 4.24 affirms this same

00:20:45.160 principle in the New Testament when he writes, God is spirit, and those who worship him must

00:20:53.560 worship in spirit and in truth. Okay, so basically we don't get to worship God the way that we want

00:21:00.400 to worship God. We get to worship God according to truth. And there's actually a really good

00:21:05.940 documentary on this topic if you guys want to watch it i think you can get it uh on vimeo on

00:21:11.640 demand for sure and maybe on amazon prime it's called spirit and truth um and it's from um they

00:21:20.600 produce some other calvinist documentaries you guys know that i'm not a calvinist i appreciate

00:21:24.380 the documentary though it's pretty solid so i just take a peek at it um uh the second biblical

00:21:30.480 argument on this yoga thing is found on what we do with our bodies. Okay, so there's this founder

00:21:38.560 of Holy Yoga. Her name's Brooke Boone. And in an interview with Yoga Magazine, she responded to a 0.90

00:21:46.420 question that said, what we do, basically, you know, if what we do with our bodies changes the

00:21:54.120 authenticity of our worship in some way. And she responded with, well, God looks at the heart and

00:21:59.200 not at the body. Okay, so first, she's vandalizing 1 Samuel 16, 7. Yes, God looks upon the heart, 0.53

00:22:08.100 and man looks like on the outward appearance. That's what she's kind of referencing there.

00:22:11.720 But he also cares what we do with our bodies. In fact, what we do with our bodies matters

00:22:17.620 regardless if our heart is in the right place or not. And why? Well, 1 Corinthians 6, 19 through

00:22:24.380 20 says, Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,

00:22:30.760 whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore,

00:22:38.900 glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Okay, that's just a slam dunk on the

00:22:47.600 argument there, right? It just goes, okay, yeah, we don't get to do what we want with our bodies.

00:22:51.660 just letting you guys know, Romans 12 tells us that our bodies are to be a living sacrifice

00:22:58.640 to God. And that means we don't do certain things with our bodies out of our love for God. We

00:23:07.080 sacrifice what we would like to do with our bodies as a way to display our worship and devotion to

00:23:14.560 God. And actually in verses 1 and 2 of Romans 12, it says that that's our reasonable service to him,

00:23:21.000 Like, you know, just if you forgot that he basically saved your eternity and saved your life and died for your sins and attributed his righteousness to you so that you could be redeemed, like, just letting you know it's your reasonable service to do that.

00:23:38.760 That's basically what that verse is telling you.

00:23:41.220 Now, as a Christian, can you do breathing exercises and stretching?

00:23:45.420 Sure.

00:23:46.480 Just don't associate it with the activity of yoga

00:23:49.560 or these kind of weird contradictions

00:23:53.680 like holy yoga or praise moves

00:23:55.060 and any, I would say, non-Christian mysticism stuff.

00:23:59.000 And again, this is a massive topic

00:24:00.640 that we just don't have time to tackle in this episode.

00:24:04.660 I might put some resources in the show notes

00:24:07.780 at relearn.org.

00:24:11.760 So if you can maybe take a peek there,

00:24:13.740 I might put some videos or something like that.

00:24:15.340 I've read some cool articles, and I'd like to include them there if I can.

00:24:19.340 Now, let's talk about the Enneagram.

00:24:22.400 So we hit two of the three here.

00:24:24.780 And if you haven't heard about the Enneagram, I promise it's coming to a church near you.

00:24:29.380 It's basically a personality assessment and self-discovery tool.

00:24:33.980 And there's a book that's probably the most popular book on the topic right now.

00:24:38.940 It's called The Road Back to You by Ian Cron and Susan Stabile.

00:24:43.680 Suzanne Stabile.

00:24:45.200 And it's probably, you know, yeah, probably the most influential book at the time.

00:24:49.820 I've actually spoken to Suzanne for about an hour to fully understand the Enneagram a few years ago.

00:24:56.620 But in recent years, it's really exploded in the church and is heralded as a Christian self-discovery tool.

00:25:05.220 And at the heart, the problem is really this.

00:25:08.480 The Enneagram is a self-focused tool that promises, like, deep discovery by looking inward, and that stands in contrast to the Scriptures, which claims that self is deceptive and bankrupt, and the only true discovery comes from looking outward towards Christ.

00:25:28.480 So it really stands in opposition to the biblical doctrine.

00:25:32.700 And when you read these Enneagram books and listen to the Enneagram stories from today's celebrity pastors, you're bombarded with a lot of these like therapeutic ideologies and some, you know, the language that's kind of like, you know, love yourself or forgive yourself for loving yourself or finding your true self or, you know, you know, be whole.

00:25:58.480 or becoming spiritually evolved.

00:26:00.660 These are a big part of the language

00:26:05.160 that you're going to hear from those.

00:26:06.640 Basically, the hero of the Enneagram is you,

00:26:09.660 hence the title of the book,

00:26:11.080 The Road Back to You, right?

00:26:13.020 So the Enneagram, it's this self-idolatry situation

00:26:18.000 going on here.

00:26:18.960 Now, no pastor is going to market it

00:26:22.120 as an anti-Bible tool to find yourself. 0.99

00:26:24.700 Again, they're going to try to sprinkle some Jesus on it 0.93

00:26:26.900 and sanitize it for congregational consumption.

00:26:29.760 And ultimately, they're doing the same thing

00:26:31.440 with the Enneagram that the church is doing with yoga.

00:26:33.460 They're taking a pagan and secular practice

00:26:35.460 and Christianizing it.

00:26:37.400 And again, you know, the initial experience

00:26:40.200 with these things aren't so obviously pagan

00:26:43.400 that they, you know, would deter

00:26:46.220 the average Christian from engaging. 0.81

00:26:48.880 The thing is, you know, yeah, 1.00

00:26:52.880 so they're not so obvious like that.

00:26:54.740 And I'll give you an example.

00:26:56.900 Neither is a bucket of apples to a deer, right?

00:27:00.800 It doesn't look like a bad idea, especially at first glance.

00:27:04.320 But when you realize as a deer that the bucket of apples is in the hunter's backyard, you

00:27:10.500 can see that the deer was just baited.

00:27:13.740 And ultimately, you know, the progressive church, yoga, the Enneagram, and any form

00:27:19.520 of deviation from, I would say, a vigilant and scripturally fixed set of doctrines is

00:27:26.560 dangerous, not just for what they are, but where these ideas are going. And again, I think in many

00:27:35.500 cases, these are the bait of Satan, right? They're slippery slope things that lead to other things

00:27:45.220 that are more serious. And sadly, when a pastor's salary and the church budget is dependent upon

00:27:53.400 cultural popularity of the sermon preached and the music played, it's not long until the pastor

00:28:00.480 starts preparing sermons and messages to please the lost instead of preparing expository sermons

00:28:06.340 to strengthen and edify the saints. And so you got a situation here with the church that makes it

00:28:11.480 like it's not focused on the, it's not a committed centric church. It's a visitor centric church.

00:28:19.300 It's not like we're doing—basically, we're evangelistically-centric church.

00:28:25.720 We're not even really doing church.

00:28:27.120 We're just doing evangelism, and you can show up if you're a Christian,

00:28:31.040 but really it's catered for the visitor or for the baby in the faith.

00:28:36.340 And so we offer all these things that are worldly as some kind of way to show

00:28:42.120 that we're not really that different from the world,

00:28:44.760 and maybe like softening up

00:28:47.380 or making Christianity more palatable 0.59

00:28:49.260 that you actually have to die to your desires 0.83

00:28:51.420 and pick up a cross and follow Jesus.

00:28:54.100 And so we get ourselves in these situations

00:28:56.120 where we start adopting the practices of the world

00:28:58.780 and we bring them into the church

00:29:00.360 and they lead people to other things.

00:29:04.600 And man, Jesus is so,

00:29:06.880 like he's so intense about these.

00:29:09.160 Like he talks about Matthew,

00:29:11.540 I mentioned it in the homeschool episode

00:29:13.340 that I did not long ago.

00:29:14.760 that we need to be careful.

00:29:17.440 Anyone who leads one of these little ones

00:29:19.340 who believe in him away,

00:29:21.940 it's better for that person to get a millstone 0.99

00:29:24.140 wrapped around their neck and drown in the sea,

00:29:26.000 is what Jesus says.

00:29:27.280 And so, man, it's shocking to me

00:29:28.940 when pastors endorse and promote things like yoga

00:29:33.420 or the Enneagram that really preach doctrines

00:29:38.120 that are in opposition to scripture.

00:29:40.480 It's just risky business.

00:29:41.560 So I'm going to leave you with four of about 10 direct New Testament commands on being

00:29:46.940 spiritually watchful.

00:29:49.060 So 1 Peter 5.8 says, be sober-minded, be watchful.

00:29:53.520 Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

00:29:59.860 1 Corinthians 6.14, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

00:30:06.580 That was obviously written to men.

00:30:08.460 1 Thessalonians 5.6,

00:30:10.020 So then, let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober, meaning being sober-minded.

00:30:18.640 And Titus 1.9, which is written to elders, shepherds, pastors, it says,

00:30:24.040 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, meaning as taught by the apostles,

00:30:30.020 so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

00:30:37.740 And so shepherds, if you're listening here, it's your job to make sure that you're guarding the sheep from some of this stuff and that we're not progressing.

00:30:46.800 We're actually fixed on a stationary, biblical, unchanging, historic Christianity.

00:30:52.300 So remain on guard, my friends.

00:30:55.940 Hopefully that was helpful for you guys.

00:30:58.680 And we'll be edifying and waking you up and being watchful for these things in your own church.

00:31:02.940 If these things are happening in your church, I would recommend having a conversation, a sit-down conversation with your pastor and with respect and honor, integrity, gentleness, but having a discussion.

00:31:17.960 And depending on their answer, it may require you and your family to leave these churches and try to find a more biblically-centered church.

00:31:28.540 Hey, Dale Partridge here.

00:31:29.980 We hope this podcast has been a blessing to your walk with God.

00:31:34.280 For those that don't know, Real Christianity is an audio ministry under our nonprofit,

00:31:39.200 relearnchurch.org.

00:31:40.720 I'm telling you this because we're a listener-supported podcast.

00:31:44.100 It takes a small team, a serious amount of equipment, and several hours per week to keep

00:31:49.100 this show going.

00:31:50.300 I share this because Veronica and I want to grow the reach of this show so that it might

00:31:54.700 help even more Christians mature in their understanding of God's Word.

00:31:58.440 So if you're a regular listener to this podcast, would you consider supporting us in this ministry effort?

00:32:04.040 We're not asking for much, maybe $10, $20, or $25 per month.

00:32:08.660 I promise you that your support will help us continue to get God's truth out,

00:32:13.100 to strengthen the body of Christ, and to further the gospel.

00:32:16.900 If you feel led to make a donation, simply go to relearnchurch.org forward slash donate.

00:32:22.920 Again, that's relearnchurch.org forward slash donate.

00:32:27.040 Thank you so much for your consideration.

00:32:34.640 All right.

00:32:35.440 On that note, guys, thank you for listening.

00:32:37.500 Again, if you guys would like to leave a review,

00:32:40.460 you can do that just by tapping on the stars in the iTunes app.

00:32:45.300 And also, if you're interested in leaving a donation in support of our ministry

00:32:49.160 and the work that we're doing here at ReLearn Church,

00:32:51.700 which actually guys we are about to change the name to relearn.org we actually got the domain

00:32:58.680 and so that's already working and forwarding so we're going to be calling ourselves relearn.org

00:33:02.820 we'll tell you more about that later but just that's kind of a kind of a little win that we

00:33:06.560 wanted to share about so um thank you guys for listening today and we will see you with some

00:33:12.840 great episodes coming up next week thank you for listening to this episode of real christianity

00:33:20.620 If you're a regular listener to this show, would you prayerfully consider making a donation to

00:33:24.920 support our ministry efforts? Simply visit relearn.org forward slash donate. Again,

00:33:30.360 that's relearn.org forward slash donate. And for those looking to explore the idea of joining or

00:33:35.900 planting a church in your home, you can download our free PDF ebook titled The Basics of Biblical

00:33:40.980 House Church by visiting relearn.org forward slash house. Lastly, do you have a theological

00:33:46.480 question you would like answered on the show, submit your question at relearn.org forward slash

00:33:51.640 question. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Real Christianity. We will see you next Wednesday.

Dale Partridge - April 07, 2021

Real Christianity #140： Most Popular Episode #1

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript