Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 240 ｜ Bad Theology

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Today, as you can tell by the title, we are talking about

00:00:05.060 bad theology. I discussed last week wanting to do a segment from now on titled Bad Theology,

00:00:11.500 where we would just talk about something that I saw that is theologically erroneous. Today,

00:00:16.940 we are going to dedicate an entire podcast episode to that, and it is going to be represented by

00:00:23.800 someone by the name of Jen Hatmaker, as seen in a recent Instagram post that a bunch of you guys

00:00:30.800 sent me and asked me to respond to. So that's what we are going to be breaking down today.

00:00:36.460 This is one of you guys' favorite things that I do, and this topic is a topic that you guys love

00:00:43.580 to hear about, but we're going to come at it from a different perspective. I always like to give you

00:00:48.260 something new. This is the second Instagram caption of Jen Hatmaker that we have discussed

00:00:56.080 specifically on this podcast. There is actually an episode titled Jen Hatmaker's Instagram post from

00:01:03.840 maybe a couple years back at this point. So in case you don't know who she is, although she is very well

00:01:09.580 known in the female Christian world, but just in case you're not familiar with her, I will give you

00:01:15.020 a little bit of background on who she is and why we're talking about this. This is not about calling

00:01:19.960 a specific person out. This is an example of a kind of theology, and I put that in scare quotes,

00:01:27.340 that is rampant, especially in the female Christian world, and that's why it's so important for us to 1.00

00:01:33.360 talk about it. So Jen Hatmaker, she's an author that really blew up a few years ago, although she's been

00:01:38.800 on the public scene for a really long time. Her family actually starred in an HGTV series,

00:01:45.020 a while back as well. She successfully became known as kind of like the go-to voice for stressed out

00:01:52.200 Christian women and specifically moms. She is amazing. She truly is. She's amazing at relating

00:01:57.560 to this group. Her writing is very unique, very in her voice. So it's readable, it's relatable,

00:02:03.740 it's very down to earth. And she has this way of explaining things genuinely that makes you go,

00:02:11.780 I've never thought about that before, and kind of makes you look away from the page and think about

00:02:17.200 things. And so she's very effective and very successful in her communication. She is extremely

00:02:22.820 charming, like I said, extremely relatable. And so it's really easy to see why so many women are 0.92

00:02:29.800 attracted to her and see themselves reflected in her. It's truly a gift. And at one point,

00:02:35.300 she was regarded as very mainstream and really for a lot of people, a solid theological voice.

00:02:42.260 I'll be honest, I was never like a follower or a reader of Jen Hatmaker because when she,

00:02:47.720 when her star was rising, I was younger, I would say than her target demographic. But I knew who she

00:02:53.740 was in college. And I certainly don't remember having any, having any qualms with her or anything

00:02:59.160 like that. But she shifted around 2016, when she started being a public advocate of gay marriage,

00:03:07.400 there was an interview in 2016, when she said that LGBT relationships and marriage are holy,

00:03:14.540 just as holy as any heterosexual relationship. She has openly supported gay marriage regards gay

00:03:20.600 relationships, like I said, is just as biblical, just as holy as any other kind of relationship.

00:03:25.740 Now, if you are new to this podcast, maybe you don't understand why that's a big deal,

00:03:31.140 or maybe you're just in a different place than I am. You don't agree with me ideologically

00:03:35.540 and theologically. And so to you, you're like, that's not a big deal at all. Why does it matter

00:03:40.820 what she thinks about marriage? Her Instagram caption wasn't even about that, but I'll explain to you

00:03:45.680 why I'm going to address her perspective on marriage a little bit more in depth because it is

00:03:50.640 pertinent to what we're talking about today. So you can go back and listen to episodes

00:03:55.720 126 of this podcast titled Biblical Marriage. The reason the biblical definition of marriage

00:04:03.880 as between a man and a woman is so important is not because of a couple of verses in the Old

00:04:10.080 Testament or even in the New Testament, although we shouldn't discount those verses just because

00:04:15.880 culture says they should be discounted. But I explained the reason why it's so important

00:04:21.540 very thoroughly in that episode, episode 126, but we're going to rehash it a little bit today.

00:04:27.880 I have an alliteration for the reason the definition of marriage matters so much to the

00:04:32.660 Christian worldview and to biblically accurate and sound theology. And it's important that we know

00:04:38.880 that Jen Hatmaker doesn't hold to the biblically sound theology on marriage. And I'll explain why 0.99

00:04:44.820 that matters to what her Instagram caption said and why it matters to how we should approach

00:04:52.360 what someone like her says about God in the Bible. So the reason why the definition of marriage 1.00

00:04:59.520 matters and it matters what Jen Hatmaker thinks about marriage as a professing Christian is because 0.94

00:05:06.820 the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman is rooted in creation. It is reiterated in

00:05:13.260 both the Old and the New Testaments. It reflects a relationship between Christ and the church and

00:05:19.060 therefore reflects the gospel, which means consequently, if you get it wrong, the rest of your theology

00:05:25.080 is very likely going to be off. So first one, biblical marriage is rooted in creation. Genesis 2,

00:05:32.200 18, 14 through 18. Actually, I think that I got the reference wrong when I wrote it down. So I'll go back

00:05:38.800 and correct myself on that. But it says, then the Lord God said, oh, it's 18 through 24. Then the Lord

00:05:45.820 God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Now out

00:05:51.680 of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought

00:05:57.860 them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature,

00:06:02.560 that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of

00:06:08.220 the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep

00:06:14.380 sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with

00:06:19.480 flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the 0.99

00:06:25.300 man. Then the man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called

00:06:32.600 woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold 0.99

00:06:38.760 fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were

00:06:45.980 not ashamed. So that is Genesis 2, 18 through 25. Does that sound, this is a rhetorical question,

00:06:54.620 but I guess it's kind of not depending on what your perspective is. Does that sound arbitrary to you?

00:07:00.100 Does that sound from that passage of creation? Does it sound like God unintentionally or arbitrarily put

00:07:07.860 male and female together? Does it sound like male and female are interchangeable in this passage? Does

00:07:13.860 it sound like the marriage relationship or the gender binary for that matter is up for debate? Is

00:07:20.160 subject to cultural change or human whims? No, of course it doesn't. God made woman in marriage 0.97

00:07:27.520 specifically for man and vice versa. He created the relationship as between male and female

00:07:33.160 specifically, purposefully, intentionally, and beautifully. A biblical marriage is reiterated

00:07:39.280 throughout the Bible, not just in the Old Testament, in the laws for Israel, but in the New Testament as

00:07:45.200 well. Jesus reiterated the creation of marriage in Matthew 19, 4 through 6. Haven't you read, he replied,

00:07:51.820 that at the beginning, the creator made them male and female and said, for this reason, a man will

00:07:57.340 leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. So they are

00:08:03.660 no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate. So for those

00:08:10.920 out there, the, what I call the hipster Jesus Christians who say that Jesus never had anything to say 0.93

00:08:16.700 about today's controversial social issues, I would venture to guess that they are not reading very

00:08:22.220 closely. Again, the question we should ask those who say Christians should embrace gay marriage,

00:08:28.460 so they're not only saying that creation itself was arbitrary and basically meaningless, but also that

00:08:35.300 Jesus's words about marriage are arbitrary and meaningless. And we should just ask if that's the view

00:08:41.980 that they really hold, that Jesus's words don't really mean what they clearly mean when you read

00:08:47.320 the text. But Ephesians 5 makes clear why the creation of marriage was not arbitrary, because

00:08:53.720 bringing us to our third reason, biblical marriage reflects Christ and the church. So Ephesians 5, 22

00:09:00.540 through 24. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, 0.98

00:09:06.820 even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior. Now, as the church

00:09:11.980 submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love

00:09:17.760 your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. And then Ephesians 5, 31 through

00:09:23.600 33. This gives deeper meaning to the creation of marriage by saying this, therefore, a man shall

00:09:30.600 leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery

00:09:37.020 is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you

00:09:41.960 love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. So the marriage

00:09:47.800 relationship, according to this passage, according to the Bible, between one man and one woman is

00:09:52.960 rooted in creation, is reiterated in both the Old and the New Testaments, and by Jesus himself

00:09:58.600 is reflective of the relationship between Christ and the church, and in that way is representative

00:10:05.280 of the gospel. The gospel is Christ laying himself down, sacrificing himself for the church, for the

00:10:12.000 body of believers. Ephesians 5 says that that is how husbands are to love their wives radically,

00:10:17.920 sacrificially, and wives are to honor their husbands, submit to their husbands in the same way that they 0.95

00:10:24.120 submit to the Lord. So marriage between a man and a woman is reflective of the gospel. And finally,

00:10:32.140 ultimately, ultimately, gloriously, we see that all of this ends. All of this ends with Jesus coming

00:10:37.960 back for his church, which is depicted in Revelation 19 as a marriage, a wedding feast between what the

00:10:44.480 Bible says is the bride, the church, and the bridegroom, Jesus. So the definition of marriage by God

00:10:51.280 as between a man and a woman isn't arbitrary. It's not according to God, the one who made marriage

00:10:58.140 up for grabs or up for debate. It is depicted throughout the entirety of the biblical narrative

00:11:04.900 as a purposeful, intentional, symbolic pairing. Male and female are not interchangeable. Therefore,

00:11:11.920 the definition of marriage is not malleable, which is why when a professing Christian gets this wrong,

00:11:19.840 it is catastrophic for the rest of their theology. Marriage is not a small part of the biblical

00:11:26.360 narrative. It's not this throwaway aspect of God's eternal story of redemption. It is hugely meaningful.

00:11:33.900 And when we try to manipulate God's intentional design of gender and marriage, we are saying that 0.99

00:11:40.220 we don't believe God and that we don't trust God and we think that we know better. So for a professing

00:11:47.180 Christian to say that it's mean or it's bigoted or wrong to define marriage how God defines marriage

00:11:53.800 is for that professing Christian to say that God is a bigot and they are more compassionate than God.

00:12:00.880 But newsflash for every single one of us, no matter what, every single one of us, we are not more

00:12:07.200 compassionate or more loving or more kind than God is. If our good, faithful, and all-knowing God

00:12:14.800 says that something is one way, then far be it from us fallible, short-sighted, finite, sinful people

00:12:21.340 to say otherwise. If you are willing to discount what God says about something as significant as

00:12:29.400 marriage, if you're willing to discount what he says about marriage, this hugely important thing

00:12:35.180 according to the biblical text, what else are you willing to discount? What other parts of scripture

00:12:40.060 and the redemption story are you willing to throw out because it's uncomfortable or it's culturally

00:12:45.620 inconvenient? The answer is, as we see time and time again with people who hold this view and profess to

00:12:52.000 be Christians, the answer is a lot. You're willing to throw out a lot. Whenever we see someone compromise 1.00

00:12:57.320 on the definition of marriage, we always, I will say always as I have seen anyway, see some kind of

00:13:05.140 compromise in other areas of theology as well. Because if you are going to redefine the very institution

00:13:12.380 that both starts and ends the Bible, why shouldn't you pick and choose other parts too according to

00:13:18.760 what you think feels good? You will see them, the people who hold this view, who evolve in their

00:13:25.500 views of marriage beyond what the Bible says marriage is, you will see them soon scoff at the idea of sin

00:13:31.180 as a whole. They will downplay the importance of holiness and obedience. They will start labeling anyone

00:13:37.820 who actually regards the biblical definition of marriage as fundamentalist, this big scary word

00:13:43.960 that they use to try to demonize people who believe the Bible is inerrant. Their philosophy will often be

00:13:50.040 one of moral relativism and eventually the content that they write or produce will no longer resemble

00:13:57.300 theology, will no longer resemble the gospel, but will resemble or will be what I call me-ology. So not

00:14:06.100 theology, but me-ology by redefining, discounting, or ignoring what the Bible says about male and

00:14:13.440 female in marriage along with everything else. This is not the only issue. This is not even necessarily 0.97

00:14:19.460 the most important issue along with everything else that the Bible says. If we discount anything

00:14:24.620 that the Bible says is true or not true, good or not good, we are saying that we know better than God,

00:14:31.440 that we are better than God and consequently placing ourselves on the throne of our lives,

00:14:37.160 giving ourselves the power to determine what's good and what's not. That means that we are bowing

00:14:43.180 down to the God of self, not the God of scripture. And that's not to say that genuine Christians don't

00:14:49.980 ever get it wrong because of course we do. I've gotten many things wrong. I will continue to be wrong on

00:14:55.900 things, but at the end of the day for you and for me, for the Christian, we bend ourselves to the

00:15:02.560 unbendable truth of scripture, not the other way around. I am always willing to be wrong in the face

00:15:08.900 of the truth of God's word. When we bend scripture to fit our opinion, we are effectively making

00:15:15.940 ourselves God and we are not good gods. All of that leads me to Jen Hatmaker's recent Instagram post,

00:15:23.520 which doesn't have anything to do with biblical marriage, but does give us a solid background of

00:15:29.340 why her theology has gone so off rails and has led to this Instagram post that represents

00:15:37.280 so much of the terrible neology that we see pervasively among Christian women. Jen Hatmaker's 1.00

00:15:45.420 Instagram post. It is a quote from her book, Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire. And a lot of you guys sent it to me

00:15:52.680 and you said, please, can you tell me? I know this is off, but can you tell me why this is off?

00:15:58.880 So Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire is basically, I haven't read the book, but from the synopsis and

00:16:05.320 what I can tell from the quotes that she has been posting, it sounds about the exact opposite of what

00:16:11.560 I believe in my book, which comes out August 11th, by the way. The quote on the Instagram post is this.

00:16:17.920 Now, there's a cuss word in it, and I won't say it, but I'm just warning you. Women are the baddest 1.00

00:16:22.200 of bad days, she says it. Women are the baddest of bad days, and there's nothing they cannot overcome 1.00

00:16:27.940 and accomplish. The caption is long, so I will just read you portions of her caption without 0.82

00:16:32.540 decontextualizing anything. Of course, you can go and read the caption for yourself so you don't think

00:16:36.980 that I am trying to pull things out and make her mean something that she doesn't actually mean.

00:16:40.820 Um, I sincerely believe, she says, we, women, are the answer to virtually everything that ails

00:16:47.800 society. I trust our instincts and desires and gifts. We want things that are good and true and

00:16:53.480 lovely, no matter what this world has always said about our desires. Trust yourself this week.

00:17:01.300 She says, trust what you care about and what you want and need. Your body is taking good care of you.

00:17:07.040 I believe in you right now, sisters. You are so good. Fierce comes out a week from tomorrow. I wrote

00:17:12.360 it because I love you and I love us. You deserve this investment in your own beautiful d-word life.

00:17:19.780 And of course, she says it. All right, so this is exactly why I wrote my book, You're Not Enough,

00:17:26.300 which I kind of wish was coming out right now since it's a response to the kind of stuff that is

00:17:31.320 apparently in Jen Hatmaker's book, but we'll just have to wait until August. Um, this is

00:17:36.560 me-ology. This isn't theology because it has nothing to do with God at all. And just a reminder,

00:17:42.760 the Jen Hatmaker bills herself as a Christian podcaster, author, and influencer, and she always

00:17:48.440 has. If she were just a secular person, I wouldn't, I mean, I'd probably be talking about this, but I

00:17:54.100 wouldn't fault her for not promoting sound theology, but she bills herself as a Christian author. So I

00:18:01.300 think that this is fair game to weigh her words against the word of God. Uh, so this has nothing

00:18:07.080 actually to do with the Bible at all. It has nothing to do with the word of God, which is why 0.75

00:18:11.860 it's not theology. It is me-ology. This isn't godly. This is not Christ-centered. This is not glorifying to

00:18:18.220 the Lord in any way. This is me-ology. This is me. What I say is true and what I say feels good.

00:18:25.580 This is the ology that she is putting out. This is an ode to the God of self. And quite frankly,

00:18:31.440 it's not even remotely compelling. I would say a lot of her writing is compelling and interesting

00:18:37.200 and charming. This not so much. However, because a lot of you guys send it to me, I want to address

00:18:42.960 it. Women are the baddest of baddies, she says, and there is nothing we can't accomplish. So we'll 1.00

00:18:48.880 start with that. Look, first of all, I agree that women are awesome. I love being a woman. I've

00:18:56.100 always had really awesome and admirable, uh, girl friends and people that I look up to. God thinks

00:19:03.400 women are awesome in all of their uniqueness and beauty and ability to nurture and nourish and 1.00

00:19:09.900 beautify and teach and have and raise children. God thinks that we are awesome. He made us fearfully

00:19:16.320 and wonderfully. We just read in the creation account, how specially and specifically God made

00:19:22.580 us. So of course, God thinks that women are beautiful made in his image. He made us with 0.98

00:19:28.080 special gifts and capacities and abilities that men don't have and vice versa. He made men with

00:19:34.120 capacities and abilities that we don't have. We are created to compliment one another. I do think

00:19:39.600 that women are capable of incredible things. God uses women throughout the Bible in wonderful

00:19:45.880 in special ways. And that's an amazing, that's an amazing thing. We should be thankful for all of

00:19:52.620 that. However, are there things that we can't accomplish on our own? Yes. Are there things that

00:20:01.560 we cannot overcome on our own? Yes. Because we are fallible human beings. Jin's message is a message of

00:20:10.200 self-empowerment. This is a different way to say the refrain that we have heard and have debunked on

00:20:16.860 this podcast a million times. You are enough. In this quote, Jin is saying, women, you are enough. That

00:20:25.020 you have all the power inside yourself to do whatever you put your mind to. But it's not true. You're not

00:20:32.980 enough. You can't accomplish anything on your own. I don't know if you're the baddest of bad A. I have no

00:20:38.500 idea. The fact is, if you were enough, if you were amazing and perfect just how you are, and you could

00:20:44.000 accomplish everything on your own, you wouldn't need Jesus. You wouldn't need his salvation, his

00:20:49.160 sanctification, his strength. But the Bible says that we've all fallen short of the glory of God, that we

00:20:53.740 all need Christ. The gospel is not that you are a bad A who can accomplish anything. The gospel is that

00:21:03.020 you and I are bad, period. And we need Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. As Psalm 16 2 says,

00:21:10.300 I have no good apart from you. Therefore, it is not comforting or helpful at all to hear that we can

00:21:17.720 accomplish anything. No, we can't actually. Ultimately and eternally, there's nothing that we can achieve on

00:21:24.620 our own. We are completely helpless. Ephesians 2 says that without Christ, we are dead in our sin. But

00:21:29.900 good news, because of Christ, we are made alive. We are saved by grace through faith and are empowered

00:21:35.620 by the Holy Spirit to do good works. Ephesians 2 10. She says, I sincerely believe we women are the

00:21:44.040 answer to virtually everything that ails society. What an amazing statement. She says, I trust our

00:21:50.260 instincts and desires and gifts. We want things that are good and true and lovely, no matter what this

00:21:55.660 world has always said about our desires. Really? Women are the answer to what ails society? Jen, 0.97

00:22:04.260 girl, have you read? Have you read about the Garden of Eden? Like, can I introduce you to Eve? Do you

00:22:09.900 remember that? Like, women are not the answer to what ails society. Men aren't the answer to what ails 0.99

00:22:17.940 society? Women and men are what ails society. Like, who else is causing the problems? Besides men and 1.00

00:22:28.200 women, sinful men and women, we are causing the problems. We are what ails society. Christ is the 0.97

00:22:35.780 answer. Christ is the answer to literally all that ails society. That's what the Bible is about,

00:22:42.940 that Christ is the antidote to our ailments. Not women, not any human being. Now, if Jen, like I 0.98

00:22:50.320 said, were not a professing Christian, I wouldn't expect her to know all of this. I wouldn't be 0.96

00:22:55.420 spending my time on this at all, but she is. And she is sharing with her 472,000 Instagram followers

00:23:02.140 and however many readers she has, something that is not just a little theologically off because we've

00:23:07.440 all been there, we've all made mistakes, but something that is completely counter to the gospel

00:23:12.200 and a message that she wrote an entire book on. A message that she has been consistently pushing

00:23:17.480 for years now. She says, I trust our instincts and desires and gifts. We want things that are good

00:23:23.560 and true and lovely, no matter what this world has always said about our desires. Trust yourself this

00:23:29.440 week. She says, trust what you care about and what you want and need. Your body is taking good care of

00:23:35.020 you. Why? Why does Jen tell all women to trust themselves? I don't trust myself unconditionally

00:23:42.600 and you shouldn't either. I do not always desire what is good and true and lovely and you don't

00:23:47.820 either. Sometimes I, because I'm a sinful person still being sanctified by Jesus, desire what is

00:23:53.520 selfish, what is wrong. Sometimes I am envious. Sometimes I'm unjustifiably angry. Sometimes I'm lazy.

00:24:00.400 Sometimes I'm prideful. Very often I want things that are not good or true or lovely, but whatever

00:24:06.520 suits me. I don't trust your desires. You shouldn't trust your desires. You shouldn't trust all my

00:24:12.960 desires. I don't trust Jen's desires. I don't trust anyone's desires all the time. Jeremiah 17 9 says

00:24:19.680 this, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? Romans 7 8,

00:24:26.440 for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. You are not trustworthy. Your feelings,

00:24:33.600 your desires, if not in submission to Christ, will lead you astray. And when I say you are not

00:24:40.320 trustworthy, I'm talking about your heart. I'm talking about your feelings. I'm talking about all

00:24:44.700 of your desires and motives. They cannot be unconditionally trusted. Jen says, trust yourself

00:24:50.120 this week. Trust what you care about and what you want and need. Don't trust yourself. You aren't

00:24:56.040 trustworthy to yourself. God is. Trust what you care about. I care in my sinful flesh. Here are the

00:25:02.400 things I care about. I care about me, myself, and I. I care about Netflix. In my sinful nature, I mostly

00:25:08.560 care about what I want to do. I care about food. I care about sleep. I care about scrolling through

00:25:14.220 Instagram. I care about whatever I want to do right now. But that is not what God calls me to. That is not

00:25:21.480 what God tells me to do. God calls me to be a wife and a mom and to do all the things that he has called

00:25:27.340 me to. And that does include, of course, rest and leisure and doing things that make me happy. So that

00:25:33.300 sometimes does include Netflix and eating good food and all of that. But if I were to trust myself and

00:25:39.080 trust what I care about, I would be living a life completely consumed by narcissism and convenience.

00:25:46.200 Trusting myself isn't enough. If I were to follow all of my feelings, I would never do anything that

00:25:53.480 I don't want to do. But daily, continually, we are called by God to do the things we don't want to do

00:26:00.520 for his glory. Some of them we do want to do, but a lot of the things we don't want to do. That's why

00:26:05.640 Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and to follow him. So the good message is not

00:26:11.940 trust yourself. You're taking care of yourself. The better message is, do what God calls you to do.

00:26:18.200 Love him. Love others. Seek to glorify him in all you do and trust that he will take care of you.

00:26:25.320 Jesus says that he is taking care of you. Jen says that you are taking care of you.

00:26:31.520 You've got a finite ability to calm your anxious mind and to ease your worried heart. You don't have

00:26:38.100 what it takes to shepherd your soul, which underneath all the stress that you are feeling right now,

00:26:43.680 it's what you really need. You don't need anything more than a shepherd of your soul who can exchange

00:26:49.700 all of your anxiety for peace, your out-of-control emotions for steadfastness, and your desperation for

00:26:56.420 hope, and your lack of knowledge for wisdom. Jen Hatmaker is a peddler of me-ology. It is not

00:27:04.080 biblical. It has no salvific components to it. It is not satisfying, and it will only make you 0.99

00:27:09.920 emptier than before. This is a new age philosophy. This idea that underneath all of society's

00:27:16.060 expectations and everything that culture tells you is something good and perfect and true, that you've

00:27:21.220 got this inner goddess, that if you just dig down deep and unleash it, you will find all of your heart's

00:27:27.700 desires fulfilled. It's not true. What the Bible says is that when you look inside yourself, outside of

00:27:33.740 Christ, you find rotting death, you find nothing, you find darkness, you find hopelessness, but in Christ

00:27:42.440 you are made alive. You are given hope. You are given a new, soft, regenerated heart. Remember, as we have

00:27:50.300 said so many times, the self can't be both the problem and the solution. So if inside yourself you find, which we all

00:27:59.340 do, if you find insecurity, anxiety, fear, confusion, and chaos, the antidote to these things won't be found

00:28:09.140 inside yourself. How could it? But outside yourself. In the God who made you, who says, cast all your anxieties

00:28:18.580 on me because I care for you. What a better message than you take care of you. In an effort to make you feel

00:28:26.160 better about yourself, Jen and other people like her. So Glennon Doyle, Rachel Hollis, Jen is actually

00:28:32.500 weighing you down with a burden that you cannot bear. And that is the burden of being your own God.

00:28:41.480 She says, trust yourself, take care of yourself, accomplish things for yourself, be the solution

00:28:46.700 to all that ails society yourself. But you and I can't do these things. And if we try, we will be met

00:28:55.180 with failure. These are burdens that you and I cannot bear and we were never meant to bear them.

00:29:03.560 And there's good news. There's so much better news than this stupid Instagram caption. The good news is 1.00

00:29:09.480 we don't have to be our own gods. God is our God. He alone is worthy of our trust. He alone is the

00:29:19.100 caretaker of our hearts and souls. He alone can accomplish all things. He alone is the solution

00:29:25.340 to all that ails society. And he says that his burdens are light and his yoke is easy. And he

00:29:32.680 doesn't call us to self-empowerment. He calls us to self-denial, to doing not what we want to do at

00:29:39.620 all times, but what he has called us to do, which is to love him, to obey him, and to love others.

00:29:45.320 So that is why her Instagram caption is not biblical. And it might feel good in the moment,

00:29:51.820 but it's not good news. The gospel is good news. And it is counter to what Jen Hatmaker

00:29:57.640 is propagating. And pay attention. I won't call out any other names right now. Pay attention to who

00:30:03.220 she's having on her podcast, to who is saying I'm associating with her and I'm her friend. And look,

00:30:08.700 I'm not saying that we've all been perfect in all of our associations and things like that,

00:30:13.380 but yoking yourself with someone who is blatantly preaching a gospel that is not biblical while

00:30:19.140 calling themselves a Christian, it's dangerous territory. It's dangerous territory. Share this 0.98

00:30:24.740 with your friends who love her. Okay. I will be back here on Wednesday with some important news.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - April 20, 2020

Ep 240 ｜ Bad Theology

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