Mark Driscoll Kicked Out Of
His Own Organization
by Sandy Simpson, 8/18/14
Driscoll was kicked out of the Acts 29 Network church planting group, his own organization, for his “ungodly behavior”.
“Seattle megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll has
been removed from a church-planting network of more than 500 churches he helped
found after a pattern of “ungodly and disqualifying behavior.” (Religion News
Service, by Sarah Pulliam Balley,
Huffington Post, 8/9/14)
His behavior is not the only problem with this guy. Check out his false teachings and behavior over the years.
Driscoll taught
Noah was not a righteous man
Mark Driscoll
further confuse the Gospel message. In Driscoll’s
so-called defense of the biblical account of Noah, he says that the Noah
account was an example of God’s grace and that it had nothing to do with Noah’s
righteousness or even Noah’s faith in God. And in fact, in a sermon by Mark
Driscoll, he says that Noah was “bad all of the time” (video
clip). This is a commonly
believed and twisted view of God and salvation that says God chooses some and
rejects others, based on nothing more than God’s own personal whim rather than
on one’s faith or trust in God (“without faith it is impossible to please
[God]“—Hebrews 11:6). In actuality, the story of Noah is about God saving the
one man on the earth who had faith in God as Dr. Ironside
explains below. And Scripture is very clear that God called Noah a righteous
man. (http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?tag=mark-driscoll)
By whom also we have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans
5:2)
For by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves: it is
the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8)
Noah was a just man and
perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9)
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
(Genesis 6:22)
And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy
house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this
generation. (Genesis 7:1)
The word of the Lord came again to me, saying, Son of man, when the land
sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then
will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread
thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it:
Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their
righteousness, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 14:12-14)
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved
with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the
which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which
is by faith. (Hebrews 11:7)
And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a
preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; (2 Peter 2:5)
Driscoll warned of
false teachers then participates with others
While correctly
warning about false teachers, he not only soft soaps figures such as Emergent
Church author Dan Kimball and the author of “Blue
Like Jazz”, but joins forces
with the utmost of deceivers and false teachers such as Robert Schuller and Rick Warren. Warren’s butchering of Scripture,
redefinition of Christianity based on consumerist philosophy and psychology,
Warren’s public back peddle on homosexuality, and his global PEACE plan calling
for partnering with Muslims, Hindus, etc. is an absolute seduction from hell.
No Christ â
No Peace. God’s Peace Plan is the Gospel (Isaiah 52: 7, Ephesians 6: 15, Luke 2:10-14). (http://moriel.org/MorielArchive/index.php/discernment/church-issues/popular-teachers/mark-driscoll)
Driscoll has
written some very questionable books
From Confessions
of a Reformission Rev. by Mark Driscoll – Reviewed by
Gary Gilley (http://www.svchapel.org/resources/book-reviews/5-church/229-confessions-of-a-reformission-rev-by-mark-driscoll)
• He is crude. From barnyard words (pp.
67, 94, 128, 129, 134) to the gross description of the affects of the stomach
flu (p. 177), to sexual innuendos (pp. 59-60, 94-96, 128), to repeatedly
referring to “God the Ghost” (pp. 7, 26, 34, 47, 74), Driscoll’s language is
often shocking.
• He is an admitted curser (pp. 47, 50,
71, 97, 99, 128, 130). He is known as the cussing pastor in Donald Miller’s
Blue Like Jazz (pp. 96-97) and there is no indication
in this book that Driscoll has reformed his foul language.
• He is also ruthless. Driscoll has a
mission (to ultimately grow a church of 10,000 attendees – p. 164) and any who
does not fit into that mission is dispensable (pp. 45, 63, 112, 131, 135,
148-150) or fired (pp. 146-147, 196). As Mars Hill grows to megachurch
status, one has to wonder what has become of the multitude of people harmed in
the process, especially as Driscoll admits his fits of anger when not pleased
(pp 99, 128, 130).
• Separation from worldly activities does not
fit Driscoll’s missional strategy. He speaks
often of drinking and frequenting bars (e.g. pp. 51, 131, 146), buying lottery
tickets (p. 58), admiring and learning from foul-mouthed entertainers such as
Chris Rock (pp. 43, 70), stealing a sound system (p. 62) and setting himself up
for sexual temptation (which he resisted) (p. 128).
• Purity in the church is inconsistent.
While Driscoll certainly desires to see Christians live morally, he is willing
to use unbelievers in ministry, especially in his worship and concert bands
(pp. 68, 158) It is one thing to reach out to those
involved in such sins; it is another to use them in ministry.
• He has an unbiblical understanding of
demonic activity and recommends the books of C. Fred Dickason
and Neil T. Anderson on spiritual warfare (pp. 122, 123, 184).
…
• His church has grown on the back of
questionable activities such as non-Christian rock concerts (p. 40), hip-hop and punk-rock worship (pp. 93, 100, 126).
• While Driscoll has distanced himself from
the more radical emergent movement (pp. 21-23), he is still associated with the
Leadership Network (pp. 7, 82) which promotes emergent.
From Death by
Love, by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears –
Reviewed by Gary Gilley (http://www.svchapel.org/resources/book-reviews/4-christian-living/648-death-by-love-by-mark-driscoll-a-gerry-breshears)
• He misses the stigma of the cross when
he writes, “In our day, this would be akin to a junkie’s needle or a pervert’s
used condom becoming the world’s most beloved symbol and adorning homes,
churches, and bodies” (p. 18). The cross was a symbol of execution and
death not perversion and addiction.
• Could he really believe that “today, a few
billion people worship Jesus as their only God because they, like Paul, have
realized that Jesus died for them personally” (Gal 2:20)? Such a definition of “Christians” would have to include all
Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and cult members in the body of Christ.
• Driscoll’s understanding of spiritual
warfare is deficient. For one thing he believes in generational
demons (p. 41). Additionally, he and Breshears
need to sharpen their understanding of demonic possession. Demons can
attack and tempt Christians but they cannot indwell them. The authors
attempt to defend a convoluted view of spiritual warfare based upon a
definition found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary rather than on the Greek
word daimonizomai.
This leads to faulty and unbiblical advice on how to defend oneself from demons
(pp. 53-54).
• Driscoll believes we must confess sins
committed against us (pp. 153-158). In doing this it might become
necessary to uncover some repressed memories and make them known to others (p.
155). These steps will lead to Jesus purifying us from all
unrighteousness—including the “filth that has come upon your soul by the
failures of [others]” (p. 156). But Scripture does not teach that we are
spiritually defiled by the sins of others, although we may suffer great
pain. Nor does the Bible teach us to confess the sins that others have
committed against us. Also, repressed memories are an invention of Freud, not
taught in Scripture as Jesus said, “That which proceeds out of the man,
that is what defiles the man” (Mark 7:20).
• I would disagree with Driscoll’s
unsubstantiated remark that “more fundamental Christians bypass the
self-emptying of the eternal Son” (p. 200). No one I know within
fundamental ranks minimizes the human side of the incarnation.
• Driscoll levels a broad and unsubstantiated
criticism when he writes, “Apart from reading dead guys like the Puritans and
other guys who read those dead guys, such as my hero Charles Hadden Spurgeon and friend John Piper, you will be unlikely
to find the themes [glorifying God, walking in the Spirit, the church and
humble suffering] expounded in any great detail in our present age of
Christianity Lite” (p. 202). While I agree
there are many insipid, weak-kneed forms of Christianity being propagated
today, Driscoll paints with far too wide a brush. There are scores of
“live” guys preaching and writing about the true message of the cross.
And many of these do not emerge from the Puritan stream only but base their
cross-theology in the Scriptures where it belongs. …
Driscoll has put
down the Rapture
Mark
Driscoll – The Rapture is Dumb: “One of the most astonishing things about Jesus is that as God he
actually chose to come into our fallen, sick, twisted, unjust, evil, cruel,
painful world and be with us to suffer like us and for us. Meanwhile, we spend
most of our time trying to figure out how to avoid the pain and evil of this
world while reading dumb books about the rapture just hoping to get out.” (Vintage
Jesus, p. 44).
In Mark Driscoll’s book Vintage Jesus, he
ridicules Christians who believe there will be an Armageddon and a rapture (pp. 44, 157). (http://www.letusreason.org/proph28.htm)
Driscoll promotes
contemplative prayer
Presently, on
Driscoll’s website, The Resurgence (see whois
info) is an article
titled “How to Practice Meditative Prayer.” The article is written by an Acts 29
(Driscoll’s network of churches) pastor, Winfield Bevins.
A nearly identical article on Driscoll’s site, also by Bevins, is titled Meditative
Prayer: Filling the Mind.
Both articles show a drawing of a human brain. In this latter article, Bevins recognizes contemplative mystic pioneer Richard
Foster:
What do we mean by meditative prayer? Is there such a thing as
Christian meditation? Isn’t meditation non-Christian? According to Richard
Foster, “Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind. Christian
meditation is an attempt to fill the mind” (Celebration of Discipline). Rather than emptying the mind we fill it
with God’s word. We must not neglect a vital part of our Judeo-Christian
heritage simply because other traditions use a form of meditation. (http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=1640)
Driscoll calls Christians “Little
Christs”
“Vintage Jesus”, Driscoll – Page 120: “To be a Christian is to be a “little Christ.” In fact, the name
Christian was originally a term of mockery given to us by our enemies. But
Jesus said that to be a Christian is to pick up our cross and die. Die to sin,
die to pride, die to comfort, die to anything and
everything that fails to glorify God alone as the object of our affection and
the source of our joy. With great insight, Walter Wink has said that killing
Jesus was like trying to destroy a dandelion seed-head by blowing on it. At the
cross, what was intended as eradication was used by God for multiplication, and
we pray that you would always be loyal to Jesus, our hero, and his revolution.”
Driscoll employs
vulgarity and explicit sexual advice from the pulpit
“Driscoll’s vulgarity draws
media attention” -
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
(BP)–An in-depth New York Times Magazine feature on a controversial Seattle
pastor has generated a new wave of debate about vulgarity in the pulpit.
“Who Would Jesus
Smack Down,” a 3,200-word profile of Mark Driscoll, founding pastor of Mars
Hill Church in Seattle, Wash., focused on Driscoll’s Calvinist theology but,
like most secular reporting on the Seattle pastor, began with a vignette on his
“racy” sermon topics and casual clothes. . . .
On the heels of the
New York Times profile, Christian talk show personality Ingrid Schleuter criticized Driscoll for a series of explicit “sex
advice” posts on the Mars Hill Church blog — material appropriate only for
married couples but available to any visitor, including children. Schleuter also castigated Driscoll for linking the blog to
a website, christiannymphos.org, “which features articles on how a Christian
wife can turn herself into a dominatrix, the glories of an-l and or-l sex, and
the use of sex toys.”
“At a time when
American young people are hit in the face with graphic sexuality in every facet
of our culture, the church should be a safe haven where the sacredness and
privacy of the act of marriage is respected by pastors,” Schleuter
said in a press release. “Those with sexual issues need to receive private
counseling — not sex seminars in a church auditorium.
“For generations,
Christian pastors have managed to convey the Scripture’s teachings on
fornication, adultery and the beauty of sexuality within marriage without
sullying and cheapening it” Schleuter added. “Mark
Driscoll is a sad product of our times. While waving his orthodox doctrinal
credentials, he has simultaneously embraced the spirit of the age when it comes
to his treatment of sex. In the process, he is pornifying
the church and only adding to the moral squalor of our culture.” Click here to read this entire article.