So this style of preaching is interesting, and there's plenty of truth to what he says. At the same time, it's not a panacea- the Jonathan Edwards school of fire and brimstone packed churches with a sort of pornography of hell, but did not do much better at shaping the actions of parishioners. I'm not exactly sure about some of his points- his talk of obedience to parents and 'suggestive clothes' strikes me as off in two ways. First, he kind of goes light on the spiritual content of keeping Christ first in your heart and heavy on the SO DON'T YOU BE A HARLOT. I have to say, even if its not theologically replacing faith with works it functionally seems to do so. Second, I wonder if the talk about clothes isn't just reactionary conservatism (cultural, not political.) I mean, 200 years ago you'd be a HARLOT for wearing a skirt that shows your ankles. I'm pretty sure everyone here would find such a notion ridiculous. Now don't get me wrong- there are those who use clothes as a means to get attention and have replaced God with attention in their hearts. But its difficult not to get that 'you must dress a certain way to be saved' out of that sermon. Maybe that's not what he intended to convey, but the force of his absolutes strongly hints it.
You must realize that God and His word “is the same yesterday, today and forever.” I, being an 18 year old agree with what he’s saying. I’ve been a Christian for three years now. Your issue seems to be with the clothing. I would say you either felt convicted about it, or you dress in the manner in which he was speaking against and you had a problem with it. I was listening to Sean McDowell and he said something very good. “It doesn’t matter how you look at it, there are no subjective truths in the Bible.” In other words, if you say “well, that may be truth for you, but this is truth for me” you would be highly mistaken when it comes to the Bible.
We are told to live holy lives, worthy of repentance, to be in The Word daily. I love how Jesus said “Deny yourself.” Clothing is a big issue.
Girls get implants and dress just like the world. This is the thing. God says “don’t dress like that” but the world says “it’s ok” and so now the church has compromised and become lukewarm and said “this is ok.” Get my drift? God hasn’t changed what he said, man has. Sean McDowell made another good statement when he said “God’s Words and standards don’t change, man’s does.” In other words, God is the same yesterday today and forever and no deceit is found in Him. However, man changes. We change what we think (key word). God’s word is absolute, man tends to change God’s grace into lewdness.
Conclusion to first point: God doesn’t change His standard, but man changes his and in doing so perverts the Bible from saying “so and so is wrong” into “it’s ok now. Times have changed.” Times have changed, God has not. Let’s not forget.
That brings me to my second issue- too many absolutes. Now certainly there are absolutes in Christ- chief among them his forgiveness and salvation. But again I get the idea that perhaps his priorities are out of place. Instead of giving Christ as the absolute, he places lesser implications in the place of God (hey, this reminds me of Romans...) Just a thought exercise- Let's say your parents don't believe, or believe in some heresy, and forbid you to profess faith in Christ. What then is a good Christian to do? I think that the martyr Perpetua had it correctly- that the will of the Father has infinitely more force than the will of your father.
Perhaps I have been too harsh in my listening, if so I apologize. I certainly enjoyed listening and it gave me pause for profound thought.
You seem to have not finished your first paragraph here, so I will try and answer you as best I can. I think you missed the message of what Paul washer was saying and in doing so focused more on the clothing aspect and inferred a fire and brimstone preacher who really didn’t focus enough on God and more about the scriptures instead of hearing what he was saying. The crux of his entire message was living a life of holiness and repenting from our wicked ways and turning back to Christ. Why? Because not only does he see our hypocrisy as a Christian church but he sees that we are being fooled by Satan himself into thinking that we can live how we want when we want and because we said an utterance then lived a life of lawlessness, we think we can inherit eternal bliss.
No, I say. That is a falsity that has infiltrated the church. We water our churches down. My last statement is for you to read acts and look at who was martyred and why they were martyred. They were martyred because they spoke the truth and every time they spoke the truth it was with passion. Not subjective truth, but absolute objective truth. Why? We are told that we will know the truth if we abide in His word. If we can know the Truth (truth is 100% absolute not subjective) and that truth will set us free, then let’s be like the Bereans in Acts and study the scriptures rightly dividing the what? The word of Truth.
Paul Washer would be a martyr 2000 years ago. I want to speak boldly like that, like Paul, Stephen, Jesus.
