Featured Would Paul Washer Be Welcome to Speak at Your Local Church

Every preacher (including me, several times) has had the frustrating experience of hearing somebody say, "Great sermon, brother. I'm sure there was somebody here who really needed to hear that."

 

I have watched the entire sermon several years ago. Yes, he makes some good comments about the state of the (Western) church. However, the sensational accusation that the majority of professing Christians attending a weekend rally are going to Hell is way over the top and sours his entire sermon.

 

And? Do the unbelievers in Washer's audience not count?

Yes, because it was irrelevant.

Yes, just as I did when I was a false convert. Just as all tares and false converts do. Thank goodness somebody told me the truth, just like Washer is doing here.

Merely being at a Youth For Christ rally doesn't affirm that they're saved. I used to work for the folks who did the Creation Festival and that was the best witnessing opportunity I've ever had in my life.

Well, wouldn't that be consistent with Jesus' teaching about the narrow gate?

I agree. Watch the video. But not to see whether or not I'm wrong, but to hear the Gospel.

Please, watch the video.

 

Yes, nothing ruins a good Gospel presentation like presenting the Gospel to your audience.

 

Having spent a lot of time teaching teens and a lot of time overseas, I agree with him. Long before seeing this sermon, I would counsel folks to stop leading people in prayer and then declaring them saved.

We have raised a generation of kids who know how to fake it. And they are in droves turning their backs on their "salvation" and the church the first opportunity they can get from underneath their equally fake parent's roof.

We send them on the trips, and they raise their hands and lead in their youth groups, but all the while th e majority are faking. It's an epidemic in the youth just as it is with a lot of their parents.

Washer just spoke up about it when a lot of others won't.

 

And by this you assume foolishly that in Washer's audience they were all believers. Naivete hauteur to the extreme.

 

As much as I love Adrian Rogers (the token Arminian on my ipod), it drives me absolutely nuts when he says "...and now, if you prayed that prayer with me, you can know for certain, without a shadow of a doubt, that you're saved!"

 

I think people dislike Paul Washer because he presents a Christian life that many think to be too hard.

It's like Scripture says If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Cor. 13:1-3

This is where the church is in many regards. we make a lot of noise about issues but never seem to express love. That's off the narrow path but we don't acknowledge it.

The Body of Christ should be oozing love for those not on the path because we realize how loving and forgiving Christ is to us when we step off the path.

But when you can look at the way people are living and constantly disobeying the two GREATEST Commandments, it's real easy to see how Paul Washer says what he does about the folks in attendance and the "church" as a whole.

A long time ago Billy Graham made a statement about what he thought of the majority of folks in the average church. It wasn't the infamous 75% or whatever that number is that gets thrown around. He's denied ever saying that and his folks can't find any record of him saying that number.

But I believe he is on the record for saying the majority in most churches and that is still wild. No BG doesn't get to decide who is/isn't saved. But I think that God allows certain people a discernment on these things which most will deny and even ignore.

I'm an observing person and will readily lead, but the majority of the time will shrink into the background to observe. And I can tell you, from my observations the majority of the church is NOT what it claims to be.

If it were, there would not be as much chaos in the world as there is. And so many who actually ARE in the faith operate with no power because they are mired in unrepentant sin that they won't acknowledge as sin just like the homosexuals the church likes to point out as doing this.

And as the church goes, goes society.

 

Adrian Rogers. One of my childhood heroes. He was a mentor for my pastor and I got to spend quality time with him quite a bit growing up. But I absolutely HATED when he would say that because I knew so many folks who pastors had told the same thing who were doing some of the vilest things you could imagine. That's one of the reasons why I wil never lead anyone in a prayer for salvation.

If it's going to be real, if it's going to be authentic, it's gonna have to be that person speaking from the heart.

 

SN, I have lost a lot of respect for you over the past year or so because of some of your posts, but this post takes the cake, did you read any of these articles or research who wrote them. I doubt it, you probably just Googled "PW False Teacher" and copied and pasted the first few links.

Lets take a look at some of these shall we?

This cat has quite an extensive list of false teachers on his website. Even the prince of preachers himself CHS.

http://www.thepathoftruth.com/falseteachers/index.htm#list

At the bottom the "author" identifies himself as a retired Pastor of the Church of God (TN).

In the first line of this one the "author" calls the SBC apostate. I believe you go to an SBC church don't you. While I am SB and I sincerely have concerns about a number of things, I wouldn't call it apostate, its got its issues, but still the best thing going in the good ole US of A. The author of this site is another Fundy nut job with a long list of false teachers.

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/wolves_in_sheep's_clothing.htm

While I understand that PW can be controversial, and I understand you were not happy with your personal experiences hearing him preach, your vitrol for him is quite over the top. But I'm glad for your OP as some folks lurking might give him a listen, grab their bibles, and decide for themselves.

 

saturneptune,

You have an agenda and just dislike evangelist Paul. What about the churches that disagree with you and welcome Paul? How do you explain them?

 

I think it's because his message hits too close to home. Like they say, when you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that howls the loudest is the one that got hit.

 

Aren't these the same folks who do the crazy "rock music is evil"?

(Not saying that the belief that rock music is evil is crazy, although I disagree with it, just that the way they go about it and the accusations they make are pretty out there).

 

To those thinking PW preaches a works based salvation review some of his recent twitter posts about the matter.

https://twitter.com/paulwasher

 

Agree, he could make millions if he wanted to, but seems to be a pretty humble guy in real life, whose greatest concern is his wife and children. Again for the naysayers, he posted a pic of his modest log home on his twitter account, no McMansions and jet airplanes for this guy.

 

He can be as humble as Jesus Himself, but calling his fellow Southern Baptist evangelists "stupid" because they dare to give a converted sinner hope through a prayer to receive Jesus Christ is in itself utterly stupid. He may be misunderstood, but he's not helping himself with ignorant comments like that.

One of the videos of him on You.Tube features him crying and recounting how he spent hours and hours and hours with some big guy who came into an Alaskan church Washer was preaching at, and the guy at the end of the service says something to the effect of "That can't be all there is to it. There's got to be more. I understand it, it can't be that easy." So Washer begins this marathon with him and starts taking the guy through Scripture after Scripture, until he took him to John 3:16, and suddenly the guy breaks down, blubbering, "I'm saved! My sins are washed away, I am redeemed!" Washer then makes a production out of proclaiming that is the right way to evangelize. Really? Hours and hours and hours of going through the Bible to no avail, only to have the simplicity of John 3:16 convince the guy it really is that simple, that his understanding, his emotional, intellectual and most importantly, his spiritual agreement with that verse truly did constitute his realization that he was, indeed, a sinner in need of a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Again, really??? Tell me something: How is John 3:16 not one of the very first verses a witness takes a sinner who is troubled by his sin? Washer may have had some intent to prove something with that video, I'm not sure what it was. But what he actually proves is it really is that simple, if the Holy Spirit is in it. It doesn't take some marathon Scripture exploration, the sweat of the evangelist -- trust me, God doesn't need our sweat, he needs our heart. It takes the heart of the sinner (!!) that the Holy Spirit has prepared for change, and an ascent to that change, also enabled by the Holy Spirit. Anyone who thinks it's harder, doesn't know God very well in the first place.

 

You keep digging a bigger hole for yourself S/N.

 

God have Mercy on me, a sinner.

 

If you say so, you can keep your Ed Young Jr. types. I'll stick with PW.

http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2012/07/ed-youngs-8000-sf-mansion-on-market-in.html