If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? -- 1Corinthians 14: 23 (ESV)
The false signs and lying wonders network of NAR churches is growing in this country as more people desire a show rather than God. As the Bible warns they are gathering around themselves teachers who will scratch their itching ears with exactly what they want to hear. I understand why beloved. Who wants to hear that you are a miserable wretch of a sinner that is facing an eternity of suffering if you do not repent? Who wants to hear there is only one way to heaven? No, people want to hear there are many paths, many journeys, and that admission is graded on a "how good am I" curve. You see it is always easy to find someone worse than you. People do not want to hear the Gospel which is why Jesus said He came to bring a sword. People would rather be entertained. Talented musicians, trained voices, and gifted orators are far more sought out than solid biblical doctrine. Throw in a sideshow and you have a purpose driven recipe for carnal growth. Some glory clouds here and gem stones there. Maybe some angel feathers and gold dust for good measure. Anything to increase the "wow" factor. Add some false prophecies and fake healings and voila! You have what passes for "revival" these days.
One of the chief proponents of this is Darren Wilson, who famously brags that God supernaturally gave his parents gold fillings at a service once. Darren is a film director responsible for some of the most heretical movies ever captured on celluloid. The Holy Ghost movies were a tour de force of everything wrong with modern Christianity. He has followed those up with a new series called "Questions with God." This series is Darren and some of his cohorts sitting around the table and asking questions obviously asked to prop up their business model of false signs and lying wonders. He then provides an article on Charisma News to support himself and increase the likelihood of his sales. Let us reason together as we explore his latest (linked above) entitled, "When the Church is incompatible with God."
"In episode 9 of my new series, Questions With God, I ask the question, "Why would God use creative ways to speak to us when we already have the Bible?" I've been steeped in creativity for nearly my entire life. My father is an artist (a potter) and taught art and creativity at the college level for over 40 years; and obviously I'm a writer and filmmaker, and I taught creativity at Judson University for over 10 years myself. I even shot a seven-part special on creativity with my dad in London recently (God & Creativity). I say all that to point out two things: 1. I have a pretty decent understanding of creativity; and 2. God is the very essence of a creative Person.
"Created" is the fifth word in the Bible, and it's the first thing that God decides to tell us about Himself. Think about that. Not that He is love. Not that He is faithful. Not that He is a God of covenant. The first thing He decides to tell us about His nature is that He is creative. As Christians, we would do well to pay attention to this because it implies that God has a high value for the creative. Unfortunately, the church itself often does not. This is not only short sighted but potentially dangerous." -- Darren Wilson
I know the answer! He wouldn't. No do not get me wrong beloved. There are many ways God speaks to us. His creation speaks to us. His Holy Spirit can intercede for us. He can speak to us in prayer and of course the primary way is through His Word. That is not what Darren is trying to set up here though. The statement here is involving "creative ways." For Darren Wilson this means the aforementioned gold fillings for example. Wilson then goes into great length to prove his creativity bonafides, to which I have no issue. After all, few have mangled the Bible in as a creative a fashion as Darren Wilson. To trot out members of the death metal band Korn as evangelists? That's creative. To use Todd White to play the old leg growing con? That's creative. To travel the world to stalk people in public parks who might need innocuous healings instead of simply going to the local emergency room? That's creative. To start a series based programming to excuse your movie based heresies? Well, you get the point. Unfortunately Wilson starts to go off the rails right after this by proclaiming that God is the very essence of a creative person. If you want to make the argument that God is the very essence of every person since He created them, I am fine with that. But only creative people? Does that mean people who are not creative but are saved do not have God as their very essence? What about the unsaved creative people in the world?
Wilson then jumps the shark to try and prove his absurd statement. Created is indeed the fifth word in the Bible. Do you know why? Because He was in the middle of creation. He was not trying to send us a secret sign. He was not revealing a characteristic of Himself. Love, faithful and covenant are relational words Darren. They require something else. You love something. You are faithful to something. You are in covenant with something. Those somethings had to be created. That was why created was the fifth word. The third word was "beginning" so was God revealing His ability to be above all time as we know it? Of course not. This is just how sentence structure works. Wilson then pummels the shark into unconsciousness by claiming this somehow proves or implies that God has a high value for the creative. If God wanted this to be a universal principle, He would have said somewhere, "I value the creative -- I am the Lord Your God." Not disguise it by forcing people to interpret the order of words in the first sentence of Scripture.
