Celebrities have been claiming to be genuinely converted for decades. Some of them have been downright defiant about the particular degree to which they mixed their new life with the old. Most professing Christians gave them space to work both sides of the fence. Some only voiced belief long enough to sell a \u201cgospel\u201d album, then went back to being \u201csilent witnesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
One singer\/songwriter that was not even loosely connected to Christianity wrote a popular song regarding his spiritual status.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and Jesus, got our own thing goin’<\/p>\n
Me and Jesus, got it all worked out<\/p>\n
Me and Jesus, got our own thing goin’<\/p>\n
We don’t need anybody to tell us what it’s all about\u2026\u201d Tom T. Hall, 1972<\/p>\n
Of course, that\u2019s not the way God\u2019s Kingdom works (Ephesians 4:11-16). In one of the verses, he explains how he felt about traditional Christianity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know a man, who once was a sinner<\/p>\n
I know a man, who once was a drunk<\/p>\n
And I know a man, who once was a loser<\/p>\n
He went out one day and made an altar out of a stump\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he sings the chorus again indicating that such an experience can be customized to make one an “island Christian” without any guidelines or standards except \u201cme and Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back then, the attempt to promote an unbiblical customized arrangement with Christ wasn\u2019t very effective or an organized trend. The \u201cMe and Jesus\u201d philosophy had no chance of becoming a successful Movement. The song became popular because in every beer joint sat daily scores of individuals who held the same philosophy.<\/p>\n
But that was before the Internet. It was also before \u201cDesigner Churches\u201d that had completely severed any continuity with historical Christianity. It was before churches started from scratch with a small group and in a relatively short period and became megachurches. From the beginning, they re-defined terms, tweaked doctrine, and in some cases tossed out doctrine and added new doctrine. The result was a \u201cMe and Jesus\u201d theological system that emphasizes music and does not include anointed preaching, the conviction of sin, the new birth by the Holy Spirit, et cetera. One might call it \u201cMesus\u201d religion.<\/p>\n
Very troubling is that the line of demarcation between light and darkness is presently so blurred that an entire church of several thousand may engage in pagan-style worship and even salacious imagery. They have no clue as to what they are doing or where it was sourced from. It is no surprise that they accepted and support a blend of light and darkness as the best method of \u201creaching the unchurched.\u201d<\/p>\n
The concept of \u201cDesigner Christianity\u201d actually began during the 1960s Counterculture Movement. The CCM\u2019s religious alter ego, the Jesus People Movement, brought about catastrophic changes in Christianity via music. The Charismatic Movement erupted not long afterward and \u201cDesigner Churches\u201d began popping up everywhere.<\/p>\n
The incremental severance with historic Christianity went on for decades until the Seeker-sensitive Movement emerged. The severance underwent a massive surge\u2014a complete makeover of church meetings so that they appealed to and lured the so-called \u201cunchurched.\u201d (I should insert that they did not need to be “churched,” but saved.)<\/p>\n
The Seeker Movement gave birth to the Emerging Church, which became the Emergent Church Movement. The staples of those churches are motivational speaking, music-based experience, and salvation by mental assent. Add all that to the much splintered Charismatic Movement, its autonomous pastors, prophets, and apostles, and an overload of heresy. The entire teeming mass of change, subtraction, and alteration is New Christianity.<\/p>\n
Now that the perverse transformation of Christianity has gone beyond critical mass, neither the participants nor their leaders accept even a hint of truth concerning their error. They are incapable of spotting deception. In fact, in many cases, they embrace deception as a new revelation. Furthermore, the generations now in, or coming into, leadership were born during the apostasy. A great number of them do not have spiritual birthdays, i.e., they were never born of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
They have never witnessed preaching so anointed that lost souls either repented or exited the building. Indeed, they would be repulsed by such preaching today and likely call it heresy. They were not there during the great revivals where sinners wept before God\u2014their hearts broken with conviction. When they rose up from their knees they stood before God and humanity as new creations\u2014old things had passed away and they were clearly identified as supernaturally changed. Thus, \u201cDesigner Christians\u201d do not know anything about true Christianity and do not want to know. I have tried to discuss true Christianity with many of them to no avail. They consider truth as \u201cpharisaical legalism\u201d and an attempt to infringe upon their \u201cliberty in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
In my opinion, an example of a \u201cDesigner Christian\u201d is Rob Bell, a contributor to New Christianity. I have attempted to discover a description of Bell\u2019s salvation experience. I cannot even find a \u201cconversation\u201d experience. It appears that he simply wandered into Christianity from his musical career, began teaching, speaking, and decided to create a \u201cDesigner Church,\u201d which became a megachurch. His influence on millions of Millennials and younger generations is inestimable. After millions of book sales, numerous sold-out speaking engagements, his \u201cDesigner\u201d influence remains significant. All of that he accomplished while inviting Paul\u2019s assessment of \u201cunderstanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.\u201d (1 Timothy 1:7)<\/p>\n
Therefore, when celebrity Rapper Kanye West claimed to be a Christian by his own concept of soteriology, \u201cDesigner Christians\u201d totally and without the slightest reservation embrace the deception. Furthermore, their nearly unanimous response was\/is to accuse the watchmen and truth speakers of prideful and arrogant unwillingness to accept that God could save a wealthy worldling. Of course, that is completely untrue and off point. Salvation is for whosoever will, but \u201cwill\u201d means belief in the true Son of God and His Gospel, not another Jesus and Gospel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.\u201d – Galatians 1:6-9<\/p>\n
He was not alive when Tom T. Hall\u2019s song hit the airwaves. But it is easy to understand that the Rapper\u2019s lyrics follow the same \u201cDesigner Soteriology.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers, even the strippers \/ Jesus walks for them.\u201d – Kanye West<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope this take away from my sins, and bring the day that I\u2019m dreaming about \/ Next time I\u2019m in the club, everybody screaming out\u201d\u2014\u201cJesus walks with me.\u201d – Kanye West<\/p>\n
Thus, we know why the millions of Millennial professing Christians do not understand or accept our warnings about West\u2019s \u201cDesigner Soteriology.\u201d The fact is that it bears no dissimilarity to their own \u201cDesigner Christianity.\u201d West is merely presenting what the Seeker-sensitive and similar Movements and their numerous religious \u201cstars,\u201d have been presenting for decades. He does not need to discover or accept a biblical paradigm and follow it. He created his own paradigm based loosely on his interpretation of what it means to become a Christian. Furthermore, he mixed in the philosophy of his rap lyrics. It is not a Holy Spirit experience, but a mental assent to which one adds his or her own experience from whatever source. Since music sourced from the world system is the primary stimulus in \u201cDesigner Churches,\u201d it is the source experience for most \u201cDesigner Soteriology\u201d as well.<\/p>\n
The truth is that New Christianity is established on \u201csubstitute faith.\u201d It is neither \u201cnew\u201d nor is it genuine Christianity. It is actually progressive apostasy that historically emerges from the third or fourth generation after a great revival. This current emergence is likely the great and final apostasy.<\/p>\n
The incredibly sad reality is that to believe the deceptions that birthed New Christianity\u2019s \u201cDesigner\u201d doctrinal system, one must reject love for truth. We must be nearing the period when God will send a strong delusion to the ones that reject love for truth and believe the lie.<\/p>\n
What is \u201cthe lie?\u201d It is to believe that the False Prophet is of God and that Antichrist is God. Thus, the Christian religion that invited the False Prophet to his throne will be unoffensive and unproductive in making saints out of sinners. As fantastical as that may seem, we are obviously nearing that moment. Many professing Christians have accepted New Age paganism. They read books by individuals, such as Bill Johnson, that claim to have new revelations from God. They draw circles, practice Contemplative Prayer, Yoga, and believe that Satan\u2019s lying signs and wonders are God\u2019s validation of their beliefs and practices. They support heretical movies such as Roma Downey and Mark Burnett\u2019s depiction of Christ, and William Paul Young\u2019s \u201cThe Shack.\u201d They believe that \u201cJesus Calling\u201d truly came from Christ and not a demon spirit. They believe that individuals such as Steven Furtick and Joel Osteen are genuinely called by God. They believe a covey of false prophet and prophetesses no matter how bizarre their prophecies.<\/p>\n
Why wouldn\u2019t they believe a Celebrity Rapper with Designer Salvation? What\u2019s not to believe when one is him or her self submersed in \u201cDesigner Christianity?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Celebrities have been claiming to be genuinely converted for decades. Some of them have been downright defiant about the particular degree to which they mixed their new life with the old. Most professing Christians gave them space to work both sides of the fence. Some only voiced belief long enough to sell a \u201cgospel\u201d album, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-v8","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1930"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1932,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions\/1932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}