Mark Driscoll

by

Mark Driscoll and 1st Timothy 5:19-20

contextualization

1st Timothy 5:19-20—Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear.

For all those Driscollites who will come here from various search engines and come across posts like this or like this or like this, and who will be tempted to spew out the tired old, “Well, has anyone gone to Mark personally about this?”–DON’T. That subject has been addressed ad nauseum here. Phil Johnson (an elder at Grace Community Church, under the direction of John MacArthur) has indeed communicated with Driscoll personally and got nowhere. As have several others.

But here’s the problem with the tired old, “Well, has anyone gone to Mark personally about this?” argument. Because Driscoll is an elder at his goat ranch church, we can see from the above-referenced Scripture, an elder who continues to sin is to be rebuked OPENLY–that is, in the sight of the whole church. And don’t try to say that his language isn’t sinful. If it causes a brother or sister to stumble, then it is an offense. If not, then why are there so many admonitions and warnings about what comes out of our mouths? That said, many have addressed Driscoll’s language, and he has still not changed. Therefore, we are called to rebuke him publicly, in the sight of the whole church.

I hope this lays to rest the debate about whether we should be openly rebuking a man whose language would need a step ladder to reach up to the gutter.

by

I’ve had it with Mark Driscoll and his mouth. Now it’s personal!

Spicy Talk

The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. – Luke 6:45

In the past DefCon has taken issue with Mark Driscoll on several concerns including his gutter mouth, lack of reverence for God, and even his mocking of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Most of the time I’ve played a less-than-active role in these matters as other contributors have mainly been on the front lines. Well today I’m getting in the trenches because I’m furious at Mark Driscoll and Pilgrim Radio for what transpired yesterday. Here’s the story:

My wife told me about a sermon Pilgrim Radio was playing on the radio as she was returning home from the grocery store with our young children in the car. She said that the man preaching (she had no clue who he was so there were no preconceived notions or expectations) was talking about “prostitutes,” “whores,” and “lesbians” and that he kept using these expressions as if trying to be shocking.

My wife who knows very little—if  anything—about Mark Driscoll hit the nail on the head in her evaluation of him.

She then told me that this same man began talking about wives in submission to their husbands and how oftentimes men abuse this. Instead of using an innocuous example to make his point he chose to expound on such abuse by illustrating an example in which men misuse their wives’ submission by making them watch porn!

Seriously? Are you kidding me? That’s the best example he could come up with? For crying out loud, my kids were in the car and heard this trash before their mother turned it off. Does this guy’s mind ever come up out of the gutter for air?

Consider, if you will, all the images that were conjured in the minds of those who heard this man go on about porn yet again (he was talking about porn in another sermon just a few weeks ago on Pilgrim Radio). Does he not care about all those who are struggling with pornography who listened to this pastor expecting to hear the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ preached in reverence, only to their minds drawn back to the gutter? How many men and women at that moment had impure thoughts rush into the battlefields of their minds because of Mark Driscoll’s seemingly insatiable appetite for discussing all things sexual in a public forum?

How dare he stand in a pulpit spewing such juvenile, perverse, and debase ideas under the guise of preaching? And how dare Pilgrim Radio air such filth from the ever-flowing open sewer of the mouth of Mark Driscoll?

When my wife described this to me I immediately knew who she was referring to because during the same hour of the morning that this sermon was oozing across the airwaves, I also had turned on Pilgrim Radio and heard Mark Driscoll talking about men liking noisy power tools because it drowns out the constant yapping of the wives they hate. Are you kidding me? This was coming from the pulpit and Pilgrim Radio thought this was acceptable? What an obnoxious thing to say!

Needless to say I immediately turned off the radio. Little did I know, fifty miles away my wife and little children were about to have their minds polluted with the whimsical handling of the matters of “prostitutes,” “whores,” “lesbians,” and “porn.”  These are not matters that my children should have to be exposed to in such a flippant manner, especially by one who claims to be a minister of the Gospel and on a radio station that claims to be Christian.

My wife had no idea who this profane man on the radio was but she had enough sense and discernment (which seems to be lacking in so many others) to reject him and change the radio station.

Now let me clarify something to avoid any confusion, I am not opposed to such words (and dealing with such subjects) as “prostitution” and “whores.” They are real sins, and they are addressed within Scripture. What I am opposed to is the use of these subject (ad nauseum I might add) by Driscoll (or anyone else for that matter) to make people laugh or to be shocking. There is a way to handle sensitive and weighty issues such as these without reverting to a juvenile mentality.

It’s the same as the expression “Oh my God.” The words themselves are not the problem, but the spirit behind them and how they’re being delivered. The way the Psalmist cries out “Oh my God” is completely different than the way a thirteen-year-old girl shrieks “Oh my God” when the boy she has a crush on invites her to prom. If you cannot see the difference, then I don’t expect you to understand the point of this post.

As a result of this, I have done the following three things:

1). I’ve removed Pilgrim Radio from this blog as they will no longer be endorsed by DefCon.

2). I wrote to the once trusted Pilgrim Radio a lengthy letter detailing my disappointment of them for allowing this type of material to be aired. Unfortunately their entire response was:

Thank you for your thoughtful remarks on Pilgrim Radio’s programming.  We were, of course, sorry to learn that you no longer feel comfortable in endorsing our ministry which is aimed at a very broad segment of the Christian community.  We do appreciate your enthusiastic past support.  God bless you.

3). All the Driscollite defenders who patrol the internet and swarm blogs such as this to offer excuses for their Golden Calf will have to find another soundboard for their approval of and winking at sin as their comments will no longer be welcome here. I refuse to provide a platform for their calling evil good and good evil.

Our family strives to be holy in spite of being surrounded by the world, the culture–and now even the professing church which is indistinguishable from the world and culture–where holiness is a strange and foreign concept, and oftentimes openly mocked by those who should know better (those who claim to be Christians while still practicing lawlessness). So when the wickedness of the world sneaks in via a Christian radio station you can imagine my surprise, anger, and disgust. My kids should have never been subjected to this filth and as their father it’s my responsibility to protect them and keep them pure.

Shame on Mark Driscoll for using the pulpit to advance his agenda, and shame on Pilgrim Radio for giving this purveyor of perversity a platform to poison my precious children with his toxic, man-centered, flesh-pleasing oratory.

The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate. -Proverbs 8:13

________________________________________________________________

I do not stand alone in my concern of Driscoll’s pornification of the pulpit. See related:

Sound Doctrine; Sound Speech (A sermon by Phil Johnson delivered at the 2009 Shepherd’s Conference)

John MacArthur on Mark Driscoll (Part 1)

John MacArthur on Mark Driscoll (Part 2)

Driscoll Disqualified

CrossTalk: Watch your mouth

Mark Driscoll: Flesh Peddler

Mark Driscoll mocks the sinlessness of Christ

Mark Driscoll praises his “brother in Christ” Rick Warren

by

Mark Driscoll to preach at the Crystal Cathedral.

Mark Driscoll Alley

***** UPDATE *****

Review of Driscoll’s sermon at the Crystal Cathedral can be found here.

Lighthouse Trails, Church Solutions, Thinking Out Loud, Slice of Laodicea, and even Mark Driscoll’s calendar on his website are announcing the upcoming June 14th event.

Apparently this isn’t the first time he’s been featured there. He spoke at Schuller’s 2004 conference and his messages are still available for purchase from the Crystal Cathedral online bookstore.

It shall be interesting to see how this plays out.

On a side note, while not too shocked to see Driscoll appear at this rank heretic’s church, I was disappointed to see Joni Eareckson Tada there. They’re even selling her book. Is there no longer any discernment in the body of Christ?

by

Who said that?

Question Mark

Who said the following?

If you would please, turn with me to the Song of Solomon. One of the great books of the Bible. Some have allegorized this book, and in so doing, they have destroyed it. They have destroyed it. They will say that it is an allegory between Jesus and his bride the church. Which if true, is weird. Because Jesus is having sex with me and puts his hand up my shirt. And that feels weird. I love Jesus, but not in that way.

A). Paul Crouch

B). Marilyn Manson

C). Rob Bell

D). Joel Osteen

E). Rick Warren

F). John MacArthur

G). Robert Schuller

H). Benjamin Dunn

I). John Piper

J). Mark Driscoll

K). Tammy Faye Bakker

L). Jay Bakker

M). Doug Pagitt

N). Richard Dawkins

For the answer, click below:

Continue reading →

by

John MacArthur on Mark Driscoll – Part 2

As a follow up to the original piece John MacArthur on Mark Driscoll there has been a flurry of recent activity on several fronts addressing what seems to be fast becoming a latter day Great Downgrade Controversy of sorts.

Recently Phil Johnson, director of Grace to You, editor of several of John MacArthur’s books, co-pastor of the Grace Life Pulpit at Grace Community Church, webmaster of The Spurgeon Archive, and blogmaster of Pyromaniacs preached a scathing Biblical indictment against the “pornification of the pulpit” entitled “Sound Doctrine, Sound Words” at the 2009 Shepherd’s Fellowship Conference.

Now Dr. John MacArthur has weighed in on this important and timely issue in a series of four articles entitled “THE RAPE OF SOLOMON’S SONG” which zeroes in on the gross, heinous, and wholly unbiblical perversion of scripture perpetrated by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church.

Continue reading →

by

Was Christ “tempted”–or “tested”?

Here is an article I posted at my own blog a while back. With the back-and-forth still going on here concerning Mark Driscoll’s assertions that Jesus wanted to have sexual relations with a woman, I decided it was high time to post it here, for easier reference. Here is Mark Driscoll’s comment that Jesus had desires to “know” a woman:

“If you’re tempted to these sorts of things — including sexual sin — some of you say, ‘Now Mark, Jesus wasn’t sexually tempted.’ Well, of course he was — 30 something year old single man who had women who adored him. You don’t think he ever wanted the comfort of a woman? You don’t think he ever got tired of going to bed by himself? You don’t think that he didn’t once want to have intimate relations with a woman? He was tempted.”
(Mark Driscoll – “How Human was Jesus?”, October 15th 2006, emphases mine.)

I have formulated a biblical defense of not only the sinlessness of Christ, but the fact that He did not have even the desire to sin. The Scriptures we will focus on are:

Hebrews 2:18—For in that He Himself has suffered (lit., experienced) being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
Hebrews 4:15—For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
James 1:13-15—Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
Galatians 1:17—For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
Genesis 3:15—“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Some other verses we will look at later: Luke 22:31; 1st Corinthians 5:5; 1st Timothy 1:20; Job 2:6.

Continue reading →

by

Sermon of the week: “Sound Doctrine; Sound Words” by Phil Johnson.

Your sermon of the week is the one you’ve all been waiting for: Sound Doctrine; Sound Words by Phil Johnson of Grace Life Pulpit and Pyromaniacs. Its subtitle should be The Pornification of the Pulpit. This sermon is from this month’s Shepherds’ Conference.

In this controversial sermon, Phil Johnson steps up and takes on the crass, crude, gutter-mouth ways of many in the modern church today, with special attention to Mark “The Cussing Pastor” Driscoll. You don’t want to miss this message. His text for this message is Titus 2:7-8.

It’s about time someone spoke out on the juvenile and profane potty-humor, profanity, and lust-filled stories that have replaced sound, doctrinal, exposition of the Bible in many churches today. I stand up and applaud Phil Johnson for having the courage to speak out and even take on the modern evangelical’s Golden Calf from Mars Hill Church.

This is a great follow-up to last Wednesday’s sermon of the week (also by Phil Johnson) entitled Programs, Get Your Programs: Exposing the Flaws of the Fad-Driven Church.

by

“Has anyone ever contacted Mark Driscoll privately?”

mark-driscoll-t-shirtThat, of course, is the question we are always asked when we address the issue of the language used by Mark Driscoll when he preaches. “Has anyone ever contacted Mark Driscoll privately?” Well, we can now answer that question in the affirmative. Phil Johnson shares his attempts–unsuccessful attempts–to dialog with Driscoll concerning his pulpit language.

These are roughly in order from the most common questions to the most bizarre:

Have you or Dr. MacArthur ever personally shared your concerns personally with Mark Driscoll?

Yes. I sent Mark a 6-page letter the first week of December, telling him what I was planning to deal with at the Shepherds’ Conference. I explained why I thought his message at the Desiring God Conference in September left some of the most important objections to his own use of crass language unanswered. I also enumerated six specific questions that I thought would help my understanding of his position.

Fair enough. Isn’t that what Driscollites want to hear? If someone has taken this matter to Driscoll personally and privately? (Even though the fact that Driscoll has made his messages public, thus negating the need for steps 1 and 2 of church discipline laid out by Christ in Matthew 18.).

Continue reading →

by

Mark Driscoll praises his “brother in Christ” Rick Warren.

mark-driscoll-handsrick-warren-beach-scene

From Slice of Laodicea:

Sex expert Pastor Mark Driscoll took time out from his bedroom advice blog to praise Rick Warren for his prayer blessing for Barack Obama. With Driscoll’s promotion of sites like ChristianNymphos.org and its advice on things like how to be a Christian dominatrix, the public thank-you may be a mixed blessing for the Purpose-Driven author who really doesn’t need any more controversy right now. That Mark Driscoll couldn’t discern the problem with praying God’s blessing on our death-promoting President should not register as a surprise. Driscoll also can’t discern the problem with playing a pastoral Dr. Ruth for his sex-addled followers.

To use Scriptural precedent for publicly praying God’s blessing on a leader who is an enemy of God is an abomination. Rick Warren’s prayer was the equivalent of standing up before Pol Pot, Idi Amin or Joseph Stalin and asking God to bless them. Yes, yes. We must pray for our leaders that they will have wisdom as they murder millions of innocent people. We’re simply fulfilling Scripture’s requirements, you know. We pray that Mr. Hitler will serve with excellence and distinction. We ask that Pol Pot would do well in his killing fields and that Idi Amin would be strengthened in his task of raping and torturing innocent women. There is no difference in Mr. Warren’s prayer for Obama unless Mr. Driscoll does not recognize the humanity of the children who have been killed already under Roe and who will be murdered with the Freedom of Choice Act Obama has promised to sign into law within days.

God save us from this kind of evil, aided and abetted by the counterfeit shepherds in this land. The prophets and priests are profane. They run to and fro on the face of the earth, saying, “God said so,” when God did not say so. See Jeremiah 23 for a full description of what we have in our plexiglass pulpits today.

by

Mark Driscoll mocks the Sinlessness of Jesus Christ

“If you’re tempted to these sorts of things — including sexual sin — some of you say, “Now Mark, Jesus wasn’t sexually tempted.” Well, of course he was — 30 something year old single man who had women who adored him. You don’t think he ever wanted the comfort of a woman? You don’t think he ever got tired of going to bed by himself? You don’t think that he didn’t once want to have intimate relations with a woman? He was tempted.”
(Mark Driscoll – “How Human was Jesus?”, October 15th 2006.)

How is this rubbish defensible from one who claims to be a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ?  This is the same thing as saying that Jesus Christ was tempted to lust after Mary Magdalene as others have claimed.  The next thing we will hear is that the thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ did equal sin until He (the Lord) actually acted upon those thoughts —– Oh wait a minute, never mind, he did say that also!

This is the same man who claims that the heresy teaching Joel Osteen is a Christian brother and the “happiest Christian preacher” out there.  This is the same man who claims the Bible is completely silent on whether Jesus COULD have sinned.

This is the same man who is being endorsed by a man who has in the past stood for the truth of God’s Word.  He is being endorsed by a man who it seemed would not have endorsed much less allowed to preach in his pulpit a man who teaches the things that Driscoll believes.

I am afraid that I am one of those who take a stand for Biblical separation.  These issues are NOT matters of secondary separation.  They are clearly defined matters which require an explanation from one who has demeaned the office of elder by his caustic, vulgar, offensive, Christ-dishonouring speech (Driscoll) and also a Biblical explanation from those who are willing to openly endorse such nonsense without calling such a one to account.

It is a mockery to say that such a one who openly (and seemingly) with no remorse and repentance and no chastisement or discipline even has the Spirit of God dwelling within him.  The Bible makes it clear that by their fruits you shall know them.  While the ultimate judgment is in the hands of the Almighty Sovereign of the Universe, I believe that it would behoove Christian leaders to start being more discerning in what and who they allow into their pulpits.

Sadly, I believe that based on the writings and warning by the apostle Paul, it can be concluded that John Piper is gravely in error in allowing this man to preach at Bethlehem Baptist Church.  He is wrong for not condemning the language and for waffling on the issue.  I have serious concerns that such endorsements will just as surely lead true believers down wrong paths as what men like J.I. Packer did when being willing to embrace Colson and Neuhaus as brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grieving for the downhill slides in the church,

The Desert Pastor

********** EDITED WITH ADDITION BELOW **********

James 1:15 says, “Then, when desire (lust) has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

The word used for lust in this verse means “a longing (especially for what is forbidden), concupiscence, desire, lust (after).”

Desire is defined by Princeton as “the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state.”

For those who are trying to smooth over the harm that Mark Driscoll is doing, it won’t work – at least, not with those who seek to be discerning.  Even if his only problem is that he used a poor choice of words, he has had plenty of time since 2006 to make this right.  His verbage indicates that Jesus wanted/desired what He could not have.  He also made it clear that Jesus had an unsatisfied state.  This explicitly demeans the sinlessness of Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ had need of nothing, and He certainly did not “long for/want/desire/etc” the company of a woman to “satisfy” His flesh!

*************** PER MBAKER’S RECOMMENDATION ***************

**** I AM ADDING THE FOLLOWING COMMENT AS OF 11/29/2008 ****

Thanks again for your comments. We have no problems here at DefCon considering the issue of Mark Driscoll from a biblical perspective. The problem is that when we do his followers trot out the “do not judge” line. When we address his vulgar language and sexual innuendos about the Lord Jesus Christ, we are told that MD is merely trying to be culturally relevant.

If you are truly interested in further conversation, may I recommend that you go to the following link:

http://stevenjcamp.blogspot.com/search?q=driscoll

Read all the posts by Steven Camp that have been written from a carefully worded position that I believe is honouring to the Lord Jesus Christ. Those blogs have more than enough information showing the heresy that Mark is teaching and his connections with people like T.D. Jakes and the heresy of Oneness teaching, connections with the emergent church and the contemplative movement that is taking many within so-called new-evangelical by storm.

For the record, we do NOT hate Mark Driscoll. However, we do believe that he is disqualified from currently being a minister of the gospel. We also believe that instead of being openly rebuked that there are other ministers such as John Piper and Joshua Harris who are openly endorsing this man.

I would challenge ANY reader from a Biblical perspective ONLY (not your personal feelings) to prove that Mark Driscoll is theologically correct in his belief on the doctrine of imputation (as just one example) or that he somehow manages to qualify as a pastor (when such drivel as he preaches and teaches and such language would not have been tolerated even 10-15 years ago from mainline evangelical pulpits.

The Desert Pastor

by

Who will be sharing the stage with John Piper?

The list of those invited to speak at John Piper’s 2008 National Conference includes Mark Driscoll (see this post from Coram Deo). In the following video of John Piper, he does his best to “defend” and “justify” why he has invited Mark Driscoll.

But while the debate rages over Mark Driscoll’s appearance at this conference, it seems that there’s much less  discussion over another individual who is scheduled to speak at this same conference. His name is Paul Tripp. And Paul Tripp has a little video in which he discusses What makes bad language bad?

I was hesitant to post the video of Paul Tripp due to its nature (I refused to watch the whole thing myself) but I think it illustrates for people the severity by which John Piper is compromising by having people like Driscoll and Tripp at his conference.

I have reservations about posting the video on DefCon, but for those who simply wouldn’t believe it if I told them about it, here’s the link to the video of Paul Tripp’s flippant use of profanity (you have been warned).

by

Crosstalk: Watch Your Mouth!

Professing Christians with potty mouths and gutter mentalities is one thing, but what happens when it’s a pastor?

On this edition of Crosstalk entitled Watch Your Mouth, Ingrid Schlueter and guest Cathy Mickels discuss this awful trend of worldly humor, coarse jesting, and crude language in the church and spewing from the mouths of those like Mark Driscoll.

Ingrid also discusses the shocking post from Chris Roseborough of A Little Leaven in which he has a post on his other blog Extreme Theology which is less than appropriate. The post in question contains a quote from Bill Cosby that the nature of which should not be found on a Christian blog. Chris’ lapse in judgment is still up on his blog here. I agree with Ingrid on this one Chris, it is highly inappropriate and should be removed.

Ingrid also discusses the twisted love affair some professing Christians have with the world and its profane, vulgar, God-hating entertainers. She addresses a supposed Christian blog that flowingly lavished the late George Carlin with undeserved accolades. Something you’d expect from the world, not Christians who are called to be separate from the world.

I have seen this blog in question and was appalled at the plethora of so-called Christians who honor a man whose life was the antithesis of all that is good, holy, and honorable in God’s sight. You can check out the drivel here and read Ingrid’s post on it here.

All in all, I agree 100% with Ingrid and her guest on this issue. It’s a sad testament to the current state of the bloated, lethargic, worldly, adolescent, social-club that is the church-of-me.

********** Update July 17, 2008 **********

Since the publishing of this post, Chris Roseborough has removed the profanity from his blog and replaced it with “jerk.”