Let me put a disclaimer that we do not endorse every word or argument that we are promoting in this edition of DarkLinks. But we are endorsing the spirit of the arguments being made and fully believe all of these are conversations worth having. And in order to promote a better alternative than what we are currently seeing in Big Eva, we need to embrace debates like the ones we’re featuring today. We begin this with a defense of Christian blogging by a seminary professor who seems to want to pass a resolution encouraging church discipline on sharing/ writing discernment posts he doesn’t agree with. Then we feature piece on false teachers. We then delve into three controversial takes. Enjoy!

A defense of Christian blogging

By Capstone Report

There is a move afoot to label and punish Southern Baptists who read and share Christian blogs. The proposal surfaced in a now deleted tweet by an Associate Professor at Oklahoma Baptist University. Matt Emerson leader of Baptist Renewal and most troubling of all an Auburn alum suggested a resolution against negative Christian blogs.

He tweeted, “I think we need a resolution – something like ‘On Slander and Gossip Disguised as ‘Discernment Blogging’ – at SBC 2020.”

Amplifying this, he wants to crackdown on pew sitters and pastors who dare to share these blogs.

How to Spot False Prophets and Overcome Their Lies

By Tom Hill @ Reformation Charlotte

False prophets within Christianity flourish, too. Their numbers swell to include pastors as well as denominational leaders. Even conservative groups, previously immune to such leadership errors, now boast of their “adaptation” to culture by implementing “trailblazers who will lead the Church into the new century.”

Popular authors and speakers shape our doctrinal positions and ministry emphases more increasingly in line with cultural beliefs at the expense of Biblical truth. Apparently, the Bible does not sell.

Now, false prophets even preside over seminaries that train the next group of leaders. We have reached a sad day so that when you or your local congregation search for a leader from a professing Christian seminary, you take the risk of finding a false prophet.

The subtle yet significant spiritual decline of Christian congregations, perhaps even a description of your spiritual life, develops under the evil influences of false prophets.

Complementarianism presupposes androgynism

By Bnonn Tennant @ It’s Good To Be A Man

Despite the near-universal confidence that conservative evangelicals have in it, complementarianism is not a firm and clear-headed articulation of the Bible’s teaching on sexuality as accepted throughout the history of the church. It is a limp-wristed defensive effort to preserve some traditional exceptions to androgyny on the basis of piecemeal exegetical arguments, while jettisoning the embarrassing telos that supports them.

What we’ve seen happening is turning the perseverance of the saints into an extreme Lordship Salvation. The way it’s promoted is that if you are truly persevering (or are actually saved) you won’t sin continually. The problem with that is that we are all sinners, both before and after salvation. So the question becomes, “How much sin is too much sin?” It then becomes a subjective standard that has not root in objectivity. The other angle that is often pushed is that “no Christian would ever commit THAT sin!” Here’s the problem: there’s no scriptural support for that. Many true believers have egregious sins. Those sins do not invalidate their justified state. Why? Because they works aren’t what saved them in the first place! To say that their sins invalidate their salvation is saying that Christ’s work on the cross was not enough… which is pure heresy!

WALSH: A Group Of Republicans Want The Government To Start Fighting Hardcore Pornography. They’re Right. Here’s Why.

By Matt Walsh @ Daily Wire

The most common defense of porn is that it’s a matter involving consenting adults and has no effect on anyone else. If this were true, I’d probably agree that the government has no place in restricting it, even if it is morally objectionable. However, this is not only untrue — it is laughably untrue. First of all, the link between the sex trafficking industry and porn is well established. The porn viewer may assume that the figures on the screen are acting consensually, but the fact is that, at least some of the time, they are not. The viewer may also assume that the people involved are all adults (unless he’s intentionally accessing child porn, which is a billion dollar industry in its own right), but sometimes they are not. The viewer simply has no way of knowing whether he’s watching the rape of a trafficked woman, or the abuse of a minor, or a consensual act between sober and clear-minded adults. But he’s not too concerned, as long as he gets what he wants out of the deal.

This is reason enough for, at a minimum, much heavier regulation on internet porn. It’s true that sex trafficking and child porn are both illegal already, but legal porn provides a platform for both. It’s impossible to sufficiently fight trafficking and child porn without heavier regulations on the types of porn that allegedly involve neither. But even if this significant concern could be put to the side, the case for regulating or banning porn would remain. That’s because porn — even consensual, adult porn — harms children.

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