Dan Kimball

One thing that has amazed me about the Pirate Christian (Chris Rosebrough) disagreement with Ingrid Schluester is how few blogs have sided with Ingrid. I have believed for sometime that Ingrid was losing creditability in the online spiritual discernment industry she played a key role in creating; maybe the lack of support is evidence that my impression is reality?

It is not like blogs are rushing to support Chris Rosebrough either. Perhaps most Christian bloggers are getting tired of the CRN (Christian Research Network) soap opera. As far as the “Online Spiritual Discernmentalist Mafia” satire blog; it isn’t posting as much material as it use to about CRN and it’s satire lately hasn’t been all that funny.

The real joke as best as I can determine is that Ingrid’s style of spiritual discernment hasn’t changed. It is Chris that has changed; not Ingrid. It is like suddenly Chris has realized that Ingrid’s style of spiritual discernment is a joke; but he has for a long time supported her because he believed it was winning. Suddenly, Chris has abandoned Ingrid after many years of faithful service.

What caused Chris to abandon Ingrid? He favors Michael Horton over Ingrid. There hasn’t been this major of an upset for CRN since Steve Camp decided to make peace with Mark Driscoll. Who betrayed CRN more? Steve Camp or Chris Rosebrough? A major difference is that Steve Camp was immediately attacked for betrayal but Chris Rosebrough has yet to get the same open blog attacks suffered by Steve Camp. The fact that many considered the attacks on Steve Camp after making peace with Mark Driscoll totally unacceptable behavior may have tempered the response to Chris Rosebrough’s betrayal.

In a controversy best labeled as PhotoGate; one of the Emergent jokers calling himself Tragic_Pizza sent a doctored photo of Ingrid standing next to Rick Warren. I found the original photo on the internet that was doctored and the person next to Ingrid wasn’t Rick Warren.  In addition, Tragic_Pizza stated the photo was altered.

Hyper-Spiritual Discernmentalist now judge if you are a Bridger or not by whom you get photographed with.  The sillyness continues as online spiritual discernment continues to get stranger and stranger.

One fact of evidence  that Michael Horton may have been negatively influenced by Rick Warren; it now appears Horton has a beard.  Coming next – BeardGate – true Christians don’t have beards.

Overheard on Twitter, CRN (Christian Research Network) in it’s defense of Ingrid Schlueter is calling Pirate Christian (Chris Rosebrough) the new banana man with zero spiritual discernment? This is a reference to Ray Comfort’s error with a banana.

The USS Gettysburg was successful in disabling the canons of Chris’s pirate ship and getting a raiding party on board Chris’s ship per tweets from the doomed pirates. Tweeter feed from the doomed pirate crew has been silenced so Chris Rosebrough’s “Fighting for the Faith” webcast faithful listener parrots fear the worse.

The only official comment from Ingrid Shlueter was “That person (Chris Rosebrough) that loved Michael Horton of “White Horse Inn” more than the Lord Jesus Christ got everything he deserved and his name will no longer be mentioned at CRN (Christian Research Network)!” Michael Horton of the “White Horse Inn” has yet to make an official announcement concerning the loss of Chris Rosebrough’s pirate ship. The fate of Chris Rosebrough is currenty unknown as there has been no official announcement by the US Navy.

(Photo is of the USS Gettysburg – Website of this ship is here)

This post is satire of hyper-spiritual discernment crazyness as practiced by CRN (Christian Research Network)

Look out Pirate Christian (Chris Rosebrough), the US Navy may soon blow your sorry looking pirate ship out of the water with you on it?

The twitter account of the Rob Bell that wrote “Love Wins” is @RealRobBell not @RobBell. @RobBell is a web designer that lives in England. The other Rob Bell lives in the Grand Rapids Metro Area in Michigan USA.

The original post on the “CrossTalk” blog is gone along with the complete blog. However, a copy of the blog post was found on another blog and is copied below:

John Piper: Desiring Rick Warren
by Ingrid Schlueter

Despite the countless and detailed warnings that have gone out over the last decade about Rick Warren and his distortion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, John Piper prepares to deliver his followers to the platform at Saddleback Church in an act of ultimate spiritual betrayal on April 29 and 30, 2011.

John Piper, perhaps more than anyone else who has been seduced by Dr. Warren through the years, is without excuse. Could there be a teacher more aware of what the Gospel actually is according to Scripture? Someone with a more thorough knowledge of the whole Counsel of God? Someone with more access to the best commentaries, the best theological instruction, the most devout and rigorous Bible teaching colleagues in the land? Yet he falls, and with him, takes innumerable sheep who will trust him to their own destruction.

Just weeks ago, Rick Warren introduced an unholy trinity of pagan teachers on the same platform at Saddleback as he unveiled his Daniel Plan. To an audience of physically and spiritually needy people he presented Dr. Oz, Dr. Amen, and Dr. Hyman, three men who are actively promoting things like Transcendental Meditation, and Sa Ta Na Ma meditation taken from Kundalini Yoga. These teachers have videos all over the Internet that instruct viewers on how to become healthy through New Age methods, like Dr. Oz, for example, who promotes men like Deepak Chopra on his TV show. In the linked video he shows viewers how to lose weight through occult meditation practices. He brought this spiritual program to Saddleback at the request of Rick Warren. It is the tip of the iceberg.

Rick Warren’s involvement with the pluralistic and religious unity goals of the Tony Blair foundation are well documented. Tony Blair is a pro-abortion Roman Catholic convert who is also a proponent of a developing world spirituality. He asked Rick Warren to join him in the uniting of world religions through his foundation and Rick Warren signed on. Warren is welcoming Mr. Blair to the same Platform where John Piper’s Desiring God Conference will be held in April. Warren is awarding Mr. Blair, a biblical apostate and enemy of the cross of Jesus Christ, with a prize for his efforts for world peace. This is not a plot device in some low budget end-times movie. This is reality, and John Piper is now fully on board Warren’s train.

There is no need to recount the assaults on Scripture that Mr. Warren has engaged in over the course of his Purpose-Driven career. Entire books have been written on the subject. What is abundantly clear is that those who willfully join arms with him in his spiritual agenda for the world are equally guilty. Those pastors and teachers who knowingly deliver their sheep to the spiritual slaughterhouse at Saddleback are Judas goats. It does not matter what accomplishments such pastors and teachers have achieved in their ministries of the past. What matters is what they have done with their part of the ministry entrusted to them now.

Judas also had a part in Christ’s ministry for three years, and he betrayed Christ at the last. (See Acts 1:16-19 for the summary.) He sold out for 30 pieces of silver. John Piper has sold out the true Gospel for the embrace of the world’s leading evangelical name. He desired Rick Warren more than he desired God, and he is now helping Warren usher in the ultimate global spiritual rebellion.

The seduction of John Piper is a cautionary story for all of us. None of us are too biblically sound, too studied, to ready with an answer to have immunity to the spiritual seduction that has been unleashed on the planet. If John Piper can fall, we can also fall. The spiritual battle being waged on those who are faithful to Jesus Christ is growing worse by the day. Ask anyone in ministry about that. We need the full armor of God, and we need to be in unceasing prayer that God would keep us steadfast in the faith. Our Captain will be here soon. Let’s be ready.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

~Ephesians 6:12

A response to the above blog posting was this:

Extreme
Posted On: 03/15/11 08:31:35 PM Age 0, GA
Friends, Is it any wonder that pagans sarcastically and sourly laugh their heads off at the Church? It wasn’t just normal everyday Israelites that had trouble with the Pharisees; even the pagan Romans hated them. And, I remember Jesus saying something about them, as well. Anyway…I would be happy to preach the Gospel of our LORD Jesus in a skinny New York minute anywhere I possibly could. So much the better if I could be assured of a huge audience that had been used to being fed on modern heresies and happy clap-trap from any number of big name preachers who have built for themselves big organizations that command the attention of powerful secular people. Another thing: I really don’t think John Piper cares at all about what a bunch of armchair theologians think about him. He is too busy DOING the work of the ministry of preaching and teaching the Bible and praying and following Jesus Christ in the midst of all his sorrows and sicknesses and troubles to allow himself to come off the wall and address the Tobias and Sanballats of this present day; the self-appointed guardians of Truth who think their particular understanding, their particular systematic theology, their particular way of interpreting the Bible is the only way to do it; and everyone else is a heretic. I should hope that we all could find something better to do with our time….like maybe loving our families, reaching out to our neighbors with the gospel, adopting needy children need a hope and a future, hosting bible studies in our homes, blessing our pastors with a car or a week’s worth of groceries, or inviting a single mom or dad over for a wonderful meal and evening away from the kids after having set up a sitter for them, or maybe even praying for John Piper that he could have a powerful anointing to preach in the open door God has provided for him. “If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” And finally, one of the things God hates the most is someone who causes trouble for his brother. Is Ingrid actually saying that Piper is not a Christian? Is he an anti Christ, then? Is this how such an attack is justified? Brothers and sisters, this ought not to be! -David Hughes, …born anothen (from above)

Another response was this:

Wow…this article sounds more like the blood-thirsty rantings of a ravenous “wolf” than a well-prepared and lovingly articulated argument. So…you really believe that Piper has “fallen” and that he’s now “fully on board Warren’s train” (whatever that means!) just because he’s friends with Rick and they’re sharing a stage together at an upcoming event, (which was actually planned over a year ago)? That’s really not a good argument if you ask me. Piper – like most respectable ministers – can acknowledge the shortcomings and struggles in a fellow minister’s life and still demonstrate friendship toward them. To speak at an event with somebody else doesn’t necessarily mean that you approve of everything that they’re currently pursuing in their own ministry, and Piper’s never hidden the fact that he doesn’t agree with everything that Rick Warren says or does. That doesn’t necessarily prevent him from respecting some of the other things that Warren has done, though. I think you’d be much wiser to focus on the one who’s actually venturing into questionable spiritual areas – which is Warren himself – and commit yourself to praying for him and working to steer him away from dangerous decisions. Going after everybody who’s friends with Warren isn’t going to benefit anybody. What’s next – attacking Warren’s family members, since they apparently failed to instill a full knowledge of biblical theology in young Warren as he began pursuing a life of Christian service? There has to be some limits. Besides, Piper’s commitment to biblical truth is just about about as solid and faithful as they come. What better model is there of someone who proclaims the full truths of Scripture and works consistently to build his life and ministry around that? Another reader on here posted a comment about “following Piper”….who “follows Piper”? We’re called to follow Jesus! I have tremendous respect for Piper, I am always edified by his books and sermons, and have even had the pleasure of a couple of wonderful conversations with him when he visited the seminary I used to attend….still, I don’t “follow” him, nor would Piper want me to! He is a great example of Christian faithfulness, though, and truly one of the most dynamic and biblical preachers that I know of. I certainly hope that my own life and ministry reflects a similar measure of maturity and genuine desire to honor Christ as what I continue to see in the life and ministry of John Piper. However, I can’t see into Piper’s heart as the Lord does. I only need to remember that the Lord is looking into MY heart, too – and this continually inspires me to make every effort to speak, think, and act in as loving a way as possible. I’m all for using Scripture to correct and lovingly rebuke my brothers and sisters in the Lord who veer away from it – Piper, however, has not done this as far as I can see. Let’s all try to make better use of our time than by writing silly articles that seek to condemn everybody who’s nice to someone that we don’t approve of. Instead, how about we give thanks for ministries like Piper’s who boldly proclaim the truths of God’s Word, and reserve the apologetics for those who truly are venturing away from the clear, biblical path.

Yet another response:

http://www.atone.me/?p=2375 Desiring Rick Warren? John Piper is a False Teacher for Speaking at Saddleback? Really? by Brad on March 1, 2011 I recently received an email from a friend who’s concerned over Ingrid Schlueter’s article, “John Piper: Desiring Rick Warren,” that expresses her “concerns” over John Piper’s upcoming regional conference at Saddleback Church (Rick Warren’s church). Apparently, if you believe Ingrid, John Piper is “desiring Rick Warren,” meaning that he “has been seduced by Rick Warren” and is committing all kinds of atrocities by simply going to Saddleback and speaking the Gospel to thousands of southern Californians, including many in Rick’s congregation. Instead of thoughtful criticism, the article is filled with half-baked innuendos and guilt-by-association slanders that paint John as every bit as evil as the worst false teachers in human history. And not surprisingly, despite more than 30 years of Christocentric ministry, John Piper isn’t given the benefit of the doubt. In Desiring Rick Warren, there is no objectivity and reason. It’s religious hyperbole couched in concern for other Christians. The article offers no analysis of Dr. Piper’s reasoning for holding a Desiring God regional conference at Saddleback. And even more alarming, there is no grace extended to John and his ministry. In fact, you won’t find even a hint of concession in Ingrid’s article, not even smallest allowance for the possibility that perhaps John Piper is the one trying to influence Rick Warren, rather than the other way around.

Yet another response:

I have never heard a more silly and completely preposterous claim! Dr. Piper is clearly a man of God. He loves the gospel, preaches the Bible and calls God’s people to cherish Jesus Christ. That is NOT the work of a “goat”. Who cares where he speaks, as long as he preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ and clearly exposits scripture. This is ridiculous.

http://www.woodtv.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=8705

Rob Bell’s ‘Love Wins’ hits shelves: woodtv.com