When we discover a prominent well known preacher has gone over to the dark side embracing sin, even endorsing it, as Max Lucado has done, then no matter how good his books or sermons are, we cannot embrace them.
WHY? Because the devil used some good to draw people in and once they were impressed he slips in the real man who is full of sin. Often those who would not otherwise appreciate sin will defend the man who speaks lies just because of the other things they have written.
Many people will defend those who have gone off into false teaching simply because they liked something else the preacher has written or said in the past.
This reminds me of the story of the brownies made by a loving Dad to prove a point.
The father made some lovely brownies for his family. He presented them to his children who were defending movies because there was some good in them.
As he offered the brownies to the children he explained that all the ingredients were good except that he had gone to the yard and took from it a table spoon of dog poo to mix into the large batch of brownies.
He assured them that it was alright to eat the brownies because there was only a little dog poo in them.
Guess what, no one would eat the brownies.
Just because there is a little good in something does not mean it is alright to use that thing, even worse is recommending it to others.
It is one thing to read a book or watch a movie and be honest about its content. Its quite another to defend that book or movie because there was only a little bad in it. And even worse recommend something to others that will tarnish their souls.
By the way, it has been my experience that those who defend books and movies because there is only a little bad, usually twisting the truth, usually there is much more bad but they only see the worst of the worst having been blinded by evil for so long they don't see most of what is wrong in books and movies.
Its one thing to watch movies and read books it quite another to promote and defend them when they might cause another believer to fall. You see, its not all about you or me, it is what is helpful to our Christian siblings to grow in holiness and most of all what pleases God.
I remember years ago Christians were recommending the movie "Saving Private Ryan." I knew there was a problem with it because of the rating that was given to it. These Christians told me I should watch it, more than one, even several said I should watch it. Finally I rented it for the purpose of evaluating it so I could show the believers what was wrong.
I began the movie with pen and paper in hand as I would listen to every word, agonizingly I sat through that long movie writing down, cuss words, the Lord's name in vain, sexual jokes, and other filthy words I cannot say here. When the movie was over and the list was complete I had found over 68 occurrences in 2 and a half hours of filth and blasphemy. This does not even mention the many scenes of intense gore throughout the movie.
Interestingly the Christians who recommended this movie to me assured me there was nothing bad in it, that only a couple of cuss words but other than that it was really good. They used the excuse that it was authentic to what really happened in WW2. I set out to prove they were wrong and they were.
So what was wrong, why did these born again believers not see all that I saw and wrote down? Why did they use the excuse that something was authentic to justify looking at filth?
1 Timothy 4:2 "Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;"
Now days most people watch shows and read books, but when they adamantly defend something wrong because they personally liked it, then are seering their own conscience.
Never defend a writer because of past writings when he is promoting evil. His past writings become null and void to me when he has gone off into heresy and blasphemy to fit into the world.
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