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biblical discernment, Christian doctrine, Christianity, denial of Scripture, false 'god' encounters, false teachers, Gospel of Jesus Christ, heresy, Perry Noble, The Cripplegate
An excellent article from Eric Davis at The Cripplegate:
Editing the 10 Commandments and the Sacredness of the Pulpit
Over the past few weeks noise has arisen over the recent Christmas Eve service preached by pastor Perry Noble. Among other things, he performed a sweeping edit of the ten commandments in Exodus 20 during the sermon.
His justification for doing so was three-fold. God spoke to him, telling him to preach a message in which he edited each of the commandments, then he received affirmation from fellow-staff to do so, and a Jewish friend told him that there is no word in Hebrew for, “command.” The claim is made that instead of “Ten Commandments that you have to keep…they’re actually ten promises that you can receive when you say, ‘Yes,’ to Jesus.”
So, for example, the first commandment, which says, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exod 20:3
), is better understood as, “You do not have to live in constant disappointment anymore.” As a sidenote, the commandments are not promises to which we say, “Yes,” but standards by which we are shown to be condemned so that we would see and sorrow over our inability to render ourselves acceptable to holy God, repent, and embrace the Person and finished work of Jesus Christ for acceptable righteousness.
Read the rest of the article here.
The Narrowing Path 
I listened to the sermon. He preached as many modern preachers do in a manic style with lots of stories and efforts at humor. Perhaps he was trying to emphasize the difference between law and grace, religion and a relationship with Jesus Christ. However, his technique did not represent the reverence that we must always have for God and His Word. Paul, the champion of grace, never attacked the law of God, he just proved over and over again that justification can never come from keeping God’s law. Paul also taught, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we as believers uphold the law, here we can say the Ten Commandments, by loving God with all our hearts minds, souls and strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior, taught this in the gospels. We are saved by grace through faith, but as the beloved children of God we are saved to be obedient. The pastor could have reverently compared side by side the differences between law keeping and God’s grace given to sinners through faith in Jesus Christ without taking license in his handling of God’s Holy Word. That way he could have also shown that as believers in Christ Jesus it is for His praise and glory that we obey the commandments of God, which is also for our blessing and the blessing of the God’s church.
It is troubling that he believed that God had led him to mishandle His Word. The enemy of our souls mishandles God’s Word, not His faithful shepherds and servants. It is also troubling that his leadership supported him in this, showing a decided lack of discernment and zeal for the integrity of God’s holy call for feeding His sheep.
One other note, I visited the church website, and on the church website the pastor recommends books that are written by apostates, Andy Stanley, John Ortberg, Henry Cloud. The website is definitely set up for the post-modern christian mentality.
God bless you:)
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