8-18-2007

Overview

John Shore's book, I'm OK--You're Not, teaches that since most Americans have heard about Christianity, the Lord's command for us to share the gospel with people is now in direct opposition to his command for us to love people. He teaches that in order to resolve this incompatibility we must now stop sharing the gospel, and instead simply love people.

What specifically makes this heretical? Any teacher, who for any reason, comes along and begins to teach the church to stop doing something Christ commanded, is teaching heresy.

Suggesting that Christ would give us two commandments that at some future point in history would begin to be in opposition to each other, puts the Lord on a level of ineptitude bordering on the imbicilic. And one immediately wonders how on earth anyone who claims to be a Christian could suggest such a thing. But as the book is read, the reason John has come to this conclusion becomes glaringly obvious... John believes that Christianity is a sort of a self-help, support-group type of loving "club," where people seek to change "the essense of who they" are into something better.

Imagine for a moment that he was right.

What in the world would be "loving" about us telling someone "my club is better than your club... and since I'm a member of my club that means I'm a better person than you... you need to change the essence of who you are and join my club... and in fact, if you don't join my club you're going to Hell"?

Do you see anything loving in there? No. Nothing. In fact, that would be about the most arrogant, and idiotic thing anyone could ever say.

Since this is John's perspective of what Christianity is, it is easy to see why he thinks that the "Great Commission" to go and make disciples is incompatible with God's commandment for us to love our neighbor. This makes me very worried for John personally. I actually pray that John would go to www.WayoftheMasterRADIO.com and click on the message there entitled “Are You Really a Christian?” which will reveal that this concept of what Christianity is -- the concept he apparently holds -- is hideously flawed.

If John had written a book that said something along the lines of, "Christians have got to stop being rude when they evangelize, and they've also got to start incorporating a lot more practical signs of love into encounters with unbelievers," that would be one thing. And someone who just flips through this book might assume that is it's message. However, as you will see below in the documentation, this is not what John is saying.

John stated on a recent www.WayoftheMasterRADIO.com interview that he has been a Christian for only ten years, and he clearly states in his book that he is not theologically trained. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about this whole situation is that the Navigators would allow a self-proclaimed "simple lay-person" to teach their readers something that is in direct opposition to Biblical truth and over 2000 years of Christian history.

Within John's book, there are three main problem areas:

• The Nature of Love
• What it means to be a Christian
• The "Great Commission"

The Nature of Love

John appears to interpret the biblical directive to love God as a command to sort of close one’s eyes, and experience a “majestic” and “phenomenal” feeling of having one’s “heart, soul and mind filled with the reality” of God’s love. 

The idea that love is a feeling is a very dangerous one, but even more disturbing is that John tells us that if one is correctly experiencing this “feeling” of “love,” it will result in the feeling of being “accepting.” And that when we truly experience this we should be “okay with everything, and everyone, exactly as they are.”

This, of course, is in direct conflict with the Bible. Jesus was certainly not ever “okay with everything, and everyone, exactly as they are.” He spoke harshly to the Pharisees about their sin, he drove the money changers out of the temple… His incredible goodness and purity caused him to “Hate what is evil.” And that is what we are also instructed to do (Rom 12:9a).

Is God the Father “okay with everything, and everyone, exactly as they are”? Obviously not, since he created Hell as a place of punishment for those who break his Holy laws. No, God is not okay with murderers, rapists, abortion doctors… he’s not even okay with a little sexual fantasy and a few little-white-lies.

Now, don't get the wrong impression. God is incredibly merciful to those who repent and turn in faith to Jesus’ sacrifice as payment for their sin. And in that sense he is accepting! That is the incredible richness of his love… that Jesus would die in order to be able to accept sinners who don’t deserve his kindness. But even Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more.” He was willing to accept her because of his great mercy, but he was not “accepting” in the sense that he was “okay with everything, and everyone, exactly as they are.” He told her to stop her sinning… she was not “okay” exactly as she was.

There is only one that I know of who is “okay with everything, and everyone, exactly as they are,” and that is Satan, the deceiver. I feel so heart-broken for John, the writer of this book. He seems so sincere… but he is badly, badly deceived. And even worse, he is putting himself at great risk before God on Judgment Day because he is elevating himself to the role of “teacher” and he is teaching a deception.

If we want a definition of what it means to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength… we will see that it is not a "feeling" at all. And the best person to give it to us would be Jesus himself:

What it Means to be a Christian

John believes that Christianity is a sort of a self-help, support-group type of loving "club," where people seek to change "the essense of who they" are into something better. Notice the bold instances indicating that he believes becoming a Christian is when one “changes” or becomes a “better” person.

At one point, John tells about an encounter he had at his church a few weeks after “I converted.” He reports that a “fellow believer” he was being introduced to expressed joy at hearing of his conversion. The man then said:

John relates just how refreshingly honest he felt that conversation was, and goes on to say:

Apparently this is how John understands the term “conversion,” or “becoming a Christian.” He expresses that it takes place when one realizes they need to change the very essence of who they are, and results in a brotherhood type bond similar to belonging to a club where everyone shares profound beliefs.

Since this appears to be John’s honest understanding of Christianity, it is no wonder he has written such a heretical book.

If Christianity was merely a self-improvement, self-help, type of loving, family “club.” Then it would indeed be insulting and quite rude to wave it around in someone else’s face saying it was better than their club. (How arrogant to say the Moose Lodge is better than the Elk Club!) If you look at all of John’s statements in this book through that lens… they all make perfect sense.

Again in this section we see John referring to becoming a Christian as becoming a "better" person. He also says that it's “not particularly good” to reveal to people that they will be sentenced to Hell without Christ. His reason is stated, “because it simply doesn’t work.”

Pragmatism—doing what works (or what appears to “work”)—is the noose that the modern-day church is slowly choking to death on. John also says:

 So, what does John think the church should be doing, instead of talking to people about Christ?

As John does attempt to be light-hearted and funny throughout his book, this can be taken as a mild joke... but the premise behind it is not meant as a joke at all. Simply stated, Christians need to stop actively evangelizing and instead just be nice.

I want to take just a moment to look a little more closely at the last part of the statement we started this section with. I would hope it's unnecessary to point out that this statement is absolutely ridiculous. It is very, very possible to love someone you have no relationship with. I’m certainly not advocating the destruction of relationships, but in many situations, a relationship must be sacrificed because of love.

Consider the mother and father with a drug addicted child who finally gets arrested. The child screams through the bars, “Get me out of here or I’ll hate you forever!” The parents weep as they turn to go… realizing that jail time may be the only thing to sober their child up. Only great love, or “tough love” as it is sometimes called, is willing to sacrifice itself, or even a relationship, for the ultimate good of the one they love.

The love of Christ, expressing itself through warning someone of God’s coming wrath is something like yelling, “Quick! Get into shelter! A tornado is coming!”

We say to people, “Quick, shelter in the blood of Christ which paid for your crimes against God! The great and terrible Day of God’s Judgment is coming!”

There is nothing more loving than that… and nothing more grievously evil than silently watching someone back over a cliff… avoiding telling them, because you don’t want to risk your relationship.

The "Great Commission"

John teaches that Christ's command to go and make disciples (often referred to as "the Great Commission") only really applied to the first century church. Today, he says, the "Great Commission" has been fulfilled (at least in the U.S.). The only people who should be evangelizing today are foreign missionaries. This is because there are only two kinds of people in America: those who are Christians, and those who have decided they don't want to be Christians.

John further teaches that if a Christian continues to try to obey Christ's command to make disciples, then he is then in direct conflict with Christ's command that we love our neighbor as our self. This is because telling people that they are under God's judgment will make them feel bad, and might damage our relationship with that person... thus it is unloving.

John’s most grave error, and the thing that actually makes this book heretical, is that of presuming to announce that the Great Commission has been fulfilled (at least here in the US), and therefore Christians need no longer obey Jesus’ command to go and make disciples.

What a horrible place John stands in. He has set himself up in the place of a teacher and now is instructing his readers to disobey Christ.

In essence he says, “Yes, I know that Jesus said to go and make disciples, but you can stop doing that… I’ve decided the Great Commission has now been fulfilled.”

Jesus defines love for him as obedience to his commandments (John 14:15-24). Breaking Christ’s commandments is sin. Anyone who encourages others to break one of Jesus’ commands is in a horrifying place before God.

John says that there are basically only two kinds of people left in the USA, “those who are already Christian, and those who have already decided that they don’t want to be Christian.”

Completely absent from John’s understanding are those who think they are Christians, but have not been born again—the False Converts that Jesus talks about in Matthew 7:21-23: