PaperCat

Tag: christianity

  • My Favorite Christian Resources

    In this day and time, it is getting more and more difficult to find Christian resources that actually use the Bible as the foundation for the material. (Shocking.) Because I’ve been running into this problem repeatedly, I’m sure many other Christians are too so I want to share a list of some channels and books that have helped me in my studies. If you have some resources as well, I would love to hear what they are.

    Just a side note as well, I’m sure there are some minor issue disagreements that I have with some of the creators and authors that I’m listing here but overall, they are Christians who believe the Bible is the word of God and that faith in Christ is the only necessity for salvation.

    1. The Messed Up Church YouTube Channel – This channel is run by the Kozars, Steve and Paulette. They post videos critiquing messages from mega church pastors and ministry speakers who primarily use their speaking skills to make a profit rather than to properly teach from the Bible. The videos are slightly chaotic and disorganized, but their videos feel much more like a conversation uncovering the manipulative techniques in these speeches. They are both very clear that they are not teachers but they are laypeople, which makes most of their videos easily understood and relatable. I especially like their use of humor but they’re also clear that the tactics of these speakers is very serious and ruining the lives of their followers.

    2. Fighting for the Faith YouTube Channel – This channel was the inspiration for the Kozars with their channel but it is run by a Lutheran pastor, Chris Roseborough. He also primarily posts videos critiquing mega-church pastors and other church leaders who manipulate Bible verses to tell the story they want to tell or to support the life lesson they want to tell but only by ripping a verse (or passage) out of context. A bit that he also posts is called Prophesy Bingo, a game he plays with guests to essentially show that all of these self-proclaimed “prophets” use similar empty buzzwords and phrases in their supposed prophecies and predictions. This channel also uses plenty of humor while teaching the seriousness of understanding scripture to the Christian life.

    3. Long4Truth 1 YouTube Channel – This channel is another married couple, the Longs, Daniel and Robin, and they also discuss false preachers from mega-churches but they have covered additional topics such as “Christian” Bible study books and cults that have started due to the misinterpretation of scripture. They are also laypeople so they can explain these topics in ways that are easy to understand while still being a broad study of the development of mainstream Christianity.

    4. Counterfeit Kingdom book by Holly Pivec and Doug Geivett – In the same vein as the study of supposed “Christianity” is a book that discusses a false Christian movement that has arisen called the New Apostolic Reformation that is a branch that claims that the offices of apostle and prophet from the Bible are still active today. This is contrary to the previously well-understood role that apostles played in the New Testament. Apostles in the New Testament were in the role if they were eye witnesses of the resurrected Christ. Even the late comer Paul (previously Saul) saw Jesus Christ. This book goes into detail about the movement of the NAR and the results of the beliefs that the movement teaches to its followers including spiritual abuse.

    5. The ESV One Year Bible – This Bible is the easiest reading plan for reading the entire Bible in one year. I prefer the English Standard Version translation of the Bible and the One Year Bible is offered in multiple translations including NIV and NLT. I admit that I don’t read it perfectly every single day but each reading is dated, allowing you the ability to know where to read each day, which is often the first step to making a daily habit of reading the Bible – knowing what to read or where to start each day. The readings include a section from the Old Testament, a section from the New Testament, a section from the Psalms and a verse of Proverbs, making it very easy to read through the whole Bible.

    6. The English Standard Version Women’s Study Bible – This is a starting place for me to further understand some of my other reading in the One Year Bible. This Bible includes study notes and references to other related verses of the Bible such as the prophecies and their coming true. I’m building a further library of commentaries and notes regarding scripture but this Bible has been my starting place.

    Please let me know of your favorite study resources and I would be happy to look into them! I also want to continue to share more resources as I find them so I may do regular posts like this one.

    (None of the links in this post are sponsored)

  • Book Review: Counterfeit Kingdom

    As I’ve been taking a long commute to and from work, I decided to start listening to audio books and I decided to start with a book by Holly Pivec and Doug Geievett called Counterfeit Kingdom. As a Christian, I frequently watch YouTube videos regarding Christianity and Christian culture. So when channels I watch often like Fighting for the Faith and Alisa Childers began recommending this book, I added it to my reading list.

    As a quick explanation, this book is a summary of the apparent beliefs of a movement within Christian circles called the New Apostolic Reformation. One of the main things in this movement is a belief that there are current-day apostles rather than just the past apostles that are described in scripture. This book explains this and other beliefs in this movement in detail.

    A strange additional detail about this movement is that most of the churches that are in this movement deny being in this movement. This appears to be the heart of why this book was written, in order to show the unbiblical part of these beliefs, because many who wouldn’t normally be influenced by this movement have been influenced by this movement.

    Even as someone who isn’t an expert in religion or Christianity specifically, I’ve noticed these beliefs in my local churches. One of the ways I see this myself is through the jargon or buzzwords that are used in the movement. Because our culture is so centered on hashtags, trending, and buzzwords, we all are easily able to adopt words like this even if it means something slightly different than what we think it means. An example phrase is “prayer declarations.” Many in the NAR movement just talk about prayer but in teachings from the pastors of the movement, they only talk about prayer declarations, which is to say that in prayer, the person is declaring to receive what they are “praying” for. The scriptural view of prayer is of a humble request of God, not a declaration that God must give or will give what the person is “asking” for.

    A cultural example of a hashtag or trending phrase becoming popular or viral but it wasn’t understood by a large part of the population was “Netflix and chill.” This phrase is still used jokingly out of what its original meaning was, which was a code teenagers were using for sexual activity in order to hide it. But it still went viral because it was popular and people heard it often online so it caught traction. I think because we start to hear the phrases or buzzwords like “prayer declarations” on the radio like on KLOVE or in teaching videos online, they sound Christian in their use, they gain traction. They sound good but they don’t actually mean the same thing.

    I could say more about how much I agree with the thoughts of this book, but I will end here. I highly recommend this book to Christians not as a blaming book or a pointing fingers book, but as a helpful tool for true discernment. Being able to understand false teachings and discern them from biblical teachings is taught in scripture in the New Testament as being an important skill for the Christian to have. (Acts, 1 Timothy, Titus, and Jude contain some of these examples.)