Friday, July 18, 2008

Heretic Enters Southern Gospel Hall of Fame

I grew up with a father who loved Southern Gospel music. As a small child, I knew it was Sunday when I heard "JUBILEE, JUBILEE, something something something Gospel Jubilee." Then a bunch of families in very bad polyester clothing would parade onto a fake gazebo and pause while smiling at the camera. I remember such groups as the Chuck Wagon Gang, the Statesman, the Blackwood Brothers, and the Dixie Melody Boys. We listened to Southern Gospel on albums at home and on eight-track cassettes in the car.

In 2007, the Southern Gospel Music Association inducted Joel Hemphill of the Hemphills into the SGMA Hall of Fame. They have this to say about him:
Born August 1, 1939, in Fresno, CA, Joel Hemphill is a noted singer-songwriter, evangelist, musician, and author. He and his wife, LeBreeska, formed the Singing Hemphills in the mid 1960s, traveling the quartet circuit to much acclaim. The Hemphill patriarch has penned over 350 songs, many of which became Gospel Music classics. His songs included such hits as "Pity the Man," "Not in a Million Years," and "Wait Till You See My Brand-New Home.”

Hemphill wrote and recorded six #1 songs. Over a twenty-year period, from 1970-1990, Hemphill had an average #8 song on the "Singing News" Chart. Along with his singing family, Hemphill is the recipient of eight (8) Dove Awards. Joel has received three (3) BMI Awards of Excellence.
The only problem with all this: Hemphill isn't a Christian. He completely and openly denies that Jesus Christ is God which means he doesn't believe in the Trinity. In his book To God Be The Glory: Exalting the Bible View of God, he lays out some of his views. However, to remove all doubt, Hemphill answers his critics and writes the following about the book on his own website:
The focus of my book isn't what Jesus is not, but rather who God the Father is. God is immortal - Jesus was not... Hebrews teaches, and I believe that Jesus did not come in the God family (there is only one God), or the angel family, but in the human family (Heb. 2:7, 9). He is perfect, sinless man, but man nevertheless!...

A God-man could not redeem us. It took a sinless man, the Lamb of God, with righteous blood untainted by the sin of Adam, to redeem mankind. He is the second Adam, not the first God-man... If the disciples who had just seen Jesus ascend to heaven in Acts chapter one, did not pray to him in Acts chapter four, then he is not God!... The incarnation as taught by modern Christianity is a fable.

Jesus was not just a body full of God, he was a man full of God. He had a human mind, soul, spirit and will. Being full of God does not make a person God.

Here is a good question. If we continue to give God’s glory to another, even His highly exalted, sinless, virgin-born son, after we have come to the knowledge of the truth, will it be accounted to us for idolatry? God still speaks! Please pray and ask Him.
He writes more here:
Jesus is not a human incarnation of Almighty God as the Oneness teach, nor an incarnation of God the Son, second person of a triune God, a pre-existent being, as millions of Trinitarians believe.

The doctrine of the Trinity with its lack of Biblical covering reminds me of a tale by Hans Christian Andersen called "The Emperor's New Clothes." . . . You may ask, "what are you saying?" I am saying that the doctrine of the Trinity is Biblically naked , and I am calling on all of those who see and love the truth to join me in speaking up (emphasis in original).
Just like the popular group Philips, Craig & Dean, Joel Hemphill and his family continue to sing in Trinitarian churches. I wonder if any Muslim mosques, Mormon stakes, or Jehovah's Witness' congregations would want him to come sing - he would fit in better theologically there!

10 comments:

Jim Pemberton said...

Unfortunately, this is too often the case. Christians too often confuse many bad things for true godly leadership: things such as musical talent (in this case) or passionate persuasion. ("Ooo. He must know what he's talking about because he's so assertive about it.")

You probably won't read this until we get home, but great job tonight.

דודשמש יםךא ךםהד עםג said...

Jesus said his Father is greater than he. Yet the heresy trinity doctrine teaches that the Son is equal to the Father.
What rubbish.

LGD said...

I agree with the way that Jim puts the falsehood's strength of "Ooo. He must know... because he's so assertive about it." It is truly sad how the only legs the trinity has to stand-on is folly of men wielding great assertiveness.

Jim Pemberton said...

...like an argument that fails to recognize the scriptural foundations for the trinity, well-known as Christian orthodoxy, by merely asserting that trinity has no legs to stand on, or to simply assert "what rubbish."

דודשמש יםךא ךםהד עםג said...

Biblical foundation for the trinity? It is a Greek and Roman idea rooted in paganism. Do some research. You are brainwashed. Any honest person who can read can read history and learn the roots of the evil 3-headed trinity god.
You are like your god John Calvin who murdered Michael Servetus because he did not bow down to the 3-headed god called trinity.
Trinity has no Biblical foundation. It was centuries after the apostles died this evil entered the world.
It was an invention of Augustine and his ilk. The apostles thank God knew who Jesus is and Peter told us how to be baptized. Deny it all you want. But you WILL hear Jesus say to you Depart from me I never knew you.

דודשמש יםךא ךםהד עםג said...

Christian orthodoxy is the problem. After Revelation 22:21 I go no further. You may worship the "church fathers" all you want I don't care. But it is the evil trinity god that is the REAL heresy.
Trinity = Satan.
You have your pagan god trinity ...and I have mine He is Jesus.

Jim Pemberton said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jim Pemberton said...

“The apostles thank God knew who Jesus is and Peter told us how to be baptized. Deny it all you want. But you WILL hear Jesus say to you Depart from me I never knew you.”

Do you like attempting what only God can do? I willingly submit to His judgment, but not yours.

“After Revelation 22:21 I go no further. You may worship the "church fathers" all you want I don't care.
"You have your pagan god trinity ...and I have mine He is Jesus.”


If you don’t care, then what are doing writing these things?

And you say that I have my pagan god trinity and you have yours. In that sentence structure, you would also have a pagan god trinity. Like so: “You have your pagan god trinity …and I have mine [‘mine’ = ‘my pagan god trinity’] He is Jesus. Once again, you aren’t very careful with language. I’m not saying I’m perfect, but at least I’m willing to admit it and try to do better.

But if you don’t understand language clearly enough, then how can you be sure that you have arrived at the right theological conclusions? Since you are not Trinitarian, you can’t tell me that it is because you are filled with the Holy Spirit without contradicting yourself.

So if you want to try to convince me against the doctrine of the Trinity, you must address not the historical context whereby it was investigated, but the hermeneutical foundation God used to communicate it to us through His revelation. In other words, if you say that the historic hermeneutic is wrong, then you've got to provide a more rational hermeneutic.

Unknown said...

Since you are not Trinitarian, you can’t tell me that it is because you are filled with the Holy Spirit without contradicting yourself.
Now there is a false argument for a trinitarian, in the doctrine of the trinity, the father, the son and the holy spirit are three distinct personalities in the godhead, so then a trinitarian can be filled with the holy spirit without being filled with the father or the son. so the doctrine of the trinity is a contradiction in itself because the scripture does not say filled with god, but with the holy spirit, but for me i am filled with the holy spirit because for me the holy spirit is the father and the son
John 14:23 יהושע answered him, “If anyone loves Me, he shall guard My Word. And MY FATHER shall love him, and WE shall come to him and make Our stay with him.
but for you, you can be filled with the holy spirit without the father or the son so now you are without father or son
1John 2:22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies THE FATHER AND THE SON.
there are many more problems with this doctrine just look at
Rev 1:1 THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST, WHICH GOD GAVE HIM to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,
the revelation that god gave to Jesus Christ now that Jesus is resurrected and supposed to be god as per your doctrine, we see here that Jesus is not god since god is the one giving him the revelation, and also that he does not know this revelation and is therefore not omniscient(all knowing) a distinct characteristic of GOD. trinitarians are the ones without spirit since they cannot read simple verses that prove the father is the only true god
John 17:3 ​And this is eternal life, that they know YOU THE ONLY TRUE GOD, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
and therefore do not believe the words of Jesus and are condemned Acts 3:22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.
Acts 3:23 And it shall be that EVERY SOUL WHO DOES NOT LISTEN TO THAT PROPHET SHALL BE DESTROYED FROM THE PEOPLE.’

Enyinna Nkem-Abonta said...

I fail to understand how anyone can make sense of the utter nonsense known as the Trinity doctrine. And I still can't understand how anyone with even only half a mind can read John 17: 3 and still believe in Trinity. By definition almost God can't have a God above him. Jesus did, does, and always will have a God (the Father) above him. Can anyone ever think of the Father God having a God above him? Jesus has no innate power or authority; all the power and authority he has, admittedly at the same level at which God his Father exercises it, has been given to him by his Father. Jesus said so himself repeatedly -- in fact, so many times that it amounts to foolhardiness for anyone to ascribe to him any innate power or authority. Yes, Jesus is God, but only in a purely functional sense, not ontologically. He's God's Shaliah, his highest agent and representative. The Trinity doctrine is nauseating nonsense. Those who believe it are heretics and need to repent and seek forgiveness.