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COPY
To: Senior Pastor Larry Freitag,
Bethel Assembly, Mpls, MN
November 18, 2006
You are a proud man. Some of the things I say will sting you. I am doing this
for your benefit and also for the flock you oversee.
The fact that you would be able to lead your flock into the Purpose Driven,
Seeker Sensitive camp indicates 2 things. First there has not been a clear,
regular preaching of the gospel and it's doctrines (not that you have taught
contrary to the gospel prior to this point). You are clearly charged by God to
do this. Second you have not taught against the major heresies occurring in the
church today, even in some AOG churches. Including the Purpose Driven error.
Here also you are clearly charged by God to do this. I don't believe you realize
the magnitude of the steps you are taking with Purpose Driven.
We may disagree on some fine theological points but I think we can agree on the
gospel spelled out below;
That mankind is abiding under the wrath of God because of sin. That they are
assured of being sentence to a burning hell and eventually the lake of fire.
That men must acknowledge their guilt under God's just law. That they must
repent of their sins and believe the gospel, that Jesus Christ is Deity and has
existed from all eternity with and as God, that He was incarnated being born of
a virgin, that He live a sinless life, that He died on the cross shedding His
blood for the atonement of our sins, that He was raised from the dead and has
ascended to the right hand of God The Father. Having believed, men must
acknowledge Christ's Lordship over their lives and trust in His finished work.
It is not enough for everyone at Bethel to assent to these truths. These truths
need to be regularly taught from the pulpit. If there is an emphasis on teaching
and affirming these bedrock doctrines errors like the seeker sensitive schemes
will have no appeal. The two cannot coexist. The people would be strengthened
and emboldened.
- Mans unregenerate state
- Mans willful sinfulness
- God's wrath against sin, eternal punishment .....hell and the lake of fire
- Repentance towards God from sin
- Deity of Christ - preexistence, virgin birth, equality with the Father
- Christ's sinless life
- Christ's substitutionary death and blood atonement
- Christ's resurrection and his own foretelling of it
- Christ's ascension to the right hand of the Father
- True faith in the finished work of Christ not just mental assent
You and others may disagree with the prominence these doctrines should hold in
your preaching schedule. But those at Bethel know how often you have expounded
on them in the last year.
You pray for revival but if you want blood bought saints to fill your church you
must preach the gospel. All the time. Nothing else will work. It is God's plan.
You have a very natural desire to be a people pleaser rather than a gospel
preacher. One of the greatest offenses one can commit in pagan USA is to be
intolerant. Telling people that they are going to hell is the highest expression
of intolerance. John Macarthur has said in Hard to Believe. "We've seen that
the frequent solution for making the message more popular and appealing is to
distort and misrepresent the gospel by pumping up the easy parts and downplaying
or ignoring the hard parts." Telling your flock the way forward is to go out
and preach the law and tell people they are going to hell and must repent is
inviting rejection from your flock. This is why the seeker sensitive schemes are
so seductive to you and other pastors. It is an easy way out. You want to please
people rather than Biblically prepare them for ministry.
I hope you can find the time to read Redefining Christianity. I
respectfully request that you read it. Then you could refute it for everyone if
that is your judgment. Please consider if you are under obligation to examine
Purpose Driven seeing as how you are bringing this doctrine into the church.
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