# Evangelical Garbage ![rw-book-cover](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81lWEi0f2OL._SY160.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[Randy White]] - Full Title: Evangelical Garbage - Category: #books ## Highlights - This book is a call to change directions. And it is aimed at you, the individual. I don’t think I’ll change the mind of the denominations, the executives, the “lead pastors” (or whatever stupid title they are now using), or the seminary presidents (who may be most to blame). But I do think I may be able to convince you, the God-loving, Bible-reading, friendly-neighborhood believer. That, at least, is my prayer. ([Location 115](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=115)) - Through the fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties, evangelicalism influenced politics, education, local sports and recreation, city-hall, and even the local public library. It wasn’t necessarily “visioned” to be an influence, it was simply BIG, BOLD, and EFFECTIVE. ([Location 139](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=139)) - You can go to any community in America today that existed 20, 30, or 50 years ago, and select any of the churches in that community that existed 20, 30, or 50 years ago (or all of them collectively) and find that they are “weaker by the ton” than those decades ago, virtually without exception. ([Location 151](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=151)) - We live in a day of “the church of the withered hand.” ([Location 156](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=156)) - The Southern Baptist Convention is more likely to lose a million members than gain a thousand. Any strength of voice that evangelical leaders think they have is only a result of the echo chamber in which they live. ([Location 158](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=158)) - There are scores of once healthy neighborhood churches in this same town. Churches that once had a full choir loft, a vibrant weekly visitation, a solid Bible-teaching pastor, and a string of “preacher boys” and missionaries that came out and went forth over the years. These churches only had 60 or 70 faithful (rather than six or seven thousand), but their collective strength was exponentially more than the “too cool for school” mega-church. Today these neighborhood churches are struggling to pay the bills, keep a good attitude, and keep the doors open. The overall result is a Christianity that is far weaker today than even a decade ago. ([Location 170](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=170)) - As I look back over my life, I’m all-but-convinced that we are the generation that let Christianity die. ([Location 180](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=180)) - Evangelicals today are of all denominations, political positions, theological convictions, and church-polity persuasions. ([Location 210](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=210)) - Fundamentalism holds to a doctrine of separation that is unknown among evangelicals. Evangelicals are the “softer, gentler” form of fundamentalism and have thrown themselves fully into the ecumenical movement, a movement that minimizes doctrinal differences to promote a unity and union between churches ([Location 219](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=219)) - My belief is that evangelicals cannot and will not reform and that evangelicalism itself must be rejected. ([Location 223](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=223)) - Anyone who has studied church history knows that it is the history of division and schism. One can either be appalled that Christians have not been unified over the past 2,000 years or can read deeper into the history and thank God that men of God have been willing to stand, call out, and separate themselves from unbiblical teaching. ([Location 231](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=231)) - Anytime church history speaks of a schism, it is revealing a theological issue which should not be ignored. ([Location 235](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=235)) - If your church doesn’t have a clear doctrinal position on the major (and most of the minor) issues of the faith, then I would question that church’s adherence to the Bible. How can a local church not have a position on how to be saved, who can be saved, how the church should be governed, who is allowed to be in church leadership, what (if any) ordinances should be observed, etc.? ([Location 240](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=240)) - There is a billion-dollar industry I’ve called the Evangelical Industrial Complex (EIC), and the EIC loves the ecumenical movement. Why? Because it thrives financially off the money that is put into ecumenical programs. Big money. Much bigger than if local churches were operating independently. ([Location 259](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=259)) - Very few churches are places of study anymore. The Bible study classroom has been taken over by lights, the stage, and the show. The church today works overtime (and over budget) to entertain the kids, the teens, and the adults. ([Location 267](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=267)) - There was a day when music in the church had a two-fold purpose: to be uplifting and to be educational. Both are good and necessary. Today, music is the tail that wags the dog and is designed to be entertaining and manipulative. ([Location 277](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=277)) - The worshiper, in a dark room, will stand and sway while the lights and action are “high and lifted up.” The worshiper can’t sing along, because the song is too new, too erratic, too unsingable without rehearsal and skill. The only time the worshiper actually sings is when an old hymn is tacked on, and the electronics turn off for a moment of awe. ([Location 285](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=285)) - But for now, suffice it to say that “Big Tent” is an understatement when it comes to the evangelical movement. If an activity “brings people to Jesus,” then it is acceptable. And the more a program or agenda brings people to Jesus, the more that program or agenda is honored, expanded, and marketed into Madison Avenue greatness. ([Location 299](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=299)) - Evangelical leaders will proclaim that it is better that people are coming even if they are not growing in knowledge and understanding of God’s revelation. Thus, few evangelicals are interested in limiting the Word of God to sixty-six books (else the Jesus Calling sales would decline). Almost no evangelical wants to insist on a certain outline of Scripture for end-times events (else those who hold a different view would stop coming). An evangelical is almost allergic to limiting leadership roles to qualified men, and so will dance around that subject as long as possible, until giving in totally (as most have). Even such “hot button” issues as homosexuality, sex outside of marriage, and abortion are not touched or rarely touched because these issues might offend someone. ([Location 303](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=303)) - The motive of the movement may have been good, but the results were disastrous. The Word of God was compromised to get more people in the pews (until pews became too “churchy” and were replaced by cushioned auditorium style seating). Basically, everything that communicated “church” was removed. The steeple? Gone. The pulpit? Gone. The offering plates? Gone. The sermon? All-but-gone. Evangelicalism has gone on a no-holds-barred quest for increasing attendance. ([Location 317](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=317)) - The church needs to be what only the church can be: a place for the exposition of Scripture, guiding people to a knowledgeable faith-based relationship with God through Jesus Christ. ([Location 325](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=325)) - Billy Graham was the image of evangelicalism. Revivals and revivalistic services were the preferred evangelical style from 1950 through the mid 1980’s. The “count above all counts” was the number of annual baptisms (by age, with meticulous records year-after-year). ([Location 334](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=334)) - A consistent conviction of Calvinistically oriented evangelicals is that only the elect can have faith. Often their presentations leave this important detail out, letting the outcome be what it may. ([Location 373](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=373)) - The truth is that we could build a Biblical case (a strong one) that you need to verbally confess your sins (Rom. 10:9, 1 Jn. 1:9), that you need to repent and be baptized in water (Acts 2:38), that if you do not remain faithful to the end then you were never saved (Mt. 24:13, 1 Jn. 2:19), and that if you do not obey the commandments then you are not a Christian (James 1:22, Lk. 18:18-20). It is because you can make the case for the works-based salvation that what evangelicals teach seem so right. Remember that the Bible is so clear that our salvation is “by grace…through faith…not of works” (Eph. 2:8-9). Because of this we know something isn’t right with the evangelical presentation. ([Location 448](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=448)) - Evangelicals forever want to reconcile the unreconcilable. They do this because they have a mistaken assumption that there are no contradictions in Scripture. ([Location 456](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=456)) - The Bible has a gospel of the Kingdom which involves repentance, baptism, confession, and being faithful to the commandments of God all the way to the end. This is a national gospel to the Jewish people about an earthly kingdom, ([Location 460](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=460)) - But the Bible also has an individual gospel which is based on faith alone, a gift of God’s grace. It is this individual gospel, clearly spelled out in the epistles of the Apostle Paul, that was unveiled from its hidden status after Israel rejected her King and His kingdom. When you rightly divide the Scriptures, you end up with a clear gospel! ([Location 463](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=463)) - Second, let’s ask if evangelicalism is eschatological? That is, do they have any discernable prophetic interpretation? The answer is a quick and resolute no. There are amillennials, premillennials, and postmillennials all teaching in the same church. ([Location 503](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=503)) - One could hold any of the millennial positions and be a fine Southern Baptist. Denominational executives often hold wildly divergent views from one another on eschatology. How, I might ask, can a person claim to have a Biblical worldview if they cannot begin to explain how the world will end, according to the Bible? ([Location 509](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=509)) - The movement has no discernable position on Calvinism. And this would be true with most of the churches and ministries in the movement. But wouldn’t you agree that the doctrines of God, Man, and Salvation between a Calvinist and a non-Calvinist are in strong opposition to one another? Calvinism is based on a series of covenants in which God determined to save a few and damn the rest. Non-Calvinists believe every person can seek, discover, and respond to the gospel. These positions are mutually exclusive, yet within evangelicalism they abide side-by-side. ([Location 513](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=513)) - Evangelicalism, on the other hand, is allergic to doctrinal denominationalism and largely in love with organizational denominationalism. A few years ago, church signs communicated the doctrinal position of that church. Doctrinally, the church was Baptist, Methodist, Calvary Chapel, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc. This did not communicate which (if any) organizational denomination the church was part of, but it was loud and clear about the doctrine of the church, and the announcement was made before you ever entered the front door. But evangelical churches do not want to have anything other than the broadest of doctrinal positions, and thus certainly don’t want any kind of doctrinal label. ([Location 531](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=531)) - Both Warren and Greear are examples of how evangelicalism is perfectly fine with organizational denominationalism but allergic to doctrinal denominationalism. ([Location 543](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=543)) - What is Saddleback Church or The Summit Church? Why don’t they want to advertise their doctrine with a single, denominational name? I know that they would say it is to win more people to Christ. That is the standard evangelical answer. But could it really be because they don’t have enough doctrine to be labeled? ([Location 545](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=545)) - One of the reasons for the utter confusion coming out of evangelicalism is because it needs to develop doctrinal foundations, but it is foundationally committed to being indistinct. ([Location 569](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=569)) - All translations always translate this word in some sense of cutting, until they get to this verse, in which they refuse to take the plain and clear meaning of the word. This is, in my opinion, “translation malpractice.” ([Location 607](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=607)) - In time, God promised an earthly Kingdom that would come through David. The promises are future, physical, and fraternal (made to Israel alone). Yet evangelicalism has taken promises of the kingdom and claimed them for the Christian. To do so they had to redefine kingdom as “wherever God rules and reigns” rather than the future theocratic reign of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, on the throne of David in Jerusalem. In failing to divide the good news of the kingdom from the good news of individual salvation, evangelicals have made an utter mess both of the gospel and of the Christian life. ([Location 636](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=636)) - Churches today are, for the most part, far older than the communities in which they serve. And if you remove the old people from even the young and vibrant evangelical congregations, those churches will die for lack of a financial base. Our young people have given up on church. I blame the evangelicals. Because evangelicals have not been rightly dividing the Bible, they have made it to be such a confusing mess that, in the absence of a cultural Christianity, the Bible was simply turned into a dusty relic of the past. ([Location 699](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=699)) - The entire time I thought I was doing the Lord’s work in a clean and pure Biblical way. But I was really doing it in a Peter Drucker12 way. I was manipulating people to elicit a good decision, often for my benefit. ([Location 769](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=769)) - The manipulation begins with the overarching goals of the local evangelical church (at least those that march in the evangelical parade). The focus of evangelicalism is so strongly on growing the church that it will do it at any cost. Even without realizing it, pastors who love Jesus are unknowingly doing whatever it takes to make the church grow. ([Location 787](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=787)) - Evangelicalism and emotionalism are tied together, the former being built upon the latter. How does an evangelical know that the Holy Spirit moved? He feels it. How does an evangelical know that a sermon was Biblical? People responded to it. ([Location 855](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=855)) - If you are an evangelical (or ever spent a few minutes with one), you know that the quiet time is the gold-standard for walking with, talking with, and hearing from God. But do you know that the quiet time was virtually made-up by evangelicalism? ([Location 904](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=904)) - For example, the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (IMB) received over $278 million in revenues in 2021 and has reserves of over $306 million.17 And this is of their stated reserves. Granted that the IMB is a large mission sending organization, one must still recognize that this is not an isolated example of the evangelical industrial machine’s fund-raising abilities. ([Location 953](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=953)) - Malachi 3:9-10 is one of the most misused passages of Scripture in all the Bible, and especially in evangelical churches. ([Location 960](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=960)) - Evangelicalism teaches that the storehouse is the local church, and members are to bring the tithe (10 percent of gross income) to the local church. The one who does not do this has “robbed me” and is “cursed with a curse.” But when church members are faithful to give God 10 percent off the top to their local church, then God will “open you the windows of heaven” and the giver will be granted a blessing so great that “there shall not be room enough to receive it.” ([Location 965](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=965)) - A sure sign of eisegesis in Scripture is when the preacher, teacher, or student begins skipping key words or phrases within the text. ([Location 975](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=975)) - Replacement theology is normally considered to be the idea that the church has somehow replaced Israel as the chosen people. This is a huge problem in evangelicalism, but there are other forms of replacement also. ([Location 986](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=986)) - The common interpretation of Malachi 3:9-12 fundamentally requires the adoption of a replacement theology. In the truest form of this satanic scheme (and that’s what replacement theology is), the evangelical treatment of the passage requires that “this whole nation” is replaced with “the church.” ([Location 988](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09VD931BP&location=988))