Maybe it is because I am young, but I still like Mark Driscoll.

Even after the not so much a single mention of Hell in his sermon Sunday at the Crystal Cathedral and even though it will shock many people, I still believe that Pastor Mark is still a Christian. That sermon however was really bad.

But after reading some of the blogs I felt as if the tone in which they treated Mark Driscoll was inappropriate. Please understand I in no way defend Mark Driscoll for his less then stellar performance of his first sermonette at the Crystal Cathedral. I say first because according to Mark Driscoll he spoke twice.

“On Sunday, June 14, I preached two sermons at the Crystal Cathedral in Southern California. The trip went well. I paid my own travel expenses and preached without an honorarium as a way to ensure I was just serving Jesus. Everyone was super kind and allowed me to preach Jesus without edits. The sermons will be broadcast to 12 million people nationwide on the “Hour of Power” TV show, so please pray that people meet Jesus. They don’t have a firm date yet for when the show will be broadcast, but we’ll let you know on the Resurgence and on my Facebook and Twitter , so keep checking back. My first sermon was on Jesus’ claims to be God, and the second was a brutal tour of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in our place for our sins.”  - Mark Driscoll

Now we on this side of TV land have no way, without actually being there, to determine what the content of the second sermon was or if the sermons were even preached to the same crowd. We should really hold back until we get more information and a response from Mark Driscoll about that..if we get one at all.

But this blog is not about the content of Mark Driscolls sermon. There is enough blogs on that…

I agree. The first sermon was shallow, was not his best and appeared to be cowardice in comparison to us brave soldiers who know so much more about the pressures of being in the public spotlight and would have personally stoned Robert Schuller if only we had been invited….but we were not and chances are we will never be. We can sit behind our blogs and wine and complain all we want. If I would have been there I woulda, we coulda, he shoulda… If only John MacArthur was there… If only Paul Washer was there… Oh wait…

Paul Washer was placed in a position where he could have turned the tables on TBN…but he didn’t. A few years ago Paul Washer sat on the same stage that has been used by the Crouches, Benny Hinn and Creflow Dollar. The entire time Paul Washer was silent on the word of faith issue.

Likewise just as Dricoll was…I believe Paul Washer was  wrong. Yet no one would say that Paul Washer is a wolf in sheep’s clothing because of that would they?

However the tone across the blogosphere about Mark Driscoll was not the same as it was for other Christian leaders.

When Ray Comfort spoke at a WoF event he was hit hard by several bloggers about the issue in a humble manner. No one doubted his salvation, they were kind and Ray even wrote back responding to criticisms.

Yet look at the comments from the bloggers and commenter’s about Pastor Mark, these taken fromDefCon.

“Sadly, you were proved right: yes, Schuller is a heretic, and Driscoll has unambiguously proven himself to be a wolf is sheep’s clothing. So much for sound doctrine.”

“Perhaps now there will be a few, a precious few, that will see all of this for what it really is: apostates/heretics on parade.”

Correct me if I am wrong, but Mark Driscoll is no apostate. I may not agree on everything he does or everything he says, but he is no heretic nor is he a false teacher. He is a preacher of the Word. I have heard many of his sermons and in his own Church he preaches the Gospel. Which brings me to a question I think is vital that we answer, publicly…very soon.

There seems to be two trains of thought. On the one side you have people like me who if ever given the opportunity to preach at an apostate church will be like Ian Paisley in the midst of the Pope. Turning over the tables, rebuking the false teachings and demanding justice from God. I will preach anywhere as if I will never be invited back but I have the gift of Prophecy. I will boldly tell the truth wherever I go. It even gets me trouble sometimes with my own pride and jealousy. I to was watching Driscoll chewing on my Baja Blast straw hoping and praying that he broke the glass of that heretical glass cathedral and I was angry when it never came.

But I have to remember that there have been other great men of God, who are invited to a place and remain silent. Like I said earlier…Paul Washer on TBN, Ray Comfort at the WoF conference and John Piper when he was sitting right beside Rick Warren. However they all remained silent. These men who I believe are much smarter then me have decided on multiple occasions to stay on the side of wisdom. The wisdom goes like this “Preach the Gospel lightly without the fist pounding in hopes they look me up on the internet and are gently weaned into the Kingdom via solid preaching over time.”

I personally don’t know if that tactic is wise. It’s not what I would do but on the same scale I am still quite immature and react in ways that represent it. Yet, great Godly men are doing it. So the question that needs to be debated, wrestled with and fought over is “How do we handle this?”

How does one handle being invited to a place where they will be in the midst of wolves?

Is being silent and getting your name out there worthwhile pragmatism? Or should we ravage every single pulpit we go into that preaches something we don’t agree with, or just the rank heretical ones?

There may only be one correct answer, and I lean more towards option one for multiple reasons, but because one sides on the other does not make them an apostate. They need to be rebuked in love as Christian brothers. Not wolfs in sheeps clothing. Not at all like heretics.

We cannot use a brother in Christ as a demonstration, to show how we would have attacked a heretic.

So what will it be…since obviously reformed theology is becoming more and more mainstream, Praise God. We can expect our leaders to be invited places they should not go. So the question is if we go, how should we act?

A friend of mine tonight while talking on this subject said the following “If their not going to condemn the heresy, then they shouldn’t go at all.” That seems very wise to me, I can rest with that.  How about you?