Transcript: Exposing False Teachings on Jesus' Words: A Critical Review

The New Testament I continue to look for preachers anywhere in the world who are prepared to teach people to actually obey Jesus. So I perked up when another viewer said that he had found one. This particular preacher, Tim Conway, has been on YouTube for more than 12 years. He has nearly 300,000 subscribers, and some of his videos have had as many as a million views. The video in question was made in February 2009. It is only six minutes long. The sermon starts with Tim reading out a letter from a viewer named Randall. Randall addresses the teaching of Jesus about denying ourselves, and about taking up our cross to follow Jesus. He asked Tim to be specific about what that means in actual practice. What a good question! Churches tend to gloss over those teachings of Jesus as though denying yourself and carrying your cross means forcing yourself out of bed on Sunday morning to endure another boring church service. So Randall asked for clarification on this. Listen as Tim reads the letter. I see so many Christians buying luxurious cars, living in mansions, treating themselves with every pleasure that this world can offer, and it seems as if there is no conviction or even thought about what Jesus said to His disciples. Can you please clarify or explain what does it mean to deny yourself and take up your cross And deny yourself what What was Jesus talking about Well, Randall, I think you have a faulty assumption to begin with. Did you catch that? Why is Randall being addressed as though he is an enemy, just for asking such a reasonable question? Tim says that Randall's supposedly faulty assumption is only the start of what he dislikes about the question. He responds as though this young Christian is defying God by daring to question the greed and selfishness of some professed Christians. Here is the supposedly false assumption that Randall made. Let me tell you something. People that live without any conviction of what Jesus said are not Christians. Well, okay, to be absolutely precise, Randall should have said, I see a lot of people who SAY they are Christians acting like this. But, despite Tim taking the high moral ground to begin with, by the end of the sermon, you are going to see that Tim Conway totally endorses and justifies selfish, greedy Christians, as long as they thank God for their wealth. And that is why he starts off in such a needlessly aggressive way towards Randall. But the true radical thing is that, before doing a clever turnaround, Tim Conway actually brings up that great teaching of Jesus from Luke 14 verse 33. Now, any pastor who has the guts to do that, deserves special recognition, and so I give him credit for that here and now Jesus Christ said this in Luke 14 Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple We just talked about the rich young ruler. He came to Christ. You know what Christ said to him? Forsake it all. Was he willing? Nope. And he went away sorrowful. I'm going to push a tiny little point here. Did you notice the word, willing? Can you show me any place where Jesus ever said, just be willing to forsake all? No. Jesus said, do it. Just remember that, as we continue to listen to Tim Conway talking about forsaking all we own for Jesus. What does that mean? You remember this, when we were dealing with Romans chapter 10? Here is where Tim starts dealing from the bottom of the deck. We were talking about something Jesus said about forsaking all in Luke chapter 14. But now, Tim jumps over to Romans chapter 10 and something which Jesus did not say. Even Paul in this chapter says nothing about forsaking all. Just take note of that, because things are suddenly going to go all pear-shaped in Tim's reasoning about obedience to Jesus. The passage Tim is referring to is Romans 10, verse 9. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved This passage is regularly used to preach that you just have to say Lord Lord and that exempts you from having to obey anything that Jesus said It is the piece of sandstone that they try to use to crush the mighty rock of Christ's teachings. I have done a study on that often abused chapter myself, so please check it out after you finish with this video. There is a link to it in the description below. But for now, let's just accept that this is not Jesus whom Tim is quoting. We have left Jesus now, and Tim is playing some clever tricks with a verse taken out of context from Romans chapter 10 in an effort to justify disobedience to Luke 14.33. Tim continues, There must be a calling upon the Lord as Lord. There must be an acknowledging. There must be with the mouth a confession, a believing in the heart that He is Lord. Tim is getting himself a bit worked up emotionally. You're master of it all. All that I have. All my family, all my time, all myself. All my possessions, all my money. All of it. What makes most of these pastors so dangerous spiritually is just how clever they are in sounding like they are saying something spiritual. It's how all conmen work. They get you distracted, usually with something emotional. What Tim is working up to is that you only have to SAY that your private jet belongs to God and your mansion belongs to God, or maybe just your little house in the suburbs...whatever.