J-Smizzle - Part Deux
Posted on January 18th, 2008 by catalyst into the Christian Pop Culture categoryJust so you all don't think I'm getting soft or anything, I give you:
Judah Smith on Youtube - Part 2
It's Friday, and I know how everyone loves a good Judah Smith video shot. This clip is only about a minute long, but watch out for the insanely large wedding ring. (likely bigger than his wife's ring) And his "Wait. Isn't-Toby-Mac-from-DC-Talk-still-cool?" hat.
He is a very nice guy, and I mean that with all sincerity. But his fashion choices delight me to no end.
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January 20th, 2008 at 4:35 am
Hey guys. I found this website through a search on Google about Judah Smith. A friend of mine has been listening to MP3s of Judah and I thought I’d check him out. (I have no idea why my friend is listening to the guy. We live in Australia I suppose he heard him advertising for Planetshakers or something.)
I download his sermon titled ‘I am Chief’ and was pretty appalled by what I heard. In his sermon Judah is explaining 1 Timothy 1:15.
Judah then goes on for several minutes with phrases like “When paul says I am chief he REALLY means it…..” It’s all about 30 or so minutes in. He basically starts making some big emotional speech, I kind of stopped listening after that.
Actually pretty standard stuff in an honor and shame society (like the one Paul was living in). Judah anachronises the text in order to make some emotional point. He misinterprets what actual biblical scholars are saying. Paul didn’t live in an individualist 21st century western society. Paul lived in a collectivist society (like 70% of the population of the earth is living in right now). Paul would have first viewed himself as part of a collective whole then as an individual. What we call an ego simply didn’t exist back then. So Anything Paul says of himself, he only can say because someone else told him first.
(See David deSilva’s Honor, Patronage, Kinship and Purity and be sure to check out www.tektonics.org it’s a great resource for this kind of stuff.)
So how does Judah refute the work of Biblical Scholars and social scientists? By telling a large group of teenagers that no-one could ever use exaggerate and make it into the canonisation of scripture. So how would Judah then explain 1 Samuel 15:8? Or Luke 14:26? The bible is literally filled with uses of hyperbolic language.
(See http://tektonics.org/gk/hyperbole.html)
I think it’s scary that someone like Judah is allowed to preach to a large number of people at an event like Planetshakers. Especially since he’s diliberatly ignoring renowned scholars like deSilva so he can make a plea to the emotions of young people. Even if it was simple ignorance on his part it’s still scary to think that someone so ignorant of biblical context is giving spiritual advice to teenagers.
Bah. /rant
January 20th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Hahaha… so true.
You nailed it Blazington. For Judah it’s not so much “what” he says, but “how” he says it. If it sounds hip and cool, the content then becomes irrelevant.
FWIW, he doesn’t have an education, which explains his emphasis on emotions, it’s all he’s got.
January 20th, 2008 at 10:15 am
His speech coach has done wonders training him out of his southern drawl, but I can’t help but think we are going to see clips of JS speaking at Planet Shakers with an Aussie accent.
January 20th, 2008 at 11:46 am
The hilarious thing, to me, is I remember little Judah as the snotty, ill-trained toddler he was. Growing up in NE Portland… So the “Southern Drawl” is such a complete and transparent affectation.
Sigh….
–p
January 20th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I was thinking of that today for some strange reason!!
He has no formal education. He has not had the discipline of higher education… where you learn not only book smarts but life smarts and reality and… lots of stuff.
I don’t see that he has even been to the School of Hard Knocks.
January 20th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
At least he has nice hats.
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Just to remark on his ring, his wife actually bought that for him when their second son was born. There is a diamond for him, his wife, and both boys. don’t hate it just because you don’t have it.
January 24th, 2008 at 6:15 am
I remember seeing this before…..
I wonder where….
Wow!!! I found it!!!
Acts 4:12-13
12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. 13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
Or even better…. Wow!!!!!
John 7:14-18
14 Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught. 15 And the Jews marveled, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?” 16 Jesus F30 answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. 18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.
LET THE NONSENSE STOP!
January 24th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Hahahaha… Even Better!
January 24th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Onestar,
I agree with you that we shouldn’t criticize people for lacking formal education. We all know God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. It is arrogant to assume only those with formal education can rightly divide the word of truth.
Still, I think Living Life is making a bigger point on the issue of emotion v. biblical teaching. I’ve heard Judah absolutely abuse the Bible on several occasions. He doesn’t do it on purpose, I’m sure of that. He just doesn’t know better. Formal biblical study might help him, although many “Bible scholars” reject Jesus as the messiah and the only way to God. So formal education isn’t necessarily the answer.
But as I’ve said in other posts, Judah did not grow up in a culture where it was important to find out what the a particular passage actually means (i.e., what did the author intend to say?). He grew up in a culture that craved the supernatural and emotional and believed that part of “walking in the supernatural” was hearing from God all the time. That would include believing the Holy Spirit can reveal the meaning of a passage through personal revelation on the spot. I know this, because I grew up in the same culture. We were told to pray and ask God to reveal the meaning of the Bible to us. (As if that can be known without some understanding of the time, place, and audience involved.)
In my mind, praying to ask God to reveal the meaning of the Bible to us is precisely the same as what the Mormons do when they tell you to pray for the burning in the bosom. In contrast, Paul told Timothy to study to show himself approved, rightly dividing the word of truth, not pray and ask for personal revelation.
This is the culture in which someone will read Jesus’ words about building a house on the rock and not the sand and take it to mean that God doesn’t want them to live at the beach. Now maybe God doesn’t want you to live at the beach, but that passage has nothing to say about the issue.
I don’t know that Judah is that extreme, but I am familiar with the mentality that places holy spirit revelation above scriptural study. Both are important, but balance is crucial. The Bible must always be the Christians point of reference.
When in conflict, scripture must trump any personal messages from God. And unless we believe the Bible has a fixed meaning that is, at least in part, knowable, we will be forever lost. But if we treat the Bible like God’s little ouija board, we can claim that we heard from God and go from there with lots of scripture to support us. In my mind that explains, in part, the changes in the Christian church.
The early church members came to faith in Christ knowing that it would probably lead to their death. But Jesus was worth it. Now, many who are supposedly preaching the same Jesus teach that the natural byproduct of faith in Jesus is tremendous earthly success and material reward. And many leave their concept of Jesus when that doesn’t work out.
Of course they have verses. God gave some twenthieth century preacher a new revelation that Paul’s statement that we are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise meant that we get to be rich and successful like Abraham.
Nevermind the fact that no one in the previous 2000 years of the church felt that Galatians was making that connection. Nevermind the fact that the author of those words was shipwrecked, infirmed, regularly imprisoned, and regularly beaten for his faith. God told the preacher while he was under the annointing and reading the word. Plus, he was really passionate about it. He sure looked like he had heard from God. Who am I to argue with God?
I don’t think this happens with the intent to deceive. I just think its a byproduct of wanting to experience the supernatural more than we want to know Jesus.
January 24th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
DOC, thanks for the thoughtful post. It takes time and effort to calmly point out what is wrong with the WOF theology, and you did a good job.
FWIW, I can illustrate that FD has done the same thing. Look up his sermon titled ‘the marathon vision’. He takes Hebrews 12:1 and plugs it into his vision for a 9 campus church in the Portland area. “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” To FD, that means to endure in giving $$$ to him so he can purchase land and buildings to complete the “vision” that God gave him. Such twisting of the scriptures is all too common. The fact that there are NO building projects listed in the entire New Testament should give notice that his vision is not from God. The people who attend the church have been repeatedly told that if they ’sow seed’ into the vision that God has given, they will be blessed financially.
That is how the cycle works. After being involved for a long season, I took the off ramp.