Thursday, June 11, 2009

Cool: Christian DVD lending service

Check out Puritan Picks (h-t Challies).

If we weren't needing to get all-family entertainment type movies, I'd say this might be a better pick over Blockbuster or Netflix.

OTOH, one of their big "picks" is some prophecy conference "against dispensationalism." The "Always reforming... wait, no, not that!" school still rules in some circles.

8 comments:

Trinian said...

Very interesting... Netflix's "Faith and Spirituality" section leaves a GREAT deal to be desired. I just don't know if I want to sign up for a second monthly-fee movie service.
Let's take a look at their selection...

1. 5 Keys to Spiritual Growth 2005 National Conference - SWEEEEEEEET!
2. Bugtime Adventures - Looks kinda cute.
3. Abraham Lincoln - What on earth?! Abe Lincoln, inspiring hero of the faith??? Okay, Trinian, deep breaths...

James Kubecki said...

Dan, I'd be interested in your thoughts about The Apologetics Group, which produced the outstanding "Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism" DVD, and also produced "The Late Great Planet Church: The Rise of Dispensationalism and the Decline of Christianity," as well as a website Against Dispensationalism.

I had become a "fan" of those guys on FB on the basis of the Amazing Grace DVD, but left after getting all kinds of junk about the Against Dispensationalism.

In the interest of full disclosure, I've not spent a lot of time studying (though more than some) CT vs Disp vs PD etc., and probably lean more in the direction of PD or Hist Premil myself, but the immediate rhetoric of "AGAINST Dispensationalism" was a big turnoff to me, even if I do end up at some point disagreeing with Disp after further study.

Fred Butler said...

I am surprised they have China Cry, which was exposed as being mostly a fabrication of that woman's life.

Curious if they will offer some truly reformed favorites like Braveheart or Gladiator?

As for those "Against Dispensationalism," I heard about this series a while ago, and Eric Holmberg, who gained his fame as a documentary maker by doing a series of sensational docs on rock music and backward masking, is the guy spearheading them. If the views of dispensationalism presented by Holmberg when I heard him interviewed on Gary Demar's program are the same as presented in this film, it will be some of the most ridiculous historical revisionism that will rival queen of KJV-onlyism, Gail Riplinger's, views of Westcott and Hort.

I think I heard Holmberg attempt to make some connection of dispensationalism to the Holocaust. I kid you not.

Fred

candy said...

Hey! I noticed that Justin Taylor's favorite Janette Oke movies are on there!

DJP said...

LOL

So sad, he never reads my blog, so he'll never know. The mirror only goes one-way.

)c*:

Associate-to-the-Pastor said...

Holmberg is a mixed-bag. He did the Amazing Grace DVD...but he also did one on the dangers of rock music. And I'm no dispensationalist, but come on, the Holocaust? Really?

Fred Butler said...

Yeah, that holocaust comment just made me laugh.

Look at this one citation from that "Against Dispensationalism" website linked in the comments above:

I appreciated one insight that puts dispensationalism in its peculiar historical context: it belongs historically to the era in which individualistic prophecy experts appeared all over, pronouncing themselves as “raising up the true church” once again. Most of these groups we today mark clearly as “Cults,” including Joseph Smith’s Mormonism, William Miller’s millenarianism, and Charles Taze Russell’s Jehovah’s Witnesses. The lumping of these types with Darby’s novel dispensationalism by no means equates them, but to see their similarities in emergence and methodology provides a helpful insight into their appeal and success.

Of course they are "by no means equated" but we should certainly concluded that dispensationalism is cultic in origin. Of course, none of these critics, most of which are postmillennial in their eschatology, even care to mention that modern postmillennialism was first articulated by Whitby, who was the Arminian John Gill wrote against with his "For the Cause of God and Truth" work, and who eventually became an apostate Unitarian. Nor do they care to mention the fact that preterism, again, with many of them adhering to this perspective, also has its roots in the 1800s as well. Is it just as suspect?

A later post on that page appeals to the Dave MacPherson now debunked nonsense that Darby came under the influence of a charismatic girl by the name of MacDonald who apparently prophesied by secret revelation about the pre-trib rapture.

This sort of stuff is just flat embarrassing. Granted, you may disagree with a particular position, but what sort of desperation is at work to misrepresent it whole cloth? It truly is sad and makes me question their credibility as documentary makers.

Gary Benfold said...

If they were promoting a conference against charismaticism would you think "The "Always reforming... wait, no, not that!" school still rules in some circles" a reasonable comment?

yeah, yeah - it's your blog, I know. Just let me have a free book and we'll say no more about it...