Why I Don't Recommend The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill

i am currently reviewing the podcast series from christianity today called the rise and fall of mars hill i'm doing a deep dive review of each episode and i'm up to episode 5 at this point one of the questions that i've been asking throughout this series is is this something that i would recommend to other people i have concluded after the first five episodes and taking copious notes researching the people that they have been interviewing listening to the episodes multiple times that this is not a series that i would recommend to other people and i want to share with you my reasons why [Music] hello everyone rick thomas here again i have been reviewing the podcast series from christianity today titled the rise and fall of mars hill talking about primarily mark driscoll the individual who planted the church in 1996 and it dissolved in 2014. the question that i've been asking myself would i recommend this series to other folks and i have concluded after the first five podcasts that christianity today has put out that this is not a series that i would recommend to other people or i would recommend that if you do listen to it listen to it with a lot of caution and maybe even some of the episodes you want to pre-screen several reasons why i say this number one mark driscoll is a gross person and i don't mean that in an uncharitable way but i don't know any other way to say it after listening to so many sound bites from many sermons that he preached at mars hill church but not only is he a gross person he is potentially dangerous to his hearers let me give you a couple of illustrations mark his view of complementarianism which is something that is taught in the bible he had a skewed view of it at times he would i sagetically read into scripture and make application that honestly could bring harm to women to wives specifically and so if you're listening to this series and you are in an abusive situation now or you have gone through abuse this could really set you back and it could cause harm but also it could be problematic to the bible novice you see they're presenting mark driscoll's view of the bible through these sermons that they are releasing in these in the different podcasts and if you are not familiar with scripture it could really be confusing because they don't offer an alternative to what the bible teaches about these good ideas like complementarianism and and headship and and submission and womanhood and manhood and masculinity again all of these things are taught in the bible but christianity today is not clear on what the bible says they only present mark driscoll's hyper view of like say complementarianism and then also if you are a cynic who has walked away from the lord this podcast series could affirm your decision to walk away from god you can listen to this series and say yeah that's why i'm not part of a local church yeah that's why i don't trust any pastors yeah that's why i'm not a christian any longer i mean if you are a cynic or you're on the verge of walking away from the church and you listen to this series it could very easily affirm the decision to walk away from god now if your goal if the goal is storytelling then this series will entertain you i mean it is quite entertaining from a storytelling perspective it is well done in fact i think virtually every reviewer that i have read or video that i have watched everybody says that this is a well done well-produced series and it is it really is and so if the goal is storytelling then you will be entertained and you will like the story but if you want to think about it in layers and really listen and listen to what they are saying it can be problematic because mark driscoll's teaching is very poor and in many many spots it is just unbiblical and again what christianity today does not do is they don't put forth better teaching something to the alternative and so they don't give you that alternative and this is what i was talking about if you are a bible no novice or if you don't have the discernment to to know what the right answers are then you could struggle through this series and it can really be confusing and then finally christianity today uses several feminist unbelievers social justice warriors woke people people who have walked away from god like josh harris people who don't hold to a sufficiency of scripture worldview they bring in a lot of these folks to critique mark driscoll i want you to think about that just for a moment this podcast is like listening to a a left leaning news outlet critiquing the alt-right it's like listening to cnn critiquing the alt-right that is the feel of this entire podcast series or at least up to through the fifth episode which is where i am now cnn could never bring a right review of the alt-right both of those positions are polarized both of those positions are wrong cnn is wrong for the most part and of course the alt-right is wrong mark driscoll is wrong no question for the most part and then also the people that they bring to critique him many of them are wrong i'm not saying that everyone across the board is wrong the critiquers the interviewees some of them are good they're solid and they have a sufficiency of scripture worldview but the overwhelming majority of the folks who are critiquing mark driscoll they don't have a sufficiency of scripture worldview and so for all of these reasons this podcast series is really problematic and personally i could not recommend it or if i did recommend it and they asked my opinion i would want to be clear which is why i'm doing this video there are so many footnotes that i would make i would also want to discern the person that i am talking to are they in an abusive situation or how they've been in an abusive situation because it could be extremely triggering for them i would also want to discern is this person a bible novice would they have the ability to discern uh what christianity today is saying because christianity today is not a sufficiency of scripture worldview organization and so they are going to bring a skewed perspective or presupposition to what they are presenting about mark driscoll and so this is a problematic series that takes a lot of discernment and stability in your sanctification to listen to because as i said it could be triggering if you would like to talk to me about this you can go to our ministries website we have free community forums anybody in the world can get on them you could talk about this series the rise and fall of mars hill if you have something else on your mind it would be a privilege to serve you

Channel: Rick Thomas

Views: 1,061

Rating: 4 out of 5

Keywords: Mars Hill, Mars Hill Church, Mars Hill Church Seattle, Mark Driscoll, Pastor Mark Driscoll, Christianity Today Mars Hill, Christianity Today Mark Driscoll, Rise and Fall, Review Mars Hill, Review Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, Who Is Mark Driscoll, What Is Mars Hill, Why Did Mark Driscoll Fail, What Is Wrong with Mark Driscoll, Pastor Authority, Church Abuse, Was Mars Hill Wrong, Was Mark Driscoll Wrong, Critique of Mars Hill, Critique of Mark Driscoll, Celebrity Pastors

Id: qdEImN9QtTU

Length: 7min 58sec (478 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021