Evangelical gullibility fuels the flames of "fairy tales as truth"

It has happened to all of us. Some person with a so-called testimony akin to Paul's Damascus experience visits your church and tells you his story. The story is extremely well told, interspersed with tear-jerking sad stories and side-splitting funny anecdotes, with a smattering of heroics.

The person seems to be so nice that we just can't help ourselves liking and believing this person. If we don't believe him, then our subjective ideas of salvation to Christianity will not be confirmed. So, we believe, because it is so great that a satanist or a Muslim had come to Christ and now have such an awesome testimony for Christ! Surely, this is the person God had been waiting for to get those amazing in-roads among satanists and Muslims!

The problem with evangelicalism is that it has lost its ability to discern between truth and lies. Stories are being told from the pulpit to such an extent that it is actually difficult to believe some of those stories on the face of it. How can so many preachers live such interesting lives all of the time? Have you ever thought of that? Or do you by default believe everything that is said from the pulpit?

The question is, in the latest "fairy tales as truth" saga involving Ergun Caner, dean of Liberty University's theological seminary, how long will people keep on believing the blatant lies told by Caner, stories that have already been conclusively shown as lies?!

Phil Johnson wrote:

"However, the pathetic track record of evangelicals' consistent failure in dealing with frauds and bunko artists in our midst leads me to be pessimistic about any real resolution in the Caner scandal. The Liberty investigation most definitely did not "exonerate" Caner, but he remains on the Liberty faculty. Caner himself is stonewalling while a handful of his most outspoken supporters are doing their best to demonize his critics. If Liberty continues officially to offer sanctuary to Caner, he will eventually be able to weather the controversy without ever actually admitting any specific wrongdoing. Evangelicals—who have no stomach for protracted controversies and a 40-year habit of offering unconditional restoration to fallen leaders whether they truly repent or not—will soon turn against Caner's critics."

The problem with evangelicals is that they too easily believe anything said by someone with the "Christian" label on their forehead. Why is that? It is very interesting that so many hoaxes floating around in cyberspace, have been given wings by evangelicals, especially if these hoaxes involve some dastardly plot against Christianity!

Now we have the dean of a theological seminary fabricating his life story wholesale, and the Christian university he is connected to refuses to call it a "moral issue!" "Thou shalt not lie!"

What troubles me is that evanjellycals so easily believe all kinds of fairy tales told by "reputable" preachers, and hoaxes, yet, they no longer believe and stand for the truth of the gospel!

Isn't there something wrong with this picture?

"1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers." (1 Tim 4:1-2, 16 ESV)

"1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8  Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. " (2 Tim 3:1-9 ESV)

"1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. " (2 Tim 4:1-5 ESV)