Hillsong is known for lots of things. Among secular culture, Hillsong is known as the celebrity-saturated, music-drive pop-culture venue that is spreading like wildfire throughout the world. Among discerning Christians, Hillsong is known for dancing naked cowboys, sleazy Christmas cabarets, pedophilia cover-ups, gay worship leaders, sticking up for abortion, and really, really bad theology.
As a case-in-point on the latter, the
Smith is the lead pastor of The City Church (Churchome Global) in Seattle, a church heavily affiliated with the Hillsong mothership in Australia. Smith is featured on the Hillsong website, speaks at their conferences, contributes to their websites and publications, and is considered a part of the “Hillsong family.” Smith is also one of the pastors written about in Vice Magazine as “one of the evangelical celebrities dominating Hollywood.” He is regularly seen with his protege, Justin Beiber alongside another Hillsong pastor, Carl Lentz.
And just yesterday, Smith tweeted out this insanely unbiblical comment.
The controversy here is in relation to Smith’s assertion, “[Jesus] is not your judge.”
Of course, Jesus is your judge. It seems that evangelical pop-culture has gone from claiming in libertine defiance, “Only God can judge me” to “Not even God will judge me.”
The Bible – that book with the leather cover and shiny pages, should Judah Smith forget what it looks like – begs to differ on the subject of Jesus being our judge.
“And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.” – Acts 10:38
Or how about…
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. – 2 Corinthians 5:10
Or maybe…
“For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son…and He gave Him authority to execute
judgment, because He is the Son of Man. – John 5:22 & 27
Also…
And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in
righteousness He judges and wages war. – Revelation 19:11
Jesus as the judge of the quick (living) and the dead is a pretty important part of his Lordship over all the heavens and Earth.
Dear reader, please know that in spite of the theological vapidity of Judah Smith, we can assure you that Jesus is most assuredly your judge. You must find the true Gospel, the faith in which can allow you to escape his judgment unscathed. You will not find that Gospel preached by Judah Smith or so many other celebrity pastors.
Find your way to a small, forgotten church where the light still shines from the windows on Sunday morning. Walk in and ask to hear what you won’t hear from the celebrity megachurches…God’s Word and the Good News.
