Christ Our Savior is misnamed.
The podcast sermons sadly reject most of the gospels of the Savior. Instead, the sermons embrace cherry-picked letters from the apostle Paul, alongside cherry-picked books from the Old Testament. The focus of the sermons is to reinforce a prevailing unbiblical culture that has consumed today’s wayward evangelicals, whom the sermons self-bless and idolize as "godly." The sermons propose a P.C. view of what Christians and Jews are allowed to think.
In short, the legalisms of Paul, alongside aggressive redaction of the Old Testament, are employed to 1) sidestep the values and demands of the gospels which convict this church community, 2) leave the church’s impenitent sin culture unchallenged, 3) demonize people of faith who understand the Bible better or differently, and 4) close the minds of Christians to Biblical truths that evangelicals do not wish to accept or tolerate.
Most importantly, the sermons largely cast aside Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The sermons exhibit self-sanctification and power, instead of repentance, humility, charity, and self-sacrifice. The sermons sees both God’s Word, and us neighbors, through the filter of the church’s own sinful values. Hyperpartisanship blinds the sermon givers from seeing other people as they really are.
In short, the podcast creates a “safe space” for likemindedness and monoculture, not a Bible that condemns the modern evangelical lifestyle and groupthink. It celebrates me-first spirituality and partisan politics, not Jesus's Word. The church selectively remakes God and cherry-picked verses in its own likeness, and then proceeds to bless and worship that — while shaming and ostracizing Christians who are unlike them.
The Bible bluntly calls this "idolatry."
Yes, the church members and podcast listeners are happy with themselves. But authentic Bible-seeking Christians — not to mention faithful Jews and Muslims — are not very welcome here. The leaders’ partisan politics remind visitors of the self-righteous mob of high priests and followers who crucified Jesus for violating their proud and self-blessing doctrines.
