Perry Noble's "Apology"

Fred Butler dissects key problems with Perry Noble's supposed apology for rewriting the Ten Commandments and saying there is no Hebrew word for "command". Butler zeroed in on a few problems and it is those that I wish to also comment on, as I believe they are representative not just of Noble, but of the Post-Modern Christian:

"I am imperfect.  I make mistakes and fall way short of who I should be each and every day."

Well here it is, my all-time most despised saying so many Christians say in defense of the indefensible (whether it's sodomy, sexual immorality, or false teaching). It is a way to stop any judgment calls and frankly to stop all conversations that would include said judgements:

#1 – I am imperfect. I make mistakes and fall way short of who I should be each and every day. 

That's ALWAYS the first go-to excuse--as if anyone IS perfect or has stated that someone IS perfect. Since Christ is the ONLY perfect One, perfection is not on the table for any consideration save striving to be like Him...but in doing so it is always with the world-wide, world-accepted, time-immemorial understanding that none IS or has been perfect (thus our NEED for striving to be like Christ).

Additionally Noble stated:


"In way more research than I have ever done I realized that statement was not correct. (The original Hebrew is “metzaveh”.) In no way was I deliberately trying to mislead or deceive anyone. I simply recalled a conversation I had (which I now see I did not fully understand), looked back at my notes and taught the message. I now realize I should have put way more time into doing research before making that statement. "

Thus belying what he says next about the seriousness of being a teacher and taking God's Word seriously. This half-attempt at "prepping" to teach God's inspired word had its fruit: confusion and lies and poison. The man CLEARLY has no fear of God (that was clear from years ago), and no respect for His Word nor the sheep (if there are any at his den of iniquity--and if so they MUST leave now). His short-cut ways prove he's not that interested in "rightly dividing the Word of truth". And thus while he plays around with the Double Edged Sword, he fell right on it and it gave a death blow to him. That which he took for fun, is the very thing that proves his condemnation.  He is trifling with the Living and HOLY HOLY HOLY One of Israel.

"I fully understand and feel the weight of James 3:1 that clearly says that people who teach God’s Word will be judged more strictly."

If he did, he wouldn’t have mouthed off, as he does so often. He speaks the words, but clearly doesn’t believe them, otherwise his teaching and life would live up to that profession.

"I take teaching the Bible very seriously and desperately want to always put forth my best effort as I really do believe that when God says “don’t” in Scripture it is more like Him saying, “don’t hurt yourself,” because, as a friend of mine often says, “choose to sin, choose to suffer.” "

He doesn’t take the Bible seriously whatsoever (his ministry is proof of that, not the least of which is calling others “jackasses” who themselves take the Bible seriously.

He reiterates the rewriting of Scripture in this statement. "Don’t" in Scripture means, DON”T. It’s not about YOU. It’s about God. It’s about actually loving Him and thus obeying Him. God’s “don’ts” aren’t about His worry of you hurting yourself. The primary reason for God’s commands that say “don’t” do something (there are many that are commands TO DO something), is to show the supremacy of God, His holy standard, His righteousness and justice, His mercy, and to show the way we are to go IF WE LOVE HIM.

"This set my heart on fire and I put the message together, believing it was from the Lord, and we saw over 200 people come to Christ as a result."

Fred Butler’s comments: What he is saying is that it doesn’t really matter if he was wrong, or God misled him, or his “advisers” are a bunch of back-slapping, sycophantic “yes!” men. Two hundred people came to Christ in spite of the wild, unbiblical inaccuracies of his message.

Assuming Noble isn’t fudging the numbers, (and I will go out on a limb here and say I don’t believe there was anyone who “came” to Christ that night), wouldn’t those people be false converts?

They “responded” to a talk that not only taught biblical error regarding the Hebrew word “commandment,” but the presenter expanded on that error to rewrite and reinterpret a foundational portion of Scripture: THE 10 COMMANDMENTS! Even more, after a couple of weeks of people telling him about his terrific error, he issued an apology admitting he was wrong (and his advisers are all idiots). Does that not in and of itself cancel out the reality of those 200 conversions? They were converted under the pretense of a false message.

End quote.

I agree with Butler. I would add just a few things. How does Noble know anyone came to Christ Christmas Eve? On what basis? Secondly, if there were some new professors that night, they were responding to a Jesus that is like them. They did not come to the Master, Owner, Creator, King of all kings and Lord of all lords. They did not come to the HOLY One of Israel. They did not come in fear and trembling and mourning over their sin. They came to Perry Noble-created idol that is filthy and unholy and helps the rebels and haters of Christ continue in their hatred and rebellion. They don’t want to submit to the King of kings. They want a guy they can hang out with that helps them wallow in the all their GLORIOUS and highly esteemed imperfection (ie, sin).

One more thing, if you still cannot wrap your mind around what I taught and disagree with it, I do not consider you to be a “hater.”  There are really godly people on both sides of incredibly difficult theological arguments.

The closing of his letter in this statement proves the man is deceived. There are no Christians on his side of the Hebrew word for commands; no Christians on his side of anti-nomianism. There is no such thing as godly anti-nomians. Nor is obeying God an incredibly difficult theology. It is clear teaching with clear practice in clear confines. He’s trying to make the commands fuzzy and so unclear that no one ones the Truth.

He is a classic Post-Modern rebel, with fake humility.