Zach Uram's Blog

This is a 4 part series exposing televangelist Robert Tilton, done by Door Magazine and the Trinity Foundation. There were many televangelists, but I think none were as slick or as outright greedy as Tilton! This series is well worth watching. Now Tilton tries to con people out of their money online!

At the peak of his popularity, around 1990, Tilton’s ministry was making $1 million each week!

Robert Tilton’s ‘Gospel of Greed’ part #1 of 4

Robert Tilton’s ‘Gospel of Greed’ part #2 of 4

Robert Tilton’s ‘Gospel of Greed’ part #3 of 4

Robert Tilton’s ‘Gospel of Greed’ part #4 of 4

In a recent NBC/Wall St Journal poll, 60% of Americans want to replace every single member of Congress including their own representative. That is the highest ever figure received in that poll.

And according to the latest Associated Press-GfK poll the approval rating for Congress is at an all time low of just 5% with 83% disapproving of the job they are doing.

The federal government is currently shutdown, Congress was unable to pass a federal budget, the debt limit is once again looming and things look very bleak.

The American people are disgusted with Congress, all of the partisanship and endless bickering with nothing ever getting accomplished! No wonder Congressional approval rating is at its lowest point ever! This government shutdown makes the US look bad and could possibly affect our credit rating. No one wants to compromise, no one wants to work together; Congress only cares about giving out sound bites and appearing on cable TV news program scoring political points! I’m sick of it and so are most Americans!

Yet in spite of the overwhelming disapproval most Congress members seem oblivious to the criticism! It’s truly galling. The American people expect their elected representatives to behave better than petulant spoiled children. Nothing ever gets accomplished. Hyper-partisanship and endless bickering rules the day. In the 1980s when Reagan was president you had deep ideological differences in Congress, yet Congress was able to work together with the President and get stuff done. Now we have rancorous mean spirited arguing and name calling. The object is to score a political point and give a good sound bite to use against the opposition rather than working on getting the business of the day accomplished! This blame game and paralyzing divisiveness must end!

Why is there so much divorce in the Church? Divorce is so prevalent among Christians it has reached an epidemic level.

Scripture is clear that one may divorce for only two possible cases: infidelity (adultery) and in the case where a believer is married to a non-believer and the non-believer wants a divorce. That is it! It doesn’t say you can divorce if you think your husband doesn’t fulfill your emotional needs, it doesn’t say you can divorce if you argue too much, it doesn’t say you can divorce if you no longer love each other, etc.. Scripture is very clear on this matter, yet divorce is RAMPANT in the Church. How can this be?

“Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery” (Matthew 19:9; see also Matthew 5:31, 32).

Yet even in that case it is better (assuming the transgressor is repentant) if the marriage can be saved:

“Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery” (Luke 16:18).

“And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery” (Mark 10:12).

Christ said:

“He answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:4-6).

So clearly God takes marriage very seriously and so should we. I read that according to polling Christians actually now have a higher divorce rate than non-Christians! This is truly shameful and appalling. I’ve heard of couple getting divorced for the most flimsy of reasons. Why are so many entering marriage with such immaturity? Could pastors do more to prepare couples for marriage? Could parents do more in raising up their children to have a Biblical view of marriage? I have even seen some Christians arrogantly assert that getting divorced is their right. If you point out that there is only two acceptable cases for divorce they will literally become enraged and rant about how dare you tell them how to live their life, etc. Clearly they have a very low view of God’s Word even though they claim to be Christians.

Another problem I have noticed is Christians marrying non-Christians. Once again Scripture is crystal clear on this matter:

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers” (II Corinthians 6:14).

The other case for divorce is if a Christian is married to a non-Christian and the non-Christian wants a divorce. Paul writes:

“If the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace” (I Corinthians 7:15).

I hate to say it, but I suspect not enough preachers are saying what Scripture clearly teaches on divorce because they fear alienating a good portion of their congregation who have already divorced and remarried for unbiblical reasons! We must teach pastors to be bold when proclaiming Biblical truths and not to act cowardly. This is such a sad thing to witness. The destruction done to society is massive and when children are involved the negative repercussions can last a lifetime. Yet, I feel as if almost no one in the Church truly seems to care about it. We need to life up our voices and speak out on this issue, even if it makes people uncomfortable, even if our pastor doesn’t want to speak about it, even if we lose friends in the process.

According to this article, more than 50% of Americans believe prayer and Bible study alone can cure mental illness!

This is really worse than I thought things were. Feeling very depressed after reading this article! It’s shocking, but at the same time understandable. So few Christians are raised in a way that educates them about mental illness. So few pastors are teaching on mental illness, nor do they provide any resources for those in their churches suffering with mental illness. Couple these factors with the explosive popularity of Charismatic/Pentecostal churches where every disease is believed to be caused by a Satanic attack, and where they believe the cure for every disease is prayer and Bible study! Ugh. This is really appalling.

Here is a professor at a local seminary who is director of their biblical counseling institute. He questions the commonly held view of mental illness as an organic disease and views it as a spiritual matter. His view is that the mind is not part of the body. He says,”Can someone get mentally ill? No. He can be spiritually sinful, physically sick, but the mind cannot get sick and therefore we don’t need to cure minds.”

It’s a shame such views are being taught at seminary! No wonder so many pastors and Christians view mental illness as merely a manifestation of sin. This serves to stigmatize those suffering from mental illness and puts all of the blame on the one suffering which only makes them feel worse! Ugh this gets me angry!

I think very few mental illnesses are caused by sin. Maybe some mild ones, but people suffering with schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, those are physical organic diseases and have NOTHING to do with sin! And what really irks me is that this guy is the DIRECTOR of the whole biblical counseling institute so he is probably training tons of people who become counselors at their churches! The body and mind are interlinked, but I don’t agree with the notion that most mental illness is just a result of sin! That is insane to think that in my view. I agree a holistic approach has merit, and some people with low grade relatively minor mental illness can benefit much from Biblical counseling, but this is not, in my view, the case so much with severe mental illness. If someone gets diabetes or polio do we suddenly start questioning whether it was from sin? Of course not, and we shouldn’t question organic mental illness either! The amount of damage being done to Christians with mental illness is mind boggling! And they are being stigmatized and taught that they are at fault for their own suffering! It’s sadistic and very wrong. I’d even go so far as to say such teaching is itself sinful. Further, so many suffer needlessly in the Church because they were taught they don’t need medication just Biblical counseling, or even worse some are taught that psychiatric medication is itself of the Devil!

 

“One Winter’s Evening”

Footsteps crunch
In new fallen snow

Frozen architecture
Left behind

Cold air
Stings my lungs

Feeling alive
I exhale frosty vapors

Evening comes
Streetlights aglow

Casting shadows
Of yellow and gray

Silence comes
Time seems to slow

I admire
Snowflakes hung in space

Wondrous design
Speaks to a Creator

Hills covered
In blankets of snow

Pure white
Reminds me of grace

Mind wanders
Bach’s Art of the Fugue

Happiness comes
With the shimmering snow

Music dances
Across the sky

Sacred geometry
Revealed in crystalline forms

Feeling warmth
I listen

And realize
Everything will be ok

   — Zachary Uram (c) 2013

1. Let Scripture exegete Scripture where possible.
2. Follow the principle of contextual realism. You accept what the text is saying as real (as opposed to allegorical, symbolic, metaphorical) unless the context or genre clearly either indicates you should not.
3. Believe that God’s expressed purpose and Will is evident in one consistent and connected thread from OT to NT.
4. Note the particular grammatical-historical-cultural dimension of the text.
5. Take into account Church tradition and preponderence of teaching.
6. Engage in a systematic theology whereby each issue is analyzed across all of Scripture in a rigorous way.

chilly winds envelope me
i walk slowly
through the park

trees paint the sky
orange, red, yellow and green
stark vivid hues

my steps are measured
i think of harvest
nature’s bounty revealed

wafting through the air
i smell burnt leaves
an intoxicating fragrance

childhood memories stream past
jumping on piles of leaves
moist and crunchy

 – Zachary Uram (c) 2012

I smack my belly
I don’t why why

I love to smack it
I can’t tell a lie

I smack it all over
It resonates with glee

Oh what joy I get
From smacking my belly

I will smack it in the day
I will smack it at night

I will never stop smacking it
What a delight

So rotund and peaceful
Is my fatty belly

It loves to make music
So sweetly

I’ll never stop smacking
My belly so fair

For all the ages
I will smack it with flair

Smack one
Smack two

Smack three
And Smack four

Smack it all over
Smack for ever more

– Zachary Uram (c) 2012

Thanks to a recent story in The Independent online my blog got a bunch of pageviews. Woot! Check out the stats:

By the way, I agree with journalist Guy Adams. NBC’s coverage of the Olympics has been amateurish, inept and downright irritating. He didn’t deserve to have his Twitter account suspended. Instead of broadcasting events live, which would occur in the afternoon here, they make us wait until 8pm EST to watch tape delayed broadcasts. This is after the results have already been known for hours and disseminated all over various media outlets! Further NBC is making dumb mistakes. Last night they announced the winner of the women’s 100m freestyle race before the race was aired thanks to a promo spot for the Today Show. This is embarrassing. And one would get the impression from watching NBC’s coverage that the only events which exist are track and field, gymnastics and swimming; and the only countries competing are China, Britain and America!