NAZNET NOT A CHURCH?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


NazNet Moderator Hans Deventer: “NazNet is an online forum, it’s not a church.”


Incorrect.


NazNet appears as an “online forum.” But in reality when checking out its base line on theology, it acts like a church.


NazNet presents its own doctrines, such, for instance, being Deventer’s belief statements. They include that there is no eternal torment in hell as Christ informs. Instead, Deventer states that the unsaved are zapped via “annihilation.”


Now Deventer right there puts forth a churchly faith statement as churches do. Consequently, Deventer is not only holding forth on an “online forum” but pitting his “doctrines” against the holiness Church of the Nazarene, the latter posted on NazNet as being friends with NazNet.


Further, Deventer and fellow Moderator Scott Cudliff state doctrinal beliefs thusly: the Bible has errors in it. Yes. That’s what they hold faith in. It is not the infallible inerrant Word of God, a divine who knows how to reveal without flaw.


When these two Moderators give forth with that kind of theology, they are not in keeping with the Church of the Nazarene. In fact, they become theological enemies to Nazarenes. That evangelical Protestant denomination believes deity is equipped to tell His own proclamations flawlessly.


As one reads through NazNet, the unmistakable conclusion reached is that Founder and Moderator Dave McClung definitely pits his site against the Church of the Nazarene.


He is forming his own competitive Internet-church to the Church of the Nazarene. If the Nazarene General Superintendents don’t confront this head-on, they are not fulfilling their responsibilities.


In addition, Deventer doctrinally proclaims his belief that “eternal life” as defined by Christ is not everlasting. That poses the question as to whether Deventer has any acumen by which to define terms understood by others as meaning what they mean.


Just importantly, this kind of heresy weave throughout NazNet would put that site in the form of a church. It is a church without buildings. But it does have officialdom and creeds. It does have means by which to communicate those creeds.


So NazNet preaches that heaven is not without end. Hell is not eternal torment. The Scriptures are not reliable.


But there is more: Deventer teaches that infant baptism is divinely approved accurate, more so than adult believers’ baptism. The New Testament states just the opposite; but who cares? We have Deventer.


So now NazNet has its own definition of a sacrament. That surely does move into the churchly venue.


Will the Church of the Nazarene leadership own up to this opposing “church”, doing so as to state publicly that the denomination disavows any “friendly tie” to NazNet? NazNet delights in repeatedly claiming to be Nazarene-friendly. Oh yes, very much so.


Will Nazarenes realize that when reading NazNet they are being drawn into a church as defined by the site’s own doctrinal statements?


Further, a former Moderator Chaplain Barbara Moulton even went so far as to inform me about her position on a moral issue. It was homosexuality.


She, a chaplain, stated she would not witness to the scriptural position on the topic, that is, she would not support God’s stance in public. In other words, she would play coward at that juncture.


I then would take that as a churchly position taken by one of NazNet’s top names, though now she has bowed out of the site, per Dave McClung absenting her from the masthead and also his latest post of “Making NazNet an even friendlier place”.


Read more at NAZNET DISTORTS at http://naznetdistorts.blogspot.com/