Tag: Beulah Baptist Church

Great Gladness or Great Guilt?–A Closer Look At Beulah Baptist’s May 5, 2025 Sermon

📍 About Sunday Specials

Every week across the South, churchgoers hear sermons that shape how they think about truth, morality, and meaning. Our Sunday Specials take a closer look—analyzing real messages preached in real pulpits right here in Boaz, Alabama. Using The God Question’s Core Philosophy—which values evidence, reason, historical awareness, and emotional integrity—we critically examine the theology, logic, and emotional impact of what’s being taught.

These are the messages shaping minds. We think they deserve to be questioned.

Sunday Special – May 5, 2025

Series: A Critical Lens on Local Sermons
Church: Beulah Baptist Church, Boaz, Alabama
Speaker: Pastor Tony Holcomb
Sermon Title: “Great Gladness”
Text: 1 Chronicles 29:10–22
Method: The God Question’s Core Philosophy

🙏 The Sermon in Summary

Pastor Tony Holcomb delivered a heartfelt message centered on the phrase “great gladness,” drawn from King David’s worship at the end of his reign. The core idea was that genuine joy comes from genuine worship—worship that springs from humility, conversion, and total surrender to God. Throughout the message, Pastor Holcomb emphasized that:

  • Everything belongs to God.
  • True worship is an act of the heart, not a routine.
  • Great gladness flows from recognizing God’s sovereignty and giving sacrificially in response.
  • Salvation is initiated entirely by God; human beings are incapable of seeking Him without divine intervention.
  • A “genuine conversion” will produce “genuine humility,” which leads to authentic worship and giving.

The sermon included anecdotes, emotional appeals, and references to tithing, stewardship, and upcoming capital campaigns at Beulah Baptist.

🧠 What’s the Problem?

Viewed through The God Question’s Core Philosophy—which prioritizes evidence, reason, and human dignity—this sermon reveals several theological and philosophical red flags:

🔍 Claim-by-Claim Critique

1. “God is always pleased with himself.” This anthropomorphic claim, repeated with confidence, reimagines God with human emotional states like self-satisfaction. It’s a curious assertion: a being who is “always happy” and “never frustrated” yet still demands worship. If God is so fulfilled, why does He need constant praise and offerings?

2. “We are strangers, sojourners, enemies of God.” Pastor Holcomb repeatedly reinforces the idea that human beings are naturally wicked, undeserving, and alien to God. This messaging primes listeners to feel unworthy, making them more susceptible to accepting harsh doctrines. Framing people as “enemies” of God unless they’re born again is not just spiritually manipulative—it’s psychologically damaging.

3. “Genuine worship requires genuine humility, which requires genuine conversion.” Translation: If you’re not a Christian in the precise mold defined here, your worship doesn’t count. This is theological gatekeeping—salvation and joy are claimed to be conditional, available only to those who submit to a very specific belief system.

4. “You can’t do anything to be saved—God must do it all.” This view strips people of agency. It redefines justice as arbitrary divine selection. If you’re saved, it’s because God picked you. If you’re not, He didn’t. There’s no moral clarity in this—only fatalism and guilt.

5. “The tithe is outdated—but give even more.” After dismissing Old Testament tithing as irrelevant under the New Covenant, Pastor Holcomb calls for even greater giving, described as “sacrificial” and “joyous.” This is a classic bait-and-switch. The law may be gone, but the obligation remains—only now it’s spiritualized and moralized.

6. “Everything is God’s—especially your money.” Repeated refrains that “everything is God’s anyway” create a theological framework where generosity is expected not as a choice, but as a duty. When paired with a capital campaign and plans for a new tabernacle, the spiritual message becomes entangled with a material one.

7. “You must be born again, or your humility is fake.” Pastor Holcomb asserts that non-Christians are incapable of true humility. This is a baseless and insulting claim. Millions of atheists, agnostics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and spiritual seekers demonstrate genuine humility every day. This doctrine promotes Christian supremacy by excluding others from basic human virtues.

8. “Worship is love—not obligation.” Ironically, after dozens of appeals to duty, sin, judgment, and unworthiness, we’re told love should be the motive. But if you don’t respond? Eternal separation awaits. That’s not love. That’s coercion disguised as compassion.

📣 Final Thoughts

This sermon, like many in the Bible Belt, wraps emotional storytelling, capital campaign momentum, and doctrinal fear in a single package. It’s inspiring on the surface—but beneath that surface lies a pattern:

  • You are broken.
  • God can fix you—but only if you submit.
  • If you don’t, it’s your fault.

This isn’t harmless inspiration. It’s theology that disempowers, divides, and devalues human reason and autonomy. Through that lens, “great gladness” starts to look more like “great guilt” covered in praise music.

🧭 The God Question’s Invitation

If you’ve heard sermons like this and walked away feeling small, unworthy, or afraid—pause. Ask why. Ask who benefits from a message that demands your humility but not your critical thinking.

You are not broken. You are not God’s enemy. You don’t need to be “converted” to find joy, humility, or purpose.

You need only begin asking questions. The right ones. And we’re here for that.