Contending For the Truth

Judges Gone Wild: The Most Powerful Man in America Strikes Again

2011-05-23T12:08:00.003-05:00

And no, dear friends, it is not Barack Husein Obama.

It is Anthony Kennedy, the "swing vote" on the U.S. Supremist Court.

Today, in yet another 5-4 vote, the Great One ordered the sovereign state of California to release 46,000 convicted criminals.

Anthony Kennedy believes there is "overcrowding" in California's jails, and he isn't about to be slowed down by abstract notions like "the United States Constitution" or "judicial restraint."

No, no! Anthony Kennedy is now the Ultimate Lawmaker in the United States -- appointed for life and accountable to no man.

We are no longer a nation of laws, we are a nation of men. Men like Anthony Kennedy.

Anthony Kennedy has no restraints. He is a power unto himself. He does that which is right in his own eyes.

"We the people" lose more and more of the power we are supposed to possess under the Constitution every day at the hands of judges like Anthony Kennedy.

Judges gone wild.

God help us all.

Obama The Apologist-In-Chief for Islam

2009-11-24T05:28:00.001-06:00

Here is the evidence:

The Dismembering of America Part II

2009-11-19T12:27:00.002-06:00

Here is an excellent clip by Brannon Howse that explains well who the Marxists among us are (yes, Martha, that includes B. Hussein Obama!), where they came from, and why they are evil. He begins with Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals."

How about somebody writing a book called, "Rules for Americans?"

BTW, they are in our churches, too:

Obama The Chief Apologist for Islam

2009-11-11T14:08:00.004-06:00

Here is what our B. Hussein Obama said yesterday, in a speech from which the words "Muslim" and "terrorist" were carefully scrubbed:

"No faith justifies these murderous and craven acts..."

Now, as with everything else B. Hussein says, it must be carefully parsed. Read this statement again carefully. There are two things that stand out:

1. B. Hussein thinks he stands above all the world's religions. He alone, the Great One, is qualified to determine what a "faith" is and what it does or does not justify. It is as though he sees himself as the Chuck Norris of world religions.

2. THIS STATEMENT IS BLATANTLY FALSE!

There IS a religion that justifies murderous and craven acts, just like it justified the ones at Ft. Hood. IT'S CALLED ISLAM!

B. Hussein is not only an out-of-control pathological liar -- he is now the Chief Apologist for the religion of Islam.

Do you get it yet, America? Obama is whitewashing Islam so that we won't look at the truth in front of our eyes, right there in plain sight.

A Very Good Question

2009-11-10T13:32:00.003-06:00

Sometimes it helps to ask the right question, say, about the Ft. Hood shooter, as Paul Proctor does today in his column, "The Iron Curtain:"

If the government can’t protect soldiers occupying their own country’s largest military base from a single terrorist with a handgun, how can it protect you and me from enemies and threats both foreign and domestic?

The Dismembering of The United States of America

2009-10-25T18:31:00.001-05:00

. . . is well advanced.

Don't believe it?

Then take a look at this:

We Need True Revival in America

2009-10-16T11:33:00.001-05:00

"To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them."

--Jedidiah Morse

HT: News With Views/Dave Daubenmire

Real Salvation Now

2009-10-16T11:01:00.001-05:00

Christianity is more than a hope, however glorious. It is, even now, ‘Christ in you’! Full salvation belongs to the last day, but a real salvation belongs to the Christian here and now. If a believer cannot yet say that he is free from the presence of sin, he certainly should be able to say that he is free from the penalty of sin. And by God’s grace, it is his daily privilege to find Christ at work in him saving him from the downward pull of sin.”

—Richard Lucas, The Message of Colossians and Philemon

HT: Of First Importance

A Prayer for Courage

2009-10-13T11:39:00.001-05:00

“Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to shore.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly to venture on wider seas where storms show Your mastery; where losing sight of land we shall find stars. We ask You to push back the horizons of our hopes; we ask You to [lead us into] a future of strength, courage, hope and love.”

-- Sir Francis Drake, 16th – century English sailor

A Call for American Patriots

2009-10-07T13:46:00.003-05:00

Samuel Adams spoke the truth in these words that squarely apply to our day and hour. Patriots, take heed:

The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards, and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.

We are being cheated out of our liberties today by the fraudulent devices of politicians in Washington, D.C., in states (Illinois) and cities (Chicago).

What can we do? Here are three choices for your early consideration:

Constitution Party

Flip This House

Get Out Of Our House (GOOOH)

Patriots, have at it!

(HT: News With Views/Jonathon Emord)

The Truth About Marxism and Communism

2009-09-28T12:30:00.003-05:00

Many have noted that Marxists are now running our government. But with respect, it is not enough to simply call them Marxists or Communists. People younger than those of us of a certain age have no concept of what that means.

They think that all that stuff about communism is just “Joe McCarthy” or is irrelevant, now that the Berlin Wall has fallen.

They are dead wrong. The Commies did not go away. They are still here. They now control a major American political party, academia, the mainstream media and most of the government.

Here is Marxism in a nutshell:

1. ITS GOAL IS TO DESTROY CAPITALISM. TO ACCOMPLISH THIS, MARXISTS WILL DO ANYTHING TO GAIN POWER.

2. “ANYTHING” MEANS IT IS LEGITIMATE, AND EVEN ENCOURAGED, FOR MARXISTS TO LIE, CHEAT AND STEAL TO ATTAIN THEIR REVOLUTIONARY GOALS. THEREFORE, YOU CANNOT BELIEVE ANYTHING A MARXIST TELLS YOU.

3. Marxists believe that once capitalism is abolished, a “workers’ paradise” will emerge and there will be heaven on earth – without God, of course.

But it is all a gigantic fraud. What actually results is complete state control, political terror and brutal oppression. We know this because we have actual history to prove it. Marxism has led directly to the deaths of well over 100 million human beings in the century we just left.

Marxism is a false and wicked religion. It is Godless, heartless, ruthless and evil. Socialism is merely a whistle stop along the way to full-blown Communism, a rhetorical device used by the commies to make themselves sound less dangerous than they really are.

Spread the word.

P.S. If you haven’t already, I urge you to drop everything else you are reading and read, “Witness” by Whittaker Chambers and “The Gulag Archipelago” by the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn. They will change your life forever.

Obama-dolatry

2009-09-25T09:45:00.002-05:00

Remember the song many of us were taught in Sunday School? It went like this:

Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

So here is what Obama wants our children to sing:

Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black or white
All are equal in his sight.

Here is the video:

Obama-dolatry.

Any questions?

Damnable (and Damning) False Religions Teach Works Righteousness

2009-09-18T10:21:00.003-05:00

"The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes of this day, this age or any age are those who misrepresent the truth. Those who proclaim, or purvey false religion, a false Christ, a false Gospel and there are a myriad: certainly you can start with the cults, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons who have a false God, a false Christ, a false Gospel, a false everything.

You can talk about Roman Catholicism and sacramental religions that believe salvation is a matter of ceremony and ritual and works. You can talk about Judaism today which is a rejection of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, which is as pagan and damning a religion as Buddhism or the worship of a rock or a stick in some kind of Aboriginal culture."

John MacArthur

HT: Christian Worldview Magazine

Law and Gospel In a Nutshell

2009-09-14T11:42:00.005-05:00

To run and work the law commands,
Yet gives me neither feet nor hands;
But better news the gospel brings:
It bids me fly and gives me wings.

You see, the law has no power to give what it demands.

The gospel does.

That is why the gospel is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." Romans 1:16

--HT: Between Two Worlds (poem attributed to John Berridge)

The Big Picture: Very, Very Good News

2009-09-14T09:44:00.003-05:00

“The purpose of creation, redemption, and consummation are seen holistically as God’s purpose to glorify Christ by fulfilling the Adamic creation mandate, the universal Noahic promise, the patriarchal covenants, and the Israelite monarchy in Him, thus exalting Jesus as preeminent over the entire cosmos as the agent of creation, the true imago Dei, the Davidic subjugator of all rival powers, the firstborn of the eschatological resurrection from the dead, and the atonement through whom final cosmic peace is found at last (Col. 1:15-23).”

- Russell D. Moore, The Kingdom of Christ (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2004), 108.

“The resurrection and exaltation of Christ accomplish a new unity between heaven and earth, for Christ now has a heavenly body (1 Cor. 15:42ff), a body of glory (Phil. 3:21) and His humanity is now in heaven (Phil. 3:20f; Col. 3:1; Eph. 1:20ff; 6:9), and both serve as a pledge of the ultimate unity of the cosmos in Christ (Eph. 1:10).”

- Andrew T. Lincoln, Paradise Now and Not Yet (Cambridge, UK; Cambridge University Press, 1981), 192.

HT: Of First Importance

Faith Is A Step Into the Light

2009-09-14T09:35:00.001-05:00

"Faith is not a leap into the dark.

Faith is a step into the light."

-- Craig Troxel

"

Thievery and Morality and Law

2009-09-13T16:22:00.001-05:00

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."

-- French economist, statesman and author Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)

HT: Walter Williams

A Prayer for God's Mercy

2009-09-11T10:22:00.001-05:00

“The Lord reveal himself more and more to us in the face of his Son Jesus Christ and magnify the power of his grace in cherishing those beginnings of grace in the midst of our corruptions, and sanctify the consideration of our own infirmities to humble us, and of his tender mercy to encourage us.

And may he persuade us that, since he has taken us into the covenant of grace, he will not cast us off for those corruptions which, as they grieve his Spirit, so they make us vile in our own eyes.

And because Satan labors to obscure the glory of his mercy and hinder our comfort by discouragements, the Lord add this to the rest of his mercies, that we may not lose any portion of comfort that is laid up for us in Christ.

And, may he grant that the prevailing power of his Spirit in us should be an evidence of the truth of grace begun, and a pledge of final victory, at that time when he will be all in all, in all his, for all eternity. Amen.”

—Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1998), 127-28

HT: Of First Importance

And Now For Something Completely Different -- The God Gene

2009-09-09T08:59:00.001-05:00

Ted Kennedy: Sadly Lost

2009-09-04T09:52:00.006-05:00

Ted Kennedy's letter to the Pope shortly before his recent death is very sobering. Every believing Christian should read it and think soberly on these things.

It is obvious that Ted Kennedy was not saved. There is no evidence of saving faith and no assurance whatsoever in this letter. In fact, the language he uses repeatedly shows that he was striving to earn his way into heaven:

"...I have tried to right my path."

"...I have done my best..."

"I have worked..."

"...my work as a United States senator..."

"...I am committed to doing everything I can to achieve..."

And the final clincher,

>"I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic..."

How sad. How very, very sad.

Oh my friends, may all of you who are Roman Catholics or have come out of Roman Catholicism see and take note of the life and infinitely tragic death of Ted Kennedy! False religion always teaches salvation by works, but the true Gospel is that nothing you can do will ever earn your salvation! Stop your striving, and rest in Christ and His once-for-all finished work alone!

"By the works of the law no flesh will be be justified in His sight." Romans 3:20 NASB

Possessing Christ By Faith Dispels Terror

2009-09-04T09:48:00.001-05:00

“Faith, if it is to be sure and steadfast, must lay hold upon nothing else but Christ alone, and in the conflict and terrors of conscience it has nothing else to lean on but this precious pearl Christ Jesus. So, he who apprehends Christ by faith, although he be terrified with the law and oppressed with the weight of his sins, yet he may be bold to glory that he is righteous. How? Even by that precious jewel Christ Jesus, whom he possesses by faith.”

—Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, 99

HT: Of First Importance

The Gospel Is Everything to A Christian

2009-08-25T14:22:00.000-05:00

When we speak of the centrality of the gospel we refer to the fact that every aspect of our salvation stems from the gospel. We mean that the gospel is truly the power of God for salvation in that it is through the gospel we are called, regenerated, converted, sanctified, and finally glorified. We mean that Jesus Christ, God come in the flesh, as he lived, died and rose again, gave meaning to all history and human existence. We mean that the gospel is the only means we have of beginning, continuing, and persevering in the Christian life . . . . When we approach sanctification as attainable by any means other than the gospel of Christ–the same gospel by which we are converted–we have departed from the teaching of the New Testament.

(Goldsworthy, The Gospel in Revelation, 171)

--HT: The Road to Emmaus

More Gospel, More Doing!

2009-08-25T09:08:00.002-05:00

I promise you, some of the best people in your churches are getting tired. They don’t need another rah-rah pep talk. They don’t need to hear more statistics and more stories Sunday after Sunday about how bad everything is in the world. They need to hear about Christ’s death and resurrection. They need to hear how we are justified by faith apart from works of the law. They need to hear the old, old story once more. Because the secret of the gospel is that we actually do more when we hear less about all we need to do for God and hear more about all that God has already done for us.

Kevin DeYoung

--HT: Between Two Worlds

We Have No Right to God's Grace

2009-08-21T12:09:00.001-05:00

“The point I am making is quite offensive to us today. It is that God hides himself from us that he cannot be had on our terms, and that he cannot be accessed from “below” through natural revelation. In the malls, and in much of life, we encounter nothing like this. We expect access. We expect to be able to get what we want, when we want it, and on our terms."

-- David Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant

HT: Of First Importance

Certainty Drips From Every Page of Paul's Letters

2009-08-19T14:21:00.004-05:00

In the Western world, the idea that God could be angry with us is now implausible, and in this context assurance [faith] is little more than a sentimental belief in our own inherent goodness - exactly the kind of faith held by the reprobates. . . And the notion is now commonplace that because we can never have exhaustive knowledge, and all our knowledge takes place in a context, we can never have certain knowledge at all. Yet this simply fails to understand the nature of God's revelation of himself, and can ultimately not account for the certainty of faith that drips from every page of Paul's letters. . .

God has spoken to us in ways we can understand, given himself to us in the finite flesh of Christ and the finite words of human speech; while these revelations do not exhaust God in himself, they are yet true, reliable, and foundations for certainty.

-- Carl Trueman, Blogging the Institutes

There's No Reason to Test the Sand When You're Standing On the Rock

2009-08-18T16:12:00.005-05:00

D.L. Moody had an interesting response to the question of whether a Christian should be "open-minded," a claim we constantly hear today:

"A great many people say, you must hear both sides; but if a man should write me a most slanderous letter about my wife, I don’t think I would have to read it; I would tear it up and throw it to the winds. Have I to take up a book that is a slander on my Lord and Master, who has redeemed me with His blood? Ten thousands times no! I will not touch it."

Christian journalist Nick Harrison also has a good answer:

"It’s one of Satan’s lies that we must be 'open-minded' about our spiritual beliefs. But no, a Christian whose faith is founded on solid rock has no reason to test out the sand around him . . .

HT: Apprising Ministries

The Choice is Ours

2009-08-18T12:01:00.002-05:00

"Men must be governed by God, or they will be ruled by tyrants."

--William Penn

Without Saving Faith, All Moral Virtues Are But SPLENDID SINS

2009-08-06T09:09:00.001-05:00

Without saving faith, all moral virtues are but splendid sins!

Unbelief nullifies everything!
It is the dead fly in the ointment!
It is the poison in the pot!

All the moral virtues,
all the benevolence of philanthropy,
all the kindness of unselfish sympathy,
all the talents of genius,
all the bravery of patriotism
--give no title to Divine acceptance, for
"without faith it is impossible to please God." (Heb. 11:6)

C.H. Spurgeon

Antipsalm 23

2009-07-25T08:01:00.002-05:00

How many people do you know who are living this way, without hope and without God in the world?

I know one who used to live this way -- me.

But there are so many others.

Antipsalm 23
I'm on my own.
No one looks out for me or protects me.
I experience a continual sense of need. Nothing's quite right.
I'm always restless. I'm easily frustrated and often disappointed.
It's a jungle — I feel overwhelmed. It's a desert — I'm thirsty.
My soul feels broken, twisted, and stuck. I can't fix myself.
I stumble down some dark paths.
Still, I insist: I want to do what I want, when I want, how I want.
But life's confusing. Why don't things ever really work out?
I'm haunted by emptiness and futility — shadows of death.
I fear the big hurt and final loss.
Death is waiting for me at the end of every road,
but I'd rather not think about that.
I spend my life protecting myself. Bad things can happen.
I find no lasting comfort.
I'm alone ... facing everything that could hurt me.
Are my friends really friends?
Other people use me for their own ends.
I can't really trust anyone. No one has my back.
No one is really for me — except me.
And I'm so much all about ME, sometimes it's sickening.
I belong to no one except myself.
My cup is never quite full enough. I'm left empty.
Disappointment follows me all the days of my life.
Will I just be obliterated into nothingness?
Will I be alone forever, homeless, free-falling into void?
Sartre said, "Hell is other people."
I have to add, "Hell is also myself."
It's a living death,
and then I die.

HT: Between Two Worlds

Who Said it?

2009-06-15T11:39:00.000-05:00

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches... were for the most part little more than Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more than happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the 'winning' side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another....

The answer is ... Pravda, in a recent editorial describing America's rapid descent into Marxisum.

"Pravda" is Russian for truth; in this case, Pravda certainly lived up to its name.

I'd Rather Have Jesus

2009-06-08T17:32:00.002-05:00

The wonderful talented George Beverly Shea is one hundred years old.

He knows whom he has believed. Do we?

HT: Slice of Laodicea

Come to Him

2009-06-06T17:36:00.002-05:00

--HT: Defcon

A Fervent Marxist and Muslim Sympathizer is Now President of the United States

2009-06-04T13:07:00.002-05:00

Don't believe it? Check out what B. Hussein told "the Muslims world" only yesterday:

"I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims," Obama said. [Question: does anyone really believe that Obama is a Christian? If you do, you might want to read this post. Or this one. ]

"As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk," he continued. "As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith. As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam ... I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America's story."

He also referred to himself by his full name—Barack Hussein Obama—and said he's "known Islam on three continents," experiences he said guide his convictions for a renewed relationship between Americans and Muslims.

And, he quoted from the Quran and issued a greeting of peace heard in Muslim communities in the United States,

The fact that B. Hussein is a fervent Marxist has been well documented on this site and many others.

The bottom line is, divine judgment as in Romans chapter one is now falling on this country. You know, the part where, because evil men did not see fit to acknowledge God, even though they undeniably and plainly knew Him, God was not silent. He responded. He gave them over to a debased mind.

Another Scary Video We All Need to Watch

2009-04-29T13:21:00.003-05:00

And why, pray tell, are we not hearing anything about this from our political or religious leaders?

HT: Defcon

Richly Deserved Chains

2009-04-24T09:32:00.003-05:00

So now, the Iowa attorney general says, "We must live by and follow what the courts decide" -- after the Iowa Supremist Court tried to overrule the divinely ordained order of marriage between one man and one woman. Not content with that mockery, this elected official is now threatening county workers with lawsuits if they do not abdicate their consciences and go along with this tyranny.

And no one seems to care what is happening to our freedom to make our own laws through our own elected officials

Really? We "must live by and follow what the courts decide?" If the Iowa Supremist Court decided you had to hold a loaded gun to your head and pull the trigger, would you "live by and follow what the courts decide?"

Do we even recognize the voice of tyrants any longer? Tyrants are ruling us now -- they are just wearing black robes and pretending to be high priests of a profane holy order that worships the human wisdom that is foolishness to God. (I Cor. 1:25)

If we go along with this tyranny like cows, then we richly deserve the chains which will surely bind us and our children before long.

The Moment De Toqueville Spoke of Has Arrived

2009-04-22T11:41:00.001-05:00

The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.

~ Alexis de Tocqueville (1835)

The Gospel of Satan vs. The True Gospel of God -- Can You Tell the Difference?

2009-04-09T10:31:00.004-05:00

A terrific piece from A.W. Pink spells out for us what the false gospel of Satan looks and sounds like. This false gospel "aims to make this world such a comfortable and congenial habitat that Christ's absence from it will not be felt, and God will not be needed." It "appeals to the best that is within."

Ouch! Where have you heard this false gospel lately?

Where have you NOT heard it lately?

The gospel of Satan is not a system of revolutionary principles, nor yet a program of anarchy. It does not promote strife and war, but aims at peace and unity. It seeks not to set the mother against her daughter nor the father against his son, but fosters the fraternal spirit whereby the human race is regarded as one great “brotherhood.” It does not seek to drag down the natural man, but to improve and uplift him. It advocates education and cultivation and appeals to “the best that is within - It aims to make this world such a comfortable and congenial habitat that Christ’s absence from it will not be felt and God will not be needed. It endeavors to occupy man so much with this world that he has no time or inclination to think of the world to come. It propagates the principles of self-sacrifice, charity and benevolence, and teaches us to live for the good of others, and to be kind to all. It appeals strongly to the carnal mind and is popular with the masses, because it ignores the solemn facts that by nature man is a fallen creature, alienated from the life of God, and dead in trespasses and sins, and that his only hope lies in being born again.

HT: Slaughter of the Sheep

The Idolatry of Obama-Worship in America

2009-04-01T09:18:00.002-05:00

Ellis Washington has a must-read but very sobering column on the gross idolatry being practiced by millions worshipping the Great Obama. Read his column, "Thou Shalt Not Make Unto Thee Any Graven Image"here.

There is no doubt that Obama is the false idol of many. This man believes he has been elected Chairman of the World, not just president of these United States. The staggering responsibility of being commander-in-chief of the most powerful nation on earth is too paltry to suit his giant-sized Marxist ego. It is nothing for such a narcissistic egomaniac to fire the head of the largest U.S. automaker. Somebody should tell him that “leader of the free world” is an honorary title, not a real one.

Marxists like Obama simply do not think the same way ordinary citizens like you and me think. They think about only one thing: “How can I gain more power today? How can I lie, cheat and steal? It doesn’t matter what I have to do – it just has to work. Crisis, calamity, connivance, chicanery – I can use them all.” There is no fear of God before their eyes, only the unbridled lust for power.

Amazingly, as Washington's article point out, Obama’s impudence daily grows more and more brazen, yet almost no one even speaks out, let alone stands up, to stop him. This open display of arrogance, lawlessness and greed, and the devastation it will surely wreak on this country, can only be the beginning of God’s judgment on America that is described in Romans chapter one.

May God have mercy on our country, and may we return to Him hastily and in genuine repentance.

Every Believer Should Study Theology

2009-03-23T12:20:00.001-05:00

“No Christian can avoid theology. Every Christian has a theology. The issue, then, is not, do we want to have a theology? That’s a given. The real issue is, do we have a sound theology? Do we embrace true or false doctrine?”

R.C. Sproul

What Lies Ahead: "Christianity Loves a Crumbling Empire"

2009-03-10T12:26:00.003-05:00

This article by the Internet Monk is worth reading completely. I think it is mostly on-target. The evan-jelly-fish church in America is quite possibly in for a serious and rude awakening.

What is the answer? A return to solid, Biblical theology. In a word, think Biblically and act accordingly:

We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.

Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.

This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.

Why is this going to happen?

1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.

The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.

2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.

3. There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile. Denominations will shrink, even vanish, while fewer and fewer evangelical churches will survive and thrive.

4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.

5. The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to "do good" is rapidly approaching. We will soon see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be viewed as bad by so many, and much of that work will not be done. Look for ministries to take on a less and less distinctively Christian face in order to survive.

6. Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.

7. The money will dry up.

What will be left?

•Expect evangelicalism to look more like the pragmatic, therapeutic, church-growth oriented megachurches that have defined success. Emphasis will shift from doctrine to relevance, motivation, and personal success – resulting in churches further compromised and weakened in their ability to pass on the faith.

•Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions. Evangelicals have been entering these churches in recent decades and that trend will continue, with more efforts aimed at the "conversion" of Evangelicals to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.

•A small band will work hard to rescue the movement from its demise through theological renewal. This is an attractive, innovative, and tireless community with outstanding media, publishing, and leadership development. Nonetheless, I believe the coming evangelical collapse will not result in a second reformation, though it may result in benefits for many churches and the beginnings of new churches.

•The emerging church will largely vanish from the evangelical landscape, becoming part of the small segment of progressive mainline Protestants that remain true to the liberal vision.

•Aggressively evangelistic fundamentalist churches will begin to disappear.

•Charismatic-Pentecostal Christianity will become the majority report in evangelicalism. Can this community withstand heresy, relativism, and confusion? To do so, it must make a priority of biblical authority, responsible leadership, and a reemergence of orthodoxy.

•Evangelicalism needs a "rescue mission" from the world Christian community. It is time for missionaries to come to America from Asia and Africa. Will they come? Will they be able to bring to our culture a more vital form of Christianity?

•Expect a fragmented response to the culture war. Some Evangelicals will work to create their own countercultures, rather than try to change the culture at large. Some will continue to see conservatism and Christianity through one lens and will engage the culture war much as before – a status quo the media will be all too happy to perpetuate. A significant number, however, may give up political engagement for a discipleship of deeper impact.

Is all of this a bad thing?

Evangelicalism doesn't need a bailout. Much of it needs a funeral. But what about what remains?

Is it a good thing that denominations are going to become largely irrelevant? Only if the networks that replace them are able to marshal resources, training, and vision to the mission field and into the planting and equipping of churches.

Is it a good thing that many marginal believers will depart? Possibly, if churches begin and continue the work of renewing serious church membership. We must change the conversation from the maintenance of traditional churches to developing new and culturally appropriate ones.

The ascendency of Charismatic-Pentecostal-influenced worship around the world can be a major positive for the evangelical movement if reformation can reach those churches and if it is joined with the calling, training, and mentoring of leaders. If American churches come under more of the influence of the movement of the Holy Spirit in Africa and Asia, this will be a good thing.

Will the evangelicalizing of Catholic and Orthodox communions be a good development? One can hope for greater unity and appreciation, but the history of these developments seems to be much more about a renewed vigor to "evangelize" Protestantism in the name of unity.

Will the coming collapse get Evangelicals past the pragmatism and shallowness that has brought about the loss of substance and power? Probably not. The purveyors of the evangelical circus will be in fine form, selling their wares as the promised solution to every church's problems. I expect the landscape of megachurch vacuity to be around for a very long time.

Will it shake lose the prosperity Gospel from its parasitical place on the evangelical body of Christ? Evidence from similar periods is not encouraging. American Christians seldom seem to be able to separate their theology from an overall idea of personal affluence and success.

The loss of their political clout may impel many Evangelicals to reconsider the wisdom of trying to create a "godly society." That doesn't mean they'll focus solely on saving souls, but the increasing concern will be how to keep secularism out of church, not stop it altogether. The integrity of the church as a countercultural movement with a message of "empire subversion" will increasingly replace a message of cultural and political entitlement.

Despite all of these challenges, it is impossible not to be hopeful. As one commenter has already said, "Christianity loves a crumbling empire."

We can rejoice that in the ruins, new forms of Christian vitality and ministry will be born. I expect to see a vital and growing house church movement. This cannot help but be good for an evangelicalism that has made buildings, numbers, and paid staff its drugs for half a century.

We need new evangelicalism that learns from the past and listens more carefully to what God says about being His people in the midst of a powerful, idolatrous culture.

I'm not a prophet. My view of evangelicalism is not authoritative or infallible. I am certainly wrong in some of these predictions. But is there anyone who is observing evangelicalism in these times who does not sense that the future of our movement holds many dangers and much potential?

The Gospel and Anarchy

2009-03-09T15:23:00.001-05:00

If the power of the gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of this land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end.

— Daniel Webster

...And Now For Something Completely Different: A Man Who Thinks His Wife Is a Calvinist!

2009-02-16T16:26:00.003-06:00

I do believe this man has met my wife:

--HT: Between Two Worlds

Signs of the Times: Three Pertinent Quotes

2009-02-16T10:54:00.002-06:00

"People who want to have continual abortions push embryonic stem cell research, because they want to be able to cite a reason that killing babies is beneficial to human health."

-- William R. Prather, MD, explaining why President Obama has "guaranteed" he will sign an executive order allowing federal funding if embryonic stem cell research.

"The federal government is bankrupt. In a post-Enron world, if the federal government were a corporation such as General Motors, the president and senior Treasury officers would be in a federal penitentiary."

-- economist John Williams, "Federal Obligations Exceed World GDP," World Net Daily 2/14/09

What is really needed is another Reformation. Nearly 500 years after Luther pounded in his 95 Theses at Wittenberg, things are grim. The doctrinal chaos and confusion, the inroads of eastern pagan spirituality, the grossly compromised circus churches, the shortage of biblical churches, the apostasizing of once solid seminaries—all of it points to carnal and wayward Christianity. Only a sovereign move of God can change the way things are. In the meantime, believers are findings spiritual food where they can in the middle of the local church famine, and are finding fellowship with other believers who are also well aware of the spiritual state of things.

-- Slice of Laodicea, "Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing," 2/16/09

The False Religion of Postmodernism is Literally Killing Us

2009-02-12T08:32:00.003-06:00

Our new President, B. Hussein Obama is Exhibit A, as correctly pointed out by Chuck Colson:

The only way to explain it [the president's statement, "There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being"] is to understand the intellectual environment, called postmodernism, in which President Obama and his peers have been raised. Generations of Americans have now been taught that truth is subjective. You have your truth, I have mine. And, even worse, I can’t “inflict” my version of truth on you. The law of non-contradiction has been suspended.

So politicians . . . can take two completely opposing positions at the same time: like believing that no God condones the taking of innocent life and at the same time, condoning—even promoting—the taking of an innocent life.

The problem isn’t simply President Obama and his views on life; the problem is a postmodern culture which believes that truth is merely a matter of opinion, and that therefore the sanctity of innocent human life is simply an expression of one viewpoint among many.

I have argued for the last 20 years that postmodernism would lead to the unraveling of our society. The fact that so few noticed the contradiction in what the President said and the policies he pursues tells me that we’re far along in the unraveling process.

Indeed, postmodernism is not just unraveling our society, it is killing us. Literally.

B. Hussein Obama's Twisted, False Religion

2009-02-05T11:07:00.005-06:00

Today President B. Hussein Obama spoke before the National Prayer breakfast. Apparently, he thought "national" referred to some other nation. He was certainly not speaking to the United States of America that the U.S. Supreme Court in years past declared to be "a Christian nation."

No, our current president thinks he is presiding over the world and is not to be bothered by such paltry matters as a mere country. Thus, he held forth at length on what appears to be his highness' favorite theme: how we are all now "citizens of the world." His world, of course.

But more to the point is the twisted and false religion he displayed.

Example no. 1: "But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate."

My Bible says: "Hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good." (Romans 12:9) Are we to believe that every religion that teaches its followers to hate evil is not a real religion? Or is it just Christianity that's not a real religion to Mr. Obama?

Example no. 2: "There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being."

Hmmm. Since you, Mr. Beneficent, support the taking of millions of innocent human lives in abortion, does that mean your god is a false god? If so, why do you not repent of your false worship of him/her/it and turn to worship and serve the true and living God?

Example no. 3: "...far too often, we have seen faith wielded as a tool to divide us from one another..."

Truth both unites and divides; it delineates the true and distinguishes the true from the false. At the same time, truth invites those who believe in the truth to unite in it.

My question for President B. Hussein is: when Jesus Christ said in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life; no man can come to the Father except through me" was He being truthful, or was He being divisive?

Blood In the Streets: A Malediction

2009-01-23T14:40:00.002-06:00

For those of you old enough to remember, "Blood In the Streets" was a song by The Doors.

For those of you in Rio Linda, "malediction" is Latin for a bad word -- the opposite of benediction, a good word.

Malediction

The judges sat outside the Law
And in their pride no evil saw
In setting teeth to Satan’s jaw
And feeding him our children.
When viewed in terms of cost and ease
An unborn child is a disease
A holocaust seen fit to please
Our own convenience.
A curse A curse the Law it cries.
A curse a curse on mankind’s pride.
A curse on him who would deny
God’s image in mankind.
Torn from out their mother’s womb
Denied the sky - denied a tomb
Conceived in lust to their own ruin
A sacrifice to pleasure.
The doctors with their blood red hands
Who love their money more than man,
With greed their god they lay their plans
The butchers of mankind.
A curse a curse the blood cries out
A curse a curse the heavens shout
A curse a curse on he who flouts
God’s image in mankind.
O rid us of this evil, Lord
And turn our hearts by cross or Sword.
Our nation cannot long afford
To live beneath your judgements.
A curse a curse upon their heads
O save them Lord or slay them dead
And fill our country with your Dread
And turn away Your anger.

Lyrics: Kemper Crabb
Music: Kemper Crabb & Frank Hart

HT: Slice of Laodicea

The Inaugural Prayer That Should Have Been Given, But Wasn't

2009-01-20T15:10:00.002-06:00

Oh God, our Creator, Sustainer, and Judge, You have blessed America most extraordinarily. No other nation has ever enjoyed such resources, opportunities and freedoms.

Even so, we call to mind what Your only Son, God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ, told us: "Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required" (Luke 12:48). You have given us much — and what have we done with it?

No other nation in history, since your Son walked the earth, has had such access to Your inerrant Word, the Bible; nor such liberty to preach it and teach it. Against the backdrop of world history, our freedoms are simply staggering. Yet the moral corruption in Washington is rivaled by the spiritual corruption in our pulpits, and in our pews.

Preachers twist and compromise Your truth, selling out on their calling so that they can be loved by those who hate You. People who name Your name choose to ignore Your words, and love the world, love to be stylish. Oh God, grant repentance to us who claim to know You. Inflame preachers with love for you that cannot be bridled nor tamed, love that shows in fearless and uncompromising proclamation of your Word. Inflame believers with love for Christ that cannot be overlooked nor misunderstood, love that shows in lives that reflect the character and revealed wisdom of God.

And God, we confess with shame that, though we are the richest nation on earth, we are among the cruelest when it comes to our most helpless and needy. Thousands of unborn children are killed each day, oh Lord, slain on the altar of our selfishness and lusts. If they are inconvenient or imperfect, we kill them. Our hands are bloody. We are deeply guilty, yet do not even blush. I cannot ask that You forgive us, much less that You bless us with further prosperity to squander. I ask, instead, that You grant us to feel our shame, that You grant us repentance, so that You might forgive us.

Lord, we have sinned. I have sinned. President Obama has sinned. All who hear me have sinned. We know better. Knowing Your Word is not above our pay-grade. We can offer no excuse.

But thank You that You, the God who is holy and just, and loving and merciful, sent Your only Son to give Himself a ransom-price to secure freedom and forgiveness for all who would believe in Him with repentant faith. Thank You for Jesus, born of the virgin Mary, crucified for sinners, dead, buried, and risen to life on the third day. Thank You that He is at your right hand, ever living to grant forgiveness and life to all who call on His name in faith. Thank You for that glorious promise.

And so, our God, we pray that President Obama will know that transforming faith in Jesus. We pray that he will humble himself at the cross of Christ, and know You as Savior and Lord. We pray that Your word will transform his thinking, that Your word will be his law. The king's heart is in Your hands, oh God — and so, surely, is the president's. We pray You grant him this saving grace.

America has been called a shining city on a hill. If that was ever true, the light is guttering, dark and dim now. Oh God, grant repentance to this land, that our spiritual prosperity might outstrip our material prosperity, to the glory of the living, triune God of Scripture.

We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, the only name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved.

Amen.

HT: Pyromaniacs

Paul Washer on the Coming Persecution of the Church in America

2009-01-16T12:06:00.002-06:00

Pastor John Piper With Hope for Hard Times

2009-01-16T09:45:00.001-06:00

HT: Desiring God Blog

What Is Sin?

2009-01-10T17:35:00.003-06:00

The glory of God not honored,
the holiness of God not reverenced,
the greatness of God not admired,
the power of God not praised,
the truth of God not sought,
the wisdom of God not esteemed,
the beauty of God not treasured,
the goodness of God not savored,
the faithfulness of God not trusted,
the commandments of God not obeyed,
the justice of God not respected,
the wrath of God not feared,
the grace of God not cherished,
the presence of God not prized,
the person of God not loved.

-- John Piper, The Greatest Thing in The World (sermon on Romans 1-7)

Prayer For A New Year

2009-01-04T20:09:00.003-06:00

Oh, sovereign Lord,

Thou who hast already seen and known every moment of this new year more fully and deeply than any of us ever will,

Grant unto my soul in its moments Thy eternal peace.
Grant unto my heart thy boundless joy.

Grant me thy matchless power --

in every searing pain
in every insidious temptation
in every clamoring doubt
in every momentary windfall
in every seizing fear,
in every groundless boasting.

Oh, sovereign Lord,
Grant unto my soul in its moments thy eternal peace.

The Gospel Is the Greatest Thing in the World

2008-12-14T17:22:00.002-06:00

(HT: CRN)

Every Man To His Post

2008-12-02T13:14:00.004-06:00

War will always rage between the two great sovereignties until one or other be crushed. Peace between good and evil is impossibility; the very pretence of it would, in fact, be the triumph of the powers of darkness. . .

Glory be to God, we know the end of the war. The great dragon shall be cast out and for ever destroyed, while Jesus and they who are with Him shall receive the crown. Let us sharpen our swords tonight, and pray to the Holy Spirit to nerve our arms for conflict. Every man to his post, ye warriors of the cross, and may the Lord tread Satan under your feet shortly!

-- Charles Spurgeon

HT: Defcon

My Orders Are To Fight

2008-11-26T10:27:00.002-06:00

My orders are to fight;
Then if I bleed, or fail,
Or strongly win, what matters it?
God only doth prevail.

The servant craveth naught
Except to serve with might.
I was not told to win or lose,–
My orders are to fight.

--Welsh poet Ethylwyn Wetherald

Rescuing the Gospel from Evangelicals: Kirk Cameron & John MacArthur On...TBN?

2008-11-24T12:01:00.003-06:00

TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) has become known for false teaching, but Pastor John MacArthur and Kirk Cameron (Fireproof) hit the nail on the head here.

This is the uncompromised Gospel!

If you haven't seen the movie Fireproof yet, don't wait another minute.

(HT: Puritan Fellowship)

Republican Party Is Conservative? Don't Make Me Laugh

2008-11-13T08:35:00.003-06:00

Just in case anyone needed convincing that George Bush, John McCain, and the Republican Party are anything but conservative, this horrifying post-election writeup by Michelle Malkin should do the trick:

I hope Barack Obama remembered to thank George Bush on behalf of his illegal alien aunt this week. The lame-duck Republican president did the Democratic president-elect a generous -- and dangerous -- favor right before Election Day: Putting politics above homeland security, the Bush administration ordered immigration authorities across the country to halt all deportation enforcement actions until the campaign season was over.

According to my sources, the Bush administration issued a 72-hour cease-and-desist order to all fugitive apprehension teams to spare Obama embarrassment over his Kenyan half-aunt, Zeituni Onyango.

The rest of this horror story is here.

A Razor's Edge

2008-11-11T08:26:00.001-06:00

"The difference between truth and error is not a chasm but a razor's edge."

--John Murray

HT: email brigade

Spurgeon on Postmodernism: Stand Fast for the Truth

2008-11-11T08:19:00.002-06:00

This is an age in which truth must be maintained zealously, vehemently, continually. Playing fast and loose as many do, believing this to-day and that to-morrow, is the sure mark of children of wrath; but having received the truth, to hold fast the very form of it, as Paul bids Timothy to do, is one of the duties of heirs of heaven. Stand fast for truth, and may God give the victory to the faithful.

We must believe the gospel and maintain it, for it is committed to our trust.

-- Charles Spurgeon

HT: Pyromaniacs

Republican Party R.I.P.

2008-11-07T13:26:00.002-06:00

Conservatives Lost More Than An Election
by Chuck Baldwin
November 7, 2008

. . .For all intents and purposes, conservatism--as a national movement--is completely and thoroughly dead. Barack Obama did not destroy it, however. It was George W. Bush and John McCain who destroyed conservatism in America.

Soon after G.W. Bush was elected, it quickly became obvious he was no conservative. On the contrary, George Bush has forever established himself as a Big-Government, warmongering, internationalist neocon. Making matters worse was the way Bush presented himself as a conservative Christian. In fact, Bush's portrayal of himself as a conservative Christian paved the way for the betrayal and ultimate destruction of conservatism (something I also predicted years ago). And the greatest tragedy of this deception is the way that Christian conservatives so thoroughly (and stupidly) swallowed the whole Bush/McCain neocon agenda. . .

Consider, too, the way Bush and McCain have allowed the international bankers on Wall Street to bilk America's taxpayers out of trillions of dollars. Yes, I know Obama also supported the Wall Street bailout, but it was the Republican Party that controlled the White House for the last eight years and the entire federal government for six out of the last eight years. In fact, the GOP has won seven out of the previous ten Presidential elections. They have controlled Supreme Court appointments for the past thirty-plus years. They have appointed the majority of Treasury secretaries and Federal Reserve chairmen. They have presided over the greatest trade imbalances, the biggest deficits, the biggest spending increases, and now the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression. . .

But the worst calamity of this election was the way conservatives--especially Christian conservatives--surrendered their principles for the sake of political partisanship. The James Dobsons of this country should hang their heads in shame! Not only did they lose an election, they lost their integrity!. . .

Across the country, rather than stand on principle, hundreds of thousands of pastors, Christians, and pro-life conservatives capitulated and groveled before John McCain's neocon agenda. In doing so, they forfeited any claim to truth, and they abandoned any and all fidelity to constitutional government. They should rip the stories of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out of their Bibles. They should never again tell their children, parishioners, and radio audiences the importance of standing for truth and principle. They have made a mockery of Christian virtue. No wonder a majority of the voting electorate laughs at us Christians. No wonder the GOP crashed and burned last Tuesday.

Again, it wasn't Barack Obama who destroyed conservatism; it was George W. Bush, John McCain, and the millions of evangelical Christians who supported them. And until conservatives find their backbone and their convictions, they deserve to remain a burnt-out, has-been political force. They have no one to blame but themselves.

And since it is unlikely that the Republican Party has enough sense to understand any of this and will, therefore, do little to reestablish genuine conservative principles, it is probably best to just go ahead and bury the scoundrels now and move on to something else. Without a sincere commitment to constitutional government, the GOP has no justifiable reason to ever govern again. Therefore, put a fork in them. They are done. Let a new entity arise from the ashes: one that will stand for something more than just "the lesser of two evils." As we say in the South, That dog just won't hunt anymore.

Or as Pat Buchanan says in his column today, "as long as the Republican Party is hooked on K Street cash, it will not address [globalization and illegal immigration, the "twin causes of death of the Reagan coalition], and thus pass, blissfully addicted, from this earth."

Finding America in Romans Chapter One

2008-11-05T16:57:00.004-06:00

In this must-see video, James White speaks with great eloquence and power on the election of Barack Hussein Obama to the presidency of the United States, and finds America in the year 2008 to be right smack dab in the middle of...Romans chapter one:

Spread the word.

Leadership and The Gospel

2008-11-05T12:07:00.002-06:00

We also need to understand that for us to have better leaders in the nation the church must be faithful in proclaiming the gospel. The problem in the world is not bad economic policies but bad hearts and these can only be changed by the gospel, which is the power of God for the salvation of those who believe (Romans 1:16). The gospel has always been the vanguard of civilization and true human dignity. It changes lives in the grassroots of society and, since rulers come from there, in due season it gives us rulers with pure hearts. It is the failure to realize this that makes Christians excited about a new leader coming into power even when the state of the church still leaves much to be desired. That is totally misplaced confidence. Our excitement, rather, should be when a purer gospel finds its way into the homes of our land. That alone is the true hope . . .

HT: A Letter from Kabwata

Where Are You, God?

2008-11-04T14:33:00.000-06:00

“Thursday in Minneapolis it was so gorgeous walking home I thought: I should write a post on how astonishing it is that no earthquake swallowed up this city today.

Instead God sent warmth and crystal skies and cool breezes and golden leaves and hanging sea gulls over Elliot Park.

Amazing. Absolutely amazing!

We deserved the 52-story IDS tower to fall, and bridges to collapse, and poisonous gas to kill thousands. But instead God gave us over-the-top foretastes of heaven.

This is why everyone is crying out, Where was God on Thursday! Where were you God! How could you do this? Why did you let this happen?

Everybody is saying that, aren’t they?”

- John Piper

John Owen: Christ the Beam of Divine Sunlight

2008-10-25T09:16:00.001-05:00

"The light of the sun comes to us by its beams. By its beams we see the sun, and by its beams the sun touches us. Jesus Christ is the beam of his Father's love and through him the Father's love reaches down and touches us. By Jesus Christ also we see and experience and are led up to the Father's love. If we, as believers, would meditate on this truth more and live in the light of it, there would be great spiritual growth in our walk with God.

This growth in our walk with God is what we are to aim at. Many dark and disturbing thoughts arise to hinder our walk with God. Few can rise to the height of the Father's love by faith, so as to rest their souls in his love. They live far below it in the troublesome region of hopes and fears, storms and clouds. Abiding in the Father's love, all is peace and quiet. But how to rise up to the height of the Father's love they do not know. It is God's will that he should always be seen as gentle, kind, tender, loving and unchangeable. It is his will that we see him as the Father, and the great fountain and reservoir of all grace and love. This is what Christ came to reveal. Christ came to reveal God as a Father (John 1:18). It is the name of God as Father which Christ declares to those who are given him out of the world (John 17:6). And this is what Christ leads us to, because he is the only way of going to God as a Father (John 14:5,6). He leads us to God as love. By this, Christ gives us the rest which he promised us. We believe in God through Christ (1 Peter 1:21). Faith seeks out a place for the soul to rest. This rest is presented to the soul by Christ, the Mediator. By Christ the soul has access into the Father's love (Ephesians 2:18). Believers find that God is love, and that he loved them from eternity. Believers learn that it was God's will and purpose to love them from everlasting to everlasting in Christ, and that all reason for God to be angry with us and treat us as his enemies has been taken away. The believer, being brought by Christ into the bosom of the Father, rests in the full assurance of God's love and of never being separated from that love. This is the first act of communion which the believer has with the Father."

~John Owen From the Puritan Paperback's, R.J.K Law abridged version of "Communion With God."

HT: Puritan Fellowship

Break the Neck of the Donkey? What's That All About?

2008-10-15T08:41:00.005-05:00

The inestimable Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon expounds the Gospel where one might not expect to find it -- in the Old Testament law of sacrifice.

"THE FIRSTBORN OF A DONKEY YOU SHALL REDEEM WITH A LAMB, OR IF YOU WILL NOT REDEEM IT YOU SHALL BREAK ITS NECK." Exodus 34:20

Every firstborn creature must be the Lord's; but since the donkey was unclean, it could not be presented in sacrifice. What then? Should it be allowed to go free from the universal law? By no means. God allows for no exceptions. The donkey is His due, but He will not accept it; He will not void the claim, but yet He cannot be pleased with the victim. As a result, no way of escape remained but redemption-the creature must be saved by the substitution of a lamb in its place; or if not redeemed, it must die. My soul, here is a lesson for you.

That unclean animal is you. You are justly the property of the Lord who made you and preserves you, but you are so sinful that God will not, cannot, accept you; and it has come to this-the Lamb of God must stand in your place or you must die eternally. Let all the world know of your gratitude to that spotless Lamb who has already bled for you and so redeemed you from the fatal curse of the law.

Oh, the wonderful truth that indeed, Christ is in all the Scriptures! (Luke 24:27)

Quote of the Day

2008-10-10T10:58:00.000-05:00

“When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith.”

--Abraham Kuyper

Truth vs. "Just Doing Good Deeds"

2008-10-09T10:08:00.003-05:00

There are many who claim that Christians just simply need to "do good deeds" and downplay or ignore doctrine.

Evidently, Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, one of the greatest preachers of the century just past, did not agree:

There are many today who regard truth and error as matters of small consequence; if a man lives rightly, they say, it matters not much what his beliefs and opinions are. Such statements do not surprise us. Night and day are all one to a blind man. Truth and error are all one to an ignorant man.

(HT: e- mail brigade news)

Who Is Barack Hussein Obama? Joe Farrah Reports

2008-10-02T09:53:00.002-05:00

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
– Bob Dylan, "Subterranean Homesick Blues"

That was the line that inspired Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers and Mark Rudd to drop out of society, go underground and launch a bombing and terror campaign against the United States of America.

In 1970, they signed the Weather Underground's "Declaration of a State of War" on the U.S. government and clearly articulated their call for a worldwide communist revolution. The group committed at least 40 bombings between 1969 and 1975. The targets included the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol, the State Department, military bases, police stations and businesses.

Before going underground and just following the mass murders of actress Sharon Tate and others by disciples of Charles Manson, Dohrn had this to say: "Dig it. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, then they even shoved a fork into a victim's stomach! Wild!" Dohrn went on to suggest her fellow radical, homicidal maniacs adopt a "fork" salute to greet one another.

Dohrn also publicly celebrated the group's maiming of Chicago prosecutor Richard Elrod in the Chicago riots. In 1970, Ayers explained what the Weather Underground was all about: "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at."

On March 6, 1970, three members of the Weather Underground were killed when a bomb they were building exploded in a Greenwich Village townhouse. The device was made with dynamite wrapped in roofing nails to maximize casualties. The intended target of that bomb was a dance for non-commissioned officers at the Fort Dix Army base.

Dohrn is believed to be responsible for the bombing of a San Francisco police station in 1970 that killed one officer and injured two others.

After Ayers and Dohrn turned themselves in to authorities in 1980, they were never prosecuted for those crimes. Instead, they pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated battery and bail jumping, receiving probation.

Yet, there is no question they were bombers. In 2001, Ayers told the New York Times, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."

I lived through all of this history and remember it well. In fact, in 1979, shortly before Dohrn and Ayers turned themselves in, I actually met them in New York. At the time, they were not using their real names. They were living under the pseudonyms Christine Louise Douglas and Anthony J. Lee.

In 1980, after they turned themselves in, I fully expected to be questioned by the FBI about my association with these dangerous revolutionaries who had broken every imaginable law – from assault to sedition to murder and mayhem. Shockingly, the FBI showed no interest.

I suspect that was because the fix was in. Ayers and Dohrn had powerful support from wealthy people, including Ayers' father, Thomas, the head of Commonwealth Edison. He served on many influential boards including G.D. Searle, Chicago Pacific Corp., Zenith Corp., Northwest Industries, First National Bank of Chicago and the Tribune Company, owner of the Chicago Tribune.

In 1984, Dohrn was hired by the prestigious law firm Sidley Austin by Howard Trienens, a friend of Thomas Ayers. In 1991, Dohrn was hired by Northwestern University in Chicago as an adjunct professor of law. Trienens served on the board of trustees and Thomas Ayers was its chairman. Ayers today serves as a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Why is all this history important?

Because Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn played a critical role in shaping the political career of Barack Hussein Obama.

When Obama first ran for Congress in 2000 – just eight years ago – he was questioned on a local TV news interview about what qualifications he had for the job.

"One of the criticisms that arises in connection with your candidacy is that you haven't been in the (Illinois) Senate very long, the state Senate," the interviewer said. "You have a limited track record in terms of time. What is your argument, based on the one term that you served in the Senate so far, that makes you prepared for the Congress?"

Obama replied: "I would argue, though, that my experience previous to elected office equips me for the job. You know, I have a background as an attorney. I've represented affordable housing organizations to build affordable housing, something that is a major issue in the district. I've chaired major philanthropic efforts in the city, like the Chicago Annenberg Challenge that gave $50 million to prop up school reform efforts throughout the city."

And how did Obama become chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge?

Presumably, he was recruited by Bill Ayers who helped found it and served as co-chairman of the Chicago School Reform Collaborative, one of the two operational arms of the CAC.

So who provided Obama with the only executive experience he has ever had in his young life? Bill Ayers, unrepentant domestic terrorist, communist revolutionary, husband of Bernardine Dohrn, untouchable, spoiled rich kid.

Obama has never been forced to explain his association – and his debt – to Ayers and Dohrn. He claims he doesn't know them well. He says they're just some people he knows in his neighborhood.

Yet, he admits the best qualification he had to run for Congress (and lose) in 2000 was his job giving away money for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge – a job he got because he was plugged in to the connections of the two spoiled-brat communist revolutionaries.

By the way, thanks to the revelation by WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein that Mark Rudd now serves on "Progressive for Obama" along with other anarchists, communists and assorted socialists, we now know there are at least three leaders of the domestic terrorist group tied to the man who could be the next president.

I no longer expect my colleagues in the press to question Obama about any of this. They've shown they believe it is irrelevant to the question of who will become the next president of the United States. But now you know the truth. Help me spread it far and wide.

The Braying of Asses and the Grunting of Hogs

2008-09-29T10:01:00.001-05:00

Herewith Martin Luther on the divine gift of music:

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts, and spirits…This precious gift has been given to man alone that he might thereby remind himself that God has created man for the express purpose of praising and extolling God. However, when man’s natural musical ability is whetted and polished to the extent that it becomes an art, then do we note with great surprise the great and perfect wisdom of God in music, which is, after all, His product and His gift; we marvel when we hear music in which one voice sings a simple melody, while three, four, or five other voices play and trip lustily around the voice that sings its simple melody and adorn this simple melody wonderfully with artistic musical effects, thus reminding us of a heavenly dance, where all meet in a spirit of friendliness, caress and embrace.

A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.

(Martin Luther, 1538, in his Foreword to “Symphoniae iucunda,” a collection of chorale motets)

Calvin Quote of the Day: The Spirit is More Excellent Than All Reason

2008-09-26T12:54:00.003-05:00

Since for unbelieving men religion seems to stand by opinion alone, they, in order not to believe anything foolishly or lightly, both wish and demand rational proof that Moses and the prophets spoke divinely. But I reply: the testimony of the Spirit is more excellent than all reason. For as God alone is a fit witness of himself in his Word, so also the Word will not find acceptance in men's hearts before it is sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit. The same Spirit, therefore, who has spoken through the mouths of the prophets must penetrate into our hearts to persuade us that they faithfully proclaimed what had been divinely commanded ...

John Calvin Institutes of the Christian Religion 1.7.5.

(HT: monergism.com)

Piper to Preach Through Gospel of John!

2008-09-10T14:03:00.002-05:00

A cause for great rejoicing!

For those of you who haven't yet heard John Piper's sermons on Romans, you should. Pastor John preached 224 sermons on this book. The DVD contains all of them as mp3's and is worth its weight in gold.

How long will it take him? You do the math:

Hebrews has 303 verses: he preached 52 sermons on Hebrews.

Romans has 433 verses: he preached 224 messages.

John has 879 verses...

But, however long the Lord gives him to preach this tremendous book, don't miss it!

B. Hussein Obama Is Not a Christian

2008-09-10T11:58:00.004-05:00

Here is the video of B. Hussein Obama slipping and referring to "my Muslim faith" before George Stephanopoulos helpfully -- helpfully, that is to Obama, but not to us -- corrects him:

Dear friends, there is no evidence whatsoever to support the claim of Senator Obama and Mr. Stephanopoulos that B. Hussein Obama is a "Christian." The fact that he says he is a Christian, and the fact that he is a member of a United Church of Christ are both meaningless.

Point No. 1: Saying you are a Christian does not mean you are one. You can look that up in Matthew 7:21 and elsewhere in the New Testament.

Point no. 2: Being a member of any kind of church does not mean you are a Christian. If you need proof, read John chapter 3 in the Bible.

Point No. 3: B. Hussein points to his membership in the United Church of Christ (the UCC) to support his claim. That denomination is widely referred to among Bible-believing Christians as "Unitarians Considering Christ."

For those of you in Rio Linda, that means it is not Christian even though it calls itself Christian. See Points no. 1 and 2.

And, of course, if further evidence were needed that B. Hussein is not a Christian, his support for abortion would surely provide it.

HT: Baylyblog

Martin Luther On False Religion

2008-09-04T20:28:00.002-05:00

Martin Luther hit the nail precisely on the head:

All manner of religion, where people serve God without his Word and command, is simply idolatry, and the more holy and spiritual such a religion seems, the more hurtful and venomous it is; for it leads people away from the faith of Christ, and makes them rely and depend upon their own strength, works, and righteousness.

Is John McCain Pro-Life? Don't Make Me Laugh

2008-09-04T20:07:00.002-05:00

Just because John McCain (who happens to be running for President) tells Rick Warren that life begins at conception, gullible evanjelly-fish leaders are falling all over themselves telling everyone McCain is "pro-life."

Oh really?

As Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin documents, here are the facts:

1. John McCain openly advocates embryonic stem cell research.

2. John McCain voted to confirm Stephen Breyer, the openly pro-abortion Supreme Court justice.

3. John McCain voted to confirm Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the former general counsel of the ACLU. It's a bit hard for him to say he didn't know how she would vote on abortion cases.

4. John McCain gave us McCain-Feingold, which prohibits pro-life groups from broadcasting any ad the mentions a candidate by name 60 days before a general election.

5. In a debate with George W. Bush in 2000, John McCain attacked Bush for supporting the pro-life plank in the Republican platform.

6. John McCain has repeatedly voted to fund abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood with federal tax dollars. In fact, along with President Bush, McCain has increase levels of federal funding for abortion providers above what they were under Bill Clinton.

7. And who can forget that John McCain was one of the main forces behind the "Gang of 14" that blocked President Bush from appointing pro-life judges to lower federal courts?

8. Last but not least, John McCain has been a tireless supporter of the United Nations, which has been responsible for more abortions than any other single entity in the world.

Chuck Baldwin has it exactly right:

"Tell me again, Mr. Christian leader, how 'pro-life' John McCain is. What a joke!"

Hypocrisy Alert: So-Called "Evangelical Leaders" Blow It Big Time On Bristol Palin's Pregnancy

2008-09-03T10:01:00.004-05:00

Here is my rendition by memory of the letter sent today via email to Chuck Baldwin, Constitution Party candidate for President:

Dear Chuck,

As a Constitution Party supporter, I am appalled by the blatant hypocrisy on display in all its ugliness by so-called "evangelical leaders" such as James Dobson in the matter of the teenage pregnancy of Sarah Palin's unwed daughter. The incessant spin-spin-spin machine is in overdrive, and it makes me sick to my stomach.

What ever happened to SIN? What ever happened to genuine repentance? What about Our Lord's warning, in response to far greater perils, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish?" These get nary a mention. All we get from Dr. Dobson is that this teenager was "imperfect." This is bald-faced hypocrisy. It will surely be pointed out by our opponents, and they will be right.

This teenager's "imperfection" (the term clearly implies that all she needs to do is get a little counseling to get patched up), is not the issue for any genuine believer. The issue is that the righteous and just wrath of a holy God is even now being revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men and women -- including against Bristol Palin and her boyfriend in these very events as well as the hardships they will undoubtedly face in the future.

Of course all Christians will support them and love them throughout the raising of this child -- that is not the point.

The point is, without the conviction of sin, there is no Gospel and we perish. But how can there be conviction of sin, if sin is never even addressed? These people call themselves Christian?

I beg you to speak out against this.

Sincerely,

Your supporter,

How Does a Church Die?

2008-08-25T10:48:00.003-05:00

Pastor John MacArthur answers this important question, in his teaching on Revelation 3:1-6, the church at Sardis:

Death occurs when unbelievers are allowed to take over ministries in the church. It happens when a church becomes more concerned with form and liturgy than it is with life on a spiritual level. Death occurs when a church becomes more concerned about welfare and social ills than it is about salvation. It happens when a church loves systems more than it loves Jesus Christ. And it happens when a church becomes more concerned with material things than spiritual reality. That's how a church dies. It all is a result of sin. . .

What kills a church? Sin--in any form that the church tolerates, whether it is in the members or the leaders. Tolerance of sin begins the cycle; then comes the tolerance of unbelievers in the church until no one cares who is a believer or an unbeliever. The end comes when the man who runs the church isn't a believer. Sins of commission and omission kill a church little by little. When that happens, Christians become carnal. Soon afterwards, unbelievers come into the church, and then a total tolerance for sin exists. The church begins to die, and the people who really love Jesus Christ leave only to be replaced by people who don't know Him. There are many people in our church who can testify to the fact that they have come to a church like ours because they had to leave a church that was dead--it was in the hands of people who didn't love Christ.

Piper on True Discernment

2008-08-15T15:42:00.001-05:00

Discernment is not created in God’s people by brokenness, humility, reverence, and repentance. It is created by biblical truth and the application of truth by the power of the Holy Spirit to our hearts and minds. When that happens, then the brokenness, humility, reverence, and repentance will have the strong fiber of the full counsel of God in them. They will be profoundly Christian and not merely religious and emotional and psychological.

Unity in Truth: Spurgeon in Agreement with Luther

2008-08-01T16:15:00.000-05:00

Martin Luther said, "It is better to be divided by truth than united by error."

Evidently Charles Spurgeon agreed:

"Where union and friendship are not cemented by truth, I say it again, we must have unity, we must pray for unity, we must love one another, we must never divide over incidentals but it is far, far, far better to be divided by truth than united in error."

Our Sovereign God

2008-07-23T11:53:00.002-05:00

From the unsurpassed pen of Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon comes these wonderfully comforting and sobering words for God's own chosen ones:

"There is no attribute more comforting to His children, than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials--they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children of God ought more earnestly to contend, than the doctrine of their Master over all creation--the kingship of God over all the works of His own hands--the throne of God and His right to sit upon that throne.

On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football--as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine, of the sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere, except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends His throne--then His creatures gnash their teeth!

We proclaim an enthroned God, and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter. Then it is, that we are hissed and execrated; and then it is, that men turn a deaf ear to us--for God on His throne--is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon His throne, whom we trust!"

(HT: Grace Gems)

The Truth About Unity

2008-07-18T08:14:00.003-05:00

Several months ago, during a conversation with one of the elders at our former church, the elder quoted to me John 17:22 (Jesus praying "that they may be one"). The elder intended this to chide me for participating in something he and the other elders saw as disturbing the unity of that church.

By His grace, the Lord led me to respond to this elder with John 17:17 a few verses before -- Jesus praying, "Sanctify them by thy truth, thy word is truth."

Then, this morning, I saw this quote from Spurgeon, in which he makes the same connection the Lord had shown me during my conversation with this elder:

To remain divided is sinful! Did not our Lord pray, that they may
be one, even as we are one”? (John 17:22). A chorus of ecumenical
voices keep harping the unity tune. What they are saying is,
“Christians of all doctrinal shades and beliefs must come together
in one visible organization, regardless… Unite, unite!” Such
teaching is false, reckless and dangerous. Truth alone must
determine our alignments. Truth comes before unity. Unity without truth is hazardous. Our Lord’s prayer in John 17 must be read in its full context. Look at verse 17: “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.” Only those sanctified through the Word can be one in Christ. To teach otherwise is to betray the Gospel.

Thanks be to God.

-Charles H. Spurgeon.

(HT: CRN)

Justification Is By Grace Alone

2008-06-25T17:29:00.004-05:00

As Dr. R.C. Sproul has noted, the doctrine of justification by grace alone has not penetrated our culture.

Maybe this will help:

(HT: Defcon)

Porous Vessels

2008-06-18T14:47:00.002-05:00

"While truth itself is unchanging, the minds of men are porous vessels out of which truth can leak and into which error may seep to dilute the truth they contain. The human heart is heretical by nature and runs to error as naturally as a garden to weeds. All a man, a church or a denomination needs to guarantee deterioration of doctrine is to take everything for granted and do nothing. The unattended garden will soon be overrun with weeds; the heart that fails to cultivate truth and root out error will shortly be a theological wilderness; the church or denomination that grows careless on the highway of truth will before long find itself astray, bogged down in some mud flat from which there is no escape."

--A.W. Tozer
(HT: CAMPONTHIS)

Who Are You, O Man, To Answer Back to God?

2008-06-12T16:16:00.003-05:00

If you want to ask God, "Why did you permit this?" and "Why didn't you do that?" then my advice is to "Be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20) by believing in Jesus Christ as the only Savior, repenting and confessing that He is Lord.

Then you will have all eternity to ask God all your questions!

(HT: Proclaim His Word)

Nothing New Under the Sun: Tossing Truth Overboard

2008-06-11T13:24:00.001-05:00

“Everything forsooth is true, and nothing is false! Everybody is right, and nobody is wrong! Everybody is likely to be saved, and nobody is to be lost!” The atonement and substitution of Christ, the personality of the Devil, the miraculous element in Scripture, the reality and eternity of future punishment, all these mighty foundation-stones are coolly tossed overboard, like lumber, in order to lighten the ship of Christianity . . . . Stand up for these great verities, and you are called narrow, illiberal, old-fashioned, and a theological fossil! Quote a text, and you are told that all truth is not confined to the pages of an ancient Jewish book . . . . We must charge home into the consciences of these men of broad views, and demand a plain answer to some plain questions. We must ask them to lay their hands on their hearts, and tell us whether their favorite opinions comfort them in the days of sickness, in the hour of death, by the bedside of dying parent, by the grave of beloved wife or child.

--J.C. Ryle

(HT: Defcon)

Hit It Stone Cold in the Face With the Truth

2008-06-04T11:17:00.002-05:00

In my humble estimation, at least ninety percent of the people who claim to be Christian and say we must be "sensitive" to the "postmodern culture" have already compromised with it.

Thank God not everyone has. Here is how John MacArthur displays Christian sensitivity in preaching:

"In my own preaching, my objective is not to court the postmodern mind. My objective is to confront it—to hit it stone cold in the face with truth. It’s irrelevant to me how the person thinks. It’s only relevant to me how they need to think."

(HT: Pulpit Magazine)

Worldwide Church of Oprah Exposed!

2008-05-30T11:21:00.002-05:00

"The Devil Hates Goose Quills"

2008-05-29T09:06:00.004-05:00

In today's post, Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon beseeches us to work against those who seek to restore false religion among us. He also reminds us that the pen is more powerful than the sword.

Are we using our pens for the cause of truth?

Are we speaking out against those working to restore false religion among us?

"If the man who rebuilt Jericho was cursed, how much more does the man who works to restore false religion among us deserve the same. In our fathers' days the gigantic walls of false religion fell by the power of their faith, the perseverance of their efforts, and the blast of their gospel trumpets; and now there are some who would like to rebuild those false systems upon their old foundations. Lord, we pray, be pleased to thwart these unrighteous endeavors, and pull down every stone that they build. It should be a serious business with us to be thoroughly purged of every error that tends to foster the spirit of falsehood, and when we have made a clean sweep at home we should seek in every way to oppose its all too rapid spread abroad in the church and in the world.

This we may accomplish only in secret by fervent prayer and in public by faithful witness. We must warn with judicious boldness those who are inclined toward the errors of false religion; we must instruct the young in gospel truth and tell them of the dark doings of falsehood in earlier times. We must assist in spreading the light more thoroughly through the land, for false teachers, like owls, hate daylight. Are we doing all we can for Jesus and the Gospel? If not, our negligence plays into the hands of the heretics. What are we doing to spread the Bible, which is the antidote to falsehood? Are we sending out good, sound gospel writings?

Luther once said, "The devil hates goose quills," and, no doubt, he has good reason; the writer's pen blessed by the Holy Spirit has damaged his evil kingdom greatly. If the thousands who read this short word tonight will do all they can to hinder the rebuilding of this accursed Jericho, the Lord's glory shall spread quickly among the sons of men. Reader, what can you do? What will you do?"

(HT: Truth for Life)

Calvinism Quote of the Day

2008-05-28T09:13:00.001-05:00

"I am a five point Calvinist and all the points are sharp!"

-- Ian Paisley

(HT: christiansquoting.org.uk)

If You Don't Believe Jesus is the Only Way, You Are Not a Christian

2008-05-28T09:09:00.003-05:00

1. Moral relativism is the greatest evil of our day. It leads to massive confusion, despair, suicide, and countless power struggles. It is like a colorless, odorless gas which has escaped into the atmosphere of our culture, which we have breathed in without knowing it. To pick just one example, our legal system has become overrun with power struggles over such things as whether evolution or creation, or both, can be taught in public schools. The ultimate legal “issue behind the issue” in these fierce debates, as every lawyer knows, is who gets to decide. The same can be said for abortion, euthanasia, etc.

2. No one can believe such things as “my ideas [about ultimate issues of faith] are just as good as your ideas,” “no one can tell me what to believe,” “all religious are just different paths to the same god,” and the like, and believe at the same time in the Christ who said: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) No one can believe in moral relativism and believe that “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Many other scriptures could be piled upon these.

3. The organized Christian church should speak out with one voice against this evil, and even call it what it is, a heresy. From time to time through history, the Church has been called upon to draw the lines that distinguish the true Gospel from various false teachings that assail it. This is one such false teaching, yet it has been adopted, albeit perhaps unconsciously, by many who claim to name the name of Christ in our society.

The Church needs to speak clearly and with one voice, and proclaim to all such people: If this is what you truly believe, then whatever else you may be, you are not a Christian.

[The above are some thoughts on Moral Relativism, arising out of reading the chapter in John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion on the doctrine of the Church, and the necessity for the people of God to hear the preaching of the Word as a congregation in order to avoid “lone ranger” Christians who by failing to attend such preaching fall into all kinds of error.]

Washington Wages War on We the People

2008-05-27T08:15:00.002-05:00

Now here is a presidential candidate I might actually vote for:

No, my friends. The real war is not a “war on terror.” The real war is a war against constitutional government, personal liberty, and national sovereignty. It is a war against the fundamental principles of America’s Founding Fathers, that America should be a friend and trader with all, but engaged in entangling alliances with none. It is a war against the Bill of Rights. It is a war against the Spirit of ‘76, the spirit that says America is a free and independent country, subservient to no international entity or interest. It is a war against the principle that would put America first. It is a war against the very heart and soul of everything this country has stood for ever since our patriot forebears stood on Lexington Green and Concord Bridge. And this war is not being waged from Baghdad or Tehran. It is being waged from Washington, D.C.

(Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, "Open Borders Prove War on Terror is Superficial"

True Faith Is:

2008-05-23T13:36:00.002-05:00

Many thanks to Ingrid at Slice of Laodicea for this wonderful definition of true faith:

“True faith is a cordial belief of the divine record concerning the admirable suitableness of Christ Jesus as a Savior to all the cases and wants of sinners . . .

Christ is altogether lovely, or exceedingly desirable, for He is exquisitely suitable. If we are by nature dead in sin, He is life; if we are lost sinners, He is the Savior; if we are sick, and sick unto death, He is the Physician; if we are the captives of sin and Satan, He is the almighty Redeemer; if we are under the power and tyranny of strong corruptions, or deceitful and imperious lusts that we are utterly unable of ourselves to conquer, He is the almighty King. Are we naked? Christ has a robe of righteousness to clothe us. Are we poor? He has gold tried in the fire to enrich us. Are we spiritually blind? He has eye-salve for us. Are we hungry and thirsty? He is the bread of life and the water of life. Are we prisoners? He says to the prisoners, “Go forth.” Are we ready to stray from the right path? He is a Leader and Commander. If we have been overcome and oppressed by our spiritual enemies, Christ is the Captain of our salvation who will teach our hands to war and our fingers to fight, and so lead us forth to victory. If we are by nature unholy, He is made unto us sanctification; and if we are disquieted and disconsolate, He is the Consolation of Israel. The Lord Jesus Christ and His great salvation, then, are every way adapted to the various cases and wants of our souls. As a compassionate Savior, He is suitable even in an infinite degree. None in heaven or upon earth, besides Him, can supply every want of our souls and save them with a complete and everlasting salvation. Now genuine faith is a spiritual discernment and an affecting belief of His infinite suitableness as a Savior to sinners, and to us in particular.”

–John Colquhoun, A View of Saving Faith, 1824

Amen!

We Fight For the Really Important Things

2008-05-21T09:31:00.003-05:00

"Clear-cut definition of terms in religious matters, bold facing of the logical implications of religious views, is by many persons regarded as an impious proceeding. May it not discourage contribution to mission boards? May it not hinder the progress of consolidation, and produce a poor showing in columns of Church statistics? But with such persons we cannot possibly bring ourselves to agree. Light may seem at times to be an impertinent intruder, but it is always beneficial in the end. The type of religion which rejoices in the pious sound of traditional phrases, regardless of their meanings, or shrinks from "controversial" matters, will never stand amid the shocks of life. In the sphere of religion, as in other spheres, the things about which men are agreed are apt to be the things that are least worth holding; the really important things are the things about which men will fight."

J. Gresham Machen, "Christianity and Liberalism"

Has This Guy Been to My Church?

2008-05-21T08:59:00.005-05:00

What follows is a quote from an article written by J. Gresham Machen in the Princeton Theological Review:

"It may well be doubted, however, whether the assertion, "I believe that Jesus is God," or the like, on the lips of liberal preachers, is strictly truthful. The liberal preacher attaches indeed a real meaning to the words, and that meaning is very dear to his heart. He really does believe that "Jesus is God." But the trouble is that he attaches to the words a different meaning from that which is attached to them by the simple-minded person to whom he is speaking. He offends, therefore, against the fundamental principle of truthfulness in language...if the audience is composed of old-fashioned Christians, who have never attached anything but the old meaning to the word God (the meaning which appears in the first verse of Genesis), then the language is untruthful. And in the latter case, not all the pious motives in the world will make the utterance right. Christian ethics do not abrogate common honesty; no possible desire of edifying the Church and of avoiding offence can excuse a lie."

This could have been written by Dr. Machen after a visit to my church.

He wrote these words in 1922.

Hug No Traitor To Thy Bosom

2008-05-19T10:14:00.003-05:00

Listen to the words of Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Christian leaders, so-called, who gut the Gospel of its meaning, and then turn around and ask us to tolerate them in "charity:"

They believe in Christ, but it is a Christ without his crown, his atonement, his judgment-seat, or even his Godhead. They mock us with orthodox phrases, from which the essential truth is gone. They pretend that they believe in the atonement, and when we listen to their atonement we find that it does not effectually atone for anyone. It is a mere fiction, and not a fact. It saves nobody, but is a mere sham.

They have eviscerated the gospel, and then they hold up the empty carcass, and claim that they are Christians still. Christians who have murdered Christianity! Believers who doubt whether there is anything to be believed! Yet we are entreated in our charity to hug such traitors to our bosom. We shall do nothing of the kind. We would sooner believe in infidels outright than in those who pretend to be Christians and are infidels at heart.

C.H. Spurgeon, "Recruits for King Jesus," a sermon preached at the Met Tab on Sunday evening, 17 February 1884.

(HT: Pyromaniacs)

Case Closed: "Salvation is of the Lord"

2008-05-16T11:10:00.002-05:00

If you think the gospel is, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life," then you need to see this.

In fact, everyone needs to see this:

Californians Worship the Law God

2008-05-16T10:11:00.000-05:00

It must be cool to be a judge on the California Supreme Court. All you have to do is write a bunch of stuff, and millions of citizens just do whatever you say.

It's amazing how Californians will bend over (oops -- poor choice of words) for almost anything. They'll go for just about anything as long as the person saying it is wearing a black robe. You'd think they were worshipping the Law God or something.

Forget worrying about all those Christians setting up a theocracy -- California as usual is way ahead of the curve.

They' ve already set up a judiciocracy out there

"Those Who Slay the Doctrines"

2008-05-14T09:00:00.004-05:00

As a word fitly spoken, I commend to you the following from the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

"Men fancy that their minds are their own, and that they may do what they will with them, thinking and believing as their conceit suggests. But who gave them a release from the authority of God as to this part of their nature? True, they are not bound by the opinions of their fellow-men; but does this give them a dispensation from the supremacy of God? There are revealed truths: have we license to receive or reject them at our pleasure? If we set up our own conceptions as equal or superior to the teachings of the Holy Spirit, are we justified in so doing? One would fancy from the talk of the wiseacres of the [current] period that God did not know his own mind when he wrote the Scriptures, or that, like the old almanac, divine revelation is out of date, and superseded by 'modern thought.'

Doctrinal laxity has led to moral license: professors now wander in ways which their sober forefathers would have shuddered at. They will soon be given over to return to the old idolatries of Rome, since they are growing weary of the grand truths of Protestantism. Falsehoods of belief are fitly followed by superstitions in ritual: those who slay the doctrines are not ashamed to mangle the ordinances. We wonder what next, and next!

O Lord, I am willing to be thought a simpleton for believing as reformers, confessors, and martyrs believed, and as thy word teaches. Do not allow me to be blind to thy truth, lest I stumble in my daily life, and become scandalous as well as heretical."

C.H. Spurgeon, "Flowers from a Puritan's Garden," (Sprinkle Publications, 1997) pp. 276-77.

Shocking Questions

2008-05-13T13:48:00.001-05:00

How many Christians do you know who could say, "The lifestyle I have chosen as a Christian would be utterly foolish and pitiable if there is no resurrection"? How many Christians are there who could say, "The suffering I have freely chosen to embrace for Christ would be a pitiable life if there is no resurrection"? As I see it these are shocking questions.

- John Piper

HT: Absolute Dominion

Johnny, We're Sorry We Knew Ye

2008-05-12T14:00:00.007-05:00

When John Armstrong tries to take on John Piper, it's a bit like watching a gnat try to swat an elephant. You just know the gnat is going to lose.

Here are a few of the lowlights:

"My frustration with Piper [Armstrong writes] is that he represents the “low” ecclesiology of evangelicalism and then argues that we should go back in our reading to old writers." [As opposed to my exalted “high ecclesiology of evangelicalism," whatever that means]

"But he goes back only to the Puritans [egad!], never even suggesting that the Fathers, both East and West, were vastly more important for the health of the Church today." [What “Fathers? Moe, Larry and Curley? What???]

"He [Piper] also argued that knowing God, the Scriptures and the truth were central to everything." [This was so shocking, so appalling to me personally that I was compelled to type it entirely in bold face!]

"While I completely agree with his arguments here they were almost entirely rooted in a foundationalist epistemology and a heavily propositional approach." [As opposed to the sacred and revered “chastened epistemology:"]

"It seemed to me that John was arguing for a Bible that was quite clear to all who read it and that by reading it well we can all know the truth." [Oh, the horror! The horror!!]

"I would argue that Noll was much closer to the Christian position when he said we know Jesus Christ as truth through the revelation of the Holy Scriptures. Piper, however, is surely to be commended for his passion for mission and the gospel." [Golly, thanks, Father, er, I mean Pastor, er, I mean, Dr. John!]

Piper: Truncated Theology of God=Truncated Lives

2008-05-11T08:42:00.005-05:00

"American Christianity is plagued by truncated views of all God’s attributes. And a truncated view of God will give raise to truncated Christian living and truncated awakenings. Therefore the awakening and revival that I pray for will be not just for the fullness of the Spirit’s power, but for the fullness of the Spirit’s illumination of God in the word."

And better yet:

"Nine percent of born again people (who say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus which is still important in their lives) have a biblical world view (absolutes exist, God is the all-knowing, all-powerful, Creator who still rules the universe; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life; Satan is a real, living entity; salvation is a free gift, not something we can earn; every Christian has a personal responsibility to evangelize; and the Bible is totally accurate in all it teaches). However, this group of people stand out with significantly different behavior from the worldly “born-againers” and “evangelicals.” Here is Sider’s [Ron Sider, "The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience" in Books and Culture] comment:

"Barna’s findings on the different behavior of Christians with a biblical worldview underline the importance of theology. Biblical orthodoxy does matter. One important way to end the scandal of contemporary Christian behavior is to work and pray fervently for the growth of orthodox theological belief in our churches” (Jan/Feb, p. 42)."

(HT: Between Two Worlds)

Spurgeon on Depressions of Spirit

2008-05-09T13:36:00.001-05:00

"I am the subject of depressions of spirit so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to, but I always get back again by this-I know I trust Christ. I have no reliance but in him, and if he falls I shall fall with him, but if he does not, I shall not. Because he lives, I shall live also, and I spring to my legs again and fight with my depressions of spirit and my down castings, and get the victory through it; and so may you do, and so you must, for there is no other way of escaping from it. In your most depressed seasons you are to get joy and peace through believing."

(HT: Pyromaniacs)