Commentary, analysis and opinion.

Protestant and Catholic: What’s the Difference?

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October 31st marks the 500th anniversary of the revolt against the abuses and totalitarian control of the Roman Catholic Church known as the Protestant Reformation. To help us understand why there still remains a very wide divide between Protestants and Catholics, pastor and best-selling author Kevin DeYoung lays out a few of the main points that cause the separation so that those who are unfamiliar with RCC theology will know why there still remains a wide divide, and never the twain shall meet. He writes:

Ask a serious Protestant today what is the biggest threat to orthodox Christianity today, and he might mention cultural hostilities, the sexual revolution, or nominalism in our churches. But if you would have asked a Protestant the same question a hundred years ago, he would have almost certainly mentioned the Roman Catholic Church. Until fairly recently, Protestants and Catholics in this country were, if not enemies, then certainly players on opposing teams.

Today, much of that animosity has melted away. And to a large extent, the thaw between Protestants and Catholics has been a good thing. Sincere Protestants and Catholics often find themselves to be co-belligerents, defending the unborn, upholding traditional marriage, and standing up for religious liberty. And in an age that discounts doctrine, evangelical Protestants often share more in common theologically with a devout Roman Catholic steeped in historic orthodoxy than they do with liberal members of their own denominations. I personally have benefited over the years from Catholic authors like G. K. Chesterton, Richard John Neuhaus, and Robert George.

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See our Research Paper on the Roman Catholic Church

Beth Moore Praises Brother Lawrence and Obscures the Reformation

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For those who are still in the dark regarding SBC darling Beth Moore’s slide into apostasy, six years ago the late Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries penned a piece to warn her many fans that she had become “iffy about Reformation theology.” As often happens, the video clip Ken used to prove his case has been removed from YouTube. so replacing it with a video produced by Emergent Watch Media was necessary:

September 4, 2011

The largely pretending to be Protestant evangelical community continues its pilgrimage back to the legalistic spiritual bondage of apostate Roman Catholicism and its evil author the Church of Rome.

As an online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries does what we can to document this woeful walk away from the truths recaptured during the Lord’s Reformation; how sad He must be.

Southern Baptist Bible teacher Beth Moore remains enormously popular within today’s anything goes evanjellyfish.

Not unlike charismatic prophet-pastors like PDL Pope Rick Warren, Moore is also an SBC figure receiving direct revelations from God.

The Slowly Becoming Catholic (SBC) is said to frown upon charismatic practices; but I guess they’re okay as long as someone isn’t a Calvinist, I mean we can’t have that. Like Warren, Moore’s teachings are peppered with things God “told me,” “spoke to my heart,” etc.

Interestingly enough, both of them are pretty iffy about Reformation theology, most specifically that the Roman Catholic Church teaches another gospel. This clip from Emergent Watch Media is from the Be Still DVD, which is an ode to the unbiblical practice of Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP).

You may remember that in Alabama Baptist Convention (SBC) Encourages You To Learn Lectio Divina From Apostate Tony Jones—yes, you read that right—I explained CCP, a form of transcendental meditation, is the crown jewel of the highly subjective Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM).

Under the guise of so-called Spiritual Formation this spurious CSM— a refried Roman Catholic mysticism—has been taught for years now within evangelicalism by Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster. As a matter of fact, Foster is featured prominently in Be Still.

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Will the world end on Saturday?

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Kimberly Winston has a few examples of prophetic speculation that the world would come to an end on a specific day. The latest speculation is September 23rd. Not mentioned in Winston’s piece is Calvary Chapel founder Chuck Smith’s prediction that the rapture would occur before the end of 1891….Hal Lindsay’s book “The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon“….John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann’s “The Jupiter Effect”.…Edgar Whisenant’s “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be In 1988”….John Hagee’s “Four Blood Moons” — all sheer speculation. Books such as these sell like hotcakes in the Christian community. Those who write these sorts of sensationalist books make a bundle off gullible Christians who buy them.  So – pay no attention to false prophet David Meade’s wild speculation that the “Planet Nibiru” will collide with the earth tomorrow, and just go about your business.

Now to Kimberly Winston’s piece over at USA Today :

Short answer — no.

But David Meade, a Christian and self-published author of end-of-the-world survival guides, predicts doomsday is near — very near, as in this Saturday.

Meade’s ideology, laid out in his book “Planet X — The 2017 Arrival,” is described by the author as “a compendium of information from every sphere—astronomical, scientific, the Book of Revelation and geopolitics.” There’s some astrology in there, too.

Meade is the latest in a very long line of American self-proclaimed prophets who claim they know when — sometimes to the hour — the biblically predicted “end times” will arrive. And while it’s fun to laugh at his belief that the “Planet Nibiru” will collide with the Earth this week, the failed prophesies of some of his predecessors have, at times, led to important religious movements or illuminating ways of thinking about faith. Let us explain:

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The Five Solas of the Protestant Deformation

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The church has “functionally replaced the Five Solas of the Reformation with pragmatic, and often idolatrous, solas of our own making,” says Bible study author, speaker and blogger Michelle Lesley. I’d venture to say that a large number of professing Protestants have no clue what the five solas are. Not only that, many Protestants are unclear what the Protestant Reformation was all about. Why, they wonder, does an event that happened 500 years ago matter today?

According to Michelle Lesley, the Protestant Reformation not only matters, it was a really big deal.  So she’s taken the time to fill us in on the events leading up to the schism from the apostate Roman Catholic Church that was sparked by a humble German monk….who changed the course of religious history. Lesley also reveals the Christian’s instructions for life and godliness. She writes:

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. October 31, 2017 will commemorate the date in 1517 when Martin Luther famously nailed his 95 theses – a list of grievances against the Catholic church for unbiblical doctrines and practices – to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Luther’s calls for reform spread quickly throughout Europe, inspiring the likes of church fathers Ulrich Zwingli (Zurich), John Calvin (Geneva), and John Knox (Scotland) to join the effort in their own locales. As they worked to address the issues raised in Luther’s document, these men codified what we know today as the “Five Solas of the Reformation,” the basis of Protestant church doctrine. The five solas are:

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See our Research Paper on Roman Catholicism

Bethel Once Again Makes Dr. Michael Brown Look Foolish

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As we’ve said many times, Dr. Brown has been criticized for his connection to and defense of Bethel mega-wolves [here] for quite sometime, and rightly so. To show just how bad Bethel has gotten, Anthony Wade of 8:28 Ministries blogged about Shawn Bolz, Bethel’s resident clairvoyant. We learn from Wade that while Bolz is on stage at speaking events, he uses his smart phone to “download” alleged “words of knowledge” about people in the audience (not making this up).  Dr. Brown is aware that Bolz has gone off the reservation, yet he continues to defend Bethel mega-wolves, which makes him look the fool.

Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” — 1Corinthians 15: 33 (ESV)

Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac is often given credit for the old adage that if you lay down with dogs, you’re going to get fleas. Perhaps the real genesis of this sentiment comes from the above biblical verse. This is not merely a proverb from Solomon about life principles. The Apostle Paul is teaching the new believers in Corinth about the dangers of associating yourself with false teachers. You can have all of the good intentions you want — God does not care about them. You can strive for good morals but who you line up with will direct your moral path more than your desires or intentions. This is why you do not lend your credibility to people who have not earned it and do not deserve it.

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Secularization Comes From Sex

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According to Gene Edward Veith of Patrick Henry College, sexual immorality is turning young people away from the Church for the reason that “cohabiting couples and sexually-active singles don’t feel comfortable in church.” Veith’s piece is posted over at Patheos, a site we don’t endorse.

“We overestimate how effectively scientific arguments secularize people. It’s not science that’s secularizing Americans — it’s sex.”

That is the conclusion of University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus in his article Christians are part of the same dating pool as everyone else. That’s bad for the church, in The Washington Post.  

His book “Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy” (Oxford, 2017), Regnerus discusses the changes in sexual attitudes and behavior over the last few decades and demonstrates their consequences in marriage, family, and culture.  This article looks specifically at the impact of what he calls “cheap sex” on the church, with which he is in sympathy.

Though Christians too are struggling with sexual issues, churches are still made up mostly of adults who are married.  But he observes, citing an interesting article about pornography, “Cheap sex, it seems, has a way of deadening religious impulses.”

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Spiritual Disciplines and the Appearance of Wisdom

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From Berean Research:

Photo credit: Living Simply In Abundance

Spiritual Formation ….Contemplative/Centering/ Apopathic/Breath Prayer….”Christian Yoga“….Enneagram (you’ll learn about this below) are terms Bible believing evangelicals must become familiar with. All of these practices have been introduced into mainstream evangelicalism. Where do they come from? You don’t have to dig very deep to discover that practices such as these are rooted in Eastern mysticism. In other words, neo-paganism. What’s concerning is that nearly everyone dabbles in some form of mysticism (occult knowledge). Even the Church is entrenched in “Christian” mysticism (much of it borrowed from Roman Catholicism) and they don’t even know it. However, many professing believers do know. They’ve heard the warnings and continue down the neo-pagan path that leads to death. Why? Because having to give up things we enjoy is hard!  And besides, God understands…. right?

But what if He doesn’t? What if He actually meant business when He commanded the Jews not to learn to follow the abominable ways of pagan nations (Deut 18:9).  Some of the pagan practices we’ve learned in the Church include yoga and Eastern-style meditation (altered states of consciousness), i.e. Contemplative Prayer.

What this boils down to is that the visible Church is teaming with biblically challenged Christians, those who rarely read and study the Bible.  So how can they possibly know what God says?  They can’t and they don’t. Paul has some advice for believers such as these: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling [accurately or correctly explaining] the word of truth.” (2 Tim 2:15) The word of truth is the Bible aka God’s Word.

Over at Midwest Christian Outreach, husband and wife team Don and Joy Venoit have written a piece that is chock full of information to help those who profess Christ make choices that will lead to a biblical worldview.  They write:

Writing to the Colossians in the First Century, the Apostle Paul warned about certain spiritual disciplines that had “the appearance of wisdom” (Colossians. 2:23) but, in fact, conflicted with sound biblical teaching and were very harmful to the Christian life. False teachers were in this case Gnostics, who crept into the church and claimed special “spiritual knowledge.” They gained influence in the church because what they were teaching felt “right” and “good” and oh so “spiritual” to the unwary, appealing as they did (and do) to the old fallen nature, which Christians still carry and must struggle against. False teachings of all types are guaranteed to appeal to our old sin nature. Gnosticism caused much damage to the early church, and quite a bit of the New Testament was written to dispel this egregious error.

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Proof That Dr. Michael Brown Has a Gullible Audience

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Steve Kozar has gone to the trouble of compiling a list to show Dr. Michael Brown’s followers that they’d better think twice before believing everything this man says. Brown’s fans must become Bereans: Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.(Acts 15:11)

Here’s one example from the list:

Brown often makes the claim that the bloggers who criticize him are anonymous people with no accountability, so they can be ignored. People like me, Steven Kozar. Or Amy Spreeman. Or Phil Johnson. Or Anthony Wade. Or Chris Rosebrough. Or Marsha West. Or Chris Rice… you know, “anonymous.”

In his piece over at Messed Up Church, Kozar has many more examples:

  • Brown claims that he is not a part of the New Apostolic Reformation, but the clear, obvious and overwhelming evidence says otherwise. (Read: Michael Brown: More Proof He’s Part of the (So-Called) New Apostolic Reformation)
  • Brown always tells people that he has no time to research any of the false teachers he associates with, but he claims to be a great scholar/expert who can be trusted because of all the important research he does and all the knowledge he has.
  • Brown claims that he has no time to research Benny Hinn, but he wrote an entire book that refuted “Strange Fire” by John MacArthur, which has tons of documentation of Benny Hinn’s false teaching. Did Brown not even read the book that he tried to refute? How can anyone actually fall for this?

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Advances in AI are used to spot signs of sexuality

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According to The Economist, “when asked to pick out the ten faces it was most confident about, nine of the chosen were in fact gay. If the goal is to pick a small number of people who are very likely to be gay out of a large group, the system appears able to do so.”

MODERN artificial intelligence is much feted. But its talents boil down to a superhuman ability to spot patterns in large volumes of data. Facebook has used this ability to produce maps of poor regions in unprecedented detail, with an AI system that has learned what human settlements look like from satellite pictures. Medical researchers have trained AI in smartphones to detect cancerous lesions; a Google system can make precise guesses about the year a photograph was taken, simply because it has seen more photos than a human could ever inspect, and has spotted patterns that no human could.

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Hillsong Gets Romantic With God, Commits Theoerosism

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Before we get to the Pulpit & Pen News piece, which includes a video, it’s important to note that Hillsong royalty, King Brian and Queen Bobbie, have absolutely no concept of the holiness of God. Because if the Houstons actually do understand who the God of the Bible is, they’d have put a stop to the release of “Where Are You.”  But they didn’t. Likewise, whoever came up with the “love song to God” couldn’t possibly grasp who our God is, as the words clearly suggest…words that don’t come close to glorifying Him.

Clearly, the song was inspired, not by the Holy Spirit, but by spiritual forces of wickedness.

Now to P&P’s piece:

Theoerosism is a heresy named from two words in Greek, θεός and ἔρως, meaning God and love. ἔρως, however, is often used to describe an erotic type of love, and so Theoerosism is mean to mean “erotic love for God.”

Although Theoerosism is not new in terms of world religion and was common place among the Greeks and other pagan traditions, Theoerosism is relatively new among purported Christians. Theoerosists view or speak of God in terms of sensuality or eroticism, and is contained historically to the 20th and 21st Century.

Theoerosism is popularized in much of sub-Christian media, in worship songs that speak of God romantically or in literature that discusses God with erotic styling.

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OUR GREAT GOD!

DC socialite worries the hexes she put on people might have killed them

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This is no joke. A highly regarded journalist and author believes three people are dead because she put a hex on them…and her friends have asked her to put a hex on President Trump. Fox News has the story:

A longtime Washington socialite is raising eyebrows with her new book on spirituality as she claims the hexes she put on three people in the past may have led to their deaths.

Sally Quinn – a journalist who was famously married to Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee – admits to being an Occultist in her new “spiritual memoir” titled Finding Magic.

Quinn says she feels guilty about her hexes and won’t do them anymore. She also says she refuses to cast a spell on President Trump as some of her friends have asked.

“Believe me, since Trump was elected, and since the election, I can’t tell you how many friends have asked me to put a hex on Donald Trump, and I won’t do it,” Quinn said in a book interview with USA Today. “I just said no. I don’t do that anymore.”

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Hillary’s Hysterically Orwellian Take On ‘1984’

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A blogger over at Fire Breathing Christian offers a glimpse into why the twice failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is a “laughably (and dangerously) confused, warped shell of a woman.”

As any of us who’ve listened to “Progressives” address Scripture know all too well, reading comprehension isn’t really “a thing” on the Left. For all the arrogant, snide, and prideful preening common to pseudo-intellectual Progressives, more often than not, the more they talk, the more they make plain that they don’t know much about what they’re talking about.

Which, of course, makes them quite entertaining to listen to at times, in a slow-motion trainwreck sort of way.

The latest reminder of this comes by way of Hillary’s new book, What Happened, in which she has what can (and should) be categorized as a hysterically Orwellian take on Orwell’s classic 1984.

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Do cults seem to care more about the Protestant Reformation than Christianity?

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From Churchwatch Central:

Ellen G. White, founder of the Seventh Day Adventist cult

At the beginning of this year, we made the claim that international cults will use the Protestant Reformation as a ‘sheepskin’ to mislead society into thinking they are Christian charities.

It has been an absolute tragedy to observe just how many Protestant Churches show little regard to their history, heritage or express any real interest in celebrating 500 years of the Protestant Reformation.

Instead – liberal cults and NAR cults (Hillsong, etc.) seem to care more about making a big deal about the Reformation in order to mislead people into thinking they are legitimate Christian organizations and groups.

Jordan Hall of Pulpit & Pen shared his concerns about another world-wide cult trying to give the impression they are legitimately part of the Christian Faith.

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Homosexuality, Gender Identity, and Other Sexual Immorality

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Bible study author, speaker and blogger Michelle Lesley has written a thought-provoking piece for Bible believing Christians (those who hold to the authority of Scripture) that lays out the biblical view of how we must respond to all the troubling sexual issues that are impacting the world and the Church. She writes:

Sexuality in Western culture is a mess. Within the last hundred years or so, we’ve devolved from a society that had, broadly speaking, a general understanding of, and compliance with, the Bible’s parameters for sex to today’s sexual mores that barely top short of child molestation and bestiality and permits – even encourages – nearly every other form of perversion.

It can be difficult to know how to approach these issues which have been suddenly thrust upon us, and with which the average person – Christian or not – has very little experience. How are Christians to think about, believe, and address these issues in our families, churches, and communities? Do we just go with the “live and let live” flow of modern society? No. As with every other issue in life, our thinking, our words, and our actions must be shaped by and in submission to the authority of Scripture. Not public opinion. Not political agendas. Not our own personal feelings, opinions, and experiences. Scripture.

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Charismatic Prophets Claim Hurricanes are ‘Latter Rain’ Predicted in Joel 2

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A solar eclipse…a hurricane…then a mighty move of God, declares the (false) prophet. What exactly will God do? Pulpit & Pen News has the story:

Pentecostals associated with the “First Wave” of the charismatic movement claim that their fraudulent faux-miracles and gobbledegook tongues are the “latter rain” prophesied in Joel 2. Many Christians are familiar with the prophecy of Joel 2 because it is cited by Peter on the Day of Pentecost during the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Jews. The portion of that prophecy cited in Peter’s sermon is in Acts 2:17-21 and cites Joel 2:28-32…

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. 30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 

Peter says that this prophecy had been fulfilled, saying in verse 16, “This is what was uttered by the prophet, Joel…”

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Defining Orthodoxy in Our Modern World

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Recently a manifesto was released by the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood known as the Nashville Statement (NS). The manifesto proclaims that traditional sexual morality is based on the clear teaching of Scripture, not on the whims of an ever changing culture.  Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a signatory to NS, declared that the statement was released by “Christians who believe that it is our responsibility to speak clearly to issues of gender and sex and sexuality and biblical morality in a time when these issues are commonly confused.”

Peter Jones, Executive Director of truthxchange, also signed NS. He believes the manifesto raises two crucial questions: 1. What is God-honoring sexuality? and 2. Who is truly Christian?

Dr. Jones tells us that Progressive Christians accuse evangelical orthodoxy of resisting the Spirit’s leading and clinging to the dogmas and traditions that, in their view (which is decidedly liberal), God is calling us to rethink and reform Christianity.  “For these ‘Christians'” says Jones, “’Evangelical orthodoxy’ is a heresy.”

Dr. Jones has no problem naming names and lists several progressive “Christians” who deny the authority of Scripture; moreover, they twist Scripture into a pretzel so that it fits a very “progressive” (liberal) agenda. Jones writes:

This is the oddest time for me to be writing a book that warns the church that the affirmation of homosexuality will lead many Evangelicals into liberalism. The recent Nashville Statement on Sexuality (made public August 25, 2017), has, oddly enough, provoked an embarrassment of riches for my research into the decline of evangelicalism.

The internet is rocking with responses of “Christians” denouncing with righteous anger the Scripture-honoring Nashville Statement. Written and endorsed by leading evangelical theologians (such as J. I. Packer and Al Mohler) this statement is dismissed by “Christian” movements as a hateful attack on people with variant sexual identities. So the Nashville Statement raises two crucial questions: 1. What is God-honoring sexuality? and 2. Who is truly Christian?

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See Berean Research’s White Paper on Progressive (Social Justice) “Christianity”

Dianne Feinstein Attacks Judicial Nominee’s Catholic Faith

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Clearly Senator Feinstein is aware that the Constitution prohibits a “religious test” for public office and yet she laid into a judicial nominee over her religious beliefs. Alexandra Desanctis of National Review has the story:

This afternoon, during a confirmation hearing for 7th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Amy Coney Barrett, Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein attacked the nominee for her Roman Catholic faith. Barrett is a law professor at the University of Notre Dame who has written about the role of religion in public life and delivered academic lectures to Christian legal groups. Drawing on some of these materials, Feinstein launched a thinly veiled attack on Barrett’s Catholic faith, asserting that her religious views will prevent her from judging fairly.

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‘I can’t find a solid church’

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Amy Spreeman of Berean Research shares some tips on finding a solid church. She writes:

I recently received an email that has become a common heart cry for those hungry sheep who are not being fed a solid diet of pure milk and meat of Scripture:

“I am finding it difficult to find a congregation in my area that is not filled with compromise. I currently attend a Vineyard church where the ministries have adopted programs and teachings of Rick Warren, Andy Stanley, and others. I want to leave without rocking the boat, but where do I go? I’ve visited other churches, but find doctrinal issues with them also. I have been saved for years, but only recently have learned to discern, thanks in part to your ministry. Please give me some guidance.”

When I get letters like these, I am so saddened that the visible church has taken a worldly, carnal direction. At the same time, I am encouraged that God is opening the eyes of His children who love Him and seek to learn in truth and spirit from those who rightly handle His Word.

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On Leonard Sweet: Connectness Or Correctness – Which Will It Be?

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This piece by Tamara Hartzell is posted over at Lighthouse Trails:

Photo credit: Apprising Ministries

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

Sadly, it has become quite obvious that the time has already come. Openly preferring the fables of man’s imagination to the doctrinal truth of God’s Word, today’s shifting Christianity is heaping to itself teachers to scratch its itching ears. People are choosing to be led in “a way that seemeth right unto a man” rather than in the way that is right unto God as set forth by God in the Word of God.

In Leonard Sweet’s 2009 book, So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church, which, sadly, is just as anti-truth, anti-God, anti-Christ as everything else that caters to today’s epidemic of itching ears, this “[r]enowned professor and theologian” —who has worked for “years as a mentor to pastors” and “is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences, state conventions, pastors’ schools, retreats” as well as “a consultant to many denominational leaders and agencies” —asks a question that effectively sums up the new way of thinking:

“What if we were to think connectness rather than correctness?”

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See our Research Paper on Spiritual Formation

New NAR group to keep your eyes on: The International Coalition of Prophets

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From Berean Research:

Holly Pivec of Spirit of Error alerts us to a new NAR coalition (NAR is keen on coalitions) professing believers mustn’t take part in. Not surprisingly, the group is asking those who join to pay an annual membership fee that ranges from $300 to $350 per prophet. Since this isn’t exactly chump change, it seems aspiring prophets will have to be prosperous.

Now to Holly’s piece:

The International Coalition of Apostolic Leaders is the world’s largest network of New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) apostles, with hundreds of members from many nations. When I was on their website recently, I noticed a link to a newly formed group, the International Coalition of Prophets.

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MacArthur and a response to racism

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The interview with Dr. MacArthur is posted over at The Cripplegate:

John MacArthur was recently on the radio in Los Angeles (the Frank Sontag Show) to discuss the Charlottesville attack, but it became a longer conversation on the roots of racism and the Christian’s response to culture-wide hatred. Here are some of the highlights of that twenty-minute conversation:

Sontag: John, how to do we respond as Evangelicals to racism?  

MacArthur: We need to understand the roots of this. The roots of this are really not political, they’re not even economic. They’re moral and have to do with the sinfulness of the human heart. The Devil is the murderer from the beginning. The first crime was a killing. That basically defines the Kingdom of Darkness. That defines the realm of Satan. Jesus even said to the leaders in Israel, “You are of your father, the Devil. You’re either a child of doubt or child of Satan.” Those are the only two possibilities. For those in the Kingdom of Darkness hatred, anger, hostility, harm, and even murder is just par for the course.

That’s why God has designed mitigation into the culture. That’s why God has given every human being a conscience so at least you start out with some form of internal restraint. That’s why God designed the family and the rod in the family so that children can be harnessed and can be taught even to some inflicted reasonable amount of pain to be socially contributing to the well-being of society. That’s why God has ordained the police and given them the sword because this solemn world is completely captive to hatred and hostility at the most vicious level.

Of course, it doesn’t matter where it comes from. It might have various political forms, whether it’s white supremacy, Black Lives Matter, or whatever other form of it. Whether it’s Kim Jong-un or ISIS. This is how the worst in this solemn world conduct themselves.

It must be denounced on every level, but it also has to be understood that the remedy is not a political one. We need to restrain it by strong laws that are enforced at the highest level with justice essentially demanded and meted out.

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Star Wars Novel Hints That Last Jedi Character Is LGBT

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Liam Nolan of CBR.com has the story:

Passages from Claudia Gray’s Leia: Princess of Alderaan novel imply that the Resistance’s Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo, played by Laura Dern in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, may be either bisexual or pansexual.

The hint that Holdo may not be straight comes during a conversation with Leia about the possibility of an interspecies relationship:

“A pair of pretty dark eyes.” Then Amilyn thought about that for a moment. “Or more than a pair, if you’re into Grans. Or Aqualish, or Talz. Or even – ”

“That’s all right! Leia said through laughter. “It’s just humanoid males for me.”

“Really? That feels so limiting.”

“Thank goodness it’s a big galaxy.”

Although the passage doesn’t explicitly state that Holdo is bisexual or pansexual, it notes she’s interested in more than just humanoid men. While there are many alien species in the Star Warsuniverse that are both humanoid and non-humanoid, some don’t fall into a strict gender binary. The insectoid Xi’Dec, for example, have more than 180 different sexes. Other species are hermaphroditic or have a third sex.

How Fashion Is Helping Megachurch Pastors Reach A New Demographic

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We’ll begin with a quote from a celebrity pastor:

“I don’t see myself as an influencer in fashion at all,” says [Chad] Veach. “I’ve been just really blessed to have guys that are close friends in the [fashion] industry.” Still, he acknowledges that dressing a certain way can provide a quick “in” with people who might otherwise write him off. “If I walk into a place and I’m wearing something that makes people go, ‘that’s a cool outfit,’ I am working with an advantage, rather than a disadvantage of like, ‘man, those are really whack sneakers.'”

Whitney Bauck of Fashionista tells us how “pastors” who are into fashion are winning back millennials who are leaving the Church in droves. According to Bauck, “there’s no doubt that fashion plays at least a supporting role” in bringing them back to what is considered a church these days.

Megachurch pastor Chad Veach

Hailey Baldwin considers “church wife” to be an aspirational look, according to her Twitter and her stylist’s Instagram.

If you mostly know Baldwin through social media, which features myriad images of the model wearing scanty lingerie or revealing dresses, that may seem incongruous. But if you know the churches she’s referencing — and the ministers that lead them — it’s less surprising.

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Victims of Bill Johnson’s SOZO Ministry speak out

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Amy Spreeman of Berean Research (BR) examines the dangerous inner healing and deliverance ministry known as SOZO. In an earlier piece, BR revealed that “SOZO prayer is the brain child of husband and wife team Bill (self-proclaimed modern-day apostle) and Beni  (New Age guru) Johnson, both of whom are pastors of the infamous Bethel Church in Redding CA.” Supposedly the SOZO ministry will help participants solve problems that are blocking their spiritual growth. But what those who take part in this are unaware of is that some of the techniques used are drawn from occult methodologies.

Now to the first installment of a series Amy’s doing on SOZO prayer:

Many churches are bringing a practice called SOZO into their ministry, at the peril of damaging the sheep and possibly shipwrecking their faith. SOZO Prayer is a technique based on psychology and used by so-called “inner healing ministries” sweeping churches today.

This psycho-spiritual deliverance and inner healing methodology is designed to exorcise demons from Christians. Not that a Christian can be possessed by demons, but that is one of many apostate teachings from the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR. (See, What your church needs to know about NAR.)

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