Mike Bickle Admits Catholic Contemplative Influence on IHOP-KC

John Lanagan of My Word Like Fire reports:

From the Office of Public Relations, Franciscan University of Steubenville, 11/9/12:

“The International House of Prayer (IHOP) was founded in 1999 by Mike Bickle, who says that many IHOP teachings draw upon the works of St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, as well as contemporary Catholics including Father Henri Nouwen and Father Thomas Dubay, SM. The IHOP 24 hour prayer room, he says, was inspired by the spiritual practices of Catholic European monks, such as St. Bernard of Clairvaux. ‘I’ve always had a passion for Catholic-Christian unity, and enthusiastically welcome this years Catholic track,’ says Bickle. ‘We may have different religious traditions, but we focus on fellowship, and unity and Jesus being glorified in prayer, worship, and teaching.’”

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Evangelist Blames Religious Leaders’ ‘Godless Government Gospel’ for Obama Presidency

Christian News Network shares the thoughts of Evangelist Michael Marcavage of Repent America on this most recent presidential election. According to this article, Marcavage believes that President Obama was re-elected due to “prominent evangelical leaders who demand morality in and by the government apart from the moral Lawgiver.” View article →

The Trouble with TBN

Amid all the scandals besieging the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) in recent years, Christianity Today wonders if mainstream ministries such as Billy and Franklin Graham, Charles Stanley and the late Adrian Rogers, whose shows appear on TBN, should seek reform or pull their programming. View article →

James MacDonald: Prosperity Preacher T.D. Jakes’ “Views On Money” Closer To Scripture Than That Of “Reformed World”

Apprising Ministries walks you back through the evidence shedding new light upon why MacDonald so adamantly defended his decision to mainstream T.D. Jakes.

You’ll also see why it is that guys like James MacDonald and Mark Driscoll would be anxious to embrace Seeker Driven and Word Faith multi-site megachurch pastors like Rick Warren and T.D. Jakes.

It’s not about theology. View article →

Parapastrix

Apprising Ministries defines for you a growing menace that will eventually take the mainstream of the church visible onto the broad path of the mortally wounded mainline denominations. View article →

Gary Gilley: The Cost Of Discipleship By Dietrich Bonhoffer

 

By Gary Gilley, Southern View Chapel

Bonhoeffer, who died because of his principles in a Germany concentration camp in 1945, is one of the most frequently quoted individuals by evangelical leaders. This has always surprised me given the fact that Bonhoeffer was a Christian humanist with neo-orthodox leanings.

Nevertheless, I decided to read for myself this, his most well known book. Bonhoeffer’s greatest contribution to the Christian community is his teachings on what he calls “cheap grace.” “Cheap grace,” he writes, “means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner” (p.46).

In a statement that would strike a great blow against easy-believism of our day he says, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate” (p.47). To these thoughts, and the theology behind them, we say a hardy “amen.”

On the other hand, in addition to his humanistic and neo-orthodox tendencies mentioned above, The Cost of Discipleship clearly revealed other major problems. Most disturbing of which is his belief concerning sacramental regeneration.

Bonhoeffer takes the traditional Lutheran view that grace is dispensed through the sacraments of baptism (most often infant baptism) (pp. 254-262) and the Lord’s supper (pp. 263-276). In other words, it is through these means that one is born again.

Additionally he believes that a true Christian can lose his salvation (p. 329). These are grave errors that must be factored into any understanding of Bonhoeffer’s teachings. While Bonhoeffer supplies some thoughts worth considering, his false teachings are too many and too real to ignore.

TRUTH ABOUT DIETRICH BONHOEFFER : Apprising Ministries

Ken Silva published Dr. Gary Gilley’s article with his permission, October 11, 2012.

Culture Warts or Faithful Servants, Part 2

Peter Jones, Director of truthXchange, continues his series. In the first installment, Dr. Jones examined the reasons young people reject being called “Christian.” In this latest article, he addresses the massive change Western culture is experiencing as a result of what he labels “orgiastic sexuality and occult spirituality.” The two thinkers he holds responsible for the cultural chaos are Carl Jung, the psychologist, and Mircea Eliade the scholar. View article →

Scalia Says Abortion, Gay Rights Are Easy Cases

Justice Antonin Scalia is on a book tour. Recently he told hundreds of people who came to buy his book and hear him speak that he is a “textualist” which means he applies the words in the Constitution as they were understood by the framers. For him, the hotly disputed cases that come before the court are some of the easiest to resolve:

The death penalty? Give me a break. It’s easy. Abortion? Absolutely easy. Nobody ever thought the Constitution prevented restrictions on abortion. Homosexual sodomy? Come on. For 200 years, it was criminal in every state.

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Is It Okay for a Christian to Vote for a Mormon?

With the American presidential election still over a month away, many Christians find themselves conflicted as to how they can or ought to vote. The question on many believers’ minds is: Is it okay for a Christian to vote for a Mormon? Seeking to present differing opinions on this topic, CRN already has shared articles that may answer this question in the negative. Here, Dr. John MacArthur offers a contrasting view and his input on the issue. View article →

The Campaign for Immorality

Pastor and Bible expositor John MacArthur recently lamented the fact that the Democrat party has adopted the sins of Romans 1 as their platform. Though MacArthur typically refrains from preaching politics, in this election season it seems that “politicians have stepped—overstepped—into spiritual and moral areas, promoting horrific wickedness and blasphemous immorality.” God’s Word is neither silent nor ambiguous about these things. View article →

The Great Need for Pastors to Address Gay Marriage

Joseph Backholm, executive director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington, points out that 39 percent of Protestants support same-sex marriage, and this puts them on the wrong side of the debate. “For a Christian,” says Backholm, “the inability to get this question right brings into serious question the ability to get anything right, biblically speaking. You can’t do calculus if you don’t know how to add or subtract.” He believes the job of church leadership is to train the church to think biblically about everything. View article →

Profane Preachers Contribute to Killing the Conscience

Marsha West addresses the use of profanity and crude examples some pastors employ to drive home a theological point. She begins:

There seems to be a growing trend in the Church for the clergy to feed the sensual appetite through their sermons. What we are dealing with are pastors who have dirty minds and potty mouths. The word that best describes them is profane.

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A Lesson From the Lakeland Revival

Tim Challies reports on Lakeland: The Movie, a documentary about Todd Bentley and the Lakeland Revival. During the so-called revival it was alleged that great manifestations of the work of the Holy Spirit were occuring. Bentley and his crew claimed that the sick were getting healed and around 30 people were raised from the dead, but not a single miracle could be verified.

This documentary,” said Challies, “made me both angry and sad. I was outraged to see Bentley’s complete disregard for Scripture, his disregard for what the Bible tells us about the miraculous gifts, about maintaining good order in services, about so much else. What made me sad were the many looks at the people who had followed Bentley. There were many people, well-intentioned, I am sure, who gave up everything they had to follow him.” View article →