A House Divided

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , , , , ,

“What if such a war broke out today, as Dennis Prager imagines? For starters, and it is on their agenda, progressives would have to get rid of the Constitution and/or appoint six radical Supreme Court Justices. For Christians the response cannot be the war of the States but the war as conducted by Jesus and Paul.” 

(Peter Jones – truthxchange)  Respected Jewish commentator Dennis Prager has just made a stunningly bellicose judgment about American culture:

America is currently fighting its second Civil War…There will be unity only when the left vanquishes the right or the right vanquishes the left. Using the First Civil War analogy, American unity was achieved only after the South was vanquished and slavery was abolished. Continue reading →

I decided to not know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

2 I decided to not know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)

When I started this writing ministry I had completely different goals (i.e. motives) than what I have now. I was doing this as a career move. I approached it from that perspective, but it did not take very long at all for God to force the issue and take away all of that as most in what we know of as the ‘visible church’ would consider what we do here as borderline reprehensible. However, I find it interesting that many of these same people do not hesitate to come to us for prayer and counsel when they hit rock bottom and God leaves them without an escape from the fiery trial that has come upon them. View article →

Francis Chan Defends His Friendship With False Teachers

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , , , , ,

“What would it take for Chan to recognize Bill Johnson and others who spoke at The Send actively advance the thing Chan condemns? Yet Chan has preached that if you criticize these teachers, you are taking a sledgehammer to the house of God, and you will have to answer for that before God. He referenced 1 Corinthians 3:17 which says, “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” My friends, Bill Johnson’s “gospel” is anything but holy.” 

(Gabriel Hughes – The Midwestern Baptist)  Yesterday, Francis Chan responded to the harsh accusations that he has been aligning with heretics. A recent article published at The Cripplegate was entitled Farewell Francis. The author Jordan Standridge warned that Chan “is sharing the stage with false teachers who will spend eternity in Hell (Gal. 1:6-9).” He pleaded for Chan to repent and “come back to your first love!” Continue reading →

Media Silence Surrounds Muslim Massacre of Christians

Posted by ∙ ∙ In News ∙ , , ,

“The New York Times did not place this story on the front page; in fact, they did not cover it at all. Apparently, when assessing “all the news that’s fit to print,” the massacre of African Christians did not measure up. The same can be said for the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Detroit Free Press, the LA Times, and every other major paper in the United States.”

(Thomas D. Williams – Breitbart)  Political leaders and public figures were falling over themselves this weekend to condemn the mosque attacks in New Zealand, while dozens of Christians were slaughtered by Muslims in Nigeria to the sound of crickets. Continue reading →

LGBTQ+ Audit simply will not do

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , , ,

“Living Out states on their website that the audit is directed to the LGBTQ+ same-sex attracted community. Since Living Out believes that one’s sexual orientation is from one’s birth (more about this in my comments on statement numbers seven and ten) then clearly they believe that to live as a celibate homosexual, attracted to people of one’s same sex, but not acting upon one’s desires, is a sacrifice of Christian holiness.” 

(Al Baker – Banner of Truth)  It goes without saying that we must have compassion for all who are outside of union with Christ, including the homosexual. I think you know that I have ministered extensively in the past to the homosexual community, seeking lovingly to make known to them the hope that we all have in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and the transforming power of the gospel in our personal lives. We must be open to all kinds of people coming to our churches. Continue reading →

Christian Meditation

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

8 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Joshua 1:8 (NASB) 

To most believers the word “meditation” smacks of Eastern Mysticism or some sort of New Age mumbo jumbo. However, God calls for His people to not only pray and read His Word, but also to meditate on it day and night. There is the right way to do this, which is God’s way, as well as the wrong way, which is the way the false religions teach their adherents. Let’s look at God’s way. View article →

Who Was Saint Patrick and Should Christians Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , ,

“What casts a far greater shadow than his monument, however, is St. Patrick’s Day. And that day in the middle of March raises a significant question: Should Christians celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? If you do, you might want to consider wearing orange. Orange?” 

(Stephen Nichols – Ligonier Ministries) When it comes to Saint Patrick, the true story is even more exciting than the legend and the myth. The facts are far better than the fable. This day that belongs to St. Patrick has become about leprechauns, shamrocks, pots of gold, and green—green everywhere. … Continue reading →

Discernment, divisiveness, unity, and proof of salvation

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

1 Therefore, since there is encouragement in Christ, consolation of love, fellowship of the Spirit, affection, and compassions, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, the same love, as ones joined in soul and of one mind. (Philippians 2:1-2 translated from the NA28 Greek text)

The exercise of true discernment is not divisiveness regardless of that very charge by those who like to throw around the label “hater” against those who obey God by revealing the truth about their ministries to the Body of Christ. In fact, those who are being divisive are the very ones who are corrupting the truth through their false teachings, leading people astray and by not leading people to become God-focused in their life and worship rather than self-focused. Yes, that is truly divisive and their exposure to the discerning by those being obedient to God is both painful and necessary. Continue reading →

Killing Worship: The Experience (Part 1)

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , ,

“As I was trying to figure out what he meant by this, all of the sudden, the lights went out, and the pastor had an imaginary conversation with God. God’s voice came out of the speakers and the pastor, pretending to be Abraham, had a real life imaginary conversation with God.”

(Christopher Gordon – Abounding Grace)  Years ago I was challenged by a churchgoer that I have no right to critique another church’s worship unless I have personally attended and witnessed for myself what is happening. I took this challenge and visited the local evangelical church in which thousands from the community were attending. The church adopted the Saddleback model of worship that still is, to this day, the common practice of many churches in the United States. Continue reading →

14 Media Outlets Spread Hoax About Trump Calling for Violence During Breitbart News Interview

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , ,

“I don’t care how many times you read that, there is nothing there — not a word, not a peep, not anything that has anything to do with violence of any kind…”

(John Nolte – Breitbart)  The establishment media are deliberately spreading fake news about President Trump, saying he called for violence during his interview with Breitbart News.

Outside of the usual-usual fake news to damage Trump and to distract from their failing Russia Collusion Hoax, the media’s propaganda effort here is to make Trump pay a political price for daring to sit down with an alternative news outlet like Breitbart News and to warn other politicians not to violate the rules about who is “supposed” to be allowed to hold high-profile interviews. Continue reading →

Drag queen storytime reader once charged with child sex assault

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , , ,

This drag queen calls himself “Annie Christ.”

“In our review of our process and of this participant, we discovered that we failed to complete a background check as required by our own guidelines.” 

(ABC13 News)  Houston Public Library is apologizing after a man charged for sexually assaulting a child was allowed to entertain children at Drag Queen storytime.

The library said Friday that a review revealed the volunteer never completed a background check before he was allowed to participate in the program. Continue reading →

Why We Shouldn’t Assume Catholics are Christians

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , ,

“Even if a Catholic is truly born again, if they refuse to leave their false church, we must treat them as though they are not. By their own profession, confession, and expression of faith, they continue in sin by practicing idolatry and rejecting Christ.”

(Jeff Maples – Reformation Charlotte)  Historically, Roman Catholicism has been considered by Protestants and Evangelicals to be an expression of faith that distorts the Biblical gospel of Jesus Christ. While Protestants hold to a soteriological belief of “grace alone through faith alone,” in contrast, Roman Catholics hold to a sacerdotal view of salvation by faith plus works whereby grace is dispensed through the Church by the intervention of a Sacerdote (priest). … Continue reading →

Preaching for Doctrinal Discernment

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , , ,

I want to challenge the notion that our pursuit of clarity in preaching for the average hearer, absent rhetorical flourishes that emphasize our being well-learned, equates to emptying our teaching of doctrinal terminology and intellectual rigor. Rather, I want to argue that it is pastorally imperative that we encourage our hearers to think hard and well. We must teach them doctrinal and biblical terminology that is largely foreign to the average person’s vocabulary.

(Chad Vegas – Founders Ministry)  For nearly twenty years of ministry I have heard Mark Twain’s words ringing in my ear, “Don’t use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.” This has become like proverbial wisdom in preaching books, courses, and conferences. There is a certain admirable pastoral concern behind this phrase. … Continue reading →

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals Invites Pastor Who ‘Loves the Darkness’ to Speak at Reformed Conference

Posted by ∙ ∙ In News ∙ , , ,

“In August 2017, Thorn appeared on a podcast that was later entitled “Joe Thorn Loves the Darkness” as he was asked about his various interests, which included horror films, cigars, bourbon and heavy metal music—including “melodic death metal,” noting that “95 percent” of his listening is heavy metal music.”

(Heather Clark – Christian News Network)  In a move that some would say is counter to its mission of “calling the church … to repent of its worldliness,” The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals has invited an unorthodox pastor and podcaster who espouses a love for all things dark—from horror movies to death metal to dark fiction—and whose “Pastors in Cars Smoking Cigars” series and other videos reflect his love and promotion of cigars, bourbon and tattoos, to speak on justification and the Christian life at its upcoming Reformed theology conference. Continue reading →

Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

4 Adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world, is made an enemy of God. James 4:4 (translated from the NA28 Greek Text) 

The Seeker-Sensitive and Purpose-Driven paradigms are rooted in a form of Pelagianism. Of course, the theology I grew up with as a Southern Baptist in the 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, et cetera was somewhere between semi-Pelagianism and Arminianism. The Social Justice paradigm that is causing so much division in the visible church in our time as “Woke Theology” is actually based in Cultural Marxism not the Word of God. In each of these forms of theology, man is at the center. God has done all he can do to create the possibility of salvation, but it is up to man to exercise his autonomous free will in order to be saved. …  View article →

Why God Hates The Occult…

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , , ,

“The Occult is the breaking of the first two of the ten commandments of God, for we are to have “no other God’s before ” Him, and we are not to fashion out of our Imagination, how we choose to see who God is.”

(Bill Randles)  When God set up a theocracy, He very strictly warned and threatened against any who would ever touch the occult. There was a death penalty for those who participated in any form of the dark practices of the pagans.

The various occult practices were considered to be abominable to the LORD, and so also were the practitioners. Both the sin and the sinner were and are considered utterly detestable to the Holy God. … Continue reading →

Google Exec Finally Admits to Congress That They’re Tracking Us Even with ‘Location’ Turned Off

Posted by ∙ ∙ In News ∙ , ,

“On Tuesday, Hawley and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced legislation aimed at reining in tech companies that are tracking children online. The bill would update the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) to prohibit companies from tracking the location of children under the age of 13 without parental consent and require that consent be obtained from users ages 13 to 15.”

(Paula Bolyard – PJ Media)  A Google executive admitted during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday that Google tracks users’ phones  — even when their location history is turned off. Continue reading →

What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

28 Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” John 6:28 (NASB)

Genuine Christians will be very interested in getting the answer to the question posed to Jesus from John 6:28. If a professing Christian is not interested in that answer then there’s a problem. On the other hand, there are many professing Christians who have answered that question without reading Jesus’ response to it. Instead, they have jumped head foremost into “religious” work that they believe pleases God and is earning them bonus points in eternity. Their “works” may look good to most people, but are they what Jesus tells us are the genuine works of God? Let’s look at this passage in context. View article →

The Rebirth of Socialism

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , ,

“Democratic Socialists” believe radical change can come from peaceful political action, like voting.  But the harder core Marxist socialists believe that radical change can only be implemented by violent revolution.  Can we expect Marxist terrorism, along the same lines as Islamist terrorism?  Let’s hope not, but it could happen.

(Gene Veith – Patheos)  With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, people were saying that socialism had been “consigned to the dust bin of history.”  Free market capitalism and liberal democracy were so ascendant that people were talking about the “end of history,” in the sense that the wars and ideological conflicts that make up so much of history were over with. Continue reading →

Cardinal George Pell sentenced to 6 years in prison for child sex abuse

Posted by ∙ ∙ In News ∙ , , ,

“There is no evidence of your remorse or contrition,” Chief Judge Peter Kidd said in court.

(Doha Madani – Associated Press)  The most senior Catholic cleric ever to be convicted of child sex abuse was sentenced to six years in prison in Australia on Wednesday morning.

Cardinal George Pell, 77, faced as many as 50 years in prison after being convicted in December for the molestation of two choir boys while he was the archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s. Pell must serve a minimum of three years and eight months before he is eligible for parole. Continue reading →

Jesus was angry?

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days. 13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; 16 and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” John 2:12-16 (NASB) 

Some today have made a caricature of our Lord Jesus Christ. This man-made image is far from the truth we see in Sacred Scripture. There have been some who have even portrayed the Bible as revealing two separate “Gods,” the mean, angry God of the Old Testament, and the kind, gentle Jesus of the New Testament. The former is an image contrived by those who resent God’s commands for holiness and righteousness while the latter is vastly incomplete and derived by those who are either ignorant of what the New Testament teaches about our Lord or they are deliberately ignoring what it says. View article →

Farewell Francis

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , ,

“I think it is time to say that Francis has shifted so far that he has embraced false teachers and has disqualified himself from the benefit of the doubt. That does not mean that he is a false teacher, nor that he is beyond repentance. But it does mean that, as for me and my house, we will not only not recommend Francis Chan as a trusted resource, but I also encourage you to stay away from him.”  

(Jordan Standridge – The Cripplegate)  I’ll never forget the first time I heard Francis Chan speak. 

I was at a big music conference in California feeling really discouraged. The music was man-centered, the teaching was problematic, to say the least; it just really seemed like no one was there to exalt the Savior. It seemed to all be about money and fame. And then something happened. In between bands, a preacher came forward. …  Continue reading →

Global warming a ‘fear campaign’ by scientists ‘hooked on government grants,’ Greenpeace founder says

Posted by ∙ ∙ In News ∙ , , ,

“[M]ost of what these so-called scientists are doing is simply producing more fear so that politicians can use it to control people’s minds and get their votes because some of the people are convinced, ‘Oh, this politician can save my kid from certain doom.’”

(Calvin Freiburger – LifeSiteNews)  Conservatives have long argued that anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is a politically motivated distortion of climate science. Now that argument is being bolstered by an unexpected source: the co-founder of the leading environmental organization Greenpeace. Continue reading →