Sanctification is the triumph of grace over the power of sin

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Romans 6:1-2 (NASB) 

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? Romans 6:15-16 (NASB) 

As I stated in yesterday’s post, if the Gospel is preached correctly, that is, with justification by faith alone being central with absolutely no merit or work by the believer having any bearing on it, then the two rhetorical questions Paul raised in the two passages above should be on the forefront of the minds of all hearing it. Justification by faith as a gift from God, not by our doing in any part (Ephesians 2:8,9) leaves us open bare before God. We have no religiosity to hide behind. We have no steps to perform. We have no decisional thing we can perform that we can point back to that is our lynchpin that we can claim as “our decision for Christ.” No, Justification as Paul preached it is foreign to all of that. So, from where does all that come? It comes from people confusing justification with sanctification. View article →

Turnstile Churchianity

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ ,

What is the evidence that God is blessing a church? Is it the size of the crowd, the total amount of people who have an emotional response to an emotional appeal and a large number of baptisms? In this piece over at Pulpit & Pen, Michael Hall addresses the downgrade caused by the Purpose Driven Church and Life agenda. He writes:

I can’t remember when I last went to a baseball game.  I love sports and always enjoyed a day at the ballpark, except for the overpriced concessions.  As you would walk up to the ticket taker at the turnstile there was usually someone there with one of those handheld clickers that they used to count how many people came through the gates.  I always thought it was redundant but maybe it was their backup system.  But their desire behind was to get as accurate a count as possible for their attendance records.  The numbers are what mattered.

The seeker-driven church is no different.

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US Ends Funding for UN Population Fund Over Complicity in Chinese Forced Abortions

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According to Christian News:

The Trump administration has ended government funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) over concerns about its complicity in China’s one-child/two-child policy—an accusation that the organization denies.

According to reports, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker received a letter this week from the U.S. State Department advising him of the development.

“This determination was made based on the fact that China’s family planning policies still involve the use of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization, and UNFPA partners on family planning activities with the Chinese government agency responsible for these coercive policies,” the letter read.

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Transgender Ideology Defeated in North Carolina ‘Bathroom’ Debate

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Breitbart reports:

The National Collegiate Athletic Association will end its economic boycott against North Carolina, handing a huge strategic defeat to the gay and transgender groups which are seeking to erase single-sex bathrooms and other useful legal and civic distinctions between men and women, girls and boys.

The win, announced April 4, came when the NCAA’s university leaders “reluctantly voted” to end its boycott of the state, which began when the North Carolina legislature passed a law in March 2016 which reaffirmed the long-standing practice of keeping separate public bathrooms for men and women. Last week, the state legislature eliminated the 2016 law but passed a new law, HB142, which preserves the legality of single-sex bathrooms and shower rooms.

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Justification and the imputation of righteousness

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Romans 5:6-11 (NASB) 

Much of the apostasy we are witnessing in our time is rooted in a history of generations of ministries in which preachers, because they feared men more than God, preached in such a way that they talked about God or they talked about His Word rather than actually preaching what God’s Word says. In this, they have created their own “god” in their own image who is inoffensive, all love, all grace, and just wants everyone to have a great day. The only ones this “god” ever gets peeved at are those guys who are serious about their theology and preaching what God’s Word says as if it is to be obeyed and believed. God’s truth is eternal. It is the truth regardless of whether these people believe it or not. View article →

Joyce Meyer’s ‘Have a Great Day’ Theology: Book Review

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Lisa Leavens of Soldiers 4 Truth has written a review of (adept Scripture twister) Joyce Meyer’s new book “20 Ways to Make Every Day Better.” Leavens’ take on the book is that it provides 20 ways to distract us from spending time in our bibles. Here’s her review of Meyer’s book:

If just reading the Bible isn’t giving you the peace and happiness you desire, worry no more! Joyce Meyer claims that with her new book, you will “experience a new level of joy, contentment, and excitement about your life.” 20 Ways to Make Every Day Better will hit store bookshelves on April 4th and there is a sample available on JoyceMeyer.org that includes the introduction and the first two chapters. However, if the sample is any indication of what we can expect from the rest of the book, I’m willing to bet that it is full of twisted scriptures and total nonsense from beginning to end.

Joyce starts out her introduction talking about the problem with bad days saying, “I don’t believe for one moment that you have to go through life held hostage by your circumstances.” Then later in the same paragraph she says, “Your hope and happiness is not dependent on the world,” along with a bible passage, “He Who lives in you is greater (mightier) than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). The problem with her use of this passage is that 1 John is not talking about a bad day or our happiness, but it is talking about false teachers, which I find to be both interesting and ironic.

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Rice ‘Unmasking’ of Trump Associates Could Mean Legal Jeopardy

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Experts say top Obama adviser engaged in ‘fishing expedition’ on incoming administration officials. Brendan Kirby of LifeZette has the story:

Steps reportedly taken by former National Security Adviser Susan Rice to “unmask” names of associates of President Donald Trump before he took office could put her in legal jeopardy, according to legal and national security experts.

Bloomberg on Monday cited two unnamed sources who said Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the National Security Council’s senior director for intelligence, discovered in February that Rice made multiple requests to learn the names of Americans whose names had been disguised in surveillance reports related to Trump’s transition.

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Trump Administration Considers Far-Reaching Steps for ‘Extreme Vetting’

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According to Laura Meckler of the Wallstreet Journal it’s going to get a whole lot tougher for a foreigner to enter the U.S. The Trump administration’s “extreme vetting” measures could even apply to France and Germany. Meckler writes:

Foreigners who want to visit the U.S., even for a short trip, could be forced to disclose contacts on their mobile phones, social-media passwords and financial records, and to answer probing questions about their ideology, according to Trump administration officials conducting a review of vetting procedures.

The administration also wants to subject more visa applicants to intense security reviews and have embassies spend more time interviewing each applicant. The changes could apply to people from all over the world, including allies like France and Germany.

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Justification and the blessings of righteousness

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

22 Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness. 23 Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, 24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. Romans 4:22-25 (NASB) 

We have completed Paul’s case that God justifies sinners on the basis of faith alone. In the passage above (Romans 4:22-25) we have his concluding remarks to that part of his dissertation. He has made it clear that those truly in Christ did not get there according to merit or works, but on the basis of faith alone, but now we begin the section of Romans that if not taken in context can cause much confusion. I will not move quickly through it. I have found it amazing to study God’s Word in context as we are doing and come across a passage that has been used by “proof texters” to teach a pet theology, but when kept in its proper context, it does no such thing. Carefully read again the passage I placed at the top of this post then read the passage below because, as you will see, it begins with the word “therefore.”  View article →

Shocking News: Steven Furtick Goes Full-On Prosperity

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , ,

Jeff Maples of Pulpit & Pen shares what’s going on with prophet-pastor Steven Furtick:

If it isn’t enough that Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation, the multi-campus megachurch in Charlotte, NC is a habitual twister of the Scriptures for the purpose of self-promotion and egotistical gain, it’s now abundantly clear that he’s gone full-on Prosperity Gospel.

The Prosperity Gospel is a false gospel that teaches that God promises to all believers who have “enough faith” a long life of good health and extraordinary wealth. Never mind that the proponents of this false gospel are regularly afflicted with various calamities, including death. Recently, Eddie Long, one of the most notorious proponents of the distorted gospel of health and wealth died after a long battle with cancer. Then you have others, like Jan Crouch, who died unexpectedly. Perhaps their faith failed them? Perhaps they did not ask therefore they did not receive?

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Three Reasons God is a Cessationist

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Jordan Standrich has some thoughts on cessationism vs. continuationism to help us think through this challenging topic. “An important part of cessationism,” says Standridge “is God Himself and what He has done in history.”

In this piece over at The Cripplegate, Standrich offers three reasons to bolster his argument that God is a cessationist and not a continuationist. He writes:

Lord I believe that Jordan will play in the NBA! No! I declare Jordan will play in the NBA!

That was a sentence that a guy prayed over me as we were leaving a basketball camp I attended in high school. He said that sentence as he alternated between speaking in tongues and speaking in English. I wanted to say, “have you not seen me play this whole week? I’ll be lucky to start on my high school team this year!” That was the first time I was exposed to the modern version of the gift tongues. Over the years I’ve had a chance to attend quite a few pentecostal churches and events but it wasn’t until I got to seminary that I really started gaining interest in Charismatic theology.

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Research: New Apostolic Reformation

 

Bayer Unleashes Army Of Re-Educated Farmers From GMO Training Program

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And you thought Bayer was in the pain killing business. According to NaturalBlaze:

Set to become the world’s largest seed technology company, if it is successful in acquiring Monsanto – Bayer’s Adrian Percy, a global head of Research and Development with Bayer, has publicly bemoaned the fact that consumers in Europe are staunchly resisting genetic engineering and even stated that he believes that the battle over GMOs in Europe is over.

“To be honest,” he said. “I think that battle is probably lost.”

Percy says that countries like France and Germany are simply not going to budge when it comes to GMOs and that there is no point in fighting it. But that doesn’t mean that Percy, Monsanto or Bayer are actually giving up. In fact, they’re simply gearing up for a new fight, this time, with more “educated” “scientists,” “farmers” and “consumers.”

The company is planning to push for a new form of genetic engineering known as gene editing. And this time, the corporation wants consumers pacified before the fight even starts.

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Justification and Abraham’s example

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. 31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law. Romans 3:27-31 (NASB) 

In our last post we ended with the passage above in which Paul makes it very clear that genuine salvation is by the law of faith not by a law of works. In v28 he says, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” Justification is by faith alone and does not depend at all on doing any works of the law. In vv29,30 he tells us that since God is the Lord of all, whether Jews or Gentiles, there can only be one way of justification, which is by faith alone. What does it mean that believers uphold the law rather than overthrow it by our faith? Justification by faith alone does not denigrate the law, but, instead, underscores its true importance by providing a payment for the penalty of death, which the law required for failing to keep it; by fulfilling the law’s original purpose, which is to serve as a tutor to show mankind’s utter inability to obey God’s righteous demands and to drive people to Christ (Galatians 3:24); and by giving believers the capacity to obey it (Romans 8:3,4). Then Paul moves into the obvious objection to these arguments by using the Old Testament Patriarch Abraham whom God declared righteous in Genesis 15:6. View article →

You Might Be a Pharisee If . . .

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ ,

Those of us who are involved in online discernment ministries (ODM) regularly take on Scripture twisters and outright heretics.  Professing Christians who’ve fallen into false teaching come back at us with “take the log out of your own eye,” as if bringing truth to light means we’re judging. ODM’s have been labeled “Heresy Hunter,” “Legalist,” “Pharisee” and we’re charged with “quenching the Holy Spirit” for doing what we’re commanded to do: “test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1) False prophets hate being tested.  So their response is to turn the tables and make ODM’s out to be the villain. I mean, how dare commoners judge Christians who’ve reached rock star status, right?

Over at Grace to You, Cameron Buettel tackles this very subject.  He lays out three biblical earmarks of a Pharisee, beginning with the person who supplements Scripture with all sorts of man-made rules.  He writes:

The odds are good that someone, somewhere, at some point has called you a Pharisee. The odds are even better that you’ve slapped that label on someone else.

It’s no surprise that the name “Pharisee” carries a leprous stigma. They’re the villains virtually every time they appear in the pages of Scripture. Jesus never had anything good to say about them. And their heavy-handed, legalistic authority made them a scourge to all of Israel—even other pious Jews.

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Justification and the source of righteousness

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:19-20 (NASB) 

The real Gospel is not entertaining. It is not “fun.” It is not hip. It is not cool. No, it is blunt and abrupt and not politically correct. It calls everyone a sinner with no exceptions and those who are justified by God are so on the basis of the righteousness of another while they remain completely undeserving. Not one of them can take credit for their own salvation. After they have been baptized into Christ, they remain “sinners saved by grace.” They are not perfect or perfected. They have not somehow become “better than” anyone else. They have the mark of the Saviour upon them. They belong to Him. They are His bondservants or slaves and He is their Lord, but in the interim until they go home to be with Him forever, they remain in this life both declared Holy and Righteous by God in their justification, but also still sinful and imperfect as they go through the fires of sanctification. What is the source of this righteousness since it is not by any works of the law that it comes as we read in the passage above? In fact, it is through the law that comes the knowledge of sin.  View article →

The aim of AIM and the World Race

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Berean Research reports:

Some red flags to warn you about regarding a popular missions trip for youth called AIM- Adventures in Missions, and an event called the World Race,  in which students travel to 11 countries in 11 months.

Young people have been exposed to the New Apostolic Reformation, along with contemplative spirituality and New Age mysticism.

One of my readers contributed her testimony to my series, Leaving the NAR Church, in which she writes:

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Mike Pence will not meet alone with a woman, so the online left flips out?

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Julia Duin of Get Religion has the story:

When does a rather ordinary news profile turn into a mass-media panic?

When it’s in a Washington Post feature about Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence.

I covered this two days ago in that finally – after zillions of fawning pieces about Hillary and Michelle – a major newspaper had profiled the Second Lady. I had no idea that one sentence in the story would create a Twitter mob scene. Part way down the story, a Post reporter mentioned that Mike Pence has a policy of never dining alone with a woman nor attending an event where alcohol is served without Karen by his side.

Ka-boom. The mockery began.

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Christian son of American Atheists founder says Netflix film about his mother is ‘full of errors’

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The Christian Times reports:

William J. Murray, the only surviving son of American Atheists founder Madalyn Murray O’Hair, has said that the new Netflix film about his mother is full of errors, omissions and distortions.

The film titled “The Most Hated Woman in America,” which debuted on Netflix last week, tells the life story of O’Hair, who founded the American Atheists in 1963 and spent half of her life fighting for the separation of church and state.

O’Hair filed a case against the Baltimore City Public School System in 1960 to prevent her son from taking part in Bible readings in school. She won the case in 1963 with a Supreme Court decision that banned prayers in classrooms.

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Why calling Rick Warren a ‘General’ is significant

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Berean Research responds to the question many in the Christian community are asking: How do I know if my church is part of the New Apostolic Reformation?  Here’s their says:

What’s in a name? When the name and title of “General” is used in a church leadership context, it’s a rank that ought to be a red flag for you.  After reading this article, I hope it will be in the future.

First, the photo. Hillsong’s Brian Houston posted this on his Facebook profile:

The rank title in this case may be easily dismissed as nothing more than just a friendly term of endearment. But did you know that “General” is code word for Apostle within the New Apostolic Reformation movement?

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Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB) 

All forms of Liberal (so-called) Christianity are another religion, not True Christianity. Why? They are rooted in worldly, humanistic, and non-Christian presuppositions.  On the other hand, the Word of God clearly directs believers to avoid these philosophies and, instead, their presuppositions must be the precepts and doctrines of Christ, not the futile traditions of men (Colossians 2:3, 4, 22; 3:1-2). Based upon this clear division, believers are precluded from any form of neutrality or even seeking after it. Why? As we have seen in earlier posts, neutrality is in actuality veiled agnosticism or unbelief—a failure to walk in Christ, an obscuring of Christian commitment and distinctives, and a suppression of truth (cf. Romans 1:21, 25). View article →

Santa Is a Gay Man in an Interracial Relationship in This New Picture Book

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Yes, you heard that right.  A controversial children’s book depicts Santa Clause as an African American gay man who’s married to Mr. Clause.  TIME has the story:

Photo credit: TIME

A new picture book will depict Santa as a gay man in an interracial relationship, publisher Harper Design confirmed Tuesday.

The book, Santa’s Husband, goes on sale Oct. 10 and tells the story of a black Santa Claus and his white husband who both live in the North Pole. Santa’s spouse frequently fills in for his husband at malls, according to a description of the book Harper Design provided to TIME.

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Your browser history can now be sold to advertisers without your consent

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According to MarketWatch:

Corporate tracking of your online activity is about to get even more invasive.

Internet service providers will soon be automatically able to collect information on browsing habits, health information, and other sensitive data from its users after the House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a repeal of protections put in place under the Obama administration. On a 215-205 vote, largely along party lines, the House voted undo these Obama-era broadband privacy rules that govern the behavior of internet service providers.

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Visible Church In An Accelerating Apostasy

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , ,

Apprising Ministries has an excerpt of a lecture Dr. Walter Martin did in the 1980’s entitled The Cult of Liberal Theology, which is just as true today:

Let me tell you something that I have learned; I know the liberals. I know them well; I was one of them. And they are the most dangerous, insidious, and all-pervading cult that’s loose in the United States right at this moment.

They make the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Mormons, and all of the Mind Sciences, and the Occult, look like Sunday School teachers. Do you know why? Because these other people are outside the Church; and these devils are in it! And they’re doing it in Jesus’ Name.

They do not believe the Trinity; they do not believe the Deity of Christ; they do not believe the Virgin Birth; they do not believe the vicarious atonement; they do not believe the Bodily resurrection, and they have grave doubts about whether Jesus will ever come back again, and that the Bible is itself the Word of God. Yet I could give you a list of them that infest—and that’s the proper word—infest our theological seminaries; and our church related schools, and our denominations.

And this theological flea infestation is ruining the lifeblood of the Church, which is evangelism. And, you think these are very strong statements; I intend to back them up in—if necessary—excruciating details. For any person who does not know that today in the United States,  and in denominational structures world-around, we are in an accelerating apostasy does not know—I repeat—does not know what’s going on…

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Where Do We Go When We Die?

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , ,

In this piece over at The Watchman’s Bagpipes, Glenn Chatfield examines what the scriptures teach about the soul after death.  He writes:

Many teachings about where we go when dead can be totally unbiblical, including the ideas of “soul sleep” and annihilation, as promoted by cults such as the Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, as well as by many individual false teachers.  Along with these teachings is usually the claim that there is no hell (as the place of eternal torment and separation from God).
If the scripture tells us the abode of the soul after death, that it is still conscious and aware, then the idea of the soul sleeping until resurrection is proven wrong, as is the idea that the souls of unbelievers are annihilated.  One could actually write a whole book on the topic in order to cover what the Bible says about the grave, the afterlife before and after Christ, etc, but here I can only highlight the most important and concise arguments against the “anti-Hell”, “soul sleep” and “annihilation” teachings.

The Biggest New Cheat in Professional Women’s Sports

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LifeZette reports:

Fallon Fox, transgender fighter in MMA

The East German women’s Olympic teams were known for doping their way to victory. Their cheating, long suspected, took longer to be discovered. But today there is a new cheat happening in the world of women’s sports, only this time it’s perfectly legal. It is transgender women — biological men, in other words — who are dominating in women’s sports.

While still rare, a growing number of sports organizations are allowing men who identify as women to compete against women in sports such as weightlifting, mixed martial arts, and basketball. To no one’s surprise, these individuals are winning.

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