If there was any doubt left that popular Seeker Driven evangelical prophet-leader Steven Furtick is headed toward becoming a TBN WF televangelist, this exclusive video from Apprising Ministries ought to clear that up.
You really need to see this to believe how he appears to be ripping off Joel Osteen’s WF self help material.
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” Rev. 4:11, ESV
The natural mindset is that we thank God and praise him when he has greatly blessed us or delivered us or comforted us in some way, but a study of the Psalms or Romans 8, for example, shows us that Christians worship their God from grateful hearts even in the midst of fiery trials. While the world sees that as a paradox, we who are in Christ know from what we have been saved. Sadly, in our time, there are so many who call themselves Christians who are ignorant of the propitiatory sacrifice deliberately made by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in order that all who would believe and obey the gospel would be justified by grace alone through faith alone as God’s gift alone. God has imputed the righteousness of his Son to all those he has justified just as he imputed their unrighteousness to his account as he hung on that cross paying the penalty for their sins. This knowledge and the power given to believers as they abide in their Lord enables them to have this paradoxical world-view that the “world” cannot understand nor will it ever understand this side of Judgment Day.
The Christian Post reports:
The co-author of a recent Christianity Today article is one of the founders of Zango, a company fined by the FTC for unfair and deceptive business practices, including lax distribution of software that furthered child pornography. The Christianity Today article was co-written by Ted Olsen and Ken Smith, who founded 180solutions (which later became Zango), a company with software that had been “distributed in conjunction with child pornography,” according to documents obtained by The Christian Post.
Christian Newswire reports:
Calvary Chapel Bible Fellowship (“The Barn”) is gearing up to file a federal lawsuit against the County of Riverside, CA, in the event the County continues its ban on churches in the Temecula Wine Country, an area that is being expanded from approximately 7,000 acres to over 18,990 acres. A public hearing will occur on Wednesday, August 22, 2012, over the fate of churches in this region. The hearing will position the Wine Country Vintner’s Association against the church congregation and many other Christians from the area.
To remain as informed as possible on what is going on in Evangelical Christianity in our time I read and listen to many varied sources. Some of these sources you may or may not view in as good a light as others and some may not be “up there” like they used to be. I am convinced that a lot of that is perception and opinion and we must be discerning; being as wise as serpents while as innocent as doves as we seek to learn what God is teaching us. I still subscribe to Tabletalk Magazine from Ligonier Ministries even though they have guest writers each month in it of the type that I often warn you good people about. However, they also often have gems that make my subscription worthwhile. I received my September 2012 issue today and it is quite good. The interview section in this edition is of Carl Trueman who I deeply respect.
In this new article Apprising Ministries takes an in-depth look at how teaching that God indwells all mankind negates being born again.
You’ll also see that people in the New Age/New Spirituality like Winfrey and Deepak Chopra are not the only ones with this view.
It’s a core doctrine of Emergence Christianity, and through contemplative spirituality, it’s now also spreading within the mainstream of evangelicalism.
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints and believers in Christ Jesus who are in Ephesus. 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Eph. 1:1–2 Possessing the Treasure New Testament v1
As my 61st birthday is less than two months away and the fact that I have seen the incredible changes not only in our culture, but in how Christians and our culture relate I am amazed at how polarized things have become. When I was a young and growing up as a Southern Baptist, the secular government was not Christian by any means, but on the other hand, neither did it invade into what we call Christianity. I never heard the term “Christian World View” until sometime in the mid 1970’s. The Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973 that legalized abortion on demand in the United States also created an awakening of sorts within those whose consciences had not yet been seared with a hot iron and so began a resistance to the rise in this country of the Culture of Death. Not everyone who is part of this resistance would be those I would call my brothers or sisters in Christ and neither would some of them share the same Christian World View that I have. Also, many who affirm whole heartedly the precepts of the Culture of Death also claim to be “Christians,” but by their rejection of orthodox Christianity beginning with the Word of God as being authoritative, Jesus Christ as the Second Person of the Triune God, et cetera, they fail the test and thereby show themselves to be apostates.
Dr. Peter Jones, Director of truthXchange, reveals what our future may look like if we continue down the path of liberalism. He warns that if radical homosexual activists have their way, normative male/female distinctions will be erased. Eventually homosexuality, transgenderism and bisexuality will be deemed normal. “The normal heterosexual world will be demeaned, sidelined and then condemned to silence.”
CNS reports on the security guard who was shot by a gunman at the Family Research Council on Wednesday:
Leo Johnson, the building operation manager at the FRC, a conservative policy group that promotes “faith, family and freedom,” has been hailed as a hero by authorities for not letting an armed gunman get too far past the front door. In an interview with WJLA-TV, Johnson described how the shooter, Floyd Lee Corkins II, posed as an intern and opened fire without warning just before 11 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
There’s much talk right now about David Barton’s revisionist mythology concerning the United States and of “taking back America” as if it ever was a covenant nation with God.
Apprising Ministries brings you balance in these words from D. Martyn-Lloyd Jones concerning the critical role of the Gospel for the conversion of men.
Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, criticizes the mainstream media for their scant reporting on Wednesday’s shooting at the Family Research Council headquarters. He informs us that,
Floyd Corkins, a volunteer for the last six months at the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community, marched into the Family Research Center with a gun and serious ammunition, denounced FRC’s policy positions and shot a security guard in the arm before being subdued. Another hate crime, but this time against, perhaps, the pre-eminent pro-family organization in America. CBS gave the story 20 seconds. NBC spent 17 seconds.
The controversy surrounding David Barton and his book, The Jefferson Lies, appears to have created a division among some Christian conservatives. World Magazine reports:
On one side are David Barton and his many readers. Barton has provided a useful service for many years in fighting the left’s interpretations of history. On the other side are other Christian conservatives who point out what they believe are inaccuracies in Barton’s work.
An article appeared last week in The Huffington Post entitled, “When Jesus Healed a Same-Sex Partner.” The author argues that the word translated as “servant” in Matthew 8 and Luke 7 actually should be rendered as “lover.” This change would mean that, when Jesus healed the centurion’s servant, He actually was healing the centurion’s same-sex partner.
Dr. James White of Alpha & Omega Ministries responds to this appalling argument.