Evangelist Ray Comfort offers his view of why James Holmes murdered 12 people and injured 58 others in a shooting at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater during a midnight screening of Dark Knight Rises.
Is Liberal Christianity Worth Saving?
Ken Connor, chairman of the Center for a Just Society, tackles the question of whether or not a person can be liberal and a Christian at the same time. Ken sees liberal Christianity as a “social club” that undermines the truth that has motivated so much good work, and wonders if it even is worth saving.
Only One Gospel, Part 11
30 As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. 31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:30–32, NASB
Those who like to portray our Lord Jesus Christ as just a bundle of love who would never do or say anything to any that could possible cause offense obviously have never studied what he actually said in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In our Lord’s parable of the soils (Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:4-15) he gives us a contrast between genuine believers and those who only appear to be and others who obviously are not. I posted on this several years ago here. The point is that just are there are very religious people who have done religious works and may even appear to be “christian” to some, our Lord says that the criterion to be one of his is not by one’s own choice, but by first being chosen by God, prepared by God, then having the Good News sown into the soil of the heart by him. As our Lord said in John 8:30-32 (above), those who are truly his are those who not only hear his Word, but continue in it. They are truly his disciples and they will know the truth and the truth will make them free.
Southern Baptist Jonathan Merritt Outed As Gay?
Apprising Ministries makes you aware of this developing story. Merritt is an up and coming voice, not only within the SBC but within evangelicalism as a whole.
The son of former SBC president James Merritt, Outreach magazine places him among “’30 Emerging Influencers’ reshaping Christian leadership.” In addition, Jonathan Merritt is on the advisory board for Religion News Service and the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Let’s be praying those involved in homosexual sin will find repentance and forgiveness of their sin in Jesus’ Name.
Only One Gospel, Part 10
1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. 6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.” 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. Rom. 9:1–8, NASB
I just spent the last several days traveling from Kansas City to the Washington D.C. area and back. While it was merciful to get away from this dreadful heat wave and drought that has persisted since May 29th, I looked very hard for God’s people in the D.C. area, in Baltimore and Annapolis. I saw lots of church buildings, but I’m not sure I came across a lot of Christians. We ate in a restaurant in Georgetown on Saturday night and there were three men and a woman at the table next to us in a very long and serious discussion. They looked very distinguished. In between the serving of the courses they went over a very formal document in which they attempted to define what the terms “Born-Again” and “Evangelical” meant and how it would be handled by whatever “organization” that document defined. My wife and I discussed it later and she succinctly stated that I could have settled all of their confusion very quickly with some direct preaching from the Word.
The Sovereignty of God in Aurora
Days after the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, many continue to grapple with the heinous display of evil that was presented by now-identified shooter, James Holmes. Writing only hours after the event, Albert Mohler offered words that must stand as a critical reminder:
Christians know that God is sovereign, and that nothing is outside of his control. We also know that he allows evil to exist, and human beings to commit moral atrocities. We cannot allow the sovereignty of God to be denied and evil allowed its independent existence. Source
In the midst of this trial, then, Denny Burk shares a story that does exalt the perfect sovereignty of God.
Elephant Room’s prophet-führer Steven Furtick begins bromance with Word Faith heretic Rod Parsley?
The Serpent Seed & The Nephilim
Courtesy of Herescope, in carrying this article Apprising Ministries offers that it’s time now to more closely look at what guys like Chuck Missler and Tom Horn are teaching.
For example, Satan has the ability to have sexual relations with human beings, his demons did and produced hybrid human/demons called Nephilim.
Then after the Flood, demons again consorted with members of the tribe of Dan, mixing the “seed of the serpent” into the human genome once again.
Chris Rosebrough Short Circuits Jonathan Cahn and The Harbinger
Members of Military March in San Diego Gay Pride Parade
The Los Angeles Times shares a troubling report out of San Diego:
Led by a Marine sergeant wearing her dress blue uniform and bearing the American flag aloft, several hundred members of the military marched in the city’s LGBT Pride parade Saturday, marking the first time the Department of Defense has permitted personnel to wear their uniforms in a gay festival parade.
Hollywood Sex Scenes Influence Personality, Behavior of Teens
ELCA pastrix Nadia Bolz-Weber’s latest Comedy Stylings and Narcigesis
Rick Warren and Daily Hope God turns us all into Stuart Smalleys
People Treated For Burns At T.D. Jakes’ Fellow Oprah Lifeclass Teacher Tony Robbins’ Event
Glory In The Blood Of Jesus
Text Of When God Abandons A Nation By John MacArthur
John MacArthur: When God Abandons A Nation
Jonathan Cahn Harbinger Of Discernment Gone Wild?
Liberals Change Word Meanings With Intent to Deceive
(Marsha West – Christian Research Network)
The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is. — Winston Churchill
Where I found truth, there found I my God, who is the truth itself. — Augustine
Almost anything is possible if one has the power to change the definition of words. Take for example the word truth. Once upon a time truth had a clear concise meaning. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary (M-WD) defines truth as “the body of true statements and propositions. Truth is the ‘state of being the case.'” In other words, it is a fact. A fact is something that actually exists, or an actual occurrence. M-WD defines In truth as in accordance with facts. “Facts are stubborn things,” said John Adams, “and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
In our post-modern culture a number of people have come to believe that there is no absolute truth. For them all truth is relative. M-WD defines relativism thusly: “A theory that knowledge is relative to the limited nature of the mind and the conditions of knowing (b) a view that ethical truths depend on the individuals and groups holding them.” The relativist will declare, “What’s true for you is not true for me” also “no one can know anything for sure.” For the relativist there is no universal moral truth, only what each individual perceives as truth. We all have our own truth, they say, and it is intolerant to push our views on others.
Surprisingly a growing number of self-professed Christians embrace the concept of moral relativism even though doing one’s own thing is patently unbiblical.
“What is truth?” Pontius Pilot asked Jesus prior to sending Him to the cross. In this instance Jesus chose to remain silent, but on other occasions He addressed the truth question head-on. For instance, He stated “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6). Anyone who rejects Jesus Christ will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven — ever.
Truthful means “telling or disposed to tell the truth.” Truth defines what a person believes in. It is not abstract, like a feeling or an idea. Jesus declared, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). “Your word” is the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. Take the time to read it “and ye shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32).
Ask yourself this question, professed Christian: If there is no absolute truth as the moral relativist claim, then why did the Apostle John assert, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17)?
Liberal ideologues redefine words to help advance a religious, political, environmental, scientific or social agenda. Never mind that to do so is to pervert the truth. Their motto is “The end justifies the means” or to be more precise: Do whatever it is you must in order to get the result you want, regardless of the methods used. “It does not matter whether these methods are legal or illegal, fair or foul, kind or cruel, truth or lies, democratic or dictatorial, good or evil.”
The cults are infamous for perverting historically accepted biblical terms. “Is it any wonder then,” said the late Christian apologist/polemicist Dr. Walter Martin in The Riddle of Semantics, “that orthodox Christians feel called upon to openly denounce such perversions of clearly defined and historically accepted biblical terminology, and claim that the cults have no rights — scholastically, biblically, or linguistically — to redefine biblical terms as they do?” (Source)
Oh that more evangelical Christians would feel called upon to denounce cultists who bastardize Christianity. Likewise, politicians are infamous for taking a word and twisting it into a pretzel. Even a former president of the United States did some fancy word twisting when he thought it would get him off the hook. You may recall how Bill Clinton stunned the nation during the Monica Lewinsky probe when he stated under oath:
If the — if he — if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not — that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement….Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.
In an age of moral relativism there’s no virtue in honesty. In fact, being dishonest, underhanded, unfaithful, unashamed and unrepentant is commonplace among our elected officials – even worse, those who profess a belief in Jesus Christ! It is a sad day when our Christian clergy and Church leadership blatantly sin and exhibit no remorse and only repent when others compel them to.
When it comes to perverting the intended meaning of words unscrupulous radical gay activists are sharper than a dual blade saw. They know all too well that if they’re going to achieve the acceptance they yearn for, they must manipulate words that are a stumbling block to their cause…which is to make same-sex sex appear as normal as, well, normal heterosexual sex.
For example, homosexuals have fought to prohibit thought on the question of whether or not sodomy is normal. Anyone who dares to take the position that sodomy is unnatural is accused of spreading hate. Even our once free press is no longer free to be critical of homosexuality for fear of the Lavender Police coming down on them. Not surprisingly the gay activists that are supposedly all about tolerance go mute when the media smears a gay conservative or a Christian leader.
Before radical homosexuals stripped “normal” of its original definition, it meant “occurring naturally.” This leads one to wonder: If a practice goes against nature, is it normal or abnormal? Common sense dictates that man on man/woman on woman sex is not only abnormal it is in fact a sexual perversion. I can report that this is true because the M-WD defines perversion as “an aberrant sexual practice or interest especially when habitual.”
If we can’t trust M-WD to give accurate word definitions, we’re doomed! So, in order to mainstream homosexuality gays and lesbians have had to resort to perverting the meaning of words. And to avoid hurting a homosexual person’s feelings, a large number of people (including people of faith) have all but waved the white flag of surrender.
The reason I bring up homosexuality is not to attack gays and lesbians, as I will certainly be accused of, but to show that liberals have had huge success in changing vocabulary and terminology to normalize aberrant behavior. Other examples of this are fanatical feminist fruitloops who’ve been pushing to change the meaning of the word “prostitute” to “sex-worker.” And then there are the pathological perverts whose primary sexual preference is for prepubescent boys and girls insisting on replacing the term pedophilia with the softer sounding “intergenerational sex.”
Moving back to the cults, as I pointed out the cults are masterful at word manipulation as stated by Dr. Martin:
If the reader consults the Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, published by the Unity School of Christianity, he will see the masterpiece of redefinition for himself. For in this particular volume, Unity has redefined exhaustively many of the cardinal terms of biblical theology, much as Mary Baker Eddy did in her Glossary of Terms in the book Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures. The reader will be positively amazed to find what has happened to biblical history, the person of Adam, the concept of human sin, spiritual depravity, and eternal judgment. One thing, however, will emerge very clearly from this study: Unity may use the terminology of the Bible, but by no stretch of the imagination can the redefinition be equated with the thing itself. (Source)
To put it bluntly, cultists lie. M-WD defines liar thusly: to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive. 2: to create a false or misleading impression.
Change agents intentionally create a false impression. And as I said, liberal ideologues redefine words to help advance a religious, political, environmental, scientific or social agenda.
For the liberal elites (the news media, politicians, jurists, attorneys, radical homosexuals, rabid feminists, Hollywood, environmental extremists, scientists, educators, even some religious leaders) words are whatever they say they are!
Most Americans have been asleep at the wheel while powerful far left ideologues work ’round the clock to create words in his or her own image. Before long we’ll all be echoing “One Nation Under Liberals.” However, for them to accomplish their desired goals they must first obliterate truth. Dr. Martin warned of the dangers of perverting semantics:
The problem of semantics has always played an important part in human affairs, for by its use or abuse, whichever the case may be, entire churches, thrones, and governments have been erected, sustained, or overthrown. The late George Orwell’s stirring novel 1984, in which he points out that the redefinition of common political terms can lead to slavery when it is allowed to pass unchallenged by a lethargic populace, is a classic illustration of the dangers of perverted semantics. It should be of no particular surprise to any student of world history that trick terminology is a powerful propaganda weapon. (Source)
The lethargic populace seems not to realize what some sly devils have been doing. And if the populace is aware of what’s going on they seem not to understand the dangers of perverted semantics. People had better come out of their stupor before it’s too late.
Resources:
Adapted from Words Are Whatever I Say They Are
Copyright by Marsha West, 2012. All rights reserved.
New Rob Bell Parody Video
Christ Is The Head
If you’ve wondered why there are so many spiritual knuckleheads running around professing Christendom claiming that their way is correct, I’ll tell you why.
It can be traced to the increased acceptance of hyper-charismania and pietistic so-called spiritual disciplines. Bluntly put: liver shiver theology.
Now whenever someone has a burbling in the belly, instead of reaching for some Tums, they assume God has spoken to them.
That’s why Apprising Ministries thinks this devotional teaching by Charles Spurgeon is a timely reminder as to how we can stay of the straight and narrow.
Seeker Driven “Pastors” Eric And Kelly Dykstra Argue For Women Pastors
Justin Peters On Hurt Of The Word Faith Movement
Straightening Out Mickey Maudlin’s Lessons From Publishing Rob Bell’s “Love Wins”
Only One Gospel, Part 9
3 So also we, when we were children, we had been enslaved under the fundamental principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under law 5 that he might redeem the ones born under law that we might receive adoption as sons. Gal. 4:3-5, Possessing the Treasure New Testament v1
As I shared in our last post, Only One Gospel Part 8, my own pilgrimage or sojourn from my justification to this stage of my sanctification has not been a smooth upward line on a chart. No, in fact, one of the reasons I think I have such a clear understanding of Romans 7 is that I have lived it especially during those dark periods of those fiery trials that seemed to last forever during the 1990’s right up to through 2009 when my seizure disorder, which had been dormant since 1976 reappeared. However, the main element that comes through all of these “elemental principles of the world” is that even though those of us who are in Christ are indeed saved by grace and are new creations all according to the will of God all by his work, we are still in this temporal state in these bodies of flesh in this lost and dying world that neither knows our Lord nor what true joy is. However, even in the midst of a our tests and trials, we can rejoice in our Lord and be full of the joy of the Lord for we know that God is 100% in control and our time to meet him face to face is fixed and our time in our Lord’s presence will be for eternity.

