Apprising Ministries has been researching contemplative spirituality and its unbiblical meditation in altered states of consciousness for many years now.
What all this talk about so-called “spiritual disciplines” really is would be a return to the old heresy of pietism. In this post you’ll find the information to help you better understand this.
Changing the definition of marriage will have long term implications. Marsha West urges those who are opposed to same-sex marriage to join the fight to preserve biblical marriage. She writes:
In an effort to destroy the definition of marriage in America, President Obama abruptly announced that he is in favor of same-sex marriage. This came as no big surprise as he had already decided that the Department of Justice would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman. Likewise he repealed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that prohibited openly gay men and lesbians from serving in the military. The president left many scratching their heads asking why he didn’t wait until after the election to make the announcement.
23 “But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. Exod. 21:23–25, NASB
19 ‘If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him. 21 ‘Thus the one who kills an animal shall make it good, but the one who kills a man shall be put to death. Lev. 24:19–21, NASB
16 “If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, 17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. 18 “The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. 20 The rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. 21 Thus you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Deut. 19:16–21, NASB
In the passages above, Moses was giving the Law of God to the Israelites in their dealing with injuries done by one person on one or more people in a way that would limit retribution to that which was just. Its design was to insure that the punishment in civil cases fit the crime, but were never intended to sanction acts of personal retaliation. Therefore in Matthew 5:38-42 the Lord Jesus made no alteration to the true meaning of the law, but was merely explaining and affirming its true meaning.
Apprising Ministries reminds you that Seeker Driven pastor Andy Stanley really put his foot in his mouth a couple times recently concerning the lifestyle of homosexuality and the Christian.
In this piece you’ll see that, rather than accepting some godly criticism, Stanley strikes back at Christianity itself.
As he does, you’ll also find out that he ends up sounding a lot like the apostate Brian McLaren of the Emerging Church.
‘You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the LORD. Lev. 19:12, NASB
“If a man makes a vow to the LORD, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. Num. 30:2, NASB
21 “When you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the LORD your God will surely require it of you. 22 “However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be sin in you. 23 “You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God, what you have promised. Deut. 23:21-23, NASB
For a short period of time in the late 1980s I worked in a PC/Computer store in sales. I am not a sales person, but most if not all of the other fellows I worked with were. Instead, I simply told people what the computers could do or what they could not do and tried to match them up with what the people needed. I was usually in the top two or three in sales, never number one there, but I was always number one in customer satisfaction. In fact, the only time I ever saw those customers again was if something broke or they wanted an upgrade or they brought a friend or relative in to buy a computer. However, something changed when I sold a truckload of computers to a local school. Then I did it again. Then our sales manager forced me to move to outside sales and out of the showroom. I hated it. Suddenly I began dealing with agents from companies whose whole way of doing business was based on mistrust. In fact, I had one who went out of his way to put legal pressure on us to fill contracts, et cetera. I asked the guy why he did that since I always did what I said I would do. He told me that he did that with everyone he did business with because that was how he ensured that he always got things done. I told him I didn’t want his business and gave the account to another guy in our group. That was the beginning of the end of my time in marketing. Even though God provided for my family and me during that time through it, I hated it except in those early days when I was helping those people one-on-one and they were overjoyed to get it. When it became ugly I came to hate my job and God was gracious to move me back into what I really liked doing at that time, which was writing database applications.
The Christian Post reports:
There’s been no shortage of Christian books on the topic of sex in recent months, and Christians across the United States are buying them up in order to spice up their marriages.
DeeperCalling Media (DCM), an online Christian bookstore supplier and Christian product retailer, reports “sizzling sex book sales” among Christian bookstores, indicating that Christians are not as “prude” as they are sometimes thought to be.
“We have been astounded by the marked increase in the sales of Christian Books on the topics of Sex. It’s clear that in tough economic times people are seeking ways to improve their lives through better relationships with those closest to them,” said Joe Kerr, marketing manager for DCM, in a statement.
Apprising Ministries provides necessary background for you to better understand the vital information in this excellent video lecture from Bob DeWaay.
In this piece you’ll gain a better understanding how the visible church has gotten itself into what is essentially becoming a spiritual blender set on puree.
James MacDonald, curator of the Elephant Room, would have us believe T.D. Jakes has moved away from Word Faith prosperity preaching.
Apprising Ministries offers that the evidence just does’t back this up. In this new piece you’ll see exclusive video of Jakes on TBN’s Praise-A-Thon of 8 March 2012.
This is their vehicle for raising money and yet there’s Jakes paying homage to head TBN huckster Paul Crouch and helping this heretical outfit fleece their flock.
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, NASB
One marker missing from “Liberal Christianity” that is one of the major elements that disqualifies it from being genuine Christianity is its abandonment of Sola Scriptura. Because of that, all of those characteristics that makes Christianity Christian are gone such as believer’s living lives of repentance such as that “living sacrifice” analogy given to us in Romans 12:1 along with how from that flows genuine Spiritual growth into Christian maturity in Romans 12:2. With little to no emphasis on genuine Biblical repentance, “Liberal Christianity” simply tries to emphasize unity, political correctness, feelings, with a spiritual hit by using spiritual formation into all sorts of mysticism, but mostly these “churches” do everything they can to appeal to the world so the leaders in those “organizations” would never preach a sermon like our Lord preached in Matthew 5, 6, & 7. Why? Because it brings people face-to-face with their sinfulness. This is offensive and since these men refuse to proclaim the real gospel message of the good news of what God has done on their behalf that they could never do for themselves, they will never preach anything to offend anyone so the descent into darkness of Liberalism just speeds up with each compromise.
Kevin DeYoung, Senior Pastor at University Reformed Church and Council Member of The Gospel Coalition, urges Christians not to go silent on the same-sex marriage issue. He writes:
Yesterday, to no one’s surprise, President Obama revealed in an interview that after some “evolution” he has “concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”
The temptation, then, is for Christians go silent and give up the marriage fight: “It’s no use staying in this battle,” we think to ourselves. “We don’t have to change our personal position. We’ll keep speaking the truth and upholding the Bible in our churches, but getting worked up over gay marriage in the public square is counter productive. It’s a waste of time. It makes us look bad. It ruins our witness. And we’ve already lost. Time to throw in the towel.” I understand that temptation. It is an easier way. But I do not think it is the right way, the God glorifying way, or the way of love.
The Religion News Service has released a story about musician Jennifer Knapp, calling her “an unlikely gay Christian icon.” Knapp was a popular contemporary Christian singer until she came out as a lesbian several years ago. Now Jennifer refers to herself as a “gay Christian artist” and urges Christians to affirm homosexuals. The singer performs regularly for Christian congregations and youth groups and revealed that, “Those listeners who used to treat her like ‘a big rock star’ now approach her after a concert for counsel about their sexual orientation.”
According to the article:
Her new album and her performances have found an audience with some of her old fans as well as Christians who — gay or straight — are hungry for churches to address LGBT issues and the challenges gay Christians face when they come out.
Apprising Ministries attempts to help you identify trends within the visible church and to teach you to avoid them.
One disturbing trend right now is the idea that the Christian gospel has to be made “relevant” to our capricious culture. It’s the same ill-fated idea tried before by the original cult of liberalism.
Kevin DeYoung, Senior Pastor at University Reformed Church and a Council Member of The Gospel Coalition, wrestles with what it means to be a “celebrity pastor.” Could Christians be misguided in their allegiance to specific teachers and leaders? He writes:
Here is a verse that caught my attention yesterday: “With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel” (2 Cor. 8:18).
There are many things we’d like to know, but don’t know about this verse.
14“You shall not commit adultery. Exodus 20:14, NASB
I am firmly in line with J. Gresham Machen’s assessment that “Liberal Christianity” is a different religion from Christianity. We see this in what it has abandoned in what it abhors in “Orthodoxy” that is exactly what makes Christianity “Christian.” Genuine Christianity is Christian because it is based upon the facts about our Lord Jesus and the message from him. True Christians love and respect and hold dear the same things he loved, respected and held dear, that is, God’s truth, which is called doctrine. In our day, as it was in Machen’s day, the liberals attempt to do away with what they call “dead orthodoxy” and get back to the primitive form of Christianity that the Church missed and has messed up with all its “Orthodoxy” for these last several millennia. In fact, they insist on totally “reforming” the church top to bottom without all this emphasis on the Bible as the infallible Word of God, which we call Sola Scriptura. The move towards that are seen in the teachings and sermons of men who keep moving their churches closer and closer to things such as tolerance for the “gay agenda” or “unmarried couples” or even looking the other way while their members and leaders have adulterous affair after adulterous affair.
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:1-10, NASB
I spent the last several days away from email, the Internet, work, et cetera, and simply rested and spent time with family with the intent of taking up right where I left off on our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount when I returned. However, before we get back to that, I would like to share some insights from some time I spent in the solitude of study and quiet I had during my “downtime.” Part of that time was spent in reading J. Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism, which was published in 1923. I have not quite finished it yet, but I made good progress. Some of you I know have read it because you recommended the book to me. For those who don’t know, Machen’s thesis in the book was to address the encroachment of Liberal theology in his day, which was taking over the Northern Presbyterian Church in the United States to the point that the Seminary at Princeton was preparing to “liberalize.” His thesis for this magnificent book is that “Liberal Christianity” and Christianity are two different religions.