12 Χάριν ἔχω τῷ ἐνδυναμώσαντί με Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, ὅτι πιστόν με ἡγήσατο θέμενος εἰς διακονίαν 13 τὸ πρότερον ὄντα βλάσφημον καὶ διώκτην καὶ ὑβριστήν, ἀλλὰ ἠλεήθην, ὅτι ἀγνοῶν ἐποίησα ἐν ἀπιστίᾳ· 14 ὑπερεπλεόνασεν δὲ ἡ χάρις τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν μετὰ πίστεως καὶ ἀγάπης τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.

1 Timothy 1:12-14, NA27

¹² I have gratitude to the one who empowered me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me faithful having put me into his service, ¹³ previously being a blasphemer and persecutor and an insolent man, but I received mercy because I did it in unbelief, being ignorant, ¹⁴ and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with faith and love in Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 1:12-14, Possessing the Treasure New Testament V1)

Today Frank Viola posted “The Art of Being a Jerk Online: 9 Sure Ways.” While I understand “the gist” of what is being said in the article and have rules for commenting on my own blog to curb that sort of thing, the target of this post by Frank is not people like those I block for being obnoxious, rude, belligerent, et cetera, but those who are critical of him, his ministry and those with whom his partnered. For my own part, I don’t think I have written anything about Frank or his friends that violated any of those 9 points, but I have certainly disagreed with him about a few things having to with doctrine and his “mission” to change the Church. 

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Having been in this apologetics battle for quite some time, I have become used to our enemy being allowed to counter-attack us viciously as our standing firm in the name of the Lord has caused light to come to bear into places of confusion and deception he has caused. However, I have never become used to how vicious these attacks are nor how those who are being used by our enemy are so convinced that they are actually the ones serving God and what we are doing must be stopped because after all we are stirring things up by being so unbending, unyielding, and not politically correct, et cetera. God is Love isn’t he? After absorbing several charges of legalism, being overly harsh, and losing some readership and subscribers because of that, I think it is time to make some things more clear. Just because I use what God says as the truth and insist that there is no other because that is what he says, does not mean that I do not also have religious affections. I do worship my Lord. I could not bear to have a form of Christianity forced on me that consisted of mere intellectual assent devoid of joy and fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ. That being said, I pray that you carefully read Kim Riddlebarger’s excellent article about proper worship. View article →

3 Ἀγαπητοί, πᾶσαν σπουδὴν ποιούμενος γράφειν ὑμῖν περὶ τῆς κοινῆς ἡμῶν σωτηρίας ἀνάγκην ἔσχον γράψαι ὑμῖν παρακαλῶν ἐπαγωνίζεσθαι τῇ ἅπαξ παραδοθείσῃ τοῖς ἁγίοις πίστει.

Jude 1:3, NA27

³ Beloved, being extremely eager to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you encouraging you to contend for the faith delivered once for all to the saints.

Jude 1:3, Possessing the Treasure New Testament V1

It has been brought to my attention that what we do here in the pursuit of being Biblical and having our Doctrines line up with what our Lord and His Apostles taught, if we also use the same black and white standards of contending for the faith that they used then we are too harsh and judgmental. When I use the Word of God to show the nature of genuine believers contrasting that with disingenuous professing Christians, then that is called judgmental and harsh, et cetera. The charge is also leveled at us if we use wisdom and discernment to point out the apostate behavior of certain Christian leaders or theologians who started out looking good, but have shown by their fruit to be highly suspect. For instance, how can we have a problem with John Piper since he has written such wonderful books that have blessed so many people? My response was, “But he hangs out now with known apostates and heretics and calls them his brothers in Christ while saying and doing things that no Christian leader of his caliber should do. Shouldn’t he be held accountable to these things as well? It is as if he is supposed to get a pass for what he does now because of what he did early in his ministry. If we do that are we contending for the faith delivered once for all to the saints? 

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Apprising Ministries offers some timely and must-read commentary from John MacArthur. View article →

Apprising Ministries has been showing you that spiritual knuckleheads are on the increase. With this comes different types of false teachings. So we have to broaden our vocabularies. View article →

11 Καὶ εἶδον θρόνον μέγαν λευκὸν καὶ τὸν καθήμενον ἐπ᾽ αὐτόν, οὗ ἀπὸ τοῦ προσώπου ἔφυγεν ἡ γῆ καὶ ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ τόπος οὐχ εὑρέθη αὐτοῖς. 12 καὶ εἶδον τοὺς νεκρούς, τοὺς μεγάλους καὶ τοὺς μικρούς, ἑστῶτας ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου. καὶ βιβλία ἠνοίχθησαν, καὶ ἄλλο βιβλίον ἠνοίχθη, ὅ ἐστιν τῆς ζωῆς, καὶ ἐκρίθησαν οἱ νεκροὶ ἐκ τῶν γεγραμμένων ἐν τοῖς βιβλίοις κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν. 13 καὶ ἔδωκεν ἡ θάλασσα τοὺς νεκροὺς τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ καὶ ὁ θάνατος καὶ ὁ ᾅδης ἔδωκαν τοὺς νεκροὺς τοὺς ἐν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἐκρίθησαν ἕκαστος κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν. 14 καὶ ὁ θάνατος καὶ ὁ ᾅδης ἐβλήθησαν εἰς τὴν λίμνην τοῦ πυρός. οὗτος ὁ θάνατος ὁ δεύτερός ἐστιν, ἡ λίμνη τοῦ πυρός. 15 καὶ εἴ τις οὐχ εὑρέθη ἐν τῇ βίβλῳ τῆς ζωῆς γεγραμμένος, ἐβλήθη εἰς τὴν λίμνην τοῦ πυρός.

Revelation 20:11-15, NA27

¹¹ And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. From his presence fled the earth and heaven, and a place was not found for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, the great and the small, having taken their stand before the throne, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged by the things written in the books according to their works. ¹³ And the sea gave up the dead in it and Death and Hades gave up the dead in them and they were judged each one according their works. ¹⁴ And Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the Second Death, the lake of fire. ¹⁵ And if anyone was not found having been written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:11–15, Possessing the Treasure New Testament V1

In Revelation 2:11 in his message to the Church at Smyrna, our Lord Jesus said, “Ὁ ἔχων οὖς ἀκουσάτω τί τὸ πνεῦμα λέγει ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις. Ὁ νικῶν οὐ μὴ ἀδικηθῇ ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου τοῦ δευτέρου.” Or, “The one having ears let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one overcoming will never be hurt by the second death.” What is described in Revelation 20:11-15 is the judgment of those going into “the second death.” These are people who have already lived their physical, temporal lives on earth and have died physically, but now they stand before the great white throne to receive the judgment of God.

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Apprising Ministries wants you to know that, if in your prayer “listening” time, you “feel” God’s “dream” is to bring unity with the Roman Catholic Church, then you are not hearing Him at all. Here is a power message from J.C. Ryle. View article →