Iran Still Demands Destruction of Israel

An influential Iranian cleric has warned President Obama not to include Israel in any nuclear negotiations because the Jewish state must be destroyed.

“What is visible is that Obama has agreed to include the fake Zionist regime (Israel) in future negotiations,” said Ayatollah Mohammad Khatami, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts.

“However, we firmly believe [Israel] must be wiped off the face of the earth and we don’t recognize [its existence].” Khatami said according to IRNA, the official news agency of the Islamic Republic.

~WND

However, Israel will not be wiped off the face of the earth. God, who is Creator of all things, gave the land to Israel (the promised boundaries is much larger than the current ones). God, who is faithful, will establish Israel forever as His covenant people.

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.
Gen 12:2  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
Gen 12:3  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blesse

Gen 12:6  Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
Gen 12:7  Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

Gen 13:14  The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 

Gen 13:15  for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 

Gen 13:16  I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 

Gen 13:17  Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you." 

Gen 13:18  So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD. 

UN and Wold Bank to Spend Billions on "Green" Energy Despite Faulty Scientific Research

Don't confuse them with the facts; their minds are already made up. And it's not about the weather but about money and control:

Quote:

NEW YORK – Acting on global warming fears, the United Nations and the World Bank urged the spending of $600 to $800 billion a year on “sustainable energy” as an alternative to continued reliance on oil and natural gas.

U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim declared the massive infusion of cash is necessary in the face of a “rising global thermostat.”

The move made clear the U.N. and the World Bank continue to pursue an energy agenda that presumes a causal link between human-generated carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and a global warming phenomenon of sufficient magnitude to cause catastrophic consequences.
 

No mention was made at the joint press conference of the accumulating scientific evidence that global warming theories are based on faulty scientific research or that the Obama administration has lost billions of taxpayer dollars pursuing “green energy” projects that have failed to prove economically viable.

~WND

Green is the new red. This is the way the world will dictate our money and behavior a few at the top deem acceptable or unacceptable.

Nearly Half of US Meteorologists Reject Man-Made "Global Warming" Theory

                                   

(Photo: Blizzard of 1898, Hanover, Pennsylania)

Nearly half of meteorologists reject the theory of man-made global warming, according to a survey conducted by the American Meteorological Society. It found that only 52% believe man is responsible for changing global weather, while 48% reject that theory. What's more, those who lean liberal are more likely to hold to the "global warming" theory, thus showing what many of us already knew: "science" is often driven, not by facts but by worldview:

According to Daily Caller:

Furthermore, the survey found that scientists who professed “liberal political views” were much more likely to believe in the theory of man-made global warming than those who without liberal views.

“Political ideology was the factor next most strongly associated with meteorologists’ views about global warming. This also goes against the idea of scientists’ opinions being entirely based on objective analysis of the evidence, and concurs with previous studies that have shown scientists’ opinions on topics to vary along with their political orientation,” writes survey author Neil Stenhouse of George Mason University.

End quote.

Perspective

                          


"You are my portion, O LORD!" Psalm 119:57

If God is my portion, then I ought to be content without any other portion. He is . . .
enough in poverty,
enough in persecution,
enough in life,
enough in death,
enough for evermore!

If God gives me Himself--then it is more than as if He had given me the whole world, or ten thousand worlds like this! O how happy was the apostle Paul, who knowing God to be his portion could say, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in need!" Philippians 4:11-12

If God is my portion, I ought to be thankful. It is enough. There is no losing it. What dignity, what honor is conferred on the man who has God for his portion! I deserved to be stripped of everything, and to be turned out of God's presence eternally penniless, wretched, and miserable. But instead of this, God in His free grace, in His infinite mercy--gives me . . .
a mansion,
a city with eternal foundations,
a kingdom; more,
He gives me Himself! God in all His glory, in all His grace--is mine!
If God is my portion, then I ought to be living upon Him. If I live upon anything outside of God--then I live upon what is finite, and will change. But if I live upon God, I live upon the infinite, and upon what is unchangeable. As a believer, I should live befitting the dignity of my lofty character, position, and prospects. The man of fortune ought not to live like the pauper. Just so, the Christian ought not to live like other men.

If God is my portion, I ought to be making a proper use of it. I should set my portion over and against . . .
all my pains and privations,
all my griefs and grievances,
all my sadnesses and sorrows.

I should look above all my trials and troubles--and rejoice that throughout eternity, I shall have . . .
eternal ease--instead of pain,
eternal plenty--instead of privation,
eternal joy--instead of grief,
eternal gladness--instead of sadness,
and eternal bliss--instead of sorrow!

Beloved, is the Lord your portion? Are you living upon Him as such?

But if God is not your portion--then what is? 

Where are your thoughts most?
Where do your affections center?
After what do you pursue?
The world? It is a poor, perishing, unsatisfying portion! It will be found insufficient, unsatisfactory, and perishing! Unless God is your portion, you will be . . .
unsatisfied in life,
wretched in death, and
indescribably miserable to all eternity!

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever!" Psalm 73:26

(James Smith, "Gleams of Grace" 1860)

Give Thanks

Psa 57:9  I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.10  For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. 11  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! 

                                           

                           




                                                                                                                                                                                               


                       

Did you thank Him for anything yesterday? 
What about today? 
Remember, He owes us nothing. 
We are so blessed by His gracious, merciful, and abounding love. Let the redeemed say so!

Church Services At The Plymouth Colony

                           

What a "typical" Pilgrim church service contained in order and doctrine. Notice the drive back to Scripture and prayer. Being Separatists, they refused the trappings of the dead Church of England, and instead treasured the more sure Word.

David Beale has an excellent and far more thorough examination of the Pilgrimss' faith.

                            
(Photo: Plimouth Plantation)

Thanksgiving Proclamation by President Lincoln

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

~Source

William Brewster, A Pilgrim

            

My ancestor, William Brewster. A Christian, a husband, a father, and a leader of the Pilgrims. This is part of his biography.

He was married to Mary (m. ca 1592) and together they had six children: Jonathan, Patience, Fear, an unnamed child that died young, Love, and Wrestling. He died at Plymouth, MA on April 10, 1644.

According to Caleb Johnson's Mayflower History:

He was educated in both Greek and Latin and spent some time at Cambridge University, although he never completed a full degree. He went into the service of William Davison, then Secretary of State, while his father back home maintained a position as the postmaster of Scrooby, Nottinghamshire. Under Davison, Brewster first traveled to the Netherlands. After Davison was removed as Secretary of State by Queen Elizabeth, Brewster worked himself into his father's postmaster duties and maintained Scrooby Manor. Brewster was instrumental in establishing a Separatist church with Richard Clyfton, and they often held their meetings in the Manor house. Brewster and the others were eventually found and forced out, and fleeing prosecution and persecution they headed to Amsterdam in 1608, and moved to Leiden, Holland in 1609. Brewster became the church's Elder, responsible for seeing that the congregation's members carried themselves properly, both helping and admonishing them when necessary.

In Leiden, Brewster working with Thomas Brewer, Edward Winslow, and others, began working a printing press and publishing religious books and pamphlets that were then illegally conveyed into England. Brewster also employed himself teaching University of Leiden students English. By 1618, the English authorities were onto him and his printing press, and had the Dutch authorities in pursuit of him. Thomas Brewer was arrested and held in the University of Leiden's prison, but Brewster managed to evade the authorities and went into hiding for a couple years.

End quote.

~Mayflower History   See also Pilgrim Hall

The Leiden church congregation decided to send a group of settlers to establish a colony to which others could eventually move to. Their pastor, John Robinson decided to stay behind with his flock, but they decided another leader, William Brewster ought to go with the group to the new colony. Brewster went and took Mary and Jonathan and his two youngest children, Love and Wrestling (Patience and Fear came later on the Ship Ann; Fear later married fellow Pilgrim, Isaac Allerton).  Brewster faithfully continued his work as a church elder for the rest of his life at Plymouth, MA. He died at 80 years gold. Of his worldly goods listed, a couple of chairs and several hundred books he owned were recorded. Below is a photo of one of the chairs as well as his chest.

    

Photos from Pilgrim Hall Museum

"Towards the end of the Pilgrims’ stay in Leiden, William Brewster operated a printing press. Between 1617 and 1619, this press, known informally today as the "Pilgrim press," printed and distributed controversial religious books. These books were banned by English law and had to be smuggled into the country."

 ~ Pilgrim Hall

Here is the "Brewster Bear" publishing imprint:

  

(Photo: wikipedia)

You can see Brewster's signature, although the Brewster Bear isn't used in this publication. Two Scriptural passages that speak to my heart because they reflect the grieved heart of those who aren't heeding biblical Truth.

"A Treaty of the Ministry of the Church of England" sub-title reads:

Wherein is Handled this Question, Whether it be to be Separated from Or Joyned Unto, which is Discussed in Two Letters, the One Writted for It, the Other Against It. : Whereunto is Annexed, After the Preface a Brief Declaration of the Ordinary Officers of the Church of Christ, and a Few Positions. : Also in the End of the Treatise, Some Notes Touching the Lordes Prayer, Seven Questions. : A Table of Some Principal Thinges Conteyned in this Treatise ... ~Source

Brewster was a Separatist: he separated from the Church of England because it was not biblical.

It was also noted about William Brewster:

""Mr. Allerton had married the daughter of their Reverend Elder, Mr. Brewster, a man beloved and honoured amongst them and who took great pains in teaching and dispensing the Word of God  unto them, whom they were loath to grieve or any way offend..." 

(William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647, ed. ;Samuel Eliot Morison (New York: Knopf, 1991), p. 218.)

~Pilgrim Hall Museum 

The Mayflower Compact

                

THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT – Signed by the Pilgrims in 1620
FULL OF REFERENCES TO GOD AND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

Modern Transcription:

“In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, convenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politic, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience.

In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620″ (Mayflower Compact, Nov. 11, 1620)

~Source

                 

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

                        

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be

Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love

Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside

Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

~Thomas O. Chisholm

A beloved hymn sung a thousand times a year. There's no question why this is a favorite of Christians; it reminds us of God's sovereign and faithful hand in our lives. We can trust Him fully.

God always gives us what we need, although not always what we want.  Sometimes it's a time of refreshment, other times it might be a trial. But we know this:

Rom 8:28  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

                     Happy Thanksgiving!

                             

Thanking God For His Gifts

                            

"God has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." Acts 14:17

We ofttimes forget that the common mercies of life are evidences of our Father's loving thought and care for His children. There is no such thing as 'chance' in this world. God sends the rains, orders the seasons, and brings the harvests. In enjoying the gifts--we should not forget the Giver. In accepting and using the blessings--we should not fail to see the Hand which brings them to us! 


~(J.R. Miller)

ADD Diagosis 125% More in Boys than Girls; 53% of Boys More Likely If On Government Insurance

The more government medical coverage you have, the more diagoses are made. The more money is being funneled.

A CDC reported an increase of diagoses of ADD and ADHD among those with health coverage.

Excerpts:

The study indicated that American boys were 125 percent more likely than girls to be diagnosed with ADHD, and that boys were 127 percent more likely than girls to be medicated for it.

The study also found that children in public health programs (Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program) were 53 percent more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than children with private health insurance. 

“Ever-diagnosed ADHD was more common among children with health care coverage than those without coverage, and among those with public coverage than with private coverage,” said the study.

"“This study is really based on the parent-reported survey data"

"The CDC describes ADHD symptoms as follows: “A child with ADHD might: daydream a lot, forget or lose things a lot, squirm or fidget, talk too much, make careless mistakes or take unnecessary risks, have a hard time resisting temptation, have trouble taking turns, have difficulty getting along with others” "

~CNS News

"Parent-reported" and "a child with ADHD MIGHT...." Both are  totally subjective. They take claims of parents or observations by a "health care provider" and then place an interpretation onto it, especially with a predisposition to believe it's a disease/disorder. Just because one doctor tells a parent their kid might had ADD doesn't make it true (that's also assuming its a real "disorder"). Because it's subjective, there's no clear cut way to diagnose the "problem" (a value has been placed upon certain behaviors as either good or bad, acceptable or not acceptable (which is not science) and especially within the classroom---there's the added issue of teachers (and parents) not wanting to deal with a child that has less self-control, obedience than the rest of the kids). 

Those "symptoms" describe just about every kid at some point! 

Sadly this is nothing short of our feminist Post-Modern, lazy, psychologized society to effeminize the boys so that they can be more controlled. 

Take Heed of What You (and Your Children) Read

                             

Fiction has often been a wholesome relief to a good man's overworked and weary brain. Many of the recent popular novels are wholesome in their tone, and the historical type often instructive.

Exclusive reading of novels is to a person's mind--just what highly spiced food and alcoholic stimulants are to the body. The chief objection to the best of them, is that they excite a distaste in the mind for any serious reading. The increasing rage for novel reading betokens both a famine in the intellect, and a serious peril to the mental and spiritual life.

The honest truth is--that too large a number of today's fictitious works are subtle poison. The plots of some of the most popular novels are based on immorality, and the violation in some form of the seventh commandment.
They kindle evil passions;
they varnish and veneer vice;
they deride marital purity;
they uncover what ought to be hidden;
they paint in attractive hues--what never ought to be seen by any pure eye, or named by any modest tongue.

Two of the perils which threaten American youths, are a licentious theater and a poisonous literature. One who has examined many of the novels printed during the last decade, said to me: "The main purpose of many of these books is to knock away the underpinning of the marriage relation of the Bible."

If parents give house-room to trashy or corrupt books, they cannot be surprised if their children give heart-room to "the world, the flesh, and the devil." When interesting and profitable books are so abundant and so cheap, this increasing rage for novels is to me, one of the sinister signs of the times!

"Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness!" 2 Timothy 2:22

(Theodore Cuyler, 1822 - 1909)

Who Said Biblical Truth Isn't Practical?

Scripture's wisdom and teaching is quite practical. One way is that it keeps the one who treasures Scripture and seeks after it and binds it to his heart, from committing sexual immorality:

Pro 6:23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, 24 to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. 

Pro 7:1 My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; 2 keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; 3 bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call insight your intimate friend, 5 to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words. 

Liberality Is the Popular Virtue, Zeal For Truth Is the Cardinal Sin

In these times, when liberality is the only popular virtue, and zeal for truth the cardinal sin, it is worth much to let the public know assuredly that Popery is not the angel of light it professes to be. "Distance lends enchantment to the view;" but, to the rightminded, to see Romanism is to abhor it. It is a system which is as dangerous to human society, as it is hostile to true religion. We would by no means abridge the civil rights of a Catholic, or a Mormonite, but whether in any community the confessional or polygamy ought to be endured is not a question with us. The system of confession to priests is the sum of all villanies. 

~Spurgeon, The Religion of Rome

Isa 5:20  Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!21  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!

"Christianity" Today's November Cover: CS Lewis and A Smoking Pipe

Two things jump at me with this cover of "Christianity" Today:

CS Lewis, who was not a Biblical Christian.

And...

A lit pipe.

Really?

Could CT be more worldly and fleshly? Never mind that it likely offends the conscience of many who have given up the slave of smoking or who knew someone who died of lung cancer due to smoking.

CT really lacks wisdom and discernment because they do so because they are not of Christ. They are inter-faith, lovers of anythingarianism.

Gal 5:13  For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

1Co 8:9  But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling

block to the weak.

1Co 8:11  And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ

died.12  Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is

weak, you sin against Christ.

1Ti 6:3  If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4  he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 1Ti 6:5  and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. 

Preach The Simple Gospel

From my friend's blog, Mustard Seedish:

It is a certain fact that deep reasoning and elaborate arguments are not the weapons by which God is generally pleased to convert souls. Simple plain statements, boldly and solemnly made, and made in such a manner that they are evidently felt and believed by him who makes them, seem to have the most effect on hearts and consciences. Parents and teachers of the young, ministers and missionaries, Scripture-readers and district visitors, would all do well to remember this. We need not be so anxious as we often are about defending, proving, demonstrating and reasoning out the doctrines of the Gospel. Not one soul in a hundred was ever brought to Christ in this fashion. We need more simple, plain, solemn, earnest, affectionate statements of simple Gospel truths. We may safely leave such statements to work and take care of themselves. They are arrows from God’s own quiver, and will often pierce hearts which have not been touched by the most eloquent sermon.

 ~ J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)


Rom 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 

1Co 2:1  And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.3  And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4  and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5  that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 

A Christian should not act like a fool

“Behold, I have played the fool.” - 1 Samuel 26:21

In Deuteronomy 32:6 Moses looked out at the belligerent children of Israel who had failed God so many times and said, “Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people?” The children of Israel were playing the fool. Sadly, God’s people today continue to play the fool. One way they do so is through disbelief. On the road to Emmaus, Jesus appeared to two disciples who didn’t believe that He had risen from the dead. Jesus said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25). To disbelieve God and His Word is to play the fool.

Another way believers play the fool is through disobedience. In Galatians 3:1 the apostle Paul says, “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?” And in verse 3 he says, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” They started out well but were disobedient and got caught up in the works of the law.

Still another way Christians play the fool is through desire for the wrong things. First Timothy 6:9 says, “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires.” If you desire the wrong things, you play the fool.

Finally, you can play the fool through doing the wrong things. James 3:1317 says that there are two kinds of wisdom. Godly wisdom produces “good behavior” (v. 13), but foolish wisdom produces “jealousy and selfish ambition” (v. 16). A self-centered person plays the fool. It’s sad to see so many Christians playing the fool. It doesn’t make any sense. Why should Christians live as blind, ignorant, foolish people when they have the wisdom of God?


Paul says at the end of Romans, “I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil” (16:19). If you have to be a fool at all, be a fool (unknowing, unacquainted) about evil.

~John MacArthur, Strength for Today devotional

Not All Sin is Equal

It must be stated that homosexuality is a heinous crime against God. It is first of all, a sexual sin, and secondly, it violates natural law to a great degree. Homosexuality (together with pedophilia, beastiality and necrophilia etc) are considered extremely debased sins (cf Rom. 1:24-27), worse in degree compared to other sins like theft. Now of course, we admit that all sin is sinful before God. Yet there are graduations of sin. For example, it is definitely better to lust than to engage in rape, although both are sinful. Likewise, it is better to covet than to commit a robbery. The failure to understand that there are horizontal graduations of sin is what gives us the generic "evangelical" eisegesis of Mt. 7:1, and the false idea that no one can judge sins (yet ironically they judge the one who judges as committing a worse sin). It gives rise to the specter of the sinner coming before God and praying, "Dear Lord, I thank you that I am not a judgmental person like those Pharisees. I sin openly and proudly, since I know that your blood covers my sin, unlike those self-righteous, narrow-minded and bigoted people."

~Daniel Chew

He's right and I share this because I've grown tired of professing Christians equalizing all sin, ignoring the fact that God specifically destroyed entire cities for sexual immorality (mainly sodomy):

Gen 18:20  Then the LORD said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave

Jude 1:7  just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Ignoring the heinous crime of sodomy which is ultimately against God because it's His law that is being violated, professing Christians minimize the gravity and the consequence of certain sins.

No, not all sin is equal before God. But all sin is equally sinful and deserves His wrath. Even one sin. See Gen. 3 or Acts 5 for examples.

UPDATE:  

There are varying degrees of punishment just as there are rewards. Go here for more info.

Tolerating Error Leads To Tolerating In Practice

We only progress in sound living as we progress in sound understanding. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” Do not say of any error, “It is a mere matter of opinion.” No man indulges an error of judgment, without sooner or later tolerating an error in practice. Hold fast the truth, for by so holding the truth shall you be sanctified by the Spirit of God.      

~Spurgeon

Strange Fire Stuff

The main argument of the Strange Fire Conference appears to have been that any Charismatic belief engenders a lack of discernment, enabling the worst sort of Charismatic excess.  That’s it.  Pretty simple statement, right?  Now I didn’t attend or listen to the messages, but I know that’s the argument.  I read one article by Phil Johnson, saw some tweets, and I think it’s pretty clear that that was the argument.

But it’s worse than that.  Charismaticism is a spiritual distraction from the gospel.  Try telling a poor man that his real problem is sin, his real danger is hell, and the real solution is the cross.  He’s caught up in trying to figure out the magic formula to get on the Holy Spirit Gravy Train to sudden wealth and comfort.  Work with him though you may, when he goes out into his neighborhood a dozen “churches” tell him they have that formula, and the gospel is snatched away.  Charismaticism plays the role of the birds in the Parable of the Sower.

~Tom Chantry


Phil Johnson agrees.

Elsewhere Johnson states:

"For that very reason, I don’t much like generalizations in a context like this. I therefore tried in my seminars to be very specific. For example, in a breakout session titled “Is There a Baby in the Charismatic Bathwater?” my main goal was to explain as precisely as possible why we don’t believe there is a safe zone in the whole universe of charismatic conviction. I also wanted to explain why we believe some of the finest and best-known Reformed non-cessationists are unwittingly providing cover for aberrant people and movements in some of the most problematic districts of the charismatic community. I quoted, named, and documented a fair number of specifics."

~Phil Johnson, Grace To You

I've said that myself re: men like Piper who give cover (aiding and abetting) to the Charismatic Movement. It's good Johnson said it. However, my question is: then why did Johnson and MacArthur give cover to men like Piper, whom they named, by saying he's a great friend, they love him,  learned a lot from him, he's a great teacher, etc. but that he needs to come out against the Charismatic movement?  (As if that's all that's wrong with Piper. Its not. That's the least of his problems.) Seems to me that's exactly the same thing Piper does with his hand-holding of the Charismatics. By doing so, in some ways, Johnson and MacArthur undid what the SFC had set out to do: draw a clear line between biblical Christianity and Charismaticism/Word of Faith/NAR. Many a person went right back to quoting and  hailing Piper the Charismatic. And yes, Piper is a Charismatic. He went out of his way to show himself in locked-step with Sam Storms (a Charismatic named at the Strange Fire Conference), and corrected MacArthur's portrayal of Piper as an "anomaly".  In other words, his loyalty was made clear.

Be Careful How You Walk

              


“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise.” - Ephesians 5:15

Walking wisely is a step in the right direction.

Sometimes a soldier has the thankless task of clearing mine fields from enemy territory. If you’re aware of the procedure, you know the work is both dangerous and tedious. To proceed in an orderly fashion, a soldier marks areas that are considered dangerous and areas that have been cleared. Above all, he makes sure he is careful where he’s walking!

In the spiritual realm, Paul is telling believers in Ephesians 5:15 to walk carefully. The Greek term translated “careful” speaks of looking carefully from side to side and being alert to what is going on. We need to be extremely alert because the world we’re walking through is a mine field of sin and temptation. Therefore, we must walk carefully, exactly, and accurately. The wise Christian carefully charts his course according to life principles designed by God. He doesn’t trip over the obstacles that Satan puts in his path or fall into the entanglement of the world’s system. He is “careful.”

The Greek word translated “walk” means “daily conduct,” “daily pattern,” or “daily life.” The daily pattern of our lives must reflect wisdom. The Greeks saw wisdom primarily as head knowledge. They tended to spin off theories that had no practical implications. To them, the wise people were the intellectuals and the philosophers. The Hebrew mind, however, defined wisdom only in terms of behavior. When a person becomes a Christian, it’s more than a change in theory—it’s a change in how he lives.

Paul is saying in verse 15, “If you used to be a fool, but you’ve been made wise in Christ, then walk wisely.” In other words, we’re to practice our position, to live in accordance with who we are. When we became Christians, we came out of foolishness into wisdom. Therefore, we need to act like it! Be careful not to act foolishly and step on Satan’s mines. Your spiritual transformation demands that you live your life with care.

~John MacArthur, Strength for Today devotional

Apostasy Revisited

 (Originally posted on June 5, 2008)

What I loved from Robert Morey's " A Few Thoughts On Apostasy"

I read this blog entry today and was struck at how right on Robert Morey is. MAN, I'm loving this guy's boldness! He sees what I see and he's a straight shooter like me. BRING IT ON brother!!!

What I loved from Robert  Morey's  "A Few Thoughts on Apostasy" My only hurdle is to choose which parts to post...they're all really GOOD. I suggest you just go read the whole thing. Its short, but loaded with truth and boldness. And we can all use that more as the days grow dark. I've added just a couple of comments in brackets and italics. ~Denise

Quote:

The question of whether we should question the salvation experience of those who teach false doctrine is an important question that is increasingly an issue today. The moment you question the salvation of anyone, you are attacked on every hand as being mean. Yet, those who condemn us for doing so have never dealt with the following questions.

1. Did Jesus question the salvation of the religious leaders and teachers of his day?
2. Did he call them names and heap ridicule on them?
3. Was He right or wrong to do so?
4. Was He mean and unloving?
5. Should we follow his example and walk as he walked?
6. Did Jesus tell us to judge some people to be false prophets, dogs, and pigs?
7. Did Paul follow the example of Jesus and cast doubt on the salvation of people in the church who claimed to be “brothers?”
8. Did he call them names and heap ridicule on them?
9. Did Paul call some professing Christians “false brethren?”

10. Did he tell us to follow him as he followed Christ?
11. Did John, the Apostle of Love, tell us to question the profession of salvation made people?
12. Did Peter cast doubt on the conversion of professing Christians in his day?
13. What did he say to Simon in Acts 8?

These questions help us to frame the issue of whether we should, at this time, in the light of their recent teachings, question the salvation of J. P. Moreland, William Craig, and their disciples. Given what they are now teaching, we must put a huge question mark over their head. Frank Beckwith is a good example. He was not thrilled when I cast doubt on his salvation. But now that I have been 100% vindicated by his apostasy to popery, my doubts and warnings were right on target. 

When I was Chairman of the membership committee of the ETS, I often doubted the salvation of such men as Gundry, Pinnock, etc. who denied the inerrancy of Scripture. They were offended when I told them that I did NOT accept them as fellow Christians. I have always been open and honest about such things. I told Frankie Schaeffer on a radio program several years ago that he was apostate and on his way to hell. He got all offended that I refused to accept him as a Christian. But now that he openly rejects the gospel and has joined the Orthodox cult, I have been vindicated 100%.

The main problem is that many religious leaders today say one thing and teach another. If you ask Gregory Boyd or the other “Open View of God” heretics if they believe in the “omniscience” of God, they will say, “Yes.” Dumb Christians are satisfied at this point and go their merry way deceived and hoodwinked. But if you force them to define the term “omniscience,” they end up denying that God knows all things! They claim that God does not and cannot know the future.

Just because someone says, “I believe in sola scriptura,” does not mean he really believes in it. If he elsewhere says that the Bible is not the final authority in faith and practice, he has denied in substance what he supposedly affirmed as a slogan. Heretics have always done this. What they affirm with the right hand is what they deny with the left hand. It does not matter what doctrine is at stake.

a. In the early 1980s, those who denied the inerrancy of Scripture did not begin by openly denying it. They redefined it until the term “inerrancy” meant errors! [Sounds like Reclaiming The Mind's Michael Patton to me]

b. Those who deny the ontological deity of Christ try to deceive people at first by pretending they do believe in the deity of Christ. It is only upon careful questioning that the truth comes out. [I've been called an Inquistionist for questioning someone who's sounding very strange in doctrine and gives me red flags all over the place.]They only accept a functional meaning of the deity of Christ in that he functioned as a revelation of God, just as the heavens do. But they deny that Jesus was ontologically GOD as well as man.

c. Those who deny the bodily resurrection of Christ often pretend to believe in it by tricky words and double talk. Believe me; I have heard some slick theologians in my day! [No kidding! I have too...by Matt Slick. His twist is that if a person just doesn't know about the resurrection, then they are still saved, but if the person rejects the resurrection then they are not saved. This is word play and he's been caught red-handed by many people online. He still holds to this view, after all he didn't know Jesus was "physically resurrected for two years after he was saved" Scroll down to Surphing # 3 paragraph C for one instance.]

Apostasy in Scripture is of two kinds: doctrinal and moral.

A heretic can be a good person who is very moral. Yet, he can also be an anti-Christ. The monk Pelagius was according to all a good man, morally speaking. Thus when I point out some teacher as a heretic, evanjellyfish usually respond, “But he is sooo nice! He is a good man. How dare you attack him!”

They assume that heretics are always mean and vile. A nice heretic who says that right phrases and theological clichés cannot be a heretic in their mind.The problem with heretics who are “nice” is that we tend to let them get away with the most outrageous teaching because they seem to be so nice...

I hope these words are not twisted to mean I think I can judge their hearts. That is something only God can do.

But I am bound by the Word of God to judge their theology.

I can do no other.

Robert Morey

End Quote.


Upon reading about the defection of Evangelical Theological Society's president, Dr. Frank Beckwith to Rome, his resume screamed WARNING! Did anyone see this besides Morey?

Reclaiming The Mind's "Converse With A Scholar" ministry (founder is Michael Patton), offered Beckwith on their program online on February 28, 2008. I wonder if this is why Patton was all over the map on the RCC, basically defending it in his unsure, "irenic" yet unbiblical way, in his interview with James White on The Dividing Line:

James White: An RCer rejecting sola fide, as Rome has not only denied but taught works, does that person have eternal life?

Patton: I would say yes they do, but they have a much harder, like the Corinthians. They were polytheist Christians (hear it at time marker 1:15:40). They need the full gospel. They can, though. I'm not saying anybody does.

Unquote.

It has long been my view that those who turn the Narrow Road into the Broad Road do so because they have a loved one or a friend who's lost and they rather have him or her on the way to heaven, so they make the road broader than what Scripture says it is. Indeed, this may be the case here.

I've also realized that those who are huge readers of men's books and are at the higher levels of academia are some of the most liberal-infested minds around, including the Reformed schools. It is because they are exposed to error so much, just to be "fair and balance" that they end up swallowing the lies. Look at the authors Frank Beckwith has cozied up with: W.L. Craig = Open Theist; JP Moreland says some Evangelicals are "over committed to Scripture"; Koukl says Scripture isn't sufficient, we need other things like the wisdom of Pagans and psychology. These men are attacking Scripture.

Let's not forget it was the Evangelical Theological Society that aided and abetted Open Theists Greg Boyd, Clark Pinnock, and John Sanders. So WISE were the scholars of the ETS that they never could get enough votes to throw them out of their affluent little group. I have NO patience for such garbage as ETS. It needs to be destroyed, never to be heard of again. Truly.

Col 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Act 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. 

Rom 16:17 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.

2Co 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 2Co 10:5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 2Co 10:6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

Rejection of Major Doctrines Still Passes for Famous "Christians" According to Adrian Warnock and John Piper but Not Spurgeon

Interesting, considering both Warnock and Piper are Charismatic Reformers (they deny Sola Scriptura):

"The reason for saying, “when consistently worked out,” is because I think it is possible to inconsistently deny the truth of imputation while embracing other aspects of the gospel (blood bought forgiveness, and propitiation, for example), through which God mercifully saves.

I am thankful that God is willing to save us even when our grasp of the gospel may be partial or defective. None of us has a comprehensive or perfect grasp of it."

~ John Piper

Adrian Warnock says:

Quote:

"In some circles it is fashionable to knock N.T. Wright. I do have some significant concerns about his views on justification. But as this clip will show you, even if he is indeed wrong about the cross, he sure is “wright” about the resurrection!

I found his “big green book” incredibly helpful as I wrote my own. I would commend it to anyone. The only possible draw back is that it is very long. But the investment of time to read it is worthwhile for sure.Wright defends the historicity of the resurrection in such a way that if unbelief was merely a rational problem, everyone would be convinced."

End quote.

What? And that's worth promoting as true? Sorry, but if someone is wrong on the Gospel, then it doesn't matter what they think about the resurrection.

Typically, any dogmatic rejection of a false teacher is heralded as "knocking" the man down, bashing him, or what have you. "Balance" is when you, like these men, accept, befriend, love, and promote false teachers. That's not what Jesus did nor the Apostle Paul, Peter, or Jude for that matter! These men are more tolerant than God Himself.

Spurgeon speaks to this very damnable tide of "anythingarianism":

"You may believe anything, everything, or nothing, and yet be enrolled in the "Evangelical" army—so they say. Will there arise no honest, out-spoken evangelicals among Dissenters to expose and repudiate this latitudinarianism? Are all the watchmen asleep? Are all the churches indifferent?" - Spurgeon


Excerpts from Progressive Theology by Charles Spurgeon, Sword and Trowel, April 1888:

The idea of a progressive gospel seems to have fascinated many. To us that notion is a sort of cross-breed between nonsense and blasphemy. After the gospel has been found effectual in the eternal salvation of untold multitudes, it seems rather late in the day to alter it; and, since it is the revelation of the all-wise and unchanging God, it appears somewhat audacious to attempt its improvement. When we call up before our mind's eye the gentlemen who have set themselves this presumptuous task, we feel half inclined to laugh; the case is so much like the proposal of moles to improve the light of the sun. Their gigantic intellects are to hatch out the meanings of the Infinite! We think we see them brooding over hidden truths to which they lend the aid of their superior genius to accomplish their development!

Do men really believe that there is a gospel for each century? Or a religion for each fifty years? Will there be in heaven saints saved according to a score sorts of gospel? Will these agree together to sing the same song? And what will the song be? Saved on different footings, and believing different doctrines, will they enjoy eternal concord, or will heaven itself be only a new arena for disputation between varieties of faiths?

It is thought to be mere bigotry to protest against the mad spirit which is now loose among us. Pan-indifferentism is rising like the tide; who can hinder it? We are all to be as one, even though we agree in next to nothing. It is a breach of brotherly love to denounce error. Hail, holy charity! Black is white; and white is black. The false is true; the true is false; the true and the false are one. Let us join hands, and never again mention those barbarous, old-fashioned doctrines about which we are sure to differ. Let the good and sound men for liberty's sake shield their "advanced brethren"; or, at least, gently blame them in a tone which means approval. After all, there is no difference, except in the point of view from which we look at things: it is all in the eye, or, as the vulgar say, "it is all my eye"! In order to maintain an open union, let us fight as for dear life against any form of sound words, since it might restrain our liberty to deny the doctrines of the Word of God!


End quote.