Sunday, August 27, 2017

Flattery To Hide Disobedience

God demanded Saul: 1Sa 15:3  'Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'" 

1Sa 15:13  Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed are you of the LORD! I have carried out the command of the LORD."

This is flattery.
1Sa 15:14  But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?"
1Sa 15:15  Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; but the rest we have utterly destroyed."


Claiming to honor God by disobeying Him. This too, is flattery, trying to fool God.

Psa 106:34  They did not destroy the peoples, As the LORD commanded them,
Psa 106:35  But they mingled with the nations And learned their practices,
Psa 106:36  And served their idols, Which became a snare to them.
Psa 106:37  They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,
Psa 106:38  And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and their daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with the blood. 

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Do You Realize It?

"To realize that the Holy Scriptures are a revelation from the Most High, communicating to us His mind and defining for us His will, is the first step toward practical godliness. To recognize that the Bible is God's Word, and that its precepts are the precepts of the Almighty, will lead us to see what an awful thing it is to despise and ignore them."
~ Arthur Pink, "The Sovereignty of God"

Partial Transcript of the Dialogue Between James White and Yasir Qadhi

Below is a partial transcript  of James White's dialogue with Yasir Qadhi that I made.

Emphasis of course is mine. I've included time stamps in parenthesis within the dialogue when the dialogue was long and one wanted to get to the particular sentence. On the rare occasion when a word was unclear, I noted in it in brackets.

White:

:15 It has been my desire to engage in a dialogue like this…

:36 I want you to understand what our motivations are this evening in coming together. This is not a debate.

:49 We are going to of necessity discuss differences that we have. Um the thing that makes this wonderful and the reason I sought out Dr. Qadhi, aside from the fact that I have learned so much from him over the years, uh that he’s been a primary influence in my study of Islam—I am a student of Islam and I’ve learned much from him—but the reason I specifically sought him out (1:13) is because I sense in him such a kindred spirit on the other side of the casm that divides us in regards to our theology and our beliefs. (1:22) He is a consistent Muslim. He is believes what he says. He wants to seek for consistency amongst his people and his own practice. And so when you have two believing people, one Christian, one Muslim, come together and say (1:37) we need to discuss not only what divides us but also where do we have similarities.(1:43) How can we live in the same community? And the most important thing is this: if we do what we—if we do what I hope happens this evening, we’re going to do something absolutely unique. It hardly ever happens. And that is, two communities where unfortunately there is a lot of fear on both sides. There’s a lot of misunderstanding on both sides. And as a Christian I want to see doors open. As a Christian I want you as—if you are a Christian here this evening—to not have fear of the Muslim people but to have love for the Muslim people. I want the Muslim people to understand that we care and that we want to have dialogue and that we’re not seeking this evening to sweep our differences under the rug and say they don’t matter.Dr. Qadhi cannot present an Islam that is simply one view amongst many. (2:24) I believe in divine revelation, he believes in divine revelation. So how do we get along?  How do our communities talk one another.

2:58 If you’re a praying person pray that we will have understanding. That as—if you’re a Christian I want you to hear what this man has to say. I want you to understand why he believes the things he does. What his life is like here in the States as a Muslim.

17:57 "And yet people will hold me accountable for the Westboro Baptist church people and things like that. And I’m like wait a minute. That’s not my life. That’s not how I approach people. That’s not my perspective. I do not want to be painted with that brush. I demand the right of self definition of what my faith is. We all demand that right. And yet for many Christians we refuse that right to Muslims."

1:10:37

White: Speaking of complicated, um,our worldviews—you, you mentioned to me that, that one of your frustrations is that, um, our worldviews share much more in common in regards to how they impact social issues, governmental issues, things like that, then many of the Christians that are willing to talk with you and yet they have a liberal, almost secular worldview when it comes to those things. And the very people that you should have the most in common with, there tends to be, the, the greatest amount of distrust.(1:11:08) Where do our worldviews intersect? I mean, for example, one of the things I mentioned to you and I just mentioned moments ago is, I’ve done a fair amount of written books, called “The Same Sex Controversy”, I’ve done a number of debates on the subject of homosexuality. I understand that homosexuality is considered to be a grave sin , uh within, uh, Islamic uh, theology. And from a Christian perspective, it is particularly grave because it is based on upon, uh, a, a rebellion against God’s right to define what is appropriate sexual behavior, what is a male, what is a female. The whole transgender movement is, uh, a rejection of God’s right to say this is male, this is female, this is what is good for male and female, etcetera. (1:11:57) So we have, where, where are the areas of intersection and does that mean there’s grounds for cooperation when people are trying to shove a particular worldview down our children’s throats basically?

1:12:11
Qadhi 

Very good question. And this is really one of my main reasons for wanting to dialogue with uh, uh,uh Christians who are committed to the values of classical, mainstream Christianity. Because the fact of the matter is that yes, we have a lot of disagreements, but we have a lot in common with one another; in terms of morality, in terms of decency, in terms of family values. Committed Muslims and committed Christians really are seeing eye to eye. We both decry the, the, the liberalism, the secularization, the sexualization of our society; we both mourn over the loss of the family structure; we both want the man to be the man, the woman to be the woman, and one of the verses of the quran [unintelligible] God says, uh, the man is not like the woman, and yet in another verse, uh it mentions that, you know, uh you know, uh, God who created you from a man and a woman and from the two of them, he created multitudes of men and women. There is no third gender or [unintelligible] or transgender for us as Muslim and as many committed Christians, a man is a man, a woman is a woman, and there is no competition between the two genders. It’s not as if there’s any type of wrestling match going on and one has to prove the identity of other. God honors men and God honors women and for a man to be a man, and a woman to be a woman, is their honor. There is no competition in, against each other. A family unit is building block of society and when family is preserved, society is preserved. So in Islam, yes marriages are supposed to flourish and you’re supposed to have uh, a man and a woman, you know, have children together. We don’t uh, espouse or agree with these alternative ideologies and we do feel that, uh, they are simply not the norm that God created mankind upon. Uh, we also are very, you know, uh, sad at these changes that have taken place; the Supreme Court ruling, the what-not. I gave a sermon and lecture about this on line, I don’t know if you listened to it or not. In it we clearly said that even if it’s politically incorrect to say, as a Muslim I have to say this, that I don’t view this as being healthy for society; that these types of changes going on and are becoming normative and, and legal, and you know, (1:14:26) IF committed Christians and Muslims come had together; IF we had joined hands and forces, maybe we could have affected a stronger change?

1:14:32
White: I’ve never asked this question of Muslims before, so I never even thought of it, so here it goes. It could be dangerous, but from my perspective, I believe that God’s wrath abides upon a nation that flouts his law; that literally knowing what his law is, rejects that law and in essence spits in his face, from a Christian perspective, I think there’s plenty of evidence in the Old Testament that God’s wrath will come upon a people who consistently reject his way. What’s the Muslim perspective? Uh, your, your understanding?

Qadhi:
1:21:37 Muslims do not speak in terms of specifics, therefore I do not believe you are going to hell. That’s not my prerogative to say.

1:22:27 There may be people who will be saved who are not Muslim.

White  1:22:53 And of course from our perspective, un one of the things I think is probably ringing in people’s ears is the term “chances”, because, see, from, from the Christian perspective, the only reason that I can ever have peace with God or any confidence of entering into his presence is because I’m in possession of the of righteousness of Jesus Christ given to me.

White
1:23:36 The Christian understanding of why that only Christians go to heaven is because it’s not, we don’t view ourselves as a group that some, somehow is better than anybody else. We believe that a Christian is a person who has fled to God for his mercy and that, that recognize that he is the only that God has given to where his righteousness is perfect in God’s sight. That’s why it’s not just a chance, I’m not taking a chance, I have a rightness that is perfect in God’s sight and that’s why I can have peace with him, so…

1:24:07
Qadhi: And again this is one of the fundamental disagreements  that we agree to disagree (White: it is) from our perspective, from our perspective, it’s an element of arrogance to say I am going to enter heaven and I’m certain about it. Rather, I’m very hopeful that I’m optimistic…

 1:24:58 Qadhi:  Suppose you think I’m going to hell, that’s your perogotive and legal right to think, uh by the way I don’t think you’re going to hell unconditionally, as I said that’s not the way we talk. But suppose I say the path that you have chosen is a path that is not leading to heaven. Let’s put it that way, ok? Or ok, it’s a path leading to hell.  The question is very simple: do we have to make this world a living hell because of that? That’s the question. Let god judge on judgment day. I, I honestly am not insulted when you say this to me. I’m not. Because I’m so confident in my faith and god that your confidence doesn’t negate my confidence. I am not insulted. Quite the contrary. A part of me admires you for your faithfulness to your tradition and I hope you feel the same about me. So the question is then, if you feel this way about me and I feel that you are not correctly on guidance,  but I feel that there’s hope of forgiveness for you and I hope that god guides you in this world or forgives you in the next, I don’t have a problem saying that theologically,  (1:26:00)but suppose even that uh, you know, uh that I believe that your path is incorrect, can’t we be good neighbors together? Can’t we work together to better schools, to minimize crime, to fight against pornography and drugs, to, to, affirm family values? Why must we hate one another in a civil society where coming together will bring about so much potential good? Why can’t we look at what we have in common even as we understand and appreciate and are honest about our differences? That is my goal for conversations with you [unintelligible].

1:26:36
White: And obviously from a Christian perspective, any Christian in the room recognizes that when you have a relationship with someone based upon respect, recognizing  in them, we use the term “image of God”, I , I realize that’s not a, a Muslim concept, but it’s that we’re created by God, when you recognize in someone else a fellow image bearer, uh, obviously it is, it is far easier uh, to model the love of Jesus Christ and have the opportunity to modeling the gospel in front of someone, when you have a relationship with them that’s based upon respect and kindness and, and everything else rather than. I, I think the greatest barrier for Christians in reaching out to the Muslim people is fear. We have fear in our hearts that’s based upon ignorance, it’s bas upon other things, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to do this and so the final question before we go to questions …(1:27:35) um the last question we had on our, our little list what we want for each other and we sort of  just talked about that just a little bit but we’ll conclude with this. (1:27:51)Um, from a Christian perspective obviously and this is, this is why we can have these conversations, I would be very uncomfortable just talking about our similarities  if we weren’t honest about what we, what we really believe. That’s, that’s the kind of dialogue that, that I think a lot of people think we’re doing and it’s not. Obviously the greatest thing that I can hope for any person—if the greatest thing I can hope for my children, is that they have, is that they bow the knee in repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and they receive a new heart, and they have eternal life, they have his righteousness and they’re going to have eternal life because of what Christ has done—if that’s the greatest thing I can hope for my children then it’s the greatest thing I can hope for, for anybody else. And so I can have friendships with Muslim people as long as we’ve had that conversation, they know where I stand, they what I’m praying for, but I know what I’m going to be doing and have been doing for years and that is I pray for Yasir Qadhi. If I pray for Yasir Qadhi, I’m not changing God’s heart, God’s changing my heart. He is making me to be the type of person that is going to be concerned about  your welfare, concerned about your health, concerned about your safety, concerned about your family, he’s changing me.  That’s, you know, we’re not trying to convince God to be better; God’s already good. He’s changing us. (1:29:14) And so, what would it mean if the Muslim people in your neighborhood knew that you loved them, cared for them, prayed for them, and are willing to do anything for them? It would change everything.  But unfortunately that’s now how they view us. And so my desire, what I want, the final question was, what is our greatest desire for the other, and I know, that, that, obviously I want your health, and your, your happiness, and all these things , but the greatest thing a Christian wants for anyone is that they come to know Jesus Christ personally and bow the knee to Him and from a, and I would imagine from your perspective you would love to see nothing more than for me to embrace Islam and say the Shahada and the whole nine yards (Qadhi: That would make me very happy yes. I will not deny that.) And, and, I’m glad that you wouldn’t because there are some who would be afraid to say that, thinking that as long as that’s at the back of the mind, (1:30:15) then we can never truly  have a good relationship and that’s what we’ve got to get past.

1:30:16 Qadhi: But see let me just say this as well from an Islamic perspective. My desire to see you guided doesn’t at all infringe on my genuine, my genuine love and care and concern for you regardless of whether you’re guided or not, I am commanded with my Sharia, with my faith tradition to treat you with the utmost dignity and kindness and compassion and care. And I would say that faithful Christians should view me in the same way. What I found unfortunately was that one segment of them don’t do that. They have nothing but mistrust and fear and hatred and to me that’s not the image of Jesus Christ that I have amongst what it should be, you know, what should be happening. So let’s be honest with one another and let’s you know what, we have some serious theological disagreements. That’s fine. In the meantime until we meet our lord and our lord will decide between us, one of the verses of the quran literally says “you do your deeds, we will do our deeds and on judgment day god will judge between the both of us”. That is the attitude of the Muslim.

1:35:56
White: As I understand it one of the primary differences in the term that you all use is katir [spelling?], right? (Qadhi: yes) And uh, one of the primary differences between us as to the mechanism of predestination is that in the Christian perspective that includes the very thing that is the fundamental difference between us and that is the incarnation. That that is part of God’s decree and so God becomes—enters into his own creation in the person of his son and that would be something would not be contemplated whatsoever in the Islamic  (unintelligible). (Qadhi: yes).  
  
1:49:37  Qadhi: So religious and conservative Christians need to realize, and you all know this, you and us are both minorities in this land. If you’re going to give the government power to go after one minority you’re going to give them power to go after every minority. And that’s not what this country was founded on. That’s not the vision of our founding fathers. Our founding fathers, whatever you want to believe about their personal lives and their versions of Christianity, it’s very clear they understood the dangers of giving any one sect power over others. These days it’s not even Christian sects. It is people that don’t believe in any religion. You’re gonna give them powers.




56:11 Michael Brown, a friend of mine

56:37 From my perspective, this [homosexuality] is a hill to die on. It’s a hill to die on because in Matthew chapter 19 uh, the Lord Jesus Christ specifically taught God created—he quoted from Genesis 1—he quoted from what you and I would both agree—in the beginning God created man, uh, he made them male and female; it was good; uh, this was his creative purpose and from my perspective what we’re being, what Christians are being asked to do in our culture today is to deny the authority of Christ in his teaching and to adopt a different authority. And this is what the early church faced with the Caesars.

1:04:30 I don’t have a—I li…I don’t have a problem with it (hijab). Modesty happens to be a wonderful and great thing.

 Both in the first and second talk (mostly second) but in the first 1:47:36 for example, very anti-Trump. Very political. Very anti-Fox News.

1:48:14 to restrict religious liberty, as some Christians are advocating will end up restricting religious liberty on us.

I found that:

Perspective – 15x just in the ones I transcribed. There’s more but I didn’t have time or energy to write them all down.

Absolutely – 1x

Monday, August 21, 2017

Sitting In the Seat of Scoffers


Inter-faith dialogues in mosques or the LDS churches violate verse:

Psa 1:1  How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

"Seat": môshâb  
4186
1) seat, assembly, dwelling-place, dwelling, dwellers
1a) seat, sitting, those sitting, sitting company or assembly
1b) dwelling place, dwelling
1c) situation, location
1d) time of dwelling
1e) those dwelling, dweller

More on how this word is used here.

Psa 26:4  I do not sit with deceitful men, Nor will I go with pretenders. 
Psa 26:5  I hate the assembly of evildoers, And I will not sit with the wicked. 

Here, sit:

H3427
ישׁב
yâshab
BDB Definition:
1) to dwell, remain, sit, abide
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to sit, sit down
1a2) to be set
1a3) to remain, stay
1a4) to dwell, have one’s abode
1b) (Niphal) to be inhabited
1c) (Piel) to set, place
1d) (Hiphil)
1d1) to cause to sit
1d2) to cause to abide, set
1d3) to cause to dwell
1d4) to cause (cities) to be inhabited
1d5) to marry (give an dwelling to)
1e) (Hophal)
1e1) to be inhabited
1e2) to make to dwell
Part of Speech: verb

NASB Translation
abide (5), abides (2), abode (1), convened (1), dwell (61), dweller (1), dwelling (20), dwells (12), dwelt (9), enthroned (9), had (1), inhabit (6), inhabitant (27), inhabitants (202), inhabitants of dwell (1), inhabited (25), inhabiting (1), inhabits (1), left (1), live (118), lived (137), lives (7), living (44), lurking (1), makes (1), married (6), marrying (1), occupants (1), occupied (1), passed (1), peaceful (1), placed (1), remain (21), remained (27), remaining (1), reposed (1), resettle (1), residents (1), retire (1), rule (1), sat (42), sat down (21), seat (2), seated (3), set (3), settle (6), settled (23), sit (68), sit down (7), sits (20), sits enthroned (1), sitting (48), sitting down (3), sitting still (1), situated (1), spent (1), stand (1), stay (29), stayed (25), staying (6), stays (2), take a seat (1), taken his seat (1), wait (2).

Translated once as "convened" Ezr_10:16  But the exiles did so. And Ezra the priest selected men who were heads of fathers' households for each of their father's households, all of them by name. So they convened on the first day of the tenth month to investigate the matter. 

2. a. remain, stay, tarry (for a limited or indefinite time), with אֶת person Genesis 24:55 (J), Judges 19:42 Samuel 16:8....

More on this word here.

Friday, August 18, 2017

Immanuel Bible Church In The D.C. Area Says It's Ok For Women "Missionaries" To Lead & Start New Churches




My response is in the brackets. 
From the first page, an introduction:

Quote:
We, the elders of Immanuel Bible Church, believe
that the Scriptures address every area of our lives,
including the roles of men and women. Although
God has made these issues clear in His Word, our
culture has rejected the biblical view, causing
much confusion. 
[Thou art the men! YOU are confusing people by your pragmatic and rebellious approval of women creating and leading churches as "missionaries"]

Our purpose is to understand God’s design and
resist the pressure to conform to the standards
and structures of our culture.
What follows is a
summary of the biblical principles relating to this
issue and the practice of Immanuel Bible Church.... [No, what follows is doing exactly what we just said we're to resis: conform to the standards and structures of our culture, namely women leading men in spiritual enterprises and starting churches--which by the way, is the feminist Charismatic justification-if there are no men, then God will raise up women.]

Then later they state:
Missionaries
We believe that men and women in missionary service should follow the
mandates of the Scriptures as churches are established.
Missionaries receiving support from Immanuel Bible Church
shall be guided by the Scriptures concerning the roles of men
and women in the church as they respond to diverse cultural
and ethnic differences.

Women in missionary service may find themselves in
situations requiring them to assume teaching and leadership
roles normally reserved for men. This typically occurs where
no qualified men are available.
Once a church has been

established and qualified men become available, they shall
assume leadership roles. 
[Why are they sending women without men?Anyway this stance denies that IF God wants to raise up a church HE will supply the men to evangelize, teach, lead, and start a new church. It denies His absolute and sole sovereign power and instead has a God less powerful who has to break His own Word because He just can't find any qualified men around. Do they understand that they put the cart before the horse? That they make Man the determiner of creating a church, not God? That they make Him dependent on women if HE can't find qualified men available? That they deny it's God alone who qualifies men?]
End quote.


Where Jesse Johnson (formerly at GCC where John MacArthur teaches) is lead teaching pastor and The Master's Seminary's Long Distance provider. This is what the seminary students (soon to be elders among you (as if going to seminary qualifies a man to be an elder in the first place) is bringing to their churches. 
So it's ok to violate clear commands of God? Pragmatism not biblical practice rules these seminaries and churches and THAT'S why we end up with Inter-Faith Dialogues like what James White, Driscoll, and Rick Warren do. This is a rejection of that God's Word is absolute in it's authority, that there are definite biblical roles for men and women in the church/ministry, and that God will provide men IF He wants a work to be done. Such abject hypocrites. Religious empty words. Haven't people learned from the past? Trying to help out God is blasphemous (He doesn't need you) and thinking His way is not all that important is also blasphemous.
The Phillistines had stolen the Ark of the Covenant and placed it on a cart to move. The Israelites improved things by getting a "new" cart.  But God had already said that the Ark is not to be moved but only by using the poles. But then something happened and it was the result of the original issue: their irreverence toward God and HIS Word:

2Sa 6:3  They placed the ark of God on a new cart that they might bring it from the house of Abinadab which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were leading the new cart. 
2Sa 6:4  So they brought it with the ark of God from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Ahio was walking ahead of the ark. 
2Sa 6:5  Meanwhile, David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD with all kinds of instruments made of fir wood, and with lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets and cymbals. 
2Sa 6:6  But when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen nearly upset it. 
2Sa 6:7  And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God. 

Gen 16:2  So Sarai said to Abram, "Now behold, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 
Gen 16:3  After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram's wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. 
Gen 16:4  He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight. 

That didn't turn out well for Sarah, Hagar, or the children, for Ishmael would be set against his younger brother Isaac through whom the promise of God would come. But Sarah wanted to help out God and so she sinned.

Then there's the event of Aaron's sons who offered strange fire to God in worship, not the fire God required. God struck them dead.

The point is that to violate God's command is sinful. To justify the sin is also sinful. It's also a heart of unbelief  and irreverence toward God and His Word. It is to say with the ancient Serpent, "Hath God said? Surely you won't die!" It's to attack HIS authority and raise up man's instead. It's treason.
For a biblical response regarding women's roles I dealt with it here.


Thursday, August 17, 2017

Trump Was Right: Pershing Did Talk About Using Pigs & Blood In The Philippines

Media fact checks have claimed that General John “Black Jack” Pershing would not have offended Muslims by authorizing such a course of action and that any claims of his involvement are also a legend.
General Pershing however wrote in his autobiography that, "These Juramentado attacks were materially reduced in number by a practice that the Mohamedans held in abhorrence. The bodies were publicly buried in the same grave with a dead pig. It was not pleasant to have to take such measures, but the prospect of going to hell instead of heaven sometimes deterred the would-be assassins."
We can be certain then that the practice of burying Muslim terrorists with pigs was indeed real and fairly widespread. Was pig’s blood also used on Muslim terrorists as a deterrent to prevent attacks?
The Scientific American described just such an event. In a hard look at the area, it wrote of a place where, "Polygamy is universally practiced and slavery exists very extensively. Horse stealing is punishable by death, murder by a fine of fifty dollars. The religion is Mohamedan.”
A Muslim terrorist, the magazine wrote, “will suddenly declare himself ‘Juramentado’, that is inspired by Mohammed to be a destroyer of Christians. He forthwith shaves his head and eyebrows and goes forth to fulfill his mission."
The Scientific American described how a Muslim terrorist who had disemboweled an American soldier was made an example of. "A grave was dug without the walls of the city. Into this the murderer was unceremoniously dropped. A pig was then suspended by his hind legs above the grave and the throat of the animal cut. Soon the body lay immersed in gore... a guard stood sentry over the grave until dusk when the pig was buried side by side with the Juramentado.”
“This so enraged the Moros that they besieged the city. Matters became so grave that General Wood felt called upon to disperse the mob resulting in the death of a number of Moros.”
It is clear from these accounts which encompass General Pershing’s autobiography, the New York Times and the Scientific American that the use of pig corpses and pig’s blood in the Philippines was not a legend, but fact. It was not carried out by a few rogue officers, but had the support of top generals. It was not a single isolated incident, but was a tactic that was made use of on multiple occasions.

End quote.

~Frontpage Magazine

Thursday, August 10, 2017

How Do You Perceive God?

"If a person has erroneous thoughts of Deity, then he worships a false god and renders homage to a fictitious being, the figment of his own imagination. It is not sufficient to think of God as He may be conceived of in our imagination, instead, our thoughts of Him must be formed by what He has revealed of Himself in His word. Man, unaided, cannot rightly conceive of God; all speculation concerning Him is utterly vain, yea, profane. The finite cannot comprehend the Infinite. If the "judgmnents" of God are "unsearchable" and if His "ways" are "past finding out," how much more so must God Himself be!"
~ Arthur Pink, "Spiritual Union and Communion"

Wednesday, August 09, 2017

Regeneration

"Regeneration is indispensably necessary before any soul can enter Heaven. In order to love spiritual things a man must be made spiritual. The natural man may hear about them, and have a correct idea of the doctrine of them, but he cannot love them (2 Thess. 2:10), nor find his joy in them.
None can dwell with God and be eternally happy in His presence until a radical change has been wrought in him a change from sin to holiness; and this change must take place on earth."
~ Arthur Pink, "Regeneration or The New Birth"

Monday, August 07, 2017

Really NYT?

And, of course, staggering genocide makes it easier to see all that empty land. Only the would see that as a win/win.

A Problem With Piper's View of Creation

Answers In Genesis' Simon Turpin makes a good point regarding Piper's heretical (my word) view of Creation:
Quote:
Piper recognizes that the more controversial issue is how to construe Genesis 1–2 about how God did it and how long it took. Piper states:
Piper has chosen to follow John Sailhamer’s interpretation of Genesis. Piper comments on Sailhamer’s view:
His view is that what’s going on here is that all of creation happened to prepare the land for man. In verse 1, “In the beginning he made the heavens and the earth,” he makes everything. And then you go day by day and he’s preparing the land. He’s not bringing new things into existence; he’s preparing the land and causing things to grow and separating out water and earth. And then, when it’s all set and prepared, he creates and puts man there.
Piper believes this has the advantage of saying:
That the earth is billions of years old if it wants to be—whatever science says it is, it is—but man is young, and he was good and he sinned. He was a real historical person, because Romans 5 says so, and so does the rest of the Bible.
Piper’s statement reveals the controlling factor in his interpretation of Genesis is that of “science saying that the earth is billions of years old.” It is interesting that Piper believes that “science” shows the earth to be billions of years old. However, he believes that man is young, Adam was a real historical person, and that he was good and then sinned because of what Romans 5 and the rest of the Bible say. Unfortunately, Piper is seriously inconsistent in his views here because the same “science” that he accepts when it speaks about the age of the earth is the same “science” that would disagree with his conclusions regarding Adam and the consequences of sin. Why accept science in one area and not in the others? Furthermore, Piper draws his conclusion about Adam because the “Bible says so,” but the Bible also states that God created everything in six days (Genesis 1:1–2:3Exodus 20:1131:17).
End quote. (emphasis, mine)
On another note, I find it interesting that Piper's claim that the world is "as old as it wants to be" sounds very similar to James White's  Post-Modern "self definition" claim in his promotion of a lying imam:
Time mark 17:57 "And yet people will hold me accountable for the Westboro Baptist church people and things like that. And I’m like wait a minute. That’s not my life. That’s not how I approach people. That’s not my perspective. I do not want to be painted with that brush. I demand the right of self definition of what my faith is. We all demand that right. And yet for many Christians we refuse that right to Muslims."

Eschatology Is Essential

Tit 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
Tit 2:12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
Tit 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,
Tit 2:14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Tit 2:15 These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

The sound doctrines of soteriology, sanctification, and eschatology are inseparably bound to each other and they are bound to God.

Living godly, righteous lives and looking for the return of Christ is to be done now--in this "present age", as well as be taught authoritatively in the context of the local church--again, in this "present age". There are no justifiable excuses of "who's perfect" or "there's no perfect church", in order to justify sin and compromise. The standard on how to live and when to do it is dogmatically taught in Scripture.

As taught at church yesterday on Titus 2:11-5, when leaders do not teach eschatology, they cheat the Christian of his sanctification. To say that eschatology is a lesser doctrine, or as Mark Dever says, to teach on it is a sin, is to violate Scripture AND is to keep the Christian from maturity and sanctification. It also keeps his eyes on the temporal, immediate things around him (such as celebrity false teachers like Dever) instead of Christ.

This came up in my study:

1Jn 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
1Jn 3:3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
1Jn 3:4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
1Jn 3:5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.
1Jn 3:6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.
1Jn 3:7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;

It says the same thing. Also this:

2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
2Pe 3:11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
2Pe 3:12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!
2Pe 3:13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
2Pe 3:14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,

Sunday, August 06, 2017

The British National Trust Demanded All Volunteers To Wear Sodomite Badges Or Move Out of Sight

National Trust members are threatening to cancel their membership after it was revealed that volunteers were banished to the back room, out of sight of visitors, for refusing to wear a gay pride badge...

Ten volunteers at Felbrigg Hall refused to wear the rainbow lanyards and badges, to mark 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, in protest at the Trust’s decision to ‘out’ the Hall’s former owner, poet and historian Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer, who bequeathed the estate to the Trust after his death in 1969.
As a result, volunteers who refused were asked “not to be on duty in a visitor-facing role” during the summer’s ‘Prejudice and Pride’ campaign, according to emails seen by The Telegraph.

~Breitbart
According to the BBC, the National Trust has reversed itself and has made wearing the badge "optional".

This is nothing more than homofascism. Only through the public outcry did the National Trust reverse itself. Ironically, these Western liberals are also the ones that  promote Islamofascism--the very government religion that throws sodomites off of buildings and shows hatred toward women. The Orlando jihad was an example of just how tolerant true Islam is regarding Western liberalism.
The disgusting thing is that the rainbow was God's promise to man to never flood the world again because of their sin and debauchery. To take that symbol and use it to promote that very wickedness is nothing less than blasphemy. Let is remember that God will not be mocked.
Gen 6:3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."
Gen 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Gen 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Gen 6:6 The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

Gen 18:20  And the LORD said, "The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave
Rom 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
Rom 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Rom 1:26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,
Rom 1:27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.