False Christian teachings, trends….
Spiked Online Editor Brendan O’Neill says the recent arrest of a 71-year-old pastor in the UK for alleged hate speech is a “vile assault on freedom of religion”. …“He was just reading from the Bible; he was citing the Bible’s definition … some people reported him for hate speech and then he was arrested in a pretty violent way. …“This is a vile assault on freedom of religion and a vile assault on freedom of speech.”
If all of man’s accumulated knowledge since the beginning of recorded history were represented by one inch until 1845; then from 1845 – 1945 would equal 3 inches; from 1945 – 1975 would equal 555 feet; according to Buckminster Fuller (inventor, innovator and mathematician) who presented his ‘doubling curve’ in 1982, in his best seller, Critical Path. His argument was that our accumulation of knowledge since the end of WWII, had jumped from doubling approximately every century to doubling every 25 years. …presently, every 12 hours our accumulated knowledge doubles. We are in a world of exploding knowledge we can barely keep up with; however, we are still described in scripture as fools; men and nations walk in an empty-minded manner, darkened in sin and ignorance such that they cannot understand divine truth.
The Psalter explained by Pastor Matthew Everhard. He examines three types of Psalters, one for reading an two for singing; of the latter, one is scored and one not. In the process of his explanation, he provides a brief history of Psalm singing in the church.
This post shows a congregation singing from the Book of Psalms for Worship. My purpose in posting it is to show that a church can sing from scripture; to show also that in singing from scripture one does not have to worry about being led astray by music like that sung by Hillsong and other man-centered forms of music. God’s word is God-centered; has correct doctrine that is approved by Him, its writer!
Christ experienced deep loneliness in His ministry and atoning work
This is a very thought provoking devotional about a state with which we’re all very familiar: loneliness. In a sense, we experience loneliness during all of our lives, even if we are surrounded by loving friends during much of it. How so? Our inner choices, questions, battles, sorrows, burdens…are faced alone (unless one is born again, in that case, Christ is with him) …He talks about several stages of life: the necessary struggles of youth; the loneliness of sorrow and loss; the loneliness of old age; and of death
Five Ligonier Fellows answered questions during their 3 day conference in Florida. A conference overview is featured on a 1 minute video to give readers a sense of what it was about. The video featuring the Q&A panel is linked. Questions were as follows: Q1. How can one grow in the fear of God and decrease in the fear of man? [0 – 7m] Q2. The Psalmist David used to pray for God to deal with his enemies, why don’t people pray such prayers today? Q3. How can we become more blameless? Q4. Must a person forsake his sins to come to Christ? Q5. Is the doctrine of election a primary doctrine? [16:30 – 21m] Q6. How would you counsel someone who struggles with unbelief / doubt [someone who lacks assurance]? [21m – 38:30] Q7. When Moses spoke with God, was that a real manifestation of God or what? [38:30 – 40:30] Q8 and 9. What is the future of reformed theology? What is the future church facing? [40:30 – 48m]
This post contains a Q & A session with Joel Kim, Steven Lawson, John MacArthur, and Stephen Nichols. The video addresses questions about the following topics: 0m – 12m: Intro of speakers and definition of “reformed theology” 13m – 22m: How are we made in the image of God? 22m – 27:30: Can one who is intellectually impaired be saved? Being saved in general; the Holy Spirit’s work in regeneration 27:30m – 30m: cessation and sign gifts 30m – 36m: public confessions by ministers 37m – 47m: Discipleship; the gospel
Dr. Ramsey just finished preaching through the 10 commandments from Deuteronomy 5; this sermon is a capstone of sorts to that series. In other words, he talks about the golden rule in terms of the 10 commandments; he also tied in other significant passages of scripture such as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount; and Jesus’ words in Matthew 22:37ff – when He talked about loving God and ones neighbor.
He began by talking about what the golden rule is not; and how not to use it. Then Dr. Ramsey talked about how social relationships flourish when people follow the golden rule and why that is so.
This post uses scripture from Galatians to show that there is only one way of salvation, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Baha’i Faith, and many Christian denominations mix the law and the gospel to create a way that does not lead to salvation; blending elements of the biblical system of law with the new covenant gospel way of faith creates a false way that leads only to damnation. Even though the apostle Paul used many words in Romans, Galatians and elsewhere to clarify this very important matter, many still err. Paul undoubtedly spent so much time on this matter because pride moves us all to think we can make our own way to God.
In the following sermon by Dr. MacArthur, he compares the current state of our nation to that of Israel, as portrayed by Isaiah in chapters 5 and 6 of his prophecy. Dr. MacArthur used many scriptures in his portrayal of nations under judgment by God, including Romans 1; Isaiah 1; 14; 66; Matthew 13; Mark 4; Luke 8; John 12; Acts 28; Psalm 81. In Isaiah 5, the prophet pronounced 5 woes for: 1, excessive materialism; 2, for drunken pleasure seeking; 3, for having no knowledge of God; 4, for defiant sinfulness, for blatantly displaying their sins; and 5, the arrogance and conceit of the leaders – they declared evil good and good evil…. His message ultimately stated that there is no hope for our nation, but there is hope of individual salvation, of those elect; believers need to be preaching correctly about the state of affairs in God’s world.