July 23, 2008
Four videos of Dr. MacArthur expositing the word of God to teach us the truth about God’s eternal justice. Courtesy of YouTube user mikejmon333.
July 23, 2008
The CrossTalk episode you’ve all been waiting for on Ray Comfort, Word of Faith False Teachings, is here!
Ingrid spends a good portion of the show discussing the night she attended this gathering of wolves in Armani suits in which John Avenzini spoke about his new doctrine of “reverse entrapment” that “God” just revealed to him. He also passed out lucky, talking, rubbing stones that will get you through tough times. In order for these stones to work, however, they have to be activated with a $500 or more “seed” donation to his “ministry.”
Only the most selfish individuals, seasoned with the charismatic foolishness of Word of Faith, and who are suffer from astounding amounts of Biblical illiteracy, will pay an already boastfully wealthy man $500 or more for a rock.
Ingrid also discusses the Ray Comfort issue and reads a short letter she received from him. I am certain this will only continue the controversy and cause battle lines to be drawn. But in the war on Truth, the battle lines must be clearly distinguished!
I am interested in getting the audio (or video) of Ray Comfort’s two sermons at this heresy-fest. If anyone knows where I can obtain them, please provide a link. I have not weighed in on this issue on DefCon yet, but I am beginning to lean toward Ingrid’s side on this.
July 23, 2008
I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is now speaking.1897 - 1963
July 23, 2008
Your sermon of the week is: The Believer’s Frustration and Discovery by Brian Borgman of Grace Community Church. It is a timely message for those struggling with sin as the Apostle Paul spoke about in Romans 7. Pastor Borgman provides comfort and assurance to the believer who is wrestling with sin, whereas he extends a warning to those who have no compulsion to resist (nor are even cognizant of) their sin, and that it’s perhaps because they’re not born again. Overall, this is a very good message.
July 23, 2008
The emotions are disturbed and perverted. Some hearts smolder with constant anger and hatred; others are tormented day and night by senseless fears. Multitudes laugh at things that ought to make them weep, while others burst into tears for no apparent reason. Such are the deep and all-pervasive disturbances to the human personality caused, either directly or indirectly, by sin.
- Charles Leiter
July 22, 2008
Children are a source of joy, and we would do well to learn from them. Most children are like open books. What is in their minds often shows up on their faces. If they do not like something, they show it. If they think something, they often say it – much to the chagrin of parents! However, parents have learned to be duplicitous and over the years are teaching their children to be the same way. “Fool everybody by covering up what is on the inside with a good show on the outside!”
BUT, WHY??? Why are all of these things occurring? What is the problem? It all boils down to the fact that many believers are not actively, deliberately struggling to control what is in their mind! They believe with their hearts but their mind is far from the things of God.
The rest of the Part 9 is found at The Desert Pastor!
July 22, 2008
The gospel is unpalatable to the natural man, for it declares him lost and undone. It declares him helpless. It strips him of his boasted good life and exposes his pitiful boast of keeping the golden rule. It leaves him with no hope except to cry out, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.”
- John E. Ashbrook
July 22, 2008
July 22, 2008
If we intend to answer man’s greatest problem—his separation from the eternal God—with rice handouts, then we are throwing a drowning man a board instead of helping him out of the water.
- K.P. Yohannan
July 22, 2008
ABC News has an article and a video on this guy that is definitely worth checking out. I also found the following video on YouTube (although not as insightful as the ABC News piece, it is telling).
On a side note, because of the increase in false Christs, and the promise from Scripture that in the end times many will come claiming to be Christ and lead many astray, I’ve decided to create a new category called False Christs.
July 21, 2008
It would be a foolish individual who invited to a royal banquet chose to show up at the palace having rolled in the sewage pits of the city. Yet, many are rolling their minds in the sewage pits of the City of Destruction daily but think their hearts can remain clean!
Day by day most believers find themselves filling their minds with the sewage, the filth, the refuse, and the perversions of the world through various forms of media. They are not being careful to follow the second aspect of holiness given by Paul. “Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
The rest of this post can be found at The Desert Pastor.
July 21, 2008
Pope in meeting with Christian Leaders in crypt of St. Mary's Cathedral
Source: Catholic News Agency.
Words in italics are my comments.
Sydney, Jul 18, 2008 / 01:34 am (CNA).- Fifteen leaders of the Australian Christian church met the Pope in an Ecumenical event held in the St. Mary’s Cathedral Crypt on Friday morning. In his address to the church leaders, Benedict XVI called on them to not view doctrine as divisive since that view can prevent Christians from working to improve the world.
That’s right, lay aside your differences even though you know that much of Roman Catholic doctrine is heretical and just be one big, happy family singing along to the tune played by the Roman pied piper pontiff while observing a works-based gospel to improve the world!
Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell represented the Catholic Church, while Rev. Robert Forsythe was present for the Anglican Church. Leaders representing the Syrian Orthodox, Maronite Catholics, Indian Orthodox, Chinese Methodist, the Lutheran and Uniting churches were also present.
Youth representatives were also present at the event, where approximately fifty guests were present because of their involvement in the Ecumenical Council of New South Wales.
The pope delivered a short address to the leaders, praising their commitment to the ecumenical movement, citing the Covenant signed in 2004 by the members of the National Council of Churches in Australia.
“This document recognizes a common commitment, sets out goals, and acknowledges points of convergence without glossing over differences,” said the Pope.
While Baptism is the starting point for ecumenical dialogue, the Pope said that, “The road of ecumenism ultimately points towards a common celebration of the Eucharist… we can be sure that a common Eucharist one day would only strengthen our resolve to love and serve one another in imitation of our Lord.”
There we go, in case some have not caught on yet, ecumenism does not mean that Christians come together to work out their differences, but discard their beliefs to follow that of the Roman Church’s.
“For this reason, a candid dialogue concerning the place of the Eucharist - stimulated by a renewed and attentive study of scripture, patristic writings, and documents from across the two millennia of Christian history - will undoubtedly help to advance the ecumenical movement and unify our witness to the world,” the Pontiff said.
The ecumenical movement has, the Pope observed, “reached a critical juncture. To move forward, we must continually ask God to renew our minds with the Holy Spirit, Who speaks to us through the scriptures and guides us into all truth. We must guard against any temptation to view doctrine as divisive and hence an impediment to the seemingly more pressing and immediate task of improving the world in which we live.”
This emphasis will lead to our works of charity speaking more eloquently of God’s bountiful goodness and love towards all, Pope Benedict said.
Finally the Pope concluded his address by calling on the Christian world to work together.
“As ‘fellow citizens’ of the ‘household of God,’ Christians must work together to ensure that the edifice stands strong so that others will be attracted to enter and discover the treasures of grace within.”
Following the meeting Pope met with religious leaders of other major faiths, at nearby St. Mary’s Cathedral Chapter House.
July 21, 2008
Worldly wisdom from a Christian women’s magazine
on a matter already addressed in Scripture.
My wife still receives the magazine Today’s Christian Woman after subscribing to it a couple years ago (before we knew better). TCW is published by Christianity Today (which is a perfect name for it because it bears no resemblance to Christianity yesterday). TCW’s target audience is mainstream, affluent, suburban, women of the Laodicean church.
In their latest July/August issue, I came across a little blurb designed to help women get their unregenerate husbands into a church to warm a seat. I decided to reprint the blurb (which was adapted from a book) below for the readers of DefCon to see how far American Christianity has fallen.
Pew Partners.
Wish your spouse spent Sunday mornings with you? Choose a church with these man-friendly characteristics.
* Large congregation
* No denominational affiliation
* Strict Scriptural adherence
* Young, multiracial crowd
* Authoritative, male pastor
* Informal dress
* Modern technology
* Fun services
Adapted from How Women Help Men Find God by David Murrow (Thomas Nelson)
Granted, not all of the suggestions are bad, but the overall theme is what’s of concern (how much poison would you like in your glass of water?).
I can’t help but wonder what a mess this will create if someone follows this and it works. Instead of an unregenerate man who stays at home on Sunday mornings who could still possibly be reached with the gospel one day, you now have an unregenerate man sitting in a circus church on Sunday mornings who was manipulated into church by his wife and had his fleshly needs catered to by the ear-tickling pastor during all one of those great modern technological church extravaganza shows.
Furthermore, the husband is now inoculated from the true gospel because he thinks himself in good standing with God because he’s begun attending church, (and no one in that church would dare challenge him to examine himself daily because that would be “judging”).
This spiritual self-deception will only be furthered if the husband ends up repeating a lifeless prayer of salvation after hearing a non-threatening, positive, upbeat, message on the life-lessons of King David during one of those “fun services” in which the pastor coaxed the audience to “try Jesus, He’ll make your life better.“
Sadly, unless a true conversion has taken place, this man will just be “playing church” and everything will remain the same as it was at home before he began attending church. His kids will grow up understanding what a true hypocrite looks like because daddy doesn’t act in church the way he acts throughout the rest of the week. This will more than likely turn his kids off to the faith and they may rebel and reject Christianity based off this experience of growing up with a fake Christian in their midst.
But what does the Scriptures say about how a godly wife is to handle her unbelieving husband? Surprisingly it makes no mention of church attendance at all:
In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. 1 Peter 3:1-2
Ahh, so according to Scripture, the real work is done in the home–in your everyday life–not in some church that caters to men’s needs.
By following the clear command of Scripture it would be better for the wife to remain faithful to the Lord’s instruction and not compromise, capitulate, and water-down her witness by resorting to manipulation in order to get dad to merely be a presence in a church.
It would be better for her children to grow up seeing the contrast between a godly woman and an ungodly man, and learn from their mother’s steadfast faithfulness to do what is commanded of her in Scripture. The above suggestions from TCW, however, would have the kids grow up with mom the compromiser of the faith, and dad the hypocrite of the faith.
What a train wreck we create when we attempt to do the job of the Holy Spirit and cajole, trick, manipulate, and force people into the kingdom of God via church attendance. But hey, all that matters is you got your “pew partner,” right?
July 21, 2008
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
- 1 Peter 2:24
July 21, 2008
On this edition of The White Horse Inn the hosts discuss The Gospel According to Pelagius.
“Who was Pelagius and what did he teach about sin, grace and the gospel? Why have his views stayed with us through the centuries? On this edition of the White Horse Inn the hosts will discuss the history and influence of Pelagianism, as they continue their series Christless Christianity.”
July 21, 2008
The difference between believing in Jesus and being born again is like believing in a parachute, and putting one on. The difference will be seen when you jump.
- The Evidence Bible (page 1343)
July 20, 2008
[Love] “does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth” (1Corinthians 13:6)
Herescope asks some penetrating questions on the subject of Watchman or Gossip?
How do we react to the news of the fall of Christians, or to the rumor of the latest heresy that comes out of the camp of the false teachers? Do we take delight in pouncing on the latest tidbit of scandal and spreading it as wide as possible? Or do we react like David and Samuel did?
This article is a must read for those who value Biblical discernment while desiring to maintain our Christian resolve toward charity - both of which are admonished by scripture. May we who are called by the Name of the LORD be ever mindful that we are sinners saved by grace and that even God’s truth can be professed without love and without balance.
Continue reading “Watchman or Gossip?” here.
July 20, 2008
A recent commenter dropped by my humble blog Absolute Dominion and had a question about our country’s political system and the act of voting. He asked: ”I will continue to obey the laws of the land, as they do not conflict with the word of God. But what do you think about not voting?”
Neither Absolute Dominion nor DefCon are political blogs, but the question in the context of the entire comment is both valid and important since it touches on the Christian’s civic responsibility as we pass onward through this strange land toward our eternal celestial home. The question is also particularly relevant and timely since most Americans are being inundated daily by the personalities vying for attention leading up to the 2008 presidential election.
Here was my response:
(more…)
July 20, 2008
Be encouraged fellow pilgrims; Sunday’s coming!
July 20, 2008
July 19, 2008
Something serious seems to be happening right now with John Piper and CJ Mahaney regarding an unsettling position that they’ve evidently both taken on Christ’s atoning work on the cross.
Steve Camp has posted a disturbing expose on this subject over at his blog in a piece entitled “THE SCREAM OF THE DAMNED…was Jesus really damned by God for our salvation?” that resulted from a pair of sermons that were delivered at the 2008 RESOLVED conference by Piper and Mahaney. Here is how Camp begins his post:
“I have listened now several times to two messages from the 2008 Resolved Conference by CJ Mahaney and John Piper. The shocking phrase they both chose to use to describe Jesus’ finished work of redemption on the cross for the elect was, The Scream of the Damned. No, they are not referring to unregenerate people in hell, or the weeping and gnashing of teeth from perdition’s flames, but using this to describe the sinless, holy Son of God as our divine Substitute. The Lord Jesus Christ the Righteous now called: The Damned. This is unthinkable. Those words not only stunned me, but it did stir my interest afresh to go back and study again the atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross with those provocative words in mind.”
I began listening to “God’s Wrath: Vengeance is Mine, I Will Repay” by John Piper tonight after carefully reading through Steve Camp’s post and the comments meta and lo and behold what did I discover but that John Piper has evidently been teaching this doctrine for years!
My discovery prompted me to leave this comment in Steve’s meta:
Steve,
Since I don’t believe in coincidences I must believe that God’s providence brought me to the following piece from John Piper dated February 27th, 2005 which is entitled “God’s Wrath: ‘Vengeance Is Mine, I Will Repay,’ Says the Lord”.
I was researching this piece because it was linked from another blog as a resource for defending the Biblical truth of the doctrine of hell over and against the myriads who despise and reject this doctrine, but I was shocked to hear Piper make the statement near the beginning of this sermon that Jesus Christ was damned on the cross.
Now you’ll need to listen to the audio because the statement didn’t make it into the sermon transcript, but beginning at about the 1:18 mark Piper makes the statement; “Jesus Christ perfectly righteous and perfectly damned on the cross in our place”.
As I mentioned in my prior quote I’d never heard about this matter until today and suddenly I’ve stumbled across it twice now.
I pray that this matter will be earnestly and prayerfully resolved with all gravity.
This is no light matter my friends! Let us fervently pray that the One True and Living God and His Christ would be glorified as the details of this issue are sorted out in the light of inspired scripture.
July 19, 2008
by Dr. John Piper
These ten points are my personal testimony to the effects of believing in the five points of Calvinism. I have just completed teaching a seminar on this topic and was asked by the class members to post these reflections so they could have access to them. I am happy to do so. They, of course, assume the content of the course, which is available on tape from Desiring God Ministries, but I will put them here for wider use in the hope that they might stir others to search, Berean-like, to see if the Bible teaches what I call “Calvinism.”
1. These truths make me stand in awe of God and lead me into the depth of true God-centered worship.
I recall the time I first saw, while teaching Ephesians at Bethel College in the late ’70’s, the threefold statement of the goal of all God’s work, namely, “to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14).
It has led me to see that we cannot enrich God and that therefore his glory shines most brightly not when we try to meet his needs but when we are satisfied in him as the essence of our deeds. “From him and through him and to him are all things. To him the glory forever” (Romans 11:36). Worship becomes an end in itself.
It has made me feel how low and inadequate are my affections, so that the Psalms of longing come alive and make worship intense.
2. These truths help protect me from trifling with divine things.
One of the curses of our culture is banality, cuteness, cleverness. Television is the main sustainer of our addiction to superficiality and triviality.
God is swept into this. Hence the trifling with divine things.
Earnestness is not excessive in our day. It might have been once. And, yes, there are imbalances in certain people today who don’t seem to be able to relax and talk about the weather.
Robertson Nicole said of Spurgeon, “Evangelism of the humorous type [we might say, church growth of the marketing type] may attract multitudes, but it lays the soul in ashes and destroys the very germs of religion. Mr. Spurgeon is often thought by those who do not know his sermons to have been a humorous preacher. As a matter of fact there was no preacher whose tone was more uniformly earnest, reverent and solemn” (Quoted in The Supremacy of God in Preaching, p. 57).
3. These truths make me marvel at my own salvation.
After laying out the great, God-wrought salvation in Ephesians 1, Paul prays, in the last part of that chapter, that the effect of that theology will be the enlightenment of our hearts so that we marvel at our hope, and at the riches of the glory of our inheritance, and at the power of God at work in us – that is, the power to raise the dead.
Every ground of boasting is removed. Brokenhearted joy and gratitude abound.
The piety of Jonathan Edwards begins to grow. When God has given us a taste of his own majesty and our own wickedness, then the Christian life becomes a thing very different than conventional piety. Edwards describes it beautifully when he says,
The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires: their hope is a humble hope, and their joy, even when it is unspeakable, and full of glory, is humble, brokenhearted joy, and leaves the Christian more poor in spirit, and more like a little child, and more disposed to a universal lowliness of behavior (Religious Affections, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959, pp. 339f).
4. These truths make me alert to man-centered substitutes that pose as good news.
In my book, The Pleasures of God (2000), pp. 144-145, I show that in the 18th century in New England the slide from the sovereignty of God led to Arminianism and thence to universalism and thence to Unitarianism. The same thing happened in England in the 19thcentury after Spurgeon.
Iain Murray’s Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987), p. 454, documents the same thing: “Calvinistic convictions waned in North America. In the progress of the decline which Edwards had rightly anticipated, those Congregational churches of New England which had embraced Arminianism after the Great Awakening gradually moved into Unitarianism and universalism, led by Charles Chauncy.”
You can also read in J. I. Packer’s Quest for Godliness (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1990), p. 160, how Richard Baxter forsook these teachings and how the following generations reaped a grim harvest in the Baxter church in Kidderminster.
These doctrines are a bulwark against man-centered teachings in many forms that gradually corrupt the church and make her weak from the inside, all the while looking strong or popular.
1 Timothy 3:15, “The church of the living God [is] the pillar and bulwark of the truth.”
5. These truths make me groan over the indescribable disease of our secular, God-belittling culture.
I can hardly read the newspaper or look at a TV ad or a billboard without feeling the burden that God is missing.
When God is the main reality in the universe and is treated as a non-reality, I tremble at the wrath that is being stored up. I am able to be shocked. So many Christians are sedated with the same drug as the world. But these teachings are a great antidote.
And I pray for awakening and revival.
And I try to preach to create a people that are so God-saturated that they will show and tell God everywhere and all the time.
We exist to reassert the reality of God and the supremacy of God in all of life.
6. These truths make me confident that the work which God planned and began, he will finish – both globally and personally.
This is the point of Romans 8:28-39.
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. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died- more than that, who was raised- who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
7. These truths make me see everything in the light of God’s sovereign purposes – that from him and through him and to him are all things, to him be glory forever and ever.
All of life relates to God. There’s no compartment where he is not all-important and the one who gives meaning to everything. 1 Corinthians 10:31.
Seeing God’s sovereign purpose worked out in Scripture, and hearing Paul say that “he accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11) makes me see the world this way.
8. These truths make me hopeful that God has the will, the right, and the power to answer prayer that people be changed.
The warrant for prayer is that God may break in and change things – including the human heart. He can turn the will around. “Hallowed be thy name” means: cause people to hallow your name. “May your word run and be glorified” means: cause hearts to be opened to the gospel.
We should take the New Covenant promises and plead with God to bring them to pass in our children and in our neighbors and among all the mission fields of the world.
“God, take out of their flesh the heart of stone and give him a new heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19).
“Lord, circumcise their hearts so that they love you” (Deuteronomy 30:6).
“Father, put your spirit within them and cause them to walk in Your statutes” (Ezekiel 36:27).
“Lord, grant them repentance and the knowledge of the truth that they may escape from the snare of the devil” (2 Timothy 2:25-26).
“Father, open their hearts so that they believe the gospel” (Acts 16:14).
9. These truths reminds me that evangelism is absolutely essential for people to come to Christ and be saved, and that there is great hope for success in leading people to faith, but that conversion is not finally dependent on me or limited by the hardness of the unbeliever.
So it gives hope to evangelism, especially in the hard places and among the hard peoples.
John 10:16, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold, I must bring them also. They will heed my voice.”
It is God’s work. Throw yourself into it with abandon.
10. These truths make me sure that God will triumph in the end.
Isaiah 46:9-10, “I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand that I will accomplish all my purpose’”
Putting them altogether: God gets the glory and we get the joy.
July 19, 2008
July 19, 2008
Some might not exactly agree with this brother’s method of catching Todd Bentley out, but I think it’s quite brilliant. Make sure you watch both parts to get the full story.
July 19, 2008
July 19, 2008
See related:
Living Dinosaurs (Part One). (Kent Hovind Seminar)
Living Dinosaurs (Part Two). (Interesting and “extinct” creatures captured videos)
July 19, 2008
Here’s Pastor Mark Escalera’s weekly Saturday sermon series on the book of Ephesians entitled Studies in Ephesians: Part Seventeen.
July 19, 2008
“We are not going to be an organization promoting celibacy or chastity.”
Faye Wattleton, President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 17, 1986
_______
“If your parents are stupid enough to deny you access to birth control, and you are under 18, you can get it on your own. Call Planned Parenthood.”
Planned Parenthood advertisement, Dallas Observer, Jan. 30, 1986
_______
“There are only 2 basic kinds of sex: sex with victims and sex without. Sex with victims is always wrong. Sex without is ALWAYS right.”
You’ve Changed The Combination, Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, Denver, Colo.
_______
“The question of whether or not to sell ourselves to men is a false one: The real question is how to sell ourselves in the way that is least destructive to ourselves and our sisters. Prostitutes don’t need our condescension. What they need is our alliance. And we need theirs.”
The New Our Bodies, Ourselves, Boston Women’s Health Collective, p 113
_______
“At Planned Parenthood you can also get birth control without the consent or knowledge of your parents. So, if you are 14, 15 or 16 and you come to Planned Parenthood, we won’t tell your parents you’ve been there. We swear we won’t tell your parents.”
Planned Parenthood employee lecturing students of Ramona High School, Riverside, Calif., April 21-22, 1986
See the following related posts:
Reverend Larry Phillips blesses a new abortion clinic, declaring it “sacred and holy.”
Planned Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger, in her own words.
Racism rears its ugly head (yet again) at Planned Parenthood.
The ridiculous rantings of a pro-abortion supporter.
Great question . . . but don’t expect an answer.
Why this woman works at planned parenthood.
Planned Parenthood propaganda cartoon.
July 19, 2008
It has long been my sorrowful conviction that the standard of daily life among professing Christians in this country has been gradually falling. . . . There has been of late years a lower standard of personal holiness among believers than there used to be in the days of our fathers. The whole result is that the Spirit is grieved and the matter calls for much humiliation and searching of heart.
- J.C. Ryle
1816 - 1900
July 18, 2008
Great video; I implore you to watch this before you turn on your TV again.
Source: All Sufficient Grace
July 17, 2008
I reckon him a Christian indeed who is not ashamed of the gospel or a shame to it.
- Matthew Henry
1662 - 1714
July 17, 2008
July 17, 2008
Tower To Truth Question:
13. If God is an exalted man with a body of flesh and bones, why does Alma 18:26-28 and John 4:24 say that God is a spirit?
————————-
In Alma, the reference is to Jesus Christ, who before His birth did not have a physical body.
John 4:24 does not say God is “a” spirit, but says “God is spirit.” There is no “a” in the Greek. The Bible also says “God is truth” or “God is light.” Those things are true, but we don’t presume God is JUST truth, or JUST light—or JUST spirit.
As one non-LDS commentary puts it:
That God is spirit is not meant as a definition of God’s being—though this is how the Stoics [a branch of Greek philosophy] would have understood it. It is a metaphor of his mode of operation, as life-giving power, and it is no more to be taken literally than 1John 1:5, “God is light,” or Deut. 4:24, “Your God is a devouring fire.” It is only those who have received this power through Christ who can offer God a real worship.
- J. N. Sanders, A Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John, edited and completed by B. A. Mastin, (New York, Harper & Row, 1968), 147–148.
To learn more: God is a Spirit
——————–
My Response:
FAIR needs to do some better work on their biblical scholarship. They have shown, in this response, that they have not studied the Greek of John 4:24. Let us look at the Greek of this verse:
πνευμα ό θεος
pneuma ho Theos
This sentence, πνευμα ό θεος (pneuma ho Theos), “God is spirit,” is constructed in a way similar to the last part of John 1:1, when John writes θεος ην ό λογος (Theos hn ho logos), “the Word was God.”
πνευμα ό θεος–”God is spirit”
θεος ην ό λογος–”the Word was God”
The word πνευμα (pneuma) is in the nominative case. However, this is actually the predicate of the sentence. And since there is no definite article it should be read “spirit.” Now, let’s look at ό θεος (ho Theos). The definite article ό is attached to θεος. This literally means “the God.” So what we get is “The God is spirit.” Or, in English, “God is spirit.”
So what is Jesus trying to tell us in this statement? Is He simply declaring the form and essence of the Father? Basically what He was saying was that all those who worshipped some kind of visible idol, or looked to some thing or some place or some person as their object of worship had missed it by an eternity. God (the Father) is everywhere. As the Psalmist said, Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me (Psalm 139:7-10). If God is not a spirit, why does the Psalmist say, “Where can I go from Your Spirit…If I ascend into heaven, You are there? Now, before anyone says, “Well, what about ‘Your hand shall lead me?‘” Many times the Hebrew of the Old Testament used different parts of the body to symbolize different things. The arm symbolized power, the head symbolized rule, the feet symbolized actions. Here, “Your hand” symbolizes power. And as far as “Your right hand“–if God had a body, could His “right hand” (if we think of “right hand” in strictly human terms) hold all those who call for Him at the same time? Are we to believe that at any given time only one person is ever needing God to uphold and strengthen them? Absolutely not! God is everywhere, at all times, since He is not limited by a body of flesh and bone.
Now, what about FAIR’s assertion that “The Bible also says “God is truth” or “God is light.” Those things are true, but we don’t presume God is JUST truth, or JUST light—or JUST spirit“? Frankly, I really don’t see what they’re getting at. God is all those things. He is also a strong tower, a refuge, a shield, a buckler, a rock, a defender…
Well, we can see in other places that God the Father does not have a physical body. Colossians 1:15–And He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God. If God has a tangible, touchable body of flesh and bone, how can Paul declare Him to be “invisible?” We also must consider Hebrews 1:3–[Jesus] being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power… The word “person” is not the best way to render ύποστάσεως (hupostaseos). “Essence” is closer to the actual meaning, a fact which dampens the LDS argument that Jesus being the “image of His person” refers to the Father having a corporeal body.
Of course, saying that God has a body presents other problems as well. In the Old Testament, it is written many times that God “dwells between the cherubim” (1st Samuel 4:4; 2nd Samuel 6:2; 2nd Kings 19:15; 1st Chronicles 13:6; Psalm 80:1; Isaiah 37:16). So, if the Father has a body, and dwells on his home planet near Kolob (No, He does not live ON Kolob. Kolob is the nearest start to where God the Father dwells. Or so they say), and He is confined to a body, how can He “dwell between the cherubim”–a reference to His dwelling between the angels atop the Ark of the Covenant?
If you click on FAIR’s link that says, “God is spirit,” you will find this gem:
Deut. 4:28 says that our God can see, eat and smell.
WRONG!! Deuteronomy 4:28 says And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. [Emphasis mine] All this says is that the “gods” which men make cannot hear or eat or smell. And a link at that link tries to use the fact that God told Moses He would hide him in the rock and cover it with His hand. So, did He have to leave wherever He was to do it? And if God’s body is like our body, it must be pretty big for Him to cover a cleft with His hand.
There is much overwhelming evidence that God the Father does NOT have a body, that He is spirit, and that Christ is the only member of the Trinity to have ever taken on human flesh.
July 17, 2008
Source: The Bororean
July 17, 2008
The hosts discuss the topic of Using God: The Gospel of Pragmatism on yet another great episode of The White Horse Inn.
Why do so many sermons and Bible Studies focus almost entirely on “practical” application? Is a particular belief true simply because it works for you? On this edition of the White Horse Inn, the hosts take a look at the philosophy of Pragmatism and its effects on contemporary Christian thought and practice.
July 17, 2008
An ineffably holy God, who has the utmost abhorrence of all sin, was never invented by any of Adam’s fallen descendants! The fact is that nothing reveals more of the terrible depravity of man’s heart and his enmity against the living God than to have set before him One who is infinitely and immutably holy. His own idea of sin is practically limited to what the world calls crime. Anything short of that, man palliates as “defects,” “mistakes,” “infirmities.” And even where sin is owned at all, man makes excuses and extenuations for it. . . . [S]inful man was no more likely to devise a holy God than to create the lake of fire in which he will be tormented forever and ever.
- A.W. Pink
July 17, 2008
A pro-abortion supporter takes a video camera to a pro-life protest and asks the pro-lifers a simple question. Astonishingly none of them were able to answer it (not sure if others did answer satisfactorily but were simply edited out). I was shocked that these pro-lifers stuttered, stumbled and fumbled over this question.
My answer would have been quite simple: “The same thing that happened to Susan Smith and Andrea Yates and the same thing if you were to murder my child.“
If you want to know what the question was, you’ll have to watch the video here.
July 16, 2008
Source: Mail Online
In a highly conciliatory letter to Islamic leaders calling for an alliance between the two faiths for ‘the common good’, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, pronounced that not only is Christian doctrine offensive to Muslims, but that the Christian belief in the Trinity - that God is Father, Son and Holy Ghost at the same time - ‘is difficult, sometimes offensive, to Muslims’.
The Archbishop went on to push an ecumenical social ‘gospel’, saying:
‘We can together speak for those who have no voice or leverage in society - for the poorest, the most despised, the least powerful, for women and children, for migrants and minorities; and even to speak together for the great encompassing reality that has no voice of its own, our injured and abused material environment.’
Where’s that heckler who ranted against Gene Robinson when we need him, again?
Source: Mail Online.
July 16, 2008
From Beggars All, a band of Reformed bloggers. This is for all those who want to walk around with blinders on, and claim that JPII had nothing to do with the movement to proclaim Mary as our Co-Redemptrix:
“‘Be not afraid!’ Christ said to the apostles (cf. Lk 24:36) and to the women (cf. Mt 28:10) after the Resurrection. According to the Gospels, these words were not addressed to Mary. Strong in her faith, she had no fear. Mary’s participation in the victory of Christ became clear to me above all from the experience of my people. Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski told me that his predecessor, Cardinal August Hlond, had spoken these prophetic words as he was dying: ‘The victory, if it comes, will come through Mary.’ During my pastoral ministry in Poland, I saw for myself how those words were coming true.
After my election as Pope, as I became more involved in the problems of the universal Church, I came to have a similar conviction: On this universal level, if victory comes it will be brought by Mary. Christ will conquer through her, because He wants the Church’s victories now and in the future to be linked to her.
I held this conviction even though I did not yet know very much about Fátima. I could see, however, that there was a certain continuity among La Salette, Lourdes, and Fátima-and, in the distant past, our Polish Jasna Góra.
And thus we come to May 13, 1981, when I was wounded by gunshots fired in St. Peter’s
