Friday, August 31, 2012

How the Tower of Babel & Future Global Leader's Kingdom Relate

In Genesis 10:8-10 we read:  "Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar."
 In  Genesis 11:1-9 we read this: " Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth."

We see that from these verses a leader named Nimrod led the people of the earth to rebel against God and set up a religion or kingdom opposed to God. Therefore, God had to confuse the languages and scatter them because, "now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them."
Just imagine, if God had allowed the entire human race to follow Nimrod, they would have all been deceived and followed this false religion Nimrod was trying to set up. As the scripture says: "Nothing will be withheld (impossible) for them. So God confused their language so that the people would scatter and form what we see today: Many Nations with many languages! 
How does this relate to what Revelation says will happen when the Anti-Christ is to rule after the Rapture of the church.  Lets look at a two things:
  1. Nimrod was a type of Anti-Christ, leading mankind in rebellion against God.
  2. The people were one in those days with one language; Just as the world will be one through a Global Government, Religion, and Economy. (Revelation 13)
We can see also from Hitler's Germany the power of one man leading a nation astray and being deceived and led to great ungodliness. The same will be true after the Rapture. The Anti-Christ will rise to power deceiving the world: "The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. ( 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)
We can learn that God was righteous in confounding the languages at the Tower of Babel. But in the near future, He will allow this lawless one to rise to power and accomplish what Nimrod and many other evil rulers in History have tried to do. God has Satan on a leash.  Unfortunately after the church is gone, God will loosen that leash and judgement will fall upon the earth! 
May those who do not know Christ, heed to this warning and choose to follow Him today! 
Maranatha -Dustin 

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

What On Earth Is God Doing


Recently, I was teaching a small group of prophecy lovers when I made the statement that our amazing God revealed prophecies 2,000 to 2,700 years ago that we see coming on the scene today. A friend with a wonderful sense of humor was in the group and he replied, “Yes, it’s enough to make you think that God has the gift of foreknowledge.” Right! By fulfilling ancient prophecies recorded in the Bible, God is demonstrating His foreknowledge. He is proving that He truly knows the end from the beginning (Isa. 46:10). This ability to reveal what will happen before it happens is incomprehensible to all of us, but it is indisputable proof of His existence; and it is also a statement that He keeps His promises AND He carries out His warnings. Many like to believe His promises, but they prefer to ignore His warnings.

A possible economic collapse is another thing we talked about in the group. God clearly said, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). He is God and He has a right to occupy first place in our lives. But, for far too long, Americans and Globalists have made an idol or a god out of their money. Again and again, the Jews set up worthless idols in Old Testament times and God always destroyed them. Our economic problems are really a reminder that God has not changed. He is still God. He doesn’t like to be ignored, replaced or forgotten. Unless we change quickly, He is going to make our money a worthless idol.
 
While I am on the subject, I was discussing this with a female friend in the group. She loves Bible prophecy and is a wonderful Sunday school teacher. She reminded me that many worship the god of pleasure and society won’t do anything about it. God may be about to take their money away so they can’t spend it on adultery, pornography, abortions, alcohol, drugs and the like. That is another sign of the end of the age. Paul said, “Men shall be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (II Tim. 3:4). God is not against pleasure. He even wants us to make Him our greatest pleasure. But He may have to bring humankind to the point of not being able to afford some of these wrongful pleasures. Having to choose between the necessities of life and pleasure will be a reminder to us that He is still God.

While I was writing the above paragraph, it occurred to me that many in the environmental movement worship the god of nature. There is nothing wrong with nature. It was given by God. But nature is not god. And this may be why nature seems to be turning against us. We need to learn that nature can also be an enemy and when we die nature won’t be able to do anything for us. But the Creator of nature can. And He will if we have accepted His Son.

Eh . . . yes, life is interesting and God is doing a lot of things. People need to be paying attention. One way or another, we are going to learn that there is only one God.

FYI: Kindle owners can download eight of my teachings at amazon.com and I would love for you to leave a review.

Prophecy Plus Ministries
Daymond & Rachel Duck

daymondduck@bellsouth.net
rachelduck@bellsouth.net
  

Taken from: (http://raptureready.com/featured/duck/dd71.html


Monday, August 27, 2012

Spiritual Maturity


"Over the years, I've noticed a recurring theme in conversations with other believers. Right after affirming their salvation in Christ, they conclude with these words: "..but I know I haven't grown as I should."
How tragic would it be for parents if their children advanced in age but never grew bigger, stronger, and more capable? We'd all know something was drastically wrong. Yet that is what many Christians experience in their spiritual lives. Even more surprising, some of them are unaware or unconcerned about their condition. Imagine if next Sunday in your church, everyone's spiritual maturity were displayed by their physical stature. How many would even be visible in the pews? Would there be any giants standing among the congregation?" -Charles Stanley

The Fruit of Spiritual Maturity
  • Spirit-controlled character: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." (Galatians 5:22-25)
  • Stability of sound doctrine: "If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed." ( 1 Timothy 4:6)
  • Passion for Christ and His calling: "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ  and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.  Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,  I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:7-14)
  • Increasing love for one another: "And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints." (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13)
  • Ability to gently exhort others: "And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will." ( 2 Timothy 2:24-26)
  • Discernment: "But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." (Hebrews 5:14)
  • Godly wisdom: " Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." (James 3:13-18)
  • Increasing holiness in behavior: " Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” ( 1 Peter 1:13-16)  
          If you can't see any evidence of spiritual growth in your life, perhaps you need a spiritual birth. Jesus said, "Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). This new birth occurs when you believe that Christ died for your sins and accept by faith His offer of forgiveness and new life. 

Information taken from: http://intouch.org/magazine/content?topic=the_height_of_godliness#.UDqJIKDKcqg

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Real Hope. Real Change.

In light of the upcoming presidential elections, many are going to put their hope in the candidate that will give them the best chance at having a better life here in America.
Whatever political party you vote for, we can all agree that no president has come through 100% with every promise he has made to make things better. That is why we need to go to the source of real hope and real change.
We live in a world that to put all of our hope in politicians is plain foolishness. Our world is fallen and sin cursed, and every attempt by man to reform or transform every ill caused by sin is ultimately futile in the big scheme of things. Yes, much good has been done to help aid people, but the real issue lies within the human heart. Jeremiah 17:9: "“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
This goes completely against what our culture and world tells us. That man is basically good and has the potential to make things better.  Unfortunately, that has not been the case and will not be: " But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—  having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people."( 1 Timothy 3:1-5)
Scripture tells us that in the last days (which we are now living in)  people will grow more and more wicked. All we have to do is read a newspaper or watch the news to see this! The world is not evolving into a better place and humans have not figured out how to solve everything caused by sin: cancer, disease, divorce, murder, drug and alcohol abuse, abortion, etc. In fact, these issues are getting worse!
To view this life and this world as the only thing we have to live for, is to lose sight of what Jesus declared: "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? (Mark 8:36)
Our souls, which are eternal will live forever! That real person, who is truly you, will go on after this life either to heaven or hell! Matthew 25:46: "“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. ” The "they" Jesus is speaking of here are the people who are not made righteous. 
We all need to be made righteous because none of us possesses this righteousness within ourselves! We have all fallen short of the glory of God! But Jesus does possesses this righteousness we need and also is the real hope and change we desperately need! 
By dying on the cross in our place, Jesus took on the sin we committed and paid the penalty that our sin deserved! In turn, for those who place their hope and trust in that sacrifice, they will get Jesus' righteousness. " God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." ( 2 Corinthians 5:21) 
God sees the believer in all the righteousness of Christ and fit for heaven! His promise is true and we can count on Him to come through 100%:  "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."
Please place your hope in the only source of true change: Jesus Christ! "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you." (1 Peter 1:3-4) 
In Christ -Dustin 
 
 

Thursday, August 23, 2012

The Josiah Grauman Story



We believe that God is holy and perfect. He has commanded us to be completely perfect, just as He is (1 Peter 1:16). Yet we have not lived a perfect life, nor can we...nor can anyone (Romans 3:23). Yet though we have sinned and so deserve to receive the wrath of God forever in hell (Matthew 5:22), we believe that He has made a way to reconcile us to Himself. He sent His Son Jesus to live the perfect life that we could not live, and then die the death that we deserve so that anyone who believes in Him could have eternal life (John 3:16). Jesus Christ died on the cross, not because He deserved to die, but rather to receive the punishment that we deserve, thereby freeing us from all condemnation (Romans 8:1). Now that in the justice of God we have already died for our sin (Since Jesus died in our place, Galatians 2:20), we eagerly await the day when God will resurrect us, just as He did His Son, and bring us to heaven where we will worship Him forever (2 Corinthians 4:14). To Him be the glory forever.

To learn more about Josiah Grauman and his ministry, visit this website:
http://www.grauman.com/josiah/

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Lord's Positive Prodding


By John MacArthur
The constant war between our new nature in Christ and our old, sinful flesh is a recipe for spiritual inconsistency. Regardless of how long you’ve been saved or how much you’ve grown spiritually in that time, temptation to sin is always waiting around the corner (1 Peter 5:8).
And because we too often fall back into our old, sinful patterns, the Lord uses a variety of means to prod us back to repentance and a right relationship with Him—some are positive, others are negative. For today, let’s consider some of the key methods God uses to positively prod us to repent.
First, He uses our knowledge. God has given His Word so that His people might repent. Through the Bible, He tells us that we ought to turn from a self-righteous attitude toward total faith in God through Jesus Christ plus nothing else. Scripture contains everything we need for salvation and sanctification (2 Timothy 3:16-17), including practical wisdom for identifying and destroying sin in our lives. We can’t act on God’s Word unless we know it first.
Access to and an understanding of Scripture is essential for true repentance. Apart from His Word, we can’t know the truth about our sin, our need for a Savior, Christ’s perfect sacrifice on our behalf, the means of salvation, or God’s pattern for sanctification. Cut yourself off from the truth of God’s Word and you’ve cut yourself off from any hope of repentance, redemption, or spiritual growth.
The Lord’s second means for prodding believers to repentance is His goodness. As Jesus said, “He . . . sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). God showers His goodness on people through the joys of life, such as love and the beauty of nature. In Romans 2, the apostle Paul says that the Israelites had every blessing and promise of God, and yet they treaded on His goodness. He says, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repen­tance?” (Romans 2:4). God’s goodness is for the purpose of bringing us to turn around and change our minds about Him and about Jesus.
Third, God uses our sorrow for sin as a means to prod us back to repentance. Have you ever done something wrong and then felt bad? That’s a good thing, because guilt is God’s way of enabling us to feel the evil of our own sin.
In our previous blog series, we discussed the gift of the conscience. As the soul’s internal warning system, the conscience can cause depression and anguish over your sin. But it’s a precious gift that God has given each person to guard him from the dangers of sin, and to steer him back to His perfect, righteous standard.
Therefore, how you respond to your conscience is vitally important. There are a lot of people who are sorry about their sins but who are not saved because they do not turn from sin. Others believe but they can’t get past their guilt feelings, and their perpetually wounded consciences inhibit their spiritual growth. It is critical that our sorrow over sin prompts us to repen­tance and change (2 Corinthians 7:9). Otherwise it’s worthless.
Tomorrow we’ll look at the negative ways the Lord prods us to repent.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

What Happens When You Are Filled with the Holy Spirit?


  Nothing in Scripture teaches that the filling of the Spirit is accomplished by ecstatic experiences or external signs. To be sure, being filled with the Spirit does bring the believer tremendous exhilaration and joy, but the New Testament epistles reveal that being filled with the Spirit brings forth the fruit of the Spirit, not the gifts of the Spirit.
  Ephesians 5:19-6:9 gives a list of specifics: A Spirit filled person sings psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, making melody n his or her heart to the Lord. A Spirit filled person always gives thanks for all things in the name of Christ. Spirit-filled Christians are subject to one another, they listen to one another, and bow to one another's authority. Spirit-filled wives submit to their husbands, and Spirit-filled husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church. Spirit-filled children honor and obey their parents, and Spirit-filled parents bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord without exasperating them in the process. A Spirit-filled employee obeys his or her employer and does good work. And the Spirit-filled employer is fair and understanding with employees. Those are all manifestations of the Spirit-filled life.
   A parallel passage, Colossians 3:16-22, ascribes the blessed manifestations of being filled with the Spirit to letting "the Word of Christ richly dwell within in" (3:16). Since being filled with the Spirit and letting the Word of Christ dwell within both produce the same results, a Spirit-filled Christian is a Christ-conscious Christian. A Spirit-filled Christian is consumed with learning everything he or she can about Jesus and obeying everything that Jesus said. That is what it means to "let the word of Christ richly dwell within you." To be filled with the Spirit is to be totally and richly involved in all there is to know about Jesus Christ.

-John MacArthur

Monday, August 20, 2012

We Will Have A New Body

One of the most exciting Scripture passages in the Bible is written by the Apostle Paul and found in 1 Corinthians 15:35-58. For your convenience, I will include this passage below in the New Living Translation (NLT).
The Resurrection Body
35 But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” 36 What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. 37 And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 38 Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. 39 Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
40 There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. 41 The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.
42 It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. 44 They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.
45 The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. 46 What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. 47 Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. 48 Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. 49 Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.
50 What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.
51 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:“Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your victory?O death, where is your sting?”
56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.
Now if that doesn’t get your heart pumping, nothing will. Every child of God can rejoice in these verses and eagerly anticipate a new perfect body like our Lord’s. Death may take our body to the grave, but death has no victory or sting over us. The Lord said through the prophet Hosea,
I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.” (Hosea 13:14)
There is not a person among us who is not familiar with some kind of physical weakness in our earthly bodies. The hospitals and nursing homes are filled with those whose bodies are in chronic condition, perhaps dying. Sin has wreaked havoc on these mortal bodies, and will continue to do so until Jesus brings it all to an end.
Many of my loved ones, and yours, have succumbed to the disintegration of their bodies to the point of death, but that will be no more.
So far, I am a fairly healthy 65 year old. Some arthritis is starting to set in, and I tire much easier than when I was younger, but that is just a natural process of aging. In my new body there will be no aches and pains and I will not tire out. All of us will be perfectly healthy and capable of doing things that would not be possible in these earthly bodies.
Paul explains the necessity of our dying in order that our new body can be provided for us, as a seed that goes into the ground and comes up as a glorified product of its own kind. He also states, if you notice, that some will not die, but will be transformed (verse 51). He is referring to the Rapture.
Just think of any vegetable, flower, shrub or tree you choose and look at what comes from a small seed that is buried in the ground. The finished product is nothing like the seed that was buried. To the contrary, it is a totally different product of what it started out being. It is much more beautiful, much more productive in its final state. So will be our new bodies.
Why will Jesus give us new bodies? These earthly bodies cannot exist anywhere but on earth. For us to traverse the universes to our final destination in the Father’s house, we must have a body that is capable of that feat. Our earthly bodies are laden down with sin, so He gives us a new body that is without sin. We are made holy and pure not just in spirit, but also in our new heavenly bodies. A fish cannot exist on land, and humans cannot exist away from the earth in heavenly spaces, but with a heavenly body, we can.
The New Jerusalem will be our home with the Lord Jesus Christ. The new earth will be our field of service as will the entire universe. We will traverse the heavens in our glorified bodies, performing whatever work our Lord assigns us. We won’t need telescopes, spaceships and space suits to behold the glory of God’s creation. We will reign with God on high in whatever position he gives us.
Instead of a broken down body that dies with age, we will be eternal in a heavenly body that will never know the aging process. There will be no aches and pains. There will be no broken hearts. There will be no sinful thoughts and deeds. All will be perfect, because Jesus has transformed us in body, soul and spirit to be in the family of the one and only true God. We will not be gods, of course, but we will have His cloak of righteousness forever upon us. We will live in peace and harmony with all that is around us and actually walk with God, as Adam and Eve before the fall. However, unlike Adam and Eve, we will not be confined to earth or have to worry about being tempted by Satan or his forces. They will have already been put away for good.
We may enter a room without opening the door if we choose. We may eat if we choose. We will know our loved ones, and know all who live among us in the Heavenly kingdom.
It is my opinion that God will erase from our minds those we loved on earth who did not come to Him through His Son Jesus, and are not with us in Heaven.
Unbelievers call this our day-dreaming of “pie in the sky,” but the Word of God, which cannot lie, confirms this will be more real than anything we know now. Look up, for it may not be long now, until He calls us home.

Grant Phillips

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Are We Too "Negative"?


Aug NL.jpg Originally Published October 1991
 
Critics have long leveled the charge of “divisive” and “negative” against those who would warn the church of unbiblical teachings and practices. I prayerfully consider such accusations, for my heart echoes the same concern. I long just to preach the gospel and to put behind me the controversy that has become such an unwelcome part of my life. Yet in preaching the pure gospel one must carefully distinguish it from the clever counterfeits all around.
How negligent it would be not to warn the sheep of poisoned pastures and false shepherds who promote lies in the name of truth. Yet the odds are staggering. Norman Vincent Peale’s magazines, for example, have 16 million readers monthly, many times our small circulation! The flesh faints with weariness and frustration. Then why persist in a task so lonely and burdensome? Yes, why this burning passion ?
There are, thank God, the many letters of encouragement from those who offer their love, support, and prayers. There are, too, the earnest “thank you’s” from the thousands who have been set free from the delusion and bondage of false gospels—from Catholicism and “Christian psychology” to positive/possibility thinking and positive confession. Yet even without any such encouragement we would be compelled to carry on and would urge you to do the same.
Jeremiah was hated, maligned, imprisoned, and threatened with death because he preached repentance and warned of God’s impending judgment when the “positive prophets” promised peace and prosperity “by the word of the Lord.” Popular opinion opposed him. He became so discouraged that he declared that he would no longer speak for God nor even mention His name. But God’s Word was in his heart and burned like a fire in his bones, so that he had to speak (Jer 20). Yes, above all, it is God’s Word burning within that compels us .
Distressed by accusations of “negativism,” I cry out to God and turn to His unfailing Word. And what do I find there? The very message I am constrained to preach! Christ himself was far more “negative” than I have dared to be. He continually warned of judgment and hell, exposed sin, demanded repentance, rebuked the religious leaders and indicted them as hypocrites, whited sepulchers, blind leaders of the blind, fools. Without doubt, He would be banned from most Christian pulpits and media today!
The Sermon on the Mount is not intended to enhance one’s “self-esteem.” It encourages one to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek and merciful, and promises that those who are true to God and His Word will be hated, persecuted, and vilified (Mt 5). But didn’t Jesus say, “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Mt 7:1)? Isn’t it unbiblical, then, to accuse a Christian leader of any wrong? On the contrary, Christ could only have meant that we were not to judge motives , for He clearly told us to judge teaching and lives: “Beware of false prophets [i.e., teachers]... by their fruits [lives] ye shall know them” (vv. 15-20). Surely He is calling us to judge false doctrine and deeds!
When Paul exhorted Timothy to “preach the word,” he explained that to do so one must “reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Tm:4:2). Paul warned of “vain talkers and deceivers...whose mouths must be stopped [from teaching false doctrine].” He urged Titus to “rebuke them sharply” (Ti:1:10-13). He told Timothy, “Them that sin rebuke before all [i.e., publicly], that others also may fear” (1 Tm:5:20). Clearly such reproof requires a judging that does not violate Christ’s prohibition but which, in fact, He commanded and the apostles practiced—a judging which Satan hates because it unmasks his lies.
The International Genocide Treaty signed by President Reagan in November 1988, makes it a crime to try to convert anyone of another religion or to suggest that their beliefs are wrong. It will soon be a serious crime to call homosexuality a sin. The day is coming when, to protect “minority rights,” we will be prohibited by law from preaching the gospel except in the most “positive” manner. Sadly, much of the evangelical church has already conformed.
It is not enough simply to “preach the truth” when there are lies that counterfeit it so closely that many can’t tell the difference. It is both logically and scripturally essential to expose and refute today’s pernicious false gospels. Yet to do so is to be opposed by church leaders and barred from most platforms. I am banned even from such evangelical networks as Moody Radio lest I expose the humanism they promote in the name of “Christian psychology.” Why not allow an open discussion of vital issues before the whole church? Are church leaders concerned for truth—or with protecting their own interests?
“Christian psychology” may seem to help for a time, but it undermines our real victory in Christ by redefining sin as “mental illness.” This heresy inspired a host of new terms such as obsessive-compulsive behavior, dysfunctional families, addiction—and more recently the increasingly popular co-dependency myths and Twelve Step recovery programs spawned by Alcoholics Anonymous. In 12 Steps to Destruction , the Bobgans point out that Bill Wilson, founder of AA, based his system upon what was a revolutionary new theory: that drunkenness was not a “moral defect” but an excusable “illness.” Wilson was relieved to learn that he was an “alcoholic”—a new term at the time.
Enlarging upon this lie, “Christian psychologists” have redefined as mental illness all manner of behavior that Jesus, the Great Physician, diagnosed as sin. John MacArthur tells of hearing a woman call into a “Christian psychology” radio program to confess that she couldn’t keep from having sex with anybody and everybody. She was told that her problem arose from an overbearing mother and milquetoast father and that it was an “addiction” that could take years of therapy to cure. So much for Christ’s “Go, and sin no more” (Jn:8:11). Disobeying God is no longer sin if one has a compulsion or addiction or has had a traumatic childhood.
In his book, Our Sufficiency in Christ , MacArthur writes, “The depth to which sanctified psychotherapy can sink is really quite profound. A local newspaper recently featured an article about a 34-bed clinic that has opened in Southern California to treat ‘Christian sex addicts.’ According to the article the clinic is affiliated with a large well-known Protestant church in the area.” Several leading “Christian psychologists” interviewed for the article “scoffed at the power of God’s Word to transform a heart and break the bondage of sexual sin.” The director explained that his treatment center would serve to rescue many Christians who had been taught that “the Bible is all you need.” Yet that is what the Bible itself claims and the entire church believed for 1,800 years until the advent of Christian psychology.
In The Journal of Biblical Ethics in Medicine , Dr. Robert Maddox warns that “all manner of sin...from gluttony to fornication, from stealing to bestiality...is [being] labeled as disease, to be cured with chemical, electrical and mechanical treatments.” The Bobgans also quote from University of California professor Herbert Fingarette’s book, Heavy Drinking: The Myth of Alcoholism as a Disease : “I just don’t understand why any churches would go for the disease idea...[it] denies the spiritual dimension of the whole thing.” They also quote Stanton Peele from his book, Diseasing of America: Addiction Treatment Out of Control: “...disease definitions undermine the individual’s obligations to control behavior and to answer for misconduct...[and] actually increase the incidence of the behaviors of concern.”
How astonishing that as the secular world is abandoning the sinking ship of psychotherapy, Christians are jumping aboard, imagining that this doomed vessel will not only stay afloat but add needed buoyancy to the ark God has provided!
It makes me weep to watch the growing deception, to cry out against it, and to be heeded by so few and opposed by so many. Why is that essential correction, which Scripture so clearly demands, left to a few of us nobodies and shunned by church leaders who would be heeded by millions? Write to the most influential evangelical leaders and ask how they can “preach the Word” without involving themselves in the reproof and rebuke of rampant error that Paul said must be at the very heart of biblical preaching!
Today I received a memo from a researcher who, along with her husband, is among the nobodies crying out against heresy in the church. Her concern was The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning, a Catholic, published by Multnomah Press. In part she said, “Manning teaches...that [a Christian] may continue to live a life of debauchery...describes himself as a [heavy] smoker and someone who became an alcoholic after conversion...wants active homosexuals accepted into full fellowship (p 26) along with other immoral people... teaches an eastern-type meditation (pp 43, 205-206)...twists scripture (pp 23, 28, 73, 173); he says that everyone, but the self-righteous [those that obey God by Manning’s definition], will go to heaven (pp 17, 26, 29)....This book is dangerous...a ploy by a new age Catholic to invade the evangelical church....Christian[s] must be warned that...the once trusted names of Multnomah, Thomas Nelson and Fleming Revell [to name a few] are no guarantee of orthodoxy. What a shame!”
I called her to make certain she hadn’t overstated her case. She read excerpts from the book to prove she had not. Christian publishers can no longer be trusted to publish truth but have become purveyors of death! A dump truck would not have been large enough to haul all of the heresy out of the recent Christian Booksellers convention in Orlando. Even Roman Catholic publishers of the most awful blasphemy and incredible nonsense, such as Paulist Press, were represented alongside evangelicals.
Take, for example, the booth of another Catholic publisher, Our Sunday Visitor . One of their books on display told the story of Padre Pio, a recently deceased Catholic monk admired by Pope John Paul II. Pio manifested the “stigmata,” a bleeding from his palms to make up the deficiency in Christ’s redemptive work on the cross ! Pio believed he was suffering for the salvation of sinners ! He claimed that literally millions of the spirits of the dead, whom he saw with his physical eyes, came to him on their way to heaven to thank him for gaining their release from purgatory! This is only one of Rome’s many heresies . I confronted Sunday Visitor employees concerning the demonic delusion promoted by their books and objected to their presence at a convention of evangelical publishers. They pointed to a nearby booth promoting horrendous, allegedly “Christian” rock music and declared, “We have as much right to be here as they do!” I could only agree.
Mission Frontiers , the bulletin of the U.S. Center for World Mission in Pasadena, California, Vol. 13, No. 4-5, has a biblical passion for world evangelization. In contrast to the Manning/Multnomah justification of smoking, the editorial declared, “Tobacco causes more deaths each year in the United States than heroin, cocaine, alcohol, AIDS, fires, homicides, suicides, and auto accidents combined....More Colombians died last year from smoking American cigarettes than did Americans from using Colombian cocaine.” “Addiction,” or sin?
The editorial also highly commended Pope John Paul II’s recent encyclical on world missions. Disappointment was expressed that the encyclical was “marred by reference at the very end to the idea that...the work of the church is done ‘together with Mary.’” Yet the encyclical was praised and an address given where it could be purchased because it spoke of “people groups,” a term in vogue at the World Center. Sadly, however, 950 million Catholics who need to be evangelized—a special “people group” comprising nearly 20 percent of the world’s population—were overlooked! The editorial, in fact, implied that Catholicism’s evangelism is biblical.
Throughout Central and South America, Catholicism is in the most blatant partnership with spiritism and paganism. In Brazil, I visited Aparecida, the largest cathedral in the world next to St. Peter’s in Rome. It is dedicated to a small idol of a “Black Virgin”—pulled from a nearby lake in a fishing net—which now performs “miracles.” The pope came recently to honor this idol. At the Mass the priest led the people in prayers and songs to the idol, asking it for salvation and dedicating their lives to it. Aparecida’s large bookstore carries many of the same “positive” books that delude Protestants—books in Portuguese by American authors, from Norman Vincent Peale to “Christian psychologists.”
Today’s evangelical leaders shun their duty to oppose heresy. Many of them promote Catholicism, occultism, and humanistic psychology. Therefore we, the nobodies, though few heed us, must cry out even louder to warn the sheep of poisoned pastures and false shepherds. “Positive” or “negative” is not the issue, but rather truth and simple obedience to our Lord and His Word.  TBC

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Nine Ways in Which the New Religious Right is Biblically Compromised

The term New Religious Right is used to distinguish from the Religious Right of the 1970s. I do not believe that some of the original leaders of the Religious Right, who are now deceased, would unite with false teachers and abandon theology for a political or cultural agenda. As I document in great detail in my Religious Trojan Horse, today's New Religious Right leaders have no problem working with some of the most notorious false teachers that are preaching another Jesus and another Gospel.

In Matthew 23, Jesus calls the religious leaders of His day "white-washed tombs." They looked good on the outside. They thought they were promoting morality, but they were dead spiritually. Jesus warned that they would strain out a gnat but swallow a whole camel. And, indeed, the New Religious Right is notorious for such activity. The Southern Baptist Convention called for a boycott of the Disney Company, for instance, but in 1993 refused to pass a resolution at their national convention condemning the occultism of Free Masonry. Instead, the denomination passed a resolution stating that there are aspects of Free Masonry consistent with Christianity. (Compare this stance with Ezekiel 5:11-16; 8:5-18 to see the Old Testament attitude toward aberrant systems such as Freemasonry.)

The New Religious Right will boycott a company whose unsaved executives promote the homosexual agenda but will themselves promote and give credibility to false teachers who preach another Jesus and another gospel. Both the executives and false teachers are wrong, but purchasing a hammer from a hardware chain that supports immorality is not going to result in someone going to hell. Promoting and giving credibility to false teachers and their false gospel can certainly result in people spending eternity in hell.  

In Matthew 23:13-29, Jesus uses the word "woe" eight times when speaking to the scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees. "Woe" means "judgment upon you," and Jesus pronounced judgment on them because they were more interested in moralizing and legislating morality than in understanding, accepting, and preaching the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In similar whitewashed-looking causes, the New Religious Right has chosen:


1. Family values over biblical doctrine.
The NRR united in spiritual enterprises with false teachers, despite their attacks on the Word of God, simply because members of the New Apostolic Reformation and Word of Faith claim to be pro-life and opposed to same-sex marriage.

2. Moralizing over evangelizing.
Instead of making their primary focus the proclamation of the Gospel to the unsaved world by which to change hearts and minds, the New Religious Right focuses on moralizing, which has proven to be a failure since the 1980s.


On June 20, 2012, I asked Dr. MacArthur about the failure of moralizing and he gave the radio audience a very important Biblical and historical analysis.
 
The Pharisees and the Sadducees had created in the land of Israel a moral culture; the Pharisees in particular.  They had created a moral culture.  In other words, they had created a fastidious culture in which all of the normal categorical sins were excluded from society.  They had a kind of form of godliness the Apostle Paul called it.  I would say that based upon you know, sort of Old Testament moral standards, that the culture of Israel when our Lord came was the most moral culture in the history of Israel and therefore, more moral than any other culture, because they at least had the Bible to base it on, the Old Testament to base it on.  They'd gotten rid of idolatry after the Babylonian captivity.  There were no idols in the land.  They were living fastidiously by the law.  The Pharisees were in control, and they were the rigid legalists.  They had disseminated this religion throughout the land of Israel. 
            And Jesus came into that situation and basically condemned the entire thing, and basically said this is what is going to send you to hell.  And Paul picks up on that and says that they're going about to establish their own righteousness.  They don't know how holy God is.  They don't know how unholy they are (Romans 10).  The only way to be saved is to call on the name of the Lord. 
            So what do you get when you're done reclaiming the culture?  What have you got?  You've got 1st Century Judaism, and Jesus came and said your house has left you desolate.  You're going to be destroyed. 
            And in 70 AD the Romans were God's divine weapon that came in and massacred and Josephus says that, we don't know if the number's exactly accurate, a million Jews were killed, 985 towns in Israel were sacked and people were slaughtered.  The divine judgment fell on the most moral society maybe that the world has ever known based on the Old Testament morality and superficiality.  So what do you get when you get a moral society?  You get a society of people insulated against the true understanding of their own retched hearts.


3. Prosperity over sacrifice.
The New Religious Right has united with the New Apostolic Reformation and Word of Faith movements, giving credibility to the prosperity gospel where the Gospel of Jesus Christ calls for sacrifice. The NRR is obsessed with the need for America to maintain economic prosperity by electing the right people to political office. While I am all for liberty and economic freedom, financial prosperity is not going to solve America's spiritual problem of rebellion against God. Many pro-family groups raise millions of dollars each year, and yet with that prosperity, few in the NRR have proclaimed a biblical Gospel but rather have compromised the Gospel. The NRR deliberately avoids proclaiming biblical truth so as not to offend Mormon and Roman Catholic donors. This is how many within the NRR have chosen prosperity over the sacrifice that Christians must make when they lovingly speak truth.

4. Christian activism over biblical discipleship.
Most of the New Religious Right has focused on creating Christian activists rather than biblical disciples according to the mandate of the Great Commission in Matthew 28.

5. Compromise over commitment.
The New Religious Right is identified by its willingness to compromise biblical truth for political and financial pragmatism.

6. The flag over the cross.
Patriotism (the love of country) is one thing, but nationalism (the love of government) is a sin. The New Religious Right has moved from patriotism to nationalism and raised the flag over the cross. The NRR focuses on cultural activism, returning to the founding fathers' "original intent," and "reclaiming America" instead of preaching the cross. Nationalism is defined in part by a belief that the state is of primary importance.[1] In brief, nationalism is a theory of political legitimacy, which requires that ethnic boundaries should not cut across political ones. To NRR members the state is of primary importance because they believe they must implement the Kingdom of God on earth before Jesus Christ comes to rule His kingdom. Nationalism emphasizes collective identity-a "people" must be autonomous, united, and express a single national culture.[2] This definition certainly applies to NRR members committed to implementing "kingdom values" so they can transform the culture and establish dominion through a theocratic or "Christian" government.

 7. The White House over the Church House.
The New Religious Right is more committed to reclaiming or maintaining the office of U. S. president than in reclaiming Church offices from false teaching. Instead of defending the Church from false teachers, the NRR unites with them. The result is that many of NRR members become false teachers themselves.

8. The wolves over the sheep.
I have personally witnessed members of the New Religious Right criticize and shun Christians who warn of false teachers. I've experienced the "soft persecution" of criticism from members of the NRR that choose to unite with the very wolves about which I warned. Members of the NRR often partner with the wolves at the expense of the sheep.

9. An earthly kingdom over the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 9:16).
Many members of the New Religious Right are hostile to the biblical Gospel of the Kingdom of God and instead are committed to building an earthly kingdom. Some are not openly hostile to the message of Christ, but they have no commitment to defending or proclaiming the Gospel because their primary goals revolve around the culture war and dominion theology.

The New Religious Right uses the biblical theme of salt and light to argue that we are called to focus time, energy, and money on Christian activism. Yet the overarching message of Matthew 5:13-16 is not about Christian activism but about proclaiming the Gospel. In Mathew 5 Jesus says: "You are the light of the world….Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

Christians should be involved in good works such as defending the lives of the unborn, caring for widows and orphans, and running crisis pregnancy centers. The reason, though, is that people will see the transforming power of the Gospel in our lives. Good works when used as a platform for the Gospel offers unbelievers the chance to see the light of Christ within our lives and to give glory to our heavenly Father.

Christian activism apart from the Gospel has no eternal value and is, in fact, a sin because we are not obeying God and fulfilling the Great Commission. 

By Brannon Howse



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Thursday, August 16, 2012

Beware of Trying to "Force" Yourself to Believe


Question: I have struggled with this thing called “faith” all of my life. I want to “believe” in God and the Bible but can’t make myself do it. I keep having these nagging doubts. What am I supposed to do?
 
Response:  By all means, don’t “make” yourself believe in God or the Bible. Let me suggest that you begin by facing the logical necessity of God’s existence. Without God, neither the universe nor we ourselves would exist, and there would be no purpose or meaning for anything. The Bible begins like this: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis:1:1). It doesn’t argue God’s existence, because that fact is self-evident from the universe we see around us and has been implanted by God in every person’s conscience.

The Bible unapologetically declares, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God” (Psalm:14:1; 53:1). Any thinking human being must agree with this pronouncement. Only a fool could believe that the universe came into existence by chance. Just one living cell in the human body is, according to Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling, “more complex than New York City.” To imagine that life itself (which is a mystery beyond the capability of science to fathom) and the incredible complexity of matter that sustains life could happen by chance is absurd.
All the Evidence Points to God
Suppose two survivors of a ship that sank have drifted for days in a life raft across the South Pacific and at last are washed ashore on an island. Their great hope, of course, is that the island is inhabited so they can find food, medical attention, and a means of returning to their distant homes. Pushing their way into the jungle, they suddenly come upon an automated factory operating full tilt. Though no person is visible, products are being manufactured, packaged, and labeled for shipping.
One of the parties exclaims, “Praise God! The island is inhabited! Someone must have made and oversees this factory!”
“You’re crazy,” replies his companion. “You’ve been out in the sun too long. There’s absolutely no reason to believe that this thing was designed and put together by some intelligent being. It just happened by chance over who-knows-how-many billions of years.”
The first man looks down at his feet and sees a watch with a broken wristband lying in the dirt. Again he exclaims, “Look! A watch! This proves the island’s inhabited!”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” retorts his companion. “That thing is just a conglomeration of atoms that happened to come together in that form by chance plus billions of years of random selection.”
No person in his right mind could imagine that a factory or a watch could just happen by chance. Then how could any rational person insist that the universe came into existence by chance, much less that the complex life forms on earth did so! A single cell in a leaf or in an animal’s body is thousands of times more complex than the factory and the watch put together. The human body consists of trillions of cells, thousands of different kinds, all working together in perfect balance. Our top scientists can’t produce a human brain even with all of the computers and technology that exist today. Only God could do so. Chance certainly could not!
Nor does it make sense that God would create man without having a definite purpose for him. Nothing is so frustrating to an intelligent person as having no purpose in life. Yet the very idea of purpose could not arise by chance, for purpose and chance are opposites. There can’t be design without a designer. We know, therefore, that God had a purpose for creating us. And if so, He must have a way to communicate that purpose.
The Bible claims to be the Word of God to mankind and explains God’s purpose and plan. We are not expected to believe that claim without sufficient evidence, but in fact that claim is supported by a vast body of evidence, much of it held in museums around the world and so irrefutable that no one capable of reading the Bible has any excuse for doubting its claims. We will present many such proofs throughout this book.
The major proof of God’s existence that the Bible offers is the fulfillment of hundreds of specific prophecies. In Isaiah:46:9–10, God says that He will prove His existence by telling what will happen before it happens. In Isaiah:43:10, God tells Israel that she is His witness, both to herself and to the world, that He is God. How is that so? Because of the many prophecies God made concerning Israel that have come to pass: that the Jews would be scattered to every nation on earth; that they would be hated and persecuted and killed as no other people (anti-Semitism); that they would be preserved in spite of a thousand Hitlers trying to exterminate them; that they would be brought back to their land in the last days . . . and many other prophecies that have clearly been fulfilled and are in the process of being fulfilled before our very eyes.
We won’t go into these details here because we have dealt thoroughly with prophecy in other books. The point, however, is that no one should believe anything without a solid reason for doing so, and the evidence compelling mankind to believe in God and the Bible is absolutely overwhelming.