More Bad News For My Morning Commute

As I mentioned before, my morning commute is long and I use the time to learn the word of God via the radio, however when I discovered that the teachings of Ronald L. Dart were horrifically unbiblical I had to find a new source for listening. 

So I switched back to a local Calvary Church station, however at 5:00 AM their teacher is Levi Lusko. To be honest Levi grates on me, his constant, nonstop pop-culture references and unending attempts to be funny and 'relevant' (for me at least) diminish God's word. I understand that he's trying to reach out to younger Christians, but survey after survey after survey shows that churches pretending to be "relevant" is one of the main things that are driving kids away from the church. Our kids are smart, they know they're being pandered to and "relevance" is merely a ploy to keep the hipster goats in the pews, our kids want the real thing, the pure Gospel, two testaments, both barrels.  

My attempts to ignore the non-stop one liners and Lusko's attempts to move the Book of Ester from bronze age Persia to New Age America was slightly successful, but the laugh-track yuks Lusko was eliciting from the congregation really got annoying 10 minutes into the sermons. Rather than feeling fulfilled, educated, and closer to God because I learned from His word I felt unclean and empty because I felt that His word was being taken away from me. And then, as if to remind me that He gifted me with a modicum of discernment, the Holy Spirit tossed me a grenade. 

Wrongly Taking Glee

Four years ago U.S. Army Major Nidal Hassan, an Army psychiatrist, walked into the Soldier Readiness center of Fort Hood Texas and began to scream "Allahhu Akbar!" While he was screaming he pulled a out an FN Five-Seven 5.7mm pistol and began to shoot. In the end he fired off over 150 rounds and slaughtered 13 of his fellow soldiers, injuring 29 more. Many of the men and women he targeted he shot in the back.

Being unarmed the soldiers of Fort Hood could only fight back with chairs and folding tables, and all who did try to fight back fell trying to stop Hassan. Hassan said he was acting to protect insurgents overseas.

Today a military court unanimously sentenced Nidal Hassan to death.

As a Christian I feel a sense of loss and pain for the soldiers that he killed and I know I should be praying that he find Jesus in his final hours of life, repent, and beg forgiveness and I know I should forgive him, but I can't. Because as a soldier I want to see him die. I want to be on his firing squad. I'll even bring my own ammo. I want him roasting in hell where society is safe from his derangement and his religion of peace.

My feelings are wrong, unbiblical, and probably sinful as I'm taking glee in his anticipated execution. I need to pray, to ask forgiveness and to be relieved of these hateful feelings.

All You Who Are Weary And Burdened

It's not easy being green, but it's not easy to be blue either. Doubt, discouragement, depression isn't just for the secular world, we Christians are humans, our faith and love in Jesus doesn't prevent us from getting the flu, it's not going to prevent us from other human maladies such as depression. There's even evidence of depression striking God's people in the bible such as the prophet Elijah:

3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” (1 Kings 19:2-4)

Worship The Lord, Not The Law

Legalism - it's not just for Pharisees anymore.

Last week while writing a blog on the legalism of diverse Christian sects and false leaders I made a connection with the Pharisees and wrote "To me it seems that the Pharisees were worshiping the Law rather than worshiping the Lord" and I have the feeling that the Lord wants me to know that he gave me a true statement when He allowed me to write and publish that. It didn't hit me at first but as I reread the post I realized this was an awesome truth and to put an exclamation point on the subject this Sunday Pastor Lovejoy spoke extensively on the Mosaic law, the legalism of the Pharisees and how Jesus fulfilled the law setting us free from a system that was set up as an example for us. Or did He? And which law are we talking about? Most of the time when you talk law in a biblical sense we're talking the Mosaic Law, but there's more law than that out there...

Random Stuff... and Things!

This World Is Not My Home

Does your Christian faith allow you to know the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil, between sin and righteousness? Liberals what to "Rehabilitate" you from such backward thinking.

The Christian Post thinks that American will become more religious in the future. Personally I doubt it, unless you consider self gratification a religion. I disagree mostly because I believe Luke 18:8 is a rhetorical question.

Hindu is the religion of peace.

No wait! Islam is the religion of peace.

Are they absolutely positive that the smoke wasn't from Father Guido Sarducci's Dutch Master Perfecto?

When I want a lecture on how to be a good Christian I always tune to MSNBC. </sarcasm> Ed Schultz, whom I believe was evicted from North Dakota (I could be wrong), has a strange way of showing his deep seated Christian love.

Did I mention that Islam is the religion of peace?

As an enlisted person I took a sacred oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice." Now it appears that the oath of enlistment has changed to "I like gay"

According to the Obama administration Islam is so peaceful it's funny.

I've always thought Pat Robertson was out in left field, now I think he's out in the parking lot

If you're under the impression that the worship music in church is getting worse, you may be right, and the Presbyterian Church USA is helping that impression immensely.

Meanwhile back at the religion of peace...

"God is more than good." Amen little sister!!!

Failing at Theology the RCC Switches to Immigration

Not the pope, a Bond Villain.
Really.

Having failed miserably at biblical theology the Roman Catholic Church switches to something it's very, very good at. Politics. 

Abandoning the concepts of moral purity and doctrinal truth the Roman Catholic Church is switching gears and going back to its glory days when it shamelessly controlled all of Europe and used its unique talents, gifts, and abilities (heresy, inquisition, and force of arms) to impose its will on the western world. The pogrom starts on September 8 when the Roman Catholic Church will impose its will on one country, only one, and tell that country to do something no other country on earth is required to do. 

In short, on September 8th priests of the Roman Catholic Church will demand from the pulpit that the Untied States of America provide amnesty for 11,000,000 people that have entered this country illegally. To get this done the Roman Catholic Church is threatening to undermine the already shakey American political system. The message of the Roman Catholic Church to the fairly elected representatives of the American people is simple:

"We want this done, and if you’re not successful during the summer, you’re not going to win by the end of the year.”

So when your local parish priest starts spouting their message of global overthrow just ask a simple question: What other countries are you demanding this of? 

Or my favorite: If I enter Vatican City illegally and decide to remain there forever will you threaten to overthrow the pope so I can get amnesty and a fat government handout?

L.O.T.S. More On Sunday

Yesterday I raised several questions on when to celebrate the Sabbath, I discussed the biblical background behind the origins of the Sabbath and how it falls on Saturday, and I discussed the fact that it's ok, biblically, for Christians to celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday, or any other day of the week. But I never did answer the question of how this all came about. Why don't we follow our Hebrew roots and continue to celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday? Jesus and all the Apostles were Jewish, they celebrated the Sabbath on Saturday, why do Christians whose faith is based on Jesus and his chosen 12 Apostles now celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday rather than Saturday. Here's the short answer;

Because we can.

The full answer is a bit more complex, but eventually boils down to "Because we can" in the end, so let's just end it here. No? Ok, you asked for it: Church History 101. 

Sabbath? Which Sabbath? S.O.S.? - L.O.T.S.!

I remember a long time ago when the Roman church we attended started allowing Saturday evening mass to fulfill the Sunday obligation. (Note the word "obligation", in Christianity attending services is joy, fellowship, and worship, in catholicism it's an obligation.) Thanks to Church Canon Law # 1248 §1 we could redeem ourselves from purgatory, limbo, or some other non-biblical made up pit of damnation (they come and go so often) and be at the stadium in time for kick off against those hated, and probably Methodist, Miami Dolphins. Saturday evening mass in a football crazy town like Buffalo NY was truly a gift from God. Or the pope. Or Monsignor Zimpher. Or who ever came up with that rule. 

So, yeah, maybe it was selfish, and probably paganistic too as sports in Buffalo is kind of its own weird form of religion, but Saturday services is sooo convenient. And us precocious 4th graders asked the nuns if Saturday wasn't better anyhow seeing as the Jews had mass on Saturday. (Ever see a nun faint?) But that raises the question - what day should we worship? I know several denominations and sects that preach a Saturday Only Sabbath (SOS) Are they right? 

Poisoning My Soul Via Radio

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. ² Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; ³ and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. (2 Peter 2:1-3)

I have a long commute to work so I listen to a lot of different things, on the way home from work I'll listen to different podcasts or audio books that I enjoy, but on the way in to work I like listening to a little news oriented programming followed by  some Christian radio. Not heretical noise, but good intelligent conversation and Gospel. There's a lot of Christian sounding noise out there and it takes a lot of discernment to find the wheat among the tares. 

I've mentioned before that I feel that the Holy Spirit has blessed me with a modicum of discernment, for which I praise the Lord and thank Him deeply, but sometimes my heresy detection isn't as good as I would like. My bride mentioned that a friend of hers listens to Ronald L. Dart on the radio and she's worried her friend is falling under the spell of a heretic. I didn't think much of her complaints because I listen to Ronald L. Dart on the way to work. But my bride asked me to research Dart because (as she said) "he's one of those Armstrong guys" 

Discernment Alarm Bells started going off - if Ronald L. Dart is in any way associated with Garner Ted Armstrong my everlasting soul is sliding backwards into hell because of the utter heresy and outright blasphemy of Armstrong's influence. So I did the Berean thing and started looking into Ronald L. Dart's theology and it was worse than I thought. MUCH worse. 

Please keep in mind there's no joy in what follows, but a lot of heartbreak and a profound feeling of loss. I truly love the way Ronald L. Dart teaches the old testament, but when he ventures into theology and his interpretation of the New Testament his words scare me, scare me bad. That being said...

Looking For A Sign

Emergent Monday: Slaying In The Charismatic Movement

Like "Speaking In Tongues" and "Faith Healing" the spectacle of being "Slain In The Spirit" is a farce, a ruse to amuse the rubes. It's an "ear tickle" designed to entertain the goats, an act of extreme silliness born in greed, ignorance, and occult practices.

According to the practitioners of spiritual slaying this is a phenomena that occurs when a Christian is so overcome by the Holy Spirit that they fall down incapacitated for a while. Normally when a Christian is overcome by the Holy Spirit it's not in the presence of 10,000 laughing, babbling, fainting people, it's generally in quiet prayer with the Lord and quite often while studying the bible. In a Charismatic circus service it's a safe bet that there's not a lot of bibles getting the dust blown off of them. Instead there's a highly animated "pastor" who stands before the rube parishioner, he waives his hands and shouts into the wireless microphone and down goes the parishioner. Benny Hinn can knock out an entire auditorium of tithe bearing goats.

Shofar So Good

10,000 page views!

I pray a difference was made in someone's relationship with God

Marcions Among Us

Marcion of Sinope (85 AD - 160 AD) was a wealthy shipowner on the Black Sea in what is now Northern Turkey. His father was the Bishop of Sinope (their home town) and Marcion was probably consecrated a bishop too, and most likely became an assistant bishop to his father.

It is said that at one time he made a donation of 200,000 sesterces to the Church of Rome. At the time you could buy 2 loaves of bread for one sesterce so let's estimate equivalent of a sesterce in today's money at $5.00, which means a gift of 200,000 sesterces was worth $1,000,000 in today's money. It is also said that the Church of Rome returned that gift. I will pause for a moment while your brain recovers from that thought-hammer. The Church of Rome RETURNING money? 

O.T. Tuesday - Daniel Shifts To Hebrew

As we head into chapter 8 of the book of Daniel we find that Daniel has shifted from writing in Aramaic to writing in Hebrew. Aramaic is sort of a universal language among the Semitic people. In 500 BC Darius made Aramaic the lingua franca of the vast Persian empire, so we can safely assume that chapters 1 through 7 of the Book of Daniel were intended for widespread distribution while the following chapters, 8 thorough 12, are intended solely for the Jewish people as they are written in Hebrew. The first seven chapters begins and ends with the subject of the four nations: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Now Daniel changes language and subjects. 

Chapter 8 opens with Daniel having another vision. The date is 551 BC, Nebuchadnezzar has died and his son Nabonidus is king of Babylon. However Nabonidus has moved to Arabia and left Babylon in the hands of is incompetent son Belshazzar. The time of Daniel's vision is the third year of Belshazzar's reign, about 2 years after the vision of Chapter 7, and just before the fall of Babylon.

Emergent Monday: Watching A Man Of God Fall From Grace

The Emergent Church, and the Charismatic Movement has a primary goal in mind and they don't speak it out loud except in the most flowery, deceptive terms. A smattering of discernment and knowledge of the word of God would rob the emergent church of their goats and protect the sheep from the heretical views of these false teachers. However not enough people bother to read God's word any more and wouldn't know a commandment from a cup of coffee. 

Sometimes it's hard to understand what the bible is saying and we put our trust in a man that preaches the word of God in an honest manner, unpolluted by personal agenda and worldly goals. Watching a man who can teach the bible, who can preach the Gospel, who has shown a devotion to the doctrine of salvation, team up with false teachers like Rick Warren and Mark Driscoll is heartbreaking. Why Greg Laurie, why? 

Led Astray By The Blind

Once upon a time, not so long ago, I was a young eager student receiving a parochial education in a parochial institution. There I learned all kinds of good things a young mind needs; a solid grounding in actual mathematics rather than the "New Math" that was perverting the thought process of those poor students trapped in a public school, proper grammar enabling me to properly communicate my thoughts and ideas, and enough science to know the difference between a solid theory, a weak hypothesis, and a pagan religion cloaked in scientific jargon that's taught as a fact but mysteriously labeled a theory (you know - like Darwinian evolution). These things I learned were good.

Of course I learned a lot of things that are not so good; the Jews killed Jesus and are going to burn in hell (What about the Italians? The men who actually did the deed were Roman citizens) and Protestants were blasphemous heretics who blaspheme, spread heresy, have no idea how to properly worship God, and are going to burn in hell. And #1 on the list was praying to a dead woman.