Live Blogging Harvest America

After the Philadelphia Eagles got plucked by the Broncos 52 to 20 Greg Laurie put on Day 2 of a multimedia production called Harvest America. He's been advertising this in Calvary Chapel churches for months so Mrs WideAwakeChristian has been really hyped about this. With the laptop plugged into the 55" we're watching the live stream from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

One hour in and we've had little more than secular music with a slight christian flavoring. Two easily forgettable (to me) acts have been center stage singing a nonstop litany of I I I me me me my my my gimme gimme gimme - a literal selflovefest to the point where I'm ready to throw a rock through the TV. Jeremy Camp was the first act, and to be honest when he stopped singing he had a beautiful clear gospel message, but his songs were horrific: selfish, secular, insipid, and monotonous. He really should smash his guitar to pieces and go to seminary, he's clearly got the love of God and fire in his heart to be a top rate preacher.

Religion of Peace Update

How bad is the Muslim persecution of Christians today? Are the reports of Christian persecution coming out of the Middle East, Asia, India, and Africa just over hyped hysteria? According to the International Society for Human Rights in Frankfurt, Germany, 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed against Christians. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in November of last year, told a gathering of the Lutheran Church that Christianity was “the most persecuted religion in the world”. Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby said that there had been more than 80 Christian “martyrs” in the last few days alone.

The Muslim persecution of Christians has reached such depths of depravity that the Pope stopped his romantic overtures toward the Religion of Peace and after hearing of the slaughter of 85 Christians bravely stood before a catholic audience and told Christians how to avoid gossiping. 

"A Christian should bite their tongue before gossiping," he said. "That way the tongue will swell up and you can't gossip anymore!" (Source)

Farewell Damascus

 Two books of the bible both directly prophesy the complete destruction of Damascus. Some say that the prophesy was foretelling the destruction of Damascus by the Assyrians in 732 BC other say not. Joel C. Rosenberg says:

“These prophecies have not yet been fulfilled. Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth. It has been attacked, besieged, and conquered. But Damascus has never been completely destroyed and left uninhabited." (Source) Which is true, in 732 BC Damascus was conquered by the Assyrians, but it wasn't left in an uninhabitable smoldering heap as prophesyed in Isaiah 17: 

Enjoy The Bible!

I read my bible every day... well, I try to read my bible every day. Life creeps in and whittles away at our time but I really do make an attempt to read every single day. I use the You Version bible app on a tablet or sometimes on a laptop, with an ink-and-paper study bible on hand. Armed with the NIV on tablet, the NASB on paper, a good cigar, and a glass of lemonade I find a shady spot under the linden tree (unfortunately fig trees don't grow in Colorado) and there I read the bible and reflect on what God is saying to me. I sometimes use the Olive Tree bible study app to clarify verses. I'm not saying that this is what you should be doing (especially if you don't like cigars) but it's what I do and have been doing for a couple of years now, and when I don't get a chance to do it due to the world's intrusions on my life I feel disconnected and upset.

Most importantly I really enjoy reading the bible, it's been my full time reading companion and I really really enjoy spending alone time with God under the tree. I always find something new every day I read, and marvel at the new revelations that never fail to leap off the page at me. Unfortunately most Christians don't read the bible daily, or weekly for that matter, statistics show that 25% of Evangelic Christians, 19% of Protestants, and 7% of Catholics read the bible daily while 18% of Protestant never read the bible (as compared with 44% of Catholics). Maybe it's because we're not taught how to enjoy reading the bible. So to help here's a few hints I picked up:

Who Defends Persecuted Christians?

Note: I've had the honor and privilege of knowing Rob Morse and his beautiful bride for several years, meeting both on line and in person. Rob is a father, husband, rocket surgeon par excellence, sailor, glider pilot, heck of a shooter, and in both spare minutes can come up with each day he will expound on the (vastly superior) qualities of Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors and  write a blog called Slow Facts.  Rob published the following post on September 21 and I immediately begged permission to reprint his work here, to which he immediately agreed. 

Who Defends Persecuted Christians?

This is a wake-up call.  Christians are being killed around the world.  That is important whatever your faith, and even if you lack religious faith.  You’ve already heard about Christian persecution, or you should unless you’ve been hiding.  Yeah, I know that real life places uncomfortable demands on us, but there is more to life than reruns on Hulu.  Real life demands we get involved, that we become committed.  Online life is easier, but that isn’t what life is for.  Ask yourself why your church pastor isn’t shouting about Christian persecution for all to hear every day of the week.  It is up to us to wake up our church.  You don’t believe me?

My Problem With Worship Music

Here's an excellent article by David Murrow on why men have stopped singing in church. Please read it and then see if you can agree with my comments

When Good Things Happen to Bad People

As the flood waters begin to recede here in Colorado we're going to start to hear it as sure as we heard it during the wild fires over the past couple of years. But as Christians we'll all hear it over and over and over, sometimes in tearful frustration, and sometimes from smug atheists who think they have you in a theological paradox "If God is supposedly so loving how can He allow bad things to happen to good people?" Most of the time this is answered with kind of a theological attempt at "Well, this is one of the most difficult questions in all of theology. God is eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. Why should human beings (not eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipresent, or omnipotent) expect to be able to fully understand God’s ways?" (Source)

That's a good answer, but not the best one. There's several right answers but the most correct answer for this question was uttered by R. C. Sproul:

Emergent Monday - Odd Things I Learn At My Front Door

On occasion a freshly scrubbed pair of young men will appear at my front door with Good News for me. They both wear black shoes, white socks, black pants, a white shirt, a pencil thin black tie, a few pens in a 60's era pocket protector, a maroon bicycle helmet and a black back pack that's worn nerd style (both straps on, pack riding high, not the more stylish one strap over one shoulder, pack hanging very low)

Usually one of their opening lines is that they're not here to convert me, to which I respond "Good, and since you are here I fully intend to convert you," and I crack open my NASB. At this point there's usually the sound of air slapping closed on a sudden vacuum and a pair of vapor trails heading off to the neighbors house. Yes, they were mormons and no, they haven't figured out (like the JW's have) to put me on a black list. Now don't get me wrong, by posting about the mormon church on Emergent Monday I'm not saying that the mormon church is an emergent church. The Presbyterians are: "Mormonism is a new and emerging religious tradition distinct from the historic apostolic tradition of the Christian Church". And just like the Doug Padgetts and Rick Warrens and the Eugene Petersons of the emerging church they have something different to say about what God has already said...  

Is The Pope An Atheist?

Pope Francis, who is not a James Bond villain and is not pictured here also appears to not be a Christian. The Pope, in a letter to the Italian news paper La Repubblica, all but announced to the world that he is really Rob Bell in a yarmulka.

For being the self appointed deputy savior (that's what "vicar of Christ" means - "deputy saviour" or "associate son of God") Pope Francis doesn't seem to know a whole lot about the word of God. Or, failing that, if he does know a whole lot about the word of God, it appears that he's intentionally misrepresenting that word.

As I reported before back in May, Pope Carver Francis was completely off base with his interpretation of John 14:6. Not only was his interpretation out of step with with the true word of God, it was out of step with the RCC's man-made gospel. You'd figure by now one of those enforcer cardinals that make problems "go away" (you know, like pedophillia) would have taken him off to the side for a little chat over espresso "Yoo know dare Frank, dis whole goin' off inta left field on dis salvation ting is gonna stop. Capiche?" Unfortunately this hasn't happened and the Pope is still making stuff up on the fly and passing it off as Gospel.

Some Times It's Hard To Obey God's Will

After Obama's conduct regarding Syria over the past few days capped by his "speech" last night it's hard to keep in mind that God is in charge. Sometimes I need a reminder.

21 It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. (Daniel 2:21)

1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. (Romans 13:1-2)

False Teacher Of The Year

As school gets back into session it's time for our annual False Teacher Of The Year Award! There were so many candidates for the trophy that we were overwhelmed by the possibilities. From Cindy Jacobs to perennial favorites Benny Hinn and Joyce Meyer the list is seemingly endless, but in the end we picked one false teacher that's doing more to undermine the word of God and the spirit of Christianity, in our opinion, than anyone else on earth. 

The criteria for being selected as False Teacher Of The Year is based on what we at Award Headquarters call the "Second Peter Principal"

¹⁸ For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, ¹⁹ promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. ²⁰ For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹ For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. (2 Peter 2:18-21)

 And now, without further adieu let's reveal who the Award Committee has selected as the False Teacher Of The year for 2013:  

Emergent Monday: The Prosperity Gospel VS The Real Gospel

The Prosperity Gospel is based almost solely on Psalm 37:4

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart

And John 10:10

¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

The Mess of The Message: Psalm 1

As I've mentioned before, the Message is a complete mess. I can only do a post on the Message every now and then because frankly, heresy and blasphemy turn me off. It takes me a while to recover and return my center to Jesus where I can feel clean again.

The Message is not a bible translation, the author didn't translate a single word from one language to another. It's not a bible version, a bible version seeks to stay true to the word of God. The Message is a seeker sensitive satire of the Bible. The Message of The Message is not the word of God but the word of Eugene Peterson. 

It appears to me that Eugene Peterson didn't like all that religious talk about God and sin, and repentance, and replaced it all with a feel good, happy clappy seeker sensitive mashup of nonsense, new age psychobabble, and outdated "hip" jargon in an effort to stay relevant to people lead easily astray. Thanks to a post at Do Not Be Surprised I return to the fray as Psalm 1 is a beautiful example of how horribly heretical The Message truly is. 

Dispensationalism: Big Words = Big Concepts

At a prayer meeting last night the word Dispensationalism came up causing me to pop at least 3 mental circuit breakers trying to ponder what it is. The subject was raised because one of my fellow Bereans mentioned that Pastor Lovejoy had admitted to being a dispensationalist. Personally I always thought that a dispensationalist was a recluse who remained in dark rooms lit only by large dribbly candles and wrote awesome lengthy articles with a crow quill pen and published them on poorly designed web pages with a lot of words in bold, italic, UPPERCASE, highlighted, and too many text colors. 

So I Googled "Dispensationalism" and came up with a lot of charts like the one above and some very wordy explanations of the concept, most of which has to do with time periods, bible chapters, and God's relationship with man. Of course that's the entire explanation of Dispensationalism in a nut shell but most of these articles were written for people who already understand what Dispensationalism is, so I ended up doing the Berean thing ...

The "God Is Good - ONLY Good" Church Of Joyful Heresy

"What's wrong with teaching about the joy of being a Christian?" A friend asked me that in defense of her favorable opinion of Joel Osteen. My answer, which was lost on her, was "What's wrong with feeding your children birthday cake at every meal?"

Yes, there is joy in being a Christian, but there's also pain, sin, doubt, angst, loneliness, responsibility, anger, and a whole raft of other things that come with being a human being. This is due to one simple reason: we are human beings. Becoming a Christian didn't make us impervious to these feelings, it didn't lift us above our humanity, what it does is gives us a coping mechanism when we have these feelings; trust and faith in God. 

Which is why the "Happy Slappy Clappy Church of Perpetual Joy" is such a danger, because it teaches a lie. Even though we have been accepted into the family of God, we're still here on this rock deep inside enemy territory. Sin and temptation still abound, pain has not been dismissed for our new beliefs, suffering is still with us. What happens when a new Christian who has been spoon fed the pablum of the prosperity Gospel and has been told that it's always sunny on this side of the cross suddenly gets an IRS audit or a child born with Downs Syndrome? Statistics tell us that they don't stay Christians for long. And whose fault is that? It's ours.