I Can Never Say It Enough

The End Of The Presbyterian Church?

Every baseball fan knows the phrase "Three strikes and you're out", and the Presbyterian Church USA General Assembly has just struck out. Big. 

This year the Presbyterian Church USA General Assembly met in Detroit MI to hold their biennial meeting. They discuss hundreds of items and many times God is guiding their decisions. I'm not so sure this year. This year the PCUSA voted to allow its clergy to perform same-sex faux marriages. The church leadership has changed the language in the church's Book of Order to replace references to "a man and a woman" with the politically correct "two persons".

Defending this position, Seattle ruling elder Nathan Sobers said "The Gospel is about fairness." (Sobers is married to his male partner of 27 years.) Actually the Gospel is about a lot of things: sin, redemption, love , forgiveness, and very importantly the kingdom of God and reaching for the kingdom of God. Matthew 6:10, Luke 9:1-2, Luke 8:1, Mark 1:14-15, Matthew 4:23, Matthew 9:35, Matthew 24:14, Matthew 19:16, Matthew 19:23-24, Luke 13:28. Matthew 13:19, Mark 10:15, Matthew 6:33, Matthew 13:38, Luke 1:30-33 all teach about the Kingdom of God. Yes, fairness is in the Gospel but probably not the re-defined fairness that the LGBT community demands of God. Instead of defining fairness as letting people sin because they like to sin and a loving god would allow them to sin because it would be "fair", God's promise of fairness reads a bit more like this:

For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality. (Colossians 3:25)

Surprised That Atheists Perform CCM? Not Me

As reported by Elisabeth Prata, the Christian flavored metal band As I Lay Dying has outted themselves as atheists. Surprised? Think about it: How many Christian music artists have hired hitmen to kill their wives? My guess is a number somewhere between "none" and "not any", but that's just a guess. 

Of course being a Christian performer doesn't prevent us from sinning, the Holy Spirit helps us from committing sin (Galatians 5:22) but the title of Christian does nothing... except sell records to goats. And yes, people who believe that As I Lay Dying was a Christian Metal band have been duped utterly and completely. You can point the finger of blame at promoters and record companies who have no problem taking your money, you can blame As I Lay Dying front man Tim Lambesis for your misconception that the band is Christian, because at one point he did say he was a Christian. But in the end you only have your self to blame.

"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? (Matthew 7:16)

The Angel Of The Lord = Who 2

I am just finishing up the Four Streams Bible Reading Plan, (the plan I selected to use when reading the bible this year) and I am now reading Revelation and Zechariah at the same time, and wow. Those two books together is worthy of a major study on its own. The point here is that it's been well over a year since I read Zechariah last (last years plan was chronological and I'm way behind on this years plan as it's quite demanding) and I've forgotten almost all of Zechariah.  

As I've mentioned before, the Angel of the Lord is a character that pops up in the Old Testament and if you don't pause to consider what is going on, you'll miss the incredible appearence of Jesus in the Old Testament. Now occurrences I've found in Zechariah show clearly who the Angel of the Lord truly is. As I read through Zechariah 3 last night I read it in the NIV, which put the passage in clearer terms for me than previous reads:

My Best Fathers Day.

Months ago, it seems like years ago, my bride and I had planned to spend Fathers Day first in our home church (I was scheduled to be greeter too), then by attending a Tim Hawkins concert (VIP Seating, etc!) then maybe a 'steak bake' out on the patio with the kids and my favorite 4 year old, or possibly a drive up into the mountains with my love to find a little place we've never found before. I normally don't make plans far in advance but for a chance to see Tim Hawkins I'll buy my tickets months in advance and probably spend too much money on the Plus Package. Then dad had his surgery... 

So instead of Fathers Day morning coffee on the patio and watching the sunrise glint off the mountains as I read a chapter from John, I spent Fathers Day morning following an ambulance to a hospital in Florida. 

Random Bits

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
John 17:16

Union Seminary has decided that the oil, natural gas, and coal that God has blessed us with is sinful. (And I thought it was just militant Islam that wants to return to the 7th century) Other than economic, Union Seminary's new stance is ignorant for two reasons: 1. Oil and natural gas are very likely not fossil fuels, in fact science is still trying to figure out where they come from. 2. regardless of the hysterical claims to the opposite, the theory of man made climate change is junk science. (because if it was good science the advocates wouldn't be threatening to kill people that disagree with them.

The Religion of Peace in action: thanks to Barak Hussein Obama's incredible utter military and policy failure in Iraq, Christians are being slaughtered wholesale as the city of Mosul is being destroyed. Thank you mister president for making the sacrifice of thousands of US troops meaningless. While Iraq is being plunged into the 7th Century the leadership of the United States is ignoring their pleas for help.

It Goes Without Saying Department: Hollywood just discovered that Christians want biblical movies to be... well... biblical. (Can you imagine how much money the epic failure Noah would have made if they had bothered to hire a director who read the book first?)

Persecution Watch: Christianity is outlawed on campus because an evangelical student group requires their officers to be Christian. A Korean pastor is sentenced to life in prison for forming churches.

God bless our brave children as they show us "adults" what courage is.

“Sadly, Southern Baptists totally ignore psychology and science” ummm duh! They're Southern Baptists, not Southern psychologists. Their job is staying true to the Bible, not kowtowing to the gaystapo.

Next time someone tries to tell you all about the absolute need for abortion, introduce them to Miss Pennsylvania, Valerie Gatto.

The Shack: Heretical Theology, New Age Nonsense, And Oprah.

The theological train wreck that once ruled the best seller lists is being made into a movie directed by Forrest Whitaker and is rumored to have cast Oprah Godfrey as God. If you have found yourself wondering "Someone cast a woman as God?" then consider yourself blessed, because that means that you haven't been exposed to the heresy of The Shack by William P. Young.

The fact that God the Father is a woman named Papa is just the first in a slew of unbiblical teachings of The Shack. The Shack is a Christian flavored work of fiction written by William P. Young who is not a member of a Christian church nor has any theological training. This lack of doctrinal discipline becomes apparent if you delve into the book.

The Shack is the story of a man diswraught over the kidnapping and murder of his daughter. He ends up at the shack where his daughter was murdered and ends up spending the weekend with three Christian Flavored beings who in the book are considered the Holy Trinity, but any bible believing Christian would immediately identify them as demonic entities.

A Little Historical Truth

Sometimes I get tired of the bumpersticker psudophilosophical nonsense that passes for 'deep thought' when fact actually disputes the nonsense quite plainly. Take the highly popular fallacy "religion is the #1 cause of violence and wars", I've also heard "religion causes all wars" and another favorite "more people have died because of religion than any other cause..." Unfortunately for the purveyors of such hate-speech none of this is true. I'm not sure why this fallacy is repeated so often when just the barest effort at research shows something else (in this case quite the opposite) to be true

The often painfully wrong Richard Dawkins is quoted as saying "Religion causes wars by generating certainty." Actually the opposite is true, Religion prevents wars by generating certainty. If you know your planned actions are wrong you don't do them, or you do everything you can to avoid doing it. While adherents of atheist morality insist that atheist morality is not a fairy tale, in reality it is 'situational ethics' at best. In this illustration those millions of people listed dead beneath their atheist leader died because they were in the way. Stalin alone killed 32,000,000 to 38,000,000 people just in the Ukraine before WWII just to show the Ukraine his political power, no other reason. Mao allowed 10s of millions of people to die just to advance his socialist ideals.

Religion tells us that murder is wrong, and the old testament is replete with examples of how God's anger was invoked because of the infanticide going on, even among his chosen people, so from religion we learn that murdering babies is evil. Take away religion and situational ethics kick in and you get 1,450 abortions every day in the US, 98% simply because it was inconvenient for someone if that child was alive. 

The further away you move from religion the weaker morallity gets. Atheist China's one child policy means that every woman who bears a second child becomes a murder. Atheist North Korea forces women to drown their children. California allows abortion based solely on the sex of the child. Morally these are perfectly acceptable choices if you have no moral rudder like the Word of God. However to a moral people none of these choices are acceptable. Ever.

20 My son, observe the commandment of your father And do not forsake the teaching of your mother; 21 Bind them continually on your heart; Tie them around your neck. 22 When you walk about, they will guide you; When you sleep, they will watch over you; And when you awake, they will talk to you. 23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life (Proverbs 6:20-23)

Joel Osteen Meets With Pope - A Spiritual Wolf Pack Is Forming

The Christian blogosphere is abuzz with the fact that Pope Carver Francis met with Joel Osteen and other protestant ministers last Thursday, but why are people so surprised? Joel Osteen has proven over and over again that he doesn't understand the bible, and so has the pope. Besides the Pope and the pope of prosperity, the ecumenical meeting included Sen. Michael Lee representing the Mormon church, Tim Timmons, a pastor and author based in Newport Beach, Calif., and Gayle D. Beebe, president of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif.

"Joel Osteen has joined the rank of all other popular ministries in bowing his knee to the anti-Christ system, and those that blindly follow his leadership will be the first ones in line with their hand out to be marked by the beast. Any Protestant ministry that links up with the pope and Catholicism is betraying the sacrifice of millions of faithful Christians that have died at the hands of this brutal, dictatorial and oppressive religion that has never represented the Church of the Living God as outlined in New Testament teaching." - Pastor Mark Herridge Sr. of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Livingston, Texas to Christian News Network.

Fear Not!

The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread? (Psalm 27:1)

A recent post at Hip and Thigh got me to thinking about all the Christians I know that are living in fear. Their fears are all encompassing, from food additives and corporate manipulation of the gene pool to UFO cover ups and the persecution of Christians by homophiles. 

‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ (Isaiah 41-10)

Many of these people confuse me because on one hand they profess complete dread of the world we live in, yet on the other hand they are so sure they're not going to be part of this world that they have a copy of their will placed on the mantle inside an envelope marked "In case of rapture, please open."

Why Are We Surprised

“Well, now I will be a god compared to you, you will all be animals, you are animals and I will slaughter you like animals. I’ll be a god exacting my retribution on all those who deserve it and you do deserve it just for the crime of living a better life than me... I am the closest thing there is to a living god… I will truly be a powerful god, punishing everyone I deem to be impure and depraved.” - Elliot Roger My Twisted World

Elliot Rodger penned those words, published them, and then on May 23, 2014 went out into the community and murdered 6 young men and women, injuring a dozen more using a hammer, a knife, his car and a gun. In reading his manifesto it becomes apparent that the reason he decided to kill many people as he possibly could is because Elliot Roger didn't think he had enough sin in his life. He also believed that committing suicide at the end of his murderous spree would be the end of his imagined woes. Elliot Rodger was expecting college life to be one long drunken and drug filled orgy with sorority chicks throwing themselves at his feet but in reality his classmates shied away from the sullen, hate filled young man.

Divers And Strange Doctrines

9 Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. (Hebrews 13:9-10)

Varied and strange teachings (or in the King James "divers and strange doctrines") seem to be piling up in my life lately. For some reason I'm surrounded by Catholic priests who prefer pre-Vatican II teachings, and new age Catholic nuns who love their power of handing out magic crackers, and neo-pagans who think Pope Francis is just awesome because he doesn't let that whole Bible thing get in the way of being the pope. In the end these people are trying to offer comfort, but I just want to scream, "Padre - Latin is dead, English please.", "Sister - it's what's in your heart, not in your hand" and "Broomhilda - just stop"

Don't get me wrong, the Lords Prayer is a great prayer, but it was intended as an outline of how to pray, not what to pray. There's something strangely unnerving to me to hear it repeated over and over again (Matthew 6:7) with the joy and enthusiasm of a half awake school child droning through the pledge of allegiance just to get it over with. The best part of my day lately has been when I can cast aside the fripperies and icons of a religion God has led me away from and to relax with the pure joy of Sola Scriptura - to delve into God's word and let it wash the pain of the day away.