The Great Falling Away - It's Real, It's Here

"...people are leaving Christianity in droves. About 106 million Christians are expected to switch affiliation from 2010 to 2050 while only about 40 million people are expected to enter Christianity.

The religiously unaffiliated (athiests, agnostics) are expected to see the largest net gains from switching, adding more than 61 million followers.

See the full article at Business Insider.

Wonderful Quotes from Charles H. Spurgeon

Ambition: Our meat and our drink is to do the will of him who sent us.

Atheism: Atheism is a strange thing. Even the devils never fell into that vice, for “the devils also believe and tremble” (James 2:19).

Authority of the Bible: If there be anything in the church to which you belong which is contrary to the inspired Word, leave that church.

Neglect of the Bible: There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write “damnation” with your fingers.

Teaching of children: Where the plow does not go and the seed is not sown, the weeds are sure to multiply. And if children are left untrained, all sorts of evil will spring up in their hearts and lives.

Purpose of the church: Not for yourself, O church, do you exist, any more than Christ existed for himself.

Compassion: I am certain that to preach the wrath of God with a hard heart, a cold lip, a tearless eye, and an unfeeling spirit is to harden men, not benefit them.

Christ’s death: Nothing puts life into men like a dying Savior

Fear of death: Dying is the last, but the least matter that a Christian has to be anxious about.

Discipleship: If persecution should arise, you should be willing to part with all that you possess—with your liberty, with your life itself, for Christ—or you cannot be his disciple.

Emergent Monday: THIS is What It Means To Be Unevenly Yoked

14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 17 “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. (2 Corinthians 6:14-17)

If you want to know exactly what Paul was writing about in 2 Corinthians 6:14, look no further than John Shuck. John Shuck says 

"Jesus may have been an historical figure, but most of what we know about Him is in the form of legend... God is a symbol of myth-making and not credible as a supernatural being or force... the Bible is a human product as opposed to special revelation from a divine being... human consciousness is the result of natural selection, so there's no afterlife."

You might say that John Shuck is another sad, lost atheist working to undermine the faith and love that the saints have for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and you'd be right. So you might be surprised to find that John's work address is Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, OR. And yes this is the Presbyterian Church USA, so it should not come as a horrible surprise to you that John Shuck is employed as a "Minister" there. If you want to be shocked, be shocked at the fact that he 'outted' himself as an atheist over 2 years ago and is still employed, and there are people that show up for his sermons and honestly believe in what he is saying.

And believe it or not, this man who calls the son of the Living God a mere "historical figure", who calls Christs' promise of everlasting life a lie, who insists the Bible is fiction and God is a symbol forged in myths, gets upset if someone points out the obvious truth that he's not a Christian. He calls his brand of ear tickling "Belief-less Christianity" And his church is filled with goats willing to be fed any doctrinal flavored swill that John Shuck can throw at them.

What Is Salvation?

Salvation is not getting people inside of a church building, convincing them to say the “sinner’s prayer,” or any of the modern methods for getting someone onto the attendance rolls. Salvation is the result of being convicted by the Holy Spirit after hearing the Gospel. One must come to the realization that he or she is a sinner, else why would he or she need the Savior. If they do not recognize the need for the Savior, they do not see the need to be saved. - C. H. Fisher

Random Bits

Good Luck With That: Taliban and ISIS have both announced that they have declared jihad against each other. What more needs to be said other than "Do a good job"

Looks like the Episcopal Church is going the way of the Presbyterian Church USA - Jesus was transgendered? Christian theology is queer at heart? The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 was 'transgendered'? (Probably not by choice) This is coming from a "Divinity school"?  Does the term "Circling The Drain" come to mind?

What can I say except "Waaaaa ha ha ha ha ha hah!"

What I'm saying is that if you're going to make up something fictional about Jesus, don't make it something that can be proved to be a lie by reading the bible. Some less than discerning folks claim that Jesus was a vegan (someone who cares nothing for the physical or emotional well being of kale) while the very word of God claims otherwise.

Help is always here

Tim Tebow Signs With The Philadelphia Eagles

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)

Tim Tebow, who once lead the Denver Broncos to the Superbowl has signed with the Philadelphia Eagles for one year. While Tebow is famous for his evangelism and faith, the only thing the Eagles have been famous for lately is hiring a dog murderer.

Tim Tebow is not ashamed of his deep, loving faith. He begins postgame news conferences by thanking his "Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ" and ends them with "God bless." He openly prays on the sidelines and even on the field when he has thrown a touchdown. Tim is often seen on one knee in prayers of gratitude for being given the chance to play the game he loves. We Christians call it praying, newspapers and fans call it “Tebowing.”

ISIS Strikes Again - 30 Christians Brothers Slaughtered In Islamist Rage.

A new video released by ISIS features a rant against "Christian crusaders" and shows 15 Ethiopian Christian men dressed in black and shot in the head in the desert and while 15 other Ethiopian Christian men dressed in orange decapitated on a beach. A murderer wearing a mask said in English with a clearly American accent:

To the nation of the cross, we’re back again... Muslim blood that was shed under the hands of your religion is not cheap...We swear to Allah ... you will not have safety even in your dreams until you embrace Islam,

ISIS even gave the 29-minute video a semi-coherent title "Until There Came to Them Clear Evidence" Analysts state that the video appears to be primarily aimed at offering Isamist justification for ISIS murder sprees, starving their captives to death, and driving Christians from their homes. The video starts with a rant on what it calls "a history of Christian-Muslim relations", followed by scenes of Islamic fanatics destroying Christian churches, graves and icons which is more accurate of a history lesson than their rant. 

Take My Hand Precious Lord

Quick Critique of A.D. Episode 2 (The Errors Continue)

Originally posted on Steak and a Bible

Quick Critique of A.D. Episode 2 (The Errors Continue)

Posted on April 13, 2015by Julia

I’ve now endured the second episode of A.D. I’m not sure how much more of this I can take. The same big problem that plagued episode 1, also plagued the second episode: so many additions to the historical narrative.

The Bible has four, (four!) gospel accounts. That really ought to be enough source material to work with to tell an accurate and compelling story about Jesus Christ and the birth of Christianity. Yet, once again the makers of A.D. insisted on making up scene after scene, including angry Pilate confronting Caiphas while he (Caiphas) was bathing. I really wish I was kidding. In interviews, Mark Burnett has compared it to several popular shows and movies (Game of Thrones, House of Cards and Gladiator). 

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

Religion of the Overcrowded Pantheon update: Deva Sadhvi Thakur, the vice president of the radical Hindu group “All India Hindu Mahasabha” has publicly stated: “The population of Muslims and Christians is growing day by day. To control this, the central government must declare a state of emergency and force Muslims and Christians to undergo sterilization, so that they can’t increase their numbers.” and she urged Hindus to have more children to outgrow the populations of other religions in the world. And it gets sillier. The tools that Satan uses are numerous and heartbreaking.

I nearly missed an appointment driving through a wet, soggy, heavy snow storm last night. It was miserable. I thought to myself "Someone must be having a global warming protest in the area tonight" and guess what - I was right.

In a just society, these people would be locked up. Forever.

What is Faith

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1)

Occasionally something hits me like a lightning bolt and suddenly once murky concepts become clear as a bell. This, I believe fervently, is the Holy Spirit, revealing God's truth to me bit by bit. I'm glad that He doesn't do it all at once because my Swiss-cheese memory (Quantum Leap Reference) couldn't take it. 

A good definition of what Faith is and is not hit me a short time ago when reading Preparing for Eternity by Mike Gendron

The top definition used in the Christian world for faith is Hebrews 11:1, but I'm not wild about the use of the word 'assurance'. Over the years 'assurance' has become a bit more wishy-washy than it once was. The definition of assurance is "the state of being sure or certain about something" The original Greek word used in Hebrews 11:1 is ὑπόστασις or hypostasis which means things like "that which has foundation, is firm" and "the steadfastness of mind, firmness, courage, resolution" I like 'steadfast' over 'sure' in this particular instance. If I'm wrong, please correct me, but try this on for size: 

Now faith is the steadfast trust of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen 

The Monastic Life Is Not For Me

You can't trust people, but you can always trust God, His word never changes. We know this to be true from Numbers 23:19. What may change is our understanding of God's word. God says quite clearly what a sin is, and which sin God really hates. (Of course He hates all sin, but there's one He really really hates)

As we continue to ride on this sin sick world the morals and values of the people around us change to something we as observers of this world are generally shocked to see. This was prophesied to happen, we knew it would happen, if anything we should be surprised how quickly it's happening and the levels to which it's reaching. We, as Christians, are under attack for not supporting sin, which is one of the things we should be doing best: not supporting sin. However are we to retreat to monasteries to avoid the sin sick world around us? I don't do monasteries. If we look in the bible is that what Paul is really saying?

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)

Tips for a Safe Exorcism.

Professor Giuseppe Ferrari head of the Italian occult watchdog group, The Group on Research and Socio-Religious Information, has pointed out in a Vatican backed exorcism course that the pop culture focus on the occult such as "beautiful vampires" like in the Twilight nonsense movies and "True Blood" (an HBO vampire series that leapt the shark somewhere in the middle of episode 2) is encouraging young people to dabble in the occult. 

This, of course, is not news, as wide awake Christians we know this is happening all around us, but from articles printed in The Independent it appears that the Romans are being inundated with reports of demonic possession although some believe that the Roman obsession with exorcism is causing gung-ho priests mistake mental health problems for demonic possession. The increase in 'gung-ho' exorcists isn't just a Hollywood or Italian phenomenon, England is reporting an increase in the number of exorcists too. 

First of all, if you're thinking of throwing an at-home exorcism here's a few safety safety reminders from Vatican City:

Finding Peace in a Fallen World

Let's face it brothers and sisters, it's getting harder and harder to find the peace that Christ Jesus promised us. Our brothers and sisters in Christ are being horrifically murdered all over the world, the governing bodies we elected are negotiating to give nuclear weapons to terrorists, church denominations falling like dominoes to the wiles of Satan and his cohorts, and Christians are being hounded via the legal system for the sin of being a Christian. 

Personally, right now, I'm not in the best of physical health. I'd love nothing better than to recuperate and spend time with God's word, but my bride and I have been inundated by stuff. Some of this stuff is awesome (granddaughter on the way!!!), some of it is direct attack by people that we pledged ourselves to help, and some is just plain weird, but it's all stuff that keeps our focus diverted from Christ Jesus. According to CS Lewis the #1 thing that Satan does to separate us from Jesus is to keep us busy. He says that B.U.S.Y. is an acronym for Being Under Satan's Yoke. And he's right. 

Our church, the First Berean Congregational Church, is pretty awesome about busy. There's activities to foster fellowship and learning but we don't bury our saints in busy. So Satan attack in other ways, lately we're being hit by attacks as described in Psalm 6:19, and we know it's Satan behind all of  these covert attacks as well as the horrors going on in the world, 

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

As we approach the end of days it's going to get worse and worse. To conduct business we are going to be expected to pledge allegiance to acts of perversion, we are going to come under attack because we love Jesus, and other than having faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, there's not much we can do about it other than weather the storm by living the life He wants us to lead. 

God doesn't want us angry, or sick with fear, He wants our love, not our terror. It's going to get worse, not better, especially for those that love this world, so being forewarned we need to find the peace we need to weather the storm, Luckily God gave us instructions on how to do this, we simply have to follow His word

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

 It truly helps when you concentrate on the good things rather than the bad.

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

Score one for the good guys: Memories Pizza in Walkerton Indiana which was shut down by the hyper reactive self centered left for daring to air their religious beliefs has re-opened to crowds of friends and well wishers and not a protester in sight. Freedom Loving Americans pitched in and raised $842,000 to help the beleaguered owners through the assault by the "liberal" left.

Religion of Peace Update: ISIS has decapitated a man accused of witchcraft and sorcery. This is just a latest in a long string of grizzly executions including a couple being stoned to death in front of children. Where did these barbaric animals come from? They came from Saddam Hussien's horrific nightmare of a government.

 Someone who gets it... and he's a Canadian!

Color Me Shocked. Yeah Right. Department: It's illegal to discriminate against gays, but Colorado is okey dokey with discriminating against Christians

Religion of Peace update II: the Islamist group Al-Shabaab has massacred hundreds of Christians in just the past few months. In December they killed 36 Christian quarry workers. They separated Christian from Muslim and shot the Christians. This was 10 days after they killed 48 passengers on a bus, and the day before that they threw grenades in a bar frequented by non-Muslims killing one and injuring 12. On April 2 Al-Shabaab entered the campus of Garissa University College and separated Muslim students from Christian by asking them to recite Muslim verses, and executed the Christians. The sad part is that if you read the reporting in Reuters or listen to Barack Hussein Obama you'd never know that this was an Islamic hate crime against Christians, neither had the guts to admit that this was Christian persecution.

We ran into this at the board meeting at First Berean Congregational last night. I think a Sunday School lesson on Psalm 6:16-19 is in order.

Let's recognize who the real haters are

You don't know how much I love stories like this one. I know a girl whose mom was faced with such a decision (for different reasons). That girl is going to make her mom a grandmother any day now.

PCUSA Update: The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a coalition of approximately 34,000 churches spanning various denominations and representing an estimated 15.7 million African Americans and Latinos, has “broken fellowship” with the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) after a majority vote was reached among the denomination’s regional presbyteries to redefine marriage.

Liberal writers make a shocking discovery: when you start calling Christians 'racists' people actually think you were serious and start treating Christians as racists.

You seriously didn't see this coming? Department: Personally I think Jeran Artery's problem is that he's leading the largest gay group in Wyoming and he's lonely. Very, very lonely.

Obama Continues to Spew Anti-Christian Hate

Open season on Christians for President Barack Hussein Obama. starts at Easter, Christianity's most holy day. The adolescent rhetoric this man uses against Christianity is embarrassing to both this country as a whole and to the office of President of the United States. 

Obama's tirade against Christianity began even before the most the most unqualified man to ever serve as president ever took office when on the campaign trail he claimed that small town Americans were bitterly clinging to their guns and religion. The man openly mocks, denigrates and belittles Christianity, twisting and redefining even the simplest of concepts for his own purposes. When asked what sin is he answered "Being out of alignment with my values." This one sentence alone tells me everything I need to know about Barack Hussein Obama, it's all about him, it's all about his values, God is of no importance to him. If Barack Hussein Obama was the Christian he claims to be he would know the correct answer to what sin is, instead of that embarrassing fit of self aggrandization . 

And embarrassing isn't enough to describe how little Barack Hussein Obama knows about sin, redemption, salvation, and faith. He claims to be Christian but when waxing theological he merely apes tired old atheist mantras. In the same interview where he declared sin to be out of alignment with the values of Barack Hussein Obama:

I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell. I can’t imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity. That’s just not part of my religious makeup.”

Ecumenical Monday: NAR + LDS = BOTE?

1 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)

There are so many wolves wearing sheep-suits now that just the prospect of going 'church shopping' while on a trip or vacation terrifies me. Heresy abounds out there, and I'm just not talking about the "Biblical but unethical" people like David Jeremiah, or the "misinterpretation for fun and profit" types like John Hagee, but the full blown unscriptural sheep fleecing that the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and Latter Day Saints (LDS) provides. And now, thanks to Chuck Pierce and Glenn Beck that dream team of NAR + LDS has come to life.

On March 22, 2015 Chuck Pierce, a "prophet" in the New Apostolic Reformation  presented a Glenn Beck, Mormon Apostle with "a new mantle for the future" and compared Beck to Cyrus, the Persian king who allowed Jews to return to Israel and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Chuck Pierce said:

Glenn Beck, like Cyrus has a voice to change this nation. Cyrus had God's mantle to do so. Mr. Beck also has a mantle now that can be used to spread a new fire in this land. He has a heart to see our nation continue to embrace Israel. That is our common ground. If he continues to embrace the God of Israel, then he will eventually know His fullness. (source)

MY KING HAS RISEN! FOREVER MAY HE REIGN!

How Was Your April Fools Day?

I don't do April Fools Day. I don't do April Fools Day pranks, and if pranked I generally respond with such an impassive straight face that Buster Keaton would nudge the guy next to him and proudly say "I taught him that!"

This year my health has been poor (I'm still doing Much better than I deserve thanks to the saving grace of my Savior Christ Jesus) and Wednesday, April Fools Day, I was feeling punier than I have in a while after a morning of tests at the hospital where I was told I had to take more Lovenox (those of you who have to take the 'stab in the ab' know what I'm talking about, right?) and there in a response to a post I made well over a month ago was a long drawn out screed from an atheist complaining about Christianity and Judaism.

If you've ever dealt with an Atheist you know how it always starts "I used to be an evangelical Christian until..." followed by some horrible tragedy or some eye opening event. Then they go on to describe their objections to Christianity based on their experience in such a manner that you now pity them. They're so far off base they are either lying about ever being inside a church ever in their life, or they were spiritually abused and miseducated by the worst pastor ever spawned. (Or, they were catholics and have been duped into thinking that it is part of evangelical Christianity) But when they start listing their objections you begin to see the truth of Psalm 14:1

The Truth of the Holy Spirit...

... as recorded by Paul

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. (1 Corinthians 2:14)