Happy Reformation Day!

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

It's been quite a month here in the shadow of the Rockies, my health has been improving which is a blessing, hopefully I can do more walking before the weather sets in. I don't care what anyone says, walking on a treadmill is a poor substitute for a fine perambulation out doors.

My birthday was this month, and unfortunatly that same day my company had a surprise round of lay-offs. I didn't get laid off but some very good friends did, some I had been working with for over 15 years. My birthday was spent in shock and prayer and survivors guilt. When the dust had settled a neighbor took myself and my wife out to dinner, it was such a relief to get back into a normal situation after such an uproar - until I noticed I was missing a church board meeting.

I thought a lot about the survivors guilt, things like "Why not me? the guys that got canned are so much smarter than me." I've been through lay-off pogroms like this numerous times (it's a way of life in my career path) and each time I ache through survivors guilt. All I can do is thank the lord for letting me provide for my family and pray that He watches over my former co-workers. And I think: when Christ returns will there be survivors guilt? My guess is no, but you tell me, if you have thoughts on that, please post them here.

What's Wrong With This Picture Dept: Mr. Pope is Traveling to atheist Sweden to celebrate the 499th anniversary of the Reformation. What's next - a bar mitzvah in Nairobi?

Yes Washington Post, the Bible does mention transgenderism, and not in very flattering terms. (Thanks and a hat tip to Überblogger Glenn)

Spurgeon Thursday - The Reason for the Reformation

We are one year from the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation and with ecumenical-mania going on, a modern day counter reformation, one can only wonder if this will be the last anniversary of the Protestant Reformation to be celebrated.

Reunification with the Roman church is a movement that is quietly gaining steam. The biblically unqualified leader of a Lutheran denomination has declared:

"Though we have not yet arrived, we have claimed that we are, in fact, on the way to unity... This 'Declaration on the Way' helps us to realize more fully our unity in Christ with our Catholic partners, but it also serves to embolden our commitment to unity with all Christians

Charles Haddon Spurgeon probably wouldn't agree with Mrs. Eaton, and by "probably wouldn't agree" I actually mean "raging with the very fires of hell in disagreement" 

Charles was a loving man of God who was blessed with an incorrigible sense of humor, but the institution of the Roman Catholic Church and its papist heresies tested his patience, and when he spoke, he let his passion be known: 

It is the bounden duty of every Christian to pray against Antichrist, and as to what Antichrist is no sane man ought to raise a question. If it be not the popery in the Church of Rome there is nothing in the world that can be called by that name. If there were to be issued a hue and cry for Antichrist, we should certainly take up this church on suspicion, and it would certainly not be let loose again, for it so exactly answers the description. 

WWUTT Wednesday - Soldiers

There's been a lot of discussions going on lately about Christians and the role of Government, and they will keep going on for a couple more weeks at least. A recent discussion I was in was about government sanctioned killing, mostly the death penalty but also branching into soldering.

The bible does not say "thou shall not kill", if it did mankind would have starved to death trying to eat rocks before Cane and Able were born. Think about it: how many innocent living plants were dismembered and brutally slaughtered to make that chop salad you so thoughtless had for lunch the other day? The bible says "thou shall not murder" which is a whole different thing.

One cannot read the bible, either testament, and not see that death is a tool God has given governments to perform their function as an agency that He has created. It's a tool used to defend the citizens of kingdoms from external and internal threats. Think about it: God used the Roman Empire's governmental power of execution to perform the ultimate sacrifice which insured our salvation. And the pagans He used to insure our salvation were soldiers.

Is This How We Worship God?

I was going to save this for a Random Bits post, but in the ball game of heresy the "Church" by the Glades (CBG) hit this one out of the park. As part of their 'Family Drive-In' series of God "worshiping" films such as Frozen, Star Wars, Finding Nemo, Alice in Wonderland, and Transformers, the CBG put on a stage show for Harry Potter featuring Screaming Jay Hawkins "I Put A Spell On You"

Neither Harry Potter nor I Put A Spell On You has anything to do with God, worshiping God, Praising God, Thanking God... CBG claims to be about two things Jesus and His word, but where in that video or that stage performance or the skimpy costume do we see Jesus or His word? How is this bringing the youth of CBG closer to understanding God's will? They're peddling witchcraft on stage and screen

'Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:31)

By the way, the Church By the Glades website says that no perfect people are allowed in the church, which sounds all kinds of touchy-feely wonderful to the sensitive safeplacers, but anyone with any amount of discernment would know that means Jesus isn't allowed in this false church.

Thanks and a Hat Tip to the Museum of Idolatry

Yes, it's a very busy week

Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, "We can't keep Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from conservative values. But we can do something else. We can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding experience in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.

"So let them go to church. Let them have their conservative lifestyles. But steal their time so they can't gain that experience in Jesus Christ."

"Here is how I want you to do this. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day."

"But how shall we do this?" shouted one of his angels? 

Spurgeon Thursday - Of Two Evils

“Of two evils choose neither” -Charles Spurgeon,

Ok folks, this quote has nothing to do with voting. You can safely say that in every political election both choices are evil because all humans are sinners. So then in that case, yes, you are looking for the lesser of two evils.  However that's not what Spurgeon was talking about. It's an often misused quote, and often applied to voting. 

This quote attributed to Spurgeon is about sin, not about voting or picking candidates. The original quote is about what to do when faced with a clear choice of sin (lying or stealing):

“John Ploughman says, Of two evils choose neither. Don’t choose the least, but let all evils alone.” - Charles H. Spurgeon in The Salt Cellars – Proverbs & Quaint Sayings

As for voting, Spurgeon urged Christians to exercise the right of voting wisely, voting thoughtfully and prayerfully concentrating on the needs of the community. The only time a person shouldn't vote is when they're voting out of ignorance. A vote solely based on age, sex, race, or religion is clearly based on ignorance and emotionalism (as if there's a difference), please stay home. We want people who consider their votes fully and intellectually based on issues, not emotions or arbitrary quotas. As Spurgeon said

“I would not, however, say to any persons here present, despise the privilege which you have as citizens. Far be it from me to do it. When we become Christians we do not leave off being Englishmen; when we become professors of religion we do not cease to have the rights and privileges which citizenship has bestowed on us.

Let us, whenever we shall have the opportunity of using the right of voting, use it as in the sight of Almighty God, knowing that for everything we shall be brought into account, and for that amongst the rest, seeing that we are entrusted with it. And let us remember that we are our own governors, to a great degree, and that if at the next election we should choose wrong governors we shall have nobody to blame but ourselves, however wrongly they may afterwards act, unless we exercise all prudence and prayer to Almighty God to direct our hearts to a right choice in this matter.

May God so help us, and may the result be for his glory, however unexpected that result may be to any of us!” (Charles Spurgeon - “Particular Election,” No. 123, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (Albany, OR: AGES Electronic Edition, 1997)

WWUTT Wednesday - God's Gift To All Of Us

Today is my birthday, and a very bittersweet one it is. Not because I have many many more behind me than I do ahead of me, but because of what is going on at work. 

Due to corporate restructuring many of my friends lost their jobs today. some of these men and women I have been working with since the turn of the century, we moved from one company to another "together" as mergers and bankruptcies occurred. Very few people in the world do what we do, so as we move around in the industry we may not know a person when they show up at our office, but it's guaranteed that we are friends with many of their friends.

 The cuts were sudden and drastic, my small group lost 30% of our people. I found out that my friends were gone only by the way their existance was wiped out of my computer. I was in a pretty bad mood, until WWUTT reminded me of God's love

Sound Familiar?

"Where theistic religion grows weak, that is where religion related to God grows weak, justice will weaken.

Crimes, then, are defined as antisocial activity which, in turn, then is merely what the majority says it is.

Then punishments seem to be the result of the majority's ganging up on the minority.

This, in turn, seems inconsistent with democratic feelings.

The result is a decline in uniform application of penalties for crime, resultant miscarriages of justice, trampling on the rights of law-abiding people, together with an increase in what ought to be called crime."

- Civil Government: A Biblical View by Robert D. Culver, Page 78

Who is Your Governor?

Last week I wrote that government is instituted by God and I wrote about a Christian's responsibility to be subject to the governing authorities. So who are those authorities? Who is in charge?

If you go to one of those websites they will tell you that Satan is in charge. By "one of those websites" I mean the web sites that proclaim the end of the world by Divine Retribution is nigh because of one thing or another - not making the Sabbath holy by allowing alcohol to be sold on Sunday (which is not the Sabbath), not codifying the First commandment into law, that monuments like the Lincoln Memorial and Mt. Rushmore are "graven images" - pretty much anything bible flavored that the author believes could make this country "great again" If you have never stumbled across one of those websites, count yourself blessed

The good news is that their reasoning is all wrong, enacting these things would accomplish nothing. The bad news is that they are right, Satan is in charge of the world governments. 

8 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’”(Matthew 4:8-9)

In Luke the devil's offer was a bit different 

6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” (Luke 4:6-7) 

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

Matthew Vines, a homosexual "Christian" activist, is spreading his war on God's word by attacking InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA and trying to make it inclusive to sexual sin.

Probably the definitive response to Matthew Vines claim that homosexuality is not a sin; God And the Gay Christian? A Response to Matthew Vines by R. Albert Mohler (thanks and a hat tip to Eternity Matters)

Someone please notify the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR): If you have only been born once you will die twice, but if you are born twice you will only die once. And if all this do-it-yourself zombie making brings Todd Bentley to mind, you are wise - there is a connection between Todd Bentley and Bethel Church

Darling of the Christian right, Kirk Cameron, embraced a false gospel of Dominionism  and is actively spreading it with the likes of Francis Chan, Eric Metaxas, James MacDonald, and the Seventh Day Adventist cult member, Ben Carson

The Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is exhibiting a crucifix where Jesus is depicted as a naked woman. Worse, Andrew M. L. Dietsche, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York is calling this travesty an Object Of Devotion and insists this piece of metal and plastic is appropriate work to hang “over our altar.”

Two nuns meet on a missionary trip and end up getting married. They were encouraged by Mr. Pope's cowardly statement "who am I to judge?"

Spurgeon Thursday - On Mormonism

LDS Defined

What shall we say of Mormonism, the haggard superstition of the West? (Nov 5, 1854)

LDS and Polygamy

Then what will ye choose? Shall it be Mahometanism? Will ye choose that, with all its fables, its wickedness and libiditiousness? I will not tell you of it. Nor will I mention the accursed imposture of the West that has lately arisen. We will not allow Polygamy, while there are men to be found who love the social circle, and cannot see it invaded. We would not wish, when God hath given to man one wife, that he should drag in twenty, as the companions of that one. We cannot prefer Mormonism; we will not, and we shall not. (May 27, 1855)

The 1855 Plague of Locusts

 A little while ago some of us were fretting about this Mormonism, and we said, “It will never be broken up.” Some stupid fellows in America began to kill the poor Mormonites, and so carve them into saints, which was the very way to establish them. Christians trembled, and said, “What can this be? We shall have Sodom over again.” 

WWUTT Wednesday - The Hand That Wields The Sword

Martin Luther wrote that "the hand that wields the sword and strangles is … no longer man's hand but God's." Executioners, he believed, are "very useful and even merciful," since they stop villains and deter crime. 

Dr. Albert Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said "I believe that Christians should hope, pray and strive for a society in which the death penalty, rightly and rarely applied, would make moral sense. This would be a society in which there is every protection for the rights of the accused, and every assurance that the social status of the murderer will not determine the sentence for the crime,"

On the other hand Jay Sekulow, who heads the conservative Christian advocacy group the American Center for Law and Justice said "the taking of life is not the way to handle even the most significant of crimes." and "Who amongst anyone is not above redemption? I think we have to be careful in executing final judgment. The one thing my faith teaches me — I don't get to play God. I think you are short-cutting the whole process of redemption…I don't want to be the person that stops that process from taking place."

So who is right? God is:

The Biblical View of Government

but God has chosen the foolish things of  the world  to shame
 the wise, and God  has chosen the weak things of the world
to shame the things which are strong, (1 Corinthians 1:27)

I'm not crazy about our choices in the 2016 election. One candidate has allowed a terrorist attack on sovereign US soil where a US ambassador was tortured, raped, and murdered, she refused to allow the military to rescue the victims, then she lied about the cause of the attack to the victims family and the American people. She sold access to her office for personal gain, she endangered the safety of this country by leaving highly classified documents unsecured, she then destroyed the subpoenaed evidence to hide her guilt. She enables rapists, abuses her subordinates, insults rape victims, military members and Secret Service agents assigned to protect her, and her chief aide has familial connections with the Muslim Brotherhood. 

The other candidate says mean things.

So what do we do? What do we as Christians do when faced with a political dilemma such as this? I know there's going to be a lot of people upset come November especially when you look at all the people who actually ran for president and realize that the best people in the race are actually in the running for VP. But now we are down to Trump and Hillary. Looking at both candidates we can see the truth in Calvin's commentary on Romans: "a wicked prince is the Lord’s scourge to punish the sins of the people" It's quite obvious that we are about to be scourged, so what do we do?

We do what God tells us to do:

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

A prayer of thanks and praise to my Lord, Creator, Master, and Savior for sparing my mother, two sisters, and niece from the ravages of Hurricane Mathew, please watch over my friends and co-workers in northern Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas

As of this writing Hurricane Matthew is still wreaking havoc along the east coast, but Hurricane Heresy is expected to hit Orlando full force December 7th - you may get the chance to see the Gospel get bombed on Pearl Harbor day

Denver area youth pastor was found guilty of sexual assault on a child by a person of in a position of trust and one count of sexual assault on a child. The prosecution asked for life sentence, the judge gave him 90 days, 66 of which have already been served. Christopher Hutchinson will be free to molest little girls in 3 weeks.

The sad story of the Hijacking of Calvary Chapel by emergent ecumenical forces

Trying to use pagan Gaia worship to fill church pews

It appears that YouTube believes that Christian Movies are controversial and the public must be protected

WWUTT Wednesday - Name It And Claim It?

If you pay attention to the Word Of Faith prosperity preachers, their instructions guarantee rewards of cash and property from God Himself if you just say the magic words. Wealth beyond the dreams avarice is yours for the taking if you just speak the words of power.

It must be true because Joel Osteen is worth $40 million and he lives in a $17 million house, Creflo Dollar is worth $27 million and was gifted with a $70 million executive jet. Joyce Meyer is worth $25 million from books sales and preaching and biblically she's not allowed to preach. TD Jakes is worth $18 million and he doesn't even believe that Jesus is God. Steven Furtick says that Jesus' teachings prevent him from revealing his income, but he has a $16 million home which he purchased for $390,000. So God is our Creator and Spiritual Financial Advisory, right?

What Jesus Said About Homosexuality

The "Christian" Left claims quite boldly that Jesus says NOTHING about homosexuality and the BIBLE and JESUS do NOT condemn the act of homosexuality and my all time favorite, equating Matthew 19:12 "For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb..." with homosexuality.

The myth that Jesus didn't mention homosexuality is a staple of the "Christian" left who care more about fashionable feelings than about sin and repentance, and the emergent crowd who care more about "meat in the seats" and a healthy coin count at the end of the weekly rock festival than about sharing the Gospel. Carl Lentz, the Hillsong Hipster, went on national TV in 2013 and loudly proclaimed to the world 

You go look at what Jesus did, he was always talking about the heart of an individual and the soul of a person, not these symptomatic societal problems. People hate that, because a lot of churches are about what they're against. We're about what we're for. (source)

If he were actually familiar with the bible Carl may have noticed Mark 10:2-8, Matthew 5:32, and Luke 16:18 where Jesus talks about divorce. This was the hot-button issue of the time, as hot if not hotter than today's talk of homosexuality and do it yourself gender assignment. Since Carl claims that Jesus talked about the heart of the individual what did Jesus say a man's heart, and what did He say about homosexuality?

Emergent Monday - Steven Furtick and the House of Orange

Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. (Romans 16:17)

Code Orange is a message over a hospital’s public address system warning the staff of a bomb threat, a radioactive spill or a violent person with mental issues in the hospital who needs to be subdued by force.

Code Orange is also a death metal punk rock band whose music is simply noise, akin to the sound you would get if you threw a bucket of water into an electric guitar amplifier. 

Speaking of undisciplined noise, Code Orange is the name that Superstar Steven Furtick gave to his recent Heresy-palooza. I searched the web for hours and I can't find a reason why Mr Furtick would name his supposedly God honoring event with a call that warns people of a radioactive spill or a dangerous deranged maniac.  

1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3  He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. (Psalm 1:1-4)

Rather than reviewing what Mr. Furtick said at his rock concert interspersed with monologues, maybe we should concentrate on who was there, after all, you are judged by the company you keep. Yes, I know that remark is from an Aesop fable, but that sentiment is merely an echo of teachings in the bible 

Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals." (1 Corinthians 15:33)

Our friends on the "Christian" left will protest by insisting "Jesus associated with the most despicable!" yes He did, but then He also associated with Satan, but His associations were brief, He shared fellowship with His apostles. The difference between you, me, Steven Furtick, and Jesus is that Jesus is God, Jesus created Satan and was not, and can not be tempted by Satan.

6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them (Ephesians 5:6-7)