WWUTT Wednesday - The One Unforgivable Sin

What does the Holy Spirit not do for you? If you're an NAR kind of charismatic that's a silly question. According to the NAR the Holy Spirit will do anything for you, from teaching you a language that no one (possibly including God) understands to killing you when someone waves a jacket at you. (Don't believe me? Watch Benny Hill Hinn in action)  To them the Holy Spirit can do anything and everything, all you have to do is name it and claim it. (See what I did there? 😊)

In the real world there is quite a bit that the Holy Spirit does not do for you. The Holy Spirit does not change your oil, fill your checkbook, or update your wardrobe. He is here to guide and comfort. He doesn't leave clouds, glitter, or feathers in his wake, He leaves encouragement and knowledge. Is claiming that the Holy Spirit does all the things that the New Age and NAR claims Him to do blasphemy? Blasphemy is the act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things, so I supposed that if you're intentionally claiming that the Holy Spirit is doing your will to entertain and misinform other people then yeah it just might be blasphemy.

7 False Teachers in the Church Today

Tim Challies penned a very important article earlier this year and it needs to be shared with the entire church. Please read this, and if you're like me you'll recognize someone who fits each category, and if you're like me you've escaped at least one. It's heat breaking to see Satan's attack on the church Jesus built, but what's worse I've watched people who I thought to be good Christians defend these wolves

7 False Teachers in the Church Today

January 31, 2017 

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The history of Christ’s church is inseparable from the history of Satan’s attempts to destroy her. While difficult challenges have arisen from outside the church, the most dangerous have always been from within. For from within arise the false teachers, the peddlers of error who masquerade as teachers of truth. False teachers take on many forms, custom-crafted to times, cultures, and contexts. Here are seven of them you will find carrying out their deceptive, destructive work in the church today. Please note that while I have followed the biblical texts in describing them in masculine terms, each of these false teachers can as easily be female.

The Heretic

The Heretic is the most prominent and perhaps the most dangerous of the false teachers. Peter warned against him in his second letter. “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1). The Heretic is the person who teaches what blatantly contradicts an essential teaching of the Christian faith. He is a gregarious figure, a natural leader teaching just enough truth to mask his deadly error. Yet in denying the faith and celebrating what is false, he leads his followers from the safety of orthodoxy to the peril of heresy.

From the church’s earliest days, she has been afflicted by the Heretic in his various forms. He continues his evil work today, sometimes by contradicting the truth and sometimes by adding to it. He may reframe the doctrine of the Trinity, as Arius did in the third century and as Oneness Pentecostals do today. He may, like Marcus Borg and other prominent scholars, deny the virgin birth or the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like Jehovah’s Witnesses, he may alter God’s finished word, or like Mormons, he may add to it. Always, he boldly tampers with “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

Remember Hillary Clinton's complete and utter failure with her childish reset button? Steven Furtick is trying the same thing by resetting Christianity. He's teaming up with the heretics of the New Apostolic Reformation for RESET Charlotte a three day event filled with false teachers, false apostles, pastorix's, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's were also a lot of signs and wonders to entertain the goats.

And as for Steven Furtick - he's not here to save your soul, he's here to empty your wallet. Be sure to watch the Bereans Not Welcome video, it's incredible how Furtick injects himself into the bible (Narcigesis) in the role of Jesus

Here's an incredible article about the December 2, 2016 tragedy that destroyed the “Ghost Ship” club in Oakland, CA, claiming at least 36 victims and the occult ties to the tragedy

Franklin Graham calls for a Christian boycott of Disney's new live action movie Beauty and the Beast

Thousands of children, some as young as 12, are being forced into marriage - right here in the United States

The left has taken over sports to promote Satan's agenda

A Christians religious liberty group strikes back at atheist zealots

... heavenly portals are being created in different cities and God will interconnect them with a network of supernatural highways through which favor, provision, mantles and glory will flow for a coming revival... no, it's not satire, it's not the Babylon Bee, when I want nonsense I turn to Charisma News!

I thought I had tinnitus but that screeching noise I have been constantly hearing is my Heresy Detector imploding with a Preemptive Alert - Rob Bell is publishing a new book

The Case for Christ movie is due out on April 7th

Pray for the babies of Uganda that are being sacrificed to Molach

Here is the Holy Spirit in action, it's happening in Europe too

If your church is doing these five things well, you've got a wonderful church

What’s Your Spiritual Gift? Take The Quiz! It's got to be accurate, I saw it on the internet

Spurgeon Thursday - The Preaching of Christ

WWUTT Wednesday - For Lent I'm Giving Up...

Ahhh Lent, when the whole world suddenly becomes Roman Catholic. Back in Colorado the world is more secular about Lent than here in the wilds of New Jersey. I'm dining in restaurants here and I'm always hearing "I can't have XYZ because I gave it up for Lent" from fellow diners. 

I come from a VERY Catholic town - Buffalo NY - and Lent there is almost a celebration. You start with wearing the ashes as a symbol of your intent to Lent. Then the season of fasting kicks off with the HUGE celebration of Mardi Gras. We don't have Mardi Gras officially in Buffalo, but hey - anything for a party. Look at St. Patricks  which falls during Lent. 

Lent kicks off with the obligatory listing of things you're giving up. Most of my cohorts gave up things like caviar, pate, lemonchello, basically things we'd never touch outside of Lent either. But giving up meat on Friday - that is what makes Lent a celebration rather than a time of repentance and introspection. Instead of meat we would have fish fry on Friday. If you never had a fish fry in Buffalo, you have to head up there next Lent. I suggest fasting all day because you're going to need to. A Buffalo fish fry consists of the following: heroic portions of potato salad, macaroni salad, cole slaw, and the star of the show a piece of haddock (beer battered or breaded) the size of the Pequod. 

This is people being people in action - taking something that was meant to be solemn and turning it into a party. And as you'll see, evolution is the only constant about Lent.

My First Business Trip in Years

This is my first business trip in ages, at least four years. Travel has been rare since I came down with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Now finally I'm taking the plunge. Everything is painful and annoying, and the pile of medications I bring with is staggering not to mention the supplemental oxygen concentrator. 

I think back 2000 years and remember that my Lord and savior was on the go, traveling constantly and never complained. From Phoenecia to the Dead Sea He wandered constantly and ceaselessly on foot, while I whine about dragging my back pack down the hall to my rental car.

I pray for strength and help dear Lord, that I may return to my family in better mental and spiritual shape, and as for physical? That's why you've blessed me with reasons to lean on you every day.

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a pilgrim
 in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

Again I try to write about something, anything and my attempts get preempted by work, family, doctors, and the greatest model train layout in the world. That is unless I try to write about discernment. Then the road blocks, research blocks and mental blocks just fall away and the words come out. Other than this Random Bits post, the only post I've been able to get out in over a week was about discernment, and the last post before that was about discernment, and even the post before that one was about discernment. And looking at what popped up and dared me to put in this Random Bits post - it's all discernment.

I've talked with a few other bloggers on Facebook and they are experiencing the same thing, posts about discernment and suddenly easier to write than any other subject. It has to be The Shack that's doing this. The Shack is a wonderful, delightful tool of Satan to deceive those who can't, don't, or won't put the effort it takes into discern the word of God versus the word of an author who has publicly pronounced god as inadequate and has replaced him with this drivel. More and more people whom I had thought were standing on the solid rock of Christ but instead are standing on the sinking sand of The Shack Is the Holy Spirit using me as his mouth piece? Maybe, it's pretty awesome think that was true, but it's also kind of prideful. If the Holy Spirit is using us as a tool I pray we are well calibrated, if He's using us as a weapon I pray that our edges are sharp, and if He's using us as His keyboard interface to you the internet reader I pray that our keyboards aren't full of crumbs and coffee.

Bookmark this blog post, it's an incredible, and growing, collection of writings that address supposed Bible Contradictions and each post shoots them down with unerring accuracy

The Pope is a fraud? Many Catholics think he is

Because of the content I don't allow Hillsong music in my home, why do you allow it in your church?

If your sermon prep comes from The Shack, just go away. Put your hands up, back away from the pulpit and leave.

New Apostolic Reformation poster child Todd Bentley tells us that his ministry has the anointing from the ghosts of some dead guys

The IRS granted the After School Satan Club 501(c)(3) Tax Exempt status in 10 days while Christian organizations are forced to wait up to 7 years for the same status

Want to make a difference for Israel? First do your homework.

Openly homosexual director of Disney’s live action remake of “Beauty and the Beast” wishes he could publicly deface bibles

The Godly men at Goodfight.org are compelled to inform us that there's Fifty Darker Shades of Sin being thrust upon us

I really have no words for the sickness that is being inflicted upon society, it's even creeping into the Church that Jesus built

False teachers Steven Furtick and Levi Lusko team up to do a promotional tour of a new album of "faith" music. Let the cashflow begin!

Pharisees and False Teachers: A modern day look at the crooks Christ couldn’t stand

Visual proof that modern churches are (much) better (yeah, that intro is sarcastic)

One Mary to rule them all, One Mary to find them, One Mary to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

A new study shows that 79% of Americans that call themselves Christian are comfortable with female pastors. This tells me that only 21% of Americans that call themselves Christians read their bibles.

These articles are all proof that deception is a PROGRESSIVE DISEASE

Eight steps to finding the right church! It's got to be true, I saw it on the internet.

WWUTT Wednesday - What is Discernment?

I've been writing a lot about discernment lately, and that's really all I've been wanting to write about. Is this the Holy Spirit moving in me? or is it just that I'm shocked at what I see going on about me? I think it's both.

Maybe I should I say I've been writing about our lack of discernment lately. And by 'our' I truly mean Our, Our Christian family, Our brothers and sisters in Christ, Our Church which was built by Our messiah Jesus Christ who shed His precious blood for Our salvation. And this leads to the question are we lacking in discernment or are we just terrified of the accusation of being judgmental?

If we're lacking in discernment, why are we lacking? We have been given the all the tools we need to discern properly and lovingly, we have the Scriptures which are the word of God and our top tool (Hebrews 4:12), we have the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27), and we have each other - brother and sisters in Christ and sharers in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 Paul lists some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit

8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. 

Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, the distinguishing of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. These are all such incredible, beautiful gifts, and I wish everyone was gifted equally but we're a family and that's not how families work. Think of the older sibling who is the football star while his sister is the math wiz and the younger boy who couldn't catch a wiffle ball to save his life or do math with out counting on his fingers but can train any dog to obey any command. That's how the gifts of the Holy Spirit work - all different gifts given to different brothers and sisters at different levels and we as a family need to figure out how to work together. If we can't do the math we need to ask our sister to help us with our homework. If we can't catch the football we need to ask our brother to play catch with us, and if our dog keeps biting the mailman we depend on our younger brother to help train our dog to stop biting that poor mailman.

The Distinguishing of Spirits is an awesome gift, it's what we call Discernment, and it would be so wonderful if we all had that gift in megadoses. But we don't all have the same level of discernment so we who have discernment need to share that gift with our family, and we who don't have it need to listen to our brothers that do and follow their lead.

We've Been Warned

Scripture is filled with warnings about liars. God hates liars. God hates those who tell lies. God cannot lie, the Bible says. He always speaks the truth. He is truth. Satan is a liar. He is the father of lies. They all sort of generate out of his spiritual mind set. We then have to be able to discern between the truth and the lie with regard to everything that God has revealed to us. 

We are warned in Scripture about ear-tickling teachers who just want to give the feel-good message to us no matter whether it's truth or not. We're warned about doctrines of demons, demonic lies, destructive heresies, myths, perverse teachings, commandments of men rather than God. We're warned about speculations that lofty ideas raised up against the knowledge of God. We're warned about deceitful spirits. We're warned about worldly fables. We're warned about false knowledge, empty philosophy, science falsely so-called, traditions of men, worldly wisdom, corrupters and adulterers of the Word of God. 

We're warned about all of that. We're warned about the wolves in sheep's clothing who come along to devour us. They come as if they are prophets, they turn out to be destructive agents of Satan. I mean, we have these warnings all over the place in the New Testament. They're also everywhere in the Old Testament.

And to put it simply, there is a world of chaos and confusion out there and Satan is very adept and very clever and very powerful and very systematic in the structure of evil that is wrapped up in the system in which we live. Against that is pitted the truth of God. We have to be able to discern the difference.

If you understand the warnings of the Bible and you understand how critical it is that you know the truth, that you have discernment. You cannot be gullible. You cannot be sucked off into error without dishonoring God. God is truth. He is revealed truth. He loves truth. He has given you the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth. He's given you His Word which is truth. How terrible it is to think you might drift into lies. But people do it all the time, even people who sit in churches under very often weak teaching.

- John MacArthur

Principles for Discernment Pt. 1

Spurgeon Thursday - Discernment and The Shack

Those who know anything of Charles Spurgeon know one of his. That quote is beautiful in it's simplicity and its accuracy. Here it is in its Victorian beauty:

Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather it is telling the difference between right and almost right. ~ C. H. Spurgeon

The reason why I bring this up can be summed up in two words:

The Shack

During a discussion at my Tuesday night bible study (Tuesdays we're studying John) the subject of false gospels came up and I mentioned two very popular false gospels "Love Wins" by Rob Bell, and "The Shack" by Paul Young. One member of the discussion disagreed with me and called the book a good novel. He said it was sweet and kind but "nothing anyone could take seriously." I was incredibly shocked because here was a man, raised on the bible and student of God's words for over 6 decades, leader of many bible study groups, and a Godly Christian calling this heap of distortions "a nice novel". I pray he was looking at it through a filter of over half a century of discernment and was now immune to the fact that people other than himself can fall prey to the lies of The Shack.

It has been well remarked by a great writer, that he never knew a man who held any great theological error, who did not also hold a doctrine which diminished the depravity of man. ~ C. H. Spurgeon

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 
pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

I try to remove myself from the silliness of politics. Did I say silliness? Of course - just note the hypeventilating headlines that gasp with oh so righteous shock that Jeff Sessions actually spoke with the Russian ambassador. Well, duh, he was a sitting US Senator on the Armed Services committee - should he instead have played golf for eight years? So I retreat (or should I say advance) to better things, Jesus is my #1 love and railroads (model and real) is my favorite past time. Can you imagine how great that would be to combine these loves?

Don't laugh, men of God are doing it. Like here at the BM&NCMRF (Blue Mountains & Nepean Christian Model Railway Fellowship)  Here's a list of how Mike uses his model railroad to teach important bible truths to children. Then there's the The Railroad Evangelistic Association which exists to proclaim the  Good News of Jesus Christ to the entire railroad community worldwide and to promote mutual Christian fellowship among the railroad industry, the model railroad hobbyists and the rail fan enthusiasts. No, I'm not going to turn this into a Model Railroad blog, a true Christian model railroader knows that Jesus is the most important thing, and the only way to God. Then again a true Christian model railroader also knows exactly what this is

What must we do with false teachers and those that prey on 'baby' Christians? Hold their feet to the fire of Scripture

The magical attack on you. Elisabeth calls this "practical magic" I personally think there's nothing "practical" about Satan.

Only YOU and (your $$$) can save the entire world!!!! See "Christians" become a Mighty Spirit! Hear inspiring words like EMPOWERMENT and REVIVAL! Learn the Seven Game Changing Ministry Lessons for enhancing YOUR God Given Potential Only 800 are allowed to save the world so act now. Not valid in ministries that actually follow the word of God. Biblical references are taken out of context. Side effects may include being slain in the spirit, holy ghost laughter, inhalation of angel feathers, choking on holy ghost fumes, and eternal damnation

Spurgeon Thursday - The Burden Of The Word Of The Lord

I found this as I was reading one of Spurgeon's later sermons, #2114 to be exact. It reminded me of the importance we bloggers must put on the words we use when we write our blogs. We can tell ourselves "I'm just reporting what I see" until we're blue in the face, but in the end we're ministers preaching the Word Of The Lord.

The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi (KJV) (Malachi 1:1)

Do not make me a messenger of death to you. I implore you, receive the message of mercy, and be saved.

And, then, it becomes a great burden to me to preach the gospel when I think of what those lose who will not have it. That heaven above-what tongue can describe it? What painter can ever picture it-the heaven above, where all is love, and joy, and peace, and everlasting blessedness? What if you should be shut out? What if against you the door should be closed! 

There is no opening that door again, remember. Even though you stand and cry, “Lord, Lord!” yet will he not open it to you. May no one of us miss eternal felicity! May no one among us fall into eternal misery! But here lies the burden of the Lord-in the consequences of our ministry. 

I recollect walking out to preach nigh unto forty years ago, just when I began my witnessing for the Lord Jesus. As I trudged along with a somewhat older brother, who was going to preach at another village station, our talk was about our work, and he said to me, “Does it not strike you as a very solemn thing that we two local preachers are going to do the Lord’s work, and much may depend even upon the very hymns we give out, and the way in which we read them?” 

I thought of that, and I prayed-and often do pray-that I may have the right hymn, and the right chapter, as well as the right sermon. Well do I remember a great sinner coming into Exeter Hall, and I read the hymn beginning, “Jesu, lover of my soul,” and that first line pierced him in the heart. 

He said to himself, “Does Jesus love my soul?” He wept because he had not loved the Savior in return; and he was brought to the Savior’s feet just by that one line of a hymn. 

It does make it the burden of the Lord when you see life, death, and hell, and worlds to come, hanging, as it were, upon the breath of a mortal man, by whom God speaks to the souls of his fellows. This is serious burden-bearing. At least, I find it more and more so the longer I am engaged in it.

(Source)

WWUTT Wednesday - I Do Not Worship a Sissy God

My God is the God of love, but he's not a lovesick god of valentines hearts and silk flower bouquets that is hiding in the corner until drawn out with a trail of Reese's Pieces and promises of sweet guitar sonatas. My God is the God of true love. How much love? My God is so much in love with my brothers and sisters and I that he is burning with love,

For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:24)

and He is jealous of anything that endangers that love, anything that would come between my brothers and sisters in Christ and Him

4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6)

Saying that "God is love" does not mean He is incapable of other feelings as some false teachers would have you believe (Cough * Rob Bell * Cough). Why do you think that God hates haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, hearts that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, false witnesses that utters lies, and those who spreads strife among brothers?(Proverbs 6:16-19) Because He loves us. He loves us so much He sent His only son to be humiliated, tortured, and murdered in order to save us. That's no sissy god, that's an All Powerful, All Loving God.

He loves us, even though we're evil.