Emergent Monday: Burn Down That Shack!!!

“Burning Down the Shack” exposes the greatest deception to blindside the church in the last 200 years!

By James B. De Young, ThD

My wife and I recently enjoyed an evening together in our home viewing “Anne of Green Gables,” produced on VHS in 1985. There is a scene in which Anne Shirley rehearses the Highway Man before a literary society. Anne’s dramatic presentation earns an encore. As this scene drew to a close I turned to my wife and said: “This is what people did before there was TV and the movies.”

We may smile at the simplicity of those days-around the turn of the 20st century.It seems that the older I get the more I am moved by a film like “Anne of Green Gables.”Why is this? I think that it is because our life experiences have identified with the values expressed in this film. Or, rather, this story has reinforced the values of mainstream Judeo-Christian America.

The issue I want to address is how the media influence our understanding of God and how this impacts ideology. In “Anne of Green Gables” there are at least a dozen references to God. The most powerful line is when Anne departs for college and Marilla and Matthew are left standing alone on the train platform after saying goodby, and Marilla says: “Providence knew we needed her.” She was referring to how their orphan girl had impacted their lives for good, for kindness, for love. Themes of judgment, accountability, confession of sin, forgiveness, and innocence prevail in the film. We understand that God holds us accountable for our sins; but we also experience the cleansing of conscience and guilt that confession brings. The name “Jesus” is even used with reverence.

So what media influenced the author of “Anne of Green Gables”? Certainly there were no radio, TV, films, CD’s, DVD’s, IPods, etc., etc. Certainly the number one source would be the Bible, since the concept of God in “Anne of Green Gables” parallels how God is presented in the Bible. All Christians would agree. 

I'm still on vacation but I am delighted to see an old friend blogging his faith and making a good solid point and I hope he continues to write and illuminate God's word for us. Reblogged from Theology Mix

Your Futile Attempts At Prayer Availeth What?

RICH VANKOUGHNETT

on August 17, 2015 at 9:00 am

I heard an interesting sermon on prayer the other day. It didn’t go full-blown name it and claim it, but it did miss a very important facet of prayer that I think is doing harm to the body of Christ.

In today’s self-help saturated church, people are led to think that if they have enough faith, sow a seed of expectation, and speak things into existence, their prayers will be answered by an all-loving “God” who can’t make a move until they activate their faith. Most sermons I hear on prayer will take Old Testament Law and promises made to the nation of Israel, and lock those into surefire promises for every one of us today.

The standard “7 Keys to a Better ________ (fill in the blank)” has become a formula in the modern evangelical church. No, this pastor didn’t go there at all. He preached out of James 5:16-18. When he got to the part about the prayer of a righteous man, he correctly explained that it is Christ that is righteous alone. And for those who are in Christ, we stand righteous before God based on the work of Christ on the Cross and not our own works and so we qualify for our prayers to be heard and to be effective. There wasn’t any allegorizing of the story of Elijah in verse 17. He didn’t narcissistically eisegete himself into the story at all.

So why did the sermon fall so flat for my wife and me? 

"Bible Believing" Christian? by Steven Kozar

"Bible Believing" Christian? by Steven Kozar

 If you believe it’s important to follow the Bible, wouldn’t you want to “test all things” by God’s Word? Shouldn't you be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 who kept "examining the scriptures daily to see if these things are so?" Shouldn’t you at least see which ideas have more scriptural support than others? In light of that important idea, below are some questions for you:

    

In the Bible, which are there more of?

...Bible verses about feeling God's presence (so you can know He's real), or Bible verses about knowing, teaching and following correct doctrine? (This is a trick question; there are no verses about feeling, experiencing or “being intoxicated” by God’s presence. Also, capitalizing the letter “p” in presence comes from the New Age movement.)

...Bible verses that tell us to have a "personal, intimate and emotional encounter with God," or Bible verses that tell us we can know God through His Word and Sacraments? (This is a trick question-there are no verses telling us that we’re supposed to have a personal, intimate and emotional encounter with God.)

...Bible verses about how you need to follow along with the vision of your pastor, or Bible verses about the pastor being a servant and shepherd? (This is a trick question; there are no verses telling you to “follow the vision” of your “vision-casting pastor;” that idea comes from the business world.)

...Bible verses telling the church to conform to the pagan culture (in order to "win over" that culture), or Bible verses describing the church as separate and distinct from culture? (This is a trick question; there are no verses telling the church to conform to the pagan culture. The word “church” comes from the word “ekklesia” which means “gathering” or “called out ones.”)

The NAR Is Preparing For Conquest

Better gear up for the 5 major changes coming to the Church

By Marsha West

John Burton has written a piece entitled "Ancient and Emerging: 5 Major Changes Coming to the Church." Before you get all excited, or maybe even concerned over those changes, you should know a bit more about Burton. As it turns out he's a "prophet in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement. According to his blog, John Burton, he "has been developing and leading ministries for over 20 years and is a sought out teacher, prophetic messenger and revivalist. Burton has authored ten books, has appeared on Christian television and radio and directed one of the primary internships at the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City."

That Burton was associated with IHOP-KC could only mean that he has served under IHOP's Pied Piper Mike Bickle. I spent quite a bit of time researching Bickle for a piece I wrote and discovered his strong ties to the NAR or what some refer to as Dominionism. Also identified was his involvement with the Kansas City Prophets (KCP). According to Pastor Ken Silva, the KCP:

brought grandiose claims that a 'new breed' of super prophets were beginning to arrive on planet earth who would change the world forever. These so-called prophets were a group of men that coalesced around a church known as the Kansas City Fellowship, pastored by Mike Bickle, that attracted a following of other likeminded churches in that region. (More on the KCP here)

Authority of the Bible – A Strong Argument for Christianity

by Patrick Zukeran

There are many books today that claim to be the Word of God. The Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, The Book of Mormon, and other religious works all claim to be divinely inspired. The Bible claims to be the only book that is divinely inspired and that all other claims of inspiration from other works should be ruled out. Does the Bible confirm its exclusive claim to be the Word of God? The totality of evidences presents a strong case for the divine inspiration of the Bible.

The strongest argument for the divine inspiration of the Bible is the testimony of Jesus. Jesus claimed to be the divine Son of God and confirmed His claims through His sinless, miraculous life and resurrection. The events of His life have been recorded in the four Gospels, which have proven to be historically accurate and written by first century eyewitnesses.{1} Since Jesus is God incarnate, whatever He taught is true, and anything opposed to His teaching is false.
Jesus directly affirmed the authority of the Old Testament and indirectly affirmed the New Testament. In Luke 11:51, Jesus identified the prophets and the canon of the Old Testament. He names Abel as the first prophet from Genesis, and Zechariah the last prophet mentioned in 2 Chronicles, the last book in the Jewish Old Testament (which contains the same books we have today although placed in a different order). In Mark 7:8-9, Jesus refers to the Old Testament as the commands of God. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus states that the Law and the Prophets referring to the Old Testament is authoritative and imperishable. Throughout His ministry, Jesus made clear His teachings, corrections, and actions were consistent with the Old Testament. He also judged others teachings and traditions by the Old Testament. He thus demonstrated His affirmation of the Old Testament to be the Word of God.

5 Reasons to Rejoice in Persecution - Tim Challies

5 Reasons to Rejoice in Persecution - Tim Challies
March 24, 2015

(Tim Challies is a husband to Aileen and a father to three children aged 9 to 15 and serves as pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto, Ontario (a long swim but a short drive from my home town in western New York) He is a a book reviewer for WORLD magazine and co-founder of Cruciform Press and has written three books; The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment (Crossway, 2007) Sexual Detox: A Guide For Guys Who Are Sick of Porn (Cruciform Press, 2010) The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion (Zondervan, 2011))

When I was growing up and still living with my parents, my family supported ministries based in the USSR, and on our fridge we had a big poster covered in photographs of Russian pastors who were imprisoned or endangered because of their faith. Every night in our devotions we would pray for one of them, that God would bless and protect him. Meanwhile we lived in middle-class suburbia in Toronto. We freely told our neighbors about Jesus, we went to church twice each Sunday, we read the Bible openly, and even went to Christian schools. It did not seem fair that we had it so easy.

And we still have it easy. It is still remarkably easy to be a Christian here in North America. We have never faced systemic persecution. We have laws that protect our freedom to worship and our freedom to believe what we believe.

That’s not to say, though, that we never suffer. We still do face scorn and mockery, and especially so as the culture around us proceeds farther and deeper into paganism. Though the burdens we bear are light compared to what some others have had to carry, they are burdens nonetheless. I was recently studying 1 Peter 4 and found 5 reasons that we can and should rejoice even now when we are persecuted, or even in that day when we face much greater persecution.

2014: The Year of the Christian Genocide

2014: The Year of the Christian Genocide

by Thomas D. Williams, PH.D.

The year 2014 saw more global persecution of Christians than any other year in recent history, and can only be compared to the first centuries when Christians were hunted down as criminals in the Roman Empire. The policy of the Emperor Diocletian, in fact, who reigned from 284-305AD, was remarkably similar to that taken by the Islamic State and Boko Haram: “Convert or die.”

A look around the globe reveals an unprecedented pattern of persecution that has shifted from isolated incidents of hostility to a systematic campaign to exterminate Christians in places where they have lived peacefully for centuries.

From the kidnapped school girls and massacres in Nigeria and the displacement of thousands in the Central African Republic, to the believers arrested for having a Bible study in Central Asia, to Meriam Ibrahim being sentenced to death in Sudan, to the ISIS slaughters, to the couple burned alive for blasphemy and hundreds of girls kidnapped in Pakistan, Christians throughout the world saw a major escalation in persecution in 2014.