How Does One React?

How does one react when you disagree with the a portion of a sermon? I'm not talking about a terrifying utterance of blasphemy, nor am I suggesting a honorific shriek of heresy so vile that Satan would rub his hands together in glee. Think of a disagreement with congregational policy that could never be construed as either biblical or unbiblical and hardly even political. It's just policy.

One might consider sitting down with the pastor for a little one-on-one time after hearing the entire sermon. Yes, the offending portion was spoken in a very Spurgeonesque manner (if I may coin a phrase) but could you tone down the passion a bit? My brother in law helped write that policy and my wife is quite upset, can you believe it? She actually thought it was a personal attack on her brother and... you'll talk to her about it? Thank you Pastor Ralph.

That's one way to handle it, another way would be to jump up interrupting the sermon, wave your bible in the air, attempt to make an impassioned but incorrect biblical connection between the policy and one of the Apostles, then storm out of the service, start arguing with the security people in the foyer so loudly that it disturbed people in the sanctuary, burst back into the sanctuary to express your displeasure, shout at the pastor's wife while you block her exit from an office, then at home start shooting off a barrage of emails to the church board members showing an unhealthy level of denial and anger, then resign from the church board, then rescind your resignation from the church board, and then it gets worse.

Why Doesn't God Prevent Evil?

Stephen Paddock, 64, opened fire at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas Village early on Monday morning killing more than 50 people, and injuring more than 500 people. The question on any people's minds and on the tongues of many scoffers is:

If God is love, why did he let this happen?

The Bible describes God as holy (Isaiah 6:3), righteous (Psalm 7:11), just (Deuteronomy 32:4), and sovereign (Daniel 4:17-25), so how could He have allowed this to have happened? God clearly despises evil and wants to rid the universe of evil, so how could a madman pack 10 or so rifles into a Las Vegas hotel room and open fire on a crowd 32 floors below him? Does God not care that His people are suffering at the hands of madmen, terrorists, political anarchists. and ruthless dictators? Why does God allow evil? And knowing that these questions are coming from all sides, are we as Christians ready to answer them?

WWUTT Wednesday - A Little Bit of Romans

Bible Study Fellowship International started their 9 month long class on Romans this week. If you missed it or are wanting to join a BSF group and are worried that you missed out, don't worry, the first meeting doesn't advance the curriculum, it's always an evening of introduction. 

I've been looking forward to Romans, not because Rome was such an interesting empire, especially (to me) during the reigns of  Justinian I and Constantine XI Palaeologus, but because Pauls letter to the Romans encompasses so much, it's been called the Readers Digest version of the whole bible. Romans is a book I've always had trouble with, it seems to lock up my brain somewhere in Chapter 3 and it's a struggle after that, except Chapter 13, that one is pretty clear to me now. So to celebrate the start of a new year in BSF here's a bit of Romans from WWUTT

By the way -  many people say that the Roman Empire lasted about 400 years, I say it lasted 1,000 years more than that. If you want to discuss that, let's go!

Pray for Hillary

Matthew 5:44

When you are saved, when you have prayed to Christ and told him that you are his servant, that He is your master, and you put your faith and entire life in Him, wonderful things happen in your life. Hebrews 6:9-12 tells us that some of the natural products of salvation are; Fruit of the Spirit, Sanctification, Unselfishness, Evangelical enthusiasm, and Benevolence.

I remember when Jesus adopted me as His brother, the change was nearly mind numbing. I remember thinking then that WWJD setting unattainable goals as Jesus is the Son of God and perfect in every way, that WWPD was more appropriate as Paul is one of us; a sinner lost in his own sins whose life changed in a startling flash and set an example for us to follow. He left us a legacy of instructions on how to follow Jesus and show our love for Him and our fellow man. Paul gave us so much, expounding on the words of Jesus because unlike us, Paul was taught by the Lord Himself, although we have His spirit to help.

I personally thought that after her humiliating defeat maybe Hillary Clinton had a moment like mine. She had it in the bag;  the media fawned over the only Republican hopeful that couldn't mop the floor with her until he became the Republican candidate, the public didn't care about the foul underhanded tricks her team used to destroy Bernie Sanders, and the director of the FBI gave her a preemptive pass on her felonious handling of very highly classified documents. Her world shattered around her on election night, and months later when she mentioned going into preaching I actually thought she may have turned to her savior and pledged herself to His teaching and His commandments.

A True Christian Response to Charlottesville

It's been a brutal month and it would take 3 months just to respond to everything I've seen in the past few days, but the majority of it can be summoned up in one word: Charlottesville. 

I probably don't need to go over the actions of that day or the follow-up nonsense provided by the immature children of Aunty Fa other than to say that in Charlottesville two groups of people beat the snot out of each other making a public spectacle of the selfish arrogance by all involved. One young woman died in the violence and at her funeral service her mother gleefully politicized her death and the audience cheered like they were just offered a free slice at a local Pizza Hut. The ONLY person I've seen in the news to act like an adult about this matter is the president of the United States, who has been eviscerated by the left for not being passionate enough in his condemnation of the people they don't like.

(Stop, I know they spell it Antifa. But my spelling, Aunty Fa, is more descriptive and easier to type than "Stalinist Thugs")

Just yesterday Aunty Fa attacked an anti Marxist protest, but the anti-Marxist protest never happened, it was cancelled before the "warriors" of Aunty Fa could exit their mother's basements. So Aunty Fa decided to attack anyone what was strolling the streets, including police officers and a small  group of people who were standing in support of the president of the United States, all the while screaming demands for the destruction of the United States. 

This is a foreshadowing of what Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24:7 and Mark 13:8, and is summed up brilliantly by John MacArthur:

No, Jesus didn’t ‘hang out’ with sinners

No, Jesus didn’t ‘hang out’ with sinners

by Matt Walsh May 11, 2017

I was recently informed by a fellow Christian that it’s perfectly OK for a follower of Christ to march in a gay pride parade because, as he explained it, “Jesus hung out with sinners.” It was far from the first time that I’ve heard a clearly objectionable act justified on these grounds. This is just one of the many dubious slogans that has overwhelmed and suffocated the faith in our country. For many of us, our faith is really nothing more than a collection of these empty mantras, which we confidently shout over and over again, hoping repetition will make them true.

Of course, “Jesus hung out with sinners” is a loaded statement. There’s always some erroneous insinuation or conclusion attached to it. “Jesus hung out with sinners, therefore [xyz].” Jesus hung out with sinners, therefore it’s OK for me to do whatever it is I’m doing right now. Jesus hung out with sinners, therefore I need not follow whatever commandment or moral teaching we’re currently discussing. Jesus hung out with sinners, therefore this sin that we’re discussing isn’t as bad as you suggest.

I’ve heard “Jesus hung out with sinners” as a sincere justification for going to strip clubs and gay bars. I’ve seen “Jesus hung out with sinners” trotted out during debates about pornography. Somehow “Jesus hung out with sinners” tends even to enter discussions of abortion. “Jesus hung out with sinners, therefore killing babies is alright.” Generally, whatever the application, the argument is always that Jesus “hung out with” such and such a sinner, which means He didn’t mind such and such a sin.

Last week I wrote a piece about misconceptions around the idea of Christian compassion, and many of the critical responses hinged on this theme. One example:

“Matt, this was nothing but a badly disguised anti-gay diatribe. Jesus would have hung out with the people you are judging. Jesus wasn’t judgmental and in your face like you. He didn’t shove religion down people’s throats. Jesus hung out with sinners….” Etc. and so forth.

Leaving aside the bizarre contention that any discussion of Christian morality is automatically “anti-gay” (I didn’t mention gays in the post at all), what we have here is just your standard “Jesus hung out with sinners” formulation. Jesus “hung out” with people who sinned, ipso facto Jesus had no problem with the sins they committed. And if it were true that Christ merely “hung out” with people, this line of logic would hold a little water. 

There's Nothing 'Compassionate' About Helping People Get To Hell

Dear Christians, there’s nothing ‘compassionate’ about helping people get to Hell

By Matt Walsh, May 2, 2017

I received this email yesterday. The subject line, as you could guess, was “Compassion”:

Matt, you call yourself a Christian but you have no compassion. The Jesus I believe in just wants people to be compassionate towards each other. We are not told to be judgmental to others because of who they love or what lifestyle they choose to have or what gender they identify as. Who are you to say what is wrong or right? We shouldn’t be focused on talking about “sin” or telling other people that they might be going to Hell. You have no right to say what a “sin” is. Our job is to be compassionate to all! Compassionate isn’t when you’re judging or telling other people about their sins. I pray that you realize the error of your ways.

This is a good example of the bland salad of empty feeling and meaningless sentiment that often passes for “Christianity” in this country. You’ll notice that the adherents to this false version of the faith — and they certainly outnumber Christ’s true disciples by a large margin in our culture — have kidnapped, tortured, and destroyed many words that were previously very useful to Christians. A word like “judge,” for instance, has been so often misapplied and misconstrued by the Sentimental Christians that the rest of us almost have to leave off using it.

No word or concept, though, has been more thoroughly ruined by the Sentamentalists than “compassion.” They have settled on “compassion” as the most noble euphemism for their self-centered and lackadaisical theology, and now they can’t seem to talk about their faith for 2 minutes without tossing it out a dozen times. Unfortunately, there is no indication that they actually know what the word means.

The word compassion comes from the Latin for “co-suffering.” When we are “compassionate” towards another, we take on their suffering in the hopes of helping them towards some good end. This is what Christ did in the most perfect way when He came to Earth to suffer and die for the sins of Man. It was the greatest act of compassion in the history of the universe. The key point in Christ’s compassion is that it was a saving act. He didn’t just come down and give us a hug and say, “Hey, you guys are super. No need to change anything! Good job! Well, anyway, see ya later!” Rather, He shed light on the darkness and corruption of the world and then did something about it. He sacrificed Himself. He suffered with us and for us so that we can go to Heaven. 

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

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?

Christianity's Hardest Task

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:42-45)

One of the hardest things Christians are called to do by our Savior, Lord , and Master, Jesus Christ, is to pray for our enemies and to forgive them. Thanks to the Muslim terrorist attack at the Pulse night club on June 12 in Orlando we have a lot of people to love and even more people to pray for. Several days ago a pro-ISIS group published a hit list of more than 8,000 names they planned to murder, 600 of them live in Florida. We also know that a Muslim scholar, Farrokh Sekaleshfar, pronounced a death sentence on homosexuals while speaking at an mosque in Orlando FL. 

The horrific actions by ISIS and their agent Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, a security officer with Department of Homeland Security contractor G4S, cannot be described as anything but pure Satanic evil. one that Omar Mir Seddique Mateen must answer for, and unfortunately he cannot repent of his sins and instead is going straight to judgement

28 Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29 and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. (John 5:28-29)

Emergent Monday: Tolerating the Tolerant

Tolerance is the battle cry of the Left lately, according to them we must be tolerant of all that they deem worthy of tolerance. Failure to do so would brand you with the title of "Intolerant", which for some reason they consider to be a synonym of hatred. 

The Christian Left (most notably the Red Letter Christians) use a cafeteria style study of the bible, picking and choosing the verses they feel to be the only ones worth following for a variety of reasons; they were uttered by Christ, they contain the word "love", they are gluten free... but in the end they chose the passages that fit their narrative rather than God's. 

For the Christian Left this works perfectly, because by picking and choosing verses and preaching a myopic view of the word of God you crush the Berean spirit in your congregation. It also allows you redefine words and concepts, bending them to your own agenda. A congregation that will let you wreck havoc on the English language like this will follow you straight into the pit, checkbooks in hand. Look at the master, the Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie, the Slayer Of Strawmen. In a response to "Keep preaching tolerance, Chuck" he replied "I will," then quoted Matthew 22:37-40 and finished with 

No one will hear that message from you, I'm sad to say. They will from me. And I do pray that God softens your heart. Living off hate isn't really living. It's hell.

Unfortunately for the followers of the Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie, he used a bait and switch routine that retailers would pay him huge dollars to bring their establishments so they could clear their shelves of substandard merchandise. The Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie did a marvelous job of pretending he didn't know what the antonym of "tolerance" (disagree) and made up his own antonym: Hatred. Hatred is not an antonym of tolerance byt that didn't stop the Rev. Dr. Currie from hammering his commentator over the head with his made up definition, then he prayed that God softens her heart. 

Ignore Rob Bell, Stand Fast On The Unchanging Word Of God

While recently schlepping a new heretical collection of Satanic nonsense book, former pastor turned media darling Rob Bell said on an Oprah Winfrey program recently spoke regarding the church imminently accepting "gay marriage" :

"We're moments away,.. I think culture is already there and the church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from 2,000 years ago as their best defense, when you have in front of you flesh-and-blood people who are your brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and co-workers and neighbors and they love each other and just want to go through life with someone."

Please don't ignore the fact that Rob Bell denigrated the very word of God word as mere letters from 2000 years ago, it's the best evidence that Rob Bell is not the moral teacher that he claims to be but a sad fallen sinner being used as a tool of damnation by Satan. He needs our prayers, not our anger, no matter how much he works to rile us up.

But he's right, weak, fallen churches are turning their backs on God accepting sin as a sacrament and caving to popular culture rather than bowing to Lord Jesus Christ. So when my bride announced she was going to visit Calvary Chapel Aurora for their Wednesday bible study, "they're speaking on homosexuality" I had a feeling of trepidation. Since the passing of Chuch Smith some Calvary Chapel churches have began to align themselves with the emergent church while Rick Warren begins to pick at the carcass of the rudderless church. I was worried that Rob Bell was right and the message that Pastor Ed at Aurora Calvary had might be an announcement that his church was going to follow the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and turn their backs on God.

The Real Reason For The Season

I love the Christmas season, I love the trees, and the lights and the music, the gifts and the gatherings, and if there's snow I'm in heaven. (The best thing about living in Colorado is regardless of the weather, a White Christmas is only an hours drive away) Being human beings squabbles will arise as we overschedule, overtax, and overspend ourselves, and I even like those too because it's family. 

In all the hustle and bustle that happens around this time we all to easily forget what the reason for the season truly is. As John MacArthur points out in his sermon "The Ugliness of Christmas" the reason for the season isn't actually Jesus, Jesus came because of sin, making sin the actual reason for the season. 

Who Sinned?

And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?" (John 9:2)

This verse always gets a reaction from me, the first time I read this my reaction was a condescending "Superstitious goofs!" kind of thing, then later having read and understood a bit better:

6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations (Exodus 34:6-7)

It's Not The Gay, It's The Pride

Now hamburgers are doing it? America is getting weird. And to be honest we Christians can be pretty weird too. Yes, we are the target of gay vitriol and hate but then we're the target of vitriol and hate from a lot of groups solely for the fact that we love our lord and savior Jesus Christ, and if you didn't know that when you 'signed up' you haven't been reading the manual:

You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. (Matthew 10:22)

Yes, homosexuality is attacking the church, trying to force its way into our midst, changing our traditions and ceremony, attempting to change the way we worship God into the way they worship themselves. What happened to the Presbyterian church (to me at least) is clearly an attack by Satan, but a gay trying to join a church may merely be a sinner trying to find forgiveness from his Master. Homosexuality is not a greater sin than any other, it's just a sin and God hates all sin.

However there is one sin that God truly hates: Pride.

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate. (Proverbs 8:13)

Slaughter Of The Innocents

When a left leaning propaganda magazine like Slate thinks the latest 'brainstorm' from the progressive "braintrust" is a little over the top, you have to know it's bad. And this time it's horrific. Remember - these are the people that honestly think that killing an unborn child is not murder, it's "contraception".

Fox newsman Brit Hume tweeted his shock over an article in Slate about the concept of "After Birth Abortions", however MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry thinks that murdering a living human is okey dokey as long as the parents think it's a good idea. But this is not a new concept, nor is this a new article as it was written in March 2012. After Birth Abortions are simply legalizing the murder of a baby after it's born if the baby is considered an inconvenience or imperfect. Also known as Post Natal Abortions this horrific sin has been the little unspoken nightmare that some people are working toward. While this may be a new low that our society is striving toward, it's not a new idea by any means, as God reprimanded sinful Israel:

²⁰ “Moreover, you took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to Me and sacrificed them to idols to be devoured. Were your harlotries so small a matter? ²¹ You slaughtered My children and offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire. (Ezekiel 16:20-21)

Noetic Effects of the Fall - A Beginners Guide

I occasionally stumble across a word or phrase that, to be honest, I have no idea what is meant by that word or phrase. Doing the Berean thing I look up that word or phrase in order to clarify the book or article I am reading, and quite often I find the words bulky and rarely use them if ever, but it's good to know what they mean. Words like "presupposition". Normally I don't use "presupposition", especially when speaking of myself, because presupposing that God exists is the same thing as presupposing that air exists. Do we need a special word for 'normal thought'?

Today I was reading an older article at Hip and Thigh blog and was struck by the term "noetic effect of the fall." I could gather the meaning of this phrase from the content of the blog, but it was used more in passing so I went digging. Most of the articles I could find on the phrase "noetic effect of the fall." were long, scholarly, well written, and a lot deeper than I expected. So I decided to put together a beginners guide for myself. 

The "God Is Good - ONLY Good" Church Of Joyful Heresy

"What's wrong with teaching about the joy of being a Christian?" A friend asked me that in defense of her favorable opinion of Joel Osteen. My answer, which was lost on her, was "What's wrong with feeding your children birthday cake at every meal?"

Yes, there is joy in being a Christian, but there's also pain, sin, doubt, angst, loneliness, responsibility, anger, and a whole raft of other things that come with being a human being. This is due to one simple reason: we are human beings. Becoming a Christian didn't make us impervious to these feelings, it didn't lift us above our humanity, what it does is gives us a coping mechanism when we have these feelings; trust and faith in God. 

Which is why the "Happy Slappy Clappy Church of Perpetual Joy" is such a danger, because it teaches a lie. Even though we have been accepted into the family of God, we're still here on this rock deep inside enemy territory. Sin and temptation still abound, pain has not been dismissed for our new beliefs, suffering is still with us. What happens when a new Christian who has been spoon fed the pablum of the prosperity Gospel and has been told that it's always sunny on this side of the cross suddenly gets an IRS audit or a child born with Downs Syndrome? Statistics tell us that they don't stay Christians for long. And whose fault is that? It's ours. 

Stranger in a Strange World

To heck with this world. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the nonsense and stupidity and sinfullness. This rock has been an accursed place since Eve shared a fresh picked picnic lunch with Adam and the way that the worlds "leaders" are now governing the world into the ground it's like they're piloting the Hindenburg but with less concern for human life. 

The world is falling apart so fast it's like Satan has been elected UN Secretary General and God is just kicking back saying "I told you this would happen, now where's those seven trumpeters, it's almost show time."

Then again, try and prove me wrong, I dare you. 

Me, The Wretched Son Of Perdition

Besides John, is there anyone that knew Christ Jesus as well as the apostle Paul? While John was the loved disciple and shared an intimate older brother-younger brother relationship with Jesus, Paul shared a truly amazing spiritual relationship with Him that started on the road to Damascus. 

When I read Paul I see someone who has a lot of sin in his past, in 1 Tim. 1:15 he called himself the chief of sinners and in Ephesians 3:8 he called himself "less than the least of all saints". He persecuted and murdered his fellow Jew for the crime of following Jesus, he was there when Steven was stoned to death for the crime of spreading the good news of the risen Messiah. Was he there when Christ Himself was crucified? I'll wager that he was, and I'm also betting that he was there for Christ's trial, and torture, then after He died I'll bet Paul went off to his Passover celebration proud of a job well done. 

Then Jesus forgave him.

Paul knows sin, and Paul knows sinners. So when this scriptural genius (and he was, he was the smartest man in the New Testament) talks about sinners, he knows what he's talking about: