I have had a good time tonight reading the Bible. I came upon these verses I wanted to post, which have ministered to my heart tonight. I have thought about witnessing to others and how God omnipotently guards me as His own.
Trusting in Rocks to Save?
And he shall say, “Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted?” Deut. 32:37
“See thou that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand.” Deut. 32:39
Christ in me, the hope of glory!
“Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:26-27
We walk by faith (and the Spirit, not the flesh or this world)
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6
Leave the last word in relationships to God:
“Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith He was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know Him that hath said, ‘Vengeance belongeth to Me, and I will recompense,’ saith the Lord, And again, the Lord shall judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10:9-31
I am called to purity as I follow a pure Savior:
“I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” John 17:15-19
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Rick Warren and Islam
March 10, 2009
January 20th 2009 was the date the influential and rising religious leader Dr. Rick Warren prayed to Allah in the name of Isa. Isa is a fictional figure known to Muslims from the Koran. Isa is not Jesus Christ and Allah is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The following article by pastor Joe Schimmel of Good Fight Ministries examines the carefully prepared text Warren worked from, provides historical information, and articulates the lawless nature of such an act. My efforts in distributing this are not political but are intended to influence Christians, warning them about these developments. In addition my intention is to reach out to those whom The Father will call that may not yet be resting in the safety of our God Jesus Christ.
Purpose Driven is a different gospel.
The Gospel
Sincerely,
Steve Svendsen
Did Rick Warren Pray to Allah in the Name of a Muslim Prophet?
Rick Warren who is one of Barak Obama's bridges to the evangelical church managed to pray an inaugural prayer that made nearly everyone happy, with the exception, that is, of the one true God to whom the prayer was supposed to be addressed. While Warren began by quoting the Hebrew Schema, and addressing the biblical God of all creation, who warned, "You shall have no other gods before Me....for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God..." (Exodus 20:3, 5b), Warren went on to invoke the Muslim deity Allah. If that was not bad enough, Warren quoted both the Bible and the Koran, and he prayed in the names of Jesus Christ as well as the Muslim prophet Isa! I felt this perilous travesty needed to be addressed, especially since Time Magazine has dubbed Rick Warren "America's New People's Pastor," and he is influencing millions of people through his books and public persona.
Tragically, Warren's incorporation of the Islamic deity in the name of a Muslim prophet went over the heads of the vast majority of Christians who heard his inaugural prayer. While Warren's prayer may have pleased President Barack Obama, who gained countless votes by riding on Warren's back into the evangelical church, God warned us in His Word that religious syncretism would characterize the great apostasy of the last days (Revelation 17)!
January 20th 2009 was the date the influential and rising religious leader Dr. Rick Warren prayed to Allah in the name of Isa. Isa is a fictional figure known to Muslims from the Koran. Isa is not Jesus Christ and Allah is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The following article by pastor Joe Schimmel of Good Fight Ministries examines the carefully prepared text Warren worked from, provides historical information, and articulates the lawless nature of such an act. My efforts in distributing this are not political but are intended to influence Christians, warning them about these developments. In addition my intention is to reach out to those whom The Father will call that may not yet be resting in the safety of our God Jesus Christ.
Purpose Driven is a different gospel.
The Gospel
Sincerely,
Steve Svendsen
Did Rick Warren Pray to Allah in the Name of a Muslim Prophet?
Rick Warren who is one of Barak Obama's bridges to the evangelical church managed to pray an inaugural prayer that made nearly everyone happy, with the exception, that is, of the one true God to whom the prayer was supposed to be addressed. While Warren began by quoting the Hebrew Schema, and addressing the biblical God of all creation, who warned, "You shall have no other gods before Me....for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God..." (Exodus 20:3, 5b), Warren went on to invoke the Muslim deity Allah. If that was not bad enough, Warren quoted both the Bible and the Koran, and he prayed in the names of Jesus Christ as well as the Muslim prophet Isa! I felt this perilous travesty needed to be addressed, especially since Time Magazine has dubbed Rick Warren "America's New People's Pastor," and he is influencing millions of people through his books and public persona.
Tragically, Warren's incorporation of the Islamic deity in the name of a Muslim prophet went over the heads of the vast majority of Christians who heard his inaugural prayer. While Warren's prayer may have pleased President Barack Obama, who gained countless votes by riding on Warren's back into the evangelical church, God warned us in His Word that religious syncretism would characterize the great apostasy of the last days (Revelation 17)!
While I suspected that Warren's prayer would be as inclusive as possible, even I was surprised when Warren actually quoted the Koran and used the oft-repeated Koranic formulation for Allah i.e., "The compassionate and merciful one." In fact, of the 114 chapters in the Koran, 113 of them begin by describing Allah as "The compassionate and merciful one."
Near the end of Warren's prayer, he prayed, "I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus...." Of course, Isa would have been understood by Muslims, who had already heard him praying to Allah, to be the Islamic prophet mentioned throughout the Koran. Warren's prayer to Allah, in the name of Isa, is absolutely indefensible:
"The priests said not, where is the LORD? And they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit."
- Jeremiah 2:8
Not only is "The compassionate and merciful one" a distinct and precise Koranic formulation reserved for Allah alone, but "Isa" is used in the Koran in reference to an alleged Palestinian prophet who, according to the Koran, is not the Son of God and did not die on the cross for the sins of the world. He is not only antithetical to the biblical, historical Yeshua revealed over a thousand years earlier through the Old Testament prophets but, according to millions of Muslims, he will return to renounce Christianity, destroy all crosses, support the mass murder of Jews and forcibly convert the world to Islam. It is believed that Isa will not only destroy Jews and all crosses, but that he will support the coming Muslim Messiah-the 12th Imam or Mahdi-who many Christians believe will be the Antichrist.
Islamic scholar Ahmad Deedat, states that the name Isa (pronounced Ee-saw) is a cognate of the patriarch Esau (Ahmad Deedat, "Christ in Islam, Islamic Propagation Centre International" p. 7-8). This is blasphemous in that God reveals in His word, the Bible, that Esau was a fornicator and "sold his birthright" for a pot of stew (Hebrews 12:15-17). Lest anyone be deceived into believing that Isa is simply another name for the biblical Jesus, it should be understood that Isa is in no way an Arabic transliteration of the Hebrew Yeshua, nor is it another name for the Son of God! In fact, Muslims do not believe that Isa is the Son of God or that he died for the sins of the world.
Arab Christians do not follow the Islamic prophet Isa, nor do they follow the teachings of the Koran. During my last trip to Israel we visited a missionary from our fellowship that was working with Arab believers who reach the Arab community with the Good News of Jesus. During that trip I had the privilege of spending precious time at the home of these Arab Christians who are on fire for Jesus. All of these Arab believers referred to Jesus as Yesua, which derives from the Arabic for Jesus, Yasu! I also spent a considerable amount of time with our Arabic Christian bus driver, who taught me the Arabic Christian praise to Jesus Christ, "Yesua Habibi." Yesua Habibi is a beautiful Arabic expression, which means, "Jesus, my beloved" or "Jesus, the love of my life!"
The name for Jesus among knowledgeable Arab Christians is not "Isa," but "Yesua," which is very close (as you may have observed) to the Hebrew name for Jesus, Yeshua! The name "Yeshua" literally means, "God is salvation." This is the crux of the matter and underscores the infinite difference between Yesua and Isa! Any Arab Christian who refers to Jesus as Isa is either unaware of its Islamic origin in reference to the false Christ of Islam (Matthew 24:4-5; 2 Corinthians 11:4) or is beholden to pagan Islamic tradition and influence that should be rejected outright.
If you are aware of the differences between the biblical, historical Jesus, and the Muslim prophet Isa, then you may understand why Muslim Arabs refer to Isa instead of the Arabic Yesua, and why knowledgeable Arabic Christians refer to the biblical Jesus as Yesua and not Isa. When God revealed to Joseph that the prophesied Messiah had come into the world, He specified that His name should be called Yeshua, meaning, "Yahweh is salvation." This was because Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise that Immanuel, "God with us," had been incarnated in human flesh. God revealed that He was to be named Yeshua because His name was pregnant with prophetic significance and meaning:
"But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel'-which means, "God with us."
- Matthew 1:20-23
The name Jesus, that is commonly used by English speakers, is the Latin form of the Greek Iesous, which in turn is the transliteration of the Hebrew Yeshua, which means "Yahweh is salvation." One of Jesus' many titles by which he is called today in fulfillment of biblical prophecy is "Immanuel," but the personal name given to Him at His birth, Yeshua, not only reveals that God is with us, but a dimension of His purpose in coming into the world: that He came into the world to save His people from their sins, i.e., "Yahweh is salvation." Thus Peter could exclaim:
"[F]or there is no other name under heaven given to men by whom we must be saved."
- Acts 4:12b
Tragically, Muslims have been taught to reject Yeshua-Yahweh is salvation-and as a result Islam rejects the testimony of God and rejects that Jesus is Yahweh ("God with us") and that He is salvation (died for our sins); hence the rejection of the historical biblical Jesus and His divine name, Yeshua. In rejecting Jesus for Isa, Muslims reject the original testimony of God in favor of Isa, even as Isa or Esau rejected his birthright for a bowl of stew. Indeed, Muhammad went out of his way to repeatedly deny both the Sonship and the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. In so doing Muhammad engaged in a serious case of historical revisionism, 600 years after Christ, and claimed that Isa, a Palestinian prophet, not the Son of God, was born of Mary. Also in so doing he was able to give the Koran a much-needed historical attachment, nebulous though it was, and at the same time appeal to nominal Christians who he believed would more easily convert to Islam.
The Koran was not only written over 600 years after the fact of incarnation of the Son of God, but was written to make it appear to be another revelation of the one true God who inspired the Bible. The Koran, in affect was (and is) used to blind hundreds of millions of people to the central message of the Bible: that eternal life comes through faith in the Son of God, who died for our sins; was buried and rose triumphantly over the grave (John 3:16; 20:30-31; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4)!
Muslim scholars and historians admit that Muhammad believed that he was possessed by a demon, which led him for a time to consider throwing himself off a cliff. He was then persuaded by his wife to believe that the voices he was hearing belonged to the angel Gabriel. However, the true God had revealed over half a millennium earlier in His holy word, the Bible, that the spirit of Antichrist would deny the relationship between the Father and His Son (1 John 2:18-22; 4:1-4). Moreover, Yahweh had warned that even if an angel from heaven were to preach another gospel than that which was already revealed that he would be eternally condemned (Gk. anathema, Galatians 1:6-9). The Koranic revelation of Allah, the Palestinian prophet Isa, as well as its "gospel," are as far from the Trinitarian God revealed in the Bible and Jesus of Nazareth as the east is from the west.
While the one true God reveals Himself in the Bible to be the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and declares that it is exclusively through the substitutionary death of Jesus, His only begotten Son, that man can be saved from their sins (John 3:16; 10:1, 9; 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 2:1-3; and 1 John 5:12); the Koran denies all of these essential salvific truths and reveals a totally empty gospel to humanity. Below are a few of the Suras from the Koran that deny the biblical God, Yahweh and Yeshua, the Son of God and Savior of the world:
"Regarding Sonship of Jesus: That is Jesus, son of Mary, in word of truth...It is not for God to take a son unto Him."
(Koran, 19:34)
"And they say, 'The All-merciful has taken unto Himself a son.' You have indeed advanced something hideous."
(Koran, Sura 19:88)
"Believe in Allah and say not 'Trinity.' Cease! It is better for you! Allah is only One God. Far is it removed from his transcendent majesty that he should have a son."
(Koran, Sura 4:171)
"That they said (in boast), 'We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah'; but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them... for of a surety they killed him not."
(Koran, Surah 4:157)
Such lies contradict the very essence of the gospel and the words of Jesus Christ Himself:
"Jesus answered and said to him, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God...For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.'" - John 3:3; 3:16
It is a very serious thing for Islam to come over 600 hundred years after God sent His son to die for the sins of the world and deny His sovereign testimony. God Himself warns that those who deny that Jesus is the Son of God make Him a liar and reject the life that is found solely in His son:
"The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life." - John 5:10-12
Rick Warren's prayer to the Muslim god Allah, in the name of the false prophet Isa, was first and foremost an affront to the one true God who gave His only begotten Son for the sins of the world. God will not permit the worship of any other gods beside Him, and He forbids us from using the names of other gods in our prayers or worship:
"Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be on your guard; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth." -Exodus 23:13
Rick Warren's prayer to Allah in the name of Isa was not only a serious affront to God, but a serious disservice to non-Believers and immature Believers who could be led to think that they can worship other gods or could easily conclude that Allah and Yahweh are one and the same God. His prayer was also a serious disservice to Muslims, who are in desperate need of eternal life, which only comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God (John 14:6). Sadly, Muslims would easily conclude from such a prayer that there is no serious difference between Allah and Yahweh or Isa and Jesus and therefore assume they don't need to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, to their eternal peril. Tragically, Rick Warren has given fresh feet to a 1,300-year-old lie that has undermined the costly price that Jesus paid for our sins with His precious blood. God reveals in is word that all idolaters will go to the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8) and that only those who have the Son of God have eternal life (1 John 5:12-13).
Dear friend, if you do not know God's Son, Jesus Christ, in light of heaven and hell and your eternal destiny, I encourage you to turn to Him now in repentant faith so that you may be born of God and have eternal life!
Let us pray earnestly for Rick Warren and those who are being led astray by the present deception, and ask the Lord to give them repentance and deliver them from the power of the evil one who seeks to take them captive to do his will (2 Timothy 2:24-26). Let us also be diligent to stay on guard, lest any of us be led away by false prophets who come in sheep's clothing, but are inwardly ravenous wolves (2 Peter 3:17; Matthew 7:13-15).
Stay tuned for future blogs, as I will seek to share timely and important biblical insights regarding current trends in popular culture and their relationship to spiritual warfare and the end time prophecy. We will examine popular music, movies, the new spirituality, religious trends, politics, education, evolution, atheism and a myriad of other subjects like Israel, the middle east and the new world order. All of this will be done in the fear and love of God with the view of living for His eternal glory. We will also continue to examine the subject matter of this post, along with a document signed by Rick Warren and other popular religious leaders (called "Loving God and Neighbors Together"), which affirms their worship of Allah as a precondition to a new world order of peace and security. We will also learn effective ways to defend the faith and reach the lost with the gospel of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ... Have a truly blessed weekend!
For Yesua, Habibi!
Pastor Joe Schimmel
Monday, March 30, 2009
Darwin and Hitler (by Daniel Mann)
Darwinist R.G. Price tries hard to dissociate Darwinism from Hitler and racism:
It is very clear from a full study of Nazi material that the Nazi’s concept of race was highly spiritual and that Nazis did not appeal to evolution as a basis for their agenda. Furthermore, Hitler’s views on race, species, and the workings of nature in general, had nothing in common with any kind of scientific understanding of evolution. (Free Inquiry, Feb/March 2009, 44)
This plainly just isn’t true. According to historian Richard Weikart, Darwin gave Hitler the scientific justification he was lacking to implement his eugenics program:
Darwinism by itself did not produce the Holocaust, but without Darwinism, especially in its social Darwinist and eugenics permutations, neither Hitler nor his Nazi followers would have had the necessary scientific underpinnings to convince themselves and their collaborators that one of the world’s greatest atrocities was really morally praiseworthy.
The connection between Darwin and Hitler seems to be unassailable. In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote,
If nature does not wish that weaker individuals should mate with the stronger, she wishes even less that a superior race should intermingle with an inferior one; because in such a case all her efforts, throughout hundreds of thousands of years, to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being, may thus be rendered futile.
This application of Darwinism to humans seems to follow directly from Darwin himself:
The weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this has been highly injurious to the race of man…Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed. (The Descent of Man)
Price isn’t content to merely exonerate Darwin, claiming him as an abolitionist. He claims that the real villain behind racism is Christianity. He makes his case by citing several “Christian” racists, even Abraham Lincoln. However, nowhere does he cite Scripture in justification of racism. This is because he can’t. There are no verses that support racism despite the fact that many have diligently searched for them in support for their racist policies.
Instead, Scripture gives strong support to the unity of humankind. The Apostle Paul cites Genesis in support of this:
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth…'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' (Acts 17:26-28)
We are not products of mindless, uncaring evolution that now finds us at various stages of development, some primitive and animalistic and requiring segregation from the rest of humanity. Instead, we are all equally “His offspring,” created in His likewise, and therefore endued with inestimable worth.
Price tries to argue that there isn’t anything about Darwinism that is in opposition to morality and that Hitler didn’t receive any inspiration from it:
It is true that the Nazis advocated a philosophy built around the idea that “only the strong survive,” but this was not related to evolution. (43-44)
How could it not be? Once Darwinism removes both Design and Purpose from the equation of life, only a competing collection of billions of contrary human wills remain at the command-posts. None can be right; each is merely a product of genetics and environment. Thus, there is nothing left to judge us apart from societal sanctions and conscience—things that can easily be manipulated by drugs, fear and lust. When no longer transcendently based, morality becomes an arbitrary invention, lacking any teeth or authority. Many leading Darwinists agree. According to E.O. Wilson and Michael Ruse,
Morality…is merely an adaptation put in place to further our reproductive ends…In an important sense, ethics as we understand it is an illusion fobbed off on us by our genes to get us to cooperate.
Morality, then, is no more than a useful sense which enables us to adapt to society for mutual benefit. Bio-ethicist and atheist Peter Singer is more to the point that we lack any absolute basis for morality:
All we are doing is catching up with Darwin. He showed…that we are simply animals. Humans had imagined we were a separate part of Creation, that there was some magical line between Us and Them. Darwin’s theory undermined the foundations of the entire Western way of thinking about the place of our species in the universe. (Many of the above quotes come from Expelled Leader’s Guide)
Singer is correct that Darwin has had profound effects upon Western civilization. He created a moral vacuum that demands filling. Darwin’s vacuum has been filled all sorts of garbage. Not every Darwinist is a Hitler, however, as Singer has pointed out, there is no longer any rational moral reason not to be a Hitler. Many have understandably applied that physical “realities” of Darwinism—survival of the fittest—to social life. In Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution, Karl Giberson notes that rape had been a means to improve the human race by insuring that the better genes would be passed on:
A Natural History of Rape invokes Darwin to explain that rape is a consequence of “men’s evolved machinery for obtaining a high number of mates.” (80)
From the perspective of Darwinism, there can be no convincing argument against rape if it serves to better the human race genetically. In fact, without a transcendent moral standard, there can be no adequate argument against any moral abomination! Any takers?
It is very clear from a full study of Nazi material that the Nazi’s concept of race was highly spiritual and that Nazis did not appeal to evolution as a basis for their agenda. Furthermore, Hitler’s views on race, species, and the workings of nature in general, had nothing in common with any kind of scientific understanding of evolution. (Free Inquiry, Feb/March 2009, 44)
This plainly just isn’t true. According to historian Richard Weikart, Darwin gave Hitler the scientific justification he was lacking to implement his eugenics program:
Darwinism by itself did not produce the Holocaust, but without Darwinism, especially in its social Darwinist and eugenics permutations, neither Hitler nor his Nazi followers would have had the necessary scientific underpinnings to convince themselves and their collaborators that one of the world’s greatest atrocities was really morally praiseworthy.
The connection between Darwin and Hitler seems to be unassailable. In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote,
If nature does not wish that weaker individuals should mate with the stronger, she wishes even less that a superior race should intermingle with an inferior one; because in such a case all her efforts, throughout hundreds of thousands of years, to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being, may thus be rendered futile.
This application of Darwinism to humans seems to follow directly from Darwin himself:
The weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this has been highly injurious to the race of man…Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed. (The Descent of Man)
Price isn’t content to merely exonerate Darwin, claiming him as an abolitionist. He claims that the real villain behind racism is Christianity. He makes his case by citing several “Christian” racists, even Abraham Lincoln. However, nowhere does he cite Scripture in justification of racism. This is because he can’t. There are no verses that support racism despite the fact that many have diligently searched for them in support for their racist policies.
Instead, Scripture gives strong support to the unity of humankind. The Apostle Paul cites Genesis in support of this:
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth…'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' (Acts 17:26-28)
We are not products of mindless, uncaring evolution that now finds us at various stages of development, some primitive and animalistic and requiring segregation from the rest of humanity. Instead, we are all equally “His offspring,” created in His likewise, and therefore endued with inestimable worth.
Price tries to argue that there isn’t anything about Darwinism that is in opposition to morality and that Hitler didn’t receive any inspiration from it:
It is true that the Nazis advocated a philosophy built around the idea that “only the strong survive,” but this was not related to evolution. (43-44)
How could it not be? Once Darwinism removes both Design and Purpose from the equation of life, only a competing collection of billions of contrary human wills remain at the command-posts. None can be right; each is merely a product of genetics and environment. Thus, there is nothing left to judge us apart from societal sanctions and conscience—things that can easily be manipulated by drugs, fear and lust. When no longer transcendently based, morality becomes an arbitrary invention, lacking any teeth or authority. Many leading Darwinists agree. According to E.O. Wilson and Michael Ruse,
Morality…is merely an adaptation put in place to further our reproductive ends…In an important sense, ethics as we understand it is an illusion fobbed off on us by our genes to get us to cooperate.
Morality, then, is no more than a useful sense which enables us to adapt to society for mutual benefit. Bio-ethicist and atheist Peter Singer is more to the point that we lack any absolute basis for morality:
All we are doing is catching up with Darwin. He showed…that we are simply animals. Humans had imagined we were a separate part of Creation, that there was some magical line between Us and Them. Darwin’s theory undermined the foundations of the entire Western way of thinking about the place of our species in the universe. (Many of the above quotes come from Expelled Leader’s Guide)
Singer is correct that Darwin has had profound effects upon Western civilization. He created a moral vacuum that demands filling. Darwin’s vacuum has been filled all sorts of garbage. Not every Darwinist is a Hitler, however, as Singer has pointed out, there is no longer any rational moral reason not to be a Hitler. Many have understandably applied that physical “realities” of Darwinism—survival of the fittest—to social life. In Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution, Karl Giberson notes that rape had been a means to improve the human race by insuring that the better genes would be passed on:
A Natural History of Rape invokes Darwin to explain that rape is a consequence of “men’s evolved machinery for obtaining a high number of mates.” (80)
From the perspective of Darwinism, there can be no convincing argument against rape if it serves to better the human race genetically. In fact, without a transcendent moral standard, there can be no adequate argument against any moral abomination! Any takers?
Daniel Mann
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Redeemer Presbyterian NYC and Contemplative Prayer
Here is an email I received this week:
Dwayna,
Tim Keller has endorsed a book by Adele Calhoun on spiritual disciplines.
In reading parts of Roger Oakland's book, I looked again at some contemplative prayer articles last night and read parts of the introduction on line of Adele Calhoun's book. She thanks Kathy Keller, for instance, in her introduction. She then goes on to thank many people - Eugene Peterson, M. Basil Pennington, Dallas Willard, Phyllis Tickle (Emergent Village,) Richard Foster, Henri Nouwen, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Ignatius Loyola, Julian of Norwich, etc. Incredible! How can all of this be taken in and accepted in true Christianity? I saw this on google books. You can read different parts on line. It turns out you can click on a chapter in the contents and read parts of it on this limited preview.
http://books.google.com/books?id=8M02unYlkQcC&pg=PP1&dq=adele+ahlberg+calhoun+spiritual+disciplines#PPA7,M1
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=1068&more=1&c=1
Quote from article:
David Benner's book, Sacred Companions, openly promotes the teachings of Merton and is actually a who's who of mystical and panenthestic writings such as atonement denier Alan Jones (Reimagining Christianity), Thomas Keating and a host of like-minded writers. In that foreword, Larry Crabb said something that was in a sense prophetic of the emerging church. He stated:
The spiritual climate is ripe. Jesus seekers across the world are being prepared to abandon the old way of the written code for the new way of the Spirit (p. 9).
Benner's book is a manual for this new emerging way that throws out the old way (the biblical way). As an example of this, Benner praises a book by John Gorsuch titled An Invitation to the Spiritual Journey. Benner says, "This little book sparkles." In Gorsuch's book, the general gist of it is how mysticism is uniting all the world's religions. He makes specific reference to Swami Paramahansa Yogananda and comments that he was a great saint who brought many people to God. In the back of Gorsuch's book there are also Tibetan Buddhist meditations. Without a doubt, Gorsuch's book is a New Age book. It proclaims the validity of all religions and also that God is in everything and everybody. For Benner to say this book sparkles, means he embraces its views - more importantly, not just in an intellectual sense but in a mystical sense. So in essence, for Crabb to write the foreword to this book speaks for itself.
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=931&more=1&c=1
This refers to the 2002 book by Ray Yungen and the book Sacred Companions that Redeemer Church has listed on line.
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/006/contemplative-narloch.htm
Remember Keller endorsed this book by Adele Cahoun.
Here is an excellent article to link to regarding spiritual formation, contemplative prayer Rick Warren, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun and her spiritual disciplines.
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletter061608.htm
Quote from Lighthouse Trails website: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=1207&more=1&c=1
Adlele Ahlberg Calhoun's book Spiritual Disciplines Handbook is one of the books Rick Warren uses to teach spiritual formation and spiritual disciplines at Saddleback. This book promotes mantra meditation, giving detailed instructions on several types of contemplative practices. In addition, the author quotes from many New Age sympathizers and New Age contemplatives. In the book, Ahlberg Calhoun encourages the use of centering prayer, breath prayers, contemplative prayer, labyrinths, palms-up, palms-down exercises, and recommends for further reading a who's who of mystics. Those who embrace Purpose Driven teachings will ultimately be led in this direction and toward the spirituality of Henri Nouwen (who Rick Warren also strongly promotes). At the end of Nouwen's life, after following mysticism for years, Nouwen came to the conclusion that Jesus Christ was not the only way of salvation. This view is the "fruit" of contemplative spirituality and negates the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.
The Transforming Center endorses Calhoun and her book. http://www.thetransformingcenter.org/pdf/nov2005.pdf
http://www.thetransformingcenter.org/
The center is run by Ruth Haley Barton, a spiritual formation director.
Dwayna,
Tim Keller has endorsed a book by Adele Calhoun on spiritual disciplines.
In reading parts of Roger Oakland's book, I looked again at some contemplative prayer articles last night and read parts of the introduction on line of Adele Calhoun's book. She thanks Kathy Keller, for instance, in her introduction. She then goes on to thank many people - Eugene Peterson, M. Basil Pennington, Dallas Willard, Phyllis Tickle (Emergent Village,) Richard Foster, Henri Nouwen, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Ignatius Loyola, Julian of Norwich, etc. Incredible! How can all of this be taken in and accepted in true Christianity? I saw this on google books. You can read different parts on line. It turns out you can click on a chapter in the contents and read parts of it on this limited preview.
http://books.google.com/books?id=8M02unYlkQcC&pg=PP1&dq=adele+ahlberg+calhoun+spiritual+disciplines#PPA7,M1
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=1068&more=1&c=1
Quote from article:
David Benner's book, Sacred Companions, openly promotes the teachings of Merton and is actually a who's who of mystical and panenthestic writings such as atonement denier Alan Jones (Reimagining Christianity), Thomas Keating and a host of like-minded writers. In that foreword, Larry Crabb said something that was in a sense prophetic of the emerging church. He stated:
The spiritual climate is ripe. Jesus seekers across the world are being prepared to abandon the old way of the written code for the new way of the Spirit (p. 9).
Benner's book is a manual for this new emerging way that throws out the old way (the biblical way). As an example of this, Benner praises a book by John Gorsuch titled An Invitation to the Spiritual Journey. Benner says, "This little book sparkles." In Gorsuch's book, the general gist of it is how mysticism is uniting all the world's religions. He makes specific reference to Swami Paramahansa Yogananda and comments that he was a great saint who brought many people to God. In the back of Gorsuch's book there are also Tibetan Buddhist meditations. Without a doubt, Gorsuch's book is a New Age book. It proclaims the validity of all religions and also that God is in everything and everybody. For Benner to say this book sparkles, means he embraces its views - more importantly, not just in an intellectual sense but in a mystical sense. So in essence, for Crabb to write the foreword to this book speaks for itself.
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=931&more=1&c=1
This refers to the 2002 book by Ray Yungen and the book Sacred Companions that Redeemer Church has listed on line.
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/006/contemplative-narloch.htm
Remember Keller endorsed this book by Adele Cahoun.
Here is an excellent article to link to regarding spiritual formation, contemplative prayer Rick Warren, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun and her spiritual disciplines.
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletter061608.htm
Quote from Lighthouse Trails website: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=1207&more=1&c=1
Adlele Ahlberg Calhoun's book Spiritual Disciplines Handbook is one of the books Rick Warren uses to teach spiritual formation and spiritual disciplines at Saddleback. This book promotes mantra meditation, giving detailed instructions on several types of contemplative practices. In addition, the author quotes from many New Age sympathizers and New Age contemplatives. In the book, Ahlberg Calhoun encourages the use of centering prayer, breath prayers, contemplative prayer, labyrinths, palms-up, palms-down exercises, and recommends for further reading a who's who of mystics. Those who embrace Purpose Driven teachings will ultimately be led in this direction and toward the spirituality of Henri Nouwen (who Rick Warren also strongly promotes). At the end of Nouwen's life, after following mysticism for years, Nouwen came to the conclusion that Jesus Christ was not the only way of salvation. This view is the "fruit" of contemplative spirituality and negates the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.
The Transforming Center endorses Calhoun and her book. http://www.thetransformingcenter.org/pdf/nov2005.pdf
http://www.thetransformingcenter.org/
The center is run by Ruth Haley Barton, a spiritual formation director.
-------------------------
Also, Tim Keller is speaking at church planting conferences for the Anglican church. When we think of the fact that the Anglican church practices communion the same as the Catholic church in being it is the Eucharist, this step is yet another foray into the contemplative prayer movement at Redeemer Pres. Tim Keller, in helping the Anglican church plant more churches, is in reality also helping the Roman Catholic church enlarge their base. The Anglican church is formally under the authority of the pope as of 1999. Contemplative prayer has the agenda to blend Catholicism with Protestant churches to introduce new mystical (anit-biblical) "spiritual practices". Here is an article regarding the Roman Catholic church and the Anglican church by Richard Bennett to further explain:
http://www.the-highway.com/articleOct99.html
http://www.the-highway.com/articleOct99.html
The road is still narrow that leads to life (according to the Bible)
Here is an excerpt from Robert LeBus, whom I met last Sunday at Church of the Apostles here in Atlanta. He has done a pertinent piece on Rick Warren. My response:
This is great! It is also an excellent warning of the chicanery in the movement of dominionism...I tell people also that the road is narrow that leads to life, and God never told us that if we market Jesus the right way we can convince sinners on a human level to believe and take over the world in the name of Christianity. I will post excerpts on my blog, but I would love to publish the whole thing with your permission on my LTW web site.
God bless you,
Dwayna
"The Heresy of Rick Warren"
A Different Jesus
What makes Warren’s Gospel a Different Gospel?
Specific Instances of Rick Warren’s Un-Biblical Behavior – In his own words and actions
Can a "Christian” Pastor agree that the Bible and the Koran are both divine and that Mohammed was the prophet spoken of by Moses? Rick Warren, in blatant disobedience to our duty as Followers of Christ, along with many others signers on to the Yale Divinity Schools "Response to a Common Word" did just that!. This document simply put is rank heresy.From the introduction of the A Common Word Document below:
It is hoped that this document will provide a common constitution for the many worthy organizations and individuals who are carrying out interfaith dialogue all over the world. Often these groups are unaware of each other, and duplicate each other’s efforts. Not only can A Common Word Between Us give them a starting point for cooperation and worldwide co-ordination, but it does so on the most solid theological ground possible: the teachings of the Qu’ran and the Prophet, and the commandments described by Jesus Christ in the Bible. Thus despite their differences, Islam and Christianity not only share the same Divine Origin and the same Abrahamic heritage, but the same two greatest commandments. http://www.yale.edu/faith/acw/acw.htm
Rick Warren sends E-mails to all of his “Flock” and associates urging them to email the president to sign on to U2 frontman Bono’s One Campaign, forgive billions in African debt and send billions in aid to Africa without the Gospel."Debt forgiveness rewards the corruption and inefficiency of governments who have mishandled loaned funds," writes the editorial board of the Kairos Journal in a letter sent June 6 to Mr.Warren and (Annihilationist heretic) Mr. Stott, along with others. "In forgiving the debt of poor nations, we're not forgiving the debts of those nation's poor; we're merely enabling bureaucratic perfidy and incompetence." 6/21/05: Whose Jubilee? - World Magazine·
When appearing on the Oprah show Sept 28, 2005 Warren plugged his book but didn’t say a word to Oprah about her destructive teachings. ·
Warren now over rules God himself and decides that homosexual behavior is not as bad as incest or being a Child molester. Melissa Etheridge's statement below confirms his view. “I told my manager to reach out to Pastor Warren and say "In the spirit of unity I would like to talk to him." They gave him my phone number. On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick, and before I could say anything, he told me what a fan he was. He had most of my albums from the very first one. What? This didn't sound like a gay hater, much less a preacher. He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn't want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. He invited me to his church; I invited him to my home to meet my wife and kids. He told me of his wife's struggle with breast cancer just a year before mine.” (From the Jan 9th Huffington Post pg1) ·
Mr. Warren launched his Global P.E.A.C.E plan coaxing millions of dollars from Christians by telling them that the P stood for ‘Planting Churches’ then he changed it to ‘Participation’ and finally he changed it to ‘Promoting Reconciliation’.
He started the launch of his Global Peace plan by singing the hit song by Jimi Hendrix - “Purple Haze” - a song about a man taking LSD.
Conclusion
Rick Warren’s path is a road that leads to destruction - Period.
Behind a façade of “Good” works he betrays the heart of why true Christians have been persecuted for 2000 years: exclusivity! It’s not Jesus plus all the other gods!
Salvation is through the righteous work and atonement of Jesus who alone has the power to save anyone.
Even more frightening is this statement from an Aug. 07, 2008 article in Time Magazine. "My confidence is not that I've got it all figured out. My confidence is, Jesus said, ‘Do these five things' and we've got the people out there." Does Rick Warren equate his P.E.A.C.E plan with the words of Christ himself? This is scary indeed! We must conclude that the reason Rick Warren is accepted and loved by so many would be his brand of hybridized global designer religion with a flaky outer crust of Christianity a filling of New Age mixed liberally with a social gospel, a sprinkling of Islam and just a pinch of Judaism. You end up with a recipe for a Shepherds Pie of Apostasy; a Christianized universalism that masquerades as genuine Christianity.
Warren told Wolfson his interest is in helping all houses of worship, not in converting Jews. He said, “There are more than enough Christian souls to deal with for starters.”
Amos 3:3 “Shall two walk together, except they have agreed?”
Rick Warren said this in an address to the American Islamic community,“You don’t have to see eye to eye to walk hand in hand.”
God’s word says "What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? … Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord" (2 Cor. 6:15-17).
We must be clear there is but one road that leads to salvation and it is the narrow path of which Jesus spoke. It is a contrite heart and the influence and renewing of the Holy Spirit enabling a real turning from the world and sin that is proof of salvation. Our good works do not violate God’s Word, they flow out of a true change of heart not from external peer pressure to compromise in order to do more good. I could have gone on with many more pages outlining the departure from God’s word by Mr.Warren. If what you have read is not enough to concern you and stir your interest in further research neither would another twenty pages.
May you find that narrow way in Christ.
May God Bless You
This is great! It is also an excellent warning of the chicanery in the movement of dominionism...I tell people also that the road is narrow that leads to life, and God never told us that if we market Jesus the right way we can convince sinners on a human level to believe and take over the world in the name of Christianity. I will post excerpts on my blog, but I would love to publish the whole thing with your permission on my LTW web site.
God bless you,
Dwayna
"The Heresy of Rick Warren"
A Different Jesus
Rick Warren has made millions of dollars from selling millions of people a false view of God, Jesus his Son and the Holy Spirit: A Rock and Roll Jesus who comes with his Candy Coated Cross and is OK with those who worship false gods and practice false religions.How is Warren’s Jesus different than the Biblical, actual, factual Jesus of Nazareth? Warren only tells you half of the story. He speaks of God’s Love but nearly avoids mentioning God’s coming judgment altogether. His professed Lord, Jesus the Christ, spoke of Hell more than anyone in the Bible. Warren’s church’s statement of faith is loosely orthodox. He doesn’t deny any major tenets of the Christian faith on paper rather he does it by his traitorous and blasphemous actions in real life. This makes him all the more dangerous! Jesus instructed us to judge with a righteous judgment not merely for appearance sake.John 7:24 reads: “Judge not according to the appearance, but Judge righteous judgment.” That means to assess or evaluate based on the relevant evidence. I speak harshly of “False Teachers” as did my Lord and his Apostles since they set the example we as Christians must follow.
What makes Warren’s Gospel a Different Gospel?
He refuses to obey and accept the commands in scripture to separate from and rebuke apostates and false teachers, be they professed Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, or Modernist Liberal’s who all deceptively call themselves Christians.It boils down to this statement by Christ, “Why do you call me Lord but do not what I say?” (Luke 6:46)This is the main point of Mr. Warren’s failings. He is orthodox in name only. He has refused to abide by the Biblical commands to separate from False Teachers, Heretics and join in worship with false religions. A Christianity that does not do these things is not in reality Christianity at all.The Jesus Warren asks his hearers to invite into their hearts is another Jesus, a counterfeit. Once they are convinced that the nice fluffy Jesus they bought into is the REAL Jesus they are closed off to and inoculated from true faith in the King of King’s and Lord of Lords who is returning to rule the world with a rod of iron and to judge the Quick and the Dead.
Specific Instances of Rick Warren’s Un-Biblical Behavior – In his own words and actions
Warren is part of the ultra-conservative Southern Baptist Convention. All of his senior staff sign on to the SBC's doctrines, such as the literal and infallible Bible and the exclusion of women as senior pastors. Yet, Warren's pastor training programs welcome Catholics, Methodists, Mormons, Jews and ordained women. "I'm not going to get into a debate over the non-essentials. I won't try to change other denominations. Why be divisive?" he asks, citing as his model Billy Graham, "a statesman for Christ ministering across barriers." ("This evangelist has a 'Purpose'", by Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY 7/21/2003)(http://www.usatoday.com/life/2003-07-21-rick-warren_x.htm)·
Can a "Christian” Pastor agree that the Bible and the Koran are both divine and that Mohammed was the prophet spoken of by Moses? Rick Warren, in blatant disobedience to our duty as Followers of Christ, along with many others signers on to the Yale Divinity Schools "Response to a Common Word" did just that!. This document simply put is rank heresy.From the introduction of the A Common Word Document below:
It is hoped that this document will provide a common constitution for the many worthy organizations and individuals who are carrying out interfaith dialogue all over the world. Often these groups are unaware of each other, and duplicate each other’s efforts. Not only can A Common Word Between Us give them a starting point for cooperation and worldwide co-ordination, but it does so on the most solid theological ground possible: the teachings of the Qu’ran and the Prophet, and the commandments described by Jesus Christ in the Bible. Thus despite their differences, Islam and Christianity not only share the same Divine Origin and the same Abrahamic heritage, but the same two greatest commandments. http://www.yale.edu/faith/acw/acw.htm
Rick Warren sends E-mails to all of his “Flock” and associates urging them to email the president to sign on to U2 frontman Bono’s One Campaign, forgive billions in African debt and send billions in aid to Africa without the Gospel."Debt forgiveness rewards the corruption and inefficiency of governments who have mishandled loaned funds," writes the editorial board of the Kairos Journal in a letter sent June 6 to Mr.Warren and (Annihilationist heretic) Mr. Stott, along with others. "In forgiving the debt of poor nations, we're not forgiving the debts of those nation's poor; we're merely enabling bureaucratic perfidy and incompetence." 6/21/05: Whose Jubilee? - World Magazine·
When appearing on the Oprah show Sept 28, 2005 Warren plugged his book but didn’t say a word to Oprah about her destructive teachings. ·
Warren now over rules God himself and decides that homosexual behavior is not as bad as incest or being a Child molester. Melissa Etheridge's statement below confirms his view. “I told my manager to reach out to Pastor Warren and say "In the spirit of unity I would like to talk to him." They gave him my phone number. On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick, and before I could say anything, he told me what a fan he was. He had most of my albums from the very first one. What? This didn't sound like a gay hater, much less a preacher. He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn't want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. He invited me to his church; I invited him to my home to meet my wife and kids. He told me of his wife's struggle with breast cancer just a year before mine.” (From the Jan 9th Huffington Post pg1) ·
Mr. Warren launched his Global P.E.A.C.E plan coaxing millions of dollars from Christians by telling them that the P stood for ‘Planting Churches’ then he changed it to ‘Participation’ and finally he changed it to ‘Promoting Reconciliation’.
He started the launch of his Global Peace plan by singing the hit song by Jimi Hendrix - “Purple Haze” - a song about a man taking LSD.
Conclusion
Rick Warren’s path is a road that leads to destruction - Period.
Behind a façade of “Good” works he betrays the heart of why true Christians have been persecuted for 2000 years: exclusivity! It’s not Jesus plus all the other gods!
Salvation is through the righteous work and atonement of Jesus who alone has the power to save anyone.
Even more frightening is this statement from an Aug. 07, 2008 article in Time Magazine. "My confidence is not that I've got it all figured out. My confidence is, Jesus said, ‘Do these five things' and we've got the people out there." Does Rick Warren equate his P.E.A.C.E plan with the words of Christ himself? This is scary indeed! We must conclude that the reason Rick Warren is accepted and loved by so many would be his brand of hybridized global designer religion with a flaky outer crust of Christianity a filling of New Age mixed liberally with a social gospel, a sprinkling of Islam and just a pinch of Judaism. You end up with a recipe for a Shepherds Pie of Apostasy; a Christianized universalism that masquerades as genuine Christianity.
Warren told Wolfson his interest is in helping all houses of worship, not in converting Jews. He said, “There are more than enough Christian souls to deal with for starters.”
Amos 3:3 “Shall two walk together, except they have agreed?”
Rick Warren said this in an address to the American Islamic community,“You don’t have to see eye to eye to walk hand in hand.”
God’s word says "What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? … Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord" (2 Cor. 6:15-17).
We must be clear there is but one road that leads to salvation and it is the narrow path of which Jesus spoke. It is a contrite heart and the influence and renewing of the Holy Spirit enabling a real turning from the world and sin that is proof of salvation. Our good works do not violate God’s Word, they flow out of a true change of heart not from external peer pressure to compromise in order to do more good. I could have gone on with many more pages outlining the departure from God’s word by Mr.Warren. If what you have read is not enough to concern you and stir your interest in further research neither would another twenty pages.
May you find that narrow way in Christ.
May God Bless You
Robert L.LeBus
March 18, 2009
The "opportune" times of temptation come from God
(See previous blog post on this morning's sermon).
I was just praying, and the Lord reminded me that the "opportune" times of testing and temptation come from God, not Satan. Satan is not omniscient. I was thinking about Luke 4:13, and it does not say that Satan is in charge of the "opportune time" of testing and temptation. We can know it comes from God and not Satan, because in Luke 4:1-2 the Bible clearly states that Jesus was led to the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan. We know the Bible clearly teaches that God cannot tempt. Only Satan can tempt, yet our sovereign Lord is in charge of every "opportune time". What a GREAT God of security. He knows what we can handle and when we can handle it. As John MacArthur said in a sermon years ago, we can walk through any time of temptation (caveat: temptation is not a sin) with our eyes on Jesus in victory.
Satan knows the opportune times, but only because God tells him...like He did with Job when He asked Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job?..."
I was just praying, and the Lord reminded me that the "opportune" times of testing and temptation come from God, not Satan. Satan is not omniscient. I was thinking about Luke 4:13, and it does not say that Satan is in charge of the "opportune time" of testing and temptation. We can know it comes from God and not Satan, because in Luke 4:1-2 the Bible clearly states that Jesus was led to the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan. We know the Bible clearly teaches that God cannot tempt. Only Satan can tempt, yet our sovereign Lord is in charge of every "opportune time". What a GREAT God of security. He knows what we can handle and when we can handle it. As John MacArthur said in a sermon years ago, we can walk through any time of temptation (caveat: temptation is not a sin) with our eyes on Jesus in victory.
Satan knows the opportune times, but only because God tells him...like He did with Job when He asked Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job?..."
Sermon Notes from Michael Youssef This Morning
I had a great time at the service this morning at Church of the Apostles. (http://www.apostles.org/ ). The sermon was for an "opportune" time in my life, as things have been going great and there is interest from Word Records, which would potentially expand the ministry financially. Satan is sneaky, but he gives himself away in the Bible!
“Timing is Everything”
Satan’s Dirty Little Secret
Be alert.
We must be on guard.
You are Satan’s most wanted (as God's possession through Jesus).
We are not ignorant of his schemes.
He comes to attack right after great success and right before a great success, AND when we are tired.
After Jesus had been baptized and God, the Father, said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” What did Satan do? Right after Jesus had been baptized in the Jordan (Luke 4:1) and He was tempted 40 days and became hungry (Luke 4:2), the devil said to Him, “IF you are really the Son of God tell this stone to become bread.” What is interesting is that Satan cast doubt on what God had just said. He tried to make Jesus doubt who He really was, and the "enemy" of all mankind, the "Father of Lies", the "spirit working in the sons of disobedience"gave Jesus an idea to MEET HIS NEEDS. When Jesus refused him, the Bible says,
“When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.” Luke 4:13.
After we win over one temptation, the Bible warns that Satan will come back at another “opportune” time. Hence, timing is everything. Satan has a timing for every temptation and every fiery dart he throws our way! He gives his dirty little secret away right here in Luke 4:13.
But the Lord has a more powerful way of escape at every single "opportune" time, so we can live in VICTORY!
We ended the service singing "Victory In Jesus", and I was so happy! I plan to visit First Baptist Atlanta soon, but I am feeling right at home at Church of the Apostles, too! I will be there again tomorrow night for Jim Reimann's Bible study. http://jimreimann.com/podcasts/
“Timing is Everything”
Satan’s Dirty Little Secret
Be alert.
We must be on guard.
You are Satan’s most wanted (as God's possession through Jesus).
We are not ignorant of his schemes.
He comes to attack right after great success and right before a great success, AND when we are tired.
After Jesus had been baptized and God, the Father, said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” What did Satan do? Right after Jesus had been baptized in the Jordan (Luke 4:1) and He was tempted 40 days and became hungry (Luke 4:2), the devil said to Him, “IF you are really the Son of God tell this stone to become bread.” What is interesting is that Satan cast doubt on what God had just said. He tried to make Jesus doubt who He really was, and the "enemy" of all mankind, the "Father of Lies", the "spirit working in the sons of disobedience"gave Jesus an idea to MEET HIS NEEDS. When Jesus refused him, the Bible says,
“When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.” Luke 4:13.
After we win over one temptation, the Bible warns that Satan will come back at another “opportune” time. Hence, timing is everything. Satan has a timing for every temptation and every fiery dart he throws our way! He gives his dirty little secret away right here in Luke 4:13.
But the Lord has a more powerful way of escape at every single "opportune" time, so we can live in VICTORY!
We ended the service singing "Victory In Jesus", and I was so happy! I plan to visit First Baptist Atlanta soon, but I am feeling right at home at Church of the Apostles, too! I will be there again tomorrow night for Jim Reimann's Bible study. http://jimreimann.com/podcasts/
Tim Keller/Redeemer NYC and Contemplative Prayer
I found this book review to be helpful. My concerns are that Tim Keller is pro Catholic among other concerns.
http://www.svchapel.org/resources/book-reviews/1-apologetics/497-the-reason-for-god-by-timothy-keller
It would probably be good to read the warnings against contemplative prayer/mystcism...They are spiritual practices that are from the middle ages that the Catholic church practiced. Today they are in Protestant, evangelical churches under the same name and also under Christian terms.
http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/23-doctrine/545-mysticism-part-1
Here are some other articles warning against mysticism/contemplative prayers.http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue99.htm
"The Dangers of Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Disciplineshttp://cicministry.org/commentary/issue91.htm
Ancient-Future Faith
http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/21-church-trends/23-ancient-future-faith-its-practices
Experiencing God
http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/20-christian-living/38-experiencing-god-part-1
Lectio divina is given also separately on the prayer resources of Redeemer church. It is given in detail.
http://www.redeemer.com/connect/prayer/lectio_divina.html
http://www.redeemer.com/connect/prayer/resources.html
Pastor Tim Keller endorsed this book about spiritual disciplines. It is not the kind of spiritual disciplines that we learn about in the Bible:
http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/review/code=3330
I saw that the format for Lectio Divina (on Redeemer Church web site) is given from a book listed on the bottom of the page: Sacred Companions by David Benner, 2002. I looked up the book: http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=3270
You can see the contents and read the first chapter on line. I just read a few pages of chapter 1 and it is about having an enlightened sense of God, etc. The author writes that it is for a deeper more meaningful relationship. He then talks about the Catholic and orthodox churches and that they knew of how to have that experience. He mentions several mystics including, Teresa of Avila, Thomas Merton and the 14th century mystic Meister Eckhart. People would be taught pro Catholic teachings since the Catholic church is portrayed as favorable. Evidently, other books are given in this book for the readers to use. It is incredible how the pathway for such false ways is being formed within the church.
This is a quote from the preface of the book Sacred Companions:
When I am still I can sometimes feel a gentle breeze blowing into my soul. Others are reporting the same experience. I am excited. For this stubborn melancholic to sense excitement stirring, something supernatural must be going on. I believe it is. In my fifty years as living as a Christian, I have never seen the soul's thirst for God more talked about, more recognized as a vital motivation in the human personality or more strongly experienced as a consuming passion. Perhaps a revolution is under way, a revolution of the Spirit that is about to shift our core energies away from arranging life to make it as satisfying as possible to drawing near to God. The spiritual climate is ripe, Jesus seekers across the world are being prepared to abandon the old way of the written code for the new way of the Spirit...
http://www.svchapel.org/resources/book-reviews/1-apologetics/497-the-reason-for-god-by-timothy-keller
It would probably be good to read the warnings against contemplative prayer/mystcism...They are spiritual practices that are from the middle ages that the Catholic church practiced. Today they are in Protestant, evangelical churches under the same name and also under Christian terms.
http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/23-doctrine/545-mysticism-part-1
Here are some other articles warning against mysticism/contemplative prayers.http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue99.htm
"The Dangers of Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Disciplineshttp://cicministry.org/commentary/issue91.htm
Ancient-Future Faith
http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/21-church-trends/23-ancient-future-faith-its-practices
Experiencing God
http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/20-christian-living/38-experiencing-god-part-1
Lectio divina is given also separately on the prayer resources of Redeemer church. It is given in detail.
http://www.redeemer.com/connect/prayer/lectio_divina.html
http://www.redeemer.com/connect/prayer/resources.html
Pastor Tim Keller endorsed this book about spiritual disciplines. It is not the kind of spiritual disciplines that we learn about in the Bible:
http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/review/code=3330
I saw that the format for Lectio Divina (on Redeemer Church web site) is given from a book listed on the bottom of the page: Sacred Companions by David Benner, 2002. I looked up the book: http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=3270
You can see the contents and read the first chapter on line. I just read a few pages of chapter 1 and it is about having an enlightened sense of God, etc. The author writes that it is for a deeper more meaningful relationship. He then talks about the Catholic and orthodox churches and that they knew of how to have that experience. He mentions several mystics including, Teresa of Avila, Thomas Merton and the 14th century mystic Meister Eckhart. People would be taught pro Catholic teachings since the Catholic church is portrayed as favorable. Evidently, other books are given in this book for the readers to use. It is incredible how the pathway for such false ways is being formed within the church.
This is a quote from the preface of the book Sacred Companions:
When I am still I can sometimes feel a gentle breeze blowing into my soul. Others are reporting the same experience. I am excited. For this stubborn melancholic to sense excitement stirring, something supernatural must be going on. I believe it is. In my fifty years as living as a Christian, I have never seen the soul's thirst for God more talked about, more recognized as a vital motivation in the human personality or more strongly experienced as a consuming passion. Perhaps a revolution is under way, a revolution of the Spirit that is about to shift our core energies away from arranging life to make it as satisfying as possible to drawing near to God. The spiritual climate is ripe, Jesus seekers across the world are being prepared to abandon the old way of the written code for the new way of the Spirit...
Letter to Editor at 'Christianity Today' on Tim Keller's Teaching
To the Editor:
In [Christianity Today], 2008, Tim Keller says many significant things about the centrality and necessity of the fruit of humility in the Gospel-centered life and also its elusiveness. But I question whether we are actually seeing through our humility-sharpened eyes when we join hands with our society by accusing the “religious right” of “self-righteousness and pride.”
What makes them guiltier than others? Clearly, this indictment is provoked by their outspokenness on moral issues! However, Keller seems to associate this outspokenness with “moralism” and “self-righteousness,” but it is possible to be outspoken and humble at the same time. Jesus certainly was! Indeed, we all struggle with moralism and will continue to do so until Christ returns. However, moral indignation is a Christian thing (Acts 17:16; Mark 3:5; 2 Peter 2:7). Perhaps we are playing into the hands of the prevailing culture when we associate righteous moral indignation with self-righteousness and have become wrongly de-motivated by this confusion? And perhaps this is contributing to the emasculation of the Church?
In [Christianity Today], 2008, Tim Keller says many significant things about the centrality and necessity of the fruit of humility in the Gospel-centered life and also its elusiveness. But I question whether we are actually seeing through our humility-sharpened eyes when we join hands with our society by accusing the “religious right” of “self-righteousness and pride.”
What makes them guiltier than others? Clearly, this indictment is provoked by their outspokenness on moral issues! However, Keller seems to associate this outspokenness with “moralism” and “self-righteousness,” but it is possible to be outspoken and humble at the same time. Jesus certainly was! Indeed, we all struggle with moralism and will continue to do so until Christ returns. However, moral indignation is a Christian thing (Acts 17:16; Mark 3:5; 2 Peter 2:7). Perhaps we are playing into the hands of the prevailing culture when we associate righteous moral indignation with self-righteousness and have become wrongly de-motivated by this confusion? And perhaps this is contributing to the emasculation of the Church?
Daniel Mann
NY School of the Bible
A Little Leaven from Tim Keller...
Below is research emailed to me on Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church NYC, casting doubt on the weight he carries among sound evangelical pastors. People are now discovering that some of his teaching is not so sound. However, this is difficult to spot, with most of his teaching forthrightly biblical. But, as the Bible says, "a little leaven..." goes a long way...
---------------------------------------------
http://www.firstthings.com/blog/2008/03/12/the-timothy-keller-interview/
Some of the questions I have are such things like the comments that Tim Keller and proponents of the Emerging Church say that Christians must work sacrificially for the "common good" of the entire city.
http://theresurgence.com/r_r_2006_session_six_audio_keller
I wonder about things like this and if this is Biblical for a Christian minister to be part of it. Tim Keller spoke at this conference.
http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/emerging-church/interfaith-muslim-speaks-to-evangelicals-at-q-conference/
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2008/04/among_the_evangelicals.html
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080521/purpose-driven-pastors-tackle-21st-century-church-issues.htm
The following is Tim Keller on "Post Everythings."
http://www.scribd.com/word/full/20635?access_key=k5c578nk8d8s3
I saw this last week and thought of Jeremiah who witnessed to Israel and yet no one listened to him. It bothered me what was said by Keller regarding a Christian who does not have results regarding his witness for Christ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DGbkw6tC8k
http://outreachmagazine.com/Library/features/Out100ftrMissionalMegachurch.asp
I did read an article on svchapel.org by Pastor Gary Gilley regarding the Emerging Church and that he states that the E.C. movement is similar with the Emergent Church in that they both believe the Kingdom of heaven is on this earth now and that the church is to spread it.
http://www.svchapel.org/Resources/Articles/read_articles.asp?id=139
---------------------------------------------
http://www.firstthings.com/blog/2008/03/12/the-timothy-keller-interview/
Some of the questions I have are such things like the comments that Tim Keller and proponents of the Emerging Church say that Christians must work sacrificially for the "common good" of the entire city.
http://theresurgence.com/r_r_2006_session_six_audio_keller
I wonder about things like this and if this is Biblical for a Christian minister to be part of it. Tim Keller spoke at this conference.
http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/emerging-church/interfaith-muslim-speaks-to-evangelicals-at-q-conference/
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2008/04/among_the_evangelicals.html
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080521/purpose-driven-pastors-tackle-21st-century-church-issues.htm
The following is Tim Keller on "Post Everythings."
http://www.scribd.com/word/full/20635?access_key=k5c578nk8d8s3
I saw this last week and thought of Jeremiah who witnessed to Israel and yet no one listened to him. It bothered me what was said by Keller regarding a Christian who does not have results regarding his witness for Christ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DGbkw6tC8k
http://outreachmagazine.com/Library/features/Out100ftrMissionalMegachurch.asp
I did read an article on svchapel.org by Pastor Gary Gilley regarding the Emerging Church and that he states that the E.C. movement is similar with the Emergent Church in that they both believe the Kingdom of heaven is on this earth now and that the church is to spread it.
http://www.svchapel.org/Resources/Articles/read_articles.asp?id=139
The Gay Gene Hoax Speech Silences Pro-Gay Crowd
Here is a blockbuster speech on “The Gay Gene Hoax” silencing a pro-gay crowd at Framingham State College:
http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/08a/born_gay_hoax/index.html
http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/08a/born_gay_hoax/index.html
Animals That Defy Evolution
“The feeblest of designers,” writes [evolutionist] Steve Jones, “could improve it (the structure of the human eye).” This and other examples, says Jones, show that complex organs are “not the work of some great composer but of an insensible drudge: an instrument, like others, built by a tinkerer [the evolutionary process] rather than by a trained engineer.” (Quoted from Cornelius Hunter, Darwin’s God, p.83.)
Jones discounts the possibility of an intelligent Designer. However, he correctly concludes that we should be able to make certain predictions about the physical world. If the world is the product of blind evolution, then, according to Jones, it should reflect the imperfect work of “the feeblest of designers.” However, if the Designer of the world is the perfect, omnipotent and omniscient God, then His workmanship should reflect this.
Let’s just take the human eye, whose design Jones so glibly disparages. If perfection is judged by what the eye can do—how it functions, repairs itself, and integrates harmoniously with the rest of the body’s systems—there only remains awe. How the eye converts light waves into millions of chemical-electrical impulses, sends them off to the brain in organized, instantaneous, sequential patterns which are then reconstructed by the mind, drawing upon memory and other centers of learning, before converting the data into the substance of decisions, goes far beyond what we can understand and anything human technology can create. It is these visual impulses that enable us to make fine distinctions among a myriad of similar faces and to make thousands of precise decisions whenever we ride a bicycle.
When do our eyes mislead us? When do they give us incorrect data? Who has invented something superior to the eye so that he would pluck it out and implant his own invention? Rather, let us compare our eye with what unintelligent natural forces are able TO fabricate. Have natural forces ever collaborated together to produce anything of complexity and functionality? Has gravity ever written poetry? Has a hurricane ever recited Shakespeare or has it ever called out your name? Has electricity ever painted your portrait or told you, “I love you?” Have the tides ever written your name on the sand? Instead, it can be persuasively argued that unintelligent forces have never produced an object with the appearance of intelligent design. It’s like throwing paint on a canvas and expecting to eventually come up with the Mona Lisa.
Does nature reflect the workmanship of the “feeblest of designers”—evolution? According to Cornelius Hunter, “bats map out objects as small as mosquitoes by sensing the echoes of their own squeaks,” hardly the workmanship of a “tinkerer!”
“[Fish] use underwater electric fields either passively or actively to sense objects around them including other fish. The details of such systems would fill books. Anyone familiar with today’s sonar or radar systems knows the immense complexity inherent in such systems: the problems of sensing the echo in the presence of the transmitted signal…Yet the bat’s detection abilities are superior to those of the best electronic sonar equipment.” (Hunter, pg. 72)
Then consider “the rattlesnake with heat-sensitive (infrared) sensors to image its prey at night.” Or consider the owl “with ears tuned to different frequencies, to better track its prey” (Hunter). Somehow, these systems are perfect enough to keep their owners from going hungry. In fact, the evidence in favor of an intelligent Designer is so striking that,
“Amherst College astronomy professor George Greenstein (a pantheist or something similar), [writes], ‘As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency, or rather Agency, must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providentially created the cosmos for our benefit?’” (Quoted by Henry F. Schaefer, Science and Christianity: Conflict or Coherence, p.62.)
Indeed, many have “stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being,” but this isn’t because the evidence is so scarce, but rather because we have set aside our spectacles.
Daniel Mann
challengingthedarkness@yahoo.com
Jones discounts the possibility of an intelligent Designer. However, he correctly concludes that we should be able to make certain predictions about the physical world. If the world is the product of blind evolution, then, according to Jones, it should reflect the imperfect work of “the feeblest of designers.” However, if the Designer of the world is the perfect, omnipotent and omniscient God, then His workmanship should reflect this.
Let’s just take the human eye, whose design Jones so glibly disparages. If perfection is judged by what the eye can do—how it functions, repairs itself, and integrates harmoniously with the rest of the body’s systems—there only remains awe. How the eye converts light waves into millions of chemical-electrical impulses, sends them off to the brain in organized, instantaneous, sequential patterns which are then reconstructed by the mind, drawing upon memory and other centers of learning, before converting the data into the substance of decisions, goes far beyond what we can understand and anything human technology can create. It is these visual impulses that enable us to make fine distinctions among a myriad of similar faces and to make thousands of precise decisions whenever we ride a bicycle.
When do our eyes mislead us? When do they give us incorrect data? Who has invented something superior to the eye so that he would pluck it out and implant his own invention? Rather, let us compare our eye with what unintelligent natural forces are able TO fabricate. Have natural forces ever collaborated together to produce anything of complexity and functionality? Has gravity ever written poetry? Has a hurricane ever recited Shakespeare or has it ever called out your name? Has electricity ever painted your portrait or told you, “I love you?” Have the tides ever written your name on the sand? Instead, it can be persuasively argued that unintelligent forces have never produced an object with the appearance of intelligent design. It’s like throwing paint on a canvas and expecting to eventually come up with the Mona Lisa.
Does nature reflect the workmanship of the “feeblest of designers”—evolution? According to Cornelius Hunter, “bats map out objects as small as mosquitoes by sensing the echoes of their own squeaks,” hardly the workmanship of a “tinkerer!”
“[Fish] use underwater electric fields either passively or actively to sense objects around them including other fish. The details of such systems would fill books. Anyone familiar with today’s sonar or radar systems knows the immense complexity inherent in such systems: the problems of sensing the echo in the presence of the transmitted signal…Yet the bat’s detection abilities are superior to those of the best electronic sonar equipment.” (Hunter, pg. 72)
Then consider “the rattlesnake with heat-sensitive (infrared) sensors to image its prey at night.” Or consider the owl “with ears tuned to different frequencies, to better track its prey” (Hunter). Somehow, these systems are perfect enough to keep their owners from going hungry. In fact, the evidence in favor of an intelligent Designer is so striking that,
“Amherst College astronomy professor George Greenstein (a pantheist or something similar), [writes], ‘As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency, or rather Agency, must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providentially created the cosmos for our benefit?’” (Quoted by Henry F. Schaefer, Science and Christianity: Conflict or Coherence, p.62.)
Indeed, many have “stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being,” but this isn’t because the evidence is so scarce, but rather because we have set aside our spectacles.
Daniel Mann
challengingthedarkness@yahoo.com
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Homosexuality in the Public Schools (by Daniel Mann)
It is not enough for society to grant gays equal rights. The pro-gay powers (PGPs) want also to silence any dissent, even criticism coming out of loving concern. If it’s dissent, then it’s “homophobic,” and if homophobic, then it promotes violence and should be criminalized according to the PGPs. Here are a couple of examples:
Brazilian President Luiz Lula… announced his complete support for the homosexual movement, saying that he is "going to do all that is possible so that the criminalization of homophobia and the civil union may be approved." After calling for a universal embrace of the homosexual movement, the president affirmed that "homophobia" is perhaps "the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head." (LifeSiteNews.com, June 9, 2008)
Alberta Human Rights Commission ordered Alberta pastor Stephen Boissoin to desist from expressing his views on homosexuality in any sort of public forum [I guess that includes church]. He was also commanded to pay damages equivalent to $7,000 as a result of the tribunal's November decision to side with complainant and homosexual activist Dr. Darren Lund. The tribunal has also called for Boissoin to personally apologize to Lund via a public statement in the local newspaper.
Boissoin was first hauled before the Human Rights Commission to answer to a complaint filed by Lund, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary. Lund made his complaint after Boissoin published a letter to the editor in the Red Deer Advocate, in which he denounced homosexuality as immoral and dangerous and called into question new gay-rights curricula permeating the province's educational system.
"Children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights," wrote Boissoin in the letter. (LifeSiteNews.com, June 9, 2008)
Is it alarmist to suggest that soon we too will be hauled off to prison for expressing our beliefs? Not if this trajectory continues! Already, in California, there are laws in place criminalizing anything “prejudicial” against homosexuality in the school system. The Oakland municipal system fired Christians for verbally responding to homosexual propaganda. Routinely, publications carrying advertisements about homosexual reparative psychotherapy are harassed.
The media has been so co-opted by the pro-gay agenda that nothing contrary to the gay lifestyle is ever aired. The news is so politicized that presenting the pros and cons is no longer tolerated.
But why be so concerned about this? It certainly isn’t as central to our concerns as the proclamation of the Gospel! However, if turning away from sin (repentance) is in some way connected to turning to God, then this issue is part of the Gospel—a part that may soon be silenced.
Paul, foreseeing a similar time, wrote accordingly to Timothy:
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths (2 Tim. 4:1-4).
How do we love? By propagandizing the virtues of gay relationships in grade schools? Not if this seriously compromises the well-being of children! We cannot love in silence by acquiescing to the threats of the militant PGPs! Instead, we love by being light (Mat. 5:13) and exposing sin (Eph. 5:11), whatever the cost!
Daniel Mann
Brazilian President Luiz Lula… announced his complete support for the homosexual movement, saying that he is "going to do all that is possible so that the criminalization of homophobia and the civil union may be approved." After calling for a universal embrace of the homosexual movement, the president affirmed that "homophobia" is perhaps "the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head." (LifeSiteNews.com, June 9, 2008)
Alberta Human Rights Commission ordered Alberta pastor Stephen Boissoin to desist from expressing his views on homosexuality in any sort of public forum [I guess that includes church]. He was also commanded to pay damages equivalent to $7,000 as a result of the tribunal's November decision to side with complainant and homosexual activist Dr. Darren Lund. The tribunal has also called for Boissoin to personally apologize to Lund via a public statement in the local newspaper.
Boissoin was first hauled before the Human Rights Commission to answer to a complaint filed by Lund, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary. Lund made his complaint after Boissoin published a letter to the editor in the Red Deer Advocate, in which he denounced homosexuality as immoral and dangerous and called into question new gay-rights curricula permeating the province's educational system.
"Children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights," wrote Boissoin in the letter. (LifeSiteNews.com, June 9, 2008)
Is it alarmist to suggest that soon we too will be hauled off to prison for expressing our beliefs? Not if this trajectory continues! Already, in California, there are laws in place criminalizing anything “prejudicial” against homosexuality in the school system. The Oakland municipal system fired Christians for verbally responding to homosexual propaganda. Routinely, publications carrying advertisements about homosexual reparative psychotherapy are harassed.
The media has been so co-opted by the pro-gay agenda that nothing contrary to the gay lifestyle is ever aired. The news is so politicized that presenting the pros and cons is no longer tolerated.
But why be so concerned about this? It certainly isn’t as central to our concerns as the proclamation of the Gospel! However, if turning away from sin (repentance) is in some way connected to turning to God, then this issue is part of the Gospel—a part that may soon be silenced.
Paul, foreseeing a similar time, wrote accordingly to Timothy:
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths (2 Tim. 4:1-4).
How do we love? By propagandizing the virtues of gay relationships in grade schools? Not if this seriously compromises the well-being of children! We cannot love in silence by acquiescing to the threats of the militant PGPs! Instead, we love by being light (Mat. 5:13) and exposing sin (Eph. 5:11), whatever the cost!
Daniel Mann
"Is the church going to start showing porn?"
"Is the church going to start showing porn?"
As conveyed to me by email, this was an honest question from a man who saw the following interview with pastor Mark Driscoll on CNN.
http://theologica.blogspot.com/2009/02/mark-driscoll-on-cnn.html
As conveyed to me by email, this was an honest question from a man who saw the following interview with pastor Mark Driscoll on CNN.
http://theologica.blogspot.com/2009/02/mark-driscoll-on-cnn.html
Friday, March 27, 2009
"Decreasing for His Purpose"
"He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30).
--Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, March 24th devotional/ (edited by Jim Reimann)
I am so happy today with a heart so full of alacrity, that I can barely express my enthusiasm as I type! The Lord has brought back music to my life after many, many years of living without it. The donations are drastically down, so I am praying that God will let one of the beautiful songs that I wrote years ago get recorded, as they are now being pitched again in mainstream music. Plus, I heard back from WORD Records, and they are interested in hearing more of the music I have written and recorded about my relationship with Jesus.
The wonderful thing about art is that we are like God as creative people, because He is creative. I have "died" to it to serve Him for years in missions, and now He is bringing this back into my life to enjoy but not worship, as I have learned now how to be content without it, as God gets all of my worship.
One thing that is wonderful about being single is that I can pray anytime by myself with God and share any fears or longings with Him alone. Just this week I took out music I wrote years and years ago on love, and it was such a delightful experience to hear it again. I thank Him for every song. I am still focused on telling others about Him, but the music is now part of my life again in a more profound way.
I was recently audited by the IRS (about a month ago), and God let me pass the audit without owing them a penny. I will forever and ever be grateful to God for His faithfulness! The money is so very tight, so I am now asking God to provide through music. Plus, I pray that God will provide through more churches getting involved in our outreaches. DVDs are being made of our outreach locations, and I am working on slide shows for that as well.
I hope to have an update sent out tonight on our ministry locations, including a new outreach location to the Philippines.
As someone told me back in January, we cannot put God in a box. He can do anything for His glory at any given moment His way and not our own.
"Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have forgotten your first love." Rev. 2:4
"Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and him with Me." Revelation 3:20
He has been with me in loneliness and in every season of my life. Now, here in Atlanta, this is a happy season...and He is the God of it all...
Not forgetting my First Love,
Dwayna
If you become a necessity to someone else's life you are out of God's will. As a servant, your primary responsiblity is to be a "friend of the Bridegroom" (John 3:29). When you see a person who is close to grasping the claims of Jesus Christ, you know your influence has been used in the right direction. And when you begin to see that person in the middle of a difficult and painful struggle, don't try to prevent it, but pray that his difficulty will grow even ten times stronger until no power on earth or in hell could hold him away from Jesus Christ.
--Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, March 24th devotional/ (edited by Jim Reimann)
I am so happy today with a heart so full of alacrity, that I can barely express my enthusiasm as I type! The Lord has brought back music to my life after many, many years of living without it. The donations are drastically down, so I am praying that God will let one of the beautiful songs that I wrote years ago get recorded, as they are now being pitched again in mainstream music. Plus, I heard back from WORD Records, and they are interested in hearing more of the music I have written and recorded about my relationship with Jesus.
The wonderful thing about art is that we are like God as creative people, because He is creative. I have "died" to it to serve Him for years in missions, and now He is bringing this back into my life to enjoy but not worship, as I have learned now how to be content without it, as God gets all of my worship.
One thing that is wonderful about being single is that I can pray anytime by myself with God and share any fears or longings with Him alone. Just this week I took out music I wrote years and years ago on love, and it was such a delightful experience to hear it again. I thank Him for every song. I am still focused on telling others about Him, but the music is now part of my life again in a more profound way.
I was recently audited by the IRS (about a month ago), and God let me pass the audit without owing them a penny. I will forever and ever be grateful to God for His faithfulness! The money is so very tight, so I am now asking God to provide through music. Plus, I pray that God will provide through more churches getting involved in our outreaches. DVDs are being made of our outreach locations, and I am working on slide shows for that as well.
I hope to have an update sent out tonight on our ministry locations, including a new outreach location to the Philippines.
As someone told me back in January, we cannot put God in a box. He can do anything for His glory at any given moment His way and not our own.
"Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have forgotten your first love." Rev. 2:4
"Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and him with Me." Revelation 3:20
He has been with me in loneliness and in every season of my life. Now, here in Atlanta, this is a happy season...and He is the God of it all...
Not forgetting my First Love,
Dwayna
Thursday, March 26, 2009
LTW to Minneapolis
Meet James and Anne with Christ Satisfies Ministries in Minneapolis via their web site here. They are praying about starting a table outreach of apologetics for the people on the streets to partner with LTW. I have known them for years, since LTW began in 2002 at Venice Beach. I sent them materials recently on the Trinity to give to people in downtown Minneapolis on Broadway.
What Mainstream Media Won't Tell Us About "Safe Sex" Among Teens
"Premature Sexualisation" Pushing Young Girls into Depression and Self-Harm: New Study
By Hilary White
"When I was 11, I read a teenage magazine for the first time and that is when it kind of clicked, 'I should be like this'," says one young girl surveyed in a study by Girlguiding UK and the Mental Health Foundation, that has revealed three leading potential "triggers" for serious mental health problems in girls: premature sexualisation, commercialisation and alcohol misuse.
More generally, the report reveals a loss of childhood innocence and says girls today experience high levels of "stress, anxiety and unhappiness". The study found that premature sexualisation and pressure to grow up too quickly are two "key influences" in the anxiety felt by girls.
"Sexual advances from boys, pressure to wear clothes that make them look too old and magazines and websites directly targeting younger girls to lose weight or consider plastic surgery were identified as taking a particular toll," the report says.
Dr. Andrew McCulloch, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation which worked on the study, said, "Girls and young women are being forced to grow up at an unnatural pace in a society that we, as adults, have created and it's damaging their emotional well-being."
"We are forcing our young people to grow up too quickly and not giving them the spaces and experiences they require to be safe and confident. We are creating a generation under stress."
The study, commissioned by the Girl Guides and the Mental Health Foundation, questioned 350 Girl Guides aged 10 to 14 and includes detailed interviews with teenaged girls from across the country. Two-thirds of the girls surveyed online feel "anger and sadness" at least some of the time and half find those feelings difficult to manage. A quarter are "often worried," while half find their anxiety hard to handle.
Many of the girls said they have friends or family members who have suffered mental health problems. Two-fifths know someone who has self-harmed, a third had a friend who suffered from an eating disorder and almost two in five know someone who had experienced panic attacks. Many feel strongly that self-harm could be within the spectrum of "typical teenage behaviour" and that it was not necessarily symptomatic of a mental health problem. A quarter said they know someone who has taken illegal drugs, while two-fifths have experienced someone drinking too much alcohol.
The girls see supportive families and friendship groups as the "most important factor" in dealing with these problems.
This latest study supports previous research conducted by the Guides that found girls are especially under pressure to look like the celebrities they see in magazines and on television. Two-thirds of the girls admitted they felt worse about themselves when they saw pictures of models in magazines and on TV.
An earlier survey of members of Girlguiding UK found that the role models most often cited by girls between 10 and 25 included the skeletally thin Victoria Beckham, a former Spice Girls singer and wife of football superstar David Beckham, English singer Leona Lewis, Kate Moss, the "supermodel" who pioneered the "heroin chic waif look" in the 1990s, and the singer Amy Winehouse, a crack cocaine addict whose problems with alcohol and self-destructive behaviour have become regular tabloid news since 2007.
44 percent admitted they could name more WAGS (wives and girlfriends of professional footballers) than female politicians. Forty-two percent of the girls surveyed named celebrities as the greatest influence on girls and young women.
"Young girls today face a new generation of pressures that leave too many suffering stress, anxiety and unhappiness," said Chief Guide Liz Burnley. "All of us who care about young women have a part to play in helping them find a way through these conflicting demands to build the confidence they need to be themselves."
Last year, a report by the American Psychological Association (APA) recommended the removal of all 'sexualized' images of women in media, calling them harmful to girls' self-image and healthy development.
Eileen L. Zurbriggen, PhD, chair of the APA task force that ran the study said, "The consequences of the sexualisation of girls in media today are very real and are likely to be a negative influence on girls' healthy development."
"We have ample evidence to conclude that sexualisation has negative effects in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, and healthy sexual development."
[source: July 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com)]
By Hilary White
"When I was 11, I read a teenage magazine for the first time and that is when it kind of clicked, 'I should be like this'," says one young girl surveyed in a study by Girlguiding UK and the Mental Health Foundation, that has revealed three leading potential "triggers" for serious mental health problems in girls: premature sexualisation, commercialisation and alcohol misuse.
More generally, the report reveals a loss of childhood innocence and says girls today experience high levels of "stress, anxiety and unhappiness". The study found that premature sexualisation and pressure to grow up too quickly are two "key influences" in the anxiety felt by girls.
"Sexual advances from boys, pressure to wear clothes that make them look too old and magazines and websites directly targeting younger girls to lose weight or consider plastic surgery were identified as taking a particular toll," the report says.
Dr. Andrew McCulloch, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation which worked on the study, said, "Girls and young women are being forced to grow up at an unnatural pace in a society that we, as adults, have created and it's damaging their emotional well-being."
"We are forcing our young people to grow up too quickly and not giving them the spaces and experiences they require to be safe and confident. We are creating a generation under stress."
The study, commissioned by the Girl Guides and the Mental Health Foundation, questioned 350 Girl Guides aged 10 to 14 and includes detailed interviews with teenaged girls from across the country. Two-thirds of the girls surveyed online feel "anger and sadness" at least some of the time and half find those feelings difficult to manage. A quarter are "often worried," while half find their anxiety hard to handle.
Many of the girls said they have friends or family members who have suffered mental health problems. Two-fifths know someone who has self-harmed, a third had a friend who suffered from an eating disorder and almost two in five know someone who had experienced panic attacks. Many feel strongly that self-harm could be within the spectrum of "typical teenage behaviour" and that it was not necessarily symptomatic of a mental health problem. A quarter said they know someone who has taken illegal drugs, while two-fifths have experienced someone drinking too much alcohol.
The girls see supportive families and friendship groups as the "most important factor" in dealing with these problems.
This latest study supports previous research conducted by the Guides that found girls are especially under pressure to look like the celebrities they see in magazines and on television. Two-thirds of the girls admitted they felt worse about themselves when they saw pictures of models in magazines and on TV.
An earlier survey of members of Girlguiding UK found that the role models most often cited by girls between 10 and 25 included the skeletally thin Victoria Beckham, a former Spice Girls singer and wife of football superstar David Beckham, English singer Leona Lewis, Kate Moss, the "supermodel" who pioneered the "heroin chic waif look" in the 1990s, and the singer Amy Winehouse, a crack cocaine addict whose problems with alcohol and self-destructive behaviour have become regular tabloid news since 2007.
44 percent admitted they could name more WAGS (wives and girlfriends of professional footballers) than female politicians. Forty-two percent of the girls surveyed named celebrities as the greatest influence on girls and young women.
"Young girls today face a new generation of pressures that leave too many suffering stress, anxiety and unhappiness," said Chief Guide Liz Burnley. "All of us who care about young women have a part to play in helping them find a way through these conflicting demands to build the confidence they need to be themselves."
Last year, a report by the American Psychological Association (APA) recommended the removal of all 'sexualized' images of women in media, calling them harmful to girls' self-image and healthy development.
Eileen L. Zurbriggen, PhD, chair of the APA task force that ran the study said, "The consequences of the sexualisation of girls in media today are very real and are likely to be a negative influence on girls' healthy development."
"We have ample evidence to conclude that sexualisation has negative effects in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, and healthy sexual development."
[source: July 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com)]
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Faith In Vain
Liberal "re-thinker" John Shelby Spong, proponent for "a new Christianity for a new world" writes:
"A careful reading of Paul will show that his understanding of Jesus' resurrection is not resuscitation at all but God's raising him into the eternity of God."
–John Shelby Spong
----------
Of course, this would denounce the faith of such liberals like Spong and the diatribes of such false gospels. (1 Corinthians 15). Thank God it is not true!
"And if Christ be not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:14)
"A careful reading of Paul will show that his understanding of Jesus' resurrection is not resuscitation at all but God's raising him into the eternity of God."
–John Shelby Spong
----------
Of course, this would denounce the faith of such liberals like Spong and the diatribes of such false gospels. (1 Corinthians 15). Thank God it is not true!
"And if Christ be not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:14)
Emergent-speak
LTW Research:
Dear friends,
This may be overkill. I chose to send this to you because I thought it would be useful to you in your ministries, and I thought this was a very good example of the language that the emergent/emerging church uses.
http://www.jacobsporch.com/
Click "what we believe" for a dose of emergent-speak. It's not what they say (okay, it =is= what they say but bear with me!) but how they say it and what they don't say.
The worst part is that the meaning of Scripture doesn't lie in its text but in the community. That is why they value their questions above God's answers.
The "head over heels for God" is typically emergent: the inner life here and now always trumps the objective work of Christ in space and time. It cannot be over-emphasized how false this Christless, crossless Christianity is.
It is interesting how the writing style uses simplified spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I would rather say that it's incorrect spelling, grammar, and punctuation. If you don't respect words, you won't respect God's Word, and vice versa. At the end of that road is the inability to think correctly about God.
I'll leave the rest of the shortcomings of "what we believe" and the Website to your own examination.
In Him,
Doc
Dear friends,
This may be overkill. I chose to send this to you because I thought it would be useful to you in your ministries, and I thought this was a very good example of the language that the emergent/emerging church uses.
http://www.jacobsporch.com/
Click "what we believe" for a dose of emergent-speak. It's not what they say (okay, it =is= what they say but bear with me!) but how they say it and what they don't say.
The worst part is that the meaning of Scripture doesn't lie in its text but in the community. That is why they value their questions above God's answers.
The "head over heels for God" is typically emergent: the inner life here and now always trumps the objective work of Christ in space and time. It cannot be over-emphasized how false this Christless, crossless Christianity is.
It is interesting how the writing style uses simplified spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I would rather say that it's incorrect spelling, grammar, and punctuation. If you don't respect words, you won't respect God's Word, and vice versa. At the end of that road is the inability to think correctly about God.
I'll leave the rest of the shortcomings of "what we believe" and the Website to your own examination.
In Him,
Doc
God's Love vs. Zen (by Daniel Mann)
Western culture has become very cozy with selfishness and self-centeredness, even to the point of making them a virtue. We always hear admonitions like “Take care of yourself first,” or “Just tell yourself that you deserve it.” In contrast to our self-absorbed, Western approach to life, Zen Buddhist and psychiatrist Barry Magid writes,
“Zen, on the other hand, is more likely [than psychoanalysis] to directly confront and challenge the old patterns or organizing principles that constitute our self-centeredness. The difficulties inherent in Zen practice (the emotional and physical stress of long hours of sitting), and the conceptual quandaries that arise by having our usual frame of reference radically challenged by the seeming incomprehensibility of a nondualist, nonessentialist perspective as encapsulated in koans, all combine to undermine preexisting modes of organizing and mastering experience.” (Buddhadharma, Winter 2007, 51)
According to Magid, our self-centeredness must be challenged. This is achieved by challenging our basic perceptions of reality—in particular, our deluded dualistic thinking, through which we erroneously perceive a distinction between the observer (us) and what we observe. In this, Zen requires us to take an incredible leap of faith, by denying everything we see and experience, which suggests that there is a real distinction between us and the rest of the world. This leads to a schizoid existence. On the one hand, the Zen Buddhist clothes, eats, and bathes himself; yet on the other hand, he denies the reality of both these needs and his body. However, Magid maintains that this leap is necessary if self-centeredness is to be shattered.
How does Zen break “reality’s” hold on us and, as a result, our self-centeredness? By use of the koan—an unsolvable riddle—which is intended to frustrate our self-centered, logical thinking! Magid explains that the “central part of Zen training” is a matter of “deliberately placing difficulty in the path of the student”:
“One’s self-image and self-importance, along with ones usual modes of knowing, may be threatened or undermined in the face of a seemingly unsolvable koan…optimal response may sometimes take the form of a difficulty that challenges or disrupts old patterns of organization.” (51)
On the one hand, this sounds similar to what our Lord does for us. He disciplines us to uncover our opposition and enmity to Himself and then to conform us into the image of His Son (Deut. 8:2-3; 1 Peter 4:12, 17; Heb. 12:5-12). However, the koan and the philosophy behind it constitute a denial of reason and reality. In contrast to this, Christ takes away the unreal (our rationalizations and denial) to replace it with the real (regret over sin and its antidote). He weans us from self-reliance to the liberty of God-reliance (2 Cor. 1:8-9).
He doesn’t require us to deny our senses but to affirm what we already know in the pit of our gut, and yet deny—that there is something terribly wrong with us and that we stand guilty and shamed before our Creator and Redeemer. The process might hurt, but it doesn’t require us to lobotomize our brains and to deny our experiences. He enlightens us by showing us our sins and then dignifies us by forgiving and cleansing us from them.
I used to depend upon being liked. One day, some of my fellow 12 year-old friends requested I loan them my brother’s bicycle so that their friend would have a way to get home. There was just one catch—my compliant, nine-year-old brother would have to run behind the other bicycles in order to retrieve his own bicycle afterwards. Shamefully, I agreed.
My needs for approval had trumped my conscience. Instead, I had to confess my responsibility and guilt. However, God didn’t require me to believe that my needs and moral failures were merely illusions and to suppress or transcend them. Rather, He satisfied them. By granting me His love and approval, He has enabled me to rise up above the opinions of others.
This has a profound impact upon our understanding of the needs of others. Because God has affirmed and dignified me despite my weaknesses, needs and sins, I can and must affirm others. If I deny large chunks of my experience and believe that through my efforts I have transcended them, I will expect the same of others and will look down on them when they fall short.
God’s love and affirmation is the ultimate answer to self-centeredness. Methadone can replace heroin addiction, but only at a tremendous price. We must be centered on something. Becoming centered upon my Savior has freed me from self-centeredness. I had foolishly loaned the bike at the expense of my brother because I depended upon being liked. However, as I grew in the assurance that God profoundly loved me, I became increasingly free from my need to be loved by others. Freedom from my demanding needs then allowed me to more unselfishly consider how to love others. If we are assured that He provides for us so perfectly, we need not focus so exclusively upon ourselves.
Altruism doesn’t depend upon the eradication of personhood, but rather its affirmation. If I can’t affirm my own personhood, how can I affirm the personhood of others? If I deny my own needs, I must deny that of others. Rather than the denial our needs, it is the assurance of God’s satisfaction of our needs that best counters self-centeredness.
Daniel Mann
challengingthedarkness@yahoo.com
“Zen, on the other hand, is more likely [than psychoanalysis] to directly confront and challenge the old patterns or organizing principles that constitute our self-centeredness. The difficulties inherent in Zen practice (the emotional and physical stress of long hours of sitting), and the conceptual quandaries that arise by having our usual frame of reference radically challenged by the seeming incomprehensibility of a nondualist, nonessentialist perspective as encapsulated in koans, all combine to undermine preexisting modes of organizing and mastering experience.” (Buddhadharma, Winter 2007, 51)
According to Magid, our self-centeredness must be challenged. This is achieved by challenging our basic perceptions of reality—in particular, our deluded dualistic thinking, through which we erroneously perceive a distinction between the observer (us) and what we observe. In this, Zen requires us to take an incredible leap of faith, by denying everything we see and experience, which suggests that there is a real distinction between us and the rest of the world. This leads to a schizoid existence. On the one hand, the Zen Buddhist clothes, eats, and bathes himself; yet on the other hand, he denies the reality of both these needs and his body. However, Magid maintains that this leap is necessary if self-centeredness is to be shattered.
How does Zen break “reality’s” hold on us and, as a result, our self-centeredness? By use of the koan—an unsolvable riddle—which is intended to frustrate our self-centered, logical thinking! Magid explains that the “central part of Zen training” is a matter of “deliberately placing difficulty in the path of the student”:
“One’s self-image and self-importance, along with ones usual modes of knowing, may be threatened or undermined in the face of a seemingly unsolvable koan…optimal response may sometimes take the form of a difficulty that challenges or disrupts old patterns of organization.” (51)
On the one hand, this sounds similar to what our Lord does for us. He disciplines us to uncover our opposition and enmity to Himself and then to conform us into the image of His Son (Deut. 8:2-3; 1 Peter 4:12, 17; Heb. 12:5-12). However, the koan and the philosophy behind it constitute a denial of reason and reality. In contrast to this, Christ takes away the unreal (our rationalizations and denial) to replace it with the real (regret over sin and its antidote). He weans us from self-reliance to the liberty of God-reliance (2 Cor. 1:8-9).
He doesn’t require us to deny our senses but to affirm what we already know in the pit of our gut, and yet deny—that there is something terribly wrong with us and that we stand guilty and shamed before our Creator and Redeemer. The process might hurt, but it doesn’t require us to lobotomize our brains and to deny our experiences. He enlightens us by showing us our sins and then dignifies us by forgiving and cleansing us from them.
I used to depend upon being liked. One day, some of my fellow 12 year-old friends requested I loan them my brother’s bicycle so that their friend would have a way to get home. There was just one catch—my compliant, nine-year-old brother would have to run behind the other bicycles in order to retrieve his own bicycle afterwards. Shamefully, I agreed.
My needs for approval had trumped my conscience. Instead, I had to confess my responsibility and guilt. However, God didn’t require me to believe that my needs and moral failures were merely illusions and to suppress or transcend them. Rather, He satisfied them. By granting me His love and approval, He has enabled me to rise up above the opinions of others.
This has a profound impact upon our understanding of the needs of others. Because God has affirmed and dignified me despite my weaknesses, needs and sins, I can and must affirm others. If I deny large chunks of my experience and believe that through my efforts I have transcended them, I will expect the same of others and will look down on them when they fall short.
God’s love and affirmation is the ultimate answer to self-centeredness. Methadone can replace heroin addiction, but only at a tremendous price. We must be centered on something. Becoming centered upon my Savior has freed me from self-centeredness. I had foolishly loaned the bike at the expense of my brother because I depended upon being liked. However, as I grew in the assurance that God profoundly loved me, I became increasingly free from my need to be loved by others. Freedom from my demanding needs then allowed me to more unselfishly consider how to love others. If we are assured that He provides for us so perfectly, we need not focus so exclusively upon ourselves.
Altruism doesn’t depend upon the eradication of personhood, but rather its affirmation. If I can’t affirm my own personhood, how can I affirm the personhood of others? If I deny my own needs, I must deny that of others. Rather than the denial our needs, it is the assurance of God’s satisfaction of our needs that best counters self-centeredness.
Daniel Mann
challengingthedarkness@yahoo.com
A Supernatural "Great Falling Away" in Churches
Excerpt from email for LTW Research:
Yesterday, I was just looking at some things on the website of the London diocese because of the book by Graham Tomlin quoted by one of the elders in an "evangelical" church [in CA]. I noticed that one of the events is a Catholic ecumenical pilgrimage. Anyway, that is not what is so strange. Look at this London 2012 challenge. They are also working to build a visible kingdom. Roger Oakland wrote that it is obvious that a supernatural power is behind all that is going on in the falling away of the churches and how it also coincides so much with the new age teachings.
http://www.london.anglican.org/London-Challenge
Graham Tomlin: http://www.london.anglican.org/NewsShow_10375
Yesterday, I was just looking at some things on the website of the London diocese because of the book by Graham Tomlin quoted by one of the elders in an "evangelical" church [in CA]. I noticed that one of the events is a Catholic ecumenical pilgrimage. Anyway, that is not what is so strange. Look at this London 2012 challenge. They are also working to build a visible kingdom. Roger Oakland wrote that it is obvious that a supernatural power is behind all that is going on in the falling away of the churches and how it also coincides so much with the new age teachings.
http://www.london.anglican.org/London-Challenge
London Challenge and Revelation 21
The Book of Revelation directs us to the vision of a "holy city, the new Jerusalem" built on the foundation of faith and hope and love. It is central to our conviction in the Diocese of London that the Spirit of Jesus Christ is speaking through the promise and the peril of our time in London's story. We must renew our determination to listen to his voice and play our full part in building the community he intends and in promoting the values of His Kingdom.
The Book of Revelation directs us to the vision of a "holy city, the new Jerusalem" built on the foundation of faith and hope and love. It is central to our conviction in the Diocese of London that the Spirit of Jesus Christ is speaking through the promise and the peril of our time in London's story. We must renew our determination to listen to his voice and play our full part in building the community he intends and in promoting the values of His Kingdom.
Graham Tomlin: http://www.london.anglican.org/NewsShow_10375
Darwin and Hitler (by Daniel Mann)
Ideas are powerful! They silently direct us as if we had a bridal in our mouth. Take Darwin’s idea:
“The weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this has been highly injurious to the race of man…Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.” (The Descent of Man)
Make sense? It’s an idea that hardly seems to represent any danger, right? Well, let’s look at a similar statement:
“If nature does not wish that weaker individuals should mate with the stronger, she wishes even less that a superior race should intermingle with an inferior one; because in such a case all her efforts, throughout hundreds of thousands of years, to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being, may thus be rendered futile.”
This quote is so similar to Darwin’s. Although it introduces the concept of “race,” it is virtually saying the same thing. However, the latter statement came from the pen of Adolph Hitler in Mein Kampf!
Darwinism played an unmistakable supporting role in life and direction of Nazism. Therefore, historian Richard Weikart’s conclusion seems justified:
“Darwinism by itself did not produce the Holocaust, but without Darwinism, especially in its social Darwinist and eugenics permutations, neither Hitler nor his Nazi followers would have had the necessary scientific underpinnings to convince themselves and their collaborators that one of the world’s greatest atrocities was really morally praiseworthy.” (From Darwin to Hitler, All the above quotations are taken from the “Expelled {the movie} Leader’s Guide.”)
Ideas are not only the mortar of society, they are also its building blocks, or perhaps its termites!
Daniel Mann
challengingthedarkness@yahoo.com
“The weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this has been highly injurious to the race of man…Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.” (The Descent of Man)
Make sense? It’s an idea that hardly seems to represent any danger, right? Well, let’s look at a similar statement:
“If nature does not wish that weaker individuals should mate with the stronger, she wishes even less that a superior race should intermingle with an inferior one; because in such a case all her efforts, throughout hundreds of thousands of years, to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being, may thus be rendered futile.”
This quote is so similar to Darwin’s. Although it introduces the concept of “race,” it is virtually saying the same thing. However, the latter statement came from the pen of Adolph Hitler in Mein Kampf!
Darwinism played an unmistakable supporting role in life and direction of Nazism. Therefore, historian Richard Weikart’s conclusion seems justified:
“Darwinism by itself did not produce the Holocaust, but without Darwinism, especially in its social Darwinist and eugenics permutations, neither Hitler nor his Nazi followers would have had the necessary scientific underpinnings to convince themselves and their collaborators that one of the world’s greatest atrocities was really morally praiseworthy.” (From Darwin to Hitler, All the above quotations are taken from the “Expelled {the movie} Leader’s Guide.”)
Ideas are not only the mortar of society, they are also its building blocks, or perhaps its termites!
Daniel Mann
challengingthedarkness@yahoo.com
A Thought on "Inner-World" Christianity
LTW Research:
Dwayna,
Back on the 12th, you posted a quotation I sent you by Graeme Goldworthy cited on The White Horse Inn about reducing Christianity from belief in the historical work of Christ to an emphasis on the
inner life (supposedly "the inward transforming work of the Spirit").
I came across a local church's recorded sermons that illustrate how deceptive a strong inner life can be.
I was listening to one pastor talk about the youth group on a hike on a day off from a mission trip near the Appalachian Trail. The kids grumbled and complained, until they got to a summit where three states converged. It was gorgeous, and on that mountaintop, the youth broke into this song that we sing at our own church:
Lord, prepare me
To be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, bright and true.
And with thanksgiving
I'll be a living
Sanctuary for You.
But in the weeks previous, I had heard the senior pastor from the same church interpret the feeding of the 5,000 in Matthew 14 as a non- supernatural "miracle"--that Jesus started with the five loaves and two fish, but the crowd contributed what they secretly had in their possession so that twelve full baskets were left over.
If you were to judge this church by the zeal and heartfelt worship of the youth and their choice of a song right out of the heart of =contemporary= evangelicalism, you might think that there was something there. But if you judge it not only by its senior pastor's denial of the miraculous in the Lord's earthly life, as well as by this particular church's decades-long history of such denials, you'd have to conclude that whatever is there isn't Christianity.
Truth and love, love and truth--you can't have one without the other in Christianity.
Yours in Him,
Doc
Dwayna,
Back on the 12th, you posted a quotation I sent you by Graeme Goldworthy cited on The White Horse Inn about reducing Christianity from belief in the historical work of Christ to an emphasis on the
inner life (supposedly "the inward transforming work of the Spirit").
I came across a local church's recorded sermons that illustrate how deceptive a strong inner life can be.
I was listening to one pastor talk about the youth group on a hike on a day off from a mission trip near the Appalachian Trail. The kids grumbled and complained, until they got to a summit where three states converged. It was gorgeous, and on that mountaintop, the youth broke into this song that we sing at our own church:
Lord, prepare me
To be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, bright and true.
And with thanksgiving
I'll be a living
Sanctuary for You.
But in the weeks previous, I had heard the senior pastor from the same church interpret the feeding of the 5,000 in Matthew 14 as a non- supernatural "miracle"--that Jesus started with the five loaves and two fish, but the crowd contributed what they secretly had in their possession so that twelve full baskets were left over.
If you were to judge this church by the zeal and heartfelt worship of the youth and their choice of a song right out of the heart of =contemporary= evangelicalism, you might think that there was something there. But if you judge it not only by its senior pastor's denial of the miraculous in the Lord's earthly life, as well as by this particular church's decades-long history of such denials, you'd have to conclude that whatever is there isn't Christianity.
Truth and love, love and truth--you can't have one without the other in Christianity.
Yours in Him,
Doc
Sermon on the Trinity by Walter Martin
Here are the links to the sermon on the Trinity by Walter Martin entitled "Jehovah's Witnesses and the Holy Trinity". I just sent it to James and Anne for the ministry of evangelism in Minneapolis with permission from Walter Martin Ministries for them to make copies and share with the Oneness Pentecostals and cultists on the streets who don't believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit:
http://www.waltermartin.com/audio_clips/trinity.ram
http://www.waltermartin.com/audio_clips/trinity2.ram
http://www.waltermartin.com/audio_clips/trinity.ram
http://www.waltermartin.com/audio_clips/trinity2.ram
The State of the Church (by Daniel Mann)
Writer Michael Spencer, InternetMonk.com, has written perceptively about “The Coming Evangelical Collapse,” citing several reasons for the demise—superficiality, selfishness, ignorance of the faith, and being out-of-touch. However, he cites Evangelicalism’s involvement in the culture wars as the first problem:
Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.
The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith. (Christian Science Monitor)
There is little doubt that we have championed unpopular causes, and, as a result, we are experiencing an alarming increase of hostility towards Evangelicals. Spencer predicts that this is only the beginning:
This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.
Spencer seems to have his finger on the trends affecting the church in the West. However, I think that several adjustments might be helpful:
1. Spencer is certainly right that when we take a stance and can’t defend it, we open ourselves and our cause to ridicule. Likewise, he’s right to suggest that we first have to understand our Gospel before we can do battle using it. However, it would be wrong to forsake the public forum. We have done this in the past, surrendering the universities to the secularists. Instead, we should pursue wisdom and maturity regarding our engagements.
2. Although in some cases “our resources” have been depleted by socio-political involvement, this outcome is not inevitable. Instead, I think a strong case can be made that the more we live out our faith (even in the public arena), the more we are strengthened. Likewise, the athlete isn’t weakened by exercise, but strengthened by it! It’s not a matter of either believing the truth or living out the truth in the various arenas of life. It’s both! Requiring a choice between the two is like having to choose between prayer and Bible study. While believing the truth directs our lives in obedience to the truth, our lives of obedience nurture, confirm and encourage our faith. For instance, when we help someone, the satisfaction we derive from this encourages us that our faith is correct. However, when we fail to put our faith to work, it begins to atrophy (Heb. 5: 14).
3. Perhaps the church has also been remiss in regards to sound Gospel-centered strategy. Obedience to the Gospel along with proclamation of the Gospel must precede political power plays. We must learn to articulate our positions in the language of the university. Otherwise, our initiatives will easily be misconstrued.
4. We are Biblically mandated speak out against injustice (Isaiah 1:16-17).
5. Failing to speak up in matters like the Holocaust, abortion, or even gay adoption would amount to sin, as James wrote: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins” (James 4:17). This principle also pertains to our responsibility to our nation (Jer. 29:6-7).
6. Simply because the secular world hates and persecutes us for taking a stand shouldn’t be used as an argument against speaking out against sin (John 15:18-20). The Prophets and Apostles were martyred for doing so, but it doesn’t reflect any indiscretion on their part.
7. If we fail to take a stand, we are guilty before God (Ezekiel 33:6). In addition to this, the church would be discredited among future generations in the same way that the church’s inadequate response discredited it in regards to Segregation and the Holocaust. Furthermore, we—the USA—discredit ourselves among the Muslims and other Third World peoples because we, regarded around the world as a very “Christian” nation, have failed to measurably impact social ills like drugs, violence and sex. In fact, the USA is guilty of corrupting the rest of the world with a never-ending barrage of American pornographic films.
8. Acquiescence is not a possibility. Although many Evangelicals are calling for the church to abandon the “culture wars,” claiming that that battle has been lost, this no longer seems to be a viable option. Here are just a few cultural “flashpoints,” as current as today’s headlines, that we may consider. Recently, a lawsuit was brought against a Bible publisher because of the “homophobic” verses in the Bible. In Canada, a court forbade a pastor to ever preach on the subject of homosexuality. Finally, our present administration has decided to rescind the conscience-protection provision, which guarantees that health workers cannot be forced to provide services that violate their consciences—for instance, participating in abortions.
Socio-political isolationism is not a Biblical option. Instead, the questions should be "How?...When?...What?”
Daniel Mann
challengingthedarkness@yahoo.com
Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.
The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith. (Christian Science Monitor)
There is little doubt that we have championed unpopular causes, and, as a result, we are experiencing an alarming increase of hostility towards Evangelicals. Spencer predicts that this is only the beginning:
This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.
Spencer seems to have his finger on the trends affecting the church in the West. However, I think that several adjustments might be helpful:
1. Spencer is certainly right that when we take a stance and can’t defend it, we open ourselves and our cause to ridicule. Likewise, he’s right to suggest that we first have to understand our Gospel before we can do battle using it. However, it would be wrong to forsake the public forum. We have done this in the past, surrendering the universities to the secularists. Instead, we should pursue wisdom and maturity regarding our engagements.
2. Although in some cases “our resources” have been depleted by socio-political involvement, this outcome is not inevitable. Instead, I think a strong case can be made that the more we live out our faith (even in the public arena), the more we are strengthened. Likewise, the athlete isn’t weakened by exercise, but strengthened by it! It’s not a matter of either believing the truth or living out the truth in the various arenas of life. It’s both! Requiring a choice between the two is like having to choose between prayer and Bible study. While believing the truth directs our lives in obedience to the truth, our lives of obedience nurture, confirm and encourage our faith. For instance, when we help someone, the satisfaction we derive from this encourages us that our faith is correct. However, when we fail to put our faith to work, it begins to atrophy (Heb. 5: 14).
3. Perhaps the church has also been remiss in regards to sound Gospel-centered strategy. Obedience to the Gospel along with proclamation of the Gospel must precede political power plays. We must learn to articulate our positions in the language of the university. Otherwise, our initiatives will easily be misconstrued.
4. We are Biblically mandated speak out against injustice (Isaiah 1:16-17).
5. Failing to speak up in matters like the Holocaust, abortion, or even gay adoption would amount to sin, as James wrote: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins” (James 4:17). This principle also pertains to our responsibility to our nation (Jer. 29:6-7).
6. Simply because the secular world hates and persecutes us for taking a stand shouldn’t be used as an argument against speaking out against sin (John 15:18-20). The Prophets and Apostles were martyred for doing so, but it doesn’t reflect any indiscretion on their part.
7. If we fail to take a stand, we are guilty before God (Ezekiel 33:6). In addition to this, the church would be discredited among future generations in the same way that the church’s inadequate response discredited it in regards to Segregation and the Holocaust. Furthermore, we—the USA—discredit ourselves among the Muslims and other Third World peoples because we, regarded around the world as a very “Christian” nation, have failed to measurably impact social ills like drugs, violence and sex. In fact, the USA is guilty of corrupting the rest of the world with a never-ending barrage of American pornographic films.
8. Acquiescence is not a possibility. Although many Evangelicals are calling for the church to abandon the “culture wars,” claiming that that battle has been lost, this no longer seems to be a viable option. Here are just a few cultural “flashpoints,” as current as today’s headlines, that we may consider. Recently, a lawsuit was brought against a Bible publisher because of the “homophobic” verses in the Bible. In Canada, a court forbade a pastor to ever preach on the subject of homosexuality. Finally, our present administration has decided to rescind the conscience-protection provision, which guarantees that health workers cannot be forced to provide services that violate their consciences—for instance, participating in abortions.
Socio-political isolationism is not a Biblical option. Instead, the questions should be "How?...When?...What?”
Daniel Mann
challengingthedarkness@yahoo.com
Monday, March 23, 2009
The Bible Still Trustworthy (by Daniel Mann)
The Bible is a supernatural book. Here’s one indication of this—the Bible can’t be properly understood without the assistance of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 2:14)! An atheistic website provides a good example:
“From Genesis to Revelation prominent individuals abound. But are they really worthy of respect and admiration? Was their behavior such that you would want to awaken your children on Sunday morning to read about their exploits?”
The article proceeds to line up, like bowling pins to be bowled down, all the misdeeds about these “prominent individuals” without understanding that it’s our unrighteousness that shows off God’s righteousness. For instance, the atheist writes that Abraham…
“Told his wife to lie, debauched Hagar, his maidservant, sent his maidservant and her child into the wilderness, lied, and married his half-sister.”
This is supposed to prove that the Bible is utterly unworthy of any serious consideration. However, the author misses the real dirt about Abraham—that he pimped off Sarah on several occasions! But this atheist misses far more—the grace of God for sinners like us! The article concludes, “Anyone approaching the Bible for goodness, decency, role models, and morality, enters at his own peril.” This, of course, is true, but they fail to grasp that Christ is the actual role model and not the wretches He stoops to save.
Orthodox Judaism fares little better, and surprisingly has a lot in common with atheism. Both think that the Bible is ultimately about human role models. In the Jewish Talmud, Abraham is reinterpreted and emerges sinless. Isaac and Jacob also come out without a wrinkle. Recently, an Orthodox Jew informed me that I was misinformed about King David and his “sin” with Bathsheba. Uriah, her husband, had already divorced her. Besides, he was an evil man and David had done righteously by plotting Uriah’s death. No need for a Savior in these lives!
We humans like to exalt our forefathers and, by doing so, we exalt ourselves. The Talmud is all too human in this regard. As a new Christian, this too was my tendency. I was deeply disturbed to read about the blemishes of Abraham and David. These seemed to detract from my new-found religion. However, as God continued to reveal my own unworthiness along with His forgiveness, I learned to delight in the incredible love and patience He demonstrated to His Old Testament “saints.” But my eyes had first to be opened!
It is perhaps one of the great ironies—the more the skeptic battles against the Faith, the more he inevitably demonstrates its veracity.
“From Genesis to Revelation prominent individuals abound. But are they really worthy of respect and admiration? Was their behavior such that you would want to awaken your children on Sunday morning to read about their exploits?”
The article proceeds to line up, like bowling pins to be bowled down, all the misdeeds about these “prominent individuals” without understanding that it’s our unrighteousness that shows off God’s righteousness. For instance, the atheist writes that Abraham…
“Told his wife to lie, debauched Hagar, his maidservant, sent his maidservant and her child into the wilderness, lied, and married his half-sister.”
This is supposed to prove that the Bible is utterly unworthy of any serious consideration. However, the author misses the real dirt about Abraham—that he pimped off Sarah on several occasions! But this atheist misses far more—the grace of God for sinners like us! The article concludes, “Anyone approaching the Bible for goodness, decency, role models, and morality, enters at his own peril.” This, of course, is true, but they fail to grasp that Christ is the actual role model and not the wretches He stoops to save.
Orthodox Judaism fares little better, and surprisingly has a lot in common with atheism. Both think that the Bible is ultimately about human role models. In the Jewish Talmud, Abraham is reinterpreted and emerges sinless. Isaac and Jacob also come out without a wrinkle. Recently, an Orthodox Jew informed me that I was misinformed about King David and his “sin” with Bathsheba. Uriah, her husband, had already divorced her. Besides, he was an evil man and David had done righteously by plotting Uriah’s death. No need for a Savior in these lives!
We humans like to exalt our forefathers and, by doing so, we exalt ourselves. The Talmud is all too human in this regard. As a new Christian, this too was my tendency. I was deeply disturbed to read about the blemishes of Abraham and David. These seemed to detract from my new-found religion. However, as God continued to reveal my own unworthiness along with His forgiveness, I learned to delight in the incredible love and patience He demonstrated to His Old Testament “saints.” But my eyes had first to be opened!
It is perhaps one of the great ironies—the more the skeptic battles against the Faith, the more he inevitably demonstrates its veracity.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Testimonial
I am not posting this to bring attention to myself but to encourage others to 1) make the most of their lives for the sake of the Gospel in the thrill of telling others about Jesus; 2) to encourage leaders and team members in our LTW street ministry locations of apologetics that their labor is not in vain. Here is a very encouraging letter I received by email a few days ago, of which I just received permission to post anonymously.
Dear Dwayna,
...I stumbled across your blog posts from March 2008 containing your thoughts about godly relationships and about being single. I browsed through just a tiny fraction of your many blog posts and also visited the LTW website, and I was just so encouraged by all that God is doing through you. I'm a senior at USC in Los Angeles and I know how it feels to have a burden for the lost as I walk through Hollywood and Santa Monica and other parts of LA, or even just every day on campus as I go to my classes. So to read about the ministries in West Hollywood and Venice fills me with so much joy. Sometimes I feel so small, thinking about how God could possibly reach out to these people, but when I read your story I am so encouraged. I appreciate very much the wisdom you share in your blog entry about how men should lead the relationship, particularly your comparison of men in California to those in New York. To hear it from a woman's perspective...it is something that I will take to heart as I look for a wife. It resonates with me since I've spent my whole life in Southern California and also because I'm Korean (many Asian men tend to be passive). I am learning more and more about what it means to be a man of God through the likes of John Piper (Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood) and Mark Driscoll (recently preached a sermon series through Song of Songs).
I serve at my father's church (he is a pastor) in Buena Park, and because our English-language ministry is so small (which I lead), sometimes I feel very sad. But when I read about LTW, it brings me much joy that God is working mightily in Southern California and across the US. I know you are extremely busy, so I don't expect a response and I only hope that you get a chance to read this. Thank you so much for your encouragement. God is so good.
Soli Deo Gloria,
***
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
