Author: Pilgrim

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Just like biblically illiterate Christians who sit at the feet of TBN, Catholics aren’t immune to money-making schemes either.

We have seen that Catholics believe just about any superstition handed down by their Church, but mix that with a money-making scheme and some of them are ripe for the picking. (And no, I’m not talking about Indulgences).

Some slick entrepreneurs have combined two of Catholicism’s best schemes–statue adoration and prayers to dead people–to dupe unsuspecting members out of their money and to further their dependence upon an organization that teaches another gospel.

Here’s the scheme: If you can’t sell your house, buy a St Joesph statue and bury it (upside down) in your yard. Then pray to the dead guy (also known as necromancy which is forbidden by the Bible) and then viola! Your house should sell like hotcakes!

You too can get your “Underground Real Estate Agent Kit” here. The website provides the following historical background on this scheme:

The solemn tradition of burying St. Joseph in the earth began hundreds of years ago in Europe. During those times, an order of nuns prayed to St. Joseph (the patron saint of the family and household needs) when they needed more lands for convents. The Sisters were encouraged to bury their St. Joseph medals in the ground.

The medals evolved into statues, culminaing [sic] with the complete “Underground Real Estate Agent” Kit currently available. Today, thousands of homesellers and real estate agents nationwide continue this successful tradition; they are looking for a little divine intervention.

The St. Joseph Statue “The Underground Real Estate Agent” Kit was developed to assist you in continuing this tradition. The kit contains everything thing you need to successfully bury your own St. Joseph Statue. Be it fact or be it fiction, it’s worked more than once.

“The sisters were encouraged to bury their St. Joseph medals in the ground.” By who? I hate to sound like a broken record, but please, show me chapter and verse where this stuff is supported.

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Quotes (109)

piper-pic.jpg Let us not trifle with God or trivialize His love. We will never stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness of our sin and the justice of His wrath against us. But when, by grace, we waken to our unworthiness, then we may look at the suffering and death of Christ and say, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

– John Piper

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Movie review: Amazing Grace.

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I just got to see the movie Amazing Grace. It was very well done and the acting was compelling. (There are several instances in which the “N-word” and “bloody” is used. The words “hell” and “damn” are also used but not in their Biblical context).

While watching the movie I couldn’t help but be constantly reminded of the parallels between the abolition movement and the pro-life movement. The same tired excuses used to continue in the sale of humans back then are similar to the same tired excuses used to continue in the slaughter of humans today. And both of them were done for money.

I’m interested in hearing from anyone else who has seen the movie and came away with the same haunting realization.

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Quotes (108)

john-macarthur.jpg Worldliness is rarely even mentioned today, much less identified for what it is. The world itself is beginning to sound quaint. Worldliness is the sin of allowing one’s appetites, ambitions, or conduct to be fashioned according to earthly values. . . . Yet today we have the extraordinary spectacle of church programs designed explicitly to cater to fleshly desire, sensual appetites, and human pride–“the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life.”

– John MacArthur

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What Mormonism really teaches about the Bible.

bible.jpg In response to a question by Dan, I’ve decided to post the following comments from Mormons on what they think of the Bible:

We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. Joseph Smith, Pearl of Great Price, Page 60

 

I believe the Bible as it read when it came from the pen of the original writers. Ignorant translators, careless transcribers, or designing and corrupt priests have committed many errors. Joseph Smith, History of the Church , Volume 6, Page 57

 

 

The scriptures are a mixture of very strange doctrines to the Christian world, who are blindly led by the blind. Joseph Smith, History of the Church , Volume 6, Page 478

 

It was apparent that many important points touching the salvation of men, had been taken from the Bible, or lost before it was compiled. Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Page 10

 

This congregation heard brother O. Pratt scan the validity of the Bible, and I thought by the time he got through, that you would scarcely think a Bible worth picking up and carrying home, should you find one in the streets. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 3, Page 116

 

The Bible is not a sufficient guide; it is only the history of the people who lived 1800 years ago. Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, Volume 2, Page 75

 

The Bible has been robbed of its plainness; many sacred books having been lost, others rejected by the Romish Church, and what few we have left, were copied and re-copied so many times, that it is admitted that almost every verse has been corrupted and mutilated to that degree that scarcely any two of them read alike. Orson Pratt, The Seer, Page 213

 

Latter-day Saints and Muslims acknowledge that writings in the Bible, while inspired and truthful, underwent some changes as they passed through the hands of careless scribes and translators and conniving priests. David Stewart, A Message of Friendship: Muslims and Latter-day Saints, Page 4

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Happy New Year . . . and another false prophet is exposed.

Happy New Year . . . not so much for Pat Robertson, though.

Now that 2007 has passed, so has Pat Robertson’s credibility–if he’s even had any left after endorsing a pro-homosexual, pro-abortion candidate for president (see this post).

When he’s not endorsing presidential candidates that he has no business endorsing, he’s madly uttering false prophecies like a pre-1975 Jehovah’s Witness! Watch Pat Robertson in 2006 make his prophecies for 2007 (that failed to come to pass) in the video on this link.

Here’s some of the exchange from this video between Robertson and his co-host on the 700 Club:

Pat Robertson: “I have a relatively good track record, sometimes I’ve missed but–”

Terry Meeuwsen: [Interrupts] And without doubt every year as you seek God, I guess this is His promise to all of us, but as you go away and seek Him for the coming year God shows you some amazing things.”

No Terry, he has uttered presumptuously in the name of God things that have not come to pass. According to Deuteronomy 18:20-22 this means he’s met the criteria of a false prophet. He’s admitted to being a false prophet and you have glossed over that.

If I expose Mormonism for their false prophecies and Jehovah’s Witnesses for their false prophecies, then I would be a dishonest hypocrite to ignore or give a pass to Pat Robertson for his false prophecies!

In the above linked video he announced that in 2007:

It would be “a year of extraordinary miracles.“

It’s going to “seem to the people like Heaven has come down to earth.”

“There will be some very serious terrorist attacks.”

“There’s a possibility that–not a possibility, a definite certainty that chaos is going to rule.”

“It’s going to happen, and I’m not saying necessarily nuclear, the Lord didn’t say nuclear, but I do believe it will be something like that. That’ll be mass killing, possibility millions of people, major cities injured.”

“We should expect miracles beyond our wildest fantasies in the first six months, and after, then chaotic.”

Read the Scripture for yourself Terry:

But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. You may say in your heart, “How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?” When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 18:20-22

For additional, check out this article.

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Quotes (107)

piper-pic.jpg This is the meaning of the word “propitiation” in . . . Romans 3:25. It refers to the removal of God’s wrath by providing a substitute. The substitute is provided by God Himself. The substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the wrath; He adsorbs it and diverts it from us to Himself. God’s wrath is just, and it was spent, not withdrawn.

– John Piper

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TV show themed Bible studies.

When the pure Word of God just won’t due in your busy entertainment-driven life.

mayberry.jpgThe Way Back to Mayberry

mayberry-study.jpgMayberry

gilligans-island.jpgGilligan’s Island

lucy-show.jpgI Love Lucy

beverly-hillbillies.jpgThe Beverly Hillbillies

bonanza.jpg Bonanza

dick-vandyke.jpgDick VanDyke

superman.gifSuperman

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 2 Timothy 4:3-4

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Quotes (106)

john-macarthur.jpg If church history teaches us anything, it teaches us that the most devastating assaults on the faith have always begun as subtle errors arising from inside the body itself. Living in an unstable age, the church cannot afford to be vacillating. We minister to people desperate for answers, and we cannot soft-pedal the truth or extenuate the gospel. If we make friends with the world, we set ourselves at enmity with God. If we trust worldly devices, we automatically relinquish the power of the Holy Spirit.

– John MacArthur

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Quotes (105)

martin-lloyd-jones.jpg Our Lord attracted sinners because He was different. They drew near to Him because they felt that there was something different about Him. . . . And the world always expects us to be different. This idea that you are going to win people to the Christian faith by showing them that after all you are remarkably like them, is theologically and psychologically a profound blunder.

– Martin Lloyd-Jones

1899 – 1981

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The Pope’s exorcist squads to wage war on Satan.

ghostbusters-1.jpg The Pope will unleash his exorcist squads to wage against Satan! Read the short article by clicking here. Of course, the Vatican is now denying this.

One of my favorite quotes fromt he article:
He said the Pope wants to restore a prayer seen as protection against evil that was traditionally recited at the end of Catholic Masses. The prayer, to St Michael the Archangel, was dropped in the 1960s by Pope John XXIII.”The prayer is useful not only for priests but also for lay people in helping to fight demons,” he said.

They’re still so steeped in superstition thinking reciting a certain prayer protects against evil. And since when did Michael the Archangel become a Saint?


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Mormon distributor “Deseret Book” now selling Joel Osteen’s “Become a Better You.”

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How bad can Joel Osteen’s watered-down, candy-coated, version of the gospel be? So bad that it’s being sold to Mormons by Mormons!

Joel Osteen’s “gospel” is so far from biblical orthodox Christianity that the Mormon distributor Deseret Books feels Become a Better You is safe enough to sell to Mormons.

Congratulations Joel: You have successfully perverted the gospel so much that it’s now palatable to Mormons.

Here’s the link.


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Quotes (104)

john-macarthur.jpg Some church leaders evidently think the four priorities of the early church–the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42)–make a lame agenda for the church in this day and age. Churches are allowing drama, music, recreation, entertainment, self-help programs, and similar enterprises to eclipse traditional Sunday worship and fellowship. In fact, everything seems to be in fashion in the church today except biblical preaching. The new pragmatism sees preaching–particularly expository preaching–as passé.

– John MacArthur

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Quotes (103)

piper-pic.jpg Therefore sin is not small, because it is not against a small Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted. The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love him is not trivial–it is treason. It defames God and destroys human happiness.

– John Piper

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Paul Washer vs Joel Osteen.

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Here’s a treat that you are sure to enjoy. Listen to this (9:30) audio clip Paul Washer vs Joel Osteen and see if you can spot a difference in their theologies. Thanks to Way of the Master Radio (WOTM) for putting this audio together (and my wife for finding it).

Just to whet your whistle, I’ve included my own example below:

God is preparing you for greater things. He’s going to take you further than you thought possible, so don’t be surprised when He asks you to think better of yourself and to act accordingly. – Joel Osteen

I’m not troubled in my heart about your self esteem. I’m not troubled in my heart about whether or not you feel good about yourself; whether life is turning out the way you wanted it to turn out, or whether or not your checkbook is balanced. There’s only one thing that gave me a sleepless night. There’s only one thing that troubled me all throughout the morning, and that is this: Within a hundred years a great majority of people in this building will possibly be in hell. – Paul Washer

Click here for a John MacArthur vs Joel Osteen video comparison, and here for a John MacArthur, Joel Osteen, Billy Graham, and Catholic Priest video comparison.

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Which is your preferred Bible translation?

bibles-stack.jpg Back in October I asked the question “What is your favorite Bible translation and why?” (See the post and comments by clicking here). With the increase in readership since then, I’d like to revisit the question. I’ve also added an audio clip from the Albert Mohler Program on the topic of which translation is best. Just click here to listen to the 26-minute discussion.

Additionally, I never divulged my preferred translation. So what better time than now? I prefer the New American Standard Bible (and use it for those posts in my Sola Scriptura category and anytime I quote the Bible on this blog unless otherwise noted). I also have in my library the ESV, KJV, NKJV, NIV, RSV, NCV, and The Message (just for laughs). I do all my studying and work from the NASB and prefer it.