Author: Pilgrim

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A comparison between John MacArthur, a Catholic Priest, Joel Osteen and Billy Graham.

In this post you will see videos from three prominent men of the Christian faith and one Catholic. Each one is interviewed by Larry King and each one is given an incredible opportunity to share the true Gospel of Jesus Christ with millions of viewers; an opportunity of the like that the Apostle Paul never had.

I present the following short video clips for your examination. Please view each and every one of them before coming to a conclusion. When you’re done, I’d like to hear from you.

Of these four men (preferences and preconceived notions aside), which one best presented the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and which one would you rather sit under as your pastor?

JOHN MACARTHUR

Part One

Part Two

CATHOLIC PRIEST, MICHAEL MANNING

Part One

Part Two

JOEL OSTEEN

Part One

Part Two

BILLY GRAHAM

Part One

Part Two

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Mike Murdock and the three magic genie “prayers.”

I saw something recently that I wanted to share. I was out of town and came across TBN and another TBN-like “Christian” channel called Inspiration on the TV in the hotel. I found myself mesmerized, switching back and forth between the two. My wife asked why I was bothering watching this, but it was like watching a train wreck. You don’t want to look, but you can’t help it.

On this particular channel they were having a Camp Meeting Telethon (a fund-raiser . . . imagine that!) and even TD Jakes was pimping for dollars. Then came Mike Murdock. What this purveyor of the prosperity gospel said caused me to reach for my pad and pen to take note.

Mr. Murdock told the audience (and those watching from home) that he prayed for three blessing for us. (Gee, thanks for caring so much about us, Mike). They sounded more like magic genie wishes to me. Are you ready for this?

1). That every blessing he gets you get too. He called this the Prayer of Boaz.

2). That you can own your home debt free. Not just any old small home but a huge mansion of a home. During this same broadcast he boasted about how big his home was.

3). That God will put people in your lives that you can “get something from.” Wow, using people for our benefit has never felt so spiritual. But doesn’t the Bible warn against this?

With all this garbage that spewed out of his mouth, the “audience” just clapped and applauded and nodded in approval. I grieve for them. They are so deceived because they are so ignorant of the Scriptures.

FourPointer recently posted an article on Mr. Murdock. You can see it here.

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Quotes (57)

ryle.jpg   A watch that does not keep time is as useless as a religion without Christ. But don’t let me be misunderstood. It is not the mere knowing of Christ’s name that I mean, it is the knowing of His mercy, grace, and power, the knowing of Him not by the hearing of the ear, but by the experience of your hearts.

– J.C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

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Apparently you can expect “City Church” to be so much like the world that you can’ tell them apart.

There are so many things wrong about this video that I’m unable to determine which is the worst affront to the Christian faith, but here’s a list of the seven things that made me sick to my stomach. 

1). Carl’s acting fit for a VJ on MTV.

2) Carl’s shameless plug that City Church is so cool that if you come you might get a wife as hot as the pastor’s.

3). Carl’s agreement that most of the time church “sucks.” 

4). Carl listing the attributes of pastor Kent: He’s good looking, he can play ball, and his wife is way too hot for him to have. (Is there something missing from that list of what people should look for in a shepherd)? 

5). Carl’s claim that if you come to this church a miracle could happen and that miracle is that you too can find a [hot] wife like pastor Kent’s.

6). Carl ending his drivel with “Peace in the Middle East.”

7) Carl’s lowcut Rico Suave shirt.

Perhaps the one thing that nauseates me the most about this is how shameless their pandering to the world is. They stop just shy of getting on their kness and begging people to like them. “Hey, we’re as cool and hip as you, we don’t suck like those churches that believe in holiness and stuff, we’re so much like the world that you can’t tell us apart from the world. Now will you come to our church?“ 

HT: Christian Research Network and Slice of Laodicea

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Another relevant church. Another cloned theme.

Have you ever notived how all these cool, hip, and oh so relevant churches mimic each other? They’re like clones! Well, Crosspoint Community Church has decided to copy the “All In” gambling theme.

Readers of this blog will recall that this has already been done by another church as reported in this post. And at least that church had an Elvis impersonator.

I have two questions: I must have missed the memo, but when did gambling become acceptable? And when did it become acceptable to glorify a sin for the expressed purpose of entertaining attracting the bored masses?

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The top 5 Brigham Young teachings that Mormons desperately try to conceal from you.

Defending Contending presents the top five teachings from Mormon “prophet” Brigham Young that Mormons desperately try to conceal from you and even their own members:

#5.) Polygamy: “The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy.” (Journal of Discourse, Volume 11, Page 269, 1866)

#4.) Adam is God: “Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and sinner! When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is MICHAEL, the archangel, the ANCIENT OF DAYS! About whom holy men have written and spoken—HE is our FATHER and our GOD, and the only God with whom WE have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later.” (Journal of Discourse, Volume 1, Page 50, 1852, and The Millennial Star, Volume 15, Page 769)

#3.) Men on the moon and sun: “Who can tell us of the inhabitants of this little planet that shines of an evening, called the moon? When we view its face we may see what is termed “the man in the moon,” and what some philosophers declare are the shadows of mountains. But these sayings are very vague, and amount to nothing; and when you inquire about the inhabitants of that sphere you find that the most learned are as ignorant in regard to them as the most ignorant of their fellows. So it is with regard to the inhabitants of the sun. Do you think it is inhabited? I rather think it is. Do you think there is any life there? No question of it; it was not made in vain.” (Journal of Discourses,Volume 13, Page 271, 1870)

#2.) Blood Atonement: “Now take a person in this congregation who has knowledge with regard to being saved in the kingdom . . . and suppose that he is overtaken in a gross fault, that he has committed a sin that he knows will deprive him of that exaltation which he desires, and he cannot attain to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows that by having his blood shed he will atone for that sin, and be saved and exalted with the Gods, is there a man or woman in this house but what would say, “shed my blood that I may be saved and exalted with the Gods?” All mankind love themselves, and let these principles be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have his blood shed. That would be loving themselves, even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers or sisters likewise, when they have committed a sin that cannot be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood?” (Journal of Discourse, Volume 4, Page 219, 1857)

#1.) The Black Race is Cursed: “You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable, and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind. . . . Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin.” (Journal of Discourses, Volume 7, Page 291, 1859)

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I will commence by saying to the Latter-day Saints and to all the inhabitants of the earth that I am responsible for the doctrine I teach; but I am not responsible for the obedience of the people to that doctrine. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 13, Page 1)

I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call Scripture. Let me have the privilege of correcting a sermon, and it is as good Scripture as they deserve. The people have the oracles of God continually. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 13, Page 95)

I am here to give this people, called Latter-day Saints, counsel to direct them in the path of life . . . . If there is an elder here, or any member of this Church, called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who can bring up the first idea, the first sentence that I have delivered to the people as counsel that is wrong, I really wish they would do it; but they cannot do it, for the simple reason that I have never given counsel that is wrong; that is the reason. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 16, Page 161)


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Book review: K.P. Yohannan’s book Revolution in World Missions.

I recently finished reading K.P. Yohannan’s book Revolution in World Missions (1.5 million copies in print). I have to admit that, although I had seen in numerous times before, I had no intentions of reading it. But after my wife kept telling me about it as she read it, I picked it up when she was done and was very glad that I did.

This is a fantastic book, easy to read, and a page turner. Yohannan speaks of recent drastic changes in World Missions in light of today’s political and social climate, and he pulls no punches when it comes to the state of the Western Church. He steps on lots of toes in his examination of our comfortable Christianity in light of those truly suffering for the sake of Christ. And best of all, you can order this book absolutely free from the Gospel For Asia website.

Here’s an excerpt from the forward of the book by David and Karen Mains:
“. . . Those evangelists traveling into the unreached villages of Asia have more heart, more fervor, more passion to spread the Gospel of Christ than most of us who are surrounded by the comforts and conveniences of our Western world. We know because we have seen them and talked with them, and they have put us to shame.”

Not a book for the satisfied with the status-quo, don’t-rock-the-boat, nominal professing Christians, but definitely a book for those who have a heart for God, a heart for the spreading of the Gospel, and a heart for their neighbor… even if that neighbor is on the other side of the world.

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Sola Scriptura (22)

 

 

bible-page.jpg But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our wellbeing fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.

– The Prophet Isaiah

Isaiah 53:5-7

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Priorities completely out of whack.

I know I’ll take a lot of heat for this one, but perhaps the young evangelicals in this video should be spending more time evangelizing the lost than worrying about the environment.

Here’s three reasons why:

1. Christians were never commanded to save the environment of the planet; we were commanded to save the people of the planet. (Matthew 28:18-20).

2. We know how it all ends. God showed us a glimpse in the book of Revelation. Your time would be much better spent on sharing the Gospel with those perishing (see number 1).

3. The human soul is more valuable to God than a forest. (No one burning forever in Hell is going to care how many spotted owls you saved).

Professing to be wise they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures . . . For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…

Romans 1:22-25


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Quotes (53)

yahannan.jpg   A friend in Dallas recently pointed out a new church building that cost $74 million. While this thought was still exploding in my mind, he pointed out another $7 million church building going up less than a minute away. These extravagant buildings are insanity from a Two-Thirds World perspective. The $74 million spent on one new building in the United States could build more than 7,000 average size churches in India. The same $74 million would be enough to guarantee the evangelization of a whole state–or even some of the smaller countries of Asia. . . .  It amazed me, though, that these buildings had been constructed to worship Jesus, who said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20).

– K.P. Yohannan

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Quotes (52)

yahannan.jpg
I was constantly aware of how large–and overweight–most Americans seemed to be. Americans need big cars, big homes and large furniture, because they are big people. I was amazed at how important eating, drinking, smoking and even drug use were in the Western lifestyle. Even among Christians, food was a major part of fellowship events. . . . Often when I spoke at a church, the people would appear moved as I told of the suffering and needs of the native evangelists. They usually took an offering and presented me with a check for what seemed like a great amount of money. Then with their usual hospitality, they invited me to eat with the leaders following the meeting. To my horror, the food and “fellowship” frequently cost more than the money they had just given to missions.

– K.P. Yohannan