Author: Pilgrim

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Sermon of the week: “Grace Applied – Irresistible Grace” by Brian Borgman.

Brian Borgman

Your sermon of the week is Grace Applied – Irresistible Grace by Brian Borgman from his thirteen-part series on the Doctrines of Grace entitled Introduction to the Reformed Faith.  Look for the remaining three parts over the next few weeks.


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Creepy . . . just creepy.

This video is highly offensive to pirates (and all five of your senses).

Satan is a quadriplegic?

God wants me to be a sunbeam?

Did they kill that baby bird to make their point?

Words escape me.

No trip down “Bad Theology Lane” would be complete without Tillie the Bible Clown and Super Adrian.

Wait, doesn’t this video contradict Tille the Bible Clown’s superhero theology?

And finally, imagine how silly it would be if a worship band performed while dressed as clowns. Imagine no more!


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Quotes (700)

voddie-baucham So many of our children have little idea what they believe or why they believe it. Couple this with the fact that they are fallen human beings whose natural bent is to sin, and it is not difficult to see their dilemma. Failing to catechize our children is tantamount to surrendering to the culture. . . . Failing to catechize our children only makes it that much easier for the Secular Humanism with which they are constantly bombarded in school, on television, and through friends, neighbors, and coaches to take root and become the guiding principle by which they live.

– Voddie Baucham

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Vision Forum’s Doug Phillips on Avatar.

I’m sure this will upset the applecart of those who see no problem with having one foot in the church and the other foot in the world (namely its entertainment), but for anyone who plans on seeing the film Avatar, below is some food for thought from Doug Phillips. And for those who have seen it, here’s what you’ve exposed yourself (and possibly your family) to:


Twelve Things I learned From Avatar: A Worldview Review of the Top Film of 2010

There is so much that could be said about James Cameron’s riveting and technologically advanced blockbuster, Avatar, but I thought it would be helpful to very simply distill some of the most important messages I learned from this film which is now the highest grossing film in all of history, and which will likely be the most popular film of 2010. Below are the headlines from a forthcoming review of the film:

  1. We can experience liberty when our spirits possess alien bodies.
  2. Business men are evil because they rape the earth for profit.
  3. It is noble to be a savage.
  4. The earth is our mother.
  5. God is female.
  6. Animals are our brothers.
  7. In noble cultures women are the spiritual leaders.
  8. Nudity is freedom.
  9. Heroes have foul mouths.
  10. Shamanism and demonic possession is a means for healing.
  11. Enlightened cultures are spiritually unified with animals and plants.
  12. Men are born-again as they commune with the earth.

Bonus Lessons From Hollywood:

  1. Pantheism is the religion of the Hollywood elite.
  2. Darwinism, with its emphasis on evolution as the defining process for understanding the universe, is at the heart of Hollywood pantheism.
  3. A primary mission of Hollywood pantheism is to destroy the Dominion Mandate, the doctrine of Creation and the Creator/creature distinctive detailed in the Bible.
  4. Science fiction is the primary genre used as an evangelism tool for Hollywood’s religion of pantheism.
  5. Films are more important than schools, pulpits or politics, for training disciples of this new Hollywood religion.

Bonus Lessons About Christians and Hollywood:

  1. Most professing Christians will check their spiritual discernment at the door of a movie theater for a cheap thrill.
  2. Most professing Christians love fantasy more than reality.
  3. Fantasy books, films and television shows have trained professing Christians to be polytheists—individuals who believe that you can worship many gods at the same time—in this case, the gods of pantheism and the gods of Christianity.
  4. Most professing Christians have greater delight in a pantheistic Hollywood film about non-reality, than in reading the Bible or hearing a sermon about truth.

Hollywood understands that the demographic of film consumption by non-Christians and Christians is essentially the same—both look to Hollywood for a fatty diet of entertainment to help them escape from reality.   – Doug Phillips on February 15, 2010

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Quotes (698)

There is a voice in the blood of the martyrs. What does that voice say? It cries aloud from Oxford, Smithfield, and Gloucester,- “Resist to the death the Popish doctrine of the Real Presence, under the forms of the consecrated bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper!”
– J. C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

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Quotes (696)

When was the last time you heard of a church rebuking members for gossip, admonishing men for the immodest dress of their wives and daughters, or excommunicating a member for adultery? Today’s evangelical church may take a strong stand on fundamental doctrines like the divine nature of Christ and the inspiration of Scripture, but it too often denies this Christ and this inspired Word by not practicing a true Christian lifestyle. The pattern of life of most Christians is so much like the world around them that they blend right in and cannot serve as salt and light.

– Philip Lancaster

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Here’s a shocker: The false gospel of John Crowder, Benjamin Dunn, and Sloshfest originated from an LSD drug-induced experience.

When you read a quote like this . . .

Heaven is going to be wild. God will show up and be the life of the party. We want to see fun coming back into the Church.

. . . you know the blasphemous duo of Crowder and Dunn isn’t far behind.

The 38-year-old [Sloshfest organizer David Vaughan] from nearby Pontypool is a former drug-user who makes no apologies for painting God as a party animal who wants to win over youngsters with supernatural highs. Bizarrely, David greets me at the door wearing a monk outfit – he is joined by dozens of dancing pirates, an Abraham Lincoln, a unicorn, winged fairy and a court jester draped in Christmas lights.

The Sun recently ran an article on the demonic revelry known as Sloshfest entitled The Ravers Who Get High on God in which the sons of Hell, Crowder and Dunn, were in attendance.

And as with any gathering of these folks, demonic activity (e.g. possession) is present:

A middle-aged woman calling herself Pinky Pirate dashes to the front and grabs a microphone. The crowd screams with delight as she shakes uncontrollably and bellows: “It is such a wild fire. It is a fierce wild fire. It is untamable and undomesticated.” . . . Amid the chaos a woman dressed as a pirate queen crawls past muttering. Strangely, despite no sign of alcohol or drugs being consumed, she and many other worshippers look spaced out, with red, puffy eyes and a vacant stare. Standing up, she shakes my hand and slurs: “I’m Mrs Jesus. I love my husband” (Emphasis mine)

This article also reveals how John Crowder came to be the ravenous wolf he is today:

Before addressing the lively Welsh crowd, the 6ft 5in David Blaine lookalike tells me he became a Christian after a Godly experience on LSD. John, 33, from California, says: “I was a party guy at college and became an alcoholic within the first year, sometimes downing up to 36 beers in a single day. I also did recreational drugs and during an LSD trip in a bar I had a profound encounter with God. I knew that if I went to sleep that night without changing my ways, I would surely die. When I sobered up I stopped doing drugs and became devoted to Jesus.  Now I want people to see that church isn’t dour and dreary. It is an awareness of the mystical, fun and joyful nature of God.”

We used to identify people who had mystical experiences with “god” during a drug induced high (predominant in the 1960s) as burned out hippies. Now they sell books and their followers call them “Christian.”

Finally, the article wraps up with this telling quote:
Outside, a curious passer-by peers through a steamed-up window. Chuckling, he shakes his head and says: “Looks like one hell of a party.”
And so the world passes by shaking their head at yet another false image of Christianity and all they see is a group of unregenerated sinners who’ve created a “party-god” who demands little and expects nothing while winking and nodding  at their partying on the broad road to Hell with “Jesus” on their lips.

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Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. – Ephesians 5:6-10

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Sermon of the week: “The Unpardonable Sin, The Blasphemy Against the Spirit, and A Plea to the Halfhearted” by Phil Johnson.

Your sermon of the week is a three-part series on the controversial issue of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. If you have ever wondered what it is or if you’ve committed it, then this series is for you.

Part 1: The Unpardonable Sin

Part 2: The Blasphemy Against the Spirit

Part 3: A Plea to the Halfhearted

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The epitome of “oxymoronic” – Christian fight clubs.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the pied pipers of the mile-wide, inch-deep church in America drop one rung lower on the ladder as they continue to lead the masses of goats down the broad path of destruction.

I thought the pragmatism of Laodicean evangelism techniques couldn’t shock me anymore but this article from the New York Times has left me speechless. Here are a few quotes form the article:

Recruitment efforts at the churches, which are predominantly white, involve fight night television viewing parties and lecture series that use ultimate fighting to explain how Christ fought for what he believed in. Other ministers go further, hosting or participating in live events. The goal, these pastors say, is to inject some machismo into their ministries — and into the image of Jesus — in the hope of making Christianity more appealing. “Compassion and love — we agree with all that stuff, too,” said Brandon Beals, 37, the lead pastor at Canyon Creek Church outside of Seattle. “But what led me to find Christ was that Jesus was a fighter.”

The sport is seen as a legitimate outreach tool by the youth ministry affiliate of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 45,000 churches.

Nondenominational evangelical churches have a long history of using popular culture — rock music, skateboarding and even yoga — to reach new followers. Yet even among more experimental sects, mixed martial arts has critics.

I can’t even begin to imagine what will come next in the name of “evangelism.”

For more, checkout this post too.

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10 reasons to return to an oppressive, dead religion that preaches a gospel that cannot save.

It appears that the Catholic church is continuing to resort to marketing schemes to draw people back to the oppressive, dead religion of Rome.

It was only a few weeks ago that I posted a video highlighting this new trend and–if you thought it was only an isolated incident–I submit for your consideration another example of this Roman Catholic pragmatic approach to church growth found over at A Little Leaven where Chris Rosebrough aptly introduces the video by saying

If you know your Bible this video will give you several more reasons to not return to Rome.

Personally, I think for their number one reason they should have cited Proverbs 26:11

Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.

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Quptes (693)

A W Pink The Word declares, “The carnal mind is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7). Multitudes go through the form of paying homage to God, but of a “god” of their own imagination. They hate the living God, and, were it possible, would rid the universe of Him. This is clear from their treatment of Christ, for He was none other than “God . . . manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). They hated and hounded Him to death, and nothing short of death by crucifixion would appease them. At Calvary the real character of man was revealed, and the desperate wickedness of his heart laid bare.

– A.W. Pink

1886 – 1952

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Quotes (692)

voddie-baucham If our homes are to reflect our position as the people of God in the midst of the opposition of a pagan culture, we, like the Israelites, must learn to love. Our homes must be rife with the aroma of love. Those who visit us should notice immediately that they have left the world of self-serving, egocentric narcissism and have entered a safe harbor where people value and esteem others above themselves. Outsiders should enter our homes and never want to leave. Our neighbors should find excuses to visit us just to get another whiff of the fragrant aroma of love. The brokenhearted should long to be near us. The downtrodden and the abused should seek us out. Families on the brink of disaster should point to us and say, “Why can’t out homes be like that?”

– Voddie Baucham

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Jonah: The Father’s sovereignty and the Son’s deity.

I was recently reading Jonah when I discovered something throughout the book: The thread of the Father’s sovereignty which leads to the Son’s deity.

You can see God’s sovereignty throughout Jonah in the following verses where He displays His majestic control over His creation.

God is sovereign over . . .

1:7 – The lots. (You didn’t really think it was coincidence it revealed Jonah, did you? See Proverbs 16:33.)

1:14, 1:15, 4:8 – The storms and the wind.

1:17, 2:10 – The fish of the sea. (Even the really, really big ones. Who did you think directed the animals onto Noah’s Ark, and who did you think directed the ravens to bring Elijah food in 1 Kings 17:6?)

2:6 – Jonah’s very life.

3:5 – The salvation of an entire city of over 120,000. (This is also known as election.)

3:9, 4:2 – His own anger.

3:10, 4:2 – Calamity. (Yes, even in places like Haiti.)

4:6 – The plants.

4:7 – The insects. (Remember that little plague of insects the Egyptians had to endure prior to the Exodus?)

In the midst of all this, two things stand out to me in these verses that should not be missed.

1). Only God can forgive sins (Psalm 79:9, Isaiah 55:7).

2). Man can’t even control the wind (Ecclesiastes 8:8) but God controls the storms (Psalm 65:7, 89:9, 107:29, 135:7).

When one compares these truths of God the Father with that of His Son we plainly see that the only person to walk this earth that not only controlled storms (Matthew 8:26-27 and Luke 8:24-25) but could forgive sins (Matthew 9:2, Mark 2:5-6, and Luke 5:20-21) was none other than the glorious Mediator between man and God, the perfect spotless Lamb of God, the eternal Son, Emmanuel, Yeshua Ha’Mashiach, God in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ.


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Sermon of the week: “Grace secured – Limited Atonement” by Brian Borgman.

Brian Borgman If you struggle with the doctrine of Limited Atonement, I have just the sermon for you. I am confident that after listening to Grace secured – Limited Atonement, you will now be able to confidently place an “L” smack dab in the middle of your T.U.L.I.P.

Brian Borgman does a fabulous job in demonstrating from Scripture that Christ died for His elect, and not for everyone (e.g. those who reject Him).

You may want to have a pen and paper handy to jot down the copious Scriptural references that Borgman provides (and feel free to share them with DefCon readers in the comments section).

This is part nine of Borgman’s thirteen-part series on the Doctrines of Grace entitled Introduction to the Reformed Faith. Look for the each additional installment every couple weeks.


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What do D.B. Cooper, Jimmy Hoffa, the Fountain of Youth, and Mormon archaeological evidence have in common?

None of them have ever been found!

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Scott Hodge and his hodge-podge of Roman Catholic meditative monastic heresy.

Chris Rosebrough is tackling an unbelievable issue that has crept into the church: The continued march backward into Romanism by supposed Evangelicals (some of which are the golden calves of Americanized Christianity) through the use of monastic meditation practices. He addresses this in his post Purpose-Driven Roman Catholic Monastic Mysticism (which is where I obtained the quotes below).

Roman Catholic Monastic Mysticism is becoming all the rage among innovative post-modern purpose-driven pastors. Practices developed by Roman Catholic Monks such as the Lectio Divina, The Practice of the Presence of God and the Prayer Examen which was created by on [sic] of the arch enemies of the Protestant Reformation, Ignatius Loyola are openly being promoted by an alarming number of seeker-driven / Purpose-Driven pastors. These so-called ’spiritual disciplines’ are being featured at Willow Creek, Saddleback, and Mars Hill to name just a few.

Rosebrough examines an absolutely astonishing sermon from seeker-sensitive pastor Scott Hodge who teaches his whole congregation that practicing the mystical Lecito Divina (like eating at a five-star restaurant) is somehow better than reading the Scriptures for yourself without the magical formula (like eating McDonalds). This is unbelievable when you consider Hodge is considered an evangelical protestant. What in the world did Luther break from Romanism for if this guy is directing his people to place the yoke back upon their necks and return to the bondage of Rome’s dead religion?

Let me be clear here, Pastor Scot Hodge is not promoting meditative practices similar to Lecito Divina, he’s promoting Lecito Divina itself. He spends the overwhelming majority of his sermon singing its praises and he even walks his whole congregation through a Lecito Divina session that will make your hair stand on end (for those familiar with Eastern mysticism and New Age practices).

To hear this unbelievable “sermon” and Rosebrough’s commentary with it, you can download it by right clicking here. It starts at 1:08:08 into the podcast.

While listening to this sermon, keep in mind that this Roman Catholic mystical practice was developed by men who did not believe in salvation by grace alone through faith alone by Christ’s work alone. These monks were trying to earn their salvation through their monkery. These practices are not taught in the scriptures. Neither Jesus, his disciples, the prophets nor the patriarchs practiced Lectio Divina. This Roman Catholic practice is pure monastic mythology and spiritual fantasy and rather than helping you experience God, it is more likely that you will experience self deception or demonic spirits.

For those unfamiliar with Scott Hodge, DefCon dealt with him back in 2007 when his video mocking the sacred ordinance of baptism was making its rounds on the internet. You can check out our previous post on Scott Hodge in the post Narcissism Gone Wild.

The fact that seeker-driven and Purpose-Driven pastors are adopting Roman Catholic Monastic practices in droves proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that chasing after relevance has caused them to abandon Biblical truth and they are now being blown about by every wind of false doctrine. (Eph. 4:7-19) Sadly, this is what happens when you try to marry the church to the ’spirit of the age’.

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Quotes (691)

This is the thought that should be uppermost on your mind in all you do for your children. In every step you take about them, in every plan and scheme and arrangement that concerns them, do not leave out that mighty question, “How will this affect their souls?”

– J.C. Ryle

1816 – 1900