Author: Pilgrim
Quotes (449)
The doctrine of justification itself, as preached by an Arminian, is nothing but the doctrine of salvation by works.
– C.H. Spurgeon
1834 – 1892
The Duggar family welcomes child number 18.
The Duggar’s have just welcomed their 18th child. If you do not know who the Duggar family is, I encourage you to check out their website. They are an encouragement to all Christian households and an example of God’s plan and design for the Christian family.
And for those of you Christians who look down on large families with contempt, I highly recommend that you first listen to Voddie Baucham’s sermon The Centrality of the Home before leaving any disparaging and discouraging comments on this post.
The smoldering ash heap of Ravi Zacharias Ministries.
DefCon has chronicled Ravi Zacharias’ downfall beginning with his first public compromise when he accepted an invitation to speak at the LDS temple in Salt Lake City but failed to make any distinction between the true Jesus Christ of the Bible and the demonically inspired false Christ of Mormonism. See Ravi Zacharias fails to preach the Gospel to the Mormons.
We then examined his further compromise in Ravi’s Descent where he accepted the condition to not pray in Jesus’ name at the National Day of Prayer coordinated by NDP chairwoman Shirley Dobson, wife of James Dobson of Focus on the Family which recently promoted the cult of Mormonism. Beginning to see the big picture yet?
Then we examined Ravi’s Crash and Burn as he not only accepted an invitation to speak at rank heretic Robert Schuller’s New Age ReThink conference, but that Ravi Zacharias also spoke favorably of Roman Catholic mystic Henri Nouwen, calling him “one of the greatest saints in recent memory.”
Now Slice of Laodicea and Apprising Ministries are reporting that not only will Ravi Zacharias not apologize or even back away from his endorsement of Henri Nouwen, but his ministry is defending his position. You can read the following letter from Ravi Zacharias Ministries in defense of Ravi’s endorsement of Nouwen by clicking here (PDF).
One of the most shocking parts of this letter written by Margaret Manning was her justification of Ravi’s compromise via the following statement:
“ . . . if it weren’t for the Catholic church you and I would not be here–nor would Christianity.”
Ravi Zacharias has become one of a long line of “public figure” Christians to compromise a little here and a little there until full blown apostasy is reached. What next Ravi, what next?
“Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God’s house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God.”
Roman Catholic mystic Henri Nouwen
Sabbatical Journey
Page 51, 1998 Hardcover Edition
Being bold and radical, or being contemptuous and blasphemous?
Some professing Christians in Kansas City have discovered what the greatest problem facing the world is today, and what the most menacing threat to Christianity is.
Apparently the folks at Praise Chapel have identified the problem as retailers and shoppers not acknowledging Christ in Christmas enough. Wouldn’t this simply be a case of worldly unregenerate people acting like worldly unregenerate people?
They consider what they’re doing as being “bold” and “radical.” But how does getting people to say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays” do anything for their eternal soul? Will people be cast into a Christless eternity in Hell because they said “Season’s Greetings” or because they were not born again of God and made new creatures?
Although I completely disagree with their mockery-style tactic lacking all reverence for the Holy Son of God, I’d be more impressed by their efforts if they tried being “bold” and “radical” by taking their stunt to the places where Christ is truly being left out . . . the churches across America!
See the fox news article here.
HT: Sola Dei Gloria
Quotes (448)
Right views concerning Christ are indispensable to a right faith, and a right faith is indispensable to salvation. To stumble at the foundation, is, concerning faith, to make shipwreck altogether; for as Immanuel, God with us, is the grand Object of faith, to err in views of His eternal Deity, or to err in views of His sacred humanity, is alike destructive. There are points of truth which are not fundamental, though erroneous views on any one point must lead to God-dishonoring consequences in strict proportion to its importance and magnitude; but there are certain foundation truths to err concerning which is to insure for the erroneous and the unbelieving, the blackness of darkness forever.
– J.C. Philpot
1802 – 1869
Merry Christmas.
All of us at DefCon wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.
Sermon of the week: “An Introduction to the Trinity” by Don Green.
We’ve been going through Don Green’s five-part series on Christ’s deity and the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. This week is part four and it’s entitled An Introduction to the Trinity.
If you haven’t already listened to parts one through three, check them out below:
John 1:1 and the Jehovah’s Witnesses
Don Green has done an outstanding job through this series of defending the faith against those who would deny the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity.
How to make a false convert.
You will see in this video numerous false converts made right before your very eyes. False converts that will grow up with an aversion to the true Gospel at best, and a hostility to the true Gospel at worst. This is what American Christianity has become.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
Matthew 23:15
HT: Perilous Times
“Hip Hopera” the church Christmas play.
Guts Church (yes, that’s their real name) put on a Christmas play called Hip Hopera that can only be described as a confusing, convoluted, discombobulated adventure in narcissism, worldly values, and the culture of self-adoration. I kept watching this train wreck expecting it to make sense at some point but it never did.
This self-absorbed Christmas play of worldliness was supposed to convey a message that there’s more to Christmas than getting stuff. However, after watching this display I went away feeling that the Lord Jesus was not only not honored, but He was strangely absent; upstaged by the “relevant” performance.
See you if agree: You can check out their Hip Hopera video on their website by clicking here.
And I’m still scratching my head as to why they portrayed a prepubescent boy oogling the prepubescent girl who walked across the stage (heed Jesus’ warning in Matthew 5:27-28). Perhaps someone can explain that one to me.
If you want to see more of what this “church” is all about, check out this short promotional video in which they boast that at one of their October events called The Nightmare they “scare the hell out of people” (for the sake of the Gospel of course) and that after going through The Nightmare 12,000 people prayed the “prayer of salvation.”
Welcome to Christmas in Laodicea.
Quotes (446)
I’m not trying to say that it is necessarily wrong for children to play organized sports . . . . [but] being a member of an organized traveling baseball squad at age ten doesn’t add a single day to one’s life. In fact, many of these activities get in the way of much loftier pursuits. People turned boys into men and girls into women for most of recorded history without dragging them around town with their tongues hanging out in an effort to keep up with their overachieving, undereducated, theologically illiterate peers as they try to win trophies that will eventually gather dust in a basement somewhere. If I teach my son to keep his eye on the ball but fail to teach him to keep his eyes on Christ, I have failed as a father.
– Voddie Baucham
How the Jehovah’s Witnesses and their New World Translation handles the deity of Jesus Christ.
Angels we have heard on high!
A beautiful rendition.
The Christmas ornament that tries so hard to be cute and relevant.
The only thing more disturbing than the “Go Jesus, it’s your birthday” Christmas ornament, is that the company selling this trash has sold out of them.
Quotes (445)
To complain against the partiality of grace is suicidal. If the sinner insists upon bare justice, then the lake of fire must be his eternal portion. His only hope lies in . . . casting himself on the mercy of God, and stretching forth empty hands to avail himself of the grace of God made known to him in the Gospel.
– A.W. Pink
1886 – 1952
The epitome of a Mormon testimony.
This post is not intended to be insulting or demeaning, but is a glimpse into why it is so difficult to convince a Mormon to review the facts about Mormonism from a reasonable standpoint and apply logic to come to a conclusion.
As you will see from these two brief videos, a Mormon testimony usually requires no logic, evidence, or even cognitive reasoning; just feelings. This is why oftentimes the debate with a Mormon dissolves into, “I bear you my testimony . . . ” and “I know, because I know, because I know.”
Their regurgitating of this indoctrinated mantra “I bear you my testimony” is frequently employed when presented with the evidence that Mormonism is a false religion. This type of “testimony” reveals that their whole basis for belief is grounded on emotion and feelings at the exclusion of fact, reason, and logic.
Rick Warren to give invocation at Barack Hussein Obama’s inauguration.
It’s official, Rick Warren is scheduled to deliver the invocation at pro-abortion, pro-infanticide, pro-homosexual Barack Hussein Obama’s inauguration (see here). So far the one’s making the biggest stink about this is the homosexual advancement crowd (see here). Maybe that’s because the Christians aren’t shocked anymore by those who claim to represent Christianity (read: we’ve come to expect this from the likes of Rick Warren).
I’m not sure why the pro-homosexual crowd is so stunned, though. After all, Barack Hussein Obama has invited the Lesbian and Gay Band Association to march in the inauguration. Isn’t that enough of a compromise? Or is it the total absence of all opposition that these “tolerant” special interest groups are seeking?
HT:
Quotes (444)
Jude’s command “to contend earnestly for the faith” is not merely being neglected in the contemporary church; it is often greeted with outright scorn. These days anyone who calls for biblical discernment or speaks out plainly against a popular perversion of sound doctrine is as likely as the false teachers themselves to incur the disapproval of other Christians. That may even be an understatement. Saboteurs and truth vandals often seem to have an easier time doing their work than the conscientious believer who sincerely tries to exercise biblical discernment.
– John MacArthur
Sermon of the week “My Lord and My God” by Don Green.
We continue our month long series on the deity of Christ (and the doctrine of the Trinity) with this week’s sermon entitled, My Lord and My God.
Pastor Green does an excellent job throughout this five part series of unpacking the truth of Christ’s deity as revealed in the Scriptures. Next week his message will be, An Introduction to the Trinity and the following week his message will be, The Trinity and the Old Testament. I trust this entire series will be a blessing to you all.
If you haven’t already, I highly encourage you to check out the first two installments on this topic below:
Quotes (443)
No matter how great your sins may be, they are nothing compared to the infinite worth of Christ’s blood!
– Charles Leiter
Christ Alone Wyoming 