Author: Pilgrim

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The White Horse Inn: Shallow Waters.

This is a great episode of The White Horse Inn entitled Shallow Waters. Here’s more on this episode:

How deep is your faith? Has the faith “once and for all delivered to the saints” been dumbed-down in contemporary churches? On this edition of the program, the hosts discuss the shallow nature of both American Culture generally, and contemporary Christian faith and practice more specifically.

Certainly a message that many need to hear.

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Are Christian bookstore owners responsible for what they sell?

Back in February I asked the question do you support your local Christian bookstore?

I now have a follow-up question:

Are the owners of Christian bookstores responsible to their fellow-Christians, the Church, and ultimately God, for the products they sell?

This past week I entered another one of these Christian book and paraphernalia bazaars. The first faces I saw staring back at me as soon as I entered were the prominently displayed faces of Joel Osteen, Juanita Bynum, TD Jakes, and Joyce Meyer (just to name a few) along with all the “Jesus junk” and trinkets that adorned the shelves and displays from wall to wall. A few more steps and I was struck with Rob Bell’s book Sex God and his Nooma videos

Another disturbing book I unexpectedly came across was a children’s book on the virgin Mary and praying the Rosary. In this book were Romanism’s false teaching of Mary being crowned Queen of Heaven and Queen of the universe. This was in a “Christian” bookstore!

I recall a brief conversation I had with the owner of one of these bookstore a few months back in which he provided me two excuses reasons why he sold the merchandise of such heretical teachers as Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, Brian McLaren and Rob Bell. He said he 1). cannot possibly read every book that he sells; and that he 2). does not want to promote censorship.

This was such a sad example of wiggling around his deeper responsibility to not lead people astray. First of all he can’t be accused of censorship for not carrying certain books anymore than he an be accused of censorship for not allowing these types of books into his home. He owns his home, he owns the bookstore. He–as a retailer–has the right to sell whatever he does or does not want on his shelves, which explains the absence of such material as the Book of Mormon, the Satanic Bible or pornography. Is the absence of these books considered “censorship?” Furthermore, in order for his refusal to carry certain books to qualify as “censorship” he would have to be a representative of the government.

Secondly, the “I can’t possibly read every book I sell” excuse is a cop-out. You don’t have to read every book by Brian McLaren, Rob Bell or Robert Schuller to know that they’re spreading heresy . . . it’s common knowledge! And if you’re not that aware of what’s going on or you lack discernment regarding the wolves among us, a quick internet search will tell you all you need to know.

Do you need to read every issue of the Awake! that the Watchtower organization produces to be able to confidently say that they are a cult and thus not carry their material? Of course not. So why do certain big name heretics and false teachers under the umbrella of evangelicalism get a pass by the guise of willful ignorance?

These bookstore owners are knowingly or unknowingly selling doctrines of demons; material that an impressionable undiscerning person could buy which would lead them on the primrose path to Hell. This leads me to ask, will these bookstore owners be held responsible before God for selling these heretical, apostate, and often times blasphemous doctrines of wolves in sheep’s clothing?

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Quotes (256)

paul-washer.jpg Listen to what Jude says in verse twelve, “These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts, and when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves, clouds without water, carried along by winds, autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted.” I have described a great majority of church membership rolls all throughout this country. And we think that we can somehow cure these men by more discipleship when the fact of the matter is they need the gospel and they need regeneration.

– Paul Washer

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Quotes (253)

yahannan.jpg Christian magazines, TV shows and church services often put the spotlight on famous athletes, beauty queens, businessmen and politicians who “make it in the world and have Jesus too!” . . . The typical media testimony goes something like this:

“I was sick and broke, a total failure. Then I met Jesus. Now everything is fine; my business is booming, and I am a great success.”

It sounds wonderful. Be a Christian and get that bigger house and a boat and vacation in the Holy Land. But if that were really God’s way, it would put some Christians living in communist countries and in the Two-Thirds World in a pretty bad light. Their testimonies often go like this:

“I was happy. I had everything–prestige, recognition, a good job, and a happy wife and children. Then I gave my life to Jesus Christ . Now I am in prison, having lost my family, wealth, reputation, job and health. Here I live, lonely, deserted by friends. I cannot see the face of my wife and dear children. My crime is that I love Jesus.”

– K. P. Yohannan

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Standing at Lot’s door: Militant homosexual activism vs your freedom of speech.

Ryan Sorba, author of The Born Gay Hoax, was giving a speech at Smith College in Massachusetts when the lecture was overtaken by a group of militant pro-gay activists that not only interrupted Mr. Sorba, but completely shut down his freedom of speech. You can read more about this incident here including a timeline of events in each of the videos and a reprint of the college president’s pandering letter addressing the incident.

Many may shrug their shoulders at this since it happened at a distant college and has no affect on them in Anytown, USA. I beg to differ. It will only be a matter of time before this type of hate comes to a church near you. Are you ready?

I can’t help but wonder how things would have been handled if the invited guest was a pro-gay or pro-abortion speaker and an opposition group came in and acted in this manner.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

– Martin Niemöller

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Indulgences granted to those who practice idolatry and “work” for their own salvation, negating Christ’s once-and-for-all sacrifice.

mary-statue-worship.jpg According to this story from the Catholic News Agency the Pope has granted indulgences to those who break the first and second Commandments. Below are excerpts from the article which explains the works based, unbiblical hoops one has to jump through to obtain forgiveness:

The first way to obtain the indulgence is to visit the following places in Lourdes between December 8, 2007 and December 8, 2008, preferably in the order suggested: (1) the parish baptistery used for the Baptism of Bernadette, (2) the Soubirous family home, known as the ‘cachot,’ (3) the Grotto of Massabielle, (4) the chapel of the hospice where Bernadette received First Communion, and on each occasion they pause for an appropriate length of time in prayer and with pious meditations, concluding with the recital of the Our Father, the Profession of Faith, … and the jubilee prayer or other Marian invocation.

If the faithful are not in Lourdes, but wish to receive the plenary indulgence, then during the week of the anniversary of the first apparition, which is the week of February 2, 2008 through February 11, 2008, and they must visit “in any church, grotto or decorous place, the blessed image of that same Virgin of Lourdes, solemnly exposed for public veneration, and before the image participate in a pious exercise of Marian devotion, or at least pause for an appropriate space of time in prayer and with pious meditations, concluding with the recital of the Our Father, the Profession of Faith, … and the invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

There is also a provision for those who are unable to fulfill the previous two ways of obtaining the indulgence. Those who “through sickness, old age or other legitimate reason are unable to leave their homes, may still obtain the Plenary Indulgence … if, with the soul completely removed from attachment to any form of sin and with the intention of observing, as soon as they can, the usual three conditions, on the days February 2 to 11, 2008, in their hearts they spiritually visit the above-mentioned places and recite those prayers, trustingly offering to God, through Mary, the sickness and discomforts of their lives.”

Where is all that in the Bible?

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9

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Book review: “Axioms of Separation” by John Ashbrook

I just finished reading a very short book entitled Axioms of Separation by John E. Ashbrook. I never heard of this book before and never heard of its author either, but it was given to me by a friend and it did not disappoint.

Ashbrook calls for true believers not to remain in apostate churches in some valiant but vain attempt to save them, but instead, to come out from among them and be separate. He makes a compelling case for the believers of God not to be counted among the false teachers and apostate churches, but to make a complete separation.

An additional (and more detailed) review of this book can be found here at Better Than Gold.

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When you think of Resurrection Sunday, do the words “sex, money, and power” come to mind?

Apparently it does if you go to Perry Noble’s “church” in South Carolina. There you get yet another unhealthy dose of man-centered, entertainment-driven “preaching” with a “sermon” series entitled Sex, Money & Power. Seriously folks, I can’t make this garbage up.

This is the mailer sent out by New Spring to advertise their “Man Series” which includes a sermon entitled Protectile Dysfunction (click on the picture to enlarge).

And they didn’t stop there. Below I’ve posted two short promo videos for this “church” to show you the gravity of the problem. Remember when you watch these videos that they are produced by a “church” to promote their sermon series . . . really, I’m not kidding.


What more would you expect from a church that had a grown-man greeting people in the church foyer for Christmas dressed as an elf?

Whatever happened to holiness . . . in the church?

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Quotes (252)

ryle.jpg A Scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to that vague, dim, misty, hazy kind of theology which is so painfully current in our present age.

– J. C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

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Quotes (250)

Apostasy always masquerades in respectable garments. It claims to be spreading Christian love. It is eliminating prejudice. It is bringing men together. It is crusading for peace. It is cleaning up man’s environment. It never unveils itself as despicable unbelief with a veneer of humanistic good works. That unveiling is a task God has assigned to us.

– John E. Ashbrook

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Quotes (246)

paul-washer.jpg I don’t care how strong your religion is, or how strong your church life is, I don’t care how strong your morality is. On that day of judgment God will tear it down and it will wilt. Whenever humans declare themselves to be righteous they are doing it by contrasting themselves with other humans who are worse. And you can get away with that, but when your righteousness is contrasted with the righteousness of God there is nothing but to throw yourself down and declare your morality to be dung.

– Paul Washer

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Ravi’s Descent.

Ingrid first reported on Slice of Laodicea on April 23rd about Ravi Zacharias’ refusal to pray in Jesus’ name at the National Day of Prayer (and even Coram Deo tackled the issue here on his blog).

But Ravi’s descent started a long time ago in 2004 when he was a guest speaker at the LDS Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah. There, Ravi gave a sermon that left the Mormons feeling good; like there was no difference between their counterfeit “Jesus” and the true Jesus revealed by the Scriptures. I first reported on this here.

I hope people will begin to step back from blindly endorsing such men as this. Examine them closely before you sit under their teaching. I, for one, am not willing to endorse or listen to any man who is willing to compromise with a cult; I refuse to listen to anything Ravi has to say, and I just wish more Christians would be as careful and discerning.