Author: Pilgrim

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The only three people that most Mormons will not debate their theology with.

Mormons have invited us to examine, question, and challenge not only the Book of Mormon but their entire religion (as seen in this post). Well, I’ve found three exceptions to this open invitation. I’ve provided a list of the three people that–if they question Mormonism–most Mormons will just dismiss them with prejudice and will not seriously listen to anything they have to say.

1). Other Mormons

2). Ex-Mormons

3). Non-Mormons

Additionally (and for clarification) I’ve included below the reasons they dismiss any and all critics who fall into one of these three categories without ever considering the validity of their challenges.

1). OTHER MORMONS (those who are currently members of LDS):

This is because the LDS organization does not welcome free-thought because they are told to “never speculate about Church Doctrine” (Gospel Principles, Page 2).

And according to Ward Teachers Message, Deseret News, Church Section, Page 5, May 26, 1945, “When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done.“ Who within LDS would dare risk anyone else knowing that they’re struggling with questions about LDS doctrine? This instruction in the Deseret News continues: “When [our leaders] propose a plan–it is God’s plan. When they point the way, there is no other which is safe. When they give direction, it should mark the end of controversy. God works in no other way. To think otherwise, without immediate repentance, may cost one his faith, may destroy his testimony, and leave him a stranger to the kingdom of God.” This certainly doesn’t leave room for anything but blind obedience, even if evidence to the contrary is overwhelming. This indoctrination continues with a quote from Joseph Smith, “That man who rises up to condemn others, finding fault with the Church . . . is in the high road to apostasy; and if he does not repent, will apostatize, as God lives.” So it is plain to see, if any Mormon is bold enough to question LDS doctrine, anything he says should be dismissed immediately because he is questioning the leaders and he is considered to be in apostasy.

2). EX-MORMONS (those who used to be Mormons but have since left the organization):

This is because Latter-day Saints are indoctrinated to believe that no ex-Mormon could possibly have left the organization because they discovered the truth. Instead they–all of them, every single one, without exception–must be disgruntled with the LDS organization and are therefore spreading nothing but lies.

3). NON-MORMONS (those who have never been Mormons):

This is because, they argue, no non-Mormon could possibly understand their history and faith as well as they do, thus whatever they say cannot possibly be true.

There you have it: If you’re not a current Mormon, an ex-Mormon, or a non-Mormon, then you are free to discuss with them the plethora of problems, contradictions, inconsistencies, falsehoods, fallacies, mistakes, false prophecies, and insurmountable errors of Mormonism and they will surely listen with an open mind. So next time a Mormon sticks his fingers in his ears and says, “What you’re saying can’t possibly be true because you’re a fellow-Mormon, an ex-Mormon, or a non-Mormon,” now you know why.

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Quotes (244)

john-macarthur.jpg It is not kindness at all, but the worst form of cruelty, to suggest that what people believe doesn’t really matter much if they feel spiritual and do good. In fact, on the face of it, that claim is a blatant contradiction of the gospel message.

– John MacArthur

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Standing up to Dawkins.

David Quinn (a Catholic commentator and journalist from Ireland) makes Richard Dawkins (Atheism’s best of the best) lose his cool in the following audio clip from Way of the Master Radio. I am certain that you will enjoy this 16 minute audio clip.

Click on the link to listen streaming, or right click on the link and click “Save As” (Internet Explorer) or “Save Link As” (Mozilla) to save to your computer. From there you can burn this to a CD or upload it to your MP3 player.

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Quotes (243)

The major portion of professing Christianity in our nation and world today would be correctly termed apostate. The first two places where apostasy always departs from Biblical truth are the inspiration of the Word of God and the deity of Jesus Christ.

– John E. Ashbrook

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Quotes (242)

don-green.jpg Understand that when at the first sign of scrutiny a teacher or someone in sin says, “Judge not, back off !;” understand this beloved, all they’re doing there is misapplying that verse in order to protect themselves so that they can keep their shtick going. And for false teachers some of those shticks that they’ve got going are pretty lucrative. The last thing that they are really concerned about when they quote that verse is to uphold the righteousness which Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount. Otherwise they wouldn’t twist the Scripture that way.

– Don Green

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Suffering Christianity vs Chipper Christianity.

When a society prospers and enjoys great security it’s inevitable that false ideas about life, death, truth, and God will flourish with little resistance. Conversely, when tragedy strikes, those same people no longer want what once tickled their ears but they want answers and truth.

Sadly this same axiom is true for the visible Church. As American Christians continue to gluttonously indulge themselves on the riches and excesses of life that the West has to offer, they tolerate and even welcome all sorts of twisted ideas about life, death, truth, and God.

Some segments of the Church will tell you that God wants you to be rich and healthy and that if you’re not, you must be lacking faith. Another segment of the church will tell you that no one can know anything for sure (e.g. Emergents). And yet another segment will sacrifice any inconvenient truths of Scripture for popularity and the ever increasing appeal to entertain their members.

However, when your child is diagnosed with leukemia how will Your Best Life Now sound? When your spouse is unexpectedly killed by a drunk driver how will your Purpose Driven Life feel then? When a global famine strikes or the stock market crashes will positive confession and naming it and claiming it still have its place in your life? When a deadly plague spreads from nation to nation killing millions and war breaks out killing even more, does the ambiguity and total lack of certainty about anything give you any hope and comfort?

Whether the suffering is personal or global, the world will want answers that most churches cannot provide and are utterly incapable of providing.

I want to share with you this passionate ten-minute audio clip from John Piper that he delivered to a group of pastors. I’ve entitled it The Suffering of John Bunyan vs Chipper Churches and in it Piper contrasts the suffering of Bunyan with that of the chipper churches of today. This only serves to reinforce why it is better to sit under the preaching of a pastor who has suffered great loss (whose sermons have the smell of Hell permeating about them) than it is to sit under the teaching of one who hasn’t (as you’re pressured to conform to the everything’s happy-clappy facade that he and the rest of the church are putting on).

These chipper churches are whitewashed tombs that can only offer a sick and dying world a counterfeit Christianity; a Christianity without a cross. True Christianity has always been marked by suffering. Jesus promised His disciples that they would suffer great hardships and that they’d be hated by the world. It’s only the modern cultural Christianity of ease, comfort, and luxury that has suggested otherwise.

I strongly encourage you to listen to the Piper audio clip and then ask yourself; when your lifeless child hangs in your arms on Friday, will you find truth, hope, and answers in the preaching from the pulpit of your current church on Sunday?

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4)

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Quotes (240)

thomas-manton.gif Wherever you go, you will hear men crying out about how bad youth are. But indeed the source of the problem must be sought a little higher: it is bad parents that make bad children! We cannot blame children so much for their unruliness, for the greater weight of the blame lies in our own negligence in their education. . . . If children are not well principled in the home, then everything miscarries!
– Thomas Manton
1620 – 1677
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What to give.

We see them all the time. Panhandlers with their cardboard signs asking for money. Some are legitimately seeking help, others are simply preying on your compassion.

One Utah news station investigated a young girl panhandling in their city and–as you will see in this news video–not all is as it seems.

Not all panhandlers are faking dereliction to gain your money, some are in dire need of our help.

I would like to draw your attention to another video that depicts exactly who our neighbor is; the neighbor that we are commanded to “love as ourselves.” I’ve plainly entitled it Walking By. As you will see in the video, so many people are just walking by.

Whether they’re in need of the money or not, they do need Jesus Christ. Even if silver and gold you do not have to give, you do have the words of life which can lead to the Bread of Life.

What do you think?

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Brian McClaren now denies the second coming of Christ.

Ingrid Schlueter hosts this edition of CrossTalk entitled Dominionist Theology: Creating Heaven on Earth. She opens the show talking about Brian McLaren’s latest heresy revealed at Willow Creek Church: His denial of the return of Jesus Christ.

Click on the link to listen streaming, or right click on the link and click “Save As” (Internet Explorer) or “Save Link As” (Mozilla) to save to your computer. From there you can burn this to a CD or upload it to your MP3 player.

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Quotes (236)

ryle.jpg Every part of the world bears testimony to the fact that sin is the universal disease of all mankind. Search the globe from east to west and from pole to pole . . . and under every circumstance and condition, the report will always be the same. The remotest islands in the Pacific Ocean, completely separate from Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, beyond the reach alike of Oriental luxury and Western arts and literature–islands inhabited by people ignorant of books, money, steam, and gunpowder–uncontaminated by the vices of modern civilization–these islands have always been found, when first discovered, the abode of the vilest forms of lust, cruelty, deceit, and superstition. If the inhabitants have known nothing else, they have always known how to sin! Everywhere the human heart is naturally “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9).

– J. C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

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Quotes (235)

john-macarthur.jpg Postmodernism is simply the latest expression of worldly unbelief. It’s core value–a dubious ambivalence toward truth–is merely skepticism distilled to its pure essence. There is nothing virtuous or genuinely humble about it. It is proud rebellion against divine revelation.

– John MacArthur

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Quotes (233)

tozer.jpg I am aware that there are those who love to poke fun at the plain man’s idea of reality. They are the idealists who spin endless proofs that nothing is real outside of the mind. They are the relativists who like to show that there are no fixed points in the universe from which we can measure anything. They smile down upon us from their lofty intellectual peaks and settle us to their own satisfaction by fastening upon us the reproachful term “absolutist.” The Christian is not put out of countenance by this show of contempt. He can smile right back at them for he knows that there is only One who is Absolute, that is God.
– A. W. Tozer

1897 – 1963

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Video blog entitled “Satan Invented Evolution.”

With all the buzz regarding creationism and evolution as of late, I thought I’d add the following six videos (each ten minutes in duration) for your viewing.

The young man making these videos is captivating and really entertaining to watch and listen to. You do not have to view these videos in order and if you can’t watch them all, I recommend at least seeing videos four through six. (Disclaimer on video five: A video is shown of a monkey doing a rather disgusting but natural act to monkeys, highlighting that we did not evolve from that type of animal. Viewer discretion is advised for video part five.)

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Part Four:

Part Five:

Part Six:

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In spite of all the church entertainment, young adults are not sticking with the church.

According to USA Today, Young adults aren’t sticking with church. This is shocking since all the stops have been pulled out by today’s emergent and seeker-friendly churches to entertain and appease their members. Those who especially had their felt needs catered to are the very demographic that is abandoning the faith in “sobering” numbers.

I can’t understand how young adults are walking away from all these cool, hip, and relevant churches when these churches have exerted so much effort to become like the world to attract them in the first place. It is truly a mystery.

The graveyard of “relevance” now houses the bones of such gems as having a cool place to experience God, passing out shot glasses, reliving the 80’s, sermons on sex, and more sex, sermons on The Beatles, MTV-like pastors, Elvis-led worship, Spice Girls lip syncing, Michael Jackson music video reenactments, Garth Brooks performances, poker, Las Vegas style church, churches turned into concerts, Hip Hop prayer books, Gothic Christianity, Kick-Boxing, belly dancing, yoga, and Bible study at Hooters.

Truly a mystery, truly a mystery indeed.

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ,

for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes . . .

Romans 1:16 (NKJV)