Evangelism

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So easy, even a dog can do it!

And we humans have no compassion whatsoever to talk to our neighbors about Jesus Christ. They are lying in the roadway of hell, destined to be run over and consumed by Satan. Unless, we as Christians, are willing to go against the stream of traffic, and drag, pull, kick, whatever it takes, to bring our neighbors to safety, then we don’t have the common sense that God gave us.

AND OTHERS SAVE WITH FEAR, PULLING THEM OUT OF THE FIRE; HATING EVEN THE GARMENT SPOTTED BY THE FLESH-Jude 23.

The cross we carry is not one made of plastic. It is heavy, it can cause splinters, it will consume your time, it will come with a cost attached to it. But it is well worth it! You will face persecution because of your faith in Jesus. You will not always have bright sunny days waiting for you when you wake up. But the one thing you do have is HOPE. Hope for a new day found in Christ Jesus.

As we prepare to celebrate Resurrection Sunday (Easter to those C&E people [you know, they only attend church on Christmas and Easter]), let us not forget that people are dying every day. And unless they have put their faith and trust in Jesus alone for their salvation, they are headed for hell. They are lying on that freeway of life, just waiting to die. They are hurting (and some of them don’t even know it!). Do you love your neighbor enough to save them? Not save them in the sense that they are saved because of what “you” do, but save them in the sense that you give them God’s Holy Word. Then wait upon Him to do the rest! God’s Word will not return void. It is quick and alive! Not dead, just sitting on a piece of paper. It is more than able to open their eyes. When we use God’s Law to show people how sinful they are in God’s eyes, it will awaken them to the reality that they are lying in the middle of a freeway and are about to be steamrolled by a semi-truck!

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life! John 3:16

The dog saved the life of that other dog.
Have you risked anything for the sake of the gospel?

A day might be coming soon when you will be persecuted here in America because of your faith. I am not talking about persecution in the sense of people saying bad things about you, I am talking about the kind of persecution where you will lose all of your rights as a citizen and as a Christian. Your voice will be silenced, your right to speak to others about Christ will be taken away.

But have no fear, we can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us! No matter what Obama tries to do to our country, and our rights as Christians, we shall not be silenced. May you always go against the worldly flow for the sake of Jesus, who died on the cross for you that you might have eternal life!

One final thought, regardless of whether the dog lived or not, it is the act of heroism that is to be admired.

It is our job to warn people of the danger to come!

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“If I was dying, and I walked into your church…”

Thanks to Amy (a commenter on this thread) for alerting me to the following video. Because of it, I have decided to wield my newly-granted powers as editor to add a new category called “If I Was Dying…” As in, “If I was dying, and I walked into your church seeking the truth about where I was headed, would I find it? Or would I leave unchanged, walking toward the gates of Hell with a joke in my mind and a song in my heart?”

I’ll let the man in the video speak for himself…

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Ray Comfort is Dead On In His Newsletter

Living Waters sends out a weekly e-mail newsletter, and in today’s newsletter Ray Comfort gets to the root of a few issues I’ve been thinking about lately.

  • If two people who both live by the philosophy of “looking out for number one” happen to cross paths, won’t there be an inevitable conflict between them?
  • Evolution teaches that we’re animals that happen to be more highly evolved than others. Animals don’t care about right and wrong. If someone lived their life as if evolution is true, is there really any moral restraints on them?

People who believe those things are commonplace, and we’re seeing the consequences more and more. Ray cuts to the chase with this:

There have been about a dozen mass-shootings in the United States in recent months, and secular experts are still trying to piece together the profiles and common denominators of these murderers. However, every one of them had one thing in common. They all lacked a fear of God. If someone fears God they won’t lie to you, steal from you, or commit adultery with your spouse. They won’t even lust after them. They won’t hate you, harbor anger or be bitter towards you, and they certainly won’t kill you. “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” (Proverbs 16:6, itallics added)

One of the major reasons this nation lacks the fear of God is that it’s rarely preached from the modern pulpit. Think of what Nathan did with David. He put the fear of God in him by saying “You are the man! Why have you despised the Commandment of the Lord?” (see 2 Samuel 12:7-9). Without such a reproof David would have simply remained an unrepentant man who made an unfortunate choice in life. But the reproof revealed that he was a criminal who had despised the moral Law, and that God’s wrath hovered over him for his terrible transgression.

We need to be Nathans to this nation and faithfully preach the Word, in season and out of season. We must “reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all patience and doctrine,” and the well-spring of our words must be love for sinners. We cannot let fear stop us from showing them that they have despised the Law, and that they have personally sinned against God, as Paul did in Romans 2:20-24.

In another portion of the newsletter, Living Waters reveals Hollywood’s humanist bias. The producers of Alfie left out inconvenient portions in their remake of the 1966 movie. If we’re just animals looking out for our own best interest, what’s to stop someone from murdering an unborn child? If the law is the only thing protecting human life, no one should sleep too easily. Laws can be changed.

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Book review: Evangelism in the New Testament: A Plea for Biblically Relevant Evangelism by Jon Speed

evang-book2This book, short and sweet at only about 40 pages, makes an irrefutable case that the vast majority of evangelism that took place in the New Testament was among strangers. This goes directly against the idea that friendship evangelism is the ideal way to evangelize.

Personally, I’ve come to the belief that if you want to do friendship evangelism, or make balloon animals and pass them out and tell people Jesus loves them, you should go for it. However, be sure that you’re not discouraging those who are practicing confrontational (intentional witnessing to strangers) evangelism, because there’s a much better biblical case for this type of evangelism than for friendship evangelism.

On page 39, the author provides guidelines for what your church can do to become an evangelistic church.

  • Provide biblical, effective evangelism training.
  • Provide a wide variety of confrontational evangelism opportunities.
  • Encourage and work with those promoting Biblical evangelism in the congregation.
  • Have an evangelism budget.
  • Provide creative evangelistic outreaches for church members to invite unsaved friends to (ladies teas, sportsman dinners, career focused dinners, etc.).
  • Mention personal evangelistic opportunities in lessons and sermons.
  • Mention evangelistic prayer requests in appropriate settings.
  • Announce confrontational and invitational evangelistic opportunities and encourage and model involvement.
  • Invite guest speakers who specialize in evangelism.
  • Challenge one another to be intentionally evangelistic.
  • Pray the Lord of the harvest to raise up workers for the harvest (Matthew 9:38).

I think my wife is giving a lot of benefit of the doubt when she says our church does five of the eleven items. If we go to the most evangelistic church in our small town, and still don’t get a passing grade, what does that tell you about how good the church in America is at evangelism?

I encourage everyone who’s interested in the topic to to purchase the book, which is available here.

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Parents Give Away Their “Witch” Children!

Another viewpoint showing the horrifying aspects of life in Nigeria, West Africa, where parents are being so duped! These parents are willing to believe the charlatans called “bishops” or “pastors” who are regularly condemning their very children in order to make a living “exorcising demons.” The pastors are not true ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ and what they are preaching and teaching has absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH CHRISTIANITY!

Praise the Lord for the few that are willing to take a stand against these cruel injustices. However, just as with the first video on Sam & Esther, what good does rescuing these children do if they are not presented the wonderful Words of Life??!!

I recommend that the following article from the Guardian Newspaper in the UK be read to have a full understanding of the video posted here for you to watch. Please pray for Nigeria! Pray for West Africa! Pray that the Lord will send forth more laborers into the Harvest fields!

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Sermon of the week: “The Way of Salvation – God Centered vs. Man Centered Evangelism” by Jim Stitzinger.

shepherds-conference Your sermon of the week is The Way of Salvation – God Cenetered vs. Man Centered Evangelism by Jim Stitzinger. This is a great message from the 2005 Shepherds’ Conference on the difference between evangelism done God’s way, and evangelism attempted man’s way.

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The Miraculous Evolution of the Giraffe

It’s that time of year again—time to make preparations for the big day. It’s a day when foolishness is celebrated, and pranksters run amok. It’s National Atheist’s Day, better known as April Fools’ Day. Today we’ll look at one of Charles Darwin’s most far-fetched theories—a theory even a child can laugh at. This is one that’s only suited for a holiday as foolish as National Atheists Day: the evolution of the giraffe.

Darwin speculated on the evolution of the giraffe:

“So under nature with the nascent giraffe, the individuals which were the highest browsers, and were able during dearths [drought] to reach even an inch or two above the others, will often have been preserved…for they will have roamed over the whole country in search of food….Those individuals which had some one part or several parts of their bodies rather more elongated than usual, would generally have survived. These will have intercrossed [bred] and left offspring, either inheriting the same bodily peculiarities, or with a tendency to vary again in the same manner; whilst the individuals, less favoured in the same respects will have been the most liable to perish…By this process long continued…it seems to me almost certain that any ordinary hoofed quadruped might be converted into a giraffe.”

According to Darwin, during a period of drought, the tallest gazelles (for example) would have had food to eat, while the shorter gazelles would have starved. The taller gazelles would have had taller offspring, and eventually, after millions of generations, gazelles became the giraffes we have today. Let’s play along with Darwin and see where his idea takes us.

While all of Africa’s other grazing animals seem to have done quite well, the shorter gazelles that weren’t quite as tall as their cousins starved. What caused them, specifically, to starve to death? Maybe, in seeing their fellow creatures eat leaves from tall trees, they were too proud to lower their heads to eat grass. This may seem plausible until we recognize that all grazing animals (including modern giraffes) bend down to drink water. Darwin, however, maintains they died of starvation—not thirst.

Since only the tallest giraffes survived, all the females also must have died, as females are on average two feet shorter than the males. How exactly, then, do giraffe’s reproduce today?

Another Huge Problem

The giraffe’s heart generates enormous pressure in order to pump blood all the way up its long neck to its brain. Were it not for its complex blood pressure regulating system, when a giraffe bent over, it would suffer serious brain damage. If it managed to bend over without dying, it wouldn’t be able raise its head again. Its brain would suffer from a sudden lack of oxygen, and it would pass out. Here’s a four minute video with more info on that:

Furthermore, after a century of intense fossil exploration, no intermediate forms are on display in any museum in the world. The billions of giraffazelles have kept their remains well hidden. There is no intermediate form linking the giraffe to any other creature.

If you still believe that giraffes evolved, you may want to check yourself into a mental institution, or the biology Ph.D. program at a university. There are few other places where such fairy tales are believed. But keep your chin up. National Atheist’s Day is right around the corner.

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Why Is Hell Eternal?

hellI’ve often been challenged with the reasoning: People are expected to forgive others for sinning against them, but God doesn’t have to forgive people. In fact, unless they turn to Him, He tortures them for eternity. Is eternity in hell for sin really fair punishment?

In the past, I’ve tried to reason with the questioner, and explain that God is infinitely holy. When we break His law, we sin against Him and Him alone. Since our sin is against an infinitely holy Being, our punishment is infinite. If I lie to a child, I probably will not suffer any consequences. If I lie to my boss, I could be fired. If I lie while under oath in court, I could go to jail. Under the right circumstances, if I lie to the U.S. government, it would be considered treason, and I could be executed. The same sin receives varying levels of punishment, depending on whom I’ve wronged.

I think that’s a valid explanation for why hell is eternal, but it’s somewhat long and hard to understand. The real reason that hell is eternal is because the Bible says it is. But what’s a good way to explain that to people who don’t care about the Bible?

It’s no surprise that people ask this question. It’s our fallen human nature to ask. I can’t imagine that a very high percentage of the criminals sitting on death row think they deserve the death penalty. I can’t imagine very many speeders in traffic court agree with the fine they’ve been given.

God, being just, is obligated to punish guilty sinners for breaking His law. Is it really any surprise that those guilty lawbreakers don’t like the punishment that’s been promised to them?

I think the best way to answer the question is to remind the person of their guilt, and that it’s their nature to whine and complain about it. The guilty don’t determine their fair sentence; the Judge determines the sentence. It is only ours to take our punishment or run to the Savior.

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Sermon of the week: “Improving the Gospel – Exercises in Unbiblical Theology” by Mark Dever.

mark-dever Your sermon of the week is Improving the Gospel – Exercises in Unbiblical Theology by Mark Dever. When I heard this message I immediately pushed back all my other scheduled sermons for March to make room for this one; I simply couldn’t wait till April to make this available to the readers of DefCon.

Mark Dever–addressing pastors at the 2008 Together For the Gospel (T4G) conference–systematically explains the five major problems facing evangelism today and what we as Christians should be putting first and foremost in our message to the world. One of the problems Pastor Dever addresses in his message is one that I’ve touched on several times on this blog in such posts as:

Priorities Completely Out of Whack

Distractions, Distractions, Distractions

The New Evangelicals

Pastor Dever’s sermon is a must-hear.


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A Spherical Gospel Tract

missionball11Last summer, my wife and I attended her class reunion. We piled into one of her classmate’s cars to do some sight seeing for the day. I was surprised to find some gospel tracts I was familiar with in their car. It turns out that this couple likes to go out witnessing. They’ve been on several missions trips, and they’ve had a great idea.

Most Americans realize that soccer is a terrible sport. But in most parts of the world, soccer is the most popular sport. A quick way to draw a crowd is to bring out a soccer ball. What better gift for people who love soccer than a soccer ball with a solid gospel message printed on it? How many people will get to read the message on the soccer ball?

Whenever a Christian tells my friend and me that we’re not witnessing properly, he always responds that they don’t have to do it our way, and rattles off a list of creative ways for them to preach the gospel. There is no shortage of creative ways to preach the gospel, only a shortage of people willing to actually carry out the ideas. I think this soccer ball idea is fantastic, and I’ll be praying for their success.

You can check out their website to find out more. They’re currently trying to raise money to have 10,000 soccer balls manufactured.

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Who they were then, and who they are now.

Thanks to The Desert Pastor for e-mailing this video to me. Who would have thought a sharpie marker and a piece of cardboard could be such an encouragement?

For those contemplating missionary work in West Africa, (or anywhere else for that matter), you will be greatly encouraged and deeply touched by this video.

The video on YouTube does not contain audio; if you prefer the audio version (recommended) then watch it on this link.

From the website:

Missionaries aren’t superheroes. That’s for sure.

Those of us who work in West Africa were once school teachers, retirees, engineers and coffee baristas. We’ve struggled with sin, physical handicaps, broken families and the stagnant Christian life. We had fears of moving overseas, learning new languages, catching strange diseases and raising our families in a foreign country.

We are transformed.

We all have a story of how God has renewed our lives and brought us to His service, sharing the Gospel with West Africans who have never heard.

We want to share our stories with you — on cardboard — and show you that in Him, anyone is worthy of The Call.

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Book Review: “The Lamb” by John R. Cross.

the-lambI recently completed this wonderful book and was quite impressed with the strong yet simple explanation of the Gospel. Although it’s written for children, it is also good for those who have no clue what the Gospel is because it explains it in very easy terms accompanied with beautiful illustrations and questions at the end of each chapter to reinforce what you’ve learned. My wife absolutely loves this book and we recommend it to anyone who will listen. Instead of raving on and on about it, I’ve posted a few reviews from other readers below.

And if you want to get your own copy of this book you can purchase it here at Family Faith Books.  

the-lamb-illustration-2the-lamb-illustration-1


54321 That really communicates to kids!
By: step October 31, 2008

I have been reading “The Lamb” with my children at night for the past week and they absolutely LOVE it! They love the lifelike pictures, especially the grandpa rescuing the kid out of the river. That really communicates to kids! I just want to commend you for working on those resources.

54321 Can I give it 10 out of 5 stars?
By: eiluj03 August 17, 2008

This is the clearest gospel teaching book I have seen for kids. Ever. Its tone (both in graphics and text) is serious but beautiful and simple to understand. I have been buying books for my church library and I have yet to find one that is as clear on the gospel without being really drawn out (The Lamb has ten short chapters). It has cleared up adults’ understanding of the gospel as they understand with clarity the old testament lamb sacrifice and how that was foreshadowing Christ: our lamb. Ultimately, our focus should be the greatness of the message of the gospel. But this book is an excellent for getting that message across—I am so happy to have been introduced to it.

54321 The gospel in simple language without leaving out key truths
By: gracefaithway June 27, 2008

This book draws out the truths of the scriptures in a simple story format while avoiding difficult language or clich�s that can confuse a child’s understanding of salvation. I bought this book to read in Sunday school as well as to my 4 year old and 8 year old daughters at home. The full color illustrations are vibrant and hold their attention. The story is a slow progression with excellent questions at the end of each chapter to ensure comprehension. The story clearly shows who God is in His Holy character and perfect nature. The fall of mankind is made evident resulting in man’s just deserved punishment of Hell. This book doesn’t shelter children from the truths of scripture like the shedding of the innocent lamb’s blood in sinful man’s place, but makes these truths evident in a respectful and Christ-honoring manner. It is essential that even children understand that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” Sin requires death and that innocent lamb died in the place of the guilty sinner. I have found that this book is a springboard for conversations with my girls about God’s character and nature during normal daily activities (i.e., dinner, a car ride, shopping, etc.). Our world is so filled with entertainment that Christ is almost squeezed out of our mindset. We also have the lamb DVD that we watch as a family and it entertains us all while teaching us timeless truths. I highly recommend this book for your children or as a gift. I can envision the very real possibility of an unsaved adult being saved while reading this book to their children or grand-children (that is my prayer for my own mother).

Check out more reader reviews here.

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Lifestyle Evangelism Is a Logical Impossibility

When I first started witnessing I assumed that when I ran into Christians, they would cheerfully offer their encouragement and prayers. That hasn’t turned out to be the case, and I’ve come to dread running into Christians, because most say I don’t witness properly. It’s almost certain that they’ll say the Bible doesn’t even tell us to witness. They say we should live a good Christian life, and people will be drawn to that, and ask us what makes us tick. That’s called lifestyle evangelism, and it seems to be very popular.

Here is a Youtube video by an author who wrote a book on evangelism. He explains why we shouldn’t witness the way we always have (and the way Jesus and the apostles did). I wouldn’t recommend watching it unless you really want to, but he says that his interpretation of the Great Commission shows that Christians shouldn’t witness, and his interpretation has never been refuted. I have little interest in reading the book. I don’t know what his arguments are, but here is my argument why Jesus taught us to go preach the gospel.

The Great Commission appears in Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Jesus said to make disciples. Many Christians say that preaching the gospel isn’t making disciples; making disciples is a long process of teaching people how to behave as Christians. While learning to follow Christ will take the rest of our lives, this process will never start without salvation. People are either born-again, or dead in their sins. They’re either disciples of Jesus or they’re not. Making disciples is a synonym for making converts.

How do we make disciples or converts? Only through the preaching of the gospel will anyone ever be able to call on the Savior (Romans 10:14). When the Lord makes someone born again, He will follow through on the good work He has begun in him or her (Philippians 1:6). He doesn’t need our help in discipling people, though often we have the privilege of helping Him.

The whole concept in modern Christianity of discipling a new believer, while it is well-intentioned, is a misnomer. We’re all disciples of Jesus, not of other believers. If I were to disciple someone, they’re my disciple. That’s not what I want. It is indeed clear from the Great Commission that we are to teach others to observe all that He has commanded us. Much of what might incorrectly be called making a disciple should actually be called teaching someone who is already born again.

That leads us to the other objection I’ve heard to the Great Commission. People say Jesus was speaking only to those within earshot, the 11 remaining disciples, and we aren’t included in the command to make disciples. But Jesus commanded them to make disciples, and teach the new disciples to do what He’s commanded, which would include making disciples. All Christians should obey Christ’s command to make disciples.

This makes lifestyle evangelism a logical impossibility. Living a good Christian lifestyle involves being obedient to Christ. This would preclude picking and choosing to which commands we’re to be obedient. Among the commands Jesus gave is preaching the gospel. It’s impossible to lead a Christian lifestyle without opening our mouths and spreading the gospel.

Can I be a good lifestyle evangelist if I never show up to work on time? Can I be a good lifestyle evangelist if I treat my family poorly? Can I be a good lifestyle evangelist while being disobedient to Christ’s command to preach the gospel? My answer to all of these is: definitely not.

We’re all responsible to God for our obedience to the Great Commission. If you want a good dose of conviction that will hopefully motivate you, watch this.

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A Prophet’s Bizarre Beliefs

The sayings of Muhammad have been compiled in the Hadith. Muslims consider the Hadith to be sacred in Islam, albeit not quite as important as the Qur’an. They use it as a guide to living a good Muslim life, and to the interpretation of the Qur’an.

The following teachings of Muhammad are in the Hadith:

  • Adam (Eve’s husband) was 90 feet tall. “The Prophet said, ‘Allah created Adam, making him 60 cubits tall'” (Volume 4, Book 55, Number 543).”
  • If a house fly falls in the drink of anyone of you, he should dip it (in the drink), for one of its wings has a disease and the other has the cure for the disease” (Volume 4, Book 54, Number 537).
  • The spirits (Jinn) eat bones and animal dung. “What about the bone and the animal dung?” He said, “They are of the food of Jinns” ( Volume 5, Book 58, Number 200).
  • Satan may be in your nose. Be sure to practice proper nasal hygiene to dislodge him. “If anyone of you rouses from sleep and performs the ablution, he should wash his nose by putting water in it and then blowing it out thrice, because Satan has stayed in the upper part of his nose all the night” (Volume 4, Book 54, Number 516).
  • Fevers are caused by the fire of hell. The proper treatment is cold water. “The Prophet said, ‘Fever is from the heat of the (Hell) Fire, so cool it with water'” (Volume 4, Book 54, Number 485).
  • Satan may urinate in your ear if you sleep through prayer. “A person was mentioned before the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and he was told that he had kept on sleeping till morning and had not got up for the prayer. The Prophet said, ‘Satan urinated in his ears'” (Volume 2, Book 21, Number 245).
  • When passing through a cemetery, Muhammad knew that one of the dead was in hell because the deceased had gotten urine on himself. “Indeed, one of them never saved himself from being soiled with his urine” (Volume 1, Book 4, Number 215).
  • While getting your own urine on yourself is terribly sinful, drinking a mixture of camel milk and urine is a good treatment for getting used to a new climate. “Some people of ‘Ukl or ‘Uraina tribe came to Medina and its climate did not suit them. So the Prophet ordered them to go to the herd of (Milch) camels and to drink their milk and urine (as a medicine)” (Volume 1, Book 4, Number 234).

There is no shortage of these silly writings; this is not anywhere near an exhaustive list. These teachings speak for themselves. How can any Muslim believe that Muhammad is a prophet of God after learning of these teachings? Is there any possible defense?

Maybe the saddest saying I ran across was this one: “By Allah, though I am the Apostle of Allah, yet I do not know what Allah will do to me” (Volume 5, Book 58, Number 266). If Muhammad doesn’t know where he’ll spend eternity, no Muslim can. This is a stark contrast with Christianity. The Bible says that we can know for certain that we are born again as children of God (Romans 8:16), and have assurance of eternity in heaven (1 John 5:13).

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Missing the Messiah

The majority of Jews do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Even though they are God’s chosen people, the Bible tells us that many will miss the Messiah: “For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days” (Hosea 3:4–5).

At the dedication of the first temple (2 Chronicles 7:1–3), the glory of the LORD filled the holy building; fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifices. The priests couldn’t even enter into the temple. It must have been an amazing sight, but what happened at the second temple was to be even more glorious.

The prophet Haggai says, “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty” (Haggai 2:6–9).

This prophecy was fulfilled when God in the flesh (Jesus Christ) came to the temple and taught the people, offered Himself as the spotless Lamb on Passover, and offered the first fruits of resurrection when he rose from the dead on the day of the Festival of Firstfruits. He brought peace with God through the forgiveness of sins. There is no other explanation for how the glory of the second temple could have been greater than the glory of the first. Either the Messiah came to the second temple, or He’ll never come. The second temple has been destroyed, but what happened there was more glorious than what took place at the first temple.

Even though many Jewish people are oblivious to their Messiah, they are a light to the Gentiles to bring salvation to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6). Through the offspring of David, billions of people worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Hosea 3:4–5 has already been partially fulfilled, and some day soon it will be fulfilled in its entirety—when the Israelites “will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.”

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Poignant Commentary from James White

In my Bible study this morning, we discussed what we should be praying for Barack Obama. It turned into an hour long discussion, and it seemed we arrived at many of the same conclusions that James White has arrived at in this 18 minute video.

America is very materialistic. The people of this country need to decide whether they are going to trust God or mammon. It seems that many times God, in His grace, slowly removes all our options, until we are forced to choose His way. If He has to destroy everyone’s retirement account to bring one person to faith in Him, that is a small price to pay.

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John MacArthur on Mark Driscoll

John MacArthur

If anyone is interested in understanding John MacArthur’s position on Mark Driscoll you can read about it here, but as far as his position on Piper’s invitation to Driscoll to appear and speak at his 2008 Desiring God Conference…well…only time will tell.

From his December 11th, 2006 article entitled “Grunge Christianity? Counterculture’s Death-Spiral and the Vulgarization of the Gospel” MacArthur well says:

“Worldly preachers seem to go out of their way to put their carnal expertise on display—even in their sermons. In the name of connecting with “the culture” they want their people to know they have seen all the latest programs on MTV; familiarized themselves with all the key themes of “South Park”; learned the lyrics to countless tracks of gangsta rap and heavy metal music; and watched who-knows-how-many R-rated movies. They seem to know every fad top to bottom, back to front, and inside out. They’ve adopted both the style and the language of the world—including lavish use of language that used to be deemed inappropriate in polite society, much less in the pulpit. They want to fit right in with the world, and they seem to be making themselves quite comfortable there.

Mark Driscoll is one of the best-known representatives of that kind of thinking. He is a very effective communicator—a bright, witty, clever, funny, insightful, crude, profane, deliberately shocking, in-your-face kind of guy. His soteriology is exactly right, but that only makes his infatuation with the vulgar aspects of contemporary society more disturbing.

Driscoll ministers in Seattle, birthplace of “grunge” music and heart of the ever-changing subculture associated with that movement. Driscoll’s unique style and idiom might aptly be labeled “post-grunge.” His language—even in his sermons—is deliberately crude. He is so well known for using profane language that in Blue Like Jazz (p. 133), Donald Miller (popular author and icon of the “Emerging Church” movement, who speaks of Driscoll with the utmost admiration) nicknamed him “Mark the Cussing Pastor.”

I don’t know what Driscoll’s language is like in private conversation, but I listened to several of his sermons. To be fair, he didn’t use the sort of four-letter expletives most people think of as cuss words—nothing that might get bleeped on broadcast television these days. Still, it would certainly be accurate to describe both his vocabulary and his subject matter at times as tasteless, indecent, crude, and utterly inappropriate for a minister of Christ. In every message I listened to, at least once he veered into territory that ought to be clearly marked off limits for the pulpit.”

See part two by clicking here.