The thick pollutions of thine abominable [Roman Catholic] church forbid the idea of descent from any apostle but the traitor Judas.
– Charles Spurgeon
1834 – 1892
Apologetics
John MacArthur on James 2:20.
The following is a question regarding James 2:20, and John MacArthur’s answer.
Question
Please explain James 2:20, “…that faith without works is dead.”
Answer
“But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” What does this mean: “Faith without works is dead”? Does this mean that to be saved we have to do works? Well let’s find out.
Back up, verse 14. We have got to get the context. “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?”
Now what he is saying, James, that’s why Marten Luther said that the Book of James was a right strawy [something of little value] epistle, he didn’t like it, because it kind of fouled up his doctrine of justification by faith. But that is only because he didn’t study it in deep detail to see what was really being said.
What does the Bible teach about salvation? Abraham was justified by works? Romans four, is that what it says? “Abraham was justified by what…? “Faith.” Abraham was not justified by works. Romans chapter three says, “No man is justified by works. By the deeds of the law shall…” what? “No flesh be justified,” none. There is no way that we can be justified. In Romans 3:28, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” Salvation is by faith, not by works. Galatians chapter three tells us the same thing, that you cannot be justified by works, you cannot be saved by what you do, in terms of deeds. He says, “…they that are of faith,” Galatians 3:9, “are blessed with faithful Abraham.” It’s all a matter of faith. The man that is justified, he says in verse 11, “But no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, … The just shall live by faith.” Now the Bible teaches that you are saved by faith, well you say that what in the world is James saying?
Can faith save him? James is looking at this from the stand point of evaluation. He is looking at a man who says, “I have faith!” And he is saying, all right if you have true saving faith then I ought to see some evidence of it, right? “By their fruits you shall…” what? “…know them.”
He is simply saying, if your faith is genuine then it’s going to manifest itself. “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation, old thing are passed away and behold all things become…” what? “…new.” There is going to be a manifestation. And so he says, what kind of faith have you got my friend, I don’t see any evidence?
For example, he says, “If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you who claims to have saving faith says depart in peace be warm and filled.” Just what he needs. Condolence. Hope you feel better, hope you find some food. But you don’t give him the things needful to the body, what kind of faith is that? If you’re really saved it’s going to be a working kind of salvation that will bear fruit. That’s all he’s saying. So, in verse seventeen, “…so faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead, because it’s alone.” So it’s a dead faith not a living faith. If “a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works; show me your faith without your works, and I’ll show you my faith by my works.” And he contrasts two kinds of faith.
One kind of faith is the faith that doesn’t have any works and it is dead faith and the other faith is the faith that produces something and its living faith. One saves and one doesn’t. That’s what he is saying, “Oh,” but he says “I believe, I believe,” “Yeah,” he says, “The devils believe and they tremble.” It’s not enough to believe unless that believing results in an act of commitment to Christ that results in a changed life that bears fruit. That’s his whole point.
Top 10 signs you’re not reading your Bible.
Quotes (786)
A few years ago the Moral Majority was the rage. The expressed goals of the group appealed to fundamentalists who were against pornography, homosexuality, and abortion and were for restoring morality, strengthening defense, and opposing communism. Why not join in? Answer: It would not practice biblical separation. Any fundamentalist knows that we are a minority. The world’s way is always to win with a majority. Stop to think for a moment. Can you name any time in Scripture where God followed that policy? . . . The battles of Scripture were always won by an obedient minority, not a diverse majority.
– John Ashbrook
Another ten (very) quick questions for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
You’ve seen Ten (very) quick questions for Jehovah’s Witnesses and you’ve also enjoyed Ten more (very) quick questions for Jehovah’s Witnesses. Well here’s the next installment:
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Reinventing themselves . . . once again.
Ever-reinventing and re-polishing themselves till they get it right, the LDS church is back at the drawing board once again. This news article from BNet highlights the latest product of the LDS propaganda machine: Pathetic pandering to the culture.
Notice how he claims the LDS church “teaches good principles?” Since when do “good principles” save a man? Did you also notice how he said the LDS church makes a bad person good and a good person better? This is just further proof that this organization doesn’t preach the Gospel, nor even remotely understands it. True Biblical Christianity does not make a bad person good and a good person better, it takes a dead man and makes him alive; it takes an enemy of God and makes him an heir.
But being a cult does have its benefits though, because since truth to a Mormon is subjective and ever-changing, what was “truth” yesterday, is now relegated to:
We have new revelation.
We don’t teach that anymore.
We don’t believe that anymore.
That was just that prophet’s personal opinion.
You’ve taken that LDS teaching out of context.
A new prophet supersedes anything a previous prophet says.
You misunderstood what the LDS church was trying to say back then.
Just try to nail us down on something, you’d have better results trying to nail Jello-O to the wall.
In other words, “forget what our history and our doctrine say, this is what we want you to think of us now.”
HT: UTLM.org via Facebook
Sermon of the week: “The War Against Your Soul” by Rick Holland.
“Do the people around you see you as an alien or stranger or do they see you just like them? Same affections, same lives, same movies, same dress, same-same?”
The above quote comes from your sermon of the week by Rick Holland entitled The War Against Your Soul.
Quotes (784)
People seem to forget that all Christ’s sufferings on the cross were fore-ordained. They did not come on Him by chance or accident—they were all planned, counseled, and determined from all eternity. The cross was foreseen in all the provisions of the everlasting Trinity for the salvation of sinners. In the purposes of God the cross was set up from everlasting. Not one throb of pain did Jesus feel, not one precious drop of blood did Jesus shed, which had not been appointed long ago. Infinite wisdom planned that redemption should be by the cross. Infinite wisdom brought Jesus to the cross in due time. He was crucified “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. (Acts 2:23)”
– J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
Fake healer, Mark Haville, reveals the secrets.
Quotes (782)
Where the Holy Ghost is, there will always be the habit of earnest private prayer. . . . He that knows nothing of real, living, fervent private prayer, and is content with some old form, or with no prayer at all, is dead before God. He has not the Spirit of Christ!
– J. C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
Sermon of the week “Creation, Day 5” by John MacArthur.
Your sermon of the week is Creation, Day 5 by John MacArthur from his series The Battle for the Beginning. We’ve been featuring this series every other Thursday. The next installment will be in two weeks.
Cultoons: A dying man on a Mormon’s doorstep.
DefCon is pleased to introduce its first ever Cultoon. If the dialogue in this Cultoon sounds familiar, it was loosely derived from an actual debate featured on this previous post. Enjoy.
Quotes (779)
I fear that we have lost our way. Christianity has become so marginal in our culture that even those who claim allegiance to Christ have very little to show for it in terms of time and commitment.
– Voddie Baucham
Praise music like you’ve never heard before.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when I say “I think I’m going to throw up?” If you said “kids praise music,” then you must have listened to the Crazy Praize Volume 3 CD. The back of this kids praise CD boasts:
I think I’m gonna throw up. (I know what you’re thinking . . . is this really a praise song?) Of course it is . . . It’s Crazy Praize! (I think I’m gonna throw up – my hands and praise the Lord.) The third volume in this very popular series of wacky praise songs for kids features ten new songs, with equally silly motions guaranteed to produce giggles and guffaws every time. Great for kids worship times, or anytime, these songs are not only fun, but they’re loaded with Scriptural truth to reinforce the message of God’s love and grace in the hearts of children – young and old.
Why “of course” it’s praise music. We’ve been redefining what Christianity is for years, why just stop at doctrine? Why not redefine what praising God means too?
Welcome to Western Christianity where we pull out all the stops to make false converts of kids and inoculate them from the true gospel for the rest of their lives. A world where black is now white, up is now down, hot is now cold, dry is now wet, and juvenile potty humor is now “praising God.” A world where this type of foolishness is quickly becoming the norm, and those who still try to hold to a reverence for God are quickly and summarily dismissed as legalists, judgmental, and Pharisees. Woe unto us.
Here’s the video to the song (with lyrics). Oh, and even if you can’t make it through the whole three minutes of this song “loaded with Scriptural truth,” be sure to listen to the last ten seconds to really get the feel of “crazy praize.”
This trash is so bad that it makes Rick Pino’s music (see here and here) appear like actual praise and worship.
I’m interested to hear from anyone who has or is using this for their children.
Progressive Creamy Theology Soup.
Sometimes the most scathing indictment of the current condition of the church in America comes to us on the wings of clever sarcasm.
An attendee reports on the Cornerstone “Christian” music festival.
When you think of a summer-time Christian music festivals, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
Well, if you said zombies, you hit the nail on the head (sadly).
For those of you who would have never guessed zombies, and have no idea what zombies have to do with Christianity, then you evidently missed the Cornerstone Christian music festival and you’ll have to check out the article I’ve linked to below to understand what in the world I’m talking about.
We at DefCon have taken a beating time and time again whenever the subject of music comes up when we dare to question the type (and utter idolization) of music that has infiltrated the church and captivated this generation of professing Christians.
Perhaps what took place at the Cornerstone Christian music festival is simply one of those inevitable conclusions some of us have been sounding the warning about. Whatever it is, it should cause us to step back and re-evaluate what we allow to entertain us.
You will be utterly shocked at the report (and accompanying videos) of what this person experienced at a music festival operating under the guise of “Christian.” It seems that nowadays, we–and not God and His Word–define what “Christian” is (and anyone who dares question it best be ready for a fight).
If this music festival is what a generation of youth groups and contemporary Christian rock music has brought us to, I shudder to think of what American Christianity will look like in another ten years.
Brace yourself: Here’s A Reader’s Experience at the Cornerstone Festival from Apprising Ministries.
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ADDENDUM
Lest some are persuaded to believe that the writer of the Apprising Ministries article (and this DefCon post) are casting aspersions and making judgments on the music festival based on a one-sided view, I offer for your consideration the following videos produced by the Cornerstone festival which should provide a better, all-around, perspective:
Zombies! What band will make it?
Adventures with Allan (2009)
Adventures with Allan (2010)
Seminars: Eric Greene Interview
Quotes (777)
Worldly Christians, remember this. You and the world must part, or else assurance [of salvation] and your souls will never meet.
– Thomas Brooks
1608 – 1680
The ten signs of a flesh-pleaser.
by Richard Baxter
The signs of a flesh-pleaser or sensualist are these:
1. When a man in his desire to please his appetite, does not do it with a view to a higher end, that is to say to the preparing himself for the service of God; but does it only for the delight itself. (Of course no one does every action conciously with a view to the service of God. Nevertheless, the general manner or habit of a life spent in the service of God is absent for the flesh-pleaser.)
2. When he looks more eagerly and industriously after the prosperity of his body than of his soul.
3. When he will not refrain from his pleasures, when God forbids them, or when they hurt his soul, or when the necessities of his soul call him away from them. But he must have his delight whatever it costs him, and is so set upon it, that he cannot deny it to himself.
4. When the pleasures of his flesh exceed his delights in God, and his holy word and ways, and the expectations of endless pleasure. And this not only in the passion, but in the estimation, choice, and action. When he had rather be at a play, or feast, or other entertainment, or getting good bargains or profits in the world, than to live in the life of faith and love, which would be a holy and heavenly way of living.
5. When men set their minds to scheme and study to make provision for the pleasures of the flesh; and this is first and sweetest in their thoughts.
6. When they had rather talk, or hear, or read of fleshly pleasures, than of spiritual and heavenly delights.
7. When they love the company of merry sensualists, better than the communion of saints, in which they may be exercised in the praises of their Maker.
8. When they consider that the best place to live and work is where they have the pleasure of the flesh. They would rather be where they have things easy, and lack nothing for the body, rather than where they have far better help and provision for the soul, though the flesh be pinched for it.
9. When he will be more eager to spend money to please his flesh than to please God.
10. When he will believe or like no doctrine but “easy-believism,” and hate mortification as too strict “legalism.” By these, and similar signs, sensuality may easily be known; indeed, by the main bent of the life.
Quotes (776)
The stream of professing Christianity is far wider than it formerly was, and I am afraid we must admit, at the same time, it is much less deep.
– J. C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
Quotes (775)
Christian homes look too much like the world around [them]: the same roles for parents, the same schools, the same entertainment, the same divorce statistics—is it any wonder that our nation is in decline?
– Philip Lancaster
Christ Alone Wyoming 