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Jesse Duplantis does his best Chubby Checker impression.

For those who have never suffered under the bondage of the Word of Faith extension of the Charasmatic movement (that I and many others have been delivered from) you need to know that it’s not all about naming it and claiming it, begging for money, speaking in tongues, being slain in the spirit, (fake) healings, (false) prophecies, and dancing in the aisles; sometimes they actually teach from the Bible . . . and that’s when it really gets scary.

In the following clip Jesse Duplantis shamelessly ‘twists‘ Scripture to make God look less knowledgeable and powerful than He is, and conversely makes man look more knowledgeable and powerful than he is. (Those who have come out of this heretical movement know all too well that these wolves are infamous for bringing God down and raising man up.)

In a nutshell this is four minutes of absolute foolishness and is a perfect example of awful hermeneutics and complete biblical illiteracy. But hey, he sure does tickle ears, doesn’t he?

Thanks to DefCon reader Shane for alerting me to this video clip.

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Quotes (553)

Puritans The sinners of a nation are really the weakness of it. . . . Wicked men are they that betray nations and kingdoms, expose them to God’s wrath, and subject them to His judgments. Did Noah bring the flood upon the old world? Or did the wicked do it by their wickedness? Did Lot bring down fire from Heaven upon Sodom? Or did the Sodomites do it by their own lewdness? Did Jeremiah by his preaching, . . . and those few other godly in Jerusalem by their praying and weeping and mourning, bring on the captivity of that people? Or did not the people themselves, by their idolatry, their profaneness, their swearing, their Sabbath-breaking, their polluting God’s ordinances, their shedding innocent blood, etc.?

– John Collins

1632 – 1687

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Happy 4th of July: Islamic “tolerance” in the United States of America.

There used to be a time when we dismissed the threat of the spread of Islam as something that happens “over there” in other countries. Not anymore.

I urge you to take the time to watch the following five videos. Freedom of speech is apparently a one way street in the Muslim capital of the United States–Dearborn, Michigan.

This is an unbelievable encounter as the situation heats up because someone dares to ask a question.

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

This is the question that started the confrontation.

FIVE

And this is the reaction to the question.

Source: Acts 17 Apologetics and Answering Muslims

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Crosstalk: Ken Silva on Richard Abanes.

On this CrossTalk episode, Free Speech for Bloggers, Ingrid interviews Ken Silva on the Richard Abanes controversy.

From Crosstalk’s show description:

Pastor Ken Silva is founder of Apprising Ministries, which states as its purpose, “to provide sound reasons to believe in Jesus, the Christ as well as to defend the faith once delivered unto the saints from enemy attacks within the Church and from without.” Ken’s ministry seeks to aid local churches to be faithful to sound doctrine and to contend for the faith. Ken is author of a number of articles critiquing many of the disturbing trends of the modern church. The articles are posted at http://apprising.org/. Ken also contributes columns at Christian World Network and is editor of the Christian Research Network.

Free speech is increasingly being threatened on the Internet, as the exploding number of blog sites that provide an outlet for opinions and interaction with readers has caused some to try to silence those with whom they disagree.

Traditionally, blog sites that invite comments often create a lively exchange that if not administered properly, can get out of hand, in language, innuendo, and even vicious attacks. Many blogs allow this to continue, while others try to maintain more civility.

But in this case, the response by one individual, Richard Abanes, who is a strong supporter of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven ministry, took the battle to a whole new level. Instead of simply stating his disagreement with statements by Ken Silva, he accused him of slander in an article written by Ken three years ago. Wiithout trying to work directly with Ken Silva, Abanes contacted the hosting company to demand that the article be removed. The web host, IPower, sent Ken an email demanding that the article be taken down within 48 hours or his site would be taken down. Due to the troubling precedent this sets in the blog world, this incident has also become a hot topic of conversation online.

Free speech is coming under increasing attack, and the “Wild West” environment of the Internet is now becoming the target of those would would want to control it–from individuals, to government regulators. Many more details are included in this program.

http://apprising.org/ is now back online, and is a good place to start to learn what Ken Silva is all about, and what has been happening to him and his site.

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Happy 100,000th.

Today DefCon received its 100,000th hit since its inception on April 15th, (three and a half months ago). I want to thank all the faithful readers who have helped us reach this milestone, and I want to thank the contributors that have been faithful to the cause of defending truth and contending for the faith.

To mark this celebration I’ve changed the appearance of DefCon. I think the new look is clearer and a little crisper to the eyes. I trust that if you don’t immediately fall in love with it, it will eventually grow on you.

Thanks to all of you for all of your support.

– The Pilgrim


P.S. As you can see, I’m still working on the perfect header. So the header you see now may not be the header you see tomorrow . . . or even ten minutes from now.

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Sad news from Old Truth.

Jim Bublitz of Old Truth has published his last post (for at least a long time) due to his health taking a serious turn for the worst. You can read his last post here. Please keep Jim in prayer as he suffers daily and still has to face incredible struggles in the future.

I fondly remember stumbling upon Jim’s discernment/reformed blog Old Truth just over a year ago, and it encouraged me tremendously. At the time God was doing a work on my heart and was calling me to come out of the circus church. However, I was beginning to think there was something wrong with me because I was surrounded by lukewarm professing Christians who did not hunger and thirst for holiness. Instead, these people only wanted to have their ears tickled by the oh-so-funny pastor and they would get a glazed look in their eyes when I spoke of anything other than superficial trivialities around the pastry table after service. I truly had no one to “fellowship” with.

It was refreshing to come across Jim’s blog and it assured me that–although I was physically without other iron to sharpen iron–the work God was doing in me was real and there were (and are) many others in the Body out there who God has also called out of Churchianity, and we can encourage each other even if we’re on the other side of the world.

Old Truth, along with some other blogs, inspired me to start Reformation Nation and eventually this blog, Defending. Contending. Thanks for all you’ve done Jim!


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Top 10 Responses To Anyone Daring To Point Out False Teachers And Teachings

Having been in the ministry of pointing out false teachers and their false teachings for close to a year now (most of it is on my old blog which I am hoping to port over soon), I have come across some pretty standard responses in the comments of those who say I, and others like myself, have no business doing so.

So I thought, why not do up a Top 10 list of the most common responses to our posts on these false teachers and their teachings? My wife thought it was a good idea, and I’ve also mentioned this to Carol and a new friend I made, John, just this morning over Skype. I hope we can get together to compile our responses to these accusations soon.

Anyhow, since our response to their allegations will be some time coming, here’s my Top 10 list in the meantime. The list is by no means exhaustive, so please feel free to add yours from your experience in dealing with such comments.

10. Touch not God’s anointed! Pastor so-and-so is very much anointed by God!

09. And how many souls did you yourself save this week? Pastor so-and-so had 2,000 conversions just last weekend. Have you ever been able to reach that many yourself?!

08. Quit criticizing preachers and pastors. Get a life with God, man!

07. You’re nothing but a Pharisee/Sadducee.

06. Who are you to judge?! Judge not lest you be judged!

05. Are you a pastor yourself? Any theological training? If not, how dare you think you are interpreting the Bible correctly?

04. Hey! Don’t quench the Spirit!

03. No church or pastor or congregation is perfect, so why nitpick?

02. God wants to bless us financially, with good health and a great life. If you yourself aren’t claiming these promises, don’t be jealous of others!

And the number one response…

Can’t we all just agree to disagree and get along?

Cross-posted from WordnVerse.