Blogging

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Are Americans Getting Comfortable With Immorality?

Interesting article by the Christian Post on the state of America’s morality. Here’s a sample from the article:

“You would never know by watching American television that 61 percent of Americans say religion is very important in their lives.”

For Philbin, one message in particular that the media is continuously throwing at Americans is that of affirming homosexuality and gay marriage.

A poll released by Gallup last week found that for the first time since 1996, more than half of Americans say marriage for gays and lesbians should be legal.

Philbin clarifies the data as the result of Americans being brow-beaten through various forms of media and being constantly sent a message that says “you’re wrong, now change your view.”

“I think frankly Americans are just tired of getting beat up over their resistance to it,” he explained. “I think that at a certain point cultural fatigue sets in and you get tired of being told that you’re backward, being told you’re puritan troglodyte (a caveman) and a homophobe who hates people. So you shrug and say, ‘yea, I’m for it’ and go about your business.”

Civilization, he lamented, is headed in a direction that devalues the family unit.

“If a family is just a group of people cohabitating or pooling resources, and ceases to be the very basis and building block of society, I think you’re in a sort of moral quicksand where things lose meaning,” Philbin cautioned.

Read the entire article here.

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Married couples are now in the minority of households.

From the Associated Press:

“The data supports that, as the Census Bureau reported last year that opposite-sex unmarried couples living together jumped 13 percent from 2009 to 7.5 million. . . . And attitudes on marriage are changing, too. About 39 percent of Americans say marriage is becoming obsolete, according to a Pew Research Center study published in November, up from 28 percent in 1978.”

Read the entire article here.

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Sermon of the week: “The Shockwave of the Gospel” by Akash Sant Singh.

Your sermon of the week is one you won’t want to miss. In The Shockwave of the Gospel, Pastor Akash Sant Singh steps on toes and pulls no punches as he explains that in order to impact our family, friends, neighbors, community, city, nation, and world for Christ, we must:

1). Love the Gospel

2). Preach the Gospel

3). Live a life that’s consistent with the Gospel.


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Pay no attention the the government education professionals behind the curatin.

Here is a quote from a great article by Bruce Shortt writing for WorldNet Daily:

“Of course, evidence of catastrophic educational failure is always dismissed by highly trained education professionals by alternately screeching ‘socio-economic status’ and ‘demographics.’ These phrases are the education establishment’s equivalent of squid’s ink: When cornered by inconvenient facts, shouts of ‘socio-economic status’ and ‘demographics’ usually allow highly trained education professionals to create confusion and slip away quietly from embarrassing revelations about what they have done to the children entrusted to them.”

Read the entire article here.

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Apologizing for believing a lie.

According to this article, an African pastor has apologized for believing and furthering Harold Camping’s false prophecy:

A pastor in Kasese District, who claimed the world would end on May 21, has apologised to residents. Pastor Isaac Muhindo, who has since early last year been moving around the district, spreading his doomsday massage, [sic] said he was ashamed of his act.

“I want to apologise to the people of Kasese and whoever heard my messages about the end of the world. I am very sorry for the inconveniences because I followed false prophets,” Pastor Muhindo said on Wednesday in his message sent to the media.

Many people in the district and the country at large spent the whole of Saturday waiting for the end of the world as presumed by Pastor Herold Camping, a California-based evangelist.

Camping’s followers had told people that at 6pm there would be an earthquake that would cause the world to end and usher in Judgment Day.

Repentance
Pastor Muhindo said: “I am ready to go back to my church and repent for misleading the people of God and I am now going to follow the scriptures seriously without wrong interpretations.”

Last year, Pastor Muhindo was denied airtime at most local radio stations in Kasese to preach his alleged end of the world on May 21.

Panic gripped some people in Kasese after the predicted doomsday was characterised by a heavy downpour that started at 2pm and ended after 7pm.

Ms Gertrude Masika, a shopkeeper in Kasese town, said she did not open her shop on May 21 out of fear that the world would end.

“I thought even customers could not come on that day and I decided to remain home because customers were unlikely to appear as they waited to see the end of the world,” she said.

Sadly, America has exported many of its homegrown cults to places such as Africa, and Harold Camping is no exception.

Thanks to the Africa Center for Apologetics Research for keeping us apprised of this news.

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Quotes (883)

I notice that many here do not like the term “heretic.” There seems to be agreement that one must deny certain doctrines “essential to salvation” in order to be a heretic. This is very new thinking. Look, for example, at the definition in Webster’s Dictionary (1828):

1. A person under any religion, but particularly the Christian, who holds and teaches opinions repugnant to the established faith, or that which is made the standard of orthodoxy. In strictness, among Christians, a person who holds and avows religious opinions contrary to the doctrines of Scripture, the only rule of faith and practice.

2. Anyone who maintains erroneous opinions.

Hence, those ideas that elevate the standard by which one is considered heretical are actually a product of modern political correctness. I do, however, understand that our modern, feminized, extremely sensitive sensibilities are offended by name-calling of any kind (except the names we call insensitive, unkind “heresy hunters”), but that doesn’t change the fact that the term is accurate. In fact we are all “heretics” in some point of doctrine or other. That’s why we continue to search the Scriptures daily. I don’t know about you, but I desire to correct my heresies, not soften the blow by raising the bar so that I never feel the sting of the offensive title.

– Voddie Baucham

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A new approach to evangelism and apologetics?

We’ve all experienced how Mormon apologists play the victim card anytime the truth about their organization and prophets are revealed:

“You’re picking on us.”

“You’re just anti-Mormon.”

“We never attack anyone’s faith like you do.”

“We have better things to do than attack other people’s faith like you.”

Well, apparently some Christian evangelists have taken these LDS accusations (as false as they are) to heart and have “cleverly” decided to tackle the soul-damning errors of this false religious system with a new and much more soft, cuddly, warm, and fuzzy approach.

Although this hug-evangelism is in retaliation to certain street preachers who they think are too mean, the “hugs not thugs” campaign is completely devoid of the gospel. Read more about this at Evidence Ministries

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Perpetual spiritual infancy.

The Christian life is supposed to be one marked by sanctification and spiritual growth, but far too many in church–after years of being a Christian–are no further along in their faith than day one. Essentially they are still nursing on milk when they should be eating meat.

Churches too often make excuses for this lack of fruit in the lives of the masses of professing believers that fill pews on any given Sunday. Others simply pronounce “Judge not” if anyone dares to point out the problem.
But what if we could capture a glimpse of what this would look like in the physical realm? What if we could see with our eyes what this perpetual spiritual infancy looks like?

Wonder mo more. The man in this video could be the poster child for the average American churchgoer.

See related post: Gerber’s New Christian Baby Food

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Quotes (881)

When we consider the very being of God, we find ourselves so far from the true knowledge of it that we cannot come up with the right words and expressions. As we seek to meditate in our minds and frame thoughts about God as we do about other objects of thinking, we fall so far short that we make an idol in our mind and worship a god of our own making, and not the true God that has made us. We may as well hew Him out of wood or stone as form Him as a being in our minds, suited to our imaginations. The best thoughts of the being of God are ones in which we realize that we cannot truly comprehend Him as He is.

– John Owen

1616 – 1683

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Quotes (880)

Samuel Annesley We naturally love our ease, and would have nothing befall us that is grievous to flesh and blood; and gracious persons pray and strive to prevent and remove afflictions. But yet the experience of all, good and bad, in all ages of the world, proclaims this upon the housetops, that more have got good by afflictions than by being without them. . . . There is more danger in freedom from affliction than we are willing to suspect; and it is more difficult to love and fear and trust God when we have the world, than when we want it. . . . Why, then, is an afflicted condition to be preferred? Some that have had experience of both say that they have been afraid to be without their afflictions.

– Samuel Annesley

1620 – 1696

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Sermon of the week: “Evaluating Youth Ministry – An Abolitionist’s View ” by Voddie Baucham.

Are you a YMA (youth ministry abolitionist)? Perhaps after  listening to this sermon by Voddie Baucham, entitled  Evaluating Youth Ministry: An Abolitionist’s View, you too will join the growing ranks of those who are abandoning the train wreck known as youth ministry and return to a family integrated model of biblical worship.

In this message delivered at the 2009 Sufficiency of Scripture Conference, Voddie outlines his three main objections to youth ministry as:

1). Age-segregated youth ministry usurps legitimate authority and responsibility.

2). Age-segregated youth ministry has not accomplished its own stated goals.

3). There is no clear biblical mandate for the current model of age-segregated youth ministry; it simply doesn’t exist. We don’t have our current model of age-segregated youth ministry because we went to the Bible and the Bible showed us clearly that this is how discipleship ought to be accomplished.

If you’re looking for additional information on the utter failure of (and the lack of any biblical teaching, example or precedent for) youth ministry, then check out the following sampling:

My thoughts on youth ministry and Vacation Bible School

Who’s pastoring the youth pastors?

The state of the youth of the church.

Youth ministry: A “50-year failed experiment.”

Why evangelism is so difficult in the United States.

Peanut butter salvation and other stupid church tricks.

Why does everything have to be dumbed down for kids?

The Gospel is supposed to be the stumbling block and offense, not our behavior.

Another church sanctuary turned into a stage for a worldly dance exhibition.



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May 21, 2011 . . . much to do about nothing.

Since Harold Camping is once again predicting Judgment Day to arrive on a specific day (a day that even the Son does not know), I figured I’d turn on Family Radio this past Monday to see how those expecting the world to end in less than a week would spend their valuable air time.

Besides playing a lot of music, they had a vignette on how to help your children to stop focusing on the needs of today and instead look further into the future at bigger things like college and career, and they even had a radio appeal for more financial donors to help keep the radio station broadcasting.

I found all that to be very odd. Less than a week before the demise of the world and Family Radio is worried about finances to keep the station on the air and concerned about telling you how to get your kids to focus on their future?

Did I miss something?

And then there was the music. I don’t know about you, but if I knew that Christ was returning for His bride in less than a week, I’d be using the airways to deliver the Gospel message of repentance and faith, not playing music.

I wonder why the nonchalant approach toward such an impending day of doom. Do they not even take themselves seriously?

Could Christ return on May 21, 2011? Absolutely, for He told us to keep watch because He will indeed return. But not only did He say that no man knows the time of His return (Matthew 24:36), He also said He will come at an hour when we least expect Him (Luke 12:40).

ABC News has a piece on some Atheists who are taking this Sunday’s event more serious than Camping’s own radio station, even if it’s only to line their own pockets with the money of the gullible. Here’s a quote from the article:

Wondering about the fate of your pets after Judgment Day?
Well, for $135, a loving atheist will care for your animal if you’re not around anymore.

Eternal Earthbound Pets offers a service to rescue and take care of pets once their owners have been taken away to the heavenly realms.  Though doomsayers say this Saturday will be the latest day of reckoning that’s not expected to leave animals behind either.

Bart Centre of New Hampshire, co-owner of the pet business, launched it in June 2009. He has zero belief in Judgment Day, but began to see an increase in sales inquiries in December, which, he believes, is related to Family Radio’s heavy marketing campaign around the May 21 date.

The retired retail executive said he has sold 258 contracts so far.

ABC News also has a brief piece by Calvin Lawrence Jr. (reprinted below) on past judgment days that have come and gone, including predictions by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Chuck Smith (yes, the Chuck Smith of the Calvary Chapel™ franchise).

No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

The Bible couldn’t be clearer, right there in the Book of Matthew: chapter 24, verse 36.

But doomsayers have sworn since at least Roman times that they’re better sourced than the angels themselves, boldly trotting out predictions down to the day for the Final Judgment, when, Christians believe, Jesus will descend to earth and set off a chain of events resulting in the end of the world and a new heaven.

May 21, 2011, is the latest attempt to get a jump on Judgment Day, courtesy of Oakland, Calif.-based Family Radio, a nonprofit evangelical Christian group. And, assuming we’re all here to follow up, it will make a nice addition on May 22 to this random list of predicted Second Comings we’ve survived so far.

1. Let’s start with Family Radio, whose president, Harold Camping, predicted the End of Days before: Sept. 6, 1994. Camping had been “thrown off a correct calculation because of some verses in Matthew 24,” a company spokesman told ABC News this month.

The Christian radio broadcaster is apparently more confident this time around, spending big bucks on 5,000 billboards, posters, fliers and digital bus displays across the country.

2. Edgar Whisenant didn’t get it right the first time, either, when he predicted a mid-September 1988 Rapture, even publishing the books “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988” and “On Borrowed Time.” No Apocalypse, no problem. The former NASA engineer simply pushed his predictions off to three subsequent years and wrote books along the way, none of which reportedly sold as well as the first two.

He died in 2001. We’re unable to confirm where he’s awaiting the big day.

3. Jehovah’s Witnesses first anticipated the end of times in 1914, now noting on their official website that “not all that was expected to happen in 1914 did happen, but it did mark the end of the Gentile Times and was a year of special significance.”

4. In the century before, renowned New England Baptist minister William Miller triggered what ultimately became known as the “great disappointment” after his failed prophesies that Christ would return sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844, and then on Oct. 22, 1844.

5. More recently, Pastor John Hinkle of Christ Church Los Angeles told a Trinity Broadcasting Network audience that the “most cataclysmic experience that the world has ever known since the Resurrection … is going to happen,” according to the Christian Research Institute, which is home to “Bible Answer Man.”

Hinkle said God, “in the most awesome voice,” told him that “on Thursday, June the ninth [1994], I will rip the evil out of this world.”

You might have missed it, however, because the prophesy came to pass invisibly, he said, according to the Christian Research Institute.

6. Chuck Smith, the prolific author and senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in California, turned to scripture and simple math to prepare his flock for the Tribulation. “If I understand Scripture correctly, Jesus taught us that the generation which sees he ‘budding of the fig tree,’ the birth of the nation Israel, will be the generation that see the Lords return,” he wrote in his book “End Times” (1978). “I believe that the generation 1948 is the last generation. Since a generation of judgment is forty years and the Tribulation period lasts seven years, I believe the Lord could come back for His Church any time before the Tribulation starts, which would mean any time before 1981. (1948+40-7=1981).”

“I could be wrong,” he wrote in “Future Survival” (1978), “but it’s a deep conviction in my heart, and all my plans are predicated upon that belief.”

Smith was wrong and has not only abandoned his prophesying ways but since has looked askance at others who have gone down that road.

“The Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, thought the world was sure to end in 1914,” Smith wrote in his book “Dateline Earth: Countdown to Eternity” (1989). “When it didn’t happen, they merely moved the date up a few years.”

7. The prophetic-sounding year 2000 inspired too many doomsday predictions to list here. Suffice it to say that, in hindsight, there was really no need to party like it was 1999.

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The Jesus of the Bible compared with the Jesus of Mormonism.

A former Mormon–one who came to a saving knowledge of the true, biblical Christ–penned the following piece found at Mormon Coffee:

This is the Christ of Mormonism:

1. He lives as a humanoid god on a star near Kolob along with his father god, bound by the physical world; he does not transcend the material.
2. He is the brother of satan.
3. He had to earn his own salvation while he was on earth.
4. He offers his “grace” only to those who work hard enough.
5. He is not from everlasting to everlasting, but was created a finite time ago by his father god, who in turn was also created by his own father god, who in turn was created by his own father god, so on and so forth
6. He is not the greatest being possible.
7. He is finite.
8. His blood is not powerful enough to wipe away any sin.
9. He aided his father in creating earth by organizing already existing matter; he is not capable of creating things out of nothing.
10. He must submit to a moral law that existed before he did.
11. You can one day become just like him.

This is the Christ of the Bible:

1. He is a spirit being that transcends space and time.
2. He is the brother of no creature; He is God, from everlasting to everlasting. No one can claim kinship with Him except those He purchased for Himself on the cross. And He is not the same type of creature they are. He is not a creature, He is God.
3. Jesus is the Author of Salvation; to say that He needed to earn His salvation is absurdity.
4. He offers His sovereign grace to whomever He sovereignly chooses; we are all tainted by sin and vile in His holy eyes. Therefore, no one is more worthy than any other human being. Thus, His grace that He offers is given unconditionally. His grace is true grace, a beautiful gift.
5. He is from everlasting to everlasting. He was never created, and Has been in relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever.
6. He is the greatest being possible, the Most High God. There is no one like Him and there is no one who will ever be anything like Him.
7. He is infinite, both in essence and in His divine perfections.
8. His blood is powerful enough to wipe away any sin, regardless of heinousness and duration. The only sin that cannot be forgive is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost; and this is not because the blood of Christ is not powerful enough to wash it away, but because God has so sovereignly decreed that all persons who blaspheme the Holy Ghost should not receive forgiveness.
9. He created everything that exists out of nothing by the mere word of His mouth.
10. There is no external law that He submits to; He is the Author and the Source of the Law.
11. No one can ever come near to obtaining the glory and excellency of Christ.

For another article comparing the true Jesus of Scripture to that of the many counterfeit Christs of the false cults and religions, see Which Jesus Do You Worship?

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Quotes (877)

We do not act as the salt of the earth or shine as the light of the world by necessarily denouncing the sins of our worldly associates. Our own holy life will serve as a sufficient rebuke. And our interest in others at this point is not their conduct, but their need of Jesus Christ as their savior.

– Jerry Bridges

(From: The Pursuit of Holiness)