Christianity

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Debates: Walter Martin vs Bishop John Spong.

The late Christian Apologist Dr. Walter Martin takes on the heretic Bishop Spong in this fifteen part debate on the topic of morality, homosexuality, and other sexual ethics. The first four videos set the tone for the debate as Spong denies the physical resurrection of Christ and His deity.

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Quorum of the Twelve Apostates.

Sometimes you can find the truth about Mormonism in the most unlikeliest of places.

quorum-of-the-twelve-apostates

HT: What Mormons Don’t Tell

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The problem with American “Christianity” can be summed up by this church ad.

resurrection-adOne of the biggest problems with American “Christianity” and the impetus behind all the entertainment-driven, fad-driven, purpose-driven marketing found in the professing church today can be seen in the tag line of the above church advertisement for Capital Christian Center for this “Easter” weekend.

Albeit subtle, notice the emphasis is not on the Lord Jesus Christ (His death, burial, and resurrection), but it’s on that other god that man loves to worship . . . self.

In this church ad, husband and wife pastoral team Stan and Connie Friend ask, “What needs to be resurrected in your life?”

Huh? What needs to be resurrected in my life? Do those attending church this Sunday need a man-centered, self-improvement info-mercial and a self-help course?

No, no, no! What they need is the professing church to get a backbone and proclaim the Good News to all men that God the Father made Jesus the Son, who knew no sin, to become sin on our behalf, and that it was the only way that an infinitely holy and righteous God could redeem a perpetually depraved and sinful people.

The perfect, spotless, unblemished Lamb of God, Jesus Christ the Savior, was killed, was buried, and was raised again on the third day to rescue sinners from the wrath of God that we so rightly and justly deserve.


Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.

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What is the sermon topic at your church going to be for Resurrection Sunday?

mary-magdalene-tomb It’s a sad sign of the times that a question like that even has to be asked, but such is the way of life in Laodicea, USA.

If you thought last year’s Easter sermon series at New Spring entitled Sex, Money and Power reached a new low, brace yourself for more evangelical apostasy, because nothing says ‘Ichabod’ like the following examples of scheduled sermons to be preached across the tattered landscape of what was once American Christianity.

– If you go to New Spring in South Carolina, this year you’ll be subjected to AC/DC’s Highway to Hell.

– If you go to SOS Church in St. Louis, you will see the message of the Gospel mocked as Jesus is depicted as an extreme cage fighter. They even boast “For the kid fighters, join us in the ring for your own Easter smack down (infant to 12 years)” on their website.

– If you go to North Point Church in Springfield, Missouri, you’ll hear the first sermon in a series entitled “God at the Movies” about the film Slumdog Millionaire in which you’ll get to experience Easter in 3-D.

– If you go to Crosspoint in Alabama, your sermon will be Rockstar: Live Famously.

– If you go to Eastlake in California, your sermon will be something about a man dressed in a rabbit costume singing “I like big butts . . .”.

– If you go to Cross Roads in Indiana, you can “ditch church” this Resurrection Sunday for a party.

– If you go to Discover Church in Ohio, you can enjoy a day filled with an Easter egg hunt, free food, a prize drawing, and you can even meet the Easter Peep.

*** CLARIFICATION: The Easter egg hunt, free food, prize drawing, and the Easter Peep, will all be part of the fun and frivolity on Saturday, not Sunday, at Discover Church. The sermon on Saturday will be about The Cross where you can, “Find out some eye opening facts about the cross and how it is affecting our culture today.” ***

– If you go to Mecklenburg Community Church in North Carolina, you may be asked to ponder this simple question: “What if . . . we make an Easter promo video that excludes any mention of Jesus Christ?”

– If you go to Momentum Church in Georgia, you will be subjected to a mockery of Jesus Christ and a man in a bunny suit punching people for eating chocolate . . . all in one video (which is a complete rip-off of the 6th video in this post)

– If you go to Christ Church in Montgomery, Alabama, you’ll be subjected to this juvenile idiocy.

– If you go to Calvary Church in Irving Texas, you can be involved in this stupid pastoral stunt.

– If you go to Converge Family Church in California, you’ll get a dose of potty humor.

– If you go to Revolution Church in Canton, Georgia, you can learn all about “Jesus” the rebel (and perhaps what the risen Savior has to do with motorcycles).

– If you go to The Gathering in Tennessee, your Easter sermon will be Wimpy Jesus Has Gotta Go.

– If you go to Granger in Illinois, your Easter sermon will be Sync: Your Life in Rhythm.

– If you go to The Orchard in Illinois, the sermon will also be all about you: Livin’ Venti, complete with a helicopter Easter egg drop.

– And finally, if you go to Velocity Church in Powder Springs, Georgia, your Resurrection Sunday service sermon will be a series entitled Beer, Babes, and Baseball.

The God-mocking hirelings are out of control and the goats are loving it!

Maranatha, Lord Jesus!

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.– 2 Timothy 4:1-5

That time has come!


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Your Sermon(s) of the week: “The Cupp” and “The Resurrection of Jesus” by C.J. Mahaney.

For this Wednesday’s sermon of the week you will not receive the usual one sermon, but two! In honor of Resurrection Sunday I have chosen to post the following two powerful messages by C.J. Mahaney on Jesus’ suffering and resurrection.

The Cup

The Resurrection of Jesus

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Quotes (512)

hudson-taylorIt will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home.
– Hudson Taylor

1832 – 1905

HT: The Desert Pastor

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Film review: “Fireproof”

fireproof

I never imagined I’d watch this film let alone actually like it enough to recommend it. My wife procured this movie well over a month ago and it sat collecting dust that whole time until last week. We finally sat down and watched it and I must say I was quite impressed. The story was engaging, the acting well done, and it contained a decent Gospel presentation. Overall it was truly inspiring, encouraging, and challenging for couples in their marriages to be better husbands and wives to their spouses. The film also drove home the concept of doing what’s right no matter the odds, resistance, and obstacles. I wholeheartedly recommend this film.

Here’s a clip from the movie:

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Quotes (511)

awpink.jpg Few things are so distasteful to the proud human heart as the truth that God does as He pleases, without consulting with the creature; that He dispenses His favors entirely according to His imperial will. Fallen man has no claims upon Him, is destitute of any merit, and can do nothing whatever to win God’s esteem.

– A.W. Pink

1886 – 1952

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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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Book review: “Titus: Comrade of the Cross” by Florence Morse Kingsley.

titusThe 1997 Lamplighter book of the year, Titus: Comrade of the Cross, was originally written in 1894 by Florence M. Kingsley.

A fictional work weaving the lives of several people living in and around Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ ministry and crucifixion, this novel brings life to those nameless individuals found in the Gospels. Learn (through the imagination of Kingsley) about the poor blind beggar given sight by the Messiah; read the story about the twelve year-old girl who was raised back to life by the great Physician; and discover who the two thieves on the cross were and how they got there on that fateful Friday.

Although the narration is in modern English, the dialogue between characters is in the style reminiscent of King James English. It causes folks like me who aren’t King James savvy to get bogged down ever so slightly during the dialogue, but not enough to ruin the story. It was a good read, very doctrinally sound, and a very refreshing fictional tale that stands out among the plethora of modern Christian fiction absent of that which glorifies the Lord.

You can purchase this book at Family Faith Books.


In 1894 the publisher of this book rewarded Florence Kingsley with $1,000 for writing a story that would set a child’s heart on fire for Jesus Christ. In six weeks the demand was so great, they printed 200,000 additional copies! The award-winning entry, Titus: A Comrade of the Cross, is provocative, full of suspense and drama. The story of Titus and his crippled brother climaxes at the foot of the cross, where the real hero is proclaimed. The most compelling moment is saved until the very end. It will take your breath away.


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Dear Mormon: Which version of the first vision do you believe?

Here’s a quick time-line of how the conflicting accounts of Joseph Smith’s first vision(s) overlapped.

1820 – 1838 The first vision consisted of angels only.

1842 The introduction of the “God the Father and Jesus the Son” version of the first vision.

1838 – 1890 The first account of “angels only” continued to linger on in spite of the new 1842 version.

1890 – Present The “God the Father and Jesus the Son” version is the only one accepted (and most Mormons today don’t even know about the whole “angels only” version).

To view a downloadable, easy to read, superbly detailed, full-color pamphlet on the various versions of the first vision click this link here.

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joseph-smiths-vision


I received the first visitation of Angels which was when I was about 14 years old.

Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith’s Diary 1835-1836

An American Prophet’s Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith

Page 59

It commenced by an angel of God flying through the midst of heaven and visiting a young man named Joseph Smith, in the year 1827.

Wilford Woodruff

Journal of Discourses

Volume 13 Page 324

1869

He sought the Lord by day and by night, and was enlightened by the vision of an holy angel.When this personage appeared to him, one of his first inquiries was: “Which of the denominations of Christians in the vicinity was right?”

George A. Smith

Journal of Discourses

Volume 13 Page 78

1869

Just as it was when the Prophet Joseph asked the angel which of the sects was right that he might join it.The answer was that none of them are right.What, none of them?No.We will not stop to argue that question; the angel merely told him to join none of them that none of them were right.

John Taylor

Journal of Discourses

Volume 20 Page 167

1879

Some one may say, “If this work of the last days be true, why did not the Saviour [sic] come himself to communicate this intelligence to the world?”Because to the angels was committed the power of reaping the earth, and it was committed to none else.

Orson Hyde

Journal of Discourses

Volume 6 Page 335

1854

How did this state of things called Mormonism originate?We read that an angel came down and revealed himself to Joseph Smith and manifested unto him in vision the true position of the world in a religious point of view.He was surrounded with light and glory while the heavenly messenger communicated these things unto him, after a series of visitations and communications from the Apostle Peter and others who held the authority of the holy Priesthood, not only on the earth formerly but in the heavens afterwards.

John Taylor

Journal of Discourses

Volume 10 Page 127

1863

Upon the reality and truth of this vision rests the validity of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. – Gordon B. Hinckley

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first-vision

See also: This video on the first vision.

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Quotes (508)

william-booth “‘Not called!” did you say? “Not heard the call,” I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face — whose mercy you have professed to obey — and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.

– William Booth

1829 – 1912

HT: The Desert Pastor