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Quotes (915)

I know well the tendency there is, at a certain stage of anxious inquiry, to ask, “What is faith that I may do it?” It is a legalist’s work to satisfy that craving; but this is what is in the “inquiry-room.”

“Who is He that I may believe in Him?” was the question asked by one who approached the dawning of a day of salvation. Explanations of what faith is are but trifling with souls. How different is the Scripture way! The great aim there is to “set forth” the object, not to explain the act, of faith.

– John Kennedy

1819 – 1884

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No need for commentary.

From the NY Post:

It’s Our Lady of Spin the Bottle.

Pastor Maurice Johnson of the Winners Church in Queens delivers the sexiest Sunday sermon in town, preaching on how to keep romance alive in marriage — and then asking congregants to make out in a passionate, public kissing contest during the service.

The parishioners with the most passion — and tongue-wagging — win $50 to spend on date night.

“Your bedroom and your love life are fires that must be nurtured and fought for,” Johnson preaches in a booming voice that reverberates through the makeshift church in the PS 38 gym in Rosedale, Queens.

“Use the power of touch to ignite passion in your marriage,” Johnson tells his giggling, nondenominational congregation of 75.

He adds, “You should be visually stimulated for your husband or your wife. It is your biblical responsibility to look good for your spouse.”

Johnson then calls upon four married couples to rise and approach the pulpit.

As a keyboardist and a drummer ooze R&B tunes such as “I Like It” by DeBarge, the couples demonstrate their passion — by locking lips, hips and tongues for a seemingly endless five minutes.

When they come up for air, the rest of the churchgoers choose a winner by clapping for the most amorous couple.

Johnson, 39, told The Post he chose to deliver a series of sermons, titled “The Power and Pleasure of Romance,” to underscore the importance of marriage in the African-American community.

“Some people were like, ‘It seems strange to do at church,’ ” he said, “but they thought it was very creative.”

Keeping a romantic partnership ticking, he said, depends on showering your spouse with physical affection.

“God created a desire for love and romance,” Johnson said.

The face-sucking had some churchgoers blushing.

“You see kissing in all kinds of contexts, but you don’t necessarily see it in a marriage context,” said Frantz Cochy, 39, who won the contest when he seemed to forget that he was in front of a crowded room and hungrily embraced his wife of 13 years, Makeetah, 36.

“I wasn’t embarrassed, but I guess I felt a little awkward,” he said.

Olaiya Ayani, 33, had to cajole his wife, Ayanna, to stand up and play tonsil hockey in front of the packed room. But once on stage, the couple wrapped their arms around each other and didn’t hold back.

“My father and my mother never showed affection in public,” said Ayani, who met his wife two years ago on Craigslist. “I told myself, ‘I’m going to be more affectionate to my wife.’ ”

The pastor said he encourages married couples to drop their guard and experiment with each other in public.

“Any society that celebrates marriage, romance and love is going to be a free society,” Johnson said. “Public displays of affection aren’t wrong. Adam and Eve were naked, and they were not ashamed.”

The bachelor pastor says he’ll practice what he preaches next year, when he expects to marry.

HT: ExMinistries via Witnessing Encouragement

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Sermon of the week: “Biblical Nonconformity” by Robert Briggs.

Your sermon of the week is the three-part message, Biblical Nonconformity, by Robert Briggs. 

Biblical Nonconformity Part 1 (Introduction)

Biblical Nonconformity Part 2

Biblical Nonconformity Part 3 (Source of our Strength)

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Caustic Calvinists.

In the recent past I’ve attempted to address some of the concerns I’ve had with those who use defending the faith as a conduit to unleash a torrent of scathing attacks in harsh-toned debates and disagreements with those whom they’re in disagreement with.  I posted two such admonitions this past year: One was a sermon on combative Calvinists and the other was a short video on pride and defensiveness.

One of the biggest challenges for those engaging in online discussions and debates while defending the Christian faith (and the Doctrines of Grace) is the temptation to be harsh and snarky, and how easy it is to fall into that mindset without even trying.

Thankfully, this detriment-to-the-gospel type of blogging is the exception and not the norm, but even so, it still needs to be addressed.  

I am publishing this post as a check for all of us who engage in online apologetics, and pray that this will help to refocus us on the purpose of our blogging.

It would also be of great benefit if we ask others to critically review what we’re writing in posts and in comment threads, and be willing to take their opinions and criticisms with an open and graceful heart.

I seriously want you to take a moment to reflect on whether or not you are one of these venomous bloggers. We must all examine ourselves, our spirit, and our motivations, and the following questions may be a good start:

– Is the vast majority of what you are producing coming from a negative attitude, inciting unnecessary argumentative debates when kinder words would have sufficed and been more effective?

– Is your writing known more for its condescending tone than its content?

– Are your words bitter and acidic, or are they kind and salted with grace?

– Is your response to people who disagree with you snarky and vitriolic, or graceful and from a heart of love?

– Do you write for the sole purpose of seeking out someone who doesn’t hold to your views so you can have an opportunity to publicly disembowel them with your superior intellect, or do you put material out there to educate, encourage, help, and edify others while simultaneously contending for the faith?

– Do you look at those deceived by false doctrine with contempt, or do you grieve for them and seek to lovingly correct them lest they should eternally perish?

If you are taking pleasure in your abrasive monologues and predictably harsh dialogues, I beg you to check your spirit and reevaluate why you do what you’re doing.

For those of you who are not sure of what I am talking about, I offer the following samples from the blogging world, including the unnecessary practice of name calling (e.g. referring to Arminians as “Armidiots”):

“Took this illiterate Armidiot flunky a full week to devise this moronic non sequitur of a ‘comeback.’ . . . ‘a 2-ton jumping, screaming elephant in a tool shed is all but invisible to an Armidiot like yourself . . .’. God help me, I really, truly DISLIKE Armidiots, and would hate to think they are bound for the same Heaven as are Bible-believers. Let them simmer evermore in their infernal ‘Freewill Paradise.'”

And

“Not sure what, if anything, he is ‘smoking,’ but Roger Olson is a loose, slutty whore (spiritually speaking).”

And

“. . . your obstinate BLINDNESS to the most BASIC and ESSENTIAL facts is nothing short of wicked perversion. And it’s exactly what one expects from today’s Armidiot. I’m curious to know, ol’ scholar, which ‘strong Calvinist Bible College’ you slept through, and how in HELL you managed to pilfer a diploma from the stack before your expulsion.”

There truly is no place for name calling in our defense of the faith. As far as I’m concerned this is completely unacceptable behavior and has gone far beyond the scope of how a Christian apologist should be corresponding with believers and unbelievers alike.

This type of exchange is in no way beneficial or instructive to the target of these angry words nor is it edifying to anyone else who happens to read it. This kind of discourse in the name of Christ and sound theology is grieving and should rightly be condemned.

I appeal to the coarse and caustic Calvinistic Christians to quit bringing reproach on the gospel with such inflammatory and pungent speech.

I recently wrote about how Christians’ behavior breeds atheism, but is your caustic Calvinism breeding Arminianism? Is it repelling people from ever considering the Doctrines of Grace?  


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Sermon of the week: “A Praying Family” by Akash Sant Singh.

Do you pray as a benefactor or a beggar? Do you pray at all?

You won’t want to miss this Thursday’s sermon of the week by Akash Sant Singh, A Praying Family.

Pastor Akash tears down the false notion of God being our cosmic vending machine, and he cuts to the quick regarding our prayer life and the many excuses we make for the lack thereof. As always, Pastor Akash steps on toes but with love and grace, and all for the glory of the Lord.

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Sermon of the week: “Brokenness” by Voddie Baucham.

Your sermon of the week is Brokenness by Voddie Baucham. This is a powerful message on King David’s brokenness that you won’t want to miss (unless of course you’re a Rob Bell fan or like the book The Shack since Baucham pulls no punches on these conduits of false doctrine). This is one of Baucham’s best messages and I encourage all DefCon readers to download this one.

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Yet another ten (very) quick questions for Jehovah’s Witnesses.

You’ve enjoyed Ten (very) quick questions for Jehovah’s Witnesses, Ten more (very) quick questions for Jehovah’s Witnesses and Another ten (very) quick questions for Jehovah’s Witnesses. DefCon presents ten more questions from Keith Walker of Evidence Ministries. Viewer discretion advised on the fourth video below.

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Sermon of the week: “The Gospel Revolution in Work” by Akash Sant Singh.

As a follow-up to last week’s two-part message on Christian work ethic by Brian Borgman (found here), DefCon is pleased to present another two-part message on this same subject by Akash Sant Singh entitled The Gospel Revolution in Work. This is a great message that every Christian should listen to whether they work in the home or outside of the home.

The Gospel Revolution in Work (Part 1)

The Gospel Revolution in Work (Part 2)

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Has Mark Driscoll gone Charismatic?

The Sola Sisters have posted a doozey about Mark Driscoll talking to demons and giving extra-biblical advice on how to perform exorcisms.

Had I only read the transcript from the following video–not knowing who it came from–I would have never guessed it came from Mark Driscoll. I would have been sure it came from someone who frequents TBN.

Be sure to visit the Sola Sisters article (linked above) for more on this latest movement away from biblical Christianity by Mark Driscoll.

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Quotes (912)

The gospel reveals eternal realities about God that we would sometimes rather not face. We prefer to sit back, enjoy our clichés, and picture God as a Father who might help us, all the while ignoring God as a Judge who might damn us. Maybe this is why we fill our lives with the constant drivel of entertainment in our culture—and in the church. We are afraid that if we stop and really look at God in His Word, we might discover that He evokes greater awe and demands deeper worship than we are ready to give Him.

– David Platt

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The lady in the rose garden.

Lady in the Rose Garden

A lesson for all of us to consider from the puritan Joseph Meade:

I once walked into a garden with a lady to gather some flowers. There was one large bush whose branches were bending under the weight of the most beautiful roses. We both gazed upon it with admiration. There was one flower on it which seemed to outshine all the rest in beauty. This lady pressed forward into the thick bush, and reached far over to pluck it. As she did this, a black snake, which was hid in the bush, wrapped itself round her arm. She was alarmed beyond all description; she ran from the garden, screaming, and almost in convulsions. During all that day she suffered very much with fear. Her whole body trembled, and it was a long time before she could be calmed. That lady is still alive. Such is her hatred now of the whole serpent race, that she has never since been able to look at a snake, even a dead one. No one could ever persuade her to venture again into a cluster of bushes, even to pluck a beautiful rose.

Now this is the way the sinner acts who truly repents of his sins. He thinks of sin as the serpent that once coiled itself around him. He hates it. He dreads it. He flees from it. He fears the places where it inhabits. He does not willingly go into the haunts. He will no more play with sin than this lady would afterwards have fondled snakes.

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Sermon of the week: “The Christian Work Ethic” by Brian Borgman.

For the next two weeks DefCon will be bringing you sermons on the subject of Christian work ethic and how the gospel plays out in our vocations.Whether you work outside the home, from home, are a homemaker, a boss, an employee, a student, a husband, a wife, or a child, the next two weeks are for you.

This week we present Brian Borgman’s message entitled The Christian Work Ethic, and next week we’ll present a different message from a different pastor dealing with the same topic.

I trust that the convicting admonishments of the next two weeks will ultimately be an encouragement to you in whatever vocation God currently has you.

(See also the follow-up to Borgman’s message: The Gospel Revolution in Work by Akash Sant Singh.)

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The great lie: Arbeit Macht Frei.

The sign that greeted the doomed souls who entered the Auschwitz prison camp in Poland during WWII read: Arbeit Macht Frei. Translated into English it simply said, “Work Brings Freedom.”

It was a lie.

The “work” that was done by the prisoners in the infamous Nazi concentration camp only led to death. There was never a legitimate expectation of freedom even though many of them probably clung to the hope of liberation thanks to the sign that told them so. In reality, the only fate the multitudes who entered the camp faced–passing under the sign that whispered the lie–was abuse, torture, starvation, and death . . . anything but freedom.

Just as this lie preceded the physical death of thousands of Adolf Hitler’s victims, this same lie precedes the spiritual death of billions of Romanism’s victims, Joseph Smith’s victims, Charles Taze Russell’s victims, Buddha’s victims, Mary Bakker Eddy’s victims, Ellen G. White’s victims, Mohammed’s victims (and the list goes on and on).

The lie Arbeit Macht Frei was not only found displayed on a metal sign above the entrance to the death camp, this lie is also found in the pages of religious books and on the tongues of religious leaders who bid you come as they crowd the entrance to the broad path that leads to Hell.

Most people on this earth trust their eternal destiny to a religion that could rightly post this same sign above the door where they worship. Just as Work Brings Freedom was a lie to those entering Auschwitz, so it is also a lie to those entering countless churches, mosques, temples, and synagogues around the world. Just as this lie assisted in facilitating the Nazi prisoners’ temporal extermination on earth, this same lie results in man’s eternal destruction in the Lake of Fire.

And this is what sets biblical Christianity apart from all other faiths in the world that are vying for your affections, all of which promise you something they can never deliver.

What they claim you can achieve by your diligence to codes, laws, and much hard work in their respective religious systems, Jesus Christ offers as a free gift (Ephesians 2:8-9)!

In fact, Christianity is the only faith in the world that promises forgiveness of sins and right standing before God based solely on what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross for us (1 Peter 2:24) and not what we have done for Him (Isaiah 64:6).

And Christianity is not neutral about those who try to work for their righteousness. The Bible makes it very clear that if you try to earn your salvation and God’s forgiveness by your work (following the law and performing good deeds), then you don’t have God’s grace, you are under a curse, and you are cut off from Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:10, Galatians 5:4) who is the only One who can save you (John 14:6, Acts 4:12).

If you’re going to attempt to earn your salvation then you must first believe that Christ’s sacrifice was insufficient to fully and completely save you without your contribution; otherwise you would be resting solely in His accomplished work, not His work and yours. To believe that you can become righteous, by working toward your liberation from sin and the wrath to come, is to suggest that Christ died in vain (Galatians 2:21).

It’s as if there was a man in the death camp offering a key to the gate to any of the prisoners, yet they ignored him, electing to instead work harder and harder for their own freedom (as the sign suggested). In the end the man with the key was their only hope, but they chose to attempt liberation on their own, foregoing their only means of escaping the horror to come.

There is another sign that could be hung over the doorway of Hell that would greet all those entering its abyss from the various paths of false religion: Vernichtung Durch Arbeit. In English it simply means “Destruction Through Work.”

“You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.” Galatians 5:4

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Yet another ten quick questions for Mormons.

You’ve enjoyed Ten (very) quick questions for Mormons, Ten more (very) quick questions for Mormons, and Another ten (very) quick questions for Mormons. DefCon now brings you ten more questions from Keith Walker of Evidence Ministries.

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Quotes (911)

   Children are seen as complications, or even obstacles, in the perpetual quest for fun, excitement, and fulfillment. To see this attitude among the ungodly is to be expected. . . . What should alarm us, however, is that Christians are making the same complaint. In reality, these complaints by frazzled mothers worn out by “hyperactive” or “strong-willed” children (an earlier generation would have called them unruly) are merely symptoms of a disease. The root cause of this disease is the rejection of the commands of God: Christian families have brought this affliction upon themselves by following the “empty and deceitful” philosophies of the world. Although most evangelicals pride themselves that they are–unlike the “liberal churches”–true to the Bible, many of these evangelical leaders and authors adhere to the same philosophy of child training as the non-Christian educators and psychologists.

– William & Colleen Dedrick

From: The Little Book of Christian Character & Manners

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A Roman Catholic on Chuck Colson on Mitt Romney on Mormonism.

I just read an excellent article from NCR on Chuck Colson’s position on the issue of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism and its pertinence in American politics. Although the author of the article is Roman Catholic (which leads him to some erroneous conclusions like suggesting that Romanism is Christian), he does make some great points about this issue that Evangelical Christians should be cognizant of, while simultaneously pinpointing some of Chuck Colson’s poor misuse of Scripture.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Mormons are polytheists. They believe that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three different gods,that there are countless other gods besides, and that somewhere there is a “God the Mother” with whom the Father celestio-biologically reproduced Jesus.

Further, they believe that we are the same species as the gods and that by being a good Mormon you can grow up to be a divinity with your own planet of billions of people worshipping you.

Worse, they claim that actual Christianity is a false and degraded, apostate Christianity. That they are the true, restored Christianity.

They are therefore polytheists of a type that goes way beyond ancient paganism. Back then apotheosis was reserved for the emperor or the pharaoh, but more importantly polytheists did not claim to be Christians, much less to be the only true expression of Christianity with actual Christianity being a theological perversion.

Mormonism thus subverts the core doctrine of Christianity (the doctrine of God), passes off true Christianity as a counterfeit, and holds itself out to the public to be the genuine article.

You can read the entire article here, and as usual, the Mormons have flooded the comment section of the article.

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See also:

Should a Christian vote for Mitt Romney?

Should Christians vote for the lesser of two evils?

A shocking realization if a Mormon becomes president of the United States.

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Sola Scriptura (70)

bible page But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

– Hebrews 9:11-14