Gospel

by

Book Review: “Warnings to the Churches” by John Charles Ryle.

warnings-to-the-churches I read this book a couple years ago and found it to be an incredible warning to the churches. It also was part of several things God used to draw me out of the lukewarm, mile-wide, inch-deep “churches” that I was attending.

The back of the book sums it up succinctly:

Some of Ryle’s most pungent writings have hitherto tended to be lost in his larger volumes. This book brings together eight addresses with a common theme. Together they sound a prophetic and much needed warning to the churches.

I stumbled across this book by accident (divine providence) on Ebay. I believe this book is currently out of print but you can purchase it here on Amazon, and you can get its modern edition entitled Churches Beware here on Amazon.

If you can find yourself a copy, I strongly recommend you get it. This 171 page volume is a must-have for all Ryle fans and those who are dissatisfied with the current shameful state of the Church.

Here’s one review from Amazon:


5.0 out of 5 stars Churches Beware, Indeed!, August 4, 2007

Outstanding teaching from an old source, demonstrating the need for discernment in the Church today. Ryle tells us how we can avoid false teachings, by not even accepting a little error any more than we would accept a little poison. Well worth the reading for discerning Christians.

by

An Atheist admits what we’ve known all along.

evolution-out-of-business Atheist Michael Ruse from Saving Darwinism from the Darwinians from the May 13, 2000 National Post said the following:

Evolution is promoted by its practitioners as more than mere science. Evolution is promulgated as an ideology, a secular religion–a full-fledged alternative to Christianity, with meaning and morality. I am an ardent evolutionist and an ex-Christian, but I must admit that in this one complaint . . .the literalists are absolutely right. Evolution is a religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and it is true of evolution still today.

As cited from Acts & Facts November 2008, page 13

by

Quotes (502)

Catholic bishops have condemned us as heretics and have cursed us over 100 times with anathemas pronounced by the Council of Trent and the 2nd Vatican Council. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “Every heretic is to have part with the Devil and his angels in the flames of eternal fire, unless before the end of his life, he be restored to the Catholic Church.” What a paradox! Christians, who embrace God’s infallible truth, are eternally condemned by this apostate religion, and then called Catholic-bashers for trying to rescue Catholics who are enslaved by doctrines of demons (1 Tim. 4:1).

– Mike Gendron

by

Sermon of the week: “Sound Doctrine; Sound Words” by Phil Johnson.

Your sermon of the week is the one you’ve all been waiting for: Sound Doctrine; Sound Words by Phil Johnson of Grace Life Pulpit and Pyromaniacs. Its subtitle should be The Pornification of the Pulpit. This sermon is from this month’s Shepherds’ Conference.

In this controversial sermon, Phil Johnson steps up and takes on the crass, crude, gutter-mouth ways of many in the modern church today, with special attention to Mark “The Cussing Pastor” Driscoll. You don’t want to miss this message. His text for this message is Titus 2:7-8.

It’s about time someone spoke out on the juvenile and profane potty-humor, profanity, and lust-filled stories that have replaced sound, doctrinal, exposition of the Bible in many churches today. I stand up and applaud Phil Johnson for having the courage to speak out and even take on the modern evangelical’s Golden Calf from Mars Hill Church.

This is a great follow-up to last Wednesday’s sermon of the week (also by Phil Johnson) entitled Programs, Get Your Programs: Exposing the Flaws of the Fad-Driven Church.

by

Doctrine divides!

standing-alone “Doctrine divides!”

Whenever you hear this it’s usually followed up with “we all worship the same God” and “can’t we all get along?”

Whenever the mantra “doctrine divides” is employed, it’s always with a negative connotation. But have you stopped to ponder why?

Allow me to submit for your consideration, that “doctrine divides” is actually a good thing–a positive thing. It’s true that “doctrine divides,” and here’s what it divides:

The ones just wanting to be fed from the ones willing to take up their cross.

The false conversions from the true conversions.

The ones under law from the ones under grace.

The swine from the pearls.

The profane from the holy.

The tares from the wheat.

The goats from the sheep.

The wolves from the flock.

The hirelings from the shepherds.

The “other gospels” from the one true Gospel.

The false christs from the one true Christ.

The darkness from the Light.

The lies from the Truth.

The myths from the facts.

The wicked from the righteous.

The wide gate from the narrow gate.

The broad road from the narrow road.

and

The many paths from the only Way.

Doctrine divides; doctrine divides; thank God Almighty, doctrine divides!

– The Pilgrim

by

Rudeness, vulgarity, and profanity. The ‘next big thing’ in church.

This announcement video is actually from a church. Thank you Mark “The Cussing Pastor” Driscoll for blazing new trails in the area of crude and carnal speech in church. The trickle-down effect of your example is bearing much fruit.

Don’t worry, Josh (on the right) and the folks at The Journey Church had a vestige of decency to bleep out the cussing.

HT:  Slice of Laodicea & A Little Leaven

Apparently Josh is a motivational youth speaker (imagine that) who literally believes that in our words we hold the power of life and death (see this video). This really makes me wonder what he was thinking when he said the things he said in the above video. Oh, and Josh also has an opinion on homosexuality (see this video). I bet you’ll never guess what a hip, cool, relevant, and culturally vulgar youth speaker thinks about homosexuality.

This guy reminds me of Ignatius the fictional youth pastor.


by

Letting the right hand know what the left hand is doing.

humility

The following is an excerpt from a thought-provoking article from Daily Discernment entitled Right Hand Publicity Inc.:

Since leaving a “church” where corruption was fully in bloom, I have become fascinated with the anatomy of how a church becomes corrupted. It happens much the way cancer happens.

It is estimated that 90% of the population has “cancer” at any given time. Cancer is merely cells that have divided incorrectly resulting in two dysfunctional cells. In those with healthy immune systems, those errant cells are recognized and destroyed. In those with broken immune systems, the cancer cells go unrecognized and unaddressed are allowed to keep dividing until they eventually form a tumor and metastasize, killing the body.

So by the time someone is diagnosed with cancer, they have actually had it for many months or even years, but the symptoms were not seen on the surface.

So too, when a church is discovered to be corrupt, it can be traced back months and years to a time when the actual break down in the system of accountability. When confronting sin and exercising church discipline stops, the cancer starts to grow, and it is only a matter of time before the body is dead, and just becomes a social club, civic organization or entertainment arena.

So while there are endless examples out there of full blown apostasy, let’s look at a more subtle example of outright sin that gets skipped over. Usually because this kind of thing is now ubiquitous in the “church” as it has become deaf to God’s wisdom and replaced it with the wisdom of the world.

To read the entire article from Ginger Taylor, click here.

by

Quotes (500)

j-gresham-machenMen tell us that our preaching should be positive and not negative, that we can preach the truth without attacking error. But if we follow that advice we shall have to close our Bible and desert its teachings. The New Testament is a polemic book almost from beginning to end . . . . It is when men have felt compelled to take a stand against error that they have risen to the really great heights in the celebration of the truth.

– J. Gresham Machen

1887 – 1937

by

Sola Scriptura (64)

bible-page.jpg Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

– Deuteronomy 8:11-14

by

Quotes (499)

ryle.jpg To say that reunion with Rome would be an insult to our martyred Reformers is a very light thing; it is far more than this: it would be sin and an offense against God!

– J.C. Ryle

1816 – 1900

by

Sermon of the week: “Programs, Get Your Programs: Exposing the Flaws of the Fad-Driven Church” by Phil Johnson.

Your Wednesday sermon of the week is Programs, Get Your Programs: Exposing the Flaws of the Fad-Driven Church, by Phil Johnson. This is a great follow-up to last Wednesday’s sermon of the week (found here).

Those who hold dear to such fads as The Prayer of Jabez, the WWJD junk, the Left Behind craze, and those who adore the likes of Christianity Today, TBN, Jan Crouch, JI Packer, Tony Campolo, Brian McLaren, TD Jakes, George Barna, Ted Haggard, Joyce Meyer, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, James Dobson, and the can’t-do-no-wrong, practically-walks-on-water evangelical favorite Billy Graham, may take issue with this message. But for the rest of us, it’s a breath of freash air to finally hear someone call a spade a spade.

by

The Hell-bound false prophetess Helen Ukpabio of Liberty Gospel Church in Nigeria.

So who is this Helen Ukpabio and why has she rightly reserved her spot in Hell lest she repent? She’s a self-proclaimed “prophetess” who is becoming rich on the abandonment, abuse, and murder of innocent children. She runs Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries and is responsible for much of the false teaching in Nigeria.

helen-ukpabio

You can learn much more about her from the documentary exposing the wickedness that she’s up to her neck in. If you haven’t seen it, you can check out the fruit of Helen Ukpabio’s false, Hell-spawned “gospel” in the six-part video on the post Charismania Unrestrained: Africa’s Witch Children. You cannot remain unchanged or at least unaffected after viewing it.

The secular organization Stepping Stones is one of the very few in Nigeria trying to help the victims of the millstone-wearing Ukpabio. On their website they write:

Stepping Stones Nigeria does not wish to denounce any faith organisation. However the role of the church, especially some of the new Pentecostals, in spreading the belief in child witches cannot be underestimated. There are numerous so-called pastors in the region who are wrongly branding children as ‘witches’ mainly for economic self gain and personal recognition.

Ukpabio, who claims to be anointed to cast out witches, is making her living on preaching a false gospel. Below is one of the propaganda videos she produced to indoctrinate the naive into believing that their own children are witches, thus leading to their abandonment and even murder. Viewer discretion is advised.


You can sign a petition to stop this madness by clicking here.

by

Raise your hand.

raise-your-right-hand

Ingrid Schlueter has given three cheers to the Catholics for their valiant fight against the billion dollar baby butcher business (while evangelicals are becoming increasingly silent on the issue of abortion).

I too would like to chime in on this issue: I wholeheartedly disagree with the soul-damning false gospel of the Roman Catholic institution, but I have to ask why they continue to fight for the unborn while evangelicals have fallen silent? I believe part of it is that Roman Catholicism is a works-based false religion and thus, its adherents must strive to win God’s favor by their works and what’s more “favorable” to God than protecting the unborn? I believe that the problem on the other side of the coin is that many evangelicals have become so relevant and accommodating to the world that they’ve absorbed the world’s standards, morals, wisdom, and ways and can no longer be distinguished from the world.

As the Catholics continue to take a stand against this murderous rampage perpetrated upon the most defenseless class in our society, many evangelicals have begun to support the shedding of innocent blood by their collective silence and some even voted for our current pro-abortion commander in chief. By abandoning the fight for life, evangelicals actually lend support to the heinous act of abortion.

The church that remains silent on the issue is no better than those whose murderous ways are furthered by such silence.



by

Quotes (498)

voddie-baucham Modern American dating is no more than glorified divorce practice. Young people are learning how to give themselves away in exclusive, romantic, highly committed (at times sexual) relationships, only to break up and do it all over again. God never intended for His kids to live like this. And instead of stepping in and doing something, many Christian parents simply view these types of relationships as a normal and necessary part of growing up. Unless your child is wiser than Solomon, stronger than Samson, and more godly than David (all of whom sinned sexually), they are susceptible to sexual sin, and these premature relationships serve as open invitations. . . . Being involved in such exclusive relationships before you are ready to be married is like shopping without any money; either you will leave frustrated, or you will take something that doesn’t belong to you.

– Voddie Baucham