“Peter Orasuk was a heroin addict and drug kingpin in Canada until Christ reached down and saved him. This is his testimony that was preached in the Ballymena Gospel Hall in N. Ireland.
This is a ‘must hear’, not only for people who are doing drugs, but for anyone who wants to hear of the power of Christ to save the most hopeless of sinners.” (Quote from Sermon Details on Sermon Audio)
To here the message, listen to it here.
It is written in the Scriptures that the gospel of Jesus Christ “…is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Rom 1:16) Likewise, it is written that if anyone one “…be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (II Cor 5:17)
Today, countless people have religion that purports itself as Christianity. Yet this religion has no power to save and no power to transform their lives. Rather, it is dead religion not unlike what one would have found with the Pharisees and their disciples during the days when Jesus walked the earth. Rote, ritualistic and repetitious; this religion is found across our land. Here, countless people are raised in such faiths from babes upward and have been taught the traditions of men from their religion’s hierarchy as to what they must do and must not do in order to be “right” with God and rewarded with eternal life.
Or, we have so-called pastors instructing millions that salvation is simply raising their hand to “ask Jesus into their heart” or the repeating of the “sinner’s prayer.” Scant mention is ever given to the gospel, repentance and what salvation truly is; rather the bulk of their appeal is made to the flesh. This done through various mediums with the most popular being music where skilled musicians take the congregants on an emotional roller coaster ride so as to get as many as possible to raise their hand or come forward to the “altar.”
Yet I ask how many of these persons are ever changed by the power of God through the gospel? How many can truly testify that they are new creatures in Christ where they have put to death the old man and are now walking in newness of life? How many can say that the darkness they use to love and run to, they now hate and flee from? How many can profess that the light they use to hide from and scorn, they now seek out and proclaim from the rooftops? Truly some can and to God we give all the glory for this, but many cannot because sadly for these once the music dies down, the lights dim and the crocodile tears dry, they are the same person they were before every praying that prayer or making their purported profession of faith.
The conversion of Pasha, a Russian immigrant in the 1800’s, is no such empty profession or example of impotent religion. Rather, it is an amazing testimony of the power of God through the gospel to totally transform a wretched sinner. A story that will surely bring tears to your eyes not only as you see how great the gospel is and the God who has given it unto this world, but also for his tender mercies to shower rich blessings on his children. Please take the time to read it as you will be greatly blessed therein.
My hope for the true Christian is that reading it may give you great joy as your love is increased for the God who hath graciously saved you even if your testimony or mine is not as stunning as Pasha’s. For the Christian in name only, I pray your reading it may give you a longing in your heart to be set free from your sin and changed by the power of the God through the gospel even as Pasha was.
The full text can be found here.
I wrote this poem a while ago speaking to the religion of Rome and some of my experiences in it. A religion which is a lie as is true for any and all dead religion. In Rome specifically, as long as one is a “card-carrying” Catholic and shows their face to Mass most Sundays and occasionally the confessional box, all is well. Here, it does not matter a whit as to what your lifestyle is and the fact that you are living like the devil incarnate does not even register on the radar. As long as you are “in” as a Catholic, all is good to go for you and you are assured that entrance into heaven is guaranteed; even if you have to spend a few thousand years in purgatory.
And as such a Catholic I can assure you that the countless apologists from Rome including the arm-chair theologians found on YouTube and elsewhere will receive you as an angel from heaven. Doesn’t matter how you are living your life, doesn’t matter how much in bondage to sin you are; just as long as you are a Catholic and willing to write diatribes against “Protestants”, you will be quickly enlisted to the fight with no questions asked.
But the moment you leave Rome, watch out because these same “brethren” will turn on you like vipers awakened from their slumber. Doesn’t matter how you explain to them the wicked life you were once living which Jesus has set you free from. Where you testify that you were “…dead in trespasses and sins … [and] walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air … [where you] had [your] conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath” (Eph 2:1-3) but are now by God’s grace a “…new creature [where] old things are passed away … all things are become new (II Cor 5:17). Doesn’t matter that you tell them you are now reading God’s Word and understanding it where you are convicted of your sin. Doesn’t matter about how you are no longer worshiping God by the traditions of men but rather by the commandments of God. All of this and more falls on deaf ears and cannot penetrate hardened hearts because the faithful Catholic “knows” that outside of Rome there is no salvation.
The tragedy is that before the Spirit opened my blinded eyes to my sinful state, I was a self-righteous religionist who arrogantly believed he was on his way to heaven for one reason and one reason alone. This of course because I was a Catholic. Yet nothing could have been farther from the truth for I was a reprobate through and through as the bad fruit from my tree (i.e. life) bore ample witness to. So too, the same being true for my friends, school mates, family members and even clergy (one was an universalist I later found out and the one I served under as an alter boy, a child molester). Yet no one, and I mean no one ever warned me or those around me of our perilous state. I never heard anything about repentance, never heard the gospel, never heard the words “…except you repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” (Luk 13:3). Never! Just keep going to Mass and doing all we tell you to do and all will be well. Lies, damnable lies!
So to all the Catholics out there I hope you will find these words speaking to your heart. I share to focus not on myself but rather to shine a light in the darkness so that you might examine your own life and be honest with your sin and no longer hide behind the cloak of your religion. And that you might come to repent of your sin, believe on the Lord Jesus alone for your salvation and seek to worship the Father in Spirit and truth.
by: brother Michael
Raised Roman Catholics, my family would be,
Two brothers, a sister, my parents and me.
As babes from the womb, Rome’s doctrines held sway,
Over our hearts and our lives, all of the day.
Baptized and catechized, confirmed by the priests,
Bowing to idols during all of her feasts.
It goes without saying the nuns taught us well,
Not to question the Pope, lest we be cast into hell.
But little did they know, or maybe they did,
How me and their pupils were servants to sin.
Yielding our members to desire and vice,
Never understanding born again, Jesus, True Life.
For from childhood and upward the fruit on our tree,
Bore witness to the fact even if you disagree.
That of our flesh and our mind, we all lived in sin,
Being children of disobedience, and rebelling therein.
This assuredly is no mystery, for the world doth know,
How Catholics trump many in that which they sow,
To the flesh and sin they cannot deny,
Drinking it down with gusto, like bottles of wine.
Get angry with me for this truth you should know,
Because religion never saves, whether Protestant or Rome.
And religion Rome has, to this I agree,
Bowing and kneeling, teaching repeat after me.
Crossings and incense, chantings and more,
Silences the knockings, of Jesus at the door.
Open unto me, and I will come in,
So says he to Rome, and all found therein.
But the knockings of Jesus that day I’d not hear,
As I walked down Rome’s path, year after year.
Thinking I’d be heard, for the rosaries I’d pray,
Never hearing Jesus’ word, wherein he did say.
Pray not like the heathen who think they’ll be heard,
Who recite vain prayers with many a word.
Yea, rather pray simply to the Father above,
With words from your heart, spoken in love.
These were our days much more I could write,
‘Bout how we were taught, that Rome’s always right.
Steer clear of the Bible and what Jesus taught,
Lest all of our deceptions become all for naught.
And like the good child I wanted to be,
I submitted to my parents, the priests and the “See.”
Onward and upward in Rome I did climb,
Becoming an alter boy, made my parents to shine.
Maybe one day a priest he’ll become,
Sacrificing afresh, God’s most beloved Son.
Yet herein lies the truth that Rome must deny,
For the day that she’d stop, be the day she would die.
Salvation’s by grace through faith in the Son,
Believing in Jesus as the only one,
Who can save one from sin and raise them anew,
A gift per God’s grace, not reward for what you do.
Too amazing to believe many will say,
Yet true it certainly is, as old things pass away,
For those born again, raised alive from the grave,
No longer in bondage, no longer a slave.
Serving in Spirit not letter of law,
Loving their enemies, and praying for all.
Unto all those who read, condemn I don’t do,
But rather point to Jesus and his Word which is true.
Open the book and search it this day,
For all that come in faith, he’ll never turn away.
Forsake dead religion, the traditions of men,
Repent, believe on Jesus, bless God and amen.
Your sermon of the week is The Suffering Servant by Pastor J. Randall Easter. Pastor Easter preaches a great sermon from Isaiah 53 that I wished to share with the readers (and listeners) of DefCon. I plan to provide you with a sermon on the same subject by Phil Johnson next week.
HT: The Bororean
The anathema of the Pope, words that would strike moral terror in the hearts of men and women throughout time who lived under the tyranical rule of the self-professed Vicar of Christ. One who not only took upon himself the power to kill men in body, but one who also brazenly claimed the power to destroy men’s souls. Thereby in effect making himself equal with God (see Mt 10:28).
Below we will read the curse pronounced by Pope Pius IX upon Victor Emmanuel, where in Grover’s “Romanism The Danger Ahead”, it is written:
Victor Emmanuel and his patriotic countrymen wrested the temporal power from Pius IX., and liberated the Italian people from the power of the Church of Rome forever, so far as civil government is concerned. Being otherwise powerless, the pope strikes back, with a curse, which is here given, as printed in the Philadelphia Morning Post. It is the perfection of pious swearing by the Vicegerent of God, who said “swear not at all.” (1)
It is also said that this curse was pronounced on the Rev. Wm. Hogan, (a converted Roman Catholic priest), in Philadelphia. (2) One might also image that less explicit curses and anathemas as found in pronouncements from councils like Trent, carry with them the same underlying intent. So when you read of the papal curses still on the books, which have never been revoked by Rome, keep these words in mind that flow forth from lips of the man who dresses like an angel but speaks like a dragon.
Let us now read the words of the Pope:
“Pronounced on all who leave the Church of Rome. By the authority of God Almighty, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and the undefiled Virgin Mary, mother and patroness of our Saviour, and of all celestial virtues, Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Dominions, Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim, and of all the holy Patriarchs, Prophets, and of all the Apostles and Evangelists, of the holy innocents, who in the sight of the holy Lamb are found worthy to sing the new song of the Holy Martyrs and Holy Confessors, and of all the Holy Virgins, and of all the Saints, together with the Holy Elect of God,–MAY HE BE DAMNED. We excommunicate and anathematize him, from the threshold of the holy church of God Almighty. We sequester him, that he may be tormented, disposed, and be delivered over with Datham and Abiram, and with those who say unto the Lord, ‘Depart from us, we desire none of thy ways;’ as a fire is quenched with water, so let the light of him be put out forevermore, unless it shall repent him, and make satisfaction. Amen.
“May the Father who creates man, curse him. May the Son, who suffered for us, curse him! May the Holy Ghost who is poured out in baptism, curse him! May the Holy Cross, which Christ for our salvation, triumphing over his enemies, ascended, curse him!
“May the Holy Mary, ever Virgin and Mother of God, curse him! May all the Angels, Principalities, and Powers, and all heavenly Armies curse him! May the glorious band of the Patriarchs and Prophets curse him! “May St. John the Precursor, and St John the Baptist, and St. Peter and St Paul, and St. Andrew and all other of Christ’s Apostles together curse him and may the rest of the Disciples and Evangelists who by their preaching converted the universe, and the Holy and wonderful company of Martyrs and Confessors, who by their works are found pleasing to God Almighty; may the holy choir of the Holy Virgins, who for the honor of God have despised the things of the world, damn him. May all the Saints from the beginning of the world to everlasting ages, who are found to be beloved of God, damn him!
“May he be damned wherever he be, whether in the house or in the alley, in the woods or in the water, or in the church! May he be cursed in living or dying!
“May he be cursed in eating and drinking, in being hungry, in being thirsty, in fasting and sleeping, in slumbering, and in sitting, in living, in working, in resting, and in blood letting! May he be cursed in all the faculties of his body!
“May he be cursed inwardly and outwardly. May he be cursed in his hair; cursed be he in his brains, and his vertex, in his temples, in his eyebrows, in his cheeks, in his jaw-bones, in his nostrils, in his teeth, and grinders, in his lips, in his shoulders, in his arms, and in his fingers.
“May he be damned in his mouth, in his breast, in his heart, and purtenances, down to the very stomach!
“May he be cursed in his reins and groins, in his thighs and his hips, and in his knees, his legs and his feet, and his toe-nails!
“May he be cursed in all his joints, and articulation of the members; from the crown of the head to the soles of his feet, may there be no soundness!
“May the Son of the living God, with all the glory of his majesty, CURSE HIM! And may Heaven, with all the powers that move therein, rise up against him, and curse and damn him; unless he repent and make satisfaction! Amen! So be it. Be it so. Amen.” (3)
Endnotes
1 Ray, D. B. The Papal Controversy Involving The Claim Of The Roman Catholic Church To Be The Church Of God Between “American Baptist” and “Church Progress”. St. Louis, MO.: National Baptist Publishing Company, 1892. Online at: Source.
2 Richardson, Sarah J. Life In The Grey Nunnery. Boston: Edward P. Hood, 1857. Online at: Source.
3 Ray, D. B. 1892.
From the author of The Lamb comes The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus. This book explains the gospel of Jesus Christ in the most detailed yet simple way that I have ever read. This easy-to-read book is full of illustrations and details the gospel beginning all the way back in creation. It shows the many foreshadowing events that point to the Messiah from the animal sacrifice to cover Adam and Eve, to the Passover Lamb, to the bronze serpent on the pole, etc.
If you’re looking for an easy-to-read book that thoroughly explains the gospel of Jesus Christ look no further. Whether you’re someone who’s been in the faith for a while or if you’re someone who knows absolutely nothing about the Bible, this book is for you.
From ChristianAnswers.net:
A breakthrough book for sharing a chronological approach to the Bible with unsaved friends and family in a reasonable amount of time. This can be read through in about eight hours.
A great evangelistic tool.
From the publisher:
What if there was a tool that could not only make sharing your faith less intimidating, but also help give you a better grasp of what you believe? A way to communicate the gospel in such a way that as you shared it, people’s eyes would light up with an understanding of what Jesus Christ did for them? Something that you could walk through with them as a Bible study or simply give to a friend to read? A way to make what many see as a dusty old book come alive with meaning in their lives? . . .This fully illustrated, 304-page book is written for adults and teens who know little or nothing about the Bible. It explains in a straightforward way the greatest themes of the Bible, step by step creating an understanding of sin, substitution and atonement. You yourself may be asking the meaning of these terms, words you’ve heard many times but never quite grasped the full meaning of. These truths are woven through the text as each chapter builds on the previous. By the end, the reader has the foundation needed to understand the importance of Christ’s death and resurrection. The logical teaching of truth from creation to the cross makes for a clear understanding of what the Bible is all about.
Currently www.FamilyFaithBooks.com is offering the accompanying workbook free with the purchase of the book.
The idea that the Christian message should be kept pliable and ambiguous seems especially attractive to young people who are in tune with the culture and in love with the spirit of the age and can’t stand to have authoritative biblical truth applied with precision as a corrective to worldly lifestyles, unholy minds, and ungodly behavior. And the poison of this perspective is being increasingly injected into the evangelical church body.
– John MacArthur
I recently watched an ecumenical dialog at Wheaton College between Timothy George, Dean of the Southern Baptist Beeson Divinity School, and Francis Beckwith, a “Protestant” who recently returned to Rome. Words fail me at how disgusted I was as the cotton candy eating, Kumbaya singing and kid-glove handling of the damnable errors of the religion of Rome. This coming not from a pulpit sitting believer who has never studied doctrine related to Catholicism, but from a Dean of one of the leading Southern Baptist Seminaries who is obviously very well read in these areas. I’m still waiting for the outcry from the Southern Baptist Convention.
More could be said, but I will leave that to James White, a man I greatly respect and one whom I have learned a great deal from. A man who, like, Richard Bennett of Berean Beacon, is willing to speak out against the foundational errors of the Roman religion that separate it from true, Christ-centric, Biblical Christianity. One who also will challenge the ecumenists of our day who are causing a great many to stumble and are fueling the confusion between Rome and true Christianity, and further abetting the plans of the Pope to gather the “lost” sheep back into his open arms.
From the Alpha and Omega Ministries Apologetics Blog, James White writes:
I will be slamming more church doors in my face tomorrow on the DL [Dividing Line broadcast] as I begin working through the entirety of the Timothy George/Frank Beckwith dialogue from Wheaton. What I mean by that, of course, is that it is grossly unpopular to address, in a fair, biblical, historical fashion, the subject of Roman Catholicism, and even more so, to criticize non-Catholics who refuse to see the real issues of the gospel that are at stake when we speak of Roman Catholicism. But, it must needs be done. Someone has to speak up when men are intent upon reducing the gospel to a mere matter of opinion. So I will begin working through the dialogue–all of it–on the program tomorrow, beginning with Timothy George’s opening assertion that the gospel of Rome saves—not that he said those words, but, within the first minute he referred to Beckwith as his “brother in Christ,” making it very clear from the start that whatever “differences” that exist, they do not separate us from salvation. Beckwith likewise provided a number of quotes I will be adding to the chapter I had already finished (but will now expand) on whether he ever actually crossed the Tiber in the first place. (Source: Link)
The programs are not sound bites as the subject is too deep and important to cover with a 15 minute pod-cast. I encourage all those who really want to better understand the nuances of what we are dealing with in the evangelical world of ecumenical compromise, please listen to the following Dividing Line Programs.
HT: Desert Pastor
Would that God would make hell so real to us that we cannot rest; heaven so real that we must have men there, Christ so real that our supreme motive and aim shall be to make the Man of Sorrows the Man of Joy by the conversion to Him of many.
– Hudson Taylor
1832 – 1905
I now see more good and more evil in men than I did before. . . . I once thought that anyone who could pray eloquently and fluently, and talk well of religion, had to be saints. But experience has revealed to me that low crimes can co-exist with high professions.
– Richard Baxter
1615 – 1691
Sometimes the truth hurts, but it still needs to be told. I wish more pastors would be as bold as Tim Conway. Granted, their pews would empty out, but wheat usually grows much better without tares anyway.
Shun therefore the evil ways of Christians, but cleave to the way that is Christian. . . . Take heed therefore of picking up a quarrel with Jesus Christ, and with His ways, because of the evil doings of some of His followers. Judas sold Him; Peter denied Him: and many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him; but neither Himself nor His ways were the worse for that.
– John Bunyan
1628 – 1688
“Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. ‘He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life.
‘But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’
“Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them warning from Me. “When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. “But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life.
– Ezekiel 33:2-9
To sin because mercy abounds is the devil’s logic. . . . He that sins because of God’s mercy shall have judgment without mercy. Mercy abused turns to fury. . . . Mercy is not for them that sin and fear not, but for them that fear and sin not.
– Thomas Watson
1620 – 1686
How much more do you think he would have squirmed in his chair and changed the topic if this had been the question:
How can you continue to represent the Roman Catholic religion in light of Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews (just to name three books of the Bible) that all contradict Roman Catholicism and prove it’s nothing more than falsehoods and traditions of men?
HT: Pastor Aaron
Not satisfied with the drivel that is known as the majority of what passes as Christian literature today, (obviously a reflection of what’s oozing from most pulpits), the Christian publishing world has long abandoned classic Christian literature like that found in the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s.
Today, the Christian book publishing world is moving in directions that begs the question how they can still use the name “Christian.”
According to this news article, meet the new face of “Christian” literature:
Other Christian fiction shows growing sophistication. No longer must characters follow a predictable path to salvation, for instance. The heroine of Nicole Baart’s “The Moment Between,” published by Tyndale, is not a conventional believer but a spiritual seeker; the novel is set in a vineyard and deals with a suicide.
And as if it couldn’t get worse . . . it does:
Even as Christian publishing suffers during the recession — one study found net sales for Christian retailers were down almost 11 percent in 2008 — several publishing houses are adding or expanding their fiction lines with both the tame (Amish heroines) and boundary-pushing (Christian vampire lit).
You heard right: “Christian vampire lit.” I never dreamed I’d ever in my life use those words in the same sentence.
More on “Christian vampire lit”:
On Sept. 15, WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group will release its take on vampires in “Thirsty,” by Christian chick-lit author Tracey Bateman. Not surprisingly, the marketing material mentions “Twilight,” the hit vampire book series and movie whose abstinence message resonated with many evangelicals.
Bateman’s vampire, Markus, is a character but also a metaphor for demons anyone must overcome, said Shannon Marchese, an editor at WaterBrook Multnomah who sought out Bateman for the project. The object of his obsession, Nina, is a divorced alcoholic dealing with addiction.
“These are themes that work in the Christian life,” Marchese said. “You have to fight to say, ‘Am I going to choose unconditional love and redemption or a life of following obsessions, a life with holes in it?”
Still, challenges exist beyond what to do with dripping fangs (they were edited out). On the theological front, questions lurk about whether a creature both alive and dead has a soul that can be saved.
“I think we can redeem a vampire,” said Bateman, adding that she won’t be a spoiler and disclose her character’s fate. “I don’t think this is a despair too dark to pull out of.”
The problem in the world of Christian publishing and bookstores can be summed up with the last line in this quote:
“If you look at ‘Left Behind,’ the moon turns to blood and one-third of the people die,” said Karen Watson, associate publisher, fiction, for Tyndale House, which published the series. “Or you have people with bonnets on drawing water from the well. It just tells me there are a wide range of things you can talk about, and Christian books can be a lot of things.”
It seems “Christian books” are a lot of things, but Christian.
If you enjoy good Christian fiction (without vampires) but cannot stand the garbage that passes as today’s Christian literature, I cannot recommend enough the book Basket of Flowers by Christoph von Schmid. And needless to say, you probably won’t find it in your local Christian bookstore!
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
Christ Alone Wyoming 