Religion

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Tebow makes us uncomfortable.

Regardless of whether or not you like football, you will still like the clarity and keen observations presented in this USA Today article.

Columnist Larry Taunton does a great job revealing that even in sports, the media’s bias propaganda machine against Christians is alive and well.

Here’s an excerpt:

“When it comes right down to it, we don’t want heroes who are truly good. We want them to fail the occasional drug test or start a bar fight from time to time. It makes us feel better about ourselves. Tebow, however, doesn’t make us feel better about ourselves. People like him make us feel a little convicted about the things we say and do. So we find a reason to dislike them.”

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Debate: Walter Martin vs Madalyn Murray O’Hair.

w-martino-hair

Here’s the hard-to-find debate between the great Christian apologist, Walter Martin, and the infamous anti-theist, Madalyn Murray O’Hair. 

DefCon makes this classic debate from 1968, entitled Walter Martin vs Madalyn Murray O’Hair, available to you as an MP3 download.  

You are sure to enjoy this.

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Just what the world needs.

(CBS/AP) Houston televangelist Joel Osteen is a preacher, lecturer and author. Soon, he’ll add reality TV star to his accomplishments.

The leader of a Texas megachurch, whose Sunday services are broadcast to audiences around the world, has signed an agreement to work with producer Mark Burnett to develop a reality show about his mission trips with members of his Lakewood Church.

Osteen, 48, announced the agreement Tuesday. He said the program would also feature Victoria, his wife of more than two decades.

Osteen also travels a cross the country presenting programs in large arenas. He is the author of several best-selling books, the latest of which is “Every Day a Friday.”

The British-born Burnett is executive producer of the CBS hit show “Survivor” and creator of such reality series as “Celebrity Apprentice,” “The Voice” and “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”

Lakewood Church’s website says its broadcasts reach more than 200 million households. Its headquarters is the former Compaq Center, which the NBA’s Houston Rockets once called home. It took more than 15 months and $75 million to convert the arena into a church.

Source: CBS

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Sermon of the week: “God’s view on Marriage and Divorce” by Akash Sant Singh.

If last week’s sermon on marriage by Albert Martin (found here) was a left hook, today’s message is an uppercut.

God’s view on marriage and divorce is a message that I strongly encourage DefCon readers to listen to whether you are married, divorced, widowed, or single (yes, that’s intended to be all-inclusive).

What a wonderfully convicting and encouraging message Akash brings from the book of Malachi. You won’t want to miss this one.

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Angry Arminians.

For the past several weeks I’ve been addressing my concerns about behavioral and interpersonal interaction among Christians and the inevitable negative affects this ungracious conduct breeds.

I’ve addressed issues such as the hypocrisy of Christians (found here), caustic Calvinists (found here), and the cannibalism of “elite” Christian bloggers devouring their perceived lower class counterparts (found here).

This week I am addressing one more issue: Angry Arminians. And what better way to tackle this issue than to reprint an e-mail (verbatim and in its entirety) that I recently received in the DefCon reader mailbag?

I have read your blog for 2 years. I don’t know why. Every time I read a post, I feel physically sick. My soul weeps at how you blaspheme the nature of God. Your arrogance thinly veiled in self-righteousness. Your hate for your fellow man.

WE GET IT…God doesn’t love everyone, but he loves you. God didn’t send Jesus to die for everyone, just a select (including you). Because he chose you. Congratulations. If God is as you view him, I would rather spend eternity in hell. There is something wrong with all of you. I take the way you ruin the name of God very seriously, and so do many others. The god you purport to serve is NOTHING. you serve a tyrannical psychopathic egotistical monster of your own creation. because he isn’t real. this makes you weak and pathetic and masochistic. you are disgusting.

This is obviously not the way that most Arminians engage in a debate on the subject of God’s sovereignty; many remain gracious and kind in their debates but we must be honest, too many Arminians tend to get very hot under the collar whenever the Doctrines of Grace are proclaimed.

The vast majority of those who oppose what is commonly referred to as “Calvinism” do not disembowel their opponents with vitriolic diatribes like seen above, but many of them do get extremely angry.

The idea that God is actually sovereign over all His creation (including His human creations), and that He retains the right to wield that sovereignty over His creation as He sees fit (humans included) is oftentimes enough to send some Arminians into a rabid tizzy.

What the angry Arminian fails to comprehend, however, is that their loathsome disgust of the Doctrine’s of Grace is not actually toward those who hold to these doctrines, but instead, their disdain is ultimately with the Scriptures themselves and the God who inspired them. Arminians are simply kicking against the goads, for the Doctrines of Grace are biblical and have been taught throughout all of Scripture and church history (long before John Calvin was ever born).

There’s absolutely no need to be demeaning or to get enraged with one another when debating these issues. Neither caustic Calvinists nor Angry Arminians advance the gospel or glorify God when we’re engaged in bloody battles and vitriolic tirades with one another. We tend to show more patience with those in cults and false religions than we do with our own brethren. Absolutely no one is drawn to the gospel when they see displays like this . . .

Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

Colossians 4:6


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Book recommendation: “Dangers of the Invitation System” by Jim Ehrhard

I recently finished this short  booklet, Dangers of the Invitation System, that I simply can’t recommend enough.

In about 30 pages, Jim Ehrhard reveals the utter folly of the modern evangelical practice of the altar call.

If you know someone (friends, family, evangelist, pastor, etc.) who employs the altar call in their presentation of the gospel, you need to get this booklet into their hands.

This booklet regularly retails at $2.95 but is currently part of the one cent sale at CCWOnline where you can get up to twenty copies for only a penny each.

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Saturday sermon series: “The Gospel Demands Radical Giving” by David Platt.

We are in week five of our eight-week series on Radical. What makes today’s message, The Gospel Demands Radical Giving, so important is that in it David Platt answers many of the criticisms levied against him.

If you dislike the message Platt is delivering in this series and you refuse to listen to it because you think Platt  believes that Christians who give away more are better than those who don’t; you think Platt “guilts “people into giving to the poor (and keeping less for ourselves); you think Platt believes the rich man was in Hell because he had money and Lazarus was in Heaven because he was poor; you think Platt is advancing a works-righteousness gospel; or any of the other baseless judgments that have been levied against him for daring to touch American Christianity’s golden calf of affluence, then please listen to this message so you can better understand his heart and his message.

I don’t wish for the “controversy” surrounding Radical to overshadow the message Platt is giving, but the criticisms must be answered and in this particular message Platt does just that (most of which is done in the first 14 1/2 minutes of this message).

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Sermon of the week: “Marriage and Redemption” by Albert Martin.

Your sermon of the week is Marriage and Redemption by Albert N. Martin.

I greatly appreciate Pastor Martin’s willingness to go where so many pastors in America won’t. Whether it’s dealing with such taboo subjects in the church as the expectation of families to have family worship time and warning against the misuse of television (see here) or the subject of the rampant immodesty within the church (see here), Pastor Martin is not one to shy away from stepping on toes as he deals with subjects that most other pastors won’t touch for fear of alienating segments of the church or being labeled a “legalist.” 

In today’s message Pastor Martin takes the gloves off as he deals with the subject of marriage. This is no “ten steps to a better marriage” type sermon; expect to be challenged and convicted.  

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Pharisees, leprous Samaritans, and other bloggers.

This post may not win me friends, and it may only make the sport of loathing me (and this blog) all the more attractive, but I am compelled to address a problem within the Christian internet community; a problem that doesn’t appear to show signs of ending anytime soon.

The problem I am speaking of is the increasing (and unnecessary) condescension and personal attacks from upper class Christians of the blogging world directed toward their lower class brothers and sisters.

This unsightly pock mark on the face of the Christian blogging world has risen to an alarming level and ignoring it –or hoping that it will soon run its course—simply won’t alleviate the problem. In this post I will be brutally honest (risking possible verbal retaliation and smears) but I hope and pray my words will be received in the spirit in which they are intended and will not actually contribute to the already inflamed derision among the caste system of Christian bloggers.

If anyone is offended by what may appear as an overly harsh rebuke or admonition (or some tongue-in-cheek), I apologize in advance, as my intent is not to offend, but the situation has boiled to such a level that pulling punches will serve no good in my appeal to see an end to this disadvantageous behavior.

I am also not deluded into believing my words will persuade all parties involved, but I do pray that it will cause at least a few of the combatants to pause and reflect on just how poorly attitudes and behaviors have gotten lately. I also pray that those involved will repent for the damage already done and then join me in calling a truce in this war among brethren.

To be fair.

I must begin by conceding that there are in fact some very angry, argumentative, and combative Christian bloggers out there who really need to reconsider the reason they blog. These bloggers (which comprise a very small minority) would do the cause of Christ and the gospel a service if they would consider taking a sabbatical to reevaluate their current spiritual state. (I have already addressed this issue in my previous post Caustic Calvinists.)

The fact is, these acidic bloggers are not representative of every Christian blogger out there who happens to find themselves outside the gates of the upper echelons of the blogging food chain, and I reject the efforts by some to lump all lower class apologist bloggers together as part of the seething minority.

But this post is not about them. This post is about the elitists who paint all inferior bloggers in cyberspace with the same broad brush as the few caustic bloggers.

My observations.

In my estimation most Christian bloggers fall into two main categories:

1). The hierarchical internet popes who see themselves as the only class of bloggers that are worthy, able, and enlightened enough to defend the faith and address the problems within the church.

To be analogous, I liken this growing elitist mentality to the Pharisees–not in the malicious way that critics apply the term as a way to stifle their opponents in a debate–but in the sense that, like the Pharisees, these bloggers strongly present themselves as the only ones worthy to deal with religious matters. All other bloggers are just not at the spiritual, educational, and intellectual level necessary to blog as the elites are, and thus, all other Christian bloggers would do best to leave the temple grounds and take their laptops with them.

2). The rest of the Christian aplogetics blogging world falls into the other category. These low-level mavens of the blogging world are what I analogously (and affectionately) refer to as the dreaded leprous Samaritans, those unclean pariahs not even worthy to blog alongside their premier blogging counterparts.

These oftentimes sincere and faithful bloggers are commonly referred to by their elitist superiors by the pejorative terms “watchbloggers” and “ODMs” (online discernment ministries), names strategically employed to marginalize them and their worthless contributions. The professionals view these gentile bloggers with utter contempt and–given the opportunity–would likely have those unkempt, vile dogs of cyberspace censured (if not tarred, feathered, flogged, and burned at the stake).

Friendly fire.

It’s true that not every menial blogger has been to seminary; it’s true that not every blogging serf has a master’s degree; it’s true that not every lower class blogger has had a book published; it’s true that not every peasant blogger has the greatest of depth in theological understanding; it’s true that not every amateur blogger has the following year booked up with speaking engagements around the nation, but does this mean that these grunts in the trenches of the battlefield have no right to exercise their freedom of speech as they write about the gospel, the faith, and their convictions, simply because they don’t say it exactly in the manner that the upper crust in the blogging world would?

Do these amateur bloggers really deserve all the loathing, condescension, and rancid vitriol that they’ve been increasingly receiving from these elites?

If we’re all truly in Christ then we’re all in this truth war together, but when the generals begin turning their cannons on the ground troops, the cause of Christ is sullied.

When the world gazes upon the bloody and battered mass of wounded warriors (many of which eventually succumb to the injuries inflicted on them by their comrades), the unbelieving snicker at us as they slip deeper into their self-assurance that all this friendly fire is simply more “proof” of the utter failure and futility of Christianity. Because, after all, Jesus said that the world would know that we are His disciples by the love we have for one another. Unfortunately the world sees anything but this type of evidence when they visit some Christian blogs.

Ironically, oftentimes the subpar bloggers that the elite loathe the most are the ones who are linking to their sites, recommending their books, and posting their sermons.

The common goals of those in the truth war.

Aren’t we all unified under the same Lord with the same shared purpose of  glorifying God, spreading the gospel, and defending the faith from those who have crept in unnoticed?

All Christians are undeniably in this truth war (even if most professing Christians prefer to avoid controversies). And in spite of the seemingly vast chasm affixed between the upper-crust bloggers and their inferiorly-viewed lower-crust bloggers, they share much in common. Here, for your consideration, are just some of the commonalities that these two tiers of bloggers share:

– Both camps believe in the essentials of the Christian faith.

– Both camps believe in defending these essentials from the wolves who seek to subvert them.

– Both camps have a righteous indignation for false teachers that lead the sheep astray.

– Both camps have a passion to share the gospel of Jesus Christ (the only means of salvation) to a lost and dying world.

– Both camps adhere to the God-glorifying Doctrines of Grace.

– Both camps rejoice, take comfort in, and proclaim the sovereignty of God over His creation.

– Both camps believe in the perspicuity and divine origin of the Scriptures.

– Both camps believe the Bible doesn’t contain the Word of God but is the Word of God.

– Both camps proclaim the Solas of the Reformation.

– Both camps have placed their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the propitiation for their sins.

In other words, both camps are comprised of actual, literal brothers and sisters in the Lord, members of Christ’s body, fellow Christians. And each of these bottom dwelling Christian bloggers that are loathed, smeared, dragged through the mud, and demeaned by other Christian bloggers are dear souls that have been redeemed by the precious shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Forget not that those you deride are the Lord’s beloved bride, and will be sharing a seat at the table of the Lord’s marriage feast with you.

Enough is enough.

To the ostentatious bloggers of grandiose superiority, I am calling for a stop to this madness of public ridicule of fellow Christians who are in the same war fighting the same battles. Quit viewing them as too unsophisticated and unworthy to blog because their polemic is not to the same degree of eloquence or level of loftiness that you possess. I urge the generals to bear this in mind before their next public evisceration of a foot soldier on their theological bayonets of contempt.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are quietly opening new Kingdom Halls, Rome is quietly baptizing new converts, Mormons are quietly gaining more approval and legitimacy in the arena of public opinion, Emergents and liberals are quietly subverting the gospel, the anti-theists are quietly publishing more books questioning the existence of God, and Muslims are quietly planning their next mass-casualty attack in the name of Allah. And all of this is happening while the ones who hold the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ—the very gospel these souls trapped in their growing false religions so desperately need to hear—are  preoccupied in a pretentious battle of who’s allowed to blog or not.

Oh, how this is all to our shame!

The beginning of strife is like letting out water,
so abandon the quarrel before it breaks out.

Proverbs 17:14

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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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Saturday sermon series: “The Gospel Demands Radical Compassion” by David Platt.

We continue our Saturday sermon series from David Platt.  The Gospel Demands Radical Compassion is part three in this eight-part series. 

This series was the inspiration for Platt’s book, Radical.  

Here is the description of the series:

“In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” With these words, Jesus turned away large crowds who were following Him. With grace and authority, He beckoned potential followers to consider the demands of discipleship. For most, the price was too high and the cost was too great. In the 2000 years since Jesus spoke these words, it begs the question: Do we in contemporary Christianity realize the high price of following Jesus? Do we understand the great cost for all who call themselves followers of Christ? Take a closer look at the words of Jesus that require us to consider the implications of the Gospel for every facet of our lives.

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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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Saturday sermon series: “The Gospel Demands Radical Sacrifice” by David Platt.

We continue our Saturday sermon series with the second installment from David Platt’s series Radical which inspired the book by the same name.

This week’s message is The Gospel Demands Radical Sacrifice (you can find last week’s message here).

This sermon series is one of the most sobering and deeply challenging that I’ve ever listened to. I have found it to be incredibly convicting and trust that you will too.