Over the past couple years DefCon has compiled a large cache of sermons available for free to download, and every Thursday we feature a new message for our Sermon of the week. So our repository of over 160 sermons continues to grow. Because of this DefCon now features a Sermons Page at the top of this blog for an easy way to get to the many sermons DefCon features.
Religion
Roman Catholic Mysticism and the Emerging Church Reexamined
A very important presentation by Richard Bennett from Bearean Beacon given to an audience in London about Roman Catholic mysticism and its promotion by the Emerging/Emergent Church. From the YouTube posting we read:
Mysticism attempts to gain ultimate knowledge of God by a direct experience that bypasses the mind. Catholic mysticism, now officially married to the Emerging Church, needs to be reexamined. Old-time mystics such as Loyola, Teresa of Avila, and John of the Cross need to be examined again along with modern so-called evangelical mystics such as Richard Foster. All of this, and more, is accomplished in this professional presentation along with graphic inserts of persons and events. An analysis is also made of Phyllis Tickle who has surfaced as a formidable leader of this toxic movement. The fall from power of Tony Jones, a former leading light of the movement, is also documented.
Please watch to get educated on this critically important subject and share with others.
Sacred or secular?
Can you identify which of the following three lyric excerpts come from Christian musical artists and which are from secular musical artists? I admit it won’t be easy, but differentiating between Christian lyrics and worldly lyrics shouldn’t be that difficult, right?
For more, be sure to check out DefCon’s other Christian music lyrics quiz.
1.
Lack of understanding lack of communication
Lack of a desire for expanding education
Lack of inspiration lack of innovation
The fact you can’t respect another mans creation
Lack of motivation lack of restoration
The fact we lack unity and enjoy separation
Lack of destination because you know what I feel
I feel that humans lack the ability to be realDo not tell me what I can and cannot do when I rock
2.
Welcome to the world of a girl named Susie
Susie’s only crime was that she was born a cutie
Physically abused by her uncle and his friends
Alcohol let ’em all leave the house with grins
But Susie couldn’t shake off the memories
Forced to find her own kind of remedy
A man-eater for the rest of her days
Three kids, three men, no daddies by eleventh grade
3.
The secret side of me, I never let you see
I keep it caged but I can’t control it
So stay away from me, the beast is ugly
I feel the rage and I just can’t hold itIt’s scratching on the walls, in the closet, in the halls
It comes awake and I can’t control it
Hiding under the bed, in my body, in my head
Why won’t somebody come and save me from this, make it end?I feel it deep within, it’s just beneath the skin
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I hate what I’ve become, the nightmare’s just begun
I must confess that I feel like a monsterI, I feel like a monster
I, I feel like a monster
Answers . . .
Quotes (685)
The Law speaks of what man must do for God; grace tells of what Christ has done for men. The Law demanded righteousness from men; grace brings righteousness to men. The Law brought out God to men; grace brings in men to God. The Law sentenced a living man to death; grace brings a dead man to life. The Law never had a missionary; the Gospel is to be preached to every creature. The Law makes known the will of God; grace reveals the heart of God!
– A.W. Pink
1886 – 1952
Sermon of the week: “Solus Christus – The Supremecy of Christ in Salvation” by Brian Borgman.
Your sermon of the week is Solus Christus – The Supremecy of Christ in Salvation. This is part eight of a thirteen-part series on the Doctrines of Grace entitled Introduction to the Reformed Faith by Pastor Brian Borgman. Look for the each additional installment every couple weeks.
Quotes (684)
For too long we have been committed to forms of evangelism that ignore the crucial discipleship element explicit in the Great Commission. We have been called to make disciples, not converts.
– Voddie Baucham
Postmodern chemistry lab.
For those who enjoyed playing Postmodern Twister, now there’s the Postmodern Chemistry Set:
On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Mormon church wishes to remind you that they’ve been racism-free for 31 years.
Isn’t “new revelation” about doctrine just grand? It’s like silly putty: so pliable in the hands of the “prophets” that they can overturn years of racist LDS traditions and teachings (including the prohibition against blacks in the priesthood) with one simple claim: God has changed His mind.
And since this “new revelation” in June of 1978, the LDS spin doctors have worked tirelessly to cover up the racist teachings of their prophets, even going so far as to change the Book of Mormon–the very book they claim not only contains the fullness of the gospel, but is the most correct book on earth (minus those 3,913 changes and corrections made to it of course).
So on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, let us embark on a leisurely stroll down the halls of Mormonism’s history to see what this organization’s stance on race was until the summer of 1978.
And the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among them [Lamanites]; wherefore, they shall be restored unto the knowledge of their fathers, and also to the knowledge of Jesus Christ . . . . and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and delightsome people. – Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 30:5-6, (Changed in 1981 to read “pure and delightsome“)
And it came to pass that I beheld, after they had dwindled in unbelief they became a dark, and loathsome, and a filthy people, full of idleness and all manner of abominations. – Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 12:23
And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites; And their young men and their daughters became exceedingly fair . . . – Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 2:15-16
For behold, the Lord shall curse the land with much heat, and the barrenness thereof shall go forth forever; and there was a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people. – Pearl of Great Price, Moses 7:8
The day of the Lamanites is nigh. For years they have been growing delightsome, and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were promised. . . . The children [Indian children in the LDS] home placement program in Utah are often shades lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservations . . . . These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness. One white elder jokingly said that he and his companion were donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the process might be accelerated. – Spencer Kimball, Improvement Era, Pags 922-923, December 1960
Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so. – Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 10, Page 110, 1863
You can see men and women who are sixty or seventy years of age looking young and handsome; but let them apostatize, and they will become grayhaired, wrinkled, and black, just like the Devil. – Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 5, Page 332, 1857
Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a sin of blackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the Holy Priesthood, and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the Holy Priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to. The volition of the creature is free; this is a law of their existence, and the Lord cannot violate his own law; were he to do that, he would cease to be God. – Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 11, Page 272, 1866
Suppose we summons them to appear here, and here declare that it is right to mingle our seed, with the black race of Cain, that they shall come in with us and be pertakers [sic] with us of all the blessings God has given to us. On that very day, and hour we should do so, the priesthood is taken from this Church and kingdom and God leaves us to our fate. The moment we consent to mingle with the seed of Cain and Church must go to desstruction [sic], — we should receive the curse which has been placed upon the seed of Cain . . . . Therefore I will not consent for one moment to have an african [sic] dictate me or any Bren. with regard to Church or State Government. . . . If the Affricans [sic] cannot bear rule in the Church of God, what business have they to bear rule in the State Government affairs of this Territory or any others? – Brigham Young Address, Ms d 1234, Box 48, Folder 3, LDS Church Historical Department, February 05, 1852
Not only was Cain called upon to suffer, but because of his wickedness he became the father of an inferior race. A curse was placed upon him and that curse has been continued through his lineage and must do so while time endures. Millions of souls have come into this world cursed with a black skin and have been denied the privilege of Priesthood and the fulness [sic] of the blessings of the Gospel. These are the descendants of Cain. Moreover, they have been made to feel their inferiority and have been separated from the rest of mankind from the beginning. – Joseph Fielding Smith, Way to Perfection, Page 101
It was well understood by the early elders of the Church that the mark which was placed on Cain and which his posterity inherited was the black skin. The Book of Moses informs us that Cain and his descendants were black. – Joseph Fielding Smith, Way to Perfection, Page 107
There is a reason why one man is born black and with other disadvantages, while another is born white with great advantages. The reason is that we once had an estate before we came here, and were obedient, more or less, to the laws that were given us there. Those who were faithful in all things there received greater blessings here, and those who were not faithful received less. – Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrine and Covenants, Volume 1, Page 61
The negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned . . . but this inequality is not of man’s origin. It is the Lord’s doing, is based on his eternal laws of justice, and grows out of the lack of spiritual valiance of those concerned in their first estate. – Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, Pages 527-528, 1966 Edition
“I don’t know, I don’t know, I can only say that.”
The late Mormon prophet, seer, and revelator, Gordon B. Hinckley
Roman Catholics copying Evangelicals?
A sad trend as of late is that many supposed professing Christians are unifying with and even returning to Rome (like a dog to its vomit) and taking many of the undiscerning with them.
But what I find ironic is that while an exodus out of Biblical Christianity and into Roman Catholicism is taking place (i.e. A great falling away), simultaneously the church of Rome appears to be borrowing from evangelicalism the very pragmatic methodologies that’s killing evangelicalism.
After watching the following video it seems that Rome is trying to model the same seeker-sensitive, feely-touchy, charismatic, man-made methodology that has left so many evangelicals disenfranchised with Christianity and is the impetus behind why so many are running into the arms of the Romish organization.
Here’s the Roman Catholic Life Teen promo video chalk full of images explicitly Romish along with images indistinguishable from modern Churchianity, devotion to a dead woman, and typical Romish heresy.
Quotes (682)
The church is in a sad state today. Never mind the mainline denominations that have long-since abandoned biblical faith; we’re talking about the bible-believing church. Here, too often, we see much ado about nothing. There is talk of revival without the reality. The church today measures its success by the numbers on its rolls, the size of its offerings, or the volume of its worship bands—rather than by the holiness of its members.
– Philip Lancaster
The various first visions of Joseph Smith.
The following three-minute video is a great follow-up to Dear Mormon: Which version of the First Vision do you believe?
Sermon of the week: “Sola Fide – The Supremacy of God in Salvation” by Brian Borgman.
Your sermon of the week is Sola Fide – The Supremacy of God in Salvation by Brian Borgman. This is part seven of a thirteen-part series on the Doctrines of Grace entitled Introduction to the Reformed Faith. It seems that this series gets better and better with each installment. Look for the each additional installment every couple weeks.
Sermon of the week: “No Lie is of the Truth” by Phil Johnson.
Phil Johnson carefully handles the issue of lying in the sermon No Lie is of the Truth. He even tackles the much debated lie of Rahab. This is a good sermon to digest on the whole issue of lying and deception.
The Fall of the United States of Rome.
Martin Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) offers a sobering warning from the grave:
If the West goes down and is defeated, it will be for one reason only: internal rot . . . If we continue to spend our lives in jollification, doing less and less work, demanding more and more money, more and more pleasure and so-called happiness, more and more indulgence of the lusts of the flesh, with a refusal to accept our responsibilities, there is but one inevitable result—complete and abject failure. Why did the Goths and Vandals and other barbarians conquer the ancient Roman Empire? Was it by superior military power? Of course not! Historians know that there is only one answer: the fall of Rome came because of the spirit of indulgence that had invaded the Roman world—the games, the pleasures, the baths. The moral rot that had entered into the heart of the Roman Empire was the cause of Rome’s “decline and fall.” It was not superior power from the outside, but internal rot that was Rome’s ruination. And the really alarming fact today is that we are witnessing a similar declension in this and most other Western countries. This slackness, this indiscipline, the whole outlook and spirit is characteristic of a period of decadence. The pleasure mania, the sports mania, the drink and drug mania have gripped the masses.
Welcome to the gospel in America in the 21st century.
The problem is not that television presents us with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining. – Neil Postman
Quotes (679)
The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity.
– Charles Spurgeon
1834 – 1892
Who is Mormonism’s “Angel of Light” and what part did he play in the founding of Mormonism?
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an ANGEL OF LIGHT.
Holy Bible / 2 Corinthians 11:14
There have also been ministering angels in the Church which were of Satan appearing as an ANGEL OF LIGHT.
Joseph Smith / Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith / Page 214 / 1842
The angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil…that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an ANGEL OF LIGHT.
Book of Mormon / 2 Nephi 9:8-9
We learn from the revealed word that Satan was once an ANGEL OF LIGHT, then known as Lucifer, a Son of the morning.
James E. Talmage / Articles of Faith / Page 56 / 1988
Satan wants us to believe in his false prophets, false healers, and false miracle workers. They may appear to be so real to us that the only way to know is to ask God for the gift of discernment. The devil himself can appear as an ANGEL OF LIGHT.
Gospel Principles / Page 149 / 1997 Edition
ANGEL OF LIGHT.
See Devil.
Bruce McConkie / Mormon Doctrine / Page 35 / 1966 Edition
And exactly what part did this “Angel of Light” play in the founding of Mormonism?
In September, 1823, and at later times, Joseph Smith received visitations from Moroni, an ANGEL OF LIGHT, who revealed the resting place of the ancient record from which The Book of Mormon was afterward translated.
Doctrine and Covenants / Explanatory Introduction / Page 1
It all makes sense now, doesn’t it?
Sermon of the week: “God Saves Bad People” by Art Azurdia.
Your Thursday sermon of the week is God Saves Bad People by Art Azurdia. This is a great message on Rahab and this sermon has even been made into a sermon jam that’s been featured on DefCon.
Those of you unfamiliar with Art Azurdia will find him a refreshing voice in a wilderness of Osteens, Nobles, Driscolls, and Warrens.
Quotes (677)
When the sun is under a total eclipse, it loses nothing of its native beauty, light, and glory. Yet it appears to us as a dark useless meteor. When it frees itself from the lunar interruption, it again manifests its native light and glory. So it was with the divine nature of Christ. He veiled His glory by assuming our nature as His own and taking the “form of a servant,” a person of mean and low degree. But now this temporary eclipse is past, and His glory shines forth in the infinite luster and beauty that belong to the exaltation of His person. . . . Let the world rage while it pleases; let it set itself with all its power and craft against everything of Christ. We have this to support us and to oppose all their attempts–what Jesus says of Himself: “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Revelation 1:17-18).
– John Owen
1616 – 1683
Coexist.
The following great piece comes from Jake Hunt at WiserTime:
You’ve seen these, right? They make me mad. Why? Because they don’t really mean what they say.
Let’s break it down. We’ll call each worldview by the letter it’s supposed to represent. So:
- C = Islam
- O = Pacifism
- E = “Gender equality” (=the LGBT agenda)
- X = Judaism
- I = Wicca / Pagan / Bah’ai
- S =Taoism / Confucianism
- T = Christianity
And let’s assume a very broad definition of “coexist”: living together without calling for the destruction of each other. Here are the problems with that:
- C wants to kill E, X, T, and (by implication) O. If they achieved the world they wanted, I and S would also no longer exist.
- O doesn’t allow for effective resistance or defeat of C.
- E stands in direct opposition to C, X, and T, and accuses those who speak against them of hate speech. Also, they’re trying to edge X and T out of public schools in favor of their own agenda. (They’re afraid C will be offended, so they get less trouble.) E is actually very, very intolerant.
- X’s existence is threatened not only by C but also by O, who invariably supports C over X.
- I and S are statistically insignificant and are mainly on there to complete the bumper sticker.
- T is who the bumper sticker is really arguing against, but poses no physical threat to any of the others.
Historically, T has brought about more tolerance– “coexistence” if you will– than any other movement. But the kind of “coexistence” the people who make this sticker envision is one where at least X and T are completely marginalized.
Christ Alone Wyoming 