A Christian, if he has not a care, may be proud of his very humility. It is hard starving this sin, because it can live on almost nothing. . . . Be much in meditation on death and judgment. A serious and frequent meditation on death will be a means to kill pride. Ask yourself: “What is man, but a little living lump of clay? And what is his life, but “a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away?”
– Richard Mayo
1631 – 1695
I believe one of the greatest crutches in the church is the nursery. Parents who have neglected to train their children have very little encouragement to do so when there is a place to hide them. The father who should be up in arms by the time he gets home from church because of the embarrassment to which his child subjected him ends up going home with a clear conscience while the nursery worker takes a handful of aspirin.
– Voddie Baucham
Now I should like to know whether your soul, tired of it’s own righteousness, is learning to be revived by and to trust in the righteousness of Christ. For in our age the temptation to presumption besets many, especially those who try with all their might to be just and good without knowing the righteousness of God which is most bountifully and freely given us in Christ. They try to do good of themselves in order that they might stand before God clothed in their own virtues and merits. But this is impossible…Therefore, my dear brother, learn Christ and Him crucified. Learn to pray to him and, despairing of yourself, say, “Thou, Lord Jesus, art my righteousness, but I am thy sin. Thou hast taken upon thyself what is mine and hast given to me what is thine. Thou have taken upon thyself what thou wast not and hast given to me what I was not.” … For why was it necessary for him to die if we can obtain a good conscience by our own works and afflictions? Accordingly you will find peace only in him and only when you despair of yourself and your own works. Besides, you will learn from him that just as he has recieved you, so he has made your sins his own and made his righteouness yours.
– Martin Luther (From a letter to George Spenlein)
1483 – 1546
Catholics are totally dependent upon priests for their salvation. It is the priest who is said to cause regeneration and justification in baptism (CCC 1992, 1213); absolve mortal sins in the confessional; dispense the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist; impart the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Confirmation; and offer the sacrifice of the Mass for souls suffering in purgatory. It is no wonder why Catholics trust their religion and their priests as mediators to usher them into Heaven.
– Mike Gendron
For those familiar with Paul Washer’s “Shocking Sermon” (featured on DefCon here), you will want to check out the following eleven-minute interview piece in which Paul Washer explains the circumstances preceding his delivery of that sermon to 5,000 youth.
You can watch the interview below, or download the audio by right-clicking here.
Richard Baxter said, “Don’t pretend to love your people if you favor their sins.” Any pastor who says, “We don’t deal with sin here” doesn’t love his people, and it’s questionable whether he loves his God. Anybody who loves God loves what God loves, and what God loves is holiness and God loves His people to be holy, and if you’re indifferent toward their sins, then you don’t love people. If you say . . . as you hear preachers say, “God loves you, God loves you, God loves you,” then you have to immediately say, “And if you don’t turn to receive His Son you’re going to Hell.” If you love God and you love people you say that. And if in the church you say, “God loves you, God loves you so much that He gave His Son,” you’re going to have to also say, “God loves you so much that He wants you to stop that sin, He wants you to abandon that sin or you’re going to be put out of His Church. He’s a man who expresses the true and the pure, not some mushy sentimentalism.
– John MacArthur
Apparently First Baptist Dallas has chosen to spend that amount of money on a church building. Of course, had this news come out sooner I would have certainly included it in my post How To Know If Your Church Isn’t Spending Enough On Missions.
Here’s a quote from The Church Report article on this $130 million dollar church project:
DALLAS,TX– The congregation of First Baptist Church Dallas today overwhelmingly affirmed recommended plans to proceed with a $130 million capital campaign to build an expansive new 1.5 million square foot, state-of-the-art campus, making it the largest church building program in modern history, according to church fundraising experts.
The CrossTalk Blog quotes house-church pastor, Ken Eastburn who hits the proverbial nail on the head:
“If the church is to be God’s plan for the world, the vessel by which the Good News of his redemption spreads, we are going to need to learn how to reach out to culture without becoming it. Expensive buildings don’t scream ‘we have been redeemed,’ they scream, ‘we are just like you.’ And that certainly isn’t the message that Jesus was nailed to a cross for.”
Pastor Ken Eastburn also lists on his blog some of the amenities that this new church building is expecting to have:
- 1.5 million square feet
- LEED certified (its green and energy efficient)
- Glass structure
- Stone water tower topped with a luminescent cross
- Common area for downtown residents and guests
- 3,000 seat worship center (on the second story)
- 7 high-definition screens
- Choir and Orchestra pit
- Senior adult education center (under the sanctuary)
- 300-space underground parking garage
- 6-story education building for children/youth ministries
- 2 side-by-side gymnasiums
- Children’s play areas
- Outdoor concert space
- Adjacent parking garage with 500-plus parking spaces
After pondering yet another example of the staggering excess of American Christianity, this story would not be complete without directing your attention to the short video on this previous DefCon post (a video that I have not been able to bring myself to watching twice). It serves to do the above story justice by way of a necessary comparison and a much needed, sobering, priority-correcting, reality check.
To imagine, therefore, so small a thing as a bee, a fly, a grain of corn, or an atom of dust, can be made out of nothing, would stupefy any creature who considered it. But how much more is it to behold the heavens, with all the troops of stars; the earth, with all its embroidery; and the sea with all her inhabitants of fish; and man, the noblest creature of all, and all to have risen out of the womb of mere emptiness.
– Stephen Charnock
1628 – 1680
Yet one more reason to support your local home school: a public school in North Carolina was actually selling grades. It reminds me of the Roman Catholic organization who sells indulgences; but I digress.
Here’s a quote from the news article:
“To my mind, it’s the integrity of the educational enterprise that’s at stake here,” said Daniel Wueste, director of the Rutland Institute for Ethics.
I’m sorry to report, Daniel, but you’re a little late. The integrity of government education was lost a long time ago.
Roman Catholicism is the most evil perversion of Christianity Satan could devise. It is pagan, wicked, and deceptive. It is a works-oriented system that perverts the works of Christ in many blasphemous ways (the papacy being one) and was the reason the Protestant Reformation was necessary. How sad it is that many “evangelicals” today are trying to undo it.
– J.D. Watson
The testimony of ex-Roman Catholic Sister Charlotte Keckler and her experience as a cloistered nun and her subsequent deliverance from this system.
Part I
Part II
Your sermon of the week is Grace Needed: Total Depravity by Brian Borgman. This is part three of a thirteen-part series entitled Introduction to the Reformed Faith that Pastor Borgman gave in 1998. Look for each additional installment every couple weeks. See part one here and part two here.
Methods and terminology used in evangelism all over the world have so distorted the Gospel that Christians need to be taught afresh the basic fundamentals of God’s saving work in Christ, so their presentation of the Gospel will be according to the Word of God. Even though many people have been saved under present evangelistic methods, many others have not clearly understood the Gospel. The message they heard so emphasized man’s part in conversion that God’s perfect finished work and complete provision for helpless sinners in Christ was not understood and believed. If people’s attention is directed inward to their own doing, even those who are truly saved will often lack assurance of salvation. The question will constantly arise within their hearts, “Was I sincere enough? Did I do it correctly? Did I truly receive Christ? Did I really give my heart to Jesus?”
Way of the Master put together a great video on Jehovah’s Witnesses, in spite of the fact that they’ve resorted to including Ravi Zacharias as an “apologist.” I noticed that on the other WOTM video on Mormonism (found here), Ravi was not included. Could it be because he’s sympathetic to LDS? For more on Ravi’s descent into heresy, click here.
Aside from that, enjoy the videos.
Part 1:
Part 2:
You may as well see without light, and be supported without earth, or live without food, as to be saved without holiness . . . the one thing necessary (Heb. 12:14). And when this has been determined by God, and established as His standing law, and He has told it so often and plainly, for any man then to say, “I will yet hope for better, I hope to be saved on easier terms, without all this ado,” is no better for that man than to set his face against the God of heaven. Instead of believing God, he believes the contradiction of his own ungodly heart; and hopes to be saved whether God wills it or not. He gives the lie to his Creator, under the pretense of trust and hope. This is indeed to hope for impossibilities. . . . Who is so foolish as to hope for this? Few of you are so unreasonable as to hope for a crop at harvest, without ploughing or sowing: or for a house without building; or for strength without eating and drinking. . . . And yet this would be a far wiser kind of hope, than to be saved without the one thing necessary for salvation.
– Richard Baxter
1615 – 1691
Jacqueline Kassar spent twenty-two years as a nun in an enclosed convent dedicated to adoration, reparation and suffering, trying to appease the wrath of God. She believed it was a nun’s calling to be a miniature savior of the world like unto Jesus Christ. Now, on camera, in her apartment into Brooklyn NY, she tells her story with compassion and care for sincere Catholics who truly live Catholic teaching. [Text from YouTube video posting]
To learn about Jacqueline’s experience, please watch the video below.
A while ago I wrote a post about an ecumenical meeting at Wheaton College between Francis Beckwith and Timothy George. For those who do not know, Francis Beckwith was baptized and raised as a Roman Catholic, where according to his web site, “…his faith journey led him to Protestant evangelicalism. He [then] became a philosophy professor at Baylor University and president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS). And then, in 2007, after much prayer, counsel, and consideration, Beckwith decided to return to the Catholic church and step down as ETS president.” 1
Now, firmly entrench in Rome, Beckwith is doing his utmost to preach the merits of Catholicism with individuals like Timothy George and others in the “evangelical” camp helping the cause through their ecumenical discussions. For those who want to better understand some of the key doctrinal issues that separate Roman Catholicism from Biblical Christianity, I’ve included a link below to a series of messages by 
Tony Bartolucci, pastor/teacher of Clarkson Community Church in NY. These messages address in very detailed fashion Mr. Beckwith’s return to Rome, which he has documented in his book “Return to Rome – Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic.”
The messages are much more in-depth than the coverage given by James White on his Dividing Line program, which is I included in my prior post (they still are good to listen to). For those who take the time to listen to thee messages, I fully believe you will be greatly blessed and benefited. Not only so your faith is bolstered, but also so you can better minister to Roman Catholics. And so that you can rebuke those in our midst who join hand-in-hand with Catholics calling then brethren.
The messages can be found here, where I have included Tony’s introduction to the messages explaining why he took the time to give them.
As I have stated in the first part of this series, my motivation in pursuing this topic has nothing to do with personal animosity toward Dr. Francis Beckwith or Roman Catholics in general. I was a Roman Catholic. I know what it is like to have my religion challenged and attacked. I left the Roman Catholic Church kicking and screaming all the way. I wanted to remain a Catholic. However, God would not have it. In 1981 he drew me in, fighting all the way, to a repentance that is unto eternal life (2 Timothy 2:25).
Having come through the other side I now cherish the simple Gospel of grace and loath any system that would pervert this precious truth. I abhor what I know will appear to many as an attack on a man. The desire of my heart is to be humble and gracious, while not compromising a God-honoring tenacity for the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
In fact, I don’t particularly enjoy having to do this series. I would be among the first to raise a hand in reply to the question, “are you ready for this series to be done with?” But I am literally compelled to address not only the book, but in doing so, a much larger issue: the Gospel of grace verses [sic] the gospel of Rome.
Like most anyone, I like flying under the radar. I don’t want to be a lightning rod for controversy, to have my name flamed on the internet. But I also know that the closer one gets to the front lines of the battle, the higher the likelihood that one will find himself in the proverbial cross-hairs. So be it.
I’m sure that, like so many Roman Catholics, Francis Beckwith is a very nice guy. I’ve listened to his interview with Greg Koukl on the latter’s program, Stand to Reason. I mourn for him; for his very apparent inability to see that which only those with the eyes of faith (eyes sovereignly granted by God) can see. I would welcome a phone call from Dr. Beckwith in order to discuss these things with him.
My prayer is that God will use this series, and perhaps a forthcoming book, to strengthen genuine believers in the most holy faith, bring faith to those who are doubting, and to save others, snatching them from the fire while hating the garment polluted by the flesh (Jude 20-22). Soli Deo Gloria! 2
End Notes:
1 – Return to Rome. Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic. http://web.me.com/francis.beckwith/Return_to_Rome/home.html [Accessed 11/3/2009]
2 – Why am I doing this? Tony A. Bartolucci. Clarkson Community Church, Clarkson, New York. 585-637-6070. http://www.tonybartolucci.com/Sermons/whytiber.htm [Accessed 11/3/2009]
Not content with being restricted to spreading their damnable false gospel on earth, the Vatican is now looking to the sky.
Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church.
“The questions of life’s origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration,” said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, an astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory.
Funes, a Jesuit priest, presented the results Tuesday of a five-day conference that gathered astronomers, physicists, biologists and other experts to discuss the budding field of astrobiology — the study of the origin of life and its existence elsewhere in the cosmos.
Today top clergy, including Funes, openly endorse scientific ideas like the Big Bang theory as a reasonable explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter.
Earlier this year, the Vatican also sponsored a conference on evolution to mark the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species.”
The event snubbed proponents of alternative theories, like creationism and intelligent design, which see a higher being rather than the undirected process of natural selection behind the evolution of species.
Read the entire article here.
Your sermon of the week is Encouragement for the Church by Pastor Randall Easter. This is one of those sermons that challenges both pastor and layman alike. Expect to hear more from Pastor Easter in the near future on DefCon.
HT: The Bororean
The single foundation of a sinner’s hope is the merits of Christ, His finished work of redemption. Those who would add to the same by any doings of their own are headed for eternal destruction. Therefore any who teach men to do so are cursed of God and should be abhorred by His people.
– A.W. Pink
1886 – 1952
Christ Alone Wyoming 