Idea Transcript
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After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has (Job 42:7). Perhaps we are surprised that in this account God affirms that Job was right in what he said about Him. We have never seen any recognition up to this time that Job had said right things. In fact, much of the book is aimed at pointing out that Job was wrong in his attitude about God. Although both Job and his friends say some wonderfully true things about God, and there are great passages of brilliance and glory that depict something of His power, beauty, and wisdom, Job himself admitted that he spoke in ignorance and folly, and he repents of this and puts his hand on his mouth. So it is rather surprising that God twice admits that Job has said that which is right about Him. View article Õ
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The good news about Christ can only be appreciated with the bad news as the backdrop. There are times when the saints must be fed, and there are times when the sinners must be warned (C.H. Spurgeon). (Shane Idelman – ChristianHeadlines) A few years back, I listened in astonishment as some prominent “Christian” leaders talked about replacing “preaching” with “having a conversation.” At first, I thought that they might be confusing individual conversations with how we should speak to the masses, but I was wrong. They felt that we should stop “preaching” from the pulpit and start being more passive and less confrontational. Never mind the fact that Jesus said, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent” (Luke 4:43). But according to many, it’s time to replace the pulpit with a couch and preaching with conversing. Continue reading Õ
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The Christmas story just wouldn’t be the same without the shepherds, would it? Just a bunch of blue collar guys out doing their jobs one night, when God stepped in and gave them a story they’d be telling for the rest of their lives. We don’t know their names or how many of them there were, but they’re more than just pieces of our nativity sets. They’re a picture of the gospel.
The shepherds had no idea God would reveal His Son to them that night. They were just going about their lives, day in and day out, oblivious, until God intervened and brought them the good news of Christ. In a similar way, the Bible says that we walk through life day after day, dead in our trespasses and sins, until that glorious moment when God draws us to Himself, opens our eyes to the gospel, and makes us alive in Christ. View article Õ
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(Carl Trueman – First Things) One of the sad things about writing my annual contribution to the First Things endof-year appeal is that there is always some news headline that indicates why the print magazine and its online content are important. And this year is no exception, with the news that a Roman Catholic priest in Wisconsin has come out as gay, to a standing ovation from his parishioners. Debates about whether or not same-sex attraction is sinful rage on in Christian circles—but that is not what interests me in this story. Rather, I am interested in the blithe way in which many of the present age’s heterodoxies concerning human personhood are widely accepted as normative. View article Õ
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(Brent Aucoin – Answers In Genesis) Our primary goal in handling life’s pressures is to learn how to depend upon God and please Him, not simply get rid of stresses. The economy, unemployment, terrorism, politics, finances, moral decline, major sickness, a prodigal child, an unhealthy marriage—for most of us, contemplating any one of these pressures will knot our stomach. We become uneasy and tense. Our soul ceases to be quiet like the still waters but instead becomes deafeningly noisy like a wailing infant. In other words, we are “stressed.” View article Õ
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(Breitbart) Next fall, the prestigious Swarthmore College will introduce a course called “Queering the Bible.” The course, which will launch in the fall of 2018 through Swarthmore’s religion department, will examine the Bible through a queer lens. It will examine issues of sex, gender, and identity as they present themselves in one of human history’s most influential texts. View article Õ
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God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him? (Job 36:22). Elihu’s final word to Job is a great and beautiful passage in which he sets forth in marvelous language the glory of God. It runs from chapter 35:22 through chapter 37. First, God is beyond human instruction. Notice how he begins: God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him? Then, he reveals another important fact in chapter 36:26: God is beyond human understanding: How great is God beyond our understanding! Finally, Elihu reveals in 36:30-31 that God acts beyond the rigid categories and reasons of humans: See how he scatters his lightning about him, bathing the depths of the sea. This is the way he governs the nations and provides food in abundance. God uses His natural powers for both blessing and judgment alike. View article Õ
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(LifeNews.com) Veteran Supreme Court reporter Lyle Denniston reported today that the Supreme has decided to “move ahead on the dispute over teen abortions.” He is referring to the case of three undocumented pregnant girls whom the ACLU has so far successfully argued ought to be allowed to abort. Denniston begins: The Supreme Court plans to take up at its first private conference in the new year the intense, ongoing fight over an unsettled constitutional question – do undocumented immigrant teenagers who are pregnant have a right to an abortion? … View article Õ
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Is there a link between Bethel Church in Redding CA and occultism as some discernment ministries have been reporting (here)? Steven Kozar of Messed Up Church presents the shocking evidence that the claims made by discerners are indeed true. Here’s Kozar’s report: We all know how important it is to have massive encounters with God, right? Well, now it can be fun, too! Introducing the brand new board game from Bethel Church in Redding, California: “The Bethel Board!” (And it’s just in time for Christmas!) View article Õ
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(Christian Institute) All transsexual prisoners should be released, children should be allowed unrestricted access to hormone blockers and birth certificates should be banned, transsexual campaigners are demanding. In its manifesto, the Edinburgh chapter of the national Action for Trans Health (ATH) group, which has previously called for ‘radical violence’, said: “This is war, and we will win”. The national body was handed a public platform when it gave oral evidence to an influential committee of MPs, while its founder has reportedly trained hundreds of NHS staff. View article Õ
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A frequently heard phrase this time of year is the “birth of Jesus.” And that’s good. But, it’s possible to miscommunicate something essential about Christ. Typically, when we mention someone’s birth, we think of it as the beginning of the individual’s existence. Obviously conception marks the beginning of existence, but for convenience sake (and avoidance of some awkward conversations) we do not celebrate one’s conception day, but birthday. You get the idea. View article Õ
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Who are we going to allow to define God, New Ager Wm. Paul Young and promoter of witchcraft J.K Rowling…or the Lord Jesus Christ? Following is Pastor Larry DeBruyn’s response in a piece he penned for Herescope: Looks like the concept of “god” in the book and movie The Shack is spreading. Fiction and fantasy have merged. J.K. Rowling, author of the occult Harry Potter series of books, popular reading among even many Christians, has announced that like The Shack, she believes “God is a Black Woman.” (Rowling’s declaration, as well as The Shack‘s fiction, reminds me of The Black Madonna.) Continue reading Õ
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Photo credit: Herescope
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(Breitbart) CNN’s relentless campaign to destroy the innocence of young children marched on this weekend with a lengthy Sunday morning New Day segment promoting a children’s book that depicts Santa Claus as a homosexual who is married to another man. Above a chyron that read, “Children’s Holiday Book Explores Race, Homosexuality,” New Day co-anchor Christi Paul declared the book a “fresh, new twist” and then appeared to lament the fact that “there are some families though, tsk, not so happy about the book’s maybe not so hidden agenda.” View article Õ
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24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:24-26 (NKJV) The Church is in the midst of a Truth War. That is nothing new is it? We have been talking about this for years; however, we must remain diligent while not surrendering the fight over what is Truth and what is not to the enemies of God’s Truth. The reason the visible church is being eaten alive by the world right now is that it has long ago forsaken God’s Word as His infallible Truth. The result is the compromised mess we see all around us now. Why is it that Rick Warren and his followers have such a hold on the visible church? … View article Õ
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(Costi Hinn – Defining Deception) A few years ago an excited woman in her 20’s ran up to me one Sunday at church – she was a newer attendee who had been kicking the tires on our church for a few weeks when my last name must have clicked. It’s not like we talk about it every Sunday at Mission Bible – our members don’t really care. We have a lot of important ministry to do and I’m just another one of the pastors. But sometimes it comes out in conversations and you never know what you’re going to get. Angry ex-faith-healer-enthusiast who threatens a shake down if I don’t pay them back what my uncle stole from them? Excited believer who came out of the jaws of deception like me? It’s hit or miss. Continue reading Õ
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(Christian News) Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed on Monday a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, but also would have allowed dismemberment of the unborn up to that point as long as the baby was first killed by another method, such as being “injected by saline to cause its death before its arms and legs are ripped off.” View article Õ
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In this post we will look at Ephesians 1:3-14 and Romans 8:29-30. In these two passage are found three Greek words that have been the source of large numbers of polemic works and, in my own experience, I have been accused of holding to doctrines that I do not hold to (nor do any hold to that I know of) by Synergists constructing straw men in order to attack them in an attempt to make it look as if they are defeating the Doctrines of Grace to which I do hold dear and the Monergistic faith through which I know I am saved. View article Õ
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Church means something specific in the New Testament. (Eric Davis – The Cripplegate) Maybe you’ve heard it. “We can’t make it to church today, so we’ll just do church as a family.” “I can just do church on a hike this morning in God’s creation.” “The church is really the people, so we can do church wherever. God is everywhere, after all.” Do we really need to go to a building on a certain day for it to count as doing church? If so, isn’t that legalistic? Continue reading Õ
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(Churchwatch Central) If the people of Bethel really read their bibles, they would notice that Jesus was very judgmental at times. Consider these words of Jesus to one of the churches in Revelation: “But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.” Revelation 2:20 Continue reading Õ
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Our nation’s college students are abusing alcohol and other drugs in ways that threaten their health, their safety, and their academic success. (Michael A. Fitts – Lifezette) This is the time of year that many college students return home to see family and friends, and to face nosy but well-meaning questions about school. Just as everyone at the holiday table will press them for information, students will be trying to assert some independence. View article Õ
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1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:1-5 (NKJV) Those who have a problem with the Doctrine of Original Sin and the Wrath of God against all sin attempt to paint the God of Reformation Theology as some sort of ogre full of anger with very little love manifest except in the case of a chosen few. … View article Õ
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Following is a satirical piece written in 2008 by the late Ken Silva:
Apprising Ministries gave you a description of this social justice “Jesus,” whose roots are firmly within spiritually bankrupt liberal theology, years ago in Will The Real Jesus Please Stand Up? I am the Jesus of today’s liberal theology of inclusive, politically correct, universalism. I am only a human man—arguably the best example of a man and the greatest teacher to yet live. However, I was not born of a virgin; nor did I actually rise from the dead. Unfortunately as a mere Jewish Rabbi, I attracted such devoted followers that even after my death they wanted to keep my spirit alive so to speak. And so they went and built this elaborate theology around me, which is largely based on the writings of that rascal Paul. Sadly, they ended up making me into a god. But I never I made any such outlandish claims. I teach that the most important thing we can do is to love one another. You see, that’s all that matters because we are the brotherhood of man. No one should ever criticize what another person honestly believes about God. Afterall, all of humanity is actually already all God’s children. And even though we may take different paths of religion in this life, as all religions please God if they are sincere, in the end—as in Love Wins a la Rob Bell—we’ll all be with God because everyone is eventually going to be saved. Mankind is just too good to be condemned and God is too good to condemn him. Continue reading Õ
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(World) In the midst of gloom-and-doom predictions of rapid climate change, a recent study shows computer models grossly overestimate the rate of global warming. The study, published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences, shows real-world climate change over the past 38 years is 0.096 degrees Celsius, about half of what computer models predict. View article Õ
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(A. Philip Brown, II Answers In Genesis) In a recent Huffington Post article, Mark Olmstead claims that, according to Jesus, some people are born transgender and that expressing transgender identity behaviorally is no big deal. In Olmstead’s view, people who panic, demonize, or make a fuss about nontraditional categories of gender expression should just “get over it.” To justify his claim, Olmstead appeals to Jesus’ statement regarding eunuchs in Matthew 19:12 (NASB). Specifically, he asserts that the phrase “eunuchs, who were born so from their mother’s womb” may legitimately be understood to include traditional eunuchs, intersex persons, and transgender persons. Continue reading Õ
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(CNS News) Commenting on an Australian commission report that recommends ending mandatory celibacy of priests in the Catholic Church to apparently curtail sexual abuse, Catholic League President Bill Donohue said this possibly is Australia’s way of saying there are too many homosexuals in the Catholic clergy, and he added that in the United States “homosexuals committed most of the abuse” in the church over the last 50 years. View article Õ