Horton on the enemy of American religion

“Calvinism is the fundamental enemy of the American Religion. This is argued in nearly every recent work on the subject…the repudiation of Calvinism led to the feminization of religion and culture.”

Dr. Michael S. Horton,
Modern Reformation, July/August 1995.

R.C. Sproul-God for Us ~ Romans 8:31-39

“How can we not understand the posture of God toward His people after He has gone to such lengths to effect our redemption? God spared nothing, not even His Son, so that we might be saved. Therefore, Paul says, “He delivered Him up for us all.” I don’t believe for a moment that God did this for all mankind. God gave His Son to redeem His elect, those who are a part of the Golden Chain.  ”

read the entire article at Christianity Today

Rejecting False Assurances

www.ligonier.org

If we think the Bible teaches universal salvation, we may arrive at a false sense of assurance by reasoning as follows: Everybody is saved. I am a body. Therefore, I am saved.

Or, if we think salvation is gained by our own good works and we are further deluded into believing that we possess good works, we will have a false assurance of salvation.

To have sound assurance, we must understand that our salvation rests on the merit of Christ alone, which is appropriated to us when we embrace Him by genuine faith. If we understand that, the remaining question is, “Do I have the genuine faith necessary for salvation?”

Again, two more things must be understood and analyzed properly. The first is doctrinal. We need a clear understanding of what constitutes genuine saving faith. If we conceive of saving faith as existing in a vacuum, never yielding the fruit of works of obedience, we have confused saving faith with dead faith, which cannot save anyone.

The second requirement involves a sober analysis of our own lives. We must examine ourselves to see whether the fruit of regeneration is apparent in our lives. Do we have a real affection for the biblical Christ? Only the regenerate person possesses real love for the real Jesus. Next we must ask the tough question, “Does my life manifest the fruit of sanctification?” I test my faith by my works. 

Passages for Further Study

What is your response to the questions posed in this reading: Do you have the genuine faith necessary for salvation? Do you have a real affection for the biblical Christ? Does your life manifest the fruit of salvation?

Passages for Further Study

 

Psalm 9:14
Psalm 13:5
Psalm 20:5

Todd Friel on how Twilight affects christian girls

GREAT commentary from Todd Friel of Wretched Radio on the effects of, and evils of, the Twilight vampire garbage!

Charles Finney, Cooperation, and the GCR

from Timmy Brister.com-

Questions regarding the extent of the atonement, predestination, and the like I agree are tertiary, but there are some doctrines intricately related to the gospel that, should they be given up, would alter the gospel altogether.  Primary doctrines that address the questions of  “What is the gospel?” and “How does one become a Christian?” are essential and fundamental, “particulars” where disagreement we should all be able to recognize as unfortunately jeopardizing cooperation.

For instance, if Charles Finney were alive today and working as an itinerant revivalist in the Southern Baptist world, I (and I would imagine most Calvinists) could not cooperate with him.  His understanding of the gospel, conversion, work of the Holy Spirit in salvation, and the nature and state of man would all be particulars that are not secondary or tertiary but primary.  You might respond, “Well, of course.  Finney was semi-Pelagian.  That would be an extreme example.”  Okay. Now let me put it into contemporary vernacular because I believe that spirit and methodology (that flowed from his theology) is alive and prevalent today.  If the response to the gospel message is to “ask Jesus into your heart” or “pray this prayer after me” or “walk down this aisle” rather than repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus, then that is a primary difference in how one becomes a Christian.  If the gospel is truncated, watered down, or altered so as to not offend, then we have a real problem.

An Expositor Poll-What about Unity?

In light of the release and singing of the Manhattan Declaration, here is  the following Expositor Poll Question:

Reformation or Revival?

A wonderful article by Jim Elliff, written in 1997, and just as relevant today. You read more article by Jim at www.CCWtoday.org

If you have been around me very long, you have heard me emphasize that the crying need, the absolutely desperate need of the hour, is reformation. You have also been aware that for years I have also longed for revival. Recently I was asked what the difference actually is, if any, between revival and reformation. This is an important question worthy of your precious time to think it through.

Though many are blinded to the current dilemma, the fact is that a sound and lively truth-basis has been ejected from the premises of modern evangelicalism. Evangelicalism has been dispossessed of truth to such an extent that it is becoming frightening. In its place experience and mysticism are house-sitting the church or, if not these, then church growth pragmatism or an unhealthy preoccupation with the psychological. But the necessary doctrines of the holiness of God and His just wrath, justification by faith alone, the transforming nature of regeneration, the sovereignty of God over all of creation and in salvation itself, the nature and extent of grace in justification and in sanctification—doctrines upon which the earlier revivals thrived—have been considered unimportant and useful only for wizened old theologs holed up in ivory towers who do not relate to the church’s future.

Top Ten Cults in America

This comes from ChristianAnswers.net as compiled by  Bob Pardon, Director of the New England Institute of Religious Research (NEIRR) in Lakeville, MA, and an AIIA Resource Associate.

The following are the ten most dangerous groups in America today.

1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormonism).
   A very subtle, spiritual deception started in 1830 by Joseph Smith. This aggressively evangelistic group contends that it is the only true Church, and that all Christians outside Mormonism are following a deficient Gospel and a false Christ.

   Learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – GO…

2. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses).
   Militantly anti-historic Christian tenets. This group began in the 1870s with Charles Taze Russell. They not only deny the essentials of the Christian faith, but the control exercised over the membership is highly destructive.

   Learn more about the Jehovah’s Witnesses – GO…

3. The Church of Scientology.
   A do-it-yourself salvation, science fiction group that masquerades as the true Church, lightly sprayed with a thin veneer of Christianity. Seeks to destroy through litigation and character assassination those who speak out against the group.
4. The Twelve Tribes.
   This group began in the early 1970s with Elbert Eugene Spriggs. They claim that salvation can only be found by giving all possessions to them and living in their community. All personal decision-making power is given over to the leadership.

   An open letter to a prospective member of the Messianic Communities (aka Twelve Tribes) – GO…

    

5. The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (Unification Church).
   Founded in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon, this highly authoritarian and destructive group teaches that Jesus failed on the cross. Moon is now the mediator between God and man.

    

6. The International Churches of Christ (Boston Movement).
   This highly evangelistic group which began in 1978 with Kip McKean embraces most of the main tenets of the historic Church. Teaches that it is the only true Church and is highly authoritarian, with immense control over members’ lives.

    

7. The Family (Children of God).
   This communal group was founded by David “Moses” Berg. A strange mixture of basic Christian tenets and almost total sexual license. Very controlling and manipulative.

    

8. Christian Identity Movement (Aryan Nations, Christian Identity Church, Klu Klux Klan, etc.).
   A loose-knit confederation of various small groups that are militantly anti-government and conspiracy driven. Each group holds differing, deviant Christian tenets. All hold to Caucasians being the descendants of the ten “lost” Tribes of Israel, God’s true people.

    

9. The Nation of Islam (Black Muslims).
   Began in 1930s by W. D. Fard. Group teaches that the black man is good, the white man is the devil, and that Jesus was merely a prophet. Highly controlling group.

   Learn more about the Nation of Islam – GO…

    

10. United Pentecostal Church (UPC).
    A highly controlling, legalistic group that was formed in 1945. This group denies the Trinity and teaches that in order to be saved one must be baptized in the name of Jesus only.

Word of Barack Hussein Obama concerning Islam

This was shared with me from my friend Ray, he wrote, “Have you wondered why our President has been so silent regarding the perpetrator of the Fort Hood Massacre? Watch the following Youtube clip — a collage of Obama’s references to Islam — and you may have an answer….Wouldn’t it be nice if the President of this Christian nation spoke so glowingly about the Christian faith and the greatness of our country?”

Luther’s 95 Theses

Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther
on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
by Dr. Martin Luther (1517)

Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter.

In the Name our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.2. This word cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance, i.e., confession and satisfaction, which is administered by the priests.

3. Yet it means not inward repentance only; nay, there is no inward repentance which does not outwardly work divers mortifications of the flesh.

4. The penalty [of sin], therefore, continues so long as hatred of self continues; for this is the true inward repentance, and continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

5. The pope does not intend to remit, and cannot remit any penalties other than those which he has imposed either by his own authority or by that of the Canons.

6. The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring that it has been remitted by God and by assenting to God’s remission; though, to be sure, he may grant remission in cases reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in such cases were despised, the guilt would remain entirely unforgiven.

Is the Reformation Over?

by Dr. R.C. Sproul

Is the Reformation over? There have been several observations rendered on this subject by those I would call “erstwhile evangelicals.” One of them wrote, “Luther was right in the sixteenth century, but the question of justification is not an issue now.” A second self-confessed evangelical made a comment in a press conference I attended that “the sixteenth-century Reformation debate over justification by faith alone was a tempest in a teapot.” Still another noted European theologian has argued in print that the doctrine of justification by faith alone is no longer a significant issue in the church. We are faced with a host of people who are defined as Protestants but who have evidently forgotten altogether what it is they are protesting.

Contrary to some of these contemporary assessments of the importance of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, we recall a different perspective by the sixteenth-century magisterial Reformers. Luther made his famous comment that the doctrine of justification by faith alone is the article upon which the church stands or falls. John Calvin added a different metaphor, saying that justification is the hinge upon which everything turns.

John MacArthur Calls Obama a “Non-Christian”

Exposing the Paganism of Oprah

World Net Daily posts an article highlighting the new book by Josh McDowell titled “‘O’ God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah’s Spirituality.”

McDowell and his co-author, Dave Sterrett, contend that the “splintered belief” of Oprah and the advice of the colorful teachers she promotes are among today’s most relevant issues.

“The danger is that while appearing to use Christian and inclusive language that at first seems similar to that of Christianity, Oprah teaches a message that is radically different and absolutely contrary to the true teaching of Scripture and historic Christianity,” McDowell and Sterrett warn. Get your autographed copy of “O God” exclusively from the team that published it – WND Books and the WND Superstore.

The media’s portrayal of Oprah as a modern-day Billy Graham and her selection as master of ceremonies for the national memorial service at Yankee Stadium after the 9/11 attacks demonstrate her powerful influence, the authors note.

McDowell points out USA Today reporter Cathy Lynn Grossman discussed in a recent article the theological shift taking place.

“Religion today in the USA is a salad bar where people heap on upbeat beliefs they like and often leave the veggies – like strict doctrine – behind,” she wrote.

read the entire article…..

Do we need any more evidence?

Do we need any additional evidence of the apostasy of such groups as the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Methodist Church and others? While there are members of these groups, (and notice I dont desrcibe them as denominations) who are faithful and seek to be obedient, I cry to them to LEAVE…..NOW!

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A coalition of mainline Protestant church clergy have authored a letter promoting abortion. The group sponsoring it intends it to make a statement on abortion funding as members of Congress consider health care bills that fund abortions.

Baptist, Brethren, Lutheran, Methodist Clergy Promote Abortion in New Letter

LifeNews.com-The letter comes from a group of church clergy who have long advocated the pro-abortion position.

Under the umbrella of the Religious Institute, the more than 1,100 pastors and church staff from the denominations endorsed the letter.

The letter calls abortion a “morally justifiable decision” and opposed any amendments to the House and Senate bills, which current contain massive abortion funding, to strike that taxpayer-financing.

“Already, federal policy unfairly prevents low-income women and federal employees from receiving subsidized [abortions],” Rev. Debra W. Haffner, executive director of the Religious Institute complained.

The letter added that she doesn’t want more abortion funding bans in place and complained that additional “restrictions” on abortion funding constitute a “serious moral injustice.”

The denominations of the clergy who endorsed the letter include the American Baptist Churches, Church of the Brethren, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church, and others.

read the entire article…

Does God have a wonderful plan for your life?