Mix Me A Molotov

For our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29)

The professing church has forgotten her first love. Caught between the foes without and the ravening wolves within Christ's little flock today finds itself in the midst of a raging spiritual battle of eternal significance. With the dawning of each new day we find ourselves one day closer to the glorious return of the King of Glory and His day of terrible vengeance upon the wicked oppressors of those He calls His own.

And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:7-9)

The Holy Writ has many things to say to us in the context of the scripture shown above, but notice the precision of language and the order in which this chain of events is shown. First we are assured that God shall avenge his own elect. As we read in 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The Almighty's patience, His restraint, is in order to bring Himself much glory and to honor His Word. Secondly the Lord asks a very important and challenging question; when He comes will he find faith on the earth? Oh how this insightful and devastating question strikes at our very hearts! For the heart is where our sinful pride lies secretly hidden away! It's from our hearts that we say within ourselves that we are better than other men, and our faith is our own! May it be far from us! May we always be mindful that our faith is of the Lord, it is His gift to us, not our gift to Him! Lord help us to be humble and broken before You! Let our boast be only in You and not of ourselves!

We know that the Lord Jesus Christ never uttered a prayer that wasn't in line with the perfect will of the Father and we have full assurance that Christ's prayers were, are, and will be answered. It is because of this blessed assurance that we can understand and come to terms with the often overwhelming apostasy, heresy and wickedness that seem to abound both inside and outside the church. God Almighty is absolutely sovereign and is unfolding the scroll of history in accordance with His will and His Word. There can be no doubt that God can and does use the evil designs of corrupted men to bring glory to Himself. Furthermore we know that God has chosen the time at which the current age should transition to a period of Great Tribulation, yet no man knows the timing of this calamitous event.

Those who are called by the name of the Lord need not be shaken by the events transpiring around us. We are His own. But what did Jesus have to say about His own? What did He ask of the Father for those to whom He was sent? John 17 & 18 tell us plainly:

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. (John 17:12)

That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none. (John 18:9)

Jesus cannot fail in His commission to save those for which He was sent, and let us be ever thankful that we fully meet the critera to qualify to be numbered among those whom the Lord of Glory came to earth to redeem!

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)

Are you a sinner? Do you qualify for the grace offered by the shed blood of the Lamb of God? I can tell you with a bold certainty that the holy scriptures answer this query with a resounding "YES!"

Get up, look up, and pray up for His coming is nigh, even at the door! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Emergent Witnesses?

I posted the following comments this evening over on Team Pyro's thread entitled You say you want to be a teacher? Oy!.

Coram Deo:
"an historical perspective grants one is the knowledge that the history of church fairly bristles with men (and women) who have couched deadly, damning error in fine and lovely words. Central, essential doctrines have been and are being denied and perverted by the nicest folks, in the sweetest words."

In my view the point made above easily ranks among the greatest problems and weaknesses within the modern professing church; namely that there's little or no understanding of church history.

Furthermore there's little or no understanding of basic doctrines or of the basic tenets of the Christian faith itself.

In fact the professing church has been generationally dumbed down so far and for so long by ungodly, compromised, church-growth apostate leadership that their hapless sheep have no scriptural or historical depth of root in themselves and are therefore highly susceptible to the doctrines of demons.

When a shepherd fails to properly feed his flock and fails to provide them with adequate protection you can be certain that those sheep will be consumed with disease and rent by ravening wolves.

Yet sadly too many within the professing church, even - and sometimes especially! - within its leadership are quick to "pooh-pooh" this type of complaint away and dismiss it as hyperbole or perhaps as unfounded generalizations but the truth of the matter is inescapable and plain for those with eyes to see.

It's a well worn cliché, but those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. The enemy's bag of tricks and the hearts of men are no different today than they were in the garden and whether we fancy our world as modern, post-modern, Christian or post-Christian it's still God's footstool and the fullness thereof is His.

Let's never lose sight of our eternal hope of glory in the midst of our temporal struggles, nor let us forget the simple fact that unregenerate man is a corrupted and twisted image bearer who is in desperate need of a Savior, the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
(Ephesians 6:12)

10:16 PM, April 13, 2007

Coram Deo:
"In simple English words not using Latin words from Reformed terminology - yes, I believe we are born sinners, we need a redeemer to rescue and redeem us from condemnation, we repent and put faith in the Redeemer Jesus, who is our substitionary atonement for sin, we are then justified by faith and made righteous in His sight through Jesus and are sanctified by the Spirit. Is this what you are asking me what I believe?"

My sacred-underwear tailored Mormon neighbor would wholeheartedly agree with the statement above.

Unfortunately he's changed all the meanings of those words to fit within his false theological construct. I wonder if the emergents consider the LDS and JW's to be Christ followers? Has anyone publicly come out one way or the other on this subject from the emergent camp? It seems to me that many, if not most, of the emergent types are so phobic of absolutes that I wonder if they'd have the stomach to tell a Mormon Missionary or a Jehovah's Witness that they're just plain wrong and that their "truth" - so called - is actually a lie from the pit of hell?

One thing (among many) that concerns me about the overarching uncertainty principle espoused and embraced by the emergents lies in the stark contrast between their "Generous Orthodoxy" and the slam-dunk false-doctrinal adherence of groups like the Mormons and JW's. Unlike the emergent cult's "You're down with God? Sweet, bro!" approach, the LDS & JW cultists I've witnessed to are so well trained in their understanding of their cult's version of the scriptures and their false system of faith plus works that they'd turn the average professing Christian into a spiritual pretzel in about five minutes flat.

Please understand I'm not trying to hijack the thread, I'm just curious to know how the emergents with their dearth of doctrine are equipped to bear witness of the true Jesus Christ to the kingdom of the cults, or if they're even interested in trying.

10:45 PM, April 13, 2007

Follow Me

Team Pyro has served up another heaping helping of badly needed truth in this hour of rampant deception in their article entitled You say you want to be a teacher? Oy!.

Upon reading this challenging and inspiring post I could think only of one of the simplest, yet most profound commands our Lord ever gave; "Follow Me". FOLLOW ME! It's so basic, so clear, so unmistakable; and it's a command He is still giving today in this very hour, even now in the very moments you are reading this post: "Follow Me", He said. "Follow Me", He still says. Oh how it wrenches my heart and pulls at my inner man, to the very core of my being! There can be no singularity, not even the immeasurable tug of the most intense galaxy-devouring black hole in the universe that can match the relentless power of the drawing of His Spirit!

It's encouraging to me to see men of God such as Team Pyro who are willing to take a firm stand upon the authority of the Holy Writ and steadfastly and unwaveringly point to Christ crucified; the truth of the ages and the hinge upon which all of history rests and turns. In my view there has perhaps never been another time in the history of the church when such a deluge of poisonous heresy and rank apostasy have swept like a torrent across the barren, desolate spiritual landscape of Christianity. Whereas the advance of the damnable heresies of old were subject to natural obstacles in human communication and were heavily dependent upon painstakingly crafted letters and inefficient couriers, today's brand of pop-apostate has book deals with Zondervan, prime time appearances on Fox News Channel, the power of the Internet, and a legion of gainsayers, soothsayers and spinmeisters at his beck and call. Let there be no doubt that today's breed of deceivers are having a devil of a good time with so many tools at their disposal.

And just as the spring rains bring forth a flash of colorful blossoms and lush, tender grasses in the desert places so do these petulant, pompous purveyors of poisonous spiritual-porno bring to the surface glorious appearing fields of false converts. These stony-ground hearers burst forth having an appearance of beauty and the form of godliness, but in truth their root is very shallow and when the sun shines in its strength they are soon withered away. These are traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts. (2 Timothy 3:5)

Hear the Master's parable of the sower:
Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away (Mark 4:3-6)

And again:
And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. (Mark 3:16-17)

These false teachers, these blind leaders of the blind will often point to their flocks of goats and their fields of tares as evidence of the godliness of their teaching or the effectiveness of their witness. It's no marvel that these deceitful charlatans can fill stadiums and sell millions of books based on nothing more than the opinion-poll savvy of their multi-million dollar cult of personality marketing machines and their slickly packaged self-esteem, human-potential, self-help, 40-day, Your Best Life Now, "Gawd Luvs Yew!" bloodless Nerf theology!! Yet these things need not take the faithful by surprise for we know the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:3-4). I for one am fully persuaded that the aforementioned time has come.

But oh how quickly their fawning media coverage would vaporize if they might only make mention of the necessity of the blood! Oh how suddenly would they find that their schedules were not quite so full of appearances before the powers and principalities of this sin sick and dying world if they would but preach to them the gospel of law, sin, hell, repentance, salvation, and a life set apart to sanctification before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Infinite Creator and Judge of the Universe! Oh how instantly would they find their legions of devoted followers melted away like wax if they but spoke of that narrow Way, Truth and Life that is in Christ alone; the sole mediator between men and God! Oh that they might speak the truth that neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, where by we must be saved (Acts 4:12) and that no man comes to the Father but by Him! (John 14:6)

May the Lord God Almighty be merciful to us for straying so far from His holy ordinances and the high calling of Jesus Christ Who is the same yesterday, today and forever; in Whom there is no shadow of turning!

Oh Lord may we fall on our faces before you in humility and brokenness! We have forgotten your great and mighty deeds oh Lord! We are altogether gone astray! We have forsaken our spiritual birthright and traded it for a worthless bowl of worldly porridge! We have exchanged Your truth for a lie and traded the precious blood of Your Son for a false temporal peace and utilitarian social agendas! May we who are called by Your Holy Name stand in the gap in prayer and repentance for the spiritual perversion and harlotry we permit to rage virtually unchecked and unchallenged among the professing church!

Change us oh Lord! Create in us a clean heart oh Lord and renew a right spirit within us! Help us to be obedient oh Lord that we might be able to call ourselves unprofitable servants for at least doing that which we were commanded! Raise up uncompromising godly leaders who will stand as flints against the raging flood of the enemy and hold high the banner of the Lord!

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16:24)

And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Mark 8:34)

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9:23)

What then shall we say to such a command from the Lord? What shall be our response? As for me...Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. (Isaiah 6:8)

Apolo-Gee Whiz!

Frank Turk, a self-styled Pyro "zombie slayer" has posted an interesting and somewhat scathing morsel which upbraids self-styled apologists who are at least ostensibly members of the church invisible, yet don't participate within the professing visible church. Most of the post was very good, in fact it was mostly spot on accurate. Yet at some point (approximately 75% into the post) he careens wildly into an indignant demand for all of the "bad apologists" to join a local church. I actually went back and re-read this portion a couple of times to make sure I wasn't imagining things.

First let me state that I'm a member in good standing of a Biblically faithful visible church that is governed by elders and a pastor-teacher who is accountable to those elders, and I am accountable to my church's leadership. I also serve in various capacities within the church. However this is not to say that I find this system to be anything other than sub-optimal and not God's best, but now that my "vain traditions of men" credentials have been (almost embarrassingly) established I'd like to move on to my analysis of the post linked above.

To be fair Mr. Turk didn't delineate his precise definition of the visible church but given his background I'd say it's safe to assume he means a brick and mortar church with a steeple, full-time paid staff, instruments, pulpits, classrooms and the like; a "normal" church of the Protestant persuasion if you will.

For the life of me I can't understand why men who are clearly doctrinally sound and Biblically literate are simultaneously so beholden to the modern-day Nicolaitane church construct. For all the heresy and ignorance that is both espoused and embraced by the emergents they've gotten one thing right - there's something very wrong with the church (read "visible professing evangelical American church").

In my view an enormous failing of the Reformers was their inability or lack of will to cut clean the poisonous umbilical cord which even today leads back to Rome. The Reformers utterly failed to deconstruct the unscriptural barrier between the laity and the clergy once and for all. Sadly many if not most of today's Protestant visible churches are as hierarchical, political, corrupted and legalistic as the Romish whore from whence they were born. This is a fact to which any honest born-again believer can attest. The visible professing evangelical American church is a caricature and an abomination in contradistinction to the early church.

Friend, it's indisputable that many - if not most - of today's visible churches should have ICHABOD stenciled above the main entrance in large bold relief.

Needling still further Mr. Turk also managed to ham-handedly lump together the lone wolf professing Christian apologist who unscripturally presumes to be the sixth Sola - Only Me - and the countless myriads of heartbroken and faithful saints who have been cast out of their fellowships, sometimes after decades of serving the King, because they dared to take a stand against the implementation of Rick Warren's Devil Driven Madness. And yes, these myriads include apologists of all stripes.

The professing church's cup runneth over with false converts, wolves in sheep's clothing, and rank apostasy and it's probably the largest mission field in the world, so when I read thoughtless, careless, and cavalier posts such as Mr. Turk's I'm frankly - pun intended - astonished. I'd be remiss not to point this out, but to simply jump up and down and wave one's hands and demand that "bad apologists" join a church is a bizarre demand at best, especially considering the pervasive and brazenly heretical and corrupting influence of many - if not most - visible churches. Now he might rightly argue that the bad apologists should join his particular church and there may be a well reasoned defense of this position. But to simply say, "join a church" and then turn and walk away is...well...(there's just no way to say this delicately), ignorant and lazy. I guess when you're carrying a hammer everything looks like a nail.

In conclusion may every church that's not built upon the solid Rock of Christ Jesus crumble into the dustbin of history where it belongs and may its deceived captives find true fellowship among Christ's little flock, the genuine Body.

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. (John 18:36)

The Love God Hates

I found this gem of a study regarding the love of the world by John MacArthur while researching God's love.

Take a moment to read "The Love God Hates" and be blessed!

Plastic Christianity

While reading a post over at Mike Ratliff's Possessing the Treasure blog which discussed "The Promise of the Holy Spirit" I was struck by the starkly fake, plasticized nature of the modern professing church.

I posted the following comment in response to Mike's excellent article:

Mike,

Your synopsis reminds me once again of the “pearl of great price”, the invisible church - Christ’s true body - that’s found within the larger generally apostate professing church. Sheep and goats, wheat and tares; all this only makes sense in light of revealed scripture and the scriptures only come alive to unregenerate man via the drawing and guidance of the Spirit.

I used to think that people just didn’t like to hear the truth, but I’ve come realize not only do they not want to hear the truth, they can’t want to hear the truth and apart from the working of the Spirit can’t understand the truth even when they do hear it with their natural ears.

Praise be unto the Lord that salvation is of God alone and not of the works of men with their silly sloppy agape and oh so clever, engaging, info-tainment, commercialized and slickly packaged “on-the-go” sermon bites.

How tragic and how terrible that so many hold so low a view of the Infinite Creator and Judge of the universe. How sadly poetic that so much of Christianity is represented by a plastic fish and a plastic cross.

Plastic Christianity is the rule rather than the exception today. Ken and Barbie Benchwarmer are hyper focused on the lighting, the comfort of the chairs (no pews thank you very much!), the color coordinated “Praise and Worship” band (no choir than you very much!) and the catchy and rhythmic beats of electronic Novocain. But not unlike the plants in the breezeway they’re fake to the roots.

I take no joy in pointing to these truths, but it is what it is.


Oh Lord help us to be the men and women you've called us to be! Create in us clean hearts oh Lord and renew in us a right spirit! Amen.

Apologetics R Us

Team Pyro has an interesting discussion going on contrasting evidentialism and presuppositionalism.

Well, at least I found it interesting!

Check it out here and don't forget to read the comments. Those are always the best part.

And to those scratching their heads right now (evidentialism vs. presuppositionalism, say what?) I recommend you start your reading with Greg Bahnsen's "Always Ready: Answers For Defending the Faith" and then progress to Bahsen's magnum opus, "Van Til's Apologetic".

I highly recommend reading Bahnsen FIRST before digging directly into Van Til.

Just my .02 worth.