My wife has a good voice and a good ear for music and she wants to join the church choir and of course she should. The problem is that she will not join the choir unless I join as well, even though she knows I cannot sing a lick (unless I am jointly singing “American Pie” at some wedding).

Joining the church choir is difficult for me since I cannot even read music and my voice is different everyday. If I try to look at the notes in the song book I often lose the words as well. Even when I am in the pews they are often already on the third stanza by the time I get the hymnal open to the right page and get my reading glasses on. (I don’t even have a decent pair of reading glasses because the $5 pair I got from Wal-Mart’s years ago is now too weak and the price for a new pair went up to $20!  As thrifty as I am I do not want to pay twenty bucks for a pair of $5 reading glasses!)

Some days in church I can hardly hear myself sing but maybe that is because I am half deaf. Maybe I should take the hearing aids the VA issued out of the drawer but I don’t know what use they would be in my ears since I cannot hear as good with them on. I used to have a hearing aid that almost worked until it stopped working. That’s when the VA told me they now have more advanced hearing aids and I needed hearing aids for both ears. Problem is, I  never could hear anything with the new hearing aids they gave me and the batteries die after a few hours. So you might as well put corks in your ears (that’s probably not a bad idea in some cases, and now you know why some people like hearing aids)

When I am singing  I often wonder what the person in front me is really hearing coming out of my mouth. I never can reach those high notes so often in the middle of the song I have to drop down to a lower key (if that is what they call it). I don’t know if you are supposed to do that but what other alternative does a person have if they do not have the vocal range required in the song?

I guess I could just sing the base notes if I could follow them (they usually are not near the words). Anyway, I tried that and I always run out of air trying to get enough wind across my vocal cords to make enough sound to be heard in that lower frequency. People who sing base must have huge lungs or amplified vocal cords. I read where some professional singers now have sound systems that modifies their pitch when they get off key before it even comes out of the speakers. Maybe everyone in the choir could sing into that system. I guess that two hundred thousand dollar church sound system will have to be replaced with a two million dollar system. But, if we are singing to the Lord I guess the music committee board could make a strong case for the expense.

I am pretty sure that we will start working on a Christmas cantata soon. I found practicing for cantatas are about as much fun as hunting for snipes on a rainy night in Georgia. I always expect to hear the choir director to tell me to just move my lips and not sing. The choir directors always think you can read music and actually figure out how to get back to the start of the next stanza.    Singing the wrong words is pretty hard to fake.  Someone needs to write a book called “Choir for Dummies”.  I think to  join the choir you should have to pass a course called Choir 101. That would leave me out.

Heck, half the time I cannot even spell the word choir and no wonder everything about music is so confusing. Music is really a different language.  I tried learning  Spanish a couple of times in my spare minutes and I still haven’t a clue what anyone is chattering about. Mexicans speak so fast their words get past your brain before your ears hear them. I guess with their large families they have to say everything they know as fast as they can without ever taking a breath, because as soon as they take the breath they lost their turn in line. But I digress, learning music at choir practice is much like trying to learn German by singing German beer garden songs.

I know I am going to be forced to join the choir, it has happened before. There really is no free will here! I really see no way out unless I can fake laryngitis for the duration.

I do have some food for thought though. Everyone in church should just join the  choir and then the pastor could preach to the choir from the back of the church.  It is logical because then they could just decide to switch sides and the choir problem will be solved and the pastor could literally preach to the choir. Think about it.

I probably should be writing on something more important today like how fascist communists and hedonism are taking over America but all the astute people that read my blogs are already aware of that.  So instead I want to bring up some recent contemplations about church practices in America. What I say here is meant to be taken as food for thought; it is not meant to insult anyone and you certainly do not have to agree on my thoughts on church practices in America.

Contemplation one - I am told by Good Authority (a medical professional) that one of the number one ways of spreading disease is by shaking hands. This is especially true in cold and flu season. Yet, most church practices in America include a ritual where everyone is supposed to go around shaking hands. I know that James, Peter and John gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas but the climate is healthier in Israel. I do understand that this is a hospitality gesture but I really would like to stay out of the hospital. Last week about half of my church was out because of illness. Is there any connection to the hand shaking connection?  Maybe the churches should pass out white gloves at the church door or put alcohol dispensers on the backs of the pews (to wipe your hands – not to drink!) or perhaps we could start a new church practice and just bow to each other like the Japanese?

Contemplation two - Some American churches are hugger churches. I have been in those, and I have nothing against hugging practices if you actually know the huggie.  However, I am told by Good Authority that you can got more diseases in these hugger churches than you can in the shaker churches. Besides the airborne and hand shaking diseases, Good Authority tells me you risk getting head lice and could even getting scabies from hugging. Good authority also tells me it is more of a problem in some parts of America than others and it might depend on the hygiene habits of the people of the area. While I am on this subject, maybe I should tell you that Good Authority also tells me you can get these little critters from upholstered  pews and chairs. I guess you will have to take the risk if your going to be in a hugger church since American churches cannot put a decontamination room at the door. Now don’t those hard wooden pews and metal chairs suddenly sound more comfortable?

Contemplation three - Why is it that the first three rows in church are almost always empty as if the pastor spits? Perhaps people are looking for safety in numbers or they feel unworthy to sit up near the man of God. Or maybe they just don’t want the rest of the church to think that they think that they are holy enough to be sitting in the front of the church. Anyway, it seems to be a place where few have dared to go, and I do not think I am going to become one of the first pioneers. (I actually do know a guy who always sits in the front row, however, he also likes to believe that he is a Star Trek Captain)

Contemplation four - Why do some people let their small kids crawl under church pews? It’s not very sanitary and is annoying to others. What is the attraction for kids anyway? In my day, growing up as a Catholic, if I even got off my knees at the wrong time, the nuns would have picked me up by my ears (which is why they stand out a bit). I am not saying we should go overboard on discipline, but maybe the American church should not be a McDonald’s playhouse either.

Contemplation five - Why do some people have their names on the pew? They are not usually visible but most eventually come to see the  invisible names on their pew. Americans often sit where they always sat and God forbid if someone else takes their spot (go ahead, make my day!). I think the thinking about assigned seating may have been burned into the brain of some kids during early church Sunday school. There probably is some direct correlation to how early one attended a Sunday school that assigned seats.

Contemplation six - Why are most Bible studies in America broken up into small age groups?  Supposedly wisdom comes with age so wouldn’t it be a better church practice to mix the old with the young?  Remember that kid that fell out of the window when Paul was teaching? If he was in our churches in America today, he would be in a youth group coloring the animals on Noah’s ark.

Contemplation seven - What has happened to attendance on Sunday night and Wednesdays? Many churches in America do not even have a gathering anymore because so few will attend. Is it really about spending time with the family or spending time in front of  the TV? Most do not have children in the house anyway, you know. Why is it that in third world countries where they have lots of family around, the Christians meet almost every night? I guess they do not have 200 TV channels to watch.

Contemplation eight - What, pray tell, is so hard about using Power Point that the next picture of the words always come up a bit too late for the congregation to sing them? I have seen this practice in more American churches than not. I will give the Power Point operators a little lesson since nobody seems to be giving any free lessons in America these days. You hit the computer key for the next picture while people are still singing the last line of your last picture. You church leaders in America might even have the power point operator go to choir or worship team practice, so he/she becomes familiar with the songs and the timing, and maybe discover while there is still time to correct the situation, that one of the songs is missing entirely!

Contemplation nine - Why do many American churches take collections in Sunday school as well as the worship service? I thought people attending the Sunday schools also were attending the worship service? Nevertheless, the usual American church practice is some envelope goes around in class and some put in a buck or two. I always just pass it on. I support my church with a monthly check and I expect the church to provide what is needed for the education of the attenders. Why also the big deal about attendance rosters and numbers on a wall. Are you going to give out gold stars? Who started these church practices in America?

Contemplation ten - I notice in many groups that they have the people say their prayer requests and then either someone is assigned to pray about the request publicly, or the leader repeats each request to God as if God were deaf the first time that the request was brought up. Often we are praying about a third party someone that we know nothing about. Is there a model for this type of prayer in the Bible? I know the Bible talks about two or more agreeing, but in context of the passage it seems to be talking about agreeing on some discipline or forgiveness given by believers for believers. I say that because the verses prior to this passage are talking about discipline of brethren, and the verses after are talking about forgiveness of brethren.  How do I really know how to pray about a situation and a person that I do not even know? Would it not be better that the person that knew about the situation and that was asking for agreement said the prayer? Did that person not really do that when they brought the prayer request up to the Church with the knowledge that God is in the midst?

Well, those are my ten contemplations about church practices in America. If it does not give you food for thought at the very least,  I just proved I could count to ten.

After You read this article you will simply know why I had to post it. I did not want to steal all of Coach Dave Daubenmire’s words here so you will have to read the full article to get the full impact of the new offensive line that he proposes. Too bad my home team, the Buffalo Bills, don’t get it, or most sissified Christians for that matter. Its time for Christians to march on all the left leaning houses in the land singing Hey Hey, Ho Ho, the far left radicals have to go!

• De-sissified Christians should be more like a Fox when it comes to presenting the good news.
• De-sissified Christians should place their money on God’s home team.
• De-sissified Christians need to take their churches back from the sissies that feminized Christianity.
• De-sissified Christians need to be Oath Keepers.
• De-sissified Christians need to get rid of the girlie tunes in their churches.
• De-sissified Christians need to get out of their comfort zone (the pews with their names on it)
• De-sissified Christians need to take a yard here and ten yards over there, maybe across their own street -  forget the Hail Mary.
• De-sissified Christians need to throw the bums out. That might start with your church leaders and your local politicians and end with the President.
• De-sissified Christians need to keep others accountable for their actions. WE DO NOT ALLOW PREDATORS to prey on our woman and children, sexual predators or otherwise!
• De-sissified Christians need to have an offensive line and I don’t mean just – Hey Hey, Ho Ho, the far left radicals have to go.

I could go on but I think you get the idea.

Dave Daubenmire — Let’s Try Something Different

By Coach Dave Daubenmire
October 22, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

WARNING: May contain language too harsh for sissified Christians.

Silence isn’t golden…it is yellow. –Zell Miller

“Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.” — Martin Luther

From Timothy Leary to Jerry Ruben, Bill Ayers to the Beatles, Cassius Clay to The Chicago Seven, Harvard Divinity School to Journalism Schools, “leftists” pledged themselves to the “religion” that dominated their lives. “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Western Civ has got to go.” Our parents laughed them off as rebellious children…dirty misfits who would eventually come to their senses.

Some did, but many were true believers, committed to proving to the rest of us that “God is dead”, and proselytizing a moral anarchy called liberation. We couldn’t see it happening, or didn’t want to, as they infested America with the original swine flu that turned American children into hedonistic pigs.

The radical Left was a fringe movement in the 60s, comprised of politically marginalized and socially outcast hippies. Their joke-of-an army consisted of racial minorities, militant feminists, out-of-the-closet homosexuals, environmentalists, student radicals, atheistic intellectuals, counter-cultural revolutionaries and the antiwar movement. Now, four decades later, their once marginal far-left views are normal, mainstream, a cultural majority, and the philosophy of the Obama White House. How did they do it?

They were more faithful to no god than we were to our God. They gained power through persistence and resistance, perversion and conversion, indoctrination and inoculation, organizing and mobilizing, imitation and humiliation, elections and defections, associations and regulations, and infiltration and manipulation. While the “right” voted for candidates, the left became candidates. While the religious argued over Truth, the left re-wrote the truth. While “conservatives” gave to their kids, liberals gave to their causes. The election of Barack Hussein Obama symbolizes the long march of 60’s anti-Americanism sold as “change.” The radical left, birthed from the idea that you couldn’t trust those in power, have seized power.

In April of 2009, James Dobson of Focus on the Family admitted that the cultural war had been lost. “We are awash in evil and the battle is still to be waged. We are right now in the most discouraging period of that long conflict. Humanly speaking, we can say we have lost all those battles.” All one need do is view the evidence of the 60’s outcasts’ effectiveness.

Had enough yet? Are you ready to trade in the old defense for a new offense?

First, get our Christian leadership to get rid of the nicer-than-Jesus image. Clean out the pulpit and get rid of the hirelings who are more concerned about butts and bucks than they are about truth and justice. Demand that your churches begin to organize politically…across denominational lines and raise up, run, and support men of character and integrity who will put an end to the self-serving foolishness going on in America today. I say enough already of the effeminized Christianity.

Bring back the tell-it-like-it-is mentality. No more pussy footing around the issues for fear of “offending” somebody. Silence is the muzzle of dissent. Bring back that “old time language” because words are the weapons in this new “sanitized” warfare. Start speaking the words “homo, communist, pervert, liar, thief, border jumper, sissy, traitor, sodomite, idiot, bum, queer,” and the rest of the words that the NEA and their mafia has declared illegal. Do it often and in public.

Take it to the streets. Every anti-American deviant lifestyle proudly marches down our streets in their latest version of perversion on parade. It is time for the new “counter culture” to flood the streets with gun-toting concealed-carry holders, flag waving veterans, and home school moms chanting “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Political Correctness has to go.”

I appreciate Dr Dobson and his buddies and all that they tried to do. I’m sorry the team he was coaching lost. I hope he enjoys his retirement.

But I’ll be damn if I am ready to quit. Defeat only hardens my resolve. The way I see it the 2nd half kickoff is just getting ready to start and this time our offense is going to take the field. Let’s get rid of all of the Republican cheerleaders and their Pom Poms. The boys are back in town…

Full Article

King James only and Gail Riplinger’s “New Age Bible Versions” has more than once been brought up on this Blog and elsewhere. I find it incredible that a woman with degrees in Interior design, with no formal training on the Bible, a woman that cannot even read Hebrew or Greek can set herself up as some authority over the best trained Bible translators in the world. I find it dumbfounding that Christians and even some “discernment ministries” would actually take what she says seriously without even reading what the experts say about her bazaar claims.

I can only surmise that her distortions of the truth appeal to those with a wooden head that somehow became a treasure chest full of conspiracy theories. They want to believe  conspiracy theories so bad that they grasp at anything at all if it seems to support their conspiracy concepts. Nevermind, that Gail Riplinger’s sad works have divided Christians and churches for no reason and discredited good Bible translations and translators. Nevermind, that she would not be allowed to teach a Sunday school to the men in most of the churches where she is held in highest esteem. However, in their wooden minds her books support their King James Only beliefs, so she gets a free pass from them to twist the truth in front of the whole world. 

I think all that are promoting Gail Riplingers books should take what James White said below very seriously. It is understandable that certain people like Riplinger would write books on topics that they really do not have the qualification to write, but why are some Christians, churches and forums promoting her? Where is is the discernment that many doing this claim to have??

I think James White says it best in this summery from his review and his debates on Riplinger’s book and claims. If you want to know why Gail Riplinger views are deceptive, silly and lack discernment read the full article.

Why Respond to Gail Riplinger? | Bible.org | Home of NET Bible on-line, Bible Study tools, Free Bible

Gail Riplinger’s works have been reviewed, and rejected, by numerous Christian leaders and scholars. For most, it’s a waste of time to even discuss the issue, since it’s so obvious that she is a troubler of the brethren, a woman who is out of control, setting herself up as an expert on topics about which she knows nothing at all. Her inability to function as a scholar is plain to anyone who wishes to see. The impact she has had in disrupting churches, damaging missions work, and in generally causing trouble, is hers to answer for.

In closing, though, we should actually be more troubled about what Gail Riplinger’s work says about the church as a whole. Where has discernment gone? Why didn’t someone sit her down a long time ago and try to straighten her out? And what is worse, why are men to this day letting her go on her merry way, spreading falsehoods, and even encouraging her in such activities? I have been informed (but have not taken the time to verify) that Mrs. Riplinger was recently granted an honorary doctorate by Jack Hyles for her work, New Age Bible Versions. Can someone explain how a person who doesn’t even have the first bit of undergraduate training in any of the fields relating to Bible translation can be given an honorary doctorate for having produced the most error-filled volume on the topic ever to grace the planet? Is “acrostic algebra” the stuff of doctorates? One may well forgive Gail, for she is obviously deceived; but what of the many others who encourage her to continue on in her path of disturbing the work of the Church? Might not they be even more liable? It would seem so.

Full article

When people ask about my website I often warn them that there is something  to offend everyone on my website. I don’t write to try to offend everyone but it turns out that telling people my Christian worldview makes me an equal opportunity offender. If you  read all of my articles something is sure to offend you. However, if we really could all agree on every point we all could just do away with thinking.

Obviously much of what I write offends non Christians so if your one of those, you will not have to look far on my website to be offended. For that reason I will not get into all the articles that will offend all you unbelievers. People who do not know God cannot know the truth. (See I just said something to offend almost everyone) I will just tell you here how you can know God and how one really becomes a Christian.

Some of what I write offends Catholics because I tell them the truth. (I was once a Catholic and I I know how most in Thyatria think.)

Some of what I write offends Pentecostals and Charismatics. I was part of your movement as well, and I am aware of the spiritual games you play and how you are often led by the nose by control freaks and hucksters. Christians do not need to get the Holy Ghost in your back rooms because true Christians already got the Holy Spirit when they were saved.  (Maybe I  am a Charismatic by any strict definition because I believe the gifts did not cease. But, I do not believe some of what are claimed to be manifestations of the spiritual gifts, actually are.)

Liberal Christians are offended for many reasons. They disagree with most everything I write. That is because I disagree with most everything they believe. I believe the Bible is the infallible word of God and is meant to be taken literally.  (I never was one of those liberal Christians and never will be.)

I write something to offend conservative Christians as well, for example:

I am sure a few of my articles offend conservative Baptists along with other conservative denominations because I like to drink something fermented once in a while and have a hard time stomaching rule by committee, covenants, putting burdens on the poor in the Church, and often wooden interpretations of various Bible passages. (Although, I often am a member of some Baptist fellowship if the leadership actually permits thinking.)

Many of my articles would offend the amillennial believers since I think it is error. I believe in premillennial theology.

There is no doubt that there would be something to offend everyone that believes in Replacement Theology or Supersession Theology

I know I offend post toasties that think the Church is going through the tribulation because they often take the time to tell me I am leading people to hell with my pre-trib Rapture Theology. They tell me Christians will lose their faith in tribulation. I think they are very confused.

I certainly would offend Word Faith Kingdom Now, blab-it-and-grab-it, prosperity teachers with often their Dominion Theology. I think the leaders are all heretics.

I also write things to offend those who have brought into the teachings of pop psychology and just love to have their purpose driven pop psychology book studies in their church.

I even write something to offend some pre-trib believers when I suggest Jesus is not coming in glory by 2019, the Antichrist will not be a Muslim, pagan’s do not know Bible prophecy, you cannot figure out the date of the second coming through Bible codes and that conspiracy theories are mostly hype from those making a living selling hype to those wanting hype.

I write and offend seeker friendly leaders and their supporters and the various emergent varieties of Christians, and I should do more of that.

I write and offend global warming fear mongers in Christianity because I tell them that man-caused global warming is junk science promoted by the world elite to tax them and bring them under global governance.

If you have not found something I wrote to offend you yet,  just keep reading. I am sure I have someone to offend everyone somewhere. If you have a certain topic in mind that you know will offend you, you might do a search from the search box on either the homepage of my website or the homepage of this World and Church Trends and Bible Prophecy blog.

I do try to be an equal opportunity offender.

Polls indicate that many that call themselves Christians today do not even believe the essential fundamental foundational truths of Christianity.

Can anyone be a Christian and not believe in the foundational truths of Christianity? That is not for me to judge but if you have doubts about believing these things you might judge yourself. Do you just not understand basic Christian truths because you were never taught them or do you deny them and thus deny the Christian faith?

I do not think that the fundamental foundational truths of Christianity are optional or that they can be explained away by those trying to redefine Christianity to fit their own belief system. These foundational truths of Christianity are absolute truths from God and if you deny it, what does that say about your claim to be a Christian?

Foundational truths of the Christian faith

• Salvation comes by God’s Grace through faith (belief in God promises) in Jesus Christ. Your own good works cannot earn you salvation.
• There is only one way to God and that is through Jesus Christ. Other religions are not alternate paths to God.
• Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, the only visible image of God, and is the Creator of everything seen and unseen.
• Jesus lived a sinless life and was the innocent Lamb sacrifice of God whose blood was shed to take away sin.
• Jesus was both fully God and fully human.
• All Humankind is sinful and therefore all must come to Jesus Christ to be cleansed of their sin or they will be eternally separated from a Holy God.
• Those that deny the Son of God also deny the Father because they are one God (they are unified).
• Jesus died and death could not hold Him.  God rose the Body of Jesus from the dead and Jesus ascended to the throne of God in heaven.
• All in  Christ have the Holy Spirit as a witnesses and a helper, all members of the Body of Christ are new spiritual creations.
• Those that trust in Jesus Christ for their eternal salvation can never be lost.
• Satan also known as the Devil is real and is a powerful spiritual adversary. (A Christian’s defense from Satan is putting on the whole armor of God – Eph 6:7)
• Jesus authenticated the Old Testament scriptures as coming from God. The New Testament scriptures are authenticated by the eye witnesses of Jesus Christ, and by the Holy Spirit within the Body of Christ. The Christian Bible is the very word of God when transcribed and translated accurately. Therefore. all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Ti 3:16).
• There is a Lake of Fire reserved for those who oppose or reject Jesus Christ.
• Jesus is coming again in Glory and every eye will see Him when He comes. He will judge the living and the dead and God will  then create a new heaven and a new earth where there is no more sin, sickness, death or sorrow.

I might have missed some foundational truths of the faith.  If so you are free to add them.

Think the 2012 date setters are not having a negative effect on many in the Church? Obviously this speculation based mostly on Mayan ages and a Mahdi coming out of well is attracting many followers. Some such as the “Gospel Tract Society” now take the position that we are already in the tribulation. H E L L O… what tribulation? I will say it as gently as I can, those who think we are already in the tribulation have lost their marbles.

I do not see a good end result coming from all this date setting nonsense. By 2013 Bible prophecy teachers will be mocked. It is as if there is a Satanic deception (there is) to destroy the message of the soon coming of Jesus through the promotion of those crying wolf based on pagan crap – not the Bible. This 2012 date setting speculation is not coming from God.

I think I understand why people promote their crap and pet theories in books, it is profitable for them. But, why do Christians buy it and suck it up like it was profound biblical truth. Some of us warned that the 88 reason why Jesus would come in 1988 was unfounded but people bought the books anyway and Bible prophecy teaching in the Church took a huge hit because of that. Now we have to endure the 2012 end of the world books and movies based on pagan fantasy and those who only know enough about Bible eschatology to twist it to fit their theories.

The world is not going to end in 2012 and we are not in the tribulation. Like Nathan Jones said in this article “take a chill pill”

The Christ in Prophecy Journal: Gospel Tract Society Abandons Pre-Trib Heritage

The Gospel Tract Society has changed their longstanding view in the last month. Lamb & Lion Ministries was first alerted to the change when the ministry’s successor, Tom Buttram, asked founder Dr. David Reagan to change the wording in his tract “Living for Christ in the End Times” (based on the article) from “Rapture” to “Second Coming.” The second alert came when a friend of Lamb & Lion Ministries contacted the Gospel Tract Society for copies of that tract, only to be told the remaining 6,000 in inventory were going to be destroyed.

Upon inquiry as to why the Gospel Tract Society would desire to change the wording and destroy the existing inventory, Tom Buttram responded with a very startling revelation. “As though someone reprinted my Bible overnight,” Tom Buttram now believes humanity has already entered into the Tribulation and the Church will not be raptured until the Seventh Trumpet Judgment has sounded mid-way through the Tribulation.

after over 80 years of the Gospel Tract Society proclaiming the imminent return of Jesus Christ, they will now refocus their attention on printing materials “needed for all to escape delusion and attack” by the Man of Lawlessness (the Antichrist) and a Mid-Tribulation rescue by Jesus.

the esteemed Gospel Tract Society after 80 years of preaching the Rapture of believers before world judgment has just declared that they got it all wrong, that we are actually living in the Tribulation, and that we will all be attacked (means “massacred,” folks) by the coming world leader — and that is supposed to be a source of calm!?! Just how much “calm” are they now going to spread with their newest batch of tracts?

Secular movies like “Knowing” and “2012″ and books and commentaries and pundits (and the list goes on) are very interested in End Time speculation. Only the overall Church seems to be sleeping on this subject. But, for those believers who are anticipating Christ’s return, a certain hysteria has begun to set in. The people are getting very antsy and have begun chasing after every new theory and speculation that rises to the scene.

Secondly, as Dr. Ron Rhodes once said, we are filtering God’s Word through our human antennae and our fallen nature is putting static in our reception.

Every person believes God is giving them a particular revelation or insight into the Bible that is different than what they once believed — but they all conflict! I get hundreds of emails a week from people all over the world, and many writers purport to have discovered some special insight from God. For example, could the Pope, Javier Solana, Prince Hassan, Tony Blair, Barack Obama, the Mahdi and the entire United States of America all be the Antichrist at the same time? Saved believers in Christ each have a candidate God has “revealed” to them in Scripture. Or, could the Tribulation be seven years long, World War II, the Papal years, only for Israel, for the entire world, and it’s just the conflict in our hearts all at same time? Saved believers each have a position. But, only one answer can possibly be correct.

To use an 80’s term, we all need to “take a chill pill.

Full article

The conservatives and Christian right might even win a battle or two these days against the Secular Humanism and Marxism coming from the godless left but unless Christian parents take charge over the education of their children they cannot win this war against their minds. The next generation will reflect a worldview that is clearly anti-Christian.

Read this article and tell me how Americans can send their kids to our public schools and then still expect them to come out of that anti-Christians indoctrination cesspool system with Christian views on anything? Do you understand why the church pews in America are generally full of white haired people? Do you know why youth groups in many churches are led by young postmoderns that are redefining Christianity to their own fancy? Read the article and look at our schools and you should get the smell.

Parents have allowed and through their support even abetted the Secular Humanistic and Marxist stink now taught in our public school system. I still am not hearing most pastors or Christian leaders calling for Christians under their influence to take their kids out of this stinking public school system or even to change it!

Why do Christian parents even think that their kids will one day walk down the isle of their church and declare that Jesus is Lord of their lives if they were brainwashed to believe that they are just products of time and chance so their life has no meaning or purpose?

In reality many Christian parents are supporting those who indoctrinate their Children against Christianity. Why then would parents expect children that they let grow up in a stinking cesspool of satanic thought to one day have the fragrance of Christ?

The insanity of the right

Fact after fact shows that when children are subject to 12 years of liberal ideologies for about 14,000 hours of their lives, the overwhelming majority of them will grow up to think, act and vote like … you guessed it, liberals. We ignore all of that even when studies shows that “83 percent of children from committed Christian families attending public schools adopt a Marxist-Socialist worldview.” Question: How long can the conservatives hold out when the liberals are having somewhere between a 70-90 percent success rate at proselytizing our children to their leftist worldview? Those are the facts, people.

So next time the right wants to accuse the liberals of having a mental disorder or some sort of madness, consider that this mental illness must be contagious and that we conservatives just may have given it to them. After all, it is the right who still send their children and youth every year to the left’s schools for an “education.”

Let’s quit complaining about how bad things are in America and do something about it. Let’s pull our kids out. If we don’t, then are we not the truly insane ones? You know: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Full article

I think the ELCA vote to allow active homosexuals to become ministers was finally the straw that broke the camel’s back  for me. I will no longer identify with what is today called the Evangelical movement.

Lets face it Satan first came in with his wolves in sheep’s clothing and so corrupted the mainline denominations with the doctrines of humanism that most true Christian left. Now Satan is well on his way of accomplishing the very same thing with those that identified with the evangelicals  that came out of those near dead Sardis mainline churches.

In reality I think over half of people who call themselves evangelicals today have gone off track and are now running on the road to Laodicea. Their worldviews are not from biblical doctrine because they are playing down Bible doctrine. They love to buy into the psychologies and philosophies of the age and more and more are going off into spiritualism influenced by leaders who knowingly or unknowingly are  in the occult. It is getting so bad that you often cannot tell the difference between the teachings and practices of post-modern evangelicals, World Faith heretics and certain demonic cults.

Even many churches that were once well known as Bible churches have drunk the post-modern Kool-Aid. Are you aware of the conflicts within the Nazarene’s, Baptists, EFree’s, etc. on this issues? It seems to me that many leaders have totally lost their Christian minds or at least their Christian worldview reflects that they do not have the mind of Christ.

Christians that believe the Bible is the only infallible reliable guide for Christian faith and practice and believe that truths taught in the Bible are absolute and that they cannot be twisted so they can be politically correct with the world, cannot continue to identify with these leaders calling themselves “evangelicals”.

So here is my quandary. What do we whom once called ourselves evangelicals now call ourselves? The post-modern evangelicals have split the movement and have now made the term “evangelical” meaningless. Worse yet, these people are now becoming the majority among those who call themselves “Evangelicals.

I have not yet heard a good title to identify those you cannot abide the redefining of Christianity from evangelicals. Some might say just call yourself a Bible believing Christian but that really does not work because they also claim to be be Bible believing Christians even though they twist the words to mean what they want or they pick and chose what part of the Bible they want to believe to support humanistic wordviews.

• Calling oneself a Christian is not the answer since 90 percent of people that identify with Christianity seem to be Christians in name only.
• Saying you believe in Christ does not mean much these days since many believe in some concept of Christ make in their own image.
• Saying your a born again Christian has lost its meaning since most who claim to be born again Christians can not even explain the spiritual concept. Some just think being born again just means they were once baptized in a church.  There is no spiritual change in most to indicate that were ever born again in a spiritual rebirth or that the Holy Spirit indwells them.
• If you call yourself one who believes in the absolute fundamental beliefs of the Christian faith you will be labeled a  fundamentalist and you mightl also be labeled  a simpleton who checks your brain at the door. Of course that is not true at all but it might not be wise to try to revive a vehicle that Christians already allowed the world to crash and burn.
• We could call ourselves “the elect” but many that are baptized as infants in liberal churches also claim they are the elect.
• We can say we are Wheaties, breakfast of champions, but the tares will claim we had a false start.

I know that if we do come up with a new name that Satan will soon try to ruin it. However, I think he may run out of time this time around. I see churches of many different denomination splitting into two camps. I think it will break down this way. There will be those that stay on solid biblical ground and there will be those who stand on the shaky ground of  humanism, spiritualism, subjective theories of men and emotionalism.

So what do we call the people who stand on solid biblical doctrine and truth compared to the others? As far as I am concerned they can keep their “Evangelical” title if they want because they already corrupted that word. We know the correct name for these would be more like “Laodicean Harlot’s for Jesus” but if they are the Harlots for Jesus who are we? I might suggest that we are the Bride and Body of Christ through bethrothal to the King (The two will become one flesh – This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.)

I guess we could call ourselves the Body of Christ but pseudo Christians today also claim to be part of the Body of Christ although they have no blood relationship with Jesus. So I guess that title is not exclusive enough.

What to do? Who knows? I am waiting for someone like you to come up with something. We need a one or two word description that fits and that will catch on with true faithful Christians. Like perhaps “Latter Day Philadelphians“.

What say you?

I think one of the reasons why people get way off on Bible prophecy is that they do not understand the nature of the Bride of Christ. The Church is the betrothed Bride of Jesus Christ. Even those who do seem to understand that concept often completely miss how God showed us the future of His blood bought Church in the process of obtaining a wife in the culture of the ancient past. I think Jack Kelly explains this as good as anyone I know in this article. I hope it will help you understand that God has a unique role for the Church apart from Israel and that the bride of a soon coming King would rule with the King but would not replace the King’s Kingdom. Apart from ancient customs there are also stories and “types” in the Bible that convey similar concepts. Kelly points out such a “type” in the details surrounding the obtaining of a bride for Abraham’s son, Isaac.

Keep in mind that after the price was agreed on and the Bride agrees to become the wife she does not know when the Groom will come for her. She also cannot disown the groom and the groom cannot disown her except if there is clear proof of adultery. We do have eternal security if we remain faithful to Jesus.

The Bride | GraceThruFaith

by Jack Kelley

This is an update of an article originally published in March 2004. While it’s based on the Bible, it also includes Jewish wedding traditions from Biblical times. Some of these traditions go all the way back to Abraham’s time and are described in Genesis 24.

the young woman was to watch and wait at her parents’ home. She and her bridesmaids had to maintain a constant state of preparedness, since the wedding date would not be revealed to her until the bridegroom actually appeared at her door to take her to their new home.
Surprise, Surprise

For his part, the groom would try to show up unexpectedly to surprise her, carrying her off suddenly “like a thief in the night” when no one would see them. The only advance warning she would get was the sound of his voice shouting her name and the blast of a ram’s horn.

Full article

Brannon Howse believes the Church is losing its youth because the Church no longer teaches biblical Christian worldviews. I have to agree. Parents and churches are avoiding the important issues of our time so children mostly get their worldviews from public schools and the media. The views most people now get are anti-Christian worldviews and that is why we are losing the culture to socialists/humanists. Many parents and churches avoid the issues and do not teach on Christian worldviews because they are totally confused themselves.

Therefore, we are not going to get anywhere in reclaiming a Christian culture in America if all that is taught in churches and our homes is stories about the Bible. Sunday schools have largely failed to influence young people because they do not teach Christian worldviews on the critical issues of our time. Churches, Christian teachers, and parents often are afraid to be seen as being politically incorrect.

The Wordview Weekend Foundation is holding free weekend seminars across this country to try to educate “Christians” in America on critical Christian worldviews. If Christians do not understand biblical views how then can they be salt and light to the world? We have seen what happens in history when immoral worldviews are allowed to take over a culture. Anyone can see that this is now rapidly happening in America. We once had a Christian culture in America but now the brainwashing coming from the politically correct humanist/socialist world system is changing all that. Soon Christian worldviews will not even be allowed to be taught. Christians in America must reverse this trend or persecution is certain.

As important as this biblical worldview and apologetics training ministry is they are not getting much help from churches that even call themselves Evangelicals for the reasons stated in the article. If the worldview of Christians becomes the same as the world then how can we be salt and light to the world? When the Church is no longer salt and light it has lost its purpose for being on this earth.

You can make a difference and this article will tell you how.
Below are a few key points from the many excellent points in the full article.

We Must Reclaim the Church Before We Can Even Begin to Reclaim the Culture

We Must Reclaim the Church
Before We Can Even Begin to Reclaim the Culture

By Brannon Howse

My friend and Worldview Weekend speaker Ken Ham has written an excellent book with Britt Beemer and Todd Hillard entitled, Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it. Ham worked with a professional pollster to survey those who went to church every week or nearly every week and they deliberately polled conservative congregations, not liberal ones. Let me share some highlights from their book that confirm that the church needs to be reclaimed before we even attempt to reclaim the culture.

A mass exodus is underway. Most youth of today will not be coming to church tomorrow. Nationwide polls and denominational reports are showing that the next generation is calling it quits on the traditional church. And it’s not just happening on the nominal fringe; it’s happening at the core of the faith.

· Only 11 percent of those who have left the Church did so during the college years. Almost 90 percent of them were lost in middle school and high school. By the time they got to college they were already gone! About 40 percent are leaving the Church during elementary and middle school years!

· The numbers indicate that Sunday school actually didn’t do anything to help them develop a Christian worldview…The brutal conclusion is that, on the whole, the Sunday school programs of today are statistical failures.

surveys reveal that only 1% of adults have a Biblical worldview, only 51% of our pastors have a Biblical worldview and our teens are leaving the church in huge numbers because of lack of Biblical worldview training.

Many of the churches we talk to do not even understand what it is we are trying to accomplish. They are not familiar with the meaning of worldview or apologetics training.

Some of the churches understand perfectly what we are attempting to accomplish but they tell us we would not be welcome to rent their facility because their once evangelical church now embraces postmodernism, mysticism, rejects the exclusivity of Jesus Christ, the inerrancy of Scripture and most of the essential Christian doctrines.

Even among our truly evangelical, Bible-believing churches, how many churches teach the Biblical worldview for law, science, economics, history, family, social issues, and education? At church do adults or students learn about the lie of global warming, radical environmentalism, socialism, evolution, postmodernism, situational ethics, political correctness, population control, the myth of the separation of church and state, the Biblical worldview for marriage, the Biblical role of men and women and the lie of feminism? Every one of these issues can and must be addressed from the Bible and when we do so, we are not being political, we are making disciples that think and live like Christians.

The window of freedom is closing on America and soon I, and our other speakers, could be prosecuted for the Biblical truth we are teaching. Hate-crime laws would do just this.

Worldview Weekend is training, equipping, and encouraging individuals of all ages that will be just like these men. Our nation needs Christians that will stand up and speak out with the truth of a Biblical worldview even in the face of persecution and prosecution.

By the end of 2009, we will have held almost 50, free Worldview Weekend Rallies just in 2009 alone. These free rallies are on a Friday night, Saturday night, or Sunday night, and they are attended by elementary students, middle-school students, high-school students, college students, adults, and senior adults. You can see our entire fall schedule at www.worldviewweekendrally.com

As we will be explaining in detail at our Worldview Weekend Rallies this fall, the worldview war in America is connected to four major forces; occultism/pagan spirituality, the apostate church, corrupt government/corporate officials and the educational establishment. All four of these groups are aggressively working at the national and international level to accomplish their ultimate goal of global governance as predicted by many New Age writers like Alice Bailey. The Bible predicts this will occur and at this year’s rallies we will look at how God would have us to respond to what is happening at break-neck speed.

Our focus must be on preserving our families and preparing them for what is to come. Our focus must be on evangelism and Biblical discipleship and preparing those that can lead the remnant.

Here is just a sample of some of the topics we will cover at our rallies this fall:

How This Happened to America, Where We Are Going and The Biblical Response; Biblical Prophecies Being Fulfilled That Reveal the Supernatural Nature of God’s Word; How This Can Be The Greatest Hour For the American Church; How to Prepare Committed Christians For What is Coming; The Worldviews and People Destroying America From the Grave and How Every Teen and Adult Must Respond To Be Protected; Refuting Evolution; What Happened to the Dinosaurs; The Impact of Evolution on America; Political Correctness is Cultural Marxism; What the Bible Has to Say About The Coming One-World Religion, One-World Economy and Global Governance. How to Contend for the Faith in the 21st Century; Why Oprah’s Pagan Spirituality is Doubling in America Every Eighteen Months and a Christian Response; Why Worldview Training Matters and Students Want it and much more.

Full Article

An interesting article was written by Jan Markell of Olive Tree Ministries. She talks about the 2009 leadership conference or summit lead by Bill Hybel’s Willow Creek Association. Two of the guest speakers for this “leadership” conference will be Tony Blair and Rock Star Bono.

Why would any Christian go to a Christian leadership conference to hear from Tony Blair and Bono? They both are all-paths pseudo Christian heretics. Seems to me that Bill Hybels job was to first dumb down Christianity with his seeker friendly program and then steer the pseudo Christians under his influence into the end time one world religion Harlot of Bible prophecy described in Revelation chapter 17.

Notice that Rick Warren is a board member of the Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation. Warren is even more influential than Hybels in the seeker movement. Also be aware that Tony Blair’s recent conversion to Catholicism was not just some coincidence it was for darn good reason. At some point that church will head this world harlot religion.  With Tony Blair and Bono as speakers this Willow Creek leadership conference ought to be named “The making of a Harlot.

If you count all the churches under the influence of Hybels Creeker Network and Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Movement we are talking about half of the so called evangelical churches in America!  So, in just two decades these two people destroyed the meaning of the term “evangelical Christian”.

So go ahead and continue to tell me that God is behind Rick Warren and Bill Hybels but anyone with an ounce of Christian discernment can see that these men are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

The article clearly points out the issues and gives links where you can get additional information. I hope you will read it.

When Evangelicals Dine with the Wicked

Here is a good follow-up article on Hybels and Warren’s agenda to sell religion as the hope of the world.

Jim Elliff hits the nail on the head in this article about Southern Baptist churches. Most Southern Baptist members do not attend more than once or twice a month if at all. I cannot do the article justice by the few quotes of his that I quoted below so you will have to read the full article below.

First, I will make my own observations and comments on this subject. They probably will not totally agree with Elliff’s observations and conclusions.

The issue in this article is why Southern Baptists do not faithfully attend their gathering and what should be done about it? For that matter we could be be talking about every other evangelical denomination or church in America. I have been a member of several denominations and I have attended many different churches for extended periods of time. They all have the same problem. Only about a third of those on the membership role show up on any given Sunday if they show up at all. For Sunday night and Wednesday services your lucky if 15 percent attend if they even have such a service. In church business meetings you see the same ten percent show up each month or quarter and most of them are on the board or some committee and have to be there. The rest of the membership apparently could care less about the affairs of their church.

I have been saying all along that over half of the people in evangelical denominations are not Christians at all, nothing I read or observe leads me to think I am wrong about that. When I attend Sunday school and observe that most of the few members that actually do attend do not read or know their Bible it is apparent to me that they are not serious about learning about the things of God. The churches and denominations do not encourage real Bible study either by having magazine studies about the Bible (often Lifeway Bible study material).

First lets take a look at the Membership roles and numbers. Pastors and church boards l o v e  N u m b e r s. It gives them bragging rights. I would not be in error to say that I am still an active member of some churches that I have not attended for years. Many churches simply do not remove inactive members from their roles. So, I would say Jim Elliff is underestimating that factor. The truth is that many churches are only half of the size that they like to advertise.

Next, we have to look at the purpose of the Church. Some in leadership seem to think the purpose of their church is to meet for Sunday ritual and worship. Actually you can worship at home in spirit and truth. The main purpose for the assembly of the Church is for Christian fellowship and for the members in the Body to use their God given spiritual gifts for others in the Body. The main reasons why members do not like to attend the Sunday ritual services is that they often find no fellowship and they just leave empty. Another purpose for the assembly of the Church is for teaching and the building up of each other in the faith. One of the main reasons why members do not attend is that they are not getting biblical teaching and Christian instruction at church. They go to church but hear a seeker friendly gospel lite service or in the Charismatics churches they have an emotional trip but learn nothing. If I joined a food coop to get nourishing food and they only had sweets I am ether going to go somewhere else to get real food or I am only going to get real fat and lazy. Many that attend some churches faithfully are spiritual diabetics or emotional speed junkies it is the healthy people that are long gone. So I am not sure you can even say that the people who attend the services faithfully are the Christians. The Christians might be the healthy ones who got tired of junk food or charismatic amphetamine and left.

Many unstable postmodern teachers teach that Christian doctrine divides and keep us from unity but these people are the real problem in the churches because you cannot have true Christianity unity without agreement on the essentials doctrines of the Christian faith. Here is a fine article  on this doctrine debate. There are many fine points within this article. One section is where Dr. Norman Geisler points out 14 essential Christian doctrines that all Christians have to stand firm on. There can be no unity with those who claim to be Christians but oppose these essential doctrines. The doctrine debate article also points out that those who do not understand Christian doctrine will not have a Christian worldview and that means that God will not a major factor in the choices they make in their everyday life choices. The Bara Group survey claims that where Christians do not believe the Bible is the moral standard of absolute truth only 9 percent of born-again adults and 2 percent of born-again youth have a biblical worldview (two percent of born again Christian youth!!). Here is another article that will give you even more excellent perspectives on what is going on in our chuches. If you wonder why the country is a mess, query the believes of those that attend and lead your own congregations and you will know why.

Lets face it many that are on the church membership roles are only there because someone pressured them into it. Perhaps they had to become a member to get married in that church. Perhaps they joined to please their parents, their family members, or their spouse or even their pastor. Perhaps it was to enhance their standing in the community. Perhaps it was a response to an altar call where peer pressure mind control methods were used. How many churches have you been in where almost everyone is coerced to come to the altar to get saved or rededicate their lives? You feel like the social leaper if you are one of the few people left in the pews that do not respond to such coercion. So when mind control techniques like these are used, and they are used more than you think, don’t expect it to produce genuine conversion. Chances are once these “new converts” see how they were manipulated they will avoid your church like a plague. This is what cults do to build membership. Pastors need to teach the good news for those with ears to hear but only the Holy Spirit can bring people to repentance and true conversion.

So what are the answers? Some of the answers are what Jim Eliiff gives in this articles but that is only part of it. The whole Western Christian mindset has to change. Christianity is not weekly meetings and percentage in attendance. It is a way of community life for believers. I think someone should develop a teaching series that should be mandatory before anyone becomes a member of any Western evangelical church. The series would be based on the daily life of Christians where Christians are persecuted and not allowed to assemble in buildings but nevertheless they find a way to assemble and fellowship with each other daily. The leadership of our Churches need to go back to the ways of Christianity and stop learning the techniques of the world to grow a church and produce worldly feigned success. When the church is filled with true believing Christians, where Christian doctrine is taught the Holy Spirit will lead the people there to learn about salvation but the Holy Spirit is not going to lead people to a sugar shack of diabetic sheep.

What reward will you get from God if you lead a church filled with 10,000 people but the works of the Holy Spirit are absent? It would be better for you that you led a small church where the Holy Spirit was working because then you will certainly receive a reward from God.

Southern Baptists, An Unregenerate Denomination

Like the unfortunate person above, the Southern Baptist Convention has a name that it is alive, but is in fact, mostly dead (Rev. 3:1). Regardless of the wonderful advances in our commitment to the Bible and the recovery of our seminaries, a closer look reveals a denomination that is more like a corpse than a fit athlete. In an unusual way, our understanding of this awful reality provides the most exciting prospects for the future-if we will act decisively.

Although the Southern Baptists claim 16,287,494 members, on average only 6,024,289 people (guests and non-member children included), a number equal to only 37% of the membership number, show up for their church’s primary worship meeting (usually Sunday morning). This is according to the Strategic Information and Planning department of the Sunday School Board (2004 statistics). If your church is anything like normal, and is not brand new, your statistics are probably similar. In other words, if you have 200 in attendance on Sunday morning, you likely have 500-600 or even more on your roll. Many churches have an even worse record.

Discerning who among us is regenerate is not an exact science, but a closer look at these numbers will at least alert us to the fact that most Southern Baptists must certainly be dead spiritually. That is so, unless, of course, you claim that there is no difference between a believer and a non-believer.

We don’t need better methods to get people down to the front. What we need is more biblical content and more unction in our preaching. You cannot beat sinners away from Christ when God is bringing them in (see Jn. 6:37, 44-45). When as many as 70-90% of “converts” are giving little, if any, evidence of being saved after their first weeks or months of emotional excitement, questions should be asked, both about our understanding of the gospel and about our methods. Forget the fact, if you must, that there is no clear biblical precedent for the altar call. Even considering the matter pragmatically ought to make us quit. Though prevalent in our churches for decades, it has not helped us.

The dangerous practice of receiving new members immediately after they walk the aisle must finally be abandoned. Also, more careful counsel should be taken with those entering in as members from other churches. And add to this a need for much deeper thinking concerning childhood conversion. An alarming percentage of childhood professions wash out later in the teen and college years. For unconverted yet baptized church kids, the more independence they are granted, the more they live out their true nature.

4. We must stop giving immediate verbal assurance to people who make professions of faith or who respond to our invitations. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to give assurance. We are to give the basis upon which assurance can be had, not the assurance itself. Study 1 John in this respect. What things were written so that they might know they have eternal life? (1 Jn. 5:13). Answer: The tests given in the book. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16).

5. We must restore sound doctrine. Revival, I am finding as I study its history, is largely about the recovery of the true gospel. The three great doctrines which have so often shown up in true revival are: 1) God’s sovereignty in salvation, 2) justification by grace through faith alone, and 3) regeneration with discernible fruit. Revival is God showing up, but the blessing of the presence of God is directly affected by our beliefs. God most often comes in the context of these and other great doctrines, preached penetratingly and faithfully, and with the unction of the Holy Spirit.

Which army would you rather have? Gideon’s first army or his last? No church, and no denomination, should call itself healthy unless more people attend than are on the roll.

Today, in rough numbers, it takes 300 people on our rolls to have 100 attenders. In the 1790s, it took only 33. Or, to put it in larger figures, it now takes nearly 3000 people, supposedly won to Christ and baptized, to result in a church attendance of 1000. Then, it took only 333. Our potency has diminished to such an extent that we must “win” and “baptize” over 2,000 more people to get to the same 1000 to attend.

Full article

While some Christians still get upset enough with government to contract their congressmen and talk about throwing the bums out of office, it seems that many Christians do nothing about the wolves in sheep’s clothing that have infiltrated their own churches.

The threat comes from postmodern leaders with its redefining of Christianity and the Bible. The threat is also known as the Emergent Church. The Emergent Movement now threatens to subvert once evangelical denominations. The Emergent movement is now a major emerging threat in the Nazarene denomination and is also a big threat in Baptists churches and others.

If you do not know what the big deal is about from this Emergent threat click on the link above and read the articles from Eric Bager and find out. Here is also a fair article that generally explains the Emergent Church movement. Not everything about being relevant with the postmodern people of our culture is bad but we must never compromise on the essentials. The Bible must be the final authority for our faith and practice.

Just to point out one example how postmodernism subtly infects the church, I read an article today by Dave Welch on a conservative Christian website about how the Church should hate. The article was talking about the Church hating the same things that God hates. I agree with what Welch said in the article and I am sure Welch does not believe in emergent teaching at all. However, in the article where it quotes what God hates instead of using the Bible, Welch quotes from “The Message”. The Message might be the most postmodern relevant bad paraphrase of the Bible in existence today but it certainly is not the Bible. Are not the six things that God hates clear enough in a real translation that one has to resort to quoting from bad paraphrases of the Bible? Why would an astute Christian even quote from “The Message” anyway? Eugene Peterson the author of “The Message” has no discernment to interpret the Bible because if he had any biblical discernment he would not have endorsed the cover of the heretical postmodern book called “The Shack” ?

Seems to me that the great apostasy is well underway in our church buildings. The wolves in sheep’s clothing are standing in the pulpits and the sheep sitting in the pews do not have enough biblical knowledge to discern the difference between the true gospel and what these men preach. They just follow and approve of everything their pastors do.  After all, these are men of G–O–D.

One example of postmodernism in the seeker movement is Saddleback’s Rick Warren.  I guess he has not been wishy washy enough on all his national platform opportunities already, now he is now going to speak at a Muslim convention to forty thousand Muslims. Now, that would be a great opportunity for a real Christian to give the gospel of Jesus Christ but if Rick Warren gives the gospel at that Muslim convention I will repent and send his church a large donation. I wish he would do that but you know that he won’t, so why is he called America’s pastor? Does he reflect the American Church? Why are Christians even following him? What is our great commission? Seems that most Christians no longer know. What would Paul do (WWPD)? If Paul got the opportunity to speak to Muslims and the world would he talk about what Warren will?  Warren will probably speak on interfaith cooperation and how we all worship the same God. If that is true then why did millions of Christians die for the  gospel of Christ?

If the salt has lost its savior it is good for nothing but to be trampled down and that is why hate speech laws will be passed that will trample down the church in America. “Christians” can only blame themselves.

We need to throw the bums out of our churches and Christian leadership first. Then maybe we will deserve a better government. Don’t expect any grass roots movement to change America if we cannot even get the pew sitters in our churches to install biblical pastors that will preach the gospel of Christ.

One might wonder how this Emergent Church is reaching postmodern young people that they say their programs are designed for? It is not! Churches have lost their youth even with all their postmodern youth pastors and programs. Two thirds of teenagers in Britian now say they do not believe in God. What does that say about how the Church is reaching people with the gospel and the future of Christianity?

It is not that bad in America yet but all polls say it is rapidly heading in that direction. In fact, the majority of church youth that claim to be born again Christians lose their faith by the time they graduate from college. Any astute Christian should know that it is a sin for parents to willing send their kids to our government run schools where they will certainly be brainwashed with godless philosophies of humanistic and demonically inspired men. So why do most pastors not even realize this and teach this to their congregations and suggest alternatives? Could it be because they have become part of the problem with their own emerging postmodern moral relativism?

While reading Carla’s excellent and always discerning More Books and Things blog I came across an article that I think needs further attention by those who study world events and Bible prophecy. I might not agree with every single point in this article but I certainly agree with Prof. Malan’s major concepts. Bible prophecy teachers seem to convey that Israel today is in the will of God. Therefore they suggest we better not do anything that could be conveyed as touching the apple of God’s eye. Some even suggest that if we do not bless this largely atheist nation that God will judge our nation. There are some erroneous teachings going around that relate judgments on America to how we treat unrepentant Israel. That concept is wrong. The judgments coming on America today is due to our own sins. We are judged on how we treat all nations not just Israel. If we are a just and moral nation we have nothing to fear. God will judge all the nations on how they treat Israel after Israel accepts their true Messiah.

Israel today is still reaping the curse because they rejected God’s salvation in His Son. When God said He would curse those who curse the descendants of Abraham and Jacob he was talking about those cursing the children of the promise, the people of faith. They are the true children of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Remember, the leaders of Israel claimed they also were children of Abraham but Jesus called them children of their father the Devil. So did Jesus curse these descendants of Israel? Actually He did. He cursed the unbelieving descendants of Israel as represented by the fig tree that had no fruit when He came (Mt 21:19).

Other Christians will not even evangelize Jews thinking that Jews already know God. They are also wrong. Those who do not accept Jesus Christ do not know the Father either (John 14:6). The nation of Israel will certainly prove that point when they accept the false Messiah that is coming in his own name and not the Father’s name like Jesus. Some of these Christian ministries will raise large sums of money to send Jews back to Israel but spend nothing on giving these Jews the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They do not even tell them that two-thirds of the people that they are sending back to Israel will be killed in the coming Jewish holocaust (Zec 13:8).

One might think that if Christians really loved the Jews they should be telling Jews about Jesus so they would get saved before these terrible events happen to them? But it is not happening, not that anyone is actually allowed to preach the gospel in Israel anyway. So what does that say about Israel? Instead we rant about how nations are dealing with Israel as if God is not sovereign and not using the leaders of these nations toward His own ends to bring Israel to repentance. Had not God said that these things would happen to the Jews in the end times?

So how will Christians siding with Israel on world events give them physical peace and spiritual enlightenment? Even if we could change our national policies toward Israel the things God said about Israel in the latter days are still going to happen. The real problem with Israel is not the Gentile nations and our leaders decisions. The real problem with Israel is the unbelief of the Jews in Israel. The Gentiles will just be used to bring Israel to a place of repentance. God would protect Israel if they came to belief in Jesus Christ but instead they will believe in the Antichrist and go into more national tribulation before they finally get the message that peace and security is only found in their Messiah Jesus Christ.

If I did not know that we were in the end times when God’s words about Israel will be fulfilled I would have to believe that the unbelieving Jews now occupying God’s land would again be cast out. Yet, the religious Jews living in Israel think that God is on their side while they reject His Son and the non-religious Jews think that they are going to hold unto the land by their own military might. Sorry, but that is not God’s plan for Israel. Many Christians by what they say and do, seem to covey similar false pretense as well. Ever wonder why the Jews flee to the mountains for 42 months? Because Satan seeks to kill every Jew in the world (Rev 12:13). That is the real destiny of those in Israel before they come to God’s Messiah. Exactly what world actions and reactions get us to that point is frankly very subjective stuff that even Bible prophecy experts do not agree on. So how do we know where God’s will is on every current event in the Middle East so that we take the correct position? Does our position even matter in God’s plan?

So knowing these things lets teach the truth to Israel and evangelize those that can be reached instead of acting as if Israel’s leaders or America’s leaders will make correct decisions to keep Israel from the holocaust that clearly will come upon Israel in these last days. In the final analysis, it really does not matters one iota if Israel or the US takes out Iran’s nuclear capabilities at least not if we are in the sequence of end time events like Bible prophecy teachers claim. Iran will invade Israel in the latter years because Ezekiel says so, and the end of that war has already been determined by God. It really does not matter if Israel agrees to divide Jerusalem in some false peace deal either because the Bible says it will happen anyway, “Zec 14:2  For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.”

It really does not matter what action Israel takes because whatever action Israel takes in unbelief will lead to the same biblical end that God foretold the prophets and that us Bible prophecy believing Christians should be aware of. The primary Christian commission is to teach the gospel to Israel and everyone else. Our commission is not trying to stop or change Middle East events that have to happen if we are in the last days. If Christians should learn anything from Bible prophecy it should be to discern how close we are to the Lords coming for the watching faithful Church. If Christians use Bible prophecy it should be to used to evangelize those who might come to know God through Bible prophecy. Bible prophecy for Christians should not be about trying to figure out every insignificant detail and the exact dating of all events beforehand. Some of these things cannot be known with any certainty.  Nothing at all has to be fulfilled before the rapture of the Church and after the restrainer is removed all end time events will rapidly come on the earth just as God said. For most Christians it is enough to know that what God said about the last days will take place literally and that the time to work is short.

If you want more thinking on this issue read the full article.

Jesus Christ in Biblical Prophecies

Jesus Christ in Biblical Prophecies

Prof. Johan Malan, Middelburg, South Africa (June 2009)

The spiritual and doctrinal value of various articles currently published on Israel is extremely poor. Authors mostly offer only a secular review of news events without giving a balanced biblical perspective on them.

It is an alarming fact that even Christian analysts on the situation in the Middle East reveal very little insight into Israel’s end-time position. Obama is now blamed for isolating and forsaking Israel. Is he responsible for these actions or did the Lord ordain them? According to Ezekiel 22:18-22, Jeremiah 30:7 and Zechariah 14:2, the Lord will bring Israel into great affliction because they have, spiritually, become dross in His eyes for dishonouring His Word and rejecting the Messiah. In the light of this situation we should understand their international dispersion during the past 2000 years, as well as the Holocaust of World War II. Or will we merely blame the Roman Empire, the Nazis and other nations for this human tragedy? These nations are definitely guilty, but Israel is more guilty and mainly responsible for their own problems. Didn’t Jesus say that Jerusalem would be destroyed and trodden down because its inhabitants refused to accept Him as their Messiah (cf. Matt. 23:37-38)? In the attached addendum a Messianic Jew, Arthur Katz, explains the full implications of Israel’s sin and lack of faith.

As for Israel’s future, it is really irrelevant what Obama, the pope, the EU, Iran or Russia say or do with regard to Israel. If they don’t persecute or isolate Israel the Lord will allow other groups or nations to do just that. The fact is that the Israelis have to go through the time of Jacob’s trouble because of their continued apostasy.

Why are there so few people who have the boldness to inform Israel on the true reasons for their problems? Why is their own spiritual bankruptcy not addressed? Why are even organisations such as the International Christian Embassy engaged with the establishing of good relations with unsaved Israel without explicitly proclaiming the Messiah to them? Why do preachers such as John Hagee deny Jesus as Messiah of the Jews by alleging that they don’t have to accept Jesus to be saved? Why do all the Christians follow him and merely donate money to Israel, but withhold the gospel from them, which is their only hope?

When will Israel’s fortunes take a turn for the better – when the United States again support and assist them militarily, or when they have accepted the Messiah? Will they ever seek the Messiah unless they are in a great affliction (cf. Hosea 5:15; 6:1-2)?

The less people think and speak about the Lord Jesus, the less they will believe in His promise of a pretribulation rapture (Luke 21:36); the less they know about His judgement seat, the less they will be prepared for His sudden coming (1 Cor. 3:9-15). Many people become so involved with a study of the signs of the times, including possible dates for the second coming of Christ, that they never seriously attend to the necessities of our relationship with Him (holiness), and also neglect to work for Him while it is still day – the night of God’s judgements is approaching when no one can work.

I do believe that Israel and many other signs are prophetically significant, but this knowledge should lead to deeper spiritual insights and particularly to the glorification and exaltation of the Lord Jesus – also to fear for the coming day of His wrath upon sinners, including all the carnal, agnostic and unholy people. His judgements should be considered as part of the bigger picture, lest people think that the nature of the future world will only be determined by the decisions and military actions of the present generation of world leaders. One actually pities them when listening to their decisions and beholding their military manoeuvres, as they don’t have the faintest idea of what is waiting for them. They don’t know that they will be gathered in Israel to be judged by the Lord (Joel 3:2; Zech. 14:2,12).

Israel is prophetically one of the most uninformed nations in the world as far as events at the end of the church dispensation are concerned. Their ignorance will cause their virtual downfall as they will lead the way in concluding a covenant with the Antichrist under the false impression that he is the true Messiah (Dan. 9:27; John 5:43).

People in the end-time are shallow in their thinking and judge all things in terms of secular, humanistic criteria. Even Christians start conforming to this way of thinking and are in most cases not able to correctly determine and describe a spiritual perspective on world events. Many of them do not even realise their own spiritual poverty and blindness,

every Christian is committed to inform Israel on the correct biblical route to their full restoration. If they are not warned against the coming false messiah and the great tribulation, how will they ever be able to correctly understand these times and make the right decisions? Without accepting Jesus the Messiah by faith they cannot be saved – neither can they share in the blessings that He promised to the believing remnant in Israel and also to the whole world during His coming reign of peace.

Full article