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Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas:
Star and angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead,
Love incarnate, love divine;
Worship we our Jesus,
But wherewith the sacred sign?
Love shall be our token;
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and to all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.
-Christina Rossetti
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God is Sovereign. That sovereignty is not partial. It is not subject to any conditions or forces outside of God. He has never nor will He ever relinquish any portion of His sovereignty. What He sets out to do, He does. What Men believe or refuse to believe about these truths changes nothing. Just because professing Christians cling to the fallacy that they are saved because they exercised their Free Will does not in any way diminish the truth from God’s Word that tells us the very opposite.
Man is fallen. All born of Adam are children of God’s wrath. No one seeks after God because none are righteous (Romans 3:10-18). God’s people are part of our Lord’s flock. Those of His flock believe God, seek God, and know the Lord’s voice. The Lord gives them eternal life. Notice that the veracity of their eternal life is not subject to them or their behavior. No, the Son holds them and no one can snatch them out of His hand.
(click here to read this post)
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Widely regarded as the African Spurgeon, Conrad Mbewe is faithfully and powerfully proclaiming the Word of God in Zambia from Kabwata Baptist Church in Lusaka. Like Spurgeon, he works himself to exhaustion for the glory of God. This sermon, delivered this summer at Reformed Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, can be heard through the flash player below or CLICK HERE to go to the page at SermonAudio.
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My friend, Mark Fitzpatrick, is pastor of Arann Reformed Baptist Fellowship in Dublin, Ireland. He recently read an excerpt from a sermon delivered by the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. This excerpt was taken from Sermon No. 52, entitled “Free-will — A Slave” delivered Sabbath Morning, December 2, 1855, at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark. You can listen to it and read it below:
“You have heard a great many Arminian sermons, I dare say; but you never heard an Arminian prayer— for the saints in prayer appear as one in word, and deed and mind. An Arminian on his knees would pray desperately like a Calvinist. He cannot pray about free will: there is no room for it. Fancy him praying,
“Lord, I thank thee I am not like those poor presumptuous Calvinists. Lord, I was born with a glorious free-will; I was born with power by which I can turn to thee of myself; I have improved my grace. If everybody had done the same with their grace that have, they might all have been saved. Lord, I know thou dost not make us willing if we are not willing ourselves. Thou givest grace to everybody; some do not improve it, but l do. There are many that will go to hell as much bought with the blood of Christ as I was; they had as much of the Holy Ghost given to them; they had as good a chance, and were as much blessed as l am. It was not thy grace that made us to differ; I know it did a great deal, still I turned the point; I made use of what was given me, and others did not— that is the difference between me and them.
“That is a prayer for the devil, for nobody else would offer such a prayer as that. Ah! when they are preaching and talking very slowly, there may be wrong doctrine; but when they come to pray, the true thing slips out; they cannot help it. If a man talks very slowly, he may speak in a fine manner; but when he comes to talk fast, the old brogue of his country, where he was born, slips out.”
You can download this portion from SermonAudio.
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Aganist the backdrop of “Just As I Am” from the hymnal of the non-Christian cult of Spiritism in this new piece Apprising Ministries shows you the startling similarity between its doctrine and that of Rob Bell popular icon in the Emergent rebellion against Sola Scriptura.
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The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. (1 Timothy 4:1)
Drinking Deadly Deception From The Poisoned Well Of Murky Mysticism
One Sunday morning recently Rob Bell, an icon in the postliberal cult of the Emergent Church and teaching pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church, taught his Christian congregation:
It’s interesting how many traditions (pause) When you read the great enlightened ones; meditation, centering prayer, reflection—in every tradition you can find the mystics—and what’s always at the heart of the spiritual lives, the everyday lives of the great ones was always a period of time. Whether it’s prayers, chanting, meditation, reflection, study—whatever you call it—what is it essentially; it’s taking time to breathe. Because when you’ve been breathing, (slight pause) in a proper sort of way, you’re far better equipped to handle what life throws your way. (I will say it again, and again, and again, Sunday November 16, 2008 [5:41-6:23])
Here Bell comes emerging from the closet of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) of the type taught by by Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster. Guru Foster, allegedly one of these “great enlightened ones” from the Christian “tradition,” now tells us below that in the transcendental meditation-lite of Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP) we will enter ”deeply into the spiritual realm.” But then Roshi Richard, wannabe master of the so-called “interior life,” gives us ”a warning and a precaution” that CCP is certainly not for every Christian because of its danger:
Contemplative Prayer immerses us into the silence of God. How desperately we in the modern world need this wordless baptism… Contemplative Prayer is the one discipline that can free us from our addiction to words. Progress in intimacy with God means progress toward silence… It is recreating silence to which we are called in Contemplative Prayer…
A Warning And A Precaution
At the outset I need to give a word of warning,… Contemplative Prayer is not for the novice. I do not say this about any other form of prayer… Contemplative prayer is for those who have exercised their spiritual muscles a bit and know something about the landscape of the spirit. In fact, those who work in the area of spiritual direction always look for signs of a maturing faith before encouraging individuals into Contemplative Prayer…
I also want to give a word of precaution. In the silent contemplation of God we are entering deeply into the spiritual realm, and there is such a thing as a supernatural guidance. While the Bible does not give us a lot of information on that, there are various orders of spiritual beings, and some of them are definitely not in cooperation with God and his way! … But for now I want to encourage you to learn and practice prayers of protection. (Prayer: Finding The Heart’s True Home, 155, 156, 157)
As one who’s been studying Comparative Religion and non-Christian cults for over twenty years what I find fascinating is the striking spiritual similarity to something we actually find in the classic textbook The Kingdom of the Cults (KoC) by Dr. Walter Martin. Within Martin shares the “Seven Principles” of the theology of Spiritism. And interestingly enough the first two of which are also found in the theology of those who practice CSM along with Bell e.g. Tony Campolo and so-called “non-exclusive” and Progressive Christian Dr. Marcus Borg:
I. The Fatherhood of God
II. The Brotherhood of Man (274)
You may recall in Rob Bell On The Emerging Issue of Homosexuality: Mum’s the Word that I reminded readers that in the March 6, 2005 edition of the Detroit Free Press David Crumm, who is a fan of Rob Bell, discussed Bell’s musings about the love of God:
Homosexuality? Bell tells gay people the same thing he tells everyone who walks through the door. It’s a powerfully affirming line that he repeated in his sermon on Sunday: “God loves you exactly as you are. Period.”
Now let me explain to you how this would logically follow for Bell et al. You see, in the spirit world of CSM feelings-oriented fantasy, if you practice it enough you will finally receive your “revelation” [i.e. enlightenment/transformation] that we are all in a universal Fatherhood of God with its Brotherhood of Man. This mystic myth of repainted Gnosticism further holds that there’s really no need for creed or repentance from sin because as you finally discover your true/authentic self you come to understand that the God of Love actually accepts you just as.
Remember, Rob Bell has emphatically stated: “God loves you exactly as you are. Period.” And with that declaration perhaps one of the seducing spirits speaking to Rob in his transcendental meditation of CCP was really just singing a hymn to him. Did you know that these exact same false ideas about God, which Rob Bell has been receiving through his experience with these so-called “Enlightened Ones” and their doctrines of demons spread through transcendental meditation, are also found in cults like Spiritism?
You see, this is what is being overlooked today concerning this reimagined so-called “Christian” mysticism. As Dr. Martin once pointed out, in reference to our opening verse above, demons are very real and they do have teachings. And keep in mind here that in this spurious CSM we are attempting to receive messages outside of Scripture in “the silence” of the spiritual world. So should it really come as any great surprise when in KoC Martin then shows us the following:
The Spiritualistic Hymnal indicates changes made on well-known hymns and we have listed one to demonstrate their theological position in so doing:
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that, O God, Thou madest me,
And that my life is found in Thee
O God of Love, I come, I come.
Just as I am, nor poor, nor blind,
Nor bound by chains in soul or mind;
For all of Thee within I find
O God of Love, I come, I come.
Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Tho’ dogmas I may ne’er believe,
Nor heights of holiness achieve
O God of Love, I come, I come. (275)
You know, that sure does look an awful lot like the “everyone is already forgiven but they just don’t know it”message of Rob Bell and his pal Emerging Church pastor and quasi-universalist Doug Pagitt. After all in his first book Velvet Elvis Bell did speculate:
So this reality, this forgiveness, this reconciliation, is true for everybody. Paul insisted that when Jesus died on the cross, he wasreconciling “all things, in heaven and on earth, to God”. All things, everwhere. This reality then isn’t something that we make true about ourselves by doing something. It is already true. Our choice is to live in this new reality or cling to a reality of our own making. (146, emphasis mine)
And if, as in the Spiritist hymn above, “this reality” from the “God of Love” really is already “true for everybody” then there would be no need for “dogmas I may ne’er believe” nor any “heights of holiness” to achieve. But in any event, this kind of spiritually has exactly no place in evangelical Christianity, period; and this mystic myth most assuredly does not belong in your church’s youth ministry.
See also:
WHERE DOES ROB BELL STAND REGARDING THE PRACTICE OF HOMOSEXUALITY?
ROB BELL RESOURCES FROM APPRISING MINISTRIES
JESUS WANTS TO SAVE CHRISTIANS FROM ROB BELL
Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Spencer Burke: More on hell and universalism
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Over in Singapore, the persecution/ prosecution of Christians has begun.
A Christian couple who allegedly distributed seditious publications to three Muslims went on trial on Thursday.
Ong Kian Cheong, 49, a technical officer with SingTel, and his wife, Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 45, an associate director with Swiss bank UBS, are facing four charges each.
… [more]
Daniel Chew at Reformata et semper reformanda has also come up with a satirical piece in response to this piece of news here, noting that the Singapore government has banned the Muhammad cartoons but allowed the showing of the blasphemous Da Vinci Code movie, not to mention the selling of the book, in the country.
[HT: Word And Verse]
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Apprising Ministries directs your attention to our sister outreach Christian Research Net for a couple of posts by CRN contributor Dave Marriott. Both concern the latest book by Rob Bell, an icon in the Emergent rebellion against Sola Scriptura slowly swallowing up evangelicalism, called Jesus Wants To Save Christians (JWtSC).
In the first called Jesus Wants To Save Christians From Rob Bell’s Teaching Marriott shares a quote from JWtSC and asks:
Will Rob follow in the footsteps of Tony Jones? There doesn’t seem to be much keeping him from it. Perhaps being “rescued from sameness and uniformity” is equivalent to “trading the truth about God for a lie?” (Online source)
And then in Jesus Wants To Save Christians From Rob Bell Marriott points out:
In his new book — excuse me, it’s not a book, rather a “manifesto for the church in exile” — amidst all the “reverse-exodus” and “anti-empire” language, mixed with a very poor theology of the Kingdom,… What Rob says may sound good on the surface. However, it’s content is problematic for the following reasons… (Online source)
See also:
WHERE DOES ROB BELL STAND REGARDING THE PRACTICE OF HOMOSEXUALITY?
ROB BELL RESOURCES FROM APPRISING MINISTRIES
Click the post title to be taken to the source.
Over in Singapore, the persecution/ prosecution of Christians has begun.
A Christian couple who allegedly distributed seditious publications to three Muslims went on trial on Thursday.
Ong Kian Cheong, 49, a technical officer with SingTel, and his wife, Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 45, an associate director with Swiss bank UBS, are facing four charges each.
… [more]
Daniel Chew at Reformata et semper reformanda has also came up with a satirical piece in response to this piece of news here, noting that the Singapore government has banned the Muhammad cartoons but allowed the showing of the blasphemous Da Vinci Code movie, not to mention the selling of the book, in the country.
[HT: Word And Verse]
Click the post title to be taken to the source.
In his new book — excuse me, it’s not a book, rather a “manifesto for the church in exile” — amidst all the “reverse-exodus” and “anti-empire” language, mixed with a very poor theology of the Kingdom, Rob Bell writes this:
Imagine how dangerous it would be if there were Christians who skipped over the first-century meaning of John’s letter and focused only on whatever it might be saying about future events, years and years away. There is always the chance that in missing the point, they may in the process be participating in and supporting and funding the various kinds of systems that the letter warns against participating in, supporting, and funding. That wouldn’t be what Jesus had in mind. That would be anti-Jesus. That would be anti-Christ. Were the people in John’s church reading his letter for the first time, with Roman soldiers right outside their door, thinking, “This is going to be really helpful for people two thousand years from now who don’t want to get left behind”? It’s a letter written to a real group of people, in a real place, at a real time, enduring excruciatingly difficult times. Christians were being killed by the empire because they would not participate. John comforts them, challenges them, warns them, teaches them, inspires them—don’t take the mark of the beast.
What Rob says may sound good on the surface. However, it’s content is problematic for the following reasons:
1. Revelation’s meaning centered around “future events” for the 1st century Christians, just as it is the meaning for us today. John is clear in Revelation 1 concerning his purpose: “to show God’s servants the things which must soon take place” (verse 1). Again, it is called a prophecy in verse 3.
2. Rob makes it sound as though it is not certain that Revelation has a message that concerns itself with real future events.
3. Rob calls focusing on the future events “missing the point.” Perhaps he would like to re-write Revelation 1:1-3?
4. Rob seems to think that the 1st century Christians would not be comforted by the fact that a time period is coming where Christ will set things straight upon this earth in every sphere of life. It is in this age, that He will rule with a rod of iron along with those who are faithful to the end (Revelation 2:26-27; 3:21).
5. Somehow focusing on Christ’s future reign is missing the point and consequently opening us up to participating in the work of anti-Christ? This is absurd. Interestingly, the word “antichrist” isn’t actually used in the book of Revelation. However, it used by the same author in 1 John and on four occasions. From John’s usage it is fairly clear that there are presently many antichrists which prefigure the Antichrist. The heart of anti-christ heresy is that Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh, that Jesus was not really Messiah, or that there is no Father and Son. Hardly should the term be used of those who look to Revelation to develop a scheme of future events!
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See more Marian apparition resources from Eternal Productions at Watcher’s Lamp.
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“What makes you better than anyone else?”
(1 Corinthians 4:7)
Reader, are there not the same lusts lodging in your heart–which are reigning in wicked men’s lives? The reason why there is so little self-condemnation, is because there is so little self-examination.
If we were left to ourselves but for a moment–we would destroy ourselves in that moment! [...]
