What did you learn today from Church? (1/31/16)

What did you learn today at church?  What was from God’s Word that was preached and taught today that has ministered to you?

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House of Horrors

Modern-day Dr. Joseph Mengele’s House of Horrors is seen in the video below. Folks, this is the reality of the idolatry of pro-choice. It is a worldview that is hostile to the teachings of God. Whether a baby is chemically or surgically murdered, murder is murder. Don’t be surprised that this man has murdered more children in a single month than all the school shootings in the history of the U.S. combined. If the man used an AR-15, the media would jump to it in a minute. But the truth is that the use of his surgical weapons that he pummels the babies with has killed more innocent people in the U.S. than a gun. That is the reality of a worldview that hates Christ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KpIXvUQP9Q

Don’t be shocked when you are exposed from a top doctor’s claim stating, “The NHS Kills off 130,000 elderly patients every year.”

“NHS doctors are prematurely ending the lives of thousands of elderly hospital patients because they are difficult to manage or to free up beds, a senior consultant claimed yesterday.” Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/Top-doctors-chilling-claim-The…

So if you are ever pressured by doctors to have your elderly loved one killed faster, just know that we are living in a culture of death. We need more Gospel laborers in all spectrum of life–combating evil.

The sacred cow of pro-choice must be exposed for what it is. It needs to submit to the Lordship of Christ. Here is what Francis Shaeffer said over a decade ago which is now a reality. He saw it coming.

“If people are not made in the image of God, the pessimistic, realistic humanist is right: the human race is indeed an abnormal wart on the smooth face of a silent and meaningless universe. In this setting, abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia (including the killing of mentally deranged criminals, the severely handicapped, or the elderly who are an economic burden) are completely logical. Any person can be obliterated for what society at one moment thinks of as its own social or economic good. Without the Bible and without the revelation in Christ (which is only told to us in the Bible) there is nothing to stand between us and our children and the eventual acceptance of the monstrous inhumanities of the age.”

Proverbs 24:11, “Those who are being taken away to death,
And those who are staggering to slaughter,
Oh hold them back.”

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Knowing the Love of Christ: Ligon Duncan’s Chapel Message

I have been blessed in the past of the teaching and preaching ministry of Ligon Duncan.  He recently preached at The Master’s Seminary chapel services about two weeks ago.  Here’s the video of the sermon he delivered:

Be encouraged!  May God use this message to stir you to know more deeply the love of Christ and shapes one’s life.

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Unsound Argument: Adam was God-Breathed therefore the Bible is errant?

For the last two weeks on Saturday I’ve been posting a response to a blog post that attacked the Bible specifically with the doctrine of Inerrancy.  My first post looked at the only verse the writer cited as positive proof that the Bible itself teaches an errant Bible; that was titled “Does 2 Timothy 4:13 undermine the Doctrine of Inerrancy?”  My second post deconstructed a theological argument against Inerrancy and was titled ““You’re Putting God in A Box:” The Irony of this argument against Biblical Inerrancy.”

Here in this post I want to interact with another one of her theological arguments against Biblical inerrancy:

Likewise, people have translated “inspired by God” to mean “God-breathed” to equal “inerrant”. But God first breathed into Adam, and he certainly was not inerrant!

Here we see how the writer thinks that since Adam was God breathed and erred, therefore the Bible being God breathed cannot be inerrant.  I think this warrants a closer look.

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Weekend Leisure Reading Review: The Guns of August

Besides spiritual readings, I typically take some time to read in other areas as a mental break from ministry.  Here’s this weekend’s leisure reading review.

Barbara W. Tuchman. The Guns of August.  New York, NY: Presidio Press, August 3^rd, 2004. 640 pp.

Purchase: Amazon

Ever since the 100 years anniversary of World War One in 2014, I’ve been fascinated with the history of this war especially with the origins of the war and what went on during the early months of the conflict.  This work satisfied my curiosities and met my expectations.  I must add a word of caution here that this is my first book I have picked up on World War One (currently I’m going through my second by the popular historian Max Hastings).

In the Author’s note Barbara Tuchman tells the story of how the book came to be written and how she originally wanted to write about a story of a particular naval ship while the publishers wanted her to write on something else and the result of that compromise was this book.  I’m so glad in the end she did write this book, The Guns of August as I think it had a more lasting legacy and impact than if she wrote her original story.  Even after fifty years since she penned this book, it is still popular.

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The Power of the Christian Worldview in Evangelism by Jay Wegter

Jay Wegter an instructor in Christian Ministries at The Master’s College has taught on the topic of “The Power of the Christian Worldview in Evangelism” that is available in two parts on Youtube.  First let me share his biography:

An experienced pastor and Bible teacher, Mr. Wegtter has a B.A. degree from Christian Heritage College and a Master of Divinity degree from The Master’s Seminary.  He founded Gospel for Life in 2005, which is a training ministry which assists local churches in fulfilling The Great Commission through evangelistic outreach and through curriculum designed to keep the Gospel central in discipleship.  Jay is co-author of the book, “This Little Church had None,” which was the featured gift book at the Shepherds’ Conference in 2009.  He has written other resources on the Christian life and is a professional artist.

Here are the videos:

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Invent Your Own Religion, You Could Win Up to 5 Grand

Huffington Post has an article titled “If You Could Invent A Religion, What Would It Look Like?” which tells us that apparently “one organization is paying $5,000 for the best suggestion.”  I imagine whatever that made up religion that would win first place wouldn’t look like Christianity.  It definitely wouldn’t emphasize on the sinfulness of man–it’s too much an affront against man’s desire for self-righteousness.

According to the HuffPo’s article, “The challenge is being run entirely on Facebook and is one of several contests 92Y is hosting in the lead up to its “7 Days of Genius” festival.”  I thought it was interesting that the word “Genius” was invoked.  What does God think about it?

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth ^[l]in unrighteousness,¹⁹ because that which is known about God is evident ^[m]within them; for God made it evident to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.²¹ For even though they knew God, they did not ^[n]honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. ²² Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and ^[o]crawling creatures. ²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. ²⁵ For they exchanged the truth of God for ^[p]a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed ^[q]forever. Amen.

Romans 1:18-25

Far from genius.  The whole endeavor reveal the inclination of man to construct idols.  Invent Your Own Religion, You Could Win Up to 5 Grand.  But then the costs of making your own religion is not worth it in light of Romans 1:18.

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Relationship between the presentation of the Gospel and a convert’s sanctification

Doctrines are interrelated.  Sometimes they are interconnected more than we realize.

There was a quote from a denomination’s statement of sanctification that led me to think more about the relationship between how one present the Gospel and the sanctification of one’s “convert.”  The quote is as follows:

Today most people initially trust in Christ with very little theological understanding. Moreover, initial salvation frequently is offered by appeals to personal needs. Consequently almost no one is prepared at conversion to yield himself to the Spirit in surrender and faith.

How is it possible that this denomnational document might alleged that “almost no one at conversion” would surrender himself to the Spirit through faith?  Some quick thoughts:

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Christians should know the Prophecies concerning the Gospel (Romans 1:2)

Christians should know the Prophecies concerning the Gospel.  Speaking about the Gospel, Romans 1:2 states that the Gospel is that “which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures.  In the Greek “promised beforehand” is a compound word that is redundant, the preposition “ahead of time” and the verb “promise,” it thus strongly emphasize temporal sequence of promise and fulfillment (Moo, 44).  So the Gospel was predicted a long time ago in the Old Testament Scriptures.  Note the plural in”prophets” and “Scriptures” that thus indicate multiple authors and books in the Bible that these prophecies have been made.  Do you know more than one Messianic prophecies?  Off the top of your head, do you know any Old Testament prophecies about Jesus?  Are you aware of Isaiah 53 and Psalms 22?  Do you know more than one Messianic prophecies?  Vow to study them if you don’t!  But don’t just study it academically or to win arguments; study Messianic prophecies to worship God, and experience that joy and assurance knowing that its all true!  Some might think “Why?  I am not Jewish so why study the Old Testament?”  But knowing the context of Romans should encourage us to study the Old Testament even as Gentiles, Paul is addressing primarily Gentiles believers and he states the importance of the Old Testament here!  Matter of fact Paul quotes and allude to the Old Testament in Romans more than any other epistles.   Study the Old Testament for Christians should know the Prophecies concerning the Gospel.

 

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Snowed In Sunday Sermons

For the next few Sundays I want to posts on the topic related to participating in church.  Given the historical blizzard over some part of the US, I realize some people won’t be able to attend church.  So I thought it might appropriate to share some sermons I’ve recently found to be a blessing for those snowed-in for this Sunday.

• Voddie Bacham’s “Doubting God’s Promises” from Exodus 14:1-14.
• Christians can weaken or strengthen the professing church
• The Gentle Power of the Tongue – Part 1 and Part 2
• Preparation for Lord’s Supper

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“You’re Putting God in A Box:” The Irony of this argument against Biblical Inerrancy

Last Saturday I wrote a post titled “Does 2 Timothy 4:13 undermine the Doctrine of Inerrancy?” in which I evaluated an argument from an internet discussion that attacked the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy from a professing Christian.  As I stated in that previous post there was a lot of things this individual said that I want to respond to but I don’t have the time to respond to them in full concerning the matter of inerrancy.  Here in this post I want to respond to another argument given by the individual attacking inerrancy which I shall call the “God-in-A-Box-Argument-Against-Biblical-Inerrancy:”

The problem with referring to the Bible as the COMPLETE and inerrant word of God is that we limit the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the gift of prophecy.  By so doing, God has been gagged, and cannot reveal a new word, for fear of false teachers and prophets.  In light of this, I do believe we are in danger of repeating the mistakes of the Pharisees, and will brand as heretics true prophets of God and ministers of His Word.

Elsewhere in this person’s post the individual talk about putting “God in a box.”  How shall we respond to this argument against Biblical Inerrancy?

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Leisure Weekend Reading: Sherlock Holmes: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by David Tipton

This is my reading that takes a break from ministry.

David Tipton. Sherlock Holmes: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.  San Diego, CA: IDW Publishing, March 22^nd, 2016. 120 pp.

I enjoyed this graphic novel on Sherlock Holmes, with this being a revision of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original series.  I wanted to take a break from reading about superheroes but still enjoy graphic novel so this book was definitely welcomed change of pace.  This particular Sherlock Holmes story help explain the mystery of how in Doyle’s famous story, the “Final Problem” and “Empty House” it was possible that the former tells us of Sherlock’s death while in the latter we see Sherlock’s re-appearance.  Basically we discover in this story that an older Watson later confessed to making up both stories and here he gives his account of what truly happened and why he lied earlier in his earlier stories.

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Third Week of January 2016 Presuppositional Apologetics Link Round Up

Here are links on the topic of Presuppositional apologetics gathered from the internet between January 15th-21st, 2016.

Which one of them has blessed you?

1.) The Reality and Evidence Concerning Christ’s Resurrection Defeats Ehrman

2.) Historical Vs. Origin Science – A Rejoinder

3.) Head-on Collision

4.) Why We Can Argue Transcendentally

5.) THE BAHNSEN CONFERENCE 2015, “WHAT OF CHRIST AND CULTURE?” THE FULL VIDEO LECTURE SERIES

6.) SCIENTISM ISN’T SCIENCE

7.) Another Cup of Coffee

8.) Some Notes on Scriptural Epistemology [Recap on Pts. 1-5]

 

Missed the last round up?Check out the re-blogged post from a friend

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Videos of the Bahnsen Conference 2015

Here are the videos from 2o15’s Bahnsen Conference.  The Bahnsen conference celebrates the life of Greg Bahnsen, a pastor, theologian and apologist for the Christian faith.

Note: I do not necessarily agree with everything theologically but Greg Bahnsen has been used by God to change my life.

There are twelve videos:

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Review: The Minister’s Self-Watch

Charles Spurgeon. The Minister’s Self-Watch.  Pensacola, FL: Chapel Library, November 20^st, 2012. 36 pp.

It seems Charles Spurgeon, that famous Victorian era Baptist preacher, has a way of speaking beyond the graves.  This short booklet is also the first chapter to his larger work titled Lectures to My Students.  However the call for the minister to engage in self-watch of his life isn’t only for seminary students or those who desire to enter into ministry; it ought to be part of the spiritual life of those who are in the ministry.  I love the pastoral feel to this book and its emphasis on the duty of holiness.  There are many memorable illustrations Spurgeon gave in this work, such as the grease-boxes of carriage wheels for railways being stopped because of flies and how that is an example of how our sins, even the ones we see as petty can have a detrimental impact on our ministry.  There is a great section in this book on the danger of those who are unconverted in the ministry.  I think a pastor should read this book yearly as a good spiritual heart check up since after all Spurgeon himself said in the book about how the danger of those who neglect vigorous piety has a greater danger than that of others.  Ministry is about who we really are and our influence through the Word of God towards others and no doubt this book is a strong and much needed reminder for minister’s lives to be consistent.

Purchase: Amazon

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