Friday, February 26, 2021

My Concerns About Ravi Zacharias

It is difficult to tell whether Ravi Zacharias was a complete charlatan and a fraud, or whether he was truly sincere and believed the words he said but was living a double life. Ravi's sins were not only ongoing and heavily pre-meditated, but also predatory in nature. As far as we are aware, Ravi went to his death bed completely unrepentant over these sins.

There are several problems I see with Ravi, that apparently nobody else wanted to pay attention to:

First, watch any of his speaking engagements over the past 20 years and note how not once does Ravi ever speak about sin, righteousness, and the judgment to come. Not once!

Second, note how every time he tells his "testimony," there is never mention of being convicted over his sin, his need for Jesus, realizing that Jesus died for him while he was yet a sinner, turning from his sin and putting his wholehearted trust in the Lord. The Gospel was never present in Ravi's "testimony." Instead, when Ravi talked about his "testimony," he did as he always does and told a story. Ravi was a storyteller.

Third, his consistent lack of biblical discernment. Ravi had said that Rick Warren was one of the greatest Bible teachers our age has ever seen. He said that Joyce Meyer was a phenomenal Bible teacher. He said that Hillsong Church and their music are a blessing, and recommended them to others. He attended the Mormon Tabernacle and failed to draw a distinction between their "Jesus" and the Jesus of the Bible, preaching the Gospel to them, but instead referred to them as "brothers and sisters." He attended gatherings where the Pope made the opening address. When asked about transgenderism, Ravi side-stepped the issue. In fact, Ravi would frequently talk much, tell stories, but then never actually answer the questions asked of him. As Ray Comfort has said, you could listen to Ravi in awe, but come away not having a clue what he had just said. The reason being because he never actually said anything. To me, that is one of the poorest examples of an apologist there is.

Fourth, Ravi's theology was extremely cotton-candy-like. He was very much an ecumenicalist. Meeting with cults and false teachers, and praising them up with flattering words.

Because of those things, and because of the ongoing pre-meditated predatory sexual misconduct, it is extremely difficult for me to believe Ravi was ever a genuine convert to Christianity. He may have been. He may have been a Christian who just kept taking baby step after baby step toward sin, and justifying it, until he was so deep in it that he had no clue which way was up and was too proud to confess it because of what it would mean to his ministry. The fact is, Ravi's conduct disqualified him from public ministry a long time ago. But how is he any different from many others who have disqualified themselves and ought to shut their ministries down?

There are several "discernment" ministries and "apologetics" ministries and other ministries whose "celebrity" persona has disqualified himself/herself from ministry. Yet, few of these men/women have stepped down. Even for the rarer few who have confessed to their sin, they have continued trudging on through with their ministry. Why have none of these individuals shut their ministries down, shut their mouths, and sat at the feet of God to learn? Pride! These men/women are arrogant, egotistical, and prideful. They think God needs them, in spite of their egregious sins. I have some words for these leaders...

Get over yourselves!!!

Your ministry is not that important. You are not that important. God can raise up a ministry one hundred times better than yours. God can raise up a minister one hundred times better than you. You are not God's gift to mankind! Neither am I. None of us are.

I have a number of followers (maybe even fans?), and I always try to remind them not to believe something just because I have said it (or anyone else has said it), but to be like the Bereans and "search the Scriptures." I do not want anyone turning me into an idol. I do not want people making me their authority. The Bible is, or should be, our only authority. God may use me to expose its authority to you, and that is good, but do not ever replace Jesus, the Word, and the Spirit with me or anybody else! The only man you should be looking to is the Lord Jesus. He may use me, but I am just a man. I never want people to worship me as a leader. Being some kind of leader is one of my greatest fears, because I am not sure how I would handle it.

If you learn something from me and are drawn into a closer relationship with the Lord Jesus and His Word, then all praise, honour, and glory to God Almighty! I am nothing more than a vessel that He may use for His purposes. I am happy if He uses me at all, and I probably will not know how much He has used me until I get to Heaven. Could you imagine the testimonies that would include my name, all to the glory of God? That is humbling. It reminds me of the lyrics to the song "Thank You" by Ray Boltz.

"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall." 1 Corinthians 10:12

"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling." Proverbs 16:18


Thursday, February 25, 2021

Wolves In Sheep's Clothing

A preacher elicits information about the faith and financial situation of certain women, not only within his congregation, but also elsewhere as he travels for speaking engagements. He arranges for his ministry to provide these women with financial support, but requires sex from them. This preacher uses religious expressions in order to gain compliance, since these women were raised to be persons of faith. This preacher prays with these women, giving thanks to God for the "opportunity" they are receiving; calls these women his "reward" for living a life of service to God; and references "godly men" in the Bible who had more than one wife. But he also warns these women that they aren't to "speak against God's anointed" by sharing this event with others.

Sound familiar? It should.

This is what apologist Ravi Zacharias did for over a decade. He preyed on women. But he lost credibility with me a long time ago. If you can preach your messages inside a Jewish synagogue or a Mormon tabernacle or anywhere else and it be accepted, then your message is not a Christian message; it is not the Gospel.

But the above descriptive paragraph is not only about Ravi Zacharias. There are dozens of preachers who are guilty of the same thing, and this is tragic. In Waco, Texas, David Koresh brainwashed his members into letting him sleep with their daughters of varying ages. In London, Ontario, some preacher brainwashed his members into a similar sex scandal. I have since forgotten the details of this one, but if memory serves I believe he was convincing older women (married or unmarried) to have sex with him. I do not think it involved young girls, but I could be wrong.

The thing is, there are a lot of wolves in sheep's clothing standing behind the pulpit who have never received the saving grace of the Lord Jesus. Whether they are there for the money (which they should not be receiving), or because they think they were called just because they have some degree (and the congregation blindly expected a degree to mean something or make some kind of difference), or because they wanted to be important, or whatever, many congregations have someone standing behind the pulpit who should not be there (really, none of them should be there because this is not a biblical practice).

Anyone can learn Christian-ese and modify their behaviour. That does not make them born again, nor brothers and sisters in the faith. We have fallen so far from biblical standards that it is not funny. Nowadays if anyone claims themselves to be a Christian, people blindly high-five them and go, "Alright! Me too!" Then their conversation goes to something worldly and that is the end of it. There are many people who have grown up in the "church" who have never been saved who think they are "Christians" just because their parents are Christians and they attend religious services. God does not have any grandchildren. You cannot ride the coattails of your parents into Heaven. You need to make the faith your own. Not make your own faith, creating a god in your own image to suit your own desires. You need to own the faith. It must be personal. Just because your parents know Jesus does not mean you do.

A lot of these "celebrity pastors" are these kinds of people. They are committing sexual misconduct just like Ravi Zacharias, but they have also never truly been regenerated and born again. For several of them, their daddy was a preacher and because of the "big bucks" he made, they decided to pursue the same venture. But God had never called them to it.

There needs to be a greater system of accountability in place. Of greater importance, one's own family and/or employees should not be part of that system. There is a natural bias. Too many "churches" do not have accountability systems in place, and even more refuse to hold their head "pastor" accountable when he does do things that are not above board (like hang out with and endorse known false teachers). Many of the subordinates do not speak out because they are cowards and hirelings. They do not want to lose their unbiblical salary and get fired, so they defend their "boss."

There needs to be transparency. This is near impossible with large organized religious institutions. It is not for biblical small-sized house churches, where everyone should be confessing their sins to one another and praying for one another and restoring each other through the process of repentance. (Restoration does not mean to former positions where abuse took place, and doing so demonstrates an ignorance of that particular "church.")

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

The Disciple's Prayer

"Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.'" Matthew 6:9-13

"And He said to them, "When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.'"" Luke 11:2-4

What does this phrase, "Give us each/this day our daily bread," mean? Some preachers have explained that during the first century they did not know where their next meal was coming from and so they prayed that God would give them that next meal. This explanation is completely false!

The literal translation of this phrase is, "The bread of us belonging to the coming day, give us today," and, "The bread of us belonging to the coming day, give us daily." The Greek here is ton epiousion (τὸν ἐπιούσιον), which means "for the coming day, for the morrow." There is a future element here. The bread of the coming Kingdom, the bread that Jesus said He would not eat again until the Kingdom comes, give us this bread today. They are praying for His return. Remember the words from Jesus' Revelation to John? "Come, Lord Jesus."

Sunday, February 21, 2021

Why Do 99% of Denominations Get the Lord's Supper Wrong?

"When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."Luke 22:14-16

"And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, "Take this and share it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes."" Luke 22:17-18

The word translated as "until" in both of these passages is heos hetou (ἕως ὅτου). It is informing us when. There is a future element here.

"For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." 1 Corinthians 11:26

The word translated as "until in this passage is achri hou (ἄχρι οὗ). It denotes an objective, a goal. It is informing us why. In other words, "You proclaim His death so that He comes."

"And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."" Luke 22:19

The translation "remembrance" is incorrect. The word here is anamnesis. The an is negative, meaning "not." Amnesis means amnesia. In other words, "not forgetting." The correct translation here would be "reminder." Both the bread and the cup are a reminder of the past and reminder of the future. The Lord's Supper is not a funeral event, though the practice in most denominations feels precisely like such. Yes, we remember what the Lord Jesus did on our behalf, but we look forward to His second coming (or at least we should be).

The typical ambiguous word for "me" or "my" is mou (μου), which by its usage indicates that the person can either be the subject or the owner. If your photo was in a magazine and there was an article about you, you are the subject. If the magazine belonged to you, you are the owner. That is not the word used here. The word used here is the emphatic emen (ἐμὴν), which indicates possession. It is Jesus' reminder. In other words, "Do My reminder! Remind yourselves of my return."

When you partake of the Lord's Supper, do the words "joy" or "fellowship" come to your mind? Probably not. Do you know why? Because your local congregation is practicing it incorrectly! The Lord's Supper was an actual, full meal. A banquet! The text bears it out itself, but let us hear from several scholars on the issue:

[Paul] "sets the Lord's Supper in the context of the fellowship meal." -Donald Guthrie, New Testament Theology, p. 758.

"From the beginning the Lord's Supper was for Christians not an annual Christian Passover, but a regularly repeated meal in 'honor of the Lord,' hence the Lord's Supper." -Gordon Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT

"Holy Communion was not simply a token meal as with us, but an actual meal. Moreover it seems clear that it was a meal to which each of the participants brought food." -Leon Morris, Commentary on First Corinthians

"The name Lord's Supper, though legitimately derived from 1 Cor. 11v20, is not there applied to the sacrament itself, but to the Love Feast or Agape, a meal commemorating the Last Supper..." -J. G. Simpson, The Dictionary of the Bible

"This simple rite was observed by His disciples, at first as part of a communal meal, Sunday by Sunday." -I. Howard Marshall, Christian Beliefs: An Introductory Study Guide

"the early church associated the Lord's Supper with a proper meal" -I. Howard Marshall, Christian Beliefs: An Introductory Study Guide

"In the first century, the Lord's Supper included not only the bread and the cup, but an entire meal." - John Gooch, Christian History, Issue 37, p. 3.

If Jesus set it up this way, if the apostles set it up this way, do you not think there was a specific reason for doing so?

"The early church observed the Lord's Supper as an exclusive community meal." -John Drane, The New Lion Encyclopedia, p. 173.

"They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ..." Acts 2:42-47

There are three (3) elements here; not four (4). Perhaps you will see it better if we lay it out like this:

They were continually devoting themselves
to the apostles' teaching
and
to fellowship, to the breaking of bread
and
to prayer.

The fellowship is the breaking of bread. That is why they came together. The fellowship meal was the central matter surrounding their gathering. Not the singing. Not the teaching or preaching. Not anything else. The fellowship is what creates the unity.

"Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread." 1 Corinthians 10:17

The Lord's Supper consisted of a single loaf. Why? Paul just explained it. It is a picture of unity. The same with the single cup. What picture is portrayed by the vast majority of local congregations today in their unbiblical practice? Disunity! Again, let us hear from some of the scholars:

"Because all have eaten portions of the same element, they have become a unity in which they have come as close to one another as members of the same body, as if the bodily boundaries between and among people had been transcended." -Gerd Theissen

"The single loaf is a symbol and an instrument of unity." -Robertson and Plummer, Int'l Critical Commentary

Gordon Fee wrote of the "solidarity of the fellowship of believers created by their sharing 'the one loaf.'"

How do we know that the Lord's Supper was a full meal? "One is hungry and another is drunk." You cannot go home hungry, or drunk, off the token meal 99% of denominations practice today! Go ahead and read 1 Corinthians 11. There is no question that they ate it as a full meal. So why is every single denomination practicing it wrong today? Of greater consequence, why do they not seem to care to fix it?

What is one of the reasons why so many denominations follow an unbiblical practice today? Because of the erroneous translation found in the King James Version. The KJV has the word "unworthily," which conveys a lack of worth in the person taking the element. But what does the Greek word used actually mean? It means an "unworthy manner." What is meant by that? Divisions. The rich did not want to eat with the poor, so they would take off work early and eat the meal before the poor could arrive. The poor, working for the man, would arrive late and there would be no food remaining for them, and several of the rich people would be drunk. Because of this, several of them were dying. God was killing them because they were eating and drinking in an unworthy manner. They were creating divisions. Similar divisions to the rich/poor dynamic would be the black/white dynamic. If members in a congregation do not want to eat with members of a different ethnicity, their eating is in an unworthy manner. They are perverting the unity the bread and cup were meant to stand for.

What does the Old Testament say about worshipping God? The pattern shown to Moses on Sinai was to be followed exactly. Why? Because everything foreshadowed and pictured something else. God determines how we are to worship Him. The pattern set up in the New Testament is different than the pattern set up in the Old Testament. Each denomination does not get to decide how they would like to "do church." God tells you how to do it! Jesus and His apostles set up certain traditions and they are to be followed by every Christian! Period End of sentence. End of discussion. Your congregation does not get to make up its own tradition(s) for worshipping God. Everything Jesus and His apostles set in place was done for a reason. Hence why Paul repeated mentions the fact that in all the congregations, he teaches them the exact same things. Our pattern is not the Old Testament Hebrew religion; try reading Hebrews some time. Our pattern is not what the early church fathers chose to do in contradiction to Scripture through their creation and use of the heresy of apostolic succession. Our pattern is not what pagan Emperor Constantine set up, or the cultural Roman elements used by the Catholic churches. Our pattern is not what Luther or Calvin or anyone else set up. Our pattern is to be derived from the pages of the New Testament alone! Scripture is our absolute and final authority on such matters; not any other pragmatic considerations!

Let us get back to the Bible, and show the world what true Christian fellowship, love, and unity look like!

Why Do Most People Not Understand the New Testament?



If you were studying history, this is the order in which you would study it:

01. The Middle Ages (A.D. 476 -A.D. 1450 )
02. Renaissance Humanism (A.D. 1400 to A.D. 1500 )
03. Protestant Reformation (A.D. 1517 to A.D. 1648)
04. The European Renaissance (A.D. 1450 to A.D. 1600)
05. The Enlightenment (A.D. 1650 to A.D. 1800)
06. First Industrial Revolution (A.D. 1760 to A.D. 1840)
07. Revolutionary Period (A.D. 1764 to A.D. 1848)
08. Age of Imperialism (A.D. 1800 to A.D. 1914)
09. Victorian Era (A.D. 1837 to A.D. 1901)
10. Second Industrial Revolution (A.D. 1869 to A.D. 1914 )
11. World War I (A.D. 1914 to A.D. 1918)
12. Great Depression (A.D. 1929 to A.D. 1939)
13. World War II (A.D. 1939 to A.D. 1945)

This would tell you what happened, why, and what led to the next era. But imagine wanting to learn history and the book you pick up orders it instead like this:

04. The European Renaissance (A.D. 1450 to A.D. 1600)
08. Age of Imperialism (A.D. 1800 to A.D. 1914)
09. Victorian Era (A.D. 1837 to A.D. 1901)
02. Renaissance Humanism (A.D. 1400 to A.D. 1500 )
03. Protestant Reformation (A.D. 1517 to A.D. 1648)
01. The Middle Ages (A.D. 476 -A.D. 1450 )
13. World War II (A.D. 1939 to A.D. 1945)
07. Revolutionary Period (A.D. 1764 to A.D. 1848)
05. The Enlightenment (A.D. 1650 to A.D. 1800)
06. First Industrial Revolution (A.D. 1760 to A.D. 1840)
10. Second Industrial Revolution (A.D. 1869 to A.D. 1914 )
12. Great Depression (A.D. 1929 to A.D. 1939)
11. World War I (A.D. 1914 to A.D. 1918)

You have no dates to know which period of history comes first, or when it happened. This is the order in which the New Testament has been placed in the Bible for the past 1800 years. This is just how book binders used to do it. You'll find the order applied to the works of Pliny, Socrates, Plato, etc. They are arranged from longest piece of work first, to shortest piece of work last. It ignores why they were written, what was happening at the time, etc. Because the Bible is not in correct chronological order, it is read chaotically. People have no clue what is going on. Heap on top of this the imposition of chapters and verses that distract the reader from the natural divisions the authors had included in their own works.

Imagine I were a counselor of some kind, like a marriage counselor. Imagine that throughout my career I had written many letters to both groups of people and single individuals. But after I had died, only 9 letters written to groups could be found, and 4 letters written to individuals. Some time later, someone has the idea to add chapters and verses to my letters. If you were to take one sentence from one letter and try to tie it together with another sentence from another letter, unless the context surrounding the one agrees with the context surrounding the other, you have just created a false teaching from my letters. The two sentences are in no way, shape, or form related or complementary.

This is what Christians of every denomination have done with the Bible ever since the addition of chapters and verses. They continuously proof-text the Bible in order to support all sorts of ridiculous and unbiblical teachings. They treat each individual verse as if it is the Word of God wholly by itself, which is simply untrue. Compound this upon the problem of not having the books in their correct order and not knowing anything of the events that led to the writing of each book or letter.

If you want to understand the New Testament correctly (or even the Old Testament), you need to read it in the correct historical-chronological order. The book of Acts is historical. Most of the epistles fall into certain locations throughout that book. When it's all put together, you're able to understand the New Testament in a way that most do not today, and have never for the past 1800 years. These books aren't disjointed. They flow in a natural order, revealing what was happening, what the Body was facing, the struggles at that particular time, and tie in with other history taking place at the same time.

People have been after Bible publishers to publish the Bible in the correct historical-chronological order for at least the last 50 years. They understand that when arranged properly, it benefits the student immensely. This is why I released ABIDE: A Chronological Reader's Bible project. Not only does it not contain the distracting chapters and verses, but it arranges the books and letters in their correct order. I'm am working on another project right now that deals with the life of the Body after Jesus. The first 100 years. This work will bring so much clarity to the New Testament chronology and understanding.

You'll also find that because of the order we have it in today, and because so many people have been influenced by various philosophers (Plato, Socrates, Aristotle), they approached Scripture as if it were philosophy. This is what led to Roman Catholicism. The wrong historical-chronological order, the addition of chapters and verses, and the idea of approaching it as philosophy has led to many errors in approach, including the Reformation. They did not seek to understand the natural flowing living story; they sought to find doctrines (whether they exist or not). There's a reason Scripture says "you have no need to be taught by anyone." When it's in its correct order and you know the history related to it, what happened between each letter, everything makes sense and it's EASY to understand . . . even by a child.

Individuals like T. Austin Sparks argue that the order our Bibles are in today was "divinely preserved and ordered by God." Sorry, but this argument is completely ignorant, as is the argument that the chapters and verses were "divinely inspired." No doubt he was a KJV-Onlyist or a Ruckmanite. These people like to argue a great many man-made concepts as having something to do with the "divine"; e.g., the atrocious spelling of the 1611 KJV was "divinely inspired" and we should retain that spelling today. Give me a break! Usually, whatever it is that has to do with the 1611 KJV, they argue it is obviously "God's divine inspiration" that it be like that. The order our Bibles are in today have nothing to do with God's preservation and inspiration. These people are so hung up on ridiculous traditions and the past, that they cannot bring themselves to fix what's broken.

Friday, February 19, 2021

The Test of All Preaching

"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." Acts 17:11

The Bible should be the test of all preaching! That man who desires to make himself the umpire and final standard of appeal to the congregation, involves himself in a fearful responsibility and virtually claims for himself infallibility. Yet some ministers appear offended if their authority is questioned, or if their preaching is tested by the Word of God.

Paul did not do so! Though inspired, he commended the course of those, who, instead of taking his word for it, examined the Scriptures for themselves, to see whether those things which he taught them were so. To adopt a contrary course, and blindly follow a minister or priest, is downright Romanism! And, if pursued universally, this would . . .
. . . arrest the progress of the Gospel,
. . . and clog the wheels of truth,
. . . and stamp error with immutability.

No, my brethren, your minister is not to be the umpire or standard. There is but one who could say, "Follow Me!" and that was Christ! We point you to Him. We direct you to His Word as the standard of your beliefs, and to His example as the pattern of your lives.

"To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah 8:20

John Quincy Adams, 1876

His example is Solus Christus. We are to imitate Christ Jesus in all things. We are to love what He loved, and hate what He hated. We are to pattern our lives, in every aspect, after Him. If we are not trying to be like Him, if we are not being made in His image, then we have no right trying to call ourselves His disciples.

His Word is Sola Scriptura. Scripture, the Bible, is to be our only and final authority on all matters pertaining to doctrine, congregational practice, family life, and personal holiness. The Bible is not an end in and of itself, but it points us to Christ Jesus. Most Christians have some other source as their authority instead of God's Word: what the early church fathers taught; what church traditions taught; what creeds, confessions, catechisms, and constitutions teach; what the Reformers taught; what a particular system of theology teaches; what their particular denomination teaches; what the "experts" tell them; what they have "experienced"; and various other pragmatic considerations.

"The Bible should be the test of all preaching!" Period! In context!

Grabbing a particular verse and then preaching on it tends to predominantly result in eisegesis—from every denomination. The same is true of people who do verse memorization and who have "life verses." A verse independent of its passage is used predominantly to support false interpretations. If you are going to preach, you should be preaching on full passages so that you convey the correct context. If you want to memorize anything, memorize full passages so that you understand and apply the correct context. If you want something applicable to your life, then have "life passages" so that you are applying the full context to your life.

The only thing that is the final standard of appeal for the Congregation's beliefs is God's Word. If that "offends" you, then you have bigger problems. Too many people professing to be "Christians" blindly follow the man behind the pulpit rather than examining Scripture and holding the man accountable. This is why you have modern cults like Steven Furtick's Elevation Church. If you call their gathering a "service," they get angry with you and, like a chorus, say on cue, "It's not a service! It's a worship experience!" If anything you say is negative of Furtick or Elevation, they turn on you like a pack of rabid wolves. This re-iterates what John Cooper wrote about celebrity preachers. They become people's idols.

If you get angry when someone tries to filter your traditions, creeds, confessions, catechisms, constitutions, statements of faith, systems of theology, denominational teachings, experiences, etc., through the Bible, then the Word of God is not your only and final authority. If you get angry when someone tries to filter your preacher's teachings, practices, and lifestyle through the Bible, then most likely you are part of a cult!

Monday, February 8, 2021

Providing Michael Brown A Wake-up Call

In an interview on “Too Wretched for Radio,” Todd Friel and Phil Johnson rightly labeled Michael Brown as “dangerous,” calling him “sub-orthodox,” acknowledging that he is “willfully self-deceived,” and stating that he has done “enough damage.” In his response to Todd Friel and Phil Johnson, Michael wrote, "To me, this is a crown of honor, a sign of the Lord’s favor, and another indication that our message, by God’s grace and to His glory, is making an impact."

In case Michael is not aware of it, Jehovah's Witnesses and many other cults have this same outlook? They go around saying the same kind of nonsense: "People slamming the door in our face and cursing us out and this and that, this is a crown of honour, a sign of the Lord's favour, and another indication that our message is making an impact." I am sorry, Michael, but that is a fool's self-perceived "persecution" and crown. How about you look at it through the lens of reality and truth, that they are calling you out for being a false teacher and teaching unbiblical doctrines?

Mr. Brown also claimed that he "gets slandered, maligned, misrepresented, and attacked" for "confronting doctrinal errors in the Body; . . . being pro-Israel; being pro-Holy Spirit."

What about your own doctrinal errors in the Body, Michael? I am sorry to break it to you, but you are not free from doctrinal errors yourself. You have two major doctrinal errors.

First, you claim to be "pro-Holy Spirit." It is not "pro-Holy Spirit" to attribute to Him things that He is not responsible for. That is blasphemy. That is taking the Lord's name in vain. If I were to tell someone who is meeting me at the train station that he will recognize me because I will be wearing a blue hat, the blue hat is the sign. Once we have met and he recognizes me by the sign of the blue hat, the need for the sign has ceased. Isaiah prophesied that God would speak to the Jews by foreign languages and that they would reject it and subsequently be judged. The sign of this prophecy was fulfilled three times in the book of Acts (ch. 2, 10, 19), demonstrating that the way to salvation was open to people from all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages. The Jews rejected the sign and were severely judged in A.D. 70. The gift of "tongues" (properly 'languages,' as revealed in Acts 2 and Isaiah's prophecy) have ceased! What you claim to do is not "tongues," however you might imagine it. Your "experience" does not interpret Scripture, Michael! All this other nonsense taking place at Bethel and Hillsong, etc., is doctrines and practices of demons. The Holy Spirit does not shower gold dust on people. Grave soaking is demonic and does nothing. If these people actually possessed the gift of healing, they would be doing like Jesus and going to the people. These people would be healing people in hospitals and such. But they can't. They have to fake it, and everyone, including you, knows it.

Second, you are pro-Israel, and foolishly so. You ignore what the Bible says on this issue and foolishly subscribe to the untenable, indefensible, bankrupt theology of Dispensationalism. How about you take the time to read and pay attention to the book of Hebrews? This book dismantles and destroys your pro-Israel theology (and John MacArthur's) once and for all. Better yet, how about you read and pay attention to the book of Ephesians. It is almost as if God gave Paul a glimpse into the future to see the nonsense of Dispensationalism being taught, and then Paul answers their core tenets one by one. More so, read and pay attention to Romans 9 through 11. Pay very special attention to 11:17-26. What does Paul do here? He takes national, physical, literal Israel and divides them into two groups: believing Israel and unbelieving Israel. According to Romans 2:28-29, what does this say about unbelieving Israel? According to Romans 9:6-8, what does this say about unbelieving Israel? In other words, believing Israel is true Israel, spiritual Israel. The remnant God has always had. Paul then has believing Gentiles grafted in with the believing Israel. What does that make these Gentiles, Michael? It makes them true Israel, spiritual Israel. This was prophesied repeatedly through the Old Testament: the Gentile inclusion. What would they be included into? This is known as Expansion Theology.
Do you honestly believe a physical temple will be rebuilt, when Scripture makes it clear that we are the new temple and that God indwells us? Do you honestly believe we will return to sacrifices when Jesus was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices? You seriously need to read your Bible better, Michael, and pay closer attention to precisely what it says and teaches, which is not what you teach and believe! Israel is nothing and will be nothing. Scripture, from beginning to end, is all about Jesus! He is the center of it all; not Israel.

I think you would benefit from reading the books and letters of the Bible in their actual historical-chronological order, Michael. Read the prophets in chronological order alongside 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings. Read the epistles in chronological order alongside Acts. God has one Body, one Bride, one CongregationChristians! The Congregation of the Lord is the fulfillment of Israel. Jew and Gentile together, Old Testament saints and New Testaments saints together, make up the one Body of Jesus. Your theology makes the Bible say things that it does not say, turning Jesus into your imagined "Anti-Christ." How about you look up the chiasm in Daniel 9:24-27 and pay close attention to it. Look up the Hebrew, too. There is nothing in this passage about the "making" and "breaking" of a covenant. The Hebrew word means "to strengthen" an already existing covenant: the covenant of grace. The Messiah does this. Nobody else. There is also nothing in the Bible about a "one-world government." Stop ripping random, individual, isolated verses out of their immediate context and forcing them together with other random, individual, isolated verses to create your doctrines. If the surrounding context of the one verse does not agree with the surrounding context of the other verse, they are not teaching the same thing! I'm getting fed up with people using random isolated verses to teach something that the context does not support.
E.g.: The use of 1 Timothy 5:8 has nothing to do with the man of the house getting a job and providing for his family. What is the context of chapter 5:1-16? It's speaking about widows. Keeping this verse in its context, what is it actually saying? Quite different from how the majority of people falsely use it. And this goes for every denomination. Charismatics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Baptists, etc. Every since chapters and verses were added to the Bible, people have ripped individual verses out of their immediate contexts in order to argue something that the verse in context simply does not support!

You can refer to this letter as an "attack," Michael, or whatever else you need to tell yourself in order to make yourself feel better, but it is not an "attack" by any stretch of the imagination or by any sort of mental gymnastics you want to try and engage in. I love you as a brother, Michael, but you are teaching some very serious errors, and are associating with some extremely dangerous people. Feel free to label me in whatever manner makes you feel better about yourself. It will not offend me.

Sunday, February 7, 2021

Jesus On Marriage and Family

Jesus was not a homosexual, and He did not condone homosexuality. He upheld heterosexuality as the only acceptable expression of sexuality; one man and one woman as the only definition of true marriage; and one man and one woman with children as the only proper image of the family.

"Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning of creation 'Made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife [woman], and the two shall become one flesh'?" —Messiah Jesus of Nazareth (see Matt. 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-9; Gen. 1:27; 2:24)

First, notice that male and female are the only two genders/sexes.

Second, notice that the child leaves his/her father and mother; and not father and father or mother and mother.

Third, notice that the man is joined with his wife [woman]; and not to his "husband," or a woman to her "wife."

The reason my words always get you into your feelings is because intrinsically (deep down) you know what I am saying is true. I am one of the few who has the courage to tell you the truth. You should thank me.

Let's get something straight! (No pun intended.) Homosexuals (and the ignorant, gullible people who support them) do not like when you compare them to pedophiles and zoophiliacs, arguing that children and animals are not able to "consent."

Okay. Fair enough. Let's use their argument then.

In The 1972 Gay Rights Platform, article 2 under "State Level" states, "Repeal of all state laws prohibiting private sexual acts involving consenting persons." In the Platform of the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation, the first demand states, "We demand...repeal of all sodomy laws and other laws that criminalize private sexual expression between consenting adults."

They provided the argument, so we are going to follow that argument and provide a comparison that does involve "consent." By their argument, any two people who "love" each other and "consent"—being of legal age—should be allowed to "marry" each other and spend the rest of their lives together happily. Right? This argument logically includes age-of-consent incestuous relationships. According to their argument, any age-of-consent relationship—brother/sister, father/daughter, mother/son, uncle/niece, aunt/nephew, grandfather/granddaughter, grandmother/grandson (and the gay equivalents to these)—should be permissible. To use the ignorant argument of pro-gay supporters, "Who are you to say anything against them? Love is love!"

The gavel sounds. Case closed.

Consensual incest, or for that matter consensual polygamy, is no different  than consensual homosexuality. You cannot argue "consent" and a false concept of "love" for the one but reject it for the others. Either that argument applies to all relationships where "consent" exists, or it applies to none of them! You do not get to pick and choose! Homosexuals and their anti-intellectual know-nothing half-wit supporters use this argument because it benefits homosexuals. But as soon as you apply it to a legitimate comparison, they fight back against their own argument. Why? Because they are inconsistent and they are hypocrites!

Just as "consenting" incestuous relationships are depraved and disgusting, so too are "consenting" homosexual relationships depraved and disgusting. Science, nature, logic, reason, and common sense all prove homosexuality to be unnatural, abnormal, and immoral. Whether you like it or not or want to accept it or not, Yahweh God made it clear that: "You shall not lie down with a male as one lies down with a female; it is an abomination." According to Romans 1:26-27, it is unnatural. The laws of men are irrelevant. Yahweh God defines what constitutes a marriage. Yahweh God defines what constitutes a family. If you are not in agreement with Yahweh, then you are disobedient and rebellious, dead in your trespasses and sins.

If you are going to try and argue for homosexuality, I suggest you bring something more substantial to the table other than subjective feelings and opinions. Facts trump feelings! If you do not like the facts, then slink away to your "safe space," stuff your thumb in your mouth, and cry yourself to sleep.

https://bereansdesk.blogspot.com/p/table-of-contents.html#Homo

The argument about how "nice" homosexuals might be is irrelevant. Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, Jeffrey Dahmers, Charles Manson, and others like these were also "nice" people. Otherwise they could not have gotten away with what they did. If they were creepy and mean, do you think they would have been able to do half of what they did? "Niceness" is not a determiner for morality or acceptable behaviour.

Wake up to the homosexual agenda, people! In 1925 and 1926, Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" (his manifesto) was published in two volumes, detailing exaclty what he planned to do. Despite this, people were still taken by surprise as everything he set out to do came to pass over the next 20 years. Homosexuals have done the exact same thing (as you are about to see). Yet ignorant, uneducated, gullible, naive, bigoted blind straights who are too arrogant to admit they got duped, and are intolerant towards those trying to wake them from their stupor, still try to defend them with their misplaced and overdeveloped White Knight syndrome. Sad and pathetic.

In Michael Swift's article, Gay Revolutionary, also known as The Homosexual Manifesto, written in 1987, he wrote:

"The family unit—spawning ground of lies, betrayals, mediocrity, hypocrisy and violence—will be abolished. The family unit, which only dampens imagination and curbs free will, must be eliminated."

This is not the only homosexual document that exposes its hatred and utter disdain for the family unit and how they want to destroy it. People today are going along with it, none the wiser. They have been lulled to sleep by lies and false representations of the gay community, which you will now witness from other homosexual sources.

In Marshall Kirk and Erastes Pill's article The Overhauling of Straight America, written in 1987, they wrote this telling paragraph as to the homosexual agenda:

"Now, there are two different messages about the Gay Victim that are worth communicating. First, the mainstream should be told that gays are victims of fate, in the sense that most never had a choice to accept or reject their sexual preference. The message must read: "As far as gays can tell, they were born gay, just as you were born heterosexual or white or black or bright or athletic. Nobody ever tricked or seduced them; they never made a choice, and are not morally blameworthy. What they do isn't willfully contrary—it's only natural for them. This twist of fate could as easily have happened to you!""

Here is a brief excerpt taken from the book After the Ball: How America Will Conquer its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s by Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen, first published in 1989 (based on the article The Overhauling of Straight America):

PRINCIPLE #5:

PORTRAY GAYS AS VICTIMS, NOT AS AGGRESSIVE CHALLENGERS.

In any campaign to win over the public, gays must be portrayed as victims in need of protection so that straights will be inclined by reflex to adopt the role of protector. If gays present themselves, instead, as a strong and arrogant tribe promoting a defiantly nonconformist lifestyle, they are more likely to be seen as a public menace that warrants resistance and oppression. For that reason, we must forego the temptation to strut our "gay pride" publicly to such an extent that we undermine our Victim image. And we must walk the fine line between impressing straights with our great numbers, on the one hand, and igniting their hostile paranoia—"They are all around us!"—on the other.

The purpose of victim imagery is to make straights feel very uncomfortable; that is, to jam with shame the self-righteous pride that would ordinarily accompany and reward their anti-gay belligerence, and to lay groundwork for the process of conversion.

Take note of the fulfillment of the above principle in modern society. Also, have you noticed how in film homosexuals are never portrayed as bad guys? This is because it harms the image they are trying to brainwash the public with. Homosexuals are always portrayed as "good guys." People can continue sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring what is going on, but it will be to their own detriment. Pick up a history book and read about the fall of the Roman Empire; you would think it was talking about our time. The warning bell will continue to sound by non-conformists, because much is at stake.

[ If you want to educate and inform yourself as to the truth, you can read more of their agenda here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/mv7191ukczim2st/HomosesexualAgenda.pdf/file ]

If you are not afraid of hearing the truth and having your eyes opened, here is the complete Principle #5 excerpt taken from Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen's book, After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s (pgs. 183-187), exposing the full agenda  to portray homosexuals as "victims" in order to desensitize straights and convince them that "they were born that way" and that we should "accept them as they are." As their agenda declares: "Desensitization works gradually or not at all." Society has swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. Pay close attention to how this agenda acknowledges that no one is born gay: "We argue that, for all practical purposes, gays should be considered to have been born gay—even though sexual orientation...seems to be the product of a complex interaction between innate...environmental factors during childhood and early adolescence." Any number of psychological articles will confirm this, showing that if you look into the lives of most homosexuals, they have been sexually abused by someone close to the family or by a close family member.

In any campaign to win over the public, gays must be portrayed as victims in need of protection so that straights will be inclined by reflex to adopt the role of protector. If gays present themselves, instead, as a strong and arrogant tribe promoting a defiantly non-conformist lifestyle, they are more likely to be seen as a public menace that warrants resistance and oppression. For that reason, we must forego the temptation to strut our gay pride publicly to such an extent that we undermine our victim image. And we must walk the fine line between impressing straights with our great numbers, on the one hand, and igniting their hostile paranoia--"They're all around us"--on the other.

The purpose of victim imagery is to make straights feel very uncomfortable; that is, to jam with shame the self-righteous pride that would ordinarily accompany and reward their antigay belligerence, and to lay groundwork for the process of conversion by helping straights identify with gays and sympathize with their underdog status.

To this end, an effective media campaign would make use of symbols and spokespersons that reduce the straight majority's sense of threat and induce it to lower its guard. Mr. and Mrs. Public must be given no extra excuses to say, "They are not like us (so they deserve to be punished)." Persons featured in the media campaign should be wholesome and admirable by straight standards, and completely unexceptional in appearance; in a word, they should be indistinguishable from the straights we'd like to reach.

In practical terms, this means that cocky mustachioed leather-men, drag queens, and bull dukes would not appear in gay commercials and other public presentations. Conventional young people, middle-aged women, and older folks of all races would be featured, not to mention the parents and straight friends of gays. One could also argue that lesbians should be featured more prominently than gay men in the early stages of the media campaign. Straights generally have fewer and cloudier preconceptions about lesbians and may feel less hostile toward them. And as women (generally seen as less threatening and more vulnerable than men), lesbians may be more credible objects of sympathy.

It cannot go without saying, incidentally, that groups on the farthest margins of acceptability, such as NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association), must play no part at all in such a campaign. Suspected child molesters will never look like victims.

Now, two different messages about the Gay Victim are worth communicating. First, the public should be persuaded that gays are victims of circumstance, that they no more chose their sexual orientation than they did, say, their height, skin color, talents, or limitations. (We argue that, for all practical purposes, gays should be considered to have been born gay--even though sexual orientation, for most humans, seems to be the product of a complex interaction between innate predispositions and environmental factors during childhood and early adolescence.) To suggest in public that homosexuality might be chosen is to open the can of worms labeled 'moral choice and sin' and give the religious Intransigents a stick to beat us with. Straights must be taught that it is as natural for some persons to be homosexual as it is for others to be heterosexual: wickedness and seduction have nothing to do with it. And since no choice is involved, gayness can be no more blameworthy than straightness. In fact, it is simply a matter of the odds--one in ten--as to who turns out gay, and who straight. Each heterosexual must be led to realize that he might easily have been born homosexual himself.

Second, gays should be portrayed as victims of prejudice. Straights don't fully realize the suffering they bring upon gays, and must be shown: graphic pictures of brutalized gays, dramatizations of job and housing insecurity, loss of child custody, public humiliation, etc.

Bear in mind that these arguments are no more than an appeal to rationality and as such would scarcely make a dent in an emotional condition like homohatred. What arguments can do, however, is suspend the straight viewer's rush to judgment just long enough to slip in front of her visual images that either arouse shame over her homohatred or else build favorable emotions toward gays.

More than any other single element of our blueprint for a media campaign, this principle of Victim Imagery has been criticized by the gay community. Few have questioned whether it will have the desired effect on straights; we are convinced it will. But some are offended, even so, by the proposition that gays should be portrayed as victims. They fear that this will make our community look weak, miserable, and self-hating, equating homosexuality with some dreadful disease that strikes fated 'victims.' If gays point out that they never chose to be gay, it is claimed, this implies they would rather not be gay, and so suggests that gays themselves view homosexuality as a bad thing. All very negative for the community's self-image.

We can only reply that gays indisputably are victims of circumstance, regardless of whether their leaders pretend otherwise. A victim of circumstance is someone thrust by events into a tough spot--like a black child who happens upon a gang of racists. The child has ever reason to be proud of his identity but also has good cause to remind his persecutors that there is no sense or justice in condemning him for his skin color. The campaign can and should make this distinction clear.

It's nonsense to claim, as some do, that a person who acknowledges himself in any way a victim thereby accepts that condition and becomes a victim; such is merely magical thinking. Not is it true that straights will look down on gays more than they already do, simply because we have managed to arouse in them feelings of shame for past bigotry and a new protectiveness toward the gay community. This has not happened to the Jews, who have effectively leveraged widespread sympathy for themselves as past victims of circumstance. The plain fact is that the gay community, like the Jewish, is a permanent minority: it is weak and must deploy the special powers of the weak, including the play for sympathy and tolerance. The arousal of protective instincts doesn't require that homosexuality be cast in a negative light.

Others worry that, by our techniques, gays will gain the world but lose their souls. They fear that victim imagery will mean that homosexuals, who have struggled so long to get beyond guilt and self-hatred, must now forego self-affirmation and smother their gay pride. After all, gay pride parades can be wonderfully positive exercises for their participants, even if their excesses disturb straight onlookers.

We recommend a compromise: March, if you must, but don't parade. Drop the Mardi Gras foolishness and assemble yourselves into a proud, dedicated legion of freedom fighters, like the civil rights marchers of the '60s. Such marches would certainly enable gay self-affirmation yet would be taken more seriously by straights. Don't expect too much, though.

For some critics, it isn't so much the idea of victim imagery that offends, but whom we will present as victims: all-American types so starchily conformist in appearance that they can barely bend their knees, let alone stoop to fellatio. Some fear that a media campaign featuring only 'ordinary-looking' gays would disdainfully disenfranchise drag queens, bull dykes and other exotic elements of the gay community. This is not our goal, and it is painful to think that such people might begin to feel like second-class members of their own outgroup.

Our ultimate objective is to expand straight tolerance so much that even gays who look unconventional can feel safe and accepted. But like it or not, by the very nature of the psychological mechanism, desensitization works gradually or not at all. For the moment, therefore, unconventional-looking gays are encouraged to live their lives as usual, but out of the limelight. Drag queens must understand that they gay stereotype is already heavily skewed in their direction, and that more balance should be achieved by leaning in the opposite direction for a while. In time, as hostilities subside and stereotypes weaken, we see no reason why more and more diversity should not be introduced into the projected image. This would be healthy for society as well as for gays.

Homosexuals have been playing the long game for over 50 years! Read the above passage again, and then carefully think about what Gay Pride parades looked like in the 90s and what they look like today. In the 90s, they looked innocent and harmless. A march rather than a parade. Today, the perverts are displaying all sorts of kink in front of the children of degenerate parents who expose their children to displays of perversion. The book detailed the precise plan. All wicked individuals play the long game to make sin acceptable. Look at the history of eugenicists and what they have thought, said, and planned, and then look at where our world is as of 2020. Even these evil people have been playing the long game, trying to get all their ducks in a row before attempting to execute their goals. Do not be gullible and naive. Pay careful attention!

How to Deal with Cockroaches and Gutter Rats Wearing Human Skins:

The next time your BlueAnon, Democrat, Liberal, Progressive, Millennial, Snowflake, NPC, SJW friends use ad hominem to falsely label you with the ignorant terms “homophobe,” “transphobe,” or “Islamophobe” (terms they project upon you that are actually true of themselves because they are the ones who fear and are afraid of these people), laugh and then apply whichever of the following terms rightly applies to them (frequently it is all of them):

Alethephobe = they have a fear of hearing the truth

Allodoxophobe = they have a fear of opinions (especially those different from their own and based on facts and evidence)

Gnosiophobe = they have a fear of knowledge

Phronemophobe = they have a fear of thinking; especially for themselves

Sophophobe = they have a fear of learning (they suffer from pride, arrogance, and egotism)

Veritaphobe = they have a fear of the truth, or absolute truth

Deitiphobe = they have a fear of God

• When they accuse you of being a "hateful bigot," laugh and hand them a mirror.

• When they accuse you of "hating" minorities, women, and the ”marginalized,” point out their hypocrisy and how their agenda is actively persecuting those people every single day, and then make sure your own life reflects the opposite.

• When they accuse you of being “judgmental,” laugh and point out their hypocrisy by reminding them that they are judging you for supposedly being judgmental. Pot, meet kettle. Log, meet speck. (Just because they accuse you of such, doesn't make it true; but if it were, they are engaging in the exact same thing.)

• When they accuse you of being “intolerant,” laugh and point out their hypocrisy by informing them that they are not tolerating your supposed intolerance. Pot, meet kettle. Log, meet speck. (Just because they accuse you of such, doesn't make it true; but if it were, they are engaging in the exact same thing.)

• When the blind self-defeating activist asks, “Don’t you want them to be happy?”, ask them if they want murderers or rapists to be happy murdering and raping. If "happiness" is the means with which to measure right from wrong, then whatever makes a person “happy” is acceptable and permissible, whether you agree or not. (Such a ridiculous and asinine position opens several cans of worms...)

• When the blind self-defeating Progressive demands, “They should be allowed to marry whomever they love!”, ask them if that is also true for incestuous relationships, polygamists, zoophiliacs, and pedophiles (because, after all, even the mental state of zoophiliacs and pedophiles is now being re-assessed and re-cast as a "sexual orientation," something they were “born with” and “cannot change”).

• When they scream at you to shut up, speak louder.

• Above all, never, ever back down! You hold the moral high ground. Do not ever allow them to sling falsely misleading labels intended to silence and manipulate you. These people must resort to ad hominem, name calling, character assassination attempts, smear campaigns, framing, and threats of physical violence because they know they are in the wrong and have no leg to stand on!

Homosexuals and transgenders are not born that way. It is a choice! You can change your mind; you can re-orient your disorientation. Especially if you encounter the Living Christ!

"Such were some of you." 1 Corinthians 6:11

"The majority of children with gender dysphoria, who identify more with the opposite sex than their birth sex, will outgrow these feelings by puberty. So it isn’t helpful to outlaw therapeutic approaches." —Dr. Debra Soh

Regardless of what lies you have been told, Conversion Therapy does work, but the perverts and their advocates want to deny and reject it, ignore and gaslight those who have undergone it, and attempt to silence their message of hope. Perverts love their perversion and they have no intention of giving it up, so they try drowning out the voices of reason among us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v--BuHXVA70

Friday, February 5, 2021

Security, Privacy, and Peace of Mind — Switch to the Alternatives

So many people are focused on the notion of opposing government that they fail to recognize monopolistic information conglomerates as wielding government-like power over us. They are worried about Big Brother spying on them, but cannot seem to conceive of "Big Brother" as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, etc.

Here's a little hint, people...

We, the people, made all these platforms popular. We, the people, can make other platforms popular. Do not be afraid to leave these platforms just because "everyone I know is still using them." If you have some kind of following, if your followers (or family and friends) care about you, if they're really interested in you, they will follow you wherever you go. There is zero sense in remaining in an environment where everything you do is tracked and spied on and shared with other people. Whether you have something to hide or not is irrelevant. That is a stupid argument. Your security and privacy are rightfully yours whether you have something to hide or not.

When you warn people about Alexa (and similar products), people use that ignorant argument: "I've got nothing to hide." Really?!? So if I planted a bug in your house without you knowing it, and the next day repeated everything you and the other people in your house talked about, you wouldn't be offended that I heard everything, regardless of whether you had something to hide or not? Do not kid yourself!!! You and I both know that you would be angered at me. So do not pretend such a thing would not bother you. You only use that ridiculous argument because you don't know the people on the other end who might be listening in on you.

Women who sell their bodies stripping on webcam attempt to use the same sort of argument. "It doesn't bother me that there are thousands of people watching me." Really?!? Let's put those thousands of people right outside your windows and your door, or even in the same room, and see you do what you do. You attempt that argument because you're in the safety of your own bedroom and it feels like you're all alone. You can't see any of the people watching. But put you inside a plexiglass room with bleachers on all sides, packed with viewers, and suddenly you'll be very conscientious about it. While some of these women would be able to still go on with it, most of them would not.

Telling yourself lies does not change the situation. If you claim to be comfortable giving your personal information, including your address, away online, it does not change the fact that doing so is extremely dangerous. If you truly are comfortable with sharing such information, there could still come a day where someone breaks in while you're there or not, while you're awake or asleep, and something happens. You cannot lie and say that you would not be bothered after such a thing happened. If you truly did not care if someone listened to everything you and your spouse ever talked about, it still does not make it okay, and certainly does not make it something not to be concerned about.

Likewise, we should not be harassed with ads at every turn, and threatened not to be able to use a service unless we turn our ad blockers off. These sites have the right to posts ads, and we have the right to block them. Just as with a TV, they have the right to put ads on their channel, and we have the right to change the channel so that we don't see their ads. They do not have the right to keep their content from us unless we allow their ads. That is manipulation, and essentially blackmail. If a website will not let me use it unless I turn my ad blockers off, I make a habit of never returning to that site. I take my business elsewhere, as you should too. No website is so important that you need to sacrifice your safety and peace of mind by bowing to their demands!

For those who truly want peace of mind, and want to enjoy the security and privacy that is their right, and not treated like data to be targeted with advertisements of all shades, I encourage you to switch to the alternatives. If you have some kind of following, if they're actually interested in you, they will follow you to the next platform. The current platforms have gotten too big for their own britches and we need to let them know who is really in control. We made them popular, We can make them unpopular!

English Puritans

Anglican Puritans
Thomas Adams (1612-1653)
Paul Baynes (c.1560-1617)
John Davenant (1576-1641)
Thomas Gataker (1574-1654)
William Gurnall (1617-1679)
Joseph Hall (1574-1656)
Joseph Mede (1586-1638)
William Perkins (1558-1602)
John Preston (1587-1628)
John Rainolds (1549-1607)
Edward Reynolds (1599-1676)
Richard Sibbes (1577-1635)
John Trapp (1601-1669) [sympathetic to Presbyterianism]
William Twisse (1578-1646) [moderate Anglican]
James Ussher (1581-1656)

Baptist Puritans
John Bunyan (1628-1688)
Benjamin Keach (1640-1704)
Hanserd Knollys (1599-1691)
John Smyth (1554-1612) [formerly Separatist; formerly Anglican]

Independent Puritans
Thomas Brooks (1608-1680)
Robert Browne (1550-1633)
Jeremiah Burroughes (1599-1646)
Joseph Caryl (1602-1673)
Isaac Chauncy (1632-1712)
David Clarkson (1622-1686)
Tobias Crisp (1600-1643)
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)
Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680)
John Milton (1608-1674) [formerly Presbyterian; formerly Anglican]
John Owen (1616-1683)

Presbyterian Puritans
Joseph Alleine (1634-1668)
Isaac Ambrose (1604-1662) [formerly Anglican]
William Ames (1576-1633) [formerly Anglican]
John Ball (1585-1640)
Richard Baxter (1615-1691)
Edmund Calamy (1600-1666)
Thomas Cartwright (1535-1603)
Stephen Charnock (1628-1680)
John Flavel (1630-1691)
William Gouge (1578-1653)
Matthew Henry (1662-1714)
John Howe (1630-1705) [formerly Anglican]
John Lightfoot (1602-1675) [formerly Anglican]
Thomas Manton (1620-1677)
Matthew Poole (1624-1679) [sympathetic to Anglicanism]
Robert Traill (1642-1716)
Thomas Watson (c. 1620-1686)
Daniel Williams (1643-1716)

Other Puritans: John Arrowsmith, Sir Richard Baker, Robert Bolton, Samuel Bolton, William Bridge, Elisha Coles, George Downame, John Downame, John Eaton, Edward Fisher, Richard Greenham, William Greenhill, Ezekiel Hopkins, William Jenkyn, Walter Marshal, Matthew Mead, Christopher Ness, Phillip Nye, William Pemble, Vavasor Powell, Francis Roberts, Richard Rogers, John Saltmarsh, Henry Scudder, John Sedgewick, Obadiah Sedgewick, George Swinnock, Thomas Taylor, Robert Towne, Samuel Ward, Andrew Willet...
Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon are considered among the Puritans, though they came afterward.

Time fails us to list all such heroes (cf. Hebrews 11:32). As Spurgeon said, “There were giants in the land in those days.” However, these giants, as with the early church father giants, held some surprising, strange, shocking, and/or false beliefs. (Sometimes even heretical beliefs, such as Arianism [e.g., John Milton]—the modern representation being that of the Jehovah's Witnesses.) They each deviated from the Scriptures in their own ways. None of the heroes of the past was without error, and none had a monopoly on truth. The problem I have is when people stick so stubbornly close to the traditions and theology they were taught and raised with, rather than filtering those traditions and theology through the Bible. Whatever rings true with the Scriptures, regardless of what denomination it is found in, that is what biblical Christians should be adhering to.

Thursday, February 4, 2021

The Proud Arrogance of Scholars

"A man doesn't understand the Bible because he knows Greek and Hebrew; he understands the Bible because he's got the Spirit of God in him. The key to understanding the Bible is not a knowledge of the original languages; you can have that and still be ignorant of the message as so many are and have been, unfortunately. It's the man who has a spiritual understanding who understands the Word of God. To say that a man cannot read his Bible, and that a man cannot preach if he lacks knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, seems to me to militate against an understanding of the Bible and the true character of preaching." —Martyn Lloyd-Jones

How many "scholars" out there have decades of education? How many of them have degrees out the wazoo? How many of them have letters affixed before and after their names? Despite all their education, these "scholars" do not understand the Bible any better than any other man. Yet, because of their education and great achievements, they think they are somehow better than everyone else and that they are more intelligent, more knowledgeable, and more qualified to speak on things pertaining to the Bible. I am sorry, but all they are is proud, arrogant, and egotistical. Their degrees do not mean squat. You can be intelligent and yet lack sense. There is a vast difference between intelligence and wisdom. All the degrees in the world do not mean you are intelligent, knowledgeable, or that you know what you are doing (or that what you are doing is even correct). They might mean you are intelligent, but all they mean is that you are disciplined and able to retain and parrot information in order to receive your degrees and titles. A man fully immersed in the Scriptures, led by the Holy Spirit, has more education, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence than any "scholar" with all his decades of education, all his degrees and titles, and all the letters before or after his name.

When you speak with such "scholars" and expose errors they teach, if they try to bully you with their education, ignore them, dismiss them, and write them off. They are not worth your time. Well-respected men, or well-educated men, out of their pride, cannot stand to be corrected by those they deem to be lesser than themselves, whether in prominence, prestige, prosperity, power, position, or pedagogy. They have a "How dare you try to rebuke or correct me" attitude. Out of their embarrassment, they will seek to destroy the person they deem to be lesser. This is the way of religious hypocrisy. A man with no knowledge of the Greek or Hebrew, or any other such religious fields, can know more about the Bible than any "scholar" who has all of these simply by yielding to the Holy Spirit. Be careful with your attitudes, "scholars," because "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

"How may the [Bible] college know if it is attaining this object and rightly dividing the word of truth? Those who are trained by such institutions should ask themselves these questions upon graduation. Are the men more certain of the truth at the end of their studies than at the beginning? Are they more steadfast? Do they know God better and desire to serve God better than when they came in? Have they a greater zeal for God? Do they have a greater love for the lost and the perishing? What is the purpose of doctrine and knowledge if it is not to know God?" —Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

A Clarion Call to God's Faithful

Aside from the fact that there should not be any "pastors" to begin with, and that the early local assemblies of believers had non-hierarchical, plural, co-equal, indigenous male leadership (not controlling, subjugating, or dominating) that had arisen from within the congregation they would subsequently shepherd, here is something written by John Cooper, lead singer of Skillet, that desperately needs to be heard:

Pastors shouldn’t be rock stars. Yeah I said it. A rock star promotes himself, builds his brand, and entertains people. It’s his job. A pastor is supposed to lay his life down for his sheep. He serves, he protects, and he equips the saints for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12). So why does it seem like many of our celebrity pastors are obsessively self-promoting, building their own brands, and protecting themselves by never preaching or teaching anything that would put them in Twitter prison? Yes, it’s sad and devastating to watch our leaders fall into sin, but when the foundation is built so poorly it shouldn’t be all that surprising.

Many Christians have been saying this for years and its past time that I join them: I’m tired of celebrity pastors. Pastors aren’t supposed to be cool. They’re not supposed to be fashion trend setters. We are ALL called to decrease, that Christ would increase both in our hearts and in our lives (John 3:30). HIS fame should be known, NOT ours. Celebrity Pastors, get out of the way! You’re hogging the spotlight by making yourself the story. Instead, you should be taking some hits on the front lines by stating clearly what God commands. Celebrity pastors seldom do this. Instead, most of what we hear is rhetorical gobbledygook, veiled mysticism, and repackaged new-age movement self-help promotional material disguised as the work of the Spirit.

My pastor helped change my life in college. “Really, who?” Exactly. He remains faceless, nameless, and will never get the adoration of the world because his desire was for Jesus to have all of the glory. He taught me how to read and understand the Bible. He took my midnight phone calls, he instigated the necessary but uncomfortable conversations, he taught me the importance of sexual purity, and he even taught me how to paint a house and balance a checkbook. It almost sounds more like being a father, doesn’t it? Working, serving, teaching your kids and never expecting a “thank you” or a hand clap is what pastoring is all about.

Pastors, I am thankful for you. Many are serving faithfully and you will be rewarded by God. But for the pastors who are receiving their reward on earth, I have a request for you: please stop looking for adoration from the world. We don’t need you to look “awesome”, we need you to be fearless and preach the gospel according to the unchanging, authoritative Word of God. Stop finding clever ways to evade questions. You know the ones—God’s commands about sexual morality, Gods authority structure in the Church and at home, God’s righteousness that demands punishment of sin. Answer them. And answer them clearly for heaven’s sake. Please stop trying to find new ways to explain the perceived inconvenient truths of God’s Word. You ought to love what He loves and hate what he hates. This used to be a prerequisite for church leadership. Today, its deemed radical and even bigoted.

Play time is over. The battle is raging, and the field is full of wimps and boys who have never picked up a sword because it just “feels mean.” We need generals and leaders who don’t care about their brand, their look, their “likes”,  or making allegiances with the world. In short, it’s time to make pastors uncool again.

This goes along with something I recently posted:

How can you identify a false church? The single criterion for determining this is . . . the world loves it!

If the world loves a particular church, you can rest assured that this church is a false church. The opposite, however, is not necessarily true. If the world hates a particular church, it does not necessarily mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that this church is a biblical, godly, or Christ-like church and that they are experiencing “persecution.” Exhibit A: The Westboro "Baptist" Church.

It also goes well with something else I posted quite some time ago:

Many ministers in ministry today do not know how to lose; they do not know how to lay their lives down; they do not know how to die. They have never been broken; they have never been crushed. They are dangerous. They will defend themselves at the drop of a hat. They do not know what it means to be silent. They do not know how divinity reacts to pressure. They will attack those who sleight them at the drop of a hat. They are unbroken, they do not know how to lose, they do not know how to die, and they are out there serving the kingdom of God with one hand and destroying God's people with the other hand. None of these ministers were ever in community long enough for the Lord to temper, adjust, break, or transform them. Some of them, when things got hot, they left, they ran away. This is not how we have learned Christ Jesus. These ministers are full of ego and full of pride, and when they are under pressure the flesh gets exposed.

We are seeing many preachers who we once thought fairly grounded in the Scriptures suddenly standing on quicksand and rejecting simple biblical truths. Max Lucado, for example, of whom I have never been a fan, referred to the Holy Spirit as a "him or her" on false teacher Jen Hatmaker's podcast. We are seeing many preachers we once thought grounded in the Word getting together with known false teachers and singing their praises. What is going on here?!? These same preachers are suddenly agreeing with unbiblical and immoral nonsense such as homosexuality, trans-ism, abortion, etc. They have stepped off the foundation of God's Word and gotten rid of it as their authority (in whatever limited capacity it was to begin with, siding with denominational traditions rather than biblical truths).

Have you ever wondered what it is like to think that you might be the only remaining Christian who still believes the Bible, from cover to cover, and believes in holding it as our sole and absolute authority on all matters of doctrine, congregational practice, family life, and personal holiness? I know that most Christians would sooner believe what their particular denominational flavour has taught them than to admit they were taught wrong and have believed wrong and to reform and conform themselves and their beliefs entirely to God's Word. I continue praying, as I have for the past 25 years, that God would teach me according to His Word and help me to conform regardless of how I was raised, what I was taught, or what I presently believe. As I diligently search God's Word, He opens it up to me. Most Christians barely even read their Bibles let alone taking the time to study them, and I mean to study them deep. Noting where early fathers diverted from biblical truth and the traditions of Jesus and His apostles.

Quite frequently, I feel like Elijah. But then I remember that God told him that He had a remnant of people who were just as Elijah was. That comforts me. Knowing that somewhere out there, there are serious Christians who truly love the Lord and filter their denominational teachings and traditions through the Bible rather than the other way around. Most Christians hold something other than the Bible to be their absolute and final authority, whether it is the early fathers, church history, church traditions, creeds, confessions, constitutions, statements of faith, systems of theology, their denomination, what the "experts" tell them, their "experiences," etc.

I am finding bits of truth in various denominations that agrees with the teachings and traditions of the apostles in the Word of God. It is that stuff that I hold on to, and I reject everything else. I am constantly reminding myself to be careful when examining a stand alone verse so that I am not giving it an interpretation entirely separate from the context the verse is found in. It is my hope and prayer that more preachers would start doing this. Independent verses are not the Word of God apart from their context! For example: The first 16 verses of the 5th chapter of the apostolic letter 1 Timothy is speaking with regard to widows. It is eisegesis for a preacher to quote verse 8 and give it the interpretation that a man needs to have a job and work to provide for his family. That is not what that verse is teaching! The "family" in question is the relational widow.

Whenever anyone uses a random, isolated verse of Scripture to back some teaching, do not simply read the verse by itself. By doing it, the verse may sound like it teaches what they are citing it for. Instead, read the surrounding verses that encompass the random, isolated verse, and make sure the context is teaching what they are attempting to use the verse to support. Otherwise, what they are attempting to use the verse for is a false interpretation, which makes them false teachers who are not representing the Word of God accurately. We should be like the Bereans (Acts 17:11) are commanded to diligently search God's Word in order to divide the truth from error (2 Timothy 2:15). This is for all Christians, not just "special" ones!