Monday, October 31, 2011

What Does This Mean? Is God a Man of War?

"They sing the son of Moses, the servant of God..." Rev. 15:3a.

     Their is so much misinformation and bad doctrine out there regarding God and who He is.  While doing my regular Bible reading I read this verse in Revelation and then cross referenced it with the passage in Exodus 15.  Verse three is what really caught my attention, "The LORD is a man of war; The LORD is His name." 
     I thought that I would open this one up to discussion as I have not found much decent commentary the Song of Moses, verse three in particular.  But I would like to focus our attention on: How does this square with our modern notion that Jesus was some sort of meek, mild and mushy Savior who just wants everyone to spread love around?  And: Is this a reference to Christ, in the Song of Moses, as John Gill suggests and if so, what does this mean in the context of Revelation 15?
     I would appreciate your comments, remember, learn, live and love the glorious gospel of Christ!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Blasphemy of Purgatory

"So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished!'  And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit," John 19:30.

     Recently, this has become very personal to me.  A loved one told me that they were paying the Catholic Church to perform Masses for their loved one in Purgatory.  My wife and I both expressed our incredulous disbelief.  Yet, this person was unwavering in their understanding of the Hellish doctrine of Purgatory.  Even more, I came across this writing from popular Christian author C.S. Lewis,
     "Of course I pray for the dead...At our age, the majority of those we love best are dead...I believe in Purgatory...Our souls demand Purgatory don't they?"
     This has distressed me, both my loved one's indulgences and a popular author exposing his heretical views, more than anything I can recently remember.  The doctrine of Purgatory is so obviously repulsive to a correct understanding of the Gospel it is hard to understand how people can be so blind to its blasphemy.  Here are at least three obvious reasons that Purgatory is wrong:

1)  First and most important, it denies Christ's word and His sufficient sacrifice for our sins.  Christ said, "It is finished!"  He did not say, "It is finished.  Except for those nasty little bitty sins that your loved ones can pray away."  Purgatory is an absolute rejection of Christ and His penal atonement for our sins.  Someone who believes in Purgatory does not understand Jesus Christ and His work.  Only Christ's sacrificial death on our behalf can purge us and cleanse us of our unrighteousness, Romans 5 explains this.

2)  Purgatory demands a system of works righteousness.  My loved one had to pay an indulgence to have a priest offer up prayers, his own works, for someones purification to enter into Heaven.  Someone, somewhere, somehow must do something to ease access to Heaven. 

3)  Purgatory takes peoples minds off of the Gospel.  C.S. Lewis said that he wouldn't know what to pray for if he couldn't pray for the dead!  Think of that ignorant statement for a moment.  That is amazing.  "Seek first the Kingdom of God," Jesus told us.  We are to "Pray continuously", Paul exhorted.  Our mind is to be on Christ and His glorious Gospel and its spread all over this earth.  The idea is that as we go about our day we are to be conscious of everything around us and to be in prayer for it always.  Pray for the children in the street, praise the beauty of trees, mourn when driving past a funeral procession, ask for supplication for the coworker with health troubles and always pray for the gospel.  Let the dead bury the dead, they cannot hear us.  We must praise God for their blessings in our lives but we cannot afford to pray for purging and sanctification.  Jesus said that each day contained enough troubles itself, lets not worry about the days of the dead. 
     Purgatory is a doctrine of death which smears the gospel and blasphemes our Lord.  It is unbiblical and must not be allowed to go unrebuked.  Which is all the more reason why we have to learn, live and love the gospel.

Friday, October 14, 2011

The Impending Collapse of the American Evangelical Church: and Why it is a Good Thing!

"And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, 'These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know your works that you are neither hot nor cold.  I could wish that you were either cold or hot.  So then, because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth," Rev. 3:14-16.

    Are we ready to be spit out of God's mouth?  The general temperature of the evangelical church in America sure seems lukewarm.  We are rich and don't see our poverty.  We are well dressed and do not realize our nakedness and we are blind yet our eyes see the most magnificent blasphemies the world can dream up.  God's grace daily reminds me of my evil.  Why He loves me is too much to understand so I want to make that clear.  This post is about me more than anyone.  My collapse is to God's glory.  Those closest to me know how much grace God has poured into me and they have to praise Him in glory when they see what He has done to a wretch like me!  All the glory to Christ! 
     The Church(I mean the American Evangelical Church) is almost indistinguishable from the world at large.  We revel in the same disgusting entertainment as anyone else.  In fact, we are buried so deep in our fornication with Hollywood that we often play their blasphemies in our services!  We care so little for holiness and believe that our whoriness will attract the world to us...and it does.  They become twice the whores we are and they are further from the Kingdom then when they first came!  Holiness, we must understand, means that we will be hated.  I don't want to be hated, but that is what we are called to.  We serve a crucified Savior and He was not crucified because He was a whore but because He was Holy!  Jesus never promised us a rose garden.  We will be hated.  Are you ready, brothers and sisters to be hated...like our Savior?
     The Church refuses to stand upon God's word.  It refuses to stand for righteousness and allows false teachers like those in the Purpose Driven Movement, theistic evolutionists(like Tim Keller, C.S. Lewis etc.) and Word of Faith folks to parade in their pews and spew their putrid dogma.  We even have groups that parade their gospel faithfulness standing mute in the face of such heresies.
     It has been said that a lie travels half way around the world before the truth even has a chance to put its boots on.  In this Internet age with info traveling at light speed, that old axiom is quaint and vigilance is required to an even greater measure.  While we must continually battle these evils and must acknowledge that they have penetrated the Church to its core, we must also believe and understand that the smoking rubble of the soon to be buried Church will result in a stronger more faithful Church that will glorify Christ.  How this will happen is to be seen but the evangelical witness will come back and God will be glorified.  It is up to us to keep our eyes on Him who was pierced and to learn, live and love the glorious Gospel!  God Bless you.