Category Archives: Apostasy

Harold Camping Repents! Amen and Amen!

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Good news! Harold Camping, the man who has predicted the return of Christ multiple times, has now repented of doing so and admits that it was wrong to make such predictions.

“We have learned the very painful lesson that all of creation is in God’s hands and He will end time in His time, not ours!” a statement on Family Radio’s website reads. “We humbly recognize that God may not tell His people the date when Christ will return, any more than He tells anyone the date they will die physically.”

Camping, 90, has made predictions about Judgment Day, Christ’s return and the end of the world for the past few decades – with the May 21, 2011, forecast receiving the most media attention. Each time the date passed, he did not admit to mistaking the timing but instead reasoned that the events happened “spiritually” rather than physically.

But once Oct. 21, 2011 – the day Camping said the world would be destroyed physically – came and went, the Christian broadcaster began to reevaluate his views about being able to calculate and know the exact date of the apocalypse.

“Even the most sincere and zealous of us can be mistaken,” Camping and Family Radio staff stated in their March letter. “We realize that many people are hoping they will know the date of Christ’s return. In fact for a time Family Radio fell into that kind of thinking.

“But we now realize that those people who were calling our attention to the Bible’s statement that ‘of that day and hour knoweth no man’ (Matthew 24:36 & Mark 13:32), were right in their understanding of those verses and Family Radio was wrong. Whether God will ever give us any indication of the date of His return is hidden in God’s divine plan.”

This is absolutely wonderful. God’s Spirit has moved in the man and he realized his sinfulness in trying to predict the return of Christ. We have been calling for him to repent for years, since he has been making such predictions since 1992.

No man knows the time and day that Christ will return, and finally, Camping has seen the light of that Scripture. We should forgive him for what he has done, and rejoice that the Spirit has moved in him to bring him to repentance. Read more here.

NEWSFLASH: True Christians Don’t Leave the Faith

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In the discussions on atheists and their attempts to recruit more atheists, it was stated that many atheists were Christians at one time and then … they found their brains and left the faith. Or at least, that is the implied argument. This is the tactic used by the neo-atheists. They not only want to be outspoken in their atheism, but they also oppose Christianity and paint those in it as being less intelligent than your average yard dog.

But that is not the point of this post. The point is that these atheists claim they were at one time Christians, and now they are not. We must not fall for this line of thinking. Even if they were baptized and made professions of faith, and went through all the motions of being a believer, if they left the faith, they are not believers and never were.

Here is what Scripture says about those who leave the faith: 1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

This verse, along with Hebrews 6:4-6, shows us that those who leave the faith have no real hope, and were never really a part of the true believers in the faith. A true believer is one that perseveres to the end of his days. He/She may wander from the faith for a time, but the moment that they renounce the faith is the moment we know that they were not true believers. To renounce the faith and declare yourself an atheist is to become apostate, for which Hebrews says there is no hope.

Let us not be overtaken by the atheist arguments that they were believers and then left the faith for whatever reason. If they were of the faith, they would never have left it in the first place, and they certainly would not have renounced the faith as many atheists do. This is what the Apostle John is telling us in his letter. Those who leave were never truly believers. They were not of the light, but loved darkness more than the light (John 3:19-21).

But What About Their Earnest Prayers?

Some ask this question as well. What about those who were earnest in their prayers and actions, and then leave the faith. We can only say that while those prayers and actions seemed to us to be earnest, God knows the truth of their hearts. Tares always look like wheat and it is up to the Father to separate out the tares from the wheat. Regardless of what it looks like to us, there was no real saving faith in those who leave Christianity. They were never really believers and because of their fruit of apostasy, we can know that they were not believers.

But What About Those Who Were Really Seeking God?

They were not. Remember Romans 3:10ff, There is none who seeks after God. The point is that the atheist may give testimonies of being believers at one point, then coming to some depraved epiphany and leave the faith. They say these things to puff themselves up and to show themselves superior to those who are true believers. Let them. For God hates the proud and is looking for those with true humble hearts before Him. The proud, arrogant atheist has no claim of righteousness and will be judge because of it. Let us not be fooled by their claims and trust in what the Scripture says about them: Psalm 14:1, The fool says in his heart, ‘there is no God.’ While they may claim to have testimonies of being believers and then leaving the faith, they never were true believers.

J.C. Ryle Confronts False Teacher Rob Bell

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Imagine that. The words of Bishop J.C. Ryle, penned back in the 1800s, condemns false prophet Rob Bell from the grave. For those of you who are not up on Rob Bell, he is the latest liberal pastor to come forth and espouse such nonsense as the fact that people do not really need Jesus to get into heaven. In his book, Love Wins, he puts forth the premise that all people will eventually get into heaven after they die because love wins. This basically means the God is truly cruel in making His Son go to the cross, die the most shameful death ever, for no reason at all. I always think it odd that when guys like Bell try to emphasize the love of God, at the expense of His other attributes, they always end up making God out to be even more cruel than they imagine. Remember, in their minds, they think it cruel that God would send anyone to hell.

The reality is that men like Bell fail to understand mankind’s sinful nature. Paul shows us in Romans (8:7-8) that we are at enmity with God in our natural state. This means our flesh is at war with God. We are rebellious to the core against our Creator and He has every right to do with us as He pleases. We ALL deserve hell for we ALL have rebelled against Him. Out of His love, He does choose to save some from everlasting punishment through His Son Jesus Christ. Those who believe in Christ for salvation are saved, and do not perish (John 3:16). Those who do not believe in Him for salvation stand condemned already (John 3:18).

Bell, and others like him, go on to make the case that those in hell, if they repent, knock on the door, etc., will be graciously accepted into God’s holy presence. This is not what Scripture puts forth for two reasons. First, they will not ever repent. Remember the flesh is at war with God. Romans 3:10-20 also shows us that no one seeks after God. No one! Not on this side of death and especially on the other side of death.

God must seek us first before we will believe in Him. He must change our hearts and convert us for us to become members of the Kingdom of Heaven (John 3:5), for we are spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1-3).

Secondly, we see from Scripture that they cannot pass between heaven and hell. Jesus tells us (notice that they are the words of Christ) in the story of the Rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) that there is a great gulf fixed between heaven and hell preventing those on one side crossing over to the other side. Going between the two is not possible even if one in heaven wanted to take a day trip into hell. This is one of the deeper truths of Scripture. Jesus is telling us that when we reach our final destiny, it truly is a final destiny. This is how He created heaven and hell (Matthew 25:41, Colossians 1:15-18).

This story is instructive because it shows us that the rich man doesn’t desire heaven. Those in hell do not desire heaven. They merely want relief from their anguish. There is no desire to repent and trust in Christ, even after judgment. They remain in their sin and the very sin that kept them from ever trusting in Christ on this side of death, keeps them from trusting in Christ on that side of death. So the entire premise of Bell’s book is wrong. This is what happens when you emphasize human free will over and against what Scripture tells us. We can say that we are free to choose Christ, but not capable to choose Christ because out of the abundance of the heart, we speak and do as our heart desires. Since our hearts are rotten to the core to begin with, we will never freely choose Christ on our own accord. We need the new birth to take place in order for us to even see our need for Christ. That doesn’t happen in hell. (Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed for me to die once, but after this the judgment). There are no second chances. Bell, in his sinful, fallen attempt to make God out to be so gracious and loving, ends up making God out to be cruel and wicked for causing Christ to die needlessly.

Ryle, in his fantastic book Practical Religion, writes:

“Every reasonable conception that we can form of a future state is directly against these teachers (those who teach universalism). Fancy a heaven which should contain all mankind! Fancy a heaven in which holy and unholy, pure and impure, good and bad, would be all gathered together in one confused mass! What point of union would there be in such company? What common bond of harmony and brotherhood? What common delight in a common service? What concord, what harmony, what peace, what oneness of spirit could exist? Surely the mind revolts from the idea of a heaven in which there would be no distinction between the righteous and the wicked,–between Pharaoh and Moses, between Abraham and the Sodomites, between Paul and Nero, between Peter and Judas Iscariot, between the man who dies in the act of murder or drunkenness, and men like Baxter, George Herbert, Wilberforce, and M’Cheyne! Surely an eternity in such a miserably confused crowd would be worse than annihilation itself! Surely such a heaven would be no better than hell!”

What he is saying is that heaven really won’t be heaven if the likes of Peter and Adolf Hitler are there together. Where is the bond of fellowship? Where is the unity? One followed and died for Christ, the other despised Christ and wanted to become his own god. Peter sought to build up the church, Adolf sought to destroy it and replace it with his own religion. Peter was humbled time and time again for God’s glory, Adolf exalted himself over and over, even in his death, he refused to be humbled by God, and his sinful pride won out.

Ryle continues:

“The interests of all holiness and morality are directly against these teachers. If all men and women alike are God’s children, whatever is the difference between them in their lives,– and all alike going to heaven, however different they may be from one another here in the world, — where is the use of laboring after holiness at all? What motive remains for living soberly, righteously, and godly? What does it matter how men conduct themselves, if all go to heaven, and nobody goes to hell? Surely the heathen poets and philosophers of Greece and Rome could tell us something better and wiser than this! Surely a doctrine which is subversive of holiness and morality, and takes away all motives to exertion, carries on the face of it the stamp of its origin. It is of earth, and not of heaven. It is of the devil, and not of God.”

This last point is why this doctrine keeps coming back. What Bell is proposing is nothing new at all. The error was there in the Garden of Eden when the serpent said, “Did God really say…“Satan was challenging Adam and Eve with this premise: “does it really matter whether or not you obey God?” The answer is absolutely yes it matters. Our very conscious tell us this. How we live matters. For Adam and Eve, their righteousness was at stake in the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They lost that righteousness and we did too. So now the difference comes in belief. If we trust in Christ for salvation, then we have His righteousness and are accepted into His fellowship and His heaven. If we refuse to believe, then we get to keep our own rotten righteousness and spend eternity in hell with it.

Bell brings us absolutely nothing new in his book Love Wins. He just recycles the same old lies of Satan. For that, Bell’s writings need to be condemned and he needs to get out of the ministry, return to the secular world and sell Blue Bell Ice Cream for a living. He would do mankind a much greater good than he is currently doing with his drivel.

BTW, I wonder if Rob Bell ever realize how much his universalist doctrine must anger the new atheist. Think about it. The new atheist is spending all his time and energy trying to say that there is no God, and that we are intellectual idiots for believing that there is a God. Then along comes Rob Bell and tells them: “Hey, it doesn’t matter that you don’t believe in God. You are going to end up in heaven any way.” The very point of the atheist is the fact that he wants nothing to do with God, and here Rob is telling them, “too bad, so sad. You’re going to heaven regardless of your beliefs!” I’m sure Bell is writing in such a manner so that he can “reach” the atheist. But he has to get past the point of angering them, and… looking like an stupid fool, for bringing down the condemnation of those of us who stand for the truth.

For more on Rob Bell, check out my earlier post here, and Neil’s post on Rob Bell’s take on John 3:16 here along with another post entitled Interesting Facebook Chat About Rob Bell. For more J.C. Ryle Quotes, go here.

Rob Bell: False Teacher… Worthless Pastor… Savage Wolf

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The Apostle Paul warned the Ephesian elders that to take heed for yourselves and the flock given to them, for which the Holy Spirit made them overseers, and that Christ purchased with His blood. He continued: “For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves” (Acts 20:29-30).

I spoke about this in my sermon on Sunday. The problem is that when Paul describes these savage wolves, we imagine men who have a fiendish look about them, with blood dripping from their teeth and dead sheep all around them. The harsh reality is that these savage wolves always seem like very nice guys. They look and sound like guys that would be a joy to hang out with. What makes them so savagely is the fact that the message they teach and preach leads people to eternal damnation. It does not matter how nice a person is, if they preach a false gospel, they are the most wicked of men because the end result is that those who follow them, are damned eternally.

Case in point: Rob Bell, pastor, teacher, all around swell guy… but in reality a false teacher. He appeared on MSNBC recently with his book Love Wins, in which the premise is that eventually, all people go to heaven because… love wins. Watch the following video in which you will see MSNBC host Martin Basher pointing out that Rob Bell is twisting the gospel to make it palatable for the current culture.

It really sickens me when I see men who have such a large audience, putting forth such a dangerous gospel. Basher really did an excellent job showing Bell’s inconsistencies. O, the gospel is important now? But love wins, so what does it matter? Bell was being trapped and was too much of a touchy-feely guy to see it.

The problem with people like Bell, who focus solely on one attribute of God, that attribute being God’s love, is that he ignores the rest of God’s attributes as well. Specifically, Bell ignores God’s holiness which is spoken of far more in the Bible than God’s love. It is out of His holiness that God brings about His wrath and His judgment. (I feel like I’m repeating myself here… why, o why, do people listen to guys like Bell). That judgment for believes is dealt with on the cross. For those who reject Christ, there is no hope. We know this because of the countless times that Jesus tells us about hell. What Rob Bell wants to candy coat, Jesus spoke of more than anyone else in the Bible. He is the One that tells us there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He is the One that tells us that there is a great gulf fixed between heaven and hell that cannot be crossed (Luke 16:19-31). He is the One that tells us that the worm never dies and it is better to maim yourself than to sin and be thrown into hell (Mark 9), showing us that going there has eternal consequences. Jesus is also the One that tells us there will be many who do things in the name of Christ, but will depart from Him, because He never knew them (Matthew 7:21ff). So in Bell’s view of the gospel, Jesus tells them to depart from Him on judgment day (the say with the goats in Matthew 25), but then says, “OK, come on back. I was only kidding!”

The reason that people do not change their minds once they get to hell is because they continue to hate God, and there is no longer an atonement for their sin. Jesus would have to die all over again for that to happen (Hebrews 6:4-6). The reason hell is eternal is because the sin they committed was against an eternal being. It takes the death of One who is eternal to satisfy God’s wrath. Jesus was that One and the One by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). He cannot die again, so it is vital to accept Him on this side of death. To reject Jesus is to reject the only means of salvation and once we die it is too late for that. Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. There is no hope at that point. Remember the great gulf that is fixed between heaven and hell that Jesus told us about? Once one is found lacking, he is cast into that hell and there is no getting across that gulf. It is permanent.

But Mr. Bell would have us believe that eventually God’s love will win out and all those people in hell will be freed and invited into heaven. This ignores God’s eternal decrees of election (Ephesians 1:3-14). It makes God out to be me nothing more that a cosmic hand wringer who is hopeless with the lives of men on this side of glory. It also makes God out to be a liar for He would be contradicting His own word, which He cannot do. Poor Mr. Bell. He is trying so hard to be liked and make God likeable, that He makes God out to be a liar in the process. To make God out to be a liar is to show that the truth is not in us (1 John 1:10). Since this is true, the truth is not in Bell. He needs to repent.

I think that what Mr. Bell also needs to do is go into sales, selling used cars and quit trying to pass himself off as a pastor who cares. He does not care. He is very hateful towards those whom he pastors. He needs to be rebuked in the harshest terms, because he is leading his flock into everlasting punishment. I know, he is such a nice guy. And Satan presented himself as an angel of light too. Real pastors and those who love our Savior, get angry at guys like Bell.  He truly is a savage wolf. What Bell does is wicked beyond hope. May God silence him soon.

Here is more of his teaching.

Sounds good, but in reality he is dead wrong. Those outside of Christ are not spiritual because they are spiritually dead. Ephesians 2:1ff show that the non-believer is not spiritual at all. He is dead spiritually. This is why there is a need for new birth (John 3). Rob… read the Bible! This shows Bell to be more into New Age than true, biblical Chrisianity.

Here is another pastor, Cameron Buettel, discussing Rob Bell and his humanism disguised as the gospel.

Here is Buettel’s blog. I like what Buettel says close to the end of the clip. It is important that we point out false teachers and expose them for who they are. What a lot of people try to do is silence all criticism in the body of Christ. What this effectively does is keep men like Bell from coming under the Scrutiny of the authority of God’s word. Even the Apostle Paul was under this scrutiny. He commended the Bereans for checking out what he said (Acts 17:10-15). We should as well. That is how we know when men like Bell come along, the gospel they are presenting is no gospel at all.

Timothy’s Roundup

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On Black Friday

I have found the perfect way to save hundreds of dollars on Black Friday and other days when shoppers pack the malls: stay home. Yup. The closest we came to splurging this weekend was taking the boys to see Megamind in 3-D. I was really impressed with the 3-D. However, Joey didn’t like the movie. I think a 3 year old isn’t quite ready for Megamind in 3-D, or anything else for that matter.

Combating Racism in Diversity — Professor Mike Adams

Mike Adams, professor of criminology and UNC-Wilmington, has an excellent piece on dealing with the racism that is indoctrinated into those who are supposedely against racism. In fact, he points out that what our schools are doing today is putting for people who are extremely racist, and hide that racism under the guise of diversity. His call to remove the African American Cultural Center from the campus, which was actually satire, produced a media rush to condemn his call. He even had one student, a black woman, call him up and lecture him on how he had no right to say or believe what he did. (Just forget that First Amendment thingy). Here is a portion of his following column:

The highlight of the news video is, of course, the portion featuring a black female student who tells us that we still need diversity centers because of the persistence of racism and sexism. But she made the statement while wearing big black sorority letters emblazoned on her blouse. In other words, while lecturing us on the persistence of racism and sexism she was touting her membership in an organization that limits its membership to blacks and women. The hypocrisy of asking the public to fund “solutions” to the “problems” she is exacerbating is simply staggering.

These students did not become so confused overnight. The cultivation of their sanctimonious hypocrisy has taken years of indoctrination in the centers of so-called diversity. Even if those centers are shut down the students will retain the right to express their segregationist views. Such views are protected by the First Amendment regardless of how offensive they may be.

TCU Joins the Big East

In football notes, TCU has bolted the Mountain West Conference and will become a part of the Big East. They will be the ninth school to join the Big East and will being playing there in July 2012. Good for them. Now they will be BCS eligible.

Joel Osteen & The View

I know I’m behind the 8 ball on this one, but I just recently learned that the cream puff of religion was on The View, those cackling gossipers of liberal television. I tried to watch the segments on YouTube but just couldn’t do it. I was going to offer a critique of his theology, but realized he doesn’t have any. He was so gooey with the hosts, there is just no gospel in the man. Not that he should be offensive, but the message of the gospel IS offensive because it condemns us and shows us our sinfulness. Osteen wasn’t about to do that. He was too busy schmoozing up to Whoopi Goldberg. (The thought of schmoozing and Whoopi make me shudder… the thought of Osteen make me shudder…) I can’t do it. I can’t offer anything other than to say please, please, don’t waste your time with the man.

When he was asked about homosexuals and God accepting them, he just couldn’t speak the truth. He should have simply said that God’s word condemns the practice because of its sinfulness and that would have led him right to the cross. But he was way too busy talking about how he and his church just love everyone. There is no real hope in his message because he never takes anyone to the cross.

Texas A&M Aggies — Alabama Crimson Tide

ESPN bowl picks have the Texas Aggies going to the Cotton Bowl against Alabama. I’m not sure I like that match up because given that Alabama will have several weeks to prepare, will make it tough for the Aggies to be victorious. But alas, the best games this year have been those when the Aggies had to play above their capacity. So it could be a very good game. This is not set in stone because the invitations haven’t been sent out, but it seems like a likely match up since both teams are 9-3.

The other option for A&M would be LSU, which I don’t want because LSU fans have a tendency to be so mean. WE all have our stories about the other team’s fans, but I heard a great one last night. Talking to Tyrus, a Georgia fan, was at a Bulldog game in which they were playing South Carolina. One of the USC fan’s through a doggy bone at Tyrus. His reaction? He caught the bone, walked over to the Carolina fan, got up in his face, and ate the doggy bone, smiled and walked away. He didn’t say a word! That has always been Tyrus’ M.O., kill ‘em with kindness.

SIV (spiritual immunodeficiency virus) is the new HIV

Gay-Christian Movement Watch has an interesting piece on how the gay movement in the church looks very much like HIV, in that those who embrace the gay movement in the church, lack spiritual maturity. That stands to reason. You start buying into the lie that homosexuality is not a sin, an you open yourself up to all manner of heresies and half truths. Here is part of the article:

Likewise gay christian doctrine, using the cloak of love, acceptance and peace, presents itself as true and has fooled many unsuspecting Christians into accepting the very thing that destroys relationship with God and sexual integrity in the body of Christ. SIV (Spiritual Immunodificiency Virus) has infected entire denominations and wreaked havoc all over the Christian Church. But instead of fighting the disease with biblical truth and public information, church leaders have coddled it and exposed their members to certain spiritual death.

They go on to give the seven areas of the faith that we cannot give up on, the first being the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture. The moment you punt on this doctrine is the moment the flood of heresy comes sweeping into the church. Any where this happens, whether it is through the gay movement or the women’s movement, spiritual maturity is the next victim because we are no longer challenged on our own sinfulness.

If you say the homosexuality is not a sin, then you open the doors to say that other sins are not so. The church that does this is no longer worshiping the true God of the Bible, but a god that caters to their own fancies and whims (see Joel Osteen above). This is why inerrancy is so vital. Remove the authority of Scripture from the church and our lives and we open the door to a host of sins and create sins that are not sins, like “intolerance.”

For the church that does this, there can be no spiritual maturity because God uses His word, preached and taught, with the Holy Spirit to feed us spiritually. If His word is relegated to just being an ancient book then there is no longer truth in it to be used in our lives. We are quenching the Holy Spirit in doing so. Therefore, those churches that punt on this doctrine become anemic spiritually, just at the man who is infected with HIV.  Let us continue to fight for God’s word, so that we can continue to grow spiritually and remain healthy.

Do You Have “Itching Ears?”

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No, I’m not asking you if you have some sort of parasite in your ears, but do you have ears that “itch” to be affirmed in your sin? This was the warning that the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy about what would take place in the Last Days (we are in the Last Days). Men would set up for themselves preachers that would affirm them in their sin instead of preaching the truth of the gospel showing the need for repentance from sin.

Here are the Apostle’s words:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

Paul is telling us that men will turn away from the soundness and truth of the gospel. I like what John Sartelle writes in Tabletalk Magazine about this:

“We live in an age when being politically correct is more important than being truthful. The college student engaged in casual sex wants to hear that promiscuity is a practice an understanding God condones. The materialist wants to hear a preacher tell him that his money is primarily for his pleasure. The homosexual wants a deity that will baptize and sanctify his sin. The student in her first year of college who has discovered she is eight weeks pregnant wants a Jesus who will recommend a doctor to deal with that inconvenience. We have the nature to create gods that will protect our pet sins. The alcoholic’s classic characteristic is to deny his addiction. That is symbolic of the characteristic we all have in our resistance to genuine confession of personal sin.”

“The sinner is faced with two options. He can submit to the authority of God’s Word, confess his sin, repent, and throw himself upon God’s grace. Or, he can change the message to commend his lifestyle so that the ‘sin’ actually becomes a virtue. If one chooses the latter, he must then find a church that will alter the message from God to fit the culture. Paul was warning Timothy that he would encounter people wanting him to be a preacher who would accommodate their passions. The phrase ‘itching ears’ graphically describes them. Their ears ‘itch’ to hear something pleasant — words that will soothe them in their cocoons of transgression rather than convict of wrong and warn of danger.”

This topic came up recently when I was discussing Joel Osteen. He is a classic example of those who give people what they want to hear. He even said he doesn’t want to deal with sin or the cross in its fullness on 60 Minutes. He said he leaves that to others. My question then: how are the 45,000 that listen to Osteen going to hear it if they spend all their time at his church? Who is going to tell them the truth of the gospel?

As a preacher, Osteen has a responsibility to preach the full counsel of God’s Word as well as sound doctrine. This is at the heart of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus. This is why these books are called the “pastoral epistles.” They were written to young pastors who needed the advice from Paul on the importance of sound doctrine in ministry. If Osteen refuses to preach the gospel, then he needs to quit calling himself a Christian and just say he is a motivational speaker, for that truly what he is.

As for you, dear reader, do you sit week after week under men who only skirt around the truth of the gospel? Do they just use the Bible as a platform to jump off into their hobby horse topics? Do they truly confront real sin, not only pointing out the evilness of the world for we know that, but the evilness of their own hearts as well?

I hope not. We all need the gospel, every day for the rest of our lives. We are sinners even though we may be justified. We need the constant proclamation of God’s truth in our lives for us to remain or even come close to being healthy believers. We cannot get that where pulpits have been suplanted by men who only want to tickle our ears with a form of godliness but denying its power.

The Episcopal Church is Dying: Amen and Amen!

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(Hattip Neil)

Mark Tooley at the American Spectator has an article concerning the Episcopal Church in America. Since the 1960s, the church has been in declined, but really took a nose dive in 2004 when the church ordained openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson. Since that time, the already failing church has lost almost 60 percent of its membership.

Some might see this is bad news, but I see it as a blessing. According to the article, the Episcopals started trying to broaden the meaning of the gospel back in the 1960s. In other words, they were trying to make the gospel more relevant for our modern tastes. The moment you do this is the moment you lose the gospel. The gospel is not something that can be tampered with because it reduces the power of the gospel. The gospel is both a person and a message at the same time. It is Jesus Christ as the way of salvation and the message of His resurrection. Given that the mainline denominations have been trying to broaden their scope of who actually gets into heaven, they are at odds with Jesus and His gospel. Since this is true, it is no wonder they have been losing numbers.

Again, this a good thing. The sooner these mainline denominations die out, the better off Christians will be. The sad reality is that the problem of making the gospel relevant hasn’t gone away. The same is true in the evangelical world today with churches punting on the truths of the gospel and making it more acceptable and palatable. This is doing the same thing the Episcopals did back in the 1960s. It bears repeating, the moment you tamper with the gospel, and reduce the authority of God’s word, is the moment your message and you become irrelevant.  You may become more relevant to certain communities, like the gay community. But not where it is important and lasting: the Kingdom of Heaven.

Here is more of what Tooley writes:

Not surprisingly, the rejection of orthodoxy in favor of cultural and political fads, whatever the spiritual consequences, has been disastrous for Episcopalians and all Mainline Protestant denominations, all of which have been losing members since the 1960s, between 25 and 40 percent. Former Presbyterians and Methodists and Lutherans either gave up on organized religion, or they joined evangelical or Catholic churches, or they, more permanently, died (!), leaving few if any descendants, as Mainline Protestants, especially Episcopalians, have notoriously low birth rates. The current Episcopal Presiding Bishop even celebrated this demographic collapse, claiming that Episcopalians were protecting the planet by abstaining from children.

With a view of children like that, good riddance. May the rest of the apostate denominations go extinct as well.