Monthly Archives: November 2012

Nov 19 2012

Life Begins at Conception NOT at First Breath!

In another example of apostatic theological interpretation, the prominent and progressive group “the Christian Left” has just used the Bible to endorse abortion in all its forms starting with elective first trimester curettage, all the way to the horrific partial birth abortions!  Unbelievable!  This is the counterfeit church practicing counterfeit christianity!

As if endorsing open homosexuality, gay marriage, ordination of gay ministers, legalization of drugs such as marijuana was not enough for their altar of idolatry, these so-called progressive christians had to endorse the modern-day Holocaust, the murderous spirit of Herod the Great and of Cain, known as abortion.

This is the theological basis of their false argument:  life begins with the first breath… therefore an unborn baby is not alive!  It is stunning to see how Satan has blinded these people.  Here is the Scripture they quote to support the position that life begins only after birth when the baby has the ability to breathe:

Genesis 2:7 “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and it was then that the man became a living being”

Job 33:4 “The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”

Ezekiel 37:5-6 “Thus says the Lord God to these bones:   Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.”

All these references are taken out their proper context and are twisted to say something that they do not say.   According to this position a baby who has a heartbeat, blood flowing through her veins, an intact neurological system that dictates pain, the ability to suck his thumb and comfort himself, etc…  is not alive!  During fetal surgery for spina bifida for example, the baby interacts with the surgeon squeezing his hand (see photo below), grabbing surgical instruments, and withdrawing from any painful stimulus before being anesthetized.  But according to the Christian Left and the Democratic party platform, this person is not alive.

Let’s review the biblical texts which confirm that life begins at conception:

Jer 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart”

Psalm 139:13 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

Psalm 139:16 “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Luke 1: 41, 44 “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit… … As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”

Of all the horrors in the so-called “Romans 1 platform” of self worship and appeasement, I find abortion to be the most severe sin because it involves an innocent third-party who is murdered.  “It’s my body and I do whatever I want with it” has become the motto self idolatry.  They wear t-shirts with “I had an abortion and I do not regret it,” and “Someone you love had an abortion.”

How true rings the voice of the prophet Isaiah in 3:9: “they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them!”

Let’s face it, we live in days of apostasy, but the real church of Jesus needs to speak out publicly against groups like the Christian Left who pervert and suppress biblical truth, and exchange it for idolatry.

Wake up Church!  “Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong”. (1 Corinthians 16:13)

   

Nov 17 2012

How NOT to Have a Baptism!

Every once in a while it is appropriate to present a negative example in order to illustrate how not to do things.  This applies to our spiritual lives as well.

In the clip below we see the opposite of how a baptism should be done.  It serves as a reminder that there are “Christians” who practice a godless form of Christianity, who have no idea what things like baptism mean or what they stand for.

Ridiculous but actually…  funny.

 

Nov 15 2012

Legal Attacks Against Christians in the US on the Rise

In the wake of the ungodly election cycle we just went through, a series of stunning lawsuits against churches and Christian organizations started to take shape within the legal system.  This may be the first time in the history of the United States that a systematic approach has been undertaken to attack organizations of the Christian faith thru the courts.

One of the groups leading this coordinated charge is the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an organization of 19,000 self-proclaimed non-theists (atheists and agnostics) who want to remove religious (but mainly Christian) influence from society.  Their main underlying argument in most of these cases is separation of church and state, as if the United States is a theocracy where the church is in charge of government.  Anytime a Christian symbol appears in public, they cry a reactionary “this is a violation of the separation of church and state!”

The FFRF has just sued Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for taking out full-page ads in the weeks leading up to election urging people to vote for pro-life candidates.  They are vehemently suing a number of Catholic bishops and parishes who instructed their members to vote based on religious principles involving issues like abortion and contraception mandates.

The October 7, 2012 event “Freedom Pulpit Sunday” where nearly 1,600 pastors decided to openly endorse life, biblical and family values and candidates from the pulpit seemed to have been the pivotal point that started this rage.

But wait… their bold tactic does not end there.   They have just demanded in the letter to the president that the words “so help me God” as well as the placing of the hand on the Bible be removed from the presidential inauguration…  again, based on the delusion that the church and state are one entity in the US!

The main goal of these attacks is to remove the non-profit status of churches and Christian organizations.  That is the goal… for now.  But I am predicting that we will quickly move to the phase of anti-bullying and hate speech legislation against pastors and churches who proclaim biblical truth.  And then Christians will face more than just monetary penalties.   They may face criminal charges and potentially prison for preaching against sin.

Christians in America need to wake up and pray for this nation and its leaders, so that God will not allow this nation to get to that point.  Persecution is coming to America and we need to anticipate it and get spiritually ready for it.

Nov 13 2012

Which Person of the Trinity Should We Pray to?

Christian believers are required to have a continuous life of prayer, and we pray to God and address Him as Lord in our prayer.  If we are to understand the way God is revealed in Scripture, we must realize that God is revealed in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, each being fully God and all three one God.

A logical question then follows, does it matter which person of the Godhead we pray to?  Or should we mainly pray to God as Lord?

Pastor and theologian John Piper answer as follows:  “the pattern that you find almost uniformly – I say almost uniformly – throughout the New Testament is to pray to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  Reformed believers pray almost exclusively to the Father because the other persons of the Trinity facilitate our access to the Father.  The Holy Spirit glorifies the Son, and the Son, thru His sacrifice brings us to the Father.  Jesus also prays to the Father and this serves as the ultimate example for us.

But I also believe it is biblical to pray to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit.  Consider the following verses about praying to Jesus:

John 14:13-14 “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do… If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

1 Cor 1:2 “in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”

1 Tim 1:12 “I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord…”

With respect to the Holy Spirit, we must understand that the Holy Spirit facilitates our worship and prayer.  He points to the Son as the only way to the Father.  But since the Holy Spirit is fully God, we may address the Holy Spirit directly in prayer, for example: “come, Holy Spirit.”

Prayer is essentially communication, and when we have fellowship with someone, we communicate with that person.  Paul tells us in 2 Cor 13:14 that we partake in “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.”  Therefore it is not wrong to communicate in prayer with the Holy Spirit.

Piper, concludes: “So my bottom line answer – and I’ve been asked this a lot – is to follow in general the pattern of the Bible, namely, pray to the Father in the name of Jesus by the power of the Spirit, that is, in reliance upon the help of the Spirit.”

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/does-it-matter-which-person-of-the-trinity-we-pray-to-84697/#XryEmI7Sd0EpxOXq.99

Nov 12 2012

Occultism: Entertainment’s New Obsession

The Christian Post is reporting today a disturbing trend among young people who have become obsessed with Hollywood’s glamorous depiction of occult subjects in movies.  With the help of the internet, teenagers are looking into real occult groups, and some may be getting involved in occult practices.  The new Twilight movie is coming out and a new wave of occult fever is about to engulf the teenage crowd.

In the last decade there have been a number of highly successful books and movies such as the Harry Potter series, the Twilight “Saga,” the Underworld movies, and Avatar, which explore subjects like vampirism, Wiccan occultism, and suicide.  Most of these productions are targeting a young audience, especially teenagers whose naive minds are a sponge for new and fresh ideas about life away from truth.

I was shocked to see the existence of online vampire clubs who explore vampire practices mentioned in the CP article.  Normally, I would find this kind of report laughable if the data to back it up was not there at the click of a button.

Avatar is the highest gross income movie of all time at over $2.7 billion.  It explores and even glamorizes the subject of death and transition of the soul and mind into another body that is part of the same physical world.  It is no wonder that if one does a simple search using the terms “Avatar” and “suicide,” one finds numerous articles on a possible connection between the two.

There is definitely a connection between watching the movie and people feeling depressed, a phenomenon described as the “Avatar blues.”  People end up longing for this fantastic world after making the transition from life in this body to an avatar… ridiculous to a person who knows God and His salvation, but intriguing to a corrupt mind who does not know Him.  Again we return to the problem of the human soul who searches for the truth, and when unable to find the truth, it seeks out alternative ways to replace and suppress the truth.

This is the sad reality of our modern society’s obsession with the occult.  Paul tells us in Romans 1 that people have “exchanged the glory of the immortal God” with such idolatrous ideas about life and death.  That is why I believe that children of God, who have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus should not spend their time and money on such entertainment.

My young friends will start calling me old-fashion now.  But that’s ok, the truth needs to be told.

Nov 10 2012

The Triune God Revealed in the Old Testament (part 1)

Other than the teaching of salvation by grace thru faith, the doctrine of the Trinity may be the most important doctrine of the Christian faith.  Some theologians would say that it is the primordial doctrine of Christianity.  Wayne Grudem defines it in his Systematic Theology as follows:  “God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God.”

Well known passages in the Old Testament (OT) as well as obscure ones reveal the plurality of the Trinity.

Psalm 110:1 is the most frequently quoted passage from the OT in the New Testament (NT).  Here David receives a tremendous revelation from God to be able to write a glimpse of this amazing intra-Trinitarian conversation:  “The Lord says to my Lord:  “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”  Jesus challenges the Pharisees in Matthew 22:41-46 to understand that David is referring to two separate persons as “Lord” in Psalm 110.  God the Father says to God the Son, “sit at my right hand.”

David’s revelation continues when he writes in Psalm 45:7 “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”  Jesus is the anointed One by the Father when David again reveals the Father and the Son Jesus as God.

The Trinity is also revealed in a less known passage found in Hosea 1:7 “But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God.”  God (Elohim) here is speaking about the Lord (Yahweh) who will save Judah.  The Scripture clearly indicates here that two separate persons can be called God and Lord, that is Father and Son.

In the context of God’s plan of redemption, Isaiah 48:16 has amazing trinitarian implications: “And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.”  In NT perspective Jesus is the Messiah the One send by the Father.  It follows that in the redemption context of Isaiah 48, the person “me” in verse 16 send by God is Jesus.  If this verse is spoken by Jesus, and I believe it is given its context, we now have all three persons of the Trinity, the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit mentioned in this verse.   Amazing!

The doctrine of the Trinity is a blessing for us because by understanding it we understand God’s plan of redemption and how each person of the Trinity is involved in each aspect of salvation.  We will never grasp how God can co-exist in three persons and be One God, but if we are to believe the Bible, we must accept this doctrine.  CS Lewis attested its validity when he said that such a doctrine could never be made up by a human mind.  No one could have come up with this type of idea if it wasn’t for the revelation given in the Bible.

to be continued…

Nov 9 2012

In the Wake of Sandy: Is God Still Love?

In the case of people who do not know God, natural disasters present one of the most difficult barriers to believing in the Triune God revealed in the Bible.  If God is all-loving and all-good as described in the Bible, how can He allow such destruction as hurricane Sandy to ravage His creation and the people He loves?

How can a just, compassionate, loving, and caring God who died for His creation allow this level of pain and death?

Atheists and agnostics who ask these questions have not come to know the truth about our God, and truth about the fall of His creation.  They do not understand that God’s attributes cannot be separated, that His love is rooted in His justice, and His compassion streams out of His love.

The atheist loves to mock the believer with accusations that Christians worship a sadistic God who ordains atrocities and natural disasters.  He points to the unfairness of life, the death of innocent babies, the sorry state of humanity, and ultimately he blames a God in whom he doesn’t even believe!  All this without a single observation of the wickedness that exists in his own soul!

The Bible unveils the unfair reality of our world as a direct result of Satan’s action and the disobedience of man.  As a result evil prospers, and natural and biological calamities plague us.  Paul elucidated the fallen state of creation in this passage:

Romans 8: 20 “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

Then Paul proceeds to explain that the “whole creation has been groaning” as a result of man’s disobedience and fall into sin.  So what right does an ungodly man have to question the unfairness of the universe?  What right does he have to question God’s love?

The truth is that the single most unfair event that has ever taken place on this planet was not hurricane Sandy and the death and destruction it left behind.  It wasn’t the tsunami which killed hundreds of thousands.   It wasn’t even the dreaded Holocaust in which 6 million Jews were murdered because they were Jewish.

The single most tragic and unfair event that ever happened, the greatest crime and sin ever committed, but also the greatest act of love ever performed, was the torture and murder of a perfect, sinless and holy Man two thousands years ago on a cross outside of Jerusalem.  That Man was God Himself.  His name was Jesus.  Transcending the result of man’s fall, and the suffering that creation endures because of it, God showed his perfect love to us in redemption.

 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Nov 8 2012

The New Normal: Recreational Marijuana

On Tuesday, the voters of Colorado took to the polls and voted an unprecedented amendment, one which legalized the personal growth, production and use of pot.  You may say it is not a big deal… there are other states in the Union who have legalized “medical” use of marijuana.

The issue here is that Colorado already had a law in place allowing the use of pot for medical purposes.  The new law enacts the legality of recreational use of this mind altering drug.  It is now OK to get high… or stoned… or whatever they call it.

How is this going to improve the lives of Colorado’s citizens?  It is not!  Rather, this is one of the many symptoms of a disease called moral decay, which is taking a hold of our society.  This may be the beginning of the process of legalization of other drugs of abuse.

Preventing driving “under the influence” and keeping kids off drugs will be this much more difficult to accomplish.  What kind of message are we sending our kids?  The message is clear: it is ok to use drugs and pollute one’s mind with psychedelics.

The spiritual implications are paramount.  The desire for an altered mental status whether that is accomplished via alcohol, marijuana, narcotics or other agents is an unholy desire from the bottom of hell.  Here is what Scripture tells us in Galatians 5:19

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The word sorcery in verse 20 is translated from the word pharmakeia according to Strong’s Concordance.  It refers to the use and administration of mind altering drugs, poisoning and magical arts in general.  This is why a child of God cannot participate in such practices.  We are specifically forbidden by God to even attempt to alter our state of mind by the use of marijuana, or other drugs for the purpose of so-called recreation.

On the contrary we must follow what Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:8-9

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith…”

Nov 7 2012

How America Made an Ungodly Choice

America voted and the results were not only wrong and unwise, the critical choices made were ungodly. In most situations where a vote hinged on biblical principles, America decided to go against God.

I do not pretend that this is Christian country or that it ever was, but America was founded on Christian principles, and we have a large population of Christians. But their voice was drowned out by an increasingly secular majority.

Here is a list of what I mean:

1. Colorado has legalized the recreational use of the psychedelic drug marijuana. It is now legal to get high in the mile-high city. Three other states legalized marijuana for medical use.

2. Massachusetts joined Oregon and Washington in allowing assisted suicide, also known as euthanasia.

3. Maryland, Maine, Minnesota and Washington all voted in favor of gay marriage. This was a huge sweeping victory for LGBT activists in four out of four states. They succeeded in elevating this issue to the level of civil rights.

4. America re-elected Obama, who supports the pro-abortion agenda, the forced contraceptive mandate, the desecration of the traditional family, and has taken an anti-Israel stance on multiple occasions.

But ultimately we know that God is in control of past, present, and future, and everything that happens contributes to His mysterious plan.

He states: “for I am God, and… …‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,” Isaiah 46:9-10

We will now wait and see how His mighty plan will unveil itself in these last days.

Nov 6 2012

Voting and the Principles that Guide Us

What are we effectively doing when we cast a vote for an office, a measure, or a proposition?  We are in fact saying that we agree with the principles on which a candidate stands, or the proposal put forth.  We are not necessarily saying we agree with a candidate’s religion but with the principles he will draw upon to govern.

I have heard multiple objections with respect to Mitt Romney’s LDS theology and how he negates the Divinity of Christ and the Trinity the way orthodox Christianity proclaims it.  But let’s suppose Romney was a self-professed born-again evangelical who believes in universal atonement applied to all humans, and the fact that hell does not exist, along the lines of Rob Bell and Brian McLaren’s theology; or suppose he was a hyper-calvinist who discourages evangelism under the pretext that God can save without human participation… Wouldn’t those issues be almost as problematic?

That is why we must pick a candidate who stands on principles important to our Protestant faith, not necessarily his theology.  We must support a candidate who will have a pro-life stance.  We must vote in support of  traditional biblical marriage.  We must support family values set forth in the Bible.  We must support freedom of speech and religion.  These are the social and spiritual principles we must stand on and Romney, generally speaking, supports them.

However, it has been deeply disappointing to see how Obama’s administration has weakened each one of the above principles, and has elevated the LGBT lifestyle choices to the level of civil rights.  Furthermore, disguised under “hate speech” terminology, pastors and churches who proclaim biblical truth are labeled as intolerant, and potentially dangerous.  This assault will not let up in a potential second Obama term, but it will get worse.  As John MacArthur put it, he was shocked to see that the democratic national convention re-inserted God back into their platform, because their platform is a polar opposite to anything godly.  He labeled it the “Romans 1 platform,” and I agree with that.

Christians who made Jesus the Lord and Center of their lives cannot support such principles.  If they had reservations about Romney’s theology, it would be infinitely better for them to abstain from voting, than cast a vote for Obama, a professed “Christian” who believes that Jesus is not the only way to salvation, and who has advanced the abortion and LGBT agenda.  Here is what Paul tells us about people who support such an agenda:

Romans 1:32 “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

God forbid any Christian give support to a “Romans 1 platform.”