As part of our blog’s attempt to share all the resources on Presuppositional apologetics I found this teaching from a recent conference called “The Reformation Preaching Conference 2016…
Author Archives: Dan C.
Suspicious Citizenship
by Clint Archer
Today 52% of Britons are celebrating their week old independence from the EU while their American cousins are celebrating their own independence from Britain. Well, they are celebrating having a day off. Citizenship has varying degrees of meaning to various people. But one thing we all hate is when non-citizens pretend to be citizens. Being caught out can be embarrassing and even dangerous, as was discovered by ten illegal aliens in 2010.
The FBI called it Operation Ghost Stories. The mission was to detect and expose the ten Russian deep cover agents who had been living in the USA since the mid 90s.
The spies snuck in unnoticed, and using forged birth certificates they assumed American identities. They bought homes in the suburbs of New Jersey, got jobs, enrolled in universities, and started assimilating into American culture, making friends with people in the government, and even having children together to cultivate the façade of innocuous soccer moms and baseball dads.
Their assignment was to channel classified information to Moscow Center. The problem was that they weren’t very good at it.
Fifteen years into the masquerade and they were still empty-handed. They never transmitted a single shred of classified information. They just seemed to be enjoying middle class suburbia while playing spy vs spy with no real effect. Their tradecraft would later be described in a report as sloppy and amateurish.
They would write messages to each other using invisible ink. You know, like kids do. They delivered information by swapping identical briefcases with other agents on the subway. Oooh sneaky. One spy filled out a form with the following fake home address: 99 Fake Street, USA. I kid you not.
And one of them, Richard Murphy aka Vladimir Guryev, had some really bad luck.
This hapless agent surreptitiously enrolled in a university to learn more about American culture. Then, per chance, the course advisor who was assigned to him happened to be the well-respected Russian-American professor Nina Kruchsheva. Vladimir kept insisting that he was a Philadelphia native named Richard Murphy, born to American parents, and had never even been to Russia. But he kept insisting all of this in a heavy Russian accent.
Dr. Kruchsheva told the FBI that she was constantly puzzled by his “… completely Russian behavior. …He had a thick Russian accent and an incredibly unhappy Russian personality.” (I find that charming evaluation especially endearing coming from a Russian lady).
In the spiritual realm there are also posers.
- The Apostle Paul warned the Philippian church that although their “citizenship is in Heaven” there are “many who walk as enemies of the cross” (see Phil 3:18-20).
- Jesus told a parable in Matthew 22 of a man exposed as a fraud by the king at a wedding feast. Without the proper dress code he stood speechless (taking the Fifth?) and was bound hand and foot and cast out.
- And in Matthew 13 Jesus called these sleeper agents tares among the wheat.
- Jude calls them “hidden reefs” in the love feast (Jude 12).
- In 1 John 2:19 the Apostle John avers that some among the number of the church would eventually turn apostate and leave them, and that this was to show that they were never genuinely saved to begin with.
This repeated theme in Scripture should alert us to three implications:
1. A person’s profession of faith needs to be examined and bear fruit. You should not be offended if, for example in an interview to become a church member, you are asked to provide a testimony of your conversion. We should not be shocked when professing believers are exposed as unbelievers.
2. 
When a professing Christian turns away from Jesus, we need not doubt the doctrine of perseverance of the saints (the fact that God takes responsibility for keeping believers us saved). Rather, we should realize the one falling away was never really saved to begin with, and was masquerading all along.
3. Believers should thank God daily for our citizenship in Heaven, kept safe for us by his power (1 Pet 1:4). That eternal citizenship can only be obtained at birth, or more accurately, rebirth (John 3:5).
There is another chapter in Operation Ghost Stories. After the ten spies were arrested, they were not punished; they were exchanged. In the controversial prisoner exchange ten US citizens were released from prisons abroad as substitutes for their Russian counterparts.
As believers you can take comfort in knowing that though we were guilty of high treason against God, we get to go free. Through a dramatic substitutionary arrangement, God himself bore the eternal consequence of our crimes on the cross, in exchange for our freedom from sin, and thus purchasing for us priceless and irrevocable citizenship of Heaven.
That is an independence worth celebrating today and every day.
_______
Clint Archer is the pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church. He and his expanding troop of Archers live near Durban, South Africa (and pity anyone who doesn’t). When he is off duty from CGate, his alter ego blogs at Café Seminoid,
Together 2016 – Reversing the Reformation?
If you haven’t already heard, an event called ‘Together 2016’will be held on July 16 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It’s advertised as a call for unity in the church – a stand against division.
Division is everywhere.
Race. Class. Politics. Social media. Religion. The millennial generation is the most cause-driven in history—but our causes put us at odds and we create enemies of each other. The Church is paying a price. Young people associate faith with arguing and politicking. The message that Jesus loves us and offers a reset is getting lost in the noise.
Jesus directly challenged a culture of division. He prayed we would be one—one family, one body. And He told us to love our enemies. Everyone loves their friends; it’s when we love those who aren’t like us that the world takes note. It’s time to come together around Jesus in a counter-cultural moment of unity and love for each other.
The need for hope is too great to be pointing fingers at each other instead of pointing to Jesus together.
Roman Catholic Pope Francis is even scheduled to make a video appearance. Main organizer, Nick Hall had this to say about the Pope’s appearance:
“We are humbled and honored by his involvement and are eager to share his message with the crowd that gathers at Together 2016,” Hall said in a statement to The Christian Post, reacting to the announcement that the pope has added his name to the list of speakers. “That His Holiness would choose to speak into this historic day is a testament to the urgency and the need for followers of Jesus to unite in prayer for our nation and our world.”
I hate to say it, but Nick Hall & Company will probably be an inspiration to a huge flock of young people. You see, Nick Hall is the founder of PULSE, which is primarily a ministry to college age ‘next generation’ youth. He seems to be HUGE, if you believe the ads about him, but I wouldn’t know because I am not a follower of the various youth directed ‘movements’ that seem to be more like rock concerts than genuine spiritual revival. They are ‘spiritual’ all right, but what ‘spirit’? Just asking. . .
You see, by having the leader of a religion that preaches a false gospel of ‘faith plus works’ as a headliner at a ‘Christian’ event should concern genuine Bible believing Christians. I don’t necessarily blame the million or so young people that will be drawn to this event. Many, if not most of them have probably never read their own Bibles. Although there have been attempts in the past to bring Protestants and Catholics together, or make it seem that we are, the Council of Trent clearly states that it is faith in God plus works that save a man. You can read for yourself the specific Canons from Trent speaking to adding works to faith here.
The movement toward Catholic & Protestant reconciliation is nothing new.
“March 29, 1994 saw a development that some have touted as the most significant development in Protestant-Catholic relations since the dawn of the Reformation. A document titled “Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium” was published with a list of more than thirty signatories—including well-known evangelicals Pat Robertson, J. I. Packer, Os Guinness, and Bill Bright. They were joined by leading Catholics such as John Cardinal O’Connor, Bishop Carlos A. Sevilla, and Catholic scholar Peter Kreeft.” Source
“The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ) is a document created, and agreed to, by the Catholic Church’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) and the Lutheran World Federation in 1999, as a result of extensive ecumenical dialogue. It states that the churches now share “a common understanding of our justification by God’s grace through faith in Christ.” To the parties involved, this essentially resolves the five hundred year old conflict over the nature of justification which was at the root of the Protestant Reformation.” Source
In 2017 Lutherans and Catholics will jointly celebration the 1517 Reformation. In a section of a detailed explanation of the 2017 initiatives we have these words:
“The first imperative: Catholics and Lutherans should always begin from the perspective of unity and not from the point of view of division in order to strengthen what is held in common even though the differences are more easily seen and experienced.” Source
I would add that the segment of Lutheranism represented in this ecumenical dialogue does not represent the conservative segments of Lutheran Church, such as the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS).
Here’s the point in all this in the words of the Apostle Paul:
Ephesians 2:8-9English Standard Version (ESV)
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph 2:8-9, ESV)
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Gal 1:8, ESV)
Need I say more? I certainly hope not.
What we can do:
1. Educate our believing friends concerning the danger of mixing the genuine gospel with false gospel messages, and pray that evangelical churches sponsoring and planning to attend this abominable event will see the light and choose truth over false unity.
2. Pray that God will open the hearts of young people (the primary target audience for this abomination), and that He will send his messengers to speak to those open hearts.
May this Lord’s Day find you blessed and prospering in His Word!
Is there Proof for the Existence of God?
Here’s a link to a really good teaching by Phil Johnson concerning apologetics in which he summarizes both evidential and presuppositional approaches.
http://thegracelifepulpit.com/Sermons.aspx?code=2016-06-05-PJ
Abraham Maslow or Jesus Christ – What’s it Gonna Be?
I suppose you are wondering what I’m on about this time! And who’s this Maslow fellow? Those are both understandable concerns. It wasn’t until earlier today that I discovered the connection between Maslow and most of today’s evangelicalism. And after all, I’m not William Tapley, the 3rd Eagle of the Apocalypse and co-prophet of the End-Times! I’m a it slow some times.
I made the connection while reading an article about something else entirely and coming across the term ‘self-actualization’. The term immediately brought Abraham Maslow to mind, since I first heard that term in a class discussion concerning human behavior. According to Maslow, self-actualization sits as the top of a pyramid that explains why people behave the way they do. Here’s that pyramid, with explanations of the main human ‘needs’ areas and what they each mean:
It seems to me that today’s evangelicalism, as expressed by today’s seeker friendly/purpose driven models, is more about and speaks more to individual psychological and self-fulfillment needs in the exact terms expressed above, than it does about behaving in all things first and foremost to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31).
Instead of being told we are sinners deserving of the wrath of God (Eph 2), we are taught that what’s missing from our lives is a personal ‘relationship’ with Jesus, whose principal and often sole character trait is love, love, love. None of that sin judgment stuff, “All We Need is Love”!
We are told all about ‘community’ and relationships with other believers, and put into ‘Life Groups’ to help us feel a great sense of ‘belonging’ to something bigger than ourselves. When we are pumped up to buy into the ‘vision’ of our church’s Pastor, pitched as given to the Pastor directly and often audibly from God himself, the sense of ‘belonging’ seems even more intense.
In many of our churches, our self-esteem and how good we feel about ourselves seems to be of paramount importance. This isn’t a new phenomenon. Dr. Robert Schuler once stated that our lack of self-esteem is THE great sin and patterned his ministry around that assertion. Thanks to a couple of good students of his, we’ve seen the birth and growth of the seeker-friendly and purpose driven models for ‘doing’ church. If we use the Apostle Paul’s model and simply preach Christ crucified and resurrected because of OUR sins, we are out of touch.
That brings us to the ultimate goal of all human beings (according to Abraham Maslow and others), to find self-fulfillment /actualization. In today’s evangelical jargon, it’s called one’s ‘dream destiny’. That’s not a new concept either. It’s been the staple of motivational speakers for years (just Google ‘dream destiny & tony Robbins)! Now it’s also all over the evangelical landscape. People in pews and stadium seats from coast to coast are constantly being told how to find and accomplish their ‘dream destiny’, which has been especially designed by God for each and every person!
Today’s gospel is that ‘Jesus died for your dreams’, not ‘Christ died for our sins’. I actually heard that from an Army Chaplain one Sunday morning and relocated to a different Chapel for Sunday worship. If you don’t believe me about how widespread this new gospel is, try listening to Rick Warren and Joel Osteen for a bit, not to mention a growing number of formerly sound Biblical churches and Pastors.
And how great this new gospel sounds to the itching ears of fallen men, and how easily it deceives genuine believers who are not yet well informed by the truth of scripture that speaks of dying to self, not living for self!
Yes, Abraham Maslow had it right concerning what we ‘naturally’ want most out of life. What a great tragedy that so many churches have adopted, and are preaching a ‘gospel’ of self-actualization. I wonder if he foresaw the evangelical church capitalizing on his needs hierarchy in the name of faux church growth.
The most significant question for many of today’s evangelical churches might be “What are you teaching in your church – Abraham Maslow and self-actualization, or Jesus Christ and self-denial?”
As an individual believer, I can ask myself “What is my Christian life and walk about – Abraham Maslow and self-actualization, or Jesus Christ and self-denial?”
What about you and your church, dear reader? Abraham Maslow or Jesus Christ – what’s it gonna be?
The Trinitarian Beat Goes On | The Cripplegate
I like the way Mike Riccardi approaches this issue. I’ve read a lot of the current discussion, puzzled a bit myself and asking why is there a necessity to establish an Eternal Functional Submission (EFS) of the Son to the Father to prop up complementarian roles of men and women in the family setting. I am quite comfortable acknowledging ‘equality’ of being/personhood and also the need for ‘roles’ in relationships.
Pseudo-Christianity
I recently listened to a sermon with the above title by Dr. Curt Daniel, of Faith Bible Church in Springfield Illinois, courtesy of Sermon Audio. It was part of a series presented at the Contending for the Faith conference, at Dr. Daniel’s church.
Dr. Daniel presented 4 basic tendencies of pseudo, or false Christianity and drew comparisons between false Judaism of Jesus’ day and the false Christianity of our day:
1. Adding to the Gospel
2. Subtracting from the Gospel
3. Substituting other doctrines for the true Gospel
4. Watering down the Gospel while maintaining some truth
Adding to the Gospel
In Jesus’ day the primary Jewish religious group that added something to God’s requirement for faith were the Pharisees, who added works (strict law keeping) to faith in order to be right with God. According to Dr. Daniel the prime example of adding works to faith in the world of Christianity is the Roman Catholic Church, by far the largest ‘Christian’ religion on the planet. In Roman Catholicism, salvation is eventually earned by observing certain sacraments, having faith, and performing works (with a side trip to Purgatory on the way to Heaven for most Roman Catholics. In the religious system of the Pharisees and within Roman Catholicism ultimate truth is found in scripture and in religious/church tradition.
Subtracting from the Gospel
The best example of subtracting from true faith in Jesus’ time was the other main sect with Judaism, the Sadducees, who denied both the resurrection and the doctrine of hell, or eternal punishment. The Sadducees of old can be compared to the liberal Christianity of today, which denies one of more of the following:
· Substitutionary atonement
· The inerrancy and infallibity of Scripture
· The exclusivity of Christ as the only way to God
· The doctrine of Hell
Substitution of Other Doctrines
In Jesus’ day there were Jewish groups or sects that were neither Pharisees nor Sadducees, but instead had their own doctrines which they claimed to be TRUE doctrine. They can be compared to any number of ‘Christian cults’ today such as the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, and others.
Watered Down Religion
In Jesus’ day as well as in our day there are those who claim to adhere to or follow a religion, but really don’t know what they believe or why they believe it. Ask then about their religion and they become really vague really quickly. Dr. Daniel termed today’s brand of this sort of religion as ‘pseudo-evangelicalism’. It is characterized by downplaying the need for repentance of sin (if not omitting it altogether), downplaying the holiness of God and requirements for holiness/sanctification of the believer, and what can be called ‘easy believism’. Rather than using the example of Jesus and the Apostles and keeping the gospel of salvation a matter of repentance from sin and believing in Christ’s substitutionary atonement, salvation is obtained by asking Jesus into one’s heart, opening one’s heart to Jesus, saying a special prayer, going forward in a meeting, or signing a card, NONE of which can be found in Scripture. It was quite interesting to note that when Billy Graham was once asked how many of those who came forward at one of his evangelistic meetings remained steadfast Christians, Rev. Graham’s answer was ‘around 4%’.
The second earmark of today’s pseudo-Christianity is the idea that a sinner can accept Jesus as Savior but NOT as Lord. One can be a Christian bound for Heaven and yet never experience a truly changed life in which sinful tendencies and behaviors give way to the indwelling Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification. In simple terms, you can be a ‘carnal’ Christian, a concept a cursory reading of Romans, Chapter 8 should dispel rather resoundingly.
What does all of this mean in terms of “Contending for the Faith’? Dr. Daniel urges us to
- KNOW the true Gospel
- DEFEND the true Gospel
- DON’T add to it, subtract from it, substitute other doctrines, or water it down
Great advice, don’t you think?
__________
Again, if you are interested in listening to the entire series of messages, go HERE.
Sam Waldron – Reformed Baptist History in America | The Confessing Baptist
For Baptist church history fans, here is a link to a couple of really good MP3s on the subject!
Sam Waldron – Reformed Baptist History in America | The Confessing Baptist
Source: Sam Waldron – Reformed Baptist History in America | The Confessing Baptist
Quotes from Spurgeon’s Autobiography – Vol. 1, Chapter 7
Here is the account from Vol 1. Chapter 7 of Spurgeon’s autobiography that ‘spoke’ to me the loudest. The Chapter is titled, Memories of Maidstone and Newmarket.
THE YOUNG USHER’S TEACHER IN THEOLOGY.
The first lessons I ever had in theology were from an old cook in the school at Newmarket where I was an usher. She was a good old soul, and used to read The Gospel Standard. She liked something very sweet indeed, good strong Calvinistic doctrine; but she lived strongly as well as fed strongly. Many a time we have gone over the covenant of grace together, and talked of the personal election of the saints, their union to Christ, their final perseverance, and what vital godliness meant; and I do believe that I learnt more from her than I should have learned from any six doctors of divinity of the sort we have nowadays. There are some Christian people who taste, and see, and enjoy religion in their own souls, and who get at a deeper knowledge of it than books can ever give them, though they should search all their days. The cook at Newmarket was a godly experienced woman, from whom I learned far more than I did from the minister of the chapel we attended. I asked her once, “Why do you go to such a place?” She replied, “Well, there is no other place of worship to which I can go.” I said, “But it must be better to stay at home than to hear such stuff.” “Perhaps so,” she answered; “but I like to go out to worship even if I get nothing by going. You see a hen sometimes scratching all over a heap of rubbish to try to find some corn; she does not get any, but it shows that she is looking for it, and using the means to get it, and then, too, the exercise warms her.” So the old lady said that scratching over the poor sermons she heard was a blessing to her because it exercised her spiritual faculties and warmed her spirit. On another occasion I told her that I had not found a crumb in the whole sermon, and asked how she had fared. “Oh!” she answered, “I got on better to-night, for to all the preacher said, I just put in a not, and that turned his talk into real gospel.”
Quotes from Spurgeon’s Autobiography – Vol. 1, Chapter 6
The following quotations from Vol. 1, Chapter 6 of Spurgeons Autobiography, Incidents of Home and School Life, begins with the following short introduction:
“No man can write the whole of his own biography. I suppose, if the history
of a man’s thoughts and words could be written, scarce the world itself
would contain the books, so wonderful is the tale that might be told. Of my
life at home and at school, I can only give a few incidents as I am able to
recall them after the lapse of forty or fifty years.”
The childhood memories Spurgeon recounted seem to be those from which the young Spurgeon drew a lesson for Christian living. Here are a few of those incidents that captured my attention. The short titles are of my own invention.
Of Gardens and Prayer
“When we were small children, we had a little plot of garden-ground, and we put our seeds into it. I well recollect how, the day after I had put in my seed, I went and scraped the soil away to see if it was not growing, as I expected it would have been after a day or so at the very longest, and I thought the time amazingly long before the seed would be able to make its appearance above the ground. “That was childish,” you say. I know it was, but I wish you were as childish with regard to your prayers, that you would, when you have put them in the ground, go and see if they have sprung up; and if not at once, — be not childish in refusing to wait till the appointed time comes, — always go back and see if they have begun to sprout. If you believe in prayer at all, expect God to hear you. If you do not expect, you will not have. God will not hear you unless you believe He will hear you; but if you believe He will, He will be as good as your faith. He will never allow you to think better of Him than He is; He will come up to the mark of your thoughts, and according to your faith so shall it be done unto you.”
Houses, and Horses, and Trees
“When we used to go to school, we would draw houses, and horses, and trees on our slates, and I remember how we used to write “house” under the house, and “horse” under the horse, for some persons might have thought the horse was a house. So there are some people who need to wear a label round their necks to show that they are Christians at all, or else we might mistake them for sinners, their actions are so like those of the ungodly.”
The Religious Juggler
“I have seen, when I was a boy, a juggler in the street throw up half-a-dozen balls, or knives and plates, and continue throwing and catching them, and to me it seemed marvelous; but the religious juggler beats all others hollow. He has to keep up Christianity and worldliness at the same time, and to catch two sets of balls at once.To be a freeman of Christ and a slave of the world at the same time, must need fine acting. One of these days you, Sir Juggler, will make a slip with one of the balls, and your game will be over. A man cannot always keep it up, and play so cleverly at all hours; sooner or later he fails, and then he is made a hissing and a by-word,and becomes ashamed, if any shame be left in him.”
The Battle Cry 