Author Archives: Dan C.

“Walk Like an Egyptian”?

Posted by Dan C. on

A recent morning’s OT reading for me was Exodus 9 & 10, which contains some of the plagues God brought upon the Egyptians, and how Pharaoh (The Egyptian in mind) told Moses he would let the people go when one of the plagues stopped but harden it again as soon as things were back to normal

The song title “Walk Like an Egyptian” (an 80’s #1 hit), mark pinged in my brain. I was reminded of times that I have “walked like an Egyptian” (Pharoah, not the song). Maybe my case is a long way from the Pharaoh’s, but the principle is the same. Get in a tough spot and call out to God, read the Bible more, go to church/Bible study more, whatever. Get relief and slack off on the spiritual stuff.

Not exactly what the song was about, but it fits. There’s also a huge God lesson here. When plague of hail rained down on all of Egypt except where the Israelites lived, and Pharaoh asked Moses for relief (promising to let the people go…again), Moses said he would stop the hail and Pharaoh would know whose God was REALLY in charge!

Now I have another one of those profitable questions I should ask ‘the man in the mirror’ on occasion;

“Dude, have you been ‘walking like an Egyptian’ again? I might not phrase it quite like that, being 64 and all (Beatles anyone?) but it would do me well to just ask it.

BTW, you can find the song on YouTube. I checked. I didn’t even remember the lyrics when I was engaged in my morning reading.   The story of Moses, the plagues, and the deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt can be found in the book of Exodus.  The first twelve chapters will take you to the point where Pharaoh finally ‘let the people go’

The importance of doctrine for young believers

Posted by Dan C. on

The Cidrìe's avatarA Twisted Crown of Thorns ®

regrets“A young ungrounded Christian, when he sees all the fundamental truths, and sees good evidence and reasons of them, perhaps may be yet ignorant of the right order and place of every truth. It is a rare thing to have young professors to understand the necessary truths methodically: and this is a very great defect: for a great part of the usefulness and excellency of particular truths consisteth in the respect they have to one another. This therefore will be a very considerable part of your confirmation, and growth in your understandings, to see the body of the Christian doctrine, as it were, at one view, as the several parts of it are united in one perfect frame; and to know what aspect one point has upon another, and which are their due places.

There is a great difference betwixt the sight of the several parts of a clock or…

View original post 90 more words

Peter Lumpkins Joins The Brewton-Parker Team: Truth Curls Up In The Corner And Cries

Posted by Dan C. on

Gideon Knox's avatarPolemics Report

“It is my honor to announce that Peter Lumpkins, one of the most well-known and respected writers in the Southern Baptist Convention, has accepted my offer to become the new Vice President of Communications here at Brewton-Parker College.”  ~ Ergun Caner in a press release  from Brewton-Parker College today.

When I first read about this on Twitter today, I had to check the calendar to make sure today isn’t the first of April…

“Incredulous” doesn’t even begin to describe it, but it seems that Caner, now that he has some power as president of Brewton-Parker college, is now using that power to reward his defenders. Today, it was announced that Peter Lumpkins has been named as Brewton-Parker’s new “Vice President of Communications.”

Peter Lumpkins has long been one of the most vocal and least reasonable members of the very vocal and unreasoning defenders of Ergun Caner’s decade-long fraud…

View original post 132 more words

Where’s the Gospel?

Posted by Dan C. on

I ask that question a lot these days, I write this, I am watching the Seattle Seahawks’ 15 minute video (The Making of a Champion) in which players share their testimonies and one player presents the gospel and offers the viewers the opportunity to be saved after Seahawks players tell about how they realized life was bigger than just the here and now.. 

You’re not by yourself.  God is in control and if you believe in him everything will work out.

It’s never too late to ‘give your life over’.

We’ve all messed up.

Jared Wilson says he became a Christian when Jesus came to him in a dream and it moved him to change his ways.

Jesus came to rescue people because he couldn’t bear the thought of eternity without us.

To give the video credit, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:23) was quoted.

“If you’re thinking ‘I want to respond to the love of Jesus, say this prayer with me.”

““Say Jesus, I invite you into my life. I want to make you Lord of my life,” Gresham recited. “I acknowledge that I have sinned, I’ve messed up and I want to accept what you did on the cross on my behalf, so that I can have fellowship with you.”

“If you said this prayer today, just know that you are part of the family.”

So where’s the gospel? Romans 3:23 was about as close as it came. Surely we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but sin was presented as having ‘messed up’.  There wasn’t a single indication that sin was a much deeper problem than ‘having messed up’, and of course the dreaded ‘R’ word (repent) didn’t make the cut..

Where was the gospel? AWOL once again, and all I heard was ‘your best life now – lite” that Paul preached

Sadly, this short video was stock in trade for  what passes for evangelism these days. Find a celebrity of some sort and tell folks how much Jesus loves them and can’t live without them. If you hit the right chord, someone will feel so loved that they’ll say the little prayer and ‘presto’ they are a Christian.

Why do we keep doing this? It’s been going on for a long long time. The only answer is that we have placed the sovereignty of man, and his ‘free’ will above the sovereignty of God. Simply put, we are telling people they can save themselves.

On the bright side (if there is one), maybe someone will listen to it and God, in His providence, will lead that person to someone who will do the ‘Paul Harvey’ and provide ‘the rest of the story’.

As for the video that will probably get a LOT of play in Christian circles – it missed the ‘gospel’ point.

Pray for Cindy

Posted by Dan C. on

 

Recently, American Family Radio (www.AFA.net) conducted an Interview with a post-abortive Mom (Cindy) about the assault of abortion ‘abolitionist’ Toby Harmon, outside of an abortion clinic, by her boyfriend.

 

During the interview Cindy talked about the assault on Toby Harmon, which occurred outside an abortion clinic she and her boyfriend had just exited. She claimed her boyfriend was ‘provoked’ by what the abortion protestors were saying and the signs they were holding communicating that abortion was murdering babies. Apparently Cindy had not yet taken place. When asked by the AFR interviewer why she had not had the abortion yet, she answered that ”it wasn’t the right time” and “it would be unfair to the baby”. She clearly referred to the person growing in her womb as a “baby”. That indicates that there was a moral issue at stake, at some level, in Cindy’s heart and mind.  

 

The fact that she used the term ‘baby’ has been picked up by a couple of news entities, but the response that ”the timing wasn’t right”, “I wasn’t ready yet”  and “it wasn’t fair to the baby” really caught my attention! Is there a ‘time’ when execution would be ‘fair’ to the baby? So it’s ‘fair’ to the baby if you’ve thought about it, and ‘felt’ ready to  kill your ‘baby’?

 

Apparently, in this case, the ‘right time’ arrived, and Cindy felt ‘ready’, because she did have the abortion.

 

It was a really sad interview. Cindy was reminded at the close of the interview that there was forgiveness at the foot of the Cross. It was probably the last thing she wanted to hear, ut she needed to hear it. We need to pray for Cindy and her boyfriend, that they indeed meet Christ…at the foot of the Cross.

 

Worship Is A Sermon/ The Sermon is Worship

Posted by Dan C. on

Gideon Knox's avatarPolemics Report

“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.  And whateveryou do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3:15-17″

For many Churches in the SBC, or any other denomination for that matter, the big draw to get people into the pews seems to be the music.  It is the quintessential selling point for many congregations. This is especially prominent for youth groups, where loud drums, electric guitars, catchy riffs and inconsequential lyrics combined with dim lights become emblematic of the modern evangelical experience. Even apart from that though…

View original post 725 more words

What to make of the Francis Chan at IHOP

Posted by Dan C. on

Last week I read about Francis Chan speaking at the 2013 Onething Conference at IHOP in Kansas City. Knowing the background and heretical roots of IHOP I had the same questions as others – Why did Francis seem to give legitimacy to a movement with roots steeped in heretical doctrine? To be fair, I listened to Francis Chan’s entire presentation. What I learned from listening to the whole enchilada is that the comments made at the beginning needed to be taken in the context of Chan’s entire message. Some of what he said, and some of the scripture concerning false/lying prophets would seem to indict IHOP rather than lend credibility to it, although what Chan had to say specifically about IHOP was that there were great things going on there.

Francis Chan’s real goal in appearing there might not be known for some time, if ever. The contrast between his lead-in comments and the content of some of what he preached prevents me from a judgment call, which would be unwise.

My own personal feelings about IHOP and Mike Bickle come from hearing things that caused me to study IHOP and even listen to hours of Mike Bickle’s teaching. He’s still peddling the same old stuff and playing the role of a Pied Piper – stealing emotion/feelings driven children  (along with adults who, if they read their Bibles should know better), sucking them into a false ‘dominionism’ theology in which ‘Forerunners’ are needed to prepare the world for the 2nd coming of Christ, who will usher in the ‘pure’ church that must be in place for Christ to return.

The parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13 presents a different picture of the ‘end time’ church in which the church on earth will not be purified until Christ returns in judgment to purify it himself.

Of course there are other resources one can use to investigate IHOP that discuss other rotten roots of the movement, some of which are linked to at the ‘Stand Up For The Truth’ link below.

What to make of the Francis Chan/IHOP union | Stand Up for the Truth.

The Dangerous Ramifications of the Continuationist Position

Posted by Dan C. on

In the final chapter of his book “Strange Fire”, John  Mac Arthur makes an appeal to his continuationist friends, those who believe that the miraculous sign gifts given to the Apostles to authenticate their ministry being from God, in which he presents eight dangerous ramifications of the continuationist position. They were not presented with anything but a deep love for the church and those who hold to a biblical gospel while embracing continuationism.  Below are the major points that Dr. MacArthur makes:

1. The continuationist position gives an illusion of legitimacy to the broader Charismatic Movement.

2.The continuationist position degrades the miraculous nature of the true gifts that God bestowed on the first-century church.

3. The continuationist position severely limits the ability of its advocates to confront others who fall into charismatic confusion.

4. By insisting that God is still giving new revelation to Christians today, the Continuationist movement opens the gates to confusion and error.

5. By insisting that God is still giving new revelation to Christians today, the Continuationist Movement tacitly denies the doctrine of Sola Scriptura.

6. By allowing for a irrational form of tongues-speaking (usually) as a private prayer language), the Continuationist Movement opens the door to the mindless ecstasy of charismatic worship.

7. By asserting that the gift of healing has continued to the present , the continuationist position affirms the same basic premise that undergirds the fraudulent ministries of charismatic faith healers.

8. The continuationist position ultimately dishonors the Holy Spirit by distracting people from His true ministry while enticing them with counterfeits.

All of the above points were carefully and thoroughly discussed in the book itself, as well as in the conference sessions.

If you have not read the book, I encourage you to do so. It is available at Amazon.com, as well as other book retailers. I bought my copy at Barnes and Noble. I read the book after having  listened to the conference sessions. In addition to the thorough treatment of “Strange Fire” in the Charismatic Movement, there is an Appendix called Voices From Church History containing quotations concerning the Apostolic gifts spanning a period of time from 344 A.D. to the twentieth century.

The Sword of The Spirit–A Perspective from Spurgeon

Posted by Dan C. on

“We have a more sure word of testimony, a rock of truth upon which we rest, for our infallible standard lies in, “It is written. . .” The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but  the Bible is our religion. . . .It is said that it is hard to understand, but it is not so to those who seek the guidance of the Spirit of God. . . . .A babe in grace taught by the Spirit of God may know the mind of the Lord concerning salvation, and find its way to heaven by the guidance of the Word alone. But be it profound or simple; that is not the question; it is the Word of Gods, and is pure, unerring truth. Here is infallibility, and nowhere else. . . .This grand, infallible book. . .is our sole court of appeal. . . .[It is] the sword of the Spirit in the spiritual conflicts which await. . . .The Holy Spirit is the Word, and it is, therefore, living truth. O Christians, be ye sure of this, and because of it make you the Word your chosen weapon of war.”

___________________

Sermon Source: “Infallibility – Where to Find it and How to Use It” , Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol 20 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1874, 698-99, 702.

“In the Land of Nod”

Posted by Dan C. on

That’s the title of a series of lectures presented by Dr. Kim Riddlebarger of Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim, CA. I was introduced to one of the lectures via a Christian blogger (I can’t remember which one at the moment) and am listening to the entire series, the theme of which is the Reformed understanding of the Two Kingdoms (The Kingdom of God and the civil kingdom). It’s a great series so far and explains how we as believers are to live as members of God’s Kingdom and the civil kingdom at the same time. Go to http://christreformedinfo.org/mp3s-and-real-audio-of-academy/, which contains Dr. Riddlebarger’s lectures. You will see the series title (In the Land of Nod) and be able to listen to/download the sermons with the links provided.

Enjoy!