Category Archives: The Church

Christians brave horrifying massacres

Posted by Dan C. on

Victims pledge to persevere as mobs rape, maim, burn faithful

By Drew Zahn
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Despite brutal and horrifying persecution that has left countless dead and an estimated 50,000 homeless, Christians in India’s Orissa state are determined that God will have the victory in their violence-torn homeland.

Since the assassination of anti-Christian Hindu leader Swami Laxamanananda Saraswat on Aug. 22, mobs of Hindu fanatics that blame Christians for the leader’s death have been roving the Orissa state on the eastern shore of India, torching churches and homes, brutalizing Christians and burning the bodies of those they kill.

Reports from missions organization Gospel for Asia (GFA), however, tell of courage and determination in the face of violence.

One story reported on Christian Newswire told of a missionary beaten multiple times by a Hindu mob demanding he leave a village where he had been working.

“Even if you kill me, I will not make a vow that I will never come back,” the missionary is reported to have answered. “That depends not on me but on the Lord. If he wants to send me here, then I will come,” he told his attackers.

Simon John, a GFA regional leader in India, said, “Christians will stand together in this nation, in love and to lift up the people, even if persecution or death comes. We will not stop doing good for the people.”

Persecution and death, however, have come, and they have come by horrifying means.

United Kingdom newspaper The Times reports several cases of brutality over the last two weeks alone: a nun was gang-raped; a worker at a church-run orphanage was burned alive; and a woman seven months pregnant was cut to pieces along with her one-year-old son when she refused to denounce Christianity and convert to Hinduism.

Ravindra Nath Prahan, 45, told the Times he and 113 others, warned by a text message, fled to the jungle, living off rainwater and foraging food for a week. His paralyzed brother, however, couldn’t take to flight.

“They doused him with petrol and taunted him; we could hear him screaming,” Prahan told The Times. His brother was burned alive.

“I could have tried to save him. But we had to save ourselves,” Prahan said.

An estimated 50,000 Christians have been forced to run for their lives, while the Hindu radicals have torched more than 3,000 homes and over 100 churches. The Vatican records 36 deaths, but warns an accurate account is impossible since the mobs are burning their victims.

Orissa made headlines last Christmas when 95 churches were razed and at least five people were murdered, The Times reports, but the current massacre reflects the country’s worst persecution of Christians since gaining its independence in 1947.

“It’s a national shame,” India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has reportedly said.

As WND reported earlier, the Indian Supreme Court last week ordered additional police forces into the Kandhamal district, the worst region of violence, and also ordered state officials in Orissa to do more to protect Christians. Reports had come from the region that the police were permitting the attacks.

Citizens have petitioned India’s president and rallied in the country’s capital city to seek a stop to the violence.

GFA reports, however, that even though 24 of their missionaries have been attacked and 27 GFA-related churches have been destroyed, the Indian Christians still believe God will have victory.

“The encouraging thing is that the attackers themselves acknowledge that Orissa used to be only 2 percent Christian, and now it’s 28 percent Christian,” reports Juria Bardhan, GFA’s state leader in Orissa. Pointing to Christianity’s historical growth during times of persecution and the dramatic rise of Christianity among India’s lowest, despised caste of people, Juria added, “They don’t understand that by doing this, the church will grow by leaps and bounds, and this will cause thousands to come to Christ.”

This is just one example of the escalating persecution of believers worldwide. Coming to America? Probably not on this scale, but in subtler ways maybe – watch Canada.

Why do we believers hesitate to evangelize?

Posted by Dan C. on

Have you ever met someone who just got a great deal on a new car (the one they REALLY wanted to buy) who didn’t tell everyone they knew about it? Not only do they tell everyone about it, they usually broadcast the news with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm. What’s going on with believers who find it hard to share the gospel? Wouldn’t being spared the wrath of a just God and having received the gift of eternal life toss having bought the car of our dreams under the bus?

Mark Dever, in The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, presents 12 reasons believers hesitate in sharing the gospel, summarized below:

1. Pray.
Our weakness is evangelism is often related to an absence of prayer. When we neglect praying about evangelism we see the task as too big for us, or opportunities too scarce. Mark says if we pray for opportunities we’ll be amazed at the ways God answers.

2. Plan.
Because we don’t plan to evangelize it generally doesn’t happen. Many of us tend to think we are presently too busy, and think time will materialize later. It will not. Make time, develop a plan.

3. Accept.
We have to accept that God has given us the responsibility of sharing the gospel. It is not the calling of a few, not limited to the “gifted.” Mark says, quite dodging your responsibility and make the necessary adjustments.

4. Understand.
Part of the problem for many is a misunderstanding of what makes our evangelism effective. Success in evangelism is related to faithfulness, not fruit. Fruit is the work of God, not man.

5. Be Faithful.
Mark says, “Maybe we are too polite to be faithful to God in this area. Maybe we are more concerned about people’s response than God’s glory.” For many the desire to be polite and not offend people (or in my case, not wanting to come off like a salesman) is an excuse to remain unfaithful to the call of God.

6. Risk.
Some people are shy. We often do not know what a person’s response will be when we present the gospel. In my own recent experience, I fear losing a potential relationship by throwing out the gospel too soon, or too awkwardly. We will often have to risk (a relationship, embarrassment, etc.) in order to be faithful to God.

7. Prepare.
Give your evangelistic work some thought. What potential objection or question might your hear? You are more likely to engage if you have prepared yourself in advance.

8. Look.
Apathy, laziness and busyness can keep us from seeing the opportunities God provides. So can unbelief. Pray for opportunities and then anticipate God’s provision.

9. Love.
If we love people we will seek their good, and this of course includes sharing the gospel with them.

10. Fear.
– of God, not man. When we refuse to share the gospel with others we “are not regarding him or his will as the final and ultimate rule of our actions.”

11. Stop.
Mark says, “We should stop excusing ourselves from evangelism on the basis that God is sovereign. We should not conclude from his omnipotence that our obedience is therefore pointless.” We must affirm both God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility as it relates to conversion and evangelism.

12. Consider.
Pointing to Hebrews 12:3 Mark points us back to the gospel itself. He says that when we aren’t considering the cross of Christ we lose the heart to proclaim the good news. True gospel-centeredness will compel us to evangelize.

I have only one item to add, but not to the above list. These reasons for hesitation in sharing the gospel assume one has a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.  There are many who claim to know Christ and bear His name, but have never met Him. You don’t share what you don’t have.

NOTE: I found the above summary at a Web site here and might need to find the book.

Test Revival with Doctrine – John Piper

Posted by Dan C. on

This is a very relevant comment by John Piper from Desiring God Ministries concerning recent events that impact the entire body of Christ:

Lee Grady, the editor of Charisma, one of the main charismatic magazines, has written a lament and critique of the Lakeland “revival” which is now in a tailspin over the leader’s announced separation from his wife. Grady’s summons to pray for the church and our nation is right, and among his commendable questions and observations are these:

“Many of us would rather watch a noisy demonstration of miracles, signs and wonders than have a quiet Bible study. Yet we are faced today with the sad reality that our untempered zeal is a sign of immaturity. Our adolescent craving for the wild and crazy makes us do stupid things. It’s way past time for us to grow up.”

  • “Many of us would rather watch a noisy demonstration of miracles, signs and wonders than have a quiet Bible study. Yet we are faced today with the sad reality that our untempered zeal is a sign of immaturity. Our adolescent craving for the wild and crazy makes us do stupid things. It’s way past time for us to grow up.”
  • “True revival will be accompanied by brokenness, humility, reverence and repentance—not the arrogance, showmanship and empty hype that often was on display in Lakeland.”
  • “A prominent Pentecostal evangelist called me this week after Bentley’s news hit the fan. He said to me: “I’m now convinced that a large segment of the charismatic church will follow the anti-Christ when he shows up because they have no discernment.” Ouch. Hopefully we’ll learn our lesson this time and apply the necessary caution when an imposter shows up.”

Charismatics will not be the only ones who follow the Antichrist when he rises. So will the mass of those who today in thousands of evangelical churches belittle the truth of biblical doctrine as God’s agent to set us free (John 8:32).

Discernment is not created in God’s people by brokenness, humility, reverence, and repentance. It is created by biblical truth and the application of truth by the power of the Holy Spirit to our hearts and minds. When that happens, then the brokenness, humility, reverence, and repentance will have the strong fiber of the full counsel of God in them. They will be profoundly Christian and not merely religious and emotional and psychological.

The common denominator of those who follow the Antichrist will not be “charismatic.” It will be, as Paul says, “they refused to love the truth.”

“The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)

Our test for every Lakeland that comes along should first be doctrinal and expositional. Is this awakening carried along by a “love for the truth” and a passion to hear the whole counsel of God proclaimed?

Perhaps God is doing some housecleaning?

Christians, a Chosen Generation – Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

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“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;
that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” — 1 Peter 2:9

 

The apostle in the preceding verses speaks of the great difference between Christians and unbelievers, on account of their diverse and opposite relations to Jesus Christ. The former have Christ for their foundation, they come to him as a living stone, a stone chosen of God, and precious; and they also as living stones are built up a spiritual house. The Christian church is the temple of God, and particular believers are the stones of which that temple is built. The stones of Solomon’s temple, which were so curiously polished and well fitted for their places in that building, were a type of believers. And Christ is the foundation of this building, or the chief corner stone. On the contrary, to the latter, to unbelievers, Christ, instead of being a foundation on which they rest and depend, is a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense. Instead of being a foundation to support them and keep them from falling, he is an occasion of their stumbling and falling.And again, to believers Christ is a precious stone: “Unto you therefore which believe, he is precious.” But to unbelievers he is a stone that is disallowed, and rejected, and set at nought. They set light by him, as by the stones of the street. They make no account of him, and they disallow him. When they come to build, they cast this stone away as being of no use, not fit for a foundation, and not fit for a place in their building. In the eighth verse the apostle tells the Christians to whom he writes, that those unbelievers who thus reject Christ, and to whom he is a stone of stumbling, and rock of offense, were appointed to this. “And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed.” It was appointed that they should stumble at the word that Christ should be an occasion not of their salvation, but of their deeper damnation. And then in our text, he puts the Christians in mind how far otherwise God had dealt with them, than with those reprobates. They were a chosen generation. God had rejected the others in his eternal counsels, but themselves he had chosen from eternity. They were a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.

God does not utterly cast off the world of mankind. Though they are fallen and corrupted, and there is a curse brought upon the world, yet God entertained a design of appropriating a certain number to himself. Indeed all men and all creatures are his, as well since as before the fall. Whether they are elected or not, they are his. God does not lose his right to them by the fall, neither does he lose his power to dispose of them: they are still in his hands. Neither does he lose his end in creating them. God has made all things for himself, even the wicked for the day of evil. It possibly was Satan’s design, in endeavoring the fall of man, to cause that God should lose the creature that he had made, by getting him away from God into his own possession, and to frustrate God of his end in creating man. But this Satan has not obtained.

The above was excerpted from a longer sermon by Jonathan Edwards, available for reading online here.

 

Doctrine: The Essential Foundation

Posted by Dan C. on

A few excerpts from an article by John MacArthur found here. 

True biblical doctrine is practical. In fact, nothing is more practical than sound doctrine. Those who listen to right doctrine and put it into practice are transformed by it.

It’s become increasingly apparent that the contemporary mind is suspicious of propositional truth. The culture has imbibed the postmodernism construct: propositions lead to doctrines, which lead to theologies, which form the meta-narratives that the elite and powerful use to dominate, manipulate, and take advantage of the masses. “No more propositions, doctrines, and imperialistic meta-narratives,” they say. “Just show us Jesus by what you do.”

That may sound good, but it’s fundamentally flawed. . . .

Doctrine gives rise to dedication to Christ, the greatest practical act.

.. .the scriptural concept of doctrine includes the entire message of the gospel-its teaching about God, salvation, sin, and righteousness. Those concepts are so tightly bound to daily living that the first-century mind saw them as inseparably linked to practical truth.

This intent of this blogger is to set forth the truth of scripture, and focuses at times on biblical doctrine that seems to be ignored or simply has been forgotten in our postmodern world where God seems to be just a cuddly’ grandfather figure’ and His Son our ‘dance partner’. Don’t take that personally. The editorial comments of this blog’s author are not intended to be personal, but reflective of ‘trends’ in the beloved Bride of Christ that are sweeping the land. Mine is but a small voice among a growing chorus of believers who are giving voice to their discontent at seeing the God of the universe and the Lord of all creation ‘dumbed down’ and redefined by secular humanism and popular man-centered theologies.

I love you all!

From Truth to a New Spirituality – Berit Kjos

Posted by Dan C. on

There is an absolutely outstanding chart of how core beliefs of our Christian faith transition from Biblical Christianity through a Transition stage to the New Spiritually, courtesy of Kjos Ministries, located here, that begins with this introduction:

“The hope of the New Age faith, or New Spirituality, is that when this One Humanity has achieved its ‘divine potential’ and all separation has been purged from the world, then world problems such as ‘tribalism’ and poverty and hatred and violence will be left behind. The world will then be transformed by this New Humanity into a divine new world of peace, love, good will, and sharing where everyone can be free to worship his own inner (immanent) ‘God’ of his own understanding in his own way.

      “The call for this New Age ‘kingdom of God’ is now being so widely heeded, even in today’s Christianity, that the building of humanity’s Ark of Oneness is suddenly nearing completion.” Tamara Hartzell

“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception….” 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

“The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.” Jeremiah 14:14

The belief topics presented include Truth, Jesus, Incarnation, Salvation, Faith, Sin, Gospel, Fellowship, Service, Separation, Persecution, and the Kingdom of God. To pique your interest, here is the entry for the Gospel:

Biblical Christianity:

The “good news” about the suffering, redeeming death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus — that we might be saved from sin and joined to Christ. Those who deny His Gospel will face His judgment.

Transition:

The old Gospel is replaced by a more “positive” gospel: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for you. Just agree and accept in His love. Don’t dwell on sin.

New Spirituality:

“…this message is the only message that can save the world.… That message is The New Gospel: WE ARE ALL ONE.”

The links in this post will lead you to additional sites/articles well worth reading.

Luther on ‘Free-Will’

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“It is not irreligious, wasteful, or superficial, but essentially healthy and necessary, for a Christian to know whether or not his will has anything to do in matters pertaining to salvation. Indeed, let me tell you, this is the hinge on which our discussion turns, the crucial issue between us; our aim is, simply, to investigate what ability “free will” has, in what respect it is the subject of divine action and how it stands related to the grace of God. If we know nothing of these things, we shall know nothing whatsoever of Christianity, and shall be in worse than the heathen! He who does not admit this should acknowledge that he is not a Christian; and he who ridicules or derides it should realize that he is the greatest enemy of Christianity. For if I am ignorant in the nature, extent and limits of what I can and must do in relationship to God, I shall be equally ignorant and uncertain of the nature, extent and limits of what God can and will do in me – though God, in fact, works everything in everyone. Now, if I am ignorant of the works and powers of God, I am ignorant of God himself; and if I do not know God, I cannot worship, praise, give thanks or serve Him, for I do not know how much I should attribute to myself and how much to Him. We need, therefore, to have in mind a clear-cut distinction between God’s power and ours, and God’s work and ours, if we would live a godly life.”

“This problem [the knowledge of what we contribute to our salvation] is one half of the whole sum of Christianity, since on it both knowledge of oneself and the knowledge and glory of God quite vitally depend.  . . . The other half of the sum of Christianity is concerned with whether God’s foreknowledge is uncertain, and whether everything we do could be done any other way.”

“Now, since on God’s own testimony, men are ‘flesh’, they can savour of nothing but the flesh; therefore ‘free-will can avail only to sin. And if, while the Spirit of God is calling and teaching among them, they go from bad to worse, what could they do when left to themselves, without the Spirit of God? . . .The same is true of all men, for all are ‘flesh’; as Christ says, ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh’ (John 3:6) How grave a defect this is, He Himself there teaches, when he says: ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (v. 5)…I call a man ungodly if he is without the Spirit of God; for Scripture says that the Spirit is given to justify the ungodly. As Christ distinguished the Spirit from the flesh, saying: “that which is born of the flesh is flesh’, and adds that which is born of the flesh cannot enter the kingdom of God’, it obviously follows that whatever is flesh is ungodly, under God’s wrath, and a stranger to His kingdom. And if it is a stranger to God’s kingdom and Spirit, it follows of necessity that it is under the kingdom and spirit of Satan. For there is no middle kingdom between the kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan, which are ever at war with each other.” – Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will

Created for His Glory

Posted by Dan C. on

From the following scripture passages, what would you conclude is God’s first priority? 

“But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! . . . Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.” Isa 43 1.7

“You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me. “It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, And there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And I am God.” Isa 43:10-12

“The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise.” Isa:43:21

“For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.” Isa 48:11

“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” .”Rev 4:11

“For by him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether they are kings, lords, rulers, or powers. All things have been created through him and for him.” Col 1:16

“He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. . . to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.” Eph 2:5-6, 12

“For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:9-11

“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” 1 Cor 10:31

Having read these passages, might it be that God’s first priority is His own glory? And if God’s first priority is His own glory, how should that be expressed in the way we “do” church (I hate the phrase, but it’s common today)? Should our sermons be all about ‘us’, and what God wants to do ‘for’ us to better our lives, or should they be be more about how we can bring Him glory? What about our worship music – should be more about our “warm fuzzies” or His majesty and glory”? What about our teaching? What about our programs? The list goes on and on. . .

How are things in your church? How are things in mine? How do I view my own life as a believer? Is my life as a believer more about what He can do for me, or how I bring Him glory as one who has been created, first and foremost, for His glory?

Worship: Wonder and Awesome Fear

Posted by Dan C. on

So I said, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” –Isaiah 6:5

“I have said it before and I will say it again: This low concept of God is our spiritual problem today. Mankind has succeeded quite well in reducing God to a pitiful nothing!

The God of the modern context is no God at all. He is simply a glorified chairman of the board, a kind of big businessman dealing in souls. The God portrayed in much of our church life today commands very little respect.

We must get back to the Bible and to the ministration of God’s Spirit to regain a high and holy concept of God. Oh, this awesome, terrible God, the dread of Isaac! This God who made Isaiah cry out, “I am undone!” This God who drove Daniel to his knees in honor and respect.

To know the Creator and the God of all the universe is to revere Him. It is to bow down before Him in wonder and awesome fear.”  Men Who Met God, 79-80.

Note Tozer’s inclusion of ‘awesome fear’ in this observation concerning the common concept of God prevalent in the middle of the last century. That seems to be something missing from much of American evangelicalism in our time also.

Thinking Rightly About God

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“The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us… The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them.”

“A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error of doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be trace finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.

It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity.”

(A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy)