Christianity

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Confronting Apostasy: Dealing With Scripture-Twisters

By Dr Paul M Elliott

Part seven of a series. Read part six.

How will you respond when people twist Scripture to try to prevent you from doing what God’s Word commands you to do?

In our last article, we began considering a scenario that is becoming increasingly common in the church today. What would you do if you found yourself in this situation? You discover false teaching or even outright apostasy in your church. But others in the church – perhaps even your own pastor and church leadership – tell you to keep quiet about it, and they quote Scripture to back up their demand.

This is not some far-fetched scenario. It is very real. Many people in Evangelical and Reformed churches are facing this challenge today.

Over the past several years I have had the privilege of ministering to many people, literally from around the world, who are dealing with this kind of a situation. Many of them have asked for my advice because they know that I have faced such a situation myself. Two of my books, Christianity and Neo-Liberalism and A Denomination in Denial, described that particular crisis which unfolded in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I am grateful to say that I was not alone in confronting apostasy in that case, although those of us who did so were a minority. By God’s grace I can say to you that I am thoroughly convinced that we who confronted that particular apostasy did so in a manner that was thoroughly Biblical.

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Dealing With Apostasy: Don’t Be Intimidated

By Dr Paul M Elliott

Part six of a series. Read part five.

Some people in the church will try to prevent you from doing your duty when apostasy appears. Don’t let them.

Thus far in this series, we have discussed three of the five keys to a Biblical response to apostasy. Key number one is that you need to be able to define and identify apostasy. You must do that on the basis of Scripture alone. Key number two is that you need to be absolutely clear about the Biblical basis for the proper response to apostasy. The basis of that response is to exercise the proper motivation – genuine Christian love – and to employ the proper standard – Biblical truth alone. Key number three is that you need to understand why any other response to apostasy is a wrong response. Many people refuse to deal with apostasy because they say it is not the loving thing to do. But we saw that what those people call Christian love is really a counterfeit. It is not agape love at all.

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Charles H. Spurgeon ~ Quotes On Love For Brethren

Thank you Sister Rain for sharing this.

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Houses Built on Sand

By Prof. Johan Malan, Mossel Bay, South Africa (August 2011)

A house built on sand is a house without a proper foundation – it is bound to collapse when it is battered by heavy storms, despite its solid appearance above the ground. The same principle applies to individuals and nations: without a sound spiritual and moral foundation they are heading for disaster when afflicted by the storms of life (cf. Matt. 7:24-27). Jesus Christ is the only true foundation that offers lasting stability against all the storms which are incessantly unleashed from an evil world: “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11).

The unpleasant fact about our present situation is that, despite a small minority of evangelical Christians, we are essentially living in a post-Christian world which has rejected the only true foundation. Politicians are the architects of a nation’s ideological foundation and they, as well as the electorate who agree with them and have elected them to positions of authority, must take the responsibility when things go horribly wrong. Everywhere in the world problems are rapidly mounting and they sure spell disaster. We already find ourselves in a situation in which most countries are heading for a major collapse in all spheres of public life – political, social, economic, moral, as well as religious. The signs of a dramatic breakdown are there for all to see.

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Enjoying God’s Creation — Charles Spurgeon

 

“Where the birds make their nests; The stork has her home in the fir trees. The high hills are for the wild goats; The cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers.” — Psalm 104:17-18.

Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)


Psalm 104 is all through a song of nature, the adoration of God in the great outward temple of the universe. Some in these modern times have thought it to be a mark of high spirituality never to observe nature; and I remember sorrowfully reading the expressions of a godly person, who, in sailing down one of the most famous rivers in the world closed his eyes, lest the picturesque beauties of the scene should divert his mind from scriptural topics. This may be regarded by some as profound spirituality; to me it seems to savor of absurdity. There may be persons who think they have grown in grace when they have attained to this; it seems to me that they are growing out of their senses. To despise the creating work of God—what is it but, in a measure, to despise God Himself? “Whoso mocketh the poor despiseth his Maker.”

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Do Not Meddle With God’s Word

 
Quoting Charles Spurgeon . . .

Take care my dear friends, how any of you meddle with God’s Word.I have heard of folks altering passages they did not like. It will not do, you know, you cannot alter them; they are really just the same.Our only power with the Word of God is simply to let it stand as it is, and to endeavour by God’s grace to accommodate ourselves to that.

We must never try to make the Bible bow to us, in fact we cannot, for the truths of divine revelation are as sure and fast as the throne of God.If a man wants to enjoy a delightful prospect, and a mighty mountain lies in his path, does he commence cutting away at its base, in the vain hope that ultimately it will become a level plain before him? No, on the contrary, he diligently uses it for the accomplishment of his purpose by ascending it, well knowing this to be the only means of obtaining the end in view.

So must we do; we cannot bring down the truths of God to our poor finite understandings; the mountain will never fall before us, but we can seek strength to rise higher and higher in our perception of divine things, and in this way only may we hope to obtain the blessing. (Sermon 241)

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Source :    http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.504

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Is It Wrong to Name Names?

Dr Paul M Elliott

Some readers criticize us for citing, by name, individuals and institutions that promote heretical doctrines. They tell us that naming names is “unloving”. We respond that Scripture does not support this accusation. Consider the example of the Apostle Paul.

What is the Truly Loving Thing to Do?

Paul considered it vital to demonstrate his deep agape love for Christ and His church by warning believers to beware of those who would seek to “overthrow the faith of some” (2 Timothy 2:18). Paul’s consistent policy was to name names, recognizing that speaking in generalities is not always enough.

So great was Paul’s concern for the Galatian church’s departure into legalism – “another gospel, which is not another” (1:7) – that he cited the example of a fellow apostle’s temporary departure from soundness:

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What Does It Mean to Be Adopted by God?

By Dr Paul M Elliot


Part one of a series. Read part two.

This precious doctrine is often neglected in contemporary preaching. In a three-part series we shall examine three related questions: How are believers adopted by God? What does adoption mean for the believer’s present life? What does adoption mean for the life to come? We’ll also examine some current false teachings about adoption.

A Key Passage

One of the key passages that presents this wonderful doctrine is Galatians 3:26-4:7 —

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ [this speaks of Spirit baptism, not water baptism] have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

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Fellowship or Fight?

By Phil Johnson

One thing you’ll quickly notice if you make even a casual study of historical theology is this: the history of the church is a long chronicle of doctrinal development that runs from one profound controversy to the next.

In one sense it is sad that the history of the church is so marred by doctrinal conflicts, but in another sense that is precisely what the apostles anticipated. Even while the New Testament was still being written, the church was contending with serious heresies and dangerous false teachers who seemed to spring up everywhere. This was so much a universal problem that Paul made it one of the qualifications of every elder that he be strong in doctrine and able to refute those who contradict (Titus 1:9). So the church has always been beset by heretics and false teachings, and church history is full of the evidence of this.

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A Biblical Response to the Catholic-Evangelical Accord

John MacArthur – Grace to You

I want to take this opportunity to let you know about a document that you perhaps have heard of that’s called The Evangelicals and Catholics Together document, the Christian mission in the third millennium. And it’s something that was put together by Charles Colson and Richard John Neuhaus as a way to conciliate Roman Catholics and Evangelicals for basically purposes of evangelical mission in the world and purposes of the betterment of human life in America, by their definition. It’s being spread far and wide, quite remarkably it has shown up in one form or another in the major newspapers here in California and I’m sure all over the United States.

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How Pietism Deceives Christians: The Errors of Elitist teachings in the Church

By on Jul 28, 2011

By Apprising Ministries special correspondent Bob DeWaay

There are no extraordinary Christians; but being an ordinary Christian is an extraordinary thing. How I wish I would have understood that when I was a new Christian. But I didn’t. Soon after my conversion I began a quest to become the best possible Christian.

In so doing I fell prey to teachings that promised me a Christian life superior to that of ordinary Christians. What I did not know was that I had embraced pietism. I didn’t become an extraordinary Christian and I did walk straight into error.

My journey into the “deeper life” oftentimes involved embracing contradictory teachings. For example, two of my favorite teachers in the early 1970’s were Watchman Nee and Kenneth Hagin. One taught a deeper Christian life through suffering[1]) and the other taught a higher order Christianity that could cause one to be free from bodily ailments and poverty.[2]The hook was that both claimed to have the secret to becoming an extraordinary Christian. I found out that they didn’t.

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The Arminian Christ vs. The Christ of the Bible

Grant Swart

There have been many articles written on this subject, one which never ceases to provide for spirited debate and much controversial commentary. Unnecessarily so, if the Word of God was accepted by all professing Christians as the complete and only authority on the subject. But alas, that is not to be and is an unrealistic scenario.

Apart from the fact that I find it quite incredible that any true Christian believer will deny the Doctrines of Grace as being Biblical, similarly I fail to understand why any person would wish to deny that they are elect of God.

Here is a bit of childish logic, I just had to: For what good reason would one want to be seen as non-elect, unless they truly are? Furthermore, if they realized that they were not elect, and they wished to be, would that not make them elect, anyway? Is a longing for God not of God? Continue reading →

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A Solemn Warning for All Churches

 

A Sermon
(No. 68)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, February 24, 1856, by the
REV. C. H. Spurgeon
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

“Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy.”—Revelation 3:4.

MY LEARNED and eminently pious predecessor, Dr. Gill, is of opinion that the different churches spoken of in the Book of Revelation are types of different states through which the church of God shall pass until it comes into the Philadelphia state, the state of love, in which Jesus Christ shall reign in its midst, and afterwards, as he thinks, shall pass into the state of Laodicea, in which condition it shall be when suddenly the Son of Man shall come to judge the world in righteousness and the people in equity. I do not go with him in all his suppositions with regard to these seven churches as following each other in seven periods of time; but I do think he was correct when he declared that the church in Sardis was a most fitting emblem of the church in his days, as also in these. The good old doctor says, “When we shall find any period in which the church was more like the state of Sardis as described here, than it is now?” And he points out the different particulars in which the church of his day (and I am sure it is yet more true of the church at the present day) was exactly like the church in Sardis. I shall use the church in Sardis as a figure of what I conceive to be the sad condition of Christendom at the present moment. My first point will be general defilement—there were but “a few names” in Sardis who had not “defiled their garments;” secondly, special preservation—there were a few who had not defiled their garments; and thirdly, a peculiar reward—”And they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy.”

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Examine Yourself

John MacArthur
Matthew 5-7; 2 Corinthians 13:5

Are you a Christian? Many people who claim to be point to some event in the past to substantiate their claim. But inviting Jesus to come into your life in the past is not proof that you are genuinely saved. In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul says to the Corinthian church, “ Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves (emphasis added).” He wouldn’t have said that if some event in the past were obviously the answer. The Bible never verifies anyone’s salvation by the past but by the present. If there is no evidence of salvation in your life now, you need to face the fact that you may not be a Christian. You need to examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith. How does one do that? Jesus shows us in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

The Distinguishing Mark of a Christian

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Promoting Contemplative SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM ok in Southern Baptist Convention

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on Jul 14, 2011

Lately I’ve written pieces like “Good” Experiences Aren’t Necessarily From God and Supernatural Gatherings In The New Downgrade here at this online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries showing the sad slide of largely pretending to be Protestant evangelicalism and the growing falling away of the mainstream visible Christian community.

I’ve been documenting all of this for you as well as giving you much evidence of the apostatizing evangelical camp embarking on a spiritual game of Russian roulette by embracing highly subjective Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM).

This is the type of Reformation-reversing so-called Spiritual Formation that’s being taught by Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster along with his spiritual twin and Southern Baptist minister Dallas Willard in their festering cult of Foster-Willardism.

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