It seems to be far safer to proclaim chance or cosmic fate than to proffer the truth held in Scripture to devotees of the post-modern, word of faith, pseudo-charismatic gospel. Apparently, Bible believing Christians who dare to quote truth from Scripture are misguided, self-centered, overly enthusiastic and arrogant Bibliolaters. Even worse, they are regarded as fantastical red fairies who place way too much emphasis on the Word of God. According to any number of variations of post-modern thinkers, the same God who provided us with His written Word, also made sure that the church had charismatic opponents who could operate from within and who have been armed with personal revelation to refute those who advocate adherence to sola Scriptura.
Additionally, what is being most recklessly proclaimed by these morally enthused opponents, is the belief that Scripture can be interpreted in many ways, and that understanding of Scripture is reliant on the private message which the individual receives from Bible text. Many pastors and elders in the post-modern church deceptively proclaim that the Bible is simply a collection of rough guidelines and historic illustrations, which may or may not be relevant to the individual Christian’s life. Continue reading →
In a more light-hearted poll, we create a hypothetical situation which could leave some of us with a difficult choice. Although the scenario is totally fictional and most unlikely, it is nevertheless something to think about, and have a little fun with while watching how our fellow readers regard the various books of the Christian Bible.
For those who might have forgotten the numbers, there are a total of 66 books in the canon of the Christian Bible, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. There are 1189 chapters in those 66 books containing 31,173 verses and approximately 773,692 words. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox versions of the Bible also contain a collection of uninspired books written during the “silent centuries” (400BC – 27AD). Christians reject the Apocrypha as having not been inspired by God and view all these books as secular uninspired history written by men without the aid of God. But, that is not the subject of this poll, as we covered the subject of the Apocrypha in another poll last year.
Our fantasy situation is this. You will be compelled by the ruling authorities to go to a foreign country for an extended period of time to pick pink striped bananas, count goats and to disprove reports which say that Elvis is selling second-hand pizzas in that country. There you will find yourself among a population consisting of mostly unbelievers and people who follow false religions. So, you will have to do some evangelizing and Bibles will be scarce. Continue reading →
With all the buzz about the interfaith aspect of Saddleback Church’s P.E.A.C.E. Plan and the controversy over the King’s Way initiative that partners Rick Warren’s church together with the Islamic community, many question just how Saddleback is reaching Muslims after promising not to convert anyone to Christianity.
Could it be that not converting anyone is one reason Pastor Warren is getting so many questions about Chrislam?
This is a photo of Emmaus Weekend Pentecost, an event held last June 11 and 12 in The Parish of Our Lady of Wisdom Catholic Church in Sophia Antipolis, a town near Nice, France: Continue reading →
(This is Part 3, the final poll in a 3 part series. Please see older posts on this blog for the results of the previous 2 polls)
The results of the previous two polls in this series have been tallied and voting is now closed on them, but only on those two polls. Voting will remain open on all other polls. Thank you to all the readers who participated in those polls. This will be the final poll in this series, the result of which should give us a good idea what the most controversial subject being discussed among Christians today, is.
The previous polls which I am referring to here were “What do you think are the four most controversial THEOLOGICAL issues being discussed among Christians today?” and “What do you think are the four most controversial CULTURAL issues being discussed among Christians today?. As I said I would, in the article which accompanied both those polls, I have combined the winning results you voted for of those two polls into one final poll here.
Anyone can vote in this poll, even if you did not vote in the previous polls. This is also a multi-choice poll, you may vote for the four issues you regard as the most controversial.
Please refer to the article accompanying the previous two polls if you would like further information regarding the nature of and reasoning behind the content of the three polls.
The ten issues included as choices in this poll are the ten most voted for issues from the previous polls (the top 5 from each group).
The (Im)Morality of Tattoos was originally an assignment for a Contemporary Moral Issues class offered at Phoenix Seminary. After the original writing, it was modified to also address the ethicality of body piercings. The modified version was published as “Under the Needle: An Ethical Evaluation of Tattoos and Body Piercings” in The Christian Research Journal (Vol. 28/ No. 06/ 2005) available at http://www.equip.org. The author (Lorne Zelyck) reserves all editorial rights and privileges of this paper.
The (Im)Morality of Tattoos
I. A Brief Historical Timeline of Tattoos
In October 1991, a five thousand year old corpse was found frozen in a glacier between Italy and Austria. The body of this man (later called Otzi) is considered the best preserved corpse of the Bronze Age every found, and dates to around 3300 B.C. The skin of Otzi has become of great interest because it bears several tattoos: a cross, six straight lines fifteen centimeters long, and numerous parallel lines.1Continue reading →
Firstly, before we get into the meat of this subject, and before it gets under our skin, allow me to sketch a light-hearted yet honest picture from a personal perspective, on a subject which seems to be very weighty and of great legalistic importance to some. (Please excuse the puns, …yes, I know).
Ever so often a question regarding the tattoo and the Christian crosses our path, and with equal regularity disagreements over the issue are likely to follow. With even greater regularity, people from all walks of life sporting tattoos of a myriad of shapes, colours and sizes cross our path. Tattoos have become a societal norm, but do they present a problem to the believer? For some, it has become a controversial phenomenon which, as is almost always the case in matters of this nature, Satan has been able to use to cause disunity and division among believers.
(This is Part 2 of a two part poll. Please also vote in Part 1 in the previous post below)
Strange, this, but true. I suppose one should ascribe it to the exhausted misnomer, “human nature”, or more simply to the way we mostly think. With regularity, it is the more controversial subjects which attract the most attention on most blogs, forums and discussion groups in the social media. This tendency, a norm within secular circles, inevitably seems to apply to many Christian discussions, as well.
This is a Christian blog regarding fundamentals of the Christian faith, therefore, one would expect that the majority of the regular readers here would be from of the fundamental Christian camp. Even so, previous polls which I have placed on this blog regarding the more controversial issues are those which have, by far, received the most votes. Polls regarding the less controversial, and dare I say it, the more scholarly topics, generate less interest.
Are all the issues listed appropriate subjects for Christian discussion? Continue reading →
(This is Part 1 of atwo partpoll. Please also vote in Part 2 in the next post above)
Strange, this, but true. I suppose one should ascribe it to the exhausted misnomer, “human nature”, or more simply to the way we mostly think. With regularity, it is the more controversial subjects which attract the most attention on most blogs, forums and discussion groups in the social media. This tendency, a norm within secular circles, inevitably seems to apply to many Christian discussions, as well.
This is a Christian blog regarding fundamentals of the Christian faith, therefore, one would expect that the majority of the regular readers here would be from of the fundamental Christian camp. Even so, previous polls which I have placed on this blog regarding the more controversial issues are those which have, by far, received the most votes. Polls regarding the less controversial, and dare I say it, the more scholarly topics, generate less interest.
Are all the issues listed appropriate subjects for Christian discussion? Continue reading →
Although legalism and the error it represents cannot be taken lightly, I thought it might be apt to place this well known bit of humour before Part 2 of this article. It (sort of) addresses legalism, yet it is contradictory as there is no pre-requisite for us to “earn” life eternal in lieu of the perfection of the sacrifice made by the Lamb, our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Of course, there are those out there who love and cling passionately to their legalism, who would fault the relevance or suitability of even this humour. I am well aware of some of them who do read my articles and in particular, I refer to those of immature contentious spirit who confuse a regard for the severity of sin, repentance and true sanctification with the gross error of legalism.
A man dies and goes to heaven. He is met at the Pearly Gates by a Heavenly custodian.
The custodian says, “Here’s how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven. Continue reading →
It is with daily regularity that I encounter certain fellow Christians, although I suppose in some instances they are merely professing Christians, who practice or promote the errors of legalism. I’m sure that we all do, that is, cross paths with people who endorse and encourage some or other form of legalistic practice everyday. The heresy of legalism is rooted in an erroneous teaching or understanding which continually attempts to place the Christian under some or other system of law and thereby attempts to make salvation, or at the very least a few percentage points of our salvation, dependant on man’s own efforts.
Legalism promotes the belief that one can be saved by keeping, or to the best of one’s ability attempting to keep, God’s commandments. Very often adherence to additional rituals and rules are encouraged by the legalistic system in order to retain salvation. Certain aspects of human life are often considered taboo and are presented as being detrimental to the legalist’s success in ‘achieving’ salvation. Legalists believe that they can, through their own efforts at self-righteousness and legal obedience, impress God sufficiently so as to influence His attitude toward them, and therefore reward them with eternal salvation.
Legalism can be described as a false doctrinal position or worldview within certain Christian Continue reading →
There are diverse opinions concerning the thousand years of peace (Millennium) described in Revelation and the events associated with it. Some interpret a literal, future, thousand-year time period in which Christ will rule over the Earth, a time which will be characterized by peace and harmony. Others understand a literal age of peace, but think the “thousand years” is a figure of speech. Still others see the Millennium as symbolic of a spiritual ideal, with no corresponding earthly condition. All of these positions fall into the category of millennialism, a broad term which includes any and all ideas relating to the millennium of Biblical prophecy.
In a nutshell, here are some very basic definitions of the positions regarding the millennium.
Premillenialism:
There are three definitions, any one of which could describe the views of the premillenialist:
Pretribulationists believe that the second coming will be in two stages separated by a seven-year period of tribulation. At the beginning of the tribulation, true Christians will rise to meet the Lord in the air.
Midtribulationists believe that the Rapture will take place at the halfway point of the seven-year tribulation, i.e. after 3½ years. This event begins the second, most intense part of the tribulation.
Posttribulationists hold that Christ will not return until the end of the tribulation. Christians, rather than being raptured at the beginning of the tribulation, or halfway through, will live through it
Postmillenialism:
Postmillennialists do not believe in a premillennial appearance of Christ. The postmillennial position is that the millennium began at the inauguration of Christ’s kingdom reign when he ascended to his heavenly throne. Christ will appear at the end of the millennium to lead his people into the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem.
Amillenialism:
Amillennialists do not believe in a literal Millennium. The “thousand years” is an expression, a way of referring to the entire period from the first coming of Christ, two thousand years ago, until the future second coming. The Second Coming will be a natural culmination of the process of world evangelization, rather than a revolutionary event that brings sudden and dramatic change.
We will place more polls in the near future which will deal with other aspects of Christian eschatology (an understanding or study of the end times and the destiny of man according to Bible prophecy).
The largely pretending to be Protestant evangelical community continues its pilgrimage back to the legalistic spiritual bondage of apostate Roman Catholicism and its evil author the Church of Rome.
As an online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries does what we can to document this woeful walk away from the truths recaptured during the Lord’s Reformation.
8For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved ([a]delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God; 9Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law’s demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.]
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As the Christmas Season approaches, questions like this sometimes arise. Like everything in life, it is important to approach these issues with biblical discernment.
In this case, we see nothing wrong with the traditional Christmas tree. However, some have taught that it’s wrong for anyone to have a Christmas tree in their home. But are their reasons valid? We don’t think so. Let’s look at the two most common objections people make against having a Christmas tree.
First, some object on the basis that Christmas trees have pagan origins. It is believed that Boniface, English missionary to Germany in the eighth century, instituted the first Christmas tree. He supposedly replaced sacrifices to the god Odin’s sacred oak with a fir tree adorned in tribute to Christ. But certain other accounts claim that Martin Luther introduced the Christmas tree lighted with candles. Based on that information you could say the Christmas tree has a distinguished Christian pedigree.
However, even if a pagan background were clearly established, that wouldn’t necessarily mean we could not enjoy the use of a Christmas tree. Perhaps the following analogy will help.
John MacArthur
For the Love of His Truth 