by Caleb Gordon | Aug 15, 2019
The fight is real. I am watching it in real time. I am
seeing the warning signs that are telling us we are almost at the point of no
return. What is it that I’m referring to? Our view of God, the Bible and
humanity.
Let me explain. Theological liberalism has crept into the
church, and it’s destroying us. I’m not talking about behavior
modification. I’m talking about our worldviews. We have seen in just a
couple of weeks Christian “leaders” step out and denounce their Christian faith
and say they are no longer Christians.
This entire thought process is foreign to me and the people
in the Bible. Men and women who truly encounter the God of the universe
were transformed. Let me be incredibly clear. These “Christian
leaders” were NOT Christians. God’s Word proves this.
“Children, it is the last hour, and as you
have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.
Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but
they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with
us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:18-19).
If these Christian leaders were true followers of Christ
they would have stayed the course. So because they did not stay the
course, we can deduce that they are not followers at all. They were
imposters. So I will come to the idea that it matters how we view
God, the Bible, and humanity.
1. Our view of God. Many Christians have a view that God is nothing more than a magical genie who grants wishes. Case and point is this quote from Kenneth Copeland “I am a billionaire, because the assignment that the Lord gave me, He said: ‘I want you to begin to confess the billion flow.'” If we view God as a means to end we will not have the proper understanding of who God truly is. God is the most sovereign, holy, and worthy being in all of the universe that deserves our worship regardless.
2. Our view of the Bible. Many people including
“Christians” view the Bible as a good book or an inspiring book, but those
views are fundamentally flawed. God’s Word is the final authority for all
of life, as well as for all of humanity. We will be judged according to
God’s Word. The Bible is inspired and is literally the breath of God on paper.
If we do not view God’s Word in this light, we will inevitably fall into the
trap of humanism. We will end up making ourselves god, and that is
exactly what the devil did in the book of Genesis. So when we prop
ourselves up as the final authority, who does that make us exactly like?
3. Our view of humanity. Something that is
espoused in the world in which we live is that human beings are basically good,
and we just have flawed moments. I know that sounds really catchy, but
it’s a very dangerous view to hold to. Because when sin entered the world,
it fractured and destroyed everything. That includes our
goodness.
God’s word is very clear.
“We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a
leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isa. 64:6).
If God’s Word says that we are not good, what makes us
good? It’s Christ that makes us good.
“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be
the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through
Christ” (2 Cor. 5:21).
If we as humans have any good, it is not our own. It is
because of Jesus Christ alone. Our worldview matters. It will matter
how and where you will spend your eternity. I want to plead with you
Christians, don’t allow an anti-Christ worldview to slip into your head.
The enemy will try to set up shop in your life. Don’t give him any ground.
Keep your focus on God’s Word and on Jesus himself. You will never go
wrong.
God’s word says it best.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
Stay alert!
by Hannah Hanzel | Jul 25, 2019
Several weeks ago, I was walking on a beach in Galveston,
Texas. With each shifting step, my family’s rented beach house got further and
further behind me. I had to get away from the house just for a bit and be
alone. After all, there were about 20 people in the house at the time. But it
wasn’t really for solitude that I went on this walk. It was for memories.
As the waves tumbled up to my feet and slumped back into its
watery home, I talked to my Lord. I spoke with Him about this family vacation.
I noted the hours of Mario Kart my siblings and I played on the Wii as the rain
interrupted our beach days.
I told Him about the laughter that bubbled out of my
three-year-old nephew as we played on my grandparents’ bed. I shared in detail
the hilarity of going crab hunting with all the menfolk after dark. I’m sure He
smiled as I recalled with Him the family worship service we had our first night
at the beach.
From swinging in hammocks with my sister, to shopping on The
Strand, to meeting up with old missionary friends, I had a lot to talk about
with my Creator. Gratitude swept over me, not unlike the foamy waves at my
feet.
My walk along the shore and along my memories was halted
when a single thought arose, “What if God takes it all?”
My home. My parents. My siblings and their spouses. My
precious nephew and soon-to-be-born niece. My amazing job. My freelance
company. My church. My dear, dear friends. Even my silly dog. What if God takes
it all?
Admittedly, even at the mere thought of it, I nearly doubled
over right there on the wet sand. My feet sunk, much like my heart, as the tide
and my thoughts came in. I pressed on in my walk, this time heavier and tearfully.
My thoughts raced, as my fists seemed to grip all those things I hold dear. I
turned around, concluding I had walked far enough. I felt as though the more I
considered losing it all, I just wanted to be near my family.
I started the walk back, and as I did, I saw something in
the distance walking toward me. As I squinted, I could eventually see my
sister-in-law and nephew searching for seashells on the beach just outside of
our beach house. I stood still, watching them interact and laugh, taking mental
picture after mental picture.
I felt my Lord speak to me, “Trust Me.”
Having been called to and making strides toward working as
an international missionary, I often feel the Father telling me this. In
pursuit of education, “Trust Me.” In pursuit of a career, “Trust Me.” In this
season of waiting, “Trust Me.”
But it was different this time on the beach. I realized
right there that, someday, when I enter the mission field alone, leaving my
family, friends, and even my little dog, I cannot function without trust in
Him.
Scripture is clear in communicating that trust in God leads
to a dependence on God (Prov.3:5) and that trust in God means an outpouring of
praise to Him (Psalm 28:7). Indeed, knowing God, truly knowing God, should lead
us to trust in Him (Psalm 9:10). What’s better, once I begin to know God, He
will not change on me (Heb.13:8). Unlike the shifting sand I stood on that day
on the beach, God will not change with time (James 1:17). He is worthy of my
trust (Psalm 18:30).
Because of these truths, I do not hoard my belongings or
loved ones, believing they’ll slip away at any moment. But, rather, I cherish
the blessing of them. I create memories and spaces in which to appreciate God
in a deeper way because of them.
What if God takes it all?
Then He is still good (Dan. 3:18). Trust Him.
by Michael Cox | Jul 9, 2019
The American Medical Association is suing the state of North Dakota to block two abortion-related laws. One law set to take effect August 1, 2019, requires physicians to tell patients that medical abortions can be reversed, which the AMA claims is “a patently false and unproven claim unsupported by scientific evidence,” and it forces physicians to “lie” to their patients, thus putting “physicians in a place where we are required by law to commit ethical violation.”
While I cannot
speak to the validity of any abortion reversal procedure, since tests are
ongoing even now, and nothing definitive has been determined, what I do feel
compelled to underscore from this lawsuit is the irony—tragic irony—even
hypocrisy of the AMA.
Perhaps you caught
it too if you read the article or heard the news. I’ll spell it out for you:
The American Medical Association rightly labels lying as unethical, but,
in so doing, wrongly implies that abortion is ethical. The AMA’s
statement’s intention to champion ethical values in medical practice is clearly
exposed as nothing more than “virtue signaling,” and raises further suspicions
regarding the “ethics” promoted by the AMA.
This is a classic
illustration of straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel (cf. Matt. 23:24) –
an absurd depiction of ethical confusion and muddled moral ideals. Thankfully,
not all doctors affiliate with the AMA because of actions and stances like
this, which demonstrate a significantly different system of values which more
principled physicians cannot, in good conscience, support, so they don’t.
As Texas Pastor
Bart Barber stated in a Tweet, “Hippocrates hangs his head in shame and weeps.”
by Caleb Moore | May 30, 2019
If you have a Bible on your phone or close by I want you to
look up Matthew 18:11. I have on my desk an English Standard Versions (ESV) Study
Bible, and it has verses 10 and verses 12 but no verse 11. Where did it go?
Well, it was removed.
You can still find it in the King James Version, but it’s
not in the New King James Version. And this is just one of many verses that
have been removed from the Bible.
Do you know the story of the woman caught in adultery from
the Gospel of John? Jesus writes something in the sand and then says whoever
has no sin can throw the first stone. That story is very popular, but
unfortunately it’s not supposed to be in there.
If you look at it in your Bible, there should be brackets or
a note that says these verses are not found in the original manuscripts. This
means the Bible has indeed been altered.
Skeptics often claim that the Bible has been changed over
the years. I agree with them, but I don’t think that is a problem for me, and
if you continue reading I hope to show that it is not a problem for you either.
Sometimes when people think about the translation of Scripture,
they think of the telephone game we would play as kids. It was a game where one
person says a word and it gets whispered down the line, and the last person
ends up with a completely different word. That is how most non-Christians view
the Bible.
The truth is, no other historical document has been studied
as much as the Bible. We have more manuscripts for the New Testament than any
other historical document, and nothing else even comes close. We have almost
6,000 Greek manuscripts and close to 24,000 if you include other languages.
It’s precisely this reason that we have some verses that found their way into
the Bible that should not actually be there.
Somewhere along the line, a scribe might accidently write
something that was in the margins into the manuscript itself. As for the story
about the woman caught in adultery, we find it in different books of the Bible
at different times.
It seems as though it may have been an actual event that a
scribe wanted to include, but they could never decide where to put it. Despite
their best efforts to include it into Scripture, we know it is an addition due
to the great number of manuscripts we can compare it to.
It’s important for Christians to understand that the removal
of these verses is a good thing, and in no way does it damage the authority of
Scripture. What it actually does is show how well we can recreate the original
letters written by the New Testament authors. Yes, the Bible has been changed,
but we are aware of all the additions that happened along the way.
We continue to find more manuscripts that were not available
at the time the King James Version was written. The more we learn the more
certain we are that we have what God wanted us to have.
by Joel Harder | May 22, 2019
“The Church herself no longer is about discipleship… It’s about being entertained in the gathering.”
This is what Pastor Matt Chandler preached at his Dallas-based Village Church. His sermon set the internet abuzz after becoming the topic of a May 15 Christian Post article.
Responses
range from complete affirmation in Chandler’s indictment of American churches
to heated defenses against over generalizations.
I’ve
watched the development of the American church culture, both as a pastor in a
local church and in non-church-based capacities. These experiences taught me to
be constructive when pressing the ever-forward progress toward the future. We
are never, now, what God intends us to be tomorrow.
I also
desire to be charitable when considering the strategies churches use and
understand the various reasons contributing to those decisions.
Being Charitable: Why Entertain?
Remember that the Church has long made good use of the communication methods of the day in order to spread the Gospel and to transmit the Scripture (i.e. letter writing, printing press, broadcast technology, etc.). The present information age makes Scripture and Gospel proclamation extremely accessible, presenting two problems for local churches:
- Information
sources are ubiquitous, but are they all trustworthy?
- Unfettered
access to the most effective communicators of our generation may discourage people
from connecting to a local church at all, choosing to watch those preachers
online.
Focusing
on entertainment and consumer-like services through the local church seems like
an effective way to handle both challenges.
For the
first problem, I’m careful not to fault local churches making smart use of
marketing and communications strategies, particularly in social media. Yes, it
looks like a lot of self-promotion, but it is also how you become a known and
trusted source for conveying the message of the Gospel. Spend 30 minutes down
the rabbit hole of online searches on the book of Revelation sometime.
As for
encouraging people to actually show up for church gatherings, I once felt that
planning childcare and age-graded programming in order to make ministry
gatherings happen as a huge pain and totally off mission. Then I had kids. If certain services are not provided,
my family is considerably less likely to participate (Leave whatever comments
you like; that is just a fact).
Being Constructive: Three Questions
To Ask
Any
strategy that doesn’t have diagnostic questions for evaluation to make
adjustments is bad strategy. Here are three:
Historically,
the Church has always used culturally relevant and creative means to capture the attention. Ultimately,
anything that is entertaining does the same. The first question must be: to what end?
Paul
talked about the different styles, approaches and talents of his contemporaries
as well as the different audiences each were called to reach. He also utilized
different strategies to capture the attention of his audience depending on the
context.
Any style or
method should be filtered through the lens of Phil. 1:18, “Only in every way…Christ is proclaimed.”
Paul wrote this even while he questioned the particular motives of other
ministries. We can apply that filter to 21st Century American Christianity by
asking the second question: Are my
methods building the Kingdom or building our brand and market share of
church-goers?
Answer that question through the lens of 2 Tim. 2:2: “what you’ve heard from me… entrust to faithful ones who will be able to teach others also.” Ask one final question: Are we equipping people to make disciples whether our church is here or not?
The church must produce independently-growing, disciple-making disciples of Jesus Christ. The kind who are actually equipped to make disciples whether your church exists or not. If it doesn’t, then it’s possible that the methods are more intent on building a brand than building the Kingdom. In that regard, Chandler is absolutely correct, and the church is probably more focused on entertainment than on disciple-making.
If it is,
then you are part of the global movement that 2,000 years of human history
hasn’t been able to stop.
by Angela Sanders | Apr 10, 2019
“…After all,
golf is about learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
I wasn’t having a quiet time, praying, reading my Bible, or even expecting to hear from God in that moment, but He spoke to my heart as loudly and clearly as if I had been. His mouthpiece was a PGA announcer commenting on the annual Drive, Chip, and Putt contest for children held every year just before the Masters.
A young lady
had just won. Instead of remarking on the high score that had just earned her
first place, he complimented her ability to endure the entire Drive, Chip, and
Putt experience, which includes performing well after sleeping in a strange
hotel, attending events with strangers of all ages, being interviewed without
the help of parents or coaches, and focusing on the contest under the scrutiny
of a vast television audience.
Hard stuff
for anyone, especially a child! Yet
dozens of children had shown up to compete, accepting and facing the challenges
that came with the opportunity to reap reward.
I was
challenged.
There was a
time when I served God with abandon, using the spiritual gifts, talents,
abilities, and experiences God has allowed me with little thought to the
challenges that came with doing so, mainly because I hadn’t faced many
challenges yet and the things God had asked me to do to that point hadn’t
required me to step very far outside my comfort zone.
When God did call me outside my comfort zone, the
inevitable happened. People proved themselves human, and I proved myself just
as human. Allowing my gaze to drop from God to self, I lost some of my nerve.
Many of my yes’s became maybe’s, and many of those maybe’s
became no’s.
I didn’t say
many of the things I should have said.
I didn’t do many
of the things I should have done.
I didn’t go
to many of the places I should have gone.
I didn’t
reach out to many of the people I should have reached out to.
Instead, I
made excuses, telling myself I was waiting for that elusive and
easy-to-counterfeit “peace” we Christians like to talk about before moving
forward when I was really just culling out comfort for myself.
Trouble is, we’re
not called to comfort. We’re called to
follow Jesus in obedience wherever that obedience leads, and following doesn’t
always feel good (Matt. 8:20)—sometimes, it feels awful.
It does,
however, deepen our relationship with the Father (John 14:23), a reward worth
anything it may cost us, which is why those of us who have put our faith in the
Gospel of Jesus and so belong to God must all check ourselves at every turn to
make sure we haven’t grown lazy, complacent, or fearful, traits that fail to
glorify Him, but are still running just as hard after our Savior as we ever did
by the God-given faith that saved us.
The Christian
life isn’t comfortable; we have to get comfortable with that.