UNBELIEVERS THE NEW CHRISTIANS!!!

Yes, that's right. The new thing out now is that you don't have to believe the Bible to be a believer. I know that sounds stupid, but I have been assured by several people with very straight faces it isn't. Instead, it's just very "nuanced" as many say.

Funny. When folk like that say "nuanced" these days they say it as if the rest of us may not be smart enough to know what that means. So, I'll take a moment to straighten out you backward people who sit around reading just your Bibles all the time, because heaven knows you have to do a lot more than that just read your Bible in order to keep up with all the theological innovations made by the sort of folk who say things like "nuanced," "metanarrative," "missional," and stuff like that. So here's what "nuanced" means: It means I am trying to fit an old heresy that the church rejected hundreds of years ago in by calling it something else really new and different-sounding. The point of the "nuanced" thing is to make an old, rejected idea sound like something novel that only the "nuanced" person and his friends could think of and that no one else in two thousand years of Church theology, thought, Scripture-searching, and scholarship could ever have thought of. EVER.

Several times in the last year I have had discussions with folks I otherwise would have thought to be real Christians. These quazi-Christians have introduced me to a new doctrine. The doctrine simply states that one doesn't have to believe in the inerrancy of Scripture to be a Christian.

Now, that sounds much more nuanced than the way I first stated it in my opening paragraph. You don't have to believe in inerrancy to be a Christian. So one can believe in Christ, but doubt the factuality of the Bible He seemed to love and trust.

This is a very stupid thing to say and here's why: Jesus taught and acted as though the Scripture was a reliable guide to truth. He told His Father that His Word was truth. This presents the unbelieving believers with a logical problem. Specifically, they must make a case that those who believe in Christ don't have to believe Christ. Or, to put it another way, one may believe that Christ is the God of All Truth while believing this God of All Truth was either mistaken or lying when He said and acted as if the Bible is completely true.

This case cannot be made to anyone who is not on pot or a rock-ribbed Evangellyfish.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.

READ THIS POEM

I read this poem for the first, when visiting this blog for the first time. It is by Steve Turner, a British journalist. Here is the poem:

CREED

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin.
We believe everything is OK
as long as you don’t hurt anyone,
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and
after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that sodomy’s OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything’s getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there’s something in horoscopes,
UFO’s and bent spoons;
Jesus was a good man like Buddha,
Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher although we think
His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same –
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing
Because when you ask the dead what happens
they say nothing.
If death is not the end, if the dead have lied, then it’s
compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps
Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan.

We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between warfare and
bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors
and the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.
It’s only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that
is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will re-adjust.
History will alter.

We believe that there is no absolute truth
except the truth
that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds,
and the flowering of individual thought.

If chance be the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky,
and when you hear

State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!

It is but the sound of man worshiping his maker.

EIGHT CHARACTERISTICS OF HELL FROM REVELATION 14--Part I

"THEREFORE WAIT FOR ME," DECLARES YAHWEH,
"FOR THE DAY WHEN I RISE UP TO SEIZE THE PREY.
FOR MY DECISION IS TO GATHER NATIONS,
TO ASSEMBLE KINGDOMS,
TO POUR OUT UPON THEM MY INDIGNATION,
ALL MY BURNING ANGER;
FOR IN THE FIRE OF MY JEALOUSY
ALL THE EARTH SHALL BE CONSUMED."
Zephaniah the prophet, chapter three, verse eight.

This study of hell is based on the words of John written in Revelation 14. The focus will be on verses 9-11, which says, "9And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.'


I. Hell is one of God's great passions.
Hell is the result of God's passionate anger toward us. He desires to punish all sin and all sinful people.

God hates all who do iniquity.--Psalm 5:5. As a result, He is bent on punishing men. See verses 8, 10, and 19 in Revelation 14. The Greek word thumos is used for the passion of sexual immorality in verse 8. Add the prefix epi and the word becomes the common Greek word for lust. So thumos is definitely a word that denotes a deep, gripping desire. Next look to verse 10. There we read in the ESV, "...he will drink of the wine of God's wrath (thumos) poured full strength into the cup of His anger..." In verse 19 we read, "So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath (thumos) of God." Oddly, the common Greek word for God's anger is used here only at the very end and the first word for God's anger is thumos. Why not use the more straightforward word? Why use this very unusual word, that usually means passion or desire?

When God uses this word this way in Scripture it refers to only the most severe anger, a passionate, deep anger that lasts and burns. It appears in 12:12 to describe the passionate longing of Satan to destroy the earth. It appears in 14:8 to describe the lust of sexual immorality. In 14:10. 15:1. 15:7, and 16:1 it signifies God's wrath. This word also appears in some of Paul's writings and refers to the most severe wrath of either God or men.

Let's take a look at these passages translating thumos in its primary meaning:

14:10--...he will also drink the wine of God's passionate longing poured full strength into the cup of His anger..."

15:1--Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the passionate longing of God is finished. (So, evidently God is waiting in passionate expectation to punish all sin on the earth. He looks forward to the day when He will send all the wicked into destruction.)

15:7--And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the passionate longing of God Who lives forever and ever...

16:1--Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, "Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the passionate longing of God."

As longingly and as passionately as the immoral man desires the fulfillment of his depraved lusts, God desires to squeeze the lifeblood out of the wicked. This is personal. God is no unfeeling sheriff's deputy that has to give you a ticket because it's His job and you were speeding. You have hated him and He has hated you. His passionate longing is for your punishment.

II. Hell is punishment.
Interestingly, the announcement of the third angel in verse 9 starts with the word "if." "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives the mark upon his forehead and upon his hand,..." If a man is evil in his thoughts and actions, he will be punished with the punishments listed. Verse 10 reads, "...indeed, he will drink out of the passionate wrath of God, which has been poured out unmixed in the cup of His wrath and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb."--my translation.

God is not evil. We are. The torments are not a whim. They have a purpose.

In other words, the evils that God will inflict on humanity on that day will be in response to the evils men have done in thought (the forehead) and in deed (the hand.) Indeed, the Bible tells us that all are sinful. In Jeremiah 8:6 we read, "I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, 'What have I done?' Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle." Why does a horse rush to its own death in war? Because he has a master who has trained him to do so. And he does so without thought or regret because he knows no other course. He has been mastered. Even so man has been mastered by sin. We know of nothing but our basest instincts, lusts, passions, and drives. We will eat and wipe our mouth on our filthy sleeve. We will take a virgin and think nothing of the bastard child or the wasting disease. We will kill our neighbor with knife, gun, or tongue because we just want to. We are men and we are vile.

Just as the war horse drives into a phalanx unaware that this will be his last day to run, even so men without God do not have a thought of their impending destruction. Like the horse who ignores his impending death to obey his master, men stuff down any quivering of conscience and the briefest thought that God's avenging retribution may fit their actions so they may obey the sins that have mastered them. God is not mocked. He is ignored like a man ignores the stench of an open sewer.

But He is hated more.

III. Hell is public. The Display of the Damned.
It is often said, that hell is the absence of God for all eternity. That's a lie. In hell men will wish to get away from the God Who is torturing them. But they won't be able to. Instead, those in hell will see the redeemed in glory, cared for by their loving Father Who is, in turn, their fierce and eternal enemy punishing them forever. Hell is the absence of God's love, the ever presence of His passionate, destructive, white hot, long awaited, satisfying wrath.

Part of hell's punishment will be public humiliation in front of all the angels, God, and all the people who go to heaven. And all of them will give hearty approval of your punishment. Isaiah 66:24 and Romans 9 tell us something of this as does the story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19-31. There we read this:

There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24And he called out, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame." 25But Abraham said, "Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us." 27And he said, "Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28for I have five brothers —so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment." 29But Abraham said, "They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them." 30And he said, "No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent." 31He said to him, "If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead."

While the rich man was in torment in Hades, the saints saw him and he saw them. In heaven, the saints, the holy angels and God Himself will see the torment of the wicked. And while there will be a chasm between them, the very nature of the torment and the individuals being tormented will be evident daily to the residents of heaven. In Revelation 14:11 God says, "And the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever..." (my translation) Smoke is something no one can ignore. Everyone smells it. This was written to a culture familiar with campfires and fireplaces. The smell of smoke was everywhere. The smell of burning flesh was common to a society who sacrificed animals. It was also death that expunged sin to the Jews. Now we know that only the death of the sinner can cover sin and cleanse God's creation. At Calvary, Jesus became sin for us. For those who reject Him, their sin remains. Their eternal death, not the death of Christ, will be required. And all in heaven will be eternally aware of you, your torment, and exactly why it's just that you suffer--if you remain without Christ.

Going back to Revelation 14:10, we read, "Indeed, he will drink of the wine of the passionate wrath of God, which has been poured out full strength in the cup of God's wrath and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb."

The most bitter irony of all eternity will be the fact that those who despised the God Who died for them, the God Who suffered so they did not have to, will find Himself satisfied only by the suffering they will do for eternity. The utter stupidity of their choice will be in their face forever. The saints they hated will look upon their suffering and know that God is just. The angels who ministered to the saints as they suffered will wonder at the justice of God toward the sinful, and His mercy for the repentant. They may look at the just punishment of the wicked, and then turn their heads to look over their shoulders and be amazed that God's elect are not in the flames as well, because they will know that the saints were once as evil as any resident of hell. Thus, they will not understand the kindness and justice of the amazing I AM. And the saints will share their incredulity. All heaven will have no choice but to fall to the ground in awe-filled worship!

It is not amazing that God sends men to hell. It is amazing that He chooses even one for mercy.

Isaiah 66:24 says, "And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against Me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh." This is a description of the final state of the damned. They will be a curiosity to the saints. The writer describes three things that will fascinate the survivors. First, "their worm shall not die." Whatever that means, it denotes the destruction of the damned in some form. The destruction will never quit. Second, "their fire shall not be quenched." Like the rich man and Lazarus, the suffering man will make a pitiful figure, but, just as Lazarus was unable to help the rich man, no saint will be able to help any sinner in hell. Yet the saint will be unable to forget the sinner. His suffering and the fact the it will be forever, will eternally grab the curiosity of the saint--an eternal reminder, perhaps, that the saint ought to be ever grateful to His Elector. The third reason the saints will not be able to forget the sinners is that "they will be an abhorrence to all flesh." Whatever pity the saint may feel for the sinner will be overshadowed by revulsion at the utter sinfulness of the damned.

We, in our societies, know of people so evil they disgust us. In eternity, when the redeemed are completely changed, the friends and relatives we once loved, not being changed, but still in their sin will disgust us so that we will have no problem when God condemns them. Instead, the saints will be glad. To the suffering sinner who once ostracized the saint, the tables will be turned. He will be the outcast. Cast out from heaven, from life, and from any comfort. He will be a laughing stock and something which will cause all of creation to turn up its nose.

Romans 9 gives us another snapshot of the public nature and the humiliation of the suffering of those in hell. Verses 19 through 26 are both glorious for the saint and a fire alarm for the sinner:

"19You will say to me then, 'Why does he still find fault? For who can resist His will?' 20But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory— 24even us whom He has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25As indeed he says in Hosea,

'Those who were not my people I will call "my people,"
and her who was not beloved I will call '"beloved."'
26 'And in the very place where it was said to them, "You are not my people,"
there they will be called(AM) "sons of the living God."'"

Did you catch verse 22? "What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
in order to make know the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy which He has prepared beforehand for glory..." God not only has the right to save whomever He wishes, and to destroy whomever He wishes just because He is our Creator, but He has done just that. And He has done so for a reason. That reason is to golrify Himself. This will be evident in eternity as all creation wonders at the just punishment of the wicked as it shows just how powerful God must be to clean the formerly wicked saints.

It is this very contrast between the wickedness of man justly punished and the mercy He bestows upon the chosen whom He saved for no other reason but to show off His power to creation that will be the greatest wonder of creation! So here we see punishment has two functions. First, it is to punish the wicked. But second, it is to glorify God by showing His most powerful miracle--the forgiveness of the repentant. As with all of God's creation, its primary purpose is the glory of God.

Yes, the wicked will glorify the God they hate by being tormented by Him forever.

IV. Hell is permanent.


V. Hell is painful.

VI. Hell is personal.
God hates men for three reasons. The way we think, the way we act, and the kind of persons we are.

VII. Hell is certain.
First class condition in verses 9 and 10. Ez. 16:20, 41-43.

VIII. Hell is appropriate

XI. Hell is barely avoidable.

BAD DOG! BAD, BAD DOG!

How depraved are we to love men more than we love God?

Dog Chapman, accomplished enforcer of the law and all around good guy, has been exposed as not being so good. He hates folks with African blood in their veins and it comes out his mouth in the form insults, denigrations, and epithets.

Bad Dog!

However, men hate God and the evidence of that hatred comes out their mouths, just like Dog. Just as we wish to make sure innocent folks are not maligned, do we dare suppose God will not avenge His name used in vain?

Just thinking,
Phil Perkins.

ABORTING SOUTHERN BAPTISTS

Two potential Southern Baptists were killed by their own mother. The mother's name is "Kayla." The story was on Fox News last night. Kayla is a pretty 17 year old high school girl. The vivacious blonde who usually shows a vibrant smile was shown weeping on an abortionist's table. Her mother (the grandmother of the child who had just been or was about to be murdered by the attending "physician") was at her side. Kayla had to tell an attendant that this was her second abortion. Kayla's mom was not aware of a prior abortion Kayla had so this was news to her. Pain registered on the grandmother's face as she learned that her first grandchild had existed and was murdered by her daughter.

The scene changed. The two women, Kayla and the grandmother, were in a cafeteria. Kayla expressed concern that in a Southern Baptist church a teen girl with a child might be looked down upon. Rather than face disapproval for fornication (WAH!), it was better to kill the kids, she reasoned, though not in such straightforward language. After all, straightforward honesty is not called for when excusing murder. But not to worry--the matriarch comforted Kayla. She said that even though the kids in the church would not accept her, Jesus would.

How is it that an older women, and a long time Evangelical, could lie so? Has she not read, "God hates all who do iniquity"? Or "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God." Or "Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Evidently, Grandma doesn't know these things. Jesus will NOT accept Kayla. Who will tell Kayla the certain truth that she is headed for hell unless she repents? Certainly not her own Evangelical mother. Kayla is both a murderer and a fornicator. And such will go to hell or the Bible is not true.

The news article ends with confirmation of this sad fact. Kayla's face is zoomed in on as she makes a vow to do "everything I can" not to get pregnant until she is "ready." This is confirmation of her unregenerated soul and her sure destiny in hell because there is no repentance. Repentance would cause her to vow never to fornicate again. Staying unpregnant is not something a single woman has to try to do if she obeys God's demands for purity.

Pull your pants up and get on your knees, Kayla. It's time to repent.

Who would like to bet that when their pastor finds out about this neither one is disciplined by the church?

Hoping I'm wrong,
Phil Perkins.

"GOD" ISN'T CUSSING ANYMORE

This weekend I saw a clip of a drag racer who had a hard time expressing himself in an interview immediately after he won a race by a small margin. He had deftly avoided an accident caused by a malfunction of his car. He said this:

"G__! I can't even talk. You guys won't let me cuss!"

Evidently, the network had given him the word that profanity would not be tolerated on their broadcasts. However, it seems using God's name in vain is just fine.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.

Worship WHAT?

The Heights Family Worship Center. That's the name on a nice new building about two blocks from where my wife, Diana, and I live. We weren't aware of it since we seldom come into or go out of the neighborhood from that direction. We saw it last night because there was a fire across the valley and, well......we wanted to gawk.

The name immediately struck me as having three characteristics. First, it's man-centered, not God-centered. God doesn't rate a mention. Second, it's something an Evangelical church would do--soft-pedal God and the truth. Third, it's cowardly. That's why Evangelicals like it. We want to be accepted be everyone. It seems to say, "We're friendly, not holy. So you'll be at home here. Godliness, no longer required." That's all I have to know about that church. They're focused on themselves. They won't stand persecution, even if it's just a disapproving frown. They are concerned that everyone love them.

Well.......everyone but God.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.

BIG COMEDOWN FOR GOD

Driving through Kansas City, MO recently I saw a sign that really got my attention. It said, "Such and Such Church, Where Christ Is Lord!" My, my, my. All this time I thought (and so did God, evidently, since He said as much in the Bible) Christ was in charge of all things everywhere at all times.

Not so. He's only in charge (lord) at that particular church. Well, perhaps He's Lord at a few others that have made Him the Big Cheese at their place as well. I'm sure God's ecstatic about all this and hopes He gets elected to a second term.

In awe,
Phil Perkins.

THE DORK AT THE DOOR--Part I of IV.

Boy, did I get in trouble when I wore that tee-shirt to church. I had a tee-shirt with a picture of Sallman's "Christ at the Door" painting (as seen here to the right) on the front. Under the picture the shirt read, "This is a lie."

I recently got into a bit of a discussion with a man who put a picture up at his website. It is a picture of a "Jesus" statue looking down and it has been altered to make it look like its head is bleeding. Well, okay, it wasn't a discussion. He was hopping mad. I was, and am still, sick with severe bronchitis, so I got hopping mad that he was hopping mad at me for just trying to inform him of something in Scripture he was ignoring. (Of course, it may not have helped that I asked him who was the statue on his website with the red paint coming out of its hair.)

I told him about the entire Second Commandment and he gave me the lamest set of excuses a sentient mind could possibly fabricate for disobeying God ever heard on the planet. However, those excuses are typical of those who wish to make up faces and hair styles, put them together in a picture, and lie to kids by telling them that what they have just made up out of whole cloth is "Jesus." It's a lie.

BUT, getting back to my banned-from-church tee-shirt...that tee-shirt was inexcusable, actually. The picture isn't a lie. It's an entire universe of lies.

Stay tuned as we mentally explore some of the myths about "Jesus" pictures and some of the myths these phonied-up deities perpetrate on the naive. Meanwhile, get out Exodus 20:4-6. There you will read the Second Commandment. It does NOT say, "Thou shall not make any graven images." If you think so, you may have been lied to in Sunday School. I was.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.

Quote Of The Week 04-21-07

Night and day are all one to a blind man, truth and error are all one to an ignorant man. --Charles Spurgeon in response to those that say doctrine is a small matter.

Dri-Yup, Shweet Hot!

What's all the fuss about? So some thirty folks were killed at Virginia Tech yesterday by a mad man. So what? Another 4,000 Americans died yesterday at the hands of death care professionals. Some were torn into pieces while still alive and without any medication for the pain. Others had their skin burned off chemically without anesthetic. Others were suffocated. Others were thrown into trash bins to die slowly from exposure and/or hampered breathing. And none will receive a proper funeral. Instead, many of these folks will have their cadavers raided without their knowledge or permission, for spare parts sold by the murderers to who knows--maybe you. They were aborted so their American parents can have sex whenever and with whomever they want.

So, you'll excuse me if I don't bawl my eyes out for Virginia Tech.

Dry-eyed,
Phil Perkins.

The Truth About The Virginia Tech "Massacre"

I find it really interesting to hear the folks speculate about just why Cho Seung-hui killed all those people at Virginia Tech. On the right we hear that if someone in those class rooms had just had a conceal-and-carry permit for a grenade launcher, then that student or professor could simply have set up the launcher, put the criminal in the cross hairs, pulled the trigger, and yelled "Incoming!!!" That would have been that.

From the left, however, come calmer voices. Voices of reason. Voices of wise women. Voices of men who wish they were wise women, but their insurance doesn't cover the surgery. Simply outlaw guns. Tougher gun laws keep people from being killed. We know that because men of integrity like Ted Kennedy say so all the time. And so does Dan Rather. And he never lies.

As it turns out, Virginia Tech (unlike the rest of Virginia) has the toughest gun law possible. No guns are allowed. Virginia Tech is a gun-free zone.

Here's the shocking truth behind this so-called massacre: It didn't happen. The government-media-military-Hollywood-Vatican-Trilateral-Commission-Illuminati-CIA-FBI-USDA-FDA-USPS complex simply faked it, like 911, in order to keep the citizenry frightened and in line. The fact is that since the school is a gun-free zone, we know this "massacre" didn't really happen at all. Cho, if he exists at all didn't really have any guns because he was in a gun-free zone. In fact, I have yet to see any real proof that there is this "Virginia Tech" where this "massacre" supposedly happened.

Maybe a guy should yell "fore" in a situation like that.

Chuck Colson And Mystics?

I used to listen to Charles Colson every morning for about 5 minutes on a local radio station. He has a short editorial program each week day called Break Point. I loved that program for years. It gave one a quick take on some current event or trend in the arena of politics, religion, society, or entertainment from a Christian perspective. However, he started to associate with characters who are not orthodox. And I don't mean he went to lunch with them or worked with them on projects that had little to do with the faith. No, he engaged them in ways Christians ought not do. For instance, he has recently worked with Rick Warren on a project about faith and worldview.

Today, I tuned in for the first time in a while. He was plugging a show on PBS. It was about a really spiritual man and Colson spent quite some time telling his listeners just how good and wonderful this man was.

This man was Henri Nouwen, a catholic mystic and syncretist, who sought to mix mysticism and psychology with Catholic theology. (Yeah, just press the puree button and stand back.) I don't trust Charles Colson any longer. And neither should you.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.

Quote Of The Week 04-01-07

You do not have to be culturally sensitive if you are biblically accurate.
----Paul Washer, sermon "I Am Under Obligation"

THE DECLINE OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH IN AMERICA--Part III of III

The Church Conformed To The World In The Sanctuary.

As stated in my first installment in this series of three articles on the decline of the Evangelical church in America, I named 12 foundational distinctives that make Christianity what it is supposed to be. Here I will deal with the last 4. (Find all three together in reverse order here.) These last 4 are not about the world around us at all. Nor are they primarily about how we interact with the world. Rather, we will consider the radical paganization of the Evangelical church within its walls. We have bastardized Christianity with an eclecticism that is shameful.

NUMBER 9. SCRIPTURAL PRACTICE. By this I refer to the idea that no pagan religious practice be brought into the church and approved. Here again, I will appeal to our collective memory. While most will not remember some of the changes I have written of to this point, this new change is recent and electrically fast, and it shows the acceleration of wickedness in our circles.

"Christian Yoga" was the first paganization I remember. It has percolated for quite some time, but now it is fully integrated with the "Christian faith" of some church goers. Zondervan has published a book called Yoga for Christians: A Christ-Centered Approach to Physical and Spiritual Health through Yoga by Susan Bordenkercher. In 2003, the Osgood Files had this to say about Bordenkircher:

"However, Bordenkircher says the movement and rhythm of hatha (physical) yoga made her more centered and reflective and more able to pray. Hindus strive for wisdom, knowledge and inner concentration, which clearly overlap with Christian goals, Bordenkircher says. 'My feeling was it's worked for them, why shouldn't we be able to do that?' she says. So Bordenkircher combined poses with Christian references. During the warrior pose, she talks about breathing in the Holy Spirit. She relates the child's pose to being at peace with God. And the balance poses are about finding spiritual balance. 'If it feels good for your body and soul, you should do it.'"

Notice how that last sentence takes us back to the sixties and seventies theme which said, "If it feels good, do it."

I want to be very clear here. There is nothing magically evil or magically good about the physical exercises done for the benefit that exercise has for the body. But look at Bordenkircher's words about it. She is pushing it as a spiritual exercise. She says it gives one "spiritual balance."

Recently we've seen an influx of "spiritual formation," "contemplative prayer," "prayer" labyrinths, candles, and incense. All of these are derived from mystical religions and most Evangelical leaders are not opposing them at all. At counterpoint to this is what Moses said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 12:29-32. He warned, "When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, beware that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?' You shall not behave thus toward the LORD your God, for every abominable act which the LORD hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it." I think that would include yoga, don't you?

Yesterday, I was in a Christian book store and found prominently displayed a flyer for Rob Bell. He's a young man who has made quite a name for himself by selling videos of breathing exercises and meditation to young church goers. These are practices borrowed from Hinduism and Budhism. Not only is he not censored in the church, he's a celebrity.

Again, the very fact that the debate rages on in the Evangelical camp over whether or not to accept pagan practices into the church and use them is a disgrace and 50 years ago, it would have never taken place.

NUMBER 10. GODLY ZEAL AND DOCTRINAL VIGILANCE. The lack of godly zeal has actually been a danger to the Evangelical movement from the start. The reason is a bit subtle, but worth looking at.

The beginning of the Evangelical church in America was a reaction to the collision of three forces. One force was godly men and women who wanted to obey God. Many of them called themselves Fundamentalists, just as many of us call ourselves Evangelicals. The Fundalmentalist movement began as a wall against the incoming liberalization of Christianity from German scholars of the 1800's and early 1900's. Schliermacher, Bultmann, and others wanted to change Christianity to become more acceptable to modern man. The Enlightenment was still a fresh idea. The impact of the Enlightenment on the European mind was to reject the God of Scripture as unnecessary. Hence, Neitzche said, "God is dead." We didn't have to postulate a God to understand the universe. We had science for that. All causes were natural and material. Miracles were not conceivable. So the virgin birth, resurrection, healings, and walking on water were myths. Now it was too great a change for Europeans to simply jettison the religion that had shaped their nations, so they simply set out to subtly change Christianity. Genesis is true, but only as a myth. Myth was redefined to be any story with a moral to it. So the Bible was a crock, but a very nice crock. With a moral, of course.

As this sort of thought floated across the pond, men like Harry Emerson Fosdick decided that preaching a new and improved Christianity was a good thing. He was a Baptist minister in New York and he took the east coast church by storm.

To stem this tide of sewage, east coast Christians, lead by orthodox Christain scholars on the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary, began to meet in conferences. The conferences began meeting before Fosdick came on the scene, but he served to intensify the efforts of orthodox people to make lines of demarcation between liberals like Fosdick and themselves. The conferences began in the late 1800's and continued until about 1920 in upstate New York, with at least one at Niagara. The fruit of these conferences was what they called the "fundalmentals of the faith." That is, those doctrines one must believe in order to be a Christian. The exact doctrines decided upon varied from conference to conference, but usually included these five: 1. the virgin birth, 2. the bodily, substitutionary death of Christ for sin, 3. the bodily, immanent return of Christ, 4. the inerrancy and authority of Scripture, and 5. the deity of Christ. These were the five decided on in 1910 by the assembly of the Northern Presbyterian Church.

So one force was the original Fundamentalists. Their enemy, the liberals, was another force. The third force was a number of folks within the Fundamentalist camp. Remember the early Fundamentalists were Presbyterians with only five or six rules. They were really minimalistic in their approach. They were not more narrow than Scripture. However, as time went by, some in the Fundamentalist camp came to add cultural markers and rules that were not biblical. They became the third force. As the orthodox Fundamentalists battled liberals, some Fundamentalists became hyper-Fundamental. As the Fundamentalist-liberal war raged, of course, most of the unsaved world sided with the liberals. Fundamentalists were branded as obscurantists, ignorant throw-backs, and worse. As the hyper-Fundalmentalists became more prominent, it was easy for the world to make the charges against real biblical Christians stick.

In the 1950' many church-goers wanted to be Christian without being marked out for ridicule. As a result, beginning with men like Billy Graham and Carl Henry, a new movement started. It took its name from the Greek word for "gospel," the Evangelicals. Most Evangelicals wanted to be orthodox. All wanted to distance themselves from the Fundalmentalists. It was America. We all wanted to be happy. Why face scorn?

Did you notice two things about this story that might sound familiar to those in the modern American church? First, the trouble started when the liberals set out to improve on the gospel to make it relevant and acceptable to the worldly mind. Second, otherwise orthodox Christians were not willing to accept the scorn of the world. They wanted to change their name so that no one would hate them. In so doing, they added to the scorn of many real brothers and sisters in Christ. Even today, many godly people call themselves "Fundamentalists." I cringe everytime I hear an Evangelical talk down the Fundalmentalists. At one time the Fundalmentalists were the only ones holding the fort. If you're an American believer, there's a real good chance you wouldn't have heard the gospel if not for the Fundamentalists many of you hate.

In this way, the seed of compromise in the Evangelical church was planted. The Fundamentalists were zealous for God and His Scripture. The Evangelicals were more interested in getting along.

To this day, in the Evangelical church, the man who points out error is hated by many, if not most. That's who we are.

NUMBER 11. FEAR OF GOD. Some years back someone started lying about the fear of God as presented to the saints in the Old Testament. When I was young, the first two church songs I learned were "Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World" and "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know." When I heard that I was supposed "fear God," it was a shock. Obviously, the contrast between the love of God and His fierceness can cause a great deal of consternation. It's tempting to pick between the two, discard the other, and not deal with the cognitive dissonance these biblical twins cause. You can only imagine how long it took a little kid in Montana to warm up to the idea of the fierceness of an angry God who hates sinners. I knew I was one. So I had a problem with the fear of God.

It turns out, so have a number of pastors and theologians. They are liars. There is no faith without the fear of God. The lie goes like this: "Fear" doesn't mean "fear," it means "respect" or "reverence." It's funny to me how little a vocabulary God has that He should mispeak so easily and so often. The fear of God is mentioned dozens of times in the Psalms and Proverbs alone. If God meant "reverence," why didn't He say so? The Spirit says, "The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether." This lie started in the 70's with the bromide, "Don't be negative." "No one will follow you if you're negative," we'd say to each other. We were helping God. We were getting rid of all the hellfire stuff and concentrating on personal fulfillment. You know--the fun stuff.

I distinctly remember first being gripped with the fright of hell when I was very young. Jesus mentioned hell in 42 verses in the gospel of Matthew alone--many more times than any mention of heaven. Evidently, He had the idea that being scared of God's judgment is a good thing.

Because we do not fear God, we hate reproof, we tolerate false teaching, we despise those who seek truth over relationship, and we spurn doctrinal clarity of any kind. Because we don't fear God, many of us will go to hell.

When Jesus starting preaching, His message could easily be summed up the way Matthew did in chapter 4, verse 17 of his gospel: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Not exactly seeker-friendly. It was a warning. If all of Jesus' ministry could be summed up in a warning to repent to avoid punishment and to participate in God's kingdom, we should follow His example. Instead, we follow after preachers who give us five steps to a happier whatever through the Spirit, Jesus, or God. Such sermons are really blasphemous because they remake God into a waiter, not The Warrior. One of the most common names of God in the Old Covenant is "Yahweh of Armies." In the King James and many other translations, it is "LORD of Hosts," "Hosts" being armies, and LORD being a euphemism for His Name, Yahweh, or "HE is." This is the personal name He gave Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3. There He said, "Ehweh asher Ehweh." That is "I am that which I am." Change the verb form to "Yahweh" and you get "He is." That was God's personal name. "God" is a title or description. I am a man. "Philip Daniel Perkins" is my personal name. I am "Phil a welder." God is "Yahweh owner-leader of armies." He is a warrior and He will one day war against all the unrighteous.

As you read through Matthew, Jesus mentions hell about 40 times. He does so in a number of different ways, but you will find the following items mentioned over and over again: "everlasting," "weeping and/or wailing," and "gnashing of teeth." When was the last time you heard a sermon on these things? Jesus talked about them all the time. We ought to as well.

NUMBER 12. THE WRATH OF GOD PREACHED. MAN VS. GOD. At the risk of repeating myself, my last point has to do with something that is associated with the absence of teaching about the wrath of God. That is the primacy of man in evangelical preaching.

Here we have a chicken-and-egg question. Did humanism/cowardice seeping into our churches cause us to no longer emphasize the wrath to come, or did that compromise lead to a man-centered pulpit, prostituted for the popularity of the preacher and the comfort of the church-goers?

Based on my personal recollection of the times--approximately 1960-1985--I personally believe the driving force was the cowardice of individual pastors, parents, and Evangelical organizations. It was at that time the sexual revolution was happening. The youth were in full rebellion. As the culture became darker and darker, Christians, Christianity, and those who remained faithful were marginalized more and more. Parents became intimidated by almost everyone else in society. So did pastors. Whole institutions from schools, to churches either had to change or be seen as dinosaurs. And rather than being passed by in favor of those more hip, many in the church compromised.

I went to college from 1975-1979. From 1981-1987 I stuffed a 3-year seminary degree into only 6 years. The transition from God-centered to man-centered pulpits began when I was still in junior high and high school. By the time I was in seminary the new make-everybody-happy "gospel" was in the house. All it had to do was to make itself at home. Get in the furniture, settle in, change the drapes, make a stay of it. The buzz word of the time was "relevance." It was the job of the clergy to make the Bible "relevant" to folks. No matter what.

This may seem rather milk-toast to some, but I assure you the change was cosmic. Before this time, the job of the man of God was to study the Scripture and tell the folks what it said as accurately as possible. Other than that, his only duty was to plead with people to make their lives and beliefs come into conformity to the Scripture.

With Pastor Human in the pulpit, things were different. As a preacher-in-training my greatest role model was Chuck Swindoll. His word for "relevant" was "winsome." He constantly harangued against the Christian who was too somber for his tastes. He was wrong and he lead many Christians astray. Another name that was big in those days was Tony Campolo. Campolo is still a dymanic speaker. His entire schtick was relevance, left wing social issues, bombast, and oozing out at least three quarts of sweat during any one sermon or lecture. We weren't relevant. We needed to take up left wing causes and if we didn't we'd never reach the folks. A third name in those days was James Dobson. Dobson has always stood for biblical truth in matters having to do with family. However, the fact that he was a psychologist added weight and credibility. Many faithful teachers and pastors said all the same things he said, but without training in psychology. All they had was the Bible. As we began to honor man over God, we even turned to man's wisdom for spiritual answers. Dobson was a perfect answer. He was a "Christian psychologist." So we could look to a source other than Scripture and still feel as though we had not compromised. But we had. Big time.

Well, we layered all that stuff on top of the Bible. Did it help? No. We are stuck in an anemic church full of believing infidels heading for hell. Swindoll is getting cozy with Emergents like Dallas Willard. Tony Campolo has written a book with Emergent heretic, Brian McLaren, and his wife endorses a gay-friendy church. And you can go to the local "Christian" book store and buy them all.

So what's the answer? It's not complicated. It's on your shelf. Read your Bible. Promise yourself and God you will obey it. Then become vocal in your church and denomination. Pay the price.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.

Pulpit Pimp Video

There's a video worth watching at Pulpit Pimps. Notice the title Melvin Jones gave it--very appropriate.

Nigerian Flags In Our Churches?

Did you ever ask your pastor why an American flag is right next to the pulpit? I did. Couldn't get an answer, either. I asked him if we weren't supposed to be worshipping the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Eventually I got some mumbo-jumbo about being a good citizen. When I asked if being a good citizen as a German Christian meant I had to put a Swastika up over the altar, the pastor got mad. He never told me why.

Nigeria has recently outlawed homosexuality. They seem to think law should have something to do with righteousness. I guess they never heard of Thomas Jefferson, who (according to liberal politicians and their constituents) said that righteousness and government could never have anything to do with each other. Nope, those Nigerians might be in the sun, but we Americans are the enlightened ones. We know better. In fact, we did the right thing. We got 250 of our best religionists to sign a petition telling the Nigerians that Christianity demands sodomites go unpunished. Stop the "persecution." (Yes, that's the word they used.) I noticed there was no petition for the Christians being slaughtered by Muslims in Sudan and Indonesia, or the Christians imprisoned in Canada, the US, and Britain for preaching repentance from sodomy. I'm sure those 250 nice folks, so concerned with Nigerian deviants, will soon get around to protecting Christians, too. Yes, I'm sure they will...any time now...soon, I'm sure...I think...

So anyway, the next time I'm in church and the preacher is in Leviticus, I'll just ignore him (or her) and look at that big old flag raised high above the altar and the Bible and wonder how long before God burns it down.

Sickened,
Phil Perkins.

Pulpit Pimps

This weekend I found a few new blogs and all were really worth reading. I have gotten permission to link to only one so far: Pulpit Pimps by Melvin Jones. Evidently, when some ungodly fence-straddler decided all Christian men were to become so polite they had to be nice to false teachers, Jones burned his copy of the memo.

Melvin Jones seems determined to expose the lies of the Word-Faith movement. Word- Faith is the brand of non-christianity that includes folks like Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyers, Kenneth Copeland, and so forth. Some call it Word-Faith, Word of Faith, Prosperity Gospel, Health and Wealth, Name It and Claim It. (I like Blab-it-and-grab-it myself.) These folks have gone well past simply being Charismatic and pushing certain gifts all out of proportion. They have actually gone into damnable heresy--the sort of heresy that will damn a man's soul. For instance, Copeland has said outright that God has a body, making him more Mormon than Christian.

So, Jones is making war on these folks. He's in a segment of the body of Christ in which he will pay a heavy price for his convictions. But he doesn't care. Pray for our brother, Melvin Jones. He is doing a great work and it seems he has a lot of readers. That's good.

While surfing this weekend I came across three other sites like Jones'. They are all good. There is Theology Today,
Doctrinetalk.com, and Pastor John's Site, in addition to Pulpit Pimps.

Pastor John's Site is by Rev. John Coleman. His site is not dedicated to battling Word-Faith heresy. It is a general site from an LA pastor and it includes warnings about Word-Faith along with general teachings. He has an excellent section on the nutty, heretical quotes Billy Graham has made over the years.

Getting back to Melvin Jones and Pulpit Pimps, I don't want to overdo my praise of the guy. I barely know of him. However, what's refreshing about all these sites is their straight talk. (Read Jones' "About Me" section and see the price and hassle he has already overcome to become straight in the faith.) They talk like men. Godly men. Go read their stuff. Then go read Team Pyro or Tim Challies. The difference you will find is both staggering and significant. At Pyro, if you find an article on an Emergent heretic for instance, you will first read a number of paragraphs about what that particular heretic says that is right. Couldn't you do the same with a Watchtower magazine? Or the Book Of Mormon?

A better question is, "Is that what Jesus, the apostles, and the prophets did?" The obvious answer is "no." Jesus made it clear to all who heard Him that the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees were wrong. No one had to guess or parse words to understand. So why don't we talk like men? Are we cowardly? Too afraid to be disliked, so that we have to put sugar on the medicine so nobody notices, not even the ones who need it most? Is this a hangover from the pop-evangelical bromide of the 70's when we were told over and over it's bad to be negative? We were supposed to be always positive. Back then I would ask if the Bible was always positive and the answer given was "no." But then biblical reasoning didn't really make much difference.

Some of you will remember when I had the nerve to suggest at Team Pyro that we ought not use gender-altered Bible versions because they were intentionally changed for reasons that had to do with pleasing certain political groups. Phil Johnson and Frank Turk then proceded to make excuses as to why it's okay to do so and chastise me for being a hillbilly in a straw hat who didn't even know the languages anyhow, so why don't I just go away and shut up. My, my. How dare I, calling sin sin. When I told them I have taught both Greek and Hebrew at the college level I didn't get an apology--big surprise, huh?.

On most sites you will find Evangelical males (notice I did't say "men") who, when they have to deal with false teaching, do so in such a gentle way one has to read for 20 minutes before one can find out whose side they're on. Why? Because it's considered impolite to say things like "liar." Why have we become so uncomfortable with such a word? Jesus said much worse than that all the time to false teachers. We're women, not men. Shame on us.

I pray that brothers like Melvin Jones and John Coleman never become like the rest of Evangelicalism. That would be a sad day.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins. PS--If you're doctrinally straight, but won't stand, what difference does it make? Fear Him Who has power to destroy both body and soul in the flames of hell.

Quote Of The Week 03-26-07

The spotless purity of truth must always be at war with the blackness of heresy and lies.--Charles Haddon Spurgeon, from The Truth War by John MacArthur.

Joyce Meyer Claims Infallibility!

Yes, that's right. Joyce (the voice of a liar) Meyer is claiming to never be wrong. I found this quote from her on a great website called Theology Today.

Here's what she had to say:

“I am going to tell you something right now. I no more believe that my God is going to let me stand around and believe a lie than I believe that I am going to turn green in the next two minutes. God is my source and He loves me and I am after God with my whole heart. And if I am accidentally, or any other way, getting into error, I am going to have a bell go off on the inside of me that is going to be so loud that not only am I going to hear it, but so is everybody else.”

Yes, you read right. If she was wrong, you'd hear bells. So, unless we all hear bells everything she says is right. God wouldn't have it any other way.

May God strike her "ministry" down.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.