Discerning False Religions

Friday Sermon | Three Stages of Jihad by David Wood

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frisermonIt’s Friday, and we’ve had quite the tumultuous week involving global terrorism, US foreign policy, the upcoming elections, and Christians sloppily slinging around references to “the gospel” as they try to out-moral-high-road each other in a social media piety-contest. Now some of it has been from well-intentioned Christians looking at the situation from different perspectives while agreeing on the teaching of Scripture (we’ll disregard those who’ve twisted Scripture to feed their attacks on Christians). What has been sorely lacking, however, is an understanding of Islam and its doctrine. Most notably, the misconception of what is often described as a “moderate Islam” or the “moderate Muslims”. While what folks are trying to describe does exist, calling it “moderate Islam” or them “moderate Muslims” is a misnomer. There is no “moderate Islam”. There are Muslims in name only who don’t know Islam any better than Joel Osteen knows the Christianity, and then there are Muslims in various stages of Jihad. Today, we’ll be watching an older video by David Wood of Acts17 Apologetics. If you’d like to know more about Islam, I recommend his website Answering Muslims.

Three Stages of Jihad

 

The Qu’ran and the Siege of Paris

Conclusion

One does not need to master all false religions to rightly understand the True Law and Gospel. We don’t need to become experts in Islam or Mormonism to know the One True God of the Bible. However, when we do speak of the false religions like Islam or Mormonism, we shouldn’t do so in ignorance, and we should treat them and their doctrines as we want others to treat ours. It doesn’t happen often, and life isn’t fair, and we Jesus already warned us that we will be hated for His Name sake. Still, we are called to preach the Truth, and since we have the Truth fully revealed to us in Scripture, we have nothing to fear. So, learn to expose inconsistent hermeneutics being applied to the Bible as well as to the Quran or the Book of Mormon. I hope these videos were helpful to you in some way. Pray for the Church, pray for our leaders in government, and pray for strength in these dark and perilous times.

Jude 24-25 (ESV) | Doxology

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

In Christ Jesus,
Jorge

Friday Sermon | Laws for Proper Worship by Dr. James White

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AOMToday’s “Friday Sermon” comes from Dr. James White.

Dr. James White is the director of Alpha and Omega Ministries, a Christian apologetics organization based in Phoenix, Arizona. He is the author of more than twenty books, a professor, an accomplished debater, and an elder of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church.

Today’s sermon isn’t from Alpha & Omega Ministry; rather, it comes from the sermon he preached at Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church on Sunday, August 30, 2015.

Morning Sermon Audio

Morning Sermon Text

Deuteronomy 12 (ESV) | The Lord‘s Chosen Place of Worship

12 “These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.4 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. 5 But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, 6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

8 “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. 13 Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, 14 but at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.

15 “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, 18 but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake.19 Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.

20 “When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. 21 If the place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. 22 Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it.23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, that all may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.26 But the holy things that are due from you, and your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to the place that the Lord will choose, 27 and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat. 28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Warning Against Idolatry

29 “When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ 31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

32  “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.

Have a Blessed Weekend

I pray each of you attends church this week that faithfully preaches the Word of God, both Law and Gospel. Pray for your elders.  Pray for our leaders. Pray for repentance and forgiveness daily.

Jude 1:24-25 (ESV)  24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

In Christ Jesus,
Jorge

DiM | “What If” by Prince (?)

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disapproveNo, Prince isn’t a Christian artist. I don’t follow him. I also don’t read/follow Christianity Today. My personal Facebook News feed has news stories from theBlaze, which is how I came across this “news”. It seems Prince has released a cover of this song originally by Nicole Nordeman. Christianity Today was all over it in their article, “Prince releases cover of Christian song ‘What If’“. If you’d like to take the time to read the article now, that’s fine, we’ll discuss it after we lay some groundwork looking at the song by Nicole Nordeman first and then dealing with some of the comments in the article.

(Unofficial) Nicole Nordeman Lyric Video

[youtube https://youtu.be/rUhnoralqVA]

Prince version Lyrics (via Genius)

What If?

Prince Ft: 3rdeyegirl & Hannah Welton

[Verse 1: Prince]
What if you’re right?
And He was just another
Another nice guy
What if you’re right
What if it’s true
They say the truth
Will only make a fool of you
And what if that’s true?

What if He takes His place in history
With all the prophets and the kings
Who taught us love and came in peace
But then the story ends, what then

[Chorus]
But what if you’re wrong
What if there’s more
What if there’s hope
You never dreamed of hoping for
What if you jump?
Just close your eyes
What if the arms that catch you
Catch you by surprise?
What if He’s more than enough?
What if it’s love?

[Verse 2: Hannah Welton]
What if you dig
Way down deeper
Than your
Simple-minded friends
What if you dig
And what if you find
A thousand more
Unanswered questions down inside
That’s all you find

What if you pick apart the logic
And begin to poke the holes
What if the crown of thorns is no more
Than folklore that must be told and retold

[Chorus]

[Bridge]
Cause you’ve been running
As fast as you can
And you’ve been looking
For a place you can land
For so long but what if you’re wrong

What if you jump?
Just close your eyes
What if the arms that catch you
Catch you by surprise?
What if He’s more than enough?
What if it’s love?
What if it’s love?

Discussion of Song

What if. The entire song is a “what if”. How is that in any way an Evangelical song? This song doesn’t make any Truth claims. No declaration of the Truth of God’s Word. No declaration of Jesus Christ or Him crucified for our sin, no call to repentance and no promise of forgiveness. Nothing but a “what if you’re wrong”?  This song would fail a DiM review, but it hasn’t really been on the radio or any top-20 chart recently, so it really wouldn’t come up anyway. What I find troubling is how this “news” is being covered in the self-proclaimed Christian magazine.

Discussion of News

From the Christianity Today article, Prince releases cover of Christian song ‘What If’:

Nordeman expressed her excitement about the cover on social media. “I don’t really have the appropriate words for what an honor this is,” she said on Facebook. “If you are a musician on any level, you will immediately absorb the weight of it. This man’s talent is otherworldly. What’s the non-musical equivalent? Tiger Woods asking to borrow your clubs? Neil Armstrong calling and asking if you’d like to take a walk?”

I won’t fault a musician for feeling honored and excited that a world-renown musician is making headlines by choosing to cover his/her song. I don’t fault the emotion of excitement. But how you speak about these events (and your emotions), and how you write about it in social media is important. We have a problem with this praise of Prince’s musical talent. Is it a gift from God, freely given? Yes, as are all of God’s gifts to mankind. Has Prince honored God with his talent? A review of his work throughout his career suggests “no”.

She added that she had been most impacted by the fact that Prince had heard it on a Christian radio station, and used it as an opportunity to encourage those working in Christian broadcasting.

“Far too often Christian radio is accused of existing solely to preach to the choir. Solely for the minivan driving mother of three who wants a safe listening choice for her family. But Prince heard a song about the transforming love of Jesus on Christian radio and now has given it a much wider audience than I ever did or could.”

This portion of the article is poorly written, particularly in the progression of pronouns. The Blaze makes it clear that it was Nicole who was using this news about Prince as an opportunity to encourage Christian broadcasters (see below). My question here is, “are we talking about the same song”? Can that song that never leaves the “what if?” into the “what is!” truly be about the transforming love of Jesus? Perhaps she is talking about her intent behind the song.

Prince became a Jehovah’s Witness in 2001 and has talked – and sung – about his faith for a number of years.

.:sigh:. I’d expect this type of citation from a secular magazine or even theBlaze, but in something labeled “Christianity Today” one should expect a clear distinction between Christianity and cults like Jehovah’s Witness. I am deeply grieved by this article’s praise of Prince (an unbeliever) simply because he chose to cover a “Christian” song.

From theBlaze:

“To my friends in Christian radio, let me take this opportunity to remind you that what you do matters,” she said. “Your morning shows matter. Your afternoon drives matter. Your listener appreciation pledge drives matter.”

Nordeman added that she believes too many people accuse Christian radio of preaching to the choir, but that Prince’s discovery of her song shows that there’s another perspective worth considering.

“Prince heard a song about the transforming love of Jesus on Christian radio and now has given it a much wider audience than I ever did or could,” she wrote. Thank you, radio friends, for what you do. The world is listening.”

To that last point, I agree. The world is listening, and we need to be proclaiming the Truth of God’s Word, not merely settling for “what if” songs or “spiritual positivity” loosely connected to Christian themes. The choir needs biblical preaching, just as much as the World does. The difference (by God’s Grace) is that the choir has faith, while the world remains condemned in their unbelief.

The last thing we need is to give ascent to the notion that our youth should take note of Prince and his version of spirituality. This is sloppy treatment of evangelism, journalism, and discernment by the folks at Christianity Today.

Jude 1:24-25(ESV)

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

In Christ Jesus,
Jorge

Friday Sermon | Christians and the Covenants

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Today’s “Friday Sermon” comes from Pastor Chris Rosebrough, but not from his sermons at Kongsvinger Lutheran Church; rather, it comes by way of his online discernment radio ministry Fighting for the Faith.

In this episode of Fighting for the Faith, Chris Rosebrough departs a bit from his typical format (hour 1 starting with updates on various heretics, celebrity pastors, or self-proclaimed apostles/prophets with hour 2 being a sermon review). He begins by reading from Acts 15 and Galatians exegeting what the Bible teaches regarding the covenants and our relationship with them as Christians in the New Covenant. He will also deal with tithing directly by reading from Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. Rightly understanding the covenants is critical to understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ and discerning the false gospels and false teachings of modern-day Judaizers and hucksters. Modern-day Judaizers don’t push circumcision necessarily, but they push the tithe… hard. Why? To preach for selfish gain what they ought not preach.

Titus 1:10-11 (ESV)

10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

After he teaches the proper understanding of the covenants, he works through the basic discernment exercise of Jessie Duplantis and Kenneth Copeland as a warm-up for the full sermon review of the present-day king of Tithe preachers in the evangelical world, Robert Morris.

January 29, 2015 | Blessed Life or Curse of the Law?

If you don’t have time to listen to the full show, at least catch the first hour of teaching before the Jessie Duplantis/Kenneth Copeland exercise.

In Christ Jesus,
Jorge

Friday Sermon | Mormonism is not Christian Theology

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AOMToday’s “Friday Sermon” is not so much a sermon per se; rather, it is an introduction or overview of Mormonism geared at exposing how vastly different it is from Christianity despite its use of Christian terminology. This clip is a short (21 min) overview of Mormon theology. I’ll be linking to a longer class he taught on this subject at the end of the post. In a recent shared post on my personal Facebook page, I had an acquaintance jump into a discussion on my timeline who is a member of LDS assert that he considered himself Christian. While I have read through a large portion of the LDS.org website, I’ve avoided making stark distinctions before opting instead to simply focus on what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is without calling out other false gospels specifically. Thankfully, I’ve been introduced to the Ministry of Dr. James White via his response to the Newsweek article hit-piece on the Bible. With the popularity/prevalence of Glenn Beck (theBlaze) and the rumors of Mitt Romney possibly taking another run at Presidency, the false notion that Mormonism is a Christian denomination may come up again.

Dr. James White is the director of Alpha and Omega Ministries, a Christian apologetics organization based in Phoenix, Arizona. He is the author of more than twenty books, a professor, an accomplished debater, and an elder of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church.

[youtube http://youtu.be/a1BLR4rufYA]

For an extended (2 hours 18min) seminar  on witnessing to Mormons by Dr James White, click here.

Biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ

Colossians 1:11-23 (ESV)

11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, forall endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning,the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Ephesians 2:1-10 (ESV)

By Grace Through Faith

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.