Posts filed under ‘christianity’
Revival: Should We Pray for It?
Today, we are hearing a cacophony of voices crying out that if only America would experience revival, all would be well. We have people who stand up and base their entire best-selling book on one verse of Scripture that actually applies to Israel, but is somehow made to apply to America, and these people are praised! Don’t question that person because he is a sacred cow to someone. What he says is clearly what God wants to happen, right?
Humanity’s Constant Propensity of Being Deceived
Of course, the other downside to skepticism is that people like Randi, due to their unqualified intellectualism, tend not to believe anything that is even remotely supernatural. It’s not as if he is an intentional enemy of it. He just wants proof. Because of that, his area of difficulty will always lie in the area of faith. God says blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed (John 20:29). For someone like Randi, the ability to believe that which cannot be adequately explained is extremely difficult. Because of that, even seeing is not believing. While Randi does a tremendous service to the social community, rooting out one charlatan after another, his intellectual make-up keeps him from even entering through the door of faith. That tragedy is far worse than learning that someone like Uri Geller or Peter Popoff are potential charlatans.
Since God Exists in the Eternal Present, Does It Matter When He Deals with It?
Whether God fixes things now or in the future makes no difference to God, but only to us. The reality is that He will right all wrongs, but most of them will not be righted until after He returns to this earth, not before. Realizing this, trying to fully understand it, will relieve us of a great deal of frustration. It will also help us reject any acrimonious assault on our character by those who would make us think we haven’t done enough.
We trust God? We work to fulfill the Great Commission? We preach the truth in life and deed? That, my friends, is enough because it is all God asked of us.
An Open Letter from John MacArthur Regarding SCOTUS Decision
The highest court in the land has passed its judgment. The headlines proclaim that a slim majority of Supreme Court justices considers freedom of sexual orientation a right for all Americans. This exchange of one set of values in favor of another does not come as a surprise to us who already know that the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe (2 Cor. 4:4). June 26th, 2015 stands as a significant milestone in the American demonstration of this ancient reality. This is a critical hour for believers across our nation.
What, No Rapture at All? Let’s Look at Reasoning for that Belief
She says that the word for “clouds” should be taken to mean “large groups of people.” The actual word used in the Greek text in the Thessalonians passage is nephelais and it literally means actual “clouds” in the sky. The usage of it in Hebrews is a different word completely. It is nephos, which can mean a mass of clouds as in a “great multitude.” When used figuratively (as the writer in Hebrews clearly does), it then can mean a great multitude of people, but only when used figuratively. There is no reason to take the word figuratively every time it is used in Scripture as it depends mainly on context.
Don Francisco’s Burgeoning Universalism, Part 1
Theology like Francisco’s ultimately leads to universalism, the belief that eventually everyone will get to heaven. People who believe in Universalism are often high-minded, pitying those of us who continue to believe that because of God’s laws, He must reject those who ultimately choose to reject Him. God is bigger, they say, than that. God loves all people and finds a way to bring all people to heaven. This untruth is the very lie that has motivated Satan since sin was first found in him. To these people, the Bible is more of a guide, but does not contain God’s actual truthful Word to humanity. They forget that without God’s written Word, we would know NOTHING about God’s physical, incarnate Word. Ultimately, this is merely another form of Cultural Marxism infiltrating aspects of the visible Church.
Technocracy to Tribulation
Technocracy to Tribulation highlights many things that have been happening in society that have been moving the world toward the Battle of Armageddon. Satan has deftly used the world’s resources and leaders to bring about a one world system that comprises politics, economy, social mores, and all the rest. God will even give Satan a very large helping hand when He (God) pours out a delusion over the earth that will cause people to believe Satan’s lies wholeheartedly (2 Thessalonians 2:11). While it may seem unfair that God is helping Satan out, God only sends the delusion because people have consistently rejected God’s truth. God doesn’t send the delusion willingly, but only because this is what the world actually wants (Psalm 2).
Who or What is the Restrainer that Paul Speaks of? Part 2
Paul implies that the Thessalonian readers already knew who the restrainer was because Paul had already told them (“you know what restrains him”). With reference to evil – the lawless one, defined also as the “mystery of lawlessness” – that is defined with a personal pronoun as well. Evil resides in Satan. He is thoroughly evil and one day, he will have a “spiritual” son who will do his bidding. That son will be the Antichrist and he will be completely indwelt by Satan. In fact, this “indwelling” will mimic the way the Holy Spirit indwells each believer.
Who or What is the Restrainer that Paul Speaks of? Part 1
How does one come away from a verse like that and determine that it was not God Himself who restrained Satan? It can only be done through exceedingly poor and sloppy exegesis of His Word. God spoke a warning to Satan, telling him he could do anything he wanted to Job except touch him on his person. Later, we know that God modified this to allow Satan to do what he wanted with Job except take his life. Why did Satan obey? Because it was God who gave him his marching orders, not some impersonal barrier or “restraint” that has no mind or power of its own. The restraint was literally God’s Word, which is God Himself (John 1:1).
An Event That Will Shatter World Equilibrium
It is the Rapture that is expectantly waited on by the powers of darkness. They know that once it occurs, the Holy Spirit will no longer have the invisible Church through which to work, to convict the world of sin and to call them to righteousness. At that point, Satan and his minions will have far greater leeway to work. They will not hesitate to use every dark art to their advantage as they race toward the culmination of human history in Armageddon. Satan actually believes he has a chance of “besting” God, but we know that Satan (via Antichrist) will be destroyed by a word from the mouth of our returning Jesus, during His Second Advent (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
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