END TIMES: Convergence of the unrelated!

Two unrelated stories got me thinking:

first, the revelation that, in a Pew Forum survey, nearly 60% of those who indicated an evangelical worldview believed there are many roads that lead to heaven and,

second, an offer to sell an original, first edition copy of George Orwell's seminal ditty "nineteen eighty-four" with an accompanying quote, "He loved Big Brother."

How thought provoking that quote is in light of the sad condition of the Bride of Christ. Everywhere I turn, people are open to and looking for authentic Christianity ... but the visible church (including me) has done its best to conceal the real thing from the unsaved masses.

I'm not surprised the people (searching for real truth) love Big Brother and buy into his lies. Bottom-line, however, the church, like Peter, will soon hear the cock crow for her virtual denial of Christ.

Big Brother, Bride of Christ,
Christianity, Church, Religion

FUNDAMENTALS: What They're Not!

Al Mohler's got it right! In a recent address the young (soon to be President) SBC leader pointed to the dangers of religious conciliation at the practicing level.

[Mohler] expressed concerns this week about the recent Christian response to a historic Muslim letter in which signers appeared unclear about their Christian identity and different beliefs of God.

Geopolitics aside, faith is a serious business and not truly of this world. If the world is in trouble it is not the first time, nor will it be the last time!

[Mohler pointed out, correctly, that the response to the Muslim missive] failed to clearly define the Christian understanding of God as the trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Muslims and Mormons are in the same barrel concerning the object of their faith; their deity is not remotely similar, let alone equal to, the God of Scripture. As much as mankind wants reconciliation and peace on earth, Christian's must not allow a common humanity to define the object of their faith.

Mohler explained that Muslims also believe in Jesus but only as a prophet, not as the son of God. Therefore, Christians must distinguish what kind of God they believe in when responding to the Muslim letter, which emphasized love for a common God.

We do not have "a common God"! Concerning Jesus Christ, specifically, Mohler said ...

He is the incarnate Son of God. He is the second person of the Trinity. He is the Lord over all. Any minimization of that is a huge problem.

Amen! And Amen! The full-page letter, "endorsed by nearly 300 Christian leaders," ...

... appeared in a December issue of The New York Times. The letter was drafted by scholars at Yale Divinity School’s Center for Faith and Culture in response to an October letter signed by 138 Muslim scholars, clerics, and leaders that encouraged Muslims and Christians to work more closely for world peace.

At the heart of the Muslim letter was the “common ground” that believers of both faiths share – love for God and love for neighbors.

There is no common ground with Muslims, or any other belief system ... for has God not said and does He not mean ...

[We must] not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.

Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE," says the Lord. "AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18

When Christian leaders such as ...

Rick Warren, founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and author of The Purpose Driven Life; Bill Hybels, founder and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill.; Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; and David Neff, editor-in-chief and vice-president of “Christianity Today” Media Group ...

... sign on to such a regretful document the cause of Christ and the furtherance of the Kingdom are seriously damaged.

This effort on the part of well-meaning, but misguided leaders, is nothing like the document addressing issues concerning American morality, signed awhile back by evangelical leaders ... this document is an offer of capitulation to an avowed and prophetic enemy of Jehovah God.

Mohler goes on to comment on the event in some detail, it's worth clicking over to and get the full text.

Apostasy, Christianity, Religion

CHRIST: Is it all about the image of God or the Word of God?

I know we revere the doctrine of the Imago Dei but we live by "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" not iconic images.

An Aussie artist who created a controversial piece depicting Usama bin Laden morphing into Jesus Christ defended her work, calling for people to look beyond the comparison of good and evil, the News Limited of Australia reported on Thursday.

Priscilla Bracks denied she was trying offend people.

"Absolutely not, no, no,” she said in the News article. “I am not interested in being offensive. I am interested in having a discussion and asking questions about how we think about our world and what we accept and what we don't accept," she said.

My question to my readers is this: What does Jesus look like? We know more about the face of the mysterious and murderous bin Laden since 9/11 than we do about the image of the Jesus we've known for 2000 years.

There is no picture of Jesus available to man ... so how is it that we become offended by a human representation of an unknown? Besides ...

You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

Deuteronomy 5:8

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Art, bin Laden, Priscilla Bracks,
Commandments, Icons, Imago dei, Word

APOLOGETICS: Like leaving the kids in the car on a hot summer day!

A Christian Post piece warns we might be committing an equally unthinkable crime against our young ...

Churches are producing atheists by not answering the questions of young people and explaining why they believe in the Bible ... .

So says Anthony Horvath ...

... formerly an atheist himself after years of Christian education, pointed out that renowned atheists such as Richard Dawkins were raised in the Church but have become some of the fiercest attackers of God.

He further noted, “Books like Richard Dawkins’ ‘The God Delusion’ and Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ do not become best sellers in a society that understands what Christianity is all about.”

Billy Graham, years ago, said something to the effect that the largest mission field in the world meets Sunday mornings in your local church [my loose paraphrase]. I've been saying for three years now that the Church is sick and getting sicker.

Anthony Horvath, Apologetics, Atheism, Christianity

E-PREACHING: Reading "worth reading" Emails Instead of Preaching From the Word!

There isn't a day I don't receive multiple emails from dear friends or acquaintances with the same subject line "Worth Reading."

I've noticed many of these dear friends (and they are dear, sweet people) insist they're "believers," yet well over 50% of them are wholly or marginally ignorant of Scripture. I wonder how they are able to find the time to read these secular-slices.

I've also wondered at the uniform excuse, "It's hard for me to understand the bible" when asked if they read their bibles. Yet they seem to believe their biblical ignorance will protect them from biblical error in these supposedly biblical emails, which are "worth reading."

I've even seen some say, "I know this isn't biblical but it's so cute" or "so funny." There is a barefaced dichotomy here.

Since I preach from the word, I wonder if preaching from those emails might get more people to stay awake and thereby hear something worth hearing?

Yet the Bible says,

"for faith comes by hearing and hearing comes from the word concerning Christ." Romans 10:17

and "we are saved by grace, through faith" Ephesians 2:8

and "without faith it is impossible to please God" Hebrews 11:6

and "faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen" Hebrews 11:1.

Apostasy, Bible, Biblical Ignorance,
Illumination, Scripture