PASTOR'S CORNER

DR. JOHN MACARTHUR SPEAKS ON BRIAN MCLAREN AND THE EMERGING CHURCH This piece below is from an interview on The Way of the Master Radio featuring Dr. John MacArthur reacting to sound clips from Guru Brian McLaren . Dr. MacArthur covers how the actual Gospel is terribly twisted into a repainted and reimagined social gospel by leaders in the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church like Rob Bell and Doug Pagitt and Erwin McManus . At its rotten root this serpentine movement of the Emergent Church is an attack on the Word of God and the doctrines of grace. And the bottom line here, and someone needs to say this publicly, is either the aforementioned men are Christians or men like myself and Dr. John MacArthur are. Here this clearly: Our messages are diametrically opposed. What Dr. MacArthur covers here is also contained in an excellent 10 CD set called “Spiritual Terrorism”: Everywhere in the world, biblical truth is under attack. What may surprise you is that the most devastating ass...

John Piper - A Problem with the Infomercial Gospel in New Evangelicalism Published September 5th, 2007 by Editor in Rick Warren , Megachurches , Purpose Driven , Seeker Sensitive , New Evangelicalism In this short video clip John Piper uncovers the faulty reasoning behind today’s infomercial gospel preached by new breed pastors like Rick Warren, his disciple Perry Noble and then his disciple Steven Furtick. Piper says this kind of centered on the perceived needs and wants of the unchurched has resulted in false converts who "don’t seem to understand what receiving Christ even means”: -->

Rethinking Veggie Tales by Cathy Mickels My good friend and author Cathy Mickels wrote this piece back in 2002 about the Veggie Tales videos and their message regarding Scripture. She articulates my concerns far better than I have done today with my brief post. Cathy’s book on youth ministry was endorsed by John MacArthur for good reason. She sees Veggie Tales not as an isolated thing, as many of my critics on this issue do. She and I both see these things as part of the larger context of the evangelical meltdown. And contrary to some of those who have defended the sacred vegetables, for many children this is all they ever do get of Bible teaching in their homes. At Elmbrook Church here in the Milwaukee area, they even had the dancing vegetables on “stage”. I only wish we could get Christians as riled up defending the Scriptures as they do defending dancing cartoon veggies. Comments(17) Posted on August 30, 2007 by Ingrid

Mother Theresa; We Hardly Knew Ye Published August 24th, 2007 by Editor in General News , Catholicism , Deception We know that anytime Mother Thersa gets critiqued there is an outcry, as it is commonly viewed, by some, as the equivilent of killing a baby seal. However we are sorry to say that this is what happens when we "idolize" any person. The RCC practice of living vicariously through the "super-spiritual" is not biblical, which is why it is accepted so readily by the rest of the world. This from Time/CNN

A Call for Unfaithful Pastors to Repent! Published August 20th, 2007 by Editor in General Enough is enough! There is an plague of pastors in the church who refuse to do their Biblical duty and preach God’s word, preach sound doctrine and make disciples who are grounded in God’s word. These pastors would rather be relevant, popular, purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, hip, kewl, or emergent than do their Biblical duty. It is time to call these men out and call them to repentance. Here is a link to a web-page written by Chris Rosebrough of Extreme Theology that you can send to those pastors who refuse to do their Biblical duty. Please take the time to pass it on to those pastors who need to repent and get back to preaching God’s Word and Christ Crucified for sinners. -->

Why do I Believe the Bible is the word of God? This is a question that every believer never thought he or she would have to answer. Not only has this topic brought such controversy among non-believers of all generations but it’s also happening today among evangelicals. We can understand the position of the nonbelievers because the truth of the word of God has been blinded to them and the only way to ‘see’ is to come into the light of Jesus Christ (Eph 4:18), but it is particularly saddening to see this doubt among born again Christians. This fact shouldn’t need defending, or better yet, even be brought up among fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. But, the question remains: Is the Bible the complete living, breathing, word of God? The obvious answer to this question is YES! With the word of God as the base, it will be demonstrated that there are no contradictions or errors in the Bible because Heb 4:12 tells us "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any tw...

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=c3e67286080500df36a9 I have two words "simply amazing

A Prayerful Hymn Regarding False Teachers O Lord, look down from Heaven, beholdAnd let Thy pity waken:How few are we within Thy fold,Thy saints by men forsaken!True faith seems quenched on every hand,Men suffer not Thy Word to stand;Dark times have us o’ertaken. With fraud which they themselves inventThy truth they have confounded;Their hearts are not with one consentOn Thy pure doctrine grounded.While they parade with outward show,They lead the people to and fro,In error’s maze astounded. May God root out all heresyAnd of false teachers rid usWho proudly say: “Now, where is heThat shall our speech forbid us?By right or might we shall prevail;What we determine cannot fail;We own no lord and master.” Therefore saith God, “I must arise,The poor My help are needing;To Me ascend My people’s cries,And I have heard their pleading.For them My saving Word shall fightAnd fearlessly and sharply smite,The poor with might defending.” As silver tried by fire is pureFrom all adulteration,So through ...

John MacArthur says . . . " There seems almost no limit to what modern church leaders will do to entice people who aren't interested in worship and preaching. Too many have bought the notion that the church must win people by offering an alternative form of entertainment. Just how far will the church go in competing with Hollywood? A large church in the southwestern United States has installed a half-million dollar special-effects system that can produce smoke, fire, sparks, and laser lights in the auditorium. The church sent staff members to study live special effects at Bally's Casino in Las Vegas. The pastor ended one service by ascending to "heaven" via invisible wires that drew him up out of sight while the choir and orchestra added a musical accompaniment to the smoke, fire, and light show. It was just a typical Sunday show for that pastor: "He packs his church with such special effects as ... cranking up a chain saw and toppling a tree to make a point...

Hello, My Father Just Died By Pastor John Piper The big hospital clock in room 4326 of Greenville Memorial Hospital said, with both hands straight up, midnight. Daddy had just taken his last breath. My watch said 12:01, March 6, 2007. I had slept a little since his last morphine shot at ten. One ear sleeping, one on the breathing. At 11:45, I awoke. The breaths were coming more frequently and were very shallow. I will not sleep again, I thought. For ten minutes, I prayed aloud into his left ear with Bible texts and pleadings to Jesus to come and take him. I had made this case before, and this time felt an unusual sense of partnership with Daddy as I pressed on the Lord to relieve this warrior of his burden. I finished and lay down. Good. Thank you, Lord. It will not be long. And, grace upon grace, hundreds of prayers are being answered: He is not choking. The gurgling that threatened to spill over and drown him in the afternoon had sunk deep, and now there was simple clear air, short...

Jeremiah the Weeping Prophet By Mike Andrews The churches today are full of people who don’t care or don’t want to listen to men preaching God’s Word. 2Tim 4:3 "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions". The church today is not much different than the times of the prophets who were preaching repentance and pleading for the nation of Israel to return back to God. Jeremiah, also known as the "weeping prophet", was the writer of the two Old Testament books Jeremiah and Lamentations. He was an ambassador sent by God to the house of Israel. Jer 7:3 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place." Jeremiah didn’t volunteer to become a preacher of the Word. The office for this (being a prophet) was reserved for those who were divinely called. Jeremiah was one of those pri...

New Pilgrim’s Progress Movie Published August 9th, 2007 by Mike Ratliff in Pilgrim's Progress There is a new movie based on John Bunyan’s great allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, that is nearing the end of post production. It is called "Pilgrim’s Progress - The Journey to Heaven." Here is a link to the movie website . Watch the trailer. I don’t know how well it will portray our spiritual journey, but I intend to see it when it is released and will post a review. -->

Brian McLaren of the Emerging Church is an Apostate and a Liar Published August 9th, 2007 by Ken Silva in Emerging Church , Brian McLaren , Apostasy …guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called "knowledge" – which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith… (1 Timothy 6:20-21) From a "May/June 2007" interview with Brian McLaren at The Wittenburg Door : DOOR: Could you elaborate on the spiritual breakdown you had in the early ’90s, which led to the A New Kind of Christian trilogy? MCLAREN: In the early and mid-’90s, I starting doubting the systematic theologies I’d inherited. I didn’t know you were allowed to believe in God outside of a prescribed systematic theology. So, I had to go through kind of a deconstruction and reconstruction. The process was really scary, because I had no guarantees. I remember reaching a very low point and thinking, "I’m either going to have...

It All Began with Men Who Fought for the Truth! When we think of the Reformation today, we think of the separation between born again evangelicals and the Roman Catholic church. We think of saved by grace through faith and the Catholic's view of saved by works and the church of Rome. But there was so much more to it. We had Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses of Contention to the church of Rome which began a major turn for the church of Jesus Christ. People started reading the Bible for themselves. The people began to turn to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ instead of the Pope. Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin were great men who took a stand for the truth, even if it meant losing their lives for that truth. However, if we look back, even before Luther, we get a glimpse of a man who we would call a 'lesser known' proponent of the Reformation because he wasn't there to see the separation of the Catholics and the beginning of the Protestant church; his name is John Hu...

6 main ingredients to having spiritual joy 1. Joy is a gift from God (Ps 16:11) You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 2. God grants Joy to those who believe the Gospel (John 15:11) These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 3. Joy is produced by God the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17) For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 4. Joy is experienced most fully as believers receive and obey God's Word (Jer 15:16) Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by Your name, O LORD, God of hosts. 5. Joy is deepened through trials (1 Thess 1:6) And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,6. Believer's joy is made complete when...

Persecution Among Christians By Mike Andrews We live in a world that is so full of sin and unrighteousness that they have become blinded to what is going on around them because of their selfishness. We are a world of people who accept all types of religions but hate Christianity and anything that deals with Christ Jesus. If you say to someone who is lost in sin or who is a worshipper of a false god, that the Jesus is the only way to attain eternal life (John 14:6), those people would look at you with hate and resentment and say "you are so narrow-minded".If today's world could only see past their blindness and see the lives of people who stand for the Gospel of Christ. They need to know about those who die and are persecuted in so many ways each year for their faith in China and around the world in areas that are heavily populated with Muslims or other false faiths.Its one thing to say you are a Christian, but it is a serious matter when you are willing to die or take the...