Posted on Jun 30, 2008 under False Religion, Quotes |
So this week was a big week for me. I went to a concert to see some bands that made my ears bleed. I also had another great conversation with my neighbor. We got into the discussion of what is Christianity. Now his view and mine are polar opposites like usual, but he always makes me think. If a person wanting a degree in computer science started school, and all they got were books on water chemistry, then they are not learning computer science. But wait! Society says water chemistry is what computer science is all about. It has changed in the past 50 years to reflect the dominate culture. If something like this happened they would not be a computer scientist when they got out of school. No matter what people call it. I know this sounds crazy but this is the same thing that has happened to Christianity.
My neighbor made this very clear when we were having a quick back porch debate. I was saying that fox news in an article here said that 83 percent of protestants polled said they there was more than one way to salvation outside of their religion. I said that means only 17 percent of those polled were actually Christians then. My neighbor said that I could not say that. My response was this. If you are a Christian then you are supposed to believe the bible. He then said well not all Christians believe everything in the bible is true. You can see where this was heading. But the fact of the matter is that he is correct. Only correct in that people CALL themselves Christians when they are not. Christianity has reached a point where once again post-modernist thought has done its work on a concept. It works like this; I do not like that being a Christian means that you have to believe that the bible is the infallible, irrefutable, and inerrant word of God. I also do not like the Christianity believes that Jesus is the only way to heaven. So I am going to redefine what Christianity is. Just like my computer science analogy above. You can redefine it all you want. But if you do not believe what the book says then you are not a Christian. No matter how you want to spin it this is the way it is. The God of the bible says there is but one way.
Mathew 7:
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
In the Gospel of John Jesus is called
• “the bread of life” (6:35, 48)
• “the bread that came down from heaven” and “the living bread that came down from heaven” (6:41, 51)
• “the light of the world” (8:12; 9:5)
• “the resurrection and the life” (11:25)
• “the true vine” and “the vine” (15:1, 5)
In John 14:6 Jesus says
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Romans 3:
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
You see no one is good so we require Jesus to save us.
I could go on and on but I will not. Just be looking forward to the next podcast. Instead of a quote of the day I wanted to give you this and a quote. I think a fitting quote to go along with today’s article is this
Hence we must hold, that whosoever adulterates pure religion (and this must be the case with all who cling to their own views), make a departure from the one God. No doubt, they will allege that they have a different intention; but it is of little consequence what they intend or persuade themselves to believe, since the Holy Spirit pronounces all to be apostates, who, in the blindness of their minds, substitute demons in the place of God. -John Calvin, Institutes, Book I., Ch. 5. Section 13a.
Posted on Jun 26, 2008 under False Religion |
James Dobson was evaluating some examples that Obama has cited in asking which biblical passages should guide public policy. For Example, Obama has said Leviticus suggests slavery is okay and eating shellfish is an abomination. Obama has also made comments about Matthew 5,6,7 also known as The Sermon On The Mount. Obama has said it is
“a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application.”
You really need to understand the backgrounds of these two people when looking at these statements. Dobson believes in biblical based theology from what I have read and listened to over the years from his organization. I can’t say for sure what Obama believes because I do not know him. I do not know James Dobson either, but he has enough info on record to make a good deduction of what he stands for. As for Obama we can look at his stance on abortion and his statements about Leviticus. We can also look at where he has been to church for the last 20 years. You will see that where he has been going to church is a big one. Dobson Said
“I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology,”
He also said
“… He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.”
Lets look at a difference between a church Dobson has been known to frequent then lets look at a church that Obama spent 20 years at. Lets look at the about us pages.
First Obama’s former church at http://www.tucc.org/about.htm
United Church of Christ Statement of Faith in the form of a doxology
We believe in you, O God, Eternal Spirit, God of our Savior Jesus Christ and our God, and to your deeds we testify: You call the worlds into being, create persons in your own image, and set before each one the ways of life and death. You seek in holy love to save all people from aimlessness and sin. You judge people and nations by your righteous will declared through prophets and apostles. In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Savior, you have come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the world to yourself. You bestow upon us your Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and races. You call us into your church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be your servants in the service of others, to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ’s baptism and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory. You promise to all who trust you forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace, courage in the struggle for justice and peace, your presence in trial and rejoicing, and eternal life in your realm which has no end. Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto you. Amen.
We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian… Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain “true to our native land,” the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.
The Pastor as well as the membership of Trinity United Church of Christ is committed to a 10-point Vision:
1. A congregation committed to ADORATION.
2. A congregation preaching SALVATION.
3. A congregation actively seeking RECONCILIATION.
4. A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA.
5. A congregation committed to BIBLICAL EDUCATION.
6. A congregation committed to CULTURAL EDUCATION.
7. A congregation committed to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA.
8. A congregation committed to LIBERATION.
9. A congregation committed to RESTORATION.
10. A congregation working towards ECONOMIC PARITY.
Now lets look at a church that Dobson has been known to attend.
http://www.eastboroughnaz.org/about.html
ABOUT US
Our Heritage
Started in 1959, Eastborough Church of the Nazarene began as a home mission with just ten charter members. Five years later, after a few changes in name and location, we decided to move to a desolate and windy hill on east Pikes Peak Avenue, where there were just four other houses in the entire area. With a brand new building and a vision of the future, we began to grow and reach out to the community, and as the neighborhood grew, so did our church.
In 1972, another new building, our current facility, was dedicated and put into use - and used, it is! Almost every night of the week you can find Eastborough’s friends and neighbors gathered to celebrate what God has done. The Lord has been faithful to us as we have been faithful to Him, and we praise Him for it.
God has placed us in the heart of the community that surrounds us, and it is our desire to be a church for our community. From just four houses ’til now, God has given us a wonderful mission in reaching our community, preparing our Bible College students, maturing believers, and worshiping God. Through it all, our desire is to be pleasing Him in all that we do.
Our Beliefs
We believe there is only one God, who created all and has always been. He reveals Himself to us through three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Supporting scripture: (Genesis 1; Leviticus 19:2; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Isaiah 5:16, 6:1-7, 40:18-31; Matthew 3:16-17, 28:19-20; John 14:6-27; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Galatians 4:4-6; Ephesians 2:13-18.)
We believe in Jesus Christ, that He was one with the Father. We believe He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and was born of a virgin. We believe He died for our sins and rose from the grave and ascended into heaven.
Supporting scripture: (Matthew 1:20-25; 16:15-16; Luke 1:26-35; John 1:1-18; Acts 2:22-36; Romans 8:3, 32-34; Galatians 4:4-5; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:12-22; 1 Timothy 6:14-16; Hebrews 1:1-5; 7:22-28; 9:24-28; 1 John 1:1-3; 4:2-3, 15)
We believe the Holy Spirit is ever present, convicting the world of sin, empowering those who repent, and sanctifying believers.
Supporting scripture: (John 7:39; 14:15-18, 26; 16:7-15; Acts 2:33; 15:8-9; Romans 8:1-27; Galatians 3:1-14; 4:6; Ephesians 3:14-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 John 3:24; 4:13)
We believe that the Bible is the inspired and infallible Word of God.
Supporting scripture: (Luke 24:44-47; John 10:35; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; 1 Peter 1:10-12; 2 Peter 1:20-21)
We believe that because of sin, mankind that God created to be pure and holy has fallen, but can be restored to a pure and holy nature.
Supporting scripture: (Matthew 22:36-40 {with 1 John 3:4}; John 8:34-36; 16:8-9; Romans 3:23; 6:15-23; 8:18-24; 14:23; 1 John 1:9-2:4; 3:7-10)
We believe that people cannot save themselves by good works but that salvation is only found by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Supporting scripture: (Isaiah 53:5-6, 11; Mark 10:45; Luke 24:46-48; John 1:29; 3:14-17; Acts 4:10-12; Romans 3:21-26; 4:17-25; 5:6-21; 1 Corinthians 6:20; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21; Galatians 1:3-4; 3:13-14; Colossians 1:19-23; 1 Timothy 2:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 2:9; 9:11-14; 13:12; 1 Peter 1:18-21; 2:19-25; 1 John 2:1-2)
We believe that after salvation, God has called us to a holy lifestyle that was modeled for us by His Son, Jesus Christ.
Supporting scripture: (Matthew 5:1-7:29; John 15:1-11; Romans 12:1-15:3; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Ephesians 4:17-5:20; Philippians 1:9-11; 3:12-15; Colossians 2:20-3:17; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 4:7-8; 5:23; 2 Timothy 2:19-22; Hebrews 10:19-25; 12:14; 13:20-21; 1 Peter 1:15-16; 2 Peter 1:1-11; 3:18; Jude 20-21)
We believe that Jesus will come again to gather the believers, and on the final day we will all stand before God for judgment.
Supporting scripture: (Matthew 25:31-46; John 14:1-3; Acts 1:9-11; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 9:26-28; 2 Peter 3:3-15; Revelation 1:7-8; 22:7-20)
What you see is very different you see one very focused on Christ and the Bible, and one with a lot of focus on being black. Dobson said:
“I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology.”
To take Obama’s former church further lets look at their core theology. They practice something known as Black Liberation Theology. This was a movement started by James Cone.
From http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89236116
The Rev. James Cone is the founder of black liberation theology. In an interview with Terry Gross, Cone explains the movement, which has roots in 1960s civil-rights activism and draws inspiration from both the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, as “mainly a theology that sees God as concerned with the poor and the weak.”
Cone also comments on controversial remarks made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s former minister and a black liberation theology proponent.
In a now-famous 2003 sermon, Wright charged that an ingrained, abiding racism in American society is at fault for many of the troubles African-Americans face, and he thundered, “No, no, no, not God bless America! God damn America — that’s in the Bible — for killing innocent people.”
Cone explains that at the core of black liberation theology is an effort — in a white-dominated society, in which black has been defined as evil — to make the gospel relevant to the life and struggles of American blacks, and to help black people learn to love themselves. It’s an attempt, he says “to teach people how to be both unapologetically black and Christian at the same time.”
But what does this theological system say about God?
From Wikipedia
God
Intricate and largely philosophical views of God are largely ignored in preference for the concerns of the oppressed. White Christian concepts taught to the black man thus are to be disregarded or ignored. God’s person, the Trinity, his supreme power and authority as well as “subtle indications of God’s white maleness” are said not to relate to (and in some cases antagonistic to) the black experience. The dominant perspective on God is God in action, delivering the oppressed because of his righteousness. His immanence is stressed over His transcendence, and as a result He is seen to be in flux or always changing.
Trinity
The Trinity is not stressed. However, Jesus is God, but in the sense of God’s visible expression of concern and salvation.
Christ
He is One who delivers, almost exclusively, in social ways. He is a liberator, or “Black Messiah” whose work of emancipation for the poor and rejected of society is the parallel to the blacks’ quest for liberation. Christ’s message is “black power” (Henry). His intrinsic nature and spiritual activity receive little or no attention. Some even deny his role as the atoning sacrifice for the world’s sins and provider of eternal life (Shrine).
Revelation
Black theology is not bound to biblical liberalism, but is of a more pragmatic nature. Only the experience of black oppression is the authoritative standard.
Salvation
Salvation is freedom from the oppression and pertains to blacks in this life. Proponents of black theology are concerned specifically with the political and theological aspects of salvation more than the spiritual. In other words, salvation is physically liberation from white oppression rather than freedom from the sinful nature and acts of each individual person. Presenting heaven as a reward for following Christ is seen as an attempt to dissuade blacks from the goal of real liberation of their whole persons.
Church
The church is the focus of social expression in the black community where the blacks can express freedom and equality (Cone). Thus the church and politics have formed a cohesion where the theological expression of the desire for social freedom is carried out.
Martin Luther (Not martin Luther King Jr., but the 16th century Monk and church reformer) once said:
“Christ is the Master; the Scriptures are only the servant. The true way to test all the Books is to see whether they work the will of Christ or not. No Book which does not preach Christ can be apostolic, though Peter or Paul were its author. And no Book which does preach Christ can fail to be apostolic, although Judas, Ananias, Pilate, or Herod were its author.”
So when we look at the 2 churches about us pages can we apply a similar test?
Is it about Christ or something else? If it is about something else then I will challenge if they are truly a Christian church.
This is what Dobson is talking about when he says Obama is twisting scripture to match up with his theology.
This is deeper than just Obama; Fox news posted a story here recently
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,370588,00.html
One of the things it said was this.
“By many measures, Americans are strongly religious: 92 percent believe in God, 74 percent believe in life after death and 63 percent say their respective scriptures are the word of God.”
Here is the Kicker
“Nearly across the board, the majority of religious Americans believe many religions can lead to eternal life: mainline Protestants (83 percent), members of historic black Protestant churches (59 percent), Roman Catholics (79 percent), Jews (82 percent) and Muslims (56 percent).”
So I would say that only 17% had a correct biblical view of salvation. Either 83% do not know what they believe, or they are calling themselves a Christian and they are not.
What did Jesus have to say about the way to salvation?
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus also said he only prays for those which the Father gave him.
John 17:9,10
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
We can’t do anything to save ourselves
Romans 9:
16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
I have not even gone into the black theological movements apparent lack of teaching on the trinity.
You can watch my video podcast on “who is Jesus, and what is hypostasis” Coming soon
I will address these issues there.
The main issue here is biblical theology vs social theology. The two are incompatible, we do not live by the old testament we live by the new testament. For Obama to say things about Leviticus supporting slavery, shows his jacked view where his social agenda supersedes scriptural truth.
Posted on Oct 11, 2007 under False Religion, Ron News, The Social Christian |
When I started this site I did not intend to go on the homosexual rant. I was kind of drug into it by someone we know that is perpetuating the doctrine of it being ok. So I want to clarify something. If you are engaging in the sin of homosexuality and choose to reject God’s teachings on it, then so be it. I will question your claim to Christianity and try to lovingly point you to what the Bible actually says on the matter. It takes a different spin though if you start spreading this doctrine through blogs and such. Now you have taken the role of a false prophet and have moved yourself into a different bracket. Now you are influencing people who may be struggling to see the truth of scripture and pointing them to lies. Matthew 18:6 had some very harsh things to say about misleading people. Before anyone even thinks about it, I am not advocating drowning false prophets. The Bible says not to kill, all this passage is saying is that it would be better if they were not alive. This is one of the areas we have to be careful in. The Bible never advocates harming another person. it only tells us to not associate with them at the worst. Now back to my original thought. The Bible says very clearly to judge other Christians and to take them before the church when practicing things outside of the bible. 1 Corinthians 5:1-13, Matthew 18:15-17) Even Romans 2:1 say not to judge some one of the same sin you have. Showing that we all struggle.
All of this has been weighing very heavy on my heart lately. I have a 3 year old toddler and I know I have to lead her in the truth. I came under fire a lot when I was in school in regard to standing up for Christ. I can only imagine what it will be like in 10 years.
I am hoping to have my rebuttal of Mel White’s article on soulforce done this week. It will then go to Tom and he can put his thought in to it as well. When that is completed we will be doing a podcast on the paper as well. That will conclude the coming storm series and we will be moving on to the “From the reformation to today ” as our next podcast hopefully in time for reformation day on OCT 31
Now for the real reason this site was put up here are some examples of the attacks on Christianity this week
Mom’s religion dominates custody hearing
More ‘God’ references banned at U.S. Capitol
GOP House leader urges Pelosi to ‘restore longstanding practice’
Posted on Oct 05, 2007 under False Religion, Ron News, The Social Christian |
I find it interesting that more and more homosexual websites are popping up saying it is ok to be gay. And that you can be a practicing gay person and be a Christian. The bible is clear it is a sin and is wrong, and this is simply not true.
World net daily had a poll recently
If a church or denomination doesn’t teach that homosexual relations are sinful, should “fundamental, conservative” Christians disassociate themselves from that group? Find out how your fellow OneNewsNow readers responded.
Go here to see the results
Most churches who except homosexuality also think it is ok to have abortions as well. This should give you an indicator of where there faith truly is. It is extremely important that we help educate people who are struggling with this sin disease in what the bible really says, and that God can set them free from this. We can’t help people who are embracing sin and saying it is ok. All we can do is pray that God will reveal the truth to them.
Posted on Aug 09, 2007 under False Religion |
If you do not believe in the dangers of the teachings in the Muslim mosques, then watch this video.
This will destroy th UK and France, as well as the US if we are not careful about understanding what Islam truly teaches.
Please watch this disturbing video.
