Douglas Carswell MP was speaking at a conference in Westminster
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
What is wrong with a Christian attending the Cinema or the Theatre?
Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away, Proverbs 4:14,15.
When recently registering by phone with a company I was asked to select a security question. The first suggestion made by the telephone operator was: what was the first film I had ever seen at the cinema? I had to tell her that I have never been in a cinema in my life and therefore needed a different question.This made me stop and rethink: what is wrong with a Christian going to the Cinema or the Theatre?
At our ministers' week of prayer in January past one of the men when preaching lamented that in days past when someone came to know Christ as Saviour there was never an issue about whether it was right or wrong to go to places like the cinema. Converts knew a Christian should not be found in such places.
One of the questions that Free Presbyterian ministers are asked at their ordination or installation to affirm is:
Will you publicly denounce the great public vices of drinking, dancing, gambling and the pleasure crazes of this present evil world and by example live righteously, soberly and godly before all men?
Attending the cinema falls into the category of the 'pleasure crazes of this present evil world'. Yet sadly today more and more professing Christians see nothing wrong with going to the cinema.
Here is an outline of what is wrong with a Christian attending the Cinema or the Theatre.
I. It is wrong because of the concept.
The Cinema/Theatre is a place of worldly entertainment. That is why it exists and that is how it is advertised. It is a place to be amused and entertained by the ways, habits and practices of the world.Is it right for a Christian to seek entertainment? Is it right to seek entertainment in what is a pleasure craze of the world?
Surely it is not. The Christian finds all their joys in Christ and in Christ alone. The Saviour is not to satisfy only part of the deepest longings of the human soul and not others. Christ is all that a Believer wants or needs. As Charles Wesley said in his hymn: Jesus, Lover of my soul:
Thou, O Christ, art all I want
More than all in Thee I find
Christ is found in the means of grace and not in a cinema or theatre! Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them, Proverbs 24:1.More than all in Thee I find
II. It is wrong because of the company.
The Cinema/Theatre is a place where the ungodly resort. Like the pub, club, discotheque or dance hall, it is a place which attracts a certain type of people. The world love their own company. The unconverted would hardly be attending the cinema/theatre in their droves if it was anything else.That is hardly surprising. What is surprising is that a Christian would want to be among this type of company.
The Christian is to be separate from the world. We may be in the world but we are not of the world as to its spirit. What does it say about a Christian who feels at home among the unconverted as they go about seeking their pleasures?
III. It is wrong because of the content.
There is hardly a film produced today that is not objectionable in some way. Whether it is bad language, immorality, anti-scriptural views of the family, or extolling the liberties of sin it would be difficult to find a film that is watchable.The Word of God instructs us what we are to set before us:
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things, Phil 4:8.
It also warns about the harm that is done when setting sin before our eyes:
Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners, 1 Corinthians 15:33.
The Psalmist made a covenant with his eyes to set no wicked thing before them:
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes…, Ps 101:3.
May the professing Church return to the old paths, wherein is the good way. Let our prayer be that of Jeremiah: renew our days as of old.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
No Pope Here!
Update on the possibility of a Papal visit to Northern Ireland.It has been confirmed that the Pope will not be coming to Northern Ireland later this year when he will be visiting the British Mainland.
For details see:
UTV - NI excluded from Papal visit
Belfast Telegraph - Pope not coming to Ulster
We oppose a Papal visit for a number of reasons:
1. The claims of the Pope -
i. He is a sovereign and all other Kings, Queens, Presidents, etc. are subject to him;
ii. He is the supreme Judge of all;
iii. He is the director of men's consciences;
iv. He is the successor of the Apostles, the vicar of Christ and the way to God;
v. He is God on earth;
vi. The British Monarch is an usurper.
2. The Act of Settlement.
3. The memory of the Reformers all who have died at the hands of popery in this nation.
4. The past and present deeds of Roman Catholicism.
Monday, 1 February 2010
When will we ever learn?
When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory: but when the wicked rise, a man is hidden, Prov 28:12.
When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase, Prov 28:28.
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn, Prov 29:2.
It is with an overwhelming sense of dismay that 'the wicked' seem to be on the verge of being given an even greater say in the governance of this Province.
To have those who waged a terrorist campaign of slaughter for almost 40 years, and who murdered scores of Police Officers and also Judges during this time, to now exercise control over Policing and Justice is the epitome of having 'the wicked' bear rule over us. The very offices and functions of good government, which are ordained by God, Rom 13:1-3, and that should be a terror to the evil doer, are now controlled by those whose trade was murder and mayhem. This is indeed 'the wicked' bearing rule.
Every citizen, and especially the child of God, has an interest in the character and conduct of those who rule over us:
[1] The Word of God has much to say about 'rulers'. This should certainly interest the child of God who desires to heed all that God has to say in His Word. Both Old and New Testaments abound with clear statements about civil government. Why would the Scriptures not have much to say about those who rule over us? After all, the concept of civil government is one ordained of God.
[2] There is a very personal consequences upon citizens when they have wicked rulers. So says the infallible Word of God.
In each one of these three texts from the book of Proverbs there is a consequence outlined to having the wicked in authority. When the wicked rise the righteous, and subsequently righteousness, are sidelined. The two cannot possible co-exist together. There is no middle ground where both can be accommodated and tolerated.
Just as Mordecai and Haman could not co-exist side by side, neither can wicked rulers today be viewed with anything other than dismay. Note the difference in tone between Esther ch 8:15,16; 10:3 and Esther 3:15-4:3:
And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad.
The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour.
For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.
The posts went out, being hastened by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed.
When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;
And came even before the king’s gate: for none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.
And in every province, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
The wicked have no time for the righteous, no matter what platitudes come from their lips. Their aim and desire will be to destroy the righteous and bring down further any remaining semblance of righteousness in the land. Truth and uprightness will suffer just as Mordecai and the Jews were under threat.
It is only when the wicked perish as Haman did that the righteous increase!
The Lord says that the land will mourn when the wicked bear rule. It is not only the godly who suffer but everyone. Even the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, Prov 12:10. The wicked rule for their own ends and not for the good of the people or the honour of God. No good will come from elevating the wicked to bear rule. There has been much mourning done of late, especially among the people of God over the reproach that has come upon the cause of Christ. It looks as if there will be more to come for all of society.
Well might we ask the question: when will we ever learn? It sadly look likes this land will have to sink down further into the mire before it learns the truth of Scripture that: Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people, Prov 14:34.
When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase, Prov 28:28.
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn, Prov 29:2.
It is with an overwhelming sense of dismay that 'the wicked' seem to be on the verge of being given an even greater say in the governance of this Province.
To have those who waged a terrorist campaign of slaughter for almost 40 years, and who murdered scores of Police Officers and also Judges during this time, to now exercise control over Policing and Justice is the epitome of having 'the wicked' bear rule over us. The very offices and functions of good government, which are ordained by God, Rom 13:1-3, and that should be a terror to the evil doer, are now controlled by those whose trade was murder and mayhem. This is indeed 'the wicked' bearing rule.
Every citizen, and especially the child of God, has an interest in the character and conduct of those who rule over us:
[1] The Word of God has much to say about 'rulers'. This should certainly interest the child of God who desires to heed all that God has to say in His Word. Both Old and New Testaments abound with clear statements about civil government. Why would the Scriptures not have much to say about those who rule over us? After all, the concept of civil government is one ordained of God.
[2] There is a very personal consequences upon citizens when they have wicked rulers. So says the infallible Word of God.
In each one of these three texts from the book of Proverbs there is a consequence outlined to having the wicked in authority. When the wicked rise the righteous, and subsequently righteousness, are sidelined. The two cannot possible co-exist together. There is no middle ground where both can be accommodated and tolerated.
Just as Mordecai and Haman could not co-exist side by side, neither can wicked rulers today be viewed with anything other than dismay. Note the difference in tone between Esther ch 8:15,16; 10:3 and Esther 3:15-4:3:
And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad.
The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour.
For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.
The posts went out, being hastened by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed.
When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;
And came even before the king’s gate: for none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.
And in every province, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
The wicked have no time for the righteous, no matter what platitudes come from their lips. Their aim and desire will be to destroy the righteous and bring down further any remaining semblance of righteousness in the land. Truth and uprightness will suffer just as Mordecai and the Jews were under threat.
It is only when the wicked perish as Haman did that the righteous increase!
The Lord says that the land will mourn when the wicked bear rule. It is not only the godly who suffer but everyone. Even the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, Prov 12:10. The wicked rule for their own ends and not for the good of the people or the honour of God. No good will come from elevating the wicked to bear rule. There has been much mourning done of late, especially among the people of God over the reproach that has come upon the cause of Christ. It looks as if there will be more to come for all of society.
Well might we ask the question: when will we ever learn? It sadly look likes this land will have to sink down further into the mire before it learns the truth of Scripture that: Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people, Prov 14:34.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
A good night for Christian liberty!
I'm not talking about the shenanigans that is taking place at Stormont or Hillsborough Castle.
Last night in the Lords the Government was defeated in its attempt to make Christian organisations employ sodomites.
For further information see:
Lords defeat Government over church staff - Christian Institute
Lords defeat for Harman over forcing churches to hire gays - Daily Mail
If this law had gone through it would have meant that Christian organisations would no longer be able to turn down for employment anyone who does not agree with their theological position.
Churches, etc. have a special status that lets them turn down applicants whose lifestyles conflict with the churches' beliefs, even if they are otherwise well qualified for the job.
Churches can turn down candidates for jobs as ministers if they practice sodomy, or if they have changed their sex or are women.
We appreciate the work of the Christian Institute in this matter.
Last night in the Lords the Government was defeated in its attempt to make Christian organisations employ sodomites.
For further information see:
Lords defeat Government over church staff - Christian Institute
Lords defeat for Harman over forcing churches to hire gays - Daily Mail
If this law had gone through it would have meant that Christian organisations would no longer be able to turn down for employment anyone who does not agree with their theological position.
Churches, etc. have a special status that lets them turn down applicants whose lifestyles conflict with the churches' beliefs, even if they are otherwise well qualified for the job.
Churches can turn down candidates for jobs as ministers if they practice sodomy, or if they have changed their sex or are women.
We appreciate the work of the Christian Institute in this matter.
Monday, 4 January 2010
What did he know? & When did he know it?
It is rather amazing that amid all the outpouring of sympathy for Cahal Daly who died last week no one is asking a serious of very obvious questions:1. What did this man know about the child abuse scandals within the Roman Catholic Church?
2. When did he know of the level of abuse that has subsequently been uncovered?
After all he was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and thus Primate of All Ireland from 1990 to 1996. The Ryan Inquiry into child abuse at Roman Catholic institutions in Ireland found that church leaders knew that sexual abuse was 'endemic' in boys' institutions and had taken out insurance to cover the cost of paying of those who made allegations.
The Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation's 720-page report published in Nov 2009 said that it had 'no doubt that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up' from January 1975 to May 2004, the time covered by the report.
Th report also stated:
The Dublin Archdiocese's pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets.
The welfare of children, which should have been the first priority, was not even a factor to be considered in the early stages.
Instead the focus was on the avoidance of scandal and the preservation of the good name, status and assets of the institution and of what the institution regarded as its most important members -- the priests.
It is inconceivable that this was not known at the highest level. The scale of the abuse subsequently uncovered indicates how big an issue it was.
No one seems to have been willing to ask these questions before or after the cardinal died. Why not???
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Ashamed of Jesus Christ!
Sky News website is presently carrying an article about Champion triple jumper Jonathan Edwards and the impact losing his faith has had on his life. A previous article about his loss of faith was also carried some years ago by the Daily Mail. Jonathan Edwards had in the past spoken of praying before taking part in competitions but now says he feels "slightly embarrassed" about how devoutly 'Christian' he once was. He now professes to be an atheist.
While he is a man to be pitied I still remember the time in 1993 when Jonathan Edwards changed his stance on competing on the Lord's Day. At the time he justified this change by saying that God had told him to do so and stated that God had given him his talent in order for him to compete in athletics.
Everything seemed to go well with him. The qualifying round at that year's World Championships took place on a Sunday and he went on to win the bronze medal in the final. Two years later he established a new world record which still stands to this day of 18.29m.
However, it does not pay to go against the plain teaching of the Word of God. He was right in the first instance. Nothing replaces a seared conscience. To say that God changes His nature and contradicts His Word to accommodate our earthly whims, desires and ambitions is to sear our conscience for God never can go back upon His Word.
Although sad it is not a surprise that he has come to the place where he is now ashamed of his former beliefs. When we forsake the moorings of the Word of God we will descend into crisis.
It must be remembered what the Lord says about this choosing of the world before Him:
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them,
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels, Mark 8:34-38.
The words of a hymn come to mind:
Jesus, and shall it ever be,
A mortal man ashamed of Thee?
Ashamed of Thee, whom angels praise,
Whose glories shine thro' endless days?
Ashamed of Jesus! sooner far
Let evening blush to own a star;
He sheds the beams of light divine
O'er this benighted soul of mine.
Ashamed of Jesus! that dear Friend
On whom my hopes of heav'n depend!
No; when I blush, be this my shame,
That I no more revere His name.
Ashamed of Jesus! yes, I may,
When I've no guilt to wash away;
No tear to wipe, no good to crave,
No fears to quell, no soul to save.
Till then, nor is my boasting vain,
Till then I boast a Saviour slain;
And O, may this my glory be,
That Christ is not ashamed of me!
A mortal man ashamed of Thee?
Ashamed of Thee, whom angels praise,
Whose glories shine thro' endless days?
Ashamed of Jesus! sooner far
Let evening blush to own a star;
He sheds the beams of light divine
O'er this benighted soul of mine.
Ashamed of Jesus! that dear Friend
On whom my hopes of heav'n depend!
No; when I blush, be this my shame,
That I no more revere His name.
Ashamed of Jesus! yes, I may,
When I've no guilt to wash away;
No tear to wipe, no good to crave,
No fears to quell, no soul to save.
Till then, nor is my boasting vain,
Till then I boast a Saviour slain;
And O, may this my glory be,
That Christ is not ashamed of me!
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Interesting views about the possibly of the pope visiting Northern Ireland in 1979
Papers released under the 30 year rule in the Republic of Ireland have brought to light some interesting view about the possibly of the Pope visiting northern Ireland back in 1979 when he came to the Republic.
The decision by Pope John Paul II not to visit Armagh when he came to Ireland in 1979 was viewed as a "victory by Paisley", by the then Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch.
For a fuller report see article in The Irish Times.
May the same outcome be seen if the Pope proposes to visit the Republic of Ireland another time!
The decision by Pope John Paul II not to visit Armagh when he came to Ireland in 1979 was viewed as a "victory by Paisley", by the then Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch.
For a fuller report see article in The Irish Times.
May the same outcome be seen if the Pope proposes to visit the Republic of Ireland another time!
Monday, 28 December 2009
Anyone notice the gross hyprocrisy of Sinn Fein and the issue of child abuse!
On 28th November 2009 Sinn Féin vice-president Mary Lou McDonald said anyone found to have covered up the abuse of children in the Dublin Archdiocese should be arrested and made to face the full rigours of the law. Sinn Fein's own website carried a statement, part of which reads:
The report on clerical sexual abuse of children in Dublin exposes how the most powerful men in the Catholic Church in the Dublin Diocese conspired to protect abusers of children. It was a gross betrayal of generations of children.
It is especially damning that the State authorities facilitated the cover-up and allowed the Church to be beyond the reach of the law. Senior Gardai, up to and including the level of Commissioner, repeatedly turned a blind eye to crimes of clerical sexual abuse.
Anyone, including GardaÃ, found to be complicit in the cover up of child abuse must be arrested and made to face the full rigours of the law.
Little did she and the rest in Sinn Fein realise what was about to come to light concerning Gerry Adams covering up for over two decades the abuse of his own niece by his brother.
This story seems to be developing into a much wider issue, see here and here.
Will Mary Lou McDonald now call upon Gerry Adams to be 'arrested and made to face the full rigours of the law'? I doubt it!
This is just another example of the rottenness that lies at the heart of IRA/Sinn Fein. And to think that this party is in government over us! Truly the land mourns when the wicked bear rule, Proverbs 29:2 … when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.
The hidden things of darkness are coming to light!!
The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted, Psalm 12:8.
The report on clerical sexual abuse of children in Dublin exposes how the most powerful men in the Catholic Church in the Dublin Diocese conspired to protect abusers of children. It was a gross betrayal of generations of children.
It is especially damning that the State authorities facilitated the cover-up and allowed the Church to be beyond the reach of the law. Senior Gardai, up to and including the level of Commissioner, repeatedly turned a blind eye to crimes of clerical sexual abuse.
Anyone, including GardaÃ, found to be complicit in the cover up of child abuse must be arrested and made to face the full rigours of the law.
Little did she and the rest in Sinn Fein realise what was about to come to light concerning Gerry Adams covering up for over two decades the abuse of his own niece by his brother.
This story seems to be developing into a much wider issue, see here and here.
Will Mary Lou McDonald now call upon Gerry Adams to be 'arrested and made to face the full rigours of the law'? I doubt it!
This is just another example of the rottenness that lies at the heart of IRA/Sinn Fein. And to think that this party is in government over us! Truly the land mourns when the wicked bear rule, Proverbs 29:2 … when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.
The hidden things of darkness are coming to light!!
The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted, Psalm 12:8.
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
How grossly stupid can you be!!
A number of media outlets are carrying the story of a Church of England minister in York who has said that it is all right to steal.
For more details:
Shoplift advice sermon priest criticised
Priest defends shoplifting sermon
Full transcript of the sermon
The comments were made in a sermon to his congregation on Sunday past where he said stealing from large national chains was sometimes the best option for many vulnerable people. He said:
Instead, I would rather that they shoplift. My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift.
I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither. I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices. I would ask them not to take any more than they need, for any longer than they need. And I would offer this advice with a heavy heart, wishing that our society recognized that bureaucratic ineptitude and systemic delay constitutes a dreadful invitation and incentive to crime for people struggling to cope at the very bottom of our social order.
Mr Richard Dobbs, from the British Retail Consortium said shoplifting was wrong no matter what the circumstances. He said:
I would have hoped that a vicar of all people would understand that there's a plain principal difference between right and wrong and stealing is wrong and it's wrong in all circumstances. The effect is of course to pile on costs to retailers which ultimately filter through to the prices that are paid by honest customers. There's often a big human cost in retail crime which is that staff are often abused or even attacked when they intervene to try and stop it.
It says much about the terminal decline of the Church of England that comments like this come from the mouth of a 'minister'. This minister is a clear example of the blind leading the blind: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch, Matt 15:14. He is a wolf in sheep's clothing, a hireling.
How ill served is any person or congregation who have a minister like this to give them spiritual instruction.
You just wonder how much rational thinking goes on in a person's mind to come out with comments like this.
It is never right to do wrong on any occasion or in any circumstances. The eighth commandment can hardly be clearer: Thou shalt not steal, Exodus 20:15.
The New Testament clearly states that thieves shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven, 1 Cor 6:9,10 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
It wasn't out of love for the souls of his congregation that he announced this advice. He was encouraging them to follow a path that leads down to destruction.
For more details:
Shoplift advice sermon priest criticised
Priest defends shoplifting sermon
Full transcript of the sermon
The comments were made in a sermon to his congregation on Sunday past where he said stealing from large national chains was sometimes the best option for many vulnerable people. He said:
Instead, I would rather that they shoplift. My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift.
I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither. I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices. I would ask them not to take any more than they need, for any longer than they need. And I would offer this advice with a heavy heart, wishing that our society recognized that bureaucratic ineptitude and systemic delay constitutes a dreadful invitation and incentive to crime for people struggling to cope at the very bottom of our social order.
Mr Richard Dobbs, from the British Retail Consortium said shoplifting was wrong no matter what the circumstances. He said:
I would have hoped that a vicar of all people would understand that there's a plain principal difference between right and wrong and stealing is wrong and it's wrong in all circumstances. The effect is of course to pile on costs to retailers which ultimately filter through to the prices that are paid by honest customers. There's often a big human cost in retail crime which is that staff are often abused or even attacked when they intervene to try and stop it.
It says much about the terminal decline of the Church of England that comments like this come from the mouth of a 'minister'. This minister is a clear example of the blind leading the blind: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch, Matt 15:14. He is a wolf in sheep's clothing, a hireling.
How ill served is any person or congregation who have a minister like this to give them spiritual instruction.
You just wonder how much rational thinking goes on in a person's mind to come out with comments like this.
It is never right to do wrong on any occasion or in any circumstances. The eighth commandment can hardly be clearer: Thou shalt not steal, Exodus 20:15.
The New Testament clearly states that thieves shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven, 1 Cor 6:9,10 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
It wasn't out of love for the souls of his congregation that he announced this advice. He was encouraging them to follow a path that leads down to destruction.
Friday, 18 December 2009
Welcome news! No Pope Here!
According to a report in today's Irish Independent Newspaper the Pope will not be coming across the Irish Sea when he visits the British mainland in September 2010. This is very good news. It would be even better if he was not making what is only the second visit of a pope to the UK since the time of the Protestant Reformation.
Every Bible believer ought to oppose a papal visit.
The reasons for doing so are:
1. The claims of the Pope -
i. He is a sovereign and all other Kings, Queens, Presidents, etc. are subject to him;
ii. He is the supreme Judge of all;
iii. He is the director of men's consciences;
iv. He is the successor of the Apostles, the vicar of Christ and the way to God;
v. He is God on earth; vi. The British Monarch is an usurper.
2. The Act of Settlement.
3. The memory of the Reformers all who have died at the hands of popery in this nation.
4. The past and present deeds of Roman Catholicism.
Update
Even Irish Catholics are very angry with the Pope
Every Bible believer ought to oppose a papal visit.
The reasons for doing so are:
1. The claims of the Pope -
i. He is a sovereign and all other Kings, Queens, Presidents, etc. are subject to him;
ii. He is the supreme Judge of all;
iii. He is the director of men's consciences;
iv. He is the successor of the Apostles, the vicar of Christ and the way to God;
v. He is God on earth; vi. The British Monarch is an usurper.
2. The Act of Settlement.
3. The memory of the Reformers all who have died at the hands of popery in this nation.
4. The past and present deeds of Roman Catholicism.
Update
Even Irish Catholics are very angry with the Pope
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
The Christian, Climate Change & Global Warming
Updated 26th Dec 2009
There has been much ado in recent weeks about the UN climate convention which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. High level discussions lasted long into the night in order to come up with an agreement to cut the level of CO2 emissions across the world.
Some countries were all for an agreement; others were seeking to safeguard their own interests. They ultimately failed to negotiate a legally binding agreement.
It is an established fact that there has been a measured 20% increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration levels from 1958 to 2007. They have risen from 315 to 380 ppm [parts per million].
What should a Christian's view be of climate change and global warming? Is the rise in CO2 concentration levels a development to be worried and concerned about? What saith the Scriptures on this matter? Consider:
Our Creator has given His chief creation this responsibility, Gen 1:28-30; Gen 2:15. Man was commanded to subdue and have dominion over the earth. He is first to engage in a study of the earth with all its intricate processes and complex systems and then he is to utilise that knowledge for the benefit of the earth's inhabitants both animal and human. Here is the very basis for science and technology, research and development, theory and application, study and practice.
Man even in his state of innocency was a creature of work. God has no time for idleness. Part of man’s work was to look after his environment. The word 'keep' means 'to guard' or 'to be a watchman' upon a city wall. The same word is used in Ps 127:1 & Isa 21:11. This watchfulness is not so much a protecting of the earth from external enemies but the exercising of a careful and loving stewardship over it. Adam was to keep his environment beautiful and orderly, with every component in its place and in harmonious relationship with the whole.
Man is therefore commanded not to exploit his environment, rather he is to keep it.
The onus to do so became even greater after the Fall into sin and the curse of sin coming upon the whole physical world, Gen 3:17-19. The need to exercise stewardship has not lessened but increased with the Fall. The earth is marred by sin and now with the sweat of his brow man will exercise his stewardship of the earth.
A Christian should therefore always be conscious of the need to take care of the earth and is not a recent convert to the idea of preserving the earth’s resources or protecting its climate.
The concept of living off the earth is one ordained by God. For example, the concept of growing crops for food, raising animals and eating their meat is one which came directly from the God of heaven after the Flood, Gen 8:21-9:4. There are also other resources, such as fossil fuels, which are for man's use.
However, the earth and its resources are not going to last for ever. The earth is a finite resource and its duration is limited by the Lord. The world is hastening towards its close. Because the earth's resources are limited they are going to eventually run out.
This is what troubles environmentalists, NGOs and governments. Yet to a Christian it is an undisputed reality.
The earth’s limited resources ought to teach us all that neither we, nor the earth we live in, are here for ever. Moses in his prayer in Psalm 90, after having dwelt upon the earth’s and our own mortality, calls upon us to number our days and to apply our hearts unto wisdom, Ps 90:12.
Sadly, the present clamour over climate change, etc. does not make men and women do this. They give no thought for the hereafter.
While man certainly does do damage to the physical world the extent of the present global warming is very much over-hyped. While those who completely dismiss climate change and global warming are wrong, those who speak about it in cataclysmic terms are equally misguided.
They do not have a good record. There have been a host of ‘issues’ hyped up in the past and none has transpired. Not all that long ago there was great concern over ‘desertification’. Yet you hardly ever hear today of expanding deserts in Africa. A global ice age was also predicted back in the 1970s, now it's the opposite.
Scientists have discovered that many of these things go in natural cycles. That may well be the case with global warming. One thing is sure - the earth will continue as long as God intends it to.
It is extremely ironic that evolutionists are following a Creationist model in being careful about the world’s climate and resources. It highlights the inherent contradiction within much of the global warming lobby. Evolutionists believe that the world has evolved over billions of years and that we are all the product of chance, mutations, natural selection and survival of the fittest.
If this is so then why do they not trust what they believe and say that the world will continue to mutate, survive, adapt, evolve and the fittest will continue to survive?
Supposedly unknown and unobservable processes have brought the world to where it is today. If the earth has supposedly survived for these billions of years as claimed then why do they not trust their beliefs that it will continue to do so?
By their words and by their actions they are casting doubt on their own thesis.
Instead what we get is something along a creationist model where they are calling upon everyone to take care of and preserve the earth and its resources. There is a considerable degree of irony in it all.
Man in his heart knows the truth that God is the Creator and that He has given man a responsibility to look after the earth and unawares to him he is acknowledging this reality.
Gatherings like the one witnessed in Copenhagen illustrate the teaching of the Word of God that the Truth is written upon all our consciences, Rom 2:14,15 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another).
This truth may be corrupted by the Fall but it is still there to some degree nevertheless. Men and women may seek to strenuously deny this truth, however, their denial does not negate its reality.
Climate change is often built upon a distortion of the facts. Former vice-president Al Gore’s film 'An Inconvenient Truth' has been found in a court of law to contain at least eleven material falsehoods. These falsehoods relate to claims:
1. That the snows melting on Mount Kilimanjaro was evidence of global warming;
2. That evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years;
3. That Hurricane Katrina had been caused by global warming;
4. That the drying up of Lake Chad in Africa was caused by global warming;
5. That a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing Arctic ice;
6. That global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age;
7. Blaming global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching;
8. That the Greenland ice covering could melt causing sea levels to rise dangerously;
9. That the Antarctic ice covering is melting;
10. That sea levels could rise by seven metres causing the displacement of millions of people;
11. That rising sea levels have already caused the evacuation of the inhabitants of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand.
The recent exposure of emails from the East Anglia's Climate Research Unit has shown individuals massaging the figures to establish climate change and global warming.
Temperature and climate fluctuations have been known in the past. Four hundred years ago and again as recently as Victorian times, the river Thames in London was frozen over. Evidently, winters were much colder than London presently experiences.
The Normans’ Domesday survey of 1086 listed no less than thirty-eight vineyards in England, with Ely marking the most northerly spot, seventy miles northeast of London. It was evidently a much warmer climate back then than presently exists.
Higher CO2 level may not lead to the problems imagined. From the levels of CO2 detected in rocks, etc. today there was a time [mostly likely prior to the Flood] when these levels were considerably higher than they are today.
It was not these levels of CO2 that brought the Flood but man's own sin!
God’s future judgment of the earth and its ungodly inhabitants is going to be of this nature, Rev 16:8,9 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. These events will take place prior to Christ's second coming.
Preparation for the new heavens and the new earth will see events of this nature, 2 Peter 3:10-13 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. This dissolving of the elements will take place many years after those which mark Christ's second return.
May we all give heed to these future events. May we be wise in the light of eternal realities, O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! Deuteronomy 32:29.
Some further reading on the subject:
Global warming - a creationist's view
Global warming - facts & myths
The great global warming swindle
There has been much ado in recent weeks about the UN climate convention which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. High level discussions lasted long into the night in order to come up with an agreement to cut the level of CO2 emissions across the world.
Some countries were all for an agreement; others were seeking to safeguard their own interests. They ultimately failed to negotiate a legally binding agreement.
It is an established fact that there has been a measured 20% increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration levels from 1958 to 2007. They have risen from 315 to 380 ppm [parts per million].
What should a Christian's view be of climate change and global warming? Is the rise in CO2 concentration levels a development to be worried and concerned about? What saith the Scriptures on this matter? Consider:
I. The Christian is required to look after and take care of the world they live in.
God has made man a steward over the created world.Our Creator has given His chief creation this responsibility, Gen 1:28-30; Gen 2:15. Man was commanded to subdue and have dominion over the earth. He is first to engage in a study of the earth with all its intricate processes and complex systems and then he is to utilise that knowledge for the benefit of the earth's inhabitants both animal and human. Here is the very basis for science and technology, research and development, theory and application, study and practice.
Man even in his state of innocency was a creature of work. God has no time for idleness. Part of man’s work was to look after his environment. The word 'keep' means 'to guard' or 'to be a watchman' upon a city wall. The same word is used in Ps 127:1 & Isa 21:11. This watchfulness is not so much a protecting of the earth from external enemies but the exercising of a careful and loving stewardship over it. Adam was to keep his environment beautiful and orderly, with every component in its place and in harmonious relationship with the whole.
Man is therefore commanded not to exploit his environment, rather he is to keep it.
The onus to do so became even greater after the Fall into sin and the curse of sin coming upon the whole physical world, Gen 3:17-19. The need to exercise stewardship has not lessened but increased with the Fall. The earth is marred by sin and now with the sweat of his brow man will exercise his stewardship of the earth.
A Christian should therefore always be conscious of the need to take care of the earth and is not a recent convert to the idea of preserving the earth’s resources or protecting its climate.
II. The earth's resources are there for man's use and yet they are limited.
The earth and its resources are there to serve the needs of God's creatures.The concept of living off the earth is one ordained by God. For example, the concept of growing crops for food, raising animals and eating their meat is one which came directly from the God of heaven after the Flood, Gen 8:21-9:4. There are also other resources, such as fossil fuels, which are for man's use.
However, the earth and its resources are not going to last for ever. The earth is a finite resource and its duration is limited by the Lord. The world is hastening towards its close. Because the earth's resources are limited they are going to eventually run out.
This is what troubles environmentalists, NGOs and governments. Yet to a Christian it is an undisputed reality.
The earth’s limited resources ought to teach us all that neither we, nor the earth we live in, are here for ever. Moses in his prayer in Psalm 90, after having dwelt upon the earth’s and our own mortality, calls upon us to number our days and to apply our hearts unto wisdom, Ps 90:12.
Sadly, the present clamour over climate change, etc. does not make men and women do this. They give no thought for the hereafter.
While man certainly does do damage to the physical world the extent of the present global warming is very much over-hyped. While those who completely dismiss climate change and global warming are wrong, those who speak about it in cataclysmic terms are equally misguided.
They do not have a good record. There have been a host of ‘issues’ hyped up in the past and none has transpired. Not all that long ago there was great concern over ‘desertification’. Yet you hardly ever hear today of expanding deserts in Africa. A global ice age was also predicted back in the 1970s, now it's the opposite.
Scientists have discovered that many of these things go in natural cycles. That may well be the case with global warming. One thing is sure - the earth will continue as long as God intends it to.
III. There is an extreme degree of hypocrisy and irony in the Global Warming lobby.
There is a considerable degree of hypocrisy shown by politicians, world leaders, etc. who fly around the world on chartered or private jets, which emit huge amounts of greenhouse gases, to lecture others on why they should limit such emissions and lobby to cut the number of plane journeys everyone else makes. Let's start with theirs!It is extremely ironic that evolutionists are following a Creationist model in being careful about the world’s climate and resources. It highlights the inherent contradiction within much of the global warming lobby. Evolutionists believe that the world has evolved over billions of years and that we are all the product of chance, mutations, natural selection and survival of the fittest.
If this is so then why do they not trust what they believe and say that the world will continue to mutate, survive, adapt, evolve and the fittest will continue to survive?
Supposedly unknown and unobservable processes have brought the world to where it is today. If the earth has supposedly survived for these billions of years as claimed then why do they not trust their beliefs that it will continue to do so?
By their words and by their actions they are casting doubt on their own thesis.
Instead what we get is something along a creationist model where they are calling upon everyone to take care of and preserve the earth and its resources. There is a considerable degree of irony in it all.
Man in his heart knows the truth that God is the Creator and that He has given man a responsibility to look after the earth and unawares to him he is acknowledging this reality.
Gatherings like the one witnessed in Copenhagen illustrate the teaching of the Word of God that the Truth is written upon all our consciences, Rom 2:14,15 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another).
This truth may be corrupted by the Fall but it is still there to some degree nevertheless. Men and women may seek to strenuously deny this truth, however, their denial does not negate its reality.
Climate change is often built upon a distortion of the facts. Former vice-president Al Gore’s film 'An Inconvenient Truth' has been found in a court of law to contain at least eleven material falsehoods. These falsehoods relate to claims:
1. That the snows melting on Mount Kilimanjaro was evidence of global warming;
2. That evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years;
3. That Hurricane Katrina had been caused by global warming;
4. That the drying up of Lake Chad in Africa was caused by global warming;
5. That a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing Arctic ice;
6. That global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age;
7. Blaming global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching;
8. That the Greenland ice covering could melt causing sea levels to rise dangerously;
9. That the Antarctic ice covering is melting;
10. That sea levels could rise by seven metres causing the displacement of millions of people;
11. That rising sea levels have already caused the evacuation of the inhabitants of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand.
The recent exposure of emails from the East Anglia's Climate Research Unit has shown individuals massaging the figures to establish climate change and global warming.
Temperature and climate fluctuations have been known in the past. Four hundred years ago and again as recently as Victorian times, the river Thames in London was frozen over. Evidently, winters were much colder than London presently experiences.
The Normans’ Domesday survey of 1086 listed no less than thirty-eight vineyards in England, with Ely marking the most northerly spot, seventy miles northeast of London. It was evidently a much warmer climate back then than presently exists.
Higher CO2 level may not lead to the problems imagined. From the levels of CO2 detected in rocks, etc. today there was a time [mostly likely prior to the Flood] when these levels were considerably higher than they are today.
It was not these levels of CO2 that brought the Flood but man's own sin!
IV. The earth is going to warm up considerably one day.
The end of man's wicked rebellion and then later the end of this earth will be characterised by rapid, extensive, 'global warming'.God’s future judgment of the earth and its ungodly inhabitants is going to be of this nature, Rev 16:8,9 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. These events will take place prior to Christ's second coming.
Preparation for the new heavens and the new earth will see events of this nature, 2 Peter 3:10-13 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. This dissolving of the elements will take place many years after those which mark Christ's second return.
May we all give heed to these future events. May we be wise in the light of eternal realities, O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! Deuteronomy 32:29.
Some further reading on the subject:
Global warming - a creationist's view
Global warming - facts & myths
The great global warming swindle
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Well done to The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)
I should have said this before but well done to The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) who have been successful in the case they took against the Department of Health in Northern Ireland, claiming the advice to medical professionals on abortion did not accurately reflect the law.
Read more:
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children
Belfast Telegraph
Abortion is the murder of the unborn plain and simple! Thankfully there has been a knocking back of the pro-abortion agenda in our Province. The vast majority of people are against an extension of the 1967 UK abortion law to Northern Ireland.
The Scriptures make the following observations about the unborn:
A. The same word is used for both. It is said of Rebekah’s twins that the children struggled within her: And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD, Genesis 25:22.
This is the word for children already born. Note the use of the same original word but a different English translation 'youths' in Proverbs 7:7: And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding.
It is likewise so in the New Testament. The same word is used for a child whether born or unborn. At the very beginning if its existence it is looked upon in exactly the same terms as immediately prior to its birth. In both places it described as a son: And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren, Luke 1:36. Compare these words with v57: Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.
Likewise the word ‘babe’ in Luke 1:41,44 referring to an unborn child is also used of newborn children, Luke 2:12, 2 Tim 3:15, 1 Peter 2:2.
God uses equivalent terms to speak of children from conception, before they are born and after they are born.
B. Personality and life is present in the unborn from conception. David’s description of himself before and after he was born shows that there is a personal identity present in the fully grown man is present in the unborn child from their earliest days: Ps 139:1-16. David speaks of God having a blueprint for his development.
The Lord said He knew the prophet Jeremiah before he was born, Jer 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Being a person in every sense of the word, then the unborn child has the same right to have its life protected as any other individual would.
C. This applies whether the child has some serious disability or is the offspring of a forbidden relationship. The first is no better than what Hilter did with his eugenics programme in Germany and was rightly condemned. Whatever the terrible wrongs of the second the child is certainly not to be killed for the wrongs of a father. Two wrongs do not make a right!
A. The crime of murder is punishable by the perpetrator forfeiting his own life. The idea of capital punishment originated with the Bible. There is however a distinction to be made between murder and manslaughter. Manslaughter is where a person accidentally kills a fellow human being but never intended so to do. The manslayer was not to lose their own life in these circumstances, v13. The institution of capital punishment is carried over into the New Testament. There were others crimes in Israel punishable in this way. They have ceased but the capital punishment for murder still holds true. Murder is the willful deliberate taking of another’s life.
B. God states that the same punishment is to be passed upon the person who causes the unborn to die, Exodus 21:22,23 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life.
Whoever harms the unborn their life is to be taken. In God’s eyes the killing of the unborn is as sinful as the killing of an adult. In God’s eyes to kill the unborn is to murder them. In God’s eyes the unborn child is as real and of the same value as an adult.
C. Murder defiles a land, Numbers 35:30-34. Nothing will lift that defilement until and unless the murderer is punishment. No bargain is to be struck to let the murderer escape, v31 Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.
How great is the strain on so called civilised society with the murder of so many unborn children? Their blood cries out unto God for recompense.
A. The unborn child must abide by the law of God which says that it must not kill. It has to be stressed that these types of cases are extremely rare. The unborn child like anyone else does not have an absolute right to live even to the point where someone else loses their life like its mother.
For example, if a mother needed medical treatment or surgery to preserve her own life but that treatment would harm and kill her unborn child then she is entitled to go ahead with that treatment.
Historic Protestantism has always held to the belief that in those cases where it is impossible to save the life of both mother and child then it is the mother’s life which should have the first right to be protected.
B. The rationale. An unborn child does not have an innate right to kill its parent. If nothing is done in these circumstances then both mother and child will die. The sixth commandment not only forbids us to take life, it also requires us to preserve life. The answer to Shorter Catechism question 68 states: The sixth commandment requireth all lawful endeavours to preserve our own life and the life of others.
To stand back and let both mother and child die is to break the sixth commandment and kill by omission.
To be without natural affection is a mark of the days of departure from the Truth of God, Rom 1:31.
Read more:
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children
Belfast Telegraph
Abortion is the murder of the unborn plain and simple! Thankfully there has been a knocking back of the pro-abortion agenda in our Province. The vast majority of people are against an extension of the 1967 UK abortion law to Northern Ireland.
The Scriptures make the following observations about the unborn:
I. The unborn child in Scripture is described as a person.
The unborn child is not somehow less a person because it is yet unborn. That is what secular society seeks to say. They use terms about an unborn child that dehumanises and depersonalises the unborn and portrays them as a mere form of matter. They never talk about the unborn child in human terms. It is called an 'embryo' or 'foetus'. It might not be deliberately done by all but that is part of the reasoning behind it with many pro-abortion campaigners. This type of terminology gives the impression that somehow the unborn child is not to be looked upon as a full human being that has not yet reached the stage of being a person. But in God’s Word that is not how the unborn child is considered.A. The same word is used for both. It is said of Rebekah’s twins that the children struggled within her: And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD, Genesis 25:22.
This is the word for children already born. Note the use of the same original word but a different English translation 'youths' in Proverbs 7:7: And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding.
It is likewise so in the New Testament. The same word is used for a child whether born or unborn. At the very beginning if its existence it is looked upon in exactly the same terms as immediately prior to its birth. In both places it described as a son: And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren, Luke 1:36. Compare these words with v57: Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.
Likewise the word ‘babe’ in Luke 1:41,44 referring to an unborn child is also used of newborn children, Luke 2:12, 2 Tim 3:15, 1 Peter 2:2.
God uses equivalent terms to speak of children from conception, before they are born and after they are born.
B. Personality and life is present in the unborn from conception. David’s description of himself before and after he was born shows that there is a personal identity present in the fully grown man is present in the unborn child from their earliest days: Ps 139:1-16. David speaks of God having a blueprint for his development.
The Lord said He knew the prophet Jeremiah before he was born, Jer 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Being a person in every sense of the word, then the unborn child has the same right to have its life protected as any other individual would.
C. This applies whether the child has some serious disability or is the offspring of a forbidden relationship. The first is no better than what Hilter did with his eugenics programme in Germany and was rightly condemned. Whatever the terrible wrongs of the second the child is certainly not to be killed for the wrongs of a father. Two wrongs do not make a right!
II. God requires the same punishment for killing the unborn as for killing a man.
In Exodus 21 we are told what the punishment is for deliberately killing a fellow human being. v12.A. The crime of murder is punishable by the perpetrator forfeiting his own life. The idea of capital punishment originated with the Bible. There is however a distinction to be made between murder and manslaughter. Manslaughter is where a person accidentally kills a fellow human being but never intended so to do. The manslayer was not to lose their own life in these circumstances, v13. The institution of capital punishment is carried over into the New Testament. There were others crimes in Israel punishable in this way. They have ceased but the capital punishment for murder still holds true. Murder is the willful deliberate taking of another’s life.
B. God states that the same punishment is to be passed upon the person who causes the unborn to die, Exodus 21:22,23 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life.
Whoever harms the unborn their life is to be taken. In God’s eyes the killing of the unborn is as sinful as the killing of an adult. In God’s eyes to kill the unborn is to murder them. In God’s eyes the unborn child is as real and of the same value as an adult.
C. Murder defiles a land, Numbers 35:30-34. Nothing will lift that defilement until and unless the murderer is punishment. No bargain is to be struck to let the murderer escape, v31 Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.
How great is the strain on so called civilised society with the murder of so many unborn children? Their blood cries out unto God for recompense.
III. The unborn child does not have the right to kill its mother.
Is it ever right to be party to ending the life of the unborn? The sole exception to the rule that the unborn child has the right to life and is not to be killed for some personal, social or economic reason is the case where a mother’s own life is at stake.A. The unborn child must abide by the law of God which says that it must not kill. It has to be stressed that these types of cases are extremely rare. The unborn child like anyone else does not have an absolute right to live even to the point where someone else loses their life like its mother.
For example, if a mother needed medical treatment or surgery to preserve her own life but that treatment would harm and kill her unborn child then she is entitled to go ahead with that treatment.
Historic Protestantism has always held to the belief that in those cases where it is impossible to save the life of both mother and child then it is the mother’s life which should have the first right to be protected.
B. The rationale. An unborn child does not have an innate right to kill its parent. If nothing is done in these circumstances then both mother and child will die. The sixth commandment not only forbids us to take life, it also requires us to preserve life. The answer to Shorter Catechism question 68 states: The sixth commandment requireth all lawful endeavours to preserve our own life and the life of others.
To stand back and let both mother and child die is to break the sixth commandment and kill by omission.
To be without natural affection is a mark of the days of departure from the Truth of God, Rom 1:31.
Gerry Adams to 'preach' on 'love, forgiveness and repentance'
According to this report in the Daily Mail Gerry Adams has been invited by Channel 4 to examine Christian teachings on 'love, forgiveness and repentance'. The proposed programme is one of a seven-part documentary series called 'The Bible: A History'. Each part will be presented by commentators from 'very different backgrounds'.
The families of those killed in the Troubles, however, have condemned the programme as an insult and said the broadcaster was being used.
Victor Barker whose son was killed in the Omagh bombing has said:
Asking Gerry Adams to speak about love and forgiveness is like asking Myra Hindley to lecture on child-minding. 'I think it's a big mistake and completely misguided. Channel 4 is being used by Mr Adams. It is offering him a platform for doing what he does so well, of coming across on camera as a genuine, peaceful person who wants to promote peace and love.
Michael Gallagher who also lost his son in the Omagh bombing has said:
I am a supporter of free speech, but there always seems to be an imbalance. The victims are never given the same influence as the perpetrators. 'As a Christian, I believe that forgiveness is something Gerry Adams will have to ask for in the next life.
You can't compare a democrat like Ann Widdecombe with someone who gained political power on the back of innocent people being bombed and murdered.
It is dangerous to give people a degree of respectability because it means young people growing up today don't understand their heinous past.
Former Tory minister Lord Tebbit, who was injured in the 1984 IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton and whose wife was seriously disabled by the same bombing, burst out laughing when told about Mr Adams taking part in the programme. He said:
I wish him well. And I hope he also comes across the doctrine of hell and the consuming of pernicious unrepentant murderers and sinners in general by the fires of hell for all eternity.
What will he do after that? A programme about pigs discovering cleanliness?
The day when darkness is put for light and light for darkness is certainly upon us, Isaiah 5:20.
Unrepentant terrorists like Adams, who glory in or conceal their past, know nothing of 'love, forgiveness and repentance'. One text of Scripture sums up what Gerry Adams needs to know about the subject:
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy, Proverbs 28:13.
The very fact that he has been invited to take part in this programme highlights the view that many people have of him. He is eulogised as a man of peace when he is in reality a man of war, The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords, Psalm 55:21.
In one way it is no surprise that he has been invited. After all, if he and his murdering cohorts are deemed fit for government and have been elevated to the highest positions in the government of this Province is it any wonder that broadcasters ask them to contribute to programmes like this. Gerry Adams and his fellow travellers are fit for either!
The families of those killed in the Troubles, however, have condemned the programme as an insult and said the broadcaster was being used.
Victor Barker whose son was killed in the Omagh bombing has said:
Asking Gerry Adams to speak about love and forgiveness is like asking Myra Hindley to lecture on child-minding. 'I think it's a big mistake and completely misguided. Channel 4 is being used by Mr Adams. It is offering him a platform for doing what he does so well, of coming across on camera as a genuine, peaceful person who wants to promote peace and love.
Michael Gallagher who also lost his son in the Omagh bombing has said:
I am a supporter of free speech, but there always seems to be an imbalance. The victims are never given the same influence as the perpetrators. 'As a Christian, I believe that forgiveness is something Gerry Adams will have to ask for in the next life.
You can't compare a democrat like Ann Widdecombe with someone who gained political power on the back of innocent people being bombed and murdered.
It is dangerous to give people a degree of respectability because it means young people growing up today don't understand their heinous past.
Former Tory minister Lord Tebbit, who was injured in the 1984 IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton and whose wife was seriously disabled by the same bombing, burst out laughing when told about Mr Adams taking part in the programme. He said:
I wish him well. And I hope he also comes across the doctrine of hell and the consuming of pernicious unrepentant murderers and sinners in general by the fires of hell for all eternity.
What will he do after that? A programme about pigs discovering cleanliness?
The day when darkness is put for light and light for darkness is certainly upon us, Isaiah 5:20.
Unrepentant terrorists like Adams, who glory in or conceal their past, know nothing of 'love, forgiveness and repentance'. One text of Scripture sums up what Gerry Adams needs to know about the subject:
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy, Proverbs 28:13.
The very fact that he has been invited to take part in this programme highlights the view that many people have of him. He is eulogised as a man of peace when he is in reality a man of war, The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords, Psalm 55:21.
In one way it is no surprise that he has been invited. After all, if he and his murdering cohorts are deemed fit for government and have been elevated to the highest positions in the government of this Province is it any wonder that broadcasters ask them to contribute to programmes like this. Gerry Adams and his fellow travellers are fit for either!
Saturday, 5 December 2009
The Millennial Position of C H Spurgeon
A very interesting article specifically setting forth the millennial position of C. H. Spurgeon but also very good on end time matters generally.Different millennial views are defined and explained in an easy to follow way. Well worth reading!
Click on image below to download pdf [Adobe reader required]
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Very sad evidence of the moral decline in our Province
This story is a sad testimony of the moral decline that is gathering pace in our Province. The moral law of God, summarised in the ten commandments, is being set aside and forgotten.
Any nation or society that turns away from the Law of God will reap a sad harvest.
Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people, Proverbs ch 14:34.
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Atheists very annoyed by the Consider Christ Campaign!
An advert sponsored by The British Humanist Association is running on billboards in each of the UK's capital cities: London, Cardiff and Edinburgh.
From what is reported on the BBC news website the local spokesman for the BHA is very annoyed at the recent Consider Christ campaign run by the Free Presbyterian Church.
Upon the launch of this poster Mr Brian McClinton said that the poster provided 'opposition to the near ubiquitous 'Consider Christ' ads that are currently covering most of our Translink buses'.
This comment would indicate that Mr Brian McClinton is not best pleased with the extensive coverage of our campaign has received or the media attention it has attracted. It is evidently having an effect.
This reminds us of the power of the Word of God. You don’t need fancy marketing slogans that appear on many church signs across the country. It is the Word of God that is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, Hebrews ch 4:12. It certainly seems to be doing its work in Mr McClinton’s mind!
May it be true of individuals like Mr McClinton as was true of Saul of Tarsas: it hard to kick against the pricks. Atheists can and have been converted.
May the Lord continue to bless those 'Consider Christ' adverts which are still on the buses.
Thursday, 12 November 2009
A good day for free speech
The BBC is reporting that the government has admitted defeat in their attempt to remove a 'free speech' defence from new laws against inciting homophobic hatred.
Summary
MPs have voted four times to scrap it but it has been repeatedly overturned in the Lords, who again last night voted by 179 to 135 to keep it.
An offence of inciting hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation was brought in by legislation last year, but a 'free speech' defence, opposed by the government, was inserted by Conservative peer Lord Waddington.
The law was not brought into force while the government sought to remove the defence but on Thursday, the last day of this Parliamentary session, the government admitted defeat in a statement from the Ministry of Justice. A spokeswoman said the government was 'very disappointed' at the Lords vote and as the threshold for prosecution was 'high', the defence was not needed.
She said: 'The offence only covers words or behaviour that are threatening and intended to stir up hatred'. But she added the government could no longer delay the passage of the Coroners and Justice Bill. 'It is with considerable disappointment, therefore, that the government has agreed not to remove the 'freedom of expression' section'.
She added that the law against inciting homophobic hatred would now be brought into force 'as quickly as possible' and the government would return to the issue in future 'should it prove necessary to do so'.
However the concession was not announced by Justice Secretary Jack Straw in the Commons on Thursday. Instead deputy speaker Sir Alan Haslehurst read out a list of amendments on which 'this House does not insist, in its disagreement with the Lords'.
Conservative MP Edward Leigh asked, unsuccessfully, for a statement from Mr Straw, adding it appeared 'that the government has run up the white flag on the Lord Waddington amendment. This is a great victory for free speech, I think we should know more about it'.
MPs have, on four occasions, voted to remove the free speech clause from the bill by large majorities during its passage through Parliament. Ahead of Wednesday's vote in the Lords justice minister Lord Bach warned peers: 'There must come a point where this House, with all its great virtues, gives way to the House that has been elected by the people of this country'.
But Lord Waddington argued that peers had to maintain consistency: 'If we are to finish up with a free speech clause in the religious hatred offence but no free speech clause here, we're simply asking for trouble'.
And during the Lords debate crossbencher Lord Dear cited the example of grandmother Pauline Howe, 67, who was visited by police after writing a letter to Norwich Council to complain about a gay pride march.
The council informed her the letter was assessed as 'potentially being hate related' - she argued she was expressing her Christian beliefs.
On Thursday Simon Calvert, of The Christian Institute, welcomed the government's decision as a 'victory for common sense'.
Comment
This is indeed to be welcomed. Thankfully it is still legally possible to call sin sin and to declare with Scripture that sodomy is an abomination to God: Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination, Lev 18:22.
Summary
MPs have voted four times to scrap it but it has been repeatedly overturned in the Lords, who again last night voted by 179 to 135 to keep it.
An offence of inciting hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation was brought in by legislation last year, but a 'free speech' defence, opposed by the government, was inserted by Conservative peer Lord Waddington.
The law was not brought into force while the government sought to remove the defence but on Thursday, the last day of this Parliamentary session, the government admitted defeat in a statement from the Ministry of Justice. A spokeswoman said the government was 'very disappointed' at the Lords vote and as the threshold for prosecution was 'high', the defence was not needed.
She said: 'The offence only covers words or behaviour that are threatening and intended to stir up hatred'. But she added the government could no longer delay the passage of the Coroners and Justice Bill. 'It is with considerable disappointment, therefore, that the government has agreed not to remove the 'freedom of expression' section'.
She added that the law against inciting homophobic hatred would now be brought into force 'as quickly as possible' and the government would return to the issue in future 'should it prove necessary to do so'.
However the concession was not announced by Justice Secretary Jack Straw in the Commons on Thursday. Instead deputy speaker Sir Alan Haslehurst read out a list of amendments on which 'this House does not insist, in its disagreement with the Lords'.
Conservative MP Edward Leigh asked, unsuccessfully, for a statement from Mr Straw, adding it appeared 'that the government has run up the white flag on the Lord Waddington amendment. This is a great victory for free speech, I think we should know more about it'.
MPs have, on four occasions, voted to remove the free speech clause from the bill by large majorities during its passage through Parliament. Ahead of Wednesday's vote in the Lords justice minister Lord Bach warned peers: 'There must come a point where this House, with all its great virtues, gives way to the House that has been elected by the people of this country'.
But Lord Waddington argued that peers had to maintain consistency: 'If we are to finish up with a free speech clause in the religious hatred offence but no free speech clause here, we're simply asking for trouble'.
And during the Lords debate crossbencher Lord Dear cited the example of grandmother Pauline Howe, 67, who was visited by police after writing a letter to Norwich Council to complain about a gay pride march.
The council informed her the letter was assessed as 'potentially being hate related' - she argued she was expressing her Christian beliefs.
On Thursday Simon Calvert, of The Christian Institute, welcomed the government's decision as a 'victory for common sense'.
Comment
This is indeed to be welcomed. Thankfully it is still legally possible to call sin sin and to declare with Scripture that sodomy is an abomination to God: Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination, Lev 18:22.
'The abortion capital of Europe'!
The news that Britain has become the abortion capital of Europe ought to be connected in our minds with the government's insistence that children of a younger and younger age must received 'sex education' and also with the removal of a parent's right to remove their children from receiving this 'sex education' after the age of fifteen.
There can only be one outcome when younger and younger children are introduced to topics at an age far beyond their capacity to appreciate and understand them.
One thing this 'sex education', required by the government, never includes is the moral teaching of the Word of God which forbids sexual intercourse prior to and outside of marriage.
An immoral generation and multitudes of murdered, aborted children is the result of this educational requirement.
There will be no change to these sad facts while this policy persists of introducing sex education at an ever earlier age and the absence of biblical morality.
Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people, Proverbs 14:34.
There can only be one outcome when younger and younger children are introduced to topics at an age far beyond their capacity to appreciate and understand them.
One thing this 'sex education', required by the government, never includes is the moral teaching of the Word of God which forbids sexual intercourse prior to and outside of marriage.
An immoral generation and multitudes of murdered, aborted children is the result of this educational requirement.
There will be no change to these sad facts while this policy persists of introducing sex education at an ever earlier age and the absence of biblical morality.
Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people, Proverbs 14:34.
Friday, 6 November 2009
The Alpha Course part 5
What is wrong with 'The Alpha Course'?
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
The Alpha Course is 'New Age' in Ethos.
Let me briefly define what is meant by 'New Age'. It is that movement which shares a vision of a new age of enlightenment and harmony (the Age of Aquarius) and who subscribes to a common worldview. That common worldview is based on Monism (all is one), Pantheism (all is God) and Mysticism (the experience of oneness with the divine).
The New Age Movement is evidenced in the Animal Rights Activists, Eco-warriors, the Green Movement, the anti-capitalists rioters, anti-gender brigade, etc, etc. There is a spiritual side to all these lobby groups and it’s false religion. They practice a religious syncretism which brings together different and sometimes contradictory religious and philosophical teachings. The New Age Movement is not 'new' in the sense of its teachings never been known before. It is but a 'new' expression of age old heresies.
In this sense of the term The Alpha Course is New Age in Ethos.
i. The New Agers are very much at home with The Alpha Course.
Commenting on the ‘Holy Spirit Away Weekend’, Nicky Gumbel says of those who had come from a New Age background:
They are on more familiar territory in experiencing the Holy Spirit. Telling Others, page 19.
How can this be? How can something that claims to lead men to the truth be in such harmony with that which is expressly not of God? The answer is that the Alpha Course is not of God but is of another spirit, even the spirit of antichrist. The same philosophy that underpins New Ageism underpins The Alpha Course.
ii. Experience leads to explanation.
This is the philosophy of the Toronto Blessing, The Alpha Course and New Ageism. There can be no absolutes in New Ageism. There is no infallible standard by which all things are to be judged. No individual can claim to have the truth.
The philosophy of those who promote the Alpha Course is similar. Whatever works, run with it. If a methodology ‘works’ then it has value and merit, regardless of whether or not it is Scriptural.
John Wimber applied this philosophy to his life and ministry. He focused more on experience and feeling than on doctrine. He even warned against ‘worshipping the Book’. He mocked those who judged everything strictly by the Bible saying they have ‘God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Book’. He also warned against being ‘too rigid’ and ‘too heavily oriented to the written Word’, John Wimber, Counterfeit Revival.
Nicky Gumbel esteemed John Wimber very highly, tracing his ministry in many respects back to the ‘Word of Knowledge’ that Wimber gave to him. This type of practice in the professing Church of Christ is New Age philosophy at work. Anything goes, if it prospers. It is subjective religion, based on experience.
iii. A direct mirror of New Age Philosophy.
A direct parallel exists between the teachings of the New Age Movement and The Alpha Course. The two can be set side by side. The same ideas and concepts appear in both. The similarity goes to demonstrate that they both are the fruit of the same corrupt and false tree.
[1] Moving into the realm of the supernatural. The whole growth of gifts and the phenomena of modern Charismatics is often spoken of as the Church moving into the realm of the supernatural.
New Agers talk about humanity moving onto a higher plain. To them there is a coming Utopia. New Agers believe there is a new world order coming which involves one-world government, global socialism and a New Age religion.
[2] The idea of the experience of the Holy Ghost. According to The Alpha Course this is the leaving of yourself open to whatever God has for you. Attenders are to seek this experience of the Holy Spirit, which is nothing more than something emotional and subjective.
New Agers call it tuning into the divine consciousness. This ‘transformation’ is in two aspects: ‘Personal Transformation’ and ‘Planetary Transformation’.
‘Personal Transformation’ is variously described as ‘enlightenment’, ‘attunement’, ‘God realisation’, and ‘self actualisation’.
‘Planetary Transformation’ is brought about as a ‘critical mass’ of ‘personally transformed’ individuals take socio-political responsible for the world of humankind.
[3] The idea of supernatural gifts. The Alpha Course teaches that we all are to seek for the experience these gifts, have new revelations and ‘words of knowledge’ from the spirit world. As already pointed out Nicky Gumbel numbers the days of his ministry from such a ‘Word of Knowledge’.
New Agers call it ‘channelling from the spirit world’. A ‘channeller’ is one who yields control of his or her perceptual and cognitive capacities to a spiritual entity or force with the intent of receiving paranormal information.
[4] The obtaining of the anointing from a teacher. Gumbel believed he had it from Wimber. ‘Transmission of anointing’ by the closeness or the touch of a teacher on the forehead.
New Agers call it transmission into higher consciousness through the close proximity of a guru.
Conclusion
The Alpha Course is devious and ought not to be touched by any who love the truth revealed in Christ Jesus. It is deficient in doctrine, ecumenical in emphasis, charismatic in tone and New Age is ethos.
There are those who have acknowledged the validity of some of our criticisms:
An infectious enthusiasm, entrepreneurial spirit, and a bold plan for growth are all trademarks among Alpha’s top leaders. But not everyone is cheering Alpha onward. Some church leaders have found Alpha teaching too charismatic, too experience-driven, and too negative about traditional churches. Martyn Percy, director of the Lincoln Theological Institute for the Study of Religion and Society of the University of Sheffield, England, has commented about Alpha that it is ‘a package rather than a pilgrimage.’ In a recent essay, he said, ‘It is a confident but narrow expression of Christianity, which stresses the personal experience of the Spirit over the Spirit in the church. ... The Alpha approach has been faulted for pushing an experience-driven approach to evangelism that sidesteps intellectual difficulties. Christianity Today 9th February, 1998
Nicky Gumbel’s Alpha Course contains a little truth but much error. It is a well-packaged meal with a dose of e.coli. The non-discerning are at risk. To be spiritually healthly you need to avoid being contaminated with it!
The New Age Movement is evidenced in the Animal Rights Activists, Eco-warriors, the Green Movement, the anti-capitalists rioters, anti-gender brigade, etc, etc. There is a spiritual side to all these lobby groups and it’s false religion. They practice a religious syncretism which brings together different and sometimes contradictory religious and philosophical teachings. The New Age Movement is not 'new' in the sense of its teachings never been known before. It is but a 'new' expression of age old heresies.
In this sense of the term The Alpha Course is New Age in Ethos.
i. The New Agers are very much at home with The Alpha Course.
Commenting on the ‘Holy Spirit Away Weekend’, Nicky Gumbel says of those who had come from a New Age background:
They are on more familiar territory in experiencing the Holy Spirit. Telling Others, page 19.
How can this be? How can something that claims to lead men to the truth be in such harmony with that which is expressly not of God? The answer is that the Alpha Course is not of God but is of another spirit, even the spirit of antichrist. The same philosophy that underpins New Ageism underpins The Alpha Course.
ii. Experience leads to explanation.
This is the philosophy of the Toronto Blessing, The Alpha Course and New Ageism. There can be no absolutes in New Ageism. There is no infallible standard by which all things are to be judged. No individual can claim to have the truth.
The philosophy of those who promote the Alpha Course is similar. Whatever works, run with it. If a methodology ‘works’ then it has value and merit, regardless of whether or not it is Scriptural.
John Wimber applied this philosophy to his life and ministry. He focused more on experience and feeling than on doctrine. He even warned against ‘worshipping the Book’. He mocked those who judged everything strictly by the Bible saying they have ‘God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Book’. He also warned against being ‘too rigid’ and ‘too heavily oriented to the written Word’, John Wimber, Counterfeit Revival.
Nicky Gumbel esteemed John Wimber very highly, tracing his ministry in many respects back to the ‘Word of Knowledge’ that Wimber gave to him. This type of practice in the professing Church of Christ is New Age philosophy at work. Anything goes, if it prospers. It is subjective religion, based on experience.
iii. A direct mirror of New Age Philosophy.
A direct parallel exists between the teachings of the New Age Movement and The Alpha Course. The two can be set side by side. The same ideas and concepts appear in both. The similarity goes to demonstrate that they both are the fruit of the same corrupt and false tree.
[1] Moving into the realm of the supernatural. The whole growth of gifts and the phenomena of modern Charismatics is often spoken of as the Church moving into the realm of the supernatural.
New Agers talk about humanity moving onto a higher plain. To them there is a coming Utopia. New Agers believe there is a new world order coming which involves one-world government, global socialism and a New Age religion.
[2] The idea of the experience of the Holy Ghost. According to The Alpha Course this is the leaving of yourself open to whatever God has for you. Attenders are to seek this experience of the Holy Spirit, which is nothing more than something emotional and subjective.
New Agers call it tuning into the divine consciousness. This ‘transformation’ is in two aspects: ‘Personal Transformation’ and ‘Planetary Transformation’.
‘Personal Transformation’ is variously described as ‘enlightenment’, ‘attunement’, ‘God realisation’, and ‘self actualisation’.
‘Planetary Transformation’ is brought about as a ‘critical mass’ of ‘personally transformed’ individuals take socio-political responsible for the world of humankind.
[3] The idea of supernatural gifts. The Alpha Course teaches that we all are to seek for the experience these gifts, have new revelations and ‘words of knowledge’ from the spirit world. As already pointed out Nicky Gumbel numbers the days of his ministry from such a ‘Word of Knowledge’.
New Agers call it ‘channelling from the spirit world’. A ‘channeller’ is one who yields control of his or her perceptual and cognitive capacities to a spiritual entity or force with the intent of receiving paranormal information.
[4] The obtaining of the anointing from a teacher. Gumbel believed he had it from Wimber. ‘Transmission of anointing’ by the closeness or the touch of a teacher on the forehead.
New Agers call it transmission into higher consciousness through the close proximity of a guru.
Conclusion
The Alpha Course is devious and ought not to be touched by any who love the truth revealed in Christ Jesus. It is deficient in doctrine, ecumenical in emphasis, charismatic in tone and New Age is ethos.
There are those who have acknowledged the validity of some of our criticisms:
An infectious enthusiasm, entrepreneurial spirit, and a bold plan for growth are all trademarks among Alpha’s top leaders. But not everyone is cheering Alpha onward. Some church leaders have found Alpha teaching too charismatic, too experience-driven, and too negative about traditional churches. Martyn Percy, director of the Lincoln Theological Institute for the Study of Religion and Society of the University of Sheffield, England, has commented about Alpha that it is ‘a package rather than a pilgrimage.’ In a recent essay, he said, ‘It is a confident but narrow expression of Christianity, which stresses the personal experience of the Spirit over the Spirit in the church. ... The Alpha approach has been faulted for pushing an experience-driven approach to evangelism that sidesteps intellectual difficulties. Christianity Today 9th February, 1998
Nicky Gumbel’s Alpha Course contains a little truth but much error. It is a well-packaged meal with a dose of e.coli. The non-discerning are at risk. To be spiritually healthly you need to avoid being contaminated with it!
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Steve Chalke & 'The Lost Message of Jesus'
Further to J. Trimble's comment on a previous posting about Steve Chalke coming to Carnmoney Presbyterian Church [scroll down to page six of their Announcement Sheet] here are some interesting links that highlight his unbelief:
The Lost Message of Jesus is no message at all! - Answers in Genesis
Don’t take your cue from Steve Chalke - Takeheed Ministries
How much longer can those who profess to be born again believers remain in a Church that associates with those who deny the biblical account of creation, the Fall & the penal nature of Christ's atonement for sin?
The words of Obadiah the prophet come to mind:
In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them, Obadiah v11.
To say and do nothing when a man who teaches these errors visits the church of which you are a member or an elder is to condone his error!
The Lost Message of Jesus is no message at all! - Answers in Genesis
Don’t take your cue from Steve Chalke - Takeheed Ministries
How much longer can those who profess to be born again believers remain in a Church that associates with those who deny the biblical account of creation, the Fall & the penal nature of Christ's atonement for sin?
The words of Obadiah the prophet come to mind:
In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them, Obadiah v11.
To say and do nothing when a man who teaches these errors visits the church of which you are a member or an elder is to condone his error!
Saturday, 17 October 2009
The Alpha Course part 4
What is wrong with 'The Alpha Course'?
Part 1
Part 2Part 3
Part 1
Part 2Part 3
The Alpha Course is Charismatic in Tone.
As the root so are the branches. Remember that a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. The Alpha Course could be nothing else, other than charismatic, when a closer look is taken at its author.
i. From the same stable as the ‘Toronto Blessing’.
The Church that brings us the Alpha Course is the same Church that brought the ‘Toronto Blessing’ to the U.K. It was in Holy Trinity Church, Brompton in the early nineties that the so called ‘laughing revival’ first appeared in Britain.
Nicky Gumbel was one of the leading lights in the promotion of the ‘Toronto Blessing’ around the country. He attended a meeting at which a Mrs Eleanor Munford was present. At this house meeting she told of her experiences in Toronto and ‘invited the Holy Spirit to come’. The moment she did that strange things began to happen. One person was thrown across the room and lay on the floor howling and laughing, ‘making the most incredible noise’. Another man lay on the floor ‘prophesying’. Some appeared to be drunken. Gumbel testified that he had an experience ‘like massive electricity going through his body’.
He got himself together and rushed to his Church where he was now late for a meeting. At its close he thanked the Lord for all He was doing and prayed that He would send His Spirit. The same phenomena were manifested with one individual lying on the floor with his feet in the air 'laughing like a hyena'. Taxis were provided at Holy Trinity for parishioners too ‘drunk in the Spirit’ to drive home from services. May 29th, 1994 was the start of this in Holy Trinity Brompton. The national newspapers carried the story shortly after. Nicky Gumbel has said:
I believe it is no coincidence that the present movement of the Holy Spirit (Toronto Blessing) has come at the same time as the explosion of the Alpha Courses. I think the two go together, Renewal May 1995, page 15.
ii. The Alpha Course itself is full of Charismatic error.
Nicky Gumbel’s Charismatic tendencies are to the fore in the Alpha Course. The phenomena of the Toronto Blessing are seen in Alpha:
[1] The calling down of the Spirit. In this Alpha Course each one is taken through the ‘experience’ of receiving the Holy Ghost. In conducting the course in his own Church Gumbel prays for the Holy Spirit to come down. The language is the language of the Charismatic Movement. This has no resemblance at all to what is taught in God’s Word. They are not looking for the infilling of the Holy Ghost, after He has indwelt them, so that they may live holy lives, glorifying Christ. This falling of the Holy Ghost upon them is the only time He comes and it is for the purpose of having the Charismatic gifts, outlined in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11. These gifts have ceased. They were for the early Church to authenticate the ministry of the apostles and were in evidence only for a limited period of time.
[2] Speaking in tongues. People are encouraged to look for the gift of tongues. Gumbel describes tongues as ‘talking to God in a language that he gives you to use’. He quotes: For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God 1 Cor 14:12 as proof that tongues is a form of prayer. This is not what Paul is saying if we read the whole verse and the next verse. If this is the substance of tongue speaking it is of no profit, cf. 1 Cor 14:13-15. Gumbel’s perception of tongues is not the Bible’s. He encourages people to learn this gift. They: ‘take time to develop. Most of us start with a very limited vocabulary. It gradually develops. Tongues is like that. Don’t give up’, Questions of Life, page 147.
Is this the gift of tongues as found in the Bible? The Apostles on the Day of Pentecost did not ‘learn’ tongues in this way. They were immediately able to speak other languages.
[3] Spiritual slayings. Here is another aspect of this error. The participants are encouraged to open themselves to the slaying of the Spirit. They are said to ‘shake like a leaf in the wind’ and experience a ‘glowing all over’ and ‘liquid heat’.
They are to empty their minds and let whatever comes in have its way. This is hardly in keeping with the injunction to let all things be done decently and in order. Gumbel’s advice is a licence for chaos. Where is this found in God’s Word?
[4] Words of knowledge. John Wimber, from the Vineyard fellowship in Toronto, gave Gumbel a ‘Word of Knowledge’. He told him he had a gift for telling others. Gumbel says he can trace his ministry of telling others to this time. The Alpha Course is the philosophy of Wimberism.
There are no revelations from God outside His Word. God speaks alone to individuals from the pages of Holy Writ and not through some modern day ‘seer’.
The Charismatic Movement is not based on the Word of God and therefore the Alpha Course, so full of this falsehood, is not built either on the Rock of Holy Scripture.
i. From the same stable as the ‘Toronto Blessing’.
The Church that brings us the Alpha Course is the same Church that brought the ‘Toronto Blessing’ to the U.K. It was in Holy Trinity Church, Brompton in the early nineties that the so called ‘laughing revival’ first appeared in Britain.
Nicky Gumbel was one of the leading lights in the promotion of the ‘Toronto Blessing’ around the country. He attended a meeting at which a Mrs Eleanor Munford was present. At this house meeting she told of her experiences in Toronto and ‘invited the Holy Spirit to come’. The moment she did that strange things began to happen. One person was thrown across the room and lay on the floor howling and laughing, ‘making the most incredible noise’. Another man lay on the floor ‘prophesying’. Some appeared to be drunken. Gumbel testified that he had an experience ‘like massive electricity going through his body’.
He got himself together and rushed to his Church where he was now late for a meeting. At its close he thanked the Lord for all He was doing and prayed that He would send His Spirit. The same phenomena were manifested with one individual lying on the floor with his feet in the air 'laughing like a hyena'. Taxis were provided at Holy Trinity for parishioners too ‘drunk in the Spirit’ to drive home from services. May 29th, 1994 was the start of this in Holy Trinity Brompton. The national newspapers carried the story shortly after. Nicky Gumbel has said:
I believe it is no coincidence that the present movement of the Holy Spirit (Toronto Blessing) has come at the same time as the explosion of the Alpha Courses. I think the two go together, Renewal May 1995, page 15.
ii. The Alpha Course itself is full of Charismatic error.
Nicky Gumbel’s Charismatic tendencies are to the fore in the Alpha Course. The phenomena of the Toronto Blessing are seen in Alpha:
[1] The calling down of the Spirit. In this Alpha Course each one is taken through the ‘experience’ of receiving the Holy Ghost. In conducting the course in his own Church Gumbel prays for the Holy Spirit to come down. The language is the language of the Charismatic Movement. This has no resemblance at all to what is taught in God’s Word. They are not looking for the infilling of the Holy Ghost, after He has indwelt them, so that they may live holy lives, glorifying Christ. This falling of the Holy Ghost upon them is the only time He comes and it is for the purpose of having the Charismatic gifts, outlined in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11. These gifts have ceased. They were for the early Church to authenticate the ministry of the apostles and were in evidence only for a limited period of time.
[2] Speaking in tongues. People are encouraged to look for the gift of tongues. Gumbel describes tongues as ‘talking to God in a language that he gives you to use’. He quotes: For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God 1 Cor 14:12 as proof that tongues is a form of prayer. This is not what Paul is saying if we read the whole verse and the next verse. If this is the substance of tongue speaking it is of no profit, cf. 1 Cor 14:13-15. Gumbel’s perception of tongues is not the Bible’s. He encourages people to learn this gift. They: ‘take time to develop. Most of us start with a very limited vocabulary. It gradually develops. Tongues is like that. Don’t give up’, Questions of Life, page 147.
Is this the gift of tongues as found in the Bible? The Apostles on the Day of Pentecost did not ‘learn’ tongues in this way. They were immediately able to speak other languages.
[3] Spiritual slayings. Here is another aspect of this error. The participants are encouraged to open themselves to the slaying of the Spirit. They are said to ‘shake like a leaf in the wind’ and experience a ‘glowing all over’ and ‘liquid heat’.
They are to empty their minds and let whatever comes in have its way. This is hardly in keeping with the injunction to let all things be done decently and in order. Gumbel’s advice is a licence for chaos. Where is this found in God’s Word?
[4] Words of knowledge. John Wimber, from the Vineyard fellowship in Toronto, gave Gumbel a ‘Word of Knowledge’. He told him he had a gift for telling others. Gumbel says he can trace his ministry of telling others to this time. The Alpha Course is the philosophy of Wimberism.
There are no revelations from God outside His Word. God speaks alone to individuals from the pages of Holy Writ and not through some modern day ‘seer’.
The Charismatic Movement is not based on the Word of God and therefore the Alpha Course, so full of this falsehood, is not built either on the Rock of Holy Scripture.
Friday, 9 October 2009
Pre-millennial Protestantism
The following article is well worth reading. It is entitled Premillennial Protestantism. It first appeared in Watching and Waiting, published by the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony.
It is based upon a sermon preached by Rev Gordon Dane, minister of Crossgar FPC at a conference in Wales.
Premillennial Protestantism
It is based upon a sermon preached by Rev Gordon Dane, minister of Crossgar FPC at a conference in Wales.
Premillennial Protestantism
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
The Alpha Course Part 3
What is wrong with 'The Alpha Course'?
Part 1
Part 2
The Alpha Course is Ecumenical in Emphasis.
Part 1
Part 2
The Alpha Course is Ecumenical in Emphasis.
There is considerable emphasis placed upon so-called unity in the Alpha Course. Alpha has extensive cross denominational support. Church leaders from all the major denominations have voiced their support for it. Anglican, Baptist, Elim, Methodist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and The Salvation Army all support Alpha.
i. The stated ecumenical philosophy
Nicky Gumbel says the following about his intentions:
We need to unite...there has been some comment which is not helpful to unity. Let us drop all that and get on. It is wonderful that the movement of the Spirit will bring churches together. He is doing that right across the denominations and within the traditions… we are seeing Roman Catholics coming now.… Nobody is suspicious of anybody else... People are no longer ‘labelling’ themselves or others. I long for the day when we drop all these labels and just regard ourselves as Christians with a commission from Jesus Christ, Renewal, May 1995, page 16.
This Alpha Course is the product of a confirmed and committed ecumenist. All that he sets forth in these lessons is geared to bringing the Churches together. He wants unity at any cost. The things that divide - drop them. That means the fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures and the Reformation, and the historic confessions of faith are to be dropped. All are to be sacrificed on this altar of ecumenical, God-dishonouring false unity. At the Reformation the Spirit of God did not take men back into the arms of popery. He brought them out of that wicked system. Will the Spirit now reverse what He has previously done? I think not!
To use Alpha is to promote ecumenism. That is why it is so bland in respect of doctrine. It will please everybody and offend no one in these ecumenical churches. It does, however, offend the God of heaven. No right-thinking, Bible-believing Christian should have anything to do with it.
ii. Rome is entirely happy with the Alpha Course
The Roman Catholic Church has set up its own Alpha office and produced a number of booklets to go along with Alpha. ‘Alpha for Catholics’ in the section: Can Alpha work ecumenically? says:
Yes, because Alpha focuses on the basic Christian message, it easily lends itself for use by ecumenical groups. It aims to present the core truths upon which the churches have already agreed and which form the real but imperfect unity that the Catholic Church already enjoys with other Christian Churches....
Nicky Gumbel states that the differences between Protestants and Catholics are:
Totally insignificant compared with the things that unite us...we need to unite around the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus; the absolute essentials at the core of the Christian faith on which we are all agreed. We need to give people liberty to disagree on the things that are secondary, Talk page 8 section ii.
The things which divide Biblical Christianity rediscovered at the Protestant Reformation and
Romanism are highly significant. They go the very heart of how a sinner can be right before God. The Bible teaches justification by faith alone. Rome teaches that it is by a mixture of faith and works.
Bishop Ambrose Griffiths RC Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle says:
Alpha does not contain anything that is contrary to Catholic doctrine. What’s more it provides, in wonderful form, the basis of Christian belief which many Catholics have never cottoned on to..…, Alpha, God changing lives page 8.
How can Alpha set forth the true way of salvation if this bishop can say that there is nothing contrary to Catholic doctrine in it? The Council of Trent Session vi Canon 10 has this to say about the Biblical doctrine of salvation by faith alone:
If any one says that justifying faith is nothing else than trust in the divine mercy pardoning sins for Christ’s sake; or that it is by trust alone by which we are justified; let him be accursed.
Evidently Alpha does not set forth salvation by faith alone or else the Bishop could not say that there is nothing in it contrary to Catholic doctrine. How then can this lead any man to a true saving knowledge of Christ and a proper understanding of the Christian Faith? It is a betrayal of the true doctrine of salvation.
iii. It is seen as being useful in the renewal of Romanism
Rome is encouraging her people to conduct the Alpha course. This is with the objective of renewing her people’s devotion to Holy Mother Church. Alpha is praised in Church magazines as a tool to this end. The renewal of devotion is to that system of popery which our forefathers fought to the bitter death.
In a Post Alpha Catholic Teaching manual, under the heading: Who needs the Catholic Church? a most startling statement is made:
I want to give thanks for the gift of the papacy to the Church. It really is a wonderful blessing. The episcopacy, the papacy are moorings which keep us from drifting away with any fad that comes along... we are blessed to have that sort of Anchor.... I need the Church’s tradition because I’m not smart enough in reading the Scriptures to understand what they say. It is only with the help of St Augustine, St Gregory of Nicea, Thomas Aquinas and St Catherine of Sienna that I can hope to understand what God is saying to me and to all of us as I read the Scriptures... I really need the saints not only in their wisdom but in their example. They keep me motivated knowing that if they made it I can make it through their prayers and by the power of the holy host, Exploring the Catholic Church by Dr M D’Ambrosio, Professor of Theology, Catholic University of Dallas.
The Alpha Course has not changed Rome. She is still a harlot Church. If Rome is happy with Alpha then no Bible lover should be. Alpha does not deliver from sin as the true Gospel did in the lives of the Reformers and many others. Rather it renews Rome. Therefore it cannot be of God. For these reasons we call on all who desire to contend for the truth to turn away from the Alpha Course.
Nicky Gumbel says the following about his intentions:
We need to unite...there has been some comment which is not helpful to unity. Let us drop all that and get on. It is wonderful that the movement of the Spirit will bring churches together. He is doing that right across the denominations and within the traditions… we are seeing Roman Catholics coming now.… Nobody is suspicious of anybody else... People are no longer ‘labelling’ themselves or others. I long for the day when we drop all these labels and just regard ourselves as Christians with a commission from Jesus Christ, Renewal, May 1995, page 16.
This Alpha Course is the product of a confirmed and committed ecumenist. All that he sets forth in these lessons is geared to bringing the Churches together. He wants unity at any cost. The things that divide - drop them. That means the fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures and the Reformation, and the historic confessions of faith are to be dropped. All are to be sacrificed on this altar of ecumenical, God-dishonouring false unity. At the Reformation the Spirit of God did not take men back into the arms of popery. He brought them out of that wicked system. Will the Spirit now reverse what He has previously done? I think not!
To use Alpha is to promote ecumenism. That is why it is so bland in respect of doctrine. It will please everybody and offend no one in these ecumenical churches. It does, however, offend the God of heaven. No right-thinking, Bible-believing Christian should have anything to do with it.
ii. Rome is entirely happy with the Alpha Course
The Roman Catholic Church has set up its own Alpha office and produced a number of booklets to go along with Alpha. ‘Alpha for Catholics’ in the section: Can Alpha work ecumenically? says:
Yes, because Alpha focuses on the basic Christian message, it easily lends itself for use by ecumenical groups. It aims to present the core truths upon which the churches have already agreed and which form the real but imperfect unity that the Catholic Church already enjoys with other Christian Churches....
Nicky Gumbel states that the differences between Protestants and Catholics are:
Totally insignificant compared with the things that unite us...we need to unite around the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus; the absolute essentials at the core of the Christian faith on which we are all agreed. We need to give people liberty to disagree on the things that are secondary, Talk page 8 section ii.
The things which divide Biblical Christianity rediscovered at the Protestant Reformation and
Romanism are highly significant. They go the very heart of how a sinner can be right before God. The Bible teaches justification by faith alone. Rome teaches that it is by a mixture of faith and works.
Bishop Ambrose Griffiths RC Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle says:
Alpha does not contain anything that is contrary to Catholic doctrine. What’s more it provides, in wonderful form, the basis of Christian belief which many Catholics have never cottoned on to..…, Alpha, God changing lives page 8.
How can Alpha set forth the true way of salvation if this bishop can say that there is nothing contrary to Catholic doctrine in it? The Council of Trent Session vi Canon 10 has this to say about the Biblical doctrine of salvation by faith alone:
If any one says that justifying faith is nothing else than trust in the divine mercy pardoning sins for Christ’s sake; or that it is by trust alone by which we are justified; let him be accursed.
Evidently Alpha does not set forth salvation by faith alone or else the Bishop could not say that there is nothing in it contrary to Catholic doctrine. How then can this lead any man to a true saving knowledge of Christ and a proper understanding of the Christian Faith? It is a betrayal of the true doctrine of salvation.
iii. It is seen as being useful in the renewal of Romanism
Rome is encouraging her people to conduct the Alpha course. This is with the objective of renewing her people’s devotion to Holy Mother Church. Alpha is praised in Church magazines as a tool to this end. The renewal of devotion is to that system of popery which our forefathers fought to the bitter death.
In a Post Alpha Catholic Teaching manual, under the heading: Who needs the Catholic Church? a most startling statement is made:
I want to give thanks for the gift of the papacy to the Church. It really is a wonderful blessing. The episcopacy, the papacy are moorings which keep us from drifting away with any fad that comes along... we are blessed to have that sort of Anchor.... I need the Church’s tradition because I’m not smart enough in reading the Scriptures to understand what they say. It is only with the help of St Augustine, St Gregory of Nicea, Thomas Aquinas and St Catherine of Sienna that I can hope to understand what God is saying to me and to all of us as I read the Scriptures... I really need the saints not only in their wisdom but in their example. They keep me motivated knowing that if they made it I can make it through their prayers and by the power of the holy host, Exploring the Catholic Church by Dr M D’Ambrosio, Professor of Theology, Catholic University of Dallas.
The Alpha Course has not changed Rome. She is still a harlot Church. If Rome is happy with Alpha then no Bible lover should be. Alpha does not deliver from sin as the true Gospel did in the lives of the Reformers and many others. Rather it renews Rome. Therefore it cannot be of God. For these reasons we call on all who desire to contend for the truth to turn away from the Alpha Course.
Favourable coverage from Newtownabbey Times
The Newtownabbey Times in their most recent edition have carried a favourable report of the 'Consider Christ Campaign' and our own upcoming Gospel Mission.
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