Eric Metaxas calls on the Church to ‘wake up’ or face disastrous consequences: ‘Everything’s at stake’

By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Assistant Editor 

ORLANDO — Eric Metaxas isn’t afraid to speak difficult truths into an increasingly secularized culture, and he’s issuing a clarion call to the American Church to do likewise, warning that neglecting this call will lead to disastrous consequences.

“There are many pastors and Christian leaders being silent in the face of evil today,” the bestselling author and radio host told The Christian Post. “They are not all consciously working for the devil, they are, nonetheless, effectively working for the devil because they are unaware that what they’re doing is not what God calls His Church to do.”

Metaxas penned his latest book, Letter to the American Church, out of a conviction that the Church must “wake up” to the realities of evil and stand for biblical truth. In it, he draws from both history and the Bible to highlight the need for the church to speak out against societal evils.

“There are all kinds of figures from history and in the Scripture who understand that, ‘My duty is to God, and if that makes me unpopular, if that makes me attacked, who cares?’” he said.UnmuteAdvanced SettingsFullscreenPauseUp Next

According to Metaxas, the Church’s silence on critical issues effectively aids the forces of evil.

In his book, he draws sobering parallels between the modern church and the German Church of the 1930s, in which “pastors were somehow fooled into buying the idea that … we’re not supposed to go against the governing authorities.”

“What the German church did in the ’30s, they had no idea that they were getting this stuff wrong. They had all kinds of theological reasons why they thought it was good not to comment on politics,” he said. “We now see what the results were; it was a nightmare out of the pit of Hell. The evil that was unleashed because of the silence of the German Church is part of the ugliest history imaginable.”

“We look at Germany, and it’s very easy for us to say, ‘Oh, they should have spoken out against the Nazis,’” he added. “But we have pastors today who are effectively not speaking out against the Nazis. The Chinese Communist Party is as wicked as the Nazis ever were, with infinitely greater technology. They are doing satanic things. The Uighur Muslims in China are being murdered for their organs, which can be sold for a lot of money that accrues to the Communist Party. Where is the Church on that issue? How can you not be outraged?”

The Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy author added that many Americans have been sheltered from the harsh realities faced by others in the world and thus fail to recognize the value of their freedoms and the need to defend them. Just like the German Church, he said, the American Church has grown “complacent.”

“The German Church woke up when it was too late, and evil overtook that nation in Europe,” he said. “The blame lies at the foot of the German Church. And I think the same can be said of the American Church today if we don’t wake up.”

“What we have is a blessing from God, entrusted to us to protect, to keep and to give to our children and grandchildren,” he stressed. “If you don’t get that, it just sort of drifts away. We are at a moment where it’s drifting away very quickly.”

Metaxas contended that the cultural zeitgeist and misguided interpretations of biblical principles have led to the belief that the Church should remain apolitical — an idea he dismisses as nonsensical. The Church, Metaxas said, must understand its duty to God and not prioritize personal comfort or congregational numbers over speaking the truth.

“Imagine if a pastor got up and said, ‘I have no position on slavery. I have no position on legalized racism and apartheid. I have no political position on Jim Crow laws.’ You wouldn’t go to that church. You’d say, ‘What an idiot, what a moral pygmy that he thinks that he can be a pastor and not have an opinion on those issues,’” Metaxas said. 

Pastors are called to speak out on all issues that affect human lives and dignity, he stressed: “You have an obligation to speak truth on these issues,” he said. “So any pastor that has his head in the sand on these issues, God will hold him responsible.”

While avoiding controversial or divisive topics might seem appealing, the author emphasizes that it ultimately “devalues the Gospel” and hinders evangelism.

“For every person that’s going to get ticked off that you said something, there’s another person that’s going to say, ’Thank goodness somebody is saying this; I didn’t know where to look anymore.’”

People are “looking for leadership from Christians,” Metaxas said. He pointed out that pastors who have been boldly speaking out against the “lunacy” of transgender ideology, cultural Marxism, critical race theory, open borders and defunding the police have seen their congregations surge in attendance. 

“Things have gotten so bad that a lot of people finally are understanding, ‘OK, maybe I missed something. Maybe we had it so good that we forgot that evil is still alive, that we haven’t defeated evil, and we have to do what God calls us to do in the midst of it, and we haven’t been doing it,’” he said. 

Historically, when the Church has drifted along with culture,” it has gone “dramatically badly,” Metaxas said. 

“The issues are always different issues, but the results are always the same, and the guilt is always the same. God wants us to be alive to what is happening,” he said. 

“Everything’s at stake. God has always looked to His Church, and we have dramatically disappointed Him in the past. I don’t believe it’s His will that we disappoint him this time, but it really is up to individual Christians.”

Letter to the American Church is available everywhere books are sold. 

Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com

Voddie Baucham identifies 3 ‘red flags’ churches are capitulating to modern, Neo-Marxist ideology (pt. 1)

By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Assistant Editor 

Prominent pastor and author Voddie Baucham has identified three signs a church is abandoning Scriptural truths for modern, Neo-Marxist ideology in a culture where truth is under attack and Christianity is increasingly marginalized. 

In an interview with The Christian Post, the 54-year-old dean of theology at African Christian University in Zambia highlighted several concerning trends in modern churches that he fears are eroding the foundations of Christianity, beginning with a de-emphasis of the Bible, where there is a lack of commitment to systematically teach and exposit the Scriptures.

“There’s not a commitment to a systematic exposition of the Bible, and what we hear from the pulpit is rooted and grounded in more psychology and philosophy than text and theology,” Baucham said.

The second red flag involves the church’s alignment with post-Christian culture. Baucham noted that some leaders preach messages that resonate with the values and agendas of the secular world, including issues related to LGBTQ+ concerns. 

“You begin to hear things in the church, from the pulpit, from the leadership that resonate with this post-Christian culture, for example, the LGBTQ-plus, whatever agendas,” he said. 

Finally, he said apologizing for essential Christian doctrines is another red flag indicating a departure from true, biblical Christianity. 

“We’re apologizing for the ‘creation myth.’ We’re apologizing for the Gospel. We’re apologizing for the Reformation. We’re apologizing for Christian morality, these sorts of things. These are some signs that things have gone very wrong,” he said. 

A May 2021 survey from Evangelical pollster George Barna found that just 6% of Americans have a “biblical worldview.” Similarly, survey data compiled in January 2020 showed that only 2% of millennials hold a biblical worldview, even though 61% identify as Christian. 

Baucham, who is gearing up for a revised release of his 2004 book The Ever-Loving Truth: Can Faith Survive in a Post-Christian Culture?explained that for many decades, the Western Church has assumed and then forgotten the essence of the Gospel, leading to a foundation built on shifting sand rather than the solid rock of Christ. 

The ramifications of that, he lamented, are becoming increasingly visible in today’s post-Christian America.

“For a long time, because of the assumptions of the culture, one of the things that we did was we assumed the Gospel,” Baucham said. “The message of the Gospel is an offensive message in a lost and dying world. But we assumed the Gospel. Then, after we assumed the Gospel, we forgot the Gospel and we left the Gospel behind. And we begin to build churches — and really, I use that term loosely because, in many instances, they aren’t churches — and gather people based on commonalities that were not Gospel-centered. We gathered people because we liked the same kind of music or we were in the same social class. We had those things as our foundation instead of having the Gospel as our foundation.”

Baucham, who previously served as pastor of Grace Family Baptist Church in Texas, stressed that the Gospel message is considered “offensive to the world.” And, in an attempt to avoid offense, many churches have neglected its transformative power. He warned that such churches, lacking a Gospel-centered foundation, are ill-prepared for the challenges of the post-Christian era. 

“In this post-Christian era, where we’re all being sort of painted with the same brush, people who have not relied on the Gospel to build solid foundations are seeing their sheep scattered. They’re really not legitimate sheep in the first place, and they also don’t really know how to respond, because the response in many instances has been, ‘No, no, no, no, we’re not like them.’ And ‘them,’ of course, are conservative, Bible-believing Evangelicals, those people who have always been vilified by the culture at large.

“But that’s not working anymore,” he said, “because it’s not enough to just not hold firmly to the truths of the Gospel and to not hold firmly to those things that the culture finds offensive. Any identification now with Christianity, which is seen as the sort of ultimate hegemonic boogeyman in modern, Neo Marxist culture, is offensive. So, a lot of people are caught off guard because of compromises that they made a long time ago that looked like they were paying off.

Baucham issued an urgent call for a bold return to the core of Christianity: the unadulterated Gospel. He emphasized the need for churches to stand firm on biblical truths without compromise, even in the face of cultural pressure and vilification. 

“We need to prepare ourselves for the opposition, not only the opposition coming, but for the opposition that’s already here,” he said. “We need to know what we believe and why we believe it. We need to be prepared to give an answer to those who ask us for the reason for the hope that is in us. We need to be prepared to speak to this post-Christian culture. Finally, we need to be prepared to accept the consequences of doing so, which are unpleasant.”

The Ever-Loving Truth: Can Faith Survive in a Post-Christian Culture? will be released on Sept. 16.

Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com

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Isn’t It Narrow-Minded To Claim That Jesus Is The Only Pathway To God?

It certainly would be narrow minded if Christians were saying “Jesus is the only way because he’s my way”, or if they were just trying to edge out the competition from other religions. But this idea did not originate with some pastor or theologian. It goes back to Jesus himself. He’s the one who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

People who bristle at this idea are ultimately arguing with Jesus — not with the Christians who are simply trying to be faithful to his teachings.

But was Jesus narrow minded? Well, in a sense he was. In fact, in the Sermon on the Mount he said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7: 13-14).

If Jesus was right about this, then he was being appropriately narrow minded. He was being like parents who are narrow enough to insist that their children walk on the sidewalk and not in the street, or a doctor who limits his prescriptions to medicine that will actually help people rather than poison them, or the airline pilot who restricts his landing options to that narrow path to life called a runway, rather than trying to put the airplane down on a cornfield or a beach.

You see, we really want narrow approaches — as long as they are based on truth and point us in the direction that’s best for us.

Jesus gave us every reason to believe he was telling the truth and that he loves us enough to lead us towards forgiveness, life, and an eternity with him.

“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” JESUS in John 10:9-10

Source: Lee Strobel, The Case For Christ Answer Booklet (Zondervan, 2017), p. 35

Ex-psychic repents of ‘demonic’ fixation on numerology: ‘A desire for control’

By Nicole Alcindor, CP Reporter

Unsplash/Scott Rogerson

Two former psychics who turned away from the occult and became Christians say the New Age practice of numerology is “demonic,” “deceptive” and addictive because it can potentially lead to an unhealthy fixation on satanic influences that are far from God. 

Former psychic Doreen Virtue joined ex-psychic Jenn Nizza on a recent episode of Nizza’s “Ex-Psychic Saved” podcast, where they warned listeners about what they say are the harmful effects of numerology. 

Numerology is the belief in a mystical relationship between numbers and their symbolism in people’s lives and futures. Both women shared that they know firsthand how tempting practicing numerology can be when someone is lured into the practice. 

“I was a psychic medium. I was not a numerologist. … But, I went to many. And then, when I would be doing psychic medium readings, numbers would be used because then, I had some sort of New Age understanding of what the demons told numerologists — what was channeled — and they would use numbers in my readings,” Nizza shared. 

Even though she wouldn’t describe herself as a former numerologist, Nizza said when she was a psychic medium, she taught a divination class in which she would use numbers and specific equations that she received from demons to deliver messages to her clients. 

At that time, Nizza said she desired wisdom that always seemed unattainable, and she would chase after what she believed was psychic knowledge. 

“That’s what divination really is. … You’re getting information. You’re wanting control. You don’t have it. You want power. This person thinks they have power. And then, you have to go to other psychics, probably, after that, or do manifesting, and you keep going back to the problem for the solution. … That’s my story with numerology. And of course, angel numbers and so on and so forth,” Nizza shared. 

Virtue said she too wanted power that always seemed out of reach. 

“This is a desire for control. It’s a desire for secret wisdom and hidden information, just like the serpent offered to Eve in Genesis 3. And so, I was no different. I was looking for a way to predict the future to control the future, manifest the future,” Virtue said.  

Virtue said she was led into numerology after having a detailed dream about her grandmother Pearl. Looking back now, 20 years later, she said she knows she did not really see her grandmother but rather a demon impersonating her grandmother.  

After having the dream, Virtue said she was led to study Pythagoras, which led her to explore numerology. 

“I learned the classical numerology, which by the way, is different for different teachers. And that’s another reason why New Age is not valid because …  depending on who you talk to, five could mean ‘change’ or five could mean ‘death’ or, you know, six can mean ‘materiality’ or in the Bible, it can be ‘the mark of the beast 666.’ The same number can mean different things to different systems. So, that shows you right there that the interpretation is not valid,” Virtue said. 

For her book Angel Numbers, Virtue said she would meditate on numbers and notice her thoughts and visions. And she would believe that “so-called Angels” were sending her messages. She later realized that the “angels” were really “Satan’s demons or minions” masquerading as angels of light. 

“I have a BA and MA in counseling psychology and I studied, you know, human psyche. … The mind looks for patterns because it’s wanting control. So, if you notice three’s all day long, your mind is going to want to try and pigeonhole what does this mean and try and find meaning out of it in a meaningless world, meaningless universe,” Virtue explained.  

“The only meaning of this universe is that it’s God’s universe. God made it and our purpose is to glorify Him, and doing divination is the opposite of glorifying God. He commanded us not to do any form of divination or look for signs or omens. That’s in the Old Testament and the New Testament. And the reason is because He loves us and doesn’t want us to be misled by the demons.” 

Instead of turning to “demonic” and “occult” practices, such as, numerology, God “wants us to turn to Him for wisdom through His Word, through His book, the Bible, and not to try and lean on our own understanding,” she continued. 

“It’s absolutely a trap. I followed numerology. I taught numerology. I repent and apologize that I was wrong.” 

Virtue advises listeners struggling to turn away from numerology to seek Christ and surrender their sinful desires to Him. 

“People all the time, ask me: ‘How do I get the obsession with numbers out of my head?’ Because once you learn these angel number patterns or numerology patterns and then, you know, let’s say you leave New Age — praise the Lord — [people in these scenarios] they have a hard time letting go of noticing the license plates, and the receipts and the telephone number patterns,” Virtue said. 

“As we talked about your brain goes to patterns trying to make order out of this world. So, what you want to do with any thoughts, whether it’s sexual tension, thought or selfish thought or a hateful thought is you always want to lay that at the foot of the cross,” she continued.  

“You can get on your knees and repent. Repent, of course, in Greek means metanoia, change your mind. You are apologizing to God, just like David showed us in the songs how he poured his heart out to God. He wasn’t worried about being politically correct. He was just raw with God and we want to be the same.”

Virtue said that numerology and divination are sinful acts that are punishable by God, as noted in Deuteronomy 18, Acts 16:16, Acts 19:19 and Revelation 22:15.  

“What you want to do is you can ask God, … to relieve you of these recurring patterns that are in you. You can ask Him, like in Psalm 139, to ‘purify you.’ You can ask God; ‘please purify my heart. Please purify my mind. Please purify my intentions,'” Virtue advised. “We have to understand what’s a biblical thought and what’s a nonbiblical thought and take them all to God.”

Nicole Alcindor is a reporter for The Christian Post. 

Use What Is Already in Place

pixabay.com/Pixel 2013

Barbed wire was invented shortly after the Civil War. Though first resisted by open range cattlemen, it eventually came to be widely used.

I recently read an article concerning large cattle ranches in Texas, California, Montana, and Kansas in the late 1800s and early 1900s using their barbed wire fences for a new technology, telephones. The telephone was invented 1876.

The XIT ranch (1885 -1912) in the Texas Panhandle covered more than 4500 square miles with three million acres enclosed by barbed wire fencing. You can imagine the communication problems cowboys on horseback faced trying to manage such a vast cattle operation.  In the early 1900s a great many telephones were placed on the ranch to help solve this problem.

Where possible the top line of barbed wire on the fences was used as a telephone line. Though the service was ‘atrocious’ it did allow for quick communication concerning emergencies such as grass fires that required immediate help.

The cowboys, always an inventive lot, improved the call quality by using the broken necks of whiskey bottles and soda pop bottles to lift the wire off the fencepost to improve conductivity. This made the signal go further and clarified the voices they carried. 

Historian Don Anderson, who earned a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University, said that barbed wire phone systems led to the conclusion that “using whatever is already in place is smart planning”.

When rural Texas wanted to extend phone service from town to town, the engineers came up with the idea that they could use the existing rural power lines, already installed by the Rural Electrification Act and run the phone signal right through the electric lines – just at a different frequency. That saved a lot of money and brought phone service along with electricity to rural areas.

The philosophy espoused by Mr. Anderson also applies to spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.

God wants to use ‘whatever is already in place’ in your community and state. You and I, the Christ followers, are the ‘asset’ that is already in place. We do not have to reinvent the wheel so to speak, i.e., bring in some professional person.

The hope giving message of salvation can flow through us along with all the other daily living activities that flow through us.

When we let the Holy Spirit send His power and desire through us, just like the phone current went through the barbed wire fence, it is a joyous privilege to use our hands to give someone a Gospel tract, our mouth to speak edifying words to a person who needs an encouraging word, to send our money to missionary organizations spreading the Gospel in hostile places around the world, use our money to purchase Bibles for the underground church where it is estimated each Bible brings 2-3 new believers into the church, our feet to go help hurting people who need to see the love of Jesus in action plus hear the saving message, use our resources to help the poor in our community, or do one of a million other task to tell and show people that,

‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only beloved Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16)

May you and I be the ‘barbed wire’ for God’s love and power to flow through to reach our neighbors and fellow human beings!

May it be so,

Carl

Sources: Texas Standard article: Atrocious but efficient: How ranchers used barbed wire to make phone calls and Texas Coop Power Magazine (January 2022 issue)

‘I was dead inside’: Ex-astrologer on bold mission to slay evil, demonic forces after escaping witchcraft, New Age

By Billy Hallowell, Contributor

istock/Thanumporn Thongkongkaew

Tailah Scroggins felt dead inside. After growing up in a Christian home, she somehow fell into the occult, embracing astrology, witchcraft and the New Age.

But after embarking on a dark journey and losing the will to live, she had an incredible interaction with Jesus that changed everything.

Today, Scroggins is an online evangelist, writer, and truth-teller on a mission to help others escape evil. She recently shared her story with “Billy Hallowell’s Playing With Fire Podcast,” explaining how she was raised in a Christian home and believed in God before stumbling into the occult.

She said she was first introduced to the New Age in high school when someone she trusted in her family told her about astrology.

“They had this big … textbook of everything astrology, and they were like, ‘This describes my personality so perfectly — look what it says about you,’” Scroggins said. “I was caught off-guard, and I remember … I was like, ‘But how can this be true? If God created all of us and he made our personalities, how can a planet dictate my future or dictate my personality?’”

She said this was the first “seed of deception” the devil planted in her life, and her perspective started to shift. With her family friend stating God created astrology as a system “He put in order,” she started down what she now believes was a dangerous path.

“They provided me some explanation that was totally false, but I didn’t know the word of God enough,” Scroggins said. “I knew a lot about God, but I didn’t know … what the Bible said about the occult — about the darkness, about the battle. I just knew the good things, and so I became an astrologer.”

Scroggins spent 11 years as an astrologer, describing it as her “worldview” and “life.”

Still, she attended church and clung to some Christian ideas. She said the entire experience opened her up to “so much deception and confusion” as she lived life as a “lukewarm Christian” plagued by her occultic practices.

As Scroggins entered college, she said she was disappointed in God, feeling frustrated He hadn’t answered her wants and whims on her timeline.

“It’s spiritual immaturity,” she said of her perspective at the time. We don’t trust God’s timing, and so I’m young, I’m 18 at this time, and I’m mad — I’m mad that God didn’t open the door that I wanted Him to open, and that’s just kind of part of being a baby Christian.”

Her spiritual immaturity also led her to join in on the party lifestyle. Scroggins said “the enemy lied” and she “took his bait” and began down a negative path, getting drunk every weekend.

“The more I rebelled and lived in this party lifestyle, the more I craved astrology, the witchcraft, the divination, and all of that,” Scroggins said. “It was like this hunger exploded … it was like this black hole … I needed to be consuming it.”

She said depression soon took hold and suicidal thoughts reigned. Scroggins would find herself crying for two hours every day for no reason, as she grappled with the emptiness left by the abandonment of her relationship with the Lord.

Scroggins added, “It was like I had no reason to live.”

A family friend aware of her situation ended up intervening — and the experience brought Scroggins true healing. The woman was at Scroggins’ home one day, and she candidly spoke with the then-college student.

“She just looked at me one day, and she said, ‘Today is the day of your freedom,’ and I said, ‘OK, I don’t know what that means, but I have no will to live,’” Scroggins recalled. “I hadn’t attempted to do anything or take my life, but I was dead inside. And so I was like, ‘You can pray and do whatever you want to me because there’s nowhere else for me to go. I’m already at rock bottom,’ and so she prayed for me.”

Those invocations, which Scroggins described as “deliverance prayers,” had a profound impact. Scroggins said they “cast every spirit of death and depression out,” and she immediately felt “huge weights being lifted off.”

She now believes the entire experience was “supernatural,” leading her to a fruitful and meaningful relationship with Christ.

“The depression never came back, the suicidal thoughts never came back — ever,” she said. “It’s been over six years. I was delivered.”

Scroggins continued, “God completely healed me, set me free.”

Over time, she abandoned her occultic practices and clung close to Jesus. A few years later, though, she found herself alarmed by how many others were being enraptured by the same world she had escaped.

Scroggins said she was shocked during COVID-19 to see how interest in witchcraft, Tarot cards, crystals, and the occult exploded online.

“It grieved me because that was my story,” she said. “I was into New Age. I was into the false spirituality in witchcraft.”

Realizing she had been “set free … by Jesus,” she decided to counter occultic videos getting millions of views with content of her own that would instead point people toward Jesus.

“I was like, ‘I’m gonna share my testimony, and I’m going to expose astrology. I’m going to expose the New Age, I’m going to expose all of it,’” she said. “And I just started telling people what I went through and what God saved me from. And what came into my life when I started doing those practices — and it was all evil.”

Listen to Scroggins explain her journey and why she’s openly shared her testimony.

This article was originally published by CBN’s Faithwire.

Source: Christian Post

Seeing Eye Fish

There’s an old saying that people seldom remember how rapidly the job was done, but they do appreciate good workmanship. However, the staggering variety and number of things created by God did not limit the elegance of His fine workman-ship.

The relationship between the snapping shrimp and a fish called the goby is a good example of the Creator’s attention to the finest detail. The snapping shrimp has very poor eyesight, while the goby has excellent eyesight. Both share the same burrow, which is dug by the shrimp and guarded by the goby.

The shrimp uses the goby as a blind person uses a Seeing Eye dog. Whenever the shrimp is outside its burrow, it always keeps one antenna on the goby. The shrimp stays hidden inside the burrow if the goby should temporarily swim away. When danger approaches, the goby signals and disappears inside the burrow. The shrimp is right behind him.

Neither the goby nor the shrimp can survive without each other, so pairs are established for life when both goby and shrimp are very young. In order for this system to work, both goby and shrimp reproductive systems, which differ greatly, are synchronized so that shrimp and goby youngsters are ready to pair at the same time.

This astonishing relationship shows us how our Creator’s standards of excellence bring His love to every corner of the creation.

Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, as Your Word says, You have done all things very well. I thank You for the comfort of knowing that nothing in the creation is too unimportant for Your loving attention. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

_____

REF: Yanagisawa, Y. 1990. Strange seabed fellows. Natural History, Aug. p. 46. Photo: Gobi and shrimp – by Steve Childs CCA By 2.0

© 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

The Fear of The Lord & The Church

Our survey of wisdom in the NT sees significant continuity with the OT. Jesus is the epitome of God’s wisdom, or, perhaps better, the very incarnation of God’s wisdom. He is the one on whom the Spirit of the Lord rests. His delight is in the fear of the Lord.*

Thus, the church is called to relationship with him and to inculcate** and demonstrate the same fear that is the beginning of wisdom. Christians are God-fears who submit to the instruction of Christ. The book of James urges Christians to seek wisdom from above (from God) and to demonstrate that wisdom in their speech, their relationships with others, their planning, their handling of money –indeed, in all of life.

Tremper Longman III, The Fear Of The Lord Is Wisdom (Baker Academic, 2017), p.256

* The Scripture reference is Isaiah 11: 1-3 and is a prophecy about Jesus Christ:

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord… (NASB)

**inculcate: to teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions

Are You on a Spiritual Journey?

Progressives love to portray the Christian religion (and all religion, for that matter) as fundamentally a matter of being on a spiritual “journey”. Religion is primarily about “exploring” for ourselves what we think about spiritual matters.

The problem is that hidden within this approach is an enormous (and unspoken) assumption, namely that God has not clearly revealed himself. Nor has he clearly revealed a message about salvation. Indeed, the assumption underlying this entire progressive narrative is that religion is about humans finding God, rather than about a God who has revealed himself to humans.

If someone thinks such a thing, you could see why he or she would be irritated with biblical Christianity. According to progressives, religion (by definition!) is always in flux. It’s a process of seeking God. How arrogant would it be to claim he’s been found. In contrast, biblical Christianity argues that God has clearly revealed a message of salvation in Christ Jesus, and that all people everywhere are called to believe in that good news.

Even more fundamentally, the progressive position misses the core Christian message. Christianity is not about mankind’s never-ending “journey” to God, but about God’s completed journey to us, to save us from our sins. As John reminds us, ” In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10).

Michael J. Kruger, The Ten Commandments of Progressive Christianity (Cruciform Press, 2010), pp. 30, 32-33.

Jesus: Moral Teacher or God?

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.” C.S. Lewis

Yes, everyone has to choose. Is Jesus God come in the flesh to earth or was He just a good, moral Jewish sage who taught His followers how to live in this world? Liberal or progressive Christianity says that Jesus is just a model for living more than an object for worship. In other words, Jesus was not divine.

Who do you say Jesus is? Moral teacher or God? If you do not know, I would suggest you read the New Testament and decide for yourself.

I believe you will see that Jesus’ moral teaching only works when we retain his identity as Lord. And if He is Lord, He is worthy of your worship.

Who do you say He is?

God bless – Carl

Source: Michael J. Kruger – The Ten Commandments of Progressive Christianity (Cruciform Press, 2019)

Is God ALMIGHTY?

In the gospels Christ teaches that God is almighty. But there is so much suffering in the world that God sometimes seems to be powerless. His Son, who was executed like a common criminal, continues to suffer every time a Christian is martyred. And atheist rulers try to chase Him from their countries. If God were almighty, wouldn’t He end the injustice and suffering?

A Communist prosecutor in the Soviet Union before its dissolution, lured or coerced a number of Christian children to disclose the names of their Sunday school teachers. As a result, four leading Christians in the town were sentenced to prison. Although these children could not have known the consequences of their actions, their consciences may forever accuse them as Judases.

Also in the Soviet Union, the children of a Christian family were placed in a home for mentally disabled children because they believed in Christ. One year later, their parents succeeded in getting them out of the home and having them evaluated by doctors in another town, and the children were found to be mentally healthy. Will these children ever recover from what they suffered?

Why does Almighty God ordain or even allow so much suffering? Is He almighty, or is He powerless? The suffering that all of us must endure prompts us to ask the same question.

First, we must examine our understanding of the word might. Many of us probably view the word as meaning the power to crush, subdue, suppress, or punish. But the word can also be used in a more positive way, as in the might to love, to be patient and quiet, to suffer innocently and to be good to wrongdoers.

While beating a Christian, a Communist officer told him, “I am almighty, as you suppose your God to be. I can kill you.” The Christian boldly replied, “The power is all on my side. I can love you while you torture me to death”. Such is God’s might which is reflected in the deep tranquility of the souls of saints. They do not ask “Why all the sorrow?” because they have learned to love the cross, accepting rejection and discomfort. When we take this attitude, our perplexity ceases.

Suffering drives some to despair and torments their soul, while others are grateful for it. I have seen faithful Christian prisoners dancing for joy. They recognize God’s might and patiently show love towards their torturers. God’s love will conquer.

We cannot understand God’s reasons for allowing suffering, but someday we will know as we are known by God (1 Corinthians 13:12). And cannot God compensate in eternity for suffering endured here for a little while? The saint is not a man who is illuminated by God. He is nothing, through whom God’s power shines to love even the worst of men. Who knows if today’s murderer may not be a future disciple?

 We bless the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, advancing on the path of faith without tormenting ourselves with endless questions about suffering. May we embrace these unanswered questions as we learn to glorify Christ joyfully.

Author: Richard Wurmbrand (1909 -2001) was imprisoned in Communist Romania because of his faith in Christ. You can read his complete story in Wurmbrand: Tortured for Christ – The Complete Story.

Unexpected Wisdom

A pastor asked an older farmer, decked out in bib overalls, to say grace for the morning breakfast.

“Lord, I hate buttermilk”, the farmer began.

The visiting pastor opened one eye to glance at the farmer and wonder where this is going.

The farmer loudly proclaimed, “Lord, I hate lard.”

Now the pastor was growing concerned. Without missing a beat, the farmer continued, “And Lord, you know I don’t much care for raw white flour”.

The pastor once again opened an eye to glance around the room and saw that he wasn’t the only one to feel uncomfortable.

But then the farmer added, “But Lord, when you mix them all together and bake them, I do love warm fresh biscuits. So, Lord, when things come up that we don’t like, when life gets hard, when we don’t understand what you’re saying to us, help us to just relax and wait until you are done mixing. It will probably be even better than biscuits. Amen”

Within that prayer there is great wisdom for us all, when it comes to complicated situations like we are experiencing in the world today.

Stay strong, and ENDURE, my friends!

While what WE see is our Lord mixing things we don’t really care for, the reality is that something even better is coming when HE is done with it! AMEN!

Source: Unknown

Praying to the Departed Conjures Fallen Angels

When a quarterback throws a pass in a football game, he is obviously trying to get the ball to one of his teammates. It is never his intention for a player on the opposing team to intercept it, but sometimes that is exactly what happens. The quarterback meant well, but the result of his pass ended up benefiting the other team.

Likewise, many well-meaning religious people throw various “prayer passes” in hopes of gaining spiritual assistance. Among these religious people are of course a number of Christians. Some of them have been taught to only “throw the ball” to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These believers pray only to God Himself. Others have been taught that it is acceptable and even beneficial to pray to certain saints in heaven who are thought to be able to intercede on our behalf and grant us assistance.

So what is going on here? What really happens with prayers to the departed that are prayed everyday by religious people all over the world? Simply put, some prayers which are assumed to be prayers of “intercession” are in reality prayers of “interception.” That is, these prayers do not reach the intended “receiver.” Instead, they are intercepted by fallen angels. One of the many activities of evil spirits is to encourage religious people to pray to “dead” believers. The Bible does not encourage such a thing, but instead warns against it.

“But wait,” someone may say. “Believers in heaven are not dead, but alive.” True, and thankfully so. Their earthly body died, but their spirit is alive in heaven and will be granted a perfect heavenly body at the end of time. (see 1 Cor. 15:42-53) So yes, they are not really dead. But that doesn’t mean they hear our prayers, or provide even the slightest bit of assistance in answer to our prayers, regardless of how noble their lives may have been while on earth.

God doesn’t use saints in heaven to bless saints on earth. Instead, God utilizes His holy angels to minister to His children on earth. (see Hebrews 1:14) God would have told us in His Word if He wanted us praying to angels, or praying to believers who have gone before us into heaven. We have a much better mediator, “the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5) He is fully God, and fully Man. And He is more than able to hear millions of prayers at the same time from Christians all over the world, and to provide exactly what we need in answer to them.

So should I pray to the Father, or to the Son, or to the Holy Spirit? Actually, yes. Christians can pray to each of them individually, but you can also pray to them together as One. They are three Persons in One God. So just pray to God. And while it’s fine to thank Him for the faithfulness of believers who have gone before us, there is simply no good reason to pray to those saints. That sort of thing will only invite “our opponents” in the spiritual realm to come alongside us in our prayers. Those wicked angels are attracted anytime they see that they can “pick off a pass” from one of God’s children. They are drawn in anytime religious practices which are contrary to Scripture get carried out by anyone.

Always remember this about religion. Fallen angels want people to carry out religious activities, just so long as those activities don’t please the Lord and draw on His power. False religious practices are just as dangerous, if not more so, than living life with no religious practices. The counterfeit activity keeps the person from even thinking about his need for the genuine practice. It would be similar to using counterfeit money, but not knowing the bills are counterfeit. In that situation, why would I try to get genuine bills if I thought the bills I was already using are the real thing? Spiritual counterfeits, like financial counterfeits, always provide a dangerous and false sense of security.

Do some Christians fall prey to unbiblical and unhealthy spiritual practices? Of course. It happens all the time, not only by praying to the departed, but in an assortment of other mystical and magical practices which tend to creep into both Protestant and Catholic traditions. For example, some believers in certain churches have been taught to “sow a seed” of financial giving in order to receive whatever answer to prayer they desire. In essence, rub the bottle and make the genie appear. I don’t think so. It’s fanaticism, plain and simple. Appealing yes, but beneficial no. Just like prayers to the departed, this practice only draws in the participation of the opposing team in the spiritual realm. The Holy Spirit will never be found in such gimmicks by spiritual leaders, who are actually just religious hucksters.

For whatever reason, praying to the departed is equally appealing to many religious people. It energizes folks who do it. They get drawn deeper and deeper into it. Before they know it, they are hooked. But it was not God who led them to start praying to the departed. God never leads anyone to do such a thing.

If any saint who has gone before us is able to compete even slightly in your heart and mind with your focus on the Lord, then the opposing team has accomplished a victory of sorts on the “playing field” of your soul. One of their biggest goals when it comes to religious people, including Christians, is to tempt us to view something or someone other than God as a means of receiving blessings from heaven. If Jesus is not our “all in all,” we will fall for counterfeit methods of being spiritual and attaining grace.

In reality, no one has ever received even a tiny bit of God’s grace or blessing by praying to departed saints. Every one of those “prayer passes” has been intercepted by the other team. That doesn’t seem to stop many people from calling that same legalistic play over and over again. Such is life in the realm of religious fanaticism whenever Protestants or Catholics take their eyes off Christ alone, and utilize magical methods in hopes of achieving spiritual victories.

Prayers to the departed never reach St. Paul, or St. Augustine, or the mother of our Lord, or the brother of our Lord, or St. Francis of Assisi, or any other saint. All those prayers do is attract fallen angels into the spiritual atmosphere around your soul. Those angels hover over anyone who chooses to pray to the dead. It opens a spiritual door through which those angels enter your space. If you have prayed such prayers, simply talk to the Lord about it and ask Him to close any doors you have opened out of ignorance. And choose to be wise from this day forward by only praying to God, but never again to departed saints.

Remember, there is another team on the spiritual playing field and they have an intense hatred for Jesus Christ, and an equally intense fear of Him. After all, He defeated them at the cross. (see Colossians 2:15) These spiritual forces (evil angels) will try just about anything to convince you to seek blessings through someone other than Christ, or in addition to Christ. They can even increase your spiritual feelings and sensations when you do things that invite their participation. Part of the deception is that it makes you feel like you are connecting with those departed saints. Evil spirits can definitely give you a “spiritual buzz” and a real new age experience. That is one reason to never trust feelings, but only trust Jesus as you rely upon God’s objective Word rather than man’s subjective emotions.

How does all of this sound to you? Even if you are not yet totally convinced that praying to departed saints is dangerous, would you be willing to stop doing it “just in case” you are wrong? Or are you already hooked on that magical practice? If so, it’s time to recognize how this religious addiction only leads to interceptions, but never to God-pleasing intercession.

It’s also time to get back to the huddle (God’s Word) and call a new play. You have a receiver on your team who will never allow even one of your passes to Him to be intercepted, and His name is Jesus. If I were you, I would call His number every time. That is the safe play for every Christian.

Come to think of it, why would a Christian even think about throwing to another receiver, even if that man or woman did have a prominent role in Christian history? So what? Don’t start praying to him or her just because God used that person in a special way. No one, and I mean no one, can provide intercession between you and the Father other than Jesus Christ. Believers have access to the Father only because of what Christ accomplished for us on the cross. If you attempt to add or subtract to Christ’s work at Calvary, you miss out on eternal salvation. (see Galatians 3:1-14)

If God wanted His children praying to departed saints, He would have certainly told us so in His Word. That is God’s love letter to His family. He would not have left out something that important. By not placing it in the Bible, but instead warning believers about trying to communicate with the dead, God has made it clear how He feels about His children praying to the departed.

There are saints, and then there is Jesus. There is intercession, and then there are interceptions. Don’t “throw your prayers” where the enemy can pick them off. It is nothing less than spiritual deception to believe that any receiver other than Jesus can actually catch those prayers, and answer them.

Draw near to God with confidence through faith in the blood of Jesus, and resist any temptation you may feel to dabble with a magic formula that involves praying to the departed. While such superstitious prayers will likely increase your spiritual sensations as a result of the presence of fallen angels, it will do nothing to bring you God’s grace or blessing. Do not be deceived just because it happens to be a spiritual activity. There are actually a number of religious practices which attempt contact with dead people, and all of them are extremely dangerous to your soul.

Just because an activity is “spiritual” doesn’t make it beneficial. If that were the case, every religion would lead to God and to heaven. Those other religions are Christ-less. Only Jesus is priceless. You can place full confidence in this approach to prayer because it comes right out of God’s playbook. It’s no wonder the angelic dark side has worked so cleverly over the centuries to seduce religious people to offer prayers to created beings rather than praying only to the Creator Himself.

Dan Delzell is the pastor of Wellspring Lutheran Church in Papillion, Neb. He is a regular contributor to The Christian Post.

Does Mary command Catholic mystics and angels to obey her?

Maria of Agreda was a 17th-century Franciscan nun and spiritual writer. She claimed that private messages were dictated to her by Mary, the humble and “highly favored” (Luke 1:28) mother of our Lord. As a noted mystic of her era, Maria’s best known single work is The Mystical City of God, consisting of eight books.

Endorsed by many renowned Popes, including Pius IX and Pius X, “no other Catholic work has received as much analysis and approval by Church authorities.” The Vatican Secretary of State issued a statement in 1999 assuring Catholics that The Mystical City of God contains no errors of faith or morals.  

Maria was initially reluctant to transcribe the transcendental messages she was receiving. She felt “most unworthy,” and yet somehow, she “resolved and attempted to write of divine and supernatural things” (Introduction, #1). Maria even sought Mary’s assistance:

“I fled in this affliction to our Queen and Lady as to my only refuge in all troubles, and after I had manifested to her my way of life and my desires, she deigned to answer me in these sweetest of words:

‘My daughter, console thyself and do not be disturbed in thy heart on account of this labor; prepare thyself for it and I will be thy Mother and Superior, whom thou shalt obey; and the same I will be to thy subjects. In all thy temptations and troubles, thou shalt take refuge with me, confer about them with me, and take the advice, which I will give thee in all things. Obey me, and I will favor thee and will continue to be attentive to thy affliction.’” (Introduction, #7).

The Apostle Paul wrote much of the New Testament, and yet never once instructed believers to converse with Mary, pray to her, or obey her. Nevertheless, Maria was convinced that she was in regular dialogue with Mary and with various angels. In her passionate zeal to obey Mary, Maria sought greater revelations. She prayed, “Speak therefore, O Lady, that thy servant may hear with an ardent desire to obey thee” (Introduction, #13).

Maria described a time “the Queen stood near by … and said to me: ‘My daughter; I desire that thou be my disciple and my companion, and I will be thy Teacher; but remember that thou must obey me courageously.’” (The Conception, Chapter 1, #7).

Maria’s response was emphatic. “I prostrated myself before the throne of the King and Queen of the universe and I offered to obey her in all things” (The Conception, Chapter 1, #7).

Does God want Catholics to become Mary’s disciples? According to Maria, even angels must obey Mary. “The holy angels obeyed their Queen and, visible only to her, stood in attendance” (Chapter 22, #762). 

The 17th-century French Roman Catholic priest, Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort, explained: “Mary has the authority over the angels and the blessed in Heaven … God has made her Queen of Heaven and Earth, leader of his armies, keeper of his treasure, dispenser of his graces, mediatrix on behalf of men, destroyer of his enemies …”  

Scripture knows nothing of such fanciful superstitions.

In reality, it was extremely unwise for Maria to pursue conversations with angels. She described “consulting about my doubts with the holy princes and angels, whom the Most High had appointed to direct this work of writing the history of our Queen” (Introduction, #8). “On many other occasions the prince Saint Michael informed me …” (#9). 

Consulting with angels, including one claiming to be Michael the archangel, invites spiritual deception. New Agers often consult with angels. The problem is that fallen angels are skilled at pretending to be someone else, while insisting they have nothing but good intentions. Once they gain a person’s trust, these deceptive angels direct people to place their full confidence in anyone but Christ and his sacrificial death on the cross.

After much dialogue with her invisible spirit guides, Maria expressed her supreme confidence in Mary. She wrote, “In thy hands do I place my salvation, O Mistress and Queen! Do thou take charge of it to the end; for thy desires are holy and powerful on account of the merits of thy most holy Son” (Chapter 19, #311).

The Holy Spirit has never led anyone to place their salvation in the hands of Mary. Such misplaced confidence can stem from conversations with entities who pretend to be holy angels or saints in Heaven. The Apostle John wrote, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1). 

Maria dearly wanted her fellow Spaniards to become fully devoted to Mary. She wrote, “would that all thy inhabitants unite in a burning devotion to the most holy Mary! How greatly would thy glory then shine forth! How much wouldst thou be enlightened! How valiantly wouldst thou then be protected and defended by this Queen” (Chapter 19, #306).

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John recorded many words of the Savior. Jesus never once directed his followers to rely upon Mary for assistance or protection. And in Jesus’ seven letters to seven churches in the Book of Revelation, there is not a single reference to Mary. Instead, Jesus addressed matters pertaining to salvation and genuine discipleship, as I explained in my 2014 CP op-ed, “What Would Jesus Say to Churches Today?” 

In comparing The Mystical City of God to Scripture, one points to Mary, and the other to Jesus. 

Did Mary dictate private messages to Maria, or was it a fallen angel claiming to be Mary who convinced Maria to willingly become a medium? It is not uncommon for a medium to go into a trance, “varying from light to deep, permitting spirits to control their mind.” “Throughout the 1620s Maria would repeatedly lapse into deep trances.” “The young Franciscan remained motionless and insensible for two or three hours. The ecstasy came along with levitation. She was elevated from the floor …”

Anthony William is known as the “Medical Medium.” He said, “Give the angels your true consent, and they will intervene.” As one psychic and metaphysical teacher stated: “You need to come from a place of open-heartedness, you need to be willing to ask…you need to be willing to receive the energies that will begin flowing to you.”

If a fallen angel deceived Maria of Agreda, how many other dictated messages or apparitions of Mary have also come from fallen angels? And what about devout Catholics who love Jesus, yet remain enthralled and enchanted by superstitions about Mary, even though such tales are found nowhere in Holy Scripture? Spiritual discernment is needed to see through the fog.

(I addressed a related topic 10 years ago in a CP op-ed titled, “Praying to the Departed Conjures Up Fallen Angels.”)

Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska. 

Yoga opens ‘demonic doors’ to ‘evil spirits,’ warns ex-psychic who became Christian

By Nicole Alcindor, CP Reporter

While some think of yoga as a form of exercise or a way to clear the mind, others view it as a “demonic door” that opens its practitioners to and oppression.

For former psychic-turned-Christian Jenn Nizza, yoga was once a ritualistic exercise she purposely used to connect to evil spirits. After leaving the occult and turning to Christ, Nizza is using her platform to speak out against the idea that yoga is simply all fun and innocent movements. 

“I used to do yoga ritualistically, and the meditation aspect really opened me up and helped me to receive communication from evil spirits,” Nizza detailed in an episode of Billy Hallowell’s “Playing With Fire” podcast. 

“Yoga is a Hindu spiritual practice and the word ‘yoga’ is rooted in Sanskrit. It means ‘to yoke to’ or ‘to unite with.’ And what they’re doing is … they have deliberate postures that are paying tribute, honor and worship to their false gods,” she explained.  

According to Nizza, Hinduism has “over 330 million false gods, which are demons, and they’re honoring them with these postures. That’s what yoga is, and it is not just stretching and breathing.” 

Nizza cited yoga as violating the biblical teaching in Exodus 23, which she summarized as commanding the faithful “not to worship any gods before our one true God” and “not to have any other gods before Him.” 

“You’re opening demonic doors by practicing yoga because those postures that you’re doing are worshiping other little ‘g’ gods; not the one true God, of course, but Hindu demons,” Nizza said. 

“The whole thing with the demonic spirits and in the Church and everything else, I think it seems that people either over-demonize or under-demonize,” Nizza added. “We’re not looking for a demon behind every corner. But we can’t be ignorant to the fact that they’re there and that there are practices that invite them and invoke them.”

“When you give the permission to do that and invite them into your space, you’re signing up for the consequences that follow. And that’s why the warning is so, so important.”

Nizza addressed Christians who believe yoga is merely a series of physical postures and harmless as long as there is no malicious intention. She advised them to read Jeremiah 17:9, which she summarized as stating, “The heart is deceptive.” 

“It’s not like you can take yoga and blast worship music and cry out to Jesus. Or you say you’re praying while you’re doing these exercises,” Nizza maintained. “People say to me, ‘Well, God knows my heart, God knows my heart.’ That’s right, and you should be concerned about that.”

“My friend Doreen said once, ‘You wouldn’t put Scripture on a Ouija board and think that it’s OK to do it.’ … This is a real spiritual practice and super deceiving, especially because it has infiltrated the Church. Many people in the Church, many churches, are supporting yoga. It’s very heartbreaking.” 

When someone practices yoga, they “open the door or sign up or give permission to demons to come into your space,” according to Nizza. She stressed that anyone who practices yoga “will be vulnerable to demonic oppression” and the variety of symptoms it causes.

Nizza listed many ways that demons can harm a person as a result of them practicing yoga.

“Anxiety, confusion, planting seeds of doubt, sickness sometimes even; they can actually affect your health. Again, as the Christian, spiritual confusion, spiritual vulnerability, not wanting to go to church or open your Bible, anything that will be leading you away from God, that’s what the battle is.” 

Demons, she said, intend to “get you away from God, get you into disobedience to God as well and then get you into sin,” adding: “It’s so, so dangerous to do that.” 

“And then of course, as a former psychic medium, when you go through … any form of New Age meditation, you’re opening yourself up to communication with demons as well, where maybe you’re hearing things or seeing things in your home, and you’re bringing that home with you. And my concern is for the soul of the person and also for their children, by the way, who you’re bringing that demonic oppression home to.”

Nicole Alcindor is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: nicole.alcindor@christianpost.com.

Atheism Exposed

“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”  I Cor. 2:14

There are literally millions of vast unknown worlds in this universe.  Each unknown world is a great reservoir of mystery which mortal man has never been able to tap. Since man’s knowledge of the universe is so limited, how then can the atheist dogmatically affirm that there is no God in the universe? The atheist does not really know there is no God, he merely assumes that God does not exist. Atheism then is an assumption held by those who are the victims of their own foolish pride.

Atheism is riddled with contradictions. One glaring example being that the atheists denounce and belittle the Christians for accepting God by faith. However, we must remember that atheism itself cannot be proven, it is merely a theory which the rejectors of God accept by —FAITH. Oddly enough, FAITH is the very thing atheists despise the Christians for using. “Oh, consistency, thou art indeed a rare jewel.”

THE EVIDENCE OF DESIGN

The atheist will not believe that this world offers a vast array of physical evidence proving the existence of God. Everything in this world which displays intelligence, order, and design is explained away by the atheist as being merely the work of nature. The laws and principles which govern this world is what man calls nature. The very fact that these laws and principles are of a remarkable order and intelligence, is proof that nature was brought into being by Supreme Intellect. If there is no intelligence guiding nature, then we must believe that all the complex and orderly designs, both in the animate and inanimate creation, owe their existence and beauty to a blind unreasoning force! One who believes that a creation can be brought into existence without intelligence directing it is denying reason and logic. Someone has said, the probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing shop.

The faulty reasoning of the atheist is made still more apparent when he confesses that rare ingenuity and intelligence is displayed in the invention of the radio, telephone, and car. If the inventions of man needed intelligence to bring them into existence, then surely a Higher Intelligence was needed to bring this great complex universe into existence.

The trillions of snowflakes which fall annually to the earth, when examined under a microscope clearly reveal that each snowflake is a thing of beauty. Science has never found two snowflakes 100% identical, though they may look alike in some ways, each one has its own sublime beauty and intricate design. Science New Letter of January 9, 1965, authenticates this fact by stating: “With innumerable variations of intricate patterns and shapes, no two snow crystals have yet been found alike throughout the world.”  In 2017 a study was completed that supported the fact as true, “No two snowflakes are completely identical” (Snopes). The artistic form and beauty of each snowflake thus reveals that there must be a Divine Artist who sculptures a different design for each falling snowflake. Truly the infinite resources of Almighty God are beyond the finite mind of man to fathom.

Animal instinct eloquently argues that there is indeed a God. The amazing eel, for instance, upon reaching maturity will migrate thousands of miles to reach her spawning ground in the Saragossa Sea, which is near Bermuda. Eels from as far away as Europe and North America make their way to these deep waters to spawn and die. The baby eels that are born here then make their way back across uncharted oceans to the very same shore, river, or inlet in which their parents live. Only a Divine Power could instill into these little creatures such an unerring and accurate direction impulse. Surely reason doth rear her head here and cry — GOD EXIST!

The hand of the Divine Artist can be clearly seen in the blushing flowers of the field which cast forth their scented fragrance. The color and delicate taste of the various fruits of the land truly reveal the goodness of God to man. To drink in the beauty and splendor of a summer sunset can bring thoughts that often lie too deep for tears. How beautiful and moving to behold the color and glory of autumn leaves when the bird is on the wing and waves farewell to summer’s dying day. Man can only stand in awe and wonder before the greatness and majesty of God’s creation. “Truly, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork.” Psalms 19:1.

The atheist boasts that no one can prove to him the existence of God. What the atheist fails to realize is that neither can you prove to a man born blind the fact that there is a moon in the sky. However, the moon does exist even though we cannot prove its existence to blind men. Likewise, God also exists even though we cannot prove his existence to atheists WHO ARE SPIRITUALLY BLIND! Truly, there are none so blind as those who WILL NOT see. The Scriptures tell the reason why the unbeliever rejects the existence of God. Read it for yourself in I Corinthians 2: 14: “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” The conclusion of the matter then is that God is his own interpreter and he alone can make it plain.

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT

The atheists and agnostics cling to the erroneous idea that a Christian does not really know there is a God. Saint Paul in Romans 8: 16 explodes this spurious notion when he declares: “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” We are informed here by Saint Paul that the Holy Spirit does give comfort and assurance to the believing heart. However, this witness of the Spirit is not given to the world, neither is it bestowed upon those who are Christians in name only. The witness of the Holy Spirit is given only to those who have completely surrendered their lives to Christ.

The Christian does not have to grope his way blindly through life merely hoping that there is a God. Any person who is willing to pay the price of total surrender to Christ will be given by the Holy Spirit the witness in his own heart that he truly belongs to the God of heaven.

Those who reject God have only an argument. The born again Christian, however, has a personal relationship with Christ, and the man with an experience is never at the mercy of the man with an argument.

God will prove himself to any person who will sincerely seek Him. Christ graciously extends to all men everywhere this invitation: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

F.W. Thomas

Pilgrim Tract Society

Your Choice

“Be a blessing or be a lesson to someone.

Source: church sign

The Tropical Arctic

Psalm 119:89

“Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.”

Both archaeology and the Bible suggest that the world was once quite different from the world we know today. Each agrees that the earth’s climate was once much more uniform than it is today.

At one time the tropics may have extended into what are today polar regions. However, the Bible and evolutionary geology don’t agree on how long ago that was. Bible-believing geologists, on the other hand, are reporting evidence to support the Bible’s story of history.

In the last few years scientists have been surprised to discover dinosaur fossils in Alaska. Dinosaurs need warm temperatures—warmer than Alaska was thought to have been. In 1986, on Canada’s Axel Heiberg Island, only 600 miles from the North Pole, scientists found a huge, dense forest. Some of the trees were well over 125 feet tall. They have been snapped off at the stump and are neither fossilized nor petrified, but remain as fresh wood. Even some of the leaves are still intact. The area was filled with spruce, hickory, dawn redwood and cypress trees and was evidently a swamp, since tropical turtle and alligator remains have also been found. Tree rings show that the area was warmer in the recent past, while the size of the rings tell us that there were short, hot summers during which rapid growth occurred, followed by long, dark winters as there are today.

The most interesting conclusion reached by the scientific team is that the entire region must have been subjected to a huge flood! This discovery tells us that all of geology must be restructured to present a history that agrees with the Bible’s story of the earth’s past.

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, I thank You that Your Word is true and trustworthy. Let my faith be more than a faith of words or simply comfort in bad times. Instruct me through the Bible so that my faith is a way of life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen. 

_____

REF: Search for a Tropical Arctic (Television documentary). 1990. Federal Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (Canada). Photo: Arctic fox in sunglasses by RJM Snapdragon from Pixabay.com  photo elements.

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The King Above King Charles III

While it costs us nothing to pray today to Christ our Savior, it costs us everything to coronate him our King. C. S. Lewis observed, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”

God’s word emphatically and consistently calls us to the complete commitment of our lives to our King:

  • “Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lᴏʀᴅ your God. . . . You shall be holy to me, for I the Lᴏʀᴅ am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine” (Leviticus 20:7, 26).
  • “Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1).
  • God is “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:12).
  • “Be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish” (2 Peter 3:14).

Such holiness in service to a holy King begins with our minds. As we noted yesterday, epigeneticists report that our thoughts and attitudes can lead to changes in gene expression that lead to tangible changes in our brains and, thus, our lives. As a result, we should say with Job: “I have made a covenant with my eyes” (Job 31:1). When we refuse to look upon or think about what is sinful, we will be less sinful.

To do this, pray every day: “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things” (Psalm 119:37). Then join God in answering your prayer: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2) through Bible study, prayer, worship, and communion with Christ.

Seek the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) through the discipline of your mind: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8, my emphasis). Then turn your mind into an altar upon which you pray today and every day for our nation and her leaders (1 Timothy 2:1–4).

Source: Dr. Jim Denison

Spinning at 1,040 Miles Per Hour

Our planet is spinning on its axis at 1,040 miles per hour. The earth is spinning around the sun at 66,600 mph. Our solar system is moving around the Milky Way galaxy at a rate of 558,000 mph. And the Milky Way is moving through the universe at 660,000 mph.

The King of the universe holds all of that in the same palm of his hand (cf. Isaiah 40:12) where he is holding onto you (John 10:28).

Are you holding onto him today?

Source: Dr. Jim Denison