Urgent prayer request…!!!

Can you please pray for my mother and father? My mother went to the doctor today to have a sore on her chest checked out. The preliminary diagnosis is stage 3 breast cancer. A biopsy is needed, but the probability of having a mastectomy done and chemotherapy afterwards is very high. Our family is praying very hard for God's healing, and we would like to ask for prayers from our spiritual family as well. My father on the other hand is having problems with his throat. There is a lump on one side, and he needs to have a CT scan to help with the diagnoses because the doctor isn't 100% sure what the problem is right now. Thanks in advance for your support…

Yours In Christ,
Tim

Our Emergent Church article is finally up on the website

I just wanted to add a quick post to let everyone know that the article we’ve been promising about the emergent church is finally up on our website. Please check it out when you get a chance. I think you will find it very educational to say the least.

After reading our article, you will definitely see why this movement is so dangerous, and hopefully it will equip you to recognize the errors of this so-called Christian church.

Pope grants indulgences for novena prayers for the Church in China

According to the Catholic News Agency, an article was printed on their website about the pope granting Catholics indulgences for novena prayers for the Church in China. While the recent earthquake in China is a tragedy, and our prayers are with the people of China, for the pope to entice Catholics with indulgences for their prayers is very disturbing to me.

In order to understand what is being offered here, we need to define some terms. A novena is defined in the Catholic Encyclopedia as nine days of private or public devotion in the Catholic Church to obtain special graces. In this case the prayers are to be directed to Mary, which is problematic in itself because we should not offer prayers to anyone but God. Setting that aside, what are indulgences and what purpose do they serve for the Catholic Church? In the article the following quote is made about indulgences, “The Catechism defines an indulgence as a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.”

The key to this phrase is “temporal punishment”, but from what? Purgatory is where the remission has its effectiveness for the Catholic. For those who don’t know…Purgatory is a Catholic belief where souls need to go for purification before they enter heaven. The time spent in this place can very, but the majority of Catholics must go there prior to entering heaven. This belief brings up a huge problem of the sufficiency of Christ’s atoning sacrifice for us on the cross, and how we need something extra done to us before our heavenly reward. For the Protestant, once we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, His blood covers us and is sufficient to wash away or purify us of all our sins (Hebrews 1:3 comes to mind).

The thing that I find most confusing about indulgences and the Roman Catholic Church is that if the pope has an unlimited deposit of indulgences available to him to remit temporal punishment in purgatory, why doesn’t he just give all Catholics a plenary indulgence (the remission of the entire temporal punishment due to sin so that no further expiation is required in Purgatory –source: Catholic Encyclopedia)? Instead, these indulgences are dangled in front of Catholics like a carrot in order to keep them under the submission of the pope. It’s very sad indeed to see this type of thing happen especially when Jesus Christ paid the price and purified us (who believe) of ALL our sins.

God’s Word is #1 in America

The Bible tops the list of America’s favorite books of all time. A very informative article that demonstrates to us that the bible is still the most favorite book of Americans today. It’s just a testament to the fact that the word of God prevails over all things, no matter what the topic is.

Although the article does talk about the other 9 books that were rated after the bible, it’s just a good feeling for me as a Christian that the bible is still in the hearts and minds of the American people.

The dangers of the Emergent Chruch…

We've been hearing more and more about the emergent church movement and the dangers that this new theology poses to Christianity today. Here is an article from christianpost.com about a recent Inter-Spirituality Day event. This article discusses some very serious concerns based on some talks given by Doug Pagitt and Rob Bell, who are well know emergent church proponents.

Ingrid Schlueter of Crosstalk Radio warned the public that emergent leaders Rob Bell of Mars Hill Bible Church and Doug Pagitt of Solomon's Porch would promote universalism. Others weren't surprised Bell and Pagitt joined the interfaith event. "They teach that you really can't understand the Bible, nor are you supposed to. Rather you need to experience it; it's not what God says, but how you feel about it; its content is to be received really subjectively or experientially." McMahon told OneNewsNow, adding that such teaching essentially rejects the authority of the Bible. "They believe that preaching or teaching Bible doctrines is too authoritarian, so they turn to conversation… about the Bible – and [in many emergent churches] that replaces teaching from the pulpit."

We are actually in the process of working on an article that will be posted on our website very soon, which will also address (in depth) the dangers of this movement. We want to make sure that everyone is aware of this group and their intentions as it pertains to the Christian faith. The emergent follower would like us to think that they are just trying to appeal to a younger crowd who has become disillusioned with the Church today. This may be true in one sense, but what we will bring out in the article is the truth about the gospel that the emergent church is preaching to their new converts. As you will discover, it is a far different message than what orthodox Christianity has been and is currently teaching. We believe that the gospel of the emergent church is a false and dangerous one that will only lead many to spiritual destruction. Please continue to visit our website and this blog site for more information about the posting of our emergent church article.

Kudos to a Southwest Florida Church for making a stand against Liberalism

If I was able to give out awards, I would have to say that Covenant Presbyterian Church in Fort Myers, Florida deserves one in a big way for their recent congregational vote to leave the PC(USA). This church was able to recognize the fact that liberalism was sneaking in the back door of their denominational organization.

The vote was 76% "for", and 24% "against" the departure. The only bad part in the whole decision was the fact that the 24% wanted to remain behind, while the 76% continued in their effort to leave and align themselves with the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church denomination.

The new church of Senior Pastor Bill Stephens, who led the effort to leave the PC(USA), is going to be known as New Hope Presbyterian Church. When asked about the move from the church he used to call home to his new one, Stephens said, "We will do it quietly and in a way that will honor Christ," according to The News-Press. Click here for the full article.

While it is sad to see a church divided, on this topic, it is also a good thing that the majority of people stood up for God's word, because they recognized that it would not survive in a liberal church. Liberalism has caused many good churches to become bad ones. Some churches are so worried about what society thinks, that they just throw God's word right out the window. Subjects like gay marriage, gay clergy, gender friendly terms and politically correct doctrines are just some of the things that have been debated (sometimes very heatedly) within the walls of our sanctuaries. Churches have tried so hard to cater to certain individuals or groups that they have lost sight of the Gospel message due to their twisting of scripture in order to suit their own needs.

If you would like to learn more about how liberalism is destroying our churches today, please go to our website to read about this topic. People tend to think that they can change God’s word to their own benefit, and that nobody will notice. Guess what?...God honoring people do notice. And whether you like it our not, God’s word will ALWAYS prevail.

Do good works save you…what did Jesus teach?

Do we need to do good works for salvation? That is a big question in some religious circles. Both Christian and Non-Christian groups alike teach that we need to do good works in order to obtain salvation.

The big question that we need to ask is, “Is this biblical or man-made?” So where do we need to go to find an answer to whether or not works are needed for salvation? The best source I believe is Jesus Christ Himself, and Matthew chapter 7 is where you will find His teaching on this topic. In this chapter Jesus is still preaching the Sermon on the Mount, and at verse 13 of this chapter Jesus starts to tell the people about the way to heaven (narrow is the gate…). He then goes on to tell the people to beware of false prophets who will come to deceive them into believing something else, and at verses 21 – 23 we find the following words of Jesus:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ Matt 7:21-23 (NASB)

Obviously, “on that day” is talking about the day when Jesus comes to judge us all, which will determine where we will spend eternity. Right before Jesus passes judgment, what does Jesus say the people will appeal to in order to show Him that they are worthy of a heavenly reward?...their good works. Jesus listed out a bunch of things that the people said they did in His name, and what was Jesus’ response to all of this? Did He say, “Well done, your heavenly reward awaits you”? No, Jesus told them to depart from Him because doing those things isn’t what saves you. Only our relationship with Christ, our acceptance of Him as Savior and our obedience to Him will matter. No faith in an organization or denomination will save you...it's only our faith in Jesus Christ that will save you.

New Blog Page

Hello all. Since everyone else seems to have their own blog page, I thought that I might give this a try. Right now, I will just be posting observations, thoughts, etc on what I see happening in the world today (through the internet and other sources) from a Christian point of view. Topical subjects as well as issues within Christianity will be discussed. The comments section will be turned off for the time being until I see how this goes, but I hope that what I post is informative to all. I will also use this blog site to announce new content on our website (www.truth4christ.com) just in case you visit this blog site more than our main website. Keep coming back for new content, or subscribe to this RSS feed.

- Tim