His Earth, His Universe vs. the Big Bang

You can’t even attempt to find out God’s work. Imagine it. The creator of all things, creates a void, shapes it, defines it, gives it characteristics,  distinct, precise rules; the universe must obey his will. 

The professors and teachers of evolution. Atheism and paganism will discredit anyone who believes this.  And they will sound right most of the time because of uneducated Christians surrounding this topic of creation vs. Evolution.

Ecclesiastes 8:17  Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

Psalms 40:5  Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

There are literally only 4 real possibilities of how the universe came to be.  One, it came from nothing accidentally which can be proven to be non scientific; Two, it has always been here which can be proven to be non scientific; Three, it is not here, it is an illusion which can be proven to be non scientific; and fourthly, it all came from nothing supernaturally. Which one will you base your soul on? Do you really believe a Big Bang created order?  

As the earth revolves at a staggering speed of 108,000 kilo per hour, it also revolves on it’s axis every 24 hours.  It’s unbelievably amazing!  And we are supposed to believe that the laws of gravity and these facts just came to be from a cosmic explosion? 

"The sword of the Lord is filled with blood"

As a believer, I can't stand it when man is praised so highly.  When man is esteemed so great, it turns my stomach. I can't wait until the Lord is properly glorified. Before this happens, he will have to have his DAY. The Lord says, “Behold, I, [even] I, will bring a sword upon you,”.  God Almighty says,  “When I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at [every] moment”. 

He says, “For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea”.  The Lord proclaims, “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth [in] righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.”

This is not the baby Jesus in the manger. This is not the loving Lord giving the beatitudes or the great commission.  This is not the kind, compassionate teacher that believers have come to know as their Lord and savior. This side of God is more liken to a roaring lion.

One day, maybe long from now, or maybe on the imminent horizon, the whole world will partake in  an event. I think every eye will see it happening in some capacity around the globe.  It will affect the physical characteristics of our globe if not already affected by present or coming tribulation.   

There will be no conspiracy to hide it, it will be too big.  It won’t be a ufo, or an alien from outer space.  It won’t be a earth killing meteor that heralds the end of the world.  It will be a King on a white horse with a massive army behind him.  

This King, soon coming, is Jesus Christ. It’s often been said by preachers and theologians of Jesus Christ, “The first time he came to earth he came as a lamb, the second time he comes to earth he comes as a lion”.  This is true but it doesn’t even begin to describe that event.  In fact, the word of God is very descriptive about the 2nd Advent and the demeanor of the Lord Jesus Christ at this point.  He is a man of war at this point and he is furious. 

Exodus 15:3 The LORD [is] a man of war: the LORD [is] his name.

When All the Multitude Kept Silent

Acts 15 was and is one of the most important chapters in the word of God.  You have to understand what has just taken place.  The multitude has always played it’s role, for good or evil.  They have always had something to say.  

The multitudes are different today.  Then, they flocked to the Lord on His time here on earth.  They marveled at his doctrine and miracles.  Jesus had compassion on the multitudes.  They also came with Judas to betray Him, as well as wanting Barrabas to go free to see Christ crucified.  The multitude always had those who believed, and those who did not (Acts 28:24 And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.) 

The multitude or masses controlled politicians and religious leaders of their times, the same way they do today.  Why do politics change their politics?  The multitudes. But Acts 15 was the game changer. Acts 15 was what the Pharisees, Sadducees and Chief Priest were trying to quell when the Lord was killed and when the Acts of the Apostles began.  

If it helps, think of it as a uprising or a revolution. There are many references to a new way.  A new doctrine, a new commandment, a new testament. Remember the accusation of Jason, they turned the world upside down.  They would lie, cheat, discredit, and do whatever they could to stop men saying such things as; Neither is their salvation in any other. For there is none other name, under heaven given among men whereby we MUST be saved! (Acts 4:12)  

It was a paradigm shift.  Nearly 4,000 years of hardcore, Jewish tradition, customs, religious culture, and even the “God honored” priesthood was now rendered obsolete.  The temple, the veil that was rent, the altar, the incense, and the “holy things” were no longer the standard of worship.   

With this, many of the religious leader’s seats, leadership and positions were now suddenly being threatened and brought into in question. But something happen in Acts 15 immediately after Peter proclaimed the “Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”. The very next verse is one of the most important verses in the bible in my opinion. 

"Respect!!!" The Lord's Sun

I like to hear men debate about things like the sun, the moon, the stars, black holes, a exploding super nova, gigantic gas planets.  

All this knowledge they have of them, when in reality, it is all hypothesis, conjecture and calculations.  They have no idea what these things are.  They talk as if they witness these events and they can actually see black holes.  They are invisible.  They can only guess at characteristics.  They have no idea!

And we think we have creation, the cosmos, and wonders in space figured out?  How do these men with the knowledge of all these scientifically proven facts not fall prostrate in realization that they are WAY out of their league?

What keeps the Sun from blowing this solar system into oblivion?  I know what evolution teaches, but who really buys that conjecture at this stage? There is a scientific term called “solar constant” used by scientist for the last hundred years.  What it means is the variableness of the suns solar energy, the fact that it is constant and never changing . It baffles scientist even today!  You know why?  Because it was God who made the worlds, not a sonic explosion.

Hebrews 1:1  God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 

2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 

3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

How does the Sun stay together? Its not gravity. There is no gravity present.  It’s literally blown away.  A chaotic big bang could not have produced something so orderly and unchanging, or un-evolving.  A Big Bang theory is against the very law of thermodynamics.

Scientist have studied the variableness  and factors of the sun for years.  With the sun, there is NO ROOM for ERROR.  If there was not a solar constant, and the sun varied in any of the many factors that scientist, physicist and biochemist have studied and calculated with extreme mathematics, quantum physics, that life would cease to exist. 

These following variables, which are also scientific facts, are necessary, or life would cease to exist on this plant that God created.

Witness!

The system of stars through out the garments of the universe may be millions of  years old with the Gap theory at the center of that debate, but human civilization from Adam to our days beyond the year 2000 AD is approx. 6,000+ years.  

The constellations were meant for man and their uses, set in their courses, for times, and seasons, but not for their devotion, inordinate observations, and worship.    That has been the outcome of the depravity of man.  In their heart, they rejected God and concocted fables and legends, while claiming the Bible is fable and legend.

Jerusalem's and Egypt’s location were not mistakes but by the grand design of God.  They were by purpose and providence, perhaps the two most notable cities in the world. Human civilization began there. Much can be learned of the skies in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.  

Canaanite, Assyrians, (Jews and Gentiles) have worship demi-gods, constellations, gods, and stars since before the Law was given to Moses. In Genesis 6, the sons of God  and the daughters of men, the tower of Babel and much more shows us these truths.  Through idolatry, they set up images, alters, groves, monuments, high places and  images.  They set up images of stars, planets and such things of gold and silver, and worshipped them.  Kings, and Judges of Israel, and Gentile Nations all partook. 

Since before, 2 Kings 11, and 21 (23:11) (Solomon and Manasseh) men have worshipped stars.  Babylonians, Kabbalist, and Pagans have carried it on. Sabeism - Worship of the Stars.  Philosophers believe that our actions are determined upon the stars. Or the gods.  Many Philosophers thought the stars and ruling constellations demanded mans sway and this became their way of rejecting God Almighty.

Street Preaching Must be Redefined by the Local Churches

The Superbowl, the U.S. Open, the World Series, the Daytona 500, Mardi Gras, Gasparilla, Movie Openings,  Spring Break events, 4th of July events, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, you name it; Seems all the street preachers are actually going to these sort of scheduled attractions, parades and festivals. To go out of our way with God’s money to go to a large group of sinners that have no interest in our Savior and are purposefully meeting for sinful reasons may fall under the category of laboring in vain. Don't cast me out yet. Here is my reasoning.

The Laodicean Church Age is agreed upon by most prominent scholars to have began in the late 1800’s or early part of the 1900’s.  This coincides with the first per-version of the word of God in the Revised Version 1881.  Soon after, you start seeing a strain of apostasy.  The shift no longer is consecrated devotion to the Lord, and edifying the church.  It starts to transform to “evangelistic”, Kingdom building, techniques that emphasizes reaching the masses, planned revivals, and inventing a whole new way of doing missions.

Righteousness is not accepted collectively as a nation as it was in the Philadelphian church age.  Holiness is no longer practiced in the government and education systems as it was in the “old days”.  This is the age of apostasy.  It’s a different age.  As much as I or others would love to live in the 1800’s,  or the 1920’2 or the glorious 1950’s, we can’t and we don’t. 

Many outreach minded pastors consider it a full tilt fight, no matter how the world changes, the old time ways continue.  These big events where we tract bomb and street rant, how can sinners decipher his drawing or calling among 50,000 people. 

We think because we live in America and have our rights (Laodicea) that this is our beloved, Puritan Christian nation of old.  It is not any longer.  America is a after thought to God at this point.  Politics, corruption, corporate greed, our school systems, abortions, vanity, materialism, debt, kids killing kids, love of money, crime, extortion, the poor, the fatherless, the degenerate, the proliferate, divorce rates, theft, atheism, sodomy, lawlessness, lasciviousness.  Who are we kidding.  We are another nation that turned on God, like Israel.

What if?

Recently a family member whom I respect and love deeply approached me with a barrage of questions as to why I believed a certain way.  They were informed I was way off the tracks by someone else. 

I can usually handle myself in situations like that but these were delicate matters, family was involved and I didn’t have all the answers.  I also didn’t want to have the appearance as someone who could thrash them with scriptures.  They just seemed so shocked and genuinely hurt with my change of core beliefs.  They even asked about my finances in regards to my giving during this discussion.

I pretty much summed it up by saying to him that after examining things for many years, I just can’t blindly give to men I don’t know, respect, align with or understand. I can’t just go, “Well, God just told me to give to the work so here you go”.  I’m against that mindset. It’s foolishness to me.  It lines up more with the OT philosophies of physical blessings because of offerings. We don’t give to receive any blessings! We give today selflessly, to recieve nothing in return. 

Now, months later, in retrospect, I guess I would say to them, “I just view the church drastically different than you.  I don’t buy in to the nonsense in it.” It's formulas and modern day programs, gimmicks and contemporary styles. It’s not about being disillusioned either!  It’s about waking up to the blatant reproaches! Many fail to acknowledge or examine the symptoms of these reproaches because of the work of the ministry. 

It is so much more than the giving principles and following commissions! How long can we listen to pragmatic teachings and traditions over and over and over? I see so much of “the machine” in our doings, in all of it now that I fear that the best of the independent local churches are now average traditionalist churches, whether they realize it or not!  Just an observation.  Just an onlooker.

The Devil, that Old Serpent ~ Who and What he is.

The only reason for this study, the only one of it’s kind on this site, is for the purpose of the engaged Christian, the true believer, to know respectfully the  greatest enemy of the world, saved sinners and lost sinners.  He is also the source of many, if not all, the perils, snares, traps, and sins in the world.

People don’t know who he is. They look to stories, traditions, paintings, illustrations, folklore, mythology, legend, myth, and many other tales that all had their parts in distorting the truth behind the “Accuser of the Brethren”.  That people trust an idea, representation, or interpretation of the devil and not the word of God is beyond me. The Bible has MUCH to say of our foe.

Today, the Devil has many names, with some examples being, Satan, Devil, Beelzebub, Belial, Adversary, the accuser, the deceiver, Dragon, Serpent, King of Babylon, Little Horn, the king of fierce countenance, the wilful king, the man of sin, the son of perdition,, that wicked, and Judas Iscariot.  He is called by one or the other of these names 174 times in the scriptures.

He is called “the Devil, that old Serpent”  Peter the apostle tells us to Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, WALKETH ABOUT, seeking whom he may devour.

Thou [art] the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee [so]: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou [wast] perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. Ezekiel 28:14-15

He is our adversary. Our enemy.  The word of God is very descriptive of the deceptive one, the “accuser of the brethren”.  Unfortunately, many people get there beliefs and stories of “the Devil” from other literary arts, works and ideas then that of the Bible.  Because of this, you have a mash of what he truly is.  That is how he wants it.  For people to be deceived about him and who he is and what he is capable of.

Many, even professing Christians, believe in some deluded nonsense of a mystical, pre earth, “civil war” fought in heaven between the 1/3 of the angels with Satan in rebellion against God and his angels where the story dictates that Satan and his angels are cast out of heaven to earth. 

This has been a commonly accepted teaching that is derived largely from John Milton’s  book, “Paradise Lost” (1667), which describes Satan and his angels having been cast out of Heaven in or around the time of Adam and Eve. 

Ideology Through Phrasing

There are dangerous Fundamental Philosophies and Quips that have been used from one generation to the next.  We preach certain things because they sound good, and often fall into line with the Fundamental way of thinking.  These things commonly used in hit in pulpits are not sound doctrine, and do not usually mean what we try to make them mean.

Some of these are used to allow us our own liberties in preaching on anything and anyone we want.  In fact today, much of our preaching we hear is just men talking about things that anger them, or some pet hobby horse.  

Very little edification.  We thrash the cults when they quote half verses or segments of verses for some supposed doctrinal truth, but we, like any other denomination have fallen into the same snare.  We do the same thing in the pulpits, and the streets!

You may have heard men say, “Good preaching is not always good doctrine, and good doctrine is not always good preaching.” I understand what this is meant to be, some doctrines are rough, and definitely not crowd pleasers, but our preaching should always reflect our doctrine!  You can’t truly preach truth unless you are being distinctive in your doctrine.

We have preached these things so much, that these things, sometime ideologies, are now our positions.  Then, we find the scripture to back it up after are position is already stated. The scriptures should be our position first, not phrases.  Here are just some examples;

Independent but not Individual

Christians, there is such a thing as individualism.  With individualism comes preference, convictions, and standards.  They are all different things in and of themselves.  Some men may be convicted about drinking to much coffee, and for them, they feel God would have them to stop.  It does not make it wrong for all men to drink it.  Thank God for that cause I love it.

Some men prefer reading, some prefer watching.  Some write, some speak. Some prefer coaching some prefer playing.  Some men teach, others preach.  Some like sugar some like cream.  Some like salt some like pepper.  Concerning the body of Christ, there is much more underlined stuff there.  It has to do with gifts and how they can be used.  It may have to do with culture and where some were raised.  

You have to wonder what we are doing to our own body when we so hastily cast the heretics, and people struggling out. Especially when we consider that we should be the very ones restoring, admonishing, and encouraging them.  We should be the ones with patience.  Even with the dirty and simple minded.  In the NT, the body of Christ can have church and order exactly how they see it laid out in the word itself.  And it is not like we see in the modern vision.

Most of my past doubt in affairs, angst and frustrations of the church stem from actions of men, not God. I never fully believed certain traditions of men in the Baptist ranks, though I may have preached them for righteous indignation, peer pressure, amens and support or to fit in, I still wondered about our attitudes and thoughts for others not like us.  

I wonder about the crazy guy that was invited by a zealous member.  Most are afraid of those types, I love them.  I wonder about the scantily clad young girl.  Most men are afraid to even approach her for fear of what the brethren or their wife might say, but that is the one that I want to reach.  She doesn’t know any better, she is just worldly.  They shouldn’t shock us or scare us. 

Preaching the Gospel of Christ Without Charge

Making increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love.  This is how the body is increased, by edifying itself. Like the living organism it is.  It doesn’t need money.  I understand it’s necessary uses and things like that, but money has become way to centralized in our manners and serivces at this point.  

Edification; it’s how the body, the working organism is established to work. Not preaching for money to build churches and ministries gallore and making the gospel of Christ with charge, but allowing money to flow through the body like blood flows through our veins, working where there is a need.  Not where needs are created.

Not just all the funds going to every ministry or minister under the sun.  Not just all the funds going specifically to just the men in position.    Not most of our money going abroad to men we don’t know, blindly casting our pearls before swine.  I bet you have never thought of that phrase the other way? These sorts of things that we do today, they were never practiced in the NT! Why do we do it today?

Churches today take up thousands, most going abroad, about 80-20.  I think it should be exactly opposite.  The local body and their needs 80, the foreign field, 20.  I know I know, "string em up! he is anti-missions..."

The Wild Bunch ~ A Testimony of a Baptist with Independent Tendencies

Personally, for me, it was in fact a Independent Baptist man that led me to God and the saving power of his Son Jesus Christ. It was a Independent Baptist that showed me a clear presentation. It was the Independent Baptist that showed me the gospel to where I clearly understood it and grasped it’s significance.  The Independent Baptist taught me and showed me the truth and infallibility of the King James Bible.  

On a practical note, an Independent Baptist preacher taught me the invaluable definitions of balance.  An Independent Baptist showed me the importance of individual liberty.  I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for all the Independents Baptist in the sense of the truth and certain positions they have maintained for decades. The wars they have fought and the battles they have won, yeah, I can claim their name to certain extents, knowing their true history.  And I am proud for it.  

I remember being introduced to the first “real” Christian men I ever met.  They were men in a small Independent Baptist Church, 50-70 strong.  An eager bunch to say the least.  All sermons where edifying, instructive and admonishing.  The teaching was verse by verse. About 7 guys in all were all allowed opportunities to preach from time to time, very rare among pastors today to be so selfless with their pulpit.  The song leader was a charismatic man that loved the old time hymns, thank God I was exposed to true song and worship at infancy in salvation so I did not carried up in praise music and charasmania. 

The Independent Baptist were also the first REAL Christians I think I ever met outside of my own family.  It was the first evidence of real Christianity that I ever saw in my entire life.  I was 16 at the time.  I had also grown up my entire life in the Bible belt town of Columbia, SC.  Pastors would kick me, the skateboarder off the steps of their church, but never tried to build dialogue or relay the gospel to me.

These men loved God sincerely and genuinely, those dear people, they loved that old book.  They loved preaching and many of those men to this day still do.  They loved singing and fellow-shipping.  I mean, clean stuff.  Hymns, no mumbo jumbo, just classic old songs from the 17 and 18th century. Get togethers and such, BBQs, just hanging out with like minded decent people. Laughter, love, joy, peace, times of my life I wanted never to end. 

"Hi, can I give you something to read please?"

Here I go with another flip side observation.  “Oh you are just picking all the things that used to believe in and do and preaching against them now?” Well, thats not really the case but if you want to believe that what do I care. Sorry!  

I can’t help it.  It’s just my makeup I guess.  It is my knack to teach doctrine through disproving traditions and many human elements that have slipped in under the radar into our ways of service and worship.

Now, lets all get together and go pass out some tracts.  Have you ever heard or participated in such events with your church? There is a danger with such things as gospel tracts, tract blitzes and track bombings.  

I’m not opposed to tracts, but there is the danger of people handing out a million papers to a million people and never opening their mouth to actually witness.  I have seen tracts evolve from a form of opening conversation to more of a “just read this and God bless” and many go on there merry way with their conscience appease that they did something for God. It’s all very Catholic of us isn’t it.  The same as a confessional crutch.  I know people who feel miserable about themselves unless they fulfill some daily or weekly quota. 

In large groups, public outreach operations, especially amongst youth groups there is  this tendency to “one-up” the other that leads more to one becoming a nuisance more than a testimony.  I have seen this hundreds of times in several different places.  Gospel tracts used in such manners turn in to gospel trash.   

A Convoluted Commission

The fact remains is that men have long made it a practice to use the word, and I cannot stress enough how serious I mean to say, “use the word of God” for private agendas and to further their private kingdoms.  For the common good or whatever lies they have to tell themselves these days, many just continue on, examining others, never examining themselves.  Men will privately interpret passages for private reasons.  It is a common practice displayed among decent and devious men  alike and has been in the works since the time of Christ. 

Missionaries and preachers have long claimed unfounded and loose interpretive callings for ministerial nonsense and money grabbing shakedowns by way of using the Great Commission. They have long found, as the definition of commission states, their doings, performing, perpetuating, sending, act of entrusting, duty; and it is now their proper authority and warrant for exercising certain powers, administrations, and duties in the Great Commission passages.  

These passages in the gospels have been used for centuries to solicit services and funds from among Christian bodies.  Sure their is gain, but no one ever discusses the other spectrums of disorder. To use these passages to solicit service, or even funds and offerings is unscriptural and dangerously close to adding to his word.  

In many cases now, I can only see it as defraudation or using guile and gimmicks to obtain an desired affect.  By applying a teaching or doctrine to these scriptures, then saying they are directly for the body of Christ is adding to the doctrinal position of the passage.  To do so, one must ignore the scriptural integrity of Gods book.  There is a very specific reason for men to deny that there is any disorder.

You will see variations of this in every evangelistic, Baptist church you can find. It is the big idea that is fully entrenched in well fortified Baptist traditions and preserved by some mafia like omerta! It is why there is never a real discussion or theological sit down over it.  Men will look at you like a two headed dragon just for suggesting this may be an off base position. They act this way because the great commission is the prominent “big idea” that many Fundamentalist, and Evangelical, Bible Believing Christians have in their minds for the reasons for doing much of what they do.  Who would ever dare question it right?

The Purpose of the Church

Before I talk about this one, let me say that I feel uncomfortable doing so. Maybe I am just going through some weird transitional phase in all of my doctrinal thinking and processing.  But the whole point of  "silent platform" is to have a place to talk about such things.   

What is the purpose of the church?  Well, I have been told emphatically numerous times the answer to this; I just have yet to find the scriptural support to back it up as emphatically as others.  Maybe it is my error.  Maybe I am in the wrong here on this topic.  

"The purpose of the church is to win souls".  "The purpose of the church it to win the lost to Christ".  This all sounds good! This all sounds right doesn't it.  What Christian would hear this statement in a public setting and disagree?  Maybe 1 out of 100, maybe more, maybe less?  Look, I don't disagree with leading a man to the Lord Jesus Christ in the least, but is it the sole purpose of the body of Christ?

I used to think this way. But is this really our purpose?  The church, the body of Christ, the assembly of brethren, what is the purpose for existence?  In the Pauline Epistles, it is much more about building a working body then saving the world.  I know how that sounds to most Christians, and I know how hard it is for some of you to hear that but this is extremely important to understand.  

I am to the point of seeing this so strongly now I don’t understand how people can not see as much as they claim to read.  Its about giving him Glory.  So do we witness to the lost?  Of course.  It is a role we can all play in adding to the body of Christ, but it is not our sole reason for being.  

The body IS comprised of all people who were all at one point lost.  I say that to say again, of course I believe in winning the lost!  What Christian doesn’t want to see others have what they found in Christ?  It should be natural.  You truly don’t understand it until you are in HIM.  

"What if it's the Pastor that is the Heretic?"

Heretic~A person under any religion, but particularly the christian, who holds and teaches opinions repugnant to the established faith, or that which is made the standard of orthodoxy. In strictness, among christians, a person who holds and avows religious opinions contrary to the doctrines of Scripture, the only rule of faith and practice.

I listed this definition to prove a point.  The established faith is in the word of God.  It’s in Paul’s gospel.  The gospel of the grace of God was revealed to him.  The inner workings and administrations were revealed to Paul from Christ. It was by the order of Christ. If we operate outside that umbrella, we are heretic’s are we not?  If we hold and teach opinion contrary to the established faith, the faith Paul, Peter, Jude, and James wrote of, we are heretics!

Titus 3:10~A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;

When most people think of withdrawing from heretics, or others, it is usually because of false doctrine, perversions of the gospel message, gross sin, or many other unruly things. But sometimes, believers must withdraw for other reasons.  When most think of heretics they have a picture in their mind but they would never think their own pastors, or those they run with as heretics.

For reasons that may be more apparent than you may think.  What if men lie and speak not the truth? Are we not to withdraw them?  We have every right according to scriptures to withdraw and separate from men who hold not to the Pauline Epistles, and the gospel, doctrine, tradition, and commandments found therein. We have every right to depart from disorderly men.  Let them know you love them, pray for them, and walk on.  Why is this so difficult for us.

"Unto Repentance" and "Unto Salvation"

The phrase John the Baptist used is, “unto repentance” and you only see this phrase show up one other place in the word of God and it is dealing directly with a Jew living in a future tribulation which is followed by a Kingdom reign that has the Lord Jesus Christ reigning a thousand years on Earth, with Israel as the apple of his eye.

If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.  Hebrews 6:6 

It is vital to note that Paul never used the phrase “unto repentance”.  It’s always “unto salvation” with him!  These defining and separating phrase, “unto repentance and “unto salvation” are important to noticing the distinction. Here are some examples of “unto salvation”.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:9-10

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:16

Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:5

It is simply not the same message or associated with the same gospel.  Paul’s gospel and the gospel preached in the Gospels are just as separate as the law and grace, though both are concerning Christ. The gospel preached in the gospels was a gospel of repentance.  It was unto repentance.  The one that Believers preach is the gospel of grace, the one that Paul taught the collective Christian body of his day.

Repent or Die!

Before I get started on this hot button issue among Baptist preachers, teachers and theologians, let me say 2 things to establish somethings.  One, as respectfully as I can say it, I don’t care what C.H. Spurgeon or any other Church fore father said on this issue about repentance being essential or necessary for salvation. He ain’t the Pope man! 

I don’t know him.  He is not my friend, nor any other dead men from his era.  I have no loyalty to him, so I don’t hang my hat on what he or any other man say.  He is not my church father on this issue of repentance and neither are you pastors out there preaching it to strongly! You men can take the great Baptist positional quotes you use to bolster your positions all you want.  The matter is, “What saith the Lord?” We will look closely at it.

Secondly, No man living today should be acting or mimicking any way shape or form actions or even messages of Ezekiel, John the Baptist, or in some cases, Jesus Christ himself.  Yes, even Jesus.  Some of you don’t believe that. No man alive today standing behind any pulpit or on a street corner should be preaching like the prophets or focusing on certain things that the prophets focused on. 

This repentance theology, that has creeped in, is also bordering on the edge of a heresy, called “sinless perfection”.  Say a man repents of all their sins believing in the Lord as a preacher would tell them and as many preach but then what happens when they return to their sins?  

Now some would say here, “Oh, you know what we mean, and we don’t really believe that they need to repent of ALL their sins…”.  Then cut it out and quit saying it.  Quit preaching it so incessantly. If you have to defend your position constantly, it may not be attacks from the brethren, it may be God trying to show you something.  This repentance position is weak.

Quit trying to fool yourself and your people into thinking you have some mystical, mythical higher calling then them to tell the world and the people around you to repent of all their transgressions and abominations.  

Why I Don't Support Faith Promise Missions Giving

If I would title this anything it would be “Faith Promise Missions Giving”

Philosophy and traditions starving the Body of Christ at home to win the lost abroad

“Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord Deceitfully...!”

I can say with absolute surety, that giving in the word of God is intertwined with early and modern day Christianity in the NT. Let it be emphatically stated that giving is not in question whatsoever.  What I am examining is our methods and principles of giving.

Faith Promise has become so wrapped in Fundamentalism, and such a part of church traditions, if supporters of it were not making it a mandate or doctrine of the local church, the fuss would be minimal.  But this is not the case!  

I am straining at this gnat because people have made this “gnat” doctrine!  And they are nothing more then works and ideas of men. They say they are not forcing any one to give, but they say things like “we don’t require you to practice it but all our members do it”.  It is the join or die mentality.  And this is why I choose to deal with such a dividing topic!

It has been chronicled in A.B. Simpson and the Pentecostal Movement:, by Charles W. Nienkirchen that A.B. Simpson, the man with the original idea of “faith promise giving” was a full blown Pentecostal, which explains the hold they have on the Christian Missionary Alliance today. He also largely emphasized world wide evangelism in his preaching.  

Because of his influence and is fund raising prowess, many Nazarene churches, Church of God churches and Pentecostal churches today use “faith promise giving” largely in their missions giving techniques as equally and as long as Baptist churches have.  We all use the same phrasing, handouts, teachings, Faith Promise cards, etc. So how Independent are we really?

Questioning Commissions Not Commitments ~ Part 1

What is the Great Commission?  What do those words mean? What do they mean to you?   What do those words mean to the body of Christ? Where did the term come from? What does it typically mean to the masses in the modern churches today?  Is the Great Commission to be commanded? Is it to be mandated? Is it to be revered and used as much as we do as a collective body?    

The Great Commission is generally believed to be, according to many “one of the most significant passages in the Holy Bible. First, it's the last recorded personal instruction given by Jesus to His disciples. Second, it's a special calling from Jesus Christ to all His followers to take specific action while on this earth.” This position is highly and widely regarded among the local churches.  “A special calling from Jesus?”

The “Great Commission”, though not a specific Bible phrase, is a phrase that Christians have long used to describe certain things found in select portions of the word of God.  The word “commission” shows up once in Acts 26:12 and it was a commission of death and imprisonment.  That is interesting to say the least.  

That commission was Paul’s “commission” to waste the church, quite literally. His commission produced waste.  The only connotation in the word of God regarding the word “commission” involves death, lawlessness, unrighteousness, terror, fear, and panic, to imprison and deliver unto death those who believe in the “new way”.  Paul’s commission was to waste the body. The chief priests had authority and a commission, too.  They gave it to Paul to carry out, and he received it.

In the case the of the synoptic gospels, these passages are where many men see their special, selective calling, mandate, charge or order for their ministries and they call the passages “the Great Commission”.  Many men believe this message to be directly relevant and absolutely connected to our preaching, outreach, worship, and how we conduct our service styles today in Christianity.