I'm Sorry...

I'm sorry I haven't written much lately. I have been very busy. When I'm not helping my dad with his plumbing business, I am helping edit a commentary that will be out next year on Colossians from Baylor University Press. This is the volume on 1-3 John.

As a result, not only am I editing the manuscript, but I am having to teach myself Greek because the Greek knowledge required for this project is a bit beyond what I was taught in seminary.

Wayne Mack's Website & Blog

I was blessed by the writing ministry of Wayne Mack while in seminary (I read his Introduction to Biblical Counseling, Your Family God's Way and two of his homework manuals) and therefore, I wanted to make his website, webstore and blog known.

The reason I thought to post it here is because I wanted to help their ministry flourish by making it known, even if it is in this small way. I also wanted to help them by letting you know that a portion of the proceeds that come when you buy from their webstore go to support the Mack's who left the U.S. to become missionaries in South Africa.

The Gospel Coalition Conference

There is a conference going on in Chicago called The Gospel Coalition with such main speakers as D.A. Carson, Tim Killer and John Piper, and many others (for example, Ray Ortlund, Graham Cole, Phil Ryken, Mike Bullmore, Mark Driscoll and Ligon Duncan) in the workshops.

If you're interested in the audio, which I am, I think it will be available here and it should be free.

21% of American Muslims...

..., out of an estimated 2.35 million, believe homicide bombings against civilians are OK to "defend Islam" while "5% of [all] Muslim Americans express even somewhat favorable opinions of al Qaeda."

Those statistics can often pass by without impact. I thought 21% was kind of high, that is until I did the math. For the sake of clarity, 21% of 2.35 million is 493,500 and 5% is 117,500!

The Pew Research Center poll also writes that Muslims under 30 are "much more religiously observant and more accepting of Islamic extremism than are older Muslim Americans."

Don't believe me? Click here to read the Fox News article and here to read the full report, which is less alarming than the two important statistics above.

Interestingly, the Fox News article gave the percentage as 26% who think homicide bombing of civilians is OK while I only counted 21% after adding the percentages from the textbox on page 6 of the report found at the Pew website. I don't know where they got that number, so one of us is wrong by 5% (or 493,500 vs. 611,000 Muslims), but I just can't figure out who.

A Mormon & An Evangelical in Conversation

I went to an event at Mariners Church in Newport Beach last night called Conversation: A Mormon/Evangelical Dialogue, and need to mention it here.

Rev. Greg Johnson, evangelical pastor in Utah, and Dr. Bob Millet, BYU professor of Ancient Scriptures, were very clear that this was NOT a debate, but a dialog for the purpose of getting to know each other -- they called it "convicted civility," which is people with convictions being civil and compassionate with each other. These two have developed a friendship over the past 10 years and this was the 50th time they'd done one of these dialogs together before a group.

At the beginning they stressed that before telling someone they're wrong, it is imperative you know exactly what that person believes -- this means studying the publications of your "opponent," really listening and trying to understand them when they talk so that you don't misrepresent them in any way.

All of this is meant to fall under the rubric of loving your neighbor and loving your enemy -- no matter who you're talking with you have to love them. The idea behind the event is that evangelicals and mormons can talk about the similarities and differences between their respective systems without getting belligerent.

First, let me relay the positive. I agree with all of their goals.

For over a year, I used to talk to unbelievers every Friday night at Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade, and my goal was to be communicate the gospel clearly AND compassionately. Now, this was my goal, but I did not always accomplish it. I messed up many times, either being unclear or being too harsh.

However, more often than not I had Christians and unbelievers tell me that I was both clear and kind, with many unbelievers coming every week to talk to me, and one even calling me and asking me if I could come out.

I don't say this to "toot my own horn" but to say this, while I was friends with these unbelievers and we always left shaking each other's hands, I did not water down sin and hell and that they'd be there if they rejected Christ.

This leads me to my difficulty with last night. I purposely didn't write about this last night because I wanted to sit on it for 24 hours. After doing so, I have to say I do not believe Johnson or Millet when both of them says their goal is friendship and not evangelism.

If love is the goal than keeping the gospel from a person for the sake of friendship is not friendly, but an unloving sin called the fear of man. The most unfriendly, unloving thing I can do is not try to evangelize unbelievers.

I have no problem with dialog or even dialog with a purpose, but when the purpose is friendship or "love" and not evangelism than I'm really not being friendly or loving am I?

Next, after listening to Dr. Millet it seems to me that mainstream Mormonism, at least publicly, is drifting farther from their founders and closer to evangelicalism. I may be wrong about this, but it seemed that way to me when I was listening to him.

Finally, Millet went on an extended diatribe where he berated evangelicals for calling Mormons a cult and telling them they're going to hell and that they don't believe in Jesus, and objects to this tactic because it offends Mormons and stops all dialog.

The response of the crowd is what I want to mention. When he was finished, the crowd cheered. Now, I know a lot of Mormons were in the crowd, but I sat in front of Christians and they were clapping too.

I got to thinking about this, and I think there is a masochistic strain within evangelicalism. We like it when non-evangelicals tell us we and/or other evangelicals have sinned against them, and we like agreeing with them so that we can distance ourselves from the ones who did sin.

If you've told a Mormon they're wrong, mistaken, following a false prophet, believing another gospel about another Jesus, inspired by another spirit just like Paul did (Gal 1:6-9; 2 Cor 11:4) than you're wrong, and our clapping shows our disapproval of your evangelism.

In the end, I think there is a lot of good that can be done as a result of these dialogs. The idea of befriending unbelievers must happen if we're to fulfill the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20). However, I don't think being mean to Mormons or other non-Christians is the problem with most evangelicals.

We've imbibed so much of the postmodern, ecumenical, sloppy and sappy mindset that being belligerent is not our problem. Our problem is silence, equivocation, and just plain being ashamed of the gospel.

I like what Johnson and Millet are modeling in their friendship, but I cannot believe evangelism is really not at the heart of why they're doing what they're doing. However, I'm afraid THAT will be the legacy of these conversations, Christians befriending unbelievers who never hear the gospel because it would ruin the friendship, further perpetuating the fear of man, which so characterizes evangelicalism today.

I guess what I'm saying is that there can ultimately be no love unless there is confrontation with falsehood. The moderator, Dr. Craig Hazen, said we must be "speaking the truth in love" (Eph 4:15), but truth confronts and contradicts and combats everything that is false.

Now, that confrontation must be gentle, loving and kind, with wisdom, grace and love, but if there is no confrontation there is no evangelism, and in the end, there is no friendship or love either.

A Friendly Church is Hard To Find

I was skimming a book called Leading With Love by Alexander Strauch when he recommended this article by Gene and Nancy Preston called "A Friendly Church is Hard To Find."

Sense and Nonsense in Prayer by Lehman Strauss (Pt 2)

These are the final two points from my study of Sense of Nonsense in Prayer by Lehman Strauss. I read the book while studying and praying through 2 Timothy, which should explain the biographical portions:

4. The believer’s prayer book should be the Bible alone (pp. 7, 55-56, 65-67, 86).

Interspersed throughout the book is the critical connection between prayer and the Bible. It is Strauss’ assertion that the believer who knows his Bible little, knows little of prayer; therefore, encouraging the church in “the biblical way of praying” (p. 7) was one of the reasons he wrote the book. He asserts that the prayer lives of many Christians are not a success because they have not disciplined themselves to read, study, meditate on and obey the Bible.

Strauss drove the importance of biblical prayer home to my heart when he remarked, “what God says to me is infinitely more important than anything I could say to Him” (p. 66). My thinking on this subject was distorted early in my Christian life when I was weaned on books by Richard Foster who acknowledges the Bible, but sees it as ancillary to the discipline of prayer. Therefore, most of my Christian life prayer was divorced from Bible study.

Strauss helped me see that reading and studying the Bible prayerfully is the key to productive prayer so that meditating on a verse a day from 2 Timothy is the central focus of my prayer time today.

5. Christians need to pray after God answers (p. 111)

For the past seven years, my prayer life has been sporadic. I pray fervently when there is a crisis in my life, but when things are peaceful prayer is tragically the last thing on my mind.

When Strauss was recounting Jesus’ miracle of the feeding of the 5000 (Matt 14; Mark 6; John 6), an event permeated with prayer, he points out that the story climaxes with Jesus praying after God blesses His ministry.

Jesus example here is very instructive. His prayer continued even though His request had already been realized. Strauss’ analysis of this passage was convicting because rather than imitating Christ, I ended up being like the modern Christians he describes who “grab the handout and say, ‘So long, God. I’ll be back when I need more’” (p. 111).

To incorporate this principle into my prayers and nip this erratic prayer trend in the bud, I have been and am now committed to continuing the discipline of daily prayer for the rest of my life. Only time will tell if I relapse into irregular prayer tendencies or persist in it every day.

Guillermo Gonzalez Denied Tenure at ISU

Read here and here about this developing story about intellectual discrimination that took place this week at Iowa State University when Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, an assistant professor of astronomy and physics, was denied tenure for being a proponent of intelligent design.

I really like and am deeply challenged by this quote from Kris Lundgaard's The Enemy Within:

“The person who…says he loves God, yet does not seek his company and delight in it, can’t be a true lover of God” (118-9).

Evangelism & Intellecutal Idols

In this interesting passage from Confessions, Augustine compares the false teachings of the philosophers of his day to idols:

"...so that Your first-born people worshiped the head of a four-footed beast instead of You, turning back in their hearts toward Egypt and prostrating Your image (their own soul) before the image of an ox that eats grass. These things I found there [in the philosophers], but I fed not on them. ... I had sought strenuously after that gold which You didst allow Your people to take from Egypt, since wherever it was it was Yours. And You said unto the Athenians by the mouth of Your apostle that in You "we live and move and have our being," as one of their own poets had said. And truly these books came from there. But I did not set my mind on the idols of Egypt which they fashioned of gold, "changing the truth of God into a lie and worshiping and serving the creature more than the Creator" (IX.15).

It is an apt comparison. Philosophy often becomes what the philosopher puts his faith in instead of God. He either bases his life on the philosophy or on God. He either trusts in the philosophy or in God.

And, whatever you have faith in, trust and/or base your life on other than the only God who is there is an idol.

So, when doing evangelism it is imperative that we pray for God to help us see these intellectual idols and that we force unbelievers to see these idols as idols they're worshipping instead of God so that they can repent and believe the gospel.

Feeding on the Bible like a Shrew

I just saw a brief part of a TV show about a shrew (learn more about shrews here and here if you really want to know about them), a small mammal that never stops eating, consuming three times it's body weight in food PER DAY!!!

My thought as I watched was "Oh, that I would long for (cf. 1 Pet 2:2) God's Word like the shrew longs for food!"

By the way, it is this longing for the Bible that was not being satisfied in the Christians responding to the Willow Creek survey mentioned below.

Want a Better Memory? Than Sleep!

This is an interesting article about the effect sleep has on our memories.

In summary, the better the sleep pattern, the better the memory.

I wonder if the opposite is true because my memory has gotten worse since having horrible sleep patters in graduate school and seminary.

Hybels Learns Seeker Churches Lack Depth

I want to thank the TMS Alumni blog for making me aware of this short article about a survey conducted at Willow Creek Community Church, and the changes that will ensue as a result.

I thought this was the most telling paragraph:

"A survey conducted among Willow Creek attendants had revealed "mind-blowing" results, as Hybels put it. It asked how satisfied attendants were with how Willow Creek serves them at various stages in their spiritual development. Pre-Christians, or people who are still seeking and exploring Christianity, rated Willow Creek "very high." Ratings dropped slightly among new Christians but were still "fantastic." Adolescent Christians rated the church as good. But fully devoted followers of Christ indicated less satisfaction, saying they are not sure the church is helping them as much at this stage in their life. "We want more of the deep truths of God," they said, according to Hybels."

This is NOTHING new to anyone who's attended a seeker church or been associated with one for any amount of time.

In all the ones I've known (and there are dozens here in Orange County, many of which I've attended and/or known people who do), real believers have been STARVING for the Bible while the pastors care more about the people who aren't there than the ones who are.

In fact, while their desire is to develop "fully devoted followers of Christ," their ministry philosophies keep them from doing so.

So, what's the Willow Creek solution to this problem? Emphasize that Christians are supposed to feed themselves!!!

"Willow Creek leaders will be altering the way they coach to teach attendants how to be "self-feeding individuals"...congregants will start learning how to take responsibility for their own feeding.

I'm not surprised, but I am amazed. Why?

Because this is the exact opposite of what churches are supposed to do. Christ gave the gifts of pastors and teachers to the church for the express purpose of "equipping the saints" (Eph 4:9-16; cf. Col 1:28-29, 2 Tim 3:16-4:5). It's their responsibility. In fact, is this not a direct contradiction of the commands to "feed the church," Christ's sheep (cf. John 21:15-17), in Acts 20:28 (KJV)?

Also, thank you to Charles Jefferson in The Minister as Shepherd who pointed out that "everything depends on the proper feeding of the sheep. Unless wisely fed they become emaciated and sick, and the wealth invested in them is squandered. When Ezekiel presents a picture of the bad shepherd, the first stroke of his brush is -- 'he does not feed the flock'" (59-60, italics mine).

Now, that doesn't mean Christians are to sit back and do nothing to grow, but if pastors aren't feeding the people at their church than they're not pastoring!

What is Gender?

With all the stories coming out about "sex-reassignment" surgeries, the evangelical world needs to answer the question "What is gender?," "What are the differences between men and women?" and whether or not there is an indissoluble union between gender and one's anatomy. It seems to me that this is where the challenge against traditional understandings of gender are directed.

For instance:

"What is gender anyway? It is certainly more than the physical details of what's between our legs. History and science suggest that gender is more subtle and more complicated than anatomy" (see whole story here).

And:

"The old categories that everybody's either biologically male or female, that there are two distinct categories and there's no overlap, that's beginning to break down," says Michael Kimmel, a sociology professor at SUNY-Stony Brook. "All of those old categories seem to be more fluid."

Finally, I thought this was a very important paragraph for apologetic purposes:

"So what's different in transgender people? Scientists don't know for certain. Though their hormone levels seem to be the same as non-trans levels, some scientists speculate that their brains react differently to the hormones, just as men's differ from women's. But that could take decades of further research to prove."

If anyone knows of any resources on this issue, I'd really like to be made aware of them. I want to be ready for this because they're coming after us. See for yourself:

"Transgender opponents have often turned to the Bible for support. Deut. 22:5 says: "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God."

Does this verse apply to transsexuals who are no longer the sex they were born? Is sex change the same as homosexuality? Many of the reasons given for sex change that I've read have nothing to do with attraction for the opposite sex, or at least that's not mentioned as a reason, but maybe it is. Is gender set regardless of anatomy? Is there a difference between a person's gender and their sex or are these synonyms?

Sense and Nonsense in Prayer by Lehman Strauss (Pt 1)

While in seminary I took a class on prayer. We were given a list of books to do a book report that was meant to summarize five ways the book was helpful in building your life of prayer.

What follows is what I learned about prayer from Lehman Strauss' Sense and Nonsense in Prayer, a book I rather enjoyed reading. Please keep in mind as you read that much of this review is biographical and refers to my life from February 2003.

1. God is silent when sin breaks the communion between Him and the believer (pp. 20-24, 49, 64-65, 101).

Believers are not only united with Christ, but John 15:1-8 teaches that they also have a special communion with Him (pp. 63-68). But, while the believer’s union with Christ will never change, their sweet communion with Him can be broken. Believers can erect “a barrier” (pp. 21, 101) or put an “obstacle” (p. 49) or “cut the lifeline” (p. 21) between them and God by sinning.

Experientially, I knew this. There have been times where the weight of my sin was so heavy that it felt like God was far away from me. However, I did not know of any biblical support for my feelings, which left me confused until Strauss’ biblical references on the separating effects of sin hit me squarely on the chin (see Ps 66:18; Isa 1:13-15; 59:1-2).

Understanding that “[I] am responsible for God’s silence” (p. 21) is driving me to seek a deeper level of righteousness. Taking this principle seriously, I am currently tracking someone down who I sinned against many years ago to ask her for forgiveness so my prayers will “accomplish much” (Jas 5:16).

2. There is a direct correlation between the believer’s concept of God and his prayers (pp. 35, 39).

In the context of praying in Jesus’ name (pp. 35-41), Strauss asserts that “prayer rises or falls with one’s concept of Jesus Christ” (p. 35), a principle that would have been even stronger had he incorporated verses like Hosea 4:6; 6:6 and Jeremiah 4:23 into his discourse.

While I generally agree with this statement, I would clarify it by saying prayer rises or falls with the believer’s concept of God because, as Strauss teaches later in the book (pp. 120-21) we do not pray only to Jesus, but to all the persons of the Trinity. He goes on to say that anyone “who holds a light view of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot have a worthwhile prayer life” (35).

The believer who does not know what Jesus is like cannot pray to Him as they ought. He is not able to trust Him freely, or love Him deeply, or ascribe to Him the glory He deserves. After a while, these prayers disrespect the King, making it so that the ignorant believer has “no right to expect God to answer his prayers” (39).

Because of this principle I am now incorporating the Bible into my prayers by meditating on a verse of 2 Timothy every day before praying. The verse I turn over in my mind than becomes my springboard into praise/thanks, confession, etc. This way, I am learning about God as I pray and therefore, I am able to pray according to that knowledge.

3. It is “rude imposition” (p. 58) to ask God for anything without an attitude of thanksgiving (pp. 57-62).

Asking God for anything must be saturated by praise/thanksgiving for everything. I grew up ignorantly treating God like a cosmic bellhop who was supposed to jump at my requests. It was only in the past few years that I realized I deserve nothing good from God and therefore, “whenever [I] approach God for anything, [I] should not fail to thank Him for those blessings and mercies [I] have already received” (pp. 58).

According to Psalm 100:4, the right way to approach God’s throne is with praise/thanksgiving and blessings. This biblical teaching in Strauss’ book and the discipline of daily prayer has taught me that my prayers are very self-centered.

For instance, when I was in 2 Timothy 2:25 a few weeks ago I desperately cried out to God for my grandpa’s salvation after my grandma died. However, my prayers of praise/thanksgiving for his receiving Christ still lack the same fervency and urgency of my entreaties for his salvation (prayers God graciously answered in December 2006).

Therefore, Strauss’ insights have been driving me to begin my prayer time with praise/thanks to God for an attribute of His character related to the verse I am studying in 2 Timothy (e.g., mercy in 2:25) as passionately and intentionally as I petition Him.

I'll finish this book review in the next post.

Simplifying Exodus 25-40

I just finished reading the book of Exodus. When people do the "Read the Bible in a Year" thing, midway through Exodus is where they slow down. If they actually make it through, many if not most die in Leviticus.

So, what's the point of all the bronze and the bars and the gold and the wood and the pomegranates? Well, have you ever noticed the phrase "just as the LORD had commanded Moses" is repeated over and over again in chapter 39-40 -- I counted some 18 times in 76 verses!

They had to do everything EXACTLY as God wanted it (cf. 39:42-43) and Moses had to do everything EXACTLY as God wanted it (cf. 40:16).

So what was the result of their perfect obedience to the commands of God? It is the key to the last half of Exodus, namely, God's fellowship with His people: "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle" (40:34-35).

It's easy to passover (no pun intended) these short verses, but EVERYTHING from Exodus 25-40 is meant for this one result.

Islam: Convert or Die!!!

Here and here is the same story from two different sources about yet another incident of Islamic "tolerance" towards minorities who disagree with them religiously.

This is just another in a long line of stories about Islamic tolerance in this region in the past 6 months (see here and here and here).

If you're a Christian on the Pakistani border, close your churches and convert to Islam or we'll bomb you. The religion of peace, huh?

Pray that these brothers and sisters would bring honor to Christ as they seek to deal with these harsh realties wisely and courageously.

The Bible's Understanding of the World

David Wells writes these helpful words about what the Bible means when when its writers use the word "world" in Above All Earthly Pow'rs:

"we need to be redeemed...from "following the course of this world"--our embeddedness in culture at the point of its fallen horizons, false belief structures, and misdirected devotions--all of which are kept in place by the powers of darkness (Eph 2:1-3). This is what gives to all culture its curiously ambiguous quality for it is an extension both of human life made in the image of God and of human life now fallen. In the Christian scheme, then, we have to be redeemed from sin and uprooted from what is dark in culture, from what in the Bible is called "this world," for Satan's captivity is exercised through the instrumentality of sin and that of "the world." It therefore becomes a matter of no small moment to be able to discern what in our culture is good, what is simply innocent, and what is neither" (23-4).

I italicized that last sentence because that is the goal of these posts on A.A.E.P. I want to be able to do this for the glory of God, the sanctification of His church, and it's witness to the world.

Jerry Falwell (1933-2007)

***UPDATE***

Unlike the totally distasteful TMZ, Dr. Al Mohler gave a very nice tribute to Rev. Falwell.

Wow! When you're done with his tribute check out the comments below it. They hate Falwell for his intolerance, but are totally blind to theirs. I guess if you disagree with them it's OK to be intolerant back? For all their preaching of tolerance they are the most intolerant among us. If you disagree and want to argue about that, read their comments first.

******

My condolences to the family and friends of the Rev. Jerry Falwell who was found unconscious today at his Liberty University office.

My first thoughts were not about his politics, but here's a guy who woke up this morning not knowing that before noon he'd be standing in the presence of God. I have thought about that one fact more in the first four months of 2007 than I have for the first 29 years of my life.

I am challenged by this to make the most of the time God's given me (Eph 5:16), not knowing when my number will come up, so that I may present a heart of wisdom to God (Psalm 90:12), and to remember that while death is tragic and difficult for us, even as Christians, it is precious to God when one of His own comes home (Psalm 116:15).

Oh God! Give me Your perspective on death, and the heart to trust You when death comes.

Am I Being Squeezed?

Listen to this argument from David Wells in Above All Earthly Pow'rs and see if it doesn't make sense about many of the problems we face as Christians and churches who seek to live lives that honor Christ and the difficulty we face:

"...the kind of world in which we live, and the kinds of ways which we have for engaging it and negotiating it, will often mean that our consciousness and our habits will reflect that wold which is outside of ourselves, regardless of generational, gender, or ethnic particularities. The habits which have emerged in the productive order of our modernized world tend to become ubiquitous, regardless of how different we may be in some other ways. ... Thus, those who gaze at a computer screen by day and television screen by night may well feel awkwardly obsolete in church if there is not another screen on which to gaze. The demands of efficiency, and the rational, impersonal workings of bureaucracy, are so much a part of who we have become that many of us also want our churches to have the feel of a smoothly run corporation. Our capitalism has been so virile and abundant, filling our lives with goods in quantities unknown in any previous age, that it seems only natural -- at least in middle class, white churches -- to expect that same range of choice in programs and services as we experience in the commercial world. The norms of the workplace so easily and so unknowingly become our own internalized norms. And this is true of most people" (22-23).

I believe truly effective and life-changing ministries will challenge these kinds of things in the hearts and minds of those attending.

I know I have to watch the lure of these things in my own heart. The world has so squeezed me into it's mold that many times I don't even know it until I read a book like this one that exposes me and encourages me to be transformed, metamorphisized, by the renewing of my mind according to God's Word.

James White on the Bible

Click here to download the audio and notes for a lecture series James White did recently on the doctrine of Scripture. The series is described as follows:

Canonicity, inspiration, inerrancy, transmission, and preservation of the Biblical text will be evaluated in this course. The reliability of modern translations as accurate representations of the original manuscripts (along with provocative topics such as the King James Only controversy and gender neutral Bible translations) will be explored.

Iraqi Christians Need Protection

Click here to read how Al-Qaeda is attacking, kidnapping and killing Iraqi Christians who are now asking their fledgling government for help.

Adult vs. Embryonic Stem Cells

In the war over the medical use of embryonic stem cells vs. adult stem cells, the scientific research so far has adult stem cells now winning 73-0!!!

Grandpa's Obituary

I don't know why I thought to put my grandpa's name in Google's search engine, but when I did I found this obituary about him.

I still really miss him and still can't believe he's gone.

Jesus Has Returned!!!

Did you know that Jesus came back? He did and he's in Orlando, Florida (having been there, Jesus messed up returning there) and his name is Dr. Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda.

Thank you to the Drudge Report for making me aware of this ridiculous story. You've got to love all their 666 tattoos, huh?

Don't forget these very important words from Jesus Himself, which totally refute this and all the rest of these false Messiahs:

"For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray. ... if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, 'Look, he is in the wilderness,' do not go out. If they say, 'Look, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it" (Matt 24:5, 23-26).

Dr. Beckwith's Return to Rome 2

Please check out the STR blog where Greg Koukl and Melinda Penner discuss their conversation with Dr. Beckwith.

It's barely encouraging, but resigning E.T.S. and going through the necessary steps to receive absolution from the RCC seems more to me than an issue of semantics.

Dr. Francis Beckwith's Return to Rome

Dr. Beckwith and his wife Frankie are both very dear friends of mine, and I am greatly saddened to hear about their conversion to Roman Catholicism (click here to read what he said on his blog and here in an interview with Christianity Today).

I do admire him for the courage it took to step down as the president of E.T.S. and resign from E.T.S. completely, assuming responsibility for his convictions, living with the difficult and painful consequences and saving E.T.S from the firestorm of controversy that would ensue.

Dr. Beckwith was my teacher in graduate school. During that time I became very close with him and his wife Frankie. Since graduating in 2002, I have periodically kept in touch through email. It is a singular joy for me to see them the few times that I have since graduation, and I love them both very much.

Because of my utmost respect and love for them and because I have not talked with them personally, I'm not going to say much about them. I just don't think it would be right to do so having not spoken to them.

However, I have added them to my daily prayer list and I hope many of you who are concerned about them have done the same.

I will say that as a theological system I am totally opposed to R.C.C. I have studied their views on penance, Mary, the Mass and the Pope by reading their sources and find those views blasphemous and utterly incompatible with the Bible.

Two Very Different Premies Survive

I thought this was a heart-warming story that anyone would love to read about concerning the two premature twins pictured above.

Why do they look so different? Click here to find out.

17 Year-Old Iraqi Girl Stoned for Falling in Love with the Wrong Guy

This is an article about the "honor" killing of a 17 year-old Iraqi girl who fell in love with a guy from a different sect of Islam than her family.

On this note, I heard an excellent presentation from Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C. (which you can download here) this week by Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo on the theology and practice of contemporary Islam.

The more I've thought about it the more I tend to agree with him that the problem we're facing in the war on terror is NOT radical Islam, or Islamo-fascism, or fundamentalist Muslims (it doesn't matter what synonym you use).

The problem we're facing is not even Muslims per say, but it is Islam itself.

I may say more about this later, but for now the gist of Dr. Sookhdeo's argument is that Islam is not a religion in the sense that Americans understand religion. Instead, Islam is a religio-political belief system that fuses religion AND politics. In direct contradiction to what we have here, the two aren't separate in Islam. They are one.

Until we realize this, our country's war on terror is going to continue to be very difficult.

Wicca: 3rd Largest Religion in 5 Years

About two weeks ago practitioners of Wicca won a court battle to have a five-pointed star become one of the over 40 symbols that can adorn the tombstones of fallen soldiers.

This article demonstrates that this is a symptom of the major Wiccan revival taking place in America.

If you don't know what Wicca is, I strongly recommend the books Witchcraft and Goddess Worship by Craig Hawkins. I've read them both and they are excellent.

As Christians, we can no longer see the major world religions and the older cults as groups to be ready to give an answer to, especially if Wicca is growing at the enormous rates this article suggests.

Sande @ TMC

If you subscribe to The Master's College chapel podcast here, you can download the current messages by Ken Sande, the president of Peacemakers Ministries.

Evangelicals and Adoption

I thought this was an interesting article for the first position on msnbc.com.

Don't Miss This Free Download!!!

The free download this month from christianaudio.com is one of the best books I've ever read.

I was thrilled and humbled and convicted and encouraged by just about every page of Richard Baxter's The Reformed Pastor, a 200+ page series of sermons he gave on one verse, Acts 20:28 "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood" (KJV).

Follow the diretions carefully and you can download it here for free. If pastoral ministry interests you or you wonder what a pastor is supposed to be and do, I don't think you'll ever regret exposing yourself to this book.

Can Mormonism Survive Into The Future?

I just got done watching part 2 of the PBS special on Mormonism (watch part 1 here, part 2 will be up on Wednesday).

There was a segment devoted to one particular family during the last half of the show when a girl diagnosed with PPH (which she said gives a person 2-5 years to live) takes comfort and hope and peace from the idea that she will see her family again, and exist with them for all eternity.

As she spoke I cried. If the Jesus in the New Testament is the real Jesus, she will never see them again. I cried and cried, praying for God to destroy Mormonism, to unleash a Spirit of repentance and true faith and sound doctrine and revival on them like He did the Worldwide Church of God in the mid-90s.

The last line of the show wonders if Mormonism will be able to survive the future. I pray and will continue to pray that it does not for the sake of God's glory and for the sake of the millions who are deceived into believing in Satan's false prophet Joseph Smith.