It’s Not A Joke!

We’ve come a long way in these pages, and I’d like to end with a parable from the nineteenth-century philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard. In his book, Either/Or, he wrote: 

“A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that’s just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it’s a joke.”

I believe Kierkegaard was correct. In fact, I often feel as if our world is
living out his parable in real time. As a culture and as a people, we are increasingly ignorant of what God has said about the end times, and what we face at the conclusion of history. Not only that, but humanity is increasingly hostile toward the idea that an end is coming at all.

As we conclude these final words in The World of the End, I don’t want to focus on humanity as a whole. Instead, I want to turn the spotlight directly on you and me.

Make no mistake: everything Jesus warned about in His Olivet Discourse will happen. Each of His prophecies will be fulfilled, and all His promises will come to pass. We can believe it. We can count on it.

The question is, What we will do about it? What will you do about it?

My prayer is that you and I will not sit idly by as the smoke billows through the doors and the flames rise up the walls for our communities. Let us never allow entertainment or comfort or finances or fear or the lust of the flesh or the pride of life or any other earthly thing to get in the way of serving our Savior to the end. To the final moment.

I don’t know if we’ve reached the end of the world. Humanity may have days or decades remaining until the rapture of the church and the grinding, grating thlipsis of the tribulation tax will follow. As Scripture says, no one know the day or the hour (Matthew 24:36).

But I do know this: you and I have come to the World of the End. As a planet and a people, we are experiencing the birth pains in preparation for all that God has promised. We are living out the days prophesied by Christ Himself.

Therefore, let us be honest. Let us be calm. Let us be confident. Let us be prepared. Let us be faithful. Let us be kind. Let us be the good news. And let us be determined to live as we should—as children of God who shine like stars in the universe—until the end!

Dr. David Jeremiah, The World of the End, pg. 207-208: Epilogue.

"Think on These Things"

You Do Err…  Think about Pharisees, legalists and cults.

The Broken Logic of Infant Baptism.  Excellent study!

Didaché - Are We Worse Than The Pharisees?!?

The Beth Moores vs. the Mary ‘Polly’ Careys.  Good, thought-provoking article.

Are there modern-day Apostles? Short answer, NO!

The Gospel Coalition just keeps getting worse and more satanic.

JD Greear, Ex-president of the Southern Baptist Convention as well as a pastor, has a bizarre take on homosexuality and other cultural issues. Certainly not proper for even a pastor!

Bethel ’s children’s ministry is disgusting and heretical.

More reasons to avoid Jen Wilkin.

Why do people still follow Kenneth Copeland? He is not a Christian—he is a rank heretic and fraud.

Another warning against Priscilla Shirer!

Rick Joyner continues to prove what a false teacher—let alone a false apostle—he is.

Kathryn Krick is as bad as it gets.

RECLAIMING the true meaning of 2 CHRONICLES 7:14  I addressed this back in 2020.

If you’ve liked Veggie Tales, as we did with our kids, you may have noticed them being not so good as the years went by. Well, the creator of Veggie Tale, Phil Vischer, has become a rank heretic; don’t give him any more of your money!!!

Interesting review of Kendrick Brothers’ films. I like the first three (and saw the same issues Elizabeth notes) but Courageous seemed too contrived (more so than the others) and War Room went so far out of whack that we didn’t bother with any further movies.

"Cultural Christianity"

 

About Jesus' Mother

Mike Winger Facebook post, 8/19/24

 Is it possible that many people think Mary had to stay a virgin because they, somewhere in the logic, feel that something is immoral about sex between a husband and wife?

I've heard it said that Joseph wouldn't defile the Ark of the Covenant (by which they mean Mary) through intercourse. Yet the idea that such an act is a defilement goes against Scripture which says "the marriage bed is undefiled." (Heb 13:4) 

And the idea that a husband and wife can vow chastity between themselves is far more problematic than many realize, violating Scripture and the nature of the marriage commitment. 

"The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband." 1 Cor 7:3

Read that passage in context and you'll see that Paul is saying "do not deprive one another" (1 Cor 7:5) in relation to sexual relations. Voluntary chastity is a single person's role and is inappropriate and unbiblical in marriage. 

Attempts to explain away the presence of Jesus' brothers and sisters in Scripture (spoken in the same context as his mother) or that Joseph NEVER was intimate with Mary instead of not being intimate with her "UNTIL" after Jesus' birth also fail.

"When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus."

Matt 1:24-25

Everything I've said here has a response from those who believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary. You can go deep into the rabbit hole on this if you choose. But I've done it already and find those responses not only unconvincing but obvious attempts to subvert the meaning of Scripture to support a doctrine of man which has contributed to the idolization of Mary.

My Mind Was Changed Long Ago

Adapt Church to Culture?

Well, but mustn’t the churches adapt Christianity to suit the ideas of our time? No, they must not. Our ideas are killing us spiritually. When your child swallows poison, you don’t sit around thinking of ways to adapt his constitution to a poisonous diet. You give him an emetic.

Joy Davidman (aka Mrs. C.S. Lewis, cited by Megan Basham, Shepherds For Sale, pg.XI

Think About It!

About That Photo At the Top of this Blog

Over the past few months I’ve had several readers email me questioning about the photo at the top of my blog. It was taken by my wife on 6/28/09 at the Iowa Firefighter Memorial in Coralville, IA. The kilt I’m wearing in the photo is of Leith tartan--my wife’s “clan” (her great-grandparents came from the Orkney Islands) which I felt had great colors for the service--reds and blues! 

Every year, on the second Sunday in June, there is a memorial service held here for the entire state of Iowa. I was first asked to play for the ceremony in 2000, leading the color/honor guard up to the front to post the colors and then lead them back, and this became an anual event for me. In 2006 they asked me to play Amazing Grace, replacing the keyboard player for this part of the service. To retrieve the colors at the end I would again lead the guard up and back. It’s quite a long service honoring all firefighters who passed during the previous year. Those who served at least 10 years get their names on the one set of walls, while those who die in the line of duty have a special wall. 

In 2010 the Iowa Firefighters Association voted to award me the title of Honorary Firefighter— a really great honor! This was the year we had our first cancellation—about 20 minutes into the service severe storms arrived and, by checking weather, it was plain the storms would last for a very long time. But that’s when the IFA president came to me and said, “This isn’t how we wanted to do this” as he presented me with the trophy award—they had wanted to do it up front during the service! 

In 2014 a student piper friend from a town an hour west, and who is a firefighter in that town, asked if he could play with me, so he came over and we played Amazing Grace together—he didn’t know the other tunes I used. The next year he joined me again and knew the tunes.

In 2016 there was a new man in charge of the color/honor guard and we for the first time had a “long blue line” of the guard marching almost a block along the side of the memorial park. He had pipers he knew from two different towns (2hrs NE and 2 hrs SW) come to join me. I then became the pipe major for the whole group and play solo on Amazing Grace. This was when my wife also joined with her snare drum. Sometimes we’ve had about 15 pipers and 6-7 drummers and other times, as this year, we had five pipers (including me) and one drummer—Jill!

In 2020 the service was cancelled because of the COVID scare. In 2023 I was asked to play a memorial tune for the candlelight service the night prior to the memorial service so I’m doing that solo from now on (they’ve had that service almost from the beginning but didn’t think about asking me until last year!)

So that’s the story behind the cover photo.  The photo associated with this post was taken by local media on 6/13/21 as I’m leading the color/honor guard to our starting point.

Examining a Gothard Book, Part 7

This post is part five of examining Chapter 3: To Inspire Mighty Men! of Bill Gothard’s book, 7 Basic Needs of a Wife. 

With the last post I ended with number 16 of Gothard’s 21 “secrets for successful child rearing.”

Seventeenth secret: Passion for Discipleship. (pg.36): The passion of a mighty man of valor must be to win people to Christ and to train them in the forty-nine commands of Christ. “He that winneth souls is wise.” (Proverbs 11:30), …

Does Gothard ever use a passage in context? He couldn’t use this if it wasn’t in KJV. Let’s look at the FULL verse in a modern translation.

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives.” (NIV)

The point is saving lives, which “souls” in the KJV means. It has nothing to do with winning people to Christ. I’m afraid to ask what his 49 commands are and how twists Scripture to find them.

…and “they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3).

In actuality this passage is discussing Israel’s pending destruction. It could be used as an analogy, though.

If a son or daughter is not actively reaching out to people and making disciples, he or she will see no reason to be different from the world.

Not everyone has the gift or the ability to “actively” make disciples on a continuing basis. MOST people try making disciples while in the workplace or out in the world, not on a full-time basis.

In order to find potential disciples, we must find ways to meet them. One excellent way is to bring the poor into your house for a special meal to honor them.

So only the poor are worth inviting into your home for a special meal? Is it really safe nowadays, especially, to be inviting strangers into your house? Just think about it.

Eighteenth secret: Personal Vows (pg.36). Just one important note: Vows must bd carefully made and must be based on Scripture. A vow is affirming a command of Scripture before our human intellect has an opportunity to rationalize it away. Examples would be a vow not to drink liquor or not to be intimate before marriage.

Nineteenth secret: “Passage” to Adulthood (pg.36). Adulthood begins for a boy after his twelfth year and for a girl other twelfth birthday. A special celebration should be conducted to honor this special time. Thereafter, a son or a daughter must be respected and treated like a young adult. 

Here Gothard is taking a page from the Jews: bat/bar mitzvah by 13 for boys and 12 for girls. Christians don’t have such rules. In reality, it’s best to say 15-16 would be called young adults but for most cities/states under 16 is consider juvenile while 16 and up can be tried as adults.

Twentieth secret: Biblical Belief System (pg.37). Here is where Gothard mentions bat/bar mitzvah as when the young people memorize the first five books of Moses. Then he says, As believers we have been give a new law system consisting of Christ’s forty-nine commands. We must not only learn these by heart and live them out, but we must teach them to others. These commands must be the belief system of our heart.

Now, I’m sure he probably lists the so-called 49 commands of Christ but I haven’t come across it and I’d really like to know where he gets them!!!

Twenty-first secret: Courtship Commitment (pg.37). The problem with so-called courtship, and we tried it, is that no two families seem to have the same idea. Some, like Gothard, can be very legalistic and start as young as 15 years old.  Gothard says a young man is prepared for marriage before letting the girl know of his intentions. I have to disagree. I’ll use myself as an example. I began dating my wife while I was still in the Army (I was 22 and she 18) and after I became a civilian six months later I let her know of my intent to marry her—we weren’t officially engaged for another 10 months. However, After getting out of the Army I had to find work and a place to live and have some money saved up. According to Gothard I should have waited until essentially our engagement before letting her know of my intentions!  My son and his wife began courting with intent to marriage while he was apprenticing in a trade and was living at home! So he wasn’t prepared yet they were engaged during this time; they didn’t marry until he had a job and an apartment. Gothard demanding his methods is nonsensical.

And thus ends Chapter 3 of this book.

An Agglomeration

Excellent commentary by Marsha West regarding “beloved Christian VIPs” who can lead you down “the primrose path” to a life of sin.

Do you care about doctrine?

Jory Micah is bad news.

Is God Immoral for Killing the Canaanites?

Pride: Celebrating Sin.

The Dangers of False Bible Attribution

Is Satan more afraid of Mary than God?!?

Isn’t The Biblical Account “Good” Enough? Another example of where “The Chosen” deviates from Scripture.

Oh, the blasphemy and twisting of Scripture in The Chosen.  And what about the set celebrating “Pride” month?

David Platt—a teacher to avoid.

Michael Brown’s False Standard for False Prophets.  Many are included among these false prophets.

False teacher/false healer Daniel Adams.

Why Todd White is the Most Dangerous Kind of False Teacher

Presbyterian Church USA is NOT a Christian denomination—it supports and promotes every sexual perversion.

Bethel Church service: Demonic, heretical and fraudulent. What was it that Paul said about men with long hair?  Then there is this abject heresy of Jesus asking for forgiveness from a “pastor”!!!

Necromancy in the Church: Promise Keepers and Steve Berger. God does not send the dead to speak to us.

Some problems for those who are of the KJV Only cult.