Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Reason For - And Need of - Apologetics Ministries


The evangelical Church is being besieged by militant Islam, contemplative mysticism, personal revelations, ecumenism, false prophets, pseudo apostles, deluded teachers, outright charlatans, political correctness, and a decline of doctrine with an absence of the knowledge of sound hermeneutics.  It seems that many in the Church neither know nor can explain what they believe.  The Church universal has lost not only its will but its ability to discern.

Thanks to many of the legitimate counter-cult and apologetic ministries, there is a voice to address error and offer biblical corrections to these junk food doctrines, outright aberrations, and obvious heresies.  These are men and women who, like the sons of Issachar, have understanding of the times to know what to do (1 Chronicles 12:32).



G. Richard Fisher, “A Root Cause of Division and Confusion: Cautions and Corrections of the Hebrew Roots Movement,” in Personal Freedom Outreach’s “The Quarterly Journal,” January-March 2014.
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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 20, 2014 at 6:58 AM

    Amen!

    -Carolyn

    (PS: Glenn, at least when I look at it on my browser, your post has a long blank empty space after all the typing.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glenn E. ChatfieldFebruary 20, 2014 at 7:31 AM

    Hi Carolyn,

    Yeah, it's been doing that recently, and I have to keep going in and clearing it. Something's up with google.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousFebruary 20, 2014 at 7:19 PM

    Hi Glenn,

    My husband and I could use a hand... we've heard people misuse Matthew 18 as a justification for defending a false teacher. We have been told you can't just expose their false teachings, you have to follow Matthew 18, and contact the false teacher personally. We know that is wrong, and is a way to hide wolves. But do you have any resources explaining why misusing Matthew 18 to hide wolves is unbiblical? Thanks!

    -Carolyn

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glenn E. ChatfieldFebruary 21, 2014 at 7:28 AM

    Hi Carolyn,

    Well, the first resource is the Bible. It is about personal sin against someone. False teaching is not a personal sin against anyone - it is a public sin and needs to be exposed publicly.

    I have an article somewhere which goes into more depth. I'll see if I can find it after I get back from a funeral this morning - no one I know, I'm just playing for it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousFebruary 21, 2014 at 8:11 AM

    Hi Glenn,

    We agree, Matt 18 is for personal sin, but false teaching is not personal, it is public, which warrants public exposure and rebuke. We know the Bible speaks of this, we were just wondering if you knew of anyone who succinctly had all pertinent Scriptures in one article, regarding this matter.

    Thanks
    Carolyn

    ReplyDelete
  6. Glenn E. ChatfieldFebruary 21, 2014 at 6:08 PM

    Carolyn,

    I'm sorry - I didn't mean to imply that you didn't know what the Bible said - I was reinforcing that the context should be understandable to anyone in my book, which is why I don't normally bother with going further in my explanations.

    The articles I have immediate reference to include two which have to do with "naming names" and the third specifically about Matthew 18:

    http://undermuchgrace.blogspot.com/2012/04/should-or-can-we-tell-secrets-of-star.html

    http://ittsy.com/focusonthefaulty/Pages/naming%20names.html

    http://thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/editorial_on_abusing_matthew_18

    I'll keep looking in my files because I KNOW I have something; I just need to find it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Glenn E. ChatfieldFebruary 21, 2014 at 6:20 PM

    The Berean Call, September 2009, has a response to a question about Matt 18 procedures. It's a fairly short response, but perhaps helpful:
    http://www.thebereancall.org/sites/2011.thebereancall.org/files/09%20September%20WEB.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousFebruary 22, 2014 at 9:35 AM

    Hi Glenn,

    First, no worries, I didn't think you were implying we didn't know the Bible. :) No offense was taken on my end whatsoever.

    Thanks for the links, I bookmarked them and read them, hopefully this weekend, or early next week.

    Truly appreciate your help!

    -Carolyn

    ReplyDelete

PLEASE DO NOT ENTER YOUR COMMENT MORE THAN ONCE - it will not show until moderated. Comments with links - either with the commenter's name or in the text of the comment - which link to sites with heretical, aberrational, obscene or otherwise improper teaching, will not be published with said links. Comments which are mostly, or only, ad hominem attacks will not be published.