Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted

Stricken, smitten and afflicted,

See him dying on the tree!

'Tis the Christ by man rejected!

Yes, my soul, 'tis he! 'tis he!

'Tis the long-expected prophet,

David's son, yet David's Lord;

By His Son God has now spoken

'Tis the true and faithful word.

Tell me, ye who hear him groaning,

Was there ever grief like his?

Friends thru' fear His cause disowning,

Foes insulting his distress:

Many hands were raised to wound him,

None would interpose to save;

But the awful stroke that pierced him

Was the stroke that justice gave.

Ye who think of sin but lightly,

Nor suppose the evil great;

Here may view its nature rightly,

Here its guilt may estimate.

Mark the sacrifice appointed!

See who bears the awful load!

'Tis the Word, the Lord's anointed,

Son of man, and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation;

Here's the refuge of the lost:

Christ, the Rock of our salvation:

His the name of which we boast.

Lamb of God, for sinners wounded!

Sacrifice to cancel guilt!

None shall ever be confounded

Who on him their hope have built.

Thomas Kelly.

He Is Risen Indeed!

He AROSE!

 

Death Has Been Conquered

 

Have A Blessed Easter

Christ the Lord is ris’n today. Alleluia!

Sons of men and angels say: Alleluia!

Raise your joys and triumphs high. Alleluia!

Sing, ye heav’ns, and earth, reply: Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King. Alleluia!

Where, O death, is now they sting? Alleluia!

Dying once, He all doth save. Alleluia!

Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!

Love’s redeeming work is done. Alleluia!

Fought the fight, the battle won. Alleluia!

Death in vain forbids Him rise. Alleluia!

Christ has opened paradise. Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ has led. Alleluia!

Foll’wing our exalted Head. Alleluia!

Made like Him, like Him we rise. Alleluia!

Ours the cross, the grave, the skies. Alleluia!

Charles Wesley

Christ Arose!

1. Low in the grave He lay—Jesus, my Savior!

Waiting the coming day—Jesus, my Lord!

Chorus:

Up from the grave He arose, 

With a mighty triumph o’er His foes.

He arose a victor from the dark domain,

And He lives forever with His saints to reign.

He arose! He arose! 

Hallelujah! Christ arose!

2. Vainly they watch His bed—Jesus, my Savior!

Vainly they seal the dead—Jesus, my Lord!

Up from the grave He arose, 

With a mighty triumph o’er His foes.

He arose a victor from the dark domain,

And He lives forever with His saints to reign.

He arose! He arose! 

Hallelujah! Christ arose!

3. Death cannot keep his prey—Jesus, my Savior!

He tore the bars away—Jesus, my Lord!

Up from the grave He arose, 

With a mighty triumph o’er His foes.

He arose a victor from the dark domain,

And He lives forever with His saints to reign.

He arose! He arose!

Hallelujah! Christ arose!

By Robert Lowry

Celebrating the Resurrection

Interesting Miscellany

A job description for the music minister.

Myths of what is loving vs unloving.  Now apply this understanding to the claims of Nicholas Wolterstorff.

What are some of the dangers of apologetics?  Good article.

Isaiah 29:11-12: Does it point to Mohammed or Joseph Smith?  Of course not.

Is it okay to celebrate extra-biblical Christian holidays, such as Christmas and Easter?  As I’ve said all along, YES it is.

What do you tell your children about Santa?  That he’s just a fun fairy tale!

I have this booklet on my shelf, and someone pointed to the internet version so I’m sharing it.  It demonstrates that abuse is a biblical reason for divorce.

What is included in sexual sin?

The bondage to sin from the entertainment industry.

Is It Sinful to Use Profanity?  I wrote a post addressing this issue four years ago.

Happy Resurrection Day

Credit to Answers In Genesis

He Is Risen!

Where, O death, is your victory?

Random Apostasies and Heresies

Then there is the annual nonsense in some Roman Catholic groups where people will have themselves crucified as supposedly some way of worshiping God and atoning for their own sins (which only Christ can do).  This is nothing but paganism, and the fact that Rome has never put a stop to this speaks volumes in my book.

Now that we’ve seen pagan behavior inside and outside the “Church,”, let’s move on.

Arch-heretic Rob Bell has now come out not only in support of same-sex fake marriage, but now he claims it is a move of God!!!  If this isn’t blasphemy, I don’t know what is.

The Unitarian Universalist Association has never been Christian, no matter how often many claim to be.  They are a cult - plain and simple - which is why I don’t usually bother with much of what comes out of that denomination.  Yet I found their current controversy over polyamory to be quite amusing, since they are fully behind homosexuality.   Once you’ve approved of one sexual perversion, you have no logical reason to deny any others.

Elizabeth Prata has the question of the decade: Why are mature men of faith suddenly seeming to go off the narrow road of orthodoxy and saying or doing wacky things?

Did you know that Jesus was lacking in knowledge?  No?  Well, neither did I.  Obviously we just aren’t up on things like this.  There is a Goatherd - Reverend Oliver White - who says that Jesus was wrong about same-sex fake marriage, and that God intended for there to be such an institution!  He also states that Jesus would say that he didn’t know everything!  You have to hear it to believe it.  But guess what denomination he goatherds - the totally apostate and heretical United Church of Christ.  That explains it all.

How many truly faithful will Jesus find when He returns?

Christ the Lord is Risen Today - Alleluia!

Christ the Lord is ris’n today. Alleluia!

Sons of men and angels say: Alleluia!

Raise your joys and triumphs high. Alleluia!

Sing, ye heav’ns, and earth, reply: Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King. Alleluia!

Where, O death, is now they sting? Alleluia!

Dying once, He all doth save. Alleluia!

Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!

Love’s redeeming work is done. Alleluia!

Fought the fight, the battle won. Alleluia!

Death in vain forbids Him rise. Alleluia!

Christ has opened paradise. Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ has led. Alleluia!

Foll’wing our exalted Head. Alleluia!

Made like Him, like Him we rise. Alleluia!

Ours the cross, the grave, the skies. Alleluia!

Charles Wesley.

What Is Easter About?

Over at Do Not Be Surprised... Erin has an excellent collection of videos of what various  entertainment-oriented (and, in my opinion, apostate) churches are doing for Easter celebration.  This collection includes the churches “pastored” by Ed Young, Jr, Troy Gramling, Rick Warren, Rod Parsley and Kevin Gerald, and a Canadian church which is putting on a Batman and Robin show!

So is this what Jesus rose from the dead for? Not even close.  Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins, and he rose from the dead to prove the payment was accepted and death was conquered.  Easter is not about celebrating how good we can entertain each other by copying the world’s system.  It is about celebrating our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and what He did for us.

This old B.C. comic strip from 1991 sums it up succinctly.

Happy Easter!

He is risen indeed!

I think this is a very appropriate day to expose some gross errors about this day.  Is the date of Easter of pagan origins, and is the name “Easter” pagan? To both questions, the answer is a hearty “NO!”

Many, many years ago I read that the name “Easter” was a variation of the name for a Pagan fertility goddess, and that the date of Easter was made to align with pagan spring fertility celebrations.  Well, I already knew that the date of Easter was based on the date of the Jewish Passover, but that fertility goddess thing really made sense to me.  After all, the comparisons to the names Ishtar, Ashtoreth, etc certainly looked like that’s where the name came from.

Many, many years later, and many, many authors later, I’m still reading how Easter is an Anglicized version of Ishtar, etc.  Over the years we have refused to use the word “Easter,” and instead celebrated “Resurrection Day.”

I know two books used in the many writings/books I have read were Babylon Mystery Religion and The Two Babylons, the former book citing the latter as its source.  I bought the former in 1994, while the latter was given to me about 10 years later.  By the time I read Alexander Hislop’s The Two Babylons, I had been studying apologetics for a long time, including the Roman Catholic Church - the object of Hislop’s book - and recognized there were problems with many of his claims.  But I never gave another thought to the claim about the origin of the name of Easter, and have actually been propagating that story as late as a couple weeks ago!

Well, the wonderful ministry Answers in Genesis put out a couple articles this week examining the source of the date of Easter and the origin of its name.  The first article didn’t give me any new data (as noted, I already was aware of the date origin), but the second one was a real eye-opener!

It seems the best explanation of the word “Easter” has nothing to do with the names of pagan goddesses, but is instead based on the German word for "resurrection"!

If you are still being told that the Romanist church made the date of Easter to make the pagans happy, or that the name of Easter was chosen by the Roman church also to give succor to the pagans, I suggest you review the two articles by AIG.   And get rid of your Alexander Hislop book!

"Easter" vs Resurrection Day

I have to address the issue of Easter and Christians.  Some cities are dropping the word “Easter” from their annual egg hunts and other such frivolity, and Christians are in an uproar about the removal of all things “Christian” from such events.  

Okay, Christians:  Can you explain to me what all this egg and bunny stuff has to do with the resurrection of our Lord?  The fact that Christians adopted these pagan practices for celebrating on Easter is an affront to the name of Christ to begin with.  So quit belly-aching about anyone dropping the name “Easter” from these pagan celebrations.

In light of this, I find it abhorrent that so many churches sponsor Easter egg hunts and have such programs; again, what do these have to do with the resurrection of Christ, or any Christian doctrine?  Here in my area, up in Cedar Rapids, the 1st Assembly of God (who  has in years past brought in the false Pensacola “revival” among other aberrant stuff) has an annual day-before-Easter event for kids.  Here is their current advertisement:

Kids 2yrs through 6th grade will enjoy this fun-filled annual Easter celebration loaded with prizes, candy and skits!  We will meet in the Sanctuary at 10:00 AM for a short program followed by the Outdoor (weather permitting) Egg Scramble (divided by age) with over 16,000 filled eggs!  Bring all your friends – this is one EGGSTRAVAGANT event!

I believe this is as wrong-headed as it gets.  Church leaders: Do you really think this is the way Christ would have wanted the Church to celebrate His resurrection?  I highly doubt it!   What purpose does this serve for the Church?  This does nothing but confuse kids, let alone adults, as to what Resurrection Day is all about.  And it certainly is not wise stewardship of church money!

Christians, we need to separate this foolishness from the celebration of the most important event in history.  If you want to give your kids “Easter” baskets, then do something like we did in our family and have a “1st day of Spring” celebration in your family.  But the Church should have no more to do with the Easter bunny and eggs than it should have to do with Santa Claus.

Please, please stop the association of these practices with the day we celebrate the Lord rising from the dead.