Miscellaneous Good Stuff and Stuff Exposing Bad Things

I have to agree with Catholicism when it comes to the immorality of pacifism.

A false teacher I had never before heard was brought to my attention by one of my followers: Gabe Poirot claims to have gone to heaven for 18 days!! Either lying or a vision from satan. It’s a long video but gives lots of information rebutting Poirot as well as other who claim to have visited heaven.

The United Methodist Church again proves they are not a Christian organization.

Beware of LEFTIST Scripture-twisting to support sexual immorality.

When the Episcopal Church twists Scripture, you can be sure it will be foul, perverse heresy.

What Does the Bible Say about Satan?

Ten Reasons Jesus Was Not a Socialist, Part one. Part Two.

What Every Christian Should Know About Islam, Part One.

RIP Church of England.

Watch out for Summit Ministries promoting unbiblical, New Age “contemplative” practices.

The “mom” doctrine with cults.

What Rick Warren's Book Did To American Churches That Nobody Is Allowed To Talk About.

The destruction was really due to non-discerning church leaders accepting trashy teachings, and not telling their congregations to avoid any teachings by Rick Warren.

Do Eunuchs in the Bible Signal an Endorsement of Transgenderism? Short answer—NO!

The Devil’s Deceit in Eden

In Eden, the devil sold slavery to Adam and Eve, but called it independence; he sold them wisdom, but it turned out to be mental darkness; he put forth a beautiful vision of who they could become, but his offer was sweetly poisoned. He promised them fulfillment and gave them guilt. He appealed to their pride and gave them despair and an empty life. He promised like a god but paid them like the devil he was.

Erwin W. Lutzer, We Will Not Be Silenced, pg.144

Satan and His Control

Initial explanation: When talking about Satan, I mean Satan and the demons. Since Satan and the demons were created as angels - albeit now they are fallen angels - they are not able to be in more than one location at a time. So when the name Satan is spoken in this article, it refers to Satan and the demonic realm, with Satan recognized as the leader. (In the same way we say General Patton won many battles, we recognize that Patton personally wasn’t the one doing the fighting but he was the leader and, by referring to him, we mean all those who were under his leadership.) So I will only say “Satan,” but mean the entire demonic realm.

Also, since Satan is an angel, he has great intelligence and great power.

Questions to consider:

1.  Can Satan plant thoughts in our mind?

2.  Can Satan read our mind?

If Satan was able to plant thoughts in our minds, then he would indeed be able to make us sin, but that would be violating our free will. There is no place in Scripture where we see Satan making people sin. Even Adam and Eve were only tempted by Satan, but it is human free will choice which leads to sin by choosing that which is against God.

The Scripture in many places speaks of the demonically-possessed. In these people the demon does exercise control to a great degree, but there is no indication that Satan plants thoughts in their minds, rather he uses the people as channels to express his own thoughts.  

Contrary to much false teaching, a Christian cannot be possessed by demons because a Christian is in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit: 1 Cor. 3:16; 1 Cor. 6:17, 19; 2 Cor. 1:22; 2 Thes. 3:3; 1 Pet. 1:5; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:18.

Since God imbued man with a free will to choose between good and evil, it is not necessary for Satan to place thoughts in our minds. All that is necessary is for him to observe human behavior with his great intelligence and place known temptations in the path of mankind.  Eccl. 7:29 says, “God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.” (CSB)  James 1:14-15, in response to whether God tempts people, says this:  “But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires.  Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.” (CSB)

Can Satan read our minds? NO. This is not a power angels have been demonstrated to possess in Scripture. God has the ability to do so, and we know this from many passages of Scripture. But God is omniscient while Satan - as an angel - is not.  However, since Satan is an extremely intelligent being and has been watching mankind for 6,000 years, he has great understanding as to how mankind thinks.  He knows what can be used as temptations to awaken sinful desires in man.

Satan’s Vast Experience

By his very longevity Satan has acquired a breadth and depth of experience which he matches against the limited knowledge of man. He has observed other believers in every conceivable situation, thus enabling him to predict with accuracy how we will respond to circumstances. Although Satan is not omniscient, his wide experience and observation of man throughout his entire history on earth give him knowledge which is far superior to anything any man could have.

Charles Ryrie, Balancing the Christian Life, pg.124

Good, Bad, and Ugly

The Good:

Why did God create satan if He knew Satan would cause evil?

“Social Justice” is NOT a Gospel issue.

The Church, Sexual Immorality, and Fake Christianity.

Ham’s sin, Canaan’s curse, and the African experiment.

Laughter is Good Medicine.  Look closely at the memes!

The Gigantic Problem Beneath the Really Big Problem.

Why the Apocrypha Isn’t in the Bible.

The Bad and/or Ugly

Prayer, by Tim Keller.  More bad teachings from Keller; don’t buy the book.

Now it’s Satan’s fault that the Catholic bishops and priests were caught. I guess if Satan didn’t expose them, then everything would have been okay?!?s. Another take says it looks like the victims are being used as Satan’s accusers.

Teachings coming from The Gospel Coalition are getting worse by the day.

If your pastor does this sort of nonsense, find another church. This isn’t an issue which needs to be brought to anyone’s attention in the assembly.

I couldn’t care less about the issue of prayer in public schools; if you fight for prayer, then who’s God will be prayed to?  But homosexuality, abortion, as well as the “transgender” lie are indeed important moral issues. These “Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists” and Anglicans are all worshipping another god and a socialist, apostate “Jesus."

Pat Robertson: another rank false prophet who leads people astray. Jesus will probably say to him at the end, “I never knew you.”

Matt Chandler just can’t keep to the Christian faith without attacking those who disagree with his politics; he is betraying Christ.  Chandler really seems to not understand what the Bible teaches! He is pure seeker-sensitive/market-driven mentality.

Eastern Orthodoxy — Don’t even try to tell me this is Jesus’ church!

Bill Johnson, and his ilk, betray Jesus by leading people into occult practices.

Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

The Southern Baptist Convention certainly no longer represents Biblical Christianity.  Look at this post also.

I mean, just what is it with SBC “pastors”?!?!  Or the SBC in general?

I don’t know about you, but I consider this to be apostasy.  Especially since SBC President Steve Gaines sanctions the Seventh-Day Adventist cult!  But then you have to remember that this guy twists Scripture like Benny Hinn, claiming that Christians are obligated to tithe or suffer the consequences.

C.Peter Wagner desperately holds on to his “7 Mountain Mandate” for the NAR.

Jen Hatmaker continues to prove what a horrid false teacher she is; she panders to liberal claims and causes.

Theonomists/Restorationists have really gone out of their way time to misrepresent Biblical teachings.  Gee, what’s new for this ilk?

WOW - another false prophetess—Vonda Brewer.  What is wrong with people who refuse to use their brain while they follow this tripe!!!

The Evangelical Industrial Complex!  H/T Doug Evans.

The POPE has decreed that most marriages are “religiously null.”  Hmm.  I’d say he’s in disagreement with God.  Of course being in disagreement with God is normal for Popes.

Christian “gag rags” — I heartily agree.

The “Serpent Seed of Satan” is one of the worst teachings to come down the pike, and it has been spread for a long time.

The Christian Missionary Alliance has a false teacher coddling to Islam.  Can you just see Paul telling the Romans to be sure to give the pagans a “beautiful evening” while hosting their dinner celebrating the worship of their own gods just to “build bridges”? I can’t.

I covered the issue of this Bible in a previous “RAAH” post a while back.  However, I think this article will remind people of just how cultic the NAR is.

Beth Moore complains about being exposed as a false teacher.  Hey Beth — if it is true, it isn’t “slander.”

Charismatic Bullying From the Pulpit.  I’ve been on the receiving end of this stuff.

The Devil Is Real

What I cannot understand is a man who does believe in God but who does not believe in the devil.  What I cannot understand is a man who gets up in his church and says, “I believe in the Holy Ghost” and then regards the devil as a joke!  “I believe in the Holy Spirit,” but he does not believe in evil spirits.  Such a man is utterly inconsistent.  He says he believes in a spiritual realm, but he only believes in one half of it; he does not believe in the other half.  What is involved here is our whole attitude towards the spiritual realm that is above us and outside us.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “The Christian Warfare: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10-13,” pg. 49

Do You Believe in the Devil?

The unbeliever, you know, not only doesn’t believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, he doesn’t believe in the Devil.  And whether a man believes in the Devil or not is a very good test of whether he is a believer or not.  The unbeliever ridicules the doctrines of salvation even though he knows nothing about our conflict, which is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and the powers, against our adversary the Devil.  But the believer has this knowledge.  And so a man who has new life and has this spiritual apprehension and understanding realizes that in a sense he’s in a very dangerous position.  He’s going to be the special object of the attacks of the Devil.  What will the Devil do with him?  Well, the Devil will not try to ridicule the whole of Christianity.  What the Devil will now do with him will be to try to insinuate certain heresies, certain errors, certain doubts and queries and questions about particular matters.  That’s what the Devil did in the early church, as we seen in the New Testament, and that’s what he’s been doing ever since.  He’s very active at the present time among evangelicals.  They are looking again at the early chapter of Genesis.  Have they been wrong all these years?  They’ve been looking anew at evolution and so on, the supernatural.  This is the subtlety of the Devil.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Experiencing the New Birth: Studies in John 3,” pg.77-78

Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

I’ve been way too busy this past week or so, but I have been collecting links as I’ve gotten the chance to read — So you are in for a long one!  I like looking at some other blogs which have similar “roundups,” and while they usually have items I’ve already seen, they also have items which I hadn’t seen.  I want to give a general “hat tip” to these sites, and recommend them:
Asleep No More
Guarding the Deposit
Eternity Matters (although Neil doesn’t have his “Round Up” as often as before)
Do Not Be Surprised…

There are many more blogs I follow, but they don’t have routine “roundups.”

Let me start this week’s “RAAH” by telling you of a personal experience I had yesterday.  A local “Christian” book store, “Lemstone,” is part of the “Parable” book store chain.  The owner is retiring, so they are having a close-out sale to clean out their inventory (25% off yesterday).  So yesterday after church we decided to see if there were some books or other items we could use.  I did get a copy of one of my favorite books, “I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist,” so we have one available for giving away.  My wife got about 200 “Pass it On” cards, which we usually leave with tips at restaurants.  But I found walking around that store to be very distressing.  Except for the Bible shelf (which also included garbage like “The Message” and “The Story”), I would say probably 80% of the publications they sold were by false teachers and heretics.  The aberrant and heretical teachings in these books are what makes these “Christian” bookstores so spiritually dangerous.  Of course they also had a huge Catholic section, which, like Family Christian Stores, was added over a decade ago so as to make more money.  After all, isn’t making money more important than protecting people from false teachings?  (Yes, that is a rhetorical question.)  There were so many pictures of “Jesus,” with so many variations, that I saw that as proof that these are just idols of people’s own making.  The “religious” junk filling the store, besides the books, was mostly useless and also promoting false teachings.  So, in my opinion, this city will be better off spiritually with the demise of this store.  Now if only the Family Christian Store would also go under…

The big news this past week or so (besides Bruce Jenner having himself mutilated so he can pretend to be a woman) was about one of the Duggar men having a sinful past.  Well, I never watched the show, but I knew they were Gothardites, and part of the patriarchy and “quiverfull” movements, so nothing which came out surprised me.  What is good about this situation is that lots of exposure is being given to the false teachings the Duggar family follows.  What is bad is that the media makes it look as if this is normal Christianity.  Some examples of informative articles are this one about Gothard’s teaching about sex and this one about Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute’s home-schooling material.  Then there is this article about the entire worldview of the Duggar family; be sure to examine the numerous articles the author links to.  These, and many articles like them, demonstrate just how bizarre these types of cultic movements can be.  We must remember, however, that, contrary to what the media says, this is not a “fundamentalism” problem — it is a legalism problem.

Speaking about Bill Gothard, he has a new web site - or does he?

If you want to see what happens when you mix feminist theology with false prophets, just take a look at this article, and watch the video.  Female Benny Hinns, and about as unbiblical as it gets.

Matt Chandler demonstrates why he is not qualified to be a pastor.

Homosexual Heretics

Interesting video about “Modern Worship?”  If you let it continue, you will find the next couple videos to also be of interest.

A couple months ago I wrote an article explaining why Jesus would not want us to serve a same-sex fake wedding.  The arguments I used to demonstrate why He would not have us do so can also be used for why Christians should not even attend a same-sex fake wedding.  By attending, we are giving approval to the lie being passed of as a wedding to marriage, and approving what God has condemned is rebellion against God.  Yet a Calvary Chapel pastor thinks that attending such a blasphemous event can be okay if the couple aren't Christian!  So it is okay to sanction sin by non-Christians?

Answers in Genesis provides reviews for episode eight and episode nine of “A.D., The Bible Continues,” demonstrating the unbiblical nature and anti-historical nature of much of the series.

Commentator Matt Walsh has a good article about Christians denying the existence of Satan, and the new “Charlie Charlie” game.

Some people can be great Bible scholars, but still can’t be trusted.  Craig Blomberg has a very low view of Scripture.  In the weekly email (6/4/15) from Midwest Christian Outreach apologetics ministry, L.L. (Don) Veinot said, “I suppose I am not overly surprised. When we reviewed his book, How Wide the Divide in our article, "Why the Divide?" where we learn from Craig Blomberg that Evangelicals and Mormons agree ‘The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one eternal God.’ A line from a Simon and Garfunkel song is echoing in my mind as I think about Blomberg's grasp on the Bible, ‘Slip slidin' away.’”  I read that book by Blomberg, and learned he really has no clue about Mormonism.

Another false prophecy by Benny Hinn as he seeks to enrich himself even more.

Finally, maybe you’ll be happy to know that heretic Creflo Dollar is going to get his jet anyway.  I’m sure the money will come from his “church” coffers anyway.