Wednesday, October 31, 2012

"Evangelical" churches way of using Halloween

Speechless:

                   
                   
                   
                   

Monday, October 29, 2012

Is this a fitting hymn, ejem, song, to start your Easter celebrations?


The Museum of Idolatry, once again, has out done themselves reporting how some "churches" are attracting new converts.
Here is opening hymn praise song ummm "number" for Easter 2009 at New Spring Church.
Come on all you Christians...Sing Along with the praise song leader...here are the lyrics. Certainly Christians can sing this song without any guilt on Easter Sunday because this applies to Christians...Right?


The need to mend relationships. Philemon 1:8-22

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Your Pastor is Spider Man. No way!! FAILED!!!

I always wanted to be Spider Man. When I married and had children, my family members said that "Spider Man is making little spiders".

Well, I am not going to use my church to fulfil some childhood dream of becoming Spider Man, or the Man of Steel, or the Cape Crusader. Emergent Church people, sometimes feel like they are using Church to do this very thing.

People, don't use church tu fulfil your unfulfilled dreams. If you are not Spider Man, or an actor, don't pretend to be.

This is how somebody reported this crazy act:
Pastor or more accurately wannabe Broadway sensation David Hughes of Church Circus by the Glades, this past Sunday decided that it was time to recreate the famous kiss scene from the Spiderman movie during church.
And  here it's the video to see it:

Monday, October 22, 2012

Haddon Robinson on Preaching

Robinson is spot on.  He is one of the best preachers I've ever heard. His preaching way more than compensates for his looks.

Listen to him, and learn from a master of preaching. I wll post one of his sermons another day.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

52 tips about Apologetics

These are not originally mine, rather, they are from Brian Auten, from apologetics315.com

I hope these help you in your apologetics endeavours.


1. Be first a person of prayer with a goal to know the Lord.
2. Be a continual reader.
3. Know both sides of the issues.
4. Listen to as many good lectures as possible.
5. Listen to every debate you can get your hands on.
6. Learn from the best debaters.
7. Learn from the worst debaters. (what not to do)
8. Find a mentor if you can.
9. Apologetics is not a boxing match; it’s walking along side another in dialogue.
10. You’re not in it to win arguments; you are in it to win people.
11. Be mindful of your spiritual life above your apologetics studies.
12. Allow your apologetics studies to be worship unto the Lord.
13. Your wife doesn’t want to hear about your online debates.
14. Don’t talk about apologetics at the dinner table, unless you are with apologetics buddies.
15. Find like-minded friends to fellowship with and reflect on apologetic issues.
16. Get input and feedback from other apologists and mature Christian peers.
17. Pray for the people you are interacting with. If you don’t pray for them, what do you expect to accomplish?
18. Never respond to blog comments in an emotional state. Cool off first and pray.
19. Remember, you don’t have to win the whole world.
20. Study how Jesus interacted and communicated with people.
21. Remember that you have the truth.
22. Pray all the time.
23. Spend time with your family.
24. Enjoy worship at your church.
25. Get away from the apologetics stuff for a while regularly.
26. Avoid taking extreme views and ignoring other options.
27. Study logic and critical thinking; it will help you more than you can imagine.
28. Get into public speaking and learn communication skills. And learn to spell.
29. Always seek first to win the person.
30. You don’t have to respond to every possible objection.
31. Study theology alongside or before you get into apologetics.
32. Study and understand different apologetic methodologies and don’t defend your method to the death.
33. Read Pascal’s Pensées.
34. Read stuff that challenges you to think hard.
35. Be humble; you know so little.
36. Draw from the expertise of others.
37. Specialize if you can.
38. Understand the spiritual condition of those you are interacting with.
39. Understand the psychological reasons people have for holding their views.
40. Admit it when you are wrong.
41. Realize that there is no end to the subject; get in it for the long haul.
42. Don’t rush your studies.
43. Don’t be a hypocrite. Stay pure.
44. Poor character will destroy your apologetics.
45. An apologist is ultimately an evangelist; so first know how to share the Gospel well.
46. In evangelism, start with the Gospel and use apologetics only if the need arises.
47. Realize that not everyone at your church is going to be as excited about apologetics as you are.
48. Apologetics is about loving people; remove the love from your apologetic and you fail.
49. You don’t have to know every answer, just where to go to get the answers.
50. Apologetics can bolster faith and dispel doubt, but it cannot bend the will.
51. The results are up to the Lord.
52. At the end of the day, are you walking with Jesus?

What would you add?

Sermon on Philemon chapter 1:1-7




Saturday, October 20, 2012

Another one who couldn't handle fame, and went off the rails


I never liked the guy, always felt that he was using his church to get ahead in life.

Well, now we know, and another one bites the dust.

Chart topper Guy Sebastian has spoken in favour of same-sex marriage.He also revealed he has changed many of his religious beliefs since being painted as the poster boy for church during his Australian Idol days (Herald Sun 11/10/12 p7). Please pray for Guy.

Some thoughts on the Church


Many Christians treat the church not like their mother, but like their mistress.  They visit her only when they want something. 

By Jim West

Why I don't follow Dispensationalism

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Dinesh D'Souza accused of adultery

I don't like these types of news, since a good friend of mine, was accused of rape by a young girl, that turned out to be false. But if we stay quite about this, then we are blamed by our enemies of turning a blind eye.

So, here it's the news from Huffington Post.


NEW YORK — A conservative scholar behind a high-grossing documentary that condemns President Barack Obama is under investigation by the evangelical college he leads over a report he took a woman who is not his wife to an event on Christian values. 
The King's College board announced the review on Tuesday, the day the conservative Christian newsmagazine WORLD reported event organizers had confronted Dinesh D'Souza about sharing a hotel room with a woman he introduced as his fiancee. D'Souza filed for divorce from his wife, Dixie D'Souza, a few days after the conference, California court records show.

I have had another friend, who made a similar mistake. But in D'Souza's case, he was separated, however, still not divorced. So this may had been a terrible lapse of judgment.

In a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press, Dinesh D'Souza, who became president of The King's College in 2010, said he and his wife have been "living in a state of separation for two years." He denied sharing the hotel room with the other woman. 
"Obviously, I wouldn't have introduced her as my fiancee if I thought we were doing anything improper," D'Souza said, adding they have called off their engagement. 
The college, which was located in the Empire State Building before moving this year to lower Manhattan, aims to shape young Christians as future leaders in all sectors of society.
 Well, this shows that no matter how good a debater you are, we are not beyond temptation, or acting stupid. He has filed for divorce, and may even get divorced soon, but this is a strong hit against the apologetics community. But this is also a warning shot, that being a good apologists does not mean you are a saint.

I pray for D'Souza and those who are hurting because of this incident. May there be grace and repentance of all the ones involved.

Good definitions of what Systematic and Biblical Theologies are

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Nine Marks of a False Prophet, according to Zwingli

You may know of 9 Mark Ministries, the ministry emphasises on those 9 marks that the church needs to show in order to be a healthy church.

However, in this entry, I offer to you 9 marks of false teachers, penned by Zwingli.

I hope they may resonate with you, and help you to discern those who are false and those who are true shepherds.
1. All who do not teach are nothing but wolves, though they might be called shepherd, bishop, or king. See in this connection how many teaching bishops there are.2. Those who teach their own dreams rather than the word of God are wolves.3. Those who teach the word of God, yet not to the honor of God, but for themselves and their head, the Pope, for protection of their fabricated high station, are harmful wolves, coming in sheep’s clothing.4. Those who teach already and teach even with the word of God, but do not, however, disturb the greatest aggravators, the leaders, but allow their tyranny to grow, are flattering wolves or traitors of the people.5. Those who do not practice with works what they teach with the word are nothing among the Christian people, destroying much more with their works than they build with their words.6. Those who do not pay attention to the poor but let them be oppressed and burdened, are false shepherds.7. Those who wear the name of shepherd, yet rule in the worldly sense are the most evil werewolves.8. Those who gather riches, filling sack, purse, storehouse and cellar are true werewolves. And finally, those who do other things with doctrine than undertaking to plant the knowledge, love and childlike fear of God among the people are false shepherds. They must soon be removed from the sheep or they will devour them entirely.9. Therefore it is easy to understand that all those are false shepherds who lead from the Creator to the creature. 

Thursday, October 11, 2012

The USA is not a Protestant nation anymore

This was long coming. The USA has embraced multiculturalism like Australia has, and therefore, have no backbone in the faith the helped the country.

AP starts its news piece this way:
For the first time in its history, the United States does not have a Protestant majority, according to a new study. One reason: The number of Americans with no religious affiliation is on the rise.
So, it's not that they are turning to Catholicism as some have suggested, but those who are not affiliated with a historical church, or those non-denominational churches, are not considered Protestants at all.


The percentage of Protestant adults in the U.S. has reached a low of 48 percent, the first time that Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has reported with certainty that the number has fallen below 50 percent. The drop has long been anticipated and comes at a time when no Protestants are on the U.S. Supreme Court and the Republicans have their first presidential ticket with no Protestant nominees. 
Among the reasons for the change are the growth in nondenominational Christians who can no longer be categorized as Protestant, and a spike in the number of American adults who say they have no religion. The Pew study, released Tuesday, found that about 20 percent of Americans say they have no religious affiliation, an increase from 15 percent in the last five years.


Just as Europe is turning more and more secular, the USA has also adopted the same approach, and this is alarming for those who have always considered that the USA is an exceptional nation, because it is, as they say, a Christian nation:
Growth among those with no religion has been a major preoccupation of American faith leaders who worry that the United States, a highly religious country, would go the way of Western Europe, where church attendance has plummeted. Pope Benedict XVI has partly dedicated his pontificate to combating secularism in the West. This week in Rome, he is convening a three-week synod, or assembly, of bishops from around the world aimed at bringing back Roman Catholics who have left the church.
As this trend continues, it is sure to affect the politics of the the USA.
The trend also has political implications. American voters who describe themselves as having no religion vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. Pew found Americans with no religion support abortion rights and gay marriage at a much higher-rate than the U.S. public at large. These "nones" are an increasing segment of voters who are registered as Democrats or lean toward the party, growing from 17 percent to 24 percent over the last five years. The religiously unaffiliated are becoming as important a constituency to Democrats as evangelicals are to Republicans, Pew said. 
There was a belief that the USA was different from Europe, because of its religiosity, that although it was a wealthy nation, it still had a faith to rely on. Well, as the Guardian Newspaper reports, that's only an illusion:
Researchers have been struggling for decades to find a definitive reason for the steady rise in those with no religion. The spread of secularism in western Europe was often viewed as a byproduct of growing wealth in the region. Yet among industrialised nations, the US stood out for its deep religiosity in the face of increasing wealth.

Both news sources point to the fact that there are no Protestants in the Supreme Court, and that the Republican presidential candidates, both are not Protestants. That, in the party that is considered the bastion of Protestantism.

Is this a sign that Protestantism as an experiment has failed? Catholics have not done well either. It is very interesting that such a study comes in the month when Protestantism celebrates its birth!!

Regardless of the final assessment we give to this finding, it shows that the thought of the USA as a Christian nation, is now just a myth.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Cambridge Journals Online - Fulltext

Here it's an example of a good scholarly article.

I hope you can have a look, and appreciate this find New Testament Journal. It always has something good to offer.

Cambridge Journals Online - Fulltext

Friday, October 5, 2012

Atheists do crazy things too. Like running naked declaring there is no god.

Atheists always blame us Christians for doing crazy things, such as believing there's a God we believe in.

But if we just take a closer look at them, they also do crazy things in the name of their weird beliefs, or rather, unbeliefs. Take a look a this.


A math professor at Michigan State University allegedly stripped naked, ran naked through his classroom and screamed "There is no f*cking God!" before police apprehended him, according to several reports.
The professor's name has not yet been released, but online, students said he was "eccentric," and that they "could probably have seen this coming."
And from one of the students a the University, listen to his side of the events:

Background story: I was in Calc 1 at Michigan State University, and my teacher was always pretty eccentric, but today he went overboard. Half way through class, he started screaming at us -- swearing left and right. He then started slamming his hands on the window and pressing his face against it, still screaming. Eventually he walked out and down the hallway to the end, all while screaming. He then came back into the classroom and took off his clothes, except for his socks. You know someones crazy when they leave their socks on lmao. At this point everyone in class ran out. We were literally scared for our lives. The police took about 15 minutes to get here, and during this time he continued walking around screaming. 

So there you go, atheists also act crazy, and do delusional things.