Where Are the Dads?

I read an article today at Parent Dish about dads helping their daughter understand sex from the man's point of view. It's interesting that at the end of the article was a plug for Planned Parenthood. I personally have never heard of this topic as a church sermon. But I think it should be. When I see how young teen Christian women are dressed in church nowadays (including the daughters of elders) I absolutely wonder if their fathers are blind to allow their daughters to go out that way. Why? BECAUSE men know what young men are going to think and perhaps DO. It just amazes me that a Christian dad would set up his daughter for "being used" and the rejection that almost always comes afterwards. I don't even mean sexually used. Just used.

If you wish to read the entire article, go here.

Quote of the Week

We cannot be changed by altering a few of our bad habits. Reformation will not do, for the disease of sin has captured our very life system. We need regeneration, a new heart.

___Will Metzer


Source:http://www.challies.com

More on "Christian" Yoga

I am finally seeing a few (although very,very few) Christian leaders talk about the dangers of so-called "Christian" yoga. But pastors need to clue in fast on this topic. Most churches that are doing this, from what I see, get this from women leaders in their churches. Where we used to have Biblical-oriented inspirational speakers at women's conferences, we now have quasi-new age speakers bringing in every kind of eastern religious pracitice. Here are excerpts from a great article from the president of the Southern Baptist Thelogical Seminary, Albert Mohler, who weighs in on this subject.


...a significant number of American Christians either experiment with yoga or become adherents of some yoga discipline. Most seem unaware that yoga cannot be neatly separated into physical and spiritual dimensions. The physical is the spiritual in yoga, and the exercises and disciplines of yoga are meant to connect with the divine.

Douglas R. Groothuis, Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary and a respected specialist on the New Age Movement, warns Christians that yoga is not merely about physical exercise or health. “All forms of yoga involve occult assumptions,” he warns, “even hatha yoga, which is often presented as a merely physical discipline.” While most adherents of yoga avoid the more exotic forms of ritualized sex that are associated with tantric yoga, virtually all forms of yoga involve an emphasis on channeling sexual energy throughout the body as a means of spiritual enlightenment.


The head of the Hindu Association in America basically says the same thing as Mohler does. Liten to the next thing Mohler says.


Many Americans attempt to deny or minimize the spiritual aspects of yoga — to the great consternation of many in India.

Please do read this entire article here.


Years ago there was a fascinating book by a young American woman who grew up in Mexico and saw first hand the psychic stuff going on (especially within the Catholic Church). When she moved to the United States she became involved in the New Age movement. She later became a Christian and wrote her book, which was entitled The Beautiful Side of Evil. Her name is Johanna Michaelson and she has popped up again in a video. She talks about how the occult is now getting into churches (and yes, she mentions yoga too). Oh, did I mention she is Hal Lindsey's sister-in-law? If you listen to those who have come out of Hinduism, Buddhism, satanism, witchcraft, new age, and so forth, they all say the same thing. And what they say is yoga and the "Contemplative Spirituality" business is occultic? Perhaps we should listen to these folks. Johanna Michaelson's video is here.

Synthesis

I want to spend the next few posts on synthesis -- as in Hegelian synthesis. This has become satan's favorite tool in the quest to dilute Christianity in this postmodern era. To review, the Hegelian dialectic, which originally was applied to historical eras, is now being used for everything, including in the area of religion.


Thesis<------------>Antithesis
(a/the truth)<----->The Thesis' opposite truth

............Synthesis.............
A combining of the two


For a great intro to how this is being introduced in religion go to this link and look at the bumper sticker. A thanks to Bob at
Onward, Forward, Toward for alerting me to this great link.

Bumper sticker link: Go here.

A Good Definition of a Christian

Today, more than ever that I remember in my lifetime, evangelicals are confused about what a "Christian is." Some say it is the born-again" experience, while others say it is doing good and loving people. Here is a quote from 19th century pastor, Charlies Spurgeon, that I think sums it all up fairly well and strikes at the heart of the problem today--which is a division of the two aspects he is talking about below,


You will never find true faith unattended by true godliness; on the other hand, you will never discover a truly holy life which has not for its root a living faith upon the righteousness of Christ. Woe unto those who seek after the one without the other!

There are some who cultivate faith and forget holiness; these may be very high in orthodoxy, but they shall be very deep in condemnation, for they hold the truth in unrighteousness; and there are others who have strained after holiness of life, but have denied the faith, like the Pharisees of old, of whom the Master said, they were ”whitewashed sepulchres.”

We must have faith, for this is the foundation; we must have holiness of life, for this is the superstructure.
....But seek not a holy life without faith, for that would be to erect a house which can afford no permanent shelter, because it has no foundation on a rock. Let faith and life be put together, and, like the two abutments of an arch, they will make our piety enduring.


Source:http://apprising.org/2010/09/18/charles-spurgeon-how-to-master-experimental-theology/

Makes Sense to Me...sort of

Over the past few weeks I’ve had a chance to speak with senior economic policy makers in America and Germany and I think I’ve figured out where we are. It’s like this: things are getting better, except where they aren’t. The bailouts are working, except where they’re not. Things will slowly get better, unless they slowly get worse. We should know soon, unless we don’t.

Thomas Freidman....Aug. 18, 2010...NYTimes

Are Church Integrationists - Hypocrits?

There's a lot of fuss about the supposed "segregation" of races in churches. In another post here I brought up the fact that perhaps other races and ethnic groups didn't want to come to our churches, preferring their own language/manner of worship. That doesn't seem to occur to the "church integrationists." For the record, I want to see all types of races and ethnicities stting toether in churches, but I feel it is insulting to minorities to insist they come to our churches. Why don't we go to their churches? I never hear this suggestion from the "church integrationists."

But let's suppose a miracle occurs and other racial and ethnic peoples swarm into our churches. Here is what will happen, I can assure you, because it's already happening in churches that do attract a variety of people. The black members will sit together; the Asians will sit together. Well, actually the Japanese will sit together in one section; Philippinos in another section; Koreans in another section, and so forth. the Latinos will sit together, and the Whites will segregate according to age. Then after church, the racial/ethnic groups will go together on their way, not integrated for the most part, with the exception of some brave and friendly souls who make a real effort to get through this segregation within the church. And, that is what I want churches to do. I want them to admit right out loud that their racial integration experiment really isn't working, that all they are interested in, really is saying, "well, at least got 'them' into our church." We need to admit that until we solve the problem of how to really get people together within the church, we are simply hypocrits "playing" at integration, trying to look "good" to other churches, and the society in general. After all, we must be politically correct mustn't we?

Instead of worrying about being politically correct, why don't we work on why true integration isn't happening in our churches? Or. perhaps it shouldn't. Maybe we white folks should just allow others to worship where they want to. Or, maybe not.

What do you think?

Quote of the Week

"If what we believe does not reflect truth,
then what we believe does not reflect reality."

M. Horton on the Koran Burning

As usual, Reformationist Michael Horton weighs in with very good right-on comments about this Koran burning event,


Burning the Qur’an is wrong for the following reasons:
(1) It confuses the proclamation of Christ with violent conflict, justifying the suspicions of our secular and Muslim neighbors that Christianity is also a quasi-political movement;
(2) It puts our neighbors around the world at risk, Christian and non-Christian, military and civilian;
(3) It puts our brothers and sisters at greater risk, not for the gospel, but for an easy act of desperation that avoids the difficult sacrifice that fellow Christians around the world are making daily in their witness to God’s saving love in Christ.


Source:http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/2010/09/09/michael-hortons-follow-up-to-burning-books-or-proclaiming-christ

Another Nail in the Coffin

Well, another black-eye to the evangelical movement in the eyes of the average American citizen. The Florida church that is going to burn the Koran is the latest crazy in the "evangelical political circus." And guess what? Read this article at smoking gun and you will find the real problem here. It's a cult church. Of course. It doesn't take a genius to figure out, after all these decades, that many of these anti-abortion, anti-homosexual, anti-whatever (muslim, Koran) are cult groups. This really isn't about the Koran just like many of the anti-abortion ahd anti-same-sex-marriage foes aren't reallt about those subjects as much as gaining control. It really is about control and cultism. When I first heard about this church in Florida, I said to myself, "I bet this chruch doesn't have too many members (less than 50 actually) and I bet it is tightly controlled. To see just how controlled it is, go to the smoking gun site above and at the end of the article, click on the church's handbook for ministry. Like most cults, you cannot contact family members or outside friends, eat sugary food and many other cultic traits.

What should evangelical leaders do with these types of churches? Every leader should stand up and say something like this:

While we don't condone sharia law, we do not agree with any Koran burning.

The way to shut these cults down amongst us is to speak out against them so they have absolutely no traction.

Again, this is NOT about Islam or the Koran IN THIS CASE. It's about control and cultism which is NOT fromt he Spirit of God.

Softening up Christianity for the Next Stage

If you look back to what I call "intermediaries" between true Christianity and a quite liberal branch in American religious history, you will see that the Unitarians were making inroads as early as the early 18th century. In response to the threat they made to Presbyterian pastorates, two Presbyterian pastors in Delaware headed a movement to require their pastors to assent to the major portions of the Westminster Confession. There was a lot of opposition to this, including flack from Benjamin Franklin who liked a certain Unitarian-PResbyterian pastor in his hometown of Philadelphia. The Unitarians kept making inroads until they took over Congregationalist Harvard and later Yale. I believe this "softened" up the country to the liberal Protestant take over of the very same main line denominations that "danced around with" the Unitarians.

Today, the liberal Protestants have softened up the country for the emergent, which is a synthesis religion of parts of Christianity with ma ny other religions. It's certainly good to constantly question what today is erroneously called "fundamental" Christianity, but there is a line we dare not cross--that which is too far away from the events of the cross and resurrection.

In the post, Prequisite for Membership, Tim Challies quotes R. C. Sproul. For emergents whose stinging criticism of evangelical churches is really begin to bug me, I think this excerpt is exceptional.


What happens is that people observe church members sinning. They reason within themselves, “That person professes to be a Christian. Christians aren’t supposed to sin. That person is sinning; therefore, he is a hypocrite.” The unspoken assumption is that a Christian is one who claims he does not sin. It reality just the opposite is the case. For a Christian to be a Christian, he must first be a sinner. Being a sinner is a prerequisite for being a church member. The Christian church is one of the few organizations in the world that requires a public acknowledgement of sin as a condition for membership. In one sense the church has fewer hypocrites than any institution because by definition the church is a haven for sinners. If the church claimed to be an organization of perfect people then her claim would be hypocritical. But no such claim is made by the church. There is no slander in the charge that the church is full of sinners. Such a statement would only compliment the church for fulfilling her divinely appointed task.

The Glenn Beck Fiasco

Regarding the weekend Rally with Glenn Beck recently held

From Frank Pastori (former pro baseball player and Chritian talk show host of one of largest call-in talk Christian programs in the country)
"This isn't a political rally....He (Beck) said it was a spiritual one....He's a Mormon. Do Mormons worship the same God as Evangelicals...Wonder if a muslim was leading it?...Can you be saved IF you have the wrong Jesus?"

From Worldview Weekend Newsletter
"Beck and these evangelical leaders have sent the message that it is acceptable for millions of "Christians" to embrace humanistic spirituality and paganism for the purpose of social activism and social change."

"Beck said that the Native American Indians are God's chosen people. That is Mormon theology."

"Beck said that those Christians that won't unite with this movement are bigoted."

"Glenn Beck has accomplished what Oprah Winfrey or Shirley McClain could not. I believe that Beck used his conservative veneer and doublespeak to co-opt leaders of the religious right. Beck and these evangelical leaders have sent the message that it is acceptable for millions of "Christians" to embrace humanistic spirituality and paganism for the purpose of social activism and social change."


From Brannon Howse
"A Mormon writer for the LDS Examiner declares a 200 year victory because Glenn Beck has succeeded in getting evangelical pastors to declare that Mormons are Christians. Is this not what we warned these pastors about? Did we not tell them this would happen?"

John McTernan
"Most of The Church is so Pitifully Weak that a Mormon Can Now Lead God's People. (John McTernan writes about both rallies he attended)

My heart is very heavy as I write this. I attended two events led by Glen Beck. Friday night, I was at the Kennedy Center for a Glen Beck special. He had a gospel choir singing with a mixed group of speakers. Beck was freely talking about the "LORD." There were speakers from other religions. He was talking about the need for a spiritual revival, who can argue about that! The problem is that Beck is a Mormon with a different Jesus. There were several prayers offered at this event and NONE were made in the name of Jesus. I was deeply grieved after I left."

My comment?
I've been saying here for a while now that the discernment of Christians, including our evangelical so-called "leaders," is sorely lacking. What is happening now is certainly an indication of it. Some are saying Beck's rally was just one more step toward a one-world religion. I agree, especially when you understand the goal of postmodern thought as a fusion of opposites to achieve unity. Many, if not most Christians, and especially younger Christians, are falling for this Hegelian fusion-synthesis -- hook, line and sinker. I hate to see what is next on satan's docket.