Re-post 04-25-2011

The Second Church Father on the Must Read list is Martin Luther
His 2 best works are "Bondage of the Will" and his Commentary on the book of Galatians.
Here are a couple links for those:

http://www.covenanter.org/Luther/Bondage/bow_toc.htm
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/luther/galatians.i.html

 Here are a few Choice Luther Quotes to get you through the day:

"Free will is a downright lie"-Martin Luther (BOTW-p.16)

"If any man ascribes anything of salvation, even the very least thing, to the free will of man, he knows nothing of grace, and he has not learned Jesus Christ rightly." - Martin Luther

Since free will is plainly a divine term, and can be rightly applied only to God - himself; then those who would extend/ascribe that term unto men commit "the greatest of all sacrilege". (BOTW-p.59)


"It seems a small matter to mingle the Law and Gospel, faith and works, but it creates more mischief than man’s brain can conceive. To mix Law and Gospel not only clouds the knowledge of grace, it cuts out Christ altogether."-Martin Luther (COG-ch 1 vs 7)

"No man can say that we are seeking the favor and praise of men with our doctrine. We (Protestants/Lutherans/Reformers/Christians) teach that all men are naturally depraved. We condemn man’s free will, his strength, wisdom, and righteousness. We say that we obtain grace by the free mercy of God alone for Christ’s sake. This is no preaching to please men. This sort of preaching procures for us the hatred and disfavor of the world, persecutions, excommunications, murders, and curses."- Martin Luther (COG- ch 1 vs 10)

Re-post from 04-23-2011

The first Church Father on the Must read list is Augustine of Hippo and his work titled: "On the Predestination of the Saints" @428 AD

(here is a link if you want the whole thing-)http://www.covenanter.org/Predestination/augustin_predestination.htmlHere is just a sample of Chapter headings -  EVEN THE BEGINNING OF FAITH IS OF GOD'S GIFTIT IS GOD'S GRACE WHICH SPECIALLY DISTINGUISHES ONE MAN FROM ANOTHER  THAT SOME MEN ARE ELECTED IS OF GOD'S MERCY   WHY THE APOSTLE SAID THAT WE ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH AND NOT BY WORKS THE EFFECT OF DIVINE GRACEWHY THE GIFT OF FAITH IS NOT GIVEN TO ALLIT IS TO BE WONDERED AT THAT MEN SHOULD RATHER TRUST TO THEIR OWN WEAKNESS THAN TO GOD'S STRENGTH  GOD'S DEALING DOES NOT DEPEND UPON ANY CONTINGENT MERITS OF MEN THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS INSTANCE OF PREDESTINATION IS CHRIST JESUS  CHRIST PREDESTINATED TO BE THE SON OF GOD THE SPECIAL CALLING OF THE ELECT IS NOT BECAUSE THEY HAVE BELIEVED, BUT IN ORDER THAT THEY MAY BELIEVE  WE WERE ELECTED AND PREDESTINATED, NOT BECAUSE WE WERE GOING TO BE HOLY, BUT IN ORDER THAT WE MIGHT BE SO This small treatise alone would have saved me from years wasted in false teaching, under false teachersMy sincerest prayer is that it has the same effect on you. BPH - Sola Deo Gloria (Latin-To God Alone be the Glory)

The Worst Heresy of them all! - Phil Johnson

For someone who knows a lot about Christian Heresies (me) this class by Phil Johnson was a big eyeopener.

(click the link below to listen- every Christian should be required to listen to it & take notes!)

Socinianism- the wost Heresy of them all!

I think my wife's a Calvinist!

Check out this you tube video

Super funny and kinda true.

Check out Closet Calvinst @http://closetcalvinist.com/

I'm reviewing this new site I found today, I may add it to our list of suggested cites at the bottom of my cite for quick reference. So far so good: http://closetcalvinist.com/

THIRTY-FIFTH EVENING LECTURE
September 18, 1885

Jesus says regarding Himself in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Peter confirms this statement in Acts 4:12 when he declares before the Jewish Sanhedrin, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Paul adds his testimony by telling his Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Truly, then, it is a great and awful sin not to draw any soul that has been entrusted to us for instruction to Jesus and not to tell that soul again and again what a treasure it has in the Lord Jesus, its Savior. To keep someone from believing in Christ is such an awful sin that words cannot express it. A preacher who restrains a soul from confidently laying hold of Christ, whether he does it consciously or unconsciously, purposely or from blindness, through malice or as the result of a perverted zeal for the salvation of souls, deprives that soul, as far as he is concerned, of everlasting life. Instead of being a shepherd to that soul, he becomes a ravening wolf to it. Instead of being its physician, he becomes its murderer. Instead of being an angel of God, he becomes a devil to that person. Alas, so many preachers have not realized until their dying day how many souls they have kept away from Christ by their unevangelical preaching and by their own fault have caused the souls entrusted to them to die of spiritual starvation. The result was that these unhappy preachers shortly before their death have had a severe soul battle to fight with self-accusations and despair, and not a few of them have departed this life without consolation, in anguish, misery, and despair.
The worst offenders in this respect are the so-called Rationalistic preachers, who with devilish audacity mount Christian pulpits and instead of preaching Christ, the Savior, to all sinners, recite their miserable moral precepts for a virtuous life and fill the ears of the people with their empty blather. To these Rationalistic mercenaries, “Whose God is their belly” as it says in Philippians 3:19, the terrible woe is addressed, even in our day, which the Lord denounced in Matthew 23:13 saying, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.” What terror shall seize these preachers who used to call themselves friends and adorers of Jesus Christ when they must appear before His judgement seat and hear Him address them in words of flaming anger, “And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Matthew 7:23
- C. F. W. Walther

In two paragraphs Walther explains why I left my church. If a pastor isn’t preaching the Gospel, but instead replaces it with life tips for living well, how to have a better sex life, how to make every day a Friday, etc., he is leading people to hell rather than leading them to Christ who is offering far better than any of these things. Not only is this pastor a distraction, but he is a hindrance, opposing people who would look to Christ.

There are no Arminians just Semi-Pelagians and Pelagians!

Descent from Arminianism to Seeker Driven Pelagianism 

(No offense meant to the Closet Calvinist but I have be more careful in explaining Free-Will Pelagianism vs Free-Will Semi-Pelagianism in this article - but still very good)

Ed Young Junior of Fellowship Church made news this Sunday for his absurd rant against Calvinism that he gave as his “sermon” this week. His argument is a total strawman, and even then I think it got a few hits in on him before he took it down.

His rant lead to a lot of discussion about his theology he holds to and the effects of it.
Calvinists believe that “salvation is of the Lord.” That is, that God does all the work in regards to a person coming to repentance and faith for the forgiveness of their sins. God the Father sent His Son to die in our place, God elects who will be saved, and the Holy Spirit carries out the work of regenerating the heart of the sinner and giving them faith so they will repent and trust in Christ the Savior.

The Arminian view differs somewhat in that they believe that at the regeneration stage the sinner is restored to the point that they can choose whether to repent and trust in Christ. Thus, ultimately the sinner can still choose to defy God and not be saved.

The Arminian view still credits God with most of the work in salvation, but tries to maintain a semblance of man’s free will.

When the Arminian view isn’t taught correctly, or more commonly, isn’t really taught at all in churches that hold to it. People tend to start believing in something different, that is Pelagianism. This heretical view believes that man, by his own volition, can choose to repent and trust Christ on his own at any time, or rather can  choose to obey God at any time.

In evangelism Pelagians and many Arminians tend to try to do the work of the Holy Spirit themselves, believing that it is their job to convince a man to repent and trust the Savior. Victory for them tends to end in convincing someone to repeat an unbiblical “sinner’s prayer” to “ask Jesus into their hearts” and then they are affirmed in their salvation by the pastor who lead them in this prayer. Where is the Holy Spirit in this? Hopefully he convicted their hearts and regenerated them that they may repent and believe. But, typically there is little concern for true contrition.

When this is combined with a misunderstanding of the purpose of the church service, the church service becomes a time of evangelism rather than a time of feeding and equipping the saints.
This leads to what is known as the “seeker driven church.” Ed Young’s church is a fine example of what a seeker driven church is. It is a church for the unchurched, that is, a church for the purpose of evangelism to the unconverted and not for the saints.

Unfortunately, unbelievers don’t tend to have the desire to sit under solid biblical preaching. You know, because they haven’t been regenerated and all that. They are by nature haters of God, so hearing Christ preached to them just doesn’t really fit with their desires.

Ed Young Junior uses his Ferrari as a sermon illustration

To combat this the seeker driven churches tend to stop preaching Christ, ignore the proper use of the Law (that is, to show our guilt and need for the Savior), and replace the Gospel with a system of works. To attract the unbelievers they try to be relevant and cool. For example, Ed Young believes that the way he dresses and the  car he drives can influence who will come to his church. So, he wears a girdle and got Botox to make him more attractive, drove a Ferrari on the stage at his church to show how cool Jesus is, brought wild animals into the church as gimmicks for his sermons about the traits of these animals, does the “Baby Shark song” with his congregation as part of the sermon, and spends a night on the church roof with his wife to show people that they need to have more sex in their marriages. The typical seeker driven sermon allegorizes the biblical text to make it about the hearer, and gives practical life tips to make your life better.

The idea then is that if he can get people into the church with these gimmicks he can keep them there by entertaining them and get them to “follow Jesus” by being obedient. There is no need for the Holy Spirit in this work, because there is no Gospel, and no forgiveness of sins, just the command to obey a watered down version of the law and God will make your life better.

funny post from the Closet Calvinist

The five strips of Bacon

The classic 5 point TULIP.

You’ve probably heard of the 5 Points of Calvinism. Maybe you’ve even memorized them using the TULIP acronym, but now there is a new expression of those 5 points. This one should be a bit more appetizing and palatable to those who are offended by flowers or by the big theological words used in the typical TULIP.

Unfortunately, some people hate flowers, or are otherwise offended by the TULIP illustration. Okay, so, yes they are more likely offended by the Doctrines of Grace that the TULIP represents, but play along, please. In order to be a little less offensive, and a little more tasteful, things had to change.
Without any further adieu, I bring you the new acronym. From the folks who probably didn’t bring you TULIP, I bring you the new, more appetizing, more palatable,  and slightly less kosher, acronym BACON.

• Bad People
• Already Elected
• Completely Atoned for
• Overwhelming called
• Never falling away

Unfortunately, the new illustration, while piggybacking on the former TULIP illustration, lacks a little bit of the theological accuracy of TULIP, which wasn’t all that accurate to Calvinism anyway. But, it does seem to whet the appetite a bit more.

I didn’t come up with the new acronym, but I thought it was rather clever and somewhat amusing. I hope you got at least a chuckle out of it.

God Bless, and enjoy the BACON!