Saturday, October 29, 2016

ROCK SOLID FAITH FOR TROUBLED TIMES - PART 4

FOLLOW THE LAWGIVER, NOT MAN'S TRADITIONS
Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. (Colossians 2:16)
The third warning from the Apostle Paul is even more relevant today with a certain small percentage of Christians returning to the “living under the Law” by becoming part of the Hebrew Roots Movement and other Torah-centric streams of religion, which do not line up with Scripture at all.  Some follow the tenets of the traditions of men and do things which are not prescribed in the Bible.

The traditions of men tells us to fast on certain days and then do not fast here but fast there. Then these tell us not to eat meat on certain days but eat fish on this day only and on. Some measure the length of hair, dresses and ban make up on women or even certain musical instruments.  Are these done to prevent Christians from being themselves or even having “fun” at church? Maybe.

What it really could be is the human instinct to be in control, rather than obey the dictates of God while operating freely within His parameters. He HAS given us a huge measure of freedom. He has even given us the freedom to mess up and then make it right. However when it comes to His work, His Word and His Church, it is preferable that we NOT go extra-biblical or chasing after man-created doctrines of cheap grace.

Another thing to look out for is what Paul warned about in Galatians with the Judaizers.  These were people who said they were following “The Way” (the name Christians were described before they were called “Christians” for the first time at Antioch). They claimed to believe and follow the Teachings of the Lord Jesus, but brought over all 613 Laws of the Old Testament with them and then tried to force born-again non-Jewish believers to follow the impossible.  

There are new versions of the Judaizers today and the main one fall under the umbrella of the “Hebrew Roots” movement.  The Hebrew Roots movement are really nice gentle folks, who have good intentions of obeying God to the max, yet choose to follow Torah (or the very Letter of ever dietary and other law, including the Ten Commandments). The problem with this is that no human being can ever, in all the history of humanity, keep every letter of every Law of God – all the time.  Ever! So this is why God sent His Son – the Messiah Yeshua/Yahweh – to be the “propitiation”  or satisfaction of the Obedience of Every Letter of all the Law, which He did at the Cross.

Anything other than trusting in the very fact that Jesus has paid it all and only HE can forgive our transgressions against the Holiness of God is virtually looking for judgment under the Law. What the Hebrew Roots movement, where I have a good friend deeply involved, is putting on themselves is a load which they cannot ever carry, while they lose the true meaning of Grace! With this burden comes anxiety, trepidation, fear and minutiae which prevents the authentic believer in Christ from resting in Him…His Truth…and the Joy His Salvation brings.

The Hebrew Roots movement is not the only philosophy of man which can divert us from the pure milk and honey of the Gospel, but at this time, it is one of the most popular ones drawing Christians out of churches into an almost ascetic lifestyle, that goes against Jesus’ Prayer for His followers in John 17:20-26. The Roots movement, it’s older cousin the Messianic Torah-centric UMJC and others affect conduct in attempting to fulfill an already fulfilled Law. Things like Mormonism etc are cults which have nothing to do with the Bible, the Gospel of Jesus or the Kingdom of Heaven.
(Click here for more on the "Hebrew Roots Movement" and here)


The bottom line, in all these three warnings from the Apostle Paul to the Colossians, is – as it was then, it is now. We MUST be vigilant and be on the alert as Jesus warn us, because our adversary the devil roams around like a roaring lion, ready to devour us. He – the devil – uses strange and evil teachings and philosophies to distract us from the beauty and simplicity of the Gospel of Christ. Don’t let him – stay close to God. Read the Bible, it’s great for the soul (Max Mclean).

Friday, October 21, 2016

ROCK SOLID FAITH FOR TROUBLED TIMES - PART 3

BEWARE OF THE FALSE THEOLOGY OF THE DAY
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ (Colossians 2:8)
Most folks alive today have an absolute wrong notion of heaven, hell and how a person gets to either future permanent residence. The ignorance concerning these two critical life matters is astounding.   People will pay more attention to what they wear, eat, drive and watch on TV than the condition of their eternal soul…that is, until they wake up on the wrong side of this life. They do not comprehend that God is serious about His Word, His Truth and just about who He lets into His Heavenly Kingdom.  For over a decade of street and other evangelism and speaking in depth with lost souls, I do not need George Barna or Pew Research to tell me that only about 12-15% of people calling themselves Christians are actually born again, or heaven-bound Christians.

This is such an important paradigm for the people of God that Jesus Himself used His own chosen vessel – the Apostle Paul – to warn all Christians for all time, via his (Paul’s) instructions to the Colossians.  Jesus loves His followers and disciples so much that He sent these warnings, for all time, which we will do well to heed, until He returns!

In part 1 of this short series, we looked at two of the most dangerous cultural fads, which are attracting a certain amount of younger Christians for many reasons. First, who is against stress relief, fitness and good health….while dressing cool and listening to mysterious sounds, so you can sound spiritual? Except that these now acceptable western habits are completely anti-Biblical and their adherents will be held to account for them.

Today, we look at the application  to 21st century meaning for verse 8, next, of Colossians 2. Today, we look at the application  to 21st century meaning of this verse. Moving on from the mystic (Contemplative “prayer” and “Mindfulness”, we take a glance at two major strains in the Christian world about which we need to be on guard.

SOCIAL GOSPEL:

Many recent in-depth surveys of millennials who call themselves Christians care more about “social gospel”….than the actual real gospel itself. This is more of a testimony to the socialist and godless indoctrination they received in public schools and colleges than anything else.  While they are correct to care about what happens to the less fortunate and those who need a helping hand, they learned to do it from the viewpoint of a system which is anti-God and anti-Biblical worldviews. Again, to emphasize, there is absolutely nothing wrong with medical missions, caring for the hungry and thirsty and cold. This is Christian Compassion. When it is mandated by a central authority AND when there is NO sharing of the Love of God in Christ, it is just that - good works and nothing else.

James tells us that Faith without Works is dead (James 2:17).  But the so-called “Social Gospel” is a whole other creation, where certain quotations from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount  are not only taken out of context but are the only portions of God’s Word, which the leftists use from the Bible. It would be amusing to see and hear people who do not believe in God, the Bible and Jesus as Lord and Savior.  
WATCH THIS TWO MINUTE VIDEO ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOCIAL "GOSPEL" AND WHO JESUS REALLY IS:


PROSPERITY GOSPEL:
"Name It And Claim It"
Along with the godless “Social Gospel”, comes another corruption of the Truth of Christ, which the Lord is warning about in the Scriptures. The Bible is the living Word of God, sharper than any two edged sword and for all time, until He returns.  Some practitioners  of the equally as ungodly Prosperity Gospel are so worldly, devoid of any Godly wisdom that they are just as dangerous to the eternal souls of their followers as the social gospel people.

The faulty Prosperity Gospel Theology used to be also called the “Health and Wealth” Theology, until people realized that you can’t “sow a seed” to some flim-flam crooked TV preacher wearing a $5000 suit and your terminal disease, from 40 years of smoking would go away. The Word Faith movement, led by some of the most popular people you will see on Christian Television, survives but they have mastered the art of making some of it sound Biblical.

Let’s say up front that it is easy to fall prey, via sheer human emotions, to the claims of the health and wealth charlatans when a person is down and out for a long period of time, and it seems like everything is falling apart.  Not- withstanding the plight of our persecuted brothers and sisters in other lands, comfort and life at the ready are staples of the Western Christian. When finances, fortune and fine health go south, who would not be concerned, even to the extreme,  about making the next payment or providing meals next week for the family.

Here is where Trust in the Goodness, Grace and Provision of God comes in. When the Prosperity Proponents proclaim potential wealth if we do “x, y and/or z”, and sometimes appropriate the Name of God or Jesus onto it, people in despair ears may perk on…that is, people who are not FIRMLY grounded in Biblical Truth.  In good times and in bad, the only way to stay in the Will and Wonder of God is to be fully aware of His manifest presence in our lives, through the Holy Spirit embedded in the believer, and then His Word. We MUST know the Bible and how it applies to our lives, if we are to stay true to Him and remain faithful at all times.

Remember just Who the Savior was, in His brief 33 years on earth and remember the fact that we are supposed to model Him. The Creator and Sustainer of ALL things – Jesus, Yahweh, the Alpha and Omega…the Beginning and the End, lived as an ordinary man on earth. He had no palace, no 40 bedroom house with gold fittings, private jet and BMW’s or Mercedes Benz chariots like Copeland, Creflo Dollar or Benny Hinn. The Lord Jesus had no home of His own, no place to sleep on a regular basis and depended on His best friends in Bethany (Mary, Martha and Lazarus) for their kindness and welcoming hospitality.

This is the Jesus we should follow, not the fiction of the prosperity gospel charlatans which will eventually land them and all their followers in hot water one day, before God. This is one of the warnings the Apostle Paul gives us, in Colossians 2:8.
WATCH THIS BRIEF VIDEO FOR MORE ON THIS UNBIBLICAL THEOLOGY:


Saturday, October 8, 2016

ROCK SOLID FAITH FOR TROUBLED TIMES - PART 2

DANGER: SOUL IN PERIL OVER SLY MODERN DECEPTIONS- Mindfulness & Contemplative Prayer
4 Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.
The first warning (Col 2:4 above) concerns deceptive modern ideas about Christianity, Christology and the Certainty of your salvation, which sound good – but are completely ungodly and unbiblical. 

It is almost understandable why even sensible Christians could fall prey to some of the faulty teachings we see and hear these days because they sound so good, even biblical and makes the person feel good. In times of trouble, doubt, temptation and trial, if a brand new well-dressed and well-spoken author/speaker and even singer comes along with a new exciting take on an old problem, the appeal and response are tremendous. The bookstores – both Christian and secular – are full of books from every imaginable angle to make a person feel good about their lives….except the one angle that really matters. This is the matter of sin.

Every problem under the sun begin, results from and will never be resolved until we deal with the matter of sin., Instead, we have teaching from million selling books which tell us it is “Our Best Life Now”. Just in case anyone is confused, the best life for the Christian is NOT now, but in the eternal Kingdom of the Christ. Tell the Christian who is being literally destroyed in the persecuted lands, that his/her best life is now!!  The heresy does not get any better than “The Power of I Am”…..not “I Am Who I Am” (Yahweh”)….but “I am”… as in self-declarations of Biblical principles.  (No photos will be posted of these books here, so as to not promote them).

Now, there is nothing wrong at all with claiming the Promises of God as in “I am more than a conqueror”… or “I am a child of God, saved and redeemed”…..or “I am the chief of sinners….until Jesus rescued me”. This is proclaiming Bible truths. What is troubling and a violation of the Second Commandment is a famous pastor, who knows better, taking the Name of the Lord in vain to sell books! 

But there are other deceptive teachings and practices which unsuspecting believers should not only be aware of, but should avoid like the plague!  Two increasingly popular practices from very faulty teachings are Contemplative Prayer and Mindfulness. BEWARE OF BOTH!

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER: 
In its simplest definition, Contemplative prayer is also called “centering prayer” or meditation. Now this meditation is not the same as the Bible calls for in Psalm 1 where we “meditate”, study, chew on and understand what the Word of God is saying to us. No, this centering meditation and contemplation seeks mystic experiences with God where Jesus is hardly ever in the picture. It requires emptying one’s mind and not praying on what is canonized Scripture, but what the gurus of this movement tells us what we may do to achieve “Spiritual Formation”. 

One of the dangers of this mysticism, where the practitioner sits in silence waiting to hear from God, while centering on a passage of some book by Thomas Merton, Dallas Willard or even chanting a bible verse/passage over and over, is that it can lead a person away from both Christ and Christianity. I know a person it actually happened to from Connecticut.  She was/is an avid blogger and stay at home mother of three children who was so caught up in being open to deceptive new thoughts and teachings she walked away from Christ, to her own eternal loss! This person had elevated the teachings of the Emergent Church and Ecumenism that she started reading, promoting and practicing. Ancient mysticism from both Hindu, some Catholic theologians and alleged Christian ones became woven fully into her spirit...and all of this while going to a mainline church in the center of Connecticut.

We had several disagreements including one with her co-“meditators” who instantly branded me intolerant. One day, Jessica wrote some chilling words.  She had gone to her church for the final time, looked around and “contemplated”  a while. She wrote that she looked at all the people with whom she had grown up her entire life and felt suddenly quite alienated from them. She felt , in fact, alienated from the entire state of being in a Christian church. She then said she felt sad, as then and there, she made the decision to walk away from the church, Christianity and reject Jesus Christ as the only Way, the Truth and the Life!

This is the kind of end result of years of so-called “open-mindedness” towards every strange philosophy of man and the devil.  This is the fruit of messing with strange mystic garbage, saying it is based on the Bible and promoting it to many, while fellowshipping with like-minded lost souls. I broke off any contact with this person because she and her family plunged headlong into pagan Hinduism, Buddhist “meditation” and all sorts of potential Baal worship. To the elite and the well-connected, this is the in-thing and makes them feel enlightened. To Holy God of Heaven and the Bible, this is storing up wrath for That Day. 

The slide into eternal separation from God, first began, because people listen to strange and deceptive words, which became practices. Which leads us to a new strange and unbiblical concept called “Mindfulness”. 
MINDFULNESS: Potentially, this is even more dangerous to the future eternal homes of millions of souls, as if Contemplative Prayer/Spiritual Formation were not enough. Mindlessness is leading people away from the Gospel weekly, while sounding good, easy and oh-so-modern and “cool”. In fact, this fits right into the template of those who call themselves “spiritual”.

According to dictionary definition, “mindfulness” is about focusing on a person’s awareness, mostly at the current moment, while concentrating fully on experiential stuff: thoughts, feelings and physical sensations. It has nothing to do with Jesus, God, The Bible or the Holy Spirit.  In fact, its origins are Eastern Mysticism, Buddhism and Hinduism rolled up into one! In fact the word “mindfulness” is a translation from the Buddhist “pali” term called “sati”. 

Proponents of this ungodly practice say it is good for Christians to do for good health, stress removal etc…etc…just like they do when they promote alleged “Christian” Yoga. Both Mindfulness and Yoga cannot be associated with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are an anathema to the pure Word of Christ and His Word which said “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5)“. If you speak to any true Hindu and practitioner of yoga, they will tell you exactly what it is – Hinduism.  Every movement is based on the “theology” of that earth religion.  Mindfulness is the same.  If the people promoting this stuff in public schools and general society were honest with you, they would tell the truth that it is part of the Eightfold Path OF BUDDHISM! Google it yourself. This will not be promoted in this article. 

There is a huge reason the Apostle Paul warns of these nice sounding ideas and diverse philosophies. Who would be against stress relief and being “in your right mind”. The issue begins as to where the beliefs used to address these issues originate. People go to hell – the state of eternal and FOREVER separation from God – not because of what they do, but because of what they believe. Many in modern Christianity which is a mile wide and half inch deep, were never born again and are easily led astray by these modern easy fixes for peace, joy and contentment. Some authentic Christians may even be fooled by this for a while. Both will face an Righteous God on Judgement Day with no answer for this deadly folly.

Of the many evils out there for their “Spiritual Formation” these two are the most dangerous, because they have been proven 1000 times over to  lead people away from Jesus Christ – the Creator and Sustainer of Life. A lot of these practices are promoted by the Emergent Church and their supporters in the megachurches.  (Click here to read more on the Emergent Church).  Our job as Authentic Believers and Followers of Christ is to stay faithful to Him, remain planted like trees by living water and be obedient to His Spirit. Anything else will cause loss – permanent and deadly.  

Sunday, October 2, 2016

ROCK SOLID FAITH FOR TROUBLED TIMES - PART 1

THE CONDITION WHICH COMMANDS CONTRITION
The parallels of Scripture with corrupt Modern American cultural Christianity are stunning.  You can find those in the debased Corinthian church; the legalistic Galatian church or the easily swayed Colossian church, just to name a few.  As King Solomon once said “there is nothing new under the sun”. Indeed, the calendar year changes but people remain the same. This is true in 21st century America as it was in Colosse.

In this New Testament Epistle, the Apostle Paul shows the obstacles facing the pure teaching of the Gospel by the various and sundry corruptions of it, then as they are now. Paul, under the Power of the Holy Spirit, gives three warnings in Colossians Chapter 2 which are worth looking into, in light of what we face today in Modern Christianity. There is a serious reason for a very much needed look at these warnings, because the direct fruit of deviation from the Word of God is with us now. We see it in the rise of the “None’s” – most of whom are increasingly people in their teens, 20’s and early 30’s who have not just walked away from our churches but believe in absolutely nothing. The Pew Research Center and Christian Pollster George Barna have both confirmed that over 1/3 of people under the age of 35 believe in nothing, and that means nothing higher than themselves. As for any "religious" affiliation, they have "none". Hence the name.

In a sense, some of them have a point if their only encounter with Christianity are dead or judgmental churches or those who sing and shout on Sunday and then sin every which way to Saturday. Those are called “hypocrites”.  However, while none of this will protect the “None’s” on Judgment Day from the Wrath of God, we must never stop warning them and all our Christian sisters and brothers out there, who can be blinded by this stuff in Colossians chapter 2, because it is so slippery and devious.

What we are attempting here in this short series on “The Indescribable Christ”, from the Book of Colossians is to point out the pitfalls, stumbling blocks and bear traps out there for the unsuspecting Christian who may not pay attention to this stuff.  The smart folk in theological seminary call this “Christology”!  

In the next few posts, we look at the warnings from the Apostle and Emissary from Christ, and take his words seriously. The reason is that Paul was specifically chosen by Jesus to warn all people of all time, through his teaching, to point everyone, even church going people, away from even their own churches and to Christ alone.

Here is what the initial warning is, before we look at the three main ones in Chapter 2. In Chapter 1:21-22 "21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister".

Christ is pleading with us, as He did through Paul in these two verses, to NEVER forget from whence we came and secondly just WHO He - Jesus Christ - really is. Look at the darkness and death from which Christ redeemed us....from Colossians 1:21-22...(see below):
 1. We were alienated (as far from God in body, mind and soul as possible).
 2. We were enemies - in thought and in our wicked works.
 3. But, in spite of that, God (through Christ) reconciled us fully to Himself.
 4. He not only did that, but cleaned us up so on that Day, we will be blameless.
 5. CAVEAT - our sanctification will only be complete if we stay close to Him.
 6. Our maturity in Him depends on standing FIRM on the Gospel in this life.
 7. This same Gospel will be the plumbline against which we will be judged.