Warning! Rampant Compromise—But Isn’t It Really Heresy?

Calvin College

Calvin College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Ken Ham – Answers in Genesis

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20:28–30)

The article I link to below is an extension of what has been going on at Calvin College in Michigan. In previous blog posts and articles I have quoted professors from Calvin College who no longer believe in a literal Adam and literal Eve—or a literal Fall. Calvin professors have been teaching evolution as fact for years. Now, why would any Christian parent spend thousands of dollars to send their kids to a college that attacks and undermines the authority of God’s Word? Calvin College, by the way, is a college of the Christian Reformed Church of North America.

The Banner is the magazine of the Christian Reformed Church and is also located in Grand Rapids. The article I link to below references a 1991 Agenda for Synod document by the Committee on Creation and Science. This was a response to Howard Van Till’s The Fourth Day (1986) and the teachings of Clarence Mennigna and Davis Young, which kicked open the door all the way (partly opened by others) to accepting theistic evolution in the CRC denomination. (Van Till, Mennigna, and Davis were professors at Calvin College.)

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Of the Making of Idols

Jeroboam's Idolatry

Jeroboam’s Idolatry

By Rev. Benjamin P. Glaser – Mountains and Magnolias

Of the Making of Idols, There is No End

One of the constant themes of the Bible is the way in which men and women are frequently searching for “gods” in which to put their hope and trust rather than submit to the God who created them.

Idolatry is even something believers can fall into if they are not watchful. Whether they are golden calves, men of renown, or little idols whittled from wood there seems to be no end to what man will worship and serve instead of the God of the Bible.

Now why is it that men do this?

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Leithart’s Baptized Tower of Babel

350px-Confusion_of_TonguesBy Bojidar Marinov – Christendom Restored

I have the Biblical answer and the Biblical solution to Leithart: The problem is not institutional, it is first and foremost ethical. What we have today is both churches and institutional families who are antinomian, that is, who have abandoned the Law of God. A meddlesome church that doesn’t preach the Law of God will be just as destructive – if not more – than a nuclear family which doesn’t honor the Law of God. Therefore, our first step should not be to make the nuclear family an addendum to the “cosmic,” that is, a collective led by chanting clowns in funny robes, but to identify those among our church ministers who refuse to go to the Biblical Law for their social ethics.

In my opinion, church trials against the Federal Vision won’t have any success. The reason is, they never address the real problem in the theology of the Federal Vision movement. The focus of the prosecution is always on the wording of the confessions, and how Federal Vision authors use or misuse that wording. The reality is, Federal Vision theology is not as explicitly creedal as their prosecutors; the creeds are of a lesser importance, and therefore the meaning of the words can be played with to fit a certain worldview. Its focus is rather on the nature of the Covenant, and on the nature of man’s participation in the Covenant. Covenant, which Biblically is ethical/judicial submission to God (Gen. 17:1; 18:19; Eccl. 12:13-14; John 15:10, 14), is changed in the Federal Vision to mean a ritualistic/magical incorporation of the individual into a deity. And since the deity has decreed that his body will be the church – understood by the FV authors to be the institutional church – then salvation must be understood as incorporation into the institutional church through the means of ceremonies and liturgies. Thus, the church’s sacraments are looked upon not as judicial declarations of judgment and grace on individuals and church directly from God (Matt. 26:28; 1 Cor. 11:27-32), but as ceremonial admission of individuals into a mystical body, through which they receive their meaning of life, their purpose, and their self-identification as saved persons. The opponents of the Federal Vision are missing the mark when they fail to recognize this foundational feature of its theology. But, of course, most of them being anti-theonomic, they will always miss the mark, for only through a thorough commitment to the Law of God as the foundation of all of life today can one grasp the true nature of the Federal Vision. The critique against it will only be successful when it is launched from an ethical/judicial view of the Covenant. And that means Theonomy, and nothing less. Modern Presbyterianism, without Theonomy, is helpless against Federal Vision theology.

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Should we be looking for ways to rationalize that it’s OK to disobey God, or should we be looking for opportunities to Obey Him?

By Buddy Hanson – Grace and Law Resource Center

How’s Your Lifestyle?
(2 Timothy 3.14-15)

Should we be looking for ways to rationalize that it’s OK to disobey God, or should we be looking for opportunities to Obey Him?

The answer to this question should be easy, but to observe the lifestyle of the typical 21st century American Christian we can only conclude that the answer is not so easy. Why do we say, for example, “God’s Word is true, but this particular promise is meant for either a past or a future generation?” Or, “Politics is dirty, and we should not take part in them?” Have we forgotten Psalm 2, or the consequences of Sodom and Gomorrah? We like to point to the success of Jonah’s preaching to the completely non-Christian city of Nineveh, but we don’t usually mention that it only took those citizens 100 years to return to their God-hating ways, whereupon God destroyed them. Or, what about the contrast between Western civilization and Eastern civilization? Non-Christians, who believe in luck instead of God must consider that we are the luckiest people on the face of the earth. We can point to numerous civilizations that have provided personal liberty and freedom by framing their civil laws upon biblical ethics, yet the East cannot point to a single instance of a civilization providing anywhere near the level of personal liberty and freedom by framing its civil laws upon man’s ethics.

What about the five SOLAS of the Reformation? Can we truly say that we are living by “Scripture alone” (Sola Scriptura) ,or by pragmatism, common sense, and/or natural law? Can we truly say that we are living by “faith alone” (Sola Fide) and are carefully instructing each other how to live-out our faith with fear and trembling? Are we truly living for “God’s glory alone” (Soli Deo Gloria) by having seminars to train local legislators who profess to be Christians in how to govern according to biblical ethics?

Are we truly living for “Christ alone” ( Sola Christus) by coming to worship services and small group studies with the goal of not merely learning more about God, but learning how to use those objective truths to take ground for Christ’s Kingdom, and to present a Christian antithesis to the subjective beliefs of our non-Christian neighbors? Can we truly say that we are living by God’s “grace alone” (Sola Gratia) in our evangelizing and discipling efforts by presenting God’s answers to the six questions that non-Christian philosophers are unable to answer? The questions that only the Bible answers are:

Who am I?

What am I supposed to do?

Where am I supposed to do it?

When am I supposed to do it?

Why am I supposed to do it?

How am I supposed to do it?

While, we have all of these answers available to us on the pages of the Bible, most of us live as though we don’t have them, and even worse, many of us have never been taught them from either the pulpit or in a small group. In addition, Paul clarifies what elements we need to “put on,” and “put off” in our lifestyle. 13 Non-Christians, on the other hand, don’t have a clue about the answers, but live as though they do. And we wonder why our culture continues to crumble!

Next week the issue is whether or not American Christians will take part in redeeming the world for Christ.

NOTE
13 Ephesians 4; Colossians 3

This Week’s Divine ComeBack

How many times a day do you get asked, “How are you doing?” or “How are things going?” Most of us “come back” with a reply that is expected and quickly forgotten, such as, “Fine … great … pretty good.” For an unexpected and memorable reply, use this week’s Divine ComeBack.” WARNING: Such a creative response may undo the thoughts of the person with whom you are talking and may cause them to be momentarily speechless as they process what you’ve just said. So don’t be surprised if a moment or two of silence follows your “ComeBack.”

I’m living above the expectations of the non-Christian worldview. Daniel 3.16-17

From Divine ComeBacks: Uncommon Replies to Common Greetings, Buddy Hanson, (Hanson Group)

“A Case of Mistaken Identity: Christian Identity’s False Doctrine of Salvation”

By Rev. Charles H. Roberts

Dr. Charles H. Roberts is a pastor at Ballston Center Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.  He earned degrees in Theology and Apologetics from several seminaries, including Westminster and Whitefield Theological Seminaries. Dr. Roberts is the author of the book “Race Over Grace: The Racialist Religion of the Christian Identity Movement.”

Christian Identity Symbol

Christian Identity Symbol

Since “Christian Identity” claims to be “Christian,” its doctrine of salvation is of special importance. As will become evident, Christian Identity holds to a less-than-orthodox view of the doctrine of salvation.

Identity teachers generally agree that Christ came for the purpose of saving people from their sins. They generally agree that the nature of Christ’s atoning work was substitutionary and that salvation is received by faith alone.1 The departure from an historical Christian position in this matter is seen in the distinction that is made by some Identity teachers between redemption and salvation. Bertrand Comparet, writing in the American Institute of Theology’s “Bible Correspondence Course,” observes:

Of course, one of the purposes [in Christ's coming] was to pay the penalty of the sins of every person who believes and accepts Him as his personal Savior.  But this is not all: another purpose of His first coming was to redeem His people ISRAEL which we know are not and never were composed of Jews; but today they are known as the Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, and Germanic nations.2

In this statement, Comparet is saying that it is indeed possible that men of all races may become saved through Christ by believing in and accepting Him, but only Israelites (“white people”) are redeemed by Christ. If this sounds strange, this is not surprising, because in orthodox theology, there is no distinction made between these two complimentary aspects of Christ’s atoning work…

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Lawless Law

rc sproul jrBy Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. – Highlands Ministries

The purported value of ethical relativism, the idea that there are no transcendent, binding rules for right and wrong that all humans are morally required to submit to, is that it allows us to live in peace. That is, if you have your ethics, and I have my ethics, well then there is no real need for us to fight over whose ethic wins. (So long, as, of course, our lives never actually cross.) The real value is far more sinister. We find ethical relativism appealing because we find our own guilt unappealing. Though we seek to suppress such knowledge, we all know that God is, that He is holy, that we are not, and that we are in trouble. Not the kind of pleasant thoughts one wants to go to sleep thinking on, so we suppress that truth. Do away with ethics and we do away with His holiness, our guilt, and therefore our trouble.

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Mentoring Our Future Leaders

Stained glass window in Long Beach showing Joh...

Stained glass window in Long Beach showing John Knox admonishing Mary, Queen of Scots. From Covenant Presbyterian Church, Long Beach, California, USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Dr. Marshall Foster – World History Institute

Throughout the centuries the godly strategy of defeating evil has always been an internal to external, generational family plan. From there God’s power and blessing influences every area of culture. God’s worldwide covenant of blessing was initiated through Abraham. Speaking of Abraham in Genesis 18, God says, “For I have chosen him so that he may teach his children and the sons of his house after him to keep the way of the Lord and to do what is just and righteous.”

The most powerful force in America is not our government, our economy or our military. The force that has created the freest nations in history, is the peaceful and virtually unreported armies of godly families. If we mentor our families and friends to live out God’s Word in their own lives we can once again impact all areas of society. Here is a story to inspire and challenge your family. Notice how the power of only a few individuals from one family tree helped build two great nations.

John Knox, a former bodyguard and defrocked priest turned reformer, returned to his native Scotland, in 1560. He had spent 15 years in prison and exile. He preached the liberating Gospel with such power from the pulpit of St. Giles Cathedral that much of his nation was converted. So much so that “Mary Queen of Scots feared the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.” As a result of Knox’s faithfulness, the lives, culture and government of Scotland was transformed in a decade.

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