There is no Christianity without Christ

Earliest known icon of Christ as Pantocrator (Almighty)

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. (Col. 1:16-18)

Stirring words, pointing to the centrality of Christ. There can be no Christianity without Jesus Christ - not the Jesus-as-moral-teacher of the modern "progressives," but the one of Whom the Apostle Paul was speaking in the passage quoted above. Remove Him from the edifice and you remove every support. Remove the Cross and you have deprived yourself of God's remedy for what you are. Strip Him of His Deity and you have gutted His demand to obedience and His intrinsic authority to command, so forcefully, in that Sermon on the Mount which seems to be highly prized nowadays. As if that Sermon contained only Matthew 7:1 and not Matthew 7:13.

Or 7:23.

We are nearing the time - it's almost here - when society will drop the pretense of the name of Christian. If only they would do it today, simply call their churches and their selves by another name!

The latest window into apostasy is provided by Canada's National Post, in a story featuring the Rev. Gretta Vosper of West Hill United Church in Toronto.

There is a Bible on a pedestal in Gretta Vosper's West Hill United Church in Toronto. She would prefer it did not have a special place, she said, because it is just a book among other books. In a similar way, the cross that is high above the altar has no special meaning, but there are a few older congregants for whom the Bible and the cross are still nice symbols so there they remain.

Though an ordained minister, she does not like the title of reverend. It is one of those symbols that hold the church back from breaking into the future -- to a time "when the label Christian won't even exist" and the Church will be freed of the burdens of the past. To balance out those symbols of the past inside West Hill, there is a giant, non-religious rainbow tapestry just behind the altar and multi-coloured streamers hang from the ceiling.

"The central story of Christianity will fade away," she explained. "The story about Jesus as the symbol of everything that Christianity is will fade away...."

Ms. Vosper does not believe in the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the miracles and the sacrament of baptism. Nor does she believe in the creeds, the presence of Christ in communion or that Jesus was the Son of God.

In With or Without God, her book that was formally launched this week, she writes that Jesus was a "Middle Eastern peasant with a few charismatic gifts and a great posthumous marketing team."

What is striking is the blatancy and self-assuredness, the willingness to reach beyond and no longer even feel the need to appeal to Jesus for anything of substance. Typically, love is all that is said to matter:

The focus of her "spiritual" life is love. And since love is the common bond between all people, it is really the only thing worth believing in.

"Here in the context of seeking out harmony with all things, the purest understanding of those values that enhance and sanctify life becomes the foremost spiritual practice," she writes.

"We call it love, radically inclusive love. It is here, in the caring, challenging, prophetic role with which it is so familiar that the church can really shine."

If only love were the common bond between all people. But, the reality of this life is that Man is at enmity with himself, with others, and with God. The Christ of Christianity is the answer to this problem.

Read the whole thing here.

How can you make sure people leave your church this Christmas?

Sadly, this is an all-too-common example of the rhetoric that drives people from churches. The Rev. Dr. Gary A. Wilburn of New Canaan, Connecticut says:

“When I hear language like, ‘You can’t be saved unless you accept Christ as your personal savior,’ I know that it is usually sincere and heart-felt. But what it most likely means is ‘We are on the inside and you are on the outside. Ours is the only true faith. If you do it our way, you’ll have better access to God than the followers of Buddha or Mohammed, or Mary Baker Eddy, or Charles Darwin, or the ‘inner light,’ or whatever, We welcome everyone into God’s family as long as you’re willing to become like us,” he said.

“That kind of insular theology makes Christianity a religion of exclusion, not inclusion,” Dr. Wilburn added. “A far cry from the universality of which the Bible speaks when it claims, ‘There is one God who is father of all, over all, through all and within all,” and “God is love, and anyone who lives in love, lives in God and God in him [or her].’ As a progressive Christian, I see in Jesus the true image and likeness of God. For me, Jesus is the face of God, the heart of God, the way of God. Jesus shows me what a life full of God looks like. For Christians, Jesus is our access into the realm of God. But at that same time I recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for their access into God’s realm. Because at the end of day, I believe that God is bigger than any of our ideas about God.”

But what if there actually was a revelation from God that told us what God thinks about things and, particularly, about Himself, who He is and what He is like?

At the risk of sounding rude: Attention! People go to Christian churches because they want to worship God through Jesus Christ. When liberal Christian theologians stop castigating people for - well, for believing what it is that Christians believe, they may be able to reverse the trends of departure and demographic winter in their denominations.

Is Mormonism a Christian religion?

Utah has great mountains. But maybe not such great theology.

Quite a lot of this in the news this week. Here, Baptist apologist Mike Licona talks about his investigations into the truth of Mormonism:

My second discovery was that the Book of Abraham, which is counted among the Mormon scriptures, discredits founder Joseph Smith as a true prophet. In 1835, Smith purchased some mummies that were accompanied by some ancient Egyptian papyri. Smith claimed to be able to translate the papyri because they were written in Egyptian, very similar to the "Reformed Egyptian," which Smith claimed was the language of the Book of Mormon. As he translated the manuscripts, he asserted it contained the Book of Abraham, a book written by Abraham himself.

The papyri for the Book of Abraham contained some drawings with Egyptian writing that were subsequently published in Times and Seasons, a Mormon newspaper. The papyri were lost after Smith's death in 1844 but were rediscovered in 1967 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York who returned them to the Mormon church which in turn confirmed them to be the originals and published them for others to see. A Mormon academic journal named "Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought" asked three prominent Egyptologists to translate the papyri. If Joseph Smith was a true prophet, the contemporary translation would be very close to Smith's. The stakes were high, since the translations of the Egyptologists either could confirm Joseph Smith as a true prophet or expose him as a charlatan. For if Joseph Smith was terribly wrong in his translation of the Book of Abraham, it casts doubt on the Book of Mormon, too.

John Wilson and Klaus Baer, both professors of Egyptology at the University of Chicago, and Richard Parker, a professor of Egyptology at Brown University, were asked to do the task. The results were devastating. All concluded that the manuscript was a common Egyptian document buried with mummies for guidance in the afterlife and was not used until at least a thousand years after Abraham. They also concluded that Smith's translation did not bear the slightest resemblance to the actual translation. This is especially important when we consider that Smith claimed that the Book of Mormon was written in the same language. Since it can be demonstrated that Smith was gravely mistaken in his translation abilities when it came to the Book of Abraham, why should anything but the same conclusion be drawn pertaining to his ability allegedly to translate the Book of Mormon?

Read the rest here at Baptist Press.

Flickr photo by Katie; some rights reserved.

Update to Christian search engine site

Our friends at Kingdom Engine have revamped their Christian search engine site with a more pleasant appearance and some useful custom search engines available on a variety of topics such as:

• The Bible
• Apologetics
• Creeds and Confessions
• Spurgeon
• Worship Music
  

You can also add these searches to your own site or blog, if you have one.

As they note, the Web has grown so much that searching for "King David" on Google gives you 84,700,000 results. Custom search engines limit searches to just a few hand-selected sites that deal with the topic you're interested in. They're great for research.

Happy searching!

Can you be both a Muslim and a Christian?

No, of course not.

But a Seattle Episcopal priest, the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding, is now claiming to be both.

Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost demolishes this sort of nonsense by reminding us:

While she rejects such orthodox Christian beliefs as the Trinity and the divinity of Christ, she believes that Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected. This belief is, as she readily admits, in conflict with the teachings of the Quran. When it is pointed out that she has violated the law of non-contradiction, Redding responds, "That's something I'll find a challenge the rest of my life."

Of course there is no "challenge" in reconciling the two views since they are completely incompatible. The matter is not one of challenge but of impossibility. The law of non-contradiction is non-negotiable. Just because one wants to feel that the two religions are ultimately compatible does not make them so.

It would be easy to dismiss Redding's unsophisticated beliefs as the confusions of a rather dim dhimmi. But this Episcopalian Muslim is representative of the muddled understanding of pluralism that pervades American culture....

Truth is incompatible with non-truth, which is why we must reject all self-contradictory claims made by others and root them out of our own belief systems. In rejecting contradictory thinking we accept an uncomfortable truth: true tolerance sometimes requires being intolerant of willful stupidity.

This is exactly so. When will people drop the pretense of calling themselves Christians when they refuse to acknowledge the core doctrines of the faith - and most especially who Jesus is?

Ted Baehr talks about "Jesus Almighty"

Dr. Ted Baehr of Movieguide writes this about films... and faith:

People of faith and values are concerned about the collapse of culture. Recent polls from Cornell University and Barna Research found that only one out of 10 children keep the faith and values of their parents. Further studies have shown that this is because parents are not engaged in teaching their children cultural wisdom.

The mass media, however, is advertently or inadvertently teaching children their values, and even when these values are not inflaming lust, greed, violence, ambivalence, and envy, they are all too often undermining the sure salvation that is available only through Jesus Christ. And, all too often, caught up in the publicity machine of the Entertainment Industry, the church and its associates such as Christian magazines, radio and television are promoting the movies and entertainment that undermine its future and true faith and values.

Much has been said about post-Christian culture. Europe is a sad example. There are more Muslims in Europe than there are Protestant Christians. Why does this matter? Because eternal life in the Kingdom of God is only available through Jesus Christ, and if we truly love our neighbor, then we do not want him or her lost forever. According to surveys, fewer and fewer children understand this.

Although we don’t want to be hard on the compelling movie characters Bruce and Evan, who should be commended for helping the audience understand a lot about humility, faith and obedience to God, it is clear that the view of salvation and the view of God presented in the movies featuring “Bruce Almighty” and “Evan Almighty” do not adhere to the Truth. For example, although “Evan Almighty” contains a reference to “alpha and omega,” the Book of Revelation’s designation of Jesus Christ’s divine nature, the movie scrupulously avoids any other identification of its God character with Jesus Christ.

The Truth is, however, that salvation is found in none other than Jesus Christ. When God became flesh as one of us, it is only as Jesus Christ. When God appears to Moses or anyone else, it is as Jesus Christ. He is the Truth, the Way and the Life. In that sense, it is important to note that the Hebrew word for Truth means, “to reveal.” Jesus Christ alone reveals completely and totally who the almighty triune God is.

These winsome movies and many others scrupulously avoid the Truth that Jesus Christ is God and that God has a name – Jesus Christ. They present God as a clown of a thousand faces or as just one of us in a manner that is reminiscent of Henotheism at best and Buddhism and Hinduism at worst. In fact, the watered-down view they present of God contains more pre-Christian, unattainable, works-oriented religious views than the clear representation of the very good news that salvation is available to all mankind though the free gift of Grace paid for by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That said, people who know the Truth will not be hurt by this, but children of all ages may buy the lie that God is just a sweet old man. Witnessing to them may not get at the root confusion, and therefore too many of them will fall into the 90 percent of children who drift away from the only Truth that can save their eternal souls.

It is interesting that movies don’t mind using the word "God," "Buddha," "Mohammed," or the names of the saints, but they carefully and politically correctly avoid the positive mention of Jesus, unless, of course, they are taking his name in vain, even though they would never take the name of Buddha, Mohammed, or others in vain. What significance does this have? It shows the almighty power of the name of Jesus because it is only in the name of Jesus, through his death and resurrection, that anyone and everyone can be saved.

Therefore, while we appreciate and applaud allegory, incarnational theology, Jesus types and Christ types, as found in family movies such as “Evan Almighty,” the true story that the church should shout from the housetops and proclaim in every media is “Jesus Almighty.”

After all, there is no other God and no other name through which we can be saved.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . .

“No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”

-- John 1:14,18

Well said.

From: Assist News.

Is Jesus still Lord?

They succeeded in getting many people to stop calling God Father... now there's more - apparently we shouldn't call Him, or Jesus "Lord."

An Arizona Episcopal Church thinks it's inappropriate and unseemly:

"Lord" has become a loaded word conveying hierarchical power over things, "which in what we have recorded in our sacred texts, is not who Jesus understood himself to be," St. Philip's associate rector Susan Anderson-Smith said.

"The way our service reads, the theology is that God is love, period," St. Philip's deacon Thomas Lindell added. "Our service has done everything it can to get rid of power imagery. We do not pray as though we expect the big guy in the sky to come and fix everything."

St. Philip's isn't the only local church to re-examine its language. Other local religious leaders already are eschewing the use of "Lord" for similar reasons.

First Congregational United Church of Christ in Midtown even has a different name for The Lord's Prayer. They call it "The Prayer of Our Creator."

"We do still use the word 'Lord' on occasion, but we are suspicious of it," First Congregational pastor Briget Nicholson said. "Inclusive language is important. Our United Church of Christ hymnal does have hymns that will say 'Father' and 'God.' but the next verse will always then say 'Mother' and 'God.' It's gender-balanced."

Hierarchical power? If Jesus said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," isn't that enough hierarchical power for you? As far as I can understand the New Testament,

...God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

The Episcopal priest has her own interpretation of the New Testament, too:

"Jesus was for an egalitarian community. He did not have room for titles or status. And it is recorded that many of the disciples called him Lord. But they had a different idea about worshipping him," she said. "Jesus was a rabbi and teacher. It was a relationship of mentoring, looking up to him for that kind of companionship."

Umm, yeah. When will these people have the intellectual honesty to drop the pretense and acknowledge that they are not Christians? Imagine my relief to discover that the Christian faith still exists in pockets of Arizona:

"We call him 'Lord' because he is Lord," said the Rev. Joe Bettridge, senior pastor at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church on Tucson's Northwest Side. The church is part of the mainline Presbyterian Church U.S.A. "If you read the Bible, he — God — created everything from nothing. That's pretty powerful to me."

Amen and amen, Pastor Joe.

More here from the Arizona Daily Star. Hat tip to Titus 1:9.

12 Keys for Excellence in the Prophetic Ministry, from the Life of Samuel

In order to provide some inspiration as well as information and prayer points, we plan to begin posting teaching articles and other devotional material from time to time. While we do look, out of necessity, at issues which are political, we also want to help strengthen the Church in our region. With that in mind, we hope you'll enjoy some teachings every now and then. When articles are final, they'll be posted on the Pray Connecticut website in the Articles section.

This teaching is from an ongoing class I've been helping to teach on the prophetic ministry in today's Church. We pray it will bless you.

12 Keys for Excellence in Prophetic Ministry from Samuel’s Life

And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. (1 Sam. 3:19)

(To prepare for this teaching, please read 1 Samuel 3.)

I am always impressed by Samuel, not just by his prophetic ministry but by the impact of his life on his nation. What he accomplished was astounding – he was an anchor of stability in his nation for many years, and kept the people tied to the Lord and the Lord’s ways.

I’m impressed by what he did to lay a foundation for prophetic ministry in Israel. When Samuel was a boy, it says that the word of the LORD was precious or rare – there was no open vision. And yet, without probably having the benefit of what we nowadays think of as prophetic training, Samuel came to a place where his words did not fall to the ground. Not only this, we believe that Samuel founded what became known as the schools of the prophets in Israel. How did he do this when he most likely had no mentors? I think the answer was found in his heart, as well as his giftings. We know it’s God who gives gifts, but there is the human side of the equation in which we cooperate with God’s grace. If we study his life we see that he wasn’t perfect, but this I think makes him more appealing. Let's see what we can find from the Word concerning Samuel’s life which can propel us into excellence in the prophetic.

This passage, 1 Samuel 3, gives us a great capsule summary of Samuel’s commission and also sets forth our goals as prophetic people:

Display excellence in both your character and your ministry: “And Samuel grew…”

Become a person of impact: “…and the LORD was with him…”

Speak words that have an impact: “…and did let none of his word fall to the ground.”

Notice that it is the Lord who lets none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground.

What are the keys in Samuel's life that made him a person of impact?


1. Take time to minister to the Lord, both personally and with others.

And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. (1 Sam. 3:1)

Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (Acts 13:1-2)

Samuel ministered to the Lord individually. He did this as part of his ceremonial duties, but we are sure he had devotional times or worship and intercession before the Lord. The Word speaks of him passing the night in prayer to God. The Antioch example is a great example of how leaders must minister to the Lord together. If you are in leadership, even the leadership of a ministry if not the leadership of your whole church, I challenge you to take times where you simply wait on God together, even with fasting. When you do, the Spirit will come alongside with words of direction and even commissioning, as happened in Acts 13.


2. Be quick to respond to authorities and to obey .

…the LORD called, “Samuel;” and he answered, “Here am I.” And he ran unto Eli, and said, “Here am I; for you called me.” And he said, “I called not; lie down again.” And he went and lay down. (1 Sam. 3:4-5)

We know that Samuel probably did not learn this type of obedience from serving Eli the priest, because Eli did not discipline his own sons. Notice the instant obedience of Samuel’s heart. How many children or young people come literally running the first time they are called?


3. Put yourself in a position to listen to the Lord’s Voice.

Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, “Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, LORD; for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, “Samuel, Samuel.” Then Samuel answered, “Speak; for your servant hears.” (1 Sam. 3:9-10)

Do we have our own times of solitude and reflection? Are we training our senses? I bet Samuel was fully ready, his ears fully open when the Lord came by again. So let it be with us!


4. Carry on with the normal responsibilities of life in this world.

And Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the LORD. (1 Sam. 3:15a)

Some of us, if we’d had this type of revelation, would get on the phone and tell our friends. It doesn’t say he slept, he was probably too excited to sleep. But notice that he got up and performed his duties. Be careful that when we begin to have experiences in the Spirit that we leave off doing the normal things of life. We still have responsibilities in this life if we are to function and to maintain a good testimony.


5. Learn to deal well with rejection, and don’t become overly sensitive.

[The elders of Israel] said unto him, “Behold, you are old, and your sons walk not in your ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. And the LORD said unto Samuel, “Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto you: for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” (1 Sam. 8:5-7)

It seems that Samuel took this personally. Many prophetic people have to deal with a lot of rejection in life and we need to bring that to the Lord and let it be crucified. The Lord pulled out of Samuel’s heart the real issue – it had become about Samuel a little bit!


6. Walk with integrity – even in the smallest of matters.

“Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose donkey have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind my eyes with? and I will restore it to you.” And they said, “You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither have you taken anything of any man's hand.” (1 Sam. 12:3-4)


7. Love and pray for those to whom you minister.

…God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way. (1 Sam. 12:23)


8. Learn to speak difficult truths to others in love, as your position may require it.

And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” (1 Sam. 15:22)

Notice I say as your position requires it. If your position does not require you to speak a corrective word, you may enter into great presumption by delivering it. Samuel was the senior prophetic figure in the nation. However, this word still cost him something. By the next chapter, he tells God he can’t go anoint David because if he does, Saul will kill him!


9. Love the whole body and mourn over sin.

Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul… (1 Sam. 15:34-35a)


10. Don’t “turn your eyes and ears off” – your own wisdom and experience can fail you.

And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, “Surely the LORD’S anointed is before him.” But the LORD said unto Samuel, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:6-7)


11. Have a correctable spirit – and then take heed to the correction.

Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” (1 Sam. 16:8)


12. Prepare the next generation – individuals, prophetic people, and other leaders.

Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed [David] in the midst of his brethren: and the spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. (1 Sam. 16:13)

And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. (1 Sam. 19:20)

All these who were chosen to be gatekeepers in the gates were two hundred and twelve. These were recorded by their genealogy in their villages, whom David and Samuel the seer did ordain in their office of trust. (1 Chron. 9:22)

Let's pursue excellence in the prophetic!

Rearranging the furniture on the deck of the Titanic

Powerful commentary by Canon Gary L'Hommedieu on the Episcopal Church and the destruction of that church and society in general by guilt-driven leftists: I'm Guilty: You Repent - The Spiritual Impulse of Liberalism.

This is not fluff; it is real meat, and deserving of your time. Here's a statement of the problem:

If anyone thinks the present spiritual malaise is mainly about The Episcopal Church, or mainline Christianity in America, then I daresay they're naïve about spiritual warfare - not to mention reality outside their window. The demons that have ransacked TEC (to take a single example) are the same ones which have targeted the West as a whole. Indeed, the assault upon orthodox Christianity only makes strategic sense as part of a massive assault upon civilization as we know it.

The Episcopal Church makes an important study as a group that sold itself to play in a high stakes game before it was clear what the game was. Here we see the promiscuous quality of the affluent American Left that emerged from the Viet Nam era. The time was an eschaton of sorts. Here at last was a generation uniquely qualified to fix and save everything that was broken or oppressed, and it literally jumped into bed with any cause that promised a moment's notoriety.

Here at last was the generation qualified to overhaul a 450-year-old liturgy - one universally acknowledged as embodying the spirit of a global communion. That was just the beginning. From now on the visionaries would declare open season on any aspect of the church's tradition that could be tinkered with in such a way as to leave signs of their tinkering, all in the name of "liberation".

What's driving their tinkering?

Today's liberals live a pretty good life, and they feel bad about it. They have more of everything than any generation before them, and they sense this is unfair. But rather than repent and become Gandhians, they remove Christmas trees from the village green, or put bike lanes on four or five roads in their town. They might tighten up rules on what people can eat, drink, or smoke, and when. Are these the abuses that have been crying out for redress for the welfare of the community? Probably not. More likely they are the result of conscience-stricken busybodies scanning the horizon for opportunities to impose their heightened awareness on others.

Don't forget the name of the disease: I'm guilty; now you need to repent.