Posts Tagged ‘Defending the Faith’

by Manny Silva
Concerned Nazarenes

Disturbing trends continue to develop in our denomination.  Recently, I sent out a prayer request for a pastor and his church that decided to leave the Nazarene denomination, rather than stay and bow to emergent ideology and priorities.  Soon, I will be posting some information regarding those who have been forced to leave their churches (“Divorced From The Church”).  More and more Bible believing Nazarenes are finding themselves ostracized and are even being labeled as cult members, hateful, dividers, “used by the devil”…etc.  On and on it goes, with no biblical justification!  Students are subject to ridicule or harassment for standing up against unbiblical teachings at their universities.

The following story is also another scenario, that of a pastor being fired for daring to speak out against a movement which has not even been officially welcomed into the Nazarene denomination.  Please understand that it is the desire of this pastor not to target leadership, but to make you aware of the magnitude of this problem.  Hopefully, some of you will begin to look at this, and not be overcome by it:

The Story:

As many of you know, Pastor Joe Staniforth joined Concerned Nazarenes – a group of Nazarenes troubled by false teachings in our academic institutions and many of our churches in the Western world. These teachings can be summed up as “emergent ideology.”

For more information on the emergent church movement and the mission of Concerned Nazarenes, please visit www.concernednazarenes.org or one of the websites listed below.

In September 2008, Pastor Joe and his wife Claudia answered God’s call to work as missionaries, evangelists and church planters on the Texas-Mexico border. Although they’ve witnessed the Lord at work – especially in ministries in Matamoros, Mexico – Pastor Joe became increasingly concerned about emergent teachings in the Nazarene denomination. In obedience to the Lord’s leading, he began preaching against the ideology and practices of the emergent movement . Please click here to read the rest of this story.

Related Information on the downslide of the Nazarene denomination into emerging/contemplative:

Buddhist/Universalist Sympathizer Woos Nazarene Students at NNU

G12 Master Plan Could Expose Thousands of Nazarenes to Contemplative/Emerging Spirituality

The mayor of Lancaster, California, has apologized for pro-Christian comments he made recently before a group of pastors. 

Mayor R. Rex Parris said in his address that Lancaster was “growing a Christian community,” and after controversy developed he issued an apology. City Councilwoman Sherry Marquez posted on Facebook comments about a Muslim honor killing on the East Coast, thought better about it, and pulled the comments an hour and a half later. She has also apologized.
 
The Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force responded and heard from community residents Monday night. Task Force chairman Darren Parker tells OneNewsNow that hate crimes charges against Parris and Marquez will not be sought. Click here to read more.

by Kevin Reeves

History is filled with stories of those who have stood for truth, many of whom gave their lives to defend the faith God had put in their hearts. History is also filled with those who tried to squelch that truth. In his riveting account of the Nazi empire, historian William L. Shirer meticulously documents the internal workings of a system that once threatened to take over the world. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a chilling account of the effects of mind-numbing propaganda.1 The endless barrage of misinformation, incredibly, molded a once-beaten and fragmented people into the icon of elitism, which culminated in grisly death camps and the cold-blooded murder of those deemed lesser humans. A firsthand witness and opponent of the Nazi regime, Shirer recounted instances of conversation with German people, when he dared contradict the ludicrous governmental and media declarations of ethnic, cultural, and military superiority. He was met with shocked silence or an amazed stare. He noted that to question the Nazi machine’s view of anything was considered blasphemy of the highest order. It dawned on him that the minds of many of the people had become so warped that they were no longer able to think for themselves or evaluate anything by a higher standard. Shirer observed that with the rise of the new German empire, the truth had become whatever Hitler and Goebbels said it was; they were the final arbiters of reality— spiritual and otherwise.

Some may think it is extreme to compare the spiritual deception and control tactics within the church today to that of the Nazi regime and the death camps, but we should remember that the church in Germany in the 1930s was very much like the church is today—having a head in the sand mentality about spiritual deception and turning religious leaders into super-human heroes who can do no wrong. Perhaps we are not all that different than Christians in Germany back then. We should not fool ourselves and think we would never be duped like that. The apostle Paul issued a warning to Christians:

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. (I Cor. 10:11,12)

Despite all of this, there is hope in the Lord; He is “Faithful and True” (Rev. 19:11). And He promised to preserve His church, that true body of believers whom He calls the Bride of Christ. Praise His name—there is hope. When truth is challenged, mocked, and thrown against the wind, we can be sure, it will never be altered. And that Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

The Lord is calling His people out from the midst of the false, to adhere to His truth, no matter what the cost. Let us respond with joy and thankfulness, knowing His grace is sufficient to strengthen us and give us courage.

Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. (Hebrews 13:13-14)

(Excerpt from The Other Side of the River by Kevin Reeves, pp.214-215)

Notes:
1. William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster/Touchstone, 1959).

by James Hartline
The James Hartline Report

Today is World AIDS Day – I have been fighting a twelve year battle with the AIDS virus, a disease that I acquired in my former life of promiscuity, drug abuse and homosexuality. For ten years now, I have been making my stand for the Lord Jesus Christ to declare to America that there is a way out of the destruction of homosexuality and its many diabolical consequences.

On this World AIDS Day, I announce once again, the power of God to heal, deliver and correct the soul bound up in sin and sickness. I am living proof that God’s word is true and His power to transform the most wicked prisoner of sin is still available to all who will humble themselves and receive Jesus Christ as Messiah, Savior, Deliverer and Healer.

 As the world is reminded of the millions of men, women, children and babies who have died of AIDS, gay activists will be using the December 1, 2009 World AIDS Day to glorify homosexuality and the gay lifestyle which is still, by a wide margin, the leading cause of HIV transmissions in the United States. The Center for Disease Control recently released a report that shows men who have sex with other men is the only group in America that shows a rise in the rate of HIV transmissions. Promiscuity, fueled by self-destructive lusts, perpetuates the catastrophic spread of AIDS in homosexual communities throughout America, Canada and Europe. In America, 46% of all black male homosexuals living in urban areas are infected with the AIDS virus. Often, without telling their wives or girlfriends, black men living on the “down low” will be engaging in secret risky homosexual behavior and become infected with HIV. They then spread the disease to their unsuspecting female partners. Click here to continue reading …

Related Reading:

Homosexuality and the New Age

The Danger of Grace without Truth

“Teg Haggard Story Will Raise Serious Questions For All”

Rick Warren on Larry King: Changes Statements on Homosexual Marriage

by Pastor Adam Gislason
Great Adventure Ministries

A good friend of mine recently emailed me and posed this question about Joel Rosenberg speaking at the Break Forth Canada Conference that is being held January 29-31, 2010 in Edmonton, Alberta: “If Rosenberg can wake thousands up at this conference, wouldn’t that be a good thing?” It’s a good question, but in order to answer that question, we need to ask ourselves a couple of other really important questions:

First, is this a “Christian Conference?” I am not convinced that it is from the research that I have done on both Break Forth Canada and their line up of false teachers. If both Christian doctrine and false doctrine are being taught at an event that’s being advertised as a “Christian Conference,” then let’s be honest-it’s not really a “Christian Conference” is it? Rosenberg has advertised Break Forth on his blog as a “Powerful Christian Conference” and has encouraged his readers to “sign-up” and to “join us” for an “amazing weekend.” As they say at NASA-Houston, we have a problem. Rosenberg clearly does not understand the magnitude of what’s happening with false teaching in the church today from the language on his blog. He is uniting with false teachers (join us) and encouraging others (sign-up) for an “amazing weekend.”

In Romans 16:17-18, Paul writes, “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.” In Titus 3:10, Paul writes, “Warn a divisive person once and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them.” And in Ephesians 5:11, Paul writes, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”

So in light of the Scriptures, I have some more questions … Click here to continue reading.

 Taken from the powerful film, The Radicals, based on the true story of Michael and Margaretha Sattler, who defected from the Catholic church and who were martyred for their faith in Christ.

By Ted Kyle
Free-Lance Writer 

From Ezekiel 9:4-5 comes this challenging report: “And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity.”

If the reader’s first reaction is to think, “These are Old Testament words for a far-distant time and place; it means nothing to me,” I beg you to think again. The God of the Old Testament is also the God of the New Testament. His nature has not changed one iota. The Old and the New are related. Furthermore, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:11 that “Now all these things (virtually the entire Old Testament) happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. We are not governed by Old Testament Law but we are supposed to learn from those hard-won lessons.

In Ezekiel’s vision, God commissioned the angelic beings who had charge of Jerusalem, including the Temple (Ez. 9:1), to sweep through the city and destroy most of the residents. They were to have no pity. They were to “slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children, and women” (9:6). The only exceptions to this general slaughter were to be those who mourned because their city and nation were sliding ever deeper into sin.

Was this a warning vision or a prophetic vision? Probably both, in a general sense, for we know that God did ultimately use the Roman army to wreak His vengeance on the Jewish nation, and particularly Jerusalem, its capital city, where the slaughter was frightful. Included in the destruction was the Temple, which was burned and then enthusiastically demolished stone by stone, we are told, to recover the gold that had melted and run into the joints and crevices between the stones.

I greatly fear that God’s fulfillment of this vision will be reenacted in our country in our day, unless America turns back to God. We, as a nation, have already closed our schools, our courts, and our councils against God and have more and more declared Him either irrelevant or actually subversive. Meanwhile our churches, so many of them, are spiritually asleep and drifting further from the precepts and practices of God’s holy Word.

I believe Ezekiel’s vision also contains a pointed warning for the Church. Note the last part of 9:6: “ ‘And begin at my sanctuary.’ Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.” Verse 7 continues: “And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.”

Where would these angels of death find their first victims? Among the priests and Levites who served the Temple. And first among them would be the “ancient men,” the leaders. The application for the Church is so obvious it cries out for emphasis: God’s judgment will fall most heavily upon the pastors and elders who lead their flocks away from the true Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This, of course, is as it should be. God entrusted the Church with a leadership role: She is God’s ambassador to the world! (cf. Eph. 6:20). She is charged with staying true to the Bible. More, she must be vibrantly alive. She must be a beacon of faith, and a bastion of righteousness. In short, she must once again truly represent our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ!

Without this taking place, I fear God’s terrible judgment on America and the Church is inevitable.

The question remains: How much do we, as God’s children, care? Does the already deplorable and rapidly worsening spiritual condition of our country grieve us? The answer may tell us much about our own spiritual condition!

This is the time for all true believers to “be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15).

Let your light shine as you weep for your country!