Category Archives: In the World – Not of it

Seeing beyond what’s happening all around us

Blasphemy Day?

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Why Do the Heathen Rage? — International Blasphemy Day

posted by Al Mohler on his blog

Ready for a day to honor blasphemy?  According to press reports, September 30 is set as the observance of the first-ever International Blasphemy Day. This could be interesting.

The choice of September 30 looks back to that date in the year 2005, when the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad’s face sparked outcry and protests in the Muslim world and threats toward the West.

Now, as Religion News Service reports, the Center for Inquiry is planning a day of observances to mark the occasion.  Ron Lindsay, a lawyer who serves as president of the Council for Inquiry International, said that the day was part of the group’s effort to expose religious beliefs to investigation.  In the words of the RNS report, the goal is “to expose all religious beliefs to the same level of inquiry, discussion and criticism to which other areas of intellectual interest are subjected.” …

… The Blasphemy Day events are certain to draw media attention, which is no doubt the whole point of the observance.  That is how a group like CFI can gain publicity for itself and its cause.

How should Christians respond?

Read the rest of the article.

The New Cool

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is really just old fashioned liberalism.

It’s said, rightly, that those that don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. Man falls into the same sins, and acts on the same fallacies over and over. We are currently going through a replay of some of the early 1900’s. Liberal theology, a questioning of the veracity of The Bible, downplaying the Gospel, atonement and resurrection, up-playing a social gospel – and it leading to national consequences, socialism and fascism, is all in vogue again. (See link at the end to see how so.)

But by God’s grace He is once more raising up those that will stand for His Truth. We are thankful that there remains a remnant faithful to the Gospel in our apostate nation. See some of those, that we’ve found, in our sidebar. How apropos that we are currently studying both economics and the early 1900’s, and reading J Gresham Machen, (Christianity and Liberalism), one who stood in the early 1900’s against the tide of liberalism sweeping in then. (A man plans his ways, but the Lord directs his path. – Pro. 16:9)

Sadly this liberalism has taken over the National Pastors’ Convention. Graciously, some stand firm on the only hope for mankind – the Truth of the Gospel and God’s Word, such as Together for the Gospel.

More about the Pastors’ Convention:

I write, so to speak, from the belly of this beast, attending the National Pastors’ Conference, sponsored by Zondervan and Intervarsity Press, which is taking place in San Diego, February 9-14, 2009. It is amazing to see how these once faithful publishers of evangelical orthodoxy are now consistently and deliberately launching a massive but subtle attack against the “Fundamentals” for which Evangelicalism stood courageously against liberalism in the past.

While I am struck by the sincerity of the brilliant public speakers (named below), who still have evangelical piety and passion, their openly-stated theology is turning large swathes of the evangelical church into various new forms of old-fashioned though very cool liberalism. …

Read how it played out here – by Peter Jones.

 

We Cannot Cease Speaking

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"Warning: Offensive post to Sunday-only Christians ahead. Proceed with caution." Thus begins Scott Head’s post today at These are the Generations of...  on The Revival that the Church Doesn’t Know About.

"We struggle with discussing the issue of sound Biblical doctrine, multi-generational vision, family worship, Biblical gender roles and the like because we know it easily offends those who also claim Christ but for some reason or another do not hold to these teachings in scripture. We struggle with how to discuss these things without being perceived as prideful or "holier than thou", or haughty. But in all honesty, we can’t cease speaking what the Bible says just so we don’t offend. Truth offends, it cuts, it bruises. If we speak the truth in love, we still offend, and that’s hard to endure. There IS a problem in the church today, it is a big, giant, trumpeting elephant in the room that everyone sees, but no one will discuss, because it will rock the boat. There ARE a vast group of people who come to church every Sunday but sit there stone faced and un-saved. There ARE preachers who do not preach the Word of God in all its convicting and edifying strength, …."

It is worth a click on over there to read the whole post.

SDG,
Lisa

Relevant?

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The gospel IS relevant in and of itself beloved; and it needs no dressing up, or propping up to make inroads into the depraved sinful hearts of unregenerate men or women today in any culture. It alone is the power of God unto salvation.

by Steve Camp

You have no doubt heard the arguments: … Above all else, we have got to stay in step with the times. … They don’t really care if they are worldly. They just don’t want to be thought uncool. … Whole churches have thus deliberately immersed themselves in "the culture"–by which they actually mean "whatever the world loves at the moment." … In the name of connecting with "the culture" they want their people to know they have seen all the latest … They seem to know every fad top to bottom, back to front, and inside out. They’ve adopted both the style and the language of the world–including lavish use of language that used to be deemed inappropriate in polite society, much less in the pulpit. They want to fit right in with the world, and they seem to be making themselves quite comfortable there.

by John MacArthur – quoted on CampOnThis

Postmodernism has become the new hermeneutic by which the ECM interprets Scripture rather than Scripture being the true hermeneutic which clearly interprets postmodern culture.

by Steve Camp

Again, it bears repeating —

The gospel IS relevant in and of itself beloved; and it needs no dressing up, or propping up to make inroads into the depraved sinful hearts of unregenerate men or women today in any culture. It alone is the power of God unto salvation.

by Steve Camp

Hanukkah? Christmas?

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Many Christians have a "problem" with other Christians celebrating Hanukkah. "God never tells us to, so we don’t have to, (or shouldn’t,") is their reasoning. Many somehow see it as "legalistic", though I’m not sure how they ever get that out of it. I don’t know one true Christian who thinks they are saved or more loved by God because they celebrate Hanukkah or any other holiday or DO anything else for that matter. I do know some "pretenders" who think such because they go to church on Christmas.

Yet those that have a disdain for Hanukkah celebrate a holiday that not only was not given by God for us to celebrate, neither was it celebrated by anyone in the Bible (other than the time it happened.)

True, Hanukkah was not a God ordained Feast, but Jesus celebrated it, AND it is full of symbolism pointing to fulfillment in Him! See this post for why I LOVE Hanukkah!

I don’t think it is wrong to celebrate Jesus’ birth. MANY prophecies are fulfilled in it. And it is a MOST joyful thing to celebrate our God becoming Man that He might redeem us. BUT God did not direct us to celebrate His birth, (let alone make the biggest commercial day of the year out of it,) none of Jesus’ followers celebrated it (except at the time of His incarnation), and we know it wasn’t in the middle of December! If we’re going to celebrate it, at least we should do it at the right time of the year. It is simply Christ-Mass, a mixture of pagan winter solstice with Christ.

I actually heard a "Christian" radio announcer say that we need to find ways to keep Jesus the center of Christmas (good idea) and that her mom had found a way to do that all year. "Don’t take down the tree." WHAT????!!!!! You keep Jesus the center by focusing on a tree all year???!!! How about you focus on Jesus by getting away from all the man-centered trappings that have nothing to do with the incarnation of GOD?! But no we create post facto symbolism so we feel good about what we are doing.

How do I deal with Christmas? I see it as a time of outreach. It is a time when people who don’t have much to do with Jesus all the rest of the year show their "Christian" warm fuzzies. It is a time they are more open to talk about Jesus, which can open doors for us to share the Truth.

It is also a time when many Christians celebrate Jesus’ incarnation, truly worshipping Him (though with a bunch of worldly trappings usually). Although I think the whole idea is silly, I don’t fault them for wanting to celebrate Him. I think God has given us a better idea, but I’ll save that for another day/month. 🙂

I don’t have a problem with giving gifts or decorations or festive parties and meals. I have a problem with thinking this is "celebrating Jesus," that we need a "tree" to celebrate Jesus’ birth, or lights, or gifts or whatever. Have a celebration! Go all out. Do it as to Him! But don’t try to say all these things are about or for Him or His "birth". Do I think Christ should be left out of Christmas? Absolutely not!! I think Christ-Mass should be left out of Christ! And that He should be the center of everything everyday!

Dd16 said today, "People always say, ‘It’s not about getting, it’s about giving.’ and ‘We give gifts because the wise men gave gifts to Jesus.’ That is so wrong. It IS about getting! It’s about God giving and us getting. It’s NOT about wise men giving gifts to Jesus. It’s about God giving Jesus!"

"Out of the mouths of babes" Matt. 21:16

Celebrate Christ! Keep Jesus the center and all-in-all of all your celebrations! Celebrate the fact that God GAVE! The rest can all be left off and it will still be "Christmas".