JOEL 2 GENERATION

1 Peter 4:17 - For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God PODCAST LINK There is a growing consensus that God is currently judging His Church and Christian ministries. Of course, He has always done so. It was happening in the 1st Century when the Apostle Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote the Epistle of 1st Peter. And it seems to be happening at an ever-increasing pace today. He's exposing sin and false teachings. He is shedding light onto lifestyles that are hard to imagine belong to followers of the one who said He "has no place to lay his head" (Matt. 8:20). It should be producing the fear of God amongst His people. It should be producing repentance in the ones being exposed. I am not sure it is producing either.  I end this podcast by highlighting something else I believe God is judging - the very structure and nature of Church and ministries. I think many who are applauding the exposures and correction God is bringing are not yet...

I think far too many Christians today have allowed the kingdom of darkness and its influence to become far too big in their lives over and against the resources of God and His Kingdom. On the other side, there are Christians who hardly believe in the influence of the demonic realm, as if somehow once the Bible was finished, the devil retired and ceased to be the "god of this world" ( 2 Cor. 4:4 ). But in my camp, there are simply too many believers that allow the attacks of the enemy to overwhelm them. And somehow a lie enters in that the resources of God and His Kingdom don't seem be enough. They would never say this of course, but in practice, it has become their reality. Today as I was doing a study in the early Christian church with regards to angels, I came across this 3rd century quotation: "[God] does no less than to set His own angels over His devout servants, so that none of the hostile angels - nor even he who is called “the prince of this world” [Jn. 14:30...

Countless Americans will be donning something green and getting drunk in St. Patrick’s honor today, who obviously know NOTHING about who St. Patrick really was. If they did, they would realize they are actually dishonoring him. In fact, most of what Christians have heard about St. Patrick amounts to Fake ‘Theological’ News. Different Christian traditions all want to claim Patrick as their own, the Roman Catholic Church being the loudest voice. Modern day Charismatics also like to reference his prophetic gifting and miracles. There have been a growing number of other Christians in recent years claiming to be “Celtic” and/or seeking to recover Celtic roots or Celtic ‘spirituality’. Sadly, much of that is distorted and often infused with New Age beliefs and ideas. Other historical revisionists will look to the Celtic Christians to justify other ideas/agendas – such as radical feminism and even environmentalism. So, who gets Patrick right? Who in our time represents him and his legacy the ...

I know 'technically' my Roman Catholic and Orthodox friends will say they don't "pray TO saints and angels", but for millions of Christians in those traditions that is truly a distinction without a difference. The role of dead saints and angels in these traditions is extremely important. The million dollar question of course is this, "Did Christ and His Apostles teach the church to do this"? And if so, we would find evidence of this practice in the 2nd and 3rd century church. But is that what we find?  Actually, we find just the opposite! And one voice that is perhaps the clearest is the great theologian of the 3rd Century, Origen. What does he say? "Having thus learned to call these beings “messengers” [i.e., angels] from their    duties, we find that because they are divine, they are sometimes called “god” in the sacred Scriptures. But this is not said in the sense that we are commanded to honor and worship them in place of God—even though they mi...

 

Deuteronomy 32:43 is now my "go to" verse to see if a Bible translation reflects the original text of the Bible. And why is the "original text" important? Because it is the original text, known as the vorlage or autographic text written by the Biblical author that is what God has inspired as His Word. He didn't inspire later copies, manuscripts, although we can know through the science of textual criticism with near certainty what the original, inspired text of Scripture is today. What do we find in Deuteronomy 32:43? Full disclosure - from the time I came to Christ in the 1980's I was told that there is no translation as good as the New American Standard (NASB) - the most literal, based on the oldest and best possible manuscripts. Some of what I was told was true, but as you will see in this blog post, some of what I was told is NOT true. And yes, I am aware of the King James ONLY (KJV) crowd and their arguments against many of the other modern translatio...