JOEL 2 GENERATION

To summarize the notion that "Christmas is a Pagan Holiday": “We are told, by popular cultural and academic tradition of recent centuries, that there’s no way Jesus was born on December 25. In fact, the only reason we celebrate Christmas Day on December 25 is because the early Christians adapted a pagan holiday to hide their faith in a still-hostile culture” It is argued that Emperor Constantine (early 300s) tried to Christianize a pagan holiday to make his new faith more acceptable to pagan Romans. He chose Dec. 25th, the date of Sol Invictus .   The Roman Festival of Saturnalia took place between December 17th and 23rd and honored the Roman god Saturn. The Romans also thought that the Solstice took place on December 25th. It's also thought that in 274 the Roman emperor Aurelian created 'Dies Natalis Solis Invicti' (meaning 'birthday of the unconquered sun') also called 'Sol Invictus' and it was held on December 25th. The myth is that AFTER the p...

Much has been written about "Prosperity" - many, especially in my tribe, the Charismatic wing of the Church. Much has been written to defend the so-called "Prosperity Gospel" and much has been written to challenge it as a distorted message. The Apostle Paul himself in one passage of 1 Corinthians should be enough to debunk the absolute claims of the proponents. I'll get to that passage in a moment. I must first say that one of the main problems with those who advocate some form of the "Prosperity Gospel" is that it misuses the Old Testament and in particular the Sinai Covenant that God made with Israel. The basic conditions were that if Israel obeyed God they would be blessed (Deuteronomy 28:1-14) with all the material blessings promised in the Covenant. Of course, the curses listed in Deuteronomy 28 (v. 15-68) were also promised for disobedience (the prosperity teachers don't ever "claim" these promises!) The Sinai Covenant DOES NOT appl...

Megan Basham's recent Daily Wire article is a MUST-READ - "How Church Leaders Aligned With Fauci To Discredit Experts Opposed To COVID Mandates" (https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-church-leaders-aligned-with-fauci-to-discredit-experts-opposed-to-covid-mandates) So far, the article remains behind a paywall for subscribers only. I have yet to read it in its entirety but have listened to a detailed summary by Jon Harris in his Conversations That Matter podcast.  To summarize some of her points, Basham has Tweeted this: “Love your neighbor” has become a catchall cudgel for pushing any number of progressive policies in the church. Covid lockdowns/mandates, open borders, environmental regulation. What gets forgotten is that ppl suffer on the other side of the coin for every one of these issues." "People starved and were pushed into poverty by Covid policies. Blue-collar people see their wages depressed, drug and sex traffickers flood the country due to open borders. ...

  Psalm 81 (Septuagint/LXX) = Psalm 82 in Masoretic Text/MT.  The "gods" are angelic beings and this Psalm describes their fall; their judgment. It refers to those "sons of God" who were put over the nations (Deut 32:8) but who abused their assignments.  Let us pray verse 8 for the hour that we are now in across this nation and all over the Earth. And for God ( YAHWEH ) to judge and to "vindicate" (v. 3). These fallen entities (also called in the Old Testament either the "sons of God" and/or "Watchers") have been manipulating things by controlling the Luciferian Globalist Deep State (to cite their modern manifestation and dominant strategy over the past few hundred years). Psalm 81 has an ongoing application. Recently when looked at the Book of Joel we saw this same ongoing dynamic. In short, there are many "days of the Lord" throughout salvation history before THE final Day of the Lord. There was a "day of the Lord"...

 

I'm not backing down. It was time to "Zoom from the Zoom" - and it is still time to be "Zooming from the Zoom".  We cannot fulfill Biblical commandments if we as Christians are not meeting with, gathering together with other Christians IN PERSON. Please hear what I am saying. Do you want to be obeying God? Do you want to be living out His commandments as a believer?  In order to do that, you MUST be gathering IN PERSON with other believers. That means during a pandemic and/or before or after one.  Many Christians got into disobedience during Covid. Instead of listening to Holy Spirit, they listened to the CDC (or the WHO, or their local/state government) and "complied" with directives that were in direct disobedience to God's Word. By the way, that disobedience (not gathering in person with others during Covid) had a devasting effect on the lives of many Christians. I know many who have yet to recover. I just got back from a time of gathering with ...

I wrote this blog post originally back in 2012. I've decided to update it and repost it for 2 primary reasons:  1. I subsequently became familiar with Ken Wilson's landmark work on the pagan/non-Christian influences on Augustine's theology (see his book, Foundations of Augustinian-Calvinism)  and know about what those influences were and how they perverted his theology and moved him away from the Apostolic faith.  2. The influence of Augustinianism/Calvinism on Christians continues to be widespread (and in some places growing). Even this week, spending time with 2 different Christian brothers whose theology is sadly influenced by Reformed ideas that cause them to misinterpret/misunderstand God's will in their lives and the lives of their families.  St. Augustine's influence on Western Christianity is second to none. However, his theology, primarily due to the Neoplatonic philosophy which influenced it (I would now add Stoicism and Gnostic Manichaeism), moved Christ...

I originally wrote the following blog post back in 2017. I have subsequently become aware of Dr. Ken Wilson's work on Augustine's theology. His Oxford doctrinal dissertation entitled "Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to 'Non-Free Free Will': A Comprehensive Methodology" was published in 2018 and demonstrates irrefutably that St. Augustine was influenced philosophically/theologically by 3 non-Christian sources - Stoicism, Neoplatonism, and Gnostic Manichaeism. Ken Wilson released a book summarizing and simplifying his technical dissertation entitled  The Foundation of Augustinian-Calvinism  in 2019.  I knew back in 2017 that Augustine's theology was infected by non-Christian, non-Apostolic sources. I now understand, thanks to Ken Wilson, far more deeply what those sources were and how they affected his doctrine of God, his doctrine of man, and his Soteriology (doctrine of salvation). And I know more surely than ever that due to these ...

We are living in a day when many historic Christian emphases/teachings are almost entirely neglected and/or absent altogether.  In an age of self-promotion, and numbers of followers on Social Media (with people obsessed with 'likes' and 'shares'), where is the Apostolic Christian emphasis that we need to be 'dying to ourselves' and focusing on humility? Recently in my preaching/teaching, I imagined things John the Baptist would have NEVER participated in. In short, I believe he would utterly reject the "cult of self" and self-promotion that characterizes so much of the ministry in the Body of Christ today.  What was John's goal? His was his aim in ministry? Was it to establish a name, a ministry for himself? Absolutely NOT.  In stark contrast to the 'platform building' efforts in today's Church, John's intention was TO BECOME LESS! He said it like this... John 3:30 – “He [Jesus] must become greater(increase), I must become less(decr...

We've dealt with "Hyper-Grace" teachers and teaching before in this blog. But this false teaching continues to be prevalent within the Body of Christ.  Hyper-Grace teaching can only be supported by 'cherry picking' verses out of the NT and then doing some heterodox exegesis of other passages (i.e. 1 John 1:8). NO ONE would ever come to the conclusions of Hyper-Grace teachers if they read through ALL of the New Testament, considering the "whole counsel" of the Apostolic deposit. And you won't find a single Christian theologian, apologist, or leader in the early centuries of the church that would support the conclusions of the modern Hyper-Grace teachers. NOT ONE! That alone should disturb any of these teachers who somehow believe they have unlocked the original Apostolic teaching that somehow got lost for nearly 2000 years! Today the Lord highlighted Philippians 3:12 again to me and the Apostle Paul completely dismantles the Hyper-Grace teachers in a ...

I am all for the best use of technology. And clearly, during Covid, the online 'Zoom Meeting' became the way much of the world was forced to function for a time. I was teaching at a university at the time and we were entirely online using Zoom for classes and faculty meetings for over a year.  Most churches also shifted all of their gatherings to virtual ones using Zoom (or a similar type of online platform).  But our church NEVER met virtually on Zoom - we met in person. Even when it was illegal to do so. We gathered - for a couple of weeks, we even gathered in small groups of 3-4 in our cars (we called it, "Church on Wheels"). After a couple of weeks of that, we shifted into meeting in houses, in person, and NEVER looked back after that. There were a few weeks when the entire country wasn't allowed to leave their homes with a strict curfew in place and because there was no other way, during those weeks we did meet virtually.   And as far as we know, we were the ...

Archbishop Viganò is a fearless voice of truth in today's Roman Catholic Church. Whereas many Roman Catholics have abandoned their church's teaching regarding abortion, like the primitive church, any faithful Catholic rejects abortion as the murder of innocent babies in all circumstances.  Archbishop Viganò goes beyond abortion in his following statement to come against many other wicked, evil forces at work in the world today. He speaks the truth regarding Covid and the so-called "safe & effective" vaccines.  My prayer is that God will use this statement to lead many Roman Catholics to repentance, those who have bowed the knee to the spirit of the age and who have abandoned the Apostolic teaching of the entire church of Jesus Christ regarding abortion. Following are excerpts from Archbishop Viganò's Statement: "THE SUPREME COURT of the United States of America, overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, healed a constitutional vulnus  [wound] and at the...

There were no so-called "Pro-Choice Christians" in the early Church! Abortion was/is murder. It would have been grounds for excommunication - to have participated in one or to support/believe in the practice. That has ALWAYS been the Christian position. It was the Apostolic faith and practice. Today's Christians, who believe they can follow Jesus and support abortion rights, are deceived. They are supporting murder. It is a false teaching that has crept into the church and has led many into apostasy.  #abortion, #pro-life, #christianity, #Roe v Wade, #infanticide, #murder

For the Presbyterian Church USA (PC USA): Abortion was once considered a "horrible crime" and "infanticide"! Today they are "outraged" and "mortified" that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.  It is with pain that I write this post. I grew up in a conservative PCUSA church - my parents were married in that church, my wife and I were married in that church and for many years we were supported as missionaries from that PCUSA church. My mom was a member of that church and transferred her membership to another PCUSA church closer to where they were living. She faithfully attended that church until she died. We had both of my parents' memorials at that PCUSA church. A number of years ago we also became affiliated with yet another conservative PCUSA Church that began supporting our ministry and still does to this day. Thankfully, back in 2014, the first church parted ways with the denomination. The one that still supports us also left the...