Sifting through the Sewage: Pentacostalism

Sometimes late at night when I'm surfing channels on the boob tube, I search for shows having a bit of a humorous bent. Sure, there are funny shows such as the Family Guy, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Flight of the Conchords. For my money, nothing is funnier than watching the nonsense that flows out of TBN. From Benny Hinn to T.D. Jakes these dudes claim to be prophets of God and Bible-believing Christians. If only they read their Bible, maybe they could be Bible-believing Christians. Most of their nonsense would be funny if it were not so heretical.
Exhibit A- Oneness Theoolgy
This is basically a cute word for modalism. Within this is the belief is the idea that tongues is necessary sign for salvation,a denial of the pre-existence of Christ, a belief that Jesus was Himself the Father.
To say that tongues is necessary for salvation is utter horse crap! Just cursory glance at Scripture(Eph. 2:8-9) shows that is through grace and that sign of a believer is the sanctification by the Spirit that takes place.(2 Thess. 2:13)
On the pre-existence of Christ, I suppose they should check out John 1:1, and then try and defend the B.S. they pass off as Christianity.
To refute the position that Jesus was Himself the Father, I would like to kindly point out that Jesus is never once explicitly called the Father in the New Testament, while oddly enough there are the Father is referred to be distinct from Jesus over 200 times.

Exhibit B- Here are some quotes taken from some these great men of god(And yes, I am aware that I used a lower case "g")!
Benny Hinn - "Jesus Christ knew the only way he would stop Satan was by becoming one in nature with him."
Joyce Meyer -"There is no hope of anyone going to heaven unless they believe this truth I am presenting. You cannot go to heaven unless you believe with all your heart that Jesus took your place in hell."
And Kenneth Copeland -"When Jesus cried "It is finished!" He was not speaking of the plan of redemption. There were still three days and nights to go through before He went to the throne. He was referring to the Abrahamic Covenant. Jesus' death on the cross was only the beginning of the complete work of redemption. He accepted the sin nature of Satan in His own spirit. And at that moment that He did so He cried, 'My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me?' You don't know what happened at the cross. Why do you think Moses, upon instruction of God, raised the serpent upon that pole instead of a lamb? That use to bug me. I said, 'Why in the world would you want to put a snake up there - the sign of Satan? Why didn't you put a lamb on that pole?' And the Lord said, 'Because it was a sign of Satan that was hanging on the cross.' He said, 'I accepted in my own spirit, spiritual death; and the light was turned off'"

Well, if you're willing to follow their line of thinking, then you might as well throw atonement in the crapper. Without Jesus shedding His blood on the Cross for our sin, we have no Salvation. And without salvation, we might as well grab a shotgun and blow off our head, because life no longer has any meaning.

Unity?!?!

Is there a necessity of church unity today? I do not refer to the unity of believers in specific church setting, such as a baptist, methodist, presbyterian. etc. I am referring specifically to the unity of believers as a whole in the body of Christ. Why do I bring this up? For a couple of reasons, It seems within the context of Christianity we have all these quarrels and other nonsensical debates that ramble on yet do not edify anyone, but rather serve to create strife in the church community. Some examples off the top of my head are churches that refuse to associate with other churches on the basis of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Here's a news flash I think if God wanted to do away with the gifts he would have put it in the Word. As far as the other side, there are rules to which gifts are to be used.
Another example is constant haggling over Arminianism vs. Calvinism, I personally think this issue has been one major issues that has caused much of the disunity among believers.
My point in bringing this up, is that these are second hand issues that have no place in competing with the main purpose of glorifying God, which is our sole purpose. When it comes right down to the brass tacks, should make a difference if John MacArthur were to speak at Mars Hill in Seattle, or does it matter if Driscoll were to speak at MacArthur's church? Do they not believe in the same Jesus. The same Jesus who calls us to repentance.
While it is fun to discuss these second hand issues in civil discourse. Once the gloves come off and you start distancing yourself from fellow believers, because they don't think like you think. You have not only done a disservice to other Christians, you have caused unbelievers to view us as a bunch of jackasses. All because you're "brilliant" application of the Scripture doesn't jive with the other "heathen" Christians.

Prosperity Gospel Ummasked

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A fine quote on justification and sanctification

"I would humbly suggest that we are apt to overlook the doctrine of growth in grace, and that we do not sufficiently consider how very far a person may go in a profession of religion, and yet have no grace, and be dead in God's sight after all . . . I have no desire to make an idol of holiness. I do not wish to dethrone Christ, and put holiness in His place. But I must candidly say I wish sanctification was more thought of in this day than it seems to be, and I therefore take occasion to press the subject on all believers into whose hand these pages may fall. I fear it is sometimes forgotten that God has married together justification and sanctification. They are distinct and different things, beyond question, but one is never found without the other. All justified people are sanctified, and all sanctified are justified. What God has joined together let no man dare put asunder. Tell me not of your justification, unless you have also some marks of sanctification. Boast not of Christ
's work for you, unless you can show us the Spirit's work in you. Think not that Christ and the Spirit can ever be divided. I doubt not that many believers know these things, but I think it good for us to be put in remembrance of them. Let us prove that we know them by our lives. Let us try to keep in view this text more continually: 'Follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.'" (page 152-153 of Faithfulness and Holiness)
jc ryle

Here We Go Again...

I going to try and be as nice as possible the following post, as my words have gotten me into trouble in the past for being flippant with my words.
You need to read this interview.
My thoughts on this is that the guy is losing(or has lost) is mind. Sure, I'll grant the fact that it makes for some fun conversation to talk about E.T.'s. To say that we have "extraterrestrial brother's" is just plain idiotic. Read the account of Creation in Genesis, and one can see there no room "other life's". If this were indeed the case that we had other "brothers", than just who did Jesus die for? What burns me most about this interview is the fact that this dude is the Head of the Vatican Observatory and a scientific adviser to the Pope. If I were a Catholic, I would certainly be questioning what the hell this guy is talking about. So, my catholic brothers out there in cyber world, take a stand and demand that this adviser quit stomping on the Our Sovereign God and His the Word that proceeded out His mouth.

A few thoughts on Prayer

Once again I type, as my beloved Mariners make an attempt to blow another lead. So apologize ahead of time for any profanity that slips out in this post.

I was reading a book the other day entitled "Why Revival Tarries"(a great book by the way) by a fellow by the name of Leonard Ravenhill. Upon reading the book, something jumped out at me. That would be the word Prayer. Many churches and it's leaders speak of great ideas for doing the Lord's works, but what good will those ideas be without prayer. Even in my own life, do I take the time for daily, secret intercession with our Lord? Or do spit off the typical prayers of "help this person, help that person, thank you this, thank you that, etc" I admit most of the time it is the latter. What the book really impressed upon me is that even if we spend every considerable amount of our time studying for a sermon, doing good works, etc. what good will they be if we have not spent earnest time in prayer asking to Lord to break us and to mold us. It is really to much of us to spend an hour a day in solemn prayer. I know we live in rat race type of society, so our excuses will always abound. If our desire is to glorify God, shouldn't we at least be in solemn conversation with One whom we want to glorify.

As you go think on this quote by Jonathan Edwards, "Sincere friendship towards God, in all who believe him to be properly an intelligent, willing being, does most apparently, directly, and strongly incline to prayer; and it no less disposes the heart strongly to desire to have our infinitely glorious and gracious Friend expressing his mind to us by his word, that we may know it."

Hanging with the Heathens

I apologize for accidental words of anger in this post, as I watching the Mariner's and their starting pitcher sucking very badly at the moment.

At the recent Dwell event in NYC, I had the opportunity to see Darrin Patrick speak on Dwelling with non-Christians. The following is a basic Cliff Notes version of what he had to say.

It is clear from the Scripture that we are called to "...make disciples of all nations...". The question remains how do we do this? In what way should we do this?
One of the key aspects in doing this is figure out what you like about the culture.
This can involve attending community events. Such as a Phillies game, a concert, a beer festival, etc. As a church we need to create events that attract the community. Some ideas that have passed around at our church are having a skate park, showing the UFC fights in our church, Madden tourneys, holding concerts,etc.
In doing this we need make sure we have a good feel for the community, in a way that Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.
The necessity of doing this is spelled out in 1 Thessalonians 2:8. In doing this, we need our friends to how much we are like them, more importantly our friends need to see how much we aren't them. For instance, if you enjoy fine beer at a Pub as I do(not the Satanic Lite beers), you need to show your enjoyment of the fine beverage in a Godly manner, not a drunken sinful manner.
These are just a few thoughts. Most importantly, when discerning how to effectively spread the gospel to the lost, we must be sure that whatever we are doing our actions will be Christ-honoring and spreading the gospel mission.

Coming Soon

I've been really busy this week. So my replies to comments have been a little late, but not forgotten. I recently attended a church planting conference in Manhattan a couple of days ago, and will post some thoughts on it soon. To my catholic brothers, I haven't forgot about. I'm gonna refrain from some theological bantering for about a week, so I can post some much needed info. on sharing the gospel, church planting, worship,etc.
If anybody has any great ideas in which the gospel is shared at your respective churches, let me know I would like to hear them.

J-unit

Donkey fo the Week

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On the Apocrypha

Since it seems much of the haggling is over apocrypha this, and bible that. I thought I would chime in. For the record, I will certainly will concede that I may have misinterpreted the Pope's prayer as a prayer for the dead. Casting this aside, I still believe prayer for the dead is without basis. And that to base this idea on anything but the Bible is wrong. For the sake of our readers, when I refer to the Bible I am referring to the "protestant" Bible. And since a prayer for the dead will eventually lead to purgatory, I will make an attempt to nip both of them in the bud. In an attempt to answer some questions that will inevitably arise I will consult the modern day crystal ball...google.

First, I will start with the idea of prayer for the dead which from what I can ascertain is a doctrine taken from the Apocrypha. I personally,do not see how one can reconcile the Apocrypha as the inspired Word of God for a number of reasons. First, in the NT there are numerous references to the Old Testament. If the Apocrypha was "truth" would there not be references made in the NT?
Second, unlike the other 66 books the Apocrypha was written in Greek and not Hebrew.
Third, there are many historical errors in the Apocrypha some of the examples are seen in Tobias where Tobias used magic, heart, liver, gall of a fish to drive away a demon. Also, in Tobias says he saw a revolt in the Northern Tribes(997 bc) and was deported to Nineveh in 740 bc, yet he only lived 102 years.
4th, the author of 2 Maccabees infers that his writings are not divinely inspired. But rather a writing of historical perspective.

To sum it up, if there are these glaring errors in the Apocrypha. One must consider/reconsider the doctrines that are pulled from these seemingly human inspired works. Within the canon of scripture lies what I consider the true and perfect Word of God.

Apologies to Amanda and One_Lost_Coin

As you can see the posting on April 15th has been deleted. The reason for this is I believe the pictures and tone served more to offend and mock, then to facilitate debate. Though I do disagree with many doctrines in the RCC, my sinful pride was on full display when I chose to mock and castigate those whom I disagree with. It did not serve me any purpose, by posting a likeness of the pope on fire, nor by suggesting that all who follow the pope are going to hell. In the Jesus is the Final Judge and only He knows whom he calls into Eternity. I will make a better effort to humbling assert my disagreements I have within the RCC. Once again, to Amanda and One_Lost_Coin I apologize for my foolish pride.

Justin Maberry

Prideful Thoughts

The following is a brief list of thoughts on the subject of what pride is:

Hitting snooze for an extra ten minutes of sleep, thereby throwing your day off kilter.
Staying up late the night before surfing the 'net or watching the tube, when you need to get up early the next morning.
Reading the books(including the Bible) when your kids desire your crave your attention throughout the day or when you spouse desires to spend time with you.
Not having a proper diet or exercise
Misinterpreting the Bible to fit your own wishes.
Working in excess for a extra money that may not be needed.
Going out on the town when you need to pay bills.
Criticizing others for their lack of knowledge in certain areas that interest you.
Placing your kids on a pedestal.
Not including your spouse in decisions.
Not helping out around the house because you think you're a MAN!

This is bit but a small list, but all these are issues that ultimately compete with the sovereignty of God.

Perspectives on the Olympiad

Christmas Day 1979. US intel detects Soviet aircraft streaming towards the Afghanistan border. It was on that day the Soviets disastrous attempt to overtake the Afghan's and "convert" them to Soviet ideology began. The war would last a decade and cost tens of thousands of lives. It also spark a worldwide protest, particularly in Hungary, that foresaw the end of the mighty Soviet Empire 10 years later. 1979(also a good pumpkins song) was also the year before the USSR was to hold the Olympics. They were to showcase the "brilliance" of communism in this Olympiad. They were going to show the world how far they "advanced" since Stalin's Reign of Terror. Fortunately, this invasion of Afghanistan finally struck a chord in minds of people in America, which led to a much needed boycott of murderous regime formerly known as the USSR.
Fast forward to 2007, the news headlines are filled with reports on Tibetans protesting the forthcoming Olympiad held in communist China. We here cries of protest for the US to withdraw. It seems on deaf hears this news falls, as we wouldn't want to offend the slave-supporting, truth-repressing, back-stabbing murders in the aristocracy of China. Truth be told the Olympics is to be a showcase of the world's greatest amateur athlete's. It is a showcase of the grandiosity of country. It is a showcase of unity worldwide.
Public policy in China shows these commie bastards to be none of the above. Their athlete's are frequently embroiled doping allegations. The pollution in Beijing is so bad, world class runners are either dropping out or considering breathing apparatuses while they compete. An undisclosed amount of workers have been killed in a hasty attempt to build the venues at breakneck speed. It leads the world in human trafficking, piracy, computer hacking, and forced slave labor, among other things. On the unity front, China despises Taiwan. So much so, they have threatened to take them off the map. Tibetans are very nearly treated as the Jews were in Nazi Germany. They are a continual supporter of lunatic regimes in Iran, Syria, and Russia to name a few. Lest we not forget, Chinese fingerprints are all over the carnage in Darfur.
When you watch the Olympics in a couple of months think on this. The nice leather coat you go to work was more than likely made by political prisoner or a Christian whose beliefs are criminalized. While you look like a stud, their ass is getting beat into the mud with butt end of an machine gun. But, hey, at least you look cool and the chicks dig you.

Something Different

I'm going to try my hand at a little poetry. Periodically, I've been known to scribble out some prose, on the encouragement of a friend of mine I'm going to give it a shot.

Last Hours

The whip cracks with a mighty thunder, as it tears into the skin
Pulling out bloody chunks of skin and sinew, a few more hours until the end.
In a dazed, disheveled mess thorns are buried into My head,
Blood streams down my face, burning my eyes, as I blurily
stare upon the Cross, on which I will soon be dead.

My body is in agony as I shoulder the Cross against my savagely beaten frame,
Insults are hurled, as Simon carries the burden for Me as I've become lame.
I am lain on cedar, with iron spikes my hands and feet are cloven to the wood
To hold up a body no longer recognizable to those who normally would.
Spit mixes in with the dripping blood and sweat,
My side is pierced, as I have given my last breath.

Fear not, it was not I who was defeated on the Cross,
On that day, sin was given a permanent loss.
I've sacrificed My life,
I've taken every evil,
I've healed every wound,
I've dried every tear,
That Day on the Cross.

The Big Fraud

This blog would normally get me in trouble, but since all of two people read it(and I am one of them). I feel pretty safe in writing about what I am to transcribe. I don't even know why I am writing about this. Perhaps if it it was in January or February it would be a little more timely, but alas it is March. The main position I'm taking is not that Martin Luther King, jr. was a great "uniter" of the races, but rather he was a pseudo-Christian, who did about as much to advance the cause of Christ as Led Zeppelin advanced hip-hop.
To show that MLK was hertic, I will not make wild conjectures based on feeling, but rather I will use his own words from his own writings to show that MLK is a heretic.

On the Sonship of Jesus, King wrote the following. " The first doctrine of our discussion which deals with the divine sonship of Jesus went through a great process of development. It seems quite evident that the early followers of Jesus in Palestine were well aware of his genuine humanity. Even the synoptic gospels picture Jesus as a victim of human experiences. Such human experiences as growth, learning, prayer, and defeat are not at all uncommon in the life of Jesus. How then did this doctrine of divine sonship come into being?
We may find a partial clue to the actual rise of this doctrine in the spreading of Christianity into the Greco-Roman world. I need not elaborate on the fact that the Greeks were very philosophical minded people. Through philosophical thinking the Greeks came to the point of subordinating, distrusting, and even minimizing anything physical. Anything that possessed flesh was always underminded in Greek thought. And so in order to receive inspiration from Jesus the Greeks had to apotheosize him.The church had found God in Jesus, and so it called Jesus the Christ; and later under the influence of Greek thought-forms, the only begotten Son of God."

On the Virgin Birth King states the following, "First we must admit that the evidence for the tenability of this doctrine is to shallow to convince any objective thinker. To begin with, the earliest written documents in the New Testament make no mention of the virgin birth. Moreover, the Gospel of Mark, the most primitive and authentic of the four, gives not the slightest suggestion of the virgin birth. The effort to justify this doctrine on the grounds that it was predicted by the prophet Isaiah is immediately eliminated, for all New Testament scholars agree that the word virgin is not found in the Hebrew original, but only in the Greek text which is a mistranslation of the Hebrew word for "young woman." How then did this doctrine arise?

A clue to this inquiry may be found in a sentence from St. Justin's First Apology. Here Justin states that the birth of Jesus is quite similar to the birth of the sons of Zeus. It was believed in Greek thought that an extraordinary person could only be explained by saying that he had a father who was more than human. It is probable that this Greek idea influenced Christian thought.

A more adequate explanation for the rise of this doctrine is found in the experience which the early Christians had with Jesus. The people saw within Jesus such a uniqueness of quality and spirit that to explain him in terms of ordinary background was to them quite inadequate. For his early followers this spiritual uniqueness could only by accounted for in terms of biological uniqueness. They were not unscientific in their approach because they had no knowledge of the scientific. They could only express themselves in terms of the pre-scientific thought patterns of their day.

And here is King on a myriad of basic tenets fundamental to beliefs of a Christian," Doctrines such as a supernatural plan of salvation, the Trinity, the substitutionary theory of the atonement, and the second coming of Christ are all quite prominant in fundamentalist thinking. Such are the views of the fundamentalist and they reveal that he is oppose to theological adaptation to social and cultural change. He sees a progressive scientific age as a retrogressive spiritual age. Amid change all around he was {is} willing to preserve certain ancient ideas even though they are contrary to science."

So there you have it kids...the reasons why MLK is a fraud. If you care to challenge me on this go right ahead. You can read it with your own eyes here,here,here,and here!

Becoming All Things To All Men

This past Friday some dudes from the church went out into the city of Philadelphia to "live as the homeless". It was quite an experience in a couple of ways. First, it took us two hours to find the first homeless man(that might be some kind of a record). Second, believe it or not homeless do sleep like normal people, and most of them we found were asleep. Some on benches, some on the sidewalk, some in amazing contraptions that would make Bear Grylls proud. Needless to say, we could have packed it in after the two hours and said to ourselves this is pointless. Fortunately, we were a little deranged so kept up the pursuit.
After getting home and recovering, I began to think of the words of Paul when he says, "...I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings."
As Christians, we need to take this attitude when sharing our faith with others. It doesn't do us any good if we give up because we feel we are not reaching anybody. We must constantly be in pursuit of the prize, so that we can reach others. Even if it is just one person we reach, that person we reach may be the next great revivalist who can reach multitudes of others. Or that person you reach may turn his life around and be saved from destruction. As final word I will share a quote,
"The battle has already been won, it is only a matter of how many soldiers that share in the victory that we need to worry about."

Sermon on Jonah

By clicking here, you can listen to my sermon on Jonah.

Ahh yes, my man crush

Those crazy emergents

While reading an article in Time magazine about N.T. Wright's forthcoming book on bodily resurrection I couldn't help but wonder who reads all this stuff. So, I did some digging through various blogs and found the emergent folks are the ones who seem to have a man crush on this dude. Which got me thinking, that the emergent church reminds of old style fundamentalism, expect with more pastels, goofy paintings, yoga sessions, and other stuff you would associate with people marching in a gay pride parade.
I grew up in an era where God was vengeful and if you made a mistake you were smoked. Now, we have the emergent crowd who seem to like the idea of a sissy Christ who picks daisies, gets a manicure, and then ends the day drinking a wine cooler. They spend so much useless time haggling over "Does your real body go to heaven, or does your soul?" I'm starting to wonder if their missing the point of Jesus died for you and when your saved you go to heaven...Does it matter how or when we get there.
I believe they are making a fatal mistake by placing time according to the human element next to time according to Jesus. Sure, you can make the case that their could be a slight delay, in human terms, of when you "officially" go to heaven, but then time is completely different according to Jesus. So, is there really a delay at all?, if a thousand years in heaven is like a day on earth?
Frankly, these emergents need to grow a pair balls and teach Christ died for your sins and you are saved when you repent and seek His mercy. If they want to keep screwing around with their loony debates, maybe they can pack their grateful dead cd's and baloney sandwiches and move to San Fran.