Reformed. Christianity. Evangelism. Modern Culture.
Mega church Pastor and televangelist Rod Parsley is teaming up with another Prosperity and Word of Faith teacher and multi millionaire Kenneth Copeland and (wait for it) yup, NFL Quarter back, Tim Tebow! In a conference said to let you “experience the power of the Holy Spirit, and learn how the anointing of God to can resonate in your life”.
I hope (sob) Tebow is getting good and sound theological advice. Sob! …Read More!
This video looks at the life of a child preacher called Marjoe Gortner. As a child preacher he earned millions of dollars for his parents. But there was something else…
When Gortner was three his father, Vernon, a third generation minister, noticed his son’s talent for mimicry and overall fearlessness of strangers and public settings. His parents claimed he had received a vision from God during a bath, but this was later conceded by Marjoe to be a lie his parents forced him to repeat. He claimed they enforced this by mock-drowning him because they could not beat him which would leave bruises which might be noticed during his many public appearances. They began training him to deliver sermons, complete with dramatic gestures and emphatic lunges. By the time he was four his parents arranged for him to …Read More!
It’s usually said if you want two see to lads play endless theological ping-pong, start a Calvinism vs Arminianism debate and title it “Does man have free will?” You will literally have to drag one of them apart…kicking and screaming. But I must say these theological debates do achieve their own edification in various unseen ways. They are strenuous and it always seems as though the other guy is just playing dumb like Balaam’s donkey. But when you come to finally hear your proverbial nemesis drop his daisies and grab hold of a bunch of graceful Tulips, doesn’t it just warm your heart? (sorry couldn’t resist the pun ;)) This is an excerpt from an article written by Mark Ketchum– on discovering God’s Sovereignty in election, salvation and transformation of a sinner dead in sin:
…We are not able to seek Him or turn to Him unless He first intervenes to soften our hearts. Are we capable? …. Are we able? No, our hearts are seeped in sin and our depravity makes God undesirable…
Romans 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
I have struggled with this concept for a long time. Ever since the concept of election was brought to my attention, I have fought against the idea of the inability to seek God on my own. During the sermon today at Faith Bible Church, it was as if a light bulb went on for the first time… God does choose us… we do not and cannot choose Him.
My salvation is not because of anything I have done, but because of what God has done to and through me.
While John is capable of going to college and graduating with a good degree, he is not able to accomplish this because of his laziness.
Scripture tells us that we cannot come to Jesus unless we are compelled or drawn by the Father (John 6:44). Jesus also spoke to us via Parable in Luke 14:16-24, explaining that the Father sent His servant Jesus to compel people to the banquet because nobody would come on their own… they were filled with excuses.
I do believe in free will, however, now I see that free will is and will always be limited by ourselves. My free will allows me to jump off a roof with my arms a flapping, but I will never be able to fly on my own accord without assistance.
My free will allows me to choose to murder, but thankfully I never will because that is not in my heart. The same goes for salvation. My free will allows me to choose God, but in my/our depraved state of sinfulness, I never will because it isn’t in my heart… unless God first softens my heart and changes me. Then and only then am I able to have the faith that offers repentance and salvation. …Read More!
Joseph M. Bianchi rightly said:
A walk through your local Christian book store will reveal a vast array of titles whose themes range from self-help to identifying which demon you are afflicted by. In this sorry state of affairs, one has to ask: “Where have all the sound, doctrinal books gone?”.
The real question, however, is, “Where have all the well taught, well discipled Christians gone?” The core of the issue is not the plethora of shallow, theologically unsound books that are flooding the market, but their huge success. It is indeed unmistakable that the church of Jesus Christ in the latter half of the twentieth century has retreated into a superficial, theological ghetto, that mirrors the culture, rather than transforms it. …Read More!
The modern trend is to shift towards short, vague, and essentially ambiguous belief statements which the modern church uses almost as tools of evangelism. To demonstrate this trend, I’ve (borrowed) Old Truth’s 2006 chart below showing a word count for the statements of faith of some of the most popular churches in America (as in September 2006). For comparison purposes, I’ve also included some old school Christians who have held to the historic belief statements of a better Christianity from times gone by. (Of course I hope this information has changed for the better over the last couple of years)
| Statement of Faith | Subscribers | Word Count | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| London Baptist Confession | CH Spurgeon, James White |
15,163 | 1689 |
| Augsburg Confession | Martin Luther | 14,938 | 1530 |
| Westminster Confession | RC Sproul, Michael Horton, Jonathan Edwards |
12,307 | 1646 |
| Grace Church Doctrinal Statement |
John MacArthur, Phil Johnson |
5,700 | recent |
| Willow Creek Statement of Faith |
Bill Hybels | 3,731 | recent |
| Bethlehem Baptist Church Beliefs | John Piper | 1,010 | recent |
| Cedar Ridge Community Church Beliefs | Brian McLaren | 877 | recent |
| Saddleback Beliefs | Rick Warren | 557 | recent |
| Fellowship Church Beliefs | Ed Young Jr. | 555 | recent |
| The Potters House Belief Statement |
TD Jakes | 417 | recent |
| Northpoint Community Church Beliefs | Andy Stanley | 362 | recent |
| Crystal Cathedral | Robert Schuller | 361 | recent |
| Lakewood Beliefs | Joel Osteen | Low! 206 | recent |
At the bottom of this chart are the churches with the shortest belief statements, and supposedly – the least emphasis on biblical doctrine. …Read MOre!
A very interesting flow chart I came across on Facebook.
I am still trying to figure it out. Read more of this post
This is an old sermon clip but it will be worth it just to listen to it once.
This is the third interview of a Christian. The guests have all been randomly chosen and interviewed. Their answers are authentic and original. However their identity has been anonymised. For earlier interviews click here. In this edition we sit down and listen to a Christian home schooling mum as she shares her world view and the gospel. Ready?
ATCT [A Twisted Crown of Thorns ®] : Sorry you are masked from your audience today. What is a typical week in your life like?
CHRISTIAN: A typical week in my life is anything but typical. We run a small farm and home school two boys, so most days are busy, between lessons and farm chores. Spring is busy with the arrival of baby animals, summer and fall are spent in the garden, or in the kitchen preserving the harvest and winter is a bit slower, but it is also the time we are well into schooling. I am also a youth group leader on Wednesday nights year round, and a Sunday school teacher for a teen class, both of which require preparation time in advance. I am regularly active in other church activities as well, like singing services, dinners, and fun activities for the children. We are busy, but blessed.
ATCT: Did you have any Christian influence in your youth or childhood?
CHRISTIAN: Not really. I grew up more a cultural Christian than an actual Christian. There were godly people in my life, but not in my everyday life. Spirituality was considered a good thing, but my family was not regular in church attendance.
ATCT: What is the gospel in one sentence? …Read More!
I guess there must be a hidden theological explanation:
- Baptist explanation: There must be sin in your life. Everyone else opened it fine.
- Presbyterian explanation: It’s not God’s will for you to open this link.
- Word of Faith explanation: You lack the faith to open this link. Your negative words have prevented you from realizing this link’s fulfillment.
- Charismatic explanation: Thou art loosed! Be commanded to OPEN!
- Unitarian explanation: All links are equal, so if this link doesn’t work for you, feel free to experiment with other links that might bring you joy and fulfillment. …Read More!
As you walk through a University campus you will realise there are lots of activities taking place. Or at least it appears so. It doesn’t take long till we find a madly, deeply in love Christian. He is a Law student who has just proposed to his fiancee and everything is looking good. Before he tells me how much he loves his soul mate and how they complete each others sentences, we will place a mask over his head. He will be anonymised during this interview as we pick his brains a bit. So, enter prosecution to greet our defenceless suspect 😉
ATCT [A Twisted Crown of Thorns ®] : Sorry you are masked from your audience today. What is a typical week in your life like?
CHRISTIAN: Basically, I study, work with the clubs at my school, go to the gym, church, and spend time with my fiancee. If there’s anytime left, Disneyland works its way in.
ATCT: Did you have any Christian influence in your youth or childhood?
CHRISTIAN: I did. There was a man in my Southern Baptist Church who I looked up to greatly. To this day we keep in touch. I was friends with his daughter growing up. He shaped a lot of my thinking and values.
ATCT: What is the gospel in one sentence? …Read more!
Jennifer Borders is among the 26 million Americans with chronic kidney disease (CKD), from which more than 70,000 people die each year. Jennifer has had two previous transplants. One from her mother when she was only 16 yeas and another later on. However they have all for unexplained reasons failed. As hope seemed to fade, help came from an unexpected source:
Sunday, [ 22nd January 2012] after conducting morning worship services, Derek Staples, pastor of Jacksonville First Baptist Church, will drive to Birmingham to be with a member of his congregation who is scheduled for a kidney transplant.
Staples won’t just be at the bedside, however. He’s the one donating a kidney. The woman whose life he may be saving is Jennifer Borders, who turned 40 in December. …Read More!
If you asked me I would probably say, “dunno”. But since you asked I will point you to a good review of Bishop Jakes’ sermon titled Touched. It has a caution attached to it! The reason why I have decided to run a sermon review is so that you may learn how to compare what people are preaching in the name of God with what the Word of God actually says. Here is an excerpt of Daniel Neades’ review:
T.D. Jakes is the leader of The Potter’s House, a 30,000 member congregation located in southern Dallas, Texas. I had never heard a T.D. Jakes sermon before, though I knew of his reputation. I was curious to see – if only via an Internet video stream – the man that Elevation Church reminded us was named ‘America’s Best Preacher’ by Time Magazine. Would I be able to uncover the secret of his mystique? And would he preach the Biblical Gospel? …Read More!
After listening to Matt chandler’s barn burning sermon at Elevation Church’s Code Orange 2012 Revival my heart was uplifted. He preached the law and the gospel, repentance and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. He also decried the “me centred” seeker sensitive tendencies in the church. Yup, all in one sermon. The red mist fell and his sermon re-plays were taken off program but young Matt had already done a job worth commending him for.
I am excited to see who will be inviting him next. Surely this invitation may have been made long before the Code Red Orange Revival but it sure will be an interesting one (if it ever happens). Perry Noble and New Spring church (a mega church with over 14,000 congregants) will be hosting Matt Chandler soon! …Read More!
Knock! Knock! Some body comes to open the door. Un announced A Twisted Crown of Thorns ® [ATCT] has paid a surprise visit to a mystery Christian guest. She is a wife and home maker. A dreamy dinner is almost ready (or is it?) and before she can excuse her self to turn off the cooker, we shall have a two minute marathon interview. The interviewee will remain anonymous for this session as we stir the contents in the frying pan and see what she truly believes. So, what do these Christian believe and why do they believe so? Listen in:
ATCT: Sorry you are masked from your audience today. What is a typical week in your life like?
CHRISTIAN: A typical week is being a homemaker primarily, dealing with meals, the care and feeding of a toddler, teenager and husband, and all that this entails. I spend my child’s naptime writing usually on my blog or sharing news and information through my facebook outlet. It’s a very different life than I used to have, but it’s where God has put me.
ATCT: Did you have any Christian influence in your youth or childhood?
CHRISTIAN: I was raised in a home of professing Christians. We saw little reality of that in the life of our distracted ministry father, but saw real faith in our mother’s life. She was the one who taught us Scriptures, Bible stories and hymns and songs. She was a prayer warrior and she prayed for all of us. Grateful for that.
ATCT: What is the gospel in one sentence? …Read More!
A.W Pink’s classic book The Attributes of God is available free of charge here. (Mobile phone downloads here). One of the first chapters is “The Solitariness of God”. Did you know that…
“In the beginning, God” (Gen. 1:1). There was a time, if “time” is could be called, when God, in the unity of His nature (though subsisting equally in three Divine Persons), dwelt all alone. “In the beginning, God.” There was no heaven, where His glory is now particularly manifested. There was no earth to engage His attention. There were no angels to hymn His praises; no universe to be upheld by the word of His power. There was nothing, no one, but God; and that, not for a day, a year, or an age, but “from everlasting.” During a past eternity, God was alone: self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied; in need of nothing. …Read More PINK!
Today’s church screams, “Jesus is not enough”. We have church services where the preacher gives motivational pep talks, have exhilarating laser light shows to excite unbelievers into a form of church experience. We have relegated good and sound Bible exposition out of the pulpit. Oh, (and not to forget) you gotta love the recent Code orange Revival launched by one pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation church. To begin the “revival” he led the congregation in a hymn a rendition of secular super star and celebrity Rihanna’s hit song. No kidding! This is of course a far cry from the preachers and Christians of yester year who really loved the Lord, sang about Him. They reverently honored Him even in their worship. He was the centre piece to which their whole livelihood focused. Who is the focus of our adoration today?
“At last I saw Christ as my Saviour. I believed in Him and gave myself to Him. The burden rolled from off me, and a great love for Christ filled my soul. That was more than fifty years ago. I loved Jesus Christ then, but I loved Him more the year after, and more the year after that, and more every year since” – George Muller (1805 – 1898) …Read More!
Bishop Thomas Dexter “T.D.” Jakes (born in 1957) is a popular black preacher and evangelist who is the main pastor of The Potter’s House church in Dallas, Texas (founded in 1996), with a congregation of over thirty thousand members. He comes from a United Pentecostal, or Oneness Pentecostal, background. Ryan Turner of Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) takes an in depth view into the good points, deeply concerning issues and ultimate theology of the man, T.D Jakes.
Why the Trinity is Important
The modalism view of T.D. Jakes is a very serious Biblical error for a number of reasons.
First, the Trinitarian view of God is the correct Biblical view of God, which Jakes rejects (see “The Trinity” and the “Christian Doctrine” section under “The Trinity” heading).
Second, with the modalistic view of God, we are left with many errors regarding the incarnation of Christ. …Read More!
Just when you thought you have heard it all….
IRAN — A Kuwaiti royal prince has become a believer in Jesus Christ and says that if he is killed because of an audio recording he made about his decision, he believes he will meet Christ face-to-face.
According to http://www.Mohabatnews.com , the Iranian Christian News Agency, Al-haqiqa, a Christian Arabic satellite T.V. station, which broadcasts Christian programs, played an audio file which it attributed to a Kuwaiti prince called “Abdollah Al-sabah.”
This Kuwaiti prince announced, “First of all, I totally agree with the distribution of this audio file and I now declare that if they kill me because of this audio file, then I’ll go into the presence of Jesus Christ and be with him for all eternity.” …Read More!
When I was conversing lately with our dear friend, George Muller, he frequently astonished me with the way in which he mentioned that he had for so many months and years asked for such and such a mercy, and praised the Lord for it, as though he actually obtained it. Even in praying for the conversion of a person, as soon as he had begun to intercede, he began also to praise God for the conversion of that person. I think he told us he had in one instance he had already prayed for thirty years and the work was not yet done, yet all the while he had gone on thanking God, because he knew the prayer would be answered.”-C.H. Spurgeon
When I heard that Matt Chandler was going to preach at the Code Orange Revival planned by Steve Furtick I was abit sceptical. Looking at the line up of mega church peachers and word of faith gurus, he appeared to be the only conservative preacher. On one side you had T.D Jakes, Craig Groeschel, Christine Cane, James MacDonald, Israel Houghton, Jentezen Franklin, Perry Noble, Stovall Weems, Kevin Gerald and Steven Furtick.
So the stage was set for ..umm…Code Orange! However, Matt sure enough showed up. He indeed came with something up his sleeve. He came to with a no holds barred message. By the end of which it seems some one or some people were seeing RED!! Now, every one seems to be wondering why Matt chandler’s sermons have not been rebroadcast on the website. The whodunnit game is going on. Who lost the tape?
After much searching and looking I seem to have found the missing sermon. And WOW!!!! You gotta listen to this!!!
I have been thinking lately and have finally come up with the most purpose driven idea of how to fill up the church. Get an entertaining and exciting choir member that will keep people coming and sure enough. Here is …..Stuart! Tada!
Now we can have less Bible study time and longer time to get your praise on! Have you ever been asked that all illusive question, “Did you enjoy the praise and worship today at our church?” …Read More!
With all the frenzy these days of a fresh revelation and a little pinch of Lectio divina to help hear a new voice of God speaking to us again. Why not go back to square one….
We all want to hear from God. Now you can share the secret closely guarded by our forebears in the faith. This simple yet ancient formula will enable you to experience the voice of God speaking directly into your life:
- Get hold of a reliable translation of the Bible, such as the NKJV or the ESV. (Sorry, no, The Message doesn’t work for this spiritual discipline.)
- Open it.
- Read.
Simple. Uh? …Read More!
Just as I was wondering what I will be doing with all these hymn books that we hardly open, (thanks to the latest brand of rock guitars and beat boxes) guess what smacks me on my way off the stage? Ooops pulpit. In my never ending bid to keep up with other celebrity mega churches I have decided to cast caution and throw it into the wind. I am living it BIG…no BIGGER!! I want to rub shoulders with the relevant and up and coming of my generation. Ask me why? Well the word is ‘I am contextualising the gospel’. Shhh….it just means I want to be dead but appear cool. That is why when they announced recently that 3D screens are out and done with, my heart sank as I ran to see my mentors. Did you hear that…
Stars such as Eliza Dusku, will.i.am and LL Cool J unveiled the latest technology at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Centre.
The show is the biggest event in the year’s technology calendar – attended by technology giants including Panasonic, Sony, Samsung and LG.
Tech companies were beating the drum for 3D with a little less enthusiasm than previous years – but instead, new ultra-slim OLED TVs and ‘Ultra HD’ sets offering four times the resolution of normal hi-def were on offer to tempt TV fans. …Read More!
My American friends are weird. No, I love them all so much. But when they tell me they love football and then they show me a man running about with a leather bag in his hand I quickly tell the, “No thanks, I prefer soccer!” The last couple of days have been rather difficult. Everybody seems to be singing the name “Tebow”. Oh yes, I did hear that he used to scrawl letters and numbers across his face (like John 3:16). Yup, I heard that he bends a knee before scoring a goal (what ever he does). And YESSSSS, I hear he threw a ball exactly 316 yards! But no, that was not a sign from God!!!
Hey, my Obamanites American friends do not get carried away here with all these figures. I agree with Stephen Altrogge you are getting kooky and weird:
I think we need to be careful when making definitive statements about what God is doing. God doesn’t usually work the way we expect him to. He tends to work through losers and the downcast and the poor and the down and out. He likes to use the weak to demonstrate his strength, and the foolish to demonstrate his wisdom. Of course, that doesn’t mean that God isn’t using Tim Tebow. We just need to be careful when we call something like passing yards a divine sign.
Plus, saying that passing for 316 yards is a sign from God makes Christians look weird for the wrong reasons. …Read More!
One Reformed preacher whose sermons have helped me deal with several theological conundrums is a wonderful man called Arturo G. Azurdia III. Art (for those who know him) and have listened to him usually likes using the word “relentless” and therefore he becomes our first in a series of relentless preachers to be featured. 😉
Lets dig deeper into his personal life and see what things he holds loosely and what things he clings to dearly. Here is an interview excerpted from the Exiled Preacher (2008):
QN: Who has taught you most of what it means to preach the Word of God?
AA: It’s difficult for me to reduce it to one man, because several have had strategic influence on me at various stages of my development.
Shortly after I was converted it was the preaching of …Wanna Read More?
If you reaaaaaaaaaaally want your teenage kids to remain virtuous, there is a new ring for you. It will guard their chastity. It will keep them safe from all lustful thoughts. It will reaaaaaaaaaally reaaaaaaaaaally keep them pure and on the straight and narrow. No, not the Holy Spirit. You need a back up, fool proof plan. You are in the right place. Welcome with me the Purity Ring 3000.
Train a child in the way he should go ( by getting them a purity ring 3000), and when he is old he will not turn from it. See, who needs the Holy Spirit when you can get a Christian fad ring like that for your teenage son or daughter? …Read More!
I kid you not. People can make money selling sand in the desert. It’s therefore not a surprise that a man called Bob Larson is masquerading with a special demon test and is making some good money on line with some snake oil. He says….
Taking the Demon Test® may be the most important spiritual decision you make. This Test is the result of more than 30 years of research and thousands of hours in personal ministry with troubled souls. Through this vast experience we have been able to design this test so that we may quickly determine an individual’s spiritual condition.
If you are concerned about your test score, we highly recommend that you schedule personal one-on-one time with Bob Larson. You may choose a one-hour Encounter Session or a full or half-day Intensive Session. These sessions are held during Bob’s on-the-road seminars (please click here to review Bob’s current schedule) or at our Center for Spiritual Freedom in Phoenix Arizona.
In one hour you can begin living the life you’ve always wanted. Let Bob Larson, the man who has dealt with more demons than anyone on the planet, show you how to overcome every obstacle of every day. Stop the cycles of failure, poverty and sickness. …Read More!
Well there’s never a quiet day in Evangelicalism. There are fads and there are fads. When Mark Driscoll unleashed a book (some say a Christian’s sex manual) many conservative Christians frowned. Should a pastor be opening his bed room doors and dealing with private issues in a public forum? Well even before Mark could begin his sermon series (on his book) some one else decided to go a little further. You see pastor Ed Young never does things quietly.
Ed and Lisa Young, founders of Texas-based Fellowship Church, will spend 24 hours in bed on the church roof next week and stream themselves live on the Internet to encourage married couples to see firsthand the power of a healthy sex life as prescribed in their new book, Sexperiment.
Two days after their book, Sexperiment: 7 Days to Lasting Intimacy with Your Spouse, is released Tuesday, the Youngs will take part in a 24-hour “bed-in,” which will be streamed on the book’s website as they engage the audience on issues related to intimacy in marriage. …Read More!
Ever asked your self “Should pastors marry any one who darkens their door step?” An article in the HuffPo by a supposed ‘wedding expert’ advises those preparing to be married to check out their pastor/ officiant. Jim West on the other hand has no problems with that as long as pastors do the same practice to create the necessary firewalls against participating in the farcical weddings (of unbelievers). This adapted list will make you chuckle:
1. Be sure they’re legit. People who have been married half a dozen times are poor candidates. As are those who have been shacking up for a decade. If the couple isn’t willing to place God at the center of their life together, then you should have no part in it.
2. Ask God for suggestions. Don’t marry a couple just because they want you to. Nothing in Scripture requires you to perform wedding ceremonies and these days most of the time they are as much a joke as the marriage which they preface. You DON’T HAVE TO MARRY ANYONE.
3. Take a meeting. If the couple refuses counseling, send them to the Episcopalians. They don’t care who they marry. And if the bride turns into a Bridezilla, just tell them that they’ll have to go elsewhere. There’s no call to subject yourself to the absurd abuse of a hate-filled manipulative foul mouthed Bridezilla.
4. Check out the scripts. If their self-written vows are imbecilic, show them the door. …Read More!
I don’t know if you heard of this story; a 911 dispatcher got a call from home. Her son had been shot. She being a Christian got to talk to her son about Jesus in the supposed few minutes as an ambulance was en route. Check out this transcript:
Dr. Asahel Nettleton (1783–1844) is considered one of America’s greatest forgotten evangelists. He was a contemporary of Charles Finney and while Finney was conditioning converts and churning out spurious conversions with the anxious seat and altar calls, Nettleton believed this pragmatic “decisionism” was very superficial. In fact, Nettleton was the main opponent of Finney and the “new measures”. He did not seek for quick responses to an open invitation to “come forward” as Finney and his followers did.
It’s said Nettleton’s conversions lasted and bore fruit. For example, of the 84 converts in an 1818 revival atRocky Hill,Connecticut— according to their pastor’s report 26 years later — all 84 had remained faithful. Similarly, only three spurious conversions out of 82 professed commitments were noted by another pastor in his report on revival services held inAshford,Connecticut. What accounted for this success?
William C. Nichols, modern publisher of Nettleton’s sermons, reported that:
Asahel Nettleton
Nettleton was a thorough student of the human heart. He understood the windings and turnings of the depraved heart and knew how to expose its deceits to awaken the sinner to the desperateness of his lost condition. You who do the work of evangelism today: Are you such a student of the human heart? Do you understand how the unconverted heart operates? In his sermon on “Gospel Warfare” Nettleton said, “Preaching mere external morality will never bring one soul to Christ. That preaching which does not aim at the heart will never bring one soul to Christ. That preaching which does not aim at the heart, and take hold of the conscience, never attacks the strong holds of Satan.” Read More…
I am currently reading a very interesting book, Scripture Twisting: 20 Ways the Cults Misread the Bible by James W. Sire. Its actually not a guide to help you become a guru or Swami. Far from it. You see, “Jesus” is co-opted by almost every one who wants some one from the past to confirm their own vision of the ideal future. To Eastern –oriented religious groups, Jesus is an avatar – one of the may incarnations of the gods; to Christian Scientists, he is the great healer; to political revolutionaries he is the great liberator; to Spiritualists, he is a first rate medium; to one new consciousness philosopher, he is a prototype of a sorcerer who can restructure events in the world by mental exercise. It seems there is a “Jesus” for everyone.
One way in which almost any cult can have a claim to the Jesus of the bible is by misquoting scripture. For example:
Jess Stern in a book on Edgar Cayce quotes the following conversation he had with Eula Allen, one of Cayce’s followers. The topic was re-incarnation and Stearn suddenly thought of a problem:
A thought struck me. “Why, if people have lived other lives, don’t they remember anything from them?”
“But they do,” she said. “It’s just some times that they don’t remember that they are remembering. Jesus said, ‘I will bring all things to thine remembrance,’ but he didn’t say how.”
A number of errors are made here. First, this is not what Jesus said. Let us put the clause quoted into its immediate context. …Read More!
A recent ministry update reported on a yet new move of the “Holy Ghost”. Indeed this was a newer move by all ranks as it was reported. The revival meeting started with the man of God exhorting believers as to how God in these last days wants to fill them with the new wine of the Holy Ghost. Before long it was Happy Hour and it was claimed the congregation was doused in “Godka,” “God-wiser” and puffing the glory cloud, “Jehovah-wanna.” He mentioned how the drug culture is simply a counterfeit and unholy substitute for real supernatural experience with the Lord.
How far Evangelicalism has fallen to begin to revel in fancy mystic manifestations and unbridled excesses of self gratification! …Read More!
There’s never a quiet day when pastor Mark is in town. And true to his word his Mark Driscoll is in town early this year to revamp your (umm) life. Sort of. When the news in the vine spread that Mark and his wife Grace were going to release a book to set the eyes and tongues of conservative Christians aflame, every one thought it was going to be a revised edition of his earlier serene book called Doctrine. To make sure there was no mistaking what he had in store he had to clarify a few things. This book is not meant for grand ma!
In Real Marriage: The Truth about Sex, Friendship & Life Together, Mark and Grace Driscoll take a no holds barred approach and candidly delve in to (umm) “the birds and the bees” plus some more! Well a prompt advisory notice greets you as you lie back to begin one of the colorful chapters in Mark’s book : If you are older, from a highly conservative religious background, live far away from a major city, do not spend much time on the internet, or do not have cable television, the odds are that you will want to read this chapter while sitting down, with the medics ready on speed dial.
With my finger on speed dial (on your behalf) I will tell you what the book is about. No, I am too faint hearted but Denny Burk has a graciously insightful review:
The two-hundred plus pages of this book focus on personal testimony and practical teaching so that readers might walk in biblical holiness and avoid the pitfalls experienced by the Driscolls. Real Marriage reads like a marriage seminar that has been put into book form, and there are hints throughout that this is exactly what the book actually is (e.g., p. xiii). Real Marriagehas eleven chapters that are divided into three major sections: Part 1, “Marriage”; Part 2, “Sex”; and Part 3, “The Last Day.” …Read More!
Brace yourself. I just hope you will have as much fun as I did reading this excerpt from David’s letter. It’s a typical missionary’s letter with the typical bells and whistles ;).
This is Koboko situated in the North West corner of Uganda. To be more specific, this is the Hotel Delambiance (De l’ambiance) in Koboko. It’s bedtime but there is no point in trying to go to sleep as the hotel generator is roaring away outside my window and I have a dilemma – do I want the generator to be turned off, lose the electric light but be able to get to sleep or do I want the power to stay on a little longer and suffer the generator. Why, I hear you ask, is there a dilemma?
It started in the shower. I had earlier pointed out to the manager that there was no light bulb in the shower. He came to have a look and suggested that I leave the door to the bedroom open and that would give me enough light. I suggested that he try putting a bulb in the light socket but he shrugged his shoulders and said he didn’t have any so that was that. I was doing my best to have a shower in the gloomy shadows of the tiny ensuite facility when ‘something’ darted past me. The ‘something’ was the largest cockroach I have ever seen – a big shiny brown thing the size of a donkey. …Read More!
I will tell you how I used to spend the last day of each year. Yup, we would spend it in church quoting Jeremiah 29:11. We would affirm: “This new year I will be prosperous! This is my year of divine destiny! This is my year of health, wealth and prosperity!”
But Voddie Baucham in this clip explains something very important. How I wish I had come across such teaching on exegesis and rightly understanding scripture in context.
Jeremiah 29:11 is just one of many mis quoted verses. …Read More!!
About two years ago I started a blog. I wrote mostly about issues that revolved around modern day Christianity. It scratched the itch in evangelicalism. It tackled theology and had a satirical twang to it at times. Okay most of the times. It took about a year to come up with a name for the blog.
Do you know how difficult it is to get a name for a blog? Hmm. I thought of cool names like “Elevation blog” or “Your best life now blog” or “Elephant in the blog” but I just thought I wouldn’t be able to live up to the hype. Or would I?
I will never be able to explain why I decided to call the blog Twisted Crown of Thorns and later A Twisted Crown of Thorns (as of 2012). I probably liked the irony in the name. In retrospect it almost sounds like a spoof rock and roll group band. It sounds dark … but light hearted. I have known of a few misguided wanderers who have adventurously stumbled onto the blog thinking it’s a Roman Catholic sacred relics collection website. Grrrr! …Read More!
I have had my fair share of altar calls. I have walked down many an aisle to the tune of an emotional appeal. These days preachers get converts after appealing for almost anything. Do you want a better house? A happy marriage? Do you think life is hard and your kids don’t finish their porridge? Here is what you can do they say: Just say this prayer and let Jesus into your heart. He will come in and make things alright. He is seriously knocking at that door and he really wants to come in. Wait a minute you say. There is no preaching about sin, no preaching about righteousness no repentance? Yup, sadly that is the state of evangelicalism. We have mega churches and therefore can accommodate more converts but … to what?
A while ago, William Franklin “Billy” Graham (one of the most recognisable Evangelical faces of the 20th Century) was said as of 1993 to have made more than 2.5 million people “step forward at his crusades to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour“. …Read More!
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the subject of a legend concerning the departure or death of a great many children from the town of Hamelin (Hameln), Germany, in the Middle Ages. A narrative in the 16th Century said, the Piper dressed in pied or multicoloured clothing and had been hired by the town to lure the rats away with music from his magic pipe. After he wasn’t paid for his services he indeed made a return visit. With a twist in the tale this time not for rats or mice but he infamously turned his sensuous and irresistible music onto the ears of the children of Hamelin and led them mesmerised to their ultimate destruction. …Read More!
The first lesson in successful marketing and entrepreneurship always underscores the fact that the customer is king. I have always told my self if I were to start a church it would be the world’s best church. It would be the epitome of tolerance and relevance. Who says the church cant be geared towards increased attendances, happier people with numerous self sustaining projects and great reputation among the un-churched and still bring people closer to God? Then Read More
A bad eulogy is as painful as a root canal dental procedure. A blunt eulogy on the otherhand is like a root canal without local anaesthetic. The mourners at one funeral got to realise the difference between the two when preacher man Orlando Bethel showed up.
This is how it unfolded:
June 21, 2002 – LOXLEY, Ala. — Authorities in Loxley, Ala., are investigating the alleged beating of a preacher by funeral mourners who didn’t like his blunt eulogy. Glynis Bethel told The Associated Press that her husband — the Rev. Orlando Bethel — was attacked during a June 14 funeral and dragged out of the church. That’s because Bethel told mourners the deceased was in Hell and that they were headed the same way. The dead man was Glynis Bethel’s uncle. Orlando Bethel referred to him as a “drunkard and a fornicator.” Glynis Bethel, who’s also a preacher, says Read More
Jim Bublitz takes no prisoners as he writes this blistering
but deeply insightful article- Full Link here
That sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? I mean, after all -who would honestly say that they’ve never sinned? Probably nobody. And since unbelievers already feel guilty enough over they’re past mistakes, then it goes without saying that we should spend the vast majority of our time preaching a positive message of Good News to them, rather than dwelling on the negatives. In this post, we’ll actually go inside of a prison and test-out this theory on convicted felons. If anybody ought to understand their own guilt and sinfulness, it would be real/live rapists, murders, and thieves, right?
Warning: Understanding the things in this video could challenge your entire view of ‘relevance’ in evangelism.
I’ve mentioned before my experiences in the church that I used to attend which, over time, transitioned into a model based on what is prescribed by Bill Hybels and Rick Warren. If I were to pick out one key reason why I left that church when I did, this would have been it. I knew there was something wrong when a year of time passes with very little mention of sin. Oh sure, bad habits were talked about Read More
“There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and 
herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveller to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”
For some this story is familiar; well it is Nathan the prophet having a chat with King David. David has just made a royal cover up and taken Bathsheba as his wife after arranging the murder of her husband, Uriah. This was against a back drop of an adulterous affair. Nathan, first indulges the king in a intriguing allegory. (2 Sam 12)
David listens intently to the story and on hearing of such a gross miscarriage of justice tells Nathan in no uncertain terms, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”
Nathan then sadly tells David, “You are that man!”
A 2008 survey of behaviours with moral overtones among adults conducted by The Barna Group over a one week period revealed that 19% of adults had viewed pornography, 11% had lied, 9% had engaged in sexual intercourse with someone to whom Read More
By Todd Friel of Wretched Radio
The music weeps, the preacher pleads, “Give your heart to Jesus. You have a God shaped hole in your heart and only Jesus can fill it.” Dozens, hundreds or thousands of people who want to get their spiritual life on track make their way to the altar. They ask Jesus into their heart.
Cut to three months later. Nobody has seen our new convert in church. The follow up committee calls him and encourages him to attend a Bible study, but to no avail. We label him a backslider and get ready for the next outreach event.
Our beloved child lies in her snuggly warm bed and says, “Yes, Daddy. I want to ask Jesus into my heart.” You lead her in “the prayer” and hope that it sticks. You spend the next ten years questioning if she really, really meant it. Puberty hits and the answer reveals itself. She backslides. We spend the next ten years praying that she will come to her senses.
Telling someone to ask Jesus into their hearts has a very typical result, backsliding. The Bible says that a person who is soundly saved puts his hand to the plow Read More
Enough of all this banter against modern Christendom’s latest prodigal and most loved opulent brat. Ed Young Jr. is officially the most google-d and U-tubed Christian celebrity pastor. Gone are the boring days of being an obscure youth pastor left to follow up new converts and pray for toddlers who don’t finish their breakfast cereal in the church back garden. Gone are the days of watching re-runs of Veggie Tales and Tom and Jerry in Sunday school.
The other day he took a bold step in being the honest and transparent man of God that he has become and indulged viewers in a personal tour of his parsonage or is it vicarage. And look how many bloggers treated him as though he had invited Bin Laden to the White House. He had simply allowed a TV Crew to have a glimpse of his humble 10,000 square foot, $1.5 million estate. Read More
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There was once at time when the deepest urge of a Christian was to be like Christ. To imitate Christ. The coolest thing about Christianity was Christ and for you to know him you must have first stumbled past a bloodied cross. Gone are the days when it was preached that for our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him Jews and Gentiles might become the righteousness of God. Read More
“The show must go on” is a well-known phrase in show business, meaning that regardless of what happens (such as the lead performer breaking a leg), the show must still be put on for the waiting patrons. The other day a church invited teenagers to come to church and play an allegedly ultra violent Play Station 3 game Halo3 with the hope that they would in so doing, some how love coming to church. This is modern day evangelism for you, its called connecting with the youth in the name of Jesus. Another church was offering flat screen Tvs another offered Harley Davidson Motorcycles and cars to first time visitors or any body who accepted “Jesus into their hearts”.
The Show must go on.
Is it possible that in the last days there will come times of difficulty? People will be lovers of self… lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power? What ever happened to the power of the gospel? What ever happened to the cross? What ever happened to the name that is above any other name by which men are saved? Are we still tongue in cheek because of Jesus Christ? Does Christ have to be disguised to a point where we use sleight of hand? Is this the level to which friendship evangelism has fallen? Read More
If the latest Church growth updates are anything to go by then Africa is surely having surplus of growth. The growth has been described by many colourful words like “explosive”, “spectacular” and of recent “fast food-ish”. There seems to be an easy believism called prosperity gospel that is spawning a multiplex of believers. In this form of Christianity, a believer is supposed to be successful; if not, something is very wrong. This emphasis can be seen in the names of the flourishing churches: Winners Chapel, Victory Bible Church, Jesus Breakthrough Assembly, Triumphant Christian Centre. The titles and themes of conventions, crusades and conferences repeat this emphasis: “Gathering of Champions” “Living a Life of Abundance,” “Taking Your Territories,” “Stepping into Greatness.” For all these churches, size and expansion are tangible signs of success—which is why the terms Global, World or International appear in so many of their titles.
South Africa recently hosted the World cup. From this land that gave football fans the much loved and equally hated “vuvuzela” has emerged Rhema Church. Rhema has established itself as one of Africa’s Best Churches. A place where the big shots, celebrities and politicians come to embrace at the table of a “rock and roll” religion. Even the President, Jacob Zuma comes regularly to Rhema to tuck into two of South Africa’s said pastimes, conspicuous consumption and Christianity. But There’s More
A Twisted Crown of Thorns ® 