Posted on 01/27/2008 7:56:14 PM PST by Manfred the Wonder Dawg
January 25, 2008
ESV Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In recent days I have spent time in Lima and Sullana Peru and Mexico City and I have discovered that people by nature are the same. Man has a heart that is inclined to selfishness and idolatry. Sin abounds in the remotest parts of the land because the heart is desperately wicked. Thousands bow before statues of Mary and pray to her hoping for answers. I have seen these people stare hopelessly at Mary icons, Jesus icons, and a host of dead saints who will do nothing for them. I have talked with people who pray to the pope and say that they love him. I talked with one lady who said that she knew that Jesus was the Savior, but she loved the pope. Thousands bow before Santa Muerte (holy death angel) in hopes that she will do whatever they ask her. I have seen people bring money, burning cigarettes, beer, whiskey, chocolate, plants, and flowers to Santa Muerte in hopes of her answers. I have seen these people bowing on their knees on the concrete in the middle of public places to worship their idol. Millions of people come into the Basilica in Mexico City and pay their money, confess their sins, and stare hopelessly at relics in hope that their sins will be pardoned. In America countless thousands are chained to baseball games, football games, material possessions, and whatever else their heart of idols can produce to worship.
My heart has broken in these last weeks because the God of heaven is not honored as he ought to be honored. People worship the things that are created rather than worshiping the Creator. God has been gracious to all mankind and yet mankind has hardened their hearts against a loving God. God brings the rain on the just and unjust. God brings the beautiful sunrises and sunsets upon the just and unjust. God gives good gifts unto all and above all things he has given his Son that those who would believe in him would be saved. However, man has taken the good things of God and perverted them unto idols and turned their attention away from God. I get a feel for Jesus as he overlooked Jerusalem or Paul as he beseeched for God to save Israel. When you accept the reality of the truth of the glory of God is breaks your heart that people would turn away from the great and awesome God of heaven to serve lesser things. Moses was outraged by the golden calf, the prophets passionately preached against idolatry, Jesus was angered that the temple was changed in an idolatrous business, and Paul preached to the idolaters of Mars Hill by telling them of the unknown God.
I arrived back at home wondering how I should respond to all the idolatry that I have beheld in these last three weeks. I wondered how our church here in the states should respond to all of the idolatry in the world. What are the options? First, I suppose we could sit around and hope that people chose to get their life together and stop being idolaters. However, I do not know how that could ever happen apart from them hearing the truth. Second, I suppose we could spend a lifetime studying cultural issues and customs in hope that we could somehow learn to relate to the people of other countries. However, the bible is quite clear that all men are the same. Men are dead in sin, shaped in iniquity, and by nature are the enemies of God. Thirdly, we could pay other people or other agencies to go and do a work for us while we remain comfortably in the states. However, there is no way to insure that there will be doctrinal accuracy or integrity. If we only pay other people to take the gospel we will miss out on all of the benefits of being obedient to the mission of God. Lastly, we could seek where God would have us to do a lasting work and then invest our lives there for the glory of God. The gospel has the power to raise the dead in any culture and we must be willing to take the gospel wherever God would have us take it. It is for sure that our church cannot go to every country and reach every people group, so we must determine where God would have us work and seek to be obedient wherever that is.
It seems that some doors are opening in the Spanish speaking countries below us and perhaps God is beginning to reveal where we are to work. There are some options for work to be partnered with in Peru and there could be a couple of options in Mexico. The need is greater than I can express upon this paper for a biblical gospel to be proclaimed in Peru and Mexico. Oh, that God would glorify his great name in Peru and Mexico by using a small little church in a town that does not exist to proclaim his great gospel amongst a people who desperately need the truth.
I give thanks to the LORD for allowing me the privilege of going to these countries and broadening my horizons. The things that I have seen will be forever engraved upon my heart. I will long remember the pastors that I spent time with in Peru and I will never forget Adolfo who translated for me in Mexico. I will relish the time that I spent with Paul Washer and the others. When I think of church I will forever remember being on top of that mountain in Sullana at that church which had no electricity and no roof. I am convinced that heaven was looking down on that little church on top of that mountain and very few people on earth even know that it exist. Oh, God I pray that the things of this world will continue to grow dim and that God’s people will be caught up in his glorious presence.
Because of the truth: Pastor: J. Randall Easter II Timothy 2:19 "Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases."(Ps. 115:3) "He predestined us according to the good pleasure of His will."(Eph. 1:5) Those who have been saved have been saved for His glory and they are being made holy for this is the will of God. Are you being made holy? Spurgeon says, "If your religion does not make you holy it will damn you to hell."
Actually, the word “demonic” was used by only one person on this thread: you.
Is the Richard Bennett featured on the site the same Richard Bennett who is the wonderful ex-Roman Catholic priest turned Bible-based Calvinist, by the grace of God alone?
What is it to believe?
I absolutely believe that Christ is my Lord and Saviour and that by no other name can I be saved. Am I saved?
If belief is merely assent, than that is cheap grace indeed. Intellectual conviction is a work of man, only grace can create a new man who has the full capacity to believe: that is to have faith that can move mountains and feed the hungry. I'm sure the goats, who "believed" were crushed to find out that saying "I believe" was an empty act.
What is belief?
Preaching the Gospel is done for the love of God and Christ and truth.
We're told to be harmless as doves, but also to be wise as serpents because there are people out in the world who covet the darkness and seek to bring others into it.
Belief comes from the Greek word pisteuo (which we translate as believe - the act) which means “to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e. credit; by impl. to entrust (espec. one’s spiritual well-being to Christ) :—believe (-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with.”
So it’s an active trust - not merely mental assent. As you sit in a chair, you put your trust in it as you plop down. That’s a fairly good metaphor for the kind of trust “believe” carries with it. If one’s belief does not affect one’s behavior, it merely assent and not a true belief.
Obviously not, as you just told us.
Don't you ever tire of misrepresenting the beliefs, posts and positions of others. At some point I would think that it would cause some introspection. If you have to misrepresent the posts of someone you disagree with, is your position really worth defending?
It is a solid house, with only a few things I disagree with. Here’s a link with a PowerPoint slide on Contemplative Prayer, top link in the right hand column - http://brogdensmuse.menofhonorministry.org/Apologetics.htm
I'll note I gave you considerable evidence from Scripture to back this up, and you have offered...none.
What is it to believe?
I doubt you really don't know the answer to that, although you could surprise me. You probably just think it's not enough of an answer.
When you get around to showing us that anything more is required for salvation than God-given, merciful faith in Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Saviour, I'm all ears.
This is what sets the RCC apart from the truth since the RCC teaches a works-based salvation, and the Bible tells us men do not and cannot earn their way to heaven.
Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." -- Ephesians 2:6-8"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Good works, while part of every Christian's walk, are not a requirement for salvation; they are evidence of it. They are the fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which likewise, is a gift from God.
Is that what keeps the RCC from preaching the Gospel? When several RC posters were asked to define the Gospel, they couldn't do it.
Don't give up.
With God all things are possible.
No one can help you if you refuse to be helped.
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My goodness . . . !
A glimmer of understanding of how Prottys tend to feel on such threads about the other side! What a novel idea.
Anyone and everyone who gives into human idolatrous impulses, choices, behaviors . . .
is
to those degrees and in those ways . . . in a kind of league with the devil against their own soul.
That much is clear in Scripture.
It doesn’t GREATLY matter, in most cases, whether the idol is the chocolate cake, Aunt Hildegard, little Johnny, the job, the little red sports car, one’s intellect, one’s primary reference group, one’s philosophy of life, one’s visage in the mirror . . . or the fantasied image of EARTH MOTHER MARY.
HAVE NO other gods before Me.
Do NOT bow down . . .
etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. . . .
Are we not called to be apostles, to pick up our crosses and follow Him? Stop for a second and think: the Apostles believed, how did that affect their behavior? Was their preaching, their travel, their suffering, their teaching, their healing, their anointing, their baptizing etc. works of the law or works of grace? Did what they did in the name of Christ mean that the Crucifix was not enough to save?
Belief is not just trust, it is action, remember, we are to take up our cross and follow Him, that is action. The importance of cooperating with grace by doing the good works of Christ is reflected in the first non-Gospel book listed in the NT; Acts of the Apostles. Works are not a product of faith, faith and works are a product of grace. And if you don't think works of grace are necessary for salvation, you may find your self in the uncomfortable position of asking "when did I see You..."
The dangerous, man made, unscriptural notion of sola fide is one of the devils greatest hits. ( so is the notion that one can get to heaven by "being a 'good' person, with out all that 'silly religious stuff')
Assumptions are the enemy of Truth.
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Plenty of truth to that!
Hmmm?
Changing history to suit yourself doesn’t make it true.
[like the revisionist rubber history book lying about]:
The Catholic Church is established on Pentecost.
This peristent need for certain religious elements to denounce Catholic practice as “demonic” is a particularly noxious violation of that commandment.
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On the contrary . . . to the degree the demonic is involved, it is the most loving thing to exhort accordingly . . . sometimes fairly fiercely.
Having been on both ends of such exhortations, I still firmly assert that it’s true and Biblically true, as well.
Those who think that love is only warm rabbit fur and foam rubber ought not be let near the task of raising kids.
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