Love Wins Indeed

     Popular preacher Rob Bell has hit a new time low with the publication of his book, “Love Wins,” (for short).

     In it, he tries to reframe the long-time argument that a God of love would never allow any one to go to hell. It’s called universalism – the belief that all will eventually wind up in Heaven. Baker defines it as the doctrine that in the fullness of times, all souls will be released from the penalties of sin and restored to God.

    The teaching has reared its ugly head from the beginning of our Christian faith, largely due to a misreading of scriptures such as Acts 3: 21; Romans 5: 18,19; Ephesians 1: 9,10; and I Corinthians 15: 22.

     Belief in universal salvation was associated with the early Gnostic teachers, and was given early credence by such teachers as Clement of
Alexandria, and his student Origen.

     The absurdity of the teaching is rooted in two undeniable facts:

     First, Jesus taught more on hell than virtually any other subject, and exactly how to avoid going there;

     Second, if all eventually are saved, then true believers in Jesus Christ and the atonement provided only by His shed blood, will come face to face with such human monsters as Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, and a host of others who never repented of their heinous deeds.

     Further, the saving blood of Jesus is virtually spit upon in Bell’s foolish rebellion against the truth of God’s word. Look at his own words:

     “There’s nothing wrong with talking and singing about how the ‘Blood will never lose its power’ and ‘Nothing but the blood will save us,’” Bell writes. “Those are powerful metaphors. But we don’t live any longer in a culture in which people offer animal sacrifices to the gods.

“People did live that way for thousands of years, and there are pockets of primitive cultures around the world that do continue to understand sin, guilt, and atonement in those ways,” he continues. “But most of us don’t. What the first Christians did was look around them and put the Jesus story in language their listeners would understand.”

     The atonement as metaphor? I don’t think so.

     Let’s ring Bell’s bell by not buying his book, or into the junk within its pages.

    

New Bible Versions Stink

New Bible Versions Diminish, Rather Than Affirm Sound Doctrine

     The Catholics recently published yet another translation of the Holy Bible, which once again, as with all new versions, attacks sound doctrine.

     Key among its many changes to the Authorized King James Version (KJV) is a major departure from orthodoxy found in Isaiah 7: 14, which reads in the KJV: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

     The new version translates ‘virgin’ as ‘young woman.’

     This is one of the greatest prophecies in the Bible, pointing toward the miraculous conception and birth of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. And here it is perverted for what purpose?

     The Higher Critical School of Bible perversion that began in earnest in the 19^th Century attempted to remove every trace of the miraculous and divine mystery from the Christian faith, and, unfortunately, its adherents continue this day to distort and deceive.

     Now, granted, the Hebrew word for virgin can also be translated young woman. But as in all aspects of Bible study and interpretation, context is everything.

     Here, the prophecy cannot be divorced from its stated fulfillment in the New Testament, where the apostle Matthew in the first chapter of his Gospel quotes Isaiah 7: 14, as the miraculous fulfillment of the prophet’s prediction. After revealing that an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream to reveal that he should take the virgin Mary to be his wife, because the child in her was conceived of the Holy Ghost (verse 20), Matthew affirms in verse 23 that this is the sign prophesied by Isaiah.

     First of all, what kind of a sign, a divine omen, would result from a young woman giving birth to a child? It happens every day all over the world.

     Secondly, how many children, besides Jesus, have been conceived by the Holy Spirit of God?

     And third, how many, besides Jesus, have been called Emmanuel, meaning God with us?

     Why would the Catholics, who so revere the virgin Mary (even claiming she remained a virgin, though scripture states she had many other children with Joseph after Jesus’ birth), attack this vital rung in the Christian ladder?

     It makes no sense.

     Neither do many other new translations and paraphrases of the infallible Bible make sense in diluting sound doctrine for the sake of poetic-sounding, yet perverted, scriptures.

     Stick to the old paths, beloved, for the alleged new lead only to disillusionment and destruction.

    

    

Fiddler on the Roof

Noah’s Day (Fiddler on the Roof)

     As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the last days: People marrying, buying, and selling, carrying on as if nothing were amiss.
  I thought of this in realizing that the entire world is in crisis, including our once wonderful country called the United States of America.

     And as the world turns – with virtually every Mid-East nation in chaos – what is our commander in chief doing? Being entertained with Mo-town music in the White House.

     Has there ever been a greater example since Nero’s day, where the infamous words of history better applied? He fiddled, while Rome burned.

     The world, our country – mired in indebtedness too great to ever be paid off, with a deficit too great to ever get out from under without drastic cost-cutting measures – is in dire straits.

     And what is our leader doing? Acting like a king: Jetting off to here, there and everywhere, campaigning as usual, presenting a budget that addresses none of this country’s major concerns, apologizing to the world for America, and never, it seems, staying home at the White House and doing some real work to reduce unemployment, cut deficit spending and get us out of the fiscal mess he’s largely responsible for getting us into in the first place.

     How many vacations, how much entertainment at the Capitol, how much empty speech-making from a teleprompter can one foist upon a hurting country, before not only the people, but the sycophantic media rise up and say, ‘enough is enough. Do something constructive.’

     A cynic, whom I am, would say that all of the inflicted hurt upon this nation that has been inflicted in the last two years, was deliberate. To what end?

     The systematic destruction of a once all-powerful and God blessed nation can only come from some diabolical scheme to radically transform us into something God and the founding fathers never desired. What the Muslims since 9/11 haven’t been able to accomplish from without, is being accomplished from within.

     America will never be the same, regardless of who is elected in 2012, and neither will the world. No one can put humpty dumpty back together again, for he is too mutilated for repair.

     How’s that hope and change working out for you, America?

Gold

“Our True Deliverance” (Gold)

     The Bible, God’s revelation to all who will embrace it, speaks in graphic terms of great upheavals in the latter days, leading to the Lord Jesus’ return in glory.

     We’re seeing all about us, domestically and globally, what Paul in the Book of Hebrews described concerning the last days in which you and I are privileged to inhabit:

     Hebrews 12: 27 – “And this word, YET ONCE MORE, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”

     As the singer/songwriter Barry McGuire wrote in what now seems like a lot less troublous time, it seems we truly are “On the Eve of Destruction.”

     And what is the world turning to as a source of stability in times of turbulence, not only in the Mid-East, but the U.S. as well?

     Gold.

     Not God, but gold.

     Commercials in print, on radio and TV, all push the supposedly solid foundation that gold can provide.

     In this time of the devalued dollar, pending hyper-inflation, and economic anxiety, it could appear as a safe haven.

     But what does the Holy Bible, the word of God, say about gold in the last days?

     Zephaniah 1: 18 – “Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.”

     And Ezekiel 7: 19 – “They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed (become as refuse): their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: ….”

     The Day of the Lord spoken of here begins with the Rapture of the church, includes seven years of tribulation upon the Earth, culminating with the return of Jesus – with His church – in glory, to establish His reign upon His creation.

     Our deliverance, as believers, depends not on gold or silver (some are even hoarding copper), but on the Name of the Lord.

     Trust not in the world’s chariots, but the chariots of fire that emanate from the throne of Heaven.

     Put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will never leave nor forsake those who love Him.