Is Total Depravity Biblical?By David Cox
Is the Calvinist doctrine of Total Depravity really biblical? Basically, the doctrine as explained by Calvinists is that this doctrine means that “there is no good within man.” Man has no “spark of divinity within him” whereby he has something good to offer God for salvation. Continue reading
When we examine the contradictions between Islam and Bible Christianity, we find that the key foundational element of Christianity, that Jesus the Savior is fully and completely God, is denied in Islam. Continue reading
A simple definition that is commonly given and understood by people of “what is a true Christian?” is simply, “a Christian is what I am.” Although this is understandable, it is not biblical.
At this point, we have to make some very clear distinctions from Scripture here as to what is, and what is not a true Christian. Any religious group has to be judged by some criteria, and we always want to return to our spiritual authority (The Holy Scriptures) to define what is what. No group “is Christian” just because. The group is a human, earthly manifestation of a group of people gathering around some religious ideas.
See Tag: http://www.theologicalsystems.com/tag/money-and-the-minister/
(to be developed in the future)
So many religious groups practice what is called “bait-and-switch” where they proclaim one thing, and then actually do or are another. This is common in false religions because their underlying basis of operation is to deceive, so they think nothing of doing it.
A careful and cautious Christian has to probe beyond the exterior to see what the group really is.
True salvation is the heart of any religious group (if it is biblical). So many religious groups and churches define “being one of them” as loyalty to the group, not true salvation. People are in the group that do not express the characteristics of a truly saved person, and that doesn’t bother the group members nor the group leadership
This is exactly what Roman Catholicism has been over all the years it has existed. It has twisted and trans-morphed many religious elements into something it wants to identify as “Christianity”. Over the course of the Old Testament, for example, we see a constant denouncing and chastising of Israel for making images and then including them in their worship (whether they worshiped the image or not, it was a prominent element of worship). This is amazing that with this history, the Roman Catholic religion has made images so prominent in their worship.
When we examine true Christianity and false cults and sects within Christianity’s broad umbrella, we insist that whatever doctrinal statements a group has or approved and exhorted conduct a group gives, it cannot contradict the Bible. God is obliged to be consistent in his statements to men. He cannot change the standards from one moment to the next. If stealing is a sin in God’s eyes, then always it is. There may be some conditions whereby this concept is clarified, but we must hold the principle true. For example, if a man steals from his neighbor and is caught, he has to return what he has stolen four-fold. The principle is that the extra is a punishment for having stolen in the first place, and this is not the authorities “stealing from him” in God’s eyes, but doing what is just and fair.
I recently attended a bus conference at an Independent Fundamental Baptist fellowship meeting. Maybe I don’t understand things anymore (good possibility), but I distinctly got the impression that they were bashing churches who spent money (and a lot of money, mentioning an example where “the pastor” spent $50,000 on foreign missions) but this pastor didn’t have a bus program. They scolded those in attendance because this was a tragedy in their eyes. The rest of this post is to answer that question. Continue reading
We understand that both Christianity and Islam are “competing religions” in that they are not mutually going to exist together. What one says to do, the other prohibits. These kinds of problems will make it impossible for them to mutually co-exist. They may both exist, but there will always be conflicts between them.
One the most important things is to strike an allegiance to an authority, the Bible or the Koran. While the Koran admits that the Bible is a holy book of God, the Bible gives no acknowledgement much less endorsement or authority to the Koran.
This is a review of this article by Pat on Leaderu.com on Abusive Churches
Sections
Control-oriented Leadership
Manipulation of Members
Rigid, Legalistic Lifestyle
Frequent Changing of Group/Church Name
Denouncing all other churches
Persecution Complex
Targeting Young Adults
Read the entire article at LeaderU.com. It is not that long.
Healing Spiritual Abuse: How to Break Free from Bad Church Experiences, Ken Blue, 1993. There is a great chapter on “Healed By Grace”. He says, “When we see that we are completely accepted by God solely through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, all religious law loses its manipulative power over us.”
A review on this book is here…
Exposing Spiritual Abuse: How to Rediscover God’s Love When the Church Has Let You Down, Mike Fehlauer. The chapter on “Toxic Love” is about the excessive devotion of people looking for a father-figure. There are two good chapters on positive and negative characteristics to look for in a pastor. Warning Signs of an Unhealthy Church – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 are excerpts from the book.
Note that this book is a recommended reference work on apologeticsindex.org website, see the review of Fehlauer’s work – Exposing Spiritual Abuse on spiritualabuse.org.
Exposing Spiritual Abuse by Mike Fehlauer- From a review on Amazon: “To all those who love God but who do not want to be abused in God’s name by their church leaders, you’ll love this book. If you’ve ever felt you’ve given your best and
didn’t run at the first sign of trouble in a church, but mere came a point when you had been stripped of so much inside mat you had to go, yet you were talked about from the pulpit as if you had given up on God, mis book is for you! …For those who
would try to tell you mat mis book is not from God, remember this—David had a submissive attitude to Saul, when he was in Saul’s house and afterwards. But when Saul tried to kill David because of his own emotional demons, DAVID and
GOD BACKED DAVID! So don’t let church leaders tell you that you’re wrong to leave a church in which abuse is being justified in God’s name.”
Damaged Disciples: Casualties of Authoritarian Churches and the Shepherding Movement, Ron and Vicki Burks, 1992. Ron was taught to subject himself totally to his disciplers in the shepherding movement. Vicki was taught to submit to her husband. This is their story of struggling to break free and rebuild their lives. For Vicki, it is the story of rescuing her “self” from non-being. Ron later earned his PhD. in counseling and was on staff at Wellspring. Here is his dissertation, Cognitive Impairment In Thought Reform Environments. http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~rb267689/
Burroughs Gospel Worship 14 chapters (263 pages) which are each a sermon on how to properly worship God. (format PDF)
“Jeremiah Burroughs’ Gospel Worship has greatly influenced my understanding of biblical worship. It is one of the most important books I have ever read.”
–R.C. Sproul
Download: Burroughs Gospel Worship.
bs53 The Hope of the Christian explains hope in the spiritual life of the Christian, how it relates to salvation.
Topics: What does “hope” mean? | Faith and Hope | How does Hope function in our Lives? | What do we do while we are hoping? | The Relationship between Hoping and the Word of God | The Person of God is our Hope | What is the effect of hoping? | Those without Hope.
From the Tracts: Hope is a state of mind that arises when what is desired is presented as attainable. Hope is the expectation of soon receiving something one wants... But between believing and having salvation actually fulfilled, there exists time, and in this time, we have to hope for the time when God will fulfill it, when He wants to close history... We can say that faith, believing, began with hope within us that we wanted this good thing that God promises to us.
Read the Tracts: bs53 The Hope of the Christian.
doct25 Jesus is our Moral Pattern explains how "receiving Jesus" also means being like Jesus in our moral character. We "follow God" as His children.
Download: doct25 Jesus is our Moral Pattern
Buy me Steak Taco! You know, I work hard at my websites trying to provide you with good material that is sound doctrinally-speaking and of interest to God's people. It is hard work, but I don't mind doing it, and I feel called to the ministry, and God will bless me after all is said and done. But in the meantime, I do need to cover my expenses. I have a total of 34 websites (half English and half Spanish), and each one costs about $10 per month to keep up. That does not take into consideration my time and effort in writing content. Won't you consider at least a one time donation to this ministry of $10 or $20 dollars? It would be really great if you could gift me and my wife this money so that we could enjoy eating out at least once in a while. (I pay the expenses for these sites out of our living expenses.) God will richly bless you and repay you for your generosity. 1 Timothy 5:18 For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward. If you received some value from my websites, consider at lest a small donation. A big donation would really be nice, too though.
Donate to David Cox Ministries.
Have you ever eaten Fried Ice Cream! Donate! It is delicious, like apple pie with vanilla ice cream on top. But you know that you cannot have what is good without somebody paying for it. If you have enjoyed things on my website, please consider helping me out on the expenses and keeping it on the Internet. Can you consider at least a one time donation to this ministry of $10 or $20 dollars? I have a monthly total of about 96 gigabytes total being downloaded monthly from all of my websites. Be a blessing to me and donate any amount. It would be really great if you could gift me and my wife (she wants oa fried ice cream too) this money so that we could enjoy eating out at least once in a while. (I pay the expenses for these sites out of our living expenses.) God will richly bless you and repay you for your generosity. 1 Timothy 5:18 For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward. If you received some value from my websites, consider at least a small donation. A big donation would really be nice, too, though.
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They deep freeze the ice cream ball, and coat it with batter only a few seconds before they deep fry it, and then only fry it for a few seconds.
Dixon The Holy Spirit in life and service is a 19 chapter work on the Holy Spirit and various of His relationships and how He works. Chapters on the Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit, His relationship with young people, the Bible, Bible study, the Evangelist, the Sunday School Teacher, the Pastor, the Christian worker, the purity of the Mind, missions, Christ, etc.
PDF: Dixon The Holy Spirit in life and service
theWord: Dixon The Holy Spirit in life and service
MySword: Dixon The Holy Spirit in life and service
eSword: Dixon The Holy Spirit in life and service
Bounds - Praying Pulpit begets a Praying Pew is a single chapter work on prayer in the pulpit causing prayer in the pew.
Read: Bounds - Praying Pulpit begets a Praying Pew.
