Thursday, October 31, 2019
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Monday, October 28, 2019
Calvinism
Faith is not a work... we are saved by faith . Faith does not precede regeneration. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word.
The Calvinistic teaching has wrongly exaggerated the effects of man’s fallen condition resulting in a misinterpretation of man’s responsibility in light of God’s clear revelation. Calvinists say they believe men are “responsible” but they do not mean what most people think when they hear the word “responsible” (able-to-respond freely and thus guilty for that response).
What Calvinists mean is that mankind is justly punished even though they were born “unable-to-respond” willingly to God’s revelation. They do not mean that mankind is morally capable of responding to God’s appeals to be reconciled from their fallen condition (as implied in 2 Cor. 5:20, John 3:16 and elsewhere).
Calvinists insist that man is born dead in sin and therefore “corpse-like” in his abilities to respond to God’s life-giving truth. Therefore, according to their logic, God must bring the corpse back to life so that he will certainly believe God’s revealed truth.
Some Calvinists will argue that the order of regeneration and faith is a logical order, not a temporal one, meaning that the two happen simultaneously within time. They teach that at the moment a person is born again he will come to faith. The moment he is regenerated he also places his trust in Christ. It all happens in an instant of time. Yet logically as we think about this transaction, we must put a causal order to it. Does the Bible indicate that a person must be regenerated so that he can believe or does the Bible teach that a person must believe in order to be regenerated? Do we need life in order to believe or do we need to believe in order to have life? That logical order is what is in dispute.
What is not in dispute is that regeneration is the sovereign act of God whereby He imparts His very life and His very nature to the believing sinner (John 1:12-13; Titus 3:5). Man’s first birth is natural; his second birth is spiritual and supernatural. His first birth makes him a member of a fallen race; his second birth makes him a member of a redeemed race. His first birth gives him a depraved nature (Eph. 2:3); his second birth makes him partaker of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). The moment a person is born again he receives a new life (John 6:47; 1 John 5:12) and a new position as a child of God (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1-2). In short, he is a new creature in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).
We can all affirm these truths.
Saturday, October 26, 2019
Friday, October 25, 2019
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Calvinism
The Idolatry of Calvinism
There are those who have established all of their hope of salvation upon the teachings and doctrines of a misguided theologian by the name of John Calvin. It is common to hear Calvinist go on and on, and defend this particular man who lived in the 15 hundreds!
Birth Date: July 10, 1509
Death Date: May 27, 1564
So to what credit do we give this man? Did he ever walk, or live where Jesus walked and lived? Did he ever walk and live where the apostles walked and lived? Did he ever have faith in Christ to the degree that he was fulfilling the declarations of Christ?
John 14:12Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my Father.
You will very seldom ever hear Calvinist preach a strong message of total commitment, love, abandonment to Jesus Christ. John Calvin is their HERO more than Jesus Christ. Idolatry is a sin that many Calvinist will not repent of. Their Calvinistic doctrine of the five tulips is a mixture of some truth, filled with lies. I call it a cow pie sandwich. What is a cow pie sandwich? It is two pieces of homemade bread, with a cow pie in the middle.
You can give them Scripture after Scripture after Scripture of what Jesus boldly declared, and it seems to just fall off of them like water off a duck back. Their number one warcry is No Works, nor Works, nor Works. Yet they completely ignore that when Christ spoke to the seven churches in the book of Revelation he said over seven times: I Know Thy Works! On my, what shall be done for these poor souls who have swallowed the lie and become a worshiper of a man, instead of a lover of Jesus Christ? Only God knows where they will end up?
Sunday, October 20, 2019
John Calvin
THE FATHER OF CALVINISM WAS A MURDERER
John Calvin's Insanity!
Burned Without Mercy
When Servetus knew Calvin was going to have him killed regardless of the merits of his arguments (all of which Calvin could not refute), he asked for mercy. He pleaded with Calvin to just quickly cut off his head by the sword rather than burning him at the stake, fearing he might not remain faithful under the anticipated pain.
Ignoring pleas for mercy, Calvin ordered Servetus to be burned with green wood so the suffering would be prolonged . He ordered sulfur be placed atop his head so when the flames finally reached high enough to ignite the sulfur an even more intense heat would burn his head.
Throughout the ordeal, Michael Servetus did not recant his deeply held beliefs or his innocence. On October 26 the official Council of Two Hundred ordered Servetus “to be led to Chapel and burned there alive on the next day together with his books.” Only two charges were mentioned in his sentencing–anti-Trinitarianism and anti-pedobaptism.
The law under which Servetus was condemned was the Codex of Justinian that prescribed the death penalty for the denial of the Trinity. This law was instituted by the totalitarian ecclesiastical state, whose morality was defined by the interests of the ecclesiastical state which Calvin helped establish .
Two hours before his execution, he requested an audience with Calvin who agreed and came with two of his lieutenants. He acknowledged that Servetus became “irritated against my good and saintly admonishing…. Seeing that I do not accomplish anything by exhortations, I did not want to be wiser than my Master would permit me. Therefore, following the rule of Saint Paul, I separated myself from the heretic.”
Marian Hillar in his book on Servetus describes the martyrdom. “ No cruelty was spared on Servetus as his state was made of bundles of the fresh wood of live oak still green, mixed with the branches still bearing leaves. On his head, a straw crown was placed sprayed with sulfur. He was seated on a log with his body chained to a post with an iron chain, his neck was bound with four or five turns of a thick rope. This way Servetus was being fried at a slow fire for about half an hour before he died.
His last words were, “O God, save my soul; O Jesus of the eternal God, have mercy on me.”
A Counter-revolution Begun
Calvin succeeded in burning to death his innocent challenger, but in doing so ignited a greater fire of protest against both his doctrine and his intolerance of a free religious conscience.
Lucian of Samosata was a satirist in 2nd century Greece. He wrote in one of his works about early Christians.
The Christians ... worship a man to this day – the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account.... [It] was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted , and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. Source: Lucian, "The Death of Peregrine", 11-13 in, in The Works of Lucian of Samosata, translated by H.W. Fowler and F.G. Fowler, 4 vols. (Oxford: Claridon 1949), volume 4., cited in Habermas, The Historical Jesus, 206.
Although Lucian does not mention Jesus by name it is clear that he is talking about Jesus. Lucian does not say explicitly, the Christian denial of other gods combined with their worship of Jesus implies that Jesus was no mere human.
Another source of information comes from Pliny the Younger to Emperor Trajan. Pliny was the governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Friday, October 18, 2019
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
A sovereign God
If God is truly Sovereign and comfortably confident in His Sovereignty; then humanity is free to love Him or themselves. Humanity will always be accountable for all the choices God gave them, and all the consequences of them He prepared for them. Common confusion within theological circles is that God has to be in complete control or they do not understand the outcome. These types of confusion lie within specific groups of people.
The first dictionary definition for "responsible" is" liable to be called on to answer. This is so great because accountability/responsibility is associated with the ability to choose your behavior. This is the only way you can be responsible FOR your behavior. Those who cannot be held accountable are those whose mental capacity is unable to choose, as they cannot comprehend/understand the differences that will hold them responsible. Freedom and understanding
are integral to accountability.
The first dictionary definition for "responsible" is
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Calender
On this date, 1752 Britain and the British Empire (including the American colonies) adopt the Gregorian Calendar, losing 11 days. People riot thinking the government stole 11 days of their lives
They implemented the Gregorian Calendar to fix the Julian calendar that drifted about one day every 314 years.
Friday, October 11, 2019
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Roman Baths Used in Algeria for 2,000 Years
The Essalihine Bath, in Algeria, is an ancient Roman bath that is still in use after nearly 2,000 years.
Since this bath complex was built in the 1st century AD, nothing has changed, except for the more recent Ottoman bricks and the doors of the newly built dressing rooms.
The Flavians rose to power during the civil war in 69, also known as the Year of the Four Emperors. The Year of the Four Emperors is named after the emperors Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian, who came to the throne of the Roman Empire in 69 consecutive years.
According to the inscriptions, the complex was reused or possibly rebuilt during the Flavian dynasty in Vespasian's time in 69 AD. Another inscription shows that Septimus Severus repaired it in 208.
There are hundreds of spas or fountains in Algeria, and some of these resources have been used for thousands of years. Others saw major construction and repairs during the days of the Numidian kingdom and during the Roman times.
The circular pool in the bath complex is 8 meters in diameter and 1.45 meters in-depth, and the rectangular pool is 1.45 meters in depth and measures 13.80 × 10.05.
The water source of Essalihine Bath is very rich in minerals and this water is pure enough that it does not need any filtration. In fact, this hot spring water naturally cools down before reaching the resting basins and is the center of attention for thousands of tourists every year.
Monday, October 7, 2019
Sunday, October 6, 2019
Saturday, October 5, 2019
Friday, October 4, 2019
Vatican, Pope, Napoleon, Mussolini
Then in 1870, the Italian nationalist army invaded Rome and the Pope surrendered but he declared himself to be a prisoner of the Vatican and refused to leave St. Peter’s. The new Italian government took possession of the papal states leaving only a small parcel of land on Vatican Hill to the Pope. The loss of the papal states represented an economic setback for the Vatican due to lost tax revenues.
It wasn’t until the signing of the Lateran Pacts with Mussolini in 1929, that sovereignty was fully restored. In exchange for political support of Mussolini’s fascist government, the church was granted enormous power, including full sovereignty, tax exemption and establishment as Italy’s sole religion. Still, with the loss of almost all of its land, the Vatican lost a significant source of regular income. To cover its expenses and with direction from hand-picked bankers, the church began investing heavily in real estate and setting up banks throughout Italy. Money from the Lateran Pacts was also invested in insurance companies and industry, including arms and munitions manufacturing. Investments were later made in large American businesses, including IBM, General Electric, Shell, Procter & Gamble and others.4
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Vatican, Pope Pius xii
World War II: A Unique Money-Making Opportunity
March 2, 1939, Eugenio Pacelli was elected Pope. He had been the papal nuncio to Germany and had a great fondness for everything German. His family was among the Black Nobles, Roman aristocratic families that remained loyal to the Pope when the Italian nationalist army took Rome and confiscated the Pope’s kingdom in 1870. Early in his pontificate, Pope Pius XII sent Hitler a message assuring the Führer of the Vatican’s desire for good working relations with the Nazis. Shortly afterward, he directed his diplomatic representative, the Papal Nuncio to Germany, Archbishop Orsenigo, to fete (honor) Hitler on his fiftieth birthday.5
Pope Pius XII’s policy was silence in response to the atrocities of the Holocaust and the slaughter of Serbs in Croatia. Priests and bishops were actively involved in the politics and killing machinery of Croatia and Slovakia where hundreds of thousands, possibly more than a million, Jews and Orthodox Christian Serbs and others were killed . Though repeatedly implored by eyewitnesses to speak out against the brutality, the Pope remained silent. Even when the Nazis entered Italy, where 1200 Jews living in Rome were rounded up and transported along streets that lay just 250 yards (approximately 230 m ) from the Vatican – virtually right under the Pope’s nose – to a military detention center, Pope Pius did nothing to stop the violence. A thousand of those Jews, mostly women, and children, were put in rail cars two days later and sent to Auschwitz.
Germany’s Ambassador reported, “ The Curia is upset considering the action took place, in a manner of speaking, under the Pope’s own windows. The Vatican’s response at that time ? An official thanks Hitler’s Foreign Minister for the German military’s respectful wartime behavior to the city-state,8 possibly a reference to a promise made by Ernst von Weizsacker, Germany’s ambassador, that Germany would protect the Vatican from damage.
Unbelievably, in 1942, Pius was pre-occupied with the filming of a movie he was having made about himself, Pastor Anglicus.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
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