Jim McClarty - He is Sovereign!

My hope is that you can take the time to watch this EXCELLENT sermon!



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Repost - Voddie Stands For Truth

On occasion I repost some of my favorite videos. Here is one of them. Voddie standing for Truth on National Television...



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Paul Washer - Does Your Life Glorify God?

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Is Unbelief Sin, Non-Calvinist?

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Sinclair Ferguson: 20 Resolutions from James

From Between Two Worlds:

In his talk tonight at the DG conference Sinclair Ferguson suggested 20 resolutions from the book of James--given Jonathan-Edwards style--that we need to make if we are to live a God-centered, biblical life:

James 1:5 To ask God for wisdom to speak and with a single mind
James 1:9-10 To boast only in exaltation in Christ, & humiliation in world
James 1:13 To set a watch over my mouth
James 1:19 To be constantly quick to hear, slow to speak
James 2:1-4 To learn the gospel way of speaking to poor and the rich
James 2:12 To speak always in the consciousness of the final judgment
James 2:16 To never stand on anyone’s face with my words
James 3:14 To never claim as reality something I do not experience
James 4:1 To resist quarrelsome words in order to mortify a quarrelsome heart
James 4:11 To never speak evil of another
James 4:13 To never boast in what I will accomplish
James 4:15 To always speak as one subject to the providences of God
James 5:9 To never grumble, knowing that the Judge is at the door
James 5:12 To never allow anything but total integrity in my speech
James 5:13 To speak to God in prayer whenever I suffer
James 5:14 To sing praises to God whenever I am cheerful
James 5:14 To ask for the prayers of others when I am sick
James 5:15 To confess it freely whenever I have failed
James 5:15 To pray with and for one another when I am together with others
James 5:19 To speak words of restoration when I see another wander

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The Gift of Cerebral Palsy - A Must Watch!

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Believer, You're Saved Because God Chose You First Not Because You Chose Him First.

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Jay Wingard - The Serious Error of Decisional Regeneration

My dear friend, Jay Wingard, wrote a terrific article entitled, "The Serious Error of Decisional Regeneration". Please click HERE and take a few minutes to read his post.

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Fundraising Auction For Alpha And Omega Ministries

From Lane's Blog:

My friend, Mark Lamprecht, at Sweet Tea and Theology is hosting an auction from which all the money received from the winning bid will go to benefit James White's Alpha and Omega Ministries. The winner of the auction will receive the following:

• The God Who Justifies by Dr. James R. White list price $17.99 (paperback)
• The King James Only Controversy by Dr. James R. White list price $16.99 (paperback)
• The Message of the New Testament by Dr. Mark Dever list price $29.99 (hardback)
• The Da Vinci Deception by Dr. Erwin Lutzer list price $14.99 (hardback)
• Darwin's God: Evolution and the Problem of Evil by Dr. Cornelius G. Hunter list price $18 (paperback)
• Road Maps for the Psalms by Dr. George Zemek list price $20? (Not 100% sure) (hardback)
• Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism list price $29.95 (with study guide which will be available after it's updated)
• Amazing Grace (The Wilberforce movie) list price $19.98

Total approx. value: $167.86

Click the following picture to go there and bid (auction ends 9/28/08):

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Trusting in the Sinner’s Prayer vs. Trust in God’s Electing Purpose

The doctrine of election is regularly a cause for controversy within Christian circles. Particulars of this doctrine cause debate even within groups that hold to the same general school of thought. An example of this can be seen in the debate earlier this week between Calvinists concerning the relationship of God’s love to His electing purpose, found on the Pyromaniacs blog. Christians, of course, seek to avoid an unhealthy interest in controversies (1 Tim 6:4) and to avoid foolish controversies (Tit 3:9); therefore, many evangelicals have concluded that it is better to avoid this controversial doctrine. [This is a misapplication, I would argue, of the verses just mentioned.] Those avoiding this doctrine imagine that they are dispensing with a point of theology that is merely cerebral- something that may be interesting to scholars, but that does not effect a Christian’s daily life. What is often overlooked is the inherent usefulness of this doctrine evidenced by the way it is presented in Scripture. At the end of Romans 8, for example, the doctrine of election is presented as the basis for a believer’s assurance of salvation- that, despite the turmoil of day-by-day experience, the one who has faith in Jesus can live with confidence that he or she will be preserved by God eternally.

Churches in the Southern Baptist denomination have, as a whole, tended to de-emphasize the doctrine of election, and yet remain committed to the doctrine of eternal security (the teaching that the one who is truly born again, as evidenced by sincere faith, need never fear God’s ultimate rejection). Without the foundational doctrine of election, Southern Baptist churches have had to rest the full weight of eternal security on the personal experience of faith.

Contiguous with the developments outlined above, Southern Baptists (and other evangelical denominations) have begun to regularly utilize the Sinner’s Prayer in evangelism. When presenting the gospel, the example of the New Testament is that we should urge listeners to repent of their sins and to trust in Christ. For those who have not been raised in sound churches, these are alien concepts, and so it seems beneficial to present a model on how to call on the name of the Lord in repentance and faith. From this impulse, the Sinner’s Prayer was born. After the gospel has been faithfully presented [and I would argue that the gospel presentations I was taught in Southern Baptist churches were indeed faithful to Scripture- substantially the same as what Mark Dever presents HERE, though even more detailed], then the listener is asked if he or she desires to repent of sin and trust in Jesus; if he or she says ‘yes,’ then the listener is led to repeat a prayer that summarizes the main points of the gospel presentation, applying the gospel to the individual [i.e., instead of saying, "The Bible says that all have sinned," the listener is led to pray, "I confess that I am a sinner," etc].

As presented above, the idea of the Sinner’s Prayer does not necessarily sound like a bad thing; I believe that the practice of the Sinner’s Prayer arose out of genuine concern for sinners and for the fact that there is an objective truth to the gospel. But, as I reflected on this over a number of years, something about the entire gospel presentation leading up to the moment of guiding someone in the Sinner’s Prayer seemed strange to me. For it became apparent that the activity of leading someone in this prayer was considered the most important part of evangelism. “If the Sinner’s Prayer is so important,” I reasoned, “then why do we not find this in the Bible? Why, when we see the apostles presenting the gospel in Acts, for instance, do we not read that they led their hearers in something like the Sinner’s Prayer? Why is there no text in the New Testament that tells us the exact words that should be prayed in the Sinner’s Prayer, so that we can be sure we are doing it right?” These questions were what started me on a journey of theological reflection that has resulted in my becoming more Reformed in my beliefs concerning salvation.

The problems with the Sinner’s Prayer are compounded when joined to the concept that our eternal security is finally based on the personal experience of faith. For, in the Southern Baptist circles in which I was raised, the sincere praying of the Sinner’s Prayer was closely identified with the personal experience of faith. So that when someone considered whether he or she was truly, eternally saved from God’s wrath, he or she was reminded of whether the Sinner’s Prayer had been prayed with sincerity. This situation leads to at least two discernible, negative results. First, I have spoken with many people who are leading lives entirely contrary to God’s Word, yet they are sure that they are saved from God’s Wrath because they have sincerely prayed the Sinner’s Prayer at some point in the past; in other words, they have a false assurance of salvation. Second, those who are more spiritually sensitive and realize something of the deceitfulness of their own hearts live in constant doubt of their salvation, considering the fact that they might be wrong about their own sincerity when saying the Prayer, or that the Prayer may have been worded incorrectly and thus be doctrinally unacceptable to God. In his sermon on election that I linked in a previous post, Dr. Russell Moore gives a great, personal illustration of this second negative result:

I remember growing up in a congregation in which every single time that a visiting revival preacher would come by and talk about praying the Sinner’s Prayer with sincerity in your heart, I would go back home and wonder, “Did I have enough sincerity in my heart the time I prayed it the first time?” and I’d pray it again. And every time that I would hear the Sinner’s Prayer worded a different way, I would re-word it that way, “Lord, I know that I’m a sinner, and my sin separates me from You…” and I would word it exactly the way that evangelist had worded it, and I would try to scrunch up all the sincerity I could possibly have, and I would end it, not just with one, “In Jesus’ name,” but with several: “in Jesus’ name, in Jesus’ name, in Jesus’ name…” and somehow that sincerity is just going to hit in there and God was going to recognize it.

Dr. Moore also presented how the doctrine of election is the solution for the turmoil mentioned above:

My problem [in the moment I was fearfully praying the Sinner's Prayer for the umpteenth time] is, that I’m not recognizing and seeing what God is saying here [in Romans 8:26-9:6a]. He is saying that God wants you here [at this point of crying out to Him for salvation]. God is bringing you here. You are not here by accident. You are here because God has a purpose and God has a plan, and God is going to continue that plan to the end.

The one who is concerned over his or her eternal destiny should not look to his or her own sincerity, nor to the form of a scripted prayer not found in the Bible. The one who is aware of his or her sins and seeks freedom from these sins, and pardon from God’s Wrath, must look to God, who delights in justifying the ungodly. The sinner who, like the prodigal son, comes to himself, realizing his sins and desiring to serve God rather than sin, can expect to find God running to him as a loving father, rejoicing to embrace His lost child. The sinner coming to Christ in faith does not need to fear God’s rejection, because Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44 ESV). This truth is foundational to the doctrine of election, a doctrine which gives us great hope- a hope based in what God has done, is doing, and will do for His elect- so that we are moved to worship him more deeply.

- Andrew Lindsey

HT: Strange Baptist Fire:

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Paul Washer - Come To Me - Isaiah 55

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Election vs. Foresight

As it is impossible to deny the reality of divine election upon even a cursory reading of the scriptures, it appears that the method common in many Baptist and other Protestant circles, in an effort to unite election with the human perspective of fairness and free will, is to redefine election, to strip it of any real power. You may hear reasoning such as “God looked down the corridors of time to see who would believe” and so elected them. I expect that many through the ages, and perhaps even some on this site (as the archives may attest), have aptly used scripture to show the problems with such a notion (logical inconsistencies aside), but as I have recently been reading Calvin on this, several relevant excerpts of his are given below. It is copied from the John Allen translation, as I’ve become somewhat accustomed to that one. The emboldened fonts are added here.

It is a notion commonly entertained, that God, foreseeing what would be the respective merits of every individual, makes a correspondent distinction between different persons; that he adopts as children such as will be deserving of his grace, and devotes to the damnation of death others, whose dispositions he sees will be inclined to wickedness and impiety. Thus they not only obscure election by covering it with the veil of foreknowledge, but pretend that it originates in another cause [other than God's good pleasure]. Nor is this commonly received notion the opinion of the vulgar only, for it has had great advocates in all ages….

God’s sovereign election of some, and preterition [passing by] of others, they make the subject of formal accusation against him….

Now, it is of importance to attend to what the Scripture declares respecting every individual. Paul’s assertion, that we were “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4), certainly precludes any consideration of merit in us; for it is as though he had said, our heavenly Father, finding nothing worthy of his choice in all the posterity of Adam, turned his views towards his Christ, to choose members from his body whom he would admit to the fellowship of life. Let believers, then, be satisfied with this reason, that we were adopted in Christ to the heavenly inheritance, because in ourselves we were incapable of such high dignity. He has a similar remark in another place, where he exhorts the Colossians to “give thanks unto the Father, who had made them meet [fit] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints.” (Col. 1:12) If election precedes this grace of God, which makes us meet to obtain the glory of the life to come, what will God find in us to induce him to elect us? Another passage from this apostle will still more clearly express my meaning. “He hath chosen us,” he says, “before the foundation of the world, according to the good pleasure of his will, that we should be holy, and without blame before him” (Eph. 1:4-5); where he opposes the good pleasure of God to all our merits whatsoever.

Calvin summarizes his main theme in this, showing that the scripture,

stating them to have been “chosen that they might be holy,” fully refutes the error which derives election from foreknowledge; since Paul, on the contrary, declares that all the virtue in men is the effect of election… This overturns any means of election which men imagine in themselves… For say, ‘Because he foresaw they would be holy, therefore he chose them,’ and you will invert the order of Paul. We may safely infer, then, If he chose us that we should be holy, his foresight of our future holiness was not the cause of his choice…

And what consistency would there be in asserting, that things derived from election were the causes of election? A subsequent clause seems further to confirm what he had said - “according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself.” (Eph. 1:9) For the assertion, that God purposed in himself , is equivalent to saying, that he considered nothing out of himself, with any view to influence his determination.

- excerpts from “Institutes of the Christian Religion”, Book III, Chapter XXII

While here Calvin may appear to be dealing with outward works, he shows in other places that this divine catalyst of election certainly applies to our will also. Perhaps in a future post more on this would be warranted. For now suffice it to say that immediately following Paul’s exhortation to believers to “work out” their salvation, he plainly states, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13) Now, if even we as those regenerated have need for God to grant us wills to please Him, how much more those still in need of conversion?

Sola gratia,

Darrin

HT: Strange Baptist Fire:

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"Why is it Important to Know How God Converts the Human Soul?"

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The Unruly Tongue

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Leonard Ravenhill - The Worst Thing To Happen To A Preacher

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



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Jim McClarty - The Extremes Of God

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J.C. Ryle - Cheap Imitation

There has never been a time, since the Church of Jesus Christ was founded, when there has not been a vast amount of trivial and mere nominal religion among professing Christians. I am sure it is the case in the present day. Wherever I turn my eyes I see abundant cause for the warning, "Beware of inferior religion. Be genuine. Be thorough. Be authentic. Be true."

How much religion among some members of the Church consists of "nothing but churchmanship!" They belong to the Established Church. They are baptized in her baptistery, married in her sanctuary, preached to on Sundays by her ministers. But the great doctrines and truths preached from her pulpits have no place in their hearts, and no influence on their lives. They neither think, nor feel, nor care, nor know anything about them. And is the religion of these people authentic Christianity? It is nothing of the kind. It is a cheap imitation. It is not the Christianity of Peter, and James, and John, and Paul. It is "Churchianity," and no more.

How much religion among some Independents consists of "nothing but disagreemen t!" They pride themselves on having nothing to do with the formal denomination church. They rejoice in having no ritual, no forms, no bishops. They glory in the exercise of their private judgment, and the absence of everything ceremonial in their public worship. But all this time they have neither grace, nor faith, nor repentance, nor holiness, nor spirituality of conduct or conversation. The experimental and practical piety of the old Separatist is a thing of which they are utterly destitute. Their Christianity is as sapless and fruitless as a dead tree, and as dry and marrowless as an old bone. And is the Christianity of these people authentic? It is nothing of the kind. It is cheap imitation. It is not the Christianity of the Reformers of the past. It is "Nonconformity" and nothing more.

How much Ritualistic religion is utterly false! You will sometimes see men boiling over with zeal about outward expressions of worship such as church music and order of service, while their hearts are manifestly in the world. Of the inward work of the Holy Spirit--of living faith in the Lord Jesus--of delight in the Bible and religious conversation--of separation from worldly silliness and entertainment--of zeal for the conversion of souls to Christ--of all these things they are profoundly ignorant. And is this kind of Christianity authentic? It is nothing of the kind. It is a mere name.

How much Evangelical religion is completely make believe? You will sometimes see men professing great affection for the pure "Gospel," while they are, practically speaking, inflicting on it the greatest injury. They will talk loudly of soundness in the faith, and have a keen nose for heresy. They will run eagerly after popular preachers, and applaud evangelical speakers at public meetings. They are familiar with all the phrases of evangelical religion, and can converse fluently about its leading doctrines. To see their faces at public meetings, or in church, you would think they were eminently godly. To hear them talk you would suppose their lives were tied up all kinds of religious activity. And yet these people in private will sometimes do things of which even some heathens would be ashamed. They are neither truthful, nor sincere, nor honest, nor just, nor good-tempered, nor unselfish, nor merciful, nor humble, nor kind! And is such Christianity as this authentic? It is not. It is a worthless fake, a wretched cheat and farce.

How much Revivalist religion in the present day is utterly false! You will find a crowd of false believers bringing discredit on the work of God wherever the Holy Spirit is poured out. How many people today will profess to be suddenly convinced of sin, to find peace in Jesus--to be overwhelmed with joys and ecstasies of soul--while in authenticity of religion they have no grace at all. Like the "rocky-soil" hearers, they endure but for a short time. "In the time of testing they fall away" (Luke 8:13). As soon as the first excitement has passed, they return to their old ways, and resume their f ormer sins. Their religion is like Jonah's gourd, which came up in a night and perished in a night. They have neither root nor vitality. They only injure God's cause and give occasion to God's enemies to blaspheme. And is Christianity like this authentic? It is nothing of the kind. It is a cheap imitation from the devil's mint, and is worthless in God's sight.

I write these things with sorrow. I have no desire to bring any section of the Church of Christ into contempt. I have no wish to cast any slur on any movement which begins with the Spirit of God. But the times demand very plain speaking about some points in the prevailing Christianity of our day. And one point, I am quite sure demands attention, is the abounding lack of authenticity which is to be seen on every side.

— J.C. Ryle

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Voddie Beats Up CNN!

Voddie stands for Truth!



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The God Of The Broken-Hearted

(J. R. Miller, "The Beatitude for the Unsuccessful" 1892)

"The Lord is near the broken-hearted." Psalm 34:18

The God of the Bible, is the God of the broken-hearted. The world cares little for the broken hearts. Indeed, people oftentimes break hearts by their cruelty, their falseness, their injustice, their coldness--and then move on as heedlessly as if they had trodden only on a worm! But God cares. Broken-heartedness attracts Him. The plaint of grief on earth--draws Him down from heaven.

Physicians in their rounds, do not stop at the homes of the well--but of the sick. So it is with God in His movements through this world. It is not to the whole and the well--but to the wounded and stricken, that He comes with sweetest tenderness! Jesus said of His mission: "He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted." Isaiah 61:1

We look upon trouble as misfortune. We say that the life is being destroyed, which is passing through adversity. But the truth which we find in the Bible, does not so represent suffering. God is a repairer and restorer of the hurt and ruined life. He takes the bruised reed--and by His gentle skill makes it whole again, until it grows into fairest beauty. The love, pity, and grace of God, minister sweet blessing of comfort and healing--to restore the broken and wounded hearts of His people.

Much of the most beautiful life in this world, comes out of sorrow. As "fair flowers bloom upon rough stalks," so many of the fairest flowers of human life, grow upon the rough stalks of suffering. We see that those who in heaven wear the whitest robes, and sing the loudest songs of victory--are those who have come out of great tribulation. Heaven's highest places are filling, not from earth's homes of glad festivity and tearless joy--but from its chambers of pain; its valleys of struggle where the battle is hard; and its scenes of sorrow, where pale cheeks are wet with tears, and where hearts are broken. The God of the Bible--is the God of the bowed down--whom He lifts up into His strength.

God is the God of those who fail. Not that He loves those who stumble and fall, better than those who walk erect without stumbling; but He helps them more. The weak believers get more of His grace--than those who are strong believers. There is a special divine promise, which says, "My divine power is made perfect in weakness." When we are conscious of our own insufficiency, then we are ready to receive of the divine sufficiency. Thus our very weakness is an element of strength. Our weakness is an empty cup--which God fills with His own strength.

You may think that your weakness unfits you for noble, strong, beautiful living--or for sweet, gentle, helpful serving. You wish you could get clear of it. It seems to burden you--an ugly spiritual deformity. But really it is something which--if you give it to Christ--He can transform into a blessing, a source of His power. The friend by your side, whom you envy because he seems so much stronger than you are--does not get so much of Christ's strength as you do. You are weaker than him--but your weakness draws to you divine power, and makes you strong.

"He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds." Psalm 147:3

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John MacArthur: The Rapture Of The Church

"This excerpt is taken from a message that was given a few months ago at Grace Community Church and it is from Luke 21. The rapture is considered controversial in some areas of the Church but i really believe that if all Scriptures are looked at carefully and Christians understand that the great tribulation is not about the church but Israel and the unbelieving world, then everything fits perfectly into place. The Church is in Heaven at the beginning of Revelation 4 and comes back to earth with the Lord Jesus at the end of the great tribulation period in Revelation 19. This is an area where Christians can respectfully agree to disagree without breaking fellowship with one another." - Mark from Proclaiming His Word



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Paul Washer - All Men Are Born Evil

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The Bottom Line For Missions - For God's Glory!

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John MacArthur - "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."

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John MacArthur - A Tale Of Two Sons

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Justin Peters - A Call for Discernment: Exposing the Word-Faith Movement

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Ravi Zacharias - Why The Bible?

For two evenings, Ravi Zacharias answers hard-hitting questions from a student-packed auditorium at University of Illinois.



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Dr. Michael Horton - Christless Christianity

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John Piper - Don't Idolize The Family

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John Piper - God's Family and the Biological Family

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John Piper - Is The God Of The Bible The Same As The God Of The Quran?

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John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul & Others - Church Discipline

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Church Worship - Someone Please Tell Me This Is A Joke

I have no idea why I am posting this so don't ask me. I don't think this is a joke. They put way too much time into this for it to be a joke...



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John MacArthur - Why I Teach The Bible

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R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur and Others - Church Attendance

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The Audacity of Reform

From FIDE-O Blog:

- By Jason Robertson

Reform is difficult. It requires one to stand against one's own traditions, one's own convictions, one's own positions, and one's own people. I once tried to reform a little church in Southern Louisiana and failed. I lost friends and relationships with certain family members whom I loved. I lost temporal happiness; indeed, at times I felt like I lost hope. But, by God's grace, I have no regrets.

Reform isn't easy and it isn't always successful, but it is the necessity of our generation. We must courageously strive to reform the thinking of God's people, transforming their thinking to be biblical and God-centered. It is a task that is daunting and at times overwhelming. The victories seem short-lived and the battles seem unending. Yet the joy that is set before us lifts us up to march forward.

The reality is that none of us will see this task accomplished fully. There will always be that emptiness in our gut that keeps us up at night staring at our Bibles, thinking about the next sermon, and agonizing in unceasing prayer.

Who will get mad at us next? Whose feelings will be hurt next? What "sacred cow" will we find God's people deceived by next? Who is the next charismatic, likable spiritual yet heretical leader will you have to look like a jerk standing against? Who is the next "extremist reformer" that will sound good but be full deadly to our spiritual vitality? How much will your family suffer because of your calling? The questions are plenty. But only one question really matters: will anyone stand with you? Who will have the audacity to help you reform today's church for God's glory.

No one has ever reformed anything by themselves. True reform requires people to work together, to be humble and full of grace. Reform is for the bold, the fearless, the daring. But it is not for the loners. Who's in? Who understands the sentiments of a reformer? Speak up.

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Interview With John Piper

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Paul Washer - We Have Forgotten That The Way Is Narrow

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Tony Payne - Is Church For Evangelism?

Apologies for posing what, at first glance, may seem an obvious and even silly question, but it's one I've pondering lately: is evangelism a key purpose of Christian assemblies (or ‘churches’)?

Now, at the very least, we would have to say, “Yes, evangelism should and will happen in Christian assemblies, because of their very nature as places where the word of God is prayerfully proclaimed”. In any true Christian gathering, the gospel will be taught and heard, and since outsiders or non-Christians will often be present (by invitation or otherwise), evangelism, by definition, will take place.

There's another sense in which the answer is yes: the Christian assembly functions as a testimony to Christ by its very existence. This is Paul's point in Ephesians 3. In the assembly, God's manifold wisdom is on display as he brings together Jew and Gentile in one new humanity. Mind you, in Ephesians 3, it's the powers in the heavenly places who receive this testimony, so maybe it doesn't really qualify as ‘evangelism’ in the normal sense.

However, even if we acknowledge that there will be ‘gospel’ things happening all over the place in church, it is also important to say that evangelism is not the purpose of Christian assemblies. It is certainly not their focus. In the New Testament, churches are characteristically the fruit of evangelism, not its agent. Evangelism usually takes place outside the assembly—in the marketplace, the synagogue, the prison, and in daily gospel conversation.

More to the point, theologically, the Christian assembly is a fellowship of the redeemed. It is a manifestation, as well as an anticipation or foretaste, of the great assembly that Christ is building—the assembly of the firstborn in heaven that will be revealed on the last Day (Heb 12:22-24). The purpose of our earthly assemblies, therefore, is to fellowship together in what we already share—our union with Christ—as we listen to and respond to him together, and build his assembly by the words we speak.

This runs counter to the common (although often unspoken) assumption that one of the main aims of a church gathering is to be attractive to non-Christians—to draw them in, to intrigue them, and to evangelize them. Perhaps it's a legacy of the parish model, where those attending the Sunday assembly were often not Christians at all, and evangelism consisted of preaching the gospel to them. Or perhaps it is the influence of the seeker-service model, where the main aim is to attract and win over unchurched Harry. Or maybe it's a bit of both.

There is an important difference, it seems to me, between running a Christian gathering whose focus is on evangelizing the outsider, and running a Christian gathering that is welcoming and intelligible for the outsider, but where the focus is on fellowship with Christ, in speaking, hearing and responding to his word.

- by Tony Payne

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RC Sproul - White Horse Inn - The State of Evangelicalism

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Is Jesus Christ God? James White vs. Jalal Abualrub

Part 1



Part 2



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John Piper - The Apostle Paul's Singleness and the Joy of Heaven

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Paul Washer - Clarifying True Biblical Salvation

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James White - The Dividing Line - Does The Bible Teach Sola Scriptura?

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John MacArthur - The Necessity Of A Pure Heart

Excellent 10 minute clip...



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James White - The Dividing Line

Today's program included a call for graciousness in the presentation of Reformed theology, a very interesting half hour exchange with an Open Theist/Arminian from London, and a discussion of the allegation of false prophecy in Ezekiel!



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