Gospel. Culture. Technology. Music.

Month: June 2006 Page 1 of 2


Unified Linux Platform for Mobile Devices

Phone Makers to Create Unified Mobile Linux Platform – ITJungle.com

If this actually becomes reality, it could mean a huge world of change for mobile devices. Because of the fact that these platforms would be open-source, just as linksys device software is now open-source and can be altered to make the device do things it wasn’t originally designed to do (software-wise), this will make it possible to do the same thing with mobile phones. Who knows what the possibilities could be. I’m excited …

People will not endure sound teaching

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
2 Timothy 4:3-4

Man has that time come. It’s been around for quite a while (mainly since the birth of the church), but it seems to be getting worse and worse in the world, and particularly in Western Christianity. “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). What are these teachings of demons? They are teachings that take the truth and distort it just enough to appear as the truth to unsuspecting people, but really they are lies spawned by Satan to blind people from the truth of the Gospel and rather lead people straight to hell with him. Just as Satan lied to Eve in the garden, so also he lies to people by taking that which is true in Scripture and distoring it to lead them astray.

Liberal theology is taking hold in the church in places where the solid truth of the Word of God was once proclaimed loud and clear (PCUSA churches, many Methodist churches – though not all, Discpiles of Christ, some Episcopalian/Anglican churches, and others). Liberal theology essentially denies the inerrant authority of Scripture (believing them to be helpful but not authoritative), denies the resurrection, denies his justice against sin, as well as the omniscience of God, amongst many other things. It’s essentially an abandonment of the objective truths about God revealed in Scripture that is replaced by experiential feelings. Many people have set aside the inerrancy of the Scriptures to do this very thing: “accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and [they have turned] away from listening to the truth and [have wandered] off into myths.”

If we do not use the inerrantly authoritative Scriptures as our rule of life and faith, then we will inevitably wander off into myths, man-made intellectual thoughts, and the doctrines of demons. But we must preach the whole truth from Scripture, not just parts of it that sit well with our sinful souls. God’s truth is a hard reality, not because there is anything wrong with Him, but because everything is wrong with us. We have twisted, denied, stomped on, rejected the truth about God, and exchanged it for a lie. Yes God is love. But He is also just and righteous. We are sinners. Sin, when preached using Biblical terminology, is a hard reality. Predestination, damnation, wrath, justice; these are hard truths that don’t sit well with us sinners! But it’s truth from His Word. We must return to the Scriptures though and know them through and through, with all of their hard edges in order that we will live in the reality of who God actually is.

Many within the visible church have set aside the Scriptures as being the written revelation of God altogether, or they have twisted the Scriptures to fit what they want to believe concerning God and their human nature, living out existentialism (that what they individually perceive as reality is what is true). What we now have in many churches are unbelieving pastors teaching unbelieving people. One such church nearby is University Christian Church. Many pastors will just preach on Scriptures (or not preach from Scripture at all) that make people feel good about themselves and ignore the other half of the Scriptures chock full of harsh, hard warnings (such as in James and Hebrews and pretty much all of Jesus’ difficult statements). These same pastors are simply gutting the contents of Scripture (such as James, Romans, Hebrews) to fit a light-hearted, feel-good message that doesn’t preach the word of God in its entirety and challenge people to turn from sin and believe in Christ. They will take scripture out of context in order to fit their own agenda and it’s disgusting.

It is a lie of the world that says you find significance and worth in making much of yourself. And yet this is what many churches are resorting to, and it couldn’t be further from the truth of the Scriptures. There is no truth in us. There is no reality that we can define for ourselves. If that were so, we would be God. But God defines reality, not us. Below I’ve compiled a list of some of these modern day teachings that all of us would do well to be on our guard against. We must return to sound teaching or else forfeit the glory of God in the proclaimation of the Gospel to all people from Scripture.

Open Theism
Liberal Theology
Legalism and Antinomianism
Post-Modernism
Oneness Pentecostal
Universalism

Quotes Concerning the Monergistic Work of God in Salvation

“…the first effect of the power of God in the heart in regeneration is to give the heart a Divine taste or sense; to cause it to have a relish of the loveliness and sweetness of the supreme excellency of the Divine nature.”
– Jonathan Edwards

“Can we possibly, without utter absurdity, maintain that there first existed in anyone the good virtue of a good will, to entitle him to the removal of his heart of stone? How can we say this, when all the time this heart of stone itself signifies precisely a will of the hardest kind, a will that is absolutely inflexible against God? For if a good will comes first, there is obviously no longer a heart of stone.”
– Augustine

“For we are now speaking of the desire for goodness. If they want to say that this begins from ourselves and is then perfected by God, let them see how they can answer the apostle when he says, ‘Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God’ (2 Cor. 3:5)”
– Augustine

“Indeed the Word of God is like the sun, shining upon all those to whom it is proclaimed, but with no effect among the blind. Now, all of us are blind by nature in this respect… Accordingly, it cannot penetrate into our minds unless the Spirit, as the inner teacher, through his illumination makes entry for it.”
– Calvin’s Institutes 3.2.34

“Faith in the living God and his Son Jesus Christ is always the result of the new birth, and can never exist except in the regenerate. Whoever has faith is a saved man.”
– C.H. Spurgeon

“We are dependent on God, not only for redemption itself but for our faith in the Redeemer; not only for the gift of His Son but for the Holy Ghost for our conversion.”
– Jonathan Edwards

Possibly drunk pelican hits windshield – AP

Our friends at the AP thought this was a top news story today, so I figured this was of major importance as well.

Possibly drunk pelican hits windshield

Earth warmest in at least 400 years, panel finds – MSNBC.com

Earth warmest in at least 400 years, panel finds – MSNBC.com

Now let me start off by saying that I am in no way disputing the data that has come out from this panel. I’m sure it’s accurate. What I do question though is whether these scientists have done long term data studies to see if this happened back several thousand years ago, like many other scientists have done; or are they simply ignoring all the long-term data that other scientists have already published? Sure okay, the Earth is the warmest it has been in 400 years. But what about 2000, 4000, 6000, 10000 years ago? The data has already come out concerning this: we are in a natural warming phase of the Earth based on cyclical patterns analyzed by many other scientists besides this panel. And really, scientists are in agreement that the Earth is warming, but most agree that it is not caused by man-induced pollution. I mean come on, can you really conclude much from the past 400 years or even 1000 years? If you want to be logical about it, you need to take a step back and analyze data from several millenia to make an accurate assessment. This has already been done. And this is why I personaly conclude that this is just another political agenda thrown out by libs to try and win Capital Hill back from conservatives. They’re trying to look like the good-guys who are pro-environment, pro-nature, and the conservatives are the bad guys, destroying the forests, ruining the Earth, and thus (as many libs have hinted) conservatives are the cause of the hurricanes. This is non-sense. Most libs pollute just as much as conservatives. You can’t tell me all the hollywoodites don’t waste and consume products any less than their conservative counterparts, can you?

Awesome new EP from Boards of Canada – Trans Canada Highway

2 John Combats Early Forms of Gnosticism

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.” – 2 John 7

It’s interesting today how so many unbelievers will cite gnostic gospels to try and make their case against Christianity, and yet within the scriptures themselves, and more specifically coming from the letter of 2 John to “the elect lady and her children” (2 John 1), this idea of gnosticism was fought against from the very foundation of Christianity, just a few years after Christ had ascended back into heaven. Quoting from gnostic gospels is just futile because the problem was already addressed before the gnostic gospels were even written, specifically in the verse I quoted above (amongst other places in John’s letters). If people are going to attempt to thwart Christianity, they are going to have to find something significant within the scriptures themselves that can prove their case. And yet men have tried for centuries to find something that can turn Christianity on its head, and yet nothing has been found. They will need to find something significant with the Apostle’s themselves or Jesus, and it simply cannot be found. People will always try and twist scriptures, or make weak cases based on either false or shady evidence that can easily be disproved. People have thought to have made breakthroughs in their attempts disprove Christianity, and the will either get frustrated and quit, make false claims against it that are later disproven, or they will believe in Christ. Christianity gives you no room to sit on the fence concerning it. Either the claims Christ made are absolutely true, or they are totally false and our whole confession is a fraud. But if you’re going to try and bring Christianity down, please use something other than the gnostic gospels, because they have already been defended against in the scriptures themselves.

What a Magnificent Thought!

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
> 1 Corinthians 3:16

Though Paul was rebuking the Corinthians for succumbing to fleshly, worldly, sinful desires, I just love the point he makes because I believe we can all forget this truth during the course of each day: The Spirit of God now dwells in those who have believed in Christ for salvation. In the Old Testament, God’s Spirit dwelled within the temple made by hands, and no one could go into the Holy Place without the shedding of blood; and even then, the High Priest could only go in once a year into the Most Holy Place to make atonement for the sins of the people. But now, how wondrous it is indeed that when Christ offered Himself up in obedience to the Father by submitting Himself to the cross, He opened the way for the Spirit of God to indwell the hearts of those who believe in Him! We are temples of the living God! When Christ was crucified for sinners, the vail of the temple separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was torn in two, displaying that the Holy Spirit no longer resided there, but would reside in the hearts of His people. And how wonderful it is, that the same Spirit that dwelled within the temple, where everything had to be ceremonially done in a certain way or else the priests would die, is the same Spirit that now dwells within His people, those who have believed in Christ for salvation! It took an act of God alone, exhibited through the cross of Christ by the shedding of His blood, to make this possible, that the Spirit of God Himself would indwell sinners. The Spirit within us, residing there as a result of Christ’s work, is our strength and supplies all that we need. How awesome and powerful is God!? If He can do this and He resides in us, why should we fear, why do we despair? Christ has conquered that which had a hold on us, sin, death, hell and Satan! It is finished. May we all rest in the knowledge of this truth from scripture, and receive the deep soul rest we all need so desperately. He is the great Satisfier and Comforter. There are none like Him. If God is for us, who can be against us?

Medal of Honor Server Back Up and Running

Well, I started up my “Medal of Honor: Allied Assault” server again because I want an environment to play in. I haven’t had it up for over a year now, so if you have this game (for PC) and want to play, in the place you normally enter an IP address to connect to a server, enter MOHAA.WESTERFUNK.NET instead. I designed a MOD for it to where you practically have unlimited ammo, scopes on all weapons, and you run a little faster than normal. It’s pretty sweet, so hop in and have fun … click on the image to the right to pull up server stats (probably won’t see much for now since it’s a new server and not many people know about it).

Climatologists Respond to Gore’s Claims

Scientists respond to Gore’s warnings of climate catastrophe – Canada Free Press

“[Professor] Carter does not pull his punches about Gore’s activism, ‘The man is an embarrassment to US science and its many fine practitioners, a lot of whom know (but feel unable to state publicly) that his propaganda crusade is mostly based on junk science.'”

I thought this was an interesting article, proving my point from the last blog entry, that many top-ranking liberals live in a false reality based on non-evidence. But again, you won’t see this in the headlines on any major news site, because that would thwart the liberal agenda (the agenda being to simply get political clout back, not to actually help or represent the American people). Scientists agree there is a slight warming trend in the average temperature of the earth, but most agree that it is not the result of the pollution caused by man, and specifically almost all climatologists disagree with Gore’s assessments. Gore simply has an agenda, and the agenda is not to rid the world of pollution (because he himself has been flying back and forth from one place to another to promote this film), but his real agenda is to take political clout away from conservatives and turn people’s attention to liberals. But again, it failed miserably, and he spent millions of dollars in the process that he could have used to reduce pollution himself! I mean who really wants to see a movie where Gore talks for two hours about the climate, based on a few fringe scientists who are, for the most part, not climatologists to begin with? Please …

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