God Bless The Memory Of Dr. David Wilkerson

May the Lord bless the memory and continued works of the man who's faith caused him to place his life efforts into reaching those whom many had given up on. Please say a prayer for his family and the recovery of his wife.

Update: May 3rd 2011~ Dr. Wilkerson's funeral was held yesterday May 2nd. The following was his last blog entry:

To believe when all means fail is exceedingly pleasing to God and is most acceptable. Jesus said to Thomas, “You have believed because you have seen, but blessed are those that do believe and have not seen” (John 20:29).

Blessed are those who believe when there is no evidence of an answer to prayer—who trust beyond hope when all means have failed.

Someone has come to the place of hopelessness—the end of hope—the end of all means. A loved one is facing death and doctors give no hope. Death seems inevitable. Hope is gone. The miracle prayed for is not happening.

That is when Satan’s hordes come to attack your mind with fear, anger, overwhelming questions: “Where is your God now? You prayed until you had no tears left. You fasted. You stood on promises. You trusted.”

Blasphemous thoughts will be injected into your mind: “Prayer failed. Faith failed. Don’t quit on God—just do not trust him anymore. It doesn’t pay!”

Even questioning God’s existence will be injected into your mind. These have been the devices of Satan for centuries. Some of the godliest men and women who ever lived were under such demonic attacks.

To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights—and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, “I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident. It was no failure on your part. Hold fast. Let me embrace you in your hour of pain.”

Beloved, God has never failed to act but in goodness and love. When all means fail—his love prevails. Hold fast to your faith. Stand fast in his Word. There is no other hope in this world. ~ Dr. David Wilkerson 34/27/2011

Read more!

The "Superstition" Of Atheism

Current statistics rate the top beliefs systems by adherents as follows:

(1) Christianity: About 2.3 billion followers. About 50% of Christians are Roman Catholics.

(2) Muslim: About 1.5 billion followers. About 80-90% of Muslims are Sunni and 10-20% are Shia. The Shia-Sunni split in the Muslim religion occurred due to the dispute over the succession after the prophet Muhammad died in 632.

(3) Non-religious or atheist: About 1 billion people

(4) Hindu: About 900 million followers with the vast majority living in India.

(5) Buddhist: About 400 million followers. Based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the vast majority of Buddhists live in Asia.

In America it is said that atheism and non-belief in God, has risen from about 900,000 in 2001 to approximately 1.6 Million persons currently. Please note that those who have no religious belief are also lumped in with those who are atheists. There is a big difference between one who does not believe that God exists and one who has no opinion either way.So the numbers are slightly skewed as a result. Over the same period of time, it is said that Christianity has lost about 15% of it's adherents. Reminder that atheism has actually existed longer than Christianity estimated back over some 2,400 years.

In an article in the USA Today forum Anthony DeStefano points out much of the preceding information and claims that although atheism appears to be successful in its current marketing efforts through books, conferences and other schemes, it is worth noting that the atheists themselves are engaging in potentially the biggest fraud in history, by making it seem that the existence of material (materialism) is all that there is and that all other experience stems from it.

There are two trains of thoughts to DeStefanos' argument. 1- That material observation (empiricism) can be deceiving and give us completely wrong ideas about material reality. He points out that at one time the "observable world" was  flat, and that although we don't observe that we're moving through space that we're actually hurling through space on a planet going millions of miles per hour. So material observation by itself fails.  Then 2- The "superstition" of atheism, as DeStefano calls it, is the belief that biological processes and the interaction of molecules account for immaterial realities such as love, passion, memories, philosophies, dreams, thoughts, consciousness and other abstract concepts such as logic. The facts are that none of these things have ever been extracted from a body or brain and placed under a microscope and examined.

Read more!

2012 A Change In Life As We Know It?

Revelation 16:8-9 ~ "8-And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. 9-And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory."

There are all kinds of theories floating around all over the place, but when we have credible scientists present two totally different views of the same evidence, we can better understand how the empiricism of science fails in the search for truth. Well we have two videos, one saying that we "may" suffer tremendously in 2010 and another that says don't worry about a thing.

The following is a total refutation of that and then some:



So which science should we believe?...I know, I'll believe the word of God! We all know something is coming, I certainly know Jesus is. What will we do with what we know and believe? It remains to be seen.

Submitted for your consideration.

Blessed!

Read more!

Paula White ~ "You betta recognize!"

For the latest adventure in the saga of Paula White go HERE

So said the sheep to the shepherds of the flock:

Evangelist Paula White

"[Bishop] Randy, Pastor Paula, give me a word, marry me, bury me, pay these bills, prophesy. Why aren't you doing this? Why isn't it like it used to be? We don't like the music. We leaving the church because you didn't know our names and you didn't come have lasagna with us,"

Being a world famous evangelist must be really something else. From what I can read and hear from those who are of the class, it's froth will all kinds of problems as Pastor Paula White presented at the 2011 Pastors & Leaders Conference in Orlando, FL, themed “What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You” hosted by her mentor Bishop T.D. Jakes. 

Proclaiming the message "I Got My Bounce Back", Paula took the time to lay out the fact that everything was going well in her life until pressures like pastoring, the government and other challenges to her lifestyle became part of the equation. She summed up the good times like this:  

"I'm living heaven on earth. Life cannot get any better."..."I'm above the struggle and beneath the radar. I love my husband and my husband loves me. And we do. The kids are doing good. And millions of dollars in the bank. Not sick,"

From her statements, this was a time when she and her former husband Bishop Randy shared an over $600,000 joint annual income from the work of ministry and lived in an over $2 Million home paid for in part by a tax free church allowance that probably exceeded $100,000 ultimately. (these numbers are probably low) Then after the government began to investigate these expenditures and what certainly appeared to be a lavish lifestyle,she thought this:

 "You can handle something if it's for a short season. But how do I praise Him when my days turn into weeks and my weeks turn into months and my months turn into years and my years turn into decades?" she said. "How do I praise Him under that continual pressure? That kind of pressure wears you out."

According to White, all of this led to health problems such as a stroke, a midlife meltdown, compassion fatigue, Rx drug addictions, and "in a really weak moment", divorce from her husband Bishop Randy and a host of other personal issues.  There was even a hint of an extramarital relationship between she and Evangelist Benny Hinn who was caught in holding hands with White in Rome on July 13th 2010. Although White admits that nothing happened as a result of this Hinn also followed up with this in a message delivered on July 30th 2010:

“A friendship did develop,”...“Hear this: No immorality whatsoever. These people out there are making it sound like we had an affair. That’s a lie.” ~ Benny Hinn

Prior to this (Feb. 2010) Pastor Hinn did a special segment on his TV show outlining the divorce from his wife found HERE, of course there could have been no affair, because neither of them were married at the time (supposedly). How did I know that was mere wishful thinking? According to other sources, Hinn WAS married at the time which invoked a Morality Lawsuit by Strang publications. So, under NORMAL circumstances,  what would there have been to be ashamed of? It seems that SIN is the only thing that some people will hide. If this relationship wasn't inspired by sin, then why not display it. These were two otherwise singe people, were they not? However, that's yet another story.

Read more!

Lee Strobel, The Resurrection Took Me From Atheist To Apologist

Christian apologist Lee Strobel recently spoke to the Wall Street Journal in response to an atheists defense of why he was an atheist. The problem is that Lee was also a practicing atheist until he went on a two years search to undermine the facts of Christianity in effort to debunk the faith of his wife.

Lee decided to bump the small things and go straight to the heart of the Christian faith...The Resurrection. You see Lee knew that if the resurrection was false, then all of Christianity fails and Jesus is no more than a man if not only a myth in the minds of those seeking a world apocalypse. After 2 years on this search Lee surrendered to Christ and found a faith so vibrant that since 1981 he's been in full gear trying to share it with everyone that would listen.

How could this be from a trained professional journalist at the height of his secular career and trained in legal issues and evidences? What was offered so great that a person would risk all of his life and take courage to find something so vibrant and, living and true that he would be consumed by merely presenting the facts and helping others to discover the joy that he had found? 

What changed Lee's mind? It was the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Read more!

The "Good Book" The Bible Of Humanism

Shortly after beginning this blog, I referenced the problems that our nation has experienced and the congruent rise of Secular Humanist agenda in The Legacy Of Atheism's Queen. Well, I must reference that agenda again as what I was warning of then is being promoted and  appearing before our very eyes. Remember, the agenda of secualr humanism? Let me remind you: 

Dr. Paul Kurtz

"That is why a negative atheism that seeks simply to destroy religion, without providing a positive agenda, will not in my judgment get very far. The wider platform for human progress as part of a New Enlightenment needs, I submit, to advocate secularism in the above three senses: (1) the separation of religion from the state; (2) the humanization of values that satisfy the deeper interests and needs of human beings; and (3) the decline of religious practice, entailing the growth of the Human City in place of the City of God."

 Remember this is what Paul Kurtz, the the director of the Council For Secular Humanism says. He maintains that his group is NOT an atheist group, even though most of the leadership, including himself, are atheists...The objective of the group is to spread the message of materialism aka naturalism. Now they have a new tool to spread their message.

The New Bible & Gospel According To Humanism

Anthony Graylings book called "The Good Book" is currently being promoted to support the efforts and the agenda of materialism and materialists everywhere. In a book styled after the Bible, which is known as the best selling book in history, the "Godo Book" as it is called comes replete with chapter, verse and language similar to the King James Version of the Bible. Simply put, it is a Bible without God and one that is centered on man and naturalism. 

Genesis 1:1 ~ "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

The Good Book ~ “All things take their origin from earlier kinds: Ancestors of most creatures rose from the sea, some inhabitants of the sea evolved from land-dwelling forefathers.”

According to the Christian Post the Good Book, contains several books (including Genesis, Wisdom, Parables, Lamentations, Consolations, Proverbs, and Acts) which are edited to have numerical chapters and verses and the text has been printed in two columns with a white dividing line down the middle. Instead of man being a product of God, man is a product of his own self awareness. There is no original sin, as everyone is good without God and the work is geard toward pluralism: 

Dr. Anthony Grayling

"There's no command there to believe, to accept, to obey. There's no promises of rewards or threats of punishment,"...

According to Grayland the motivation for the "Good Book" came together in part because because of the success that he attributes to the Bible on the way it was put together, even while admitting that the Bible seems to be more of patchwork than anything else. Here's what he said:

[The Bible parts seems to be] "woven into one another, modified, arranged [and] organized" ..."clumsily edited."..."The patchwork of the Bible becomes apparent when you step aside from its religious message and just look at it as a historical work which emerged over a long period of time by many hands,"

So in response to all that clumsy and patchwork success that the Bible represents, Grayling has promoted the words and expressions of people like Aristotle, Confucius, Darwin, and Lord Chesterfield even stating that if the writers of the Bible, the prophets and holy men of scripture had gone to and known these men before writing  that "they would have made a different book and maybe there would have a different history as a result."

The plan is to create a children's version and even a pocket sized version so that the message of humanism can be learned, taken and shared with everyone of all ages.

Blessed Apostle Peter, do you think the church realizes what is really going on???

2 Peter 1:16- 21 ~ "16-For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17-For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 18-And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. 19-We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 20-Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21-For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

Thank you Apostle, for allowing the Lord to use you just so that we can be blessed today!

Blessed!

Read more!

Easter & The Resurrection, Debunking Novel Speculations

Don't forget to read:

The Resurrection, A Historical Fact

As we approach Easter 2011 as always we are confronted with individuals, some believers and some non-believers who assert that the Christian celebration of Easter is nothing more than an extension and reproduction of pagan festivals and ritualism of ancient times. While there are some pagan elements within almost every secular/Christian celebration that occurs today, the facts are that the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus doesn't reproduce, imitate or infringe upon paganism.

The Name Easter

One of the first myths to dispel is the name and the origin of the name that we use for Easter. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, in Latin, Easter is Festa Paschalia (plural because it is a seven-day feast), The 7 day feast to which the Latin word refers is the Pascha or Passover as it was known in New Testament times. This Latin phrase, not the related and associated German phrase, became the basis for the French Pâques, the Italian Pasqua, and the Spanish Pascua. Also related are the Scottish Pask, the Dutch Paschen, the Danish Paaske, and the Swedish Pask

{Special note regarding the German phrase: Another idea involves the history of the Frankish church (Germans who settled in Rome during the fifth century). Their celebration of Christ's resurrection included the word "alba", which means white (the color of the robes worn during the resurrection festival). Alba also meant sunrise. So when the name of the festival was translated into German, the sunrise meaning, ostern, was selected, likely in error. One theory is that Ostern is the origin of the word Easter.}

What's more is that the pagan celebration of the Great Mother goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe was known as "Easter" was named after goddess Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). However this practice was was a product of anglo-saxon descent and a development far too late to have any biblical significance. In

Read more!

The lion Of Atheism Pt. 2 ~ "Everyone Is An Atheist"

In debate circles often atheist ( or anti-theist) Christopher Hitchens hails that even Christians are atheists. Even stating the following:

Atheist Christopher Hitchens

"Everyone in this room is an atheist, there's not one of you who isn't. You don't believe in the temple of Diana at Ephasus. You don't believe in the Egyptian Thor. You don't believe in Oden. You don't believe in Quetzalcoatl, y'u-know the other Aztec gods. None of you do. You're all atheists so far as that's concerned. Some of you believe that one of these is OK and that it's true. I just say, I'll go you one better and say I'll be an atheist and I'll be a consistent one." 

With false statements like these in debates, Hitchens tries to do a number of things. First, establish credibility for the claim that atheism is some type of default when it comes to non-preferred religious claims in general. Second, he is throwing a dig at the religious basically claiming "theism-hypocrisy". This is the thought that the religious are inconsistent and bias in their belief system only willing to affirm their particular view of God. Third, it seems that he is communicating, like Richard Dawkins who uses the same type of shoddy reasoning, that Christians, who obviously don't believe in multiple gods or the gods of other religions, are also intellectually dishonest and faulted for not admitting that the only thing that separates them from being atheists is their belief in their particular God. The question is, is any part of his statement, and what is ultimately drawn from statements like these, true? I don't believe so. Here's why:

• Theism is described as the belief that at least one God exists.

• Atheism is described as the belief that no God exists.

Since Christians claim that one God exists they cannot be an atheist under any possible construct even when rejecting the god all other religions and faiths. Out of 1,000 gods the rejection of 999 of them has no bearing on the argument and cannot be rendered as some sort of proof, that one is an atheist. If a person believes that just one God exists he or she cannot possibly be an atheist in any manner or form as atheism is the rejection of ALL God belief. Not nearly all God belief.  

In other words Hitchen's statement is a logical contradiction. It is impossible that a person is an atheist when they agree, affirm or believe that at least one God exists. Further it is intellectual

Read more!

The lion Of Atheism Pt.1 ~ "I like surprises"

"Well, I ought never to say there's nothing would change my mind. So, shall I just say no evidence or argument has yet been presented yet that will change my mind. But I like surprises."

Christopher Hitchens is a person I have deemed to be the "lion of atheism" because he has roared so vehemently against God and against religion over the last 8 to 10 years that it has been heard all around the world. He has had many great and bold things to say against God. As you see in the piece, this man has taken secular and religious individuals to task and called for a new order of moral sense based on, if anything, anti-theism. His tenor is not just the non-belief in God, but the non-belief and repudiation of religion and faith in general. 

Read more!

Atheist SmackDown

Physicist Dr. Lawrence Krauss 

Philosopher Dr. W.L. Craig

"Accidents Happen All The Time" 

~ Physicist Dr. Lawrence Krauss

"All Accidents Have A Cause" 

~ Philosopher Dr. William L. Craig

In yet another in the series of Atheism's Greatest Hits, Biblical Scholar and Philosopher Dr. William Lane Craig debated Scientist and Physicist Dr. Lawrence Krauss at N.C. State University on Wed. March 30, 2011 sponsored by Campus Crusade For Christ. The debate topic was "Is There Evidence For God?" 

Using Bayesian Probability Theory as a base Dr. Craig offered 5 basic arguments:

• The existence of contingent beings
• The origin of the universe
• The fine tuning of the universe for intelligent life
• Objective moral values and duties in the world
• Historical facts of /the resurrection of Jesus Christ

Read more!

Pseudepigrapha. Did The Bible Authors Lie?

In another of a series of apostate moments designed, in my opinion, to drive books sales, Dr. Bart Ehrman, the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, recently stated the following in a Huffington Post article:

Professor Bart Ehrman

"Many of the books of the New Testament were written by people who lied about their identity, claiming to be a famous apostle -- Peter, Paul or James -- knowing full well they were someone else. In modern parlance, that is a lie, and a book written by someone who lies about his identity is a forgery."

Since Dr. Ehrman delivers such a convoluted picture of the study of ancient biblical historiography, I feel that an examination of his comments are in order. It seems that Dr. Ehrman is continuing to take circumstances that most scholarly literary historians are well aware of and have adequately addressed over the years, raising certain issues to an overblown and disproportionate level, and building on many modern conspiracy theories that seem to surround the biblical texts in general.  Ehrman builds upon the discredited foundation of his mentor Dr. Walter Bauer, whose theories of multiple Christianities first century AD have been handily refuted. For more information on this and a better understanding of the assumptions behind the scholarship of individuals like Ehrman, please obtain the book, "The Missing Gospels, Unearthing The Truth Behind Alternative Christianities" by Dr. Darrell Bock Nelson Books 2006. 

In his written works Dr. Ehrman seems to be somewhat of a fatalist asserting that history can't be known for certain, even stating that the words and deeds of the historical Jesus may never be known because we don't have the original texts of scripture. If these arguments are not patently false, they are at least refuted quite adequately over the years, both in print and by debate. Of course I have addressed some of his assertions in previous articles HERE and  HERE, but Dr. Ehrman continues to offer more and more sensational notions at every turn. It is that sensationalism that he often implores as he seeks to sell and promote books, through seeking to shake and disturb the faith of millions who have come to know and trust in the historical biblical narrative. It is for that reason primarily that I DO NOT ENDORSE UNC Chapel Hill Religious Studies as a place of consideration for biblical students seeking to received a fair, balanced religious education. It seems that one that corrects or challenges his arguments will probably fail his class and waste tuition funds.

Statements such as Dr. Ehrman's describe what scholars who study ancient literature call Pseudepigrapha (Gk: "falsely attributed")or literature written by a person other than whom the writing is ascribed. Similar to what we may call a "Ghost Writer" in modern times, Pseudepigrapha goes a step further when the author attaches or assigns a name of a popular or powerful figure, past or present, in order to establish credibility for the document among a target group of individuals. Dr. Ehrman's argument appears to be that the attribution of famous names was done to New testament documents in order to deceive the readers into believing and  following practices which may not have been intended to be followed or that were not a part of the original message of Christianity as taught by those very same leaders. As we will see, he is among an ultra fringe shred of scholars who adopt this position in part because theories regarding this have been adequately refuted over the years. I believe Ehrman takes advantage of the new generation biblical critic who has never taken a look at this issue and assesses the bible and historiography ignorantly.

From A Historical Perspective, Did Pseudepigrapha Exist?

Follow me as we lay a little foundation:

Read more!