Category: Church

Church · Theology

Pragmatism is a lack of faith.

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

Pragmatism is a lack of faith.

 

Pragmatism is a lack of faith. It stands in opposition to faith. Pragmatism is defined by Dictionary.com as;

noun

1. character or conduct that emphasizes practicality.

2. a philosophical movement or system having various forms, but generally stressing practical consequences as constituting the essential criterion in determining meaning, truth, or value.

Here is another definition from World English Dictionary;

1. action or policy dictated by consideration of the immediate practical consequences rather than by theory or dogma.

2. Philosophy

a. the doctrine that the content of a concept consists only in its practical applicability

b. See also instrumentalism the doctrine that truth consists not in correspondence with the facts but in successful coherence with experience.

A pragmatic person relies on their experiences when making decision. Some may argue that you can be a pragmatic Christian even. They might assert that someone who has exercised faith and experienced the results of that faith and then came to trust it would be a pragmatist. The problem with that line of thinking is that the person had to have faith to make the unreasonable decision in the first place.

What is faith? Dictionary.com defines faith as;

noun

1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another’s ability.

2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.

3. belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.

4. belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: to be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty.

5. a system of religious belief: the Christian faith; the Jewish faith.

6. the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.: Failure to appear would be breaking faith.

7. the observance of this obligation; fidelity to one’s promise, oath, allegiance, etc.: He was the only one who proved his faith during our recent troubles.

8. Christian Theology. the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.

 

pragmatismfaith

 

In this instance we are looking at faith as the ability to make decisions based on what the Bible says about God, and life regardless of how our worldly knowledge would inform us. For instance, it seems wrong to the worldly to give to others selflessly when you see them in need. The pragmatist would only give what little he could spare, and he would only do so because his conscience was bothering him, or he wanted to look charitable in the eyes of his neighbors.

Pragmatism is a big problem in the church today. I’m sure it has always been a problem in the church. We recently were part of a church split over unrepentant pragmatism. I will make the example generic. Our old Pastor retired after many years at our church. The church board hired another Pastor only to find out that his political leanings were in opposition to the majority of ours. He was orthodox in the Primary Articles of Faith. After five months the board voted to ask for his resignation. One of the reasons they gave was that the older people in the church had all of the money, and that they would leave if he didn’t. The board was afraid of losing money instead of doing what is right. They acted pragmatically. God is the source of all wealth. They didn’t operate in the realm of faith. If they had, they would have been able to see God work in the situation, and have been strengthened by it. Instead they shorted themselves and lost an opportunity. This is only one example of pragmatism in the church.

Another I can think of off the top of my head is church growth. Many Pastors fall into the thinking that they need a large congregation with lots of resources so they can accomplish their goals in ministry. They might even follow the model of entertaining goats instead of shepherding sheep. All you have to do to see this is to turn on the television and watch a Sunday sermon.

I know that it is very difficult for a person to let go of their own reasoning and have faith. I used to beat myself up because I couldn’t let God have control over my money. I thought it was ridiculous that I could trust Him with my salvation, but not with my cash. I’m not saying to tithe like in the Old Testament.  I’m not even talking about money here. This was my pragmatism shining through. I didn’t have the faith to surrender my worldly pragmatism to Him.

There are many areas of our lives where we operate out of pragmatism instead of faith.   If you think about your own life you should be able to see where you have operated from a stance of pragmatism. I encourage you all to examine yourselves for pragmatism, and ask God to forgive you. Ask Him to grant you faith to do all that is in His word. Pragmatism puts us and our reasoning on the throne instead of God. Faith is trusting God, and His word enough to live our lives based on them. Our only hope is that God will grant us that kind of faith.

Church · Theology

Saudi Arabia: MERS cases reach more than 400, more than 100 dead

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

Saudi Arabia: MERS cases reach more than 400, more than 100 dead

This was one of the headlines from one of the articles on Reuters site for today 05/05/14. A particularly nasty virus from Saudi Arabia is killing one out of four people that get it. When some tragedy strikes Islamic countries and people some of us respond with joy. How is that Biblical? How is that at all different from the world? It isn’t. God says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? “If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)

As Christians we might err and say among ourselves, “See, I knew that God would punish those Muslims for their evil ways!” I know I have heard people speak this way, but how are they behaving any differently than the Muslims they hate? It seems to me that we shouldn’t hate anyone. We can hate what they do, we can hate who their master is, and we can hate their satanic doctrines, but we mustn’t hate them. God said in His word, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:14-21)

Hate proves we are not in the will of God and our hearts are hardened. We must consider ourselves the servants of all. We need to esteem ourselves as lower than others. Our sins put Christ on the cross. We know Jesus, they don’t. We don’t have any excuse for behaving like the world. We can’t be pragmatic like the Muslims of the communists. We operate on faith. We don’t solely rely on what we can see and prove. We have the word of God, and we must apply it to our lives. Faith is in stark contrast to pragmatism. It operates in direct conflict. We do things that don’t make sense to them. We need to be obedient to God. This is worship, to truly apply His word to our lives. So let us pray for them to be converted by God. Let them become our brothers and sisters in Christ. This world is suffering and the lost are a multitude of peoples. What hope have they, Except for the faithful to share the gospel and for Christ to save them.

Apologetics · Church · Theology

God is eternal and unchanging.

Bob Snyder5 Comments

Biblical ignorance is one of the biggest obstacles for the evangelist to overcome. There are many false doctrines and misconceptions being propagated in society today. We have to answer so many false claims while practicing apologetics. Hopefully we can fix one of those problems today with this article.

God is eternal and unchanging. God has always been, and He has always been just as He is. He has never not been, or been in any different state.   He does not change. The nature of being uncaused and eternal is what we call, “the aseity of God.” The nature of not changing is what we call, “the immutability of God.” Both of these qualities are important when understanding God’s eternality and many of His other attributes. For today we are going to focus on His eternality, aseity, and immutability.

How do we answer, “If God is unchanging, didn’t He change when He turned into Jesus?” This demonstrates a woeful ignorance of theology. Children in the Puritan era might have asked this, but certainly not adults. It is true that if God’s nature changed during the incarnation we would have a problem. An eternal Creator that was not immutable could not be counted on to always be just, or good. So the fact that God is immutable is a blessing for us. God did not turn into Jesus at the incarnation. God was always as He is, Triune. He is one being in three persons. At the advent of Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, the eternal Son, joined Himself to human nature without mixing, or mingling His deity with His humanity. This is what we call the hypostatic union. It means that the incarnate God is 100% God and 100% man, joined together perfectly in accord with the will of God. The incarnation did not change God. This misinformed idea reveals how little we are trained in theology and Biblical truths.

The Mormons say that God was once a man, who was created by a father and mother god through natural means, who themselves were once mere humans, who were created by a father and mother, and on and on perpetually. This is how they understand their god to be eternal. How does our God differ? Our God is explained by His word. We know that He created everything. We know He didn’t just move matter around to form some things on this planet. If He created everything, and is the source of all things, then He would have no pre-existence as a man. He would not have been created by other gods, who were once human. He would be eternal all in and of Himself. I would ask the Mormons, “Who was the first god who made the first man, who later would become a god? Why wouldn’t you worship this first god who supposedly made the first man? Why would you worship a being who is not the creator of everything?” The God of the Bible is truly a transcendent being. He is above, and beyond any imaginings a person would have in conceiving a false god. That is why when you encounter a false religion it is easy to spot problems. Of course this is only true if you are a person who has been saved, and knows the true God. Once you know Him you can spot a fake. How could anyone worship such limited beings as the ones they imagine? It should blow us away when we hear some of these descriptions.

The God of the Bible created everything there is without diminishing Himself. He created it out of nothing. There was nothing there for Him to build things out of versus the god of Mormonism who just reformed matter and was the great great great great great great great great grandson of some other little god.   The winner is, the God of the Bible. This is one of the many reason that Mormons are not Christians. They might claim to be, but if they believe the doctrines of their cult, then they are not Christian. We obviously worship a different God than they do. Their god is a finite creature, created by others.

hulk

Ours is NOT! We need to be happy about this, and correct them when they publicly claim to worship the same God. They cause confusion, and draw support when we don’t explain the differences.   A god who was created is not a god at all. Only a God who is transcends creation, who made everything without diminishing himself, who made everything from nothing makes sense.

What does it mean to be, “eternal?” Have you ever thought about this? Most of us have thought about what it would be like to live forever, but all we can really conceive of is living a very long time. We can’t imagine what it would be like to have no beginning or end. It is something that only God can understand fully.  Another idea about eternality, is that it is unseen.  We are in a temporal creation.  What we can see is limited by our nature.  God is being eternal.  We might ask, “Is it possible for any other being to be eternal outside of God?” The Bible says we will live forever with God if we are saved, but that isn’t being eternal. That is just being resurrected to everlasting life. We had a beginning. God created us, and He keeps us alive.  We were caused to exist, and He is the one who upholds our existence.  Even after we have left our temporal existence behind, and step into eternity, it will be because we have been made to do so by God.

It doesn’t it make sense to have another eternal being outside of God. If there was then God would not be alone and unique in His deity. There would be other Gods with separate wills, and equal power. We know that God says in His word that He is the only one, and that He is not a liar.

What about the gods of other faiths, are they eternal? This is simple, No.  They have never been.  They can’t be. For something to be eternal it would have to have always been, is being, and always will be.

If they are false, because they are not eternal, or actual, then what is going to happen to their worshipers, and why? If they never repent, and put their faith in Christ, then they are under the condemnation of their sin. They will die, and be found guilty of their sins. They will be in Hell suffering the torment of God’s wrath being poured out on them, not because they believed different, or because they didn’t grow up here, but because they are guilty sinners just like us.

How can they be saved? We must preach the gospel of Christ to them. They must repent of their sins, and trust in the work of Christ on the cross solely.  When they find out that they are sinners, their hearts must be convicted of this. They must be humbled, and become penitent. Then they must confess their sinfulness to God, and ask Him to forgive them. They must submit to God as their new master. They need to accept that they cannot earn favor with God. They need to rely, and fully trust in the finished, perfect,  atoning, work of Christ on the cross.

Church · marriage · Theology

Marriage, as a Typological Representation of Christ and the Church.

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

I-DO-Marriage-Series

In today’s culture, many people are embracing the doctrine of egalitarianism, as it is applied in theology. They go so far as to ignore what scripture says. For them, it is more important to conform scripture to the corrupted and sinful judgments of humans, then to be sanctified in obedience, and humility to the standard of scripture.

Egalitarianism, as it is applied to human equality is noble. In so much as it is not improperly applied. It is true that God is no respecter of persons. In His perfect and holy sight we are all justly damnable. Every man, woman, child, from every race, religion, and creed, are all sinners. In Christ we love and treat all with humility. We should consider ourselves as the worst sinners, while considering others better than ourselves. So does this notion of considering others as better than ourselves fit with egalitarianism? A noble idea is not noble at all when seen in the light of true humility and mercy. Christ left majesty and dwelt among His creations in the flesh. He washed the lowly, sinner’s feet, bore our scorn, made propitiation for the expiation of our sins, by enduring the wrath of God until He declared, “It is finished.” Philippians 2:6-11(NASB)

who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In the true faith we are all equally adopted and justified by Christ, but we mustn’t err by taking egalitarianism so far as it offends the word of God. “How far is that?” you may ask. Scripture, I believe is very clear. It is so clear, in fact that I am not going to list every single verse that refutes it. A plain reading of the scriptures, from beginning to end is an overwhelming avalanche of proof, that God has ordained the complimentary roles of male and female.

Marriage, as a typological representation of Christ and the Church is diminished by egalitarianism. The deeper theologies are robbed of their import by such societal concessions. If we understand that man, through sin, is separated from God and that through Christ he is rejoined, it is a marvelous thing. We see this typological example in marriage. Woman was separated from man. She went out of his flesh. In marriage the woman is joined again by the power of God to her husband. They are beautifully unified again part of the same body. Christ is our head and over us he rules. We the Church are His body, and we submit to His loving rule over us, His bride.  Marriage portrays such a beautiful thing. The gospel of Christ is portrayed in each marriage ceremony. When we see a married couple we should be reminded of the work that Christ did on the cross to justify us with God. When we look upon our beloved wife we should see someone who we would lay down our lives for. When our dear wives look upon us they should see someone who is willing to sacrifice all for them. We all should be mortified at the perversion of marriage in the world. It has been perverted by brazen things like polygamy, and same sex marriage, but even the subtlety of egalitarianism should offend us. Instead we embrace all of these. Ashamed of nothing, proud, and arrogant, we tell God how we will understand Him. We tell God how we will do things, and never truly repent with a bent knee and penitent heart.

Marriage is truly ordained by God. It is a union that should preach the gospel to us as believers and be a witness to the world. Let us pray for God to perform His will in our lives against our fleshly desires. Let us affirm His word and be conformed to His sovereign will in all things.

Apologetics · Church · Theology · Uncategorized

If Politics And Government Are Not The Answer, What Is? (Part Two)

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

So to continue from the last article, I concluded that politics and government were not the answer to our problems as a nation. Some of the things that led me to conclude that were the scenarios I ran, presupposing that I would be in government. I thought, what could I do when the nameless representatives of some super-powerful, world-wide consortium, comes to me and says, “Vote this way, or your family will die in a house fire, or we will release these doctored pictures of you to the press, showing you with a prostitute in a hotel room with five pounds of cocaine, or you have a lot of money in your account right now, do what we say or people will find out, and ask questions.” These people are so powerful they answer to nobody. They are above the law. They have people killed, and direct the courses of the nations. They don’t do it for God. They do it for their real masters. I believe these are the powers and principalities of the Bible. Men who are so powerfully, influential who receive their marching orders from the devil, and his legions. As the Bible says, these men are not my enemies, they are controlled by them. If you kill these people, more people will fill their roles. It is pointless. I grew up in an America that no longer exists. We have to wake up to the real problem, it is sin. Mankind is totally depraved, and the only hope for us is Christ. We wonder to ourselves, why anyone would want socialism, acceptance of gay marriage, legalized gambling, legalized drugs, socialized medicine, minimum wages, labor unions, big government, no prayer in school, over-sexualized kids, gratuitous sex and violence on television, blasphemy of God and the Bible in the media, and on and on and on it goes. Total depravity, kidos! Our sinful natures drive us to all kinds of evil. What should we do? Preach the gospel to everyone we meet. Think about it, what would be more beautiful than a country full of devoted Christians who love Christ above all else? God says in His word that if we love Him we will obey His commands. If we all preached the gospel and made disciples of all men, if we obeyed this command, “…’YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND…” or this one, “…YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF…” or if we prayed for our enemies, What if we stayed married and worked it out, or Fathers were more than a paycheck and fix-it-man, or Mothers were more than a cook and shuttle service, what if we took responsibility for ourselves and families instead of insisting on some governmental fix? Think about how it would look compared to the secular Europe or the islamic middle east. Even if the world-wide government continues to work it’s evil will, we still have to focus on Christ and His goodness. We might not be able to ever change the course of the nation, but we are all responsible for our own sins and will be judged. We will be found in Christ or in the world. Personally, I like the famous hymn from Rhea F. Miller,

“I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands;
I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand

Refrain:
Than to be the king of a vast domain
And be held in sin’s dread sway;
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.

I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;
I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame;
I’d rather be true to His holy name
He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom;
He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb;
He’s all that my hungering spirit needs;
I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead “

So while we can, we need to repent and put our faith in Christ, the true hope of man.

Church · Theology

Hebrews 6:1-8, eternal security, perseverance of the saints, justification, and sanctification.

Bob Snyder21 Comments

     Hebrews 6:1-8 has been incorrectly used to support works righteousness, and legalism for years. This misunderstanding of scripture comes from eisegesis and poor hermeneutics. It, in fact, is an agreement for perseverance of the saints. We will look at just the section of scripture to begin. Then we will give it context within Hebrews and then within the entirety of the new covenant. I think it will be helpful to those who have been struggling with their own justification and soteriology.  Hebrews 6:1-8;
Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.
     Here is a link to a book introduction from Dr. John Macarthur that will give us the context I was mentioning earlier; Book introduction for Hebrews

     Many have been confused by this section of scripture. It has been used to argue against perseverance of the saints. Perseverance has been misunderstood by some as to mean eternal security. They claim that eternal security is a false teaching, and if wrongly understood, I would agree. We don’t believe that one will be saved, and remain saved, while practicing all sorts of ungodliness in unrepentance. It is as God said through Paul in Romans 6:1-2;
“…1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?…”
John 14:15; “…15“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments…” and James 2:14-17, “…14What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?15If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?17Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. …”
     Here is a link from Matt Slick of CARM.org about perseverance of the saints; http://carm.org/can-believer-lose-his-salvation
     Here is a great article from CARM.org also dealing with this issue; http://carm.org/about-can-person-lose-salvation
     And here is another from GotQuestions.org that will also help us to see the context in the new covenant; http://www.gotquestions.org/license-sin.html

     A person, who is truly justified by God, granted faith and repentance, who has been regenerated by God, simply does not choose to fall away, or become apostate. They did not save themselves. God did the saving to them. How many of you pray for person to be saved, when you know they want nothing of God, and claim to hate Him? You don’t seem to care about their alleged free will at that time do you? No, you want God to change their heart. So for all who truly believe, it is an act of the Sovereign God miraculously regenerating them to justification and on through the ordo salutis. If Christ did the work to justify us, then what work could we do to negate the perfection of His? None! In keeping with the spirit of salvation, we are changed, born again, a new creature with new desires, and affections. This new creature, loves the things of God, and hates the sin of his past existence, and bondage to his fallen nature. In this state of God granted repentance, and regeneration the new creature, of his new will and volition, derives his joy from doing that which is of the Father’s will, as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did upon the cross of His crucifixion. For this creature there is no ability in him to apostatize. Only for the religious person, who has not been freed from the old nature can fall away in any real sense, alas they were never really in Christ, so their falling away is even a false apostasy, thus the hyperbole of this scripture. For the one made to be resurrected unto eternal life, there are no sins of his account, to be tallied against him on the day of judgment. They had all been expiated, through the propitiation of Christ Jesus. Thus, for them there would be no grounds to repent, and believe again, or to crucify Christ, who once and for all died once, and was resurrected to never be crucified or die again. The absurdity of this concept should propagate the ideology of perseverance not the antithesis.
We fall into this heresy when we don’t understand justification and sanctification rightly.      When we think we had something to do with our justification we tend to believe we need to keep ourselves saved. This view is held by all works righteousness religions. The practitioner maintains their state of pseudo-grace by doing deeds and sacraments. Well, we all know this is a heresy, so why do we fall for it? Idolatry and pride, that’s why. We still want to earn it. We want to be better than others. Then there is guilt and pride. You are so bad, look at you, of course there isn’t enough grace for you, you must add something. These are powerful adversaries to fight against because they are stealthy. They sneak in to rob you of your security and joy. They take from you the delight you have in the Lord of your salvation. When these appear we need to crop off their ugly heads with repentance and prayerfully remember who it is that did the saving. It is the Almighty God, Lord of Lords, and Eternal Creator, who justifies you! Justification is solely the work of Jesus. He did the work on the cross of atoning for our sins and imputing His righteousness to us. That is how we are justified.
     Sanctification on the other hand involves our efforts in obedience. We try our best out of the provisions of God to affirm His will and be conformed to it. Notice we aren’t doing it out of our own provisions because we have none of any efficacy. Our pitiful temporary repentance and faithless intellectual understanding don’t do a thing for our sanctification. It is also the Lord who sanctifies us to Him through His provisions of all that is necessary. We through the true repentance of sins and the true faith are in concurrence with God and desire His will be done to us and by us.
     So the difference between the two doctrines should be clear. In justification God does the saving and keeping. In Sanctification we do the agreeing and growing. We are like a baby in a crib. We can think about growth and desire it. We can focus all of our efforts towards it, but we will grow according to His will. It is His design for a baby to grow to maturity. The immature believer will grow by design. Of course here is where the synergism comes in, like a child we must be fed good things and given work and exercise. We must be nurtured and disciplined. God being our Good Father sees to it. We are part of our sanctification for sure, but it is not what keeps us saved. I hope this has helped.

Apologetics · Church · Theology

I’m a mormon now! Yep, just call me LDS.

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

     I’ve decided to be a mormon now. I am LDS. I don’t believe Joseph Smith was a prophet. I don’t believe the book of mormon. I don’t believe that I need to be baptized into the mormon cult. I don’t believe that God was once just a man.  I don’t believe that Jesus and satan are brothers.  I believe in the Triune God of the Bible. I believe in His word, the Bible, as being infallible and inerrant.  I believe that the 2nd person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, is God incarnate, and that He lived a perfectly sinless life, obeying all the laws to earn righteousness.  I believe He obeyed the will of the 1st person of the Trinity, God the Father, and went up on a cross to bear the sins of all who would be saved.  Their debt was imputed to Him, and His righteousness was imputed to them, so that they could be justified in the sight of God, thus glorifying God through the salvation of sinners.  I believe that God, being just, will pour out His wrath on those who have not been granted repenctance and faith.  He will be glorified in the damnation of sinners, by demonstrating His justice.

     So as you can see, I’m not really mormon.  I talked with a mormon man yesterday.  He insisted he was a Christian.  I asked him, “Are you a Baptist?”  He said, “No, I’m a mormon.”  I said, “Then you are NOT A CHRISTIAN!!!” 
nochristian
He looked very perplexed.  He didn’t understand why I was so offended.  I think he believed he was the one who should be offended.  I explained to him, “If you are a Christian then I am LDS.”  Then I told him the things that I mentioned previously in the first paragraph of this article.  To which he uttered a firm, “You can’t be a mormon if you don’t get baptized into the church!”  I then said, “Exaclty my point.  Thank you.  So then, ipso facto you are not a Christian.”  I was going to explain that if there are in fact, doctrines that make one mormon or not, then there are also doctrines that must be affirmed by a believer to verify that they are Christian, but alas the lad stormed off in a huff.

     So my mormon friends, I emplore you, please stop telling your people to declare, “I’m a Christian!”  When in fact they are not.  If you are so pleased with being LDS, just declare that you are LDS, but don’t insult, and offend me by blaspheming the one true God, whom I, and all true Christians serve.  We are not fooled, and neither is God.  Truly, we find it quite disturbing that you would consider them to be compatible, and obviously, so do you when confronted with the doctrinal differences.

Church · Theology

TRIUMPHAL ENTRY

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

Triumphal Entry

     Zechariah 9:9-10 ESV
(9) Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
(10) I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.     John 12:12-16 ESV
(12) The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
(13) So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
(14) And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
(15) “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
(16) His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.

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Church · Theology

ZECHARIAH GIVES US A GLIMPSE AT OUR SAVIOR AND HIS BETRAYAL BY JUDAS

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

     Here Zechariah is giving us a look into the fulfillment of this prophecy of Jesus and His betrayal.

Zechariah 11:12-13 ESV
(12) Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver.
(13) Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.     Here is how much they valued the life of Christ.

Exodus 21:32 ESV
(32) If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

Here is the fulfillment of this prophecy in Jesus.

Matthew 27:3-7 ESV
(3) Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders,
(4) saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.”
(5) And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.
(6) But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.”
(7) So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers.

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Church · Church Reviews

We visited Lighthouse Baptist Church in Payette, ID on 04/06/14

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

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We visited Lighthouse Baptist Church in Payette, ID on 04/06/14

  1. How approachable/welcoming, is the Pastor before and/or after the service? The Pastor was friendly and spoke to me after the service.  I did get the feeling he had somewhere to be though.
  2. How friendly is the congregation? The congregation was very friendly. They made sure to talk with me for a moment.
  3. How many congregants were there? There were approximately 10 to 20, the congregation was mostly relatives of the Pastor, and the Sunday School teacher.
  4. How do they take the offering? Offering plates.
  5. Where are they located? They are at 1212 1st Ave. South, Payette, Idaho 83661. Their phone number is 208-642-3940.
  6. How is the service broke down between, prayers, worship, and sermon? Approximately 10% Prayer, 15% hymns, 5% Fellowship, 70% Sermon.
  7. What is the condition of their facilities? The facilities were in fair condition for their age. They are in a building that used to be a Roman Catholic Church.  It has been de-Romanized.
  8. What is the preaching style of their Pastor? The sermon was topical. The Pastor jumped around quite a bit, sighting many different passages.  It seemed that the message got lost in the process.  I personally prefer expository preaching.
  9. Do they use a specific translation of the Bible, or prohibit any translations, if so why? They use the KJV.  Here is a quote from their site, “We’re fundamental, we hold to the King James Bible as the inspired, preserved Word of God for the English speaking people.”  Here is another, “The King James Version of the Bible shall be the official and only translation used by the church (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21).”
  10. Do they have a web page? They do, and here is the link; http://www.lbcpayette.com/6052.html If so, is there a clear, orthodox, confession or statement of faith? Here is the link; http://www.lbcpayette.com/11701.html  From what I can tell they are orthodox.  Their soteriology is sound.  They believe in, total depravity, election and predestination, perseverance of the saints, cessationism, and dispensationalism.