Earlier this year Crossway published a 368 page book by Dr. Vern Poythress titled Chance and the Sovereignty of God: A God-Centered Approach to Probabiliy and Random Events. I appreciate how Dr. Poythress has made many of his books available to the public for free as a PDF. This new book is now among them!
The description of the book on the publisher Crossway’s website is as follows:
What if all events—big and small, good and bad—are governed by more than just blind chance? What if they are governed by God?
In this theologically informed and philosophically nuanced introduction to the study of probability and chance, Vern Poythress argues that all events—including the seemingly random or accidental—fall under God’s watchful gaze as part of his eternal plan. Comprehensive in its scope, this book lays the theistic foundation for our scientific…
“Theistic evolution is a concept being taught in many “evangelical” seminaries and colleges today. It is an idea that comes straight from the pit of hell. To believe that human evolution is true is to say that the Bible contains lies and myths, and that Adam and Eve were allegorical figures. If you teach and promote theistic evolution, you are calling God a liar. There is no middle ground here.”
This is my first article in almost two months, but I’m afraid things are just as bad as it was since my last post; the status quo in most of the evangelical denominations has not changed; and the Nazarene church is still in bad shape, notwithstanding any rosy reports from the General Superintendents or other leadership. Compromise seems to be the underlying principal for these religious leaders for quite some time now. Independent thought and true leadership is a thing…
In my book Tony Miano is one of the better Open Air Preachers out there. In some ways, he is refreshing to hear especially with his desire to be Biblical and his love for the local church. Apparently a few days ago while he was in Canada he was physically assaulted during one of his open air preaching campaign as the picture indicate (Source of photo).
His facebook page has many comments with some supporting Miano while some were critical of Tony Miano’s method of evangelism. While I think there is room for one to ask how one might engage differently in Tony’s situation, it is hard not to notice a much larger theological problem among some criticizing Miano. I spent a significant amount of time yesterday responding to some of these comments.
Some objections seem to forget who is the victim and who is the one who inflicted harm; my response…
Some of us are old enough to remember the funny Wendy’s commercial with the, “where’s the beef?” lady.
Just like how most fast food chains can leave you unsatisfied and wondering just, “Where is, the beef?” The prosperity gospel and life enhancement version of Christianity leaves people unsatisfied and lacking the appropriate knowledge. They are spiritually malnutritioned and existing as the walking dead. They drone on through life never getting it. One can only wonder how long people will continue to pay this man to hear his silky smooth distracting messages delivered through his 10,000 watt smile.
Many folks get angry when you mention any wrong doing of Joel and his ilk. I have been surprised at how many Christian brothers and sisters have gotten down right perturbed at me for besmirching their golden cow. Joel is not any better than any of us. He certainly is not educated and rooted in the word, like many genuine theologians and Pastors. Joel is firmly in the, “Word of Faith” movement. He teaches that your words have power and if you have faith when you speak you can declare prosperity for yourself and God will provide it. How messed up is that? “Say, I think I’ll twist the arm of the sovereign Creator of everything into giving me a better house and car with my, “less than a mustard seed of faith.” It is men like him who give good unsung Pastors a bad name.
Think about all of the times you have listened to him on television or the books of his you have read. Can you recall anything that he has done that looks anything like, “You were once a vile sinner. You were under the condemnation of sin. You were going to be cast into Hell for eternity, but you repented of your sins and believed in the atoning work of Christ Jesus on the cross. He paid the price of your sin debt. He satisfied the justice of God through His propitiation. Now go and be holy for God is holy.”
Joel isn’t a Pastor, he is a self-help guru with a Christianesque guile. He is the burger with fillers and washed in ammonia. He is not the real deal. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying he is not saved. I don’t know that. I am saying he isn’t qualified to be a Preacher of God’s word. He is not a Preacher of the gospel. He has this humungous platform to do something really great for the kingdom of God, but instead he backs away from boldly proclaiming the gospel and preaching the word. Why is that? What sort of Preacher does that? I haven’t even really addressed his teachings here. That wasn’t my goal for today. I simply wanted to draw attention to the lack of good, God centered, gospel proclaiming, life giving, preaching of God’s word. Now I declare, go read your Bible Joel and repent. Use that television platform, and mega-church for the right use.
If you love Joel ask him to preach the gospel every Sunday. Ask him for clear and correct teaching instead of the prosperity life enhancement fluff. Who knows, maybe he’ll listen.
The world has been hearing a lot of the Sudanese wife and mother Meriam Ibrahim who married an American Sudanese man and became a Christian. The development in the news have been a roller coaster.
Because she became a Christian, the Sudanese government arrested her and found her guilty for her faith in Christ. She was sentenced to be executed but since she was pregnant it was scheduled for a time after she gave birth. Then there was the fake news that she was released followed by silence. It turned out to be inaccurate. It was then on the news that she was freed. According to the BBC yesterday when Meriam and her family tried to escape to another country at the capital’s airport, her whole family was detained.
Let us pray for her and her family and also for the Persecuted Church in Sudan.
Deuteronomy 14:22 “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. 23 And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. 24 And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the Lord your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses, to set his name there, 25 then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord…
Here’s our first meme to examine. Let’s think through the message and implication of that message.
In this meme we have what appears to be an Eskimo fishing while speaking to an unseen Christian priest/missionary. The Eskimo asks whether those who are ignorant of God’s righteous character and our moral rebellion against him would, in light of that very ignorance, be held accountable. The priest/missionary replies “No, not if you did not know.” The Eskimo’s response is the key to understanding the single point of the meme, “Then why did you tell me?” According to the rationale of the meme’s creator, Christians appear to hold to 3 contradictory beliefs: a) Those who reject the message of sin and the forgiveness provided by the cross-work of Jesus are eternally damned (i.e. go to hell), b) it is the Christian’s job to tell as many people as possible the message of sin and…
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