Church · Church Reviews

We Visited West Valley Free Methodist Church in Fruitland on 03-23-14

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

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We visited West Valley Free Methodist Church of Fruitland on 03/23/14.

  1. How approachable/welcoming, is the Pastor before and/or after the service? The Pastor greeted us in the Sanctuary and was friendly.
  2. How friendly is the congregation? The congregation was friendly.  Only a couple of people talked with us or greeted us besides the Pastor.
  3. How many congregants were there? There were approximately 80 to 110 in the 11 O’clock service.
  4. How do they take the offering? A bag was passed.
  5. Where are they located? They are next to Schwan’s in Fruitland at, 100 E 1st St Fruitland, ID 83619.  Their phone number is (208) 452-3460
  6. How is the service broke down between, prayers, worship, and sermon? It seemed to be approximately 5% prayer, 5% announcements, 40% worship, and 50% sermon.
  7. What is the condition of their facilities? The facilities were above average for the size of their congregation.
  8. What is the preaching style of their Pastor? The sermon was topical.  It was about marital love and how to stay in love as opposed to just falling in love and then out of it.  The sermon was pretty good.  Pastor Doug tied the gospel in.  He explained how love is a decision, and an action.  He made a point of calling love a verb.  He spoke of Christ’s sacrificial love and how we should consider others above ourselves.  His scripture passage was Philippians 2:3-8.
  9. Do they use a specific translation of the Bible, or prohibit any translations, if so why? They mostly use the NIV.
  10. Do they have a web page? They do, and here is the link; http://www.westvalleychurchfm.org/  If so, is there a clear, orthodox, confession or statement of faith? They have a beliefs page.  It appears orthodox.  I was hoping for a more detailed confession of faith.  They are Wesleyan/Arminian.  Here is the link from their page; http://www.westvalleychurchfm.org/devotional/
Theology

The mark of the beast, the law of Moses, and Islam.

Bob Snyder1 Comment

Has anyone else noticed this similarity and wondered about it?

     I noticed a similarity between (Deuteronomy 6:8 NASB) “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.” and 1 (Revelation 13:16 NASB) “And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,” Has anyone else noticed this similarity and wondered about it?
I know that satan seems to be mocking God in His triune nature with the 2 unholy trinity of the false prophet, satan, and the anti-christ.picture-of-antichrist

I know that satan is a created being and so are the members of the unholy trinity, as such they are subject to God. They can only go as far as He allows.
The similarity between the two verses seems it could be another instance of defamation against God. God gave the law to Moses and Israel for their good. It was later used by them as a means to an end. It became a works righteousness system. They thought by obeying in their deeds they would please God. There is a religion today that is a works righteousness faith and a totalitarian replacement government all rolled up into one, and their eschatology interestingly resembles ours. Except their Christ figure is our anti-christ.
If you guessed islam, you are correct. That is the faith I am talking about. If you are not muslim and you live in a muslim land you already have trouble doing business and buying food. I wonder what a future islam would look like if it were world wide and influenced by the cultures it conquered?muslims

A world system and a religion combined, in complete tyrannical control. They already kill Christians and Jews for their god. What would a secularized and modernized islam look like? Just random thoughts from Bob.

1 http://carm.org/what-biblical-numerology
2 http://www.gotquestions.org/unholy-trinity.html

Theology

Omnipresent

Bob Snyder4 Comments

Omnipresent, is the quality of being present in all places.  God is omnipresent.  God is the creator of everything.  He keeps everything from being destroyed.  He makes the natural laws that we rely on to make sense of our world.  Not only does He make those laws, He also keeps them enforce.  God exists independent of the creation.  Time and space are part of the His creation.  He is not.

God is not, some unconscious universal force that permeates everything like what the pantheists believe.  His presence is not, limited to any one time or space.  He can specifically reveal Himself during a time, in a specific location, without ceasing to exist above all time and space.

Here is something we have heard Christians say from time to time, “Yeah man, like… God is everywhere…  He is in the trees, the rocks, the water, and in us.”   This in something a pantheist would say.  We as Christians are not pantheists.  A pantheist believes that God is literally permeating everything, and that everything, collectively is God.  Kind of like the force from Star Wars.

star-wars-yoda-luke-that-is-why-you-fail

God is present in all places, even Hell.  He will pour out His wrath on sinners in Hell for all eternity.  God is present to the person in the deepest, darkest, cave in the most remote mountains.  He is present to the drowning person in the ocean.  He is present, not because He is in them, and they are collectively Him, but rather He is above all things, in all things, and outside of them.  It speaks to His sovereign will.  He is present as a matter of His will, not due to it being in bondage to the creation, but because of His lordship over it.

Don’t be confused by what I just said.  “How can God be outside of creation and in it at the same time?” you ask.  In the sense that He is not bound by His creation, or subject to it, He transcends it.  This is what is meant by He is outside of it.  Of course to be everywhere He would need to be, well… everywhere, and He is.  It is that He is sovereign, and transcendent.  I hope this makes it clear

Church · Church Reviews

We Visited Calvary Chapel in Ontario Oregon on 03/16/14.

Bob Snyder4 Comments

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We visited Calvary Chapel in Ontario Oregon on 03/16/14

  1. How approachable/welcoming, is the Pastor before and/or after the service? The Pastor was there, but he did not preach, as he was recovering from a surgery, and cold.  It should be noted, that a congregation that size makes it difficult to have a Pastor greet everyone who comes in.  They did have assigned, volunteers, greeting people as they walked into the sanctuary.
  2. How friendly is the congregation? The congregation was friendly, and welcoming.  I was already acquainted with several of the congregants who I work with.
  3. How many congregants are there? There were approximately between 200 to 300 people there.  They have two morning services, one at 9:00 a.m. and the other at 11:00 a.m.
  4. How do they take the offering? They didn’t take an offering that I noticed and I didn’t see where they had an offering box.  I will try to find out how they do it.
  5. Where are they located? They are at 1775 Alameda Dr, Ontario, OR 97914.  If you turn left just before Albertson’s, then go all the way down to the end of the street, it is on the corner to your right.  Here is their phone number, (541) 889-2260
  6. How is the service broke down between, prayers, worship, and sermon? It seemed to be approximately 10% announcements, 15% prayer, 30% worship, and 45% sermon.  The worship songs were all contemporary.
  7. What is the condition of their facilities? The facilities were above average.  The main parking lot is not paved.  They do have handicap parking up close to the sidewalks.                                                                                                                   cchapel
  8. What is the preaching style of their Pastor? The sermon was an exegesis of Haggai 1, and part of 2.  It seemed expository. As I said earlier, they had a guest Pastor preach the sermon.  If he is any indicator of the type of preaching their Pastor delivers, then I would say they do pretty well.  We will have to visit again on a Sunday when he is preaching.
  9. Do they use a specific translation of the Bible, or prohibit any translations, if so why? Their web page indicates that they use many different translations. Everyone brings their own.
  10. Do they have a web page? Yes, here is the link, www.ccontario.com   If so, is there a clear, orthodox, confession or statement of faith? Here is the link to their statement of faith page, www.ccontario.com/sof/index.php  I didn’t see anything that would make me think they were not orthodox.  I did notice that it seems they are Charismatic and Continuationists.