Waymarks 53 May 2008

Waymarks 53

Report of open air preaching

22^nd February LUTON T,C.  The cult boy came by. Seeing me, he stopped to listen and remained the whole time I preached. He also started giving out his own leaflets which annoyed me intensely. They weren’t tracts. They were invitations to some fantastic religious movie.

This young man so obviously enjoys listening to the gospel, frequently nodding and adding his amens, that I think he must be saved. I am too long in the tooth to be taken in by wilful pretenders. The delight in his face was plain to be seen. So how grievous to find him still mixed up in this cult. How can a true believer get tangled in a false system?

I remember when I was first saved, a copy of Awake used to appear on my bedside locker in the RAF billet. I hungrily devoured every page, looking up all the references. It took a little while for alarm bells to start ringing. I believe it was the Holy Spirit within ringing those bells. What I read did not align with what I had already gleaned from the Scriptures.

I trust therefore that this young man will come to a knowledge of the truth.

28^th February DUNSTABLE Ashton Square. I thought today I would stay in. I had some writing to do; my foot was sore; it was cold out. And, I thought, people were praying for me. Well, their prayers won’t get answered today!

I put my coat on and went to Dunstable. Within minutes of my arrival an aged couple stopped to talk. I soon realised they were two old men, but one wasn’t nearly as old as the other.

They were so delighted to hear the gospel being preached. They told me they attended  Bethel Baptist Church in Linslade (where I held my first tent meetings in 1972).  One had a pocketful of TBS tracts and when I showed him my AV Bible he seemed hardly able to contain his joy. He had actually met another believer holding to the AV Bible outside of his own fellowship! I told him I knew one or two others beside myself who did the same.

I suspected as they left me that both thought they had been caught up into the third heaven.

5^th February LUTON T. C.  I now know the name of the young man I met on 22^nd. It is Peter. Ali stopped  to ask if I had seen Peter. I didn’t recognise Ali but he was with Peter last week. Ali told me he went along with Peter to his church and together they had visited most of the churches in Luton. Ali then told me he was a Muslim and came to Luton from Pakistan only two years ago to take a degree course at Luton Uni. Ali had a lot of questions to ask. They were serious questions that others hadn’t been able to answer. How could we be born in sin? Muslims also believe Jesus will come again – how? Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet. so I asked him if he accepted all the words of Jesus Christ He gave an emphatic yes. so we turned to John 3. “ye must be born again”. He had never heard this and became greatly interested to the extent that by the time we finished talking, nearly an hour later, I was convinced he was seeking. He accepted a Way of Salvation booklet. Pray for Ali that he might get saved and for both he and Peter that they might not become enmeshed in a cult.

3^rd April LUTON T. C. One man stood listening to the gospel. He seemed interested so I offered him a tract, which he accepted. He placed his hand on mine and said he hoped God would bless my labours. His hand was ice cold, making me think the poor man was unwell but he immediately walked off.

13^th April WOLVERTON. By the Agora. This is less than ten minutes walk from our hall. This is the first of our pre- gospel meeting outdoor witnesses for the season. The place is fairly deserted but there are a few folk waiting for the bus. From the start we had several tracts refused. We seem to be remembered from last year. One man pronounced his atheism – his excuse for a godless life no doubt.  Some would  rather burn for eternity than give God five minutes of their life.

21^st April DUNSTABLE. Ashton Square. It is a warm sunny day, but being a non-market day, there are few people passing by. I begin to preach and two women walk slowly by. They turn and walk back towards me. They commend me on my bravery (?) and say how good it is to hear the Bible preached. I ask them if they are saved. They are non committal but one pulls a bible out of her bag. So they are Russellites! A useless debate looked like brewing up, so I got in as many gospel verses as I could while I could. Verses such as John 8: 28 were totally ignored. The younger woman offered me a JW booklet which she said would help\me.  I told her I was familiar with the lies of Russellism years before she was ever born, but took the book and offered her a copy of Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment. she refused it so I returned her book to her.

At this point a man butted in and asked the older woman if she were a Jehovah’s Witness. On hearing the affirmative he greeted her as “sister”, announced himself as from Birmingham  He then deigned to notice my presence and made some reference to the 144.000 of Revelation. I therefore commiserated with him for missing out as this number of Russellites was met in the 19^th Century. He wasn’t very pleased to hear this and began to get angry so I began to preach loudly again. At this they all made off.

Then another lady approached me. She was a member of a local Baptist church but sadly could not speak of a conversion. Unlike the first pair, this lady listened intently while I spoke to her.

Alas, many of our brethren would rather leave souls to burn for eternity than spend five minutes preaching and tracting in the open air.

23^rd April LUTON T.C. So often, within minutes of commencing to preach, somebody arrives to stop me. Today it is Peter and as I haven’t seen him for along time I do stop. Peter looks like a tramp— long straggly grey beard, torn and scruffy clothes, and pushing a supermarket trolley with what appears to be junk. But he does have his own flat, and he does claim to be saved.  He likes to ask lots of questions about the Bible so I try to answer him. I think he is failing now because he kept repeating himself. Eventually I tell him I want to carry on preaching so he sits on a nearby bench to listen. The “Big Issue” boy is listening also.

4^th May WOLVERTON By the Agora. (seven minutes walk to our Gospel Hall. This being our conference weekend we had some visitors with us who also joined us for the open air testimony. Almost immediately we were heckled by a crowd standing outside the pub opposite us. Later a young man approached us with much cursing and oaths and began making threats. I ignored him and continued to preach but I thought he was going to attack me. Another fellow came and sought to restrain him for which I was quite thankful. A few passers- by took tracts but one made a display of ripping his to pieces. 

8^th May LUTON T.C. Before I had time to start preaching a lady stopped to speak to me. I don’t think I had seen her for about twenty years, but she said she had often seen me here. She was saved at Haringay in 1954. She said they had a problem at her church. There was now a “gay” minister there and he had just married his boyfriend. Some had left the church because of this but she was uncertain what to do. Some of her Baptist friends had told her to leave, what did I think? I asked her what fellowship had light with darkness? “That settles it!” she said as she went on her way.

PLEASE READ ON. THERE ARE MATTERS DEALT WITH BELOW THAT AFFECT YOUR SPIRITUAL HEALTH.

AV Verses Vindicated

Genesis 2: 18

And the LORD God said, It  is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

“.... I will make him a helper comparable to him.” NKJV.

Feminists will hardly approve of the NKJV rendering of neged (AV=meet) which suggests one worthy to be compared, or conforming in every respect. Was this God’s intended role for the wife?  Is the woman to be assessed as coming up to the man’s standard? 

To be a help according to Scripture is to fulfil a most precious and high calling. Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield. Ps. 33: 20.  A wife is a  help and is meet (this is not an archaic word) for her husband. He looks to her and keeps her ever before him for he cannot operate fully on his own. She is his counterpart.

 

Psalm 133; 1

Behold, how good and how pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity!

“How wonderful it is, how pleasant, for God’s people to live together in harmony.”  (Amity bible – NRSV?)

The ungodly masses of humanity like to refer to themselves as “God’s people”. But this living together in harmony hasn’t existed since Cain slew his brother. However, brethren (the term implying all of ONE family) are able to DWELL TOGETHER(implying or more settled state than mere living) in UNITY (implying a far higher standard than mere harmony. )

Amity’s abuse of Scripture carries political undertones. 

Zechariah 9: 16, 17

And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.

The words in v.17, in the AV reading above, For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! are altered in modern versions as shown below. 

“How very beautiful they will be”  NIrV.

“Then how they’ll shine, shimmer, glow!” The Message

“How lovely they will be” CEV (Contemporary English Version)

“For what comeliness and beauty will be theirs” NASB  (The ASV was nearer to the AV)

“How great is their goodness and how great their beauty”. NKJV

Matthew 3: 6

....and were baptized of him in Jordan....

All modern versions have the word “baptized” , and indeed all ancient versions have the word “baptized” and translate the Greek  baptizo accordingly in every place. It is strange therefore that some of our brethren  seek to make an issue out of it and suggest the word should be translated immerse or dip. The  AV translators were well of aware of the various meanings of the word for at Luke 16: 24 we read that he may dip (bapto ) the tip of his finger in water.

L Streeter, in his book Seventy five Problems, writes-

“[The word baptism] was an English word in 1611. … It had been an English word for hundreds of years before the King James translators were born. … Baptisid and baptym were found in Wycliffe’s Bible in A.D. 1380. This was 220 years before the King James translators used the word. … The word baptize does indeed mean to immerse, or to dip. That is the very literal meaning of the word. However, in using the word baptize FOR THE ORDINANCE OF WATER BAPTISM, the Holy Spirit obviously meant more than that. The ordinance of baptism is more than a burial. It is also a resurrection (Romans 6:4). … Therefore, we must conclude that the Holy Spirit helped the KJV translators to wisely use the word baptize rather than immerse. … Every new version we checked says ‘baptize.’ Not a single one of them says ‘immerse.’ Why do you suppose that the professor did not criticize the new versions on this point?” (pp. 57, 58). — found on Wayoflife.org

John 3: 17

....that the world through him might be saved (sozo).

“He came to help, to put the world right again.” (The Message) This fiction is the work of Peterson who never believed in salvation through faith in Christ. His work is a very mischievous parody of the Scriptures.

Christ did not come to sort out social injustices. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. The day is coming when He will establish His kingdom on earth.

2 Corinthians 4: 16

....but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

“Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” (RSV, ESV)

Changing “man” to “nature” changes the meaning of the verse. The Greek word commonly translated “nature” is phusis  but it is not used in this verse. We are partakers of the divine nature (phusis) 2 Peter 1: 14). We see therefore that nature is not the subject here.

Conservative commentators are generally agreed that the outward man refers to our mortal bodies but the inward is the immaterial being which responds to the continual refreshing work of the Holy Spirit.

Reference to an outer nature seems to be linking it to the old man which is crucified with Christ. and cannot merely “waste away”.

Phillipians 3: 20

For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Conversation” is translated from politeuma, which word occurs only here in the N. T.  In most modern versions it is translated “citizenship” but this is not the true meaning of the word.

In Phil. 1: 27 politeuomai is used, again translated “conversation” in the AV Bible. It speaks of the behaviour of one living in accord with the gospel of Christ. Our conduct, our behaviour, is not therefore in the manner of earth-dwellers, but our behaviour is what belongs in heaven. As it is in heaven, so let it be on earth.

The word citizenship is insufficient here. There are many who hold full UK citizenship, but their behaviour is unacceptable to UK society. Theirs is not conversation; theirs is malversation which means misbehaviour or corruption.

The modern use of conversation, meaning oral communication, still carries the same meaning: What you say is what you are!

Galatians 4: 4

God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.

A few modern versions have “born of a woman, born under law”.  Although there are 8000 changes made in the Greek manuscripts, this verse stands firm in all. Every known Greek manuscript has ginomai (=made). The change to “born” must be seen for what it is ─a direct attack on the virgin birth.

Whoever heard of a mortal man who was not born of a woman? This verse tells us of One who was made without the assistance of man.

The AV translators were well aware of the difference between made and born. We have only to go down to v.29 and we read he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit. The Greek word for born is here gennao which emphasises the vital distinction made in v.4.

Where natural birth is concerned we read of John the Baptist in Mtt.11:11, Among them that are born (gennetos) of women there has not risen a greater.

We note that not even Darby had “born” in Gal.4: 4. He wrote “come of a woman”. We also note that the Douay Version retains “made”.

If ginomai may be translated born then a blasphemy would be introduced at Galatians 3: 13, Christ.... being made (ginomai) a curse.  (Born a curse)

This verse alone is sufficient to demolish the “foetal  implant” theory, popularised by Henry Morris and others. Morris has written:-

Since "by Him [that is by Christ, the Word of God] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth" (Colossians 1:16), He must have created the very body in which He would dwell when He "was made flesh." This body, however, could not be a body produced by the normal process of human reproduction, for it must be a body unmarred either by inherent sin spiritually or by inherited genetic defects physically or mentally.....  Thus the body of the second Adam must be formed directly by God and placed in a virgin's womb. .... Then, "when He cometh into the world, He saith, . . . a body hast thou prepared me " (Hebrews 10:5).    .— Institute for Creation Research website

    Morris believes that the physical body of Christ was fashioned in heaven and miraculously transplanted in the womb of Mary who was no more than a vessel containing Christ. Therefore the real humanity of Christ is removed. All the promises of Scripture referring to the lineage of Christ are destroyed also. The Lord could never be of the loins of David.

Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ....  Acts 2: 30,31  

“The fruit of his loins, according to the flesh” is very specific and establishes a true genealogy between the Lord and David                                                               

We end with a quote from Gill’s commentary:

"made", not created as Adam was; nor begotten by man, as men in common are; nor is he said to be born, though he truly was, but "made"; which word the Holy Ghost chooses, to express the mighty power of God, in his mysterious incarnation, wonderful conception, and birth. ─Gill

By the Way....

Brethren were once known as men and women of the Book. It was this that drew me to a local  assembly 50 years ago, where they held tenaciously to the traditional and evangelical faith. The truths of the Bible were taught in the Gospel Halls up and down the land in those days. But times change and the great apostasy sweeps on. Brethren can no longer recognise error when they hear it.  A leading preacher among us preaches Russellism (we shall live again in the kingdom on the earth) and the C.B’s chase after him, waving their diaries. Others tell us the atoning work of Christ was done in the three hours of darkness. Some still, owning themselves to be spiritual dinosaurs, promote the ancient “Gap Theory” — a theory which mocks the gospel . But now, on an assembly website in Oxfordshire, we read that the Lord had a fallen human nature and His blood was not incorruptible.

On this subject we find the words of Donald Macleod helpful:-

We can say that Christ was 'made sin' (2 Cor. 5:21) but we cannot say that he was made sinful. There is no moral or structural defect for Satan to exploit. There is no lust. There is no egotism. There is no proclivity to sin. There is no corruption of nature. There is no want of original righteousness. There is no fallenness.

The same fallen nature as ours?

But this last statement must give us pause. It has become a virtual truism of recent scholarship that 'Christ's human nature was indeed the same fallen human nature as ours'. For the most part, those who hold this view are careful to deny that he was sinful. But they regard it as not only true, but vital, that his humanness was fallen. Otherwise, he could feel no sympathy with us. More fundamentally still, if he did not take fallen human nature, then he did not redeem it.

.... It is very doubtful, however, whether the idea that Christ took a fallen human nature can be held meaningfully in any form which is not heretical. There is no practicable distinction between fallen and sinful. 'Beyond a doubt,' wrote A. B. Bruce, 'the theory requires that original sin should be ascribed to Christ; for original sin is a vice of fallen human nature, and the doctrine that our Lord's human nature was fallen, means if it means anything, that it was tainted with original sin.'  — D Macleod; From Glory to Golgotha; p.28 :Christian Focus Publications;  2002

[ I do not agree with all the doctrinal statements made in this book – R.S.] □

Times Online carried this headline recently:-

“The Book they used to burn now fires new revolution of faith in China.”

How’s that for misinformation? The Book burned in this country in the 17^th Century was Tyndale’s English translation of the Holy Scriptures.   The book being distributed in China under licence is the Amity bible – a book vastly removed from Tyndale’s translation. It is a Chinese translation of the New Revised Standard version. We suggest it was not this book that was burned during the Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976. 

The Amity Printing Foundation has now printed 50 million bibles.

Amity has the full approval of the Chinese Government, but the book is not available in ordinary bookshops. It is sold under strict supervision in state controlled churches, which means the government wants to know who buys a copy. Very few copies get out of the cities.

“Bible smuggling is .... counter-productive as it alienates Church leaders and the government, with whom Bible Society and the Amity Press has excellent relations,” says an Amity representative.

So what happens if an unregistered Bible believer seeks to give away Bibles? —

Eight house Christian leaders are still in detention after raids on church activities in Shaanxi and Shandong provinces.
A total of 12 church leaders were arrested as they distributed Bibles in a marketplace in Jiaocheng county, Shaanxi. Four of the 12 were released on the same day, June 9, and six more were freed six days [...] July\2007 — Daniel Ritchie (blog).

There are plainly different kinds of Christians in China, and different kinds of bibles! When you are told there are millions of Christians in China, have a little laugh up your sleeve. There are many genuine believers of course, but they are persecuted.

Some time ago in Luton, while preaching in the street, a Chinese brother stopped to speak to me. He was from Hong Kong, visiting his son now living here. I invited him back to tea and he told me he was going home shortly and then would “disappear” into the China mainland to be an itinerate preacher. What courage and what sacrifice

PERSECUTION INCREASING IN COMMUNIST CHINA (Friday Church News Notes, April 25, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from "China Ratchets up Christian Persecution," WorldNetDaily, April 10, 2008: "A Chinese man has been taken into custody and faces a possible sentence of death for charges alleging 'subversion of the national government and endangering national security.' But several Christian organizations that monitor human rights activities in China say Alimujiang Yimiti could face the penalty simply because he is a Christian. ... 'In the months now leading up to the Olympic Games, we actually see things getting worse,' said Todd Nettleton, a spokesman for Voice of the Martyrs. 'There are more raids, foreign Christians are not having their visas renewed and are being forced to leave the country. There are numerous circumstances where the churches are under attack by the government.' ... 'Christians who refuse to come under the communist control are subject to arrest, imprisonment, harassment by the police at any time,' Nettleton said. 'There are places where Christians are facing very serious persecution.' ... 'China has thousands of Internet policemen,' he continued. 'Their job is to monitor information and keep in the information they want to keep in, and keep out the information they want to keep out.' ... Ashley Dingler, regional manager for East Asia for International Christian Concern says: 'We've seen a huge increase in the numbers of house churches that are being raided, especially the leaders of the house churches are being taken into custody. In early March, there were 70 [leaders] taken at one time.' A few are released occasionally, but the arrests are so many it's hard to keep track, she said. Some of those taken into custody simply have vanished, she said. ... Bob Fu, founder of China Aid Association, said, 'In the past two years, we found more than 3,000 underground pastors were arrested, detained, some sentenced.' Those sentences were up to and including the death sentence." !  □

The Bible Society has produced yet another “winner”. It is the CEV (Contemporary English Version) , with more than 2000 verses highlighted that “spell out God’s attitude to poverty and justice”. 
We are informed that “at the core of the groundbreaking Poverty and Justice Bible are in-depth studies and practical suggestions on what we can do to tackle poverty and injustice in our world today.”
I once had a pocket New Testament with verses underlined to help the preacher in his task of winning souls. But the Bible Society has no time for the gospel. It has no time for truth and it has no time for Christ. □

Beware of Modern Textual Criticism (Friday Church News Notes, May 9, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The modern Bible versions are built upon the foundation of modern textual criticism, which is the application of modern theories to the recovery of ancient documents. With very few exceptions, the fathers and architects of this "science falsely so called" have denied the infallible inspiration of the very Scripture they handle. That was true in the 19th and 20th centuries and it is still true today. The editors of the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament fall into this category, including Bruce Metzger, Matthew Black, Allen Wikgren, Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, and Roman Catholic Cardinal Carlo Martini. According to Metzger, for example, Jonah is a "popular legend" and Job is "an ancient folktale" (Metzger and May, The New Oxford Annotated Bible). The UBS Greek New Testament, in turn, is built upon the foundation laid by men such as Eberhard Nestle (1851-1913), editor of an influential Greek New Testament of 1898, author of Introduction to the Textual Criticism of the Greek New Testament (1901), and co-editor with Kurt Aland of the Novum Testamentum Graece. Nestle unhesitatingly denied biblical infallibility. In his Introduction to textual criticism he claimed that it is possible that the authors of the New Testament did not write what they "thought or intended to be read" (p. 23). This is a complete and bold denial of divine inspiration. Like most other fathers of modern textual criticism, Nestle believed the Bible was to be treated like any other book. "Šthe task and the method [of textual criticism] are the same for all literary productions." Beware of modern textual criticism. (For much more extensive documentation we recommend the 292-page Modern Bible Version Hall of Shame, available from Way of Life Literature.)

The Emerging Church

The Emerging Church is not a denomination as such.  It is a movement involving people in a number of denominations. It is a movement towards Rome, promoting smells and bells, candles and the suchlike. It has specific leaders, particularly Brian  McLaren. It is orchestrated apostasy.

It has its beginnings in protest. The protest is against Modernism  (reckoned to be the period from the Renaissance to the late 20^th Century), and is preparing the church for the Postmodern age.

It is therefore against the culturally conservative forms of evangelicalism of the 20^th Century. It objects to the traditional evangelical presentation of the gospel and its ensuing godly life style.

It claims the “gospel” must be redefined. The postmodern view is that the interpretation of the gospel and its text depends on our cultural/ social standing. It will therefore not be regarded in absolute terms.

Its bible will be adapted accordingly to fit a local demand. We note the modern world has produced its multiplicity of perverted bible for such a day as this. Another purpose of multiple versions is simply to produce Biblical illiteracy. Bible truths cannot exist in the emerging church.

Homosexuality is not to be condemned. Repentance is denied. There can be no Rapture and dispensational teaching is rejected. Everything is relative and there is no absolute truth.

It is ecumenism, where Mother Teresa is held up as a model Christian.

Signs the Emerging Church is Emerging

There are specific warning signs that are symptomatic that a church may be headed down the emergent/contemplative road. In some cases a pastor may not be aware that he is on this road nor understand where the road ends up.

Here are some of the warning signs:

• Scripture is no longer the ultimate authority as the basis for the Christian faith. Sound biblical doctrine is dangerous and divisive, and the experiential (i.e.,mystical) is given a greater role than doctrine. Bible study is replaced by studying someone’s book and his methods The truth of God’s Word becomes less and less important God’s Word, especially concepts like hell, sin and repentance, is eventually downplayed so the unbeliever is not offended.
• The centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ is being replaced by humanistic methods promoting church growth and a social gospel. Church health is evaluated on the quantity of people who attend.
• More and more emphasis is being placed on building the kingdom of God now and less and less on the warnings of Scripture about the imminent return of Jesus Christ and a coming judgment in the future.
• The teaching that Jesus Christ will rule and reign in a literal millennial period is considered unbiblical and heretical. Bible prophecy is no longer taught and is considered a waste of time. Israel becomes less and less important and has no biblical significance. Eventually the promises for Israel are applied to the church and not Israel (Replacement Theology).
• The teaching that the church has taken the place of Israel and Israel has no prophetic significance is often embraced.
• The teaching that the Book of Revelation does not refer to the future, but instead has been already fulfilled in the past
• An experiential mystical form of Christianity begins to be promoted as a method to reach the postmodern generation.
• Ideas are promoted teaching that Christianity needs to be reinvented in order to provide meaning for this generation.
• The pastor may implement an idea called “ancient-future” or “vintage Christianity” claiming that in order to take the church forward, we need to go back in church history and find out what experiences were effective to get people to embrace Christianity.
• While the authority of the Word of God is undermined, images and sensual experiences are promoted as the key to experiencing and knowing God.
• These experiences include icons, candles, incense, liturgy, labyrinths, prayer stations, contemplative prayer, experiencing the sacraments, particularly the sacrament of the Eucharist.
• There seems to be a strong emphasis on ecumenism indicating that a bridge is being established that leads in the direction of unity with the Roman Catholic Church.
• Some evangelical Protestant leaders are saying that the Reformation went too far. They are reexamining the claims of the “church fathers” saying that communion is more than a symbol and that Jesus actually becomes present in the wafer at communion.
• There will be a growing trend towards an ecumenical unity for the cause of world peace claiming the validity of other religions and that there are many ways to God.
• Members of churches who question or resist the new changes that the pastor is implementing are reprimanded and usually asked to leave.  (these points have been assimilated from various websites)

EMERGING CHURCH LEADER DENIES CHRIST'S SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT AND HELL (Friday Church News Notes, March 28, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In a January 2006 interview with Leif Hansen, emerging church leader Brian McLaren said that the doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement makes God into a strange monster that wants to kill his own son and needs to be restrained.. He further says that if the doctrine of hell is true, then the Christ's message and the cross are "false advertising." He also said that if hell is true then people can legitimately question God's goodness. He even blasphemous mocks the Atonement by saying that if it is true it would mean that God can't forgive one person unless he "kicks someone else." Consider a couple of excerpts: "We have a vision that the real problem is God wants to kill us all. And we've got to somehow solve that problem. ... Does it make sense for a good being to create creatures who will experience infinite torture, infinite time, infinite--you know, never be numbed in their consciousness? I mean, how would you even create a universe where that sort of thing could happen? It just sounds--It really raises some questions about the goodness of God" (McLaren,

The following is taken from The Berean Call , 16^th April 2004.

[TBC: The Reverend Matt Tittle contributes to a blog hosted by the Houston Chronicle. Tittle is minister of a Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church near Houston. It is instructive to note how warmly Tittle writes of "Emergent Church" leaders and notes that their goals are his.]
"A couple of weeks ago, I preached a sermon titled, "Left Behind...Again!" in which I said that religious liberals needed to take a lesson from and even join forces with the emergent church movement and new evangelicals, because these groups were doing amazing work on issues of human rights, poverty, environmental justice, etc.
"We liberals are mostly sitting around talking about justice, but doing very little. In essence, I said that the emergents and evangelicals were now preaching our centuries old liberal message and actually practicing it! We liberals are about to be left behind...

"I actually played a little trick on my congregation by reading some very progressive [i.e. liberal] quotes, implying that they came from Unitarian Universalist sources (and they sounded like they did), but never actually said "Unitarian Universalist." Then I broke the news that the quotes had come from the 2005 Emergent Church Conference, and from Rev. Brian McClaren, and from Rev. Jim Wallis.

"I then told them the story of Rick Warren and Saddleback Church's social justice efforts. I think they got the message, because it caused quite a stir....One group in my congregation sat down with me this week to make a list of local congregations (Christian, Jewish, and Muslim) to approach for collaborative efforts!"

You may think your assembly could not be affected by this. How blind can you be? How deluded can you get?

Ironside on Repentance

Our Lord's solemn words, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish," are as important today as when first uttered. No dispensational distinctions, important as these are in understanding and interpreting God's ways with man, can alter this truth. No one was ever saved in any dispensation excepting by grace. Neither sacrificial observances, nor ritual service, nor works of law ever had any part in justifying the ungodly. Nor were any sinners ever saved by grace until they repented. Repentance is not opposed to grace; it is the recognition of the need of grace. "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." "I came not," said our blessed Lord, "to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

One great trouble in this shallow age is that we have lost the meaning of words. We bandy them about until one can seldom be certain just how terms are being used. Two ministers were passing an open grocery and dairy store where, in three large baskets, eggs were displayed. On one basket was a sign reading, "Fresh eggs, 24 cents a dozen." The second

sign read, "Strictly fresh eggs, 29 cents a dozen." While a third read, "Guaranteed strictly fresh eggs, 34 cents a dozen." One of the pastors exclaimed in amazement, "What does that grocer understand 'fresh' to mean?" It is thus with many Scriptural terms that to our forefathers had an unvarying meaning, but like debased coins have today lost their values.

Grace is God's unmerited favor to those who have merited the very opposite. Repentance is the sinner's recognition of and acknowledgment of his lost estate and, thus, of his need of grace. Yet there are not wanting professed preachers of grace who, like the antinomians of old, decry the necessity of repentance lest it seem to invalidate the freedom of grace. As well might one object to a man's acknowledgment of illness when seeking help and healing from a physician, on the ground that all he needed was a doctor's prescription.

Shallow preaching that does not grapple with the terrible fact of man's sinfulness and guilt,

calling on "all men everywhere to repent," results in shallow conversions; and so we have a myriad of glib-tongued professors today who give no evidence of regeneration whatever. Prating of salvation by grace, they manifest no grace in their lives. Loudly declaring they are justified by faith alone, they fail to remember that "faith without works is dead"; and that justification by works before men is not to be ignored as though it were in contradiction to justification by faith before God. We need to reread James 3 and let its serious message sink deep into our hearts, that it may control our lives. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." No man can truly believe in Christ, who does not

first repent. Nor will his repentance end when he has saving faith, but the more he knows God as he goes on through the years, the deeper will that repentance become. A servant of Christ said: "I repented before I knew the meaning of the word. I have repented far more since than I did then."

Undoubtedly one great reason why some earnest Gospel preachers are almost afraid of, and generally ignore, the terms "repent" and "repentance" in their evangelizing is that they fear lest their hearers misunderstand these terms and think of them as implying something meritorious on the part of the sinner. But nothing could be wider of the mark. There is no

saving merit in owning my true condition. There is no healing in acknowledging the nature of my illness. And repentance, as we have seen, is just this very thing. But in order to clarify the subject, it may be well to observe carefully what repentance is not and then to notice briefly what it is.

First, then, repentance is not to be confounded with penitence, though penitence will invariably enter into it. But penitence is simply sorrow for sin. No amount of penitence can fit a man for salvation. On the other hand, the impenitent will never come to God seeking His grace. But godly sorrow, we are told, worketh repentance not to be repented of. There is a sorrow for sin that has no element of piety in it-- "the sorrow of the world worketh death." In Peter's penitence we see the former; in the remorse of Judas, the latter. Nowhere is man exhorted to feel a certain amount of sorrow for his sins in order to come to Christ.

When the Spirit of God applies the truth, penitence is the immediate result and this leads on to repentance, but should not be confounded with it. This is a divine work in the soul.

 Second, penance is not repentance. Penance is the effort in some way to atone for wrong done. This, man can never do. Nor does God in His Word lay it down as a condition of salvation that one first seek to make up to either God or his fellows for evil committed. Here the Roman Catholic translation of the Bible perpetrates a glaring deception upon those who accept it as almost an inspired version because bearing the imprimatur of the great Catholic dignitaries. Wherever the Authorized Version has "repent," the Douay-Rheims translation reads, "Do penance." There is no excuse for such a paraphrase. It is not a translation. It is the substituting of a Romish dogma for the plain command of God. John the Baptist did not cry, 'Do penance, for the kingdom of God is at hand.' Our Lord Jesus did not say, 'Do penance and believe the gospel,' and, 'Except ye do penance ye shall all likewise perish.' The Apostle Peter did not tell the anxious multitude at Pentecost to 'Do penance and be converted.' St. Paul did not announce to the men at Athens that 'God

commandeth all men everywhere to do penance' in view of a coming judgment day. No respectable Greek scholar would ever think of so translating the original in these and many other instances.

On the contrary, the call was to repent; and between repenting and doing penance there is a vast difference. But even so, we would not forget that he who truly repents will surely seek to make right any wrong he has done to his fellows, though he knows that he never can make up for the wrong done to God. But this is where Christ's expiatory work comes in. As the great Trespass Offering He could say, "Then I restored that which I took not away" (Psa. 69). Think not to add penance to this -- as though His work were incomplete and something else were needed to satisfy God's infinite justice.

In the third place, let us remember that reformation is not repentance, however closely allied to, or springing out of it. To turn over a new leaf, to attempt to supplant bad habits with good ones, to try to live well instead of evilly, may not be the outcome of repentance at all and should never be confounded with it. Reformation is merely an outward change.

Repentance is a work of God in the soul.

Recently it was the writer's privilege to broadcast a Gospel message from a large Cleveland station. While he was waiting in the studio for the time appointed an advertiser's voice was heard through the loud speaker announcing: "If you need anything in watch repairing go to" such a firm. One of the employees looked up and exclaimed, "I need no watch repairing; what I need is a watch." It furnished me with an excellent text. What the unsaved man needs is not a repairing of his life. He needs a new life altogether, which comes only through a second birth. Reformation is like watch repairing. Repentance is like the recognition of the lack of a watch.

Need I add that repentance then is not to be considered synonymous with joining a church or taking up one's religious duties, as people say. It is not doing anything. 

What then is repentance? So far as possible I desire to avoid the use of all abstruse or pedantic terms, for I am writing not simply for scholars, but for those Lincoln had in mind when he said, "God must have thought a lot of the common people, for He made so many of them." Therefore I wish, so far as possible, to avoid citing Greek or Hebrew words. But

here it seems almost necessary to say that it is the Greek word metanoia, which is translated "repentance" in our English Bibles, and literally means a change of mind. This is not simply the acceptance of new ideas in place of old notions. But it actually implies a complete reversal of one's inward attitude.

How luminously clear this makes the whole question before us! To repent is to change one's attitude toward self, toward sin, toward God, toward Christ. And this is what God commands. John came preaching to publicans and sinners, hopelessly vile and depraved, "Change your attitude, for the kingdom is at hand." To haughty scribes and legalistic

Pharisees came the same command, "Change your attitude," and thus they would be ready to receive Him who came in grace to save. To sinners everywhere the Saviour cried, "Except ye change your attitude, ye shall all likewise perish."

And everywhere the apostles went they called upon men thus to face their sins -- to face the question of their helplessness, yet their responsibility to God -- to face Christ as the one, all sufficient Saviour, and thus by trusting Him to obtain remission of sins and justification from all things. So to face these tremendous facts is to change one's mind completely, so that the pleasure lover sees and confesses the folly of his empty life; the self-indulgent learns to hate the

passions that express the corruption of his nature; the self-righteous sees himself a condemned sinner in the eyes of a holy God; the man who has been hiding from God seeks to find a hiding place in Him; the Christ-rejector realizes and owns his need of a Redeemer, and so believes unto life and salvation.

Which comes first, repentance or faith? In Scripture we read, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel." Yet we find true believers exhorted to "repent, and do the first works." So intimately are the two related that you cannot have one without the other. The man who believes God repents; the repentant soul puts his trust in the Lord when the Gospel is

revealed to him. Theologians may wrangle over this, but the fact is, no man repents until the Holy Spirit produces repentance in his soul through the truth. No man believes the Gospel and rests in it for his own salvation until he has judged himself as a needy sinner before God. And this is repentance. Perhaps it will help us if we see that it is one thing to believe God as to my sinfulness and need of a Saviour, and it is another thing to trust that Saviour implicitly for my own salvation.

Apart from the first aspect of faith, there can be no true repentance. "He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him." And apart from such repentance there can be no saving faith. Yet the deeper my realization of the grace of God manifested toward me in Christ, the more intense will my repentance

become. It was when Mephibosheth realized the kindness of God as shown by David that he cried out, "What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?" (2 Sam. 9:8). And it is the soul's apprehension of grace which leads to ever lower thoughts of self and higher thoughts of Christ; and so the work of repentance is deepened daily in the believer's heart.

"Let not conscience make you linger,

Nor of fitness fondly dream,

All the fitness He requireth

Is to feel your need of Him.

This He gives you,

'Tis the Spirit's rising beam."

The very first evidence of awakening grace is dissatisfaction with one's self and self-effort and a longing for deliverance from chains of sin that have bound the soul. To own frankly that I am lost and guilty is the prelude to life and peace. It is not a question of a certain depth of grief and sorrow, but simply the recognition and acknowledgment of need that

lead one to turn to Christ for refuge. None can perish who put their trust in Him. His grace superabounds above all our sin, and His expiatory work on the cross is so infinitely precious to God that it fully meets all our uncleanness and guilt