Yoga Is Not For Christians

Yoga Is Not For Christians 

        Health and fitness in the last 15 or so years has become increasingly mixed with New Age spirituality. It is no longer just science about burning calories and fat, and becoming healthier in the body. It is now a “mind body” experience. A “holistic” experience. There is nothing wrong with a healthy mind and body. But it has gone beyond just mind and body and into spirit. So now it is “mind, body, spirit” that people think they are nurturing when doing fitness activities. This attitude is mostly promoted by practitioners of Yoga.

        The website hinduwisdom.info states,

“Yoga sutra consists of two words only: yogash chitta-critti-nirodah, which may be translated: “Yoga is the cessation of agitation of the consciousness.”

The word yoga is derived from the root yuj, which means to unite or to join together. The practice of yoga may lead to the union of the human with the divine – all within the self. The aim of yoga is the transformation of human beings from their natural form to a perfected form. The Yogic practices originated in the primordial depths of India’s past. From this early period the inner attitudes and disciplines which were later identified and given orderly expression by Patanjali. 

According to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, the classical text on yoga, the purpose of yoga is to lead to a silence of the mind (1.2). This silence is the prerequisite for the mind to be able to accurately reflect objective reality without its own subjective distortions. Yoga does not create this reality, which is above the mind, but only prepares the mind to apprehend it, by assisting in the transformation of the mind – from an ordinary mind full of noise, like a whole army of frenzied and drunken monkeys – to a still mind.” (http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Yoga_and_Hindu_Philosophy.htm)

It also expresses: “Yoga is an integral part of the Hindu religion. There is a saying: “There is no Yoga without Hinduism and no Hinduism without Yoga.”

I took a Yoga class before at the YMCA because I worked there teaching Taekwondo and Kickboxing. I was waiting around for my class to start and followed along. Yes, the movements and poses they do can sometimes be challenging or build isolated muscles strength by various holds. It can also increase flexibility. This class was pretty much Yoga for yuppies and not a deeply spiritual class. The instructor did use terms that sounded new age and other expressions typical of Yoga instructors. But it was therapeutic in nature and also meditative. Like lying on your back and closing your eyes etc. Some of these drills can be used in a positive way but with Yoga’s historic roots it is obvious such classes are a gateway to New Age belief and Hinduism. This is something the Christian needs to avoid at all costs and not be open to. Of course I did not become demon possessed simply because I took a silly Yoga class for 1 hour and neither would anyone else. But over time becoming open to such ideas and getting deeper into the art you could very well open yourself up to unbiblical spiritual beliefs that can have a serous effect on you.

Yoga is simply a gateway into the eastern mystical traditions for the western culture. It is a shame many churches hold Yoga classes for their congregations. Yoga is simply a way that Satan uses to influence people and to soften their views of mysticism, new age, and occultic practices. We should shun it.

When I came back from the Philippines and was walking out of Los Angeles International Airport a Hare Krisha cult memeber gave me a tract talking about reincarnation. I took it home to see what they believe. Harre Krishna is a cult of Hinduism started in New York city by an Indian named Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It has gone international and has members worldwide. It is a modern Hindu sect. The man at the airport randomly wanted to speak to me and handed me several books. I had no clue what he wanted and I said, “Huh? You are giving these to me?” Then he demanded money and I said, “Money? No way! And gave them back.” He was pretty dumb about it. He was behaving in the manner of “No money? Then you cannot have these.” But he did give me a small booklet titles “Beyond Birth and Death.” It says i was written by “His divine grace, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.”

Chapter 2 of this booklet mentions some interesting things that Christians who are thinking about practicing Yoga should consider:

“There are different kinds of transcendentalists, who are called yogis— hatha-yogis, jnana-yogis, dhyana-yogis, and bhakti-yogis— and all of them are eligible to be transferred to the spiritual world. The word yoga means “to link up,” and the yoga systems are meant to enable us to link with the transcendental world. As mentioned in the previous chapter, originally we are all connected to the Supreme Lord, but now we have been affected by material contamination. The process is that we have to return to the spiritual world, and the process of linking up is called yoga. Another meaning of the word yoga is “plus.” At the resent moment we are minus God, or minus the Supreme. When we add Krsna— or God— to our lives, this human form of life becomes perfect.” (p. 12)

It states further:

“‘One who, at the time of death, fixes his life air between the eyebrows and, (sic) by the strength of yoga, with an undeviating mind, engages himself in remembering the Supreme Lord in full devotion, will certainly attain to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.’ (Bg. 8.10 [meaning Bhagavad Gita 8.10 the popular 700 verse Hindu Scriptural book] ).” (p. 12-13)

This booklet goes on to explain concepts of Yoga helping the practitioner do transcendental meditation and traveling to planets and other such things and quoting more from the Bhagavad Gita. Such things described in the Hare Krishna booklet I received are clearly unbiblical and contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A person cannot attain perfection doing physical movements and meditating. A person does not have the divine “within self” and we do not have to return to a spiritual world. Humans are not connected to the “Supreme Lord” unless they are Christians who have the Holy Spirit living in them. Non-Christians are dead in their sins and not at all connected to God until they receive the Gospel message of repentance of their sins and faith in Christ for salvation. And most certainly no one is connected to a false god called Krishna or Krsna whom they deem in the “Supreme Lord.” That is idolatry.

It is clear Christians should NOT participate in Yoga or promote it. Before the Yoga trend athletes have always done various deep stretching, deep breathing, and other positive physical activities. They did not need a “spiritual” attribute to their athletic training. The Bible says, in 1 Timothy 4:8 expresses, “for the training of the body has a limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. ” Paul was clearly teaching that there is a separation from physical training and spiritual training. They are different. The soul and body are not 1 thing. They are separate things. We are stuck in our flesh in this sinful body, and while we live we should do physical training to stay healthy and last longer for the purposes of God. But physical training itself does not save you or benefit you eternally. Our bodies still die. The Bible of course warns us to stay away from unhealthy practices such as gluttony, laziness, drunkenness and other things that give the human body bad health. God does want us to work our bodies and maintain health. But what is more beneficial is true spiritual training and learning from God’s word. It is separate. Practices like Yoga try to combine them and make them one. This is wrong.

There are various physical arts, systems, and styles that a human being can practice. Not all of them are satanic like Yoga. Yes, anything not biblical and contrary to the gospel truth is Satanic and demonic. It was brought fourth by lies to deceive and soften people to sin. Yoga fits this. On the other hand, dancing styles, gymnastics, and various sports are not sinful or full of false religion. Martial arts are also positive and non-religious. The thing about martial arts is uptight legalists do not understand the difference between culture and religion. They assume eastern customs such as bowing to the instructor, or to flags or photos of previous masters are religious worship. This is not true. It is the same as the military saluting those soldiers who died before them and saluting the flags and symbols of their regiments. In martial arts it is purely physical activity unless you practice a style that incorporates Buddhism or another religion into your training. This can happen in certain styles, but one can ignore it and train the self defense techniques. I personally would not recommend any Christian training in a system that promotes a false religion as mandatory study.

In different parts of the world there are different dominate religions. Within a culture a religion does affect certain customs or behaviors, but not every behavior is sinful simply because of a dominant religion. Certain philosophies or ideas are not inherently sinful either. While martial arts can easily be separated from religions (and should be), Yoga cannot. It is strictly a religious practice for Hinduism. It should be avoided. Christians should instead do conditioning classes with deep stretching and a focus on breathing. Martial arts offer this. In Taekwondo I teach my students to stretch in all kinds of ways, Yoga uses some of the same poses as various athletic training, but the training itself does not need Yoga to benefit.

 

Unimportant, Unknown Christian More Glorious To God Than Famous Academic Or Person In Power

Unimportant, Unknown Christian More Glorious To God Than Famous Academic Or Person In Power

        So many people in Christian culture today seek approval of men and affirmation. They want to be considered an important person in Christian thought or academics or current theological trends. This is my opinion, and I believe it to be true that this issue has caused many false teachers and/or weak teachers who are regressing the faith of the Church. Whoever comes up with a new idea or a new concept is boosted to the highest seat of authority within popular church by the evangelical consensus. I have met people who’s entire sole purpose seems to be the approval of other Christians, to have them think of them as very intelligent and academic people. To be considered men of a wealth of knowledge we should listen to. They seek and find those who are impressed and will bow to their “wisdom” and seek more. If one thinks of them as not very knowledgeable or somewhat immature or new, or that they are trying too hard to impress and gain accolades they will ditch them and seek those weaker minded people out who will gently brush their egos. They may or may not understand they have a smug arrogance, or selfish desire to receive praise. Some are simply immature and delusional people, and some simply know what they want and seek it out. Either way both of these types end up with the same result. Often times they become liberal and speak whatever gives them praises and bow to heresies, or they turn off genuine humble Christians and relationships are destroyed. I believe a high degree of seminary students fit this label. I find them pretentious and annoying.

        I was reading “Strengthen My Spirit” which is a book that compiles lightly edited portions of sermons by C.H. Spurgeon. Page 12 is titles “Enduring Trials for God’s Glory” and mentions 1 Peter 1:6-7,

“Now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that our faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (NIV)

Many Christians who are lowly, unknown, and humble or suffering people going through very trials whether it be physical, mental, or spiritual give God glory more so than the typical popular Christian leader. Or those considered important academics by the evangelical consensus. Often these new seminary students are seeking accolades to become the next John Piper or Al Mohler, or whatever name you want to throw out there. Or at least be on equal terms with these “men of distinction.”

        This behavior can make individual Christians feel inferior or less spiritual. Being around such young Christian guys who are talking theology and talking about whatever books they just read or who will explain a theological point at the drop of a hat can often reek of arrogance or a prideful attitude. As long as you listen to them and think they are future important evangelical superstars they will be your friend. But once you start showing you are unconcerned with their opinion or even feel the need to correct a false biblical idea, or some bad life choices they will slowly become less fond of you until they move on in life and reject you. Do not let such immature boys who want to be big strong theological giants because they seek approval harm your faith. These people are seriously immature and have low self esteem and try to build themselves up by doing what they can to show off, pretend to be independent thinkers who don’t need your input, seek accolades and affirmation up until they feel they surpass the need for your individual praise (because you stopped praising them). If they do this to you just move on and just keep being humble and try to grow your faith. The point of life is God’s grace and approval by Him because of His work to give God the glory. A humble and unknown Christian life is better than one full of nice treatment and a comfy professor job at whatever Christian university or seminary.

        Spurgeon expresses,

“I think that in my own soul that a believer in a prison reflects more glory on his Master than a believer in paradise, that a child of God in the burning, fiery furnace, whose hair is yet unscorched and upon whom the smell of the fire has not passed, displays more the glory of the Godhead than even he who stands with a crown upon his head, perpetually singing praises before the Father’s throne.”

It brings more glory to God to be suffering on earth in trials and be lowly than it does if you were in heaven singing before God praises. Part of why you are here on earth according to Spurgeon seems to express we must suffer and be lowly and give God glory on earth until the full measure of glory is received by God before you need to go to Heaven. I believe it also to be true that a lowly, unknown, unimpressive person who is a Christian gives God more glory than those seeking approval of academics who want to be popular authors, speakers, pastors, professors, and more. If one becomes such a popular teacher hopefully they are true to God’s Word and have come there because of God’s direction and calling out of “nothing” and not simply a selfish desire who works hard in order to get what they want, which is to say they want certifications, ranks, accolades, accommodations, affirmation, and other things that puff up pride and self righteousness. Some cases these types become the new pharisees of our day within the bounds of accepted theology. They can work theology or the bible to approve them.

* Note, I am not saying there should not be any popular Christian leaders. There are, and there should be, as long as they are true to God’s word and received their positions because they are full of Christ’s humility and honestly called from nothing to be int hat position, and do not give in to be approved by popular ideas not found in the Bible. Many leaders and historic preachers are only known or popular because of this. Whereas many also are self promoted and popularized by the world. 

Bible Contradiction? Not So Fast! Slow Down And Read Further!

Bible Contradiction? not so fast! Slow Down And Read Further!

        A lot of times when people read the Bible they will see one thing and assume it is a Bible contradiction or be totally confused. It makes them stop to think hard about the passage at hand and about why is it written the way it is written, and how it all make sense logically. Atheists love to misrepresent and misinterpret types of things!

        When confronted with a confusing passage or one that seems to make no sense that comes off as a contradiction it is best to slow down, think it over, then read further for it to be explained. Often times people who have the intention to find a contradiction in the Bible will simply think they find one and stop and not read further. If they only read further it will be explained and found to not be a real contradiction.

        For this discussion Read Exodus 4-7.

        One example I will present is Exodus 4:30,

“Aaron repeated everything the LORD had said to Moses and performed the signs before the people.“

What makes this verse confusing is that prior in the story God had specifically told Moses he would perform such duties. But Moses complained and said he was not a good speaker so he needed help. God then told Moses that Aaron would be his spokes person. The main verses on this part of the story are Exodus 4:13-17,

“Moses said, ‘Please Lord, send someone else. 
Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses, and He said, ‘Isn’t Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, he is on his way now to meet you. When he sees you his heart will rejoice. You will speak with him and tell him what to say. I will help both you and him to speak, and will teach you both what to do. He will speak to the people for you. He will be your spokesman, and you will serve as God to him. And take this staff in your hand that you will perform the signs with.“

When reading this it seems confusing that in verse 30 Aaron is the one performing the signs with the staff and his hand. Before all of this Moses had met God at the burning Bush where God gave him directions on how to perform 2 sign miracles. One was throwing his staff onto the ground to make it turn into a snake, and the other was putting his hand inside his robe and pulling it out to become diseased and white and putting it back in and returning his hand to normal. In Exodus 4:30 it says that Aaron performed these signs. But if God gave Moses the direction to to them why is it said Aaron is doing them? When reading it, it feels very random. Is this a contradiction? It is not, and to find out why it is not you simply should read further into the story.

        In chapter 7 of Exodus God specifically tells Moses to tell Aaron to perform the miracles. Verses 8-9 state,

“The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ‘When Pharaoh tells you: Perform a miracle, tell Aaron: Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh. It will become a serpent.”  

So not only could Aaron perform the miracle God gave direction to Moses to do, he could do it with his own staff. This is most likely because Moses gave the staff to him to carry. It did not have to be Moses’s staff necessarily. God allowed Moses to be silent and not be the spokesperson for God since he was afraid, and instead allowed Moses to tell Aaron to do everything for him including the miracles. Aaron even did many of the plague miracles as well, but later Moses performed the plague miracles. So according to what is written in Exodus 4:30 it is plausible that Moses also told Aaron the directions on performing the miracles as well.

Aaron turning his staff into the snake while Moses stands silently behind

        It is plausible that God told Moses to tell Aaron to do the miracles even if it is not written down explicitly that he did in verses 4:14-17.” It was also not written down that Moses explained it to Aaron either in verses 27-28 where Moses and Aaron met and greeted. Verse 27 says “Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and about all the signs He had commanded him to do.” It can be understood that in this sentence it is implied Moses also explained that Aaron would be the one to do them. It is obvious later in chapter 7 that this is so. Since Moses told Aaron to do the miracles in front of the Egyptians it is apparent this understanding that Aaron would be doing the miracles was established before he met the Israelite elders as well beforehand.

In verse 4:17 God says directly to Moses, “And take this staff in your hand that you will perform the signs with.” This does not negate Aaron being the one to do them. Saying “you will perform” can be understood as a general statement. It does not necessarily mean only Moses can and will do it, but a general term that it will be done by Moses and Aaron together. It could also be understood as a plural “you” with the understanding of “you and Aaron.” People speak this way all of the time in every day language today. Someone gives orders to someone that they MUST do something, yet that person oversees other people who are the ones who are physically going to do it. Whereas the person who was commanded to do them actually does not do the work. This happens in the military or any profession with a hierarchy. No one would ever accuse a general of a contradiction when he commands someone under him who is in charge of other men to do something, when it is the other men he is in charge of who do the work the general asked him to do. Moses was given special authority that he would “serve as God” to Aaron in 4:16. In 7:1 God told Moses that He made him like God to Pharaoh and Aaron is his prophet.  So Moses could be told to do something by God, and then have Aaron do it for him instead of him doing it. There is absolutely no contradiction in this passage.

        Exodus 4:30 is simply one verse that could be thought of as a contradiction without further reading in the passage, story, chapter, or book. Remember for the next time when reading the Bible you find something that is confusing to stop, relax, think it over, then continue reading. It will be explained eventually further in the Bible. Also, it never hurts to ask your pastor or seek out a respected Bible teacher on the topic that concerns you. Don’t give up, God will reveal the answer to you in His Word.

Ehud’s 18 Inch Dagger Is 5 Years Old!

Ehud’s 18 Inch Dagger Is 5 Years Old!

        Can you believe that 5 years ago today I started this blog? It has gotten a fair amount of hits every since and a regular group of readers. I am so thankful for all of you and appreciate the time spent reading my thoughts on theology, culture, and society. I appreciate the people who have taken time to write comments on various posts and create a lively atmosphere! I hope more people come and all of you followers of this blog will spread the word about this place by sending the link all over your social media accounts!

        Ehud’s 18 Inch Dagger is a place for Christians, by a simple Christian dude who has a few things to say. Thank you so much! Stick your daggers of truth into the torso of evil and false beliefs and promote what is true!

Islamic State Slaughtering Christian Children House To House

Islamic State Slaughtering Christian Children House To House

        There has been a report that ISIS is slaughtering Christian children house to house in front of their Christian parents. They are asking them to deny Christ and the children all refuse and are then shot. There have been missionaries in these areas for some time before the spread of ISIS so there have been converts in such Muslim areas. Now that ISIS took over they are trying to stomp out anyone who does not conform to their style of Islam. The missionaries are standing firm in the face of this atrocity and standing for Jesus Christ. They need your prayers. Of course even non-Christians groups who are not Sunni-Islam and are moderate Muslims or pagan religions, also non-Christian groups such as Catholics or other sects using Christianity are being killed too.

Read the report from Mike Ratliff about the Christians being persecuted:

Prayer Needed

 

ISIS Terrorists Preparing To Shoot Non-Sunni Child (not one of the christian children mentioned in above post, but it is exactly what they are doing in all areas ruled by the Islamic State right now).

David Platt’s Way of Salvation

David Platt’s Way Of Salvation

        For about 2 years, the Sinner’s Prayer has been called into question by certain evangelical leaders such as David Platt the new president of the Southern Baptist’s IMB (International Missions Board) who was elected into office this year. Around 2012 David Platt made a huge noise by his claim that the Sinner’s Prayer is superstitious and even causing a damnable offense. He claims “accepting Jesus into your heart is superstitious and unbiblical.” I tried going to Platt’s church before. I will explain my experience attending David Platt’s church and my experiences, but it must first be noted right off the bat that David Platt’s statements of faith are orthodox and biblical for the most part. He has firm stances about reformed theology such as the fact he is a Calvinist and in most cases promotes the gospel accurately and understands sin and hell and salvation through faith alone in Christ alone. But that being said…

David Platt is annoying and overrated

        I personally think Platt is being overly sensational and having an extreme overreaction to how most evangelicals believe in such ideas as the “Sinner’s Prayer” or that “accepting Jesus into your heart” are proper ways to evangelize. I believe this is a war about terms that are not truly defined or agreed upon by the majority of Christians. Terms that are said all of the time with various intentions behind them. It really depends on your intention of what you want to communicate in speaking with such terms. If you are an arminian of course you would mean, “It is up to you to choose God since you have the ability to prevent him from saving you,” and if you are a Calvinist, contrary to popular belief it is okay to say “accept Christ” if you simply mean, “Yes believe the truth since God is calling you to salvation and giving you the gift of repentance.” It is all semantics. Many people came to Christ who started with the Sinner’s Prayer.

        I also think David Platt is just trying to be controversial here to get attention for his cause. It kind of reminds me of how his book Radical was written (basically a white guy version of Francis Chan’s Crazy Love). He comes off as one of those judgmental social liberals (all though he is mainly theologically conservative and orthodox) that believe wealth is evil and we should give everything away and live poor and do social things. The way he promotes discipleship, and explains it in his book, it ends up being a legalistic form of Christianity which is ironic since the idea of his book talks about loving and accepting people. The idea of anti-legalism and loving everyone and accepting them becomes legalistic in the sense that Platt comes off as judging anyone who keeps a lot of money and does not give as much to missions etc. It is summed up as: Sell everything to be a REAL Christian and move to the ghetto to disciple the hood you rich white yuppies! Do it for Jesus! Or you can just go to a 3rd world country and become a missionary or at least give a lot of money to them.

        I am a 5 point Calvinist. So I hold to reformed theology when it comes to soteriology. But I do not think the Sinner’s Prayer is a mortal sin or something we should fight against. Is it biblical? Well there is no biblical mandate for it nor formula. But some people who came up with it base it off the the biblical idea that people should confess their sins and confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus. This idea is in Romans 10:9, while not a complete formula for a Sinner’s Prayer, the idea comes from it. Accepting Jesus is just the idea that people make a choice to follow God. When a person confesses with theor mouth the Lord Jesus and repents of their sins and asks for forgiveness they actually are confirming the truth of the gospel and making a conscious choice to worship God and become a Christian. Like it or not, the hyper-Calvinists and egg headed reformed theologians (who try way too hard to have perfect theology) really get alarmed when people start talking about humans making actual choices. We should not let this get in the way of evangelization. Yes, I do believe in the sovereignty of God and predestination that God has determined who is going to be saved etc. etc. But I am not going to go around telling old Child Evangelism Fellowship ladies they are promoting heresy over it or anything. But that is what seems to be the case now days with this New Gospel/New Calvinism nonsense.

Wow, totally radical! You know he is serious with this face! It’s what the Gospel demands!

Attending a Sunday at The Church at Brook Hills

        My experience at his mega-church about a year and a half ago, The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama has been less than satisfying. And yes, he pastors a mega-church. I tried to attend his church and see if it would fit with me since I could not find any other churches in town. When I showed up the parking lot was incredibly full and it was hard to find a parking spot. When I did I was a few minutes early and the first service was coming to an end. I walked through the main entrance into the lobby and like zombies staring at a light, everyone in the church lobby had their backs turned toward the entrance I walked in through. No one, not 1 person, was paying attention to the entrance or the exits or anything. Everyone was staring at the TV screen of David Platt preaching in the sanctuary. I thought to myself, how crazy. You would think security would be important. Anyone could show up with a gun and shoot everyone or have stolen people’s wallets or purses or just anything because no one was looking anywhere but facing away and looking up at big TV’s. No one was there to greet me or care I showed up. I had no clue what to do. There also was nowhere to sit as every chair or couch was taken over by people staring at the screens. I ended up sitting on the floor near a trash can. No one knew I was there either.

        Finally, the service ended and waves of people walked out of the sanctuary. I stood up and waited. Maybe 15 minutes later a random guy walked up to me because I happened to be standing next to a “small groups posting” at a table. There were small tables with info on small groups. This guy just wanted to say hi which at first I thought was nice. After awhile of small talk, I then began to ask him serious questions about theology and what the church believes. The guy could not answer me and when I asked him about Calvinism or if Platt is premillenial or amillenial the guy acted as if that is a wrong question to ask and hesitated to actually answer me. It was as if they were judgmental questions a person should not care about. After that, the guy told me about small groups and how I should join one. He referred me to the front desk, the people who had their backs turned when I walked in. After he did that he pretty much acted as if his job was done and he had no more reason to talk to me and then walked away and also ignored me from that point on. Such people are told to be disciplers yet they figure they just have to go through the motions and then they are done, and their life becomes easy once again. I find this a real problem with such churches. It is a joke to me. After that I got the list from a lady at the front desk, or the how to find a small group paper. It was very unhelpful and contained nothing I did not already see on a sign. I come from a traditional church background where Sunday School is an actual thing.

        Unfortunately, with these “disciplers” and their trendy ideas of new hip ways of “doing church” Sunday School has been abandoned and instead of people bringing you into the fold and showing you around they leave it up to you and ignore you and just give you info on how to contact people. Basically, the new person has to go out of his way to find a small group, email the person or call them and ask if they can join and where it is located and how to get there. It is really inconvenient and I believe it will prohibited many new church people from going through all that humiliating hard work to find fellowship. It is like being the new kid in school where it is really awkward and intimidating, especially if you are a shy person. You wonder if people will like you or not since it is their territory. So showing up to church hoping to meet people and maybe attend a Sunday School class was pointless since no one would allow me to go to any small group unless I register first, nor were any of them even meeting at the church except one. So basically, no one meets for bible studies or anything at the church really. They are all off in different areas of the city like coffee shops (oh great now I have to spend $4.98 plus tax on a latte) or someone’s home. The places where the small groups meet are all rich areas or trendy expensive cafes. This has got to turn away most people from low income families. Birmingham has tons of low income families. There is not a lot of diversity in this church either. Not that I believe in forced or affirmative action type of church membership. I just know that there is no way most black families are going to feel welcome at this church. I used to substitute teach in the public schools in the inner-cities for over 2 years and have had plenty of exposure to black culture. And if everyone has to meet at a coffee shop or trendy cafe it means you most likely will feel obligated to buy something. Who can afford fellowship if you have to spend money just to meet? Old  style traditional church and its free coffee during Sunday school has a purpose!

        I ended up going to the church service after learning about their small groups. Church was typical trendy “worship” music with guitars and other typical hipster Christianity style music going on. Everyone was casual, Pastor Platt had his Vans on and jeans, just a cool polo shirt and jeans with Vans pastor. If you dressed up to go to church at this place you would feel incredibly out of place. I did not see many old people either. It is a very young church with people in their 20’s-early 40’s. There really is no point in actually showing up for church either when you can watch it online and just go to your small group later, since there is no fellowship to be expected when you actually go to the mega-church building for church service. I just don’t get it.

I am wondering if his small group leaders read this or if they did they acted exactly how the book explains it…Hmmm…

        A few days later I decided to email a small group. I looked into a few, and I was hoping to go to a coed group because I am single and want to meet women as well as other Christian brothers. I don’t think it is necessarily wrong to go to church to pick up hot Christian women (after all, where else can I find a godly wife? Eharmony? Yeah right…) There was no mixed group near me so I decided to just email an all guys small group instead and suck it up and meet a bunch of Christian brothers. Or so I hoped. I told them who I was and how I would like to have fellowship and meet up. Unfortunately, the leader of the group told me I could not join because they are a group of guys who have been together for awhile and want to keep their group small so they are not accepting new people right now. The guy then said “thanks for your interest and hope you find your fellowship!” Oh yay! He cares about me! Needless to say, I felt like crap and humiliated. Like I am some loser not allowed to hang out with the cool Christians. I’m just a dorky Christian no one cares about and no one wants to know. Why were they even written down on the list of available small groups if they were refusing new guys from joining? For a large church most of their small groups were too far away from me in the city. This is why Sunday School or Bible studies at the actual church building make more sense. It is easy to find and get to. It is a huge building, so why could they not do this? Why was I rejected? They don’t know my story or my needs or my spiritual battles or how I feel inside. They just reject me without guilt. I reported my search results in an email to the small group director girl. When i told he what happened she said sorry and was offering me other groups, or telling me to keep searching. I said no thanks and told her how it made me feel rejected and I don’t feel comfortable going to their church anymore. She didn’t really say much then. So much for David Platt’s discipleship at his church! It sure didn’t work for me. If discipleship is the true way for a Christian to express his spirituality it sure is not working at his church.

No Human Can Fully Know You Inside

No Human Can Fully Know You Inside

        As a teenager suffering from depression or loneliness back in the day I used to contemplate how no one knows me and how it is actually impossible for anyone to know me. I also knew it was impossible for me to truly know someone else or other people to know each other. That is to say “everything inside of them and who they are, their entire inner-being.” Of course we can believe what people are by how they talk to us and by their outward actions, and we can assume their outward behavior is a result of what is inside of them; and hopefully that is true; yet we take such knowledge by faith. We base this faith in what people are by the evidence we see about that person and what they portray to us.

        A person can come off as good to us and a friend but still they could be lying and pretending, and something absolutely different is inside of them. Some of these types of ideas are why I personally believe many psychological disorders in people exist. Some of these disorders become outward actions of bizarre murder and even mass murders. Shooters, serial killers, spree killers and many other things. This is why many criminals exist.

        But to live life paranoid about people is ridiculous in my opinion and lowers your quality of life. We should be on guard of course and use common sense, which is basing our faith in what someone is on how they behave outwardly. We can catch people in various ways. Normal people with nothing to hide, who are honest, will behave the same way regardless of who is watching or who is around them. Other people will change how they act depending on who is around them, or if no one is around them, and if you stumble upon them alone or saw evidence of them being somewhere doing something else which makes no sense to how they were acting to you first then you know they are not who they say they are. This is how we catch liars and dishonest people and back stabbers. Sometimes people do one thing one way and openly change another way, and do not even care if you see them or not. This happens with open betrayal etc. With all of this it seems impossible to know someone if they are constantly contradicting their previous behavior.

        All people regardless of religion or no religion put their faith and trust in human beings all the time every day. From personal friends to the clerk at the grocery store. You believe they are going to act one way and do certain behaviors you expect before they even happen. A friend will be true to you, and a clerk will take money, count correct change and put your groceries in a bag. Now if you walked up to a grocery clerk and instead they ignored you or spit on you, then you would not expect that. But no one lives their lives paranoid that a grocery clerk is going to spit on them and think they better be on guard. That is absurd. Likewise, we can trust in our friends to be true and they can trust us. We can also know that God is who He says He is and what the Bible teaches, and when we die we will see God exactly as the Bible portrays Him and He will not be different. We can trust this because so much evidence supports this in what the Bible says. We base our beliefs on who God is from the Bible. But could this all be a lie? What evidence suggests God is lying in the Bible to you? This is called having faith. Faith is not blind as the atheists claim, faith is trusting what we do not see yet but it is not without a reason or evidence. Could a human being be lying to you every day and live an entire live pretending he is your friend and then in reality he was faking it? If that is possible you will never know. They will die with that secret. This is very unlikely and according to how people act, including yourself you know that would make no sense. What benefit did they have to be your fake friend and never openly admit they hated you? I am sure someone could try to rationalize a reason but more often than not (by an extreme amount!!) this is not going to be true. It is also why it is safe to put your faith in God and what His Word says.

        The only One who knows us fully inside and out is God because He is omniscient. He knows all things because He created all things. He has full and complete knowledge of the universe including the inside of every person in existence who ever existed in history and who ever will exist. So God knows inside of you. A human can only know your external behavior and trust what you say, but God truly knows you inside and understands your personal experience exactly how you live it and how you think. This is intimacy that no human being, not even a spouse, can have with you. The evidence from the Bible supports that God loves you, knows you inside perfectly and will give judgment accordingly to people. He knows your struggles and sins as well as the worthy things you do for His glory. He has forgiven you and paid the price to have you by dying on the cross. For the godless He knows their evil and will punish them. So either way we can rest assured God is the only perfect love and friend for you, and also the perfect judge to give retribution to those who have done evil, not only against you but the entire world. Vengeance is God’s because He has perfect knowledge for how and why and the intent of someone’s sin. You do not.

        For the godless they have nothing helping them. No possible way out of sin and depravity and are left only with their thoughts. They are alone in their minds, inside flesh which breeds self centerdness. All they experience is from within their own minds going outward and do not have the Holy Spirit’s power inside them to stop them, or change them, or give them light in their dark minds. This is absolutely horrible as anyone struggling with self destructive lifestyles such as drugs or sex addiction or anything else cannot change at all on their own, at least completely. This is why so many die as a result of their own hand (whether suicide or a result of their lifestyle). An outward force has to prevent their depravity. Sometimes a friend helps or the law comes in and puts people in jail away from their drugs etc. But ultimately a true heart change can only come from God. People left in their own minds with a self centered worldview, if they are left long enough only behave logically to their world view. If there is no God there is no law, and nothing matters since there is no evil or good. All they feel is hate and pain so lashing out to satisfy their rage makes sense. Seeking pleasure is all that would matter. No pleasure then no life. Rampage killers and spree killers are only behaving logically to their world view, and no one knows them inside. If they left writings behind explaining their actions it still cannot make total sense to others. All people are different and have different ideas of life. Some hate it and some are too busy loving it to notice God. Some people’s behavior is expected and others are unexpected. A person could be boiling over and people are not at all surprised he killed a lot of people, and others are left totally confused as to why such a polite and nice man killed so many people. There is no human cure for mental illness, in fact most mental illness that the media proclaims is actually simply a sinful life. The only cure is God. Much mental illness is actually demonic which feeds more lies into a sin tortured soul.

        The fact is no one can know you but God. God knows everyone including evil people, their insides and out. God acts on His children giving them love, peace, forgiveness, correction, and truth to fill a person with confidence and trust in God. To be changed and feel love and understand love to give love out to other people. The ones who are not God’s children are left in spiritual darkness which always breeds self destruction and pain to others. This is something to contemplate. If you are a Christian rest assured God knows you and knows your pain. You will be comforted and God will take vengeance in the last days for all evil. If you hate God and do not believe you are left alone, only to think in your own mind in total confusion to what existence is and why you exist, or if your reality is real or not, and you will be in frustration. You will hate, feel depressed and have no meaning or purpose. Pleasure does not last so you seek more pleasure until nothing pleases you. You will then see no reason to live and in many cases no reason for anyone else to exist. You will either take this worldview, of no god, to its logical conclusion or lie to yourself and pretend your life matters, and that somehow you are important and good. Both ways are self centered dungeons of thought. Only the Christian has the free mind that functions from an outside force that totally knows them, works in them, and is within them. God is that force.

The Natural Man Disappears In A Spark

The Natural Man Disappears In A Spark

        A lot of people in the world, most of us, at least at some time before conversion to Christ, at one time, or if not, then someone who currently has not entered into reconciliation with God; people in general do not have what they need and they do not even know what they need. This truth is the reason why so many people live worthless lives, or non-fulfilling lives; constantly trying to find meaning, worth, and satisfaction and never getting any. This is the reason many enter into anger, hate, depression, lust, and a mad mental state of confusion.

So many people do not ever talk about spiritual things, and worse off, the ones who completely reject spiritual things and are taught that such a concept of spirituality is ludicrous and embarrassing to even openly consider have no hope of ever receiving these needs, wants, desires, and such understanding, peace, calmness, hope, purpose, reason, and love given to them. There is no purpose, there is no meaning, there is no point. If this world was the extent of existence then what a sad and hopeless life. Do what you want, do it now, do not care and disappear in a spark of naught.

This is the extent of a life well lived to the natural man. Live in ignorance and despair and exist as a quick fire fueled by filth.

1 Corinthians 2:14 “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

Live To Die…Die To Live…

Live To Die…Die To Live…

        My life philsophy ever since I was a teenager has always been the following:

“Live to die…Die to live…”

Think about what this means.

 

 

Contextualization, World Christians, and Heresy

Contextualization, World Christians, and Heresy

        It is a fact that Christianity is all over the globe and Christians are in every country. It is also true that Western Christians no longer make up the center of Christendom. There are Asian, African, Latin-American, and Pacific Islander brothers and sisters in Christ. Unfortunately, the state of Christianity in the West is full of liberalism and weak faith that has allowed the tolerance of rampant heresy. This same problem has carried over to churches around the world, most often through the new missiologists from the West who think the Bible is not sufficient to help the world. They believe the Bible alone is not sufficient for teaching about matters of faith; and they care more about gaining numbers who are simply “okay” with Jesus, rather than building up a strong quality of individual believers. This idea has helped promote the lack of theologically sound training that has carried over to many seminaries. Most of these liberals come up with unsound ideas they try to present as innovative evangelism techniques. They use these techniques to address issues within new people groups that the Church encounters around the world. This is based on a pragmatic desire to build an ecuminical “church.”

        It is important that biblically sound, systematic theology and apologetics are made known to various Christian ethnicites to provide answers to the questions that people from these cultural worldviews have. It is also necessary to be able to debunk the false claims of their false religion’s “sacred” texts. We cannot simply answer questions from our cultural point of view either and assume all Christians will think the same way or behave the same way on every issue. Non-Christian people that a missionary is evangelizing will also be thinking within their own cultural context. Culture is not a bad thing in itself, and every culture has things other cultures might not understand. It will take some cultural learning by missionaries, but every culture has its sinful issues that need to be dealt with. This does not mean that Christians should change the gospel message and manipulate it to fit a culture. Christianity should transcend individual cultures, and Christians worldwide need to unite together around the one true Faith. World Christians need to support each other over the main issues we believe about Jesus Christ, but at the same time avoid liberal ecumenicism and dangerous teachings. So many attacks on the Bible come and go. For example, in this new age, Gnosticism is coming back and influencing societies to question, and re-think what is authoritative. We can thank the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements for this attitude since they believe revelations can come outside of Scripture to individual believers and are able to make prophetic claims.

        Gnostic beliefs have invaded many of our churches. Not just Gnosictism, but in certain cultures the occult mystery religions are mixing with Christian religious practices and perverting the gospel of God’s grace. This is called syncretism because it unites paganism with Christian ideas. This creates a false Christianity that is just as dead as any form of solitary pagan religion. One way this heresy has invaded the Western churches is through what is called Contemplative Spirituality or Spiritual Formation. These 2 religious practices are nothing more than New Age mysticism spray painted over with Christian sounding words. It takes the sensual aspects of false religion from the East and presents it as true Christianity.

        Most of these problems are arising because of liberal missiologists who are spreading a false idea about Jesus Christ around the world with weak doctrines based on pragmatism, instead of relying on the hard biblical truths found in Scripture. Many missiologists are using what they call “contextualization” to allow for a postmodern idea of Christianity to form that will mix differently depending on individual cultures. Contexualists will claim the gospel in the Bible is not enough for a people group to read and understand, instead missionaries need to change it and find symbols and beliefs within a people group’s culture to adopt in place of the simple historical biblical writings. They do not think that just educating people on the history, archeology, cultural settings, and texts is going to help them understand Jesus. When contextualizing the gospel, the gospel will look completely different for each individual culture. They want Christianity to be multiple things, looking different within each culture. They want multi-colored sheep, but in reality are only creating multi-colored sheepskin for wolves to drape themselves with so they can parade as God’s chosen and please the masses of pragmatists and lead people astray.

The current consensus of missiologists says that there is no “same kind” of Christianity, or any one theology. There is now Asian theology, Latino theology, African theology, Pacific Islander theology etc. It can even be more concentrated for individual countries such as Chinese theology, Filipino theology, Iraqi theology, Ukranian theology and whatever country’s theology. Furthermore, it can go into sub-culture/communities: Punk Rock theology, Hip Hop theology, drum circle theology and anything else that is ridiculous theology. There is also a big disdain for Western culture and white people, which is used to attack biblical theology: what these liberals call Western theology. So they have created a new name for sound doctrine and labeled it “Western.” What is good for the West might not be good for the East is what they say.

Missiologists seem to be the types of people that consist mostly of professors and authors who sit inside their university office all day at some large Evangelical university, and are always thinking up new ridiculous ideas in order to be innovative and “relevant.” They write all kinds of books and ideas about “Christianity and culture” with a disdain for Christianity’s roots from the West. Not that Christianity originated in the West, it did not, it originated in the East in Israel. Yet, it was European Christians who heavily promoted the Faith throughout history after Christians became dispersed due to persecution. With Christianity allowed, and heavily promoted, in the vast Roman Empire, of course all of the evil corruptions from wolves in sheeps clothing came with it. Even the New Testament speaks of this. This is how the heretical church of Rome began in the first place! Through all of this, God had preserved a remnant of men that eventually “reformed” the Church during the Protestant Reformation over 500 years ago. This was after all kinds of persecutions. Later, more and more men of God have been able to establish biblical doctrines that the Bible teaches universally for all people, and God has used these men to preserve the Bible’s true teachings. From the West many missionaries went out and witnessed God’s loving grace all over the world and died for it! This is the sole reason why Christians in Asia, Latin-American, and the Pacific Islands exist today (no it is not because the Catholics conquered much of the world and set up churches in these regions; after the Reformation many evangelical Christians had to confront Catholicism and still face it today when promoting biblical faith to peoples worldwide). Most early missionaries were White and through them the worldwide church grew. With this history, God’s church all over the world has been able to produce non-White missionaries from non-Western countries who have also died for the faith and established many churches in new cultures; some cultures that  White Christians were never able to reach. So today, most of the Christians worldwide are not from European ancestry. This shows the diverse pleasure of God in bringing people to salvation from every culture.

Culture itself is not wrong, and to deny people of their own cultures by trying to conform different ethnic groups into the missionary’s home culture is wrong. But allowing sin within the ethnic group’s culture and not correcting it is an atrocity! As well as neglecting to correct bad theology! Another problem is to deny the historic roots of Christian faith and act as if it is not important for people to study such men as Martin Luther or John Calvin.

Why do these missiologists believe we should not focus on the founding fathers of the Reformation and what happened in Western Christianity when relating to other world cultures, when in fact Christianity would not have came to them if it was not for what happened in the history of Christianity in the West? To shun Western Christianity as “not for them” is only going to withhold the knowledge of God that has been revealed and studied intensely under these “White Christians.” Why do these missiologists believe that the only theology that is important is the theology that exists wherever the majority of Christians are in a region or even the entire world? A majority could still be wrong! The real agenda is to replace biblical Christianity with a postmodern outlook that does not have truth within itself. There is a real motive behind this error that is energized by Satan. It is very plausible that the false church that Satan has been trying to set up since the dawn of mankind existing on earth is being built up by such wolves in sheep’s clothing who parade as missiologists that want the Reformation of Christianity to be countered and directed back to Rome.

So many missiologists like Timothy C. Tennet make claims against liberalism, yet are actually promoting that very thing by camouflaging it with the term Christian Ecumenism. Whether or not most of these missiologists and church builders are promoting this knowingly, or they are deceived into it I do not know, but this “Christian Ecumenism” is only paving the way for more liberal ideas in the near future since they claim that there is no one way of doing theology. Saying there is no one way of doing theology is wrong.

I think it is great that so many people all over the world are becoming Christians and many new eyes are reading the Bible for the first time. Even if books like The Gospel of Judas are top sellers, it still does not outsell the Bible. It gives me encouragement to know this. While at the same time, I feel wary of the different types of theologies present in the world today. I think Christian belief should be narrow, exclusive, and identified boldly within the Bible, and also it should be careful of the heresies spreading around the world more than ever today. All theological ideas must match up with Scripture. Anything that contradicts it or is interpreted the wrong way is a false belief and we should not accept it. It is true that Gnostic beliefs seem to be popular today and our society is a society that wants to hear something new and is tired of hearing the “Old, old story.” This is why the Emergent Church was created which promotes most of these liberal authors, missiologists, and academics. This is very sad and Christians should keep standing up for the truth and the authority of the Bible (Sola Scriptura!). There is only one gospel that is true, and with it comes only one theology that is true. Christians should boldly oppose any road back to Rome as well as reject any kind of man-centered theology of sensual occult/mystic practices. Cultures must conform to the Bible, not the other way around.

Christians should not lose hope and must understand that all of the events in history are in God’s control. God is aware of these problems that the liberal missionaries have been causing. It will all be accounted for and God’s elect will not be lost. There are still many world Christians in enclaves around the world who are involved with different churches that are true to Scripture, and hold firmly to the faith found by all the saints in history, including the glorious historic path it traveled from in the West.

On page 272 of Timothy C. Tennet’s book, Theology in the Context of World Christianity, he claims, “After all, the theology that matters the most is wherever the most Christians are located.” This bothers me because it is an appeal to a majority. Just because a lot of people who claim to be Christians are in one area promoting a type of belief about God does not mean their theology is correct. A bunch of heretics could have taken over, and simply because there are more of them than true believers does not mean Christians should then start promoting their false doctrines, and help these heretics grow churches. This is a horrible outcome of sinful liberalism. Where this idea rang true is in the West where the Roman Catholic Church took over and started promoting heresy early on, while claiming it was true, and we all know what the bloody history of the RCC was. Because a majority at that time claimed Christ should we ignore the false doctrine that Catholicism teaches? No!

The Church still has to be careful to protect the integrity of Scriptures and understand that a majority does not matter. What the intention of the message the authors of the Bible were communicating is all that matters. A large group of people who claim Christ could be preaching heresies. With this theological outlook those heresies would be the theology that matters. This is irrational. Appealing to a majority is a logical fallacy. Christianity has never seen a majority in a society and always has been unpopular and offensive to those who are perishing. We do not aim to please man, but to be true to God.

Even with these issues, Christians should seriously think about the worldviews of other cultures and listen to them. Hopefully in the future many Christians will be able to write theological books about different religions and worldviews and come up with Biblical answers for those cultures. Different cultures will have different issues to deal with. I think it is a great idea for the people of those cultures to be the ones to write those types of books (that is if they are doctrinally sound believers). It will give more credibility to the answers for these cultural issues. Christians as a whole need to use intense spiritual discernment about any theological idea that comes around and be willing to reject any heresies or false doctrines that come from those beliefs. Contextualization has never been, and should never be, considered a theological word and is only a way to enforce postmodernism worldwide onto Christianity. This is meant to destroy what true missionaries of God built up in the past, many of them dying, for Christ’s kingdom. This is the way the Enemy, the Devil, is working in this postmodern age. We must declare war on these new tactics!