discernment – Page 25

Let’s stop supersizing “our dreams”

Posted on July 26, 2017 by elizabethprata

Megan Miller assures us that “God desires to fill our hearts with big dreams.”

In my opinion I believe He desires to fill our heart with holiness and righteousness of His Son.

Certified life coach Holley Gerth assures us that “there’s a God-sized dream knocking on the door of your heart”. Plus, she “shows you how to forget the lies and expectations the world feeds you and instead believe that God loves you and has even bigger plans for your life than you’ve even imagined.”

Before I was saved, I had not just big plans, I had huge plans for my life. After salvation, God showed me how puffed up those dreams were. Thank you, God.

Michelle Cox prays for us that that He might “Open God-sized doors so that I can accomplish those big things You want me to do…”

Now in addition to God-sized dreams we have God-sized doors? Why all this supersizing?

Paula Casill asks us “Did you know that your dreams and goals are important to God?”

Maybe so. Personally I can’t say with the same conviction as Paula does of what God considers important because I can’t read His mind, only see what He has declared important on His pages of Holy Writ. I do know He considers important being a follower of His plan and will, which is to pursue holiness and be an obedient participant in His sovereign global and eternal plan for His Son.

I don’t know about the motivations of all these people who write book after book about having God-sized dreams. In fairness, some of them write about being obedient to God when the ‘dream’ (I wish they’d just call it a plan or a decision) means they want to do a big scary thing, like start an orphanage or to rescue sex-trafficked girls, or do missionary work in the 10/40 belt, etc.

But for many of them what they mean when they say we have a God-sized dream, is that we have a big, personal dream we want our Big God to fulfill.

Supersizing our dreams is not a good idea. Nowhere do I read in scripture that God has big plans for my life other than the already big adoption into the most perfect family ever, inheriting all things in the universe, and having the Perfect Father, Friend, Brother, Priest, and King who saved us from the wrath that we deserve. I think that is pretty big.

But it goes on. He makes a place for us, will give us perfect work to do that will not be toil, changes our desires from our own dreams to His (hint, hint, you God-sized dream people :)! And much more. He gives us His Spirit, His love, and grows us in holiness. That’s pretty big. Why isn’t that enough for people? Must we have huge dreams too? Must we encourage each other by saying God has huge plans for our lives? Because sometimes His plan for our life is not a fantastic rollercoaster of supersized dreams, but difficulty, humiliation, rejection, and heartache.

I think of the Prophet Ezekiel. “Ezekiel, God desires to fill your heart with big dreams!” He was living a nice life with his wife whom he dearly loved, and who was the “delight of his eyes”. Yet one day God’s word came to Ezekiel and God said in Ezekiel 24:15-18,

The word of the Lord came to me: 16 “Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. 17 Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your shoes on your feet; do not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.” 18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded.

Would today’s kind of evangelism-slash-encouragement about how God is going to fulfill your God-sized dreams given Ezekiel any help?

Isaiah was having a nice life. Did someone come along and tell Isaiah that “there’s a God-sized dream knocking on the door of your heart” that God wants to fulfill? No, in fact he was called to preach for many decades and told that no one would believe him ever- Isaiah’s ministry would seem to be a failure. Worse, he had to go naked in public for three years as a sign (Isaiah 20:3-4) and many other less-than-dreamy sized things happened to Isaiah.

I think of the Prophet Jeremiah. Did someone come along and tell him that his “dreams and goals are important to God?” After his call to the office of prophet, things got very difficult for him. Same with Joseph, Moses, Abram, Hannah, Job…

In the NT, young Mary had God-sized dreams, the upcoming marriage to her betrothed and a nice life with children. However soon enough she was nearly divorced and disgraced, then had to flee her country for her life, live in exile, return and then as an old woman, see her Son crucified in a horrific manner. Saul/Paul had dreams, and he fulfilled them. He was at the top of his profession as a lawyer-theologian in the Sanhedrin, a Pharisee’s Pharisee. Then one day he was struck blind, rebuked by the Living Jesus, and told he will be beaten and jailed in almost every city he comes to for the rest of his life. His life would be one of pain and suffering for the sake of the Name.

I think the biblical record and my own experience give me the confidence to say that after salvation, our personal dreams are either shown to be puffed conceit or are taken away and substituted with ‘dreams’ that are from God and in fact are personally difficult to follow. In many cases, the person’s life got worse after their call or after salvation. Why tempt people in evangelism or encouragement with something that isn’t really borne out in the biblical record?

My dreams are not God-sized. I don’t know what size they are. I pray that the Lord removes the fruit flies from my kitchen. I pray He will resolve my headache. I pray He will provide enough money for me to get to the end of the month. But are those puny dreams and wants? He said He will provide. (Matthew 6:33). He said to cast ALL our cares upon Him. (1 Peter 5:7). Trusting Him and obeying Him is huge.

When I pray for others, those dreams are puny also. I dream that the heart of my family be converted to Christianity. The heart, how big is it? Small. 9 ounces? 5 inches? It’s a small thing, the heart. But a very big God can convert that heart from one of stone to one of malleable, forgiven clay. Conversion is a God-sized dream. I pray He will use me as salt and light to show Himself to others. Salt is small, but God makes it big when He uses it. Puny sized dreams aren’t they? But they are God-sized because only God can do those things.

Are founding orphanages and witnessing with a scimitar aimed at your head the only kind of “big dreams” one can have? Isn’t salvation a God-sized dream? We should hear more about those kind of dreams.

Are my dreams lesser, smaller, just because I dream of having a quiet and modest life, persevering in faith in the day-to-day mundane? 1 Thessalonians 4:11, 2 Thessalonians 3:12, 1 Timothy 2:2 say otherwise. Tell a homeschooling mom of four that God has God-sized dreams for her and she’ll likely say that a shower, or a nap, or putting on clean clothes at some point during the day or eating a meal all by herself from start to finish is good enough dream.

So let’s stop rambling on about the size of our dreams. Let’s dispense with personal dreams and focus on Jesus and His commands. If we intuit that the “dream” in our mind is one that Jesus put there, whether it is to stay behind and live a quiet, comfortable life within our sphere that has little regional influence, or is one that makes a huge splash in the difficult areas of the world, so be it.

As for dreams themselves, the Bible says,

Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. (Proverbs 16:3).

dreams

discernment, Uncategorized

How did they ever hear God’s voice without a how-to manual?

Posted on July 25, 2017July 25, 2017 by elizabethprata

old phone
There are so many pamphlets, teachings, sermons, and books out there today “educating” the Christian on “How to Hear God’s Voice.” None of these teachers seem to realize that God doesn’t need our help hearing His voice. None of these teachers seem to realize that much of what they write conflicts with each other. The different “ways”, “tips”, “methods” are piling up. Soon we will have a hundred ways to hear God’s voice. Sadly, all of them will be wrong.

Worst of all, many of these teachers claim that if you do NOT hear God’s voice, either it is because your faith is weak, or you can never enjoy intimacy with God if this “critical” element is missing. They make absolute statements that have no basis in reality, but harm the hapless who believe them. It’s heartbreaking, what these false teachers teach. Here are a few examples:

Andrew Wommack writes:

One of the greatest benefits of our salvation has to be that of hearing God speak to us personally. There can be no intimate relationship with our heavenly Father without it. But, as easy as it is for us to speak to Him, the average Christian has a hard time hearing His voice. This is not the way the Lord intended it to be.

Dallas Willard wrote

God is constantly speaking to people. But too often, they miss out on hearing God’s messages because they seek His guidance only occasionally – usually when they’re going through a crisis or facing a major decision. Then, with a dire need to hear from God, people become confused and frustrated when they don’t clearly hear what they should do. Here are 10 ways how you can hear from God and recognize his voice regularly:

Adam Wittenberg from IHOP Kansas City writes:

Maybe you’re someone who wants to hear God’s voice, but you don’t know how. Perhaps you’ve even tried, and feel like He didn’t answer you. Maybe you want to listen but can’t focus long enough to hear. Or maybe you’re frustrated, because it seems like God is talking to everyone else but you. If you think God doesn’t want to speak to you, be encouraged: Jesus says in John 10:27 that “My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow me.”

That John 10:27 verse the ‘how to hear God’ teachers use often as a (false) basis that God is speaking audibly today- my sheep hear my voice. Well, are you a sheep? If so then I guess Jesus is actually a vine, or He is actually living water.

Lynette Hagin at Kenneth Hagin Ministries wrote:

In these last days it’s more important than ever for us to fine-tune our spiritual ears to hear the Lord’s voice. God is constantly speaking to us. He’s trying to warn us of things to come. So many times we simply shrug it off. We think, “That’s just me.” But it’s not. It’s the Holy Spirit’s voice. To be able to hear God’s voice, we must set aside time to wait in His presence and allow Him to talk to us. It’s when we are quiet before the Lord that we can hear from Him most clearly.

He is trying to warn us? Trying?! Is there anything God cannot do? (Genesis 18:14).

Joyce Meyer has this to say about how to hear from God, delicately disdaining to her readers with this article about hearing from God, It’s Not that Complicated:

Even though I sincerely loved Jesus, I went to church for years without knowing that God talks to people. I observed all the religious rules and holidays…I went to church every Sunday. I was really doing all that I knew to do at that time. But it wasn’t enough to satisfy my longing for God. I could’ve spent every moment in church or in Bible study, but it wouldn’t have quenched the thirst I had for a deeper fellowship with the Lord. I needed to talk to Him about my past and hear Him talk to me about my future. But nobody taught me that God wants to talk directly to me. No one offered a solution for the dissatisfied feelings I endured.

Meyer says this in other places:

–Recently God told me that … Meyer
–Hearing God’s voice throughout the day has become a natural way of life for me …Meyer

I suppose once you start to be known for being a special recipient of God’s words, you have to maintain the pretense.

You’ll notice that Meyer’s is a familiar theme with the false teachers educating people on how to hear from God: unfulfilled longing. Church isn’t enough. The Word isn’t enough. Prayer isn’t enough. Redemption isn’t enough. Sarah Young who wrote Jesus Calling, a book all about her conversations with God, who allegedly spoke audibly to her and she recorded ‘His’ words, said she had a yearning for “more.” If Jesus isn’t your all in all, if you aren’t thrilled with the Word, if you aren’t sated by church worship and fellowship with the saints, then a disembodied voice from the ether isn’t going to fulfill you. The adulation you receive from ignorant followers might fulfill you for a while. The royalties from the books you write about hearing from God might fulfill you for a while. The applause on interview shows might fulfill you for a while, but it is all vapor. Only Jesus can fulfill you, and He is not speaking now.

He spoke. In His word.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. (Hebrews 1:1-2).

I was pondering that verse the other day and thinking about all the ways God had spoken in previous times. Through a burning bush. Through a donkey. Through an angel. Through His prophets. Through a fleece. Through dreams (‘Joseph, flee to Egypt’).

Then I began thinking about ALL the many folks in times past who heard God speak without the help of Andrew Wommack or Joyce Meyer or Lynette Hagin. God had no trouble speaking clearly to those whom He desired, without the aid of lessons and books and how-tos.

Then I began thinking of a silly scenario using the false teachers’ own words. Like this in Joel 1:1-2, as Joel was going around doing his daily tasks, he hears,

The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: 2Hear this, you elders;

And Joel says to himself, “Shoot! I can’t hear God clearly! I KNEW I should have bought that Joyce Meyer pamphlet at the market when I saw it! Now I’ll never have intimacy with God!”

Or this from Haggai 1:1,

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah,

“Stop! I haven’t even built my prayer closet yet! I haven’t done what Lynette Hagin said, to set aside time to wait in Your presence and allow You to talk to me!”

Or this from Jeremiah 1:4,

Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Wait! this doesn’t coincide with Dallas Willard’s point #3, that I should “make your main goal to become a spiritually mature person in a close relationship with God. That’s the only way I’ll clearly and correctly hear what God has to say to me.” Since I haven’t made my goal yet and since I am not a spiritually mature person, and since according to Mr Willard, that is the ONLY way I’ll correctly and clearly hear what God is saying to me, then it must not be God. Phew, I’ll just go to the store and get another Willard book just to be sure I am on the right track.

Isn’t it silly to think that multitudes of people heard God clearly before all these false teachers started writing manuals for hearing from God? Doesn’t it diminish God’s glory to intimate, or even say out flatly as so many of these teachers have, that God can’t get to you unless you do certain things? He hung the moon by His word. He also made the stars, knows them and named all of them. He upholds the universe by the power of His will. He ordains every single event on earth every second of every day for 8 billion people. But He can’t make Himself heard unless you do what Andrew Wommack says?

I hope I’ve shown through this reverse method how silly it is that the God of the Universe needs any help from any of these teachers explaining methods for “How to Hear God.” He’s God. He never needed any help making Himself heard before and He never will.

Stick with the word, it’s glorious and clear. It is currently the method we are told that He uses to make Himself known. It should hopefully excite you and fulfill you. If that isn’t enough and you seek tips and how-tos for “more”, sadly, you’ll get less.

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Lucky Dipping

Posted on July 16, 2017 by elizabethprata

In RC Sproul’s class called Knowing Scripture, in lesson 4, “Literal Interpretation,” Sproul taught against a certain popular method of decision making he calls “lucky dipping.”

In this method, when the believer wants to hear from God or wants to make a decision, they ask God to lead and guide them, and then they open the book and let their finger or their eye fall on a particular passage. They read the passage and then rest on it as their “answer” to their problem. Sproul said that this is a spiritualistic method of interpretation that rips verses from the Bible’s context. He said,

“God did not inspire passages of Scripture many years ago to tell us answers totally unrelated to the literal meaning originally intended. God does use Scripture to speak to us, but the message is always consistent with the literal interpretation.” Sproul, Knowing God

He gave an example of a hypothetical believer who asked God to lead him. He opened his Bible and read Matthew 27:5, ‘And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.’

The audience laughed. Sproul went on. He said that the person didn’t like the ‘answer’ at all, muttering ‘That can’t be right’. He repeated, ‘Lord, lead me’, and opened the Bible and dipped again, landing on Luke 10:37. “You go and do likewise.”

Sproul’s exaggerated example reveals the ridiculousness of using the Bible like a Magic 8 Ball.

I think we can all agree that dipping is unwise and we should avoid it. Sometimes when pastors preach exclusively in the topical method, they can tend to ‘lucky dip’, too. Not that they use it as a method for finding personally tailored advice, but as a method for coming at the scriptures with a topical agenda in mind.

But if topical preaching is the main method of preaching and teaching, rather than expositional verse-by-verse, then a lazy tendency can creep in. Sometimes the leader can handle the scriptures carelessly, selecting different verses from different Testaments or different literary genres to support their point. With a careful pastor who normally exposits, occasional topical preaching can be fine or even necessary. Sometimes the congregation needs clarity on an issue, especially if there has been a national or local tragedy, or if there has been a particular problem in the membership that is causing confusion or division.

But if a teacher or pastor continually preaches topically, then lucky dipping could become a problem. If the pastor doesn’t take the care that’s necessary, the sermon could simply become a mere listing of of verses disconnected from the overall argument.

And back to the original statement about laymen doing the lucky dip. If a pastor or teacher teaches topically all the time, taking verses from here, there, and everywhere, or worse, from all different translations in order to support the topic, he or she is actually teaching his congregants to lucky dip. With less training than the teacher, the church member might say, ‘Well, he/she goes all over the place with the verses, it must be OK if I do too’. And then you wind up with people who might eventually use the scriptures as a Magic 8 Ball, divining God’s will or manipulating His word to make it say what it doesn’t say.

It’s admittedly easier to open the Bible and find the one verse that will seem to help for the moment, rather than setting down to carefully study a passage in context. That is why a lazy tendency can creep in. Resist that. And resist following teachers who do that all the time. The Bible is God’s own word to humankind, the only supernatural message we have ever received with purity and unimpeachable truth. Handle with care.

I argue that the primary reason we misinterpret the Bible is not because the Holy Spirit has failed to do His work, but because we have failed to do ours. Essential Truths of the Christian Faith by R. C. Sproul

Clipboard — Sing to tune of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, “We don’t need no divination…”
EPrata photo

discernment, Uncategorized

Jonah and his leaf: a Lesson in Priorities

Posted on July 13, 2017 by elizabethprata

God relented from the disaster He’d promised upon the Ninevites.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. (Jonah 4:1).

Then God gave Jonah some shade.

Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. (Jonah 4:6)

As our pastor preached on Sunday, “This seems kind of backward!” What are your priorities? What are mine?

Sometimes we can detect our own heart condition by what makes us exceedingly glad and what makes us exceedingly angry.

leaf1
EPrata photo

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5 Indicators of an Evil Heart

Posted on July 12, 2017 by elizabethprata

This past February I wrote a two part series on the problem with evil. The problem with evil is, its beauty. I’d written about how hard it is for us, even saved Christians, to grapple with a very present evil in our lives, and the difficulty of identifying it correctly. The worst evil is so beautiful, so harmless-seeming, so gentle, that our minds often refuse to discern it.

Part 1, Part 2

Leslie Vernick at the Association of Biblical Counselors wrote an essay titled

5 Indicators of an Evil Heart

In her introduction, she writes:

As Christian counselors, pastors and people helpers we often have a hard time discerning between an evil heart and an ordinary sinner who messes up, who isn’t perfect, and full of weakness and sin.
I think one of the reasons we don’t “see” evil is because we find it so difficult to believe that evil individuals actually exist. We can’t imagine someone deceiving us with no conscience, hurting others with no remorse, spinning outrageous fabrications to ruin someone’s reputation, or pretending he or she is spiritually committed yet has no fear of God before his or her eyes.

She summed up exactly what I’d been writing about a few months ago, but shorter. It’s clear, scriptural, and helpful. Of course, I hope you never have to encounter a truly evil person, but if you do, this piece will help you discern it.

The piece5 Indicators of an Evil Heart is organized into ten slides with a photo and a short blurb, with scripture, that help the counselor, pastor or layperson identify evil from a temporary stumble. I offer this essay to you as a very good resource.

Text version here

evil

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Billy Graham Waffles for Breakfast #2: Is AIDs a judgment from God?

Posted on July 12, 2017 by elizabethprata

Waffles for Breakfast #1: Billy Graham on the Nixon Tapes, remarking about the Jews

This series is a study on hypocrisy. Number 1 is above. The series is based on the following verses.

it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person. (Matthew 15:11).

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27-28)

Waffling is a secular term that means changing one’s mind frequently on a topic. “For breakfast” means to do it easily. That defines world-famous evangelist and itinerant crusade preacher Billy Graham, whose going back and forth on theological issues was so easy and so frequent it became second nature to him.

His slide from what he stated he believes, into doctrines so far outside orthodoxy, was so incremental and so little reported, that many people don’t know that he spent a lot of time retracting, clarifying, re-explaining and watering down any doctrine where he encountered push-back. Here is one example. In a sermon given on September 1993 in Columbus OH he remarked about AIDs

Is AIDs a judgment of God? I could not say for sure, but I think so.

Afterwards, Graham received many protest letters. He contacted the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper and retracted what he’d preached. His stated reason for saying it in the first place was that he was tired.

“I do believe God stands in judgment of all sins but AIDs is a disease that affects people and is not part of that judgment. To say God has judged people with AIDs would be very wrong and very cruel. I would like to say that I am very sorry for what I said.”

When Graham preached about sins, he said he wasn’t sure if AIDs was a judgment of God, but when experiencing criticism for saying it, suddenly he is sure that it is NOT a judgment for sins.
aids graham final

Here is a comparison to Graham’s waffle on AIDS of how a preacher of God’s word is clear on biblical doctrines. He is supposed to be able to succinctly give an answer, and then stand on the Rock when the waves of cultural anger resulting from his firm stand wash up upon him. Here is John MacArthur on the same subject 4 years before Graham dealt with it in his sermon.

People have asked me whether I believe that AIDS is the judgment of God. My response is that AIDS is the judgment of God in the same sense that cirrhosis of the liver is the judgment of God or that emphysema is the judgment of God. If you drink alcohol, you’re liable to get cirrhosis of the liver. If you smoke, you’re liable to get emphysema or heart disease. And if you choose to violate God’s standards for morality, you’re likely to contract venereal disease—even AIDS. It is a law that the Bible describes in terms of sowing and reaping. Article You can Trust the Bible, 1988

When a preacher is at the pulpit, it is assumed that he has been confirmed by elders as to his calling, been trained, and has studied/ prepared for the sermon. He should then declare the biblical truths with clarity and conviction. If there exists a pattern of waffling, retracting, and constantly clarifying, then it is perhaps either an issue of his qualifications for preaching (able to teach- 1 Timothy 3:2) or his heart, with hypocrisy leaking out.

Paul’s criterion “able to teach” in 1 Timothy 3:2 refers to the ability to communicate and apply the truth of Scripture with clarity, coherence, and fruitfulness. Source

Watch out for the constant clarifying, retracting etc. A preacher is supposed to be a declarer of truth, not a constant retractor of tired sermon mistakes. Such a pattern could betray either hypocrisy as stated in the two verses above, or the following:

Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. (Luke 6:26)
for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. (John 12:43)
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. (Galatians 1:10)

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Billy Graham Waffles For Breakfast #1: The Jews

Posted on July 11, 2017July 12, 2017 by elizabethprata

Billy Graham Waffles for breakfast #2: AIDs as a Judgment from God

This is a study on hypocrisy. Hypocrites deceive us so easily, sad to say. They deceive themselves, worse to say. Hypocrisy is poison for everyone involved.

This series is based on two verses.

it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person. (Matthew 15:11).

BG-NIXON — Billy Graham with Richard Nixon in 1968. **Source**

It’s been 15 years since Graham’s last crusade. His heyday of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s was well before this latest generation’s knowledge and experience. Youngsters don’t know who Graham is, except for the name. Hence, this essay series.

As for the waffling, Graham’s pattern has been to say something in an interview or in print and when it causes a ruckus, then he apologizes, or says he was misquoted, or he didn’t mean it, or he doesn’t remember saying it. Back and forth the waffling goes, on issues like creation/evolution, baptism, AIDS, alien life outside the planet, and more, over every decade of Graham’s life.

It is well known that Graham has been a friend and counselor to Presidents. He has counseled every President of the United States, since WWII up through #45, Donald Trump.

Richard Nixon, who served from his election in 1969 until his resignation in 1974, met with and took phone calls from Billy Graham on a regular basis. They were personal friends and had been since before Nixon’s election.

Unbenownst to Graham, Nixon secretly recorded all his phone calls and visits inside the White House, and later, at Camp David, the presidential retreat. The recordings of course included calls to and from Graham.

In 2002, hours of the Nixon tapes were released to the National Archives. In one that was recorded on February 1, 1972, Nixon and Graham can be heard discussing Nixon’s and Graham’s true feelings about the Jews. This conversation was secretly recorded with H.R. Haldeman in attendance, who also kept a diary, (archives here) in which he further reported that Graham said that “the Bible says there are satanic Jews and that’s where our problem arises.”

In the tape under consideration today, February 1, 1972, Nixon is complaining about the Jewish dominated media. In researching Graham’s flip-flops on different theological topics, I’d read one in which great evangelist Graham is quoted as explaining why he chose NOT to evangelize Jews. (as stated in Christian News April 24, 1972, “The Conversion Of The Jews” where Graham said he does not judge the Jews as a people lost to salvation).

Really? So I researched further, googling “Graham evangelize Jews.” What I found was equally disturbing. The Nixon Tapes. I had not been aware of Graham’s recorded conversation revealing his thoughts on what he deemed as a Jewish problem.

Here is the (near) transcript I put together from various quoted articles and also some of the actual tapes. The conversation was held after Graham had led a White House prayer breakfast. The NY Daily News called the conversation “chilling and frightening.” I agree.

Source 1
Source 2 (short)
Source 3 (long)

Graham had said he’d planned a meeting with editors of Time Magazine

Nixon: You meet with their editors, you better take along your Jewish beanie (yarmulke).
Graham: That right? /chuckles/
Nixon then said that media such as Life magazine, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and others, are “totally dominated by the Jews.” Nixon goes on to say that network TV anchors Howard K. Smith, David Brinkley and Walter Cronkite were “front men who may not be of that persuasion,” but that their writers are “95 percent Jewish.”

Graham: This stranglehold has got to be broken or the country’s going down the drain.
Nixon: You believe that?
Graham: Yes, sir.
Nixon: Oh, boy. So do I. I can’t ever say that but I believe it.
Graham: No, but if you get elected a second time, then we might be able to do something

Nixon: … not all the Jews are bad, the best Jews are the Israeli Jews
Graham: That’s right … but there’s a powerful bloc of Jews … opposing you in the media.
Graham: And they’re the ones putting out the pornographic stuff.

Graham later confides to Nixon how he acts when Jews are around.

Graham: I go and I keep friends with Mr. Rosenthal at The New York Times and people of that sort, you know. And all — I mean, not all the Jews, but a lot of the Jews are great friends of mine, they swarm around me and are friendly to me because they know that I’m friendly with Israel. But they don’t know how I really feel about what they are doing to this country. And I have no power, no way to handle them, but I would stand up if under proper circumstances.
Nixon: You must not let them know.

Graham’s actions of friendliness to Jews to their face and internal hatred for their control of media and their destruction of the country, in addition to being satanic, is hypocrisy at its worst.

In 1994 when the Haldeman diaries were published and Graham was questioned about Haldeman’s memory of events, Graham said flatly that “those are not my words.”

He lied.

A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish. (Proverbs 19:9).

Imagine, to lead a prayer breakfast so sensitively delivered that Nixon said people were in tears, and then for Graham to turn around and speak about the Jewish controlled media that is ruining this country, and colluding with the President to “do something about it” is venal beyond belief.

They are Graham’s words. In 2002 when the tapes themselves were released, it turned out to be true that Billy Graham had indeed spoken those words. He is either a deeply anti-Semitic man, or pretended to be in order to curry favor with a President and keep his seat at the power table. Either way, it’s gross.

In 2002 when the tapes were released, The Nation magazine sought reaction to Graham’s remarks from some prominent Jews. Here is one:

“He just showed that he was the pious hypocrite that we all knew that he was anyway,” says Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who had served in the Kennedy White House a decade earlier. “Sinclair Lewis wrote about all those fellows in the great Elmer Gantry.”

Schlesinger nailed it when he referred to Elmer Gantry.

Gantry is an incendiary look at hypocrisy from the inside. I don’t know how author Sinclair Lewis did it so expertly, but he showed us the very thought process and the slow hardening of heart of one pastor over a lifetime, who inside his whitewashed tomb was evil, lusty, craven, self-seeking, vainglorious, greedy, and more. Read that book.

Oh! The waffle? It came in a 2002 statement.

Although I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply regret comments I apparently made in an Oval Office conversation with President Nixon. They do not reflect my views, and I sincerely apologize for any offense caused by the remarks.’ NY Times

discernment, Uncategorized

Discernment in entertainment is really cultural discernment, and we need it

Posted on July 7, 2017July 7, 2017 by elizabethprata

theater sign

We are told to be in the world but not of the world. What this means is we have to know the world if we’re in it. Not love it. Not cater to it. Not compromise with it. But we have to be aware.

so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs. (1 Corinthians 2:11).

Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. (John 17:14-15).

Because being IN the world means you take in a movie once in a while, or read a book, or attend a poetry slam, or visit an art museum…Entertainment is a fact of life, sometimes a quite nice fact!

Here are three resources to keep in mind for when you take in the messages of the world. Movies, for example, are not non-theological. They do have a message. These resources help you discern that message and how to combat it as you make your entertainment choices.

#1- Start with this short article from Ligonier:

TableTalk: Discerning Entertainment
by Burk Parsons

Entertainment of all sorts can be a wonderful way to rest and recuperate from the busyness, noise, and struggles of life. … But we must always guard our eyes and our hearts. For we cannot even begin to understand all the ways that Hollywood has affected us. Entertainment affects our minds, our homes, our culture, and our churches. Consequently, we must be vigilant as we use discernment in how we enjoy entertainment—looking to the light of God’s Word to guide us and inform our consciences.

#2- Professor Grant Horner is professor at The Master’s University and has written a book on discerning entertainment called Meaning at the Movies: Becoming a Discerning Viewer. This first one is a link to an article discussing his 2011 book.

It’s All About the Fall

Author Grant Horner believes every film is ultimately about the human condition—and that watching movies is serious business that requires solid discernment. The article asks Horner the following questions and more.

Your book doesn’t list movies we should or shouldn’t watch as Christians. Why not?
But is there a standard or a cutoff point you go by?
Many people limit “discernment” to avoiding the negatives: If a film doesn’t have sex, violence, or bad language, it passes the test. Anything wrong with that approach?

Here is a link to Dr Horner’s book:

Meaning at the Movies: Becoming a Discerning Viewer
This is a purchaser’s summary of the book:

This is the best book I’ve read on the intersection of faith and film. The first chapter, which gives a biblical and theological explanation of art and culture, is worth more than the price of the book on its own. Horner uses Romans 1 to explain that all human production is characterized by both a knowledge of God and his truth and also the suppression of that knowledge. For this reason, Horner argues, we must be discerning when we watch movies. We can enjoy them and learn much from them, even when the film has been crafted by a non-Christian. But we also need to be discerning (even when the film has been crafted by a Christian). Horner’s book is well written and his arguments are persuasive. The last half of the book features an insightful look at a handful of important film genres, and in each case Horner gives a wonderful discussion of the genre itself, along with a theological look at why we find that particular genre appealing. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in faith and film, and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to understand the arts in general.

Here is part 1 of a ten-minute Youtube interview from the Full Circle Ladies with Grant Horner regarding his book on movies and discernment. And here is part 2.

#3- The Gospel Coalition has some things to say about discernment and teenagers, this nations’ largest consumer of entertainment.

Teach Teens Discernment
by Jaquelle Crowe
We cannot grow without discernment. Yet discernment isn’t a sort of hyper-criticism that turns you into an embittered watchdog sniffing out others’ mistakes. Instead it’s a holy call to discern what is pleasing to God and what is not (Rom. 12:1–2). It frees you to relish what’s beautiful and true, and to reject what’s ugly and false. Discernment equals growth.

The article deals with the following issues:

How to Explain Discernment to Teens
How to Help Teens Pursue Discernment
No In-Between

It’s high summer…may your entertainment be light and your days be long. 🙂

discernment, Uncategorized

Is America ‘called 2 fall’ on our faces as it says in 2 Chronicles?

Posted on July 2, 2017 by elizabethprata

Today, Sunday, July 2, a nationwide effort is underway to get people/churches to fall on their faces and pray in repentance and for God to heal America. The movement is biblically based, so the organizations says, because the movement is founded on the verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14,

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

The movemenent is titled Call2Fall and the website FAQ is here

From the website:

Q – What’s involved?
A – The Call2Fall is not a fancy program or a big show. Simply set aside a definite time during worship on July 2, 2017 when you call your people to get on their knees and faces before the Lord in repentant prayer for God to reshape our lives and renew our land. Click here for free church resources that may be helpful.

Q – Who can join?
A – Call2Fall on our knees is for every Christ-follower in America. Specifically, there are multiplied millions of believers who realize that America is in trouble and that neither Washington nor Wall Street has the answers. We are hoping that at least 40,000 churches will join in a corporate act of humility, repentance, and desperate prayer on our knees before the Lord.

Q – Why a Call2Fall?
A – First, the Scriptures teach it. The key verse is 2 Chronicles 7:14…

The first requirement on the path to renewal is to “humble ourselves,” to fall on our knees and faces before the Lord in repentant prayer. Over and over the Scriptures teach this. Click here for examples.

Second, our history records it. Our founding fathers sensed the need for a Call2Fall in view of the monumental struggle we were engaged in with Britain. The First Continental Congress called for a day of public humiliation, fasting, and prayer throughout the Colonies on July 20th, 1775 just after war broke out.

“Christ-follower” Sigh. Never mind the comment about what our Founding Fathers “sensed.” Most of them were either atheists, libertines, or deists who believed in a different Jesus.

Is a call to prayer wrong? No. Is calling the people to repent wrong? No. However, basing a movement such as this on the verse from Chronicles is wrong, because this is one of the most misused, out of context verses in the entire Bible.

The verse that the Call2Fall movement is founded upon is a verse that is aimed directly at Israel, not America.

Here are three men with theological essays explaining what exactly was happening in history before and after the 2 Chronicles 7:14 verse and then explaining the verse correctly. I’d encourage you to click on one or all of the links and read their piece in its entirety.

The second issue is that though we might love where we live, and we are grateful the Lord raised up nations (and puts them down) (Acts 17:26), we are citizens of heaven. Our minds should be trained on the fact that we are part of a global body, an invisible kingdom of which there is a King who reigns. We love America, but please watch out that excessive patriotism hasn’t made an idol of the Stars and Stripes. Many nations have come and gone within just my lifetime. Here is a list from Business Insider of 9 countries that ceased to exist in the 20th century. There are tons of countries that have gone away, ceased to exist, changed names, expanded or contracted borders, or simply vanished. Biafra, Bundu, Tibet, Alsace-Lorraine, Bremen, USSR, Yugoslavia, Rhodesia, and many other nations have lived, thrived, and died in the 20th century. How does a former Rhodesian pray the 2 Chronicles prayer? If someone does pray the 2 Chronicles prayer, the answer might be unexpected. The Lord DID heal East Germany, by wiping it from the map and uniting it with West Germany.

America’s borders have changed dramatically in just the 241 years of our own existence. What I’m saying is it is not wrong to love your country. It’s just that we shouldn’t get too attached to it.

Here are some essays explaining the context of the 1Chronicles verse-

Steve Kozar at Pirate Christian Media:
Frequently abused and misused Bible verses

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Again, this is not a universal promise to all believers in all times. This verse starts in the middle of a sentence-that should give you a clue that it is being taken out of context. This promise is given specifically to God’s covenant people Israel, and it shouldn’t be universally applied to the church, or especially to any nation.

Truthfully, we are blessed much more so in our time, because of Jesus and His sacrifice to atone for our sins-no matter which country we live in, or how much worldly prosperity we have or don’t have.

Delivered by Grace, Josh Buice
Butchered Bible Verses

Explanation of how the text is misused-

As we’re getting near the summer, we can expect to hear sermons from preachers who, with good intentions, will cite 2 Chronicles 7:14 or preach an entire message on that single verse while applying it to America. Most of the time it’s an attempt to demonstrate the need for repentance in our nation. At times we hear of preachers who use this verse to call out our national position on abortion, and in most recent days, our President’s opinion about homosexual marriage. As we examine the text, it is abundantly clear that 2 Chronicles 7:14 is not speaking about America – the home of the brave!

Explanation of the text
The wrong application of 2 Chronicles 7:14 is to lift it out of its context and apply it to America or any other single nation. Anytime we attach a text of Scripture to America, we must be extremely cautious. Because in that act we are saying this is a reference to God’s promise for America when in reality – it isn’t. The key is found in two specific places in the text.

1. The verse begins by a key reference to “my people.” This is not a reference to all people in America or any other nation, because we know that by that phrase the Chronicler was referencing the people of God – specifically of Israel.

2. Within that framework, the people of God were under judgment for sin. This involved pestilence, drought, and exile from their land. It would be wrong to suggest that America is under judgment, as the children of God, and that God is calling us BACK to Him. For the most part, America has never known God, so God isn’t calling America to come BACK. If anything, God is commanding unbelievers in America to repent, but they don’t need a rededication card at the end of a service around July 4th, they need a new heart created by the Spirit of God, paid for by the Son of God, and accomplished by the will of God the Father.

Empowered by Christ, Richard Haas
Is 2 Chronicles 7:14 for us today?

As always context must be our rule of thumb when dealing with any verse or group of verses in the Bible. So Let’s take a quick look at the context around this verse. Understand that the construction of the first temple in Jerusalem had just been completed. King Solomon led a massive week-long celebration to dedicate the temple. When the people returned to their homes following the celebration, we read the following:

If you continue reading the remaining verses in 2 Chronicles 7, it becomes abundantly clear that this was a particular promise made by God to the Jewish people during the time of the first temple.

As it can, we see the use of this verse is quite a bit different than Christians using this verse as a promise from God to fix the problems in the United States of America.

I think there are certain principles we can use from 2 Chronicles 7:14. Such as, it is always a good thing for God’s people to humble themselves and pray for their nation. As Christians, we absolutely should and need to pray for our nation; this is biblical. We also can learn from this text that as Christians we should pray for our neighbors, friends, loved ones, and even our politicians–even the ones we don’t agree with (1 Timothy 2:1–4). It would be wonderful if every Christian would humble himself or herself and pray for our nation.

However, we must understand that 2 Chronicles 7:14 is not a divine promise to Christians in the United States today that God will fix our nation. We don’t have such a guarantee in Scripture. We must always be careful to make sure we use verses in the proper context. Remember the three rules of proper biblical hermeneutics; Context, Context, and Context.

Here is an explanation of what 2 Chronicles 7:14 means from GotQuestions-

What is the meaning of 2 Chronicles 7:14

The key to understanding any verse of Scripture is context. There is the immediate context—the verses before and after it, as well as the larger context of Scripture—how the verse fits into the overall story….

The immediate context of 2 Chronicles 7:14 shows that the verse is tied up with Israel and the temple and the fact that from time to time God might send judgment upon the land in the form of drought, locusts, or pestilence.

When ancient Israel repented and sought the Lord, they were doing so en masse. The nation as a whole repented. Obviously not every single Israelite repented and prayed, but still it was national repentance. There was never any indication that a small minority of the nation (a righteous remnant) could repent and pray and that the fate of the entire nation would change. God promised deliverance when the entire nation repented.

Here is some food for thought by John MacArthur as to whether the American Revolution was even biblical.

Why Government Can’t Save You

Over the past several centuries, people have mistakenly linked democracy and political freedom to Christianity. That’s why many contemporary evangelicals believe the American Revolution was completely justified, both politically and scripturally. They follow the argumentation of the Declaration of Independence, which declares that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are divinely endowed rights. Therefore those believers say such rights are part of a Christian worldview, worth attaining and defending at all costs, including military insurrection at times. But such a position is contrary to the clear teachings and commands of Romans 13:1-7. So the United States was actually born out of a violation of New Testament principles, and any blessings that God has bestowed on America have come in spite of that disobedience by the Founding Fathers.

John MacArthur
The Christian’s Responsibility to Government

But Christians, even though they have struggled to answer the question of what is their relationship to government, have not always answered it properly. And throughout the history of the church, there have been revolutions in the name of Christianity where people decided that the Christian thing to do was to revolt militarily against the government that’s in power, and demand their rights. There have even been wars in the name of Christianity.

And so Christians have struggled with this, and sometimes they have rightly understood what their role was, and sometimes they have overturned their God-given role and become revolutionary. There has been violation of law in the name of Christianity. I don’t know if you realize this, but there have been, even in our own country, certain law violations, civil disobedience, subversive attempts to overthrow the powers that be on a local level, a state level, or a national level that in some cases were led by people who claimed to be Christians, all of this in the name of Christ.

We should fall on our faces not because we’re using 2 Chronicles 7:14 out of context, but because Matthew 28:19 says to make disciples of all nations-

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit

Because Acts 1:8 says to make disciples to the ends of the earth-

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Because Mark 16:15 says we preach the Gospel to every creature-

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”

We are not called to fall because we misuse the 2 Chronicles verse but because we love the LORD, because we understand His word in context, and we are mindful of the fleeting nature of nations and boundaries and nations, and because know the eternality of the saved in heaven.

discernment, Uncategorized

No such thing as a carnal Christian

Posted on June 30, 2017June 30, 2017 by elizabethprata

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:9).

Paul balances four activities: “learned and received” and “heard and seen.” It is one thing to learn a truth, but quite another to receive it inwardly and make it a part of our inner man (see 1 Thes. 2:13). Facts in the head are not enough; we must also have truths in the heart. In Paul’s ministry, he not only taught the Word but also lived it so that his listeners could see the truth in his life. Paul’s experience ought to be our experience. We must learn the Word, receive it, hear it, and do it. “But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22).

Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 96). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

The demons had learned, but they have not received. The difference between intellectual and saving faith is the evidence. A lived lived in obedience to God is evidence of a regenerated and converted heart.

Therefore, there is no such thing as “a carnal Christian.”

Has the Gospel gone from your head and saturated your heart, then radiated from you in glorious acts in Christ?

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