discernment – Page 48

If Hebrews that says it’s appointed for men to die once, and some have died twice and others have never died, is there an inconsistency in the bible?

Posted on April 24, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Does the Hebrews 9:27 verse present an inconsistency in the bible?

The short answer is “no.” There are no inconsistencies in the Bible. There are some things that we can’t reconcile without further study, but they can be reconciled. Seeming differences between the Gospels, for example. Did Peter cut off the soldier’s ear or not cut off the soldier’s ear? Was Jesus in the tomb three days or two days? Was Jesus hung on a tree or a cross? Did Judas die by hanging or falling? These are trivial issues and are easily reconciled by any thinking person with a bit of study.

There are other seeming inconsistencies we can never reconcile, but God has reconciled them in His mind. The Trinity / God is One, and the Doctrine of Election / Man’s responsibility for Sin are two in this category that God has settled in His mind. God’s word is perfect and a Bible believing person will always trust it to be true. He will allow his mind to be malleable while studying and praying over any questions he or she may have, and then allow the Spirit to take the lead in answering. God has promised good gifts (Matthew 7:11), and asking the Spirit to help you understand God’s word better is something He delights in doing. (John 1:9, Ephesians 1:18).

Hebrews 9:27 says, And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

I did some research because I always wondered about that verse. We cannot take it literally, since there have been exceptions to it already. So what can it mean? Allow me to share with you some thoughts. This essay is not just about the Hebrews verse, but as a template of showing you how to think about the Bible, if I may be so bold.

First we think. We take it slow and we think. (Psalm 19:15).

This verse about dying once is a perplexing verse. Why? We know that Enoch never has died.

Hebrews 11:5- By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.

We know that Elijah has never died-

2 Kings 2:11. And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

We know that millions of people who are raptured alive will never die-

1 Thessalonians 4:17 says “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

Alternately, we know that many have died twice. There are people in the bible who have died and have been resurrected. (And who never wrote a book about their trip to heaven, by the way). There is nothing that indicates the group of individuals who were given life a second time did not also fall into death a second time. The scriptures don’t say they were translated. The scriptures don’t say they didn’t die a second time.

Between the Hebrews verse and the plain examples from scripture of people who never died and people who have died twice, it seems that there is a contradiction. Yet that’s impossible since there can be no contradictions in the bible! So the verse can’t be an absolute.

If the Hebrews verse is NOT an absolute, it must be a general rule with obvious exceptions. The exceptions exist and are obvious.

The Berean Call magazine explains this:

Hebrews 9:27 says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” “Men” is generic, speaking of all mankind. That the Lord, of His own will and sovereign choice, has, on occasion, brought back to life individuals (temporarily) does not affect this general ruling. Both Elijah and Elisha raised individuals from the dead by the power of God. Jesus raised a number of people from the dead. Again, these exceptions did not change the ruling under which humanity lives (and dies), as Hebrews 9:27 summarizes.

The fact that the Lord Jesus walked on water (Mt 14:26) or that Elisha made the head of an axe float (2 Ki 6:6) did not overturn the law of gravity. In short, we need to discern the plain meaning of the Scriptures.

In a John MacArthur Q&A he addressed this very question. I like how he re-stated it at the beginning, “The question he’s asking is how can it be that the Hebrews 9:27 passage is all inclusive”

QUESTION: Okay, my name is Todd Draa and, let’s see, in the Bible when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, I’ve been reading about that and then Hebrews 9:27, I saw that it said, “And inasmuch as it is appointed men to die once and after this comes judgment,” how could we explain that because Lazarus was dead but then had been raised from the dead, so that would mean he would have to die a second time?

JOHN: Yes, good question, Todd. The question he’s asking is how can it be that the Hebrews 9:27 passage is all inclusive, “It is appointed unto men once to die,” if Lazarus in fact died twice? I’ll ask you a question, Todd. What about Enoch? He didn’t die at all. So you’ve got at least one person who never died at all, and you’ve got Lazarus who died twice and you have not only Lazarus but a lot of other folks who died twice. In fact, anyone who was ever raised from the dead died twice. When Jesus died on the cross, it says the graves were opened and all kinds of Old Testament saints came back to life, so they had to die twice.

Then you have the people that Jesus raised, the son of…the daughter of Jairus and the son of the widow of Nain, you have the ones who were raised by Elijah the prophet from the dead. All of those people died twice. Then you have to answer the question of what about the Rapture, a whole population of Christians aren’t even going to die once. They’re going to be raptured to heaven.

So what we assume then from all of that biblical data is that the statement of Hebrews 9:27 is a general statement to which there are by God’s design certain exceptions. And we need not fear that. It’s still true that it is appointed unto men once to die. That is the norm…men die. It is extremely unusual when they don’t die. And we can count on death. In fact, in history you can count the history that didn’t die by just counting Enoch and maybe Elijah was translated in a whirlwind, but there are less than a handful…out of the millions and millions that have died. And of those who have died twice, that’s also a very small group of people who were raised from the dead. And yet in the future there will be a whole group of Christians who will miss death because of the Rapture. We’d like to be in that group, wouldn’t we? But we just know that the principle of Hebrews 9 is still true that men die and they die once and then they face God’s judgment. So we take it as a general principle in that regard. Good question.

Perhaps that resolves it for you. Some bible questions bear more digging. Some seemingly unresolvable issues need patience as the Spirit works all the threads together to knit a fuller understanding in our mind. But there are no inconsistencies in the Bible. After all, scripture cannot be broken. (John 10:35).

At least now you have my thinking on how I interpret the Hebrews verse and how, when we are presented with a seeming inconsistency we can rely on the Spirit and the Bible for an explanation, commentaries for supplement, and each other as iron to sharpen our interpretive skills. Above all, the Bible is true in its whole and entirety. If we don’t understand something or if we differ in interpretation, the issue is with us, not the Lord!

demon possession, discernment, exorcism, priests, vatican

Vatican struggling to keep up with exorcism demand

Posted on April 18, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

“Traditionally there are certain signs that often accompany true cases of possession,” the priest said, “things that are difficult if not impossible to explain otherwise.” These signs include aversion for sacred objects, the sudden ability to speak languages that the person has never studied or had contact with, the movement of objects with no physical cause, sharp changes in mood that are not attributable to psychological reasons, and other such things, he told Breitbart.

And so begins a recent article titled Vatican Exorcism Course Draws 170 Students to Study Demonic Activity, where the Vatican reports an increase in demonic possession and the increasing need for ‘exorcists’. The article focused on the busting-at-the-seams demonic deliverance training classes now being held at the Vatican.

One concept to note in that quote, and there is much to discuss about this, is that the priest holding the demon-busting classes said that frequently a sign of possession is speaking in a language one has not learned. This is known as speaking in tongues.

Typically when a ‘miracle’ or ‘manifestation’ of something supernatural appears, witnesses usually ascribe it to Jesus or heaven. However, just because an event occurs which is obviously supernatural, it doesn’t mean it is sent from heaven. Usually it is NOT. In 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 we read that men masquerade as false apostles, satan appears as an angel of light, and demons disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.

Satan and his unholy angels have powers that allow them within limits to counterfeit miracles. Read Exodus 7:8-11,

Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9“When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’” 10So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. 11Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts.

Getting even more specific, in discussing the particular gift of tongues, that was a gift given to the early church and the early church only. The gift of tongues is recorded in Acts 2:4-5.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

A Roman Catholic Crucifix.

This is a sign gift, and the gift of tongues and other sign gifts were temporary. They ceased with the passing of the Apostles. People do not speak in tongues anymore. Not genuinely anyway. (For biblical reasons why this is true, go here )

As for the non-genuine ways people speak in tongues, you might be surprised to discover that speaking gibberish, jerking involuntarily, and falling down insensate is a sign that a person is possessed by a demon, not speaking a heavenly language or filled with a heavenly spirit.

You might be even more surprised to discover that those signs as they are manifested in a person are commonly manifested in false religions, such as Hinduism.

Now, this may be a little bit anticlimactic because this has already been discussed somewhat. But for those who may be tuning in on the Internet and haven’t been here at the conference, which theological group does the following: heretic jerking and shaking, uncontrollable laughter, being slain in the Spirit, they prophesy and they speak in tongues. Of course, most people would think of Charismatics/Word of Faith, it’s actually Hindus.

Hindus do all of these things as well and has already been mentioned in this conference, you can look at video clips of Hindus practicing this thing known as Kundalani(?), it’s a subset, a little discipline within Hinduism. You can look at clips of Hindu Kundalani, and look of clips of professing Charismatic Christians and they are absolutely indistinguishable. You cannot tell the difference, the exact same kind of behavior. And so that should give us really a lot of pause before we start to say, “Oh, well so-and-so is speaking in tongues, or so-and-so is being slain in the Spirit, that’s a sign of God’s hand on that person, that’s a sign of spirituality.” Absolutely not. There may be a spirit at work, but it is not the Holy Spirit…it is not the Holy Spirit. (Source)

The irony, sadly, is that the Catholic priests being trained to exorcise these demons are dividing their own kingdom. The Catholic Church and its priests and adherents are under the bondage of satan, not submitted to Christ. The RCC is the most satanically successful religious organization on earth, it is not of the true faith. Trained or not, its priests have no authority over satan but are sadly under his authority.

In this passage, when Jesus cast out a demon from a man, and healed his muteness and blindness, the Pharisees descended to a panic when the people began wondering if Jesus was the promised deliverer of Israel.

And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” 24But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” 25Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

In his commentary, MacArthur says of this verse,

And it is further true that Satan often disguises himself as an angel of light, (2 Cor 11:14). In that role he may pretend to cast out a demon by restricting its power over the possessed person in order to give the impression of a cleansing. That sort of supposed exorcism has been common throughout the history of the church and is practiced today by various cults, false healers, and exorcists.

Sons of Sceva, Matthias Scheits (c.1630-1700)

Yes, satan is a real being and actively at work in this world sowing evil, lies, and despair. He is a destroyer. However the priests have no authority over any demon, and any one they cast out would be a false show, a lie, or an accident. Remember the Sons of Sceva?

Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. (Acts 19:13-17).

Matthew Henry says of trying to exorcise demons outside the authority of God,

It was common, especially among the Jews, for persons to profess or to try to cast out evil spirits. If we resist the devil by faith in Christ, he will flee from us; but if we think to resist him by the using of Christ’s name, or his works, as a spell or charm, Satan will prevail against us.

HuffPo via Washington Post and Getty Images

In one last quote from the article, Vatican Exorcism Course Draws 170 Students to Study Demonic Activity,

Pope Francis has spoken of the devil repeatedly, insisting that he is real and must be fought. This generation, the Pope said last October, “was led to believe that the devil was a myth, a picture, an idea, the idea of evil. But the devil exists, and we have to fight him.” Pope Francis has praised the work of exorcists, priests dedicated to the work of deliverance and casting out demons. According to the Pope, priests devoted to the ministry of exorcism “manifest the Church’s love and acceptance of those who suffer because of the devil’s works.”

Well we all suffer because of the devils’ works, the unsaved and the saved. But of course they are focusing on the exact wrong thing, satan, when we all should be focusing on Jesus. But RCC priests cannot focus on Jesus becuase they are an enemy to Him.

In general, if a person is not in Christ, he is a friend of satan. 1 John 2 outlines the dichotomy. If you love the world, you’re not a friend to Jesus, and vice versa. Satan can certain possess any person who is of this world because this world is temporarily his. (2 Cor 4:4). Satan dividing satan is not logical, as Jesus eloquently explained to the Pharisees.

Alternately, if you’re a Christian, you cannot be possessed. The Holy Spirit is sealed within us as a guarantee of the deposit of our inheritance (Ephesians 4:30, 1:13-14). No one can break that seal, only God, and God has said He will not. (James 1:18, John 10:28). Moreover we are called to resist the devil, (James 4:7) not take classes in demonic ninja and then go out to find him and fight him.

What fruit will it bear to keep our eyes on satan, when our eyes should be on Jesus? Chasing after demons brings nothing to Jesus but pride, arrogance, and wasted time. HE is our all in all, sufficient for all battles. (Judges 7:7).

Friends, do not let all this talk of increasing demonic activity pique your interest. The Catholics, Hindus, and other adherents to false religions may play at exorcism, may utter what they believe is heaven sent gibberish, may seek satan on the battleground, but we are to seek Christ-

Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually! (Psalm 105:4).

Our weapon is prayer. Do we believe we have the strength to overcome 5000 demons, the number that was reported inhabiting the man in the Gadarene tombs? (Luke 8:26-39). Our strength is puny compared to the heavenly power of even the unholy angels, whom we dare not blaspheme (2 Peter 2:12). We are to rely on His strength, and He will deliver us one way or another.

If someone comes to you with a report of supernatural activity such as tongues, demon deliverance by any other method except salvation, or any supernatural miracle, be skeptical. Very skeptical. Seek the Lord, who is Good; not satan, who is evil.

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Leaving your church (for another)

Posted on April 13, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

People leave church for the right reasons. People leave church for the wrong reasons. People leave because they don’t like the music. People leave because they want to BE the music. People leave because they disagree with the pastor’s stance on minor issues. People leave because they disagree with the pastor’s stance on major issues. People leave because they didn’t get voted deacon. People leave because they heard a better church was down the road. People leave their church because after prayer and consideration and feeling legitimately led, they feel their family would be better served and they could better serve at that church across town.

For better or for worse, people leave their church all the time.

Did you see what I did there? I said ‘for better or for worse’, deliberately invoking the marital covenant, because that is what church membership is. It is a covenant with fellow believers. You you promise to love them, honor them, cherish them, in sickness and in health, bearing each other’s burdens, (Gal 6:2), admonishing and encouraging, (Col 3:16), sharing lives in vulnerability and intimacy, and worshiping Jesus- together. (James 5:13). It’s a close relationship and one not to be thrown away on petty squabbles.

Taking a biblical example, the church at Corinth. These people were fighting, getting drunk at the Lord’s table, allowing incest, having chaotic services, dividing into factions and cliques, and debating over meats. Phew! Yet Paul wrote that he gave thanks for the people at the church at Corinth. (1 Corinthians 1:4-5). There was no church down the road to move their letter to. Corinth. That was IT.

How about the folks at the church at Sardis? Jesus pronounced them dead, and their works were dead, and what wasn’t dead was about to die! (Revelation 3:1-3). Yet a few remained alive and pleasing to the Lord. How terrible did they feel being surround by dead believers?! It must have been rough.

What if you had been one of the few members of the church at Sardis that had not soiled their clothes and remained righteous? It must have been hard for those members watching their church die! (Revelation 3:4). But what comfort. Jesus sees them and is not only pleased, but He commends them personally.

Or the folks at Thyatira, suffering by seeing a false prophetess prosper, teaching false doctrines (which is an agony to endure, believe me), tempting the members for so long she birthed spiritual daughters. A few did not hold to her teaching, and are commended.

Would “the few” at Sardis and “the rest” at Thyatira have left for another church, if there had been one? Its purely speculative. They didn’t have the choice so they stuck it out. Were some that fell under the sway of the false prophetess Jezebel children or slaves of the members at Thyatira? No doubt. It is a heartbreaker.

It doesn’t help that pastors these days display a craven ambition, using smaller churches as a ladder to bigger and mega, or as a stopping/resting place as they write their next book. Some pastors church-hop themselves, pastoring as many as 6 churches in 9 years. They do not provide a good example of shepherding commitment and staying power.

On the other hand, leaving the marriage metaphor alone for a moment, there are times people can and should leave a church. Perhaps the Lord has legitimately led you to serve elsewhere. The Spirit gives gifts as He wills, so perhaps He wants move you to use you and His gifts at another location as a better puzzle piece fit. Maybe your pastor is teaching heresy. Or maybe not heresy but has drifted too far for your comfort zone, and you don’t want to expose your children. There maybe practical matters- employment transfer, moving closer to aging parents, a road that has become too dangerous to travel. What then? Moving your membership to another church would be a legitimate thing to do.

Here are a variety of links exploring reasons to leave and reasons to stay, and if deciding to go, how to leave successfully and graciously. Just some food for thought. Apostasy is gripping all churches to an alarming degree. If a person leaves for a trivial reason, or impatiently, he or she may wind up in a worse condition at a church down the road where a worse apostasy is discovered. Apostasy is everywhere, even in that bustling church down the road. No church is perfect.

No matter how dim things have become in your church, Jesus is still in charge, sovereignly ordering all for His glory. But the nitty gritty of week-in-week-out worship in a church that preaches entertainment, or health/wealth, or Arminianism as an idol, or is teetering toward spiritual abuse, or any of the cringe-worthy fads…is hard. But no harder than the early churches in the Bible mentioned above. And they had to contend with false teachings to a major degree also. The Spirit may indeed by moving you to another worship center for His reasons. Or the Spirit might be impressing on you to stay. It’s not for me to say one way or another when it might be time to leave a church or how long to stay. In Christian liberty, it’s the decision of the spiritual leader of your home, whoever that leader is. There are many things to take into consideration, and prayer of course should be a major part of any decision.

When do you leave a church?

It is the conversation with church members every pastor dreads but inevitably comes to every man who has shepherded a local flock: “Pastor, we need to meet with you and discuss our future at the church. We have been praying about transferring our membership to another church.” Naturally, you ask the inevitable question, “Why?”

When Should People Leave Their Church?

Leaving a church is not something that should be done lightly. Too many people abandon churches for petty reasons. Disagreements over simple matters of preference are never a good reason to withdraw from a sound, Bible-believing church. Christians are commanded to respect, honor, and obey those whom God has placed in positions of leadership in the church (Heb. 13:7, 17). However, there are times when it becomes necessary to leave a church for the sake of one’s own conscience, or out of a duty to obey God rather than men. Such circumstances would include:

When is it right to leave a church?

Believers who feel a desire to leave a church should be clear on their reasons. If the church does not proclaim truth, cling to the Bible and revere Christ as its head, and there is another church in the area that does, then there are grounds to leave. A case can be made, however, for staying and working to bring about changes for the better. We are exhorted to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). If one is strongly convicted of the need to move the church in a more Bible-based, Christ-honoring direction, and feels he/she can do that in a loving and non-divisive manner, then that would seem to be the better course of action.

Good reasons for moving on

“What right do you ever have to leave a church?” I can remember that question being asked by my ecclesiology professor in seminary. It is a good question and one that would benefit us all to wrestle with. As Kevin has recently pointed out on this blog, there is biblical warrant and there are practical reasons for entering into covenant through local church membership. Having entered into that covenant our breaking of it should never be done lightly. Clearly, there are reasons to leave a local church. But what are they?

5 Really Bad Reasons To Leave Your Church

Let’s be honest, while there are some good reasons for leaving a church, there are a lot more bad ones. As a pastor, I hear some of them every now and then as people walk out the door. As a church planter, I hear them constantly as people walk in the door. If you’re thinking about looking for a new church home, please don’t use one of these five reasons to make the jump:

5 Tips on Leaving a Church the Right Way

I met yesterday with a friend who is leaving our church. We had a good conversation about his reasons for leaving (they are legitimate) and then some discussion about how he can “leave well.” I told him that, based on my experience with people leaving our church or coming to our church after leaving another one, most people don’t leave well.

A.D. the bible continues, discernment, dr david jeremiah, roma downey, the bible series

(Updated) Why I won’t be watching the miniseries A.D.: The Bible Continues (And I hope you won’t be either)

Posted on April 1, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Two years ago I wrote “Why I am Not Watching History Channel’s ‘The Bible‘. That was the hugely popular, smash-hit television series produced by Roma Downey and husband Mark Burnett broadcast on The History Channel, purporting to show major biblical events from Noah to the Crucifixion of Jesus. In ten hours.

The series writers “took many artistic liberties to compress the story lines while hoping to remain true to the story. A public relations manager for the project described the liberties to me as “extra-biblical but not contra-biblical,” CNN Blogs reported.

What people fail to understand is extra-biblical IS contra-biblical. Anyway, we don’t need to rehash all of that, except to remark that the duo’s movie theater version of biblical events called “Son of God” was equally atrocious. Now the duo is back with a continuation from 2013’s televised cable series. This time the series will be on regular broadcast TV, on NBC. It will begin on Easter Sunday.

In ‘A.D. The Bible Continues’ the story presented to the world has admittedly even less content taken from the actual bible, and admittedly is even more human-centered rather than Jesus/Gospel focused. The following quote is from an Associated Press story whose title is ‘A.D. The Bible Continues goes beyond the biblical epic’.

This new series, however, goes for a more gritty and human approach that tries to understand the characters as humans caught up in the politics of the day. Only about half of the material comes from the Bible, with the rest from historians of the period.

Downey said,

“If anyone comes to it expecting to see only the Bible, they will be interested to see that we have created a much larger and historic and political contest to set that story in, … I think what it does it allows you to have a fuller understanding of that story because when you see the oppression of the times that they are living in, when you understand that danger lurks in every alley, and the inhumanity of the times.”

So we have already see the following strikes:

The show’s writers and producers are pagan and not Christian, therefore they have nothing to say to us about spiritual things (1 Corinthians 2:13, John 14:17)
They chose to destroy the sufficiency of scripture by adding extra biblical material, thereby ‘improving on God’, (Genesis 3:1-2)
They shifted the focus from Jesus coming to atone for sins to Jesus’ sent ones coming to help the oppressed in their inhumanity (WHY are we inhumane? We sin, something the show divorces from the reason for Jesus’ coming and the Apostles’ going),

And now this reason:

Feminism

The article reports,

The series has several strong female roles in it, including Leah, the ambitious wife of High Priest Caiaphas (Richard Coyle), who pushes her husband to amass more power.

Phew. I’m glad that the writers rectified what was obviously a glaring omission in the bible of strong female roles and invented a few so we wouldn’t have to take up our pitchforks or fire off ‘strong’ emails. Dorcas, Lydia, Phoebe, Anna, Mary, Susanna, Mary Magdalene, all the mothers who raised the Apostles, Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist), Candace, Rhoda…etc were obviously either not women (lol) or not “strong” enough for the writers’ tastes.

The bible of course records the story of Old Testament Leah. Biblegateway synopsizes her story, “The Woman Lacking Loveliness Was Yet Loyal, Scripture References—Genesis 29; 30; 49:31; Ruth 4:11”. Deliberately naming a fictional woman in a New Testament tv show the same as a famous Old Testament saint is duplicitous. I notice that the writers also created a fictional male character and chose to name him Boaz. Doing this sows confusion.

Anyway, the wife of Caiaphas is not named in the bible nor is she even mentioned. The reference is in John 18:13, and only to introduce the fact that Annas and Caiaphas were linked through marriage. That’s it. She as not named nor did she have a role in the New Testament, but she gets screen time, unlike REAL women in the bible, who won’t get screen time. The quote from the article continues,

The role of Mary Magdalene is also central. While she doesn’t quite attain the status of head of the nascent church given her by Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code,” she is clearly one of the key members of the group as it tries to figure what comes next after the crucifixion.

But here is the revealing reason women are given such prominence in the series. It is sickening and is one of the many reasons I won’t watch the show

“Our interpretation is that while many organizations are fronted by men, women were the ones that kept the cogs moving,” said Chipo Chung, the actress that plays Mary

Aha. So while the chosen and called male apostles, prophets, and disciples risked their lives, glorified God, suffered and died grisly deaths, these men were only front men while the women did the real work.

So you see, it only takes a moment to read up on the background to the show, investing a bit of time to see what their agenda is. Their agenda is-

not to tell the story of the Gospel as spread by the ambassador Apostles and the early church
not to glorify Jesus and His monumental work of building the church composed of Jews and Gentiles and enduring persecution and staying strong despite man’s puny political machinations,
not to accurately and with integrity share the stories of the men and women who laid the foundation of the faith.

Their intent is obviously to:

twist the bible to conform to fleshly, cultural, world tastes (Psalm 56:5, 2 Peter 3:16)
deny the sufficiency of scripture (2 Timothy 3:16)
reduce the message of Jesus from Deity atoning for our sins to nice guy helping the oppressed recover their humanity (2 Corinthians 11:4, Galatians 1:6)
confirm feminism and vault women to roles and political/cultural stature that proportionately reduces men in stature (Genesis 3:16)

So? Do not watch. The bible commands it.

I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. (Romans 16:17)

PS: Remember, this is the show that Dr David Jeremiah is promoting and broadcasting on his Turning Point channel. On Easter.

UPDATE. And the agony continues-

This Hollywood Star Is Reportedly Set to Play the Apostle Paul in Major Motion Picture

Actor Hugh Jackman, who has starred in a plethora of well-known films, including “Les Misérables” and the “X-Men” series, is set to reportedly add yet another major motion picture to his resume: “Apostle Paul.” Hugh Jackman will reportedly play the Apostle Paul. The faith-based project will center on Saul of Tarsus…Following the announcement, Jackman’s own religious views were given some attention. As noted by the Guardian, he told Parade Magazine back in 2009 that he follows the School of Practical Philosophy, a belief system that focuses in on the power of wisdom, though it appears that he has some evangelical Christian roots. His told the outlet at the time that his father took him to see famed evangelist Billy Graham when he was a child. “[My dad] takes his religion very seriously and would prefer I go to church. We’ve had discussions about our separate beliefs,” Jackman said. “I just find the evangelical church too, well, restrictive. But the School of Practical Philosophy is non confrontational.”

Well he’s a perfect person to play the fierce and confrontational Paul.(1 Corinthians 4:21, 2 Corinthians 13:2). Not

discernment, encouragement

Tips for introducing false doctrine in your life, Sunny Shell on shallow prayer, Mission from Mongolia, Vidal Sassoon Jesus, more

Posted on March 31, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Spring Break coming up in four days. The last school break we had was January 21, a three day weekend for Martin Luther King’s birthday. It has been A LONG HAUL. I’m tired, is all I can say.

I’m looking forward to sitting in the lawn swing, watching the birds, picking the wildflowers that are blooming already, reading, studying the word, playing with my photos and using the Pixlr tutorials to learn how to edit them in hipster-beat-retro fashion, and taking naps. Naps. Naps.

As for the photos, For example, here is one that I liked a lot, and below that, my own clumsy attempt at replicating. You can see why I need an entire week off to learn more.

this one by Steve York

Anyway, here is some good stuff I hope you think is good stuff as well.

This was tongue in cheek good fun and informative as well. From “The Messed Up Church”.

“Want Some False Doctrine in Your Life? Try These Handy Tips!”

Don’t be shy about it-admit it: false doctrine is fun and, well, it just feels good. Here are some handy tips to keep you fully deceived and incapable of discernment:

We recently had a mission report at our church from a missionary we support. He serves in Mongolia. This article thus interested me. You can always be encouraged by a good mission report!

James Gilmour of Mongolia

Originally from outside of Glasgow, Gilmour (1843–1891) decided to dedicate his life to bringing the gospel to the people of Mongolia. His giftedness and zeal were evident to his friends in college, and some were surprised that he would choose to work in obscurity in a physically difficult place. From his base in Peking (Beijing), Gilmour repeatedly went into Mongolia with little equipment, encouragement, few or no companions, but strong conviction…

As always Sunny Shell has good thoughts on prayer, this time, shallow prayer. I think we’ve all been there.

When My Prayers Are Shallow

As I was considering why my prayers are sometimes shallow, I realized they stem from one source: lack of consistent reading, meditating and studying God’s Word.

We are not passive consumers of ‘meat’. We who are in the pews have a responsibility too.

The Listener’s Responsibility in Hearing an Expository Sermon
What responsibilities do Christians have to expository preaching? In an age when shallow preaching is common, both shallow hearing and personal application are also common. Jay Adams has observed,

Too many laymen speak about the preaching event as if it were a one-way street, as if the responsibility for what transpires when the Bible is proclaimed rests solely on the shoulders of the preacher. But that’s not so! Effective communication demands competence from all parties.

Understanding expository preaching would not be complete without a word about the listener’s responsibilities in the expository process. Everything culminates in the hearers. The science and art of producing an expository sermon are empty efforts if no one hears and assimilates the message. Three vital principles will aid the listener who wishes to gain the most from an expository message. They are at the same time his responsibilities as well as his privileges.

David Murray wrote a glowing review of A Readable And Enjoyable Book On Apologetics! If you’re searching for a good book on apologetics, that is.

IVP sent me this book a couple of years ago and it went straight to my shelves unopened. I mean, 750 pages on apologetics! Who wants to read that unless they really have to? But a couple of weeks ago I had cause to take it down,dust it off, and have a look inside. And I was stunned. Despite its intimidating size, and despite it being an apologetics textbook, it was one of the best reads I’ve enjoyed in a long time. I know, it’s hard to imagine putting these three words in a headline – apologetics, readable, and enjoyable – but, really, that’s what this book is…. Instead of interacting with alternative Christian apologetic schools of thought (there are only a few paragraphs on Van Til’s presuppositionalism). Groothius’s agenda was to write a comprehensive and accessible book on classical Christian apologetics. He has succeeded magnificently.

Don’t forget Adam Ford’s continuing good work on Christian visual theology in the form of comics. Like this one:

Praising the Savior for oceans, tides, harbors, inlets, currents, seaweed, …

Lubec Narrows. EPrata photo

discernment, encouragement, God, prophecy, sovereign, spring

3 Bad Reasons to Leave your Church, How cults begin, Spring has sprung

Posted on March 20, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

At the Millennial Evangelical blog, Chris Martin wrote a piece on 3 Bad Reasons to Leave Your Church. Chris is 24 years old, feels called to be a pastor and currently works as a Social Media Facilitator at LifeWay Christian Resources and is pursuing his M.Div. at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

I have not read a great quantity of articles at his site, but I did enjoy this piece. At the bottom of it, he has a link to a companion piece called 3 Good Reasons to Leave Your Church. Here is 3 Bad Reasons’ opening paragraph:

Stop treating your local church like your high school girlfriend, and start treating it like the bride of Christ.

You don’t leave the church when it doesn’t share the same musical interests, when it hurts your feelings, or when a newer, more popular one catches your eye.

The people of God, the Church around the world, is the bride of Christ, and the bride of Christ deserves the faithfulness of a bride, not the summer crush you bailed on when you were a jerk in college.

Your church is broken because it’s made up of broken people, including yourself. Abandoning the local church is only acceptable under a few extreme circumstances we’ll address on Friday. Other than in certain circumstances, the people of God have the responsibility to sacrificially love their local churches as Jesus has.

If anyone has the right to abandon the adulterous, idolatrous bride called “Church,” it’s God, and he hasn’t, so we need to be careful how quick we are to bail when the going gets tough.

Here are three bad reasons to leave the local church:

Marks of False Teachers, a discerment lesson

Posted on March 19, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Scripture gives us many warnings about false teachers. False teachers of any era (and they have existed since the beginning) all have the same markers. They can be identified. And, they should be identified.

They bring hate for Christ, destruction of the sheep, pollution of the church, and grieving of the Spirit. They need to be marked and avoided, and warned about. (Romans 16:17).

Tim Challies published a list of 7 Marks of a False Teacher, and the Gospel Coalition published 7 Traits of False Teachers.

I intend to quote various markers from one or the other of the lists, and then quote a false teacher exhibiting that exact marker. I intend to name the false teacher.

The Gospel Coalition’s piece begins this way:

How would you recognize counterfeit Christianity? In 2 Peter 1 we read about genuine believers. And in 2 Peter 2 we read about counterfeit believers. If you put these chapters side by side you will see the difference between authentic and counterfeit believers.

Different Source—Where does the message come from? Peter says, “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:16). And then he says the false teachers exploit you “with stories they have made up” (2:3). So the true teacher sources what he says from the Bible. The false teacher relies on his own creativity. He makes up his own message.

Challies says,

“False teachers teach their own wisdom and vision.”

We have a prime example of this trait, or mark. Beth Moore often departs from the bible, she sometimes unfortunately doesn’t even get there at all. In this quote from a video that is now taken down, Moore teaches the entire segment from a vision she claimed “Jesus” gave her. As The Gospel Coalition said, ‘the false teacher relies on her own creativity.’

I see God doing something huge in the body of Christ. I do not know why I have had the privilege to get to travel around and see one church after another, one group of believers after another, interdenominationally all over this country but I have gotten to see something that I think is huge. And I’ll also suggest to you that I am not the only one. And tonight I am gonna do my absolute best to illustrate to you something that God showed me sitting out on the back porch. He put a picture I’ve explained to you before I’m a very visual person. So he speaks to me very often in putting a picture in my head and it was as if I was raised up, looking down on a community as I saw the church in that particular dimension. Certainly not all dimensions, not even many, but in what we will discuss tonight the church as Jesus sees it in a particular dimension.” Beth Moore

False teacher Beth Moore had swapped scripture for a picture from her own mind. Moore then taught from that picture. In the video from which the quote was taken, now taken down, Moore went on to teach that ‘Jesus’ taught her that Catholics are part of the Christian church. She taught that the Catholics were part of Christianity by being just another denomination on a par with Methodist or Baptist. Since the Catholic Church is not a Christian religion nor a denomination, we know for a fact that whoever ‘showed Moore that picture sitting out on the back porch,’ it was NOT God. Worse, by teaching that Catholics are part of Christianity, they therefore need no evangelizing.

In this second trait of false teachers, The Gospel Coalition (TGC) writes,

Different Message—What is the substance of the message?
For the true teacher, Jesus Christ is central. “We have everything we need for life and godliness in Him” (1:3). For the false teacher, Jesus is at the margins: “They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them” (2:1).
Notice the word secretly. It’s rare for someone in church to openly deny Jesus. Movement away from the centrality of Christ is subtle. The false teacher will speak about how other people can help change your life, but if you listen carefully to what he is saying, you will see that Jesus Christ is not essential to his message.

It’s very difficult to notice the absence of something, even the absence of Jesus. False teachers speak flatteringly, smoothly, sincerely, even passionately. But over time, you’ll notice a false teacher’s lessons are absent that very present teaching about Jesus. Joel Osteen rarely speaks of Jesus at all. He exemplifies the trait.

In the quote below, false teacher Billy Graham exemplifies the trait also, by his teaching the following from an interview with Richard Schuller in 1997. Graham has always believed this, having written about it in 1960 in his Decision Magazine. Here, he responds to a question about the future of Christianity and how people come to be saved.

Well, Christianity and being a true believer–you know, I think there’s the Body of Christ. This comes from all the Christian groups around the world, outside the Christian groups. I think everybody that loves Christ, or knows Christ, whether they’re conscious of it or not, they’re members of the Body of Christ. And I don’t think that we’re going to see a great sweeping revival, that will turn the whole world to Christ at any time. I think James answered that, the Apostle James in the first council in Jerusalem, when he said that God’s purpose for this age is to call out a people for His name. And that’s what God is doing today, He’s calling people out of the world for His name, whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world, or the Christian world or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ because they’ve been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus but they know in their hearts that they need something that they don’t have, and they turn to the only light that they have, and I think that they are saved, and that they’re going to be with us in heaven.

Schuller: What, what I hear you saying that it’s possible for Jesus Christ to come into human hearts and soul and life, even if they’ve been born in darkness and have never had exposure to the Bible. Is that a correct interpretation of what you’re saying?

Graham: Yes, it is, because I believe that. I’ve met people in various parts of the world in tribal situations, that they have never seen a Bible or heard about a Bible, and never heard of Jesus, but they’ve believed in their hearts that there was a God, and they’ve tried to live a life that was quite apart from the surrounding community in which they lived.

Challies gives us another mark:

False teachers save their harshest criticism for God’s most faithful servants. False teachers criticize those who teach the truth, and save their sharpest criticism for those who hold most steadfastly to what is true.

Beth Moore says that the brethren who challenge her false vision of a phony unity are bullies, mean spirited, scoffers, a threat, and demoralizing. How charming to call the people standing on the same blood-soaked ground as she claims to stand on, are mean and bullies because they differ from her view. This quote from Moore perfectly exemplifies the trait of a false teacher.

Challies’ seventh trait of false teachers is False teachers exploit their followers.

Peter would warn of this danger, saying: “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. … And in their greed they will exploit you with false words” (1 Peter 2:1-3). The false teachers exploit those who follow them because they are greedy and desire the riches of this world.

There are so many examples of this, both subtle and unsubtle. Here is one that is unsubtle but occurred a few days ago.

Televangelist asks his congregation for $65M to buy a jet

Televangelist Creflo Dollar asked his congregation to donate $300 each to raise money for a $65M luxury jet. The website was taken down after online criticism but the World Changers Church International is still accepting donations

In the way that things on the internet may go away but never die, an enterprising person has grabbed the video and uploaded it independently of Dollar’s church website. You can see the video where Dollar is pleading for cash to buy his jet at the link above or below. The enterprising person’s youtube channel is Andy Moore and he says, “## NOTE: I have posted this video to show just how deplorable and exploitative Creflo Dollar and his organization are. This is NOT an endorsement. ##”

I hope you can find the time to go to both the Gospel Coalition’s piece and Challies’ article on false teachers. Also, here is Jeff Grapnell’s piece at Entreating Favor’s site to read Five Marks of a False Convert

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Study Guide: How to Treat False Teachers

When Wolves lead the Flock, part 1 of a series

Speaking out against False Teachers

BibleGateway: Exposing False Teachers

discernment, false teachers, joel osteen

What Joyce Meyer believes & teaches, what Joel Osteen believes & teaches

Posted on February 2, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

On Twitter, A Call for Discernment ‏( @call4discern) posted a few pictorial cheat sheets on what several of the false teachers believes and teaches. I asked permission to post two of them here, What Joyce Meyer believes and teacher,s and what Joel Osteen believes and teaches.

A Call for Discernment’s bio blurb states that it “calls for Believers to stand and contend for the Faith. Our ministry is to expose the wolves that have infiltrated the flock.”

Click to enlarge

A Call 4 Discernment posted; “The teachings of Joel Osteen compared to Scripture. #falseteachers pic.twitter.com/Cp7AHlSzL9”. Click to enlarge

Note: the falseteachers.org website at the bottom of Joyce Meyers photo is a redirect to a church in Orlando FL.

bishop, discernment, gender roles, lifeway, ordained women, propel

First female Bishop; "Propelling" women beyond their roles, people with discernment called "disgruntled serial protesters"

Posted on January 27, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, (2 Timothy 4:3)

The ‘passions’ discussed today are the passions of usurping women and the men who let them.

Eve was originally created to be a helpmeet. Hers was the supportive role in helping the man. (Genesis 2:18, 20). It still is, despite cultural pressure and widespread disobedience. But because the man listened to the voice of the woman, (Genesis 3:17) who was rebelling against God and urging her mate to do so as well (Genesis 3:6) all mankind was cursed with bearing a sin nature. (Until the Redeemer came Genesis 3:15).

In addition, the woman was cursed with wanting to rule her husband. This is one of the “passions” we are to guard against, as mentioned so many times in scripture. Passions are also known as ungodly desires. (1 Timothy 1:10, Jude 1:18, etc). Women will want the man’s role.

“Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16)

It is a tragedy when we see this played out in the home. When it is played out in the church it’s worse. And worst of all is institutionalizing the disobedience of male and female leaders within the church, as seen here in this article today from the LA Times.

Church of England consecrates Libby Lane as its first female bishop

More than 1,000 people attended the service inside York Minster, the cathedral in the northern city of York, but a lone male priest who interrupted proceedings to protest the appointment served as a reminder the move is not universally welcomed. … “No. Not in the Bible,” the Rev. Paul Williamson said when Archbishop of York John Sentamu asked the members of the congregation whether it was their will that she should be ordained. … The church later said it was prepared for the outburst because Williamson is a known “serial protester.” … “There will be a few people who will be disgruntled, but most people in the church will welcome this;”

According to the numbers given in the article, of the people present at Ms Libby Lane’s ordination ceremony, 999 people accepted it without protest, and 1 did not.

The bible is clear that leadership in the church is reserved for men. Not even all men are called to leadership positions, so this is not an issue of equality as the article presents it. It is about submission to the roles God has reserved for men, women, and children.

In 2 Timothy 2:17, Paul charges Timothy not to let his flock listen to Hymenaeus and Philetus’ worldly and godless chatter, lest their teaching spread like gangrene among them. I have always loved Paul’s vivid allusion here. It’s graphic and apt. Gangrene is a disease that spreads rapidly and if untreated, fatally. As Pulpit Commentary explains,

spread, like a gangrene, which gradually enlarges its area, corrupting the flesh that was sound before. So these heretical opinions spread in the body of the Church which is affected by them.

In case we don’t get the point, Gill’s Exposition is even more graphic,

The word “gangrene” is Greek (g), and is derived by some authors from the Paphlagonian “gangra”, a goat; it being the character of a goat to browse the grass all around without shifting. It is more correct, perhaps, to derive it from the Greek word “manduco”, “consumo”, I eat, I consume. The “gangrene” is a disease in the flesh of the part which it corrupts, consumes, and turns black, spreading and seizing itself of the adjoining parts, and is rarely cured without amputation. By the microscope, a gangrene has been discovered to contain an infinite number of little worms engendered in the morbid flesh; and which continually producing new broods, they swarm, and overrun the adjacent parts: if the gangrene proceed to an utter sphacelation (or mortification), and be seated in any of the limbs, or extreme parts, recourse must be had to the operation of amputation”

And so the errors and heresies of false teachers worm and spread, and feed upon the souls of men, and eat up the vitals of religion

How has the spread of the myth of female leadership roles spread like a cancer? Well, it was only 20 years ago, the LA Times article reports, that the Church of England allowed female priests. Unless repented of and rectified, it was a certainty that the gangrene would spread to the next level, the gangrene here being the heresy of women pastors.

Lest we think this is a problem far away across the ocean, let us look within our own ranks of “conservative” denominations to see where our own gangrene is eating away at the body. Beth Moore has been allowed to teach men, then to attain leadership prominence unrebuked alongside John Piper and Francis Chan on stage, and then as the sin of usurpation spread, to solely lead services on Sunday from the pulpit. Read the essay from Ken Fryer about The Strange Case of Brenda Maxwell to see how this particular rebellion heresy spread.

Joyce Meyer, who has for many years has had millions of followers, has not been firmly called out as a false teacher, and her example of being an ordained Minister has both excited and ignited the passions of many women, Christine Caine for example. Of course Caine is not going to gravitate to a woman who submits to the role ordained for her by God, like Nancy Guthrie, for example, because that does not suit her passion. Of course she is going to gravitate to a woman like Meyer who sails on a wide ocean of disobedience in leadership roles reserved for men. Caine calls Meyer her ‘spiritual mother.“

This kind of pattern is outlined for us in Revelation 2, where we see just what happens to the spiritual mothers who practice heresy, their spiritual daughters, and the people to tolerated it.

But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. (Revelation 2:20-23)

Gangrene does not respect boundaries. It does not care that a particular person calls himself or herself Conservative, or Baptist, or evangelical. If it is tolerated for one moment, its leaven will spoil the whole lump. Up until recently, LifeWay was considered to have a good reputation. LifeWay Christian Resources is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and is one of the largest providers of religious and Christian resources in the world, according to its business blurb.

Yet LifeWay promotes the false doctrines held by false teacher Beth Moore and TD Jakes and Mark Driscoll and Sarah Young and Henry Blackaby and William P. Young (The Shack) and Mark Batterson. LifeWay engages in selling heaven tourism to the gullible, dismisses legitimate biblical concerns from pastors who question their business model as balanced against their doctrinal model, provides a platform for atheist contemporary music bands, and is now actually propelling women into leadership roles reserved for men.

It is sad that undiscerning women are propelling other undiscerning women beyond their scripturally ordained role as wifely helpmeet, teacher of younger women and children and submissive servant. I am sad about this, but I am not discouraged.

Nice alliteration, Propel People. How about this: Service, Submission, Silence.
1 Peter 3:3-6, 1 Timothy 2:11, 1 Corinthians 14:34

Sin left unchecked always spreads. The sins of Sodom spread to Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim. The sins of Hymenaeus and Philetus would spread unless Timothy confronted them. The next generation is always worse, (Matthew 23:15 and Revelation 2:20-23.)

For people fond of saying “God told me”, here is something God told us, a woman will desire her husband’s position and usurp. He said that in Genesis 3 and then caused it to be recorded for all succeeding generations to be warned about. Paul told Timothy that he does not allow a woman to teach OR exercise authority over a man. Teaching leads to other areas where women exercise authority (Greek meaning of the word, domineer, exercise authority over, have mastery over, just as Genesis 2:15 says).

Ruling over, such as being ordained a Bishop in the Church of England, where Reverend Bishop Libby Lane will rule over men in the leadership hierarchy, but it’s also where one lone man stood up for Jesus.

In another place and time, Germany, May 2014, Heidi Mund stood up in her Christian church specifically built to honor Martin Luther and opposed the singing of a Muslim Imam at the pulpit in an interfaith concert. She was seen as a disgruntled protester and hustled out by police.

When we stand for Christ, we will be called these names. Don’t fear them, these names like disgruntled, negative, critical, judgmental, or this new one to me, serial protester.

If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. (John 15:18)

As upsetting or uncomfortable as it is at the time, later we will be glad we had participated in Christ’s sufferings, even momentarily. We will be glad we glorified Him. We will be grateful we stood for truth and not the lies and schemes of the devil.

There are some things we can do to diminish, but never avoiding the charge, of being a serial protester.

–do not scream in all caps on Facebook at every outrage. The Holy Spirit has all things in hand, and each of us are burdened to address one or a few, not all wrong things. In other words we don’t have to do it all. Pick your battles.

–be prayerful about where and when to address things of concern, whether they are in church (submissively and carefully to your pastor) or online. Online comment sections are bastions of poor doctrine, with many honest and solid women, undiscerning but earnest women and others outright destroyers mixing truth with lies to confuse the young. Usually the solid women are drowned out and thus online blogs, comment sections and newspapers quickly go beyond the discernment level of many people. Be careful.

–be teachable. I’m not right about everything and other sisters are not right about everything, so if you’re approaching a leader or pastor, be ready to learn.

–be encouraging sometimes. There is much that is right with the church. Let people know it.

–be repentant. Pray for forgiveness of all known and unknown sins. Sin left unaddressed will be easily matched by satan to lead you to a place of uncertain doctrine or even of falling prey to wolves for long periods, polluting your witness. For example, the doctrinal sin discussed today is one of women’s leadership beyond the scriptural boundary. This desire stems mainly from the sin of pride. These women who want to lead are prideful and arrogant. Many who fall prey to prosperity doctrines are greedy or jealous. The cleaner we are before Jesus the stronger our armor. (Ephesians 6:10-20)

Always stay in the word, pray, and congregate with brethren so we can stay sharp, clear, and submissive. Then when the time comes, as it did for Heidi Mund and the Rev. Paul Williamson, whether publicly or privately …

…in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, (1 Peter 3:15)

He deserves so much more, but this, this, is something we all can do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Philippians 1:10- Why do we want to abound in all discernment?

Posted on January 19, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; (Philippians 1:9-10)

Let’s look specifically at verse 10. Whenever there is a ‘so that’ or a ‘in order to’ it means there is a causal relationship. We are supposed to DO something in order that a result can come about.

Here I’d like to focus on the “all discernment”. Why does Paul want the Philippians (and us) to have all discernment? Because discernment is a critical ingredient in an important process. The result Paul is praying for his people to have is to be pure and blameless on the day we stand before Jesus. So now let’s look at this process and see how in honing our discernment it helps us strive toward this end.

Literally, “With a view to your proving (and so approving and embracing) the things that excel” (Ro 2:18); not merely things not bad, but the things best among those that are good; the things of more advanced excellence. Ask as to things, not merely, Is there no harm, but is there any good, and which is the best?

Source: Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, p. 361).

Now this is interesting. There are three questions the Commenter said we ask in discerning.

–Is there harm?
–Is there any good?
–Which is the best?

We already know that at the basic level, discernment means sifting between what is good and what is bad. That’s the part in asking ‘is there harm?’ In addition, as Spurgeon said, “Discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather it is the difference between right and almost right.” That’s the second question.

And now here we have a third part of the process of discernment, distinguishing between what is good and what is best. This is an often overlooked part of discernment.

If your son or daughter is choosing a college to attend, if you’re able, don’t you want them to choose the best? If you’re buying a book to read, all other things being equal, don’t you choose the one with the best reviews? If you are a Sunday School Superintendent choosing new material to use in class, don’t you want the best? No one says, ‘Nah, I’ll pass over the best and settle for the merely good.’

It’s like if a tsunami is coming. The waters are rising and you’ve gotten to high ground. It’s good ground. You’re pretty sure it’s good enough. But you still have time to reach the best ground, where you can be sure you won’t get swept away. Do you stay put? Of course not. To save your life you strive for the best and highest ground.

Discernment is like that. I remember reading a Christian woman’s essay about this very thing in practical terms. Sunny Shell, on why she chose to no longer follow John Piper.

I’ve found the teachings from John Piper and “Desiring God” (after testing it with God’s word) requires more discernment than I currently possess. And since there are other Christian teachers/ministries I can learn from (e.g., John MacArthur/Grace to You, Alistair Begg/Truth for Life, R.C. Sproul and son, R.C. Sproul, Jr./Ligonier Ministries) that don’t give me tired-head, I’ve chosen to only follow those who are clearly and faithfully following the Lord (Heb 13:7).

Discernment includes searching out the best holy ground we possibly can, so that Jesus is MORE glorified rather than LESS glorified. Seek out what you know to be the best, and stick with that.

Keep going up and up

Our ultimate aim always is to glorify Jesus. However there are several additional reasons why we want to “abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10so that you may approve the things that are excellent”. The first reason is so that others will benefit.

all discernment – The term aisthēsis refers to the ability to make decisions for the benefit of others. 1:10 what is superior When the Philippians’ love abounds, they will be able to determine what is most valuable or beneficial to the community of believers.

Barry, J. D., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Faithlife Study Bible (Php 1:9–10). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

What if you were running from the rising waters of the tsunami again. And you were not too familiar with the ground and you thought you’d reached the highest you could go, and sat down to see if the waters would reach you or not. But along came someone who had hiked that hill before and knew there was a narrow pass that led to even higher ground? Would you stay put? Of course not, you’d be grateful someone came along and showed you that though where you were was good, it was beneficial to move to where it was best.

The second reason we discern is so that our minds can be renewed. And here we have the most critical reason why discernment is important. (along with the other items Paul prayed for us to have). The process of discernment helps to sharpen the mind and to renew it according to Christ’s likeness. This is the process I spoke of at the beginning.

Gills Exposition explains this aspect of the Philippians 1:10 verse

Or “try things that differ”. There are some things that differ one from other; as morality and grace, earthly things and heavenly things, carnal and spiritual, temporal and eternal things, law and Gospel, the doctrines of men and the doctrines of Christ; all which differ as much as chaff and wheat, as gold, silver, precious stones, and wood, hay, stubble.

These are to be tried and proved; they are not to be received without distinction, but should be examined, which is right and best to be chosen and preferred; and to such trial and examination it is necessary that a man should be transformed, by the renewing of his mind, that he should have spiritual light, knowledge, and experience, have his spiritual senses exercised to discern the difference of things.

Let Jesus freshen and open your mind
as you practice discernment. EPrata photo

Gill said these things are not to be received without distinction. In today’s Christianity we are barraged with the notion that we are to let the false teachers alone. We are not to point out the false doctrine. We are not to say this or that is a bad book. ‘Let God judge’ they say. ‘It will be taken care of in the end’ they say. However, failure to participate in the important process of discernment means you are choosing deliberately NOT to renew your mind.

The process of choosing, testing, weighing, examining, reading, comparing…all these are part of the process of how the Lord transforms our mind. As we hear a teaching and go back to the word, He transforms our mind. Through hard work, trial and error, we gain experience.

It would be nice if we were sitting around and Jesus simply plopped discernment and experience into our minds. This is what many of the false teachers say happens to them. They sit on their porch or sequester themselves in a cabin or shell peas and all of a sudden presto, a new revelation from God and a new ‘level’ of ‘fresh experience.’ They say, “God told me.” “God wrote the book for me.” “I saw Jesus and He said…” But that is not how it works.

When Paul said ‘persevere in the struggle’ and ‘run the race’, he didn’t mean as a sidelines armchair quarterback waiting for a personally dove-delivered epiphany. LOL, that is hardly running, now, is it? The practice of discernment is part of the struggle and through it, we gain experience and a transformed mind.

The more I practice discernment the more my love for Christ abounds, because that means I see Him more clearly than the day before. We still see through a glass dimly, but in practicing discernment, it’s like when we walk into a dark room, instead of choosing to turn on only a flashlight, we are using a floodlight.

So we end as we began, with Paul’s prayer: