Yesterday was so relaxing. It was unusually relaxing.
Normally my Saturdays fly by. I am blessed with having a M-F job, so that my weekends are always free from having to work at my job. As for weekends, I save Sundays for worship. I don’t cook or clean, or do much of anything except attend Sunday School, Church service, have a nap, and contemplate and study the scriptures offered by the pastor in the sermon. I don’t go out on Sundays, except for church.
That leaves Saturdays to get everything done. That day is the burdened burro of the week, the go-to day. I do cooking for the week ahead, cleaning, laundry, chores, errands, bills, all of it. Add to that the usual joy of bible study, listening to sermons or lectures, preparing for the Sunday School lesson, and prayer, it gets crammed. You know what I’m talking about. Saturdays are always busy. Hence, they go by quickly.
Not yesterday. I was filled with a sense of incredible peace. I was completely relaxed. The unseasonally warm weather helped, certainly. The temperatures were in the 70s and it was sunny. The windows were open and the birds were swooping and singing. But still. The day seemed to have actually telescoped into something longer than 24 hours. Great chunks of time went by but it was still early. I had time to do everything I needed, plus more. I was wringing more relaxation from the day than its mundanity warranted.
So I’m making my breakfast this morning. I’m cutting up potatoes to steam, and I’m thinking, “WHY was I so relaxed?” LOL, you know me, I have to analyze everything. I went down a mental list of all that happened yesterday and I came to a conclusion.
I had spent an extra lot of time with the Lord. I studied relishingly. I prayed fervently. I listened diligently. I cried, I petitioned, I laughed. I thought about Him, talked with Him, and praised Him. It wasn’t cursory attention, either. I do the quick or the superficial sometimes like everyone else does. A quick prayer, skim the bible, throwaway chat. I can be superficial with Him if I let myself be, and I do often enough. Yesterday I gave Him good attention from the mind and heart and soul. He gave me peace. His peace. I believe what I experienced yesterday was evidence of supernatural peace. It had to be.
The bible speaks often of this peace.
“Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.” (Psalm 119:165) “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7) “and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:19)
And so on.
Sometimes we think that peace is for people who are undergoing a trial, like persecution or deep grief. And it is. But the peace of Jesus can saturate us in the mundane, too. Doing dishes, putting in a load of laundry. He keeps His children.
Far from being so busy that we crowd Him into a quick prayer, when we make time for Him, He makes ‘time’ for us. A Jesus saturated day is peaceful. Every second that passes which is coated in praise and seeking Him is a different kind of second that passes when we hurry along with Jesus at the back of the bus. Really.
Please set the things of this world aside to make time for Him. You will be pleasantly surprised. You won’t understand it, but you will be surprised. And relaxed.
Sin is fire, yet too many people do not understand its deadly effects. The effects of sin in a person devolve that person’s heart, body, and mind, until they are only a vestige of humanity. We are made in God’s image, the flesh is a mere shell surrounding what is real. Sin is a disease, a consuming fire of the flesh. It is a slippery path upon which their foot shall slide in due time (Deuteronomy 32:35). Some have their foot slide earlier than others. Some will traverse the path for a longer while before slipping suddenly. Either way, their foot SHALL slide.
I’d written yesterday about the effect on a society of people who choose the homosexual lifestyle. However the choice to sin will result in all manner of insanity, not just homosexuality. Auguste Tholuck wrote about the ancient Roman and Greek days from a Christian perspective of what sin will produce in a society. His book “Nature and moral Influence of Heathenism” is well known. He wrote, “Heathenism profanes the image of God in man.”
In other words, when one is not in Jesus with the Holy Spirit restraining sin, the image of God in man becomes so unidentifiable as anything Godly that man is eventually consumed, swallowed up. Jonathan Edwards write in his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,”
“the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up;”
We know all this, you say. But what does a society look like which has passed the tipping point of sin’s burdens and effects? When, collectively, the people disregard God and go their own way?
In 2009, John MacArthur wrote an essay called “The Character Crisis.” He stated,
“[Romans 1:28-32] describes our culture to the letter, doesn’t it? People today literally entertain themselves with iniquity, heedlessly applauding those who sin most flagrantly. Society today makes celebrities of people who in our grandparents’ generation would have been deemed the most contemptible rogues. Almost everything that used to be considered shameful is now celebrated. We therefore live in a culture where personal character and individual virtue are rapidly evaporating at almost every level. Virtue and infamy have traded places.”
Mass sin makes a society crazy. Like this:
Naked man shot by homeowner after breaking into a Miami home and trying to strangle pet Rottweiler “A naked intruder was shot in Miami this morning after being found trying to choke a home-owner’s pet Rottweiler. The property owner shot the man in the leg after discovering him trying to throttle one of his dogs at around 5am, NBCMiami.com reports. The suspect is being treated in the Jackson Memorial hospital following the incident in the Northwest 2nd Avenue area of the city. … The naked suspect tried to bite the homeowner, police and later hospital workers coming to his assistance.”
Between crazy people everywhere and the government’s unconstitutional interference with us on a grand level, we get this:
Patriotic Group To Build Armed ‘Defensible’ Neighborhood Fortress “A group of like-minded patriots, bound together by pride in American exceptionalism, plan on building an armed community to protect their liberty. The group, named Citadel, intends to purchase 2,000 to 3,000 acres for the project in western Idaho. The community will comprise of 3,500 to 7,000 families of patriotic Americans who “voluntarily choose to live together in accordance with Thomas Jefferson’s ideal of Rightful Liberty.”
You can bet that there are others who have thought of building an enclave, or are even making preparations for such communities. If one group is being reported in the media it means there are likely hundreds of others which are out there but haven’t come to national attention.
Absent a unifying thread of Godly worship, eventually every society splinters into living according to what they believe is right.
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6).
Clarke’s Commentary says, “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes – He was his own governor, and what he did he said was right; and, by his cunning and strength, defended his conduct. When a man’s own will, passions, and caprice, are to be made the rule of law, society is in a most perilous and ruinous state.”
The disintegration of the believing Church, which in this case acts as the undershepherd standing in for the judge mentioned in the verse, means there is no ‘magistrate’ to take note of man’s sin, and call him to restrain from it, or punish him for it according to the law of God.
This now means more than ever that every believer is called to do what is right in the face of increasing wrong. We have an opportunity here. A flashlight can be seen in the daylight but is even better seen when it is dark. Each Christian should be pursuing what is excellent, doing what is good, and submitting to the Holy Spirit by walking on the narrow path. Scripture alone tells us what to do. I don’t like that the times have gotten so dark. But I do like that I have an opportunity to appeal to Jesus to make His light in me shine brighter, to be seen in the darkness by those with no hope.
MacArthur closes with this:
“Truly excellent character is actually a reflection of the moral nature of God Himself. [the image of God] For that reason, all virtues are interdependent and closely related. And all of them are the fruit of God’s grace. As you study biblical virtue, may you perceive the true beauty of Christ’s character and desire to see it reproduced in your own life.”
Keep praying for Jesus to come, meanwhile, keep praying for the people of the world so affected by sin.
Yet another volcano that was “once dormant” has come to life. This article is from the UK Telegraph. Geology Professor Erik Klemetti says from a scientific standpoint, “bad article, cool video.” It is a cool video. Here is the news:
Erupting Russian volcano creating a lava lake A lava lake has started to form at the once-dormant Plosky Tolbachik volcano in Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka peninsula. “Russian scientists said there were no signs that the Plosky Tolbachik volcano will stop erupting soon, Russian broadcaster RU-RTR reported earlier on Friday. … After lying dormant for almost 40 years Plosky Tolbachik suddenly erupted in November.”
It is the creation of the lava lake that has caught their attention. This article from Australia reports:
Plosky Tolbachik volcano erupts in Russia’s Far East A VOLCANO erupting in Russia’s Far East is sending plumes of gas and ash high into the sky and creating a lava lake. The Plosky Tolbachik volcano is located in Kamchatka peninsula, hundreds of kilometres from the nearest residential areas. Gennady Karpov, a volcano expert at Russia’s Academy of Sciences in the Far East, said: “There were no lava lakes at Kamchatka volcanos before now. We have never seen this before.” Plosky Tolbachik has emitted jets of hot lava up to 200 metres high.”
Both articles speak of hot or burning lava. Klemetti’s wry tweet made me laugh: (Erik K / Eruptions @eruptionsblog)
“And what’s the deal with “burning lava”? Is this as opposed to “pleasant and soothing lava”?”
Rampant homosexuality has been much on my mind these last weeks. The 2012 Presidential campaign with the sinful and unholy Democrat platform, the Presidential re-election of a man who supports perversion, and the weeks afterward with the dogs of hell unleashed to rabidly foment gay chaos in front of a fast-advancing homosexual agenda, all are on my heart.
“Since the recent election, we’ve seen same-sex couples lining up at courthouses in several states to receive their marriage licenses, and hundreds of people gathering in public places to light up marijuana cigarettes in the states where it has just been decriminalized. This is only the tip of the iceberg. The moral decline we see on television programs—blatant immorality, senseless violence, media-friendly gay and lesbian behavior—is just a reflection of the moral corruption that has infected our entire nation. These are indeed dark days … but there is hope. … “For far too long, as a nation we have neglected – and even rejected – the Word of God and His commands. Yet the Scriptures are mighty, able to penetrate even the most hardened and darkened hearts with convicting, life-giving power. This is the only cure for a sin-sickened country that is about to slip into a moral abyss, and it is why we must proclaim the Good News.”
So feeling burdened with all this immorality, Mr Graham spoke up on December 27, 2012, and when 2013 came to pass a few days later the above articles show the homosexual lobby didn’t waste time leaping onto the beast to cement their victories. Then Passion 2013 happened. I’d remarked at the time that analyzing the multi-day conference aimed at youth held in the Georgia Dome and organized by founder Louie Giglio had brought up in me personal grief and spiritual distress. Even more so than when usually analyzing a discernment conference or study, this one laid me low. I wrote about it four times. “This is a big one,” I’d thought. I had no clue why. Only subsequent events revealed that this issue is still reverberating in the hellish halls of demonic doings.
God knew that one of the outcomes of the conference, which also focuses on solving cultural problems like human sex trafficking, would come to the attention of the man currently occupying the Oval Office, Barack Obama. Obama tapped founder and Passion City Church pastor Louie Giglio to pray the benediction at his inauguration. Giglio was not chosen because he is a conservative pastor, or that he is a preacher of the word, but because Giglio brought the issue of slavery to the forefront and had incited 60,000 youth to raise over 3M to stop it. Raising awareness of a cultural issue of slavery was the reason Giglio was asked, not because Obama was looking forward to being bathed in a joyful prayer issued from the lips of a man who preaches Jesus. As a matter of fact the person who he chose to deliver the prayer at Invocation was a woman and a layperson. Not Christian clergy.
The excitement of the evangelicals was short-lived anyway, those who believe Mr Giglio still preaches a solid Gospel message, that is. The next day Mr Giglio backed out because 20 years ago Mr Giglio said that homosexuality is a sin. ABC News reported it this way:
“Giglio’s mid-90s sermon uncovered by ThinkProgress”… Uncovered? Like, it was hiding? Even Giglio himself used shaming language by saying that “due to a message of mine that has surfaced from 15-20 years ago,” Surfaced? Like it was hidden under something? A basket maybe? (Matthew 5:15).
Apparently the homosexual lobby took issue with the remarks Mr Giglio made in his sermon from 1995, it caused a firestorm, and Mr Giglio quit, saying that he didn’t want the firestorm to overshadow his message. Giglio wrote in a press release, “The prayer I would offer, will be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration”.
As an aside, I won’t comment specifically on Mr Giglio’s decision, though I have many opinions on it. Mr Al Mohler and Mr Russell Moore and Ms Erin Benziger all wrote on the issue from various perspectives, and wrote quite well. I don’t want to add to the general confusion by throwing in my 2 cents which would really be one cent. But I would like to say one thing: that the furor that results from preaching sin and redemption did not stop Paul from preaching where and when the Holy Spirit told him to. Even after getting stoned and left for dead, after being revived by the Holy Spirit, Paul got up and went back in to face actual mobs, (Acts 14:19-20) not just a day’s worth of internet criticism.
The issue of this essay is that with that Inauguration brouhaha, it is plain to see that the homosexual lobby has morphed into our state church. And we must all worship or die. Mr Moore wrote that the Inauguration Committee’s bowing to the Homosexual lobby indicate a new State Church is being born. It is. It surely is. It may as well be called The Church of Perpetual Perversion. Moore wrote,
“the new state church requires a “license” of embracing sexual liberation in all its forms.”
This new day of bowing to the small minority’s insistence that homosexual behavior and other sexual sin in all its forms must be worshiped, embraced and exalted was akin to the immorality in Seneca’s time.
Seneca the Roman philosopher and statesman lived from 4BC to 65AD, overlapping in adulthood with Jesus’s time and when the Church was born. He was adviser to Caligula and Nero. The depths of licentiousness and homosexuality had reached alarming levels, alarming even a veteran Roman. Seneca wrote,
“All is full of criminality and vice; indeed much more of these is committed than can be remedied by force. A monstrous contest of abandoned wickedness is carried on. The lust of sin increases daily; and shame is daily more and more extinguished. Discarding respect for all that is good and sacred, lust rushes on wherever it will. Vice no longer hides itself. It stalks forth before all eyes. So public has abandoned wickedness become, and so openly does it flame up in the minds of all, that innocence is no longer seldom, but has wholly ceased to exist.”
It seems that the abandonment of moral behavior listed by Seneca are the same ones today. The Holy Spirit warned us that this day would come. Every society since Paul penned the famous words in Romans has been at risk for this deadly trajectory. We are in it now, at the end of it really, barely hanging on to the period punctuating the final word in the verses which spell our doom. Here they are:
“Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:32)
Paul had just finished outlining what happens to a society that allows sexual sin to run rampant. Here is the progression from Romans 1:18-31,
1. They knew God but denied Him, therefore their thinking became futile & their hearts were darkened. No outward behavior yet. 2. They claimed to be wise, going against God’s standards. God made them fools. 3. They exchanged things of God for things of nature and worshiped the creation. Still inward, secret sins. 4. So God gave them over to their sexual desires in impurity. Those would be fornication and adultery. Now the behavior is following the heart’s evil desires. 5. Their passions became dishonorable- women with women and men with men. So, it gets worse. 6. They still won’t acknowledge God, so He gave them a debased mind. What it is saying here is that the act of homosexuality should be so shocking to the person, that it should jolt them senseless and they should be repenting about now. Acting on unholy desires should have been an indicator to them as to the deepening of their perversions. But still, they persist in it. 7. And then they are filled with all manner of other unrighteousness, which the verse goes on to list. The list is long. (Romans 1:29-31). 8. Finally, they not only approve of their actions but encourage others to do it also.
Augustus Tholuck’s “Nature and Moral Influence of Heathenism” studied the influence of heathenism upon the lives of heathens, particularly Rome and Greece. He wrote that in breaking loose from the Holy God of Christians, not in their wildest intoxications would they imagine the excesses that sexual sin would go. The most unbridled, indiscriminate, and disgusting licentiousness rose up, and were not only openly practiced but specifically encouraged. (As Romans 1:32 said they would). Further, these practices were facilitated by the customs and institutions of heathenism, such as government. Tholuck wrote that this almost inevitably led to the grossest of superstitions on the part of the people. In Rome, as sexual sin and perversions increased, the number of deities increased dramatically. It also led to unbelief, disgust and contempt for Christianity on the part of the educated. Worst, the more that licentiousness and perversion arose, the more men yielded themselves up. (Source, “Elements of moral philosophy” by Jasper Adams and August Tholuck’s “Nature and moral Influence of Heathenism”).
The more they sin, the more they want, and the more they want, the more that men yield themselves. This speaks to me of a trajectory that has a tipping point. At some point the snowball can’t be stopped from rolling faster and faster down the hill and the bundle of sexual perversions endemic in society becomes an avalanche. Seneca wrote, ‘much more of these is committed than can be remedied by force…’ evoking to my mind a tidal wave of immorality that sweeps away all in its path. We’re there now.
In seeing how far homosexuality, incest, pederasty and other such sins would go, Tholuck recorded that the Emperors of Rome, who themselves considered themselves deity, practiced such licentiousness as the world had hardly seen:
Caligula- established a brothel in the palace and caused a toll to be paid to himself, Nero: drove through Roman streets with his naked mistress, Messalina (Claudius’s wife) commended herself to all men for pay, and entered into a contest with the highest paid prostitute in the city (and won), Commodus- lay with his sister and killed her.
As Adams and Tholuck wrote, heathenism’s sway allowed the vices and sufferings of humankind to continually increase. “Heathenism profanes the image of God in man.” (A. Tholuck). After its tipping point, the only way to stop it is Jesus. This was evidenced in the flood in Genesis, with the warning that man’s inclinations had become evil all the time. (Genesis 6:5). It was evidenced in the excesses of Rome occurred during a period just before and during and just after Jesus’s coming, when He spent a great deal of His ministry casting out demons. And we have the warning that in the future (now?) that the coming of the Son of Man will be when the days once again become like the Days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39).
“For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
But here’s the thing– The people of Genesis 6 were sinning so badly, yet were so unaware of impending wrath in the Flood, that they were all surprised when it occurred. It will be like that again, when Jesus comes again.
The days are like the ancient Roman days, it seems to me. Public prostitution, licentiousness galore (The homosexual festivals at various cities around the nation are worse than Nero just driving around with his naked mistress…), homosexuality taught in schools and accepted and promoted by the Emperor President. The 2% of the population of homosexuals has successfully wrested the discussion of morality in the public square from the 98% of the rest of us and instilled its talking points from the highest levels (White House) down to the smallest children in school.
I wrote up above that “Only subsequent events revealed that this issue is still reverberating in the hellish halls of demonic doings.” I believe this is why those in the discernment ministry felt so deeply that passion 2013 was something deeper, with more going on than the eye or ear could detect. In hindsight we now can connect some dots. The progression went like so: From the Democrat platform affirming deep immorality, to the election win of Obama, to the passage of gay marriage laws in many states, Passion 2013’s focus on slavery, which caught the President’s attention and caused him to issue an invitation to give the benediction at the inauguration, to the LGBT Two Minutes Hate, to the backing down of the pastor in the face of gay fury, finally revealing the new state church of homosexuality.
I wrote last October that Dr. John MacArthur was shocked at what he saw at the Democratic convention. He said in his sermon “Homosexuality and the Campaign for Immorality”, “the very things that God hates and that bring down God’s judgment were affirmed as part of the Democratic Party platform. Open sex with government-provided contraception, murder of babies in wombs, God left out of the platform, and homosexual behavior even, advocating homosexual marriage–an oxymoron, since that’s impossible. … I don’t know how much time America has left, I really don’t. But we’re on a course described here as God casting us out. The land has become defiled.”
This is more true today than in October, by a mile. Things are happening so fast now.
Preachers and other Christians strive to be measured when preaching homosexuality as a sin. They try to qualify it by repeating that homosexuality is ‘one of many sins’, ‘we all sin’, ‘we all have something to repent of’. While all that is surely true, and the bible makes it clear that all sins will keep an unrepentant person from heaven, and that homosexuality itself isn’t a greater sin than any other, I do believe homosexuality is a special case.
“Unlike other sins, this sexual sin has a judgment administered by God Himself: He gives them over to their passions (Romans 1:26-28). This means that their hearts are allowed to be hardened by their sins. As a result, they can no longer see the error of what they are doing. Without an awareness of their sinfulness, there will be no repentance. Without repentance, there will be no forgiveness. Without forgiveness, there is no salvation.”
The Romans passage shows us that after they are filled with perverse lusts, then all manner of other unrighteousness comes in. (Not that people who are not homosexual aren’t sinners). But Paul spent almost an entire chapter outlining what happens when a society caves into perverse lust. That, plus the example of Sodom’s destruction (Genesis 19), plus the subsequent mentions of Sodom as being judged specifically as a reminder (Jude 1:7; Deuteronomy 29:23; Jeremiah 50:40 ), do indicate that when a society passes a tipping point with regard to perverse lusts, it is a symptom that is greater and has more impact than when other sins reach epidemic proportions. Remember Seneca’s shock at his own countrymen’s behavior.
If anything else, the ‘Giglio imbroglio’ as Mohler termed it, shows us that the State Church of Homosexuality, Lesbianism, Transgender, and Just Plain Weird (LGBT for short) is now open, and its members will expect you to worship in it at their convenience. Pick up a rainbow pin at the lobby, and don’t forget to bow to the Idolater in Chief as you pass his statue. It is a small church, but mighty in voice. Its clamor has caused many a good fellow to cover their ears to the din, thereby also shutting out the Good Voice. Their members will welcome you with open arms- as long as you approve of all that goes on. They are very good at the Two Minutes Hate.
[The Two Minutes Hate from George Orwell’s dystopian book 1984, is an assembly during which Party orators whip the populace into a frenzy of hatred against their enemies and to preserve their version of cultural unity.]
When a society descends to the levels which Seneca described, and we are there today, can judgment be far behind?
People who aren’t saved are not immune from God’s presence in the world. And He IS present. He is present by the Holy Spirit indwelling Christians all around. He is present by having revealed Himself in the world as Romans 1:18-20 says–
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
What does it feel like for a non-believer to writhe under the presence of God and His wrath being revealed? What does it look like? Perhaps like this–
Waiting for the Apocalypse, Part II: In the beginning, a fear of the end “We’ve worried about the end from the very beginning. Since Biblical times apocalypticism has been a constant human narrative, providing fearful ideas and images about the ultimate destiny of the world. In recent years, despite the cultural influence of science, it has taken on a whole new impetus and impact. “Apocalypticism … (has) become a constant and unavoidable presence in everyday life,” say anthropologists Kathleen Steward and Susan Harding. We might all share the humour if the idea of apocalypse didn’t affect so many.”
The article appeared in the Ottawa Citizen just before the apocalypse-that-wasn’t, the Mayan end of the world thing that was predicted for December 21, 2012. The article reported that entire governments were sending out bulletins to reassure people. NASA was inundated with queries from scared kids. Prisons described mass psychosis. Whole ‘bug-out’ mountains were closed due to panicked survivalists scurrying to clamber up and hide.
The thrust of the article was two-fold. First the authors note that ‘apocalypse mania’ has been among the people since biblical times. The tone of wonder and perplexity underlying the article reveals that they can’t figure out why. ‘Aren’t we rational? Haven’t we gotten past all that, yet?’ the authors seems to say. And secondly, that perhaps, just perhaps, since this kind of notion has been embedded in the human psychology all this time, it might, just might, bear looking into.
The former attitude is revealed when we read statements from the article like–
–We’ve worried about the end from the very beginning –has been a constant human narrative –recent times a new impetus and impact –affect so many –Notions of apocalypse are rooted in our understanding of history
It is evident that the human race has been dealing with notions of the end of the world and will continue to deal with those notions despite all man has done through culture an science to rid themselves of that pesky fear. The worry does not just affect the few and the insane, the article’s authors are forced to admit. It is pervasive.
The second notion that authors seem to be grappling with is that because the fear of the end of the world has affected humankind for so long, it is not a historical or cultural phenomenon we can easily dismiss. Try as they might to rid themselves of the fact that people do indeed worry about the end of the world, there must be something to all this, they say. However, they make a failure of the attempt to understand why fears of the end of the world won’t go away. They continue in the latter part of the article to construct a complicated secular humanist argument to grapple with this notion that so irks them and yet won’t go away. They write:
“Perhaps before dismissing this kind of thinking we need to understand it.”
The job of the rational being here, of course, is to inculcate a proper understanding of this persistent but ridiculous notion of the end of the world, before dismissing it. The end game all along is to dismiss it. The job of the rational being is to pigeonhole it and then say “AHA!” with pompous authority, then to dismiss it.
But they can’t. They won’t. They never will. Not until right up to the time when it states in Revelation 6 that the day of wrath is here.
“For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:17). That verse isn’t talking about the believers who converted after the rapture saying that the Lord’s day of wrath has come. The verse just prior says that “everyone” will be saying that. Everyone.
It’s through articles like that where one can get a real sense of the Romans verse. God is the authority on the end of the world, and behind that, we know, is the judgment. The reason we have had whole populations worried about the end of the world is that there will come a day when the world will end.
“Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31).
The psychologists and sociologists and anthropologists all try to understand the mass fascination with the end of the world and the answer is simple- but they never study it. It is all in the bible. The reason there is a fascination is that the verse from Romans is being lived out in humankind. God has revealed Himself, and what is known about God has been made plain to them. And if God is plainly revealed to humankind through His creation, that means His holiness has been revealed. If His holiness is revealed, than our sinfulness is revealed. Humankind can never escape knowledge our our sinfulness, no matter how many pretty words and social sciences overlay it with reasonable sounding arguments. All that article reads to me is that the Romans 1:18-20 verse is true and living. Its truth is making them squirm. See, the article continues in Part 3:
“So why in our supposedly post-ideological age has apocalypticism returned so strongly? Why despite all the “progress” of modernity — scientific, social, political, moral, etc. — do so many think the world is going to end, at least as we know it? And what might be the consequences of this new Apocalyptic Era? The problem is that even in our supposedly rationalist era a lot of people — billions in fact — subscribe to apocalyptic scenarios of one sort or another.”
Why won’t it go away? Why? Why?
The article concludes like this:
“The only end-times prediction that can be made with any reasonable certainty, at least according to science, is that a few billion years from now the sun will go nova and balloon into a red giant and turn the planet into a cinder. Long before then we, as a species, will either have disappeared through our own folly — surrender to some apocalyptic delusion? — or evolved into entities that will take us home to the stars.”
Are those our only choices? Die in a delusion, or become a cold and heartless star-baby, doomed to ever wander the universe in a perpetual evolution upward…to nothing? You can see exactly why Jesus is HOPE. The non-believer has no choices before him with regard to eternity, the future of the planet, and our reconciling to the higher power. Articles like that one from the Ottawa Citizen are really a plea for answers, because they have no answers and thus, no hope. But when given the answer: Jesus Christ, they writhe and shy away from the truth. But no matter, He is the answer.
Jesus Christ is our savior. There is no sweeter relationship on earth or heaven one can have. If you repent of your sins and believe that He died on the cross for your sins and rose from the dead to rule from His throne in heaven, you will be saved. Not Allah. Not the Mormon’s Heavenly Father, not Buddha or Gandhi or Obama. Only the name of Jesus saves.
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).
When I was saved the Holy Spirit came into me and suddenly I understood the scriptures. He opens your mind. (Luke 24:45). He gives knowledge of your future. He offers HOPE! HOPE! HOPE! You will know about the end of the world and you will understand. It is my prayer that if you are wondering, seeking, or chafing under conviction of a weight you cannot shed, or living with an emptiness you cannot fill, here is how to be saved
Here is a bit of news for you on the weather beat:
Snow & driving rains hit Israel Biggest storm in 20 years. Floods malls, shuts roads, closes schools. “Jews and Christians often pray for the Lord to give Israel more rain. In recent years, there hasn’t nearly been enough precipitation and the Sea of Galilee’s water levels have been dropping. But this week, Israel is getting more snow and driving rain than it has in two decades. It’s come so fast and furious that the Land isn’t able to quickly absorb it all. As a result, malls are being flooded. Roads are being shut down. Schools and government offices are being closed. The IDF and Navy have even been deployed repeatedly in the last few days to rescue Israelis in danger.”
Heavy snow leaves Jerusalem in unfamiliar territory “The first thing I thought when I looked out the window this morning was, “‘Where do you buy a snow shovel in Jerusalem?'” But the typically Canadian heavy snowfall that Israelis woke up to this morning has had serious consequences as the storm hits the Middle East. In many parts of the country Thursday morning, 10 to 15 centimetres of snow fell. Jerusalem, which is nestled among hills, received a good blanketing – enough to shut down schools and many businesses. Police closed the main highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.”
The weather in Australia has been catastrophic. That’s not hyperbole. They really listed it as catastrophic. It has been so hot they had to create a new level to show how hot it is. Like 11 out of 10 or something. The predicted high temp was going to be 125 F. You heard me.
It ended up being “only” 116F (47C) in Oodnadatta.
Here is ABC news:
Record temperatures across southern Australia “Australia had its hottest day on record on Monday with a nationwide average of 40.33 degrees Celsius (104.59 degrees Fahrenheit), narrowly breaking a 1972 record of 40.17C (104.31F). Tuesday was the third hottest day at 40.11C (104.20F). Four of Australia’s hottest 10 days on record have been in 2013. “There’s little doubt that this is a very, very extreme heat wave event,” Bureau of Meteorology manager of climate monitoring and prediction David Jones said. “If you look at its extent, its duration, its intensity, it is arguably the most significant in Australia’s history,” he added.”
Freakish dust storm sweeps over western Australia “Western Australians witnessed a freakish dust storm off the coast of Onslow on Wednesday. The stunning views were created as wind and rain caused the storm to dump the sand and dust it had ingested while passing Onslow, Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Austen Watkins told Australian Yahoo!. … Jonathan Erdman, meteorologist for The Weather Channel, was amazed by the images created by the Australian dust storm. “In 18 years of meteorology, I’ve never seen a white shelf cloud capping the brownish dirt from the haboob. If there was a hall of fame for weather photos, this one would get in on the first ballot.”
Record Heat Fuels Widespread Fires in Australia “Bush fires raging across some of the most populous parts of Australia — feeding off widespread drought conditions and high winds — pushed firefighters to their limits and residents to their wits’ end on Wednesday as meteorologists tracked the country’s hottest spring and summer on record into uncharted territory. Firefighters battled a grass fire in Oura, near Wagga Wagga, Australia, on Tuesday. On Monday, Australia’s hottest day on record, the national average was 104.59 degrees. Four months of record-breaking temperatures stretching back to September 2012 have produced what the government says are “catastrophic” fire conditions along the eastern and southeastern coasts of the country, where the majority of Australians live.”
And who wasn’t moved by the compelling photo and story of the family hiding under a dock as their world was reduced to cinders around them?
In China, they are having the opposite problem of fire and heat: cold. About 420,000 are affected by a cold snap.
Cold wave affects 420,000 in SW China “GUIYANG – About 420,000 people are in a state of disaster in Southwest China’s Guizhou province, as the freezing weather has been worsened by a new round of cold air, said local authorities on Thursday. … Lingering cold along with freezing rain and snowfall have affected 425,300 people in 17 counties and forced local governments to relocate 5,044 people, according to the provincial civil affairs authorities. The province’s direct economic losses to the cold are estimated to be over 73.6 million yuan ($11.8 million ), mostly coming in agricultural fields.”
Our glorious Jesus is such a prize that satan tries constantly to snatch Him away from us. He is glorious, perfect, beautiful and wondrous. Our most excellent Holy Spirit always points to Him. (John 15:26). The Spirit dwelling inside believers will guide us into all truth. Not just some truth. All truth. (John 14:26.
However, satan and his minions hate the truth. They try to confuse the brethren, cause division, add false teachings, preach a different Jesus, and divert the people from the narrow road of Jesus. (Romans 15:16-18; Matthew 15:9; 2 Corinthians 11:4; Colossians 2:4; 1 Timothy 1:3; Galatians 5:10…and so on.) The number of verses in the New Testament regarding false teachers and false doctrines abound.
Yet many Christians today don’t heed the warning. If they do, they allow the warnings to remain abstract and never diligently be a Berean to check if what they are learning on the ground is consistent with what the bible says.
Think about it this way. Jesus spent much of His time cleansing the Land from demons, puncturing false teachings, condemning false teachers (from the Pharisees) and instructing the people in truth. When He ascended, the land was clean spiritually and physically.
Yet right away, satan came back in. Paul, Peter, Timothy, James, Titus, Paul, well, most of the Apostles mentioned some kind of false teaching or teacher to watch out for. (Judaizers, Nicolaitans, Legalism). False teachers were named (Hymenaeus, Alexander). If the vacuum of the Presence of Jesus on earth allowed all the falsity to return within months to a few years, what do we think the level of falsity 2000 years later is like? Satan is having a field day.
“It is possible for real Christians to be taken in by false prophets. When believers are careless about study of and obedience to the Word, lazy about prayer, and uncritical about the things of God, it is easy for them to be deceived by someone who pretends to be orthodox-especially if he is pleasant, positive, and permissive. … Judging the fruit of false prophets, of course, is not nearly so easy as judging fruit in an orchard. But from Scripture we discover at least three primary tests we can apply in order to know. They are in the areas of character, creed, and converts.” (source). I recommend the source material to learn further how to spot false teachers.
He is so wonderful. He teaches us about falsity and gives us the bible and the holy spirit to help us so we won’t be taken in by them. “After warning about false prophets, Jesus tells us what to watch for in identifying them. Because they are so extremely deceptive and dangerous ravenous spiritual and moral wolves in sheep’s clothing-the Lord would hardly have left us without means of determining who they are. Jesus assures us that we will know them by their fruits.” (source)
We usually focus on the fruits part of the verse, but look at the assurance. “You will know them.” You will.
The best way to spot false teachers is to keep your eyes on the ONLY real teacher, God/Jesus/Holy Spirit. I hope you think He is altogether lovely, too:
Inside Christian culture, we often pray for something we call ‘revival’. As with secular culture, revival means a kind of refreshing, a renewal. Hope, and new beginnings. For the Christian it means a time when we do not have a strong faith because we either actively sin or we know of sin in our family or our church and we let it slide. This clogs up our spiritual arteries. We may become sluggish, apathetic, taking the faith for granted and losing touch with our ability to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
One person in the bible that surely needed revival was Eli. A judge and priest for many years in the Temple, Eli had grown old, not just in age, but in spiritual age, too. Rather than being constantly renewed and refreshed by the Spirit through prayer, study, diligent service, and seeking God, Eli had simply grown lazy.
Worse, Eli’s son’s were ruffians of the worst sort- spiritual ruffians who were supposed to be priests but who were idolaters. They took the best temple offerings for themselves. They lay with women who served at the tabernacle. They blasphemed God. Eli knew all this and did nothing. (1 Sam 2:22, 2:29, 1 Samuel 3:13.)
We all know that sinning isn’t good and will result in correction by God. Worse, though, sinning will close our ears to hearing him. I don’t mean audibly, I mean feeling the prick of conscience, the warmth of prayer, the closeness of the Spirit. Soon enough, we don’t care that we are sinning.
However it comes as a surprise to many that even if we are not sinning ourselves, if gross sin exists in our family or our church, and we fail to acknowledge it and take the biblical steps to correcting it, God corrects us too. Eli’s sons were punished. They died. Eli was punished too, even though his sons were the immoral blasphemers. It is not just an Old Testament thing, either. Revelation 2:20 shows us that those who tolerate sin will be punished.
Anyway, when we tolerate sin our own ears become closed. Eli was unperceptive when the LORD was calling Samuel, his disciple, at the temple. (1 Samuel 3:8). Eli was in need of revival, long before the promised judgment came.
What happens when revival comes to a church or a nation? Let’s look at Acts 2:37 and the reaction of the people who heard Peter’s famous sermon at Pentecost-
“Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?””
The phrase ‘cut to the heart’ means, pierce all the way down, i.e. deeply (thoroughly) pained; “emotionally pierced through”; psychologically pricked, emotionally stunned.
Let’s look at the Gentiles at Nineveh. After Jonah preached to them at God’s command, this was their reaction-
“The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.” (Johan 3:5-6).
Sitting in ashes, or flinging ashes over your head, was considered to be both mourning for the dead and a sign of national calamity. It was an outward expression of deep repentance and a sign to the LORD that they sought Him in humility. Fasting, wearing sackcloth and sitting in ashes were outward signs that you wanted to be the lowest of the low before the Highest of the High.
How about a revival in non-biblical history? The famous sermon by Jonathan Edwards called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” delivered at Enfield CT in 1741 brought about an awakening. The awakening was going on all over New England, but in that one church in Enfield the congregation sat unaffected. The pastor of that church invited Edwards to come preach. Edwards delivered the now-famous sermon in his typical style- which is read in a near monotone. Edwards believed that showmanship had no place in the pulpit and simply read or spoke his sermons plainly. The church went wild.
Eyewitness Stephen Williams, wrote in his diary, “We went over to Enfield where we met dear Mr. Edwards of Northampton who preached a most awakening sermon from these words, Deuteronomy 32:35, and before the sermon was done there was a great moaning and crying went out through ye whole House…. ‘What shall I do to be saved,’ ‘Oh, I am going to Hell,’ ‘Oh, what shall I do for Christ,’ and so forth. So yet ye minister was obliged to desist, ye shrieks and cry were piercing and amazing.”
In all three cases I described for you, Nineveh, Pentecost, and Enfield CT, revival broke out. Notice that the people who were revived were first pierced, cut to the quick, and cried out.
Revival always begins with tears.
Revival begins with lamentation.
Revival begins with grief.
THAT is revival.
Unless you, your nation, your church, whatever, has sat low and cried out in agony over the sins you’ve performed against the Lord, you are not in revival. The congregation at Enfield CT were flinging themselves down the aisle, leaping out of the pews in fearful agony of the spirit, crying out from where they lay.
The effects of revival are joy, works, buoyancy. Williams describes what happened after church in Enfield CT on the day Johnathan Edwards preached ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ ,
“After some time of waiting the Congregation were still, so yet a prayer was made by Mr. W. and after that we descended from the pulpit and discoursed with the people, some in one place and some in another, and amazing and astonishing ye power of God was seen, and several souls were hopefully wrought upon that night, and oh ye cheerfulness and pleasantness of their countenances.”
“It is estimated that 10 percent of New England was converted during this time. Imagine today 28 million converted in 2 years. Picture every church in your town doubling or tripling in the next 2 years, and you have some grasp of the enormity of what happened” (Source)
Charles Spurgeon wrote of revival: “When revival comes to a people who are in the state thus briefly described, it simply brings them to the condition in which they ought always to have been; it quickens them, gives them new life, stirs the coals of the expiring fire, and puts heavenly breath into the languid lungs.”
Spurgeon issued a caution, however: “If revival is confined to living men we may further notice that it must result from the proclamation and the receiving of living truth. … Intense excitement may produce a revival of the animal, but how can it operate upon the spiritual, for the spiritual demands other food than that which stews in the fleshpots of mere carnal enthusiasm.”
He is saying do not mistake enthusiasm for revival. You might think, how can we tell them apart? Easy. If there were no tears, there is no revival. The tears and lamentation mean that the person truly glimpsed their sin in the face of a Holy God, and their resulting spiritual suffering could not be contained inwardly.
Acts 3:19 gives us the progression of revival: “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;”
1. Repent of your sins 2. Return to the Lord’s ways 3. You will be forgiven 4. Revival will come… and then 5. Joy in His presence
In today’s Christianity, when the reverse of that progression happens people say it is revival. People toss around the word revival whenever a group of people get outwardly excited but inwardly they are unchanged. I’ve written of Angus Buchan in South Africa and the throngs who dance and jump and praise the Lord at his Charismatic signs and wonders healing ‘revivals.’ That’s not revival.
I’ve written about the Passion 2013 conference where thousands of young people jump and dance and praise the Lord as a result of the emotionally manipulative entertainment and non-proclamation of the living truth by Charismatic speakers. That’s not revival, either.
If you want to see what revival is, look to the bible. Nineveh and Pentecost are two examples. Look at Job:
“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5-6).
Only hearing the word but not letting it into your heart let Job continue on in his pride. When he truly spiritually saw the LORD, he hated himself. THAT’S revival.
After the grief, comes the joy. Spurgeon ends this way:
When Christians are revived they live more consistently, they make their homes more holy and more happy, and this leads the ungodly to envy them, and to enquire after their secret. Sinners by God’s grace long to be like such cheerful happy saints; their mouths water to feast with them upon their hidden manna, and this is another blessing, for it leads men to seek the Savior. If an ungodly man steps into a congregation where all the saints are revived he does not go to sleep under the sermon. The minister will not let him do that, for the hearer perceives that the preacher feels what he is preaching, and has a right to be heard. This is a clear gain, for now the man listens with deep emotion; and above all, the Holy Spirit’s power, which the preacher has received in answer to prayer comes upon the hearer’s mind; he is convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come, and Christians who are on the watch around him hasten to tell him of the Savior, and point him to the redeeming blood, so that though the revival, strictly speaking, is with the people of God, yet the result of it no man can limit.
I am listening to Todd Friel’s lecture 56 of Drive By Discernment. The theme is, “How people and movements can drift away from the truth”.
Art Azurdia was the speaker in this particular lecture and he talked of Dr. Paul Hiebert.
Dr. Paul Hiebert was a Doctor of Missiology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and missionary for 6 years under the Mennonite Brethren Board of Missions. Azurdia explained,
“Hiebert said that the first generation of Mennonites were a people preoccupied with the Gospel and concerned with some social responsibility. The second generation of Mennonites assumed the Gospel, and became increasingly absorbed with social responsibility. The third generation of Mennonites abandoned the Gospel and was consequently altogether was completely preoccupied with social responsibility. Preoccupied. Assumed. Abandoned.”
That pattern reminded me of the verse in Revelation 3:15-16,
“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
I wonder where you believe we are in that pattern? Azurdia’s answer was, “Any fair assessment of the evangelical community at least in the United States would have to say, using by description Hiebert’s Mennonite-isms, we are at that second stage of assuming the Gospel, and only one generation away from abandoning it.”
He went on in the lecture to describe the many churches he has guest preached in have had a long absence of preaching about sin. If there is no talk of sin, the Gospel is not presented, Azurdia said.
Just because a sermon or conference or gathering mentions Jesus, does not mean that the Gospel is presented. Azurdia asked, “How does it happen that the Gospel of Jesus Christ gets lost inside of a ministry that at least by confession proclaims its intention to promote the glory of God and the conversion of the nations?”
Jesus asked, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”” (Luke 18:8b)
The first problem I see with the Passion Conference is the social issue of slavery that the conference set the kids upon. It is a global cultural ill that existed at least since Abraham’s time and exists today. The conference leaders choose a cultural ill to ask the youth attendees to work toward. Last year and this year the social problem they have focused the kids on is sex trafficking and slavery in the world. They raised over three million dollars to donate to various partner groups. Here is the link to Passion 2013’s campaign “Freedom.”
I’d said in another post that doing good is good, but that ending slavery is an unrealistic goal. I’d said that Jesus could have ended poverty or slavery, but He didn’t. Revelation 18 shows us that in the Tribulation there will be a healthy slave trade in men and their souls that Jesus Himself stops at the very end. So this campaign will fail, because just by looking a the Bible we can see its futility.
That is not to say we don’t try. But the focus is all wrong. I’ll explain why in just a minute. Now I want to bring up the second issue that has been niggling at me. Adult attendees are not allowed. They are banned. They are not allowed to attend Passion conferences. Here is what the Passion website says [FYI Update- the conference still holds the same policy in 2023, FAQ page says except for the leader, other adults attending with youth for the 2024 conference are not allowed]
CAN PEOPLE OVER 25 ATTEND PASSION 2013?
If you are 26 years of age or older, you may only register to attend Passion 2013 as the leader of a group of students attending the conference or as a Door Holder. Leaders must have a ticket to attend. If you are a leader, we ask that you come with your students. Otherwise, we will need thousands of Door Holders to serve over the days of the conference. If you would like to serve, please fill out a Door Holder application here.
HOW MUCH OF THE CONFERENCE WILL I BE ABLE TO ATTEND?
Serving at a Passion conference does not allow for much participation in the conference itself. Please come willing to serve and fully aware that there may not be time to attend the conference at all.
For all the speakers’ talk of “community” the Passion conferences, they do much to divide it. They forbid parents, senior pastors, elders, and elder siblings from attending with the youth. Church community is a community of people from all ages. Yet I hear so much from the Passion people about “this generation.” There is so much emphasis on “this generation” that for all the world it looks like they are being separated from the herd. Read Titus 2.
We are instructed in the Bible that pastors, teachers and elders teach the young and that children must obey their parents. Now it is true that Youth Pastors attend with their flock, and that the youths attending are not children, but are of college age, but I maintain that any religious endeavor that specifically takes time to split the generations and deliver messages to youth only is not a good thing.
This conference does much to divide the church by capitalizing on a natural youthful zeal and diverts their attention from quiet submission in service to a local church. This co-opting of their zeal to solve a cultural or social ill is not biblical.
Youths haven’t had time or seasoning to determine what their spiritual gifts even are, let along set them on fire to spend money and energy in using them in what are vain attempts to solve an unsolvable social issue. Young adults of aged 18 -25 (the demographic of the Passion conferences), have not served in church long enough to have become seasoned by the Holy Spirit. They may not even know what their spiritual gift is. Even if they have a mere few years of service under their belt and have settled on their gift in ministry, they have not learned self-control in diverse circumstances yet. Frankly, they are too young to be ambassadors for Christ – absent senior oversight.
As to the issue of stamping out slavery in the world, here is what John MacArthur has to say about Slavery—
Although slavery is not uniformly condemned in either the Old or New Testaments, the sincere application of New Testament truths has repeatedly led to the elimination of its abusive tendencies. Where Christ’s love is lived in the power of His Spirit, unjust barriers and relationships are inevitably broken down. As the Roman empire disintegrated and eventually collapsed, the brutal, abused system of slavery collapsed with it—due in great measure to the influence of Christianity. … New Testament teaching does not focus on reforming and re structuring human systems, which are never the root cause of human problems. The issue is always the heart of man—which when wicked will corrupt the best of systems and when righteous will improve the worst. If men’s sinful hearts are not changed, they will find ways to oppress others regardless of whether or not there is actual slavery.
In Titus 2, Paul speaks about each of the generations that labor in the home church, and he issues exhortations to Titus as pastor on what each generation’s responsibility is. The responsibility is not to split the generations and to give the youth a charge separate from the elders outside their home church. It is to labor lovingly in quiet service within the bounds of their revealed spiritual gift. The young learning from the elder so that the young can learn submission and how to control their youthful zeal in appropriate ways with a proper model and parental oversight. That is how the church is set up.
I said above that I’d share why the focus of the slavery issue at Passion 2013 is wrong. There are not millions of slaves in the world. There are billions. Eight billion to be exact. Every person on this planet is a slave to Christ, or a slave to satan. If we are converted and saved by His grace, we are slaves to His righteousness, (Romans 6:18). If we are not saved, then we are in bondage to the devil. (Romans 6:16). The focus which the Passion people set the youth toward is all wrong because as MacArthur said above, the first priority of each Christian is to set humans free from satanic bondage. Cultural ills are solved through Christ’s love, not Passion conference money.
Just imagine of 60,000 youth were taught the powerful Gospel truthfully, and were set forth with focused zeal to evangelize in the real Jesus’s name back in their home spheres!
“For many Christians today, as throughout church history, the most important and fertile field for evangelism is the place where they work. That is their mission field. As in almost no other place, unbelievers have the opportunity to observe believers in day by day situations and activities. They see whether the believer is patient or impatient, kind or uncaring, selfless or selfish, honest or dishonest, clean or vulgar in his talk. They have the opportunity to see how well the Christian lives up to the faith he professes and the principles of the Scripture he claims to hold dear.” (Source)
The upshot is that there is a cumulative negative effect. No, giving money to a cause is not bad. Attending a conference is not bad. Being a volunteer and serving is not bad. But in my opinion, Passion 2013’s cumulative effect is bad. Look at it this way: the attendees were drawn to a large event with the tantalizing enticement of rock music, separated from senior pastors, elders, and parents for several days, drenched in a fishbowl of adrenaline fueled zeal, given half-truths to feed on, told by adored celebrity musicians and pastors they were a special generation, diverted their focus from service in church or campus to solving a global problem, encouraged to sacrifice their money, and turned back to their home churches or campuses as new leaven.
Let’s pray that the more kids than not, released back to home churches after Passion 2013, learn who the real slaves are: themselves, to Christ, and their unsaved community members, to satan.
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