Jesus is God

It seems that a lot of people have an extra-biblical opinion of who Jesus was, what His intentions were and His relationship to God. A few weeks back Reza Aslan regurgitated some old tiresome claims in his Zealot. Now Fox News' Bill O'Reilly (along with Martin Dugard) has obeyed his inner guidance and spun a book called Killing Jesus. This is the third installment of a "killing" series by the pair. To be fair I haven't read his book; however, there's been enough media attention that something can be said here.

O'Reilly made it a point to state that his book was not about "religion" and that it is a "historical" book" Yet a book about Jesus cannot divorce itself from who Jesus was, His purpose for coming to earth and His purpose for dying on the Cross. O'Reilly - born some 1900 yrs after the fact - felt it necessary to impose his own wisdom and logic onto the events presented in the gospels. He deemed that they needed correction here and there. In fact at one point he made the admission that he'd taken the Muslim view of Jesus into consideration. Why? Muhammad was born in 570 AD and died in 632 AD. There are very good reasons for believing that his Qur'an was impacted by something far more mundane than revelations from the angel Gabriel.

Ultimately, O'Reilly and Aslan are no different than the likes of Edgar Cayce, Paramahansa Yogananda and Deepak Chopra who preached a "safe", non-biblical Jesus. Ignoring the biblical Jesus will have dire eternal consequences. The other option will affect an individual's life in the here and now, as well as eternity.

A watered down Jesus is a far more comfortable option for this world. One can place that Jesus on a shelf and forget about Him when convenient. This latter Jesus appears to be the one the modern church is beginning to spin to the world, because that is what society is demanding.



Brannon Howse on Killing Jesus (Part 1) and (Part 2) Recommended!

Dr. Jason Lisle Answers Bill O'Reilly HERE

The Christ of the New Age Movement (Part 1)

Click Here to find Part 2 in the Articles List

The Khazar Myth Debunked

I've mentioned Chris White in a couple of prior posts. Aside from my differences with his eschatology, I recognize that he has produced some really worthwhile videos. His debunking of the Khazar myth is particularly well done. I've talked to many anti-Israel and anti-Jewish Christians (an oxymoron?) who have used the Khazar myth to support their views on Israel. That view is erroneous and should be discarded.

The Khazar Myth Debunked - Thirteenth Tribe - Arthur Koestler

The Necessity of the Trinity

From Telos Theological Ministries, a great sermon by Paul Henebury answering the question: Is the Trinity Necessary?

Further reading:

Discovering the Mystery of the Unity of God

The ELCA & Oft Repeated Lies

Here's another Dan Skogen post on the ELCA and their battle to win membership by aligning themselves with LGBT initiatives. Note the first comment by an ELCA member who states that:

"We are adding new members because of who we are. People are not running away from us."

Apparently being pro-homosexual fills the pews. Read the blog article HERE

The Will Not To Believe

I first came across Wilbur M. Smith in the Forward he provided for Alva McClain's The Greatness of the Kingdom and the Preface to George N. H. Peters' The Theocratic Kingdom. His comments were thoughtful and so I looked him up. It turns out that he wrote a book (published in 1945) called Therefore Stand - A Plea for a Vigorous Apologetic in the Present Crisis of Evangelical Christianity.

This book may be out of print although second-hand copies are still available. Smith's message to Christians is a valuable one and it is sorely needed, now more than ever. You can read a review HERE.

I found this excerpt from the book very true, even from my own limited experience:

One of the reasons why men do not believe in Christ, and in the Word of God, is that they are determined not to believe. This is the deliberate, determined attitude of their mind. No matter what arguments are presented to them, no matter how accurate they find the work of God to be, how incontrovertible the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is shown to be, they cannot intend to believe. Someone will say, "No one can possibly be as stubborn as that." Yes, it is not only possible, it is continually manifested. Thus for example, the outstanding church historian of the nineteenth century, speaking of the Lord's miracle of the quieting of the waves in a storm on the Sea of Galilee, frankly said regarding a storm being quieted by a word, "We do not believe and we shall never again believe." Harnack does not mean that the evidence is not sufficient for belief, he means that whatever the evidence is, he is not going to believe. Goethe took exactly the same attitude concerning the resurrection, "A voice from heaven would not convince me...that a woman gives birth without knowing man, and that a dead man rises from the grave. I rather regard this as blasphemy against the great God and His revelation in nature." I have a letter from a Professor in a theological seminary in this country regarding the resurrection of Christ (the writer's name cannot be divulged because of a promise made in regard to this correspondence), who frankly told me that he would not judge the miracle of the resurrection by historical evidence, for, from a scientific and psychological point of view, he was prejudiced against it, and no evidence would ever change his mind. William James of Harvard wrote a remarkable book once which he aptly called The Will to Believe: a new book could be written today, even from the same University, with an equally true title, The Will Not to Believe. ~ Therefore Stand (pp 174-175) (bold emphasis my own)

A Sad Case of Slander

I can trace the very beginnings of this sad case to a simple difference in rapture timing. Yet, somehow, it has evolved to include the KJVO debate, and with a Christian unfairly slandering another. Here is a lesson for all of us. Click Here

Chris Rosebrough’s commentary addresses this issue very well HERE

On Junk Prophecy Purveyors

Please note my new link Herescope

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of discernment ministries. It seems that they're always on the lookout for some other ministry or pastor making a mistake. Google just about anyone's name and you'll find some so-called scandalous tidbit about them. The only ministry that always washes up clean is the discernment ministry itself.

Now that I have that out of the way, I'll do a flip flop and say that there is a value to some of these discernment ministries. You just have to be...well, discerning.

Last week I saw an article put out by Creation Ministries International. It essentially refuted a documentary that promulgated the idea that a tiny dead humanoid was an alien. I had noted that one popular "prophecy writer" wrote an article warning that this body was a satanic deception - think alien/demons, UFOs and Nephilim. In fact CMI capably demonstrates that the body is, in fact, a fetus. There's nothing alien about it.

The problem is that this "prophecy writer" deals in sensationalism and, like many others in that market, has fostered a business from it. He could have done his research and been far more objective but that wouldn't have helped his business. This isn't the first time he and other merchants of the sensational have done this.

What's worse, the author of the CMI article suggested to me that these guys do it because of their eschatology. That's a sad indictment and quite untrue. Unfortunately, it is true that a lot of end-times literature is saturated with sensationalist garbage. Its authors aren't always objective with their presentations and often appear to be more interested in selling their books and DVDs.

I think Herescope has some sobering articles addressing this brand of prophecy market and I think it's needed. But, as always - Caveat Emptor.