Re: John MacArthur Exhorts the Church to Be Engaged in the Battle for Truth
| Posted On: 03/23/07 10:16:06 AM |
Age 47, FL |
I agree whole-heartedly with the views expressed in this article and with John MacArthur, he is grounded in the Word of God. Today, unfortunately, many within the Church are preaching "another gospel." Sin is no longer sin but God allows all inspite of what sin is "a trangression of law." Lawlessness abounds within the church and to even address it leaves you condemned, legalistic or judgmental. Holiness is not spoken of because it is not taught. The Rigteousness of God is the standard, but of course, standards are relevant. Justice is what you make it and what applies to you does not apply to me and God is OK with that right? They have taken the love of God and the work of the Cross and misused it to mean anything goes.
The Book of Jude is so relevant for our times. Doctrines of Demons, distortion of the Word of God, false teaching (or no teaching). The Book of Revelation should be a clear indication has the Lord warns the Churches, so he warns us today. Repent.
Peace,
Debbie
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Re: John MacArthur Exhorts the Church to Be Engaged in the Battle for Truth
| Posted On: 03/23/07 09:45:20 AM |
Age 53, PA |
An excellent article, one in which we all of the church should heed.
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Re: John MacArthur Exhorts the Church to Be Engaged in the Battle for Truth
| Posted On: 03/23/07 08:40:59 AM |
Age 51, AR |
MacArthur has been fighting the good fight for decades. He picked up the mantle of A.W.Tozer, who correctly labeled "Christ is my Savior, but not my Lord" theology as heresy. Colossians 2:6 says "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." Most Americans have received Christ as a no-fault insurance policy, and so their walk in Him is purely a legal fiction
They were told by a minister that they will never be judged for sin, and so most will hear, "depart from me for I never knew you."
God help us to wake the dead! The ship is going down.
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Re: John MacArthur Exhorts the Church to Be Engaged in the Battle for Truth
| Posted On: 03/23/07 08:38:24 AM |
Age 61, NS |
I attend a baptist church. Over 500 churches make up our atlantic convention. Our top leaders are embracing the ECM. I believe they do so because they have no faith in the written word. Scripture is either ignored or it's abused. MacArthur Piper,Devers,Mohler and many other American bible christians are a tremendous souce of strenght to us. We, thats the believers, will be receiving our copies of the book this week. On behalf of the sheep here in a desperate place, please continue to minister to us. Thank you, In the LAMB, Wayne
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Re: John MacArthur Exhorts the Church to Be Engaged in the Battle for Truth
| Posted On: 03/23/07 07:54:29 AM |
Age 50, NC |
I have great respect for John MacArthur and believe him to be a premier theologian of today.
However, I am perplexed as to why he would lump Rick Warren into the same group of other heretics he mentions.
I just went to Saddelback.com and read their statement of what they believe. It is very orthodox.
I invite anyone to read that statement of faith and point out to me where Rick Warren is off base.
I make my stand with the Word of God and the faith "once for all delivered to the saints". I will always stand there.
If Rick Warren strays from sound doctrine, I will have to side with the Bible. I don't believe he has.
I also think we need to seek to help those whom we may think are straying before alienating ourselves from them.
Revealing the Father's Heart,
Greg
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- Re: Re: John MacArthur Exhorts the Church to Be Engaged in the Battle for Truth
| Posted On: 03/24/07 08:10:21 PM | | Age 44, NE |
Dear 50,NC:
"If Rick Warren strays from sound doctrine, I will have to side with the Bible." My dear fellow believer, I too was leary and almost had a knee jerk reaction to those who challenged Rick Warren, PDL et.al.some 3 years ago. I can now tell you now that error doens't have to be grand to be effective but that being said, Pastor Warren is teaching not only subtle error but extremelyt egregious error. If you truly do desire to be discerning and would be willing to do the home work, I would like to whole heartedly recommend a book by Pastor/Teacher/Author Bob DeWaay. The title of the book is "Redefining Christianity - Understanding the Purpose Driven Movement."
http://cicministry.org/store.php
I have read several books by various authors regarding Rick Warren and his teaching and this book by far is THE most cogent and presents the best and most indepth study of what Pastor Rick is teaching and promoting. The money spent on this book as it relates to the topic at hand is the best money you'll ever spend on a book regardless of topic. Please, please, please take me up on my challenge. Not for my satisfaction or for your benefit but for His glory for HE is worthy!
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- Re: Re: John MacArthur Exhorts the Church to Be Engaged in the Battle for Truth
| Posted On: 03/23/07 03:58:24 PM | | Age 68, MA |
It's necessary to observe what people are really doing. A website may say wonderful things, but does it translate into reality ? Read Warren's Purpose Driven Life with your Bible at hand. Look up each reference to Scripture given in it's entirety, and in context, not just half phrases plucked out of wherever to support an agenda. It will require patience, but will reveal what MacArthur is trying to show you. In fact, after the first couple of pages it may be very tiring. All things must be sifted through God's Word, the whole counsel, for validity. If it doesn't line up, it's wrong.
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- Re: Re: John MacArthur Exhorts the Church to Be Engaged in the Battle for Truth
| Posted On: 03/23/07 02:53:49 PM | | Age 51, TX |
Saddleback's statement of belief is not orthodox. In their statement about man: "Although man has tremendous potential for good, he is marred by an attitude of disobedience toward God called "sin". This attitude separates man from God."
Sin is not "an attitude" that "marrs man". Unsaved man is dead in sins and tresspasses against holy God (Eph 2:1).
But beyond their statement of belief, read Warren's purpose-driven books and you will find they both start with a statement of Truth and then spend hundreds of pages denying that Truth. Detailed review by me of both books can be found here - http://brogdensmuse.menofhonorministry.org/Apologetics.htm
"Prove all things, hold to that which is good."
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- Re. Rick Warren and Orthodoxy
| Posted On: 03/23/07 02:34:33 PM | | Age 55, NZ |
Brother/sister, you must understand that a "Statement of Faith" is nothing more than that - A statement, which is most often written to prove a church's orthodoxy to those visiting the church. What is actually taught and practiced in that church is often a horse of a very different color. Rick Warren is a case in point. It is all very fine to write a statement saying you believe in the verbal/plenary inspiration of scripture, but if you then take the Word of God, and wrench it out of context, twist it to mean something the Holy Spirit never intended, and add things that simply aren't there to begin with, then what value is there in your statement of faith? This is Rick Warren through and through, which you will soon see if you hear/read him with the kind of discernment MacArthur is trying to encourage us to have.
-Tumbleweed
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Re: John MacArthur Exhorts the Church to Be Engaged in the Battle for Truth
| Posted On: 03/23/07 07:43:10 AM |
Age 51, OH |
I really appreciated this article, and I'm a big fan of John McArthur. He stands for truth, which is not a very popular thing to do these days in our local churches. Postmodernism...those "ideas" you mentioned are very dangerous and very prominent in our local churches today. I once disagreed with a former associate pastor in my church, and brought up a teaching by John MacArthur. His "come back"... he told me not to listen to John McArthur. Since that time our church has followed "ideas" that have been very destructive and, sadly, leadership has been drawn into many of the ideas that postmodernism preaches. After 20 years, I've had to leave the church I love. I tried for 6 years to talk with the pastor & elders...to warn, if you will, but I was not effective. I can no longer support the chruch, but trying to find a church where the truth remains the truth is difficult. We are indeed in a war for truth. I'll look forward to reading John MacArthur's new book on Jude. I appreciated you bringing out the point that he could have spent a chapter on each of those who have fallen into "false" ideas, but chose rather, to teach, from the living word, about Jude. May God have mercy on us all.
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- Re: Re: John MacArthur Exhorts the Church to Be Engaged in the Battle for Truth
| Posted On: 03/28/07 02:24:31 AM | | Age 61, TX |
I identify with your negative experience regarding your church because I lived it. About 12 years ago, I was blessed to attend all 4 semesters of Kay Arthur's Revelation series of classes. After spending 12 weeks on the letters to the seven churches, she said that TOLERANCE would be a huge issue for the state of organized religion in the future. She was sure on target! Today's churches are so caught up in getting people through the front door with appealing eye candy, trendy programs, and avoidance of sound teaching and preaching (tolerance) that they're failing to watch the back door. Those who are hungry for sound Bible teaching and leadership finally leave after they give up all hope of reviving the spiritual life of their church, and it is a painful separation. But the saddest part of all is the fact that there are actually so many who get caught up in it and stay there, being fed only pablum, and never experiencing the real "steak" of Scripture! In less than 2 years, a new young pastor had completely divided a 50-year old church, and it was destroyed. After some investigation and research, I firmly believe that some seminaries are responsible. We're still looking for the right church home, and we're being patient and careful because we don't want to end up in a white-washed tomb full of dead mens' bones! But we remind ourselves that the church is the body of believers in Christ, and not a large building on a corner. God Bless You!
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Re: John MacArthur Exhorts the Church to Be Engaged in the Battle for Truth
| Posted On: 03/23/07 07:27:53 AM |
Age 60, CO |
Hi all, I think John Macrthur is missing the fundamental cause of apostasy and is perhaps blind to it himself. He writes: "MacArthur defines apostasy as, ?Soul-destroying error that arises from within the church. It speaks of abandonment, a separation, a defection- the abdication of truth altogether.
"And where is the spirit of apostasy most found in todays church? Postmodernism. MacArthur believes postmodernism warps the way Evangelicals think and talk about truth. No longer is truth conceived as that which was once for all delivered to the saints. ...We are called to perpetual spiritual warfare, not against flesh and blood, but against all the spiritual forces who repeat the mantra of the serpent in the garden, Did God really say?
Well, the simple fact is, neither John MacArthur nor most Christians today believe The Bible or any bible in any languages is now the complete, infallible and 100% true words of God. Even the Barna research group has demonstrated that more and more Christians no longer believe The Bible (or any bible) is the infallible word of God.
If it is allowed, I would like to post my website which defends the King James Bible as being the only true "book of the LORD" on the earth today. Mr. MacArthur does not believe that any Bible or text in any language is the inspired and inerrant word of God. If you don't believe God has in fact preserved His pure words of Truth, then what assurance do we have that anything the Book says is true? This is the original Satanic question - "Yea, hath God said...? How is that for the true apostasy?
May God in His sovereign grace turn our hearts back to His Book, and real one that I can hold in my hands and believe every word - the King James Holy Bible.
http://www.geocities.com/brandplucked/
All of grace, Accepted in the Beloved,
Will Kinney
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Re: John MacArthur Exhorts the Church to Be Engaged in the Battle for Truth
| Posted On: 03/23/07 07:19:10 AM |
Age 58, TX |
WELL DONE!
This great book is overdue, a must read if your are concerned about protecting Christian rights and privileges.
Apathy has the Church in a head lock, while Satan and his human goats are tearing down the last standing Christian country in the world!
Christian Wake Up! Pray! Get your head out of the sand and heed Paul's words that are ment pacifically for this day and hour.
"Duty is ours. Results are Gods" - attributed to President John Quincy Adams
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Re: John MacArthur Exhorts the Church to Be Engaged in the Battle for Truth
| Posted On: 03/23/07 07:10:27 AM |
Age 59, MO |
Thank you for your article about John MacArthur's new book, and for your stand for the truth! I find myself wanting to be tolerant of others when they are seemingly doing so much good, they talk with great emotion and they are so sincere. But that, in it's self, does not make it the truth. What we need in todays world is a clear teaching of God's Word, not some "make me feel good, out of context stuff."!
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