Who wrote this?
Comments (5)Look what I stumbled upon the other day:
“One erroneous principle, that which scare any has proved more mischievous to the present glorious work of God, is a notion that it is God’s manner in these days, to guide his saints, at least some that are more eminent, by inspiration, or immediate revelation.
They suppose he makes known to them what shall come to pass hereafter, or what it is his will that they should do, by impressions made upon their minds, either with or without texts of Scripture; whereby something is made know to them, that is not taught in the Scripture.
By such a notion the devil has a great door opened for him; and if once this opinion should come to be fully yielded to, and established in the church of God, Satan would have opportunity thereby to set up himself as the guide and oracle of God’s people, and to have his word regarded as their infallible rule, and so to lead them where he would, and to introduce what he pleased, and soon to bring the Bible into neglect and contempt … till we have quite taken this handle out of the devil’s hands, the work of God will never go on without great clogs and hindrances. “
Jonathan Edwards
“Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England”
1742
The church God took me out of still teaches that the Bible is “a book of experiences of men and women of God throughout history”. This allows them to add to those experiences, even things that are not taught in Scripture. For example, ‘The River’ – whatever that is. I genuinely still don’t know. Can someone enlighten me?
As soon as you downgrade the inspired Word of God to a historical list of ‘experiences’ you’re on the slippery slope.
Jonathan Edwards knew this in 1742!
How many have been led astray since then? How many have put down the Bible and relied on ‘anointed preaching’, ‘words of knowledge’, ‘total dependence on the Holy Spirit’ to guide them?
The Bible is a book of experiences of men and women of God throughout history, whose lives were changed through divine encounter.
I Who Speak To You Am He
Comments (3)The church I left almost exactly four years ago has a new website.
My favourite page reads…
Pastor ——– ——– was touched dramatically by the Holy Spirit in 2003. Praise God he never recovered! His desire now is to see others enter into true fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
——– is a powerful anointed preacher and teacher who flows in powerful demonstrations of the Holy Spirit. ——– also carries a strong prophetic anointing which is used to help believers in Edification, Encouragement, Discernment, Stirring up of Spiritual Gifts, and Prophetic Confirmation of God’s direction.
——– also encourages believers to enjoy God’s presence, and to hear from Him for themselves.
——– will pray for and minister to you personally as the Spirit Leads! Come Expecting!
Over the years I’ve occasionally had my doubts. Maybe I should have stayed. Maybe I’m missing out on something amazing. Then I read stuff like this and thank God that he opened my eyes.
Perhaps I should be grateful. I suspect many church leaders – of all flavours – believe that they have ’special powers’ to impart to their flock. That they ARE their church. Most don’t have the balls to actually state it on a public website. At least it’s clear here.
Or rather, it’s copied from elsewhere. Copied from here, in fact – http://jfmin.org/jfm_events.htm (scroll down past the various, erm, interesting individuals and you’ll get to Prophetess Katherine Ruonala claiming an identical ‘anointing’, word for word, to the one mentioned above).
You see, this is my problem with my old church. It’s based on trying to copy what’s happened and fizzled out elsewhere.
Let’s open a Bible, shall we:
John 4:19-26
19“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”
And Jesus speaks to us still. Through his Word and through the Holy Spirit.
Because He’s not dead. That’s the whole point of Christianity you see. Jesus is alive.
No intermediary or ‘medium’ required.
If we believe the gospel, doesn’t it seem a bit contradictory to…
It’s 5am, I’m far too awake and it’s probably not wise to be nodding this vigorously…
http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/why-so-serious-considering-a-short-list-of-gospel-contradictions
“Their sins are no more offensive than yours, and Jesus hasn’t asked you to make sure everyone knows how really offended you are. Plus, it’s not a witness to be offended and angry.”
Hear, hear!
Todd’s Blog?
Could this be Todd Bentley’s own personal blog?
http://www.freshfireusa.com/blog/
It would appear to be, though he hasn’t written a great deal.
I’ll keep in eye on it, and I’ll know whether it’s the real thing as soon as the one word we’ve been waiting for appears – ‘Sorry’.
There have been a lot of carefully chosen words surrounding Todd’s demise – regret, discipline, restoration etc. etc. Just not a huge amount of good-old-fashioned repentance.
You need to say sorry, Todd. As publicly as you said all those other things. Give GodTV a call. Maybe they’ll run a month of TV specials, just featuring you saying sorry.
Say the screams are for Jesus when we work the crowd
As one Youtube commenter put it, ‘this is the sound of a nail’s head being struck’.
Fresh Fire has a Rebrand
I love a good re-brand. I work in the media, we have one every so often. It keeps the creative people busy and allows us to make the same old thing seem a bit ‘fresher’ for a while, particular if the old name has become a bit, well, tainted. But it’s usually the same stuff with a shinier logo.
Fresh Fire Ministries (you remember, the people that hyped up Todd Bentley then looked shocked when he fell) are now “Transform International” – http://www.itransform.ca/
But the same names are on the speakers lists – John Arnott, Patricia King, Stacey Campbell etc. – and as Transform International say on their own website – “Although our name is changing, our vision and passion remains the same.”
If you’re not familiar with some of the names mentioned above, this might help…
And Can it Be?
Sometimes I just miss the hymns. Really. And this is the one I miss the most. Singing it acapella in the car isn’t quite the same!
And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Saviour’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
’Tis mystery all: the Immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
Let angel minds inquire no more.
He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
Still the small inward voice I hear,
That whispers all my sins forgiven;
Still the atoning blood is near,
That quenched the wrath of hostile Heaven.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Saviour in my heart.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Saviour in my heart.
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Love is…
Filed under: 1 | Tags: Corinthians, Love is patient, MTV, video
Leave a Comment MTV isn’t usually the place to hear passages from 1 Corinthians read by respected British actors, but this isn’t exactly the Daily Service.
According to The Guardian,
Actor Helena Bonham Carter has lent her voice to a hard-hitting MTV ad on domestic abuse, reciting a passage about love from the book of Corinthians in the Bible.
The 60-second commercial, created by ad agency Ogilvy Advertising, features a dysfunctional couple in a domestic environment.
A husband is seen yelling abusively at his wife, who is then thrown around the room, as if from the force of his words, and ends up covered in bruises.
However, no dialogue is heard – only accompanying music and Bonham Carter’s voice reciting Love is Patient, Love is Kind from 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13, verse four.
The TV ad ends with the strapline “If only you could see the damage words cause” and the word “bitch” etched into the woman’s face.
Bonham Carter recorded her vocal in a single take for the ad, which breaks tonight.
The ad will air across MTV in the UK and across Europe as part of MTV’s Staying Alive campaign.
MTV will also make the ad available online and is considering running it in cinemas.
Old Cross. Old Power.
I didn’t write this. In fact it was written before I was born. But it feels like remarkably modern message and sums up my ‘problem’ with some of today’s ‘revival’ preaching. Unless the cross is preached, there can be no real power.
The Old Cross and the New
All unannounced and mostly undetected there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles. It is like the old cross, but different: the likenesses are superficial; the differences, fundamental.
From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique-a new type of meeting and a new kind of preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as the old, but its content is not the same and its emphasis not as before.
The old cross would have no truck with the world. For Adam’s proud flesh it meant the end of the journey. It carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai. The new cross is not opposed to the human race; rather, it is a friendly pal and, if understood aright, it is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent enjoyment. It lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged; he still lives for his own pleasure, only now he takes delight in singing choruses and watching religious movies instead of singing bawdy songs and drinking hard liquor. The accent is still on enjoyment, though the fun is now on a higher plane morally if not intellectually.
The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic approach. The evangelist does not demand abnegation of the old life before a new life can be received. He preaches not contrasts but similarities. He seeks to key into public interest by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands; rather, it offers the same thing the world does, only on a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospel offers, only the religious product is better.
The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, “Come and assert yourself for Christ.” To the egotist it says, “Come and do your boasting in the Lord.” To the thrill seeker it says, “Come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship.” The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.
The philosophy back of this kind of thing may be sincere but its sincerity does not save it from being false. It is false because it is blind. It misses completely the whole meaning of the cross.
The old cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said good-bye to his friends. He was not coming back. He was going out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the man, completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more.
The race of Adam is under death sentence. There is no commutation and no escape. God cannot approve any of the fruits of sin, however innocent they may appear or beautiful to the eyes of men. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again to newness of life.
That evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the Bible and cruel to the souls of its hearers. The faith of Christ does not parallel the world, it intersects it. In coming to Christ we do not bring our old life up onto a higher plane; we leave it at the cross. The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die.
We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.
God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death. It stands always on the far side of the cross. Whoever would possess it must pass under the rod. He must repudiate himself and concur in God’s just sentence against him.
What does this mean to the individual, the condemned man who would find life in Christ Jesus? How can this theology be translated into life? Simply, he must repent and believe. He must forsake his sins and then go on to forsake himself. Let him cover nothing, defend nothing, excuse nothing. Let him not seek to make terms with God, but let him bow his head before the stroke of God’s stern displeasure and acknowledge himself worthy to die.
Having done this let him gaze with simple trust upon the risen Saviour, and from Him will come life and rebirth and cleansing and power. The cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus now puts an end to the sinner; and the power that raised Christ from the dead now raises him to a new life along with Christ.
To any who may object to this or count it merely a narrow and private view of truth, let me say God has set His hallmark of approval upon this message from Paul’s day to the present. Whether stated in these exact words or not, this has been the content of all preaching that has brought life and power to the world through the centuries. The mystics, the reformers, the revivalists have put their emphasis here, and signs and wonders and mighty operations of the Holy Ghost gave witness to God’s approval.
Dare we, the heirs of such a legacy of power, tamper with the truth? Dare we with our stubby pencils erase the lines of the blueprint or alter the pattern shown us in the Mount? May God forbid. Let us preach the old cross and we will know the old power.
A. W. Tozer, Man, the Dwelling Place of God, 1966
