Proof of Salvation - by Mike Ratliff

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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Mr. Ratliff makes anther appearance in our blog. As usual, he's self assured to the point of arrogance. And as usual he doesn't write about the topic stated in the title. 

Most of his article is spent justifying his "discernment" methods. Like many other "discernment" ministers, Mr. Ratliff thinks "discernment"  is self justifying. He cannot conceive of a scenario where his "discernment" activity might be divisive or unloving.

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Original Song using Suno: God, my God

A couple of months ago I made a post regarding an A.I. song generator called Suno. I uploaded many of my songs, my melodies, chords, and lyrics to Suno, and it essentially gave my songs a band. A very real sounding band.

So rather than spending thousands of dollars in a recording studio, Suno takes my original songs and arranges them and produces amazing sounding demos.

"God, my God" is a song I wrote in 2013.

Audio link.

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Our Advocate, Jesus Christ - by Gideon Rossouw

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author holds to Reformed/Calvinism, so his presentation is colored by his doctrinal perspective. Because of this he makes numerous unreferenced assertions about doctrine as if they were routine matters. 

First, he views the interaction of God with man as a legal process. He wants it to be a courtroom scene, with a judge, prosecutor, and defense attorney. So he presumes that Satan is accusing, Jesus is defending, and the Father is the judge hearing the evidence.

This scene is not found in the Bible. We discuss this in detail here.

Second, in violation of any accepted standard of justice, the author thinks Jesus took our place as the accused so that we could set free in view of Him being punished in our stead. 

This also is not found in the Bible. We discuss this in detail here.

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Original Song using Suno: Solid Rock

 A couple of months ago I made a post regarding an A.I. song generator called Suno. I uploaded many of my songs, my melodies, chords, and lyrics to Suno, and it essentially gave my songs a band. A very real sounding band.

So rather than spending thousands of dollars in a recording studio, Suno takes my original songs and arranges them and produces amazing sounding demos.

"Solid Rock" is a song I wrote in 2020.

Audio link: Solid Rock

A voters guide to democratic socialism: It isn’t what most people think - by Kalman Hettleman

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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One thing you can be sure of, when a leftist is going to explain something, his purpose is not to clarify, provide information, or increase understanding. This author, a "Democratic Socialist," writes  to promulgate The Narrative. The Narrative is the daily talking points and bumper sticker slogans disseminated throughout the media to be parroted by the talking heads as they were gospel truth. The Narrative is the careful use of words so as to not tip off people as to their real intentions.

The author is simply doing his duty to spread agitprop, which is what The Narrative is. The objective of The Narrative is to further The Agenda. The Agenda is to dismantle The System. The System is the American culture, way of life, and the associated national pride and patriotism that goes with that. 

The author writes solely to assist in the replacement of America with a Socialist state.

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Tiffany Hudson and Rich Wilkerson Jr Warn of a Growing Crisis in Biblical Discernment - By Abby Trivett

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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We've critiqued several songs from Ms. Hudson, including The Wonderful Blood, So Be It, and Names. Having looked up some of her other songs as well, we can say she's mostly solid with her lyrics.  

Mostly. Unfortunately, she hasn't escaped the trap of "creative but questionable" song lyrics, or lyrics that are mostly about us. She isn't uniformly biblical, which is unfortunate given her rising popularity. Ordinarily we would give her an occasional pass for artistic license, but in the video interview linked below Ms. Hudson is bemoaning the state of Bible knowledge among Christians. 

This means she's concerned about a problem she is contributing to. 

For example, the use of colloquial language in The Wonderful Blood. "Isn't it wild" will not age well. It's a little too "hip" sounding, and in fact is nothing more than meaningless fluff.

Or, So Be It, a song dense with doctrine, but the lyrics tell us Jesus paid for our sin. This is false. Jesus paid for us, not our sin.

And the song Names, it is a bit ironic that the song never does name the Name even though that's the song's title. Most of the song has nothing to do with God's name. Happily, the chorus does finally identify some of His titles, which does link the lyrics to the God of the Bible. But the song doesn't even tell us why His name (or titles) is important.

While Ms. Hudson's concern is valid, and her message is timely, we would want her to apply her conviction to her songwriting.

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Original Song using Suno: One Word

A couple of months ago I made a post regarding an A.I. song generator called Suno. I uploaded many of my songs, my melodies, chords, and lyrics to Suno, and it essentially gave my songs a band. A very real sounding band.

So rather than spending thousands of dollars in a recording studio, Suno takes my original songs and arranges them and produces amazing sounding demos.

"One Word" is a song I wrote in 2012.

Audio link: One Word

What does it mean that God draws us to salvation? - gotquestions

Found here. Our comments in bold.
---------------------

Though Gotquestions presents itself as a sober, thoughtful explainer of the Bible, it certainly has a doctrinal bias, despite its claim: 

"We are Christian, evangelical, theologically conservative, and nondenominational."

Even its statement of faith seems conventional. However, it becomes clear upon examination that Gotquestions is solidly cessationist, Reformed and Calvinistic. 

Today's article is about the Calvinistic doctrine of Irresistible Grace, though Gotquestions will never use the phrase. This is what Calvinists tend to do, hide their distasteful doctrines in innocuous language. Calvinists love to teach Calvinism, in fact, they will never teach the Bible without referring to their doctrines.

Irresistible Grace is the idea that because God chose those whom He would save (Predestination, another Calvinistic doctrine) the chosen cannot resist their salvation. Thus, if you're predestined, you will be saved. To bolster this doctrine they employ John 6:44, the topic of their article:

“no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Gotquestions notes the "draw" is the Greek word helkuo, which they inadequately define as "to drag." Here's the full definition from The Complete Word Study of the New Testament, pg. 911:

1670. Helkuo; or hé/ko, to draw, without necessarily connoting the notion of force as in suro (4951), to drag, although it may be implied (Acts 8:3; 14:19; 17:6; Rev. 12:4, cf. Acts 16:19; 21:30; James 2:6). Helkuo is used of Jesus on the cross drawing men unto Himself by His love, not force (John 6:44; 12:32). It is drawing to a certain point as in John 21:6, 11 indicating the drawing of the net while suro (4951) is merely dragging something after one. In John 21:8 he/kuo gives place to suro (4951) for nothing is intended there but the dragging of the net. 

They also cite other verses that use the same Greek word, but conspicuously absent from these citations is this:

 Jn. 12:32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.

This verse also uses helkuo. Obviously this is a problem for Irresistible Grace, because if being drawn is irresistible, then all men being drawn means all men will be saved. This is obviously false, so Gotquestion's explanation of John 6:44 is faulty.

We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.

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If the world was ruined at the Fall, why do we still see good in the world? - By Stephen Kneale

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author is a Calvinist, which means like all Calvinists he's here to teach his doctrine. That's what Calvinists do, teach Calvinism. They never teach the Bible unless they can constantly reinforce their distasteful doctrines.

In this article the author tries to explain why people still do good things while being totally depraved. His workaround is to claim that we are not totally depraved, there's still some fraction of goodness left. This is what enables "totally depraved" people to do what are good, but spiritually valueless things.

That's his dividing line, doing good things versus doing good things with spiritual value. He does not tell us where this is found in the Bible.

The problem that develops out of his position is that Total Depravity is actually required, because with Calvinism God does 100% of salvation. We do not, and cannot, participate in any way, including making a decision for Christ. A decision is deemed a work; that is, our decision would have saved us, making salvation partly our work. 

But if there is a small remainder of the original goodness of creation, then Total Depravity as a concept doesn't apply. Therefore, there must be no goodness at all. This is one of the many problems created by Calvinism that need the reinterpretation, explanation, or negation of the Bible.

Further, in this muddled mess the author doesn't quote a single verse of Scripture, yet he purports to teach the Bible. How this is possible is unfathomable.

We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.

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Original Song using Suno: Battle of Praise

A couple of months ago I made a post regarding an A.I. song generator called Suno. I uploaded many of my songs, my melodies, chords, and lyrics to Suno, and it essentially gave my songs a band. A very real sounding band.

So rather than spending thousands of dollars in a recording studio, Suno takes my original songs and arranges them and produces amazing sounding demos.

"Battle of Praise" is a song I wrote in 1999.

Audio link here.
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The Gospel of the Hypocrites: Why Trump & the "Bible?Believing" Right Would Deport Jesus - By Michael Chavers

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The astonishing smugness of the author defies explanation. He swings his Bible as a weapon against a strawman MAGA/Christian nationalists/right-wing/Republican/ corporations/xenophobes (As if these were synonymous) without understanding its contents. But in actual fact he doesn't care about the Bible, he wants to smack down his political adversaries.

The ignorance on display is palpable. He seems to think that the commands of Jesus are directed toward the government. Apparently the separation of church and state is no longer an issue, for the author wants more government poverty programs as if those programs fulfil Jesus' will. That's right, food stamps, welfare, and unemployment insurance are what Jesus wanted.

So, Christians, et al, are the enemy because they are in the way of this wonderful new way. The generosity and compassion of Christians stand in stark testimony against the author. He hates them because they want to give away their own money instead of having government take it from them and waste it. They want to help their neighbors, not subsidize them. They start food ministries instead of wanting government programs.

But ironically, the author doesn't actually care about the poor. That's just an excuse. No, he cares about The Agenda, which is the replacement of of The System. The System is the evil, racist American culture presided over by the author's bogeymen. The Agenda is the dismantling of this horrible System so as to install a compassionate, fair, equity-based new system. 

But this glorious new system has failed every time it has been tried, it is responsible for the death of tens of millions. Socialism. This is the author's unstated goal. A system that completely removes individual compassion (with severe sanction, if necessary), making a new god that supplies every need and wipes every tear away.

So it's not about religion at all, it's about a political idea with a little bit of Christian lingo mixed in so as to fool the ignorant. It's about a gospel of greed, where it's good to envy the rich and to take their money. It's the gospel of unrighteousness, where the words of Jesus are adapted to a political agenda. It's the gospel of hate, where those who truly want to walk humbly with God are mocked, persecuted, and hated for rejecting the nanny state.

Hate. It drips from the author's word processor. The author needs to repent and get right with the true Jesus, not the Jesus of his politics.

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Project truck: 1960 F100 - for sale?

Introduction

For a solid year, April 2023 to April 2024, I cut and welded and sanded on a derelict 1967 Pontiac Lemans and chronicled it in this blog over 14 episodes. I sold that car and I thought I was done with rusty hulks. But for reasons I don't understand, even after swearing off involved and difficult car restoration projects, I bought another. Another, as in another 1967 Pontiac Lemans, which was chronicled over 13 episodes, October 2024 to June 2025. It sold the end of March 2026.

Since the shop has an open slot, I've been (sort of) looking for another project. Then my son put in an accidental bid at an online farm auction last week. No one else bid, so my son now is the owner of this pick up. And it's in my shop.

Here is the new acquisition:



We weren't absolutely sure what year it was, but after we got it home we searched it out and confirmed it was a 1960. The sequence below is 1960, '59, '58, and '57:


We drove about 90 miles out to Twin Bridges, MT, towing a flatbed trailer. It had snowed and rained the night before, so by the time we got to the farm the access was a sloppy, muddy mess. There was no way we were going to get the trailer in. 

We parked outside the gate and picked our way through the mud to meet up with the auction company rep. He said they had a gradall, and they could drag it out for us:



The operator dragged it all the way out to the trailer, and with the help of a skid steer lifted the truck up so that all we had to do was back the trailer under it. They set it down, we strapped it in, and off we went:

Now that it's safely ensconced in my shop, we could get a better look at it. First step was to clean it all out, which filled 1 1/2 garbage cans. Passenger side looks pretty good:

And the driver's side is not bad:

However, the driver's box side, in front of the rear tire, has some rust:

And the box floor is badly beat down:

Condition

The front floorboards are rusted out, but the back areas under the seat are good. The steps look good. The dash is complete and not smashed up. The passenger side front underfloor brace is rusty. The lower lip of the hood is rusty, and there's a wide, shallow dent in the hood on the passenger side. A very poor Bondo repair was done to the driver's door. Door bottoms are not rusty. Both rear cab corners are rusted out. All the glass is bad, but the riser mechanisms and latches are all there and work.

The lower rear corners of both front fenders have been crudely through-bolted to the cowl. There's no transmission, but it was a floor shift 4 speed. There's a complete, unmolested Y block under the hood, and the aircleaner and valve covers were not removed like so many other old cars. The frame and suspension are in very good condition. Someone has replaced the original rear end for a 9 inch.

All four wheels turn, the steering works, the window chrome is complete and very nice, and the truck is pretty much complete. But everything on the body is dented, rusted, or damaged. Yet everything is fixable.

The Plan

My son hasn't decided how to proceed. He's considering several possibilities:

• Quick flip. Clean out the dirt and grime, check to see if the engine is free, and just sell it.
• Part it out and junk whatever's left.
• Slow flip. Make some crucial rust repairs (floors). My son has a t-5 trans that will fit. See if it will run. 
• Basic project. Get it running and driving. Brakes, wiring, driveline, glass.
• Involved project. Frame swap and make a 4x4 diesel.
• Hotrod. Late model running gear, body and paint, lowered with wheels and tires.

Considering it's a truck he really doesn't want, he may opt to not mess with it, which though understandable would be a shame. It's rough, but it's rebuildable and would make a neat project. In fact, it's well within the skill set of the average mechanically-minded person.

This post will be updated from time to time.

Original Song using Suno: Like an Ocean

A couple of months ago I made a post regarding an A.I. song generator called Suno. I uploaded many of my songs, my melodies, chords, and lyrics to Suno, and it essentially gave my songs a band. A very real sounding band.

So rather than spending thousands of dollars in a recording studio, Suno takes my original songs and arranges them and produces amazing sounding demos.

"Like an Ocean" is a song I wrote in 2012.

Audio link here.

I hope you enjoy it and share it.

A Faceborg conversation about being a house of prayer

Me: 

What revelation did you get regarding being a house of prayer? I could tell something was dropped on you.

Elijah:

This was a new encounter for me with the Father in that I was speaking with his voice and it was one of stern intensity in corrective discipline. I was honored to be releasing his heart but was gripped by a holy fear because what he was saying was confronting things in me and was flowing from an immense place of still, yet massive power. It was somewhat like when a child disobeys their parent, is being corrected gently in a public place, but eventually, because they are not heeding their parent, the parent takes their child by their arm and forcefully and intentionally lifts/carries/drags their child to a place of more intense and intentionally direct correction! This was Father’s manner, countenance and movement and what he was addressing was a misalignment with his heart: he has called his dwelling place a house of prayer but this was not the stance of his people. We have filled it with all kinds of things, but prayer is a very small percentage of the activity contained IN the mix: it is not the house.

Jesus the Socialist

The political Left is fond of quoting Jesus when He can be made to serve The Agenda. The rest of the time, not so much. They don't actually believe in Him, but when His teachings are carefully isolated and contextualized, well, they are certainly useful to beat down conservatives and Christians and further The Agenda.

One Leftist talking point is that Jesus was a socialist. Aside from the patently offensive idea that Jesus' ministry was political, it is very nearly laughable that anyone could consider Jesus to be in favor of a centralized government redistributing wealth. 

Bad Worship Songs: Living God - by Bede Benjamin-Korporaal, Jessie Early, Kory Miller, and Tyler Roberts (Red Rocks Worship)

From time to to we examine the lyrics of worship songs. Our desire is not to mock or humiliate, but rather to honestly examine content with a view to calling forth a better worship expression.

With the great volume and variety of worship music available, none of us should have to settle for bad worship songs. We should be able to select hundreds or even thousands of top notch songs very easily.

What makes a song a worship song? Is it enough to contain words like God or holy? How about vaguely spiritual sounding phrases? Should Jesus be mentioned?

We think an excellent worship song should contain the following elements:

• A direct expression of adoration (God, you are...)
• A progression of ideas that culminates in a coherent story
• A focus on God, not us
• Lyrics that do not create uncertainty or cause confusion
• A certain amount of profundity
• A singable, interesting melody
• Allusions to Scripture
• Doctrinal soundness
• Not excessively metaphorical
• Not excessively repetitive
• Jesus is not your boyfriend

It's worth noting the most worship songs contain at least something good. That is, there might be a musical idea or a lyric that has merit. Such is the case with this song, Living God.

Video link.

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Unclear Evangelism Leads to Unclear (and False) Conversions - by John Lee

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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The author is pastor of a baptist church in California. His church website has one of the most detailed statements of faith we have ever read. From it we were attempting to ascertain the author's doctrinal perspective, and it is definitely Calvinistic. From the statement of faith:

Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.

This is textbook Calvinistic jargon, with their typical emphasis on Election. So the reader knows, this is the doctrine that God long ago chose who He would save.

Why is this relevant? It's simple. 

First, the author writes about the need for effective evangelism, which suggests that evangelism techniques are somehow relevant to people getting properly saved. Yet the church he pastors believes that God has already chosen the saved.

We acknowledge the commands of Scripture regarding preaching the Gospel. Nevertheless, we simply note the obvious: Evangelism, whether properly done, done poorly, or not done at all, has no effect on who will get saved. If God has chosen, then nothing will change that.

Second, the author bemoans his altar call experiences as if they were not genuine in some way. He doesn't really tell us at what point he was saved, but it seems that at least one of these experiences was real. 

He acknowledges that salvation is "the miraculous work of God’s Spirit," but seems certain he is saved. And this is crucial. He doesn't know. No one knows, only God. The author may be a false convert even now. 

Many Christians who persevered for decades and bore much fruit of the Spirit have fallen away. Many mature believers, theologians, and pastors have stumbled or wandered and have never returned. Probably every one of them thought of themselves as certainly saved. But apparently they were false converts. The fact of the matter is, no one can be secure, simply by thinking he's been properly evangelized, discipled, or has a long history in the church.

This of course means the author's presentation is entirely irrelevent if he were to be consistent with his doctines.

Lastly, the author does quote snippets of several Scriptures, but none of them are about evangelism. None of them are illustrative of "clear conversions." 

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The spirit of witchcraft vs. Holy Spirit freedom

This is going to be direct and possibly offensive. 

The spirit of witchcraft is operating when there is

• Seeking position and false humility
• Flattery and a critical spirit
• Form of godliness and secret debauchery
• Generosity with resentfulness
• Bible knowledge and fruitlessness
• Bible knowledge without mercy
• Discernment without love
• Seated with Christ with arrogance and presumption
• Rebuking the devil without holiness

Christians: You've Been Lied To... The Forbidden Knowledge Series - by Rev. Valerie Love

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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The author is a self-described "Christian witch." What exactly is Christian about her religion? She claims to know and explain the real Jesus, which consists mostly of rejecting every historical and biblical claim about him. Basically her religion name-drops Jesus but in every other way is indistinguishable from paganism. 

We mean no disrespect to the author, but we require more than her word about what she espouses. She will make many claims, but document none of them. So, what we will read below is nothing more than undocumented opinions about some other dude named Jesus.

Lastly, despite the title, the author will identify no lie. What she does do is to point out things she disagrees with, but does not explain how they are lies.

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Hitler didn't start with camps - faceborg memes

A Leftist faceborg friend posted this:



Transcript: Hitler didn't start with camps, he started with:

• Making Germany great again
• Banning books
• Targeting the press
• Blaming immigrants
• Creating enemies from neighbors
• Defunding the arts
• Stoking fear of outsiders
• Demonizing educators

Sound familiar? Or should I type louder?

****

Actually, we don't need him to type louder, he should type more rationally.