Essential Doctrines - Gabriel Hughes - WWUTT.com

This meme purports to tell us essential doctrines needed for salvation. None of this is referenced with the Bible, however.

Logical Fallacies - Churchwatch Central

 Found here. A helpful list, though a bit ironic. The website where this is found engages in some of the fallacies quite often. We shall make a post about that here. 

Seven Common Misconceptions about the King James Bible - by Timothy Berg

Found here. An interesting article.

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The most widely read English Bible translation has sprouted a series of fictions about it. It’s time to prune them.

Finding praise for the 1611 King James Bible (KJB) is not hard. It is “the single most influential book in the English language and arguably the greatest work ever completed by a committee” according to Hannibal Hamlin and Norman Jones in their edited book marking the 400th anniversary of the KJB. Showing just how influential it has been on our language, renowned linguist David Crystal traces hundreds of expressions it cemented into the English mind while Angelica Duran, English professor at Purdue, has edited a book arguing that the KJB transcends English, rising to the level of a key text in world literature and achieving a global impact.

All this praise is warranted. But when a book blossoms into such a literary lotus, myths also begin to sprout. Grains of truth rendering them plausible grow into weeds of fiction. Blocking the light of contrary facts and pilfering life-giving nuance, truth eventually withers. The following are seven myths about the KJB that now need pruning.

Myth 1: The KJB isn’t copyrighted

Did Jesus satisfy our legal obligation? Did He pay our debt?

Recently we've been reconsidering many of the things we thought we understood regarding doctrine and faith. We have begun to question certain beliefs, church structures, and practices of the western church. Too often we have discovered unbiblical doctrines and activities. This causes us concern. We have deemed this our “Rethink.”

Our questions include, how did we arrive at our doctrines? Does the Bible really teach what we think it teaches? Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched?

It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves.

Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.

We should note that we are not Bible scholars, but we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to understand the Word of God.

40 Years of the Reagan Revolution's Libertarian Experiment Have Brought Us Crisis & Chaos - By Thom Hartmann

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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As the reader will discover, Mr. Hartmann has no idea what libertarians believe. He doesn't understand the Reagan phenomena. He doesn't know anything about what motivates his ideological opponents.

Libertarianism as a group has little influence on government. They're numerically small. And, libertarianism is not a governmental system, it is a philosophy regarding the exercise of power as it relates to personal liberty. 

Also, almost none of the people he mentions are libertarian. We haven't had a libertarian government for 150 years. Nowhere in the world are there enough libertarians in elected office to affect the possesses of any government. So to blame our present problems on a philosophy that does not wield the reigns of power in this country is puerile.

It's people like him who hold the power in our government. The Bidens, Pelosis, Schumers, and AOCs of government are the ones who are responsible for our current state. They are in the majority, and with brief exceptions, have been in the majority for the last hundred years.

They are to blame, not libertarians. They have made the decisions, cast the votes, and spent the money. They are the ones who emptied the nation's coffers, created unrest, fomented discontent, and pushed people into groups that are then pitted against one another.

Not libertarians.

But the real problem here is that Mr. Hartmann is a doctrinaire leftist, using all the agitprop techniques he has at his disposal. His article is not written to inform, but rather to further the leftist agenda. That is his only goal, to manipulate opinion, to sway the minds of the uninformed, and to repeat the same bumper sticker slogans day after day.

Once we understand this, it all begins to make sense. With the blizzard of assertions and factoids, the average person simply cannot keep up with and refute each one. And tomorrow will be a new day, with the exact same blizzard of falsities and invented history repeated as if they're documented fact. 

So refuting people like him is a waste of time, because he'll wake up tomorrow morning, sit down at his computer, open up his copy of Leftist Talking Points and dutifully type them into his word processor, just like he did today and yesterday and the day before.

So, we will rebut Mr. Hartmann for as long as we are able to hold up against the rhetorical onslaught.

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Regeneration: A glorious rear-view-mirror doctrine - teddmathisdotcom

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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We find it strange how the reformationists use terminology. Apparently phraseology like "born again" or "new life in Christ" are, what, too ordinary? So they glom onto the term "regeneration" as if it's more biblical. But we think the term is not only cumbersome, but also less useful. 

What does regeneration mean to the average person? Well, nothing. It obscures the meaning of Christ's sacrificial death and resurrection behind a two dollar word. 

The Greek word paliggenesia is found only twice in the NT, Mt. 19:28 and Tit. 3:5. 

paliggenesia ("renewal, rebirth") is used twice in the NT referring to: a) the re-birth of physical creation at Christ's return (Advent), which inaugurates His millennial kingdom (Mt 19:28; cf. Ro 8:18-25); and b) the re-birth all believers experience at conversion (Tit 3:5). https://biblehub.com/greek/3824.htm

The first occurrence:

Mt. 19:28 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

The other text:

Tit. 3:5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit... (ESV)

So it turns out this one verse is where reformationists get their terminology. They will use other, more plainly stated verses at times, but nevertheless insist in describing the new creation as regeneration. Some of these other verses not mentioned by Mr. Mathis: 

Ac. 5:20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people the full message of this new life.”

Ro. 6:4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

2Co. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Ga. 6:15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. 

Ep. 4:22-24 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Col. 3:9-10 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

With all this in mind, let's consider the author's presentation.

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Garbage Music by Passion City Church, Stop Pretending This Glorifies God - By REFORMATION CHARLOTTE

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Today Reformation Charlotte hyperventilates over the lyrics to a worship song. While it is certainly true that the song is not particularly deep, it also is not heretical. 

The unnamed author asks some truly ignorant questions, which we shall answer with Scripture.

Lastly, the author manages to quote most of the song, but conspicuously leaves out the chorus. We wonder why that might be? Perhaps because it impedes his narrative? Here is the chorus:

There’s nothing that our God can’t do
There’s not a mountain that He can’t move
Oh praise the name
That makes a way
There’s nothing that our God can’t do

The chorus clarifies the statements of the verses. Again, we are not claiming this song adequately expresses these concepts. We simply desire to note that it is not in any way false or heretical.

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Resisting the Sovereign God

Recently we've been reconsidering many of the things we thought we understood regarding doctrine and faith. We have begun to question certain beliefs, church structures, and practices of the western church. Too often we have discovered unbiblical doctrines and activities. This causes us concern. We have deemed this our “Rethink.”

Our questions include, how did we arrive at our doctrines? Does the Bible really teach what we think it teaches? Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched?

It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves.

Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.

We should note that we are not Bible scholars, but we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to understand the Word of God.

Anti-Chinese propaganda, Christian nationalism, & the foundations for a right-wing terror campaign - By Rainer Shea

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Marxist rhetoric rolls of the author's word processor so easily. This ease betrays the author, as he pieces agitprop slogans together as if the resultant sentences contain meaning. But there is no meaning. The actual intent, however, is to flick emotional triggers to the "on" position. 

"Agitprop" is an old term, a combination of the words "agitate" and "propaganda." It is a technique long used by Marxists to stir up resentment and discontent. Those are required for Marxism to succeed, for if the average person is content, fulfilled, happy, and making a good life for him and his family, the Marxist is defeated.

So the author spews his emotionally-triggering words in pursuit of the Marxist agenda, to stir up the proletariat against the bourgeois. However, in this case it comes across as meaningless nonsense.

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Go Ahead and Hate Your Neighbor! - Annual NAR Dominionist Leadership Roundtable - By Anthony Wade, leftist

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Rev. Wade doesn't even pretend anymore. He's a leftist agitator, a spreader of leftist propaganda, a religious pretender who represents himself as a truth-teller. 

There is nothing in the long screed that even comes close to being a Bible teaching. It is instead an anti-capitalist, anti-Republican, anti-trucker-protest, anti-God polemic. 

Rev. Wade has reduced himself down to a purveyor of agitprop. And, he doesn't even lie very well.

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Steven Furtick Says God Blesses Your Sins and No Man Can Curse It - By REFORMATION CHARLOTTE

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Reformation Charlotte combines with Protestia once again as the Undynamic Duo to hyperventilate over Steve Furtick. Now, we're no fan of Furtick. He probably has said some controversial things in the past. So we do not intend to defend him. Our purpose is to discuss the Undynamic Duo to ascertain if their complaint is legitimate.

More often than not we find that their complaints are either not legitimate, or they are the product of misunderstanding, selective quoting, or they come from the inability to understand a different way of communicating a concept.

This last one is the case today. Furtick says, So it seems to me if we believe Genesis 1:26 that I was made from a mess in the image of my maker, that there is no mess in my life right now that I cannot bring to my maker and expect him to say “I’ll bless it anyway.” So the Undynamic Duo make two presumptions about this:

1. Furtick is talking about sin
2. Furtick is saying God will bless your sin

Neither claim is warranted by the excerpt. First, a mess is not sin. The Undynamic Duo jumps to that conclusion without evidence or justification. However, it seems clear Furtick is referring to the troubles of life, when things aren't going well. This is not sin. We can still come to God with expectation in those circumstances.

Second, the Undynamic Duo presumes Furtick was referring to the mess, when it is more likely he was talking about "my life." But in either case, since the mess is not sin, there is no error in claiming God can bless your life despite its messes; or, God can bless the mess.

Lastly, we note that the Undynamic Duo cannot bring themselves to quote the verse. We shall do so:

Ge. 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

We can now begin to understand Furtick's thrust. Our take on the matter is this: If we are made in God's image, God's grace still abounds to us no matter our life circumstances. 

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Discernment Isn’t Spiritual ESP - DEBBIELYNNE KESPERT

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Ms. Kespert will not make an argument from the Bible. She will not discuss or quote any Scripture dealing with discernment. In fact, she will manage to quote only one Scripture, and that one does not speak to discernment at all.

She will instead cite anecdotal experiences and draw her conclusions from them.

Since Ms. Kespert seems not to be up to the task of discussing this topic from the Bible, we shall undertake to educate the reader. Before we begin, we should note that Ms. Kespert's entire presumption about what discernment is is based on this verse:

He. 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

She does not quote the verse, but it is clear that the training in Bible knowledge she values for the purpose of discernment is based on this verse. And this sort of training is of course valuable. We should definitely grow in faith and knowledge so that we can more readily distinguish good from evil.

The word distinguish is diakrisis, which is distinguishing; hence: deciding, passing sentence on; the act of judgment, discernment. It is the evaluation of things [in this case, good vs. evil] in order to decide or judge. In the context of He. 5:14, this judgment is honed by constant use of discernment.

The same word is used here:

Ro. 14:1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.

So discernment is used for important matters, not for nit-picking minor things. The word is also found here:

1Co. 12:7-10 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits...

Distinguishing between Spirits. So, contrary to Ms. Kespert's claims, we find that this judgment or decision-making is employed in spiritual matters as well. 

Manifestation is phanerósis, which is a manifestation, disclosure. Every spiritual gifts is a disclosure or showing forth of a spiritual ability. 

Paul opens this chapter [12] with 

1Co. 12:1 Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.

Spiritual gifts is pneumatikos, which means relating to the realm of spirit. The word gift is implied here, but is not part of the Greek word. We find the idea of gifts here:

Ro. 12:6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.

"Gifts" is charisma, [which] divinely empowers a believer to share God's work with others, i.e. Spirit-empowered service to the Church to carry out His plan for His people.

Let's put all this together for Ms. Kespert's edification. A spiritual gift [pneumatikos charisma] is a showing forth [phanerósis] of the Holy Spirit by his His divine endowment of spiritual power. All charisma is a Spirit empowerment, whether it is prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, generosity, or showing mercy [Ro 12:6-7]; faith, healing, miraculous powers, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, or interpretation [1Co. 12:9-10]. 

Every spiritual gift is a empowerment, not a natural ability. Every spiritual gift is relating to the realm of the Spirit. That empowerment should be honed and perfected through constant use [He. 5:14], but the supernatural ability is given by the Holy Spirit.

Which of course means that discernment is not simply learning doctrine and studying the Bible so that one might be able to find false teachers. It is specifically a spiritual empowerment relating to the spiritual realm.

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