Bad Worship Songs: It's Always Been You - by Phil Wickham

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, It's Always Been You.

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Prophecy and Tongues: A Compilation of the Best Cessationist Arguments - by Lee Irons

Excerpted from here. Our comments in bold.

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These are the best, according to the title. We would expect them to be devastating, the last word on the cessationism debate.

But they aren't good arguments at all. They aren't even biblical arguments, they're mostly assumptions and deductions from preconceived ideas about what someone has said about certain Scriptures.

They aren't really even arguments. They are assertions. Claims. 

We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.

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Why ‘God Told Me’ Isn’t Biblical - By Elizabeth Prata

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Over 1200 words, yet Ms. Prata cannot bring herself to explain why (from the Bible) contemporary prophecy is unbiblical. 

So that the reader would understand, Mr. Prata, like a lot of cessationists, falsely believes that everything God says must be included in the Bible. The Bible doesn't tell us this, but that's what she believes. 

Towards the end of her article she writes,

The canon is closed. 

We certainly agree. But what does the closed canon have to do with contemporary prophecy? She continues:

God’s new revelation ended with Revelation 22. 

"New revelation" for her means anything God says after the closed canon, all of which must be put in the Bible. However, there is no biblical standard that requires this. Next:

I’m not saying God CAN’T speak now, of course He can. It’s just that He closed the Bible with a warning not to add to the book nor take away from it. 

Again we find her premise that God speaking is synonymous with adding words to the Bible. And finally:

He said that at the present time, He would not be speaking. 

Thus her unbiblical conclusion based on a false premise. 

The Bible tells us that God is still speaking today: 

He. 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

We have written detailed explanations about contemporary prophecy and the closed canon, here and here.

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Helping my son tile his kitchen: from flooring to structure to electrical

My son bought a cozy little house several years ago. 936 square feet, two bedroom, one bath, with a full unfinished basement. Although this 1959 house needs remodeling, my son is a mechanic at heart and prefers to work on car projects. 

But a few months ago he finally got the motivation to start on his house again. A dozen boxes of ceramic tile, obtained very cheaply, have been sitting in his living room for a long time, so he decided to tear out the ugly kitchen floor and install the tile.

Now, we did do some work on the house prior to this latest binge, which involved moving the basement stairs out of the dining room and into the living room. We also demolished the scabbed together basement and started framing out a basement bathroom. But this was 3-4 years ago.

Here's a floor plan to help you understand the things we were undertaking:

The NKJV: A Deadly Translation - By Pastor James L. Melton

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This article is written by a "KJV onlyist." This is a sect of the Christian community whose adherents believe the KJV is the only true translation of the Bible and all others are corrupted. 

The author doesn't explain, but the "Textus Receptus" manuscripts of the NT are regarded by "onlyists" as the only authentic texts from which to translate, and the KJV is translated from these texts. But all other translations are corrupt because they are based on inferior "Alexandrian" (Westcott and Hort) texts.

So the author's premise is that all other Bible translations are heretical and evil, which includes the NKJV. Unfortunately, rather than articulate valid reasons for his position, he only manages to demonstrate nit-picking. None of the issues the author discusses represent a risk of departure from true doctrine or saving knowledge. 

Not one.

In addition, the KJV is also a revision of earlier translations, and has in fact been changed many times over the centuries. Here's an interesting discussion about this.

We also should mention that we are not writing to defend the NKJV, we are focused on examining the author's presentation.

Lastly, the author never quotes the Bible. Not once. We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.

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One Baptism or Two? What Are We to Make of the Spirit Baptism in Acts 8? - by Guy Waters

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author is a cessationist who doesn't accept the charismatic teaching on the Holy Spirit, specifically, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't actually come out and tell us this, but we are able to deduce it.

Why? Well, he spends a good deal of time correctly teaching on the various events in Acts, but it will be late into his presentation where he finally tells us his purpose for writing. The money quote: God does not intend for the kind of Spirit baptism described in Acts 2, 8, and 10 to be an ongoing experience of believers in every age. 

Therefore, he didn't write to explain Holy Spirit baptism, he wrote to tell us that it isn't for us. Upon what basis he asserts this is unknown, because he cites no Bible verse that says such a thing.

We certainly agree that the purpose of these events in Acts was to illustrate the far-reaching nature of salvation. But we do not agree, absent evidence, that Holy Spirit baptism is not for us.  

In fact, the Holy Spirit baptism is the mechanism of our new birth: 

Jn. 3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

The indwelling Spirit is differentiated from the flesh:

Ro. 8:9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

We receive the Spirit by faith:

Ga. 3:2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is for everyone:

Lk. 3:16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 

But we need to continually be refilled with the Holy Spirit:

Ep. 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 

Without the Holy Spirit, we are not saved. Without His continual refilling, we are nothing but carnal Christians.

We discuss the Holy Spirit baptism in some depth here.

Lastly, what baptism is the "one baptism?" According to the author, it is water baptism, because he thinks the Holy Spirit no longer baptizes. Hmm.

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Peter Strand and Melissa Romano: Attack on Department of Education is an attack on our children

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Typical leftist equations, that government funding equals solving the problem, that intentions equal results, and that cutting a government program means being against the stated goal of the program.

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Paul and the Charismatics - the Riddleblog

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author misrepresents Scripture, redefines words, and make errant claims.

Now, we do understand that the author is writing a summary of his series of podcasts, but there are zero words here from the Bible. Not a single quote.

We haven't listened to any of these podcasts, so we don't know if the author actually quotes the Bible. 

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1967 Pontiac Lemans #2 - budget build - Episode eleven, headlight extensions, little parts, roof ***updated 4/4/25

October 5th, 2024:

October 6th, 2024:

Episode one, introduction, here.

Episode two, disassembly and assessment, here.

Episode three, rough body work, here.

Episode four, quarters, here.

Episode five, toe panel, rockers, here.

Episode six, fenders, inner fenders, here.

Episode seven, the doors, found here.

Episode eight, tail light panel, hood, found here.

Episode nine - Hood, trunk, windshield gutter, cowl and firewall, heater box, found here.

Episode ten - Back glass gutter, grill, found here.

Episode eleven - headlight extensions, roof, found here.

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There are a hundred little details to get done to reach my goal of a paint-ready car. Originally it was to be six months, which at this writing is only days away. 

I'm not going to make it.

Letter to the editor: Obama, Simpson gave us the road map for strategic debt reduction - by Michael Legge

Found here. 

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Here we have another leftist regurgitating something he read on some leftist website. As is typical for the Left, the author picks out factoids about particular examples of government spending and assigns their cost to the debt, which implicitly means he regards all other spending as funded. 

So if a war costs $3 trillion but SNAP costs $120 billion, Medicare $747 billion, and Medicaid/CHIP costs $609 billion, the cost of the war is deemed deficit spending but everything else is not. This of course is completely arbitrary based on the author's political orientation.

At the end, the author is actually in favor of debt reduction, which is surprising since the Left generally views deficit spending as desirable. Thus the author concedes major ground. All that is left is to decide what to cut.

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Why I Admire Pastors and You Should Too - by Jason K. Allen

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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The author reinforces an unbiblical expression of church leadership, the CEO pastor. In actual fact the elders are to lead the local church: 

1Pe. 5:1-3 To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow-elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers... 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

Astonishingly, the author will actually refer to this passage but for some reason he will miss (or avoid) the fact that Peter was describing the duties of elders.

We must consider this Bad Bible Teaching.

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The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith - by Mike Ratliff

Excerpted from here. Our comments in bold.
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The author get a great deal correct here, but makes a couple of key errors, largely because of his reformist/Calvinist viewpoint.

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Cessationism again - by Phil Johnson

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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We had hoped to find some quality Bible teaching here regarding cessationism, but no such luck. The author simply recounts the events of an email encounter he had. So he doesn't teach us anything other than how he dispatched an errant charismatic.

We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.

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God's word - guest post by Elijiah

My friend Elijah makes an important point: The Bible without the Spirit is a dead letter. 

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Rich's proverbs, book twelve - updated 4/4/25

Book twelve here.

Book eleven here.

Book ten here.

Book nine here.

Book eight here.

Book seven here.

Book six here.

Book five here.

Book four here.

Book three here.

Book two here.

Book one here.

This is a continuation of my practice to take notes on what I prayed.
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How to Partake of the Covenant of Grace - by J.V. Fesko

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This is an excerpt from the author's book on covenant theology, which means he is dropping us into the middle of his discussion without giving us any background for us to understand the context. Given the amount of pre-knowledge one must possess before reading this, we cannot conceive of a scenario where the content would in any way be edifying. But even if a reader had some background and carried an understanding of these concepts, his writing remains impenetrable.  

The author purports to teach us something but cloaks it in obscure theological terms that generate much heat but little light. He makes repeated assertions about the Law and obedience, but never documents them. He goes on and on about various covenants but never really explains what they mean. 

All the while he adds layer upon layer until it's nothing short of a mystery as to what he's talking about. 

 

"How to partake of the covenant of grace" basically means, how to get saved. The "covenant of grace" is actually the Gospel: Repent, call upon the name of Jesus, and He saves you and gives you new life. 

So who is this article for? There's two possibilities. One, the author wrote this to Christians in order to explain something they need to know; and two, the author wrote this to non-Christians to explain something they need to know.

It seems unlikely that the author would be explaining how to get saved to a Christian, and it's equally unlikely, given the obtuse language, that he was explaining how to get saved to a non-Christian. 

We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.

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When is the rapture?

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.
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1967 Pontiac Lemans #2 - budget build - Episode ten, Back glass gutter, grill header - updated 3/26/25

October 5th, 2024:

October 6th, 2024:

Episode one, introduction, here.

Episode two, disassembly and assessment, here.

Episode three, rough body work, here.

Episode four, quarters, here.

Episode five, toe panel, rockers, here.

Episode six, fenders, inner fenders, here.

Episode seven, the doors, found here.

Episode eight, tail light panel, hood, found here.

Episode nine - Hood, trunk, windshield gutter, cowl and firewall, heater box, found here.

Episode ten - Back glass gutter, grill, found here.

Episode eleven - headlight extensions, roof, found here.

------------------

The Back Glass Gutter

This was a known issue, but the actual extent of the damage was not known. You can see below the hacked out package tray as well as the suspicious perpendicular cracks, indicating failing Bondo:

10 Mistakes I Made When Learning How to Pray - by Andrew Butterworth

Found here. A very good article.

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I didn’t know much about prayer. But then in my second year of university, I was given about 15 books on the topic. I had recently been given the grandiose title of Prayer Secretary at my university Christian Union. So I wanted to understand the topic more. Since then, I discovered that while some books can be helpful, others can be outright misleading. I also learnt that there is nothing like actually praying to grow you in the skill and practice of prayer.

Here are the mistakes I have made—and lessons learnt—in the 20 years since my second year at university.

1. Misunderstanding How Important Prayer Is

I could have titled this one simply: never praying. But looking back at my own life, my lack of prayer was largely due to my sheer ignorance of its importance. If the gospel reestablishes our lost relationship with God, prayer is what maintains it. Please don’t mishear me. I don’t mean that our prayer is what sustains our salvation. Rather, prayer is the joyful opportunity that results from our salvation.

Think about it. We have the kindest, wisest, most generous being in the whole universe available to help and connect with us—whenever we need. Given this, then prayerlessness is surely not understanding our incredible situation. The more I have given time over to prayer, the more I have delighted in the knowledge that God cares about the small details of my life. Incredible.

2. Only Praying in Desperate Times

If Christianity is about a relationship with God, then only engaging him when you get in a mess is a sign of relational immaturity. But I, like millions of other people, have been there. And it came down to a whole host of reasons that miss out on what God is really like. Like a parent emotionally cut off by their teenager, God will respond to those rare moments of engagement with real grace. But who wants to be seen as a self-absorbed, emotionally reclusive teenager? The hope is that at some point we grow up.

You're probably a cessationist, too - by Phil Johnson

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This is a little over 1000 words, but doesn't contain a single word of Scripture. Astounding. The author purports to teach us about the Bible without quoting the Bible.

Well, his actual purpose is not to teach, however. He thinks he's got charismatics in a "gotcha." His "clever" idea is to negate charismatic beliefs by claiming they're not charismatics. According to Mr. Johnson, if a charismatic believes that something, anything has changed from the apostolic era to the church age it makes the charismatic a "functional cessationist."

It is unfortunate indeed that cessationists rely on substandard arguments like this. But even worse (and ironically), these arguments they can be turned back around at cessationists.

Pay careful attention: The typical cessationist would reject the "supernatural" gifts but concede (rightly) that God is free to use Christians to heal someone if He wants. If the cessationist accepts that God heals at the prayer of a saint, or that He might give a Christian spiritual insight into a someone's personal situation, or that He might even prompt a Christian to do a particular thing, even once, then the cessationist is a functional charismatic.  

This of course means that the cessationist would agree that the Holy Spirit can momentarily endow believers with miraculous powers of healing. A spiritual gift, temporarily bestowed.

So then, the real question is not if the Holy Spirit bestows "supernatural" spiritual gifts on believers, but rather for how long those gifts abide on a Christian. If the Holy Spirit endows a Christian with power, even if for a moment, then cessationists have a problem. If these supernatural endowments various only in duration, this makes cessationists "functional charismatics." 

But more to the point, it is very clear that a lot has changed. The New Covenant represents a total shift in the way God operates. Change does not equal ceased.

Salvation is no longer just for the Jews (Ro. 11:13-17), God has no longer restricted His speaking to Israel through the OT prophets (He. 1:1-2), He has dealt with sin fully through His Son rather than animal sacrifices (He. 10:3-7). The very nature of Christ's life, death and resurrection is that of a total shift of heaven and earth. So it is very nearly puerile to suggest that agreeing that things have changed makes a charismatic into a "functional cessationist." 

This sort of argument resembles the "one less god" argument atheists make. 

It is rhetorical nonsense.

Further, Mr. Johnson makes the astonishing claim that he doesn't even have to make a biblical argument for his doctrine. No serious Bible student would assert such a thing, but here we have a supposed Bible teacher writing it.

Mr. Johnson references but does not quote this Scripture as a proof text that apostles are done and gone:

2Co. 12:11-12 I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the “super-apostles”, even though I am nothing. 12 The things that mark an apostle — signs, wonders and miracles — were done among you with great perseverance.

His claim from this is that there are unique "apostolic signs" that are no longer happening because there are no longer apostles. However, we can clearly see that Paul was not appealing to his signs and wonders as proof of being a part of the unique apostolic club, he was responding to the Corinthian church's charge that he was a substandard, lower level apostle, not as good as the Twelve.

Lastly, if miracles are unique a "apostolic gift," then why did Paul describe them as a spiritual gift? [1 Cor. 12:28]. Stephen wasn't an apostle, but he did "great wonders and signs." [Act. 6:8]. 

Clearly Mr. Johnson's thinking is muddled regarding this whole topic.

Oh, and one more thing. Since every spiritual gift is a supernatural empowerment, any expression of any spiritual gift requires the Holy Spirit's ministry. There is no such thing as a natural "service" spiritual gift as opposed to a supernatural "sign" gift. There are no spiritual gifts which don't depend on the Holy Spirit's power. Thus the distinction cessationists make is artificial.) 

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