Walsch, Young, and Beth Moore: ungodly channelers producing ungodly books. Part 1- Neale Donald Walsch and his alleged ‘conversations with God’ - By Elizabeth Prata

Excerpted from here. Our comments in bold.
*******************

We have no intention of defending Mr. Walsch, we are here to examine Ms. Prata's incoherent and largely Scriptureless presentation.

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Is Double Predestination Fair? - by Kevin DeYoung

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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The author has appeared in our blog several times before. In these times we've analyzed him we've discovered he has a marked aversion to quoting Scripture. Today's article is no exception. Thus the author attempts to teach about his doctrines but without hardly a quote of the document from which those doctrines are derived. 

We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.

In fact, the author doesn't even teach the Bible, he teaches Calvinism. We have yet to observe him teaching the Bible apart from specific Calvinistic doctrines.

Lastly, this is nothing more than an exercise in futility. There is no benefit to knowing the things the author writes about. "Double predestination" is nonsensical.

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The Faulty Paths of The Final Quest - by lovesickscribe

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This is an assemblage of undocumented claims, ill-informed opinions, and scriptural misrepresentations. The author doesn't get a single thing biblically correct.

Now, we should note that we are not here to defend Rick Joyner or his writings. We have read The Final Quest and found it challenging, interesting, and at times, odd. We do not ascribe to it the status of Scripture, nor should we or anyone else. 

Speaking of Scripture, the author writes almost 1500 words without quoting a single Scripture. 

We must consider this Bad Bible Teaching.)

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What does it mean to quench the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19)? - gotquestions

Found here. Considering how often we find fault with gotquestions' poor doctrine and faulty teaching, the below article is astonishingly good.

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Answer

The apostle Paul’s closing instructions to the Thessalonian church stresses the believer’s responsibility for guarding his or her own spiritual integrity with this command: “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19–21).

In the original text, the verb for “quench” used here speaks of suppressing fire or stifling a flame. The Holy Spirit is like a fire dwelling in each believer. When Paul writes, “Do not quench the Holy Spirit,” he is cautioning Christians not to suppress the fire of God’s Spirit that burns within us. This command to the Thessalonians is similar to reminders Paul gave Timothy “to keep ablaze the gift of God that is in you” (2 Timothy 1:6, HCSB) and “do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you” (1 Timothy 4:14, NLT).

1967 Pontiac Lemans #2 - budget build - episode four, rust repair installment one - updated 11/4/24

 October 5th, 2024:

October 6th, 2024:



Episode one here.

Episode two here.

Episode three here.

Episode four here.

Are You OK with Your Country Going Fascist? - By Lawrence Wittner

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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One gets the impression that the author is not being cynical, that he really believes this. Everything he writes is presented as common knowledge. But he doesn't tell us why or how. He makes dozens of accusations but never tells us where he finds his information. 

This article is nothing more than a litany of leftist talking points and bumper sticker slogans. He perfectly parrots this Narrative chapter and verse, without so much a blink of his blank, staring eyes. It's eerie regurgitation, facile to the point of robotic.

And he never defines fascism, nor does he offer a single example of something fascist.

We notice the author is a professor of history. That means this article, which in actual fact could have been written by a junior high student in study hall, is the product of higher learning and represents the current state of education. 

That is a truly scary thought.

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Book Plunge: Discerning The Voice of God Chapter 1 - by Nick Peters

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Apparently the author is constructing an entire series to analyze Priscilla Shirer's book. Why? We don't know. We've never heard of her. We're pretty certain she's not a Bible teacher of note. So the purpose of the author's analysis is not clear.

In any case, if this first installment is any indicator of the author's theological prowess, we probably won't be reading any future installments.

Lastly, the author barely manages to quote the Bible. 

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What Future Judgment Will Christians Face? - Interview with John Piper

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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Dr. Piper makes a common mistake, he filters biblical concepts through his modern-day experience. But more egregiously, he wants us to believe the Calvinist/Reformist doctrine that the Father punished Jesus for our sins. This did not happen. See our in-depth analyses here and here.

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Rich's proverbs, book seven - 11/4/24

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.

Chapter One

1. Some say that you can't do something until this or that happens. "Can't " is a word that should never be used about you.

2. Grace is not the father being nice to the undeserving. Grace is his desire to be near. To claim I don't deserve your nearness is an insidious form of pride.

3. I have attended more than 2000 Sunday services in my life. We sing a few songs, do announcements, take the offering, sermon, done. With rare exceptions, that is church. Over and over again.

I've just about reached my limit. The routine, the powerlessness, the superficiality. Something must change. Holy Spirit we need you so much!

4. The crucial step towards Christian maturity is to get past myself. This is the same crucial step to be a worshiper. And an intercessor. And a servant.

Hmm. Apparently, getting past myself is crucial for everything.

Is Every Sin the Same in God’s Eyes? - by Kevin DeYoung

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

The reason the author writes this (we think) is because a statement of faith he agrees with makes the issue important. So he teaches to the statement of faith, looking for biblical support for this view of the doctrine.

So from this he considers the nature of sin in an interesting way, and we might in some sense agree, except for several critical errors:

1. He never defines what sin is
2. He thinks sin is the issue when it's the sinner
3. He mistakes the severity of punishment for the severity of sin  
4. He doesn't quote a single Scripture. 

We will define sin. Sin is hamartia, missing the mark, offense, a state or status: 

Ro. 3:9 ...Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.

The condition of the sinner is at stake, not the relative severity of various sins.

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Avoiding the disaster of hyper-Calvinism - by Simon van Bruchem

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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We think it is good that Calvinists wrestle with the implications of their odd doctrines. Here the author doesn't want to be a hyper-Calvinist (i.e., a Calvinist who actually believes Calvinism), but he cannot escape. He tries to gain cover by noting Paul's passion for evangelism, but he never comes to grips with the implications of this as opposed to what he believes about God's "complete control."

Our belief is that God did predestine people, but only as it applied to Israel. Until Christ, everything revolved around Israel. They where chosen, they received all the blessings as God's people [Ro. 9:4-8]. But now that we have been grafted in [Ro. 11:17] by faith when we believed [Eph. 1:13], we are partakers of God's blessings.

Therefore, we gentiles are not predestined, but Israel is [Ro. 9:30-31]. 

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Does Free Will Exist? - Interview with John Piper

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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It will take some time before Dr. Piper really discusses his Calvinism, but he will use the word just two times without really explaining it. 

He represents this as a debate between this doctrinal perspective and Arminianism, as if everyone falls into these two doctrinal camps.

He uses a definition of free will which suits his rhetorical purpose, which is to affirm his doctrine and dismiss detractors.

Our view is, man's "Total Depravity," that is, the total inability to participate in any way in his salvation, ended once the savior had come. It seems this moment in time created a new situation:

Is. 9:2The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

So the condition of an unsaved man is not total darkness. Every man now has light, which is the ability to see God's holiness and respond to Him when He comes bringing conviction. That revelation does not guarantee salvation, it only presents itself. 

This is important: The response of the sinful, dead man is to make a decision is not based on intellectual process of the will, or due to the possession of a power to change anything, but rather due to revelation. Therefore, this is not a work, but simply a response to a spiritual stimulus.

Lastly, Dr. Piper barely quotes the Bible. We must consider this Bad Bible Teaching.

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The Disturbing Trend of Continuationism Embraced by the Modern Church - by Publisher

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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This is over 1700 words, where the unnamed author uses the word sufficient/sufficiency almost 20 times. He clearly doesn't know what the word means. This may be the reason for his anonymity.

The author is a false teacher, having lied at least three times about the content of certain Bible verses. This means we flatly reject his presentation, though we will still undertake to critique this nightmare of illogic, misrepresentation, and Bad Bible Teaching.

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1967 Pontiac Lemans #2 - budget build - episode three, rough body work - updated 11/4/24

 October 5th, 2024:

October 6th, 2024:



Episode one here.

Episode two here.

Episode three here.

Episode four here.

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

10/17/24 While waiting for my patch panels to arrive (see next episode for this) I did some work on the major body damage. This is necessary for the driver quarter in particular, because the damage needs to be straightened before the patch panel can be welded in:

Not only is it pushed in, there's a horizontal crease below it. I worked from inside the trunk with a 2x4 lever and a pry bar to work out the pushed-in area. At the same time I relieved the stress in the panel by tapping around the outside of the dent. Here's the result:

You can see the lower body line still has some damage, but the patch panel will replace this area.

I did some sanding:

The paint turned to goo as I sanded, so this was a lot of work.

I also spent some time on the driver door, because I needed to know if I could fix it or if I had to buy a replacement:

This was a harder repair because of the lack of access from the inside. I put the 2x4 to work again. Plus the pry bar, which is a fairly flat piece of steel, makes a good panel slapper. 

Again, some pretty good success:

That rag is so I won't bang the Camaro with the door.

I also spent some time on the taillight panel:

You can see that the area is pushed up as well as in. First I got the bumper off (never an easy job). That revealed the damage was more extensive than I thought. The pinch weld was folded over and the hit was on the strongest part of the panel, where the factory folded, rounded, and connected it to the trunk pan. Plus the damage carried upward into the main part of the panel.

I started from inside the trunk, working the ridge down and out with a piece of 3/16" plate and a big mallet. I spent 20 minutes trying to move it. I had some success, and it moved, but not enough:

Some prior "bodyman" thought he could pull out this area with a slide hammer. Har. 

So it's certainly a lot better than it was, but the pinch weld is still pushed in about a quarter inch. I might try to improvise a pulling rig and see what happens. Follow-up to come.

Lastly, I worked on the core support. Busy day. The core support that was on the car was rusted completely through on the driver's side:

But the car came with another one:

I thought that all this one needed was to pound out the dent in the close-out panel (lower right), but it turned out that it was twisted and bent, and some of the spotwelds had let loose. I started by bolting it on the car, securing the top with a chain, and pulling on the driver's side of the lower horizontal member with a come along. That helped some.

I took it off the car and laid it on the floor, engine side down. Measuring from the floor, the lower horizontal member had an inch difference side to side. So I blocked the passenger side up with some 2x4s and stepped on the driver's side. That helped some more.

Growing weary since it was close to the end of the day, I flopped it over so the grill side was down and started working the big dent on the close-out panel. I put one end of the previously-mentioned piece of 3/16" plate on top of the dent, into the recess, and the other end on the floor. I put all my strength into the hits, and the metal started to move. I actually got it to move quite a bit:

But not enough. (In this picture I turned it upside done.)

I will work it some more, but given that several of the spot welds are not holding anything, I think it will be better to swap the closeout panel from the rusted core support. It's really straight, and the forward flange is really important because that's where the nose piece bolts:

I turned to the passenger fender and worked it for several hours. I started getting some good results. Here's the before:

And this is what it looks like presently:

It's very nearly ready for filler, except for the headlight area, damage I hadn't notice before. It took a hit there and the area was pushed back and bulged out. I've been working that area too:

It's a little hard to see, but you can just make out the remnants of a vertical ridge line to the left of the headlight lip. This was a pushed up area, which I've been working back down. The lip of the headlight still needs to go forward, and the recessed area where the headlight bezel mates needs to be unfolded.

More to come...

Understanding the True Nature of Tongues - by Scott Aniol

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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The author is unable to quote more than a snippet of two Scriptures. That's it. He's a Bible teacher who does not quote the Bible.

The issue of tongues is perhaps one of the more complicated issues of the Church, and clearly the author is not up to the challenge. He doesn't appear to even be acquainted with the pro-tongues arguments, let alone the Scriptures that are contrary to his doctrine. 

Once again we must deem his work Bad Bible Teaching.

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What Is Calvinism? - by Herman Selderhuis

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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This is astounding. Completely astounding. This "explanation" of Calvinism doesn't quote or even mention the Bible. Not once, though the author does use the word "Bible" twice. 

But not only does he not tell us anything about the bible, he tells us virtually nothing about the doctrines of Calvinism, seeming to go out of his way to be bland and featureless. 

This is truly, truly, Bad Bible Teaching.

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The Perils of “Open But Cautious” Cessationism: A Call for Doctrinal Clarity - by Virgil Walker

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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The author will refer to the sufficiency of Scripture nearly a dozen times, as well as adding modifiers to the word "apostolic" (-gifts, -era, -age, -authority), and the danger of how contemporary prophecy would re-lay church's foundation. But he never explains any of this.

He does this over and over again. It's as if he seeks to establish his assertions as true by sheer repetition. 

As we read we were left wondering if he has some sort of secret knowledge about something that he's not telling us. 

So the author never tells us how he knows what he knows. He does not tell us why believing in healing is a danger to the Bible or the church. He doesn't tell us why an undefined emotionalism is antithetical to Bible truth. We never find out how prophecy dilutes Bible doctrine.

The author does quote some Scripture, but most of those quotes are not about documenting his assertions. A couple of his Bible quotes do speak to his points, but he either misinterprets them or misrepresents them.

This is truly Bad Bible Teaching.

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Are There Two Levels of Prophecy? - by Scott Aniol

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

This is not a Bible teaching, it is a refutation of Wayne Grudem's opinion.

The author will repeatedly appeal to the closed canon, almost a dozen times, but will never explain why contemporary prophecy is at odds with it. So that the reader will understand, there is an unstated premise: Cessationists believe that all prophecy is the pure, inerrant, authoritative words of God, and it must be written down and added to Scripture. Thus the cessationist assumes that prophecy = Scripture. 

The author never tells us this premise.

In fact, it is a problematic assumption. This is because there is no requirement that prophetic expression be included in the Bible. We can find no Bible verse that suggests such a thing. It's just not there.

This is crucial: The Bible does not tell us that contemporary prophecy needs to be added to the Bible.

To the contrary, we see all sorts of prophecy, miracles, and other supernatural events that didn't make the cut, as it were. For example, some of the great exploits of King Solomon were not deemed worthy of inclusion in the Holy Writ. Readers are directed to the "annals of Solomon," something we do not have today:

1Kg. 11:41 As for the other events of Solomon’s reign — all he did and the wisdom he displayed — are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon?

King Saul prophesied to the extent that the people wondered if he was included among the prophets. However, we don't have any of those prophecies:

1Sa. 10:10-11 When they arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he joined in their prophesying. 11 When all those who had formerly known him saw him prophesying with the prophets, they asked each other, “What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?

We don't even have the prophecies from this procession of prophets.

Agabus was a N.T. prophet worthy of special note. It is interesting that only one of his prophecies was quoted, (and a summary of another), while any other prophecies he might have spoken were omitted:

Ac. 21:10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

Agabus' famine prophecy is only a summary, not the actual prophecy:

Ac. 11:27-28 During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world.

There are a number of prophets identified by name in the NT, yet we don't have any prophecies from them. Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, and Manaen:

Ac. 13:1-2 In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Notice there came forth a prophecy, but the narrative doesn't even mention who spoke it. 

We also do not have any prophecies from Judas or Silas, even though they said much:

Ac. 15:32 Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers.

And these twelve men prophesied, but we don't have any record of their prophecies:

Ac. 19:6-7 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.

Philip's daughters prophesied, but that all we know:

Ac. 21:8-9 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

Even Jesus, as critically important are His words and deeds, was subject to editing by the Holy Spirit:

Jn. 21:25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

Why would the author insist that contemporary prophecy violates the canon when so much of the prophetic mentioned in the Bible did not? Why do cessationists assume prophecy must be added to the Bible? Conclusion: It's an unbiblical assumption.

Lastly, in 1749 words the author does manage to quote some Scripture, but nothing he quotes bolsters his case. For these reasons, we must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.

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Christ’s Blood and the Atonement - by Mike Ratliff

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Mr. Ratliff has made several appearances in our blog, with increasing frequency. It's almost to the point where we're tempted to create his very own tag, but we will delay this decision for a while.

Today's article has him opening with a passage from Ephesians chapter one, which he doesn't discuss or even mention again. 

What he really wants to talk about is Penal Atonement, the Reformist doctrine that the Father punished Jesus for our sin. Amazingly, he asserts that not believing this vile doctrine means one is fleshly and not orthodox. That is the essence of his case, the bare assertion.

So we will respond with our own bare assertions. The doctrine is vile first because first, the Bible does not teach it; second, because there's no reason to punish the Son for our sins if His blood is sufficient; and third, Jesus did not substitute Himself for us.

We discuss this in detail here, here, and here.

Later in his article the author alternately gets atonement right and wrong, depending on whether he is appealing to Scripture or his doctrine. It's a shame he is unable to see this, probably due to his Reformist/Calvinistic predisposition.

We must regard this as Bad Bible Teaching.

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1967 Pontiac Lemans #2 - budget build - episode two, disassembly and assessment

October 5th, 2024:



October 6th, 2024:



Episode one here.

Episode two here.

Episode three here.

Episode four here.

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

Now that the car is safely ensconced in my shop I'm dying to know if I bought a lemon or a Lemans. The first order of business is to empty out the car and clean out the debris. After that, remove the front clip to access the engine for disassembly.

I grabbed a light and crawled under. Having had a previous very rusty Lemans, I knew exactly where to look and what I was looking at. I found an absolutely beautiful frame, aside from a bent rear crossmember. And the floorboards were unmolested. Aside from a coat of dust, the underside looked like factory. The front and rear suspension looked like it could just be left as is, with the exception of the sway bar links. This is actually when I discovered it had factory discs. But no power booster, a somewhat unusual combination. 

The underside of the engine and transmission were covered with black secretions and the power steering box had a bolt threaded into its return line port. Must have been a bear to steer. The exhaust had been cut away and the parking brake cables were missing. But as far as I could tell, I would have very little work to do under here.

Back up top. The car had a variety of loose parts inside, including two alternators, three starters, two OEM air cleaners, the guts for the passenger door, some chrome trim pieces, and miscellaneous other parts. 

The headliner is gone so its insulation pad was disintegrating, having joined all sorts of other rubble on the floor. The debris filled a five gallon pail, but what I found underneath it gladdened my heart: