Should Christians Plead the Blood of Jesus? - by Wanjiru Ng’ang’a

Found here. An interesting article about a topic we had not thought about before.

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For God So Loved the World - by Tom Ascol

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author wants to insert himself and his fellow Calvinists into verses where they don't belong. Calvinists believe that the various predestination Scriptures apply to them. They believe God chose those will get saved, which of course must mean that Jesus didn't die for the world, only for the ones who were chosen. Thus the reason for his article.

Our position is that there were indeed predestined ones, and they lived and died 2000 years ago. They were the early believers, the "firstfruits" God chose as His inheritance (Ps. 28:9, Ps. 33:12, Ps. 74:2, etc.); they are His sheep (Ps. 79:13, Ps. 100:3). They are the children of promise chosen as a remnant from Israel (Ro. 9:8).

No one alive on earth today is a firstfruit. We who accepted their message (Jn. 17:20) were included in Christ when we believed (Ep. 1:13). No one alive today is predestined.

Interestingly, the author never quotes or even mentions John 3:16 as promised in the title.

Lastly, we must note that none of this makes a difference. It's an empty exercise. Predestined or not predestined changes nothing about our privileges or obligations as Christians.

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The Cancer of Effeminate Worship in the Modern Church - by Publisher

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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We certainly agree with the unnamed author "Publisher" that there are things to complain about regarding the contemporary church, but this article is nothing more than effeminate whining. Publisher quotes no Scripture, offers no teaching, explains no concept. He doesn't edify, exhort, or elucidate any gospel principle.

Yes it is true that some contemporary Christian music is superficial, vague, or doctrinally incorrect. This is not a new phenomenon in the Church, which has been plagued by bad teaching and bad worship for millennia.

But this isn't the real problem that Publisher has. His problem is that contemporary worship violates his taste and tradition. "It's not like my church," he mutters under his breath. His church tradition, itself the fresh and new style from the time of the Reformation, which overturned the existing tradition of that day, has become the entrenched ritual of today. Bottom line, he doesn't like contemporary worship music doing the very thing his tradition did 500 years ago.

Now, it remains to be seen if this contemporary reformation will bear good fruit. The author is convinced it not only doesn't bear good fruit, but that it is of the devil.

We shall see.

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Only Men May be Pastors - by Tom Hicks

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This is a more detailed explanation of women's roles in the church than we're accustomed to seeing. The author quotes and discusses Scripture, which gladdens our heart. However, he bases his presentation on premises which we think are false, then on the basis of these premises rejects what we think is the most obvious explanation.

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Exposing The Biggest Lie Christians Believe After Salvation, And How to Break Free - by James Lasher

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Though we are more focused on evaluating the claims of cessationists and Calvinists in this blog, we are not reluctant to criticize our fellow charismatics when the situation warrants it. Today's article from Charisma News is one such situation.

The author leads us in with a sensational headline, tells us that what we think is a actually a lie, then goes on to term switch. Getting sin out of our lives is not the same as fixing our sin, nor is it the same as overcoming our sin

Although this article looks more substantial, the advertisements and links to other articles are just padding. It's really quite short at a little over 350 words, barely worth the time. Especially since there are no Bible references and only a couple of unreferenced and misrepresented Bible quotes.

We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.

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Am I Calvinist? - by Nick Peters

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This is actually a refreshing take on the Calvinism vs. Arminianism issue. The author is absolutely correct: It doesn't matter. The doctrines at stake here make absolutely no difference in any Christian obligation or privilege. 

Good job, sir.

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If God desires all people to be saved, why aren’t they? - by Stephen Kneale

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author is Reformed, i.e. holding to the teachings of theologians like Calvin and Luther. Because of this he summarily rejects his first hypothetical reason why people don't get saved if God desires it. But to us, this one makes the most sense of the three he offers.

He rejects it because his doctrine does not permit free will. He believes that everything that happens is because God wills it. God's will cannot be thwarted. If something happens apart from His will it would mean God lacks power.

So on this basis the author must find a way to explain the subject verse in the context of his doctrine. His doctrine creates the problem and his doctrine makes finding a satisfactory answer difficult.

Lastly, we note his preferred solution isn't a biblical one. He neither quotes nor references any other Bible verse. A similar verse, 2 Peter 3:9, would have been a valuable addition to the discussion:

2Pe. 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.

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Will the Supreme Court constrain the wild Trump? I wouldn’t bet on it. Robert Reich

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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(Dr. Reich's cognitive dissonance must be excruciating.)

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Bad Worship Songs - Goodbye Yesterday, by Elevation Rhythm - Joshua Holiday, Madison Binion, and Mitch Wong

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, Goodbye Yesterday.
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Which James are we talking about?

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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3 Things You Didn’t Know About the Rapture - by Abby Trivett

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author is the content development editor for Charisma Media, and previously was The Daily Runner’s former senior editor. At that time in 2021 she was 22 years old, which would make her 26 now. She is surprisingly present all over the internet, much more so than we would expect for someone so young.

We were unable to locate her credentials, so we don't know what theological expertise she possesses. Judging by the below article, it must be pretty superficial.

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Rich's proverbs, book eleven **updated 2/28/25

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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Despite Failure After Failure, Bethel’s Bill Johnson Continues to Sell Faux Healing - by Publisher

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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The unnamed author has nothing to say of value here. He offers no encouragement, enlightenment, or even an explanation of some Bible principle. 

This is a little over 1500 words, with about 600 of them wasted on an irrelevant tangent. And not a single Scripture quoted.

We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.

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"I'm a liberal" - essay by Lori Gallagher Witt, attributed to Actor Ron Howard

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This poor woman thinks she's being sensible and thoughtful when in fact she's superficial and trite. Regurgitating bumper sticker slogans, the author is so self unaware that it almost causes one to laugh out loud at her.

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Letter to the editor: Depths of MAGA hypocrisy knows no bounds - letter by Cara Wilder

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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What Ms. Wilder doesn't seem to understand is that she and her leftist friends tried all this. They called Trump names, prosecuted and persecuted him relentlessly, hammered and hammered on him, yet he still was elected. None of it worked. They lost.

Yet Ms. Wilder keeps right on going.

This is because leftists like Ms. Wilder aren't creative thinkers. They are told what to think by Central Command, and they dutifully repeat the same bumper sticker slogans and tired talking points day after day. They don't have the ability to do anything else, even in the face of failure. 

Their entire ideology is constructed this way. It's simply a series of religious mantras repeated endlessly until the leftist is swept away into mind-numbed oblivion. It's a mystical reality, built on verbal formulas, reflexively offered when properly stimulated. Or, triggered.

So Ms. Wilder offers her bilge as self-evident truth even though it's a blue-pill simulation. None of it is real.

Lastly, Ms. Wilder will be unable to cite any instance of MAGA people being hypocritical. 

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What’s the difference between a pastor and elders? - by Stephen Kneale

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author deals with an issue near to our heart, the proper and biblical way to construct local church leadership. He gets it exactly right for the bulk of his article, but blows it towards the end. He writes:

The pastor is simply a full-time elder. More to the point, the pastor has been freed up from work so that he can devote himself to teaching the Word. For this reason, the main distinction is that the pastor takes on the bulk of teaching ministry.

There is no Bible verse referenced by the author for this distinction. In fact, there are no Bible verses contained in his article at all. The author is in essence teaching Bible doctrines without the Bible.

Astonishing.

Biblically speaking, a pastor is not a full time elder. A pastor is not necessarily a teacher. A pastor is not even necessarily an elder. There are no Bible verses that describe the specific duties of a pastor, though the five-fold ministry [apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers] has a collective duty 

Ep. 4:12-13 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ.

The elders govern the church and are commanded to be shepherds and overseers:

1Pe. 5:2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers...

The author really only manages to go half way. He correctly identifies the leadership of the church as elders, but he wants a "special," full time elder with the title of pastor. Thus he wants to traditional structure maintained while giving lip service to the biblical model of a church governed by a plurality of men.

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Reforming Soteriology in the Sixteenth Century - by Keith Mathison

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author wants to explain how Catholics and Reformed believers differ on the doctrine of salvation. He doesn't manage to actually achieve this goal. This explanation is confusing and nearly impenetrable.

Although the author will quote a confessional several times, he will not quote or reference a single actual Scripture. We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.)

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