It?s pretty funny how easily heresy creeps in. Sure it might
\ntake a while to come up with especially if it?s going to be really convincing.
\nYou know, the mulling it over, making the new concept taste right, justifying
\nit in Scripture and convincing yourself. Yet, when it makes its first
\nappearance it does so in such a manner that the non-Berean ear may sit there
\nunaware, smiling and maybe even ?Amen?ing. To see it happen before your eyes is
\noutright scary.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Our Assembly was invited to be part of an Inter-Cultural
\npanel discussion at one of the local brethren assemblies. Personally, I now wonder
\nwhy they still call themselves a brethren assembly if they seem to have left a
\nhuge chunk of New Testament principles behind, but that has little to nothing
\nto do with this post. One of my elders made a suggestion the day before that I
\nbe one of the panelists but I don?t think he notified anyone ahead of time so I
\nwas safe.<\/p>\n
Some of the young people I teach on Friday night showed up
\nat the meeting as well as a huge outpouring of non-Hispanic Caribbeans. On the
\nstage were four chairs; my elder in one of them, a pastor from an Asian
\ngathering, a young lady from Campus Crusades and another pastor from a first
\nBaptist church in Manhattan. The three men went up with Bibles, you young lady
\ncrossed her arms and smiled. One of the men opened the Bible the other two sat
\nit on their lap. This is never a good sign.<\/p>\n
Before I go any further, let me say that there was some
\nreally good insight offered. My elder spoke about the challenges of reaching
\nthe Hispanic culture because it?s actually an amalgamation of many cultures The
\nAsian brother spoke about how the Chinese are reared in Atheism and others in
\nMaterialism. The best witness to them is to show how you are content in Christ
\nin your non-materialism. The Campus Crusader explained that we have to embrace
\nall cultures and see the beauty in them all. To which I eventually stood up and
\nasked how the panelists would reach me if I am from the homosexual culture?what
\npart of my culture do they wish to embrace?<\/p>\n
That?s about the time that I had to start telling the
\nsuddenly serious faces all around me that I was happily married and never have
\nbeen a homosexual. :)<\/p>\n
This eventually led to a young woman asking about reading
\nthe books of other religions. Her Buddhist friend said ?you read this book,
\nI?ll read your book.? The First Baptist Pastor agreed that she was to read the
\nbook only if she was grounded in the faith. He specified that we?re not to go
\nstudy other religions but study the words of Christ. Then he pointed out the
\nreason why the gospel is failing today and why our churches are
\ndecreasing?because there is less power of God in the church and in the world.<\/p>\n
Um, what?<\/i> My ?The power of God is decreasing and if we want to see people (In my mind, 1 Cor 3?we?re God?s fellow laborers, but He?s What?s possibly worse is all the Amen?s. What are<\/span> people Just for your info, take great care with your giving away an His comments ended about 2 minutes from the closing and the ??I have five brothers?let me go back and warn them, -r-<\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It?s pretty funny how easily heresy creeps in. Sure it might take a while to come up with especially if it?s going to be really convincing. You know, the mulling it over, making the new concept taste right, justifying it in Scripture and convincing yourself. Yet, when it makes its first appearance it does so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church"],"yoast_head":"\n
\neyebrow went up as various Scriptures started popping into my head. My last
\npost on the weapons of our warfare<\/a> came back to me and simultaneously the
\nlesson I had preached on Ahab?s stupidity<\/a> also started ringing in the other
\near. The guy was still talking softly making the transition from his good advice
\nto his bad doctrine.<\/p>\n
\ngetting saved we have to look at the book of Acts and see what happened then. We
\nneed miracles of healing and demons being cast out! Look at Acts?every time
\nthere was a healing hundreds of thousands would be saved. When we get back to
\nincreasing the power of God like in Acts, we?ll see people getting saved.?<\/p>\n
\nthe one bringing the increase. 1 Cor 10?our weapons are mighty in God already!
\nEph 6?we put on the Armor of God but God is already the victor (1 Thes 4). John
\n16?the Holy Spirit is working in the world. Romans 8?the Holy Spirit helps in
\nour prayers and in our very own sanctification unto glorification?how is this a
\ndecrease of power? John 4?the people were convinced by the word of Jesus, not
\nby miracles or display of power. Romans 10?the prerequisite of salvation is
\nbelief, the prerequisite of belief is hearing the message from Christ, the
\nprerequisite of that is someone who is sent by Christ?there is no display of
\npower in those steps. Acts 17?was it then a failure since few believed and
\nthere was no power display?)<\/p>\n
\nthinking? In under 5 minutes this guy managed to limit the power of God,
\ndiminish His work to that of external signs and wonders, make the Gospel
\ndependant on the display of said signs and imply that the stoking the fire of
\nmiracles is inherit in men! Less than 5 minutes to expound something based on
\nfuzzy Scripture, misquotations and all out bad inductive reasoning (not
\ndeductive at all on this one. He made it sound probable enough to be true and
\nthe Amen?s substantiated that).<\/p>\n
\n?Amen?. Paul would have us understand all that?s being said to give an honest
\n?Amen? (1 Cor 14:14-16).<\/p>\n
\nmoderator was about to finalize the meeting in prayer (we?ve been there from
\nverses. I?ll paraphrase it:<\/p>\n
\nAbraham.? (Luke 16:27-31). But Abraham said, ?They have miracles and displays of power<\/i> let them listen to them?is that what
\nthe verse says? No, it says that ?they have Moses and the Prophets; let them
\nhear them??then in verse 31 ?If they do not hear miracles and displays of power<\/i>? No, if they do not hear Moses and
\nthe prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead?a
\nmiracle of great power. Preach the Gospel. That?s it.? To this, I said ?Amen!?<\/p>\n