Monday, February 27, 2017

Until That Day—A Song I Wrote

Gazing up into heaven, an old man stood by his rugged altar. Ah! Sunshine, fluffy clouds, blue skies! His feet were on solid ground! Yes, the old world was gone, but a brand new world had emerged. 

Then, Noah saw the rainbow, that stunning symbol of divine promise. Planet Earth would never be destroyed by water again.


Someday another "rainbow" will brighten the sky, another indelible promise will be given to man—"the New Earth will never be overthrown". At last, delighted angels will hear that anthem they could never sing, nor ever will, the anthem of those, who by special favor, became the children of the living God through the blood of the Lamb.

But until then, what?

Here's a little song I wrote as a testimony of hope and commitment. Jesus Christ has done so much for me. How should I not give my heart, my mind, my strength, my soul, my whole life to him!

(Scroll down for an audio sample of the song.)


Until That Day

1. Someday a rainbow will brighten the sky;
The New Earth will never be overthrown.
Someday God’s children will sing a new song,
A song that no angel can claim as his own.

Chorus
Until then there’s work to be done,
No time to be wasted, no chance to be lost.
Until that day we have a command,
Lead people to Christ no matter the cost.

2. One day, at Judgement Day we will know
The way we were known by Heaven above;
The good, the bad, the thoughts that we had,
The deeds that we did, out of pride, out of love.
  
3. Someday our hopes and prayers will come true,
Tears and all grief will vanish away.
Someday the Lord will gather us home;
We’ll praise Him, and serve Him, and honor His name!

Chorus 2
Until then we’ll stand with the brave,
We’ll rise in defense of the Gospel of Grace.
Until that day we’ll march with the strong,
We’ll never look back, we’ll never retrace.


Click here for a sample of Until That Day.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Critics Say Bill Facilitates Seizure of Children from Christian Homes

I certainly try to avoid political discussions on this blog, but this one has to do with the family, and more specifically, the Christian family. 



The traditional family, where the father is head, is under serious threat. It is a growing suspicion of mine that Ontario will not be friendly to Christian families for long, especially patriarchal homes—at least, as much as it is right now. And make no mistake, peace-loving, non-resistant culture will not save the Anabaptist from persecution. The new order of world government loves worldly peace and communitarianism, but it hates families that stand for something. The new paradigm of continuous change and social transformation cannot bear solid, stable homes, because they don't change, they don't budge, they don't give. They cannot be coaxed, or pushed, or manipulated. Christian homes stand on the New Testament commandments, and will suffer anything in order to be faithful to the Lord Jesus.

Here's a news article from LIFESITE USA: Ontario gov't bill makes it easier to seize children from Christian homes, say critics.

It is sobering to me. I think it should be to you too.

My opinion of modern tribulation (pressure), putting it bluntly, is that we may see little physical distress from our government, at least for the immediate future. Much of the pressure to conform will come through psychological methods of social transformation, although physical suffering will always be there, as Scripture prophesies it.

My question to Anabaptist Christians is this: How are you intentionally preparing for the possibility of heavy spiritual trials? How are you investing your spare time? Are you diligent in making your faith rock solid by rigorous personal Bible study and prayer? Are you "exhorting one another daily" (Heb. 3:13), so that none of us is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? Are you compassionately warning your fellowman of the dangers of empty philosophy and wicked teachers who work from within the Christian fold?

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Anabaptists and the Emergent Church Movement--An Introduction

  The Emergent Church Movement is here to stay, and it's inching its way into the far corners of Christianity. It's not too picky. It can join hands with liberals as well as conservatives, progressives as well as traditionalists; Pentecostals, Catholic, Baptists, Quakers, Neo-Gnostics, Mormons, Anabaptists, you name it. In fact, while it attempts to join together all Christian denominations, it also works toward harmony between world religions—Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, etc.

  You don't need to discard your traditional forms and cultural norms. You see, you can be emergent, or ecumenical, or a contemplative mystic, and appear to be a traditional Anabaptist in good standing with the church, and in harmony with all the dress codes and behavioral standards. Anyone willing to do it can dress up according to the stiffest rules a church may have, whether he's an "insider" or an "outsider" coming in.

New Ager, Deepak Chopra

  The emergent program of change breeds syncretism, a merging of opposite principles or practices—the Mix. It's the gradual blending of truth and untruth, paganism and God's Word, true prayer and contemplative prayer, Church and marketing, anything with anything. It's a sort of "Yin and Yang", an attempt to balance two extremes through the dialectic process.



  The emergent mindset that everyone's opinion needs to be affirmed has a cozy little niche in small Bible studies and Sunday School classes. Be careful. Our halls and study rooms had teachers, who conducted didactic Bible studies. Now we have discussion leaders. And much too often, the time gets gobbled up by shallow exchanges of personal opinions—"How do you feel about this verse?" "What do you think Jesus meant?" At times, it seems we've taken Sunday dinner talk into the church study hour. And then we wonder what to say to each other at Sunday dinners! It's an environment where objective voices increasingly seem to come across as "rude" or "proud", as they are seen to spoil "good feelings" and disrupt "good discussion". A person who claims to know something for sure is simply a narrow-minded fuddy-duddy.

  Michael Kruger hints at this glorification of subjectivity in a recent post, "Are Christians Arrogant? Rethinking the Definition of Humility": 

  "Over the years, the definition of humility has undergone a gradual but nonetheless profound change. Especially in the intellectual community. In the modern day, humility has basically become synonymous with another word: uncertainty.
  "To be uncertain is to be humble. To be certain is to be arrogant. Thus the cardinal sin in the intellectual world is to claim to know anything for sure." (michaeljkruger.com)

  There's a reason for all this. Emergent philosophy is not Truth-based, but relationship-based. While "truth" is said to have first priority, relationship is king, and Truth is disposable when relationship is under threat. "Let's agree to disagree" and "all opinions are equal" are a couple of pet phrases used when someone brings to the table truth too painful to accept and too perilous to the relationship. A couple of other phrases used as pretexts are "we don't want to worship a book" and "we need to follow the spirit of the law, not the letter that killeth". Certainly, we don't worship the Bible, neither do we live by the "letter that killeth", the Mosaic Law (2 Corinthians 3). But when we justify disobedience to the New Testament commandments, we are certainly not following the spirit of the New Testament. Satan uses truth as a tool, and he will use pretexts half-dunked in truth to rob your heart of integrity and Truth. 

  The emergent movement, through the agency of Church Growth principles and Total Quality Management, seeks to fulfill "felt needs", rather than preach the truth of the Gospel. It operates under pretexts such as "listening" to people, "caring" for the hurting, and teaching how to "lead like Jesus", while stealing disciples from Christ. Peter Drucker, known as "the founder of modern management" has played an important role in the shaping of Leadership Network. He admits "that the large congregations are basing their changes upon what the 'nonchurchgoers' want to get out of going to church, rather than preaching the Word of God" (quoted by Dr. Robert Kenck in Diaprax and the Church—an Analysis of the Church Growth Movement, p. 32). Dean Gotcher rightly declares: "When we seek and develop the approval of many by extrapolating from God's word only those verses or portions of verses which appear to justify social-personal harmony, and overlook scripture, which might cause social-personal disharmony, we steal from God the soul He seeks and we keep it for ourselves." (The Church Growth, Emerging Church—Diaprax Agenda). 

  Brian McLaren, the kingpin of the emergent church movement, says this about doctrine: "[We] need to move beyond our deadlock, our polarization, our binary, either/or thinking regarding faith and reason, religion and science, matter and spirit... We need a fusion of the sacred and the secular (as quoted in "Brian McLaren's Hope for the Future - The Minds of Your Grandchildren" by Lighthouse Trails). It's the outworking of postmodern thinking in the church, and the cornerstone of the ecumenical program of the apostate church of the last days.


Emergent church leader, Brian McLaren

  The Submerging Church quotes Roger Oakland:   

  "Rick Warren and others say we need to pay attention to the emerging church. Things are changing, they say and the 'emerging church' has the answers for our generation. But what will the emerging church emerge into? Could it be a form of Christianity that embraces experience rather than God's Word?"

  Emergent dynamics don't work like dynamite. They're not an explosion of change. They don't transform you and your church from one day to the next. It's a slow process of seduction. It's transformational but not instantaneous. It's designed to be that way.

  To be sure, emergent philosophy will not barge into Anabaptist churches by its mainstream name. It will saunter in under the cloak of seemingly innocent rubrics such as "missional church", "transformational leadership", "spiritual disciplines", "listening prayer", "contemplative prayer", and even "mindfulness". These are the "feigned words" of the false teachers the Bible warns us about in 2 Peter 2. Emergent facilitators use vague and emasculated terms to please both "traditional" people and "transformational" people. They love using soft or conservative terminology because they can hide their agenda. And they're effective in "privily" bringing in "damnable heresies". These things install themselves very nicely onto existing church platforms such as group Bible studies and Sunday School classes. They tend to make para-church organizations such as mission and ministry training centers, Bible schools and colleges, and Christian Schools its first targets. The best candidates to usher in emergent ideas are those who are within, or those who have once been within. Don't believe them. Believe the Bible.

  Ken Blanchard's popular leadership training program, Lead Like Jesus (LLJ), of which Luke Kuepfer is representative and trainer, uses the above-mentioned platforms to lay the groundwork for emergent change agents to begin their change process within our Anabaptists circles. The LLJ website states:

  "Lead Like Jesus' newest resource, Igniting Influence: Empowering Young Leaders to Lead Like Jesus, invites emerging leaders to join a long-lasting and widespread movement for good... Igniting Influence is a series of 12 leadership lessons well-suited for emerging leaders, anywhere from high school seniors to Millennials in the workforce" (emphasis mine; source).



  Ken Blanchard, also a New Age advocate, has intimate links with Rick Warren, as they have teamed up under the Lead Like Jesus program. Who is Ken Blanchard? What does he believe? What does he have to offer Anabaptists through LLJ?

  Ken Blanchard has written endorsements for many non-Christian books that promote Buddhism, Zen practices, Yoga, Hindu spiritual principles, and other pagan philosophies. What sort of biblical leadership insights would a teacher with such impaired discernment have for Christian believers?

  Quoting from Lighthouse Trails, a website makes the following commentary:

  "While Rick Warren is gearing up to train a billion people, unbeknownst to many he has also been teamed up with New Age and contemplative promoter, Ken Blanchard, for some time now. According to a new biography on Rick Warren, A Life with Purpose written by George Mair, Rick Warren has solicited the services of Ken Blanchard to aid him in training leaders: 'Rick taps the best and most famous to help train church leaders to be like Jesus. He has hired Ken Blanchard...to come to Saddleback to help train people how to be effective leaders' (p. 193). There is countless evidence to show that Blanchard sits on the New Age/mystical/contemplative bandwagon. Ken Blanchard believes in the benefits and use of mantra meditation, yoga and has no trouble borrowing from Buddhism. Blanchard wrote the foreword to Jim Ballard's books Mind Like Water and What Would Buddha Do At Work? He is on the front cover of Corporate Mystic and the back cover of Deepak Chopra's Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and wrote the Foreword to Ellen Ladd's (clairvoyant) book, Death and Letting Go. Blanchard makes no apology when he says much  can be gained from Buddhism. He and his wife both encourage the practice of yoga (p. 11) and mantra meditation. Ken Blanchard, Rick Warren, and Bill Hybels (Willow Creek) have become team players at the Lead Like Jesus conferences, which take place across North America. The three also have an audio set they co-authored together" (emphasis mine).

  You may ask why in the world I care about all this. 

  I would like to ask why aren't our leaders telling us these things? This stuff is all over the place. Why aren't they warning us about it?

  I am dismayed at the things I've seen during the last few years. Satan is truly burning the midnight oil to finish us off. He's destroyed so many churches out there. What makes me think he won't set his cross-hairs on mine? What makes you think your church is safe?

  I just can't be silent. I cannot watch what's happening to other churches and our churches, and say nothing. As miserable a watchman as I am, I have seen something, and cannot keep it to myself. Will God not require of me the blood of my brothers and sisters if I don't report what I know? Will I one day be justified before God's holy throne in saying, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

  What I shared in this post is just a sampling of all the stuff that's out there. It's so hard to summarize. Please, look for yourself. Satan is ready to take advantage of our ignorance, but we can be like the Apostle Paul and not be ignorant of his ploys (2 Corinthians 2:11).


Walk by faith, and take care!